Project Life 2016: Week 5

And now on to week 5...

Supplies:
Template - Pocket Template Maker by Mommyish
Obsession by Just Jaimee and Studio Basic
February 2016 Storyteller by Just Jaimee
February 2016 Storyteller Stacked Pocket Cards by Just Jaimee and Erin W.
Storyteller 2016 Month Calendar Card by Just Jaimee

Project Life 2016: Week 4

On to week 4... everyone was healthy this week!

Healthy and very busy with lots of performances...

Supplies:
Template - Pocket Template Maker by Mommyish
Alpha - January 2016 Storyteller by Just Jaimee
Storyteller 2016 Calendar Card by Just Jaimee
Everything else - February 2016 Storyteller by Just Jaimee

Project Life 2016: Week 3

Clara had had a great school year up until this point with not being sick or injured.  This was our first big ordeal.  Clara started throwing up in the middle of the night, and since she had complained of a sore throat the day before, I assumed strep.  Made an appointment to see the doctor first thing in the morning and had no clue that we would be sent straight to the ER (not strep).  Her heart rate was way too high and they needed to get it down (assumption was that it was due to dehydration).  We spent the day in the ER getting her rehydrated, which would have gone much smoother if it hadn't taken 5 tries and an ultrasound machine to finally get a vein for the IV.

Here's our week 3...

Supplies:
Template - Pocket Template Maker by Mommyish
Highlights word art - Year in Review by Just Jaimee and Mommyish
Storyteller 2016 Calendar Card by Just Jaimee
Everything else - February 2016 Storyteller by Just Jaimee

Project Life 2016: Week 2

I'm not sure why, but this year has been a struggle.  Both with keeping up with project life and with posting here.  I just listed out all of the layouts/spreads I have to post and I do have 22 to post... sounds like a lot, but I'm still behind (and I don't even want to think about the fact that I haven't finished 2015 yet).  BUT, the good news is that I'm loving my PL plan this year, I really like the way it looks.  I just think that being behind is what's weighing on me.  Once I get closer to caught up (and maybe finishing up 2015), my motivation levels will change.  I think my issue is that the more I document, the more I want to document.  I want EVERYTHING scrapped and in books, it makes it hard to stay focused sometimes.

So today I'm going to spend a little time getting some blog posts done!  Here's week 2....

Supplies:
Template - Pocket Template Maker by Mommyish
Calendar - Storyteller 2016 3x4 Month Calendar by Just Jaimee
Everything else - February 2016 Storyteller by Just Jaimee

Trip Album: NYC

What in the world is wrong with me and blogging this year?  2016 must not be the year of consistent blogging like I thought it would be.  Life has been messing with my scrapping this year.  Lots of stuff going on which means more things to scrap, but less time to do it in.  Plus we've had a couple things going on that has messed with my scrapping motivation (Clara's knee injury for one).  Clara and I have a trip coming up over spring break which has all kind of scrappy projects spinning around in my head.  I've been having more fun planning that and gathering information than actually working on the project. That needs to change soon.

And my other distraction?  My NYC trip album from last June.  There shouldn't have been any pressure to complete this album BUT back on Black Friday I bought a voucher from MyPublisher for a photo book.  My thought was that it would be for our road trip album that I was making for my parents.  But when I was almost done, MyPublisher offered a really good coupon that I decided to use instead... thinking that I would use the voucher for my NYC album since I always have lots of downtime after the first of the year (I should have knocked on wood!).

The voucher was a really good deal.  $40 for up to an 80 page classic sized book with a photo cover and lay flat pages.  I'd been wanting to try lay flat pages for a while, but could never justify the cost.  The voucher was good for 90 days which seemed like forever at the time... but January and February were much busier than I had expected, so it came down to the wire.

But, here's my book and I love it!!

I kept things super simple... one, because I thought that worked well with NYC pictures and two, I just plain ran out of time.

In the past, with making books on MyPublisher, I had just used their templates... this time I scrapped 8.5x11 pages and uploaded them.

I used two sets of templates:

I don't see it listed on the graphic here, but the template maker includes different sized bases, and I used the 8.5x11 one.

I'm in love with this size for trip albums!!  I work so much in square pages with PL and other scrap pages, that working with these dimensions was a nice change.  The only thing I'm not sure about is the lay flat pages.  I wasn't sure what I was expecting, but this wasn't it.  The pages are normal pages and they appear to be adhered to something in the spine that makes them lay flat.  Again, maybe this is the norm, it just wasn't what I had expected.

Now that a few of my projects are getting completed and I haven't really added anything new in a while, I hope to get back to posting again.  But with the way I've been going, I wouldn't hold your breath!  :-)

Project Life 2016: Week 1

Aaarrrggghhhh... I still can't decide what to call my posts this year.  Isn't that crazy?  It's such a minor thing, but it's really bugging me.  I have changed the title several times now... curious to see which one I land on.  My overall project is called our Family Yearbook, but my weekly pages are the most traditional project life pages that I've done since the first year.  So, my current thought is to call my posts with my weekly spread Project Life and call all other posts relating to my book Family Yearbook.  We'll see if this sticks.

So after all of that nonsense, here is my week one...

Now, the info on the product that changed my project life world... the Pocket Template Maker Actions by Mommyish.  I'm totally in love!  So many possibilities, so easy to use and the clean look I was going for this year.  It does take a little effort to create a template from scratch each time, but I'm finding that takes no more time than trying to fit photos into a template that doesn't quite work.  Now I just open up the photos I want to use, go through them one by one and create a "pocket" in the size and orientation that I need.

Here are the rest of my supplies (links on pinterest)...

Family Yearbook 2016: Week 0

Wow!  I can't believe that I didn't post one single time during the month of January!  January is usually one of my heavier posting months, as I always start out the year with good intentions and can be a little over ambitious.  This year had a bit of a rough start on the scrapping front.  It wasn't until a couple weeks into 2016, before I really figured out my direction for this year.

Not long after my last post, I saw that Cathy Zielske had released a new set of clean and simple templates that could be used for project life.  I was drawn to them and the clean look, so I immediately bought all of the 12x12 sets and declared them my templates for 2016.  I did one set of pages and called them week one.

That was all fine and good, until week 2.  I couldn't make it work.  Just not enough choices yet (I'm assuming that she will continue to add options to this collection).  I was seriously stuck.  I lamented about it at The LilyPad and was immediately steered toward the product that would change my Project Life world!  But that information will have to wait until my next post.

Now what to do with my original week one?  I could redo it completely with the new templates, or I could figure out a way to make it work in my book.  So, since this year's book is supposed to be a mix of styles along with my project life pages, I decided to leave these pages mostly alone.  I did take out the week one card and replaced it with the "bring on 2016" one.  This was questionable as a week anyway since it was only 2 days.  The main reason for my delay in posting is because, although I have completed other spreads for this year, I just now made the adjustments to this spread this morning.  I was a little distracted this month, as I participated (and finished!) the Month of Challenges at The LilyPad... thirty one pages/projects in 31 days!  It was so much fun, but I'm looking forward to some downtime to get caught back up on a few things like posting here.

So, after all of that rambling, here is week 0 (not sure what else to call it)...

Also to add to my confusion this year... I'm not sure what to call my posts.  I had decided on Family Yearbook, but now I'm not so sure.  That's the title for my actual book, but I may title my project life page posts as project life again.  Hmmm.... I just don't know!!

Supplies (links on pinterest):