Making Memories. Choosing Joy.

Project Life 2012 :::Week Five:::

2012-02-21T05:30:00-05:00

(Yes, I know we are currently in Week 8 of 2012. But between a busy couple of weeks, ending with a miserable cold, I am finally getting caught up. And it feels good!)

aaaannnnddddd

I just looked at my photos that I took to get ready to share, and they are all blury. ALL.OF.THEM.

So...stay tuned to later in the week. I actually have Week 5 ready to share (except for photos of course), Week 6 almost done, and half of Week 7 is done.

:::sigh:::

Just when I thought I was finally catching up.

Project Life 2012 :::Week Four:::

2012-02-07T05:30:00-05:00

Whew! I'm a bit behind but I'm not stressing...the last two weeks have been full of life. This week is a "normal" busy week so I'm hoping to complete Week 5 and get started on Week 6. Looks like after this weekend it will be three weekends of basketball tournaments!

The week isn't completely done, as I'm waiting on some photos to complete the insert. The insert will have Nick's basketball tournament on one side, and Zach seeing the Globetrotter's on the other. Other than that, it is a pretty straight-forward week.

The left side:

For the right side I used a Week in Review card again...I've liked writing 2-3 sentences to each family member for the week. I also added a gas receipt and a movie ticket and poster of the movie.

A few close-ups:

The "Week 4" and "Jasper" stickers are American Crafts (Daiquiri and Shoe Box). They are so old that I couldn't find a link to share...Yay for using up old stash!!

I would still like to post more layouts from the boys' School of Life albums, but with the way my schedule is looking it will more than likely be a few weeks.

Moving on to Week 5! My baby turned 10!

Pin It

Project Life Cobalt Kit	Cathy Zielske Journal Cards	We R Memory Keepers	Ali Edwards Family Hand Drawn Words
Ali Edwards Everyday Photo Brushes

InLinkz.com

Project Life 2012 :::Week Four:::

2012-01-31T05:30:00-05:00

Last week was a FULL week of life...so full that I am hoping to have Week Four completed and posted on Thursday. Let's just say there was lots of basketball over the weekend!

Project Life 2012 :::Week Three:::

2012-01-24T05:30:00-05:00

Another week down! I really am loving the weekly layouts verses the picture-a-day. I'm using more photos because I'm not tied down to feeling the need to have a photo and journaling for each day. This was a pretty basic week, and it felt good after having huge layouts for week one and week two.

I hadn't planned to use anything other than the Project Life Core Kit for this week, but as I was putting it together, I found myself reaching for supplies that were collected years ago and sat. It felt good again to be a bit creative with the week. I've added links to the product I've used at the end of th post.

Left side:

Right Side:

And a few closeups:

Once again this week I took time to add brushes and journaling directly to the photos. I really like how that turns out. Week Four (how are we at Week Four already?) is going to be a busy one!

Pin It

Project Life Cobalt Kit	October Afternoon Night Light	Cathy Zielske Tiny Templates	Cathy Zielske Journal Cards
Ali Edwards Hello Life Boxes	Ali Edwards You Are Awesome	Ali Edwards Remember	Ali Edwards Holidays + Celebrations
Ali Edwards Mom Word Art	Art Warehouse Basketball Brushes	Paislee Press 4x6 Photo Templates	Paislee Press Cards No. 1-3
Cosmo Cricket Tiny Type	Jenni Bowlin Star Banner	We R Memory Keepers

InLinkz.com

Simple Things Sunday

2012-01-22T13:00:35-05:00

After a day of bad attitudes, Zach came downstairs with a Superman cape he had found. Glad that after a tough day, he showed a glimpse of the sweet young boy that's still inside.

Link up here:

Project Life 2012 :::Week Two:::

2012-01-17T05:30:00-05:00

Last week was a tough week as we said good-bye to Scott's Grandma. I loved her just like she was my Grandma, too. I spent alot of time on the layout, as I wanted to include photos from our time with her. It was hard, and it was healing. I didn't use many elements from the Project Life core kit...I wanted to use paper that reminded me of her.

I used quite a few of Ali Edward's Celebration of Life brushes for the photos. I also put the date the photo was taken, as well as any other information I wanted to remember (fonts used are CK Ali's Hand and Traveling Typewriter). Paper is Cosmo Cricket's Early Bird. The Left side:

An up-close photo of the title card:

A close up of one of the cards. Stickers are Cosmo Cricket's Tiny Type.

And the other card. Butterfly is Jenni Bowlin and the acrylic hearts I don't know the source, I've had and saved forever.

Next I used an insert for the Celebration of Life program. On the other side I will be scanning a recipe card in her beautiful handwriting of my husband's favorite cupcakes she made.

