Project Life: Week Forty-Six & Forty-Seven

Today I'm sharing week 46 & 47. Both weeks had very few photos so I combined them into a two page spread. I've had weeks where I had one page and half of an insert, but never one single page for two weeks in a row.

This week I used 5th & Frolic, and one card from Studio Calico. My 5th & Frolic was just sitting there, calling to me and saying "Hey, you haven't included me in too many of your spreads lately. How about you do these two weeks with just me!". It doesn't match my photos very well, but I'm pleased with how it turned out.

Here's the left side. This is week 46. This week wasn't very eventful, mostly just work, and  the bottom left card is journaling about how Socks was lost, then found.
We have a girl from work staying in our basement, and when she left for work at 7:30am he got out. She didn't tell anyone until she got to work at 8:00am, and they told her she needed to call us ASAP. So she called Jon, and he woke me up and we did a couple laps of the block, checked the yard, under the cars, etc. There was some fresh snow so we followed some kitty tracks into the neighbors yard, and then they mixed with a dozen other kitty tracks. We eventually got too cold to keep looking, and Jon had to run to work, so we went for breakfast. I posted on the local yardsale page, and a few other local pages, asking people to keep an eye out for him. Later that afternoon my mom walked over and told me she heard a weird noise in my garage. We went out to investigate and found Socks hiding in the rafters. Apparently my cat hates Jon (he sprays him with water when he's bad) which would explain why he didn't make a sound when Jon was calling for him. He wasn't too cold, but he was exceptionally dirty. His little white feet were brown, and he was so excited to see my mom (of course). I was just glad he wasn't frozen somewhere.

Here's the right side. This is week 47. I baked with my niece, but didn't take any photos of us baking, so I included photos of the mess I had to clean up when I got home from work that night, and journaled about baking with her.

I print my photos on Matte photo paper. I think its from Kodak, it very much resembles cardstock, and I just use my white gel pen to write on my photos. Others add text in photoshop and simply print them off with their journaling on the photo.

Thanks for coming by! When you don't have enough photos for a two page spread do you combine weeks, or add other things to fill up the space?

Have a great day!
-Alexandria

Project Life: Week Forty-Three

Good morning! Today I'm sharing my spread for Week 43. I wanted to do a more pastel colored layout since it feels like forever since I did one, wo I went with pink and aqua. I wanted pink to match the sunset, and aqua so I could use that "let your heart sing" card from Studio Calico.

This week I used cards from Dear Lizzy, Studio Calico, and 5th & Frolic. I had very few photos this week, but that was okay because there were a couple of 4x6 cards that I really wanted to use, but hardly ever get a chance to use because I generally want to include so many photos.

Here's the left side. I included a screen shot of some Facebook comments because they made me happy, and my niece was in on it. Who couldn't be happy after seeing that smile! The bottom left photo cracks me up every time I look at it. I feel like I should have blurred out the potion the one pumpkin was drinking because it looks mildly inappropriate.

Here's the right side. I couldn't get the page protector to sit right on the top right photo, and I didn't think about pulling the photo out and just putting it on top, until now, of course. It's a photo of Gracie sleeping, and she has her eyes open, looking at me all "can I help you? I'm clearly sleeping here." The card to the left of it says "this is completely normal" and under it I wrote about gracie sleeping. The bottom right card says "let your heart sing" and under I wrote "even if it's terrible". On the card to the left of it, I journaled about Jon singing "Jessica's tips in Kristal's cup" it was hilarious, and I used another Ali Edwards stamp from the October Story Stamp. I love that her stamps encourage me to write about things in a way that I might not have thought of on my own.

Thanks for coming by to see this spread!
Have a great day!
-Alexandria

Project Life: Week Twenty-Two

Today I'm sharing my spread for week 22. This was a semi-busy week as we spent the weekend visiting my Grandma and Great Grandma. It was a fun weekend nonetheless. 

*Unfortunately I found out yesterday that my Great Grandma passed away. I'm glad that she's no longer suffering, and that we could see her this one last time before she went. When I share week 28 I'll share my tips for including loss in Project Life.*

This week I used paper from My Mind's Eye, and cards from Studio Calico, 5th & Frolic, Polkadot Party, and Daydreamer. I also used some corrugated alphas. 

Here's the left side.The title card was made using My Mind's Eye Bloom paper. It came from their 6x6 pad. I included a photo of what work looked like this week since I got to see some of the demo (though I haven't been back since).

The right hand side has photos from the six hour drive to my Grandma's house and our stop in the mall. We took my niece with us so she could play with my cousins more than just one day. We had to stop halfway at the mall so my sister could get her phone fixed, so I bought my niece a new colouring book and a Frozen story book that kept her quite entertained on the second half of the trip, until she fell asleep holding the colouring book.

I also made a full two page spread with an insert from the birthday party my grandma arranged for my Great Grandma in the nursing home. It was hard to see her like that, but I'm glad I got to see her. Just a tip, don't ever drink nursing home juice, unless you have no tastebuds. It was awful! But the cake was delicious (my Grandma bought it from the local Co-op).

