Project Life 2013 | Week 22 and 25

This past Saturday was National Scrapbook Day. I took the opportunity to really get some work done on finishing Project Life 2013. Most of these spreads had the photos for the week, I just didn't get it all pulled together. In total, I got four spreads done. Three for 2013, (two below and one to come later) and one for 2012. The one for 2012 is the week between our wedding and honeymoon and can be found in this post. 

Week 22: May 27 - June 2

As mentioned before, I was using all the pocket page designs offered in one of the Big Variety Packs from the Becky Higgins Amazon storefront. This week's spread has Designs C and D pages. 

 Left hand side of the spread. Again, not letting the pockets constrain what I put in. This design has six 4x6 pockets and instead of using six full size photos or cards, I mixed it up with 3x4's as well.

 Right hand side. More thinking outside the pocket with spreading photos over two pockets and adding two smaller cards to a large pocket. I also utilized labels to add small snippets of journaling.

During National Scrapbook Day Big Picture Classes had a free classroom full of tips on getting quality layouts done quickly. One tip I utilized was sticking to a color scheme. For these pages, I went with oranges, reds, and blues for the majority of the added embellishments and journaling. I didn't have too many cards within that color range that were basic so I used the silly one shown above from a Smash pad.

This other red card came with a Studio Calico kit and I really had no use for the symbol on the front. I covered it with labels to create a journalling space.

Week 25: June 17 - 23
Apologies in advanced. These photos did not turn out so great but I am going with it. This week includes the two 12x12 pages (Designs F and A), as well as a 6x12 insert page. The week also focused primarily on one fire assignment for Berkeley. I really loved this approach and it was something that sparked the idea of events based Project Life documentation for 2014.

 Whole layout spread with the insert on top of the right hand side page. The journaling was all done on 3x4 cards from the Seafoam Kit. The first half of the left hand side documents the normal Monday we had. Then the fire started. To document this assignment, I used Fire Information updates that were released to the public each evening. The photos added were those that Berkeley sent me, as well as maps.

Whole layout spread with the insert flipped over the left hand side. On the right hand side, I added in some journaling about how I was doing during Berkeley's away time with glimpses of how I pass the time and what I eat. For the whole spread, I repeated the same approach to journaling. Overall, this spread is one of the most straight forward. Just photos and journaling. 

One embellishment type thing I added was on this 4x6 in the top of the backside of the insert. This photo was taken from a NASA satellite and shows the burn scar of the fire. During the fire, NASA called and asked what the red formations around the outer edges of the fire were. Those red lines were retardant drops. The original photo was turned about 90* clockwise but I couldn't make a photo in that direction work in this layout. To help show the true direction on the fire, I added a star at the ignition point and added a compass of sorts. Other than that, I really just wanted to focus on the role fires play in our daily life together not just mine or his. Although the photos are lousy, this is one of my favorite spreads from 2013.

Project Life supplies:
Binders, plastics, and 3x4 gridded journaling cards via the Becky Higgins Amazon Storefront. Seafoam Project Life Kit. Seafoam Designer Paper. Zig Dual Tipped Pen Black and Ocean. Uni-Ball White Ink Gel Pen. StazOn Black Ink. Versamark White Ink. Martha Stewart and Avery Labels. Staples Date Stamp. American Crafts Getty letter Stickers.

Disclaimer: Project Life® is a memory keeping system creating by Becky Higgins. To see all my posts deatiling how I use her system to document our life story click here.

Project Life 2013 | Weeks 12-14

While I am waiting to order my photos for the last few months, I have been putting finishing touches on my 2012 and 2013 albums (part of my 2014 intentions). A few times this month, I will be sharing a look at those finished pages here. Today, I am sharing weeks 12-14 of 2013. 

Week 12: March 18 - 24
In 2013, I was still using all the different pocket page styles from the Big Variety Pack. This spread included the style with 4 6x6inch square pockets and the standard Design A. 

 A better part of my week was spent babysitting my friend's two nieces. To respect their privacy, I only included photos that didn't show their whole faces. We spent lots of time watching Brave, playing Brave, and telling stories similar to Brave, so I used a screenshot from the movie as the "title card" for the week. I took advantage of some of the white space on the photos to journal our time and activities together.

