Project Life 2013, Week 30

Week 30: July 21 - July 27, 2013

Around here, it was a busy week. I cleaned out and organized my pantry (yuck! I hate that chore and so only get around to it every few years and end up with things that expired an embarrassingly long time ago!!). We did a little back to school shopping (some new Vans for Dean). Legos and a trip to the Library are pretty standard. Excitement came in the form of Drama Camp for Dean (my mom signed him up for that - he was less than thrilled - he's more of a brainy introverted nerd than an outgoing drama kind of kid. But it was probably good for him to stretch himself a bit). We celebrated my birthday (sigh. I was less than thrilled about getting another year older - they go by so fast anymore). And all of Hawaii freaked out about Tropical Storm Flossie, which turned out to be a bit of a let-down, to be honest.

As for products used, there's my usual Seafoam Project Life kit as well as a little bit of Midnight mixed in. My Tiny Attacher mini stapler comes in handy almost every week for attaching things like that Vans tag. I also used several Emily Merritt kits - Selfie,  Summer Days Summer Nights, and True  Statement Cards No. 1.

And that's about it. Week 30 was done - pretty simple!

And now some stats, because I think it's fun when Elise Cripe does this, so I thought I'd start as well:

Ratio of photos taken by Jen to photos taken by Joel: 7 to 2
Ratio of Galaxy S4 Phone Photos to "real camera" photos: 9 to 0

I will be sharing a link to this post on The Mom Creative blog.

Project Life, 2013, Week 29

Week 29: July 14 - July 20, 2013

Trying to get my posts back in order, but I think it's hopeless for this year. Sorry I've been sharing these layouts so randomly! I am now officially caught up in my album - I finished up my Week 39 layout Sunday afternoon (it feels SO GOOD to have stayed mostly caught up this entire year!). Now my goal is to get caught up with my blog posts this month, then maybe finally get around to sharing my 2012 December Daily album, and then sometime in November share my prep work for this year's December Daily so I can possibly share those pages as I work on the album. We'll see how it goes - all of that sounds a bit ambitious for me as far as sharing goes. Ha!

So anyway, on to Week 29...

It was a pretty mellow week around here. We were in the last few weeks of Summer Break for Dean (School started here in Hawaii the first of August). We tried (again) to ride his bike - still a no-go to this day. The kid is just not interested in learning to ride a bike, no matter how bad his parents want him to learn! Oh well. This is proving to be a good lesson for Joel and I in parenting and letting go of our own ideas of what and when things are "supposed to" happen and just letting Dean be Dean. It's a hard lesson.  We all did a lot of nothing around here this week too - TV watching, I started a new crochet project (at the time I really didn't know how to crochet either, so that was interesting! LOL), and we did a lot of reading. I didn't have many pictures by the end of the week, so I had some space to fill. I accomplished this by using an online stock photo from a documentary we watched on TV that week, taking a photo of the yarn I was using for my new crochet project, taking a photo of my craft space (where I spent quite a bit of time that week), and using another online stock photo - this time of the cover of a book I finished reading. It ended up all working out just fine.

As for products, you'll of course notice my go-to Seafoam Kit cards by Becky Higgins. I also used several printables from Emily Merritt - always some of my faves! along with bits and pieces of Elle's Studio goodies. I think overall, despite the lack of actual photos of us, the layout captures the feel of our week pretty well. I'm happy with it.

And speaking of December Daily, have you all seen all the crazy amounts of Holiday / Christmas products in stock over at Two Peas!? How in the world will I ever decide what to buy? Are you doing DD this year? What products are you using? Are you using a kit or items from your stash or buying individual new stuff or what? I think I'm going to use a mix of items from my stash (which is way bigger than it should be, I need to thin it out - maybe I should do some blog candy to get rid of some stuff??), Studio Calico's Magical Collection, and Elle's Studio Noel Collection.

And now some stats, because I think it's fun when Elise Cripe does this, so I thought I'd start as well:

Ratio of photos taken by Jen to photos taken by Joel: 7 to 1
Ratio of Galaxy S4 Phone Photos to "real camera" photos: 8 to 0

I will be sharing a link to this post on The Mom Creative blog.

Project Life 2013, Week 28

Week 28: July 7 - July 13, 2013:

Backing up again - sorry for posting these layouts in such a random order!

