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Project Life 2014 -- Weeks 13 and 14

Week 13

Family Album: Weeks 13 and 14 were all about documenting our trip back to Indiana.  I loved adding the little embellishment tags and sparkly stars here and there throughout the spread.  I didn't want to clutter the photos too much, but felt they needed a little something.

As to the pictures themselves, I love adding in more pictures of Arthur with other people.  I got some great shots of him with my sister, father, mom, grandpa, and grandma.  So cute!

 
 

Supplies:

  • SU Sent with Love DSP and embellishments
  • Studio Calico alphabet stickers
  • Random travel themed stamps

Week 14

Family Album: The second week of our trip back to Indiana.  This time I used some of my new Heidi Swapp stamps ("hello" and "together") and some great alphabets to label some pictures.  I also caught some great pictures of Arthur with his Grandma and Papa, Uncle, brothers, and new baby friends.

 
 

Supplies:

  • WRMK Albums Made Easy Dreamy cards
  • Enamel dots
  • Heidi Swapp stamps
  • Studio Calico alphabets
  • Heidi Swapp stickers
tags: Project Life
categories: Crafting
Saturday 04.12.14
Posted by Tobe Buffenbarger
 

Project Life 2014 -- Weeks 11 and 12

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!

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Supplies:

  • PL Baby Boy Kit
  • Random stamps
tags: Project Life
categories: Crafting
Saturday 03.29.14
Posted by Tobe Buffenbarger
 

Project Life 2014 -- Weeks 9 and 10

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
tags: Project Life
categories: Crafting
Saturday 03.15.14
Posted by Tobe Buffenbarger
 

Project Life 2014 -- Weeks 7 and 8

Week 7

Family Album: This week was a combination of regular activities, Valentine's Day, and Arthur turning 4 months.  I decided to split the spread.  The left side focuses on our regular activities.  I used a nice orange and turquoise palette to add visual interest.  Instead of adding another picture, I chose to use a 4x6 pocket as my weekly highlights insert.  I didn't add much embellishment: space man stamp and piece of washi tape was all.  The right side was heavy on Arthur's milestones.  The red is a bit overwhelming, but I still think it looks nice.

 
 

Supplies:

  • WRMK Tangerine Journalling Kit
  • PL Holidays Mini Kit
  • PL Neutral Baby Kit
  • SU Stamp (space man)
  • Random embellishments

Arthur's Album: Arthur's album is split between Valentine's Day (left side) and 4 months (right side).  I wanted to create some type of balance in the spread.  Other than the hearts, I didn't add any embellishments.

 
 

Supplies:

  • PL Neutral Baby Kit
  • PL Holiday Mini Kit
  • Random embellishments

Week 8

Family Album: Somehow I completely lost the right side picture of this week's spread.  Oh well.  I'll get it finished soon.  I kept the embellishing at a minimum.  I relied on some alphabet stickers to add some interest to the track pictures.  I love the visual interest of this week's page.

 

Supplies:

  • WRMK Tangerine Journaling Kit
  • Random stamp and alphabet stamps
  • Camera charm

Arthur's Album: Arthur's album is missing one picture that will have to go onto the next picture order.  No embellishments this week, but I did a huge amount of journaling.  I am getting better at storytelling; capturing those little moments.

 
 

Supplies:

  • PL Neutral Baby Kit
tags: Project Life
categories: Crafting
Saturday 03.01.14
Posted by Tobe Buffenbarger
 

Project Life 2014 -- Weeks 5 and 6

Week 5

Family Album: This week wanted to really bring out the fun bright colors from the photographs.  Thankfully I had purchased a third of a Honey kit from an Etsy seller.  They were the perfect colors to play with.  After I looked at the pictures to choose from, I decided to do an entire page (well almost an entire page) dedicated to telling a story about Arthur and his new favorite toy.  I love the idea of doing this type of theme pages more often.

