progress...

... on my 2012 Bearski book.

Clara was home sick (strep... ugh) almost this whole week, so I had a lot of scrapping time as I was tied to the house.  The first couple here have been done for a while, just had to save them for the web.  The second two page spread has been finished since last week, but I just didn't love it.   Still don't... but I have decided that I can't love them all and done is better than not done :-)  Finally, with the last set, I decided what I didn't love about the middle set... I didn't like being tied to the project life style templates for this entire book.  I'm already using them every week with my PL pages, I just needed to mix things up a bit.  I found a good set of multi-photo templates by Amy Martin and downloaded them.  I really wanted to embellish the last two pages a bit more, but I decided to hold back.  It already looks so different from the first few sets of pages, that I didn't want to go too overboard.   As I keep using these templates, I'll embellish a little more... just wanted to ease into it a bit.

 Supplies:

Project Grids:  The Templates by Amy Martin

First page journaling cards and elements - Winter Frost Collection by Amy Jaz Designs

Last page papers and elements - Star on Top Collab kit by Amy Martin and One Little Bird

All found at The Lilypad.

 

 Supplies:

Lots of 'em templates by Amy Martin

Paper and most elements - Star on Top Collab kit by Amy Martin and One Little Bird

Heart - Dotted:  Love Edition (recolored) by Emily Merritt

Banner - banner'd by Amy Martin

All available at The Lilypad.

last day of Christmas break...

I am determined to get caught up with my photos!  I'm doing a good job with PL, but I am way behind on my regular photo posts.  My main motivation for trying to keep up is, that if I am caught up, it means that my photos are edited and ready to go when I do get the chance to sit down and work on the pages for the more detailed albums I have in progress.  I'm still working on photos from a year ago for my 2012 Bearski album... but what's keeping that project moving at all is the fact that my photos are already processed and ready to go.

So, here are the photos from our last day at Bearski for Christmas break....

 

Can you tell which child likes to have their photo taken and which child just wanted to get inside and have hot cocoa?  :-)

And finally, one of Jeff loading up the car...

I'm so sad that we're done with our trips to Bearski for this ski season!  They got another 2+ feet of snow since we left on Sunday.  Oh well...

Project Life: Week 7

Another week done!  I think one of the major keys to me keeping up with this is being flexible with the whole project.  This week is different than any other I've done so far.  We went to Bearski again this past weekend and were joined by my brother-in-law and his family.  I knew I would take a ton of pics that I would want to use in PL.  So, in order to accommodate this, I made two 2-page spreads.  The first two pages are pretty typical... except, that I only did Sun-Thurs.  I was grasping a little for photos, so that's why there's an overabundance of Paczki Day and Valentine's Day photos.

The next two page spread is of just the weekend.  It actually encompasses Fri-Sun (which means the next week's time frame will be another short one of just Mon-Sat).

Even with giving the weekend it's own two page spread, I still had a hard time narrowing down the photos.  I used so many that I didn't have room for the journaling that I wanted to do.  Oh well... maybe that will go into my annual Bearski book instead.

Supplies:

 

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Template:  Amy Jaz Designs

Title Card:  Titled Templates by Amy Jaz Designs

Journaling Cards:  Color Me Happy by Amy Jaz Designs

Patterned Paper and All Other Elements:  Made For Each Other a LilyPad Collab

Template:  Amy Jaz Designs

Title Card:  Titled Templates by Amy Jaz Designs

Chevron Paper:  Star On Top by Amy Martin and One Little Bird

Filler Card, Patterned Paper and All Other Elements:  Made For Each Other a LilyPad Collab

All found at The LilyPad

Happy Valentine's Day...

For the first time in several years, I got to do a photo valentine for Clara!  She knew exactly what she wanted this year and we had fun with it!  Alex, on the other hand, is a junior high aged boy... so valentines weren't even on his radar.

grey skies...

The next day after my last batch of Christmas Break photos (I've lost track of what day that was) it was a very grey day.  Clara wanted to get up and on the slopes when they opened to practice her snowboarding... Alex (aka the slug) wanted to stay home.

 A little warm up in Totem Park...

 And then time for the real deal...

She didn't last long without her brother there to keep her company, but she got in some good runs that morning!

