Project Life 2012 - Week Four

I'm not even going to make any excuses this week, I'm just going to start by saying -

Hi, my name is Tamara and I'm addicted to adding extra inserts into my Project Life album.

Ahh, that feels better!

This week, I *may* have gone slightly overboard and added in 4 extra inserts, I can't help myself - I love collecting/keeping things, and I love photos!

Main spread, without inserts:

This week saw us buying a new school bag for Lily, sleepovers at Nannie and Ya-Ya's for Lily (and a trip to the swimming pool), splashing in the clam-shell pool, celebrating Australia Day, Dad and Owen (a family friend) laying some slabs in our backyard, and also celebrating Chinese New Year.

Main spread with the extra inserts:

Inserts include: a print out of the weather forecast (in Degrees Celsius), a program from the Chinese New Year fair that we went to, an AC 12x12 - 6 up 4x6 page protectcor (cut in half), and an 8x8 insert.

Insert 1/2:

Insert 2/3:

Insert 3/4:

An 8x8 print of us at the Chinese New Year fair. I printed this as an 8x10, and just trimmed the extra 2" off to make it a square photo.

Back of insert 4:

Another 8x8 photo, this time with my sister, instead of me in the photo.

Project Life 2012 - Week Three

Up to week three, and still loving Project Life!

This week I added in my Take Twelve collage into the middle of the spread. I had it printed as an 8x10, and am really happy with how it turned out. To read all about my Take Twelve photos, check out this post.

Week Three with extra inserts:

Week Three, without extra inserts:

The second half (right hand side) of this week was not very interesting, Ian and I were both very unlucky and caught a summer flu, he was ok within a couple of days, I am still not feeling 100%.

I also found that I was a little less interested in taking photos the second part of this week, but I think that's partly to do with not feeling very well, and the fact that I did my Take Twelve photos this week too. Actually, I'm sure that's what it was, because for this current week (week 4) I have already taken heaps of photos, and will be back to my usual problem, of having too many photos!

Back of insert 1 & insert 2:

I numbered all the photos on the Take Twelve collage, and then on the back I typed a quick little list up of what every photo was showing.

Lily also got her very first email this week! It came to my email address. but was addressed to her, and she was so excited!! I knew as soon as I got the email that I would have to print it out and slip it into the album.

I also wanted to share a close up of my title card, be warned it's not perfect...I suck at date stamping (this is the second week [out of three!] that I didn't press down evenly), but you know what!?! I don't care, I'm the type of girl who can't rule straight with a ruler, and cutting straight along a line - IMPOSSIBLE!!

These were some really old Pink Paislee alphas that I had laying around, and I thought that they went pretty well with the overall teal/aqua colours popping up in the photos and extras. I was in two minds about outlining the letters (you know, because I stuck at doing things like this), but I'm so glad that I did, it really helps the letters 'pop'.

• I think that  for now I have pretty much given up on ever having a 'normal' week with no extra inserts...Later this week we will be celebrating Australia Day (Jan. 26), and no doubt I will take half a million photos -so extra inserts will be needed. The week after (week 5) Lily goes back to school as a big Pre-Primary girl, so again I will have some extra stuff to add in (I already have a questionnaire that I have for her to fill out, about her favourite things).
• Something else that I noticed this week, was that there were no photos of me at all! I hate having my photo taken (comes from years of being overweight) but you'd think that now I have lost all of the weight I would have let go of that! I spoke to my husband, and he promised to make sure that he picks up the camera too, and takes some photos of the kids and I. I guess that's the Mum's curse....we're the ones always shoving cameras in other peoples faces, so there's hardly any photos of us!

Take Twelve: January 2012

I'm a little late to join the party! But joining in anyway!

I had seen a few people talking about Take Twelve on their blogs, but never looked into it, so I had no idea what it was about. This morning, someone had a link on their blog, so I decided to click, and well lets just say that I LOVE the idea!

