Project Life 2014 | May to July

The end of the year is quickly approaching and I wanted to share the pages from my Project Life album before they come really irrelevant. I am bulk posting a few months at a time for the next couple of weeks. Most of these pages have been finished in the last few weeks with "getting it documented" being the name of the game. At the beginning of the year, my plan for 2014 changed from a monthly approach instead of weekly. The goal was one spread a month, if not more, and inserts as needed. This plan really helped me stay as up to date as possible. You can see my title page here and all 2014 Project Life posts here. 

May

 My last Project Life post covering my trip to Southern California ended with a 6x12 insert. So this post is starting with the backside of that insert. It has a photo grid and journaling about our tiny houseguests.

 The right hand side of the spread covers life at home in May and how it varies with the start of Fire Season as well as how we were adjusting the little ones. The center inserts from left to right are Smash pad, two 4x6s from the Seafoam Core Kit cut down to 3x4 and a calendar card.

 The next part of the month's documentation was a full spread with two 12x12 pages.

 Left hand side holds photos and a small spot of journaling in the flap on the edge about the Slide Fire during the second half of May. That flap was just made from using a 3x4 pocket and washi tape.

The right hand side features a few smaller stories from the month. The center insert cards from left to right are a Smash Pad quote card documenting some of the kids' random questions and statements, an Elise Joy quote card, and two journaling cards from the Seafoam Core Kit. The card furthest to the right was originally a 4x6. 

June

 Back to the more normal for this album having a full spread with smaller inserts "sandwiched" in between.

 I used the whole left hand side to share about celebrating our six years together. Despite it being one of the busier months of Fire Season, June is our month. In the center the cards are, from left to right, an Elise Joy quote card, a card from the Seafoam core kit, a notebook lined card, and a filler card from WRMK. This month I also switched up my calendar card.

 The backside of the 6x12 has first time on SkyRide at Arizona Snowbowl and the right side has our trip to Bearizona. We did these both during our anniversary weekend but they were also items on our Flagstaff Bucket List.

 A closer look at the journaling for the 6x12. I placed the smaller photo on a 4x6 gridded journaling card and layered a tag and some other embellishments.

 For the Bearizona page, I had way more photos than I knew what to do with. I put in my five favorite photos and used a large journaling card. Before handwriting the details, I ran it through my printer to add the Bearizona logo.

 Here is the backside of that 10x12 insert and the right hand side 12x12. I used the 12x12 to wrap up the second half of June.

 For the journaling on the insert, I ran the 4x6 through the printer with the text from this blog post. I added the title afterwards. In the pocket above holds the map from the course. In this photo, you can also see the journaling card sticking out from behind the maps from the May spread.

We end with the right hand side 12x12. From left to right, the center journal cards are Seafoam Core Kit, WRMK Simply Happy Pad, and two Studio Calico cards, one layered and one with a "pocket". The "Notes" card has bullet points with the major happenings of the last two weeks of the month. The furthest pocket to the right holds some personal journaling. To give it more privacy, I slipped the journaling card into a glassine baggie that some embellishments from an old Studio Calico kit came in. Done and done. 

July

 Another set of 12x12's with a 10x12 in the middle. I really like pattern and consistency. Again, another things that helps me get the stories documented and keep the project up to date.

 A closer look at the left hand side. I went back to using the Oh The Lovely Things card for the month. Next two it are two cards from the Seafoam Core Kit. One of my favorite ways, as seen in months past, is adding journaling around the curve of a photo or shape. Here it did it on both the plate in the top left photo as well as around the circle on the journaling card. I also followed the chevron pattern with my journaling on the other card as well.

 This side of the insert was about the 4th of July. It was a fairly relaxed day despite being all over Flagstaff and Williams throughout the day. The journaling card is from a Smash Pad. I love that all those bubbles and lines feel like how I felt driving all day.

Here is a look at the backside of the insert and the right hand side. Pretty straight forward. 

 I did another insert about another disc golfing day. I used more text from this post. Again, I added the map of the course layout. Also, I went back and noted, in the rim of the can, that this was my last beer of the year.

Finally, I ended July with this photo of the monsoons. The photo was too awesome to do as a plain old 4x6 so I did 8x12. Underneath, I added my Currently post from July. Again, I just copied the text and printed right onto the journaling cards. And that's that. 

