I still haven't made it to the drug store to pick up pictures to do the last page of PL, but I do have this last full week done.
I used a lot of scraps from my December Daily album but it doesn't look overly Christmassy here.
Here's a closer look at the left side:
I had a few pictures of Christmas in here: presents, the table, food, etc... There's a week in review card and a pic of my MIL's house getting a new garage foundation laid. I did a simple title card in the top right with a pic of my kids sprinkling reindeer food on the front lawn on Christmas Eve.
And the right side...
The rigth side is largely about Olivia's birthday (the day after Christmas). There's a pic of her brownies, her dollhouse getting put together, the candles, present opening, and a pic of her on her birthday while we were heading out to Pump It Up for her special day.
There's also a quote from her as she and Rae cleaned their room, and a pic from a date with me and Raegan. We had breakfast and then spent her Christmas money from Grandma and Grandpa.
On the bottom right is a picture from Christmas night. Olivia and her cousin Caleb switched hats. That boy is so good with my kids. He's a sweetie!
That's it for the last week, but not the last few days. I'm getting back over to my stamp room this weekend (hopefully) and will be able to finish up some details on projects that are almost done.
I had to go back to where I skipped day 16. It was the back of a page protector with a ton of small squares and I only had one picture. I decided to just break it all up and use simple scraps for the rest.
I had spent the week making my kids cute holiday lunches and wanted to get that in the album.
On to day 22:
I didn't put a lot in this year's album with different decorations; but, I wanted to get this one in there. It's just a simple fake garland I lay across our long entertainment center and sit bells in. It's the item that made me really feel like I was decorating for Christmas this year.
Day 23:
I waited way too long to wrap presents this year. It's not the first year I've had that problem. I wait to wrap them so I can make the new tree skirt I've been wanting to make. I don't get the tree skirt done to go under the presents and I just end up wrapping them at the last minute and sticking them under the tree without a tree skirt.
Here are both pages together:
I made the two titles with my new Silhouette. :) The numbers came from a sheet of paper I ordered at Two Peas. The 23 pocket has sequins from Michael's and the writing you see behind it is from the journaling on the vellum on day 24.
Day 24:
Again here I have dug into my scrap stash and made the title with my Silhouette. The 24 comes from a different sheet of paper than the previous two days but it's still one of those 12x12 papers that have numbers all over them.
By the way, the pictures are of my kids sprinkling the magic reindeer food on the lawn that Rae brough back from kindergarten the last day before break.
The only reason I haven't done 25 yet is because I was trying to figure out how to do it. I normally just do one page or one two page layout and I just couldn't fit it here. I've just now decided to let that go and do how ever many are needed to commemorate they day. I mean, seriously, which is more important...the memory, or the anal retentiveness?!
I'll be working on that and my final touches and have that up soon to post.
Also coming soon are the final week of Project Life (Done! Just need to take and upload pics!), my Project Life title page for 2014, more about my One Little Word, recipes and the process my photos go through from taking them to storing them.
I had most of this week in the pockets before Christmas, and then I got a silhouette for Christmas! So if you're wondering how I got that little framed "week 51", I made it with my Christmas present. :)
This week I kept it simple since life was so busy. There were lots of kid events to attend to.
Here's a better look at the left side:
I put my kids' Christmas program pictures in here, Rae's class also made gingerbread houses so I put a pic of that in. The wreath tag is from my son's class. They made cookies as part of an equivalent fractions lesson plan and they gave us a batch. This was the tag tied on top. And since I made an extra effort to put a cute and Christmassy lunch in their lunchboxes this week, I took a picture of that too. :)
The title card is all Stampin' Up!. The blue cardstock background is Not Quite Navy and the floral strip is from my stash for Project Life this year. The thin frame with the words "week 51" I made in Very Vanilla on my new Silhouette!
The right side:
The top left of this page has an internet news announcement. One of my husband's best friends mom died suddenly in a car accident this week. It was a bit of a shock. She had been his principal and he spent time at their house. There will be notes in future PL pages about my hubby flying out of town for the funeral.
I put in a copy of our Christmas card and I didn't want to cut it up so I put it over the page protector. Note to self...if I do that again I need to not adhere it until I've inserted next week's stuff in the back side of the pockets. :)
Another pic of my middle kid at her program, a note about car issues, the Week in Review card, and a tag from Olivia's monkey pencil birthday gifts we made for her preschool class finish off the page.