The rest of the spread has photos of the little details from the week. The right hand side of the spread also has two cards with "hidden journaling". One contains deeper thoughts about baby-sitting the girls. The other was about our everyday life at home. Both were made with two 3x4 cards attached with washi tape. Done and done. 

Week 13: March 25 - 31
I had a lot of photos I wanted to include in a specific order. I turned to a few favorite "techniques". I split 4x6 photos across two 3x4 pockets and placed two 3x4s in 4x6 pockets. I know other people don't like the way it looks but i love it. 

 Instead of making sure I had a balance of photos from the whole week, I focused on photos from two specific days. Sunday was Easter, so that was a no brainer for the right hand side of the spread.

The other day was a random day of the week. We just so happened to have a lot going on that day. I included a single journal card. I journaled around the circle with the details of a random Wednesday.

Week 14: April 1 - 7
This particular week included a Day in the Life documentation. More about the right hand side featuring my Day in the Life can be found in this post.

For the left hand side of the spread, I added in three intention inserts and a filler card. The first is a geotag card from Laura Kate is Crafty on which I wrote down some lat/long coordinates for an adventure we took. I added in a map card that I embroidered the route of said adventure. Next to it is a print out of a tweet.

Again, done and done. I am really trying not to get wrapped up in super technical approaches and focusing on documenting memories.

Project Life supplies:
Binders, plastics, and 3x4 gridded journaling cards via the Becky Higgins Amazon Storefront. Seafoam Project Life Kit. Zig Dual Tipped Pen Black. Uni-Ball White Ink Gel Pen. Assorted Elise Joy stamps. Laura Kate is Crafty See the World cards. StazOn Black Ink. Recollections Washi Tape. Martha Stewart and Avery Labels.

Disclaimer: Project Life® is a memory keeping system creating by Becky Higgins. To see all my posts deatiling how I use her system to document our life story click here.

Project Life 2013 | Weeks 3-4

While I am waiting to order my photos for the last few months, I have been putting finishing touches on my 2012 and 2013 albums. A few times this month, I will be sharing a look at those finished pages here. Today, it is weeks 3 and 4 from 2013. I shared glimpses of these two spreads back in June when I talked about how I capture different life events. 

Week 3: January 14 - 20

This was the page leading up to my documentation of the 2013 BrewHaHa. We didn't have a lot going on in the first part of that week, but there were three stories that I wanted to remember. They fit perfect into this Design B page and all the photos carried a lot of the same colors and I found this yellow, orange, pink combo for journaling cards was the perfect fit. I used two paislee press printables and two cards from the Seafoam core kit.

One of the cards from the core kit, I simply attached the business card from one of our favorite restaurants. The other I journaled about a birthday playdate using a hot pink Zig dual tip pen. The layered circle printable from paislee press, was just printed in written on as well.

The last filler card for this page is from the paislee press Is It Friday Yet journaling card set. I added the text of an obituary over the top before printing it. Little did I know that it wouldn't be the only obituary added to this years albums. 

Week 4: January 21 - 27

Unlike the previous week, this week was really intense and supremely busy. We had a lot packed into 7 days. Besides the insert for Color Run, there were two other things added as well. 

 As a side note, before talking about this spread, I want to share some background and a story. Normally, I would not document someone's passing so in depth but there was something really special about this particular person. Ms. Betty was a woman from our church. At the time of her death she was 85 years old. She was an extremely active and independent lady. In her last few months she had driven from one side of the country to the other and back again. She had taken several plane flights and attended numerous social events. She was always serving and always bowling. In fact, she told our pastor that she only knew something was wrong because she only scored 180 at her bowling tournament. As it turns out, she was bowling on a fracture leg and her heart was not so healthy. When she found this all out, we still had a heck of a time keeping her down.

It was only a few days later that she suffered some medical stuff and they informed her that they didn't think she would live much longer. Ms. Betty held on for 6 more weeks. Almost every day she woke up in hospice she was disappointed that she hadn't "gone to Jesus". She told us that she couldn't wait to get to fly home. It was such an eye opening and beautiful concept. She knew her work here was done and she knew where she was going. It was so incredibly beautiful. Based on what she taught me in her last days, I felt it was important to document as much as I did.

