Arthur's Birthday Pages

Arthur's first project life album ends with his first birthday.  While the family album is done by calendar year, I feel that marking each year of his life with a new scrapbook made more sense to me... As I finally printed the photos from his party, it was time to finish his first PL album! The last official page before the ending inserts features his 12 month photos.  I ended up going very simple with four photos, his month card, the stats card, and two filler cards. I wanted the pictures to stand alone with no embellishment.  Clean and Simple.

At his party, I put out some PL journaling cards and asked friends to write him a birthday message.  Most people did leaving me with a stack of cards.  Instead of sprinkling them in, I decided to have one page dedicated to the cards.  I love how they look all lined up in the sheet.

The last page in his album is the once a month photos I took over the course of the first year.  I just slide them into pockets without embellishment.  Simple, yet very striking.

And now it's on to Arthur's second PL album.

Archives: Project Life 2014 -- Weeks 11 and 12

Originally published on March 29th, 2014

Week 11

Family Album: This week I chose to go back to using one of my "older" kits -- WRMK Tangerine.  My idea is to rotate my various kits to get a different color/design scheme each week.  I like the little pops of design with the Tangerine kit.  I added some cute labeling tags to help highlight a few of the pictures.

As to the pictures and events, this week is very Arthur heavy.  Oh wait... It's always Arthur heavy.  Anyway, I chose to include some adorable candid shots and eating shots.  I love the face he makes while eating.  It always looks like he hates it, but he eats everything.  The right hand page has a few random shots and his 5 month pictures.  I always have to include the stats insert.  My favorite shot of the week is the one where he's crawling towards me (left side, bottom left picture).

Supplies:

• WRMK Tangerine
• Labels from Studio Calico kit
• Random stamps
• PL Neutral Baby (monthly stat insert)

Arthur's Album:  This week I added in some of the new cards from the Baby for Him kit.  I love the cool blues and greens of this spread. The left side is a wrap-up of our week.  The right side is all about his 5 month pictures and milestones.

Supplies:

• PL Neutral Baby Kit
• PL Baby Boy Kit
• Random stamps
• Labels from Studio Calico Kit
• Recollections stickers

Week 12

Family Album: I changed up my kits yet again and went with some of the random cards from my Studio Calico kits (Sept. and Oct. 2013).  I kept the cards a cool blue and gray with pops of pink.  I especially love my pink enamel dots and my new camera stamp (thank you Michael's $2 bin).

The pictures from this week came from two big events.  The left side highlights our morning at Washington Park.  Arthur had a great time crawling around.  And I had a great time taking some pics and reading in the sunshine.  The right side highlights Arthur's first official playdate.  I grabbed a few cute pics and stole a few from the other moms.  My favorite is the pic of Arthur and his friend Luke and their dueling grump faces (right side, top left).

Supplies:

• Studio Calico Kits -- Sept and Oct 2013
• Michael's stamps
• Basic Grey enamel dots
• Random stamps and alphabet stickers

Arthur's Album: Arthur's spread focused on lots of pictures.  I decided to use the back side of the inserts from the previous week.  Those were reddish so I picked two more reddish inserts for the right side.  I've realized that most of Arthur's spreads are light on embellishments and heavy on pictures.  And I'm okay with that!

Supplies:

• PL Baby Boy Kit
• Random stamps

Archives: Cards #33

Originally published on March 16th, 2014Crafting: 

• PL Swaps (easter eggs, scraps, rainbow) -- I love the use of washi tape on the rainbow cards.  For the scraps swap, I decided to make pocket cards with washi tape.  And the easter egg cards made use of my SU Birds of Feather DSP.

• Book of lists notebook -- Tons are people are participating in the 30 Days of Lists this March, but I just don't have the time or energy to commit to that.  Instead, I thought I would create a notebook, decorate it, and then have various lists.  The idea is to do a list a week (or so).  I love putting my own spin on the project.  I ran across this perfect little binder on clearance at Target the other day.  I set about cutting cardstock and patterned paper down to the sizes I would need.  When it comes time to make a list, I'll select a topic, pick a stamp set to decorate (and any embellishments), and cut a piece of white cardstock for the actual list.  I love that it's ready to be used.  I don't have to start from scratch every time!

• PL W9-10 -- I finished these weeks yesterday.  Check out my blog post here.
• Punch Guide -- I also made a handy guide to all my punches using some random blank playing cards (from old teaching supplies).  I got the idea from Pinterest and immediately put it on my to make board.  This will definitely come in handy when I need to figure out the best punch to use or the relative sizes.  No more digging through the drawer!
• Stamp Guide -- Making my punch guide led me to want to create on for all my stamps.  I have so many now (both loose and SU boxes) that I often forget what I have.  I spend way too much time digging through all of them to get ideas.  So, I decided to stamp all my stamps onto white cardstock to act as a handy guide.  There are separate pages for Christmas, Holidays, Sentiments, Occasions, and Misc.  I'm only partially done, but this is going to be great when I'm finished.

