Project Life: SY2014-15

I realized recently that I had not shared the progress of this album.  I finally had the motivation to finish it up.  I am splitting this post up, however, because this book is quite lengthy.

I started sharing it in this post, so I shall spare additional explanation for the intention or page setups.  I also shared here.  Even though I worked on the album, there was not a whole lot that I shared after that.  So, here is what I created from August 31-the start of January.  The layouts of these pages were driven by the photos I had.  After that, I came into a great layout cadence with the help of the Collect app.  That will be for the next post.  Click on photos for entire layouts.

The Heidi Swapp album for this project.

Loved the use of washi tape arrows on this one.  I am also fond of the color scheme.

One of the few times Halloween did not get full-page real estate.

I took the 30 Days of Thanks concept that I complete on Facebook every year and documented it by creating my own cards.  I then surrounded the card pages with photos from the month and used washi to date what I could.

I began to incorporate the acceptance letters my son was getting from colleges. I think they are kind of a big deal.

December became a bit collage-y, and I even wrote on some of the pics with white gel pen.  Totally unlike me!

 Christmas day gets a few pics.  Used washi for these.

My son's high school photographer included all four years of high school pics in one.  Oh my!

I also included some certificates/awards my son had attained.  Then, January began.

For the spreads in 2015, I used Ali Edwards Hello Life Boxes and created a card that was a quick summary of the month.  Then, I used 3 x 4s from the Collect app to document this portion of the book.  #bestideaever.  My output was phenomenal.  More to come!

December Daily 2015 - Day 2

Day 2 of my December Daily album is delightfully simple.  I used the number two card from my Ashley G kit, along with "left over" Shimelle vellum from the cover.  I really love this vellum!

I am trying out the idea of type on pictures, which is forcing me (in a good way) to think through my cropping and photo treatment.  I also printed a Cathy Zielske file (Cool Yule No. 3), as I liked how the blue toed in with the blue on my first page.  Easy enough.

I have Day 3 almost done, but I need to get one more element on it.  Hint: I need to print an image with a toner-based printer.  I'll leave it at that.

December Daily 2015 - Genesis

I have taken the plunge into December Daily land.  This year, I am documenting from December 1 until December 25 in its own mini album.  Many a scrapbooker and scrapbook company gets behind the Christmas/winter holiday theme of this time of year.  I closely follow a few, one of whom is Ali Edwards.  Some of what you will see me use come from her site.  I have also purchased some digital goodness from Cathy Zielske.  Her site and Designer Digitals offer many options for the hybrid/digital scrapbooker.  Much inspiration comes from Pinterest, Facebook groups, and my own head.

I purchased Ali's white, 6 x 8 album, with a gold 2015 medallion on the spine.  I decorated it with this delightful Christmas Magic vellum by Shimelle, some Starfoam dots, and our [SPOILER] Minted Christmas card mounted on some Bazzill red, textured glossy cardstock.

A closeup best shows you the gold foil on the card.  I am in love.  It cost a bit, but considering that Minted creates addressed envelopes for you and gives you this kind of product, it was worth every penny.

I purchased the Ashley G mini kit from Ali.  It had LOTS of foiled details, as well as a color scheme that worked well for me.  Except the pink.  No pink, thanks!  This page uses a 6 x 8 piece of patterned paper from this kit.  I also utilized some of my stash of Thickers (praise God!) for the 25.  Keeping it simple for sure.

A closeup to see the glitter.  I like how my tree lights are reflected in there.

Ali suggests that you name your intention with this album.  I went with it.  I used her free .png file (my reason why) and typed my intention.  Clicking on this picture will make the type more visible.

And here is the simplicity of Day 1.  I used a number card from the Ashley G kit and typed my journaling on my photos.  I slipped them into one of the page protectors that came with the kit.  Voila.  That is how easy I MUST keep this if I am going to keep up.  Just a simple, fun documentation of the year's festivities.

Week in the Life: Sunday

The final installment in Week in the Life: Sunday.

It was nice to go back to the first page, the intentions page, where I took a good long look at why I was participating in this week.  I used it as I reflected at the end to see how I did representing what I wanted to represent.

The money was well-spent on this kit.  I used a great deal of what Ali had to offer.  I appreciated her videos and suggestions, as I incorporated some of that into my book (ex.hole punching photos and adhering back to back, using a tab, I used washi, she used Avery for that, setting up a basic layout, but not being tied to it).  I was also able to add digital elements (memes and such), handwritten elements, and chipboard.  In all, I am pretty pleased with how this turned out, and I know my kids and I will go back to it again and again. I am also glad that I used the notes sheets and was OK with the layouts taking a while to be created, as school's start takes over many things in my life.

Fin.

Week in the Life: Saturday

Arriving at Saturday of this week was a huge accomplishment.  I must stay, the documentation sheets offered by Ali were a godsend.  Some days I wrote a lot, other days a little, but either way, I had documentation of the day to look back on months later when I was actually completing the book.

That's me.  At the pool.  Yeah!

This is one of my favorite spreads.  I like the yellow and gray mix.  I clearly have a thing for bingo cards. They really give a page a little boost.  I used some Lawn Fawn patterned paper in the upper left, a meme in the lower left, and a card from my stash in the lower right.  It was an interesting interpersonal week at work, and, rather than dwell on the negative things that happened, I decided to post the sentiments that conveyed the lessons.  That's what really matters, right?  I am sure these lessons will carry over into other parts of my future life as much as they did this week.  I used washi again fir the quick documentation of some of this page.

We love car selfies.  And by "we," I mean "I."  We spent this evening having a "farewell dinner" at one of our favorite local dives.

Week in the Life: Friday

Friday's installment of Week in the Life is below.  I utilized some of my Project Life supplies, a suitable meme, and the goodness of quick journaling on washi when you just don't want to add another card to a layout.

I love that one of Ali's sentiments was "Friday, I'm in Love."  Shout out to The Cure!  Had to be used here.

I was purposeful with the Top Ten card from the WITL kit, thinking I would use it to discuss the top ten things I liked about my new students.  However, after I saw the real estate the kiddos took in Thursday, I decided to use this as the top ten lessons I was learning by documenting this insane week.

The lower left card is actually a sticker I had in my stash.  I thought it was a great reason for why I was documenting. Also, how many of us document the many things we need to do at our bank?  This was signing my HELOC so my kid could go to college.

Funny conversation: The culprit, upon reading this, replied, "It DOES make perfect sense!"  We agreed that he would read it literally, and I would read it figuratively, with appropriate sarcasm.

Week in the Life: Thursday

Rounding the rest of the Week in the Life album up, here we have Thursday, also known as, The Day I Meet My Students.

My level of exhaustion for Curriculum Night was palpable.  I went in my workout clothes and had a horrific time not sleeping with my eyes open.  Had nothing to do with the people...it was just the timing.  But I have to say, I never photographed it in the previous 5 years, so this was a cool idea.

I took individual pics of my kiddos and cropped them to 2 x 2 for these spreads.  I also used some of my Project Life 2 x 2s to add interest.  This was their first picture in fourth grade.  The 25 represents the start of my twenty-fifth year of teaching.  I have been teaching more than half of my life!