Looking back now, I almost feel like July is a little bare. I have a few more photos and stories I could tell to round it out. I may go back and add a 6x12 if I do end up wanting a little bit more. 

Project Life supplies:
Binders, plastics, and 3x4 and 4x6 gridded journaling cards via the Becky Higgins Amazon Storefront. Seafoam Project Life Kit. Zig Dual Tipped Pen Black. Assorted Elise Joy stamps and printable quote cards. EK Success Metallic Writer Gold. StazOn Black Ink. Smash blank and quote pads. Freckled Fawn Colorful Dots and Woodgrain Tape. Martha Stewart and Avery Labels. Staples Date Stamp. WRMK Simply Happy Journaling Cards. Oh The Lovely Things Calendar Cards. American Crafts Getty letter Stickers. Various past Studio Calico Project Life Kits. 

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 2014 | Disneyland 2014

The end of the year is quickly approaching and I wanted to share the pages from my Project Life album before they come really irrelevant. I am bulk posting a few months at a time for the next couple of weeks. Most of these pages have been finished in the last few weeks with getting it documented being the name of the game. At the beginning of the year, my plan for 2014 changed to a monthly approach instead of a weekly documentation. The goal was one spread a month if not more and inserts as needed. This plan really helped me stay as up to date as possible. You can see my title page here and all Project Life posts here. 

My segue from April to May is a little different than the rest of my months. The last few days of April and the first few days of May were spent in Southern California. The trip was originally planned to attend yet another memorial service and my mom surprised me by coming down with one of my sisters and buying Disneyland tickets for us all. 

To separate the trip from the rest of the month, I added this insert that had a patchwork of different papers, digital elements, and some ephemera including a Fast Pass. I printed them at home. The squares were just about 1.5in and added to a piece of card stock with roller adhesive. The plan was to secure all the squares in the corners but my stapler did not reach the center so I just did the edges shown above. 

The backside of the patchwork piece has smaller maps from the parks printed from their website with all the rides and attractions we did during our trip marked off. The background piece of card stock was made by repeating a stamp to create a pattern. Between the two pieces of card stock is a small piece of clear "cardmaking" plastic with holes punched in to add it into the album so that it looks like it is floating in front of my page for April 30. 

April 30

To document the two days in the park, I used a Design B pocket page (Design D or Design V could also be used). I find these work best when I have a lot of landscape oriented photos and journaling cards I want to use. That was exactly the case here. For the main story, I used a heart cut from another journaling card stapled over this gray herringbone from the Seafoam kit. I added the bow to make it tie in with our ears and a simple red label and date stamp. I didn't have too many details other than being at Disneyland so one little journaling spot was great.

May 1

I took the same approach to our second day. Ten photos, my ticket, and a spot for journaling. All very straight forward. I had a little more to share about this day so the journaling space is larger. I used a simple gridded 3x4 card with a label and a puffy sticker. 

Documentation of the whole trip was wrapped up with this insert made from half of a Design E pocket page using tabs and washi tape. One pocket has an older Disney map with my pin on the outside of it. I actually poked the needle through the plastic and paper to attach it. The lower pocket contains the leftover ephemera layered on patterned paper. I love that the date was so bold on the parking pass as sort of a marker for May. 

I am hoping to get the rest of the posts up soon. I batch ordered my photos for May through November from a photo processor. That company seems to be taking longer than normal to process and print the photos. As a result, my photos were delayed and the final put together of all my pages is delayed as well. With all the fog we've had lately, I might end up with a whole week dedicated to Project Life spreads. It wouldn't be the worst but I definitely like to balance the topics out a little bit. Fingers crossed that package arrives sooner than later. 

Project Life supplies:
Binder and plastics via the Becky Higgins Amazon Storefront. Seafoam Project Life Kit. StazOn Black Ink. Martha Stewart and Avery Labels. Studio Calico Antiquary Kit and Cuppa Kit. Zig Dual Tipped Pen Black. Staples Date Stamp. Assorted Elise Joy stamps. Freckled Fawn Colorful Dots Tape. Project Mouse Digital Papers from Sahlin Studio and Britt-ish Designs. *Some links used are affiliate links

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.

Project Life 2014 | March and April

The end of the year is quickly approaching and I wanted to share the pages from my Project Life album before they come really irrelevant. I am bulk posting a few months at a time for the next couple of weeks. Most of these pages have been finished in the last few weeks with getting it documented being the name of the game. At the beginning of the year, my plan for 2014 changed to a monthly approach instead of a weekly documentation. The goal was one spread a month if not more and inserts as needed. This plan really helped me stay as up to date as possible. You can see my title page here and all Project Life posts here. 

