Project Life, Weeks 39-41

Finally got all the photos printed so I could finish these weeks! Feels good to be caught up again, sorry about the long, image-heavy post. 

For Week 39, I chose to stick with mostly Scraptastic kit stuff. Although I didn't get any new kits for October due to budget reasons, I have plenty of leftovers from previous months to use up. I had barely cracked open Scraptastic's September This Life Noted kit. Since I had fewer pics this week, more of the fun cards made it onto the spread. 

I particularly love the little yellow tag I made by coloring the September kit tag stamp with gelatos, adding water, then stamping onto cardstock. It makes a pretty watercolor effect. 

Week 40 is a mix of Scraptastic This Life Noted and Gossamer Blue Life Pages kits from July-September. Got some more use out of my SC Woolf foodie stamp set (so glad I caved and bought that!). And I did something a little different this week, I was pretty short on photos plus I inserted my pages for the Big Picture Classes Pajama Party challenge in between Week 40 and 41, so instead of using a full two pages I used a page and a full insert for Week 40. After the insert comes those three special pages, then Week 41 picks up like normal on the backside of the last special project page.

The ampersand, flowers, and word stickers are leftover from my Maggie Holmes class kit from CKC. They don't really match the rest of the spread, but I just thought they were pretty :). Sometimes that's the only reason you need.

For Week 41 I returned to my good 'ole Studio Calico stash. I had bought the Marks & Co Project Life kit on a great sale for the BPC Pajama Party project, and the cards are really lovely. I actually used the back side of several cards I used in that special project for this week (I'll post those photos in a separate blog post so this one doesn't get totally out of control!). 

Gelatos again for some stamping on my title card - a little tricky to get the hang of, but I'm loving this technique. A couple diecuts a friend cut for me on her Silhouette, and a few little labels/stickers from Scraptastic and Gossamer Blue, plus my staple washi and glitter tape, and this week is in the bag. 

 

If you read any of the journaling you may catch on that this wasn't the best week in our life. Actually, it was one of the worst in recent months. Lots of sickness, things (including our car and Josh's wedding band) breaking, and general financial stress. Although I definitely mentioned all these things, I intentionally try not to let this album dwell too much on the negative. I want to remember the good times, the blessings in our lives. From the forest point of view, I want my Project Life album to convey a sense of family, togetherness, joy, and peace to my children when they look through it in the future. Even though we struggle through many weeks, even though sometimes I want to rant and rave across the page, the struggle is not what our life is about. Our life is about Jesus, about His power and provision, about our unity and togetherness in the face of trials. I try to strike a balance between portraying a realistic view and a, well, spiritually realistic view of our daily lives. 

And sometimes, it's just about recording what I want to remember, and not what I don't!

Project Life, Week 38

Between sickness, Week in the Life recovery (anyone just need a break from "documenting" after that intense week?!), and regular life stuff I fell a couple weeks behind in my Project Life album. I decided I really hate that feeling! I had also run out of photo paper at home and had to wait for a sale to print the photos I needed to catch up. Still waiting on a few, but I did finish Week 38.
This current week should be interesting to document, most of my family is sick, and we've had one calamity after another all week. From car to lawnmower, wedding ring to chair, things are breaking left and right. It's crazy! How do you document no-good-very-bad weeks? I'm not even sure I WANT to remember!
But moving on (or back?) to Week 38 now...

I chose to use mostly Gossamer Blue for this week, especially since I finally had an opportunity to use the travel-themed stuff from August's Life Pages kit. Josh graciously let me go to a CKC scrapbook convention Friday and Saturday, and it turned into quite the adventure! I ended up staying overnight in the hotel room of some ladies I met at the crop (not nearly as creepy as it sounds, I promise!) and we had a hilarious, fabulous time staying up way too late!

I really love that 4x4 Extraordinary Photo card - it was part of the printables for September's Life Pages kit (most of the stuff on the left side is from September's kit). Isn't that Traci Reed (who designs their printables, among other things) so talented?! 

I also figured out a way to use the cute 4x6 overlay. I think they're adorable but really struggle with actually using them in my spreads. If you have any ideas or examples, please share in the comments! 

Surprise! I hid an adorable photo of my boys, when they were actually being sweet to each other for .2 seconds instead of fighting, under that Extraordinary Ordinary Photo card! That pink tab is attached with a glue dot to the card and to the plastic page protector, letting the card flip up. Super simple.

And that's another week in the book! I'm waiting on a 99-photo order from Shutterfly to finish weeks 39 and 40 (most of those photos are for my son's baby album - I did not take 99 photos in 2 weeks!). Hopefully by early next week I'll have those weeks posted and be more or less caught up again!

Week in the Life 2013, September 9-15

I joined in again this year with Ali Edwards' Week in the Life project, even though I've been documenting our weeks through Project Life this year. I definitely went more in depth day by day this week, noting little bits of our day on Ali's daily sheets (found in her planning post) and loosely tracking our schedules. I designed my own daily summary cards, and jotted down the highlights from those daily sheets.
In addition to the cards I made, I used a hodge podge of cards and embellishments from Cocoa Daisy (coffee cards and stamp), Freckled Fawn, Studio Calico, Scraptastic, Gossamer Blue, and Basic Grey (alpha).
My favorite elements, though, came from a new digi kit by Traci Reed, Essential Everyday. I printed off several of the cards, and some tabs, word strips, and day of the week labels.

I started off strong on Monday and Tuesday, with one page and half an insert for each day. I tried to keep plenty of neutrals in my color scheme with (lots of) pops of color, especially orange and red. I'm no designer or color expert, but I like how the week turned out. It's visually busy and full, just like our lives! Also I intentionally went heavy on the photos and very light on the filler cards. 

That fun days of the week/number paper is from the Essential Everyday kit too. Definitely my favorite paper of the kit!

By Thursday and Friday, life was taking over again and I had less photos and just less to document. I used a couple "thing/environment" photos and combined these days on one page and insert. Please ignore that neon post-it tab, I use those to mark where I want photos to go as I plan my pages. They're easy to move around as I decide where everything will go. Guess I missed removing that one!

 

Saturday and Sunday each filled up one page with no inserts. I did tuck a little handout booklet behind that Lowe's card on Saturday, it was the instructions for the fire engine that Josh and Cai made. I got a little artsy and used my newly acquired Gelatos to smear some blue around that days of the week/numbers paper on the bottom right Saturday card. I also used Gelatos to sort of underline the "life is beautiful" phrase. It's a new medium for me, but definitely fun to use and add just a hint of color.

Sunday was a very light photo day, so I included a list of TV shows we're currently enjoying and a collage photo of the week's lists for the 30 Lists project I've been working on this month. I need to remember to use some of these filler ideas in my "normal" Project Life!

I'm definitely glad I did this project again. I will probably slip those daily pages into a page protector to keep them with the project, and I"m sure it'll be fun to look back and see how our daily routines, schedule, and activities change over time.