This was a fun week around here. Dean was at Art Camp at the Hui again, we celebrated Joel's 31st birthday (yes, I'm a cougar! LOL), and we enjoyed a few fun crafty / artsy projects at home together.

I used cards from my Seafoam core kit, which has been standard for me every single week this year - it really has been my "core" for 2013 - and added cards from Studio Calico's Project Life kit as well as cards from the Jade core kit and a printable from Emily Merritt's Check The Box Summer Edition kit.   You'll also see that fun striped label stamp from Reverse Confetti's Arrows 'n Elements stamp set as well as a fun circle tag from the Real Life Miscellany Tags by Evalicious.

One thing I love about Project Life is that it gives me a place to keep some of the cute little things Dean draws and creates. That yellow cat? It was part of a bigger drawing that I just trimmed down and slipped right into the pocket. I also love taking photos of some of his larger artwork, like the water balloon dart painting canvas that's in the bottom right photo. These will be so fun to look back on in 20 years!

And now some stats, because I think it's fun when Elise Cripe does this, so I thought I'd start as well:

Ratio of photos taken by Jen to photos taken by Joel: 6 to 1
 Ratio of Galaxy S4 Phone Photos to "real camera" photos: 7 to 0

I will be sharing a link to this post on The Mom Creative blog.

Project Life 2013 Week 35 - Reverse Confetti September Release Blog Hop

Project Life 2013 Week 35 - Aug 25 - Aug 31, 2013:

Hello September and Hello REVERSE CONFETTI Fans!  I'm so excited to be hopping along again with the Reverse Confetti Design Team and Special Guests in this month's New Release Blog Hop from Reverse Confetti! I received the Count Your Rainbows stamp set to play with this month and at the time of this post I've already placed my order for the Forever Fall, Lighthearted Letters, and Spooky Sentiments sets - all of which I think will work perfectly in my fall (and some other times) Project Life layouts! As usual for me with these Blog Hops, I'm sharing another Project Life layout - I'm loving how easy it is to incorporate the RC stamps into my weekly PL spreads. (To see other examples of how I've used the Reverse Confetti stamps in my Project Life album, see THIS POST and THIS POST). 

The hop started over on the Reverse Confetti Blog and you should have made it here from the amazing Heather Pulvirenti's Blog. It would be worth your while to start at the beginning of the hop so you don't miss a thing. We have tons of inspiration for you to see using all of Reverse Confetti's new stamp sets!

For my layout, I used the previously mentioned Count your Rainbows set along with my old fave Arrows 'n Elements. Here are a few more photos of both sides of the layout so you can see how I combined these two stamp sets:

Of note, I also used some fun new Back to School printables (School Time and Graded) by Emily Merritt, which coordinated perfectly with the pictures from Open House at Dean's school. And in case it isn't obvious, I used the numbers from the Count your Rainbows stamp set to number a few of the photos and then created a sort of "Week in Review" card (below) to explain the details of these particular photos. I'll definitely be using this set again in the future for this! The arrows used throughout the layout as well as the "awesome" and "oh, hello" sentiments are from the Arrows 'n Elements set. (Don't worry PLers - I've already been bugging Jen to create a follow-up to this set with similar sentiments and element stamps!!).

You can also see another example of how well so many of the RC stamp sets coordinate for use in Project Life on this 4x6 card about Joel's new adventure into Grad School. I combined some element stamps from the Arrows 'n Elements set with sentiments from the Count your Rainbows set. And yes, I really did make my husband pose like that for a "First Day of Grad School" photo using the same chalkboard we use every year for Dean's First Day of School photos!! He's such a good sport...

And for those of you interested, here are graphics of the complete stamp sets I used on this week's layouts. Remember, the Count your Rainbows set is just 1 of FIVE new stamp sets releasing today - you'll definitely want to check out the other sets!

I hope you've enjoyed hopping with us today. Be sure and hop with the Confetti Crew on the 8th of EVERY MONTH for more Reverse Confetti inspiration! Now it's time to hop on over to Kimberly Crawford's blog. If you get lost along the way, you can find the hop order and list of all the participating designers over on the Reverse Confetti blog.

A few things before you hop along though, just to keep you "in the know"...

SKETCH FOR YOU TO TRY (SFYTT) - Play along each month for your chance to win the ENTIRE NEXT RELEASE and to be invited to play along with the Confetti Crew as they sneak peek and hop with all the new stamps. Click HERE for more details and link list.