Before I get into sharing these pages I wanted to note that I left a few of them out. We had a rough few months and while I did document them, I didn't feel like those things needed to be public on the internet. I will say that journaling this things and documenting those events and the feelings associated with them really helped with coping. I definitely recommend it. It adds realness to our documentation. While I won't be sharing these pages, I have shared similar documentation in this post. 

March

The best part of doing the monthly approach is the ability to be as detailed as you want. I had a lot of random photos from the first half of the month and nothing really told the story of our month. Instead of just adding a few photos from our friends' daughter's party at the beginning of the month, I went with almost a whole two page spread. 

The back of the first insert page, I added the photos from a wedding we attended during the middle of the month. As with most of my darker photos, I added a filter to it and called it a day. Again, I chose to be less detailed and just let the photos tell the story. I also made a journaling card about the details of the wedding. The only other embellishment was that silver monogram tag that I added with a stapler. 

The last part of the month we took a trip down to Tucson for a funeral (that page I won't be sharing). We met up with a lot of different people during our few days down there and had a lot of meals out. The page above details that. Just as the previous insert page, I used Design G. In the right hand 4x6 vertical pockets I added 3x4 photos. 

To round out the month and to sort of designate the end of Ski Season, I did a Day in the Life documentation for a typical work day for me. Pretty straight forward. I did add some "flaps" with photos with the journaling underneath. 

April

Another straightforward spread that are pretty photo heavy. The left side documents the real start of spring. The right hand side documents an annual art and music showcase we go to. The journaling card was made from a 3x4 card from an old Studio Calico kit that said "Oh the Drama" in the circle. That really doesn't fit anything I document so I covered it. In this case, I used the event's logo from a business card. I just cut it to fill in the circle. 

My April documentation includes a few more pages but most of the spreads continue to address things I don't feel need to be public in this space. There is also a spread from a Disneyland trip I took that I will be sharing next week. 

Project Life supplies:
Binder and plastics via the Becky Higgins Amazon Storefront. Seafoam Project Life Kit. Oh The Lovely Things Calendar Cards. Elise Joy Quote Cards. StazOn Black Ink. Martha Stewart and Avery Labels. Studio Calico Antiquary Kit and Cuppa Kit. WRMK Simply Happy Journaling Cards. Gold Freckled Fawn Airmail washi tape. Zig Dual Tipped Pen Black and Ocean. Staples Date Stamp.

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.

Project Life 2014 | February

As I mentioned at the beginning of the year, my plan for 2014 is more of a monthly approach than a weekly approach. I am hoping for at least one spread a month if not more and inserts as needed. You can see my title page here and all 2014 Project Life posts here.

February pages include two Design A, a Design D, and half of a Design E as an insert. We had a few different events this month with only a handful of photos for each one. I used the D pocket page for those events.

 My "opening page" for this month included another Oh The Pretty Things calendar card, an Elise Joy quote card, four of my favorite photos from the month, and two journaling/filler cards from We R Memory Keepers. The loose theme for this month was love and that card for the color scheme.

 This is the first two "events" that I wanted to share. Pretty photo heavy with two journaling cards. Lots of stamping, letter stickers, and handwriting. That upper left hand pocket as two 3x4 pictures instead of a single 4x6. Straight forward. Done and Done.

 The second spread of my monthly documentation. Sorry about the lighting. This photo just shows the pages. This is where I added my documentation for fmsphotoaday, as shown below.

 The second two "events" for this month. For the top half I added all 3x4 stuff. I organized a Bingo Night and ended up with all landscape oriented photos. I added three of my favorites. Then paired it with a WRMK journaling card, a Studio Calico filler card, and a scanned/printed 3x4 of the event flyer. Lastly, I added the photos and a single journaling card about puppy sitting.

Closeup. I love being able to scan and resize ephemera to fit into pockets. It is becoming a go to for event invites and flyers.

For my Photo a Day project, I designed four 6x6 photo collages and printed them at home. I cut down a Design E pocket page for those four collages and put them in. No muss, no fuss.