I have week 52 almost ready and will likely share that tomorrow. I've also almost finished December Daily so that will come in here soon as well. Are y'all ready for a new year of Project Life?!
Almost done with this year! I'll be posting soon about Project Life 2014 and my intentions and changes, evaluation of my first year doing it, etc... soon.
For now, here are weeks 49 and 50 - a two page spread:
I was really surprised I was able to fit both of these weeks on one-two page spread. With everything going on in this season I just thought I'd need more. I realized that deciding to go ahead and do December Daily again allowed this. I scrap more pictures and details of the seasonal events in that album and just highlight them and the day to day normal life here in Project Life. I'll probably do the same thing next year since it worked out so well. I had been really on the fence this year about doing December Daily since it would be my first year of doing Project Life too. Totally glad I did!
Here's a better look at week 49:
The title card was made with a mat pack I picked up at Michael's. It's Teresa Colins Vintage Finds. The 49 is a glitter thicker and the "week" I just printed on my computer and cut out. The burlap ribbon is from Stampin' Up!. This week highlights my son's science fair project, my daughter picking out her birthday presents with the money grandma and grandpa gave her (and commemorates the fact that we now have Barbies in the house for the first time), some messages that my daughter and husband were leaving each other in the mornings, the motif for the new church Christmas series we started this week, a weather capture, a week in review, and a pic of the title page of this year's December Daily album.
During week 50:
This week I wrote on a picture for the title card. The picture was from a snow day I went into more detail with in my December Daily album. This week also highlights decorating the front yard for Christmas, picking out a Christmas tree, the week in review, my husband's breakfast for the morning of finals (the week in review has journaling about its special purspose :), a pic of a gift basket a friend surprised us with, a pic of the baskets of baked goods we took around to friends, and one of my favorite pictures of a Christmas Encounter we went to. This week was pretty well unadorned:). I used some white matting for several of the pictures and just solid color cardstock. There is a scrap of ribbon on the week in review card left over from the baking baskets- so it matched the fabric in the picture. I also used an Ali Edwards card for the week in review.
Week 51 is almost finished and I'm trying to figure out if I want to do a week 52 and 53 (to include the last few days of December) or if I want to just squish the last few days of December into week 52.
Woot Woot! I'm almost caught up with sharing these! I will be more timely about sharing them in 2014!
Here's an over view of weeks 45 and 46:
Week 45:
This week was my birthday week, and that beautiful chair in the middle of the page was a gift from a friend of mine. It's in my craft room and brightens up the whole place! She attached wooden chalkboard tags! I love it (and her!).
A lot of this week was about quirks of my youngest daughter and a walk we took in the neighborhood to gather seeds and seed pods for science observation at preschool.
Week 46:
Week 45 has our last soccer game of the season, a date night with friends for my birthday, a weather block (because seriously, 91 in November?), the week in review, a writing sample from my son (he's inventing lettering based on animals), and my middle daughter helping me make applesauce.
I did a lot of writing on photos with white gel pen in these.
Week 47 warranted a two page spread:
Here's a closer look at the left side:
This side has the title card, us decorating our pumpkins really late :), a week in review, a thing my husband and son say that I wanted to remember, Olivia in her upside down pilgrim hat preschool, a note that I WILL NOT MISS everything about having small kids- like toothpaste all over the bathroom, Oliva at her Thanksgiving Feast at school, and I Googled an image for the "What Does the Fox Say?" song that my kids are driving me crazy with right now!
The right side:
It's hard to tell in the picture but the top left of this side has my youngest daughter with hickeys all over her face. She discovered she can suction a Polly Pocket hat to her cheek, and she's proud of her marks. :0. This side also has a poem my son wrote at school that I wanted to keep forever, a text between my husband and I, a weather snippet to show it actually rained and we had cooler temperatures, another feast picture and my middle daughter helping my husband with an oil change. Don't mind her outfit, she has her own fashion sense and she doesn't want it messed with.
Week 48 was another two page spread and probably one of my favorite weeks of the year:
Week 48 was really full and I was surprised to fit it all in one spread with no inserts! But since several of the big events are items I want to make full pages for in our Library of Memories, I was able to just select a few good photos to go in the PL spread.
So this week we went to a nature trail in the nearby mountains in an area called Oak Glen. It was beautiful in the fall!