'FETTI FINDS - Link your Reverse Confetti creations to the link list posted on the Reverse Confetti blog each Monday (Note: Reverse Confetti stamps are required for 'Fetti Finds.) A 'Fetti Fave will be announced on the Reverse Confetti Blog from that month's entries. The 'Fetti Fave will receive the ENTIRE NEXT STAMP RELEASE and be invited to play along with the Confetti Crew as we sneak peek and hop with all the new stamps. Click HERE for more details and link list.

Celebrate the creative side of you!

*********************************************************************************************

And now for some stats, because I think it's fun when Elise Cripe does this, so I thought I'd start as well:

Ratio of photos taken by Jen to photos taken by Joel: 6 to 1 (and 1 image downloaded from the internet)
Ratio of Galaxy S4 Phone Photos to "real camera" photos: 7 to 0
I will be sharing a link to this post on The Mom Creative blog.

Project Life 2013, Week 26

I can't believe it's been nearly a month since I blogged! August was just crazy around here. My MIL was here for most of the month reupholstering our living room furniture - it turned out great and I love it, but the process was a big mess for several weeks and sort of turned life upside down (I didn't realize how hard it is to live without furniture!). My son also started school (2nd grade!), I have big changes happening at work (we're moving into a new clinic in a few weeks), and my husband Joel also started back to school (grad school to get his Master's in Social Work) - so August seemed like one big adjustment period for all of us! Things finally seem to be settling down. I'm VERY proud of the fact that even in the midst of all the craziness, I somehow managed to stay caught up on Project Life!! YAY! So, let's see if I ever manage to catch up on sharing my layouts here on the blog...

Week 26: June 23 - June 29, 2013

What was happening this week: One of my good friends from high school, Alanna, who I hadn't seen in like 15 years!!, came to visit for a week with her sweet family. They stayed at my Mom's house in Kihei while my Mom was vacationing on the mainland. I took off work the week they were here and we had so much fun playing tourists. It was awesome seeing our boys interact and getting to know each other's husbands in real life (Facebook doesn't seem like "real life", ya know?). I really can't put into words how GOOD this week was - every bit of it. 

I used a little bit of the Midnight Core kit and the Jade Core kit by Becky Higgins in this layout as well as lots of bits and pieces from Elle's Studio.  That "Hello Vacation!" card is from the Saltwater Journal Tags collection, which I've just about completely used up. I also used a bunch of white Micro Monogram stickers throughout the layout.

The right side of the layout is really more of the same - photos of our Staycation adventures with Alanna's family, lots of Elle's Studio goodies.

And now some stats, because I think it's fun when Elise Cripe does this, so I thought I'd start as well:

Ratio of photos taken by Jen to photos taken by Joel: 6 to 0 (plus 2 taken by Alanna, 1 taken by Alanna's son Micah, 1 taken by Alanna's husband Curtis, and 1 taken by a stranger at the spa)
 Ratio of Galaxy S3 Phone Photos to "real camera" photos: 9 to 2

I will be sharing a link to this post on The Mom Creative blog.

Project Life 2013 Week 31 - Reverse Confetti Blog Hop

Project Life 2013 Week 31: July 28 - Aug 3, 2013

 

Hello August and Hello REVERSE CONFETTI Fans!  I'm so excited to be hopping along today with the Reverse Confetti Design Team and a few other Special Guests in this month's creative Blog Hop from Reverse Confetti! Last month's release was fantastic and today we are inspiring you with projects and cards using those stamps and any other previously released stamps from Reverse Confetti. Of course, I'm sharing another Project Life layout - I just love how easy it is to incorporate the RC stamps into my weekly PL spreads. (To see another example of how I've used the Reverse Confetti stamps in my Project Life album, see THIS POST, where I share my Week 27 layout).

