Project Life - Week 27

This first week of July was a busy one. The one word to best describe it would be explore. We found new places to
go, saw things differently through our photography, and enjoyed the beautiful weather we finally were having.
This week was so full, that I included an extra page insert that holds 4x4 photos, which after some trail and error,
I figured out how to print off of my computer. Sometimes you just have to outsmart technology.

This left hand side is a bit of everything. I love using the number stickers when lots happened during the week, so
that I can use a journaling card with point like entries. This page covers everything from a favorite photo I took, to
Jason's car accident, to work and grocery shopping. And look, I got a pic of Tim smiling. woot woot!!

We went on a day road trip down across the border, and discovered two little heritage towns that
we had no idea were there. And in Ferndale, not only did we explore the old settler site, but there was
also a classic car show going on there as well, so double fun, and lots of photos. 

This is a look at how the back side of the insert and right hand side of the week looks.

This back side of the photo insert was from the second little town we discovered, just south of Bellinghan, WA.
It's called Fairhaven, and we enjoyed walking the quiet streets, taking in the history and beauty all around. I was
in picture taking heaven here, so much to capture on each street, around each corner and alleyway. Oh, and I had
on of the best coffee frappes ever at a coffee/wine bar and eatery called Rustic :) 

This right hand side rounded out our week, mostly journaling cards with s few photos
 that were taken as the week came to an end. I love weeks like this, so full of living life,
instead of just the same daily routines. Love that photography has opened up
 our eyes to more adventures and roadtrips.

Below are the close ups of all the journaling cards for the week.

From the left hand side of the spread.

Top of the right hand side of the week.

The three cards from the middle of the right hand page.

Project Life - June monthly summary

For the monthly insert for June, I used, as I did in May, one quote card, which was a free
download and printable offline, as was the journalling card I used. Some months I tell a more
indepth story, sometimes its more a point by point thing, it just goes with whatever I am
in the mood to share, or based on how much or little I documented on each weeks spread.

I have to be honest, this back side of June was a bit of a disappointment. I know I had collected
many pamphlets etc for the month, but as I was searching for them, I just couldn't recall where
it was that I put them, which is not surprising at all, so I had to go online, and print out what
info I could find on the places we had visited this month. The only thing I could find that I
actually had grabbed was the business card from the Hazelnut store out in Harrison.

I'm sure the originals will show up eventually, and when they do, I will add them to the insert.

Project Life - Week 26

This week is full, I mean to extra insert full. It's also

the end of the month, and a 2 day road trip, so there

is so much happening here.

The above picture, is the left hand side, with the first side of the first insert
showing, Lots and lots of journaling this week, especially since we did so
much exploring and day trips. 

A busy start to the week is highlighted in this spread, and once again used
photo collages to maximize the amount of photos I was able to use, I also
added journaling to the one photo, since I was running out of room for any
more journaling on the cards. Family was the theme this week for sure. 

The first insert is of the two days we were on our road trip, and all the photos
we captured along the way. I tried to include a little text on each photo to
record the location, and meaning of the photo. This was day one's photos.

The above photo shows the back side of the first insert and the front side
of the second insert, which help pamplets etc from the trip.

A close up of day two's photos, and more text on photos.

We picked up lots of bits and pieces along our journey, and I managed to
include alot of it between the front and back of the second insert page.

This is the last spread of the week, including more journaling cards, which
I will post along with the others at the bottom of this post.

A close up of the back page of the second insert. Maps, postcards
and some pamphlets from the places we visited.

This last page is actually a continuation of the first page, as it tells the
rest of the story of the week, before leaving to go on our last minute, lets
get out of town for the weekend, road trip. Also, once again, more text
added to the photos.

Here's all the journaling cards I did from the first and last pages of the week.
I hope this makes them easier to read, and share in our stories. I am starting
to add a little more personality to my cards with a bit of stamping.

Project Life - Week 25

This was a busy family week as well, but with some down time for

Tim and I to have a full adventure exploring  and photographing

new and different places. Because of this great day trip, I had to

use another of the project life inserts as an add on for the week.