Project Life: Week 6

Another week done!  I had so many photos to work with this week!  This was actually my first week to not take a photo every day.  I think it was Tuesday that I missed.  But I had so many other photos to use that I took plus some from Clara's phone as well, that it really didn't matter.  I'm still trying to take a photo each day though... just some days aren't very photo worthy!  :-)

I had a lot of purple in my photos this week and I really wanted to tie that in with my papers and elements, but I had no purple!  I wanted desperately to buy some more digi supplies, but I decided to see what I could do with what I had.  I don't think it turned out too bad.

So, here's week six....

Credits:

Template:  Amy Jaz Designs

Titled Templates by Amy Jaz Designs

Cards:  Chevrombre by Amy Martin

Crazy for You Papers by One Little Bird

Sunshine, blue sky and happy days word arts by Little Butterfly Wings

4x6 Templates by Paislee Press

All available at The Lilypad.

right after...

... everyone left (Jeff to the airport and his parents to go back home), the kids were out on the slopes. 

Alex went skiing... 

 And Clara had a snowboard lesson...

 

 After her lesson, Clara switched boots and gear...

 So she could go skiing with Alex...

 By lunchtime, they were ready to go!

I spent my morning in the lodge, by the fire, sipping a hot cocoa.... not a bad way to spend a morning :-)

backing up again...

I'm so caught up in my new projects, that I'm completely avoiding going back and posting my photos from the past couple of months.  I did two more pages for the Bearski book this week, but I'll (try to) wait to post them until I've posted a few groups of photos.

This goes back to Jeff's family's visit to our place in Michigan for Christmas.  This should be the last of the 2012 photos!  The small group of photos encompasses several days, but like I mentioned a while back, I wasn't feeling so great most of Christmas break so I didn't take a lot of photos.

Opening presents...

And then time for games...

They seem to be taking Apples to Apples rather seriously!  Pit was much more lively!  I didn't take any photos but we took turns wearing Alex's Go Pro helmet cam during the game.  The videos were pretty funny!  I wish he would post them... but he's just been taking video, not editing and uploading.

New Year's Eve day was spent at the spa.  It was wonderful!  The massage felt great and the steam room did wonders for my sinuses!  That night we played games again and walked over to the mountain just before midnight to see the torchlight parade...

And then the fireworks began....

It was a really good end to a really good year!!

A new project...

I'm trying to make a coffee table book each year for our place in Michigan.  I made one last year through Shutterfly and we have really enjoyed looking through it this past year.  I sat down to work on the one for 2012 and I hit a wall.  I just didn't like any of the other Shutterfly books.  Okay... that's wrong... I love quite a few of them, but they just didn't fit the style of what I wanted for this book.  I thought about just doing the same book a second year, but that style didn't offer an alternative cover and I really hated for them to be completely identical (from the outside).  So, since I'm enjoying project life so much, I decided to download a set of project life templates and make my own book to be printed through Shutterfly.  This will take me a little longer than the original plan, but I think it will be fun!

 Here are my first couple of pages...

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Supplies:

Project Grids – The Templates by Amy Martin

Kraft paper – Pagekraft papers by One Little Bird

“fun” – Winter Frost kit by Amy Jaz Designs

Papers and snowflake – Star On Top by Amy Martin and One Little Bird

Journaling Card – Chevrombre 4x6 by Amy Martin

Title Card – Titled Templates by Amy Jaz Designs

Arrow – Dotted:  Love Edition (recolored) by Emily Merritt

Everything is available at The Lilypad!

Project Life: Week 5

Each week I honestly intend to post more than just my project life pages, but every week, it's all I post :-(   The good news portion of this is that we're five weeks in and I'm staying caught up on my pages!  I'm really, really enjoying this project.  If I see it through... I'm not sure what I will do with a whole year of photos documented in one album!!!  I've seriously never managed to do that my entire life.

Week five, left side...

Week five, right side...

Credits:

Template by Amy Jaz Designs

Title Card – Titled Templates by Amy Jaz Designs

4x6 Journaling Card – Chevrombre by Amy Martin

Journaling Cards – Color Me Happy by Amy Jaz Designs

Papers – Crazy for You by One Little Bird

Frame w/ Stars – Starry News Amy Martin

Edge Template – Edged – Border Punches by Amy Martin

4x6 Templates – Paislee Press

Love – Dotted:  Love Edition by Emily Merritt

Banner – Banner’d tags by Amy Martin

All found at The Lilypad