Saturday, March 24, 2012

Project Life Weeks 8 + 9

Here's a look at weeks 8 & 9 for me.


Week 8  was Monday 1/16/12 - 1/22/12. On the first page this week I tried something new and used to vertical photos to make one horizontal 4x6. I did that for all 4 photos on this page. I think it worked out really well and is another great way for me to include more photos.  There is one insert this week that is 8.5 x 11 and includes an C-8 kindergarten update on the front. The back (shown below) is a MESA newsletter that shows the money made from the read-a-thon this year. I thought it might be interesting in years to come to look at this information. 


Another new thing I did this week, (I think it's the first time I've done it) I printed 2x3 or 1/4 of a 4x6 photos on put them on half of a 4x3 space. Again it allows me to include more photos. I really like how this week turned out! I was worried that they would look too small but I don't think that's the case at all!

Here is Week 9 for me which was Monday 1/23/12 - 1/29/12.


I wanted to the tell the longer story of trying to get the toy corner organized. So I included a 6x12 insert this week and included photos and journaling on it. I also included some digital embellishments. I created the whole thing in Photoshop and this time made sure to keep my photos on it at 4x3 then I printed the base w/o photos on matte photo paper and then printed the photos on 4x6 glossy paper and then adhered them to the base. I really like this method. It looks a little bit more like scrapbooking with the different layers and with the photos being on different paper. It probably shouldn't matter too much for this album because no one will ever notice and it takes more time to do but I do love the result. So I think I'll keep doing it this way going forward.


Above a close up of just the insert and below is the close up of the back. I did print the base at 8.5x6 and then added as strip of patterned paper to make up the total 12" of height.


The back of the 6x12 insert includes the journaling for the week and more photos that I wasn't able to fit anywhere else.


Above is the last page of week 9. I included a filler card from the core kit I have. I need to add in some more of these, I love the way it fits in! I have hard time weeding out photos though! I went to one of Katie's basketball games and I included my "admit one" ticket with journaling on it. I like that I remembered to include this!

So that's a look at weeks 8 & 9 for me. I can't tell you enough how much I'm loving this project! Hoping to keep up with it for the whole year! I just love to look at this and love that the kids like to look through it too!

Project Life Weeks 5, 6 & 7

Here a look at Week 5, 12/26/11 - 12/31/11 for me. No inserts for me this week! I remember being a little worried about not having enough photos for this week after the last couple of weeks but it was nice not to have so many! I really like how this week looks!


I created another 4x6 vertical title card from pieces of the digital Turquoise kit. I also used the digital versions of the 3x4 journaling cards to type my journaling up in Photoshop before printing. Another new thing I did this week was to add some text directly to my photos in Photoshop.  I purchased some the Ali Edwards's kits of words and sayings and I'm very happy with the way they came out. I do think I went a little bit overboard though. Not every photo should have text on it! Too distracting! Another new idea I tried this week was to create little handwritten journaling tags by punching out tags from the grid journaling card with the Stampin' Up! Decorative Label punch. I would write my little notes and then cut off the extra and adhere the tag directly to the photo! I love this look and will definitely continue this on in the album. I love the text on the photos too but I'll try to use it a little bit more sparingly.


Here is a look at Week 6, 1/1/12 -1/7/12 for me.  More of the same design elements from last week, I made the 4x6 vertical title card. I added the Decorative Label punch tags with little journaling notes. I did not add any text to the photos this week. I think it was just of matter of forgetting to after I selected the photos and before I printed them. One thing I did do differently this week was to hand write my journaling on two 4x3 cards from the Core Kit. I tired to limit my journaling a little bit this week. In previous weeks I was spending a lot of time writing about what we did each day of the week. I decided that was really what I wanted to include every week. It was pretty time consuming. Also, some weeks (probably most weeks) I just want to talk about the highlights of week or just one story from the week. I'll see how this goes in the weeks to come.


Here's a look at Week 7, 1/8/12 - 1/15/12 for me. I included an 8.5x11 insert this week. Ben's teacher sent home this great page with two photos she took of him with a handwritten note and this was just the sort of special thing I like to include with my photos of the week. Something new for me this week, well sort of, I included some none photo memorabilia, part of a cake mix box and part of a nutty bar box. Not sure I like this short of thing but I'm giving it a try! I also included a 4x3 non-journaling design card.


Here is a look at the back side of the 8.5x 11 insert. I included one of the weekly letter we get home from Ben's teacher. It's an update letter of what they have going and and what they are working on. On the right side I used a title card from the Core Kit. I got a little crazy with the text on my photos on this page. Every photo has text on it. I think it's a little bit too much. I think this page prompted me to start sketching out my weeks on paper going forward and deciding from there which photos should have journaling. I love the look but not on every photo!

So this is what I have photographed so far. I'll post more as I get time!

Friday, March 2, 2012

Project Life Week 4

Here's a look at Week 4 for me which was 12/19/11 - 12/25/11. A note about the photos, if you would like to view them larger, please click on them! This was the week that included Christmas so I had a lot of photos and journaling I wanted to include. My first insert was an 8.5x11 page protector. The front side is all journaling. I created this page in Photoshop. I used some notebook background paper and added the Christmas lights emblishments to the top and bottom. I love how this came out!


The back of the 8.5x11 insert is the letter Ben wrote to Santa this year and Santa's response on the bottom. This is the first year that Ben wrote his own letter! So excited to have this included in this album and not lost is some box somewhere .


The second insert is 6x12 and is the remainder of my journaling for the week. I did what I've done before and printed the main part 6x11 and added a strip of patterned paper to make the total size 6x12. I love the way this ends up looking!


The back of the 6x12 insert contains a copy of our Christmas card that I made this year. After this picture was taken, I added in a couple of my favorite Christmas cards to full up the space. The rest of the Christmas cards we received are stored in a Big Envelope pocket page right now, more on this later.


 The third and fourth inserts this week are Design G pocket pages. Most of the photos are from Christmas Eve and Christmas day. The journaling card on the front of the fourth insert shown above lists each of our favorite memories of Christmas Day. I wrote down Ben's but I asked him what he wanted me to write. I had John write down his own which was a great way to get a little bit of his handwriting into the album!


This is the back of the fourth insert and the last page. The last page also has the title card in it. The Title card is another vertical 4x6 card that I made from the Turquoise Digital kit. Lots and lots of photos for this week! One thing I did differently this week was to add some page embellishments. I printed out some of Michelle Coleman's (Little Dreamer Designs) Christmas tags and journaling blocks. I sized the round tags so that I could punch them out with a 1" circle punch. The other journaling tags where cut out by hand. I just added a few words here and there, where ever it struck me that I wanted to say something. Then I added in some of the circle tags. Not sure if I'm really in love with final product but I like that I tried something different and I like that this album will grow with me as I experiment and try new things. I do need to remember to keep it simple though and not to get bogged down trying to make my album fancy. It does make me happy to add some little details and spice it up some! It makes it a little bit more than just a photo album and more of a scrapbook, which is really the goal.