Project Life, Week 27

Wow, only one week to share in this post?! I don't even recognize this blog anymore, all up to date and everything! I enjoyed liberally splashing my 4th of July/USA themed stuff on this spread, and I love how it turned out. I bought the 4th of July kit from Paper Issues and boy was it packed!! That's where most of the bits came from, but I also added pieces from my Studio Calico kits, and a healthy smattering of digital goodies from Michelle Godin (Snarky Snippets Summer), Traci Reed (Hashtag cards), Gennifer Bursett (Anchored papers), One Little Bird Designs (Carson Park elements), and Cathy Zielske (Photo Flags). I got a little printer-happy this week.

Did you scrap anything holiday-related for Independence Day, or include any fun themed products? I'd love to see it! 

Project Life, Weeks 25-26

With these two weeks, I've finished the first half of 2013, and I'm fairly certain this is the longest I've ever stuck with a project! I love it! With the stressful, crazy turns our lives have taken this year, dealing with my boys' health needs, I haven't had the time or mental energy to keep up very well with most of my previous scrapbook blogging and creative team commitments. Still dealing with the guilt over that. But somehow, this paper-hybrid form of scrapbooking doesn't trip the same "stress" triggers as the CT stuff, maybe because it's pretty much just for me? Either way, I've truly enjoyed completing each week. Working with physical product, making pretty pages, has refreshed my love of this whole hobby and I've gradually found myself falling back in love with digital scrapbooking, too. But, after playing with paper, my digital scrapping has changed. I'm more aware of how my pages would look "in real life," and I tend to make element choices now based on realism, and things I might choose for paper pages. I wouldn't say my style changed, but I think it's improved. Maybe I'll share a few of my recent digi pages here soon. But on to the good stuff!

Week 25

Cards and embellishments from Studio Calico's Project Life kits, Traci Reed and Paislee Press' Frolic cards, Traci Reed's Freestyle Frames, Traci Reed's 4x6 collages, Becky Higgins' Jade kit, Simple Stories' I {Heart} Summer Snap cuts, AC glitter tape, SC stars and arrows stickers.

Week 26

Quite proud of my hybrid cards this week. I used Gennifer Bursett's Anchored papers to design the striped "Color" card and the blue ombre card. Also printed two cards from Traci Reed and Sugarplum Paperie's Coast to Coast set, and added some digital touches with Traci's Freestyle Frames and Everyday Scribbles. Finally found a use for the 4x6 photo overlay that came in my June SC Project Life kit. More cards/embellies from SC kits, various letter stickers, and washi finished off the week.

Project Life, Weeks 23-24 - VACATION!

I am incredibly excited to be posting these pages less than 3 weeks after returning from our vacation! I can't believe I got photos chosen, edited, ordered and picked up, completely scrapped, and then the layouts photographed and uploaded in this time frame. It definitely wouldn't have happened if I was doing regular digi or paper layouts, or if I wasn't caught up on my album.
In case my process/experience can help anyone else, I thought I'd share a few other tips that helped me finish my vacation pages in record time:

• I brought a notebook and selection of journaling cards on the trip, and jotted down memories and notes on most days. This way I had most of my journaling, and even some of the cards, ready to go. I also pulled from Facebook and Instagram.
• I downloaded photos from my mom and sisters' cameras/phones onto my laptop, and copied photos I thought I might use into a special trip folder.
• Whenever I had a little downtime on the trip, while watching TV, etc., I went through photos, edited, selected my favorites, put together collages, and basically prepped for printing. 
• Before the trip, I chose the main products I wanted to work with and put together a sort of "kit" for the project, ordering some items and shopping my stash for other bits and pieces that might work. This made it a lot quicker to actually scrap.
• Walgreens happened to run a $.10 print sale that expired shortly after we returned, so I had a little extra motivation to get those pictures printed. 
• Once I had the prints in hand, I sat down with my journal, a list of page protector designs, and some paper and sketched out my layouts. Then I stuck all the photos in their (approximate) slot. This changed a little as I went through and scrapped, but not much. Having the majority of the design part done, knowing where my photos, journaling, and memorabilia would go, really sped up the process!
• Keep it simple.

Although I pulled in plenty of bits and pieces from my stash, I mainly relied on Simple Stories' Urban Traveler collection and 4x6 paper pad, and their new I {Heart} Summer 4x6 paper pad. I also picked up a couple packs of MAMBI cards from Michaels, in their travel and summer themes. The rest of the cards are from Studio Calico, a few random ones purchased in sets from Paper Issues, and some special ones from a couple card swaps I participated in recently.

I'm not sure of the best way to share all these, so I think I'll just dump them all in here and add notes underneath certain layouts where applicable. Here we go!

The first spread includes a sort of "intro" page, and two photos I happened to have leftover at the end. The right side is from Monday - all day traveling and I completely forgot to take ANY photos at the airport! Oh well. I made do with a couple terrible shots from someone's camera that night at my parents' townhome!

All of the above layouts are from Tuesday, when we ventured into downtown D.C. for sightseeing, all three boys in tow. It was quite an adventure! The weather was gorgeous, the sights stunning. I didn't want to limit myself when we took so many photos, made so many memories, so I just kept going until all my favorites fit! I included a 12z12 page protector to stick in all that "memorabilia" you accumulate when traveling, especially to museums. I love brochures. 

Wednesday we didn't do much, since Avyn got very sick. I'm missing one photo from the Tuesday/Wednesday page, as I got it from my sister after everything else was printed. I keep forgetting to print it off. Thursday we went to a local park that had a carousel and train, so that obviously deserved several pages! 

Josh and I were blessed with an overnight stay at the Washington Marriott, one of the hotels Dad is DoE for.  After traveling in with my sister Liz, and spending Friday touring with her, we thoroughly enjoyed the time alone Friday night (including a fancy dinner) and Saturday. Truly special time, first overnight alone since we had kids!

While we were away, my parents and siblings entertained and took excellent care of our boys. They picked strawberries, got haircuts, played in the water, and generally had a blast! 

I celebrated my 28th birthday on June 9, couldn't imagine a better day than with my family! I did miss my sister, though, whose birthday is only 2 days before mine (and two years later :)).The boys enjoyed the train at the mall, and I was happy to get my huge birthday Starbucks!

Isn't that Hello tag/card adorable? One of my swap buddies in a PL Facebook group made it. Perfect touch for the page about meeting the new foals. The blue arrow and black and white Smile card are also swap cards I received. 

Another day of multiple pages! Our trip to the splash pad couldn't possibly fit on one page. My boys adore the water like they're part fish. I adore using cute summery filler/journal cards!

We got home late Thursday night, and spent the weekend recovering (plus Josh worked), so I lumped Friday through Sunday in here too. Those CUTE diecuts are from a sweet friend who cut me a bunch of stuff on her Silhouette, since I don't have one! I want one. Like, really bad. Almost as much as I want Radlab. But thanks to an awesome birthday gift, I may soon be playing with Radlab! Can't wait!

If you made it all the way down here, you're probably either my family, or incredibly bored. Either way, thanks for looking! I'll be back later this week with weeks 25 and 26.