Here's the left side. I didn't do much journaling about her party, but I included the photos of everyone with her. Her son and his wife, the flowers we bought her and the cake.

I also included a few photos of my adorable cousins and my niece. (Top photo is my uncle with his youngest daughter. Bottom is my niece and my uncles two children)

Here's the right side and the back of the insert.

I included some things that weren't necessarily about my Great Grandma on the back. Like the ring I made Jon using the kids toys (we had this ongoing bet that I'd propose to him first and I did with that ring!) and the plaid pants he coloured in my niece's colouring book.

The right side had various photos of everyone that attended the party, It was great to see all of them. One thing I dislike is over embellishing the photos. When I have a whole page of photos, I don't like adding extras if I don't have to. I feel like it takes away from the photos. It's all personal preference of course.

Hope you have a great day!

-Alexandria 

Project Life: Week Thirteen

This week was extremely photo heavy. So much so that I did four full pages and an insert. This week I tried a few new things, and did a bit of embellishing, and incorporated my boyfriend handwriting in his own portion of this week. 

Hers what I refer to as part one of my layout. This is everything I did before the weekend (I worked all weekend and nothing exciting happened). I used just 5th and Frolic for this part of the layout. 

Here's the left side. The books quote on this page was a free printable I found on Pinterest. I simply set it to print multiple PDFs to get it to a size that would fit in my spread. 

I added the arrow sticker to cover an ink smudge. I used my stamp from the February Studio Calico kit and the sticker is from My Mind's Eye: The Sweetest Thing line. This week I also incorporated a QR code. If you scan the code, it's just a video of our cat Gracie playing with her ball wheel. 

This is the right side. I tried out a couple of new recipes this week, and on Wednesday I'll be sharing the Muffin recipe and Friday will be the Banana bread recipe. I also used a bifold card the way it was intended and added some stickers to a journaling card.

Here's my bifold card. The alphas are from the April Studio Calico Kit. I made the pull tab with a scrap of paper and adhered it to the back of the card.

Here's what I refer to as part two of this week. Jon had a tournament and borrowed his dad's camera to take photos. He took a lot and I tried to include a couple from each game. The insert is a Design C protector cut in half.

Here's the left side. I used Cinnamon and Rain editions for this portion because it fit the colors of the photos better.  I tried to keep the photos in order and include as many as I could without making an entire album. 

I used more alphas and some washitape for the title card and had Jon write out game one. All I did was choose the cards and place the photos. 

Here's the front side of the insert. I just cut a Design C page protector in half. 

Here's the other half of this. I added two journaling cards, one for each game, and some fillers. 

  

Here's the back side of the insert. Just more photos. 

Here's the right side. I greatly dislike his handwriting, but he loves that I'm doing this and is more than happy to contribute. I love this his handwriting will always be there!

My layouts generally aren't this full of photos but it's nice sometimes, especially when we haven't had time to go on any trips together lately.

Have a great day!

-Alexandria

Project Life: Week Eleven

This post is long overdue, but there's been a lot of work happening, and I currently have issues with updating this at work. I've also been debating the future of  this blog. I want to do more than just crafty things, but that would involve another name change, or another blog, or something I haven't quite decided upon yet.

Until I figure that out, I'll keep posting my Project Life layouts and crafty things here. So, here's week eleven. I've been keeping up with making the layouts, but falling behind when it came to photographing and posting them here.

This week had a lot of photos that I wanted to include, and when I made it, I was trying to adjust my style a little bit and try being a little more creative with my layouts. Right side is Design C.

Here's the left side of my week. I used a variety of cards from Blush, Midnight, 5th and Frolic, and the March Studio Calico Kit. I try to keep my photos in chronological order as best I can, but I tend to group them in a straight line when I can't. 

This is the front side of my full page insert. It's design D. I didn't really want to journal about any of the photos on this page except the bottom left one, and since it was a vertical photo I just used pic frame to make it a 4x4 square and adhered it to a 4x6 blush card. I used my cricut to cut out the white shape next to it, and wrote my journaling on it so it would stand out a bit more. 

This bottom left photo of the left page, I stamped on a scrap of paper and adhered it to the photo. I wanted to draw attention to the photo and the silly expression on her face. I asked her to say cheese and that was the face she made. 

This is the second half of my layout. I used another card from the SC March kit, some blush cards, and a couple background cards by MAMBI (me and my big ideas). 

Here's the left side. I used the to left card to journal about the icing I accidentally smeared on the cupboard, and I used the bottom card to journal about Jon's Warhammer photos throughout the layout. I like to include his painting progress whenever I can because creating this album is my hobby, and I feel it's important to include bits of his in here. Plus the mat in the bottom left corner is super awesome! It's like a super fancy car mat, and I would absolutely drive cars on it. 

