Hello friends! I hope you’ve all been well. It has been a while since I last updated the site but I’m hoping to make this a more regular occurrence.
My mom came to visit us from mid-December to mid-January, and my mom, my husband, and I had been debating whether we should take a trip for New Year’s. However, none of us are big on New Year’s and we couldn’t imagine staying out past midnight so we decided to stay home as traveling during that holiday was relatively more expensive.
My mom and I decided to go to Paris, somewhat last minute, from the 3rd to the 5th of January. We hadn’t been planning on going, but we have gone to Paris every time she has come to visit and it felt like we were missing our little tradition. Since her birthday is on the 4th, we decided to celebrate her birthday there. We didn’t have a plan for the time we were there, and unfortunately, rain was in the forecast for the 3rd and the 4th, but we just packed umbrellas and made the best of it.
This part of the process video will feature us kicking off 2024 at home and then almost the first full day in Paris. We went to check out Montmartre as we had only been once really quickly to see Sacré-Cœur on our first trip there but we didn’t have much time to explore.
For my 2024 Project Life, I’m once again using a 9×12 album since I find it fits a lot without needing to have breakout albums for every trip we take. I printed the photos using the Canon Pixma Pro-100 on Costco Kirkland 8.5″x11″ photo paper both of which have been discontinued. I’m especially sad about the photo paper as this has been my go-to for years! They still sell the 4×6 paper online.
I don’t have a cover page for my album yet, but I decided to just make this my starting page for now. 
- The yellow New Year card is from the last Paper Person kit from December 2023.
- The photo of my husband and me that says “Happy 2024” was taken on Snapchat with a filter.
- I wanted the 6×8 photo to have a title with gold foil, so whatever I wanted in gold foil needed to be printed on a laser printer because the foil will adhere to the toner once it’s run through a laminator or Heidi Swapp Minc Machine. So I first printed it on the Canon Pixma Pro-100 then I printed it on the Canon LBP6030w laser printer (I bought it back in 2015 when I needed a cheap laser printer!). Next, I placed a piece of gold foil over the title, put it in a Minc sleeve, and ran it through the Minc Machine.
- The 2024 feliz año card and the blue Enero card under the flip are from the Lora Bailora Memory Loquer quarterly kit. This is the first year that Lora Bailora is offering the kit and when we subscribed, it was a whole year commitment. It sold out for the year back in January.
- I printed the photo of French toast on a Canon Zoemini 2 printer (Canon Ivy in the US) and trimmed it down a bit.
- The puffy star and heart stickers are also from the Lora Bailora kit.
- The Yum! sticker is an old one from an Erin Condren meal planner.
- I used a Simple Stories Snap Photo Flip for the photo flip.
- I used Stephanie V’s tutorial for making custom pockets using the Fuse tool.
We got to Paris on the 3rd (a Wednesday) around 10am so we dropped off our bags at the hotel before venturing out. We stayed at the Hotel Louvre Piemont in the 1st arr.; it was in a great location and the staff was really friendly. We chose this hotel for its location as we knew we’d be going to the Christmas market near the Louvre a couple of times on a mission to get my sister a replacement Christmas ornament.
We first went to Montmartre in search of some French onion soup. One restaurant in particular had been recommended by people in one of the travel groups I belong to, but the food was not very good. After lunch, we went exploring and that’s where most of the photos came from. 
- Both 6×8 photos were taken in Montmartre, one from the top of some stairs, and the other looking up to one of the windmills. I used Ali Edwards’ gold foil alphas for the Paris heading.
- The yellow cardstock is from the “Travel The World” paper pad by Rico Design, and I can’t find a US dealer for this, but also my Google here doesn’t pull up the same results as you might get in the US. I used a We R Makers Foil Quill freestyle pen and Foil Quill gold foil to write the dates.
- The photo on the middle row with the blue flowers is of Le Musset which is a restaurant I’ve never eaten at but I love the way it looks. I also took a photo of it last year when I was there with my dad, brother, and niece, but I didn’t do anything with that photo..
- The para recordar card and the card with the umbrellas are from the Lora Bailora Memory Loquer kit. I printed the journaling on some Oplymio thick vellum paper and adhered the vellum to the back of the cards.
- The Eiffel Tower and Sacré-Cœur stamps are from the Paris stamp set by Lora Bailora and I used Studio Calico Clean Slate Color Theory ink.
- The photo of the pink house is a cafe called La Maison Rose. The house has an interesting history which can be found on their site.
- I used a Citrus Twist Kits adhesive page strip between the two 6×8 photos that are outside page protectors.
The 6×8 photo was taken at Place Vendôme just before it started to come down hard and we had to seek shelter for about 10 minutes. I also took a photo there last year, but I think I liked last year’s decor better.
- The first two photos on the top row were taken at Place Du Tertre. I imagine it would have been busier had it not been raining. Everyone was taking photos of the cat on top of the accordion. He was just chilling there looking at everyone.
- Le Consulat is a cafe that is known for having had Picasso, Van Gogh, and Monet as regular customers.
- On the middle row, on the left is the building where Picasso lived and on the right is where Van Gogh lived.
- The middle card is from Lora Bailora‘s Memory Loquer kit. I printed the journaling on Oplymio thick vellum paper, and the Montmartre stamp is from Lora Bailora’s Paris stamp set. I used StāzOn Jet Black ink.
- The yellow cardstock on the bottom row is from the “Travel The World” paper pad by Rico Design. I made the tag using one of the blue cardstock sheets from the Cools paper pad by Scrapbook.com. The holly sticker is from the Mintopia Celebrate puffy stickers.
- We wrapped up Montmartre with a quick photo stop at Moulin Rouge.
Finally, here is the process video. I hope you like it! Let me know if you have any questions.