It was also my middle daughter's 6th birthday, and Thanksgiving!
There are shots clustered for all of those events and a few radom things as well: my first eggnog latte of the season (which I got on the trip home from Thanksgiving:), fake snow on my son at a local outdoor mall we went to run an errand at one night, and a week in review card.
The next few weeks are coming soon! As well as the end of the December Daily album.
I know I skipped 16. Just realized that. :) I'll go back in my final pass and fill it in then.
Here's 17:
This page was dedicated to the teacher gifts we made. I didn't get a shot of the preschool gifts but these were what I made for my 2 elementary aged kid's teachers. Just a simple wrapped festive chocolate treat. I took a pic of it open mostly to remind myself that I put in seasonal flavors.
The page is pretty simply done. The "merry" ornament tag is from Little Yellow Bicycle.
Day 18:
On day 18 my son's third grade class had a Christmas performance. I made the number square with some patterned paper (in green to bring out the green of the photos), a punched out number from a patterned sheet, and a scrap of ribbon to bring the red over to that square.
On day 19 my two daughters both had Christmas performances:
My kinder daughter's was first in the day. I put just a snippet to show her at the concert. I was too far away to take a realy good pic. Then we went back to the classrooms and made gingerbread houses. I got a picture of that in.
My preschooler had a concert mid morning and both shots of her here are singing and doing the motions.
Day 20:
This was just a quick page to commemorate that one special Friday night, when school is out for the break, and the vacation has begun. :0 Everything suddenly feels a little more relaxed. We watched a Christmas movie (Boz) and had popcorn.
I couldn't really figure out a way to get this one picture I had to fit into any of the pocket pages, so I just made an 8x8 regular scrap page and adhered it to the outside of the back of day 19. That's also what I ended up doing for page 7, which I'll go back to at the end of the daily posts.
So there we are for now. We're getting close to Christmas and the end of year!
I'll be back with more December Daily and more Project Life in the next few days.
Day 13 was about the hot chocolate! We made peppermint and mocaccino marshmallows and we made chocolate covered marshmallow candy cane stirrers rolled in crushed candy cane or white chocolate shavings. The peppermint ones we cut into stars.
Here' s a look at it next to day 12:
As you can see, I used some of the same paper on both page to tie them together.
And on to day 14:
This spread is about the tree. It's got a story about what kept going wrong (a story unique to this year) that kept up from getting it ready until so late in the month. It also has some shots of family favorite ornaments.
left side:
and the right side:
And finally day 15:
We had a rough time getting good family pictures here. (and yes, we're a little behind on getting our pic and card together) It really didn't help that when I looked at entire sets of them, I found that my youngest daughter had been making funny faces in each one! Since we had so many accidental photos and just plain bad photos, and accidental shots of us playing around, etc... I decided to do an "outtakes" page.
the left side:
A closer look at the right side:
I'm debating slipping in a copy of our card here but I haven't decided if I want to put it here or on a separate page. If I slide it in here I'll just punch holes and insert and it will look similar to this:
So that's those days. I am currently done up to page 20 and will continue sharing a few each day.
On the 11th we went to a local church where my daughter goes to preschool to do their Christmas Encounter show thing. I'm not sure what to call it. It's cool though. They started it last year and you kind of walk all over the church from station to station going through the Bible story from old testament prophesies to the birth of Christ. Then there are family photos, hot chocolate, and crafts for the kids at the end. It's done really well.
In this two page spread I put in pictures of decorations, some of the stations, the kids, and a bookmark in the middle that they pass out.
On the left side I just slid glitter paper into the smaller pockets and put a number over one of them. I made the number with an old Stampin' Up! set and punched a small doily looking piece for the background out of a patterned paper in my stash.
On the right I spread a nativity set picture across two pockets because I couldn't fit it. I used some more glitter paper on this section too.
Here's what it looks like with the bookmark turned over:
And on to page 12:
Day 12 was a simple one pager about the red cup season. After all, it's just not Christmas without eggnog lattes! I cut a piece of old flocked snowflake paper from my stash (I've tried to use a lot of stash this year and I'm doing decently!). I put it in all 4 pockets and then layered everything elese over the top of the page protector.