The hop started over on the Reverse Confetti blog, and you should have made it here from the amazing Heather Pulvirenti's blog. It would be worth your while to start at the beginning of the hop, so you don’t miss a thing. We have tons of inspiration for you to see using all of Reverse Confetti’s amazing stamp sets! (and a giveaway for one lucky hopper if you leave a little love along the way)

For my layout, I mostly used the Arrows 'n Elements set, but mixed in a few stamps from the Celebrate Cake and Peacock Pretties sets. Here's a closer look at the left side of the layout:

This was just last week, which was a pretty exciting week for us - we traveled off the island where we live (Maui) to Oahu for a little mini 5-day vacation. You can probably read the details on the journaling cards if you're interested, but basically when you live on a small island like Maui - getting to go do things like go shopping at a real mall and go to a Water Park are pretty big deals!! ;-) Traffic? Not so fun when you're used to a maximum speed limit of 45 mph and nothing but 2-lane highways! But we managed to survive. Starting in the top right corner of the left side of my layout, you can see that I used that round stamp from the Peacock Pretties set as a geotag - I know, sometimes my cleverness shocks even myself. LOL. The rest of the stamps used on this page are from the Arrows 'n Elements set - which I can't seem to get enough of! I love how all the little arrows and tags are absolutely perfect for Project Life!  

Now let's look a little closer at the right side of the layout:

Again, lots of Arrows 'n Elements on this side of the page. But if you take a look at the top right 4x6 pocket where I included our tickets from our tour of 'Iolani Palace - I used a couple of stamps from the Celebrate Cake set. I also added the "Good Times" stamp from the Celebrate Cake set to the striped label from Arrows 'n Elements in the bottom left 4x6 photo. Love being able to mix & match some of these sets! I used another one of those fun triangles (ice cream cones?) from Celebrate Cake on the bottom right 4x6 card. And can I just point out that CRAZY tree in that photo? Have you ever seen a tree like that? My husband is a pretty big guy (6'3" and about 230 lbs) and he looks TINY next to that ginormous tree! It's on the University of Hawaii at Manoa campus. I've never seen anything like it! And yes, it really is called a "Dead Rat Tree". There's your botany lesson of the day. You're welcome.

Well, that's about it from me today. I hope you’ve enjoyed hopping with us. Be sure and hop with the Confetti Crew on the 8th of EVERY MONTH for more REVERSE CONFETTI inspiration! Now it’s time to hop on over to the talented Kimberly Crawford's blog. If you get lost along the way, you can find the hop order and list of all the participating designers over on the Reverse Confetti blog.

How would you like to win some Reverse Confetti goodies of your very own?  Leave a comment on each stop along the way for a chance to win a $15 gift certificate to REVERSE CONFETTI. Comments are open until Monday night, August 12^th at 11pm CST, and the winner will be announced on the Time for a Card Tuesday post on the 13^th over on the Reverse Confetti Blog!

And now for some stats, because I think it's fun when Elise Cripe does this, so I thought I'd start as well:

Ratio of photos taken by Jen to photos taken by Joel: 12 to 3
Ratio of Galaxy S3 Phone Photos to "real camera" photos: 15 to 0

I will be sharing a link to this post on The Mom Creative blog.

Project Life 2013 - Week 25

Hi there! Just a quick post tonight between power outages - we're braving the remnants of Tropical Storm Flossie here on Maui and have had tons of rain, wind, and lots of lightning and thunder - all of which combine to mean our power has been in and out for the last several hours. Luckily, the storm has been weakening for most of the day and although Maui took a pretty direct hit, it wasn't nearly as bad as everyone predicted so I don't think we'll wake up to too much trouble around here tomorrow. Although there's bound to be a lot of flooding (thanks to our terrain) and it was a bit of a pain for my MIL's flight from the mainland to get cancelled today (she was due to arrive for a nice long visit), it definitely could have been worse!

So moving right along to share my Week 25 layout - June 16 - June 22, 2013:

I used a mix of Seafoam and Jade Core Kits as well as my standard Emily Merritt Printables and a few goodies from Studio Calico. Pretty typical. 

On the left side of the layout, I used Emily's Hashtags No. 1 as well as some tags / labels from her Summer Play collection. I also used one of my favorite Atlantic Arrows / Chevrons Cork Stickers from Studio Calico.

On the right side, I used a few different printable cards from Emily's Water Play kit as well as more tags / labels from her Summer Play collection. I added a tag from a new neon pink shirt I bought at the Gap that week - ya know, since Neon is making a comeback. ;-) I liked that the tag said both "Neon Dye" and "Summer '13". Journaling done.

Quick and easy.

And now some stats, because I think it's fun when Elise Cripe does this, so I thought I'd start as well:

Ratio of photos taken by Jen to photos taken by Joel: 7 to 2 
Ratio of Galaxy S3 Phone Photos to "real camera" photos: 9 to 0 (I should really just stop doing this one because I hardly ever pull out my "real camera").