Basically, the idea is to take 12 photos on the twelfth of every month in 2012. Since I only found out about it today, I decided to do January's today, and then from next month I will do it on the twelfth. I really didn't want to miss out a month, so starting it today was the next best thing.

I plan on making the photos into a collage, and then adding them into my Project Life album, as an extra insert (who'd have guessed!!)

January 18, 2012

I chose the colour of the date box, based on the common blue theme occuring in a lot of the photos, this is something I will continue to do every month, not always blue - but whatever is a prominent colour within the photos.

Today was just a normal day for us, Ian went to work, and the kids and I went out for a little while in the morning to a friends house for a play-date. While there Lily got to have a  swim in their pool. I was also super-awesome, and went out, with two different coloured shoes on (I bet everyone wishes that they could be as awesome as me!), hence the photo of my feet in the top corner.

I know that I have only completed one month (and that wasn't even on the correct day), but I think that this is an awesome project, and hope that it brings just a little more of the 'everyday' into my Project Life (I should add, that I also think Take Twelve is an awesome project all on it's own, but you know us Project Lifers....we get obsessed, and find ways to include everything in our albums!).

Project Life 2012 - Week Two

I'm back with my second week of Project Life, and I just can't say enough about how much I love this system, and how glad I am that I started. I've never been a chronological scrapper, I have always just scrapped whichever photos appealed to me, so I like that this is a way to fill in the blanks.

And even more so, I like that Lily is already showing such interest in the album, and is continually asking to look through it, or asking if I "want to put 'this' (whatever she has just drawn etc) into your Project Life album?"

Week two spread - with extra inserts:

This week I added in two extra inserts (so much for my claim that I won't add in extra inserts every week!), a custom sized protector (which I sewed with my sewing machine), and a 10x12 American Crafts page protector (Becky Higgins actually has a very similar design within the PL range [design G], but since I already had the AC ones, I didn't buy the PL ones).

Week two spread, without extra inserts:

This week was another busy week, the kids started (and finished early due to the freezing water temperature) swimming lessons, play dates with school friends, a birthday party, and an evening at an outdoor cinema.

Back of insert 1 & insert 2:

These extra photos are all photos taken from our night at the outdoor cinema, it was such a fun night, and the kids really enjoyed themselves, so I wanted to include as many photos as possible.

One of my family goals this year, was to try and get a family photo every month, and so far (one month in! hahaha), so good!

Initially my plan was to print these family photos at 8x10 to put in my album, but I printed this one at 6x8 and trimmed the top and bottom a little to make it the same size as flyer it backs onto (it ended up about 5.5x8), and I do like it like this. I think that I will take it month by month, and family photo by family photo and decide how it will work best in our album, and what size I will print it. I do know that I won't print it smaller than 5x7, as I do want it to be a focal point in the album.

Back of insert 2

some of the photos on the right-hand-side of the spread came out a little dark, and honestly I have no idea why! They were all edited the same (at home), and all printed at the same place - and none of them are that dark on the computer!?!

• I think I've mentioned previously, I am not taking the photo-a-day approach, and instead my album is more an overlook of our entire week. In this spread I *technically* only have a few days represented in the photos - the one of Ian and Benji swimming as well as the duck pond photo are both from Tuesday. The photo of Lily and her friends, Benji sleeping in the high chair, and the two little photos of the kids sleeping are all from Thursday, and then the photo of Benji eating all the Oreos and Lily and Hayley at the birthday party are from Saturday morning, but all in all, I think that this is a good representation of our week.
• Another thing I noticed was that last week I had a lot of photos of Lily, but this week I seem to have more photos of Benji - this wasn't something I did deliberately, I wasn't trying to even it up, or anything like that. I'm just using the photos that tell the stories I want to remember, and if one child ends up being represented more than the other in a week, I'm not going to stress about it...It will all even out in the end!
• I also didn't journal about every single photo, I think that some of them are pretty self explanatory (like the one of Benji asleep in his high chair still clutching his noodles!). If it bugs me, I may go all old-school, and write the date on the back of the photo, but for now I'm happy to leave it as is.
• I'm keeping it simple, sure I love looking at other peoples blogs, and their Project Life pages,  but given that this is my first year, I just want to keep it simple and make sure that I am able to find enough time each week to work on my album, and keep up! Who knows, maybe in the future I will use that ever-growing-stash of mine, but for now I am more than happy with how my layouts are turning out just using the Clementine core kit, and a few little Jillibean Soup - Soup Labels, as date markers, or for small amounts of journalling.