 
 

Supplies:

  • PL Honey Kit
  • PL Sunshine Kit
  • Studio Calico Alphabet stickers

Arthur's Album: For his album, I stuck with the yellows and grays with some fun inserts.  I love the right side with the corresponding pictures splitting the page.  It gives a nice mirror effect.

 
 

Supplies:

  • PL Baby Neutral Kit

Week 6

Family Album: Week six was all about pink and turquoise.  I had the repeating camera insert already in place from last week (other side of the flowered journaling card).  it was so cute, I had to use it and ended up designing the entire spread to correspond.  The left side was highlighting some pictures from our usual routine (baby playing with Sophie, Shoreline walk, crafting time).  I even used a journal card to highlight my week in crafting.  Nice to see a spread not completely focused on Arthur even though he is just so adorable.  The right side is dedicated to pictures and journaling of the mom's group Valentine's Party.  I even remembered to snap a few photos of the event.  (It was gray and gloomy out, so the pics are pretty dark.  And this is after lightening them up on the computer.)  I forgot to add in the February calendar card at the beginning of the month.  The party turned out to be the perfect occasion to use it as a Who, What, Where, When, and Why type journaling card.  I then used a red design card from the Holiday mini kit to list all the attendees for the party.  It's a nice way to remember who was there since I didn't get pictures of everyone.  Overall, I absolutely love this layout!

 
 

Supplies:

  • PL Honey Kit
  • PL Seasons Mini Kit
  • Random embellishments from Studio Calico

Arthur's Album:  Arthur's weekly spread included more pictures of him and some highlighting of our party.  I stuck with the usual color scheme, but changed up the design with the 4x6 journaling card and alternating 3x4 inserts and photos.

 
 

Supplies:

  • PL Baby Neutral Kit
tags: Project Life
categories: Crafting
Saturday 02.15.14
Posted by Tobe Buffenbarger
 

Project Life 2014 -- Week 4

Family Album: I played around with some embellishments this week.  As per usual, I have the weekly highlights inserts and the weekly date insert. I added some alphabet stickers to two of the pictures for added descriptions.  I really love the font of "Sophie."  To help doctor up the printed inserts, I added some candy dots and stamps.  A few weeks ago, I bought some partial kits (Honey and Kraft) from an Etsy seller.  I can't justify buying an entire kit as I already have three separate kits.  But, I can get a few partials to add some extra fun to the spreads.  I really really love the bright colors from the Honey kit. As to this week's photos, it was another Arthur heavy week.  I managed to catch a few adorable smiles and some action shots.  My favorite picture is my artsy shadow picture.  Randomly the light from the windows created some beautiful shadows.

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As it is the end of January, I filled out my monthly wrap-up insert.  I loved embellishing the monthly title card with fun stickers (glittery stars).  I picked my favorite 8 photo a day pictures to include.  I added the each day's theme written on washi tape.  Love the look!

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Supplies:

  • PL Sunshine kit
  • PL Honey kit (partial)
  • PL Day stickers
  • Embellishments from Studio Calico kits
  • Random stamps
  • Random stickers
  • Washi tape

Arthur's Album: This week's spread is very simple and photo heavy.  I made sure to include our weekly highlight inserts and a little journaling about some photos.  I really loved the photos from this week.

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Supplies:

  • PL Baby kit
tags: Project Life
categories: Crafting
Saturday 02.01.14
Posted by Tobe Buffenbarger
 

Project Life 2014 - Weeks 1, 2, 3

I'm starting a new weekly feature highlighting my Project Life pages.  My goal is to stay on top of the weeks throughout 2014.  Making these posts a weekly feature should hold me accountable.  So here we go... Many project lifers create a new album for each year with a title page, etc.  I started PL in October with Arthur's birth, so mine is going to look a little different.  I am hoping to keep Oct. - Dec. 2013 and all of 2014 in one album.  We'll see how that goes.  I decided to start my 2014 weekly spreads with the week of Dec. 30 - Jan. 5.  Yes, I included Dec. 30th and 31st in Week 1's spread.  I think it will help me stay organized.