I will be sharing a link to this post on The Mom Creative blog.

Project Life 2013 - Week 24

Aloha! Thank you so much for the sweet comments on my last post - it's great to know there are a few of you out there actually reading these posts! ha! And please, if you happen to stumble upon my blog and like what you see and you also blog your Project Life layouts, leave a comment with your blog address - I'm always on the lookout for inspiration!!

Ok, so moving right along to Week 24 - June 9 - June 15, 2013:

I really love this layout. I mixed and matched cards from the Seafoam, Jade, Midnight, and Honey kits along with LOTS of Emily Merritt printables this week. I also mixed in little embellishments and tags from Studio Calico and Elle's Studio here and there. Here's a look at the left side of the page:

That Sunday label on the top right 4x6 card with the 2 instagram photos from our Twin Falls hike is from the Days of the Week stamp set by Evalicious. Pretty much all of the printed 3x4 cards on both the left and right side of the layout are from the Hey There collection by Emily Merritt. And just because I think it's a really cute story (and you might not be able to read it), the journaling on that speech bubble card reads: "Joel was trying to explain the concept of ethnicity to Dean (b/c he seems convinced that Mario is Japanese". After, to gauge Dean's understanding, I asked him if he knew what his own ethnicity is. His answer, without hesitation: "English and Hawaiian". Yeah. I think we totally nailed that lesson."

The right side of the layout is more of the same really. I love the top right photo that I took of Dean's Andy Warhol-inspired portrait of Buckminster Fuller he created at his first week of Art Camp. We saved the original painting to frame, but simply taking a photo of it worked perfectly to include in Project Life!

Some stats, because I think it's fun when Elise Cripe does this, so I thought I'd start as well:

Ratio of photos taken by Jen to photos taken by Joel: 8 to 3  
Ratio of Galaxy S3 Phone Photos to "real camera" photos: 10 to 1

I will be sharing a link to this post on The Mom Creative blog.

Project Life 2013 - Week 23

Ok, backing up a few weeks to share my Week 23, which was the week of June 2 - June 8, 2013. (Just for the record, because I'm pretty excited about this, I'm actually totally caught up on my PL albums right now and have through Week 28 completed - I just find it much harder to stay caught up with blogging. Mostly because I'm not really sure anyone actually reads these posts?):

I used a little bit of my Studio Calico kit this week along with several printed goodies from Emily Merritt.

On that left side of the layout, those "sweet" and "summer" cards are from Emily Merritt's conveniently named Sweet Summer collection from One Story Down (so is the "I Love Summer" chalkboard card on the right side of the page).  I also added a few Elle's Studio bits and pieces to both sides of the layout.

On the right side of the page, that fun #momentscaptured hashtag card is from Emily Merritt's Hashtags No. 1 set of card (I'm loving all of her new hashtags card sets - she has another one at The Lilypad that is also adorable!!). I also used my Days of the Week stamp set from Evalicious on that Lazy Summer Day 4x6 card. I definitely don't use that stamp set enough!

And that's it. I'll try to share more layouts soon and get caught up with my blogging.  Please let me know what you think!

Some stats, because I think it's fun when Elise Cripe does this, so I thought I'd start as well:

Ratio of photos taken by Jen to photos taken by Joel: 10 to 2
Ratio of Galaxy S3 Phone Photos to "real camera" photos: 10 to 0

I will be sharing a link to this post on The Mom Creative blog.

Project Life 2013, Week 27 - Reverse Confetti Blog Hop

Hello REVERSE CONFETTI Fans! I was so excited when my friend Jen asked if I'd like to play along as a special guest for this month's new release! The wait is finally over, and it's time for another new release from your favorite new company!  That's right, it's time for Reverse Confetti's second release and it's even better than the first one.  Another 4 new stamp sets are being released TODAY!  We know you all are excited to see what's new, so start by hopping along with the Confetti Crew, along with some other special guests.

If you're one of my regular blog readers, I'm skipping ahead a few weeks in sharing my Project Life because today I'm participating in a special Blog Hop with the Reverse Confetti Design Team. I've been loving ALL of their stamps, but this new Arrows 'n Elements set in particular is absolutely PERFECT for Project Life!! Take a look at how I used it throughout my entire layout this week..

