Project Life Update and End of School Craft/Gift

I cannot believe this is the eighth week I have been consistently doing Project Life as a {somewhat} Picture of the Day project.  I am really enjoying/becoming obsessed with it.  I believe the last layout I posted was the one my son completed with my help.  The week after that was his dad's turn.  Here are the shots I got from the man:

It took over a week to convince the hubs that the journaling in his writing was important to me.  I feel pretty accomplished, as he was NOT comfortable writing stuff down.

After that week, I regained the role of archivist:

I used some 12 x 12 papers from Simple Stories for some of the larger 4 x 6 areas.  I also used my new Techinique Tuesday journaling cards from Ali Edwards.  Love them, the fact that they go great horizontally or vertically, and are reversible (you shall see how I used both sides.

Here's a close up of the flap technique that I used yet again:

Also of note: my photo was one that I chose to be 4 x 3, as it was a screen shot from my phone and was not about to crop well in the alternate orientation needed.  I needed quite a bit of journaling space, so the flap worked splendidly as I wrote about a "Holy Spirit moment" that day.

This past week, I dipped in to the Rain edition digitals that I have from AC digitals.  Instant love.

I also used a Close to My Heart 4 x 6 Flip Flap for the additional pics of Fun Run.  It has an adhesive strip and fits perfectly in the layout.  Note the "Summer is Awesome" stamp, again Technique Tuesday Ali Edwards, a gift from crafting bud and fellow teacher, Ann Cox, in celebration of the end of the school year.

This week, I also made a cute little present, CASED from a couple of great blog posts out there.  

As a teacher, I love Sharpies, so I thought these might bring smiles.

I also attended a Stamp-A-Stack at Karen Kelly's where I made fun and fabulous one-layer cards using washi tape and fun stamps.  This was an awesomely creative week!  And school is officially out!  

Next week, my son takes his band trip to NYC.  He has not been away from home for a week since Scout camp at age 10.  I am anticipating this will go better, but who knows?  Stay tuned.  He is supposed to send me a photo a day.

National Scrapbooking Day

With fervor I participated in the Creative Crop through Big Picture Scrapbooking.  If you have not signed up for your free membership, you are missing out!  There is a totally free Project Life Community on there!  Plus, the Creative Crop is a free day of challenges (with prizes) every year. They had chats throughout the day with some great designers.

So, one of the things I did that day was create a cool flap for one of my PL pages, thanks to a challenge by Aly Dosdall.

Because one pic for a visit to Chuck E Cheese is never enough.  I used tacky tape to secure a 3 x 4 flap cut from a PL page protector (an older one), and then secured it with some chevron tacky tape from Queen and Co.  A great way to add pics to a page without making a gigantic layout.

This next layout was to document a significant relationship in my life for which I am grateful.  The wonderful Stephanie Howell inspired us to come up with a simple story in a simple layout.

I could have chosen several, but I started with my elder son and me. Love that kid more than oxygen.  

This next page was a triple challenge whammy.  1. Stray from your "comfort zone" in some way (May Flaum inspired). 2. Incorporate arrows in your journaling (the fabulous Ali Edwards, of course). 3. Use the given sketch as a springboard (provided by the talented Donna Jannuzzi).

Patterned paper mixes with patterned paper: definitely out of my zone.  And journaling on patterned paper...yeah.  I stayed somewhat true to the sketch provided.  You will note the incorporation of arrows in a few spots.

We were asked to fill out an I Statement list by Stacy Julian. This was to get the creative juices flowing as to what stories need to be told.  Here is my list:

We were also challenged to create a summer "bucket list."  Here's my take on Tami Morrison's challenge:

We were given an option to use the Fuzel app, and I fell in love with that one by the amazing Angie Lucas.  We were also encouraged to use recent pics from our phones.  No prob!

Needless to say, I knocked off a great deal in a 48-hour period.  So grateful to all of the awesome designers who presented the challenges to us!

In which the 16 year old became the archivist...

All I had to say was, "Hey, how about you take a photo a day next week?"  Here's is Iggy P.'s Project Life Week. Click for a larger view.

Oh yeah, there was a trip to the Scrapbooking Studio on National Scrapbooking Day.  I happened upon these 4 x 3 and 4 x 6 cards from Sn@p Studio by Simple Stories.  How perfect were they for a young man's page?  He also visited the scrapbook store and picked out his very own Thickers for the page!  I had so much fun reading his stuff and seeing what pics he would choose for the week.  Next week: his dad will be contributing.

PL and Freebies Galore!

I have been a craftinista as of late.  I will share a few things at a time so as not to overwhelm.