Week 1

Family Album: It's another case of the missing photographs.  Darn Walgreens!  I hope to get them printed sometime this week, so I can add them in.  For the left side, I went with a winter color scheme of gray, blue, and white.  We were still in Indiana and there was almost 2 feet of snow on the ground; the colors seemed appropriate.  I went back to the day by day journaling using the PL day stickers.  For the right side, I wanted to highlight the start of 2014.  I used three inserts from the Holiday mini kit and added some silver stars.  The number chipboard stickers were from a Studio Calico kit I bought on Black Friday.  I love their silhouettes.  The "Explore" insert was a Google image that I downloaded.  I chose "Explore" as my word for 2014, so I wanted to highlight it in this first week's spread.

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I added two different inserts in this week.  The first insert is my "State of the Blog" wrap up.  I added journaling cards from the PL Sunshine kit and a screenshot of the home page of my blog.  I love the bright colors and simplicity of the inserts.

 
 

The second insert highlights the rest of my Fat Mum Slim's Photo a Day December pictures.  This was the first time I tried one of these challenges.  I finished it, but learned a few lessons along the way.  I used two PL Seafoam inserts as a title page and a journaling card.  To designate each day's theme, I wrote on top of a washi tape swatch adhered to the photo.  They look much better in person.  Now I really need some more washi tape to use this technique more. (Side note: I'm missing the Dec. 31st picture.  I have to get that one printed and inserted.)

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Supplies:

  • PL Seafoam kit
  • PL Sunshine kit
  • PL Holiday mini kit
  • PL Day stickers
  • Random stickers from stash
  • Random paper from stash
  • Various washi tape

Arthur's Album

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Week 2

Family Album: Another week of photos speaking for themselves.  I wanted to get the rest of our vacation pictures into the album.  To highlight the crazy Midwest weather, I cropped a picture from The Weather Channel.

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Supplies:

  • PL Seafoam kit
  • PL Baby kit

Arthur's Album

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Week 3

Family Album: This week I tried to incorporate some insert cards other than the Sunshine and Seafoam kits.  I bought some random sets and partial sets online over the holidays.  I love the lighter blue and orange color combinations.  I also tried to play with pattern cards instead of using just simple designs.  Finally I decided to add "Week __" to the date cards.  (Note: I only did this for the family album.)

 
 

Supplies:

  • PL Seafoam kit
  • WRMK Tangerine kit
  • PL Day stickers

Arthur's Album: On the left side, I did a few journaling cards and a random insert all in yellow.  I love the clean look.  The right side is all about Arthur's 3 month pictures and inserts.  The photo heavy right side balances the cleaner left side.

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Supplies:

  • PL Baby kit
tags: Project Life
categories: Crafting
Saturday 01.25.14
Posted by Tobe Buffenbarger
 

Project Life December

Wrapping up my 2013 Project Life with the last two weeks of December.  Since I was in Indiana at the time, I had to wait until January to complete these spreads.  However, I did plan ahead and work on parts of them while on vacation.  I took a small box filled with journal inserts, bric a brac, journaling pens, glue, and grid paper.  I laid out each weekly spread on the grid paper and wrote in what photo went where.  Then, I did the journal on the insert cards and added some embellishments.  Once I got home, I just printed the pictures and slide them into the page protector pockets.  Easy peasy!  And I stayed on track!