This is the last page of the month. Again, I went with a few favorite photos from the month including a panoramic shot of the sunset on Valentines/AZ Statehood Day. It was gorgeous. The top two photos are from the first of February and the twenty eighth. The weather had been so mild for February and that was the overall story for this page. The journaling is on a ledger style card with a weather app screenshot. Also included was a 3x4 with two 2x3 images with a banner on it about running. 

The last little part of the page is a flip up. Berkeley has a habit of taking weird photos of himself with my iPod Touch. He averages 1 a week. This particular one happened to pop up after I took the photo I took for him of me in a new ear warmer headband. We are ridiculous and I love it! 

So that is my documentation of February in Project Life. 

Project Life supplies:
Binder and plastics via the Becky Higgins Amazon Storefront. Seafoam Project Life Kit. Seafoam Designer Paper. EK Success Metallic Writer Silver. StazOn Black Ink. Martha Stewart and Avery Labels. Studio Calico Antiquary Kit and Cuppa Kit. WRMK Simply Happy Journaling Cards. Freckled Fawn Colorful Dots Tape. Zig Dual Tipped Pen Black. Uni-Ball White Ink Gel Pen. Staples Date Stamp.

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 2014 | January

This is going up a few days later than I had planned but here are my Project Life pages for the month of January. As I mentioned at the beginning of the year, my plan for 2014 is more of a monthly approach than a weekly approach. I am hoping for at least one spread a month if not more and inserts as needed. You can see my title page here and all Project Life posts here.

The January section has a spread over two Design A style 12x12 pages, a Design G style page, and an insert I made myself. You can see them layered above.

 The first page features a January Calendar card, and a journaling card with an overview of our month. There are also some journaling cards about being sick and a brunch date with someone we consider a "sister from another mister".

 Next is the insert I made using piece of card making plastic. I got this in pad form from Michaels about 4 years ago. I am not sure if they still carry it but it is thick and sturdy. This insert features most of the photos from Fat Mum Slim's Photo A Day for January. I printed the photos at home as 2x2 inch squares and adhered half of them on one side and the rest on the other side. Added some patterned paper as the edge to be added into the album itself. Everything is on using regular adhesive. I may go back and add some stitching along the edge were the plastic and paper meet. For now, it is good to me. It was simple, it is not perfect but it is done and that is all that matters.

The front of the Design G insert has some photos from our annual trip to BrewHaha. Again, I just got some photos, added them in and put in some embellishments to help tell the story. For the tickets, I used my X acto to cut out the preprinted label, slid the tickets under and added adhesive. Getting it done! I may go back and swap some of the photos out but for now it is finished.

 The back of the Design G insert and the other Design A style 12x12 has photos and journaling about the Gatsby party we attended, some details about a track meet, and our excitement about the precipitation we got.

 The photos from this night were all taken inside a dark pub with iPhones. The quality was not so great so we put filters on them before printing them. I loved the way it turned out.

 A lot of times the informational flyer or invite to events are not ideal sizes for adding to pockets and sometimes adding them as their own insert seems silly. In this case the flyer was 5x4 and trimming it would have taken away from the look and having it float would not add to the story, so I scanned it and resized it to 4x3 to fit the pocket. The journaling card here was trimmed and then layered on top of a scrap piece of gold paper and then I used a gold gel pen to write on the white space.

My favorite part of this spread is this quote. The card itself is the back of an ad that came with a Studio Calico kit. My printer doesn't do 3x4 size, so I washi taped the card to a 4x6 and ran it through the printer. I overlapped it a little too much so the tape skewed the edges of the text, but I love the look. Also visible is our tickets from the Track and Field meet. I layered them stuck a label over it and journaled around the edge. And done!

Simple is the name of the game these days. At the beginning of the year I struggled with whether or not I wanted to keep doing this. My 2012 and 2013 are not complete and I didn't want another album sitting at 90%. Approaching this project differently has really helped me stay on track. February is almost complete. Now, I just need to work on finding a good room and time of day to get it photographed.

Project Life supplies:
Binder and plastics via the Becky Higgins Amazon Storefront. Seafoam Project Life Kit. Seafoam Designer Paper. Elise Joy magic stamp. EK Success Metallic Writer Silver. StazOn Black Ink. Martha Stewart and Avery Labels. Studio Calico Antiquary Kit. Staples Date Stamp. WRMK Simply Happy Journaling Cards. Gelly Roll Gold Gel Pen. Zig Light Blue Dual Tip Marker.

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.