The hop started over on the Reverse Confetti blog, and you should have made it here from Heather's blog.  It would be worth your while to start at the beginning of the hop, so you don’t miss a thing.  We have tons of inspiration for you to see using Reverse Confetti’s second release of 4 brand new stamp sets!

Here's a look at that amazing Arrows 'n Elements stamp set that I used so much of this week (and I just know I'll be using throughout my Project Life layouts in weeks to come!). Today is Release Day, so that means this set, along with 3 other fun new stamp sets, are available NOW in the Reverse Confetti store:

And how about some closer looks at my layout? Week 27 covered last week (June 30-July 6), which was a busy week around here. One of my good friends from high school, Alanna, was here visiting (most of her trip fell during Week 26, which I'll be sharing in the near future) and the first few days of the week covered the end of her visit. Our kids had a blast at the beach together! Then mid-week Joel and Dean enjoyed a fun day at the pool.

You might notice that my date card is hand stamped this week with a fun background stamp - that stamp is also a Reverse Confetti stamp releasing today - Whole Lotta Dots. So fun to create that 4x6 date card myself! And that Arrows 'n Elements set is seriously so versatile. So many mix & match stamps and I had a blast creating a few 3x4 journal cards.

And here's a closer look at a few of the pockets where you can see how I used some of the other stamps. The sentiments fit perfectly into the striped rectangle, but I also used that rectangle as a little journal tag - something I never seem to have enough of! It's the PERFECT size to add to a corner of a 4x6 photo as you can see on that beautiful photo Alanna captured of a green sea turtle at Ho'okipa Beach Sunday afternoon. I also stamped directly onto that photo, something I've decided I don't do enough of. As you can see on my "just sayin'" 3x4 journal card, the striped flag-ended stamp is designed to align perfectly with the striped rectangle stamp, but it also looks super cute as an extra little embellishment (seen at the top left of the "pool time" 4x6 card).

The right side of the layout mostly covers the 4th of July. And it's mostly self-explanatory I think. The top right pocket holds a trimmed down piece of artwork my son Dean made for the 4th (that may or may not have been purposefully color-coordinated specifically for my PL layout. {wink}).

I mixed in a few cork circle stickers from Studio Calico as well as the printable "life is in session" card from Emily Merritt's True Statement Cards No. 1 (recolored). The Summer 2013 card on the left side of the layout is from Elle's Studio. I absolutely love how effortlessly this stamp set coordinated with all the other products I reach for when working on my Project Life layouts each week. It's definitely earned a permanent spot in my "go to" pile on my desk!

Thank you so much for stopping by today! I hope you’ve enjoyed hopping with us today.  Be sure and hop with the Confetti Crew on the 8th of EVERY MONTH for more REVERSE CONFETTI inspiration!  Now it’s time to hop on over to Kimberly's blog.  If you get lost along the way, you can find the hop order and list of all the participating designers over on the Reverse Confetti blog. Celebrate the creative side of you!

Some stats, because I think it's fun when Elise Cripe does this, so I thought I'd start as well:

Ratio of photos taken by Jen to photos taken by Joel: 4 to 3 (and 2 taken by my sweet friend Alanna Bird, 1 taken by my Mom)
Ratio of Galaxy S3 Phone Photos to "real camera" photos: 8 to 2
I will be sharing a link to this post on The Mom Creative blog.

Project Life 2013, Week 22

Week 22: May 26 - Jun 1, 2013

This has ended up being one of my favorite weeks so far this year. I know I saw this a lot, but I really do like how this week turned out. I used lots of Elle's Studio goodies this week, including their May 2013 kit. (I am super excited to have won their June kit in their Instagram Giveaway and can't wait to play with it!).

I used a 4x6 card from the Jade kit for my Title Card this week, adding some Silhouette cuts by Kerri Bradford to mark the week. The rest of the layout was a mix of Seafoam, Elle's Studio goodies, and a few items from Studio Calico.

