Project Life 2013, Album First and Last Pages

I was trying REALLY REALLY hard to get my 2013 Project Life into just 2 albums this year - I was disappointed last year when I had to use 3 albums and really wanted to get them into 2 this year, but it's just not going to happen. Right now I've been including any of Dean's artwork or schoolwork that I want to save (and there's a lot of it - he attends an Arts-Integrated Based Curriculum Public School - the only one of it's kind in Hawaii) in 8.5x11 inserts - slipping them into the week when it was created. I did read on Becky Higgins' blog that there's a possibility that in the future they'll be releasing 8.5x11 Project Life products, so I may come up with a different "system" for his school work at that time, but for now - this system works and I like having everything in chronological order. But it makes my Project Life albums bulky and I'm stuck with 3 albums per year. And that means I have to come up with 3 of the dreaded First and Final pages for the albums each year!! Are you guys with me in your loathing of these pages!? They are by far the thing I dread most about Project Life. I can't really explain why, but I find the first and last pages of my albums to be the hardest ones to complete.

I actually really really love the first page of Album #1 for 2013. I shared this early in the year, but I love it so much I thought I'd share it again:

And guess what? last week I quickly put together the last page for Album #1 and I actually love it too!! Take a look:

It came together pretty easily, thanks to Emily Merritt's new Shine kit and Bright Paper Pack, available at The Lilypad.

After that was done, I went for the trifecta...I was on a roll, so I decided to go for the First Page of 2013 Album #2:

Not bad, huh? I used cards from the Jade and Seafoams kits and some sequins and wood veneer hearts from Studio Calico. I added the names of the months included in the album cut with my Silhouette (files from Kerri Bradford) and was done.

I'm pretty excited to have these pages out of the way - Last year I waited until the very end of the year to do any of them except the very first page of the first album and honestly, I still think I have one last page to do! ugh. Do you dread these as much as I do? Anyone have any first / last page tips or secrets??