The left side is another 6x6 insert and I used some of the fun frames that
are in one of my Iphone apps, called Instaframe, and then saved the photo
collages and printed them out in 5x5 prints. I like the balance between the
left side being in black and white and the other in color.

This side was about the things that happened around the house this week,
which started off on Sunday with Amy getting her hair cut, and it
being Father's Day, in which we all enjoyed Chinese Food from across
the street, so easy with the mall over there, to the building of the shoe
niche in the garage...and a little bit of geocaching as well.

This is the first side of the insert that showcases all we did in one fun filled,
driving day trip of pretty much the lower mainland..well maybe not all, but
a lot of ground was covered that day. Love the photos of Tim and I in the
bottom right hand corner, we both have that, don't take my picture look.

A close up the journaling cards I did for the insert, for the adventure we
had that day...and what a day it was...love days like this spent with him.

The look of the second half of the spread, back side of the insert, and
the right hand side of the week. Love how all the photos and journaling
cards on the last page go so well together. Also, added more texts to the
photos to increase the story telling room. The journaling cards are at
the bottom of this post if you'd like to read them more clearly.

Back side of the insert, some of my favorite photos from today's adventure.

Documenting my 1000 photo posted on IG,  Jordyn getting a new Iphone,
Amy's hospital visits, and just telling the weeks story.

Project Life - Week 24

This was a fun week to put together, lots of things to

document about this week, lots of photos to choose 

from and always like using the orange paper and 

journaling cards. 

The full spread above shows just how much the orange makes photos pop, and
just adds to a sense of fun for the spread. I usually don't like using the 6x6
insert sheet, but sometimes, it will work for the story I'm telling,

The left side, as show above, was a depiction of all that happened in
our full, busy week. A bit of work, a bit of home, of course some
Starbucks and Wired Monk. You think we might like our local
coffee hangouts...lol :) I used two 4x6 journaling cards on this
side, one to tell the details of the week, and the other as the
date card with a bit of a twist adding some journaling too.

A close up of the stories I wanted to tell this week. I like adding a bit
of the journaling in the same color of the card, if I can find a close
enough match on my printer.

This side is all about one day, a day of rainy adventure, across the border,
as we explored Birch Bay and Blaine WA, all in search of geocaches.
I love that I am feeling more comfortable with myself, and this project
to include not so flattering photos of myself, as long as it helps to
convey the story I am trying to tell. I also tried a new technique with
the journaling cirlces, and that was to outline them with an orange
sharpie, round and round, just to give it a punch. I like how it turned
out, and will be one of the few things free hand in my album.

Project Life - Week 23

This by far is one of my least favorite weeks of my album. It
did not come together well at all, I tried to do to many of my
own details to it and I basically called it done and moved
forward. I told the stories I wanted to tell, and that's what
is important. The above photo is the left hand side,
and I will include the journaling card close ups at the end
of this post so you can read them easier.

The above photo is the right hand side, and at least has
a nicer flow to it the the other side, and I've managed to tell
a good portion of the weeks stories with just photo collages.

Project Life Week 22

This week is about basically one thing, MOVING!!!! and all the fun

and joys of such a process. NOT!!!! I did manage to get lots of 

photos though, and managed to tell a decent story of our hectic

 week, with the move, the clean up, and the shopping we all did

 to get the new house feeling like home. A whole lot of work, by 

lots of us, with special thanks to Tim's brother Jason,

 the boyfriends, Jeff and Daniel. and Amy's friend Kimi. Without your

 help, it would have been almost impossible for us to do alone. So thank you.

The photo above is the full spread of the week, and since it's also 

a month to month transition LO, the monthly divider is in there. I 

still have to do the month end review, and will add it later in a 

separate post showing all of the month end inserts.

The above photo is of the left hand side, and just lots of photos

telling the story of the week. I also have included a photo of the 

journaling card so that you can read it easier. ( for my mom).

It does make it easier to read the story with a closer look at the 

card. I never use my own handwriting, which I know is silly, but

I really do hate it, it looks too messy, and I have yet to get

over that hurdle in my memory keeping projects.