Shopping Scores: 

• Steals.com box -- During steals.com's big archive sale, I ordered a mystery box. This is what came.  I'd say that 70% of the box will be used by me.  The paper stack is great.  I love the alphabet stickers and small tags.  The chipboards will get a lot of use.  The jewels will probably get use, but I need to find the best adhesive for them.  The ribbon isn't my style at all and I'm still trying to figure out the best way to use the watercolor products.  Overall, a really good buy.

• Target randomness -- I grabbed the 3x4 and 4x6 Dreamy sets by WRMK.  I also found two containers that are the perfect size for holding greeting cards.  The zebra print wasn't my first choice, but they work.  And I found some great little stickers and embellishment pieces in the One Stop bins.

• Peachy Cheap -- Another daily deal site I found a few weeks ago.  This time I grabbed an entire set of enamel dots from Basic Grey.  I couldn't wait to use them, hence the missing dots.

• Birthday gifts -- This week I received the last of my birthday gifts from J's parents.  I love the paper stacks and am super excited to use the PL theme packs.  The Americana pack is even cuter in person.

• PL Swap and Sale FB Group -- I've been a part this group for a few weeks now, but most of the items don't appeal to me.  I had been marginally searching for the PL Kiwi set.  Ever time it came up for sale, someone snatched it up right away.  I finally caught a listing at the right time.  I received my 1/3 of the kit yesterday.  Love love love the cards I received!  I also received my scrap swap back.  I'd say that over half of these cards will be used.  There's only a few that don't fit my style (looking at you cowboy card).

• Stampin' Up order -- I ordered my March order early as I will not be in town for the monthly stamp club.  We are doing a huge DSP share so I bought three packs to share.  Plus one other member and I are buying two of the larger color collection DSPs to share so I bought the Regals.  Lastly, I grabbed the 2012-2014 In color DSP as it was one sale.  For my Saleabration item I grabbed the Petal Parade stamp set.  I've seen some great examples to copy.

• Michaels -- Last week I grabbed the Baby Boy Mini Kit on clearance, some purple washi tape (how did I not have any purple?), and a cute little stamp set on sale.  Today they were starting a huge paper crafting sale and bonus extra sale this afternoon.  I had to take advantage of both sales.  I was also looking to pick up some items for the mom's group Easter party next month.  I managed to get most of the party items and some basics for me (white and black cardstock, trimmer blades).

Project: Somehow I agreed to help organize an Easter Party for our mom's group.  The group is starting a babysitting co-op and we plan on having a quarterly social.  The Easter Party will be our first big event.  The original idea was just to get together and have an egg hunt, but babies aren't so great at the hunting.  Instead, we are putting together baskets filled with baby-appropriate toys, shaker eggs to play with, and a few arts and crafts.  Parents pay us back a set amount.  We are also using the leftover money to make baskets for charity.I picked up a ton of the arts and crafts supplies today at Michaels.  We are waiting a week to gauge our RSVP amount before we commit to buying the toys (we have to buy in dozen units). I hope everyone decides to come as we have some great plans!  Overachiever that I am, I've already started on some of the items.

Archives: Project Life 2014 -- Weeks 9 and 10

Originally published on March 15th, 2014

Week 9

Family Album: This week I decided to change up my color scheme.  I put away the Seafoam and Sunshine kits in favor of the Seasons Mini Kit.  I took a look at all the cards for spring and choose the pink and yellow ones.  I then added some great stickers from the My Mind's Eye giant embellishment pack for some flair.  Lastly I rediscovered these cute gold rimmed tags.  Love the inclusion!

As for the weekly events, Arthur started solids so I had to include a ton of pics and some journaling.  I love the middle eating picture.  He looks so proud of himself after eating the entire bowl of rice cereal.  The right hand page is all about the Arthur's first official playdate.  Lots of pictures from that event plus some nice journaling to remember the day.  Lastly, I added "the weather today" insert to highlight our unusual (rainy and chilly) weather on playdate day.

Supplies:

• PL Seasons Mini Kit
• My Mind's Eye die cut and sticker pack
• Random embellishments from Studio Calico kit

Arthur's Album:

Supplies:

• PL Baby Neutral Kit

Week 10

Family Album: I again turned to the Seasons Mini Kit for inserts.  This time I used a variety of colors, designs, and sizes.  I love the way the layout turned out!  I added more of those gold tags, some alphabet stickers, a birthday sticker (for my birthday!), enamel dots, and a cute word bubble.  This week's layout is busier than usual, but I'm loving it!  I imagine that I will end up using the rest of the spring cards within the month.

This week was about a ton of candid shots of our family.  I love the little moments I caught of Arthur being extra cute.  I can't believe that this is my first naked baby butt shot!  It was too cute to not include.  I had to add a card for my 32nd birthday...  Per usual, there was no party, but I did got out to eat twice this week (once with Pam and once with J).

Supplies:

• PL Seasons Mini Kit
• Enamel dots
• Birthday stickers
• Random Embellishments from Studio Calico Kit
• Random Alphabet stickers

Arthur's Album: I used one card from the Baby Boy mini kit I found on clearance at Michaels.  Hoping to add more color in the coming weeks.

Supplies:

• PL Baby Neutral Kit
• PL Baby Boy Mini Kit