Dec. 16 - 22

Highlights: Since this was the week we were traveling (Arthur for the first time!), I wanted to use some travel themed paper and embellishments.  Thankfully I bought travel themed paper from SU's clearance rack in December.  I cut up the little embellishments (like the "special delivery" tag) and used them as accents.  I also cut down the rest of the paper into 3x4 or 4x6 pieces to use as inserts.  The only insert that isn't that paper is the "True Story" date card.  That one is from PL's Seafoam kit.  The blue worked nicely with the pattern papers.  It's a bit hard to see in these photos, but I did stamp directly onto a few photos.  The pic of Arthur and I has a "postcard" stamp on the bottom.  I experimented with different inks before leaving and decided that Staz-on black worked the best.  I like the look of a simple stamp here and there.  I also stamped the small plane and the globe onto insert cards. Finally I cut up our boarding passes to use as interesting inserts and added a Komet hockey ticket to the family album.  Overall, I really love the colors and flow of these spreads.

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Dec. 23 - 29

Highlights: Christmas week and I had to use Christmas theme paper and embellishments.  The inserts are a mix of some random cut up SU Christmas DSP and pieces from the PL Holiday mini kit.  I then added a few Christmas stickers to add to the fun.  I didn't add any stamping this week, but let the photos speak.  (Side note: The family album's right page is missing a few photos.  For the second time in a row, Walgreens has not printed all the prints I ordered.  Really getting frustrated with them...)

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Christmas insert

In the middle of Christmas week, I added a Design H insert to highlight our "professional" Christmas photos.  Alright, my mother and I took them...  I included a few inserts from the PL Holiday mini kit.  I love our little family photos, even if the twins were in a slightly foul mood that day.

 
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Next week, I'll be sharing Weeks 1, 2, and 3 of 2014.

tags: Project Life
categories: Crafting
Saturday 01.18.14
Posted by Tobe Buffenbarger
 

Project Life November and December

I've only been at this for a few weeks, but I've already learned so much about what to do and what not to do.  My main realization is that I need to make PL work for me and just me.  I've looked at so many different examples of styles and usage and they all look amazing.  But, I can't get too wrapped up in copying some other's design.  I need to make PL work just for me.  It comes down the fact that I like simplicity.  I don't like a lot of clutter, a lot of layering, a lot of embellishment.  While it can be very pretty, that's just not my style.  My simplistic uncluttered style is evident in my pages so far.  I like clean photos and relatively clean inserts.  Although I am experimenting with adding some washi tape accents in the coming weeks. Secondly, I really loving taking a bit of time each Sunday or Monday to do my layouts.  I figure out what pictures I want, where to put them, and which inserts to use.  Then, I journal and put the inserts in the pages.  The photos will be printed later, but I've already got each spread 90% done by Monday night.  As an extra bonus, working on my pages is a nice break from mommy duties.  I can focus just on me for 30-60 minutes.

Thirdly, while I would love to have my pictures printed instantly, I have accepted the plan of printing monthly instead.  I just don't know if home printing is worth the money and hassle at this point.  I save up my pictures until Walgreens or Snapfish or Shutterfly have a good deal and then print them.  So far, so good.

Fourth, I have added a ton of PL related products to my Amazon wishlist.  While I love everything I see, I have limited my list to my favorites.  I just need to remember to not get too stash buying happy that I over supply myself.

Fifth, taking pictures of my pages while in their plastic sleeves is tricky.  To get better pictures, I've resorted to taking the pieces out, laying them on the desk, and then photographing them...  Much better looking on the blog.

Finally, I joined a Studio Calico class starting in January for extra motivation and inspiration.  I've heard about so many people losing momentum at some point in the year.  I want to make it all the way.  And having a bit of extra help will certainly be a great idea.

Nov. 4 - 10

Highlights: This week was all about hanging out near the house...  As for the design, I stuck with my basic design of 4x6 prints and 3x4 inserts.  I added the day of the week stickers to my weekly highlights for the family album.  I'm trying to add more embellishments to my pages, but haven't quite figured that out yet.

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Nov. 11 - 17

Highlights: Arthur turned one month old this week.  I made sure to add the special 1 month inserts to his pages to highlight the occasion.  For the family album, I stuck more toward the pictures speaking for themselves.  A little bit of embellishment on these pages.

