Monday, January 27, 2014

Project Life 2014: Week 2

Hello!  I'm back with the 2nd week of Project Life for this year.  I still wasn't sure about doing Project Life, so I didn't take too many photos this week, but it was definitely better than the first week.  I think I need to get some new digital stuff to play with because I'm getting really bored with what I have.  Time to go shopping!
 


The page above is one of the templates I created with a bigger photo.  I like how it looks!
 
 



Saturday, January 25, 2014

Project Life 2014: Week 1

Hello!  Well, like I posted before, I finally caved and decided I would do Project Life for this year.  I imagine I will be behind at times, but as long as I'm taking pictures and journaling, then that will help me get caught up.  Although I miss regular scrapbooking, I think I'm accepting that Project Life is the best way for me to scrapbook right now.
 
The first "week" of Project Life wasn't a full week since January 1st started on a Wednesday.  I like to start my weeks on Monday.  So I just made January 1-5 my first week.  At that time I wasn't planning on doing Project Life, so I didn't take very many photos.  In fact, out of my camera, my husband's camera, and my iPhone photos, there were only 3 photos for the "week".  And since this will be the first page in my album, it will be all alone anyway, so it works perfectly.
 

 
I wanted to simplify some things for myself for this year since I won't have as much time to play like I did last year.  I wanted a more simple way of showing the week.  I looked around for some ideas and found something similar to what I created in the top left corner.  I also decided not to do the calendar brush this time because it was extra work.  I will just simply type out the date of the week.  I like the way it looks. 
 
I also created my own templates.  There's no faux stitching this time, which I may miss, but I am tired of the templates I had been using.  I wanted something fresh, new, and simple.  I created some templates for bigger pictures as well.  I will probably have to custom design my templates along the way.
 
And of course I changed the fonts.  I like having little notes on some of the photos to describe what is happening in the photo.  And I changed the journaling font as well.
 
I don't use the same elements each week.  I like to use what I have in my digital stash, but I am still looking for certain elements, which I may end up adding to this page later.
 
So, that's all for now!  Hopefully I will be back soon with more pages.  Have a great weekend!

Tuesday, January 14, 2014

Project Life: Weeks 46-52

Hello!  I'm back today with a Project Life explosion!  I have finished Project Life 2013!!!  Yay!  *cheering*  Seriously though, I'm so glad!  I took time the last couple of days to sit down and work on this...and I really enjoyed it!  And then I decided I would just post the last pages all at once so I can really be done!  Now I just have to send it off to the printer!  Yay!
 
First up is weeks 46-47.  I did a lot of week combining since we were bad and just didn't take as many photos as we probably should.  BUT, it is nice that if needed, that I can just do one page for one week.  There is no wrong way to do this. In fact, I know some who just do a monthly Project Life.
 


 
Up next: Week 48 (we took a lot of pictures this week)


 
Next: Week 49-50


 
 
And last, but not least, weeks 51-52:



 
And I surprised myself the other day by deciding that I will do Project Life for 2014.  I was starting to feel overwhelmed.  I LOVE scrapbooking, but thinking about scrapping all of these separate memories, having a baby (which is a whole endeavor in itself!), and doing the weekly baby journal, was just overwhelming me.  Plus, I'm seeing how much Jeralyn has changed in the year just by doing this project.  So, I'm off to plan what I want my pages to look like this year.  I'm already trying to get caught up on journaling.  Thanks for taking this ride with me!
 
Ta-ta for now!

Monday, January 13, 2014

Project Life: Weeks 44-45

Hello!  Here's another spread with 2 weeks.  That's what happens when you don't take a lot of pictures.  Oops!  I'm trying to get caught up.  I actually have all of the pages set up, but I just have to add the pretty stuff (paper and elements) now.
 



Thursday, January 9, 2014

Quilt for Baby Boy

Today I wanted to share some pictures of the quilt I made for baby boy Smith (due March 18th).  I started and finished it in a week, which is record time for me.  I've been surprised at how much I've actually been enjoying sewing recently (I have other sewing projects going on).  Usually, I don't really enjoy sewing or find it to be relaxing, but I've certainly been enjoying myself.  And it seems like I only really sew when I'm pregnant.  Hmmm...
 
I love looking on Etsy for fabric.  I like it because I can find patterns I cannot find locally.  I found a shop on Etsy that had all of the fabric I wanted right there.  I was able to put it all in my online cart and make sure the colors matched.  I was very pleased when I received the fabric in the mail.  And I couldn't wait to get started!
 
This is the quilt folded once over the crib railing. I just did ties for the quilt...which is simple and easy...just takes a little bit of time.


The back side is minky fabric.   Super soft!


A little teddy bear from Grandma Smith! 


 
Quent helped me decide what color the binding should be.  Orange is always a favorite color in our house, so we went with that.  I love how it turned out!  The color just pops! 
 
I just LOVE this quilt!  And I can't wait to keep my baby warm with it!

Wednesday, January 8, 2014

Project Life: Weeks 42-43

Two days in a row!  I remember the days when I used to post every day.  Those were the days!  I wouldn't trade these days for anything though!  Anyway, I'm back with some more catch-up pages of Project Life.  I combined these pages because we didn't take that many pictures these weeks.  I like that there are no rules!
 


 
And maybe if we're lucky, I will post tomorrow, too!

Tuesday, January 7, 2014

Project Life: Week 41

Ok, NOW I feel really behind on Project Life, because now it's 2014 and I'm still in October 2013!  I just haven't felt motivated to sit at the computer and create.  I've been working on other things (quilting, sewing, knitting, etc).
 



I've officially decided that I won't be doing Project Life for 2014.  I'm having Baby #2 in March and I'm planning on doing the weekly baby journal for him as I did for Jeralyn.  Babies change so much by week, and I want to capture those changes as much as possible.  And I know that realistically, there is no way I can do Project Life and the weekly baby journal at the same time.  So my plan is to do the weekly baby journal and also to do regular scrapbook pages--which I really miss!  I think Project Life is a great thing, but it does take a lot of commitment.  Maybe I will do it again in 2015.