Recently I was burning time posting photos on Instagram when I noticed my friend Leslie has posted this pic below. And under the pic she wrote, "Love these #studiocalico #projectlife cards by @ashleygoldberg these are going to be so fun to use!". Of course, anything my friends are involved in, I have to know more about. And seeing cards by Ashley Goldberg was a great inspiration to me, so of course I had to google! My fingers happily tapped away trying to find these companies Leslie had hashtagged (is that a word?) and BOOM! there I was on the Studio Calico website looking at Project Life kits and BAM! I found Pandora's box.  This newfound hobby would be detrimental to my wallet.

Days later, a box of gorgeous supplies arrived from Studio Calico including Project Life stuff which I learned later, is actually by Becky Higgins. What a small world as I had met Becky in person at The Creative Connection in St. Paul when I gave a keynote (she was also a speaker). Studio Calico sent me a box of loot because they saw I was interested in their products from Instagram and so when they offered to hook me up I accepted with delight. They knew I wasn't going to do anything for them in return except maybe use the products. But they were clever because after seeing them, and playing around, I knew I had to blog about their prods but more than that, I actually have some questions at the end of the post about this stuff if any of you are users and can help me, I'd appreciate it loads.

Okay so now I'm sitting in my studio with these nice things from Studio Calico (see my table below) and I'm wondering what I'm going to try out first. I think I'll use the mini gray album and pages from Project Life to create a small baby album for Aidan first. That would be nice. I've been looking at the amazing member pages where Studio Calico fans upload their work and sheezus, these people have some mad skillz. I did some scrapbooking back when I lived in New Hampshire, it was a New Hampshire thing to do after all because everyone was into it, so I gave it a whirl so I could make friends and have something to do on the weekends.

But honestly, scrapping just didn't work out for me. Too involved at least for a perfectionist like me who took planning scrapbook layouts a little too seriously. I was wondering which elements to use and where in my sleep. I'd finish like 5 pages in a year. Frankly, I don't have endless amounts of time for scrappin'. Looking at the pockets in my Project Life kit though I keep thinking, "This feels realistic, I can imagine doing a pocket at a time and not obsessing, yeah this may work." So I'm going to attempt to get into the whole Project Life thing which I admit, when I see their billion fans all over the internet, I'm a bit late to the game on this one.

To inspire you, why don't you go look at some of the things that Studio Calico members are making with their Project Life pages? This is Magda from Poland below. Can you get over the prettiness? She made these and slipped each little card into a pocket in her ring binder. These pages look like book spreads or something. This could be a really fun project for a new mother like me especially as Aidan grows so I can do sweet little pages for him and file them into their stylish books. If anything, if gives me something to do with my hands and a way to get all of my photos of him into the real world. Not that the internet isn't the real world, but c'mon - how long has it been since you printed and framed a photo you'd taken of your kid on your iPhone?

That's my point.

At least this hobby may help me to print stuff again. Lots of people who are digital die-hards may object and I understand. Clutter. More crap to store. More supplies to file away. But as a creative woman who needs to do things with my hands other than pinning pretty photos as my hobby, which is kind of meaningless once you have like 200 boards and you haven't cooked a single recipe you've pinned or made one of the DIY projects out of the 11,000 you've filed away on Pinterest, real world hands-on work like this could strike a nice balance for me so I can still drift into Pinterest playland by night and a few afternoons a month, slip into page making with Project Life as I listen to Sia's new CD and trim my son's adorable little photos, merrily slipping them into pockets and later, showing my pages to friends and family.

So, are ANY of you guys using Project Life or Studio Calico stuff? Do  you like it? And PLEASE can any of you tell me the BEST PHOTO PRINTER out there for this stuff? I want to print IG photos and photos from my Canon so I can just trim 'em and put them in the pockets that came with my kit. I've been looking at mobile printers and a million others but reviews are so mixed so I just want to know, what are you guys using?

(images: leslie shewring, holly becker, studio calico, magda)