The above photo is of the right hand side, and focuses more

on the after part of the move, the more fun stuff like

shopping for new furniture, setting up the new place, 

and special gifts from awesome family. (Starbucks

mugs from Jason and Michelle.)

Below is a close up of this sides journaling card.

Project Life Review

So, for me, the investment in starting Project Life was my first and foremost concern when I started seeing how much popularity it was gaining and how many people were doing it. Being on a budget, I was concerned that it would cost me too much for the initial start up and to do it on a weekly basis. But when Nov 2011 came around, and I couldn't take the not participating in it any longer, I found that I could get started for less then a $100 investment, and really, one trip to the local scrapbooking store can easily cost that much if you are not careful.

So I ordered my Clementine Core kit from Becky Higgins blog (there is a link to each country of origin to make it easier to get it in with minimal shipping and custom charges). And my purchase consisted of one Album, the core kit, 12 x 12 cardstock and the variety pack of page inserts (and no shipping charges on my purchase of over $85 which was an added bonus.

When it arrived the 2nd week of December, I couldn't wait to the New Year to get here so I could dive into the process and join the thousands already enjoying the simple idea for memory keeping that Becky Higgins had come up with. Simple, easy and no right or wrong way to approach it.

Fast forward 9 months, although currently I am 5 weeks behind in my album, and I would like to share some of the things I've learned about Project Life and myself in 2012, via my Project Life experience.

First off, one album is not enough to hold a whole years worth of Project Life, and I am not a user of thick
or heavy elements, I just use the basics that came with the core kit with extras like stamping, photo collages, and keepsake items like pamphlets, brouchers and maps.Rarely are there more then just the two page spread for the week.

In July I realized just how cramped and overflowing my album was and had to splurge and get another album sent to me, (to save money on shipping, I decided to order next years Cherry Edition, with 2 albums at the same time, so I am now set for 2013 as well). Being currently behind, I decided that I would reorganize my album and start the new album with July and then move forward in the second album from this point forward.

When I first got my Project Life, I went to Becky's website and watched her getting started video, as I was
feeling a bit overwhelmed with all the journaling cards and extra's that came with the core kit. After watching the video, I pretty much followed her advice to a tee, and set up the whole album by weeks, inserting the journaling cards in what I thought would be a good working order for me. And at the beginning of the year and for a few months, this worked really well for me, but as I evolved and learned to trust my instincts with what I wanted to create, I found that I was changing not only the cards out but also changing up the order of the page inserts to suite the photos and stories I wanted to tell for the week. Thus, today, I decided to take what inserts were left for the year, organize them into style, pull out all the cards and just wing it as I have been doing for the past 4 or so months, and I tell you, I almost feel a bit of a weight off my shoulders for just doing that.

 One the left hand side is how I had all the pages organized before following the advice of Becky, and after I pulled out all the cards, I realized I also had favorite inserts I used more then others, and one in particular I just don't care for that much, it being the 6 x6 one. I also realize that certain journaling cards are used more and that there are still so very many left :)

I then sat down and spread all of the cards out and reorganized them into colors (this kit has black, blue, orange and red) and got them nicely put back into the boxes in the core kit. I work so much better when I am completely organized and this will help once I finally get my photos printed out and get back into my weekly process of completing my previous week on the Sunday of the new week. Summer time is so erratic and with no set schedule that it just ran away from me this past month or so. One thing I am looking forward to once fall hits is our normal daily routines.

                        

It was quite the process as I cataloged each color and then individual card to it's own box, and those 6 x 12 inserts in the left hand photo above are used at the end of each month to capture extra photos, usually my favorites from Instagra, or bday cards or bits and pieces of the month on one side and a typed summery of the month on the other. I was good at doing this until May, but then just stopped, so I am going to have to take some time to go back and reflect on those months soon before it's too far gone from my very short memory recall. But all in all, I LOVE this project, and am so thankful the Becky decided that making an easy no fail project for us was worth all of her and her hubby's efforts. Thank you Becky.