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. 

Ketchup

As my title obviously implies, this is a catch-up post! Our internet quit on Sunday, and although AT&T says it's fixed, it's not. So I've been visiting my parents a lot this week, which has the added benefit of built-in help with the boys :)! All the time I could get online was spent playing with the lovely, hilarious girls over at Mscraps and celebrating the store's first anniversary. The amazingly generous designers donated lots of prizes for about 20 different games and challenges, so I had no shortage of inspiration this weekend. Here's the pages I completed (and the coordinating challenge):

Challenge: Scraplift Chain

For this page, I scraplifted the person who posted before me, which was tj7933, and I chose her page "Christmas Gala 2010" if you want to go look at it. :)

Challenge: Finish Me Off

This was an interesting challenge - we were all given a .jpg scrapbook page and had to "finish" it, but without changing any of the elements already there. I like how mine turned out! Everything is from the Mscraps Birthday Blog Train collab (which you can still get - hurry!!).

Challenge: White Space Layout

Pretty obvious - we had to create a white space layout. This one came together pretty quickly, one reason I love white space pages!! I absolutely ADORE this kit, too - Sketchbook by Three Paper Peonies. How cute is that pencil?! (Almost as cute as the little boy in the picture, right? :))

Challenge: Topsy Turvy Template

For this one, the hostess gave us a mixed-up template (with the element spots, paper strips, and photo slots all jumbled up on the page in no particular design). The challenge? Use just the bits we were given, nothing extra, to create a layout! Fun and challenging! The papers and most of the word art on this page is from Happy Talk by Three Paper Peonies and designs by Anita. The elements are from all over - I really had to dig through my Mscraps stash for this one!

Challenge: Template #2

Sadly, I missed out on the first template challenge of the weekend because it ended yesterday, and I had no Internet. But I had fun with this one - we gave Avyn his first taste of "solid" food a couple days ago, and he was thoroughly unimpressed. Made for a cute page, though. If you've got a messy child, then maybe you need the kit Messy by Three Paper Peonies, too.

Challenge: Create a new siggy

It had been a while since I created a new forum siggy, so I whipped this one up just in time to enter this challenge. It's pretty simple, but I like it! Also, I got to use that super-cute Messy kit again!

Thanks for being patient with me this week - hopefully we will figure out this Internet issue soon. And I promise a post soon that's not just showing off my recent layouts! Do you have any ideas for topics or tutorials, or burning questions about scrapbooking that you think somebody ought to answer? I'd love to hear your ideas!!