week 28

july has been a crazy rainy month in south carolina and it's driving us all a little batty.  

i captured a lot of great memories this week, although they are not all roses and sunshine and i wish they could be but this is real life. as a parent, i am learning more and more about what i want to teach my children. i think it's important for them to know, i'm not prefect, i will make mistakes, i will say i am sorry, i will love them unconditionally forever.  for me, project life is about real life, the everyday, and i hope that somewhere down the road my boys will cherish the fact that i documented these things.

i used the ali edwards's edge sentiments for the picture of the boys going through the catalog of tractors.  the journal cards for the week card as well as the hearts and the here & now, are all from studio calico's project life kits. i have really been enjoying those kits and i find (sadly) that i am not using my seafoam edition project life actual kit that often. the little wooden camera is also studio calico. on the image of denton and his ice cream is another ali creation. on the image of the rainbow, i used illustrator and photoshop to write "somewhere over the rainbow."

this week i changed up the plastic for this side, i used the becky higgins's design G for the layout, i like to see variety in the layouts. in the small 3 x4 areas, i cut down a 4 x 6 image, rounded the corners, i like the way the split pictures look. i used a white gel pen to write directly on the picture of the "intense" game of memory. on the image of lil' bit's 1st birthday party i used ali edwards's birthday hand drawn. the large journal card came for the studio calico project life kit, i then stamped ali's super fantastic stamps that i ordered from technique tuesday. over the stamping i then wrote on the journaling card with a precision pen from american craft. the time with you die cut is also from ali, its part of the 3 x4 time sentiment boxes, i scaled this to fit inside a 4 x 6 box. i scaled and cut it out on my silhouette.

i can honestly say this year has been the most on top of project life i have been, usually i am a month of more behind. for me, the changes i made this week, working on a weekly story rather than an everyday story has helped me greatly. i think i am more excited in general with all the new ways there are to customize the look. no two people will have the same layouts. hope you are still enjoying your journey too! 

week 27

the week of the 4th of blue so much red, white and blue, i love it! 

this was a fun week, so many stories to tell here. we met some new penn state friends a couple of weeks ago and got to hang out with them at the zoo. i cashed in a giant change bottle that i have been keeping since i was 12. 

i used some cathy zielske template this week, so fun to play with. i used them on the receipt and change image and the smaller image of us all at the zoo. the journalling cards and the small on that i cut up to put on the image of the burgers are all from studio calico's project life kits. i have many kits now and while for the most part they are still in order i am not sure which cards are coming from which kits when i get behind in my blogging. sorry. i used small alphabet sticker from basic gray to create james's favorite movie's title, RIO, that kid can't get enough of seeing that movie. over the image of my hubby and me at our annual 4th of july race, i punch cut a heart from a studio calico project life card that was heart patterned. (i was 12 seconds slower this year than last, just an FYI). 

the alphabet sticker on the fireworks come from SN@P and i got those at michael's. the 4 is a card that was in the studio calico project life kit.  i added wood stars also from studio calico. i used mr. huey's color mist in shade, overdue, to color the stars. another cathy zielske tiny template for the spaghetti sauce image, i was canning again, of course. the go. see. do is from the ali edwards's series, i heart travel, available at designer digitals. the week card is from studio calico's project life kit. i stamped the dates on and again used the SN@P stickers for the week 27.

hope you had a great holiday! 

week 26 + day in the life

happy week 26! 

lots of fun stuff this week and the day in the life, an ali edwards prompt to document your daily day, what happens when, what you eat etc. it's a great way to document the "everyday life." 

hello giant child on the t-ball team, far right, yeah... that's one of mine. my week 26 card is made from some paper i ordered from studio calico. added on some thickers and a piece of washi tape.  the wooden hello, i put some white ink on let it dry and attached in to the week card. it is also from studio calico. the i "heart" you card is from ali edwards's remember the story set and i ordered that from technique tuesday. the "this is summer" die cut is also from ali edwards and available at designerdigitals.

this month's day in the life, is 10 x 8 from becky higgins. some months i am really great about keeping track of the time of day and other months i just wing it and document more of the overall day and less of the specifics. today i was about to get a lot. yep... that's the boys peeing of the deck, one of their most favorite things to do, what's that all about? 

tucked into the back of the day in the life, is the program from denton's award ceremony, more on that in a bit. on the back, i used some pictures i took throughout the day. i created this layout in photoshop as i did for the front as well. i then send them to shutterfly to be printed. 

 

i used ali's edge sentiments on the top picture of denton pushing james in the grocery cart. d also wrote a note to the tooth fairy this week, he lost his second tooth but accidentally swallowed it while eating corn on the cob. the two journal cards are from studio calico project life kits. i also used small alphabet sticks from basic grey on the images of james with his undies on his head and denton receiving his bronze star! lastly, i wrote in illustrator "mollie girl" on the picture of mollie and that is then placed directly on the image before printing. that's this week!

week 20

week 20, how did that happen already? kids are getting out of school for the summer soon, what is everyone doing with your breaks?​

this was a week of firsts, first week of Denton being away at school, funny how fast your brain forgets that he was just deployed for 15 months, these two weeks were LONG. first time that i did a juice fast, i am currently still working on this, mostly juicing two meals a day and eating something nice and healthy for dinner. more on that in my running blog. first for james riding the ponies at the zoo. look at that crazy happy smile. melts my heart.​

much of this layout is see through from the other side. the cards are the backs of our disney passes, big d wrote our names on the back. of course, the back of the week title card was also on a clear disney sheet, so you can see that as well. on this side, i used a little flag to write "compost," i compost the pulp from my juice making. i used the "mommy" card from studio calico's april project life kit.​ i wrote around the outside of the circle with an american craft precision pen, then used a circle cutter to cut it down to size. i used the calendar card from the may project life kit. i stamped the date on it, then used basic grey stickers for the may' 13 and clear mint colored letters from heidi swapp.

on this side of the layout, i used a sticker from studio calico that says "forever friends," and basic grey stickers again to create "super sleepover."​ i used an ali edwards' digital brush for the "love this." in photoshop, i then wrote a little journaling inside the brush. the little heart in the speech bubble card and the star card came for the studio calico april project life kit. i am really enjoying all the kits, so fun to work with. lastly, the lucky card that i cut down, i believe was from the studio calico grab bag that i purchased when they were available.

hope you have a great week, with this i am caught up. week 21 will be uploaded this week. ​