For the inserts here one is clear thick plastic for card making with letter stickers and the program from her services on it. I trimmed it so that it would be close to the same width as the photo insert. The photos are in a Design C page cut in half. This was the side without ring holes so I added thick washi tape. 

This is how it all ended up looking together. I knew the second half of the week was going to be color heavy with all my Color Run stuff, so I picked some calmer colors for the first half of the week. Lots of light blues, grays, and white. This is one of my favorite weeks in my 2013 by far. 

Project Life supplies:
Binders, plastics, and 3x4 gridded journaling cards via the Becky Higgins Amazon Storefront. Seafoam Project Life Kit. StazOn Black Ink. Versamark White Ink. Elise Joy Quote Cards. Zig Dual Tipped Pen Black Pink and Ocean. Uni-Ball White Ink Gel Pen. Paislee Press printables. Scotch Expressions Chevron Tape. Staples Date Stamp. Martha Stewart and Avery Labels.

Disclaimer: Project Life® is a memory keeping system created by Becky Higgins. To see all my posts deatiling how I use her system to document our life story click here.

Around Here + Project Life Update

Next week will be December and I am wondering where this year has gone. It seems each one passes faster and faster. It is getting pretty chilly here and our days are getting shorter and busier and Berkeley is getting kookier. Last month, I commented on how I would miss being surrounded by the pines. This month, I am loving the view of the San Francisco Peaks from our back windows, and the treelike out our front windows. Mostly, I am just loving the natural light coming in from all sides of our home.

We got spend some time with our favorite little humans. They had moved over the summer so it was great having them for a few hours. It also made us sad that we are missing out on so much of their growing up. Most of all, it really made us realize how much we want our own soonish!

I don't discuss my faith much here but this month we were witness to two baptisms. Each baptism was unique and beautiful. I am always so uplifted and encouraged when we get to share this milestone. It is so great feeling our community support a new brother or sister.

I was talking with a crafty friend recently about what projects we have been working on. She mentioned that she hadn't seen any updates with my 2013 Project Life and wondered if I was still keeping up. The answer is yes and no. The photo above is from week 40 my most complete week since August. Clearly there aren't many pictures, but the layout mock ups and journaling are getting done. Mostly I just need to send my photos for a huge print order and sit down and get all the finishing touches on it. One thing that has helped keep up is using large format photos. There are a few weeks from August and September that I just couldn't handle doing all the details for so adding a full 12x12 or 8x10 photo really helped.

Project Life 2013: End and Title Pages

Last year, right around August, I noticed that one album was not going to be enough to hold a full year of Project Life. I didn't anticipate needing a second album considering I had started my documentation in March. This year, I planned ahead, ordered both my albums in December and planned accordingly. 

While my 2012 documentation is not split evenly with 26 weeks in each album, I knew that is how I wanted to divide up 2013. This year The split came right the end of June and beginning of July. Leading up to the 30th, I had been already working on my title and end pages for the albums. My original plan included using a Design E pocket page and a full 12x12 image. I had even decided to end the week 26 spread with photos of us doing some car repairs together.

I had been working on my digital mock up for the week when we started hearing rumors of an accident on a fire that had been blowing up between Prescott and Phoenix. As the details unfolded and other things came up, I left my albums untouched for a few weeks. As the weeks passed, I actively avoided finishing weeks 26 - 28, much like I had avoided posting here. 

Then I overheard Berkeley talking to a friend and fellow Wildland Firefighter. Berkeley had been getting a few questions about whether he would be taking time off or needed to make use of the Employee Assistance Program (EAP). He even got some flack for not going down to Prescott for the memorial. His reply was that life still goes on after a tragedy. There is still lightening, and wind, and therefore, there are still fires to fight. The best way to honor the fallen (and his friends) was to continue to fight what they gave their life for.