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Nov. 18 - 24

Highlights: A couple of trips outdoors this week.  Arthur and I went to two new parks.  I love discovering new places around here...  The holes you see were pictures that somehow didn't get printed by Walgreens.  I have about 10 different photos that didn't print, but were clearly on my order.  I had to call, complain, and get them to reprint my photos.  I just haven't stuck them back into the albums yet.  I added a few word stickers to the family album.  I don't want to over embellish my pages.  I like the cleaner look.

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Nov. 25 - Dec. 1

Highlights: Arthur and I started our weekly walks at Shoreline with the mom's group.  Shoreline is a gorgeous park with gorgeous views.  We are really loving the walk, socializing with other moms and babies, and lunch at the cafe afterwards.  I caught some great Arthur expressions in this week's photos.  For the family album, I started including my photo-a-day challenge photos.  When they don't easily fit into the spreads, I have collecting them into their own inset page for the end of the month.

Extra bonus: I added in a Thanksgiving insert for Arthur's photo shoot with the turkey hat.  I didn't want to lose out on including other photos just to get these adorable ones in...  An insert seemed like the perfect way to go.  I plan on doing another insert for Christmas photos.

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Dec. 2 - 8

Highlights: A pretty quiet week at home.  For my photo-a-day pics, I added each day's theme on washi tape.  I love the look and it utilizes more of my craft stash.  The cut out heart was a random chip board piece that was lying around.  I love how it stands out against the dark background in that picture.  Plus, lots of regular day-by-day style journaling.

 
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Dec. 9 - 15

Highlights: Arthur turned 2 months old this week!  I had to include his 2 month photo shoot pictures.  If you look closely, the monthly stats insert isn't filled out.  I finished doing that yesterday.  I wanted to get his stats from the doctor's appointment.  Since we didn't do much this week, I condensed my day-by-day journaling inserts into one weekly highlights insert.  This allowed me to include more Arthur and photo-a-day pictures.

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tags: Project Life
categories: Crafting
Monday 12.16.13
Posted by Tobe Buffenbarger
 

Project Life October

With my new method of scrapping, I journal and lay out the spreads every Sunday, but don't print pictures every week.  Instead, I will be printing them monthly for convenience and hopefully to use some of the printing deals at Snapfish and Walgreens. I started the weekly spreads with Arthur's birth.  Overall, his and the family album are very similar.  I usually only have a few minor differences (I don't think he will care what I was blogging about in any given week or what I was reading).  I think I'm going to stay pretty constant week to week with the family album.  I love the idea of having inserts for each day that I can use to jot down what we did.  I can always change the format, but this seems really appealing right now.

Oct. 14 - 20

The big highlight of the week was that Arthur arrived, of course!  The first two photos are the weekly spread from Arthur's album.  I added the week's dates stamped onto an insert card (I will continue to do this for every week, I love the look!).  I also added some informational cards about his birth our journey home.  The second two photos are the weekly spread from the family album.  I used many of the same pictures, but instead of random inserts, I did a card for each day.  I wrote a quick list of what we did each day to remember the week better.  I love the colors on the Sunshine kit inserts and went with a fun collection of colors for this week.  Plus, I added some baby related stickers to one of the inserts to give it some more character.

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Oct. 21 - 27

The highlight of the week was lots of visitors!  Arthur met his first people outside of mom, dad, and hospital staff.  He looks like he's crying in the picture with Auntie Cecilia, but he's actually yawning.  They caught us right before nap time.

Again, I did a bulleted list of weekly happenings.  I also added Arthur's inked footprint.  The ones they did in the hospital were horrible and the ink bled throughout the entire paper.  I did mine using the standard Stampin' Up ink and paper.  They're not super dark, but I still got them.

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Oct. 28 - Nov. 3

It's Halloween!  Not that we actually did anything with a two week old baby, but still I had to add some Halloween themed inserts.  I bought the PL Holidays Mini-kit.  I love the insert designs and the fact that you get two large inserts and eight small inserts for each of the holidays.  I added the three dimensional Halloween themed stickers and the Happy Baby sticker from my scrapbooking stash.  For the 3x4 pictures, I just printed a regular 4x6 and cut it down to the right size.  Thankfully I had a few pictures that could be cropped to fill the slots.