First, a Project Life update.  Here are the layouts I created to document Max's First Communion (click on each for larger versions).

Page 1 with an 8 x 8 insert (page 1.5, if you will...) of a letter written by Max; A Day to Remember and Extraordinary Day cards made available through this site.

Page 2, using a smaller, but more versatile PL divided page protector, Design G.  Title card for page available through this creative designer.

The flipside of Design G.  I broke in to some of my AC Digitals Midnight Edition for this page.  I also used the 6 x 12 page protector from PL, but cut a smidge from it so that it was accessible.

And guess who designed these cards?  Yours truly!  Can you believe it?  Max LOVES this psalm and walks around singing it.  I had to incorporate it somehow.  Here is the .pdf for them.  Enjoy!

This strayed a bit from my POD pacing, but I knew this week would render lots of photos.  That's the awesome thing about PL. It is so versatile and totally up to the crafter as to what road you take.

Catching Up with Project Life

Yes!  I have been keeping up with my Photo-A-Day routine for this Project Life album.  However, I had a little "processing curse" with photo labs, which I think I am over (just. jinxed. myself.).

Here are three weeks of Project 365 for the Plato family.  I tried to take a shot of the whole DPS, then both pages separate.  Click for a larger image.  Since I always seem to have time for this at night, please excuse the grainy nature of the pics.  I am using the Blush Edition of Project Life, while sprinkling some of the Midnight Edition and Cherry Edition (Old School!) as well.  You can usually spot a Thicker or two in there, also.

April 1 through 7: A mix of landscape with portrait orientations.  It is then that I realize how few journaling cards in the Blush Edition are intended for a landscape orientation.

April 8 through April 14

For this journaling, I needed to use a foldable card, but it was not going in the side I needed.  See this blast from the past entry that talks about whipping out the blade when needed.  I added a band aid embellishment I had (perfect!) and a fabric pull tab.  It's quite awkward to pull out, but I do not plan to reread the story a whole lot.

April 15 through April 22: Mainly used Midnight Edition journaling and title cards.

The "You & Me" card had perfect placement.  It was the "flipside" of the journaling card from last week.  I love when the cards play double duty!

Next week, I am planning to make the whole spread about Max's First Communion, so we will stray just a little from the POD concept. It's a BIG deal and we'll have lots of visitors!

First Communion Banner

It's been 8 years since the First Communion Banner of 2005.  Yes, I recall it well.  I made the banner, and I placed our family name on it, rather than Ignatius' first name.  I had a sheep with cotton balls for wool.  It was clean, simple, and awesome.  It also scared Ignatius, and we had to hide it.  Neither Scott nor I know where we hid it, which is a bummer, because my sheep ROCKED.

Flash forward...I now have a kick ass craft room and oh, so many delightful tools, including the newly purchased Silhouette Cameo. (pause for love sigh)  So, I, of course, spent forever making the OCD version of Max's banner.  All that is missing from these photos is the dowel rod and hanging ribbon.  I am pretty excited.

Had to hit up Michaels for the chalice cardstock.  I was fresh out of gold!  The host is mulberry paper mounted on a cardstock circle and popped up with a pop dot.

I downloaded the chalice and the stained glass template from the Silhouette store.  I painstakingly (no hyperbole!) glued tissue paper into the areas needed.  Then, the thing I love about the Silhouette, I used my own font on my computer, Snap ITC, for his name.

Pretty exciting stuff, and one thing off of my "to do" list for today.  

Project Life Blush Edition, Week 1

So, earlier this morning (when most normal people sleep), I posted my thoughts and process pics.  Today, because everything seems to be open on Easter, I have my CVS-processed photos!  So, this week is done. A whole week.  A whole double-page spread. So quick.

Well, that cropped a little weird, but you get the point.  This is the whole DPS.  Can you tell I am loving the color scheme?  Yeppers.  Here are the individual pages:

I took a closer pic of this so you can see something I plan to correct next week.  With my border overlay, I did not allow enough "bleed space" that is required when having your pics processed by an outside source.  If printed on my printer, the white border would not have been cropped so close, especially on the right edges of the photos (check out the digi sample from my earlier post).  I was curious as to how close I was cutting things, and now I know.  Next week, I need to bring it in a bit.  However, I am uncharacteristically NOT having them reprinted, nor reprinting them on my printer.  They are what they are.  Growth!  Who knew I was capable?  Hee hee.

I bid adieu to my Spring Break today, and wish a Happy Easter to all!  I probably won't be posting as frequently, but I would like to get my weekly shots up regularly.