After hearing Berkeley say that, I knew exactly how to finish the album and move on to the second half of the year. The back of the right side of my week 26 spread is a single 12x12 image. The background is a photo from the Yarnell Hill Fire and the text is the names are of those that were lost. I had it printed from Persnickety Prints.

As I mentioned previously, I had started working on this page prior to week 26 and had most of the cards picked out to fit in with the general design of my title pages. Title card, the "K", a recap style card. our individual pictures, A and B, and this time I used a sunset photo instead of a sunrise. Except the woodgrain card with the "a" on it, all the filler cards came with the Becky Higgins/Elise Blaha Cripe Seafoam Core Kit. The woodgrain is from Amy Teets' Designs. 

One of the things that held me back from working on Project Life for those first few weeks was definitely a goal to not let our album become entirely about this tragedy. Berkeley was spot on with saying "Life goes on" and we had a lot going on in those weeks. Instead of making a long detailed and personal spread, I tucked all of the journaling onto some cards using washi tape into a folded 4x6.

The bottom right pocket was the last to be filled. It kept me stumped. I had a few options laid out and Berkeley walked by and suggested I cut down the 4x6 with the above sentiment. I find it so incredibly fitting. I finished it with the dates that this album will cover and called it done. 

Project Life supplies: Binders, plastics, and 3x4 gridded journaling cards via the Becky Higgins Amazon Storefront. Seafoam Project Life Kit. Zig Dual Tipped Pen Black. EK Success Metallic Writer Gold. StazOn Black Ink. Staples Date Stamp. Scotch Expressions Chevron Tape Paislee Press printables. Amy Teets' Designs Printable.

Project Life® is a memory keeping system creating by Becky Higgins. To see all my posts detailing how I use her system to document our life story click here.

Project Life {7}: Documenting Life Events

One of the questions I get most about Project Life is about whether or not I am going to specific events and how I am going to do it. The answers are usually yes and I don't know yet, respectively. My documentation of life events varies from event to event and is usually dependent on what ephemera I have collected from the event and the pictures from the event and the rest of the week. If I end up with a lot of photos and stories I want to tell for a specific week and the event, I insert additional pages. Today, I am going to share the ways I documented two bigger events from earlier in the year: Flagstaff BrewHaHa and Color Run Arizona.


Flagstaff BrewHaHa: Week 3 January 19, 2013

Our week was pretty slow prior to this event, but I had a lot of stuff from the Beer Tasting so instead of a two page spread for the whole week, I added a third pocket page using a Design G page. I love this style for inserts! 

For the front of the page, I used a promotional poster from the event. The left side had all the sponsors and locations to purchase tickets. That did not interest me so I cut that off. The part of the poster I did want to use was odd shaped. It was backed with scraps of Kraft paper and then cut to fit the pockets. The Kraft by itself was a little boring, and that is where that patterned paper came into play. On this first page, I also added a press card from Paislee Press and our tickets 

When you turn that page you get the above spread. It includes the backside of the Design G and a Design C page that was already part of my weekly spread. 

 Closeup you can see the rest of Kraft used to back the poster showing through and a lot of the ephemera from our day. In the bottom left pocket is the "recorded winners". That piece was snipped from a journaling card I had messed up on. I try to save as many as messed up cards as possible.

Closeup of the right side of the spread. It is pretty straightforward. A few pictures from our afternoon and documentation using ephemera and journaling cards. 

On the right, I used a 5 senses card from the core kit to document tasting my favorite beer of the event. Adjacent to it is another filler card that I mounted the business card from the brewer to and a label with the beer's name. I love this idea of 5 senses when tasting the beers that I might even make a sheet to bring next year. 

Color Run Arizona 5K: Week 4 January 26, 2013

Instead of using another pocket page for this insert, I changed it up a bit. I utilized the plastic from our race packets. 

 The plastic was a little thinner than the pocket pages so I ran washi tape down the length to give a little more support to the binder holes. There is also washi at the bottom because the bag was a little too long. I liked the press seal at the top so I took the length off the bottom. Inside is our race numbers, wristbands, receipts, and other stuff from the race.

 To get the numbers to stay in place, I put them back to back and poked the safety pins through the plastic on the front of the bag. I did it that way so the rest of the bag can still be accessed. I also date stamped our numbers. Even though it was January 2013, they still gave out 2012 race numbers.