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Until next month...

tags: Project Life
categories: Crafting
Thursday 11.07.13
Posted by Tobe Buffenbarger
 

Project Life Transition

With the birth of my third child, I realized that my previous method of scrapbooking was not going to work.  Mainly it took too much time and thought.  I would also let it go for months and then have to do a marathon session to catch up.  I'm sure events and commentary were lost in the process.  To be fair, I started scrapping in 2007.  I went back to scrapbook the twins' lives from their birth in 2003.  I also went back and scrapbooked my entire life in an attempt to decrease the boxes of random memorabilia and photographs.  It worked well, but I won't be able to keep up with four different albums at one time. I started seeing more and more bloggers using the Project Life method.  I did a bit of research.  I thought about it.  And I finally decided that this method would work better for our new life.  Although I do have a few modifications to fit our life.  The twins' individual albums will stay the same.  As I don't see them everyday, it makes sense to focus on events rather than a weekly time table.  The family album and baby Arthur's album are transitioning to Project Life.  My goal is to create a spread a week or at the very least biweekly. I want to focus on meaningful moments and journaling our lives.  I love the idea of small events.  I love the idea of flexibility with PL.

In preparation, I bought a few kits to get me started.  I picked up the Baby Edition for Arthur's album (gender neutral edition full of grays and yellows), the Seafoam Edition for the family album, a mini Holiday Kit for both, and the Sunshine Edition (designed by A Beautiful Mess) for the family album.  I wasn't planning on buying that many kits, but the Holiday mini kit seemed like a good investment, plus I snapped it up for 40% at Michaels.  The Sunshine kit was just released and I love their designs too much to pass it up.  This means that I am stocked with paper inserts for probably a few years (at least a year for each album).  I also bought a Seafoam and a Baby designer paper pack to cut at my discretion.  This seems like a lot of supplies, but I keep reminding myself that this is almost all I need to create interesting scrapbooks.  I won't be randomly picking up stickers, paper, and embellishments.  I plan on using scraps and already bought supplies to doctor some of the inserts.  Some will go in as is.  It's all about customization, but I do love a clean look without lots of embellishments or layering.

So, I am officially embarking on the Project Life adventure this month.  I plan on starting the weekly spreads now that the baby has arrived. To prep, I have created a few transition/introduction pages to start the albums.  I made a nice introduction page for the family album with journaling about the transitions and my theme for the album: Change and Growth.  I journaled a bit about why we are changing scrapbooks and our family.  I added pictures of our current (before baby) family and some facts about them.  For Arthur's album, I used the same idea with different papers and inserts.

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I then added in a page highlighting all my ultrasound pictures to document that part of the journey.  I duplicated that page in Arthur's album just with different designer paper.

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The next pages highlight the nursery and baby shower thrown by my crafting friends.  I also inserted a few of the handmade cards I received from friends.

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Overall, I am really happy with the flexibiloty of the PL system.  I can make spreads that fit our events or weeks.  But I also have a limited supply of inserts and page dividers.  It forces me to make decisions instead of getting lost in the possibilities.  Slowly, it is coming together.  I can't wait to start highlighting our weekly adventures.  I plan on sharing them on the blog on a monthly basis.  Look for them soon...

Supplies used:

  • PL Seafoam edition kit
  • PL Seafoam designer paper
  • PL Sunshine edition kit
  • PL Baby edition kit
  • PL Baby designer paper
  • American Crafts D-ring binder (black and lime green)
  • Corner rounder
  • Date stamp
  • Random baby stickers from stash
  • Black marker
tags: Project Life, scrapbooking
categories: Crafting
Thursday 10.24.13
Posted by Tobe Buffenbarger
 

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