Project 365: December 2011

I can now show the final layout in my Project 365 series.

The December layout was done as part of my DT work at Mad About Scrappin, using a kit including some papers by Simple Stories.

December:

Since the papers and alphas were so busy, I decided to add no extra embellishing at all, so as to not distract from the photo collage.

Highlights for December included: CHRISTMAS DAY!!
Others included: the kids having a Santa photo (which was a drama!), going to a Big Bash League game at the WACA, NYE fireworks, my little brother buying me a new laptop as an early Christmas present, Lily finished kindy, I had an ENT appointment, and found out that I not only having hearing loss in my left ear (I already knew), but my right ear also has substantial hearing loss (it's just that my left ear is worse), and that it may in fact be permanent! 

Details:

xx

I'll be back in the next couple of days to share my other layouts from the DT kit I was sent.

Project Life 2012 - Week One

I have finally gotten around to printing the last of the photos, and photographing the layout from week one.

It was no secret, that before I even started Project Life I was in LOVE. And I can safely say, that after having completed week one, I am even more in LOVE. I am loving the fact that it gives me somewhere to keep all the little things that we collect/the kids artwork...You know, the things that get shoved in a drawer for a little while, but usually, inevitably find their way to the rubbish bin (don't tell Lily, she'll be devastated I don't keep every.single.piece.of.paper.she's.ever.scribbled.on)!

I had a few extra inserts this week - not something I plan on having every week, in fact I'm going to try and not have 3 inserts every week....don't want to end up with 50 albums at the end of the year!!

I should also mention that I have decided my weeks will run Monday - Sunday, since January 1 was a Sunday, I simply made week one run from Sunday 01/01 - Sunday 08/01. From week two, the weeks will be back to normal (Monday - Sunday).

My finished title page:

Week One spread with the extra inserts:

Week One spread, without the inserts:

I really dislike my handwriting, but I think it's important that I include some of it in the album.

I actually contemplated starting my album, the week of Boxing Day because I knew that would be a busy week, and wanted an interesting start the album. Glad I waited though, because the first week of January ended up being a really busy week. We went to the movies, helped celebrate Lily's best friends birthday, enrolled the kids in swimming lessons, had a scrappy day at my LSS, and went to a birthday party for one of Lily's school friends, and  had one of our credit card skimmed.

Close up of the inserts:

The program, and Popstick person that Lily made as part of the school holiday program at our local Officeworks.

The back of insert 1 & insert 2:

The birthday party invitation, and the first of the photos from our day in Mandurah (baseball card sized photos).

Back of insert 2, and insert 3:

More baseball sized photos, and an awesome painting of a tree, that Lily did for me (she even asked me if I wanted it for my book!)

Back of insert 3:

I made up a little sheet with some important things that happened on New Year's Day.

xx

Project 365: November 2011

I'm back to share my November layout.

I've had this one done for a little while, but hadn't gotten around to photographing it.

November

Highlights from the month included: Lily's kindy class presenting assembly in front of the whole school, attending the Midnight screening of Breaking Dawn, Benji went out for the first time on Jamie's boat (Lily and Ian also went), and Nannie and Ya-Ya came home after going on holidays in Thailand.

Details:

I have December's layout done also, but it's for a DT commitment, so I will have to wait a little while to be able to share it. I'm so happy that I managed to keep up with this project over the course of 2011, so many great memories to look back on!

Here's a sneak of my what completed album looks like:

xx