I may or may not have mentioned this before but for my Project Life, I buy the big variety pack that comes with 10 each of Designs A-F. I just put them in alphabetically and repeat throughout the year. Every now and then I change it up a bit if my photos fit a certain page style better. This week just happened to have Design D which is 4-6x6 pockets and it worked perfectly. I used two photo collages and used two pockets for journaling and photos. The upper right pocket has photos and journaling from  our brunch after the race. The bottom left is a 4x6 photo of the finish sign. The journaling is on a card from the kit cut in half. 

Project Life supplies:

Binders, plastics, and 3x4 gridded journaling cards via the Becky Higgins Amazon Storefront. Seafoam Project Life Kit. Zig Dual Tipped Pen Black. StazOn Black Ink. Paislee Press printables. Recollections Washi Tape. Freckled Fawn Colorful Dots Tape. Martha Stewart and Avery Labels. 

More Project Life posts can be found here.

Project Life {5}: Documenting Day in the Life

Day in the Life during Week 15 of 2013 Using Design B

After taking all my photos on Saturday, I didn't really have a lot to say about Sunday. Nothing particularly awesome or noteworthy happened. It was just a run of the mill Sunday. I was also lacking on stories I wanted to tell from the rest of the week and was able to get everything onto the first page of the spread. I was left with a whole page just for Day in the Life if I wanted. And I did want it.

I hardly ever see people use this style of pocket page while looking at the projects done by DT members and other "scrap celebs". This one is a personal favorite. It is probably because I don't let the divisions limit which photos I am using.

As you can see above, I went with 11 3x4 landscape oriented photos and a 3x4 card. I picked the photos that told the story the best and simply added them in order. For the top 3 4x6 sized pockets, I put the photos on a scrap paper. That way it is easier to get them both in the pocket and prevents them from sliding down.

First my idea for documenting the day was to just fill out this currently card from the SeaFoam kit. I used my standby Zig dual tipped pen and just jotted down the times and "activity" throughout the day. I wrote it fast and while watching a movie so there are some typos but that is okay for me.

I played the arrangement of the photos and the card a few times. I just wasn't happy with it. Then I realized that it was just a page of photos. I decided to add kraft circles to the photos with timestamps and one or two words. After adding those, it seemed more cohesive and finished.

There is the completed page one last time.

Project Life supplies: Binders, plastics, and 3x4 gridded journaling cards via the Becky Higgins Amazon Storefront. Seafoam Project Life Kit. Zig Dual Tipped Pen Black. Uni-Ball White Ink Gel Pen.

More Project Life posts can be found here. 

Project Life Update {4}: Week 7 of 2013 aka Food Week!

Week 7: Feb 11-17 2013 Design F and Design A plastics
For some reason or another, most of our photos from the week were food or food related. The other ones I did have were blurry or too dark. I went with it and ended up with a spread filled with food and it ended up being one of my favorite weeks so far.

We had sugar cookies and hot chocolate one night, another night we went out, and Berkeley made Gumbo on Fat Tuesday. There is nothing really new or inventive, except there aren't any pictures of us, but I see so much of our story in these pictures.

The weekly date card was made using Paislee Press printables, a foam stamp, and a Martha Stewart/Avery label. The teal card is from the Seafoam kit and the Fleur de Lis is a printable from laura kate is crafty.

The other side of the spread is from our first official Valentine's Day date. We ended up somewhere we had never been before, Tinderbox Kitchen. You can read more about our experience here. Pretty straightforward. The "Today" card in the upper left pocket is from the Seafoam kit has some hidden journaling on the back. Another laura kate is crafty card and a paper scrap from the restaurant.

Project Life supplies: Binders, plastics, and 3x4 gridded journaling cards via the Becky Higgins Amazon Storefront. Seafoam Project Life Kit. Zig Dual Tipped Pen Black and Pure Pink. StazOn Black Ink. Paislee Press printables. laura kate is crafty printables. Versamark White Ink. Martha Stewart and Avery Labels. 

More Project Life posts can be found here.