The next insert is the obituary from the paper, and the other side will include a copy of the eulogy that my Father-in-law gave.

The next insert is Design F of Becky Higgin's Photo Pocket Pages. I simply cut off the last row as I didn't need that many slots. I inserted more photos, photos of flowers from her funeral, and the Memorial piece. Hoping that my husband will write a favorite memory on the journaling card I left blank.

And the other side. I wrote my feelings, as well as what I wanted my boy's to remember. Another flower photo and a photo of the sunset the night she passed away. The family loved the cross in the sky, welcoming her to heaven.

And the right side. I used Cathy Zielske's Journaling cards again to write 2 or 3 sentences highlighting the week of each family member, as well as a journaling card from Paislee Press to keep track of the boy's basketball games. Basketball Brushes are from this set of Art Warehouse.

Well done, Good and Faithful Servant, well done.

Pin It

InLinkz

Simple Things Sunday

2012-01-15T15:25:15-05:00

A cupcake I brought home from last nights party. So delish! [And yes, this was breakfast]

Join Simple Things Sunday here:

Diptic App

2012-01-13T05:30:00-05:00

I meant to share more with you about this photo from my Project Life :::Week One::: post on Tuesday.

The photos together show my quest to eating better and drinking more water...nothing too exciting. But what is exciting is how easy it was to make this collage. Literally, in less than 30 seconds, I had it done and ready to print. The photos were all taken from my iPhone, and I used the Diptic App. I opened the app (99 cents in the App Store), chose the design, inserted my photos from my photo roll, and emailed it to myself so I could print it out. The borders aren't exactly even, and while that would have bothered me to the point of not using it a few months ago, I'm going with it. I'm embracing the imperfection of it and choosing to be happy that I have the photos! Here is what it looked like before printing it on the 4x6:

Next time I will more than likely print it so it doesn't appear stretched out or cut off. Or I may not.

Next week I will be sharing another big Project Life week as we said good-bye to a loved one this week. It will be hard to complete, but also healing. I want to make sure I get this one right.

Have a good weekend. Make it count!

It's beginning to look a lot like...

2012-01-12T05:30:00-05:00

Completed Christmas Pages!!

Today I'm sharing what I've starting doing for my Christmas album. In November I finally accepted the fact that I had done nothing in preserving Christmas memories for NINE years. And so I started the prep work for a long weekend I had coming up. I sent NINE years of Christmas memories to be printed. I didn't do a lot of editing on them. If they were noticably bad, I would edit them quickly, but for the most part I just sent as is. And while there are a few that I needed to redo, I'm happy that I got them done!

I pulled all of the Christmas supplies I had been collecting over the years (what? I always had plans to document Christmas!), purchased my Becky Higgin's Photo Pocket Pages and dividers, the album, and got to work. And while I didn't get nearly as much done that weekend as I'd hoped, I am three years closer to my goal of being caught up!

Enter Christmas 2002

I stamped with red ink the year on the page divider (currently out of stock). I also enlarged my favorite photo from the year, used a circle template to cut, and then stitched the page protector to fit.

On the back I used Christmas paper (sorry...it's old...I'll have to try to look up what company it is) and our Christmas card.

During my prep work I also printed on the blank journaling cards (currently out of stock) all kinds of word art, mostly from Ali Edwards. I love the look this added to the album.

I used this page protector (Design B), and just cut off the part I didn't need.

I also used a lot of Christmas paper inside the Photo Pocket Pages.

Here is another page protector I cut and just used what I needed. I believe this may have been one of the original Project Life protectors...yep, using up supplies from projects that were never completed!

And the other side:

The next page is another Page Protector cut in half. In case you couldn't tell, I really like the different layers of Page Protectors ;o)

Here's a 5x7 insert:

And the other side:

And the last page:

I believe one of the reasons I love using these Page Protectors so much is because, as Leah commented in this post, staring at 12x12 empty white pages just got to be too overwhelming for me. I felt like each page had to be unique, its own work of art. Now I'm happy that my PHOTOS are my work of art on each page ;o)

That was the first year I did using the protectors like this. I will assure you that I am almost done with 2011 and I may not have any inserts at all...but I will have at least 6 pages of photos with journaling that was completed while I still remembered what I wanted to!

If you missed my solution to my boys School of Life Albums, you can find it here!

The Simple Things

2012-01-11T20:12:06-05:00

Joining in again this week for "Simple Things Sunday." While the photo is simple, it is jam-packed with emotions. This week we said good-bye to my husband's Grandma. She was my Grandma too. I wish I had all of the memories that her Grandkids do. She was one special lady.