The red cup is actually a photo I trimmed and wrote on with a white gel pen. the red embellishments are mostly ones I cut from red cups I cleaned (after drinking eggnog lattes :). Of course, I had to sacrifice some money to drink extra lattes this year so I could have enough of the parts I wanted to cut out for this page ;). Oh the things I subject myself to in order to preserve family memories!
The 12 is just that same glitter sticker set I've been using a lot in this album.
Day 9 we went to a snow day a local church put on. We live where it doesn't snow, so people will truckload it in for fun. :) We haven't visited the snow since my youngest was 3 weeks old (she's turning 5 next week) so it's been a while and the kids had a blast!
The paper I used in this spread wasn't part of what I originally pulled for December Daily, but there was so much pink in the pictures I went in search of it. It's really old Heidi Grace paper with flocking on it.
Here's the left side:
The date tag is also a coordinating tag thing from the old set. I tied it to the rings with white Stampin' Up! baker's twine. The glittered 9 is a thicker and I wrote Snow Day with a Baja Breeze Stampin' Up! marker. The snowflakes are punched and then I layered a snowflake sequin over the top and a Stampin' Up! rhinestone.
Here's the right side:
And day 10:
It was baking day!
The pictures of the kids decorating their cookies had a yellow cast that I couldn't seem to fix so I printed them in black and white.
On the left I used a piece of a Stampin' Up! doily. I layered words I cut out from a sheet of patterned paper from my stash. The "traditions documented" is also from a piece of patterned paper I got at Two Peas in a Bucket. The right bottom square has a scrap of fabric that I used wrapping baked good (picture on the other side of the layout) and the tag is from Little Yellow Bicycle. I just circled the date.
On the right I used the two narrow pockets to include journaling. The top one tells who we delivered to and the bottom tells what was in the baskets. The 'friends' wood veneer is from Studio Calico I think.
The top right has a shot of the gift baskets. It's adorned with another piece of the doily and tag scrap that miiiight be Elle's Studio. The bottom left is a shot I took of my recipe box. I keep my recipes in various storage methods, but this one little box is just for family recipes and family favorites. I journaled right on top of the photo with a white gel pen.
That's all for days 9 and 10. 11 and 12 will be here tomorrow!
I know...I skipped 7. The pics somehow got missed when I printed them so that'll have to come another time. :)
Here's what 5 and 6 look like together:
They are obviously different days, and I didn't stress too much about making them match just because they're next to each other, but they're coordinated enough I think that it goes ok.
Here's a better look at day 6
We picked out our tree and the pics are pretty much my kids fooling around hiding and peeking through branches. That little green tree card with the #6 on it is from Elle's Studio. It's a index card shaped thing that I cut down to use the tree image. I put a glittery 6 on it from the same number sticker set I used in day 5, a cheap set from JoAnn. The glittery red star also came from there.
The woodgrain paper came from my stash. I wrote on it with a white gel pen and put another glittery red star on it. The red polka dot washi tape is from Michael's in their Christmas paper crafting section (they have great stuff this year!).
By the way, I put more of those fabric tree stickers on this spread. If you read day 5 you know I couldn't remember where they came form. They are from Martha Steward Crafts. The 15 cent thing I cut out of a sheet of paper from my stash that I ordered from Two Peas a long time ago. I don't know what brand it is, sorry. But it's layered over a scrap from the same Elle's Studio tab the has the number 6 on it. The top left two pockets are a split piece of journaling card from one of those sheets that have two sides and 4x6 journaling cards on both sides (12x12). I layered the "nice" wood veneer over the top of the pockets.
And here's day 8:
These pictures were taken with my kids helping me decorate the front yard. No chance of snow here, so I was letting them sprinkle some of that fake craft snow on our trees. The trees are just garland wrapped around tomato cages.
I framed most of the pictures in white just to give them a little consistency with the red and while colors in the photos.
Here's a closer look at the tag:
The tag itself I think is from Little Yellow Bicycle. I used some snowflake sequin stuff from Michaels both on the tag and up in the top right pocket. The 8 sticker is from the same sticker set at days 5 and 6. I need to get those in more colors! The chipboard sticker on the tag is from Carta Bella, the same sticker sheet I used on the cover and in a few other places. I also used buttons from that same sheet in the upper left corner of this spread. The red chevron washi is from Michael's in all their Christmas paper crafting stuff.
That's it for these two days! I'll get the rest of day 7 pictures printed with my next batch and do that page with the next group.