Here's the right side of my week 11. Jon's birthday was this week (hence the cupcakes). We didn't have a fancy dinner or anything for him since we were bothy working, but we took the cupcakes to work and shared, and then a couple days later my sister came by and we ate the cake. 

I used a similar stamp as the beginning of my layout, but it says this guy instead of this kid. I also stamped on the card below it because the journaling went with the photo on the previous page. 

My layouts could be prettier, but I don't always have the time to spend hours on a layout so I make them simple. Perhaps I'll go back and embellish more in the future when I have time. But ten years from now, no one will concern themselves with how much embellishing I did or what products I used. At least I hope not. 

Have a great day!

-Alexandria

Project Life Week Five

Good morning loves, I hope you're all enjoying your week thus far. We went to the city last weekend, so I'll have a Michaels Haul post coming up soon! I'm so excited to share everything with you.

This week was my sisters 16th birthday, so Jon and. I took the family out for dinner, and played some board games with my sister since she had almost a week off school. This layout was completed using the 5th & Frolic Edition by Becky Higgins. 

Here's the left side. I made cupcakes for my sister, and my niece insists on he,oing her blow out the candle. Her only gift was a sucker with giant lips on it, of course we had to get a picture of her looking silly.

This side is a little out of order, but this is how the photos fit. My niece ended up with the sucker and was being silly, she also ended up with cupcake all over her face. After dinner my sister came over and we played board games. Later in the week she came to visit us at work, and we played some UNO. We also welcomed the month of February with a new month card!

Project Life Week Four

Good morning lovelies. Today we have yet another project life spread. This one had more photos that I wanted to include, so it got an insert (another half page). 

Here's the first half. This entire week was completed using the 5th & Frolic Edition by Becky Higgins, and photos taken by myself and Jon. 

This week Jon had another tournament and got an entire page to his hobby.

First up, the left side of page one. My photos that I ordered for my Vancouver album finally came in, we tried a new game (the name is the best part), a sneak peak of my Vancouver album, and I shared a glimpse of what to happens at work.

The first side of my insert has the writing Jon did on my window after work one night, one thousand gifts (the book I finished near the start of the week), and my workspace while I worked on my letters one afternoon when Jon was working. 

On the back side, I have my PL collection, the book I started and finished between the middle to end of the week, and a list of highlights from our week. 

Last but not least, I have the photos from Jon's tournament on the weekend. 

Have a great week everyone!

-Alex

Project Life Week Three

Good morning. Sometimes I wish my life was a TV show, then exciting things would happen every week and I'd have something to document. This week Jon went to his first war hammer tournament of the year, and I reminded him to snap a few photos of his trip. 

The left page has a 3x4 journaling card from the Blush Editiom, and a 4x6 title card from 5th & Frolic Edition, both by Becky Higgins. The right side was made using the Kraft Edition by Becky Higgins. The left page is the half page I used for the cake disaster the week before. 

Jon stayed with his sister while he was away, and took a picture of his nephew playing with his toys after breakfast and I finished reading the Rosie Project.

People constantly ask me what Warhammer is, and I still can't explain it. I don't think I ever will be able to, but its really boring to watch. Jon enjoys it so I don't complain, but I don't go to every tournament, only when I absolutely have to. I can assure you though, that there will be more Warhammer spreads to come. The album is my hobby, the least I can do is document a little of his hobby as well. 

Have a great Wednesday!
-Alex

Project Life Week Two

Good morning! I hope you're all having a wonderful week. I think I'm going to designate a specific day to posting my PL pages each week, I just haven't decided what day yet. If anyone knows of any PL link ups, I'd love to hear about them, and possibly link up with other people. 

This week was a little bit busier, than week one, but not crazy. I'm getting into the mindset of 'hey, this is something I'll want to remember in 5 years, maybe I should be taking pictures'. Plus where my nieces and nephews are concerned, they grow up so fast that it's important to take pictures of them. This week I had too many pictures for one page, but not enough for two full pages to I cut one in half. I know that there are insert pages made this way, but living in the middle of nowhere, I worked with what I've got. 

This week, I visited my niece at my moms and we played with blocks. Our tower was taller than she is before it toppled over. I managed to snap a few pictures of our progress and she enjoyed looking at them afterwards. Jon's family also came over for dinner to celebrate Jon's Mom's birthday. His dad loves doing family photos when we all get together so I scanned the one he gave us and put a copy in our album.

Jon and I were responsible for making the cake. Needles to say  it didn't go well. I baked the cake the morning before the party and we think it didn't cool long enough before we tried to take it out of the pan so the cake started falling apart. We ended up cutting a portion of the cake off and icing over the open edge. It was still good, but I much prefer cupcakes or a single layer cake.

The picture and cards on the right side of this page, are from next week. I'm exploring options for a tab to put on the edge of the 'insert' so people remember that they're separate pages.

Both of these pages were made using the Blush Edition by Becky Higgins. 

Have a great day!

-Alex