It was a really fun week around here. We spent the morning Sunday hiking across the lava flows out past Makena and exploring tidepools. I documented the Who, What, Where, When and Why of that on a 3x4 card from the Seafoam kit. I used a few different little Elle's Studio tags on my photos. That vellum 3x4 card and the vellum date / place strip on the top right 4x6 photo are both from the Elle's Studio May kit. (I'm totally in love with those 6-inch vellum strips!). Other news documented on the left side of my layout was the loss of Dean's 2nd front tooth! That kid has lost both of his top front teeth, both traumatically knocked out! He is now officially TERRIFIED of losing teeth and is convinced that losing a tooth hurts. Well, this time, the tooth (which was already pretty loose), got knocked out at gymnastics Monday night! Of course, being the good Project Life Mom that I am, I had to pause in my comforting to take a photo of him crying while holding his tooth with his gymnastics coach! ha! Here's a closer look (because I'm sorry, but I think it's kind of funny. I know, I'm terrible):

Anyway, moving on to the right side of the layout...

The "Book Report" card and the "My Favorites" card (more on that in a minute) are both from Elle's Studio. Super cute, right? I added some misted wood veneer letters to the "hello" card. And I have to say, we had some pretty adorable pics that weekend. I love the picture Joel got of Dean playing the ukulele at the park. Such a typical Maui day. And the pictures of Dean and Baby Brooklyn (we were babysitting for a friend) are priceless. On the top left 4x6 photo of Dean at the park, I added some Elle's Studio tags, some pink alpha stickers from a recent Studio Calico kit, and some cork chevron stickers as extra embellishments. And now...that "My Favorites" card. That has to be my favorite thing about the whole week I think. I asked Dean to sit down and fill it out and he did the whole thing without any help . I absolutely LOVE it:

And another week is done. And I'm so happy.

Some stats, because I think it's fun when Elise Cripe does this, so I thought I'd start as well:

Ratio of photos taken by Jen to photos taken by Joel: 9 to 5
Ratio of Galaxy S3 Phone Photos to "real camera" photos: 14 to 0

I will be sharing a link to this post on The Mom Creative blog.

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??

New Project Life Products Available

Just a quick post this morning to let you know that I just noticed that all of the new Becky Higgins Project Life products are in the Two Peas store! I just snagged the Honey Edition Core Kit as well as the Midnight Edition Core Kit for myself. I also decided to get the matching Midnight Edition 3x4 Textured Cardstock and 4x6 Textured Cardstock as well as the Honey Edition 3x4 Textured Cardstock and 4x6 Textured Cardstock. I like using this cardstock in my Silhouette Cameo to create cuts to use on my PL layouts that are all matchy-match with the kit cards that I am using for the week!

If you think you might do some Project Life shopping at Two Peas, be sure to use the June Free Shipping code at checkout (it's actually worth up to $10 off your shipping total, which for most people ends up being free, unless you live in Hawaii! ha!). The June code is: ROMRXF. 

Happy Shopping!! 

Project Life 2013, Week 21

Aloha! Have I mentioned how much I absolutely LOVE being caught up on this project?

Week 21 - May 19 - May 25, 2013:

This was the last week of school here on Maui. Sunday we headed to the beach (I feel like so many of my weeks look the same with beach pictures from Sunday morning!). Then lots of pictures from the end of school and celebrating the beginning of Summer Break. Most schools in Hawaii celebrate May Day as Lei Day, but Dean's school waits until the last week of school and has a Ho'ike (which is like a Hawaiian celebration of hula and aloha). It's such a fun way to celebrate the end of the school year! Each grade level performs a special hula and they do a really great job! 

On the left side of the page, I used a 4x6 card from the Seafoam kit for my Title Card as well as some cutouts from my Silhouette. I've been using my Cameo more and more lately and I've noticed a lot of people have been using the cheaper Portrait, which now I'm kind of wishing I'd held out for (the price tag is a little more attractive and since I only do Project Life, I would never have need for the ability to cut a full 12x12 piece of paper, plus I think I would appreciate that smaller footprint more on my workstation).  I also used some numbers from the Rockabye Cork Letter Thickers on that Title Card. The "You are so Very Loved" 3x4 card and the journal card with the red chevron thingies are both from Studio Calico PL kits. The "Photo Notes" journal strip on the bottom left photo is from the Cameron Labels Lil' Snippets by Elle's Studio and the Too Cool! and Rad! circles are from the Cameron Tidbits by Elle's Studio. This week, Dean brought home his Art Portfolio and writing journals from school. I went through the Art Portfolio and took out all of my favorite pieces and slid them into 8.5x11 page protectors and added them as extra inserts into the appropriate weeks in my PL albums depending on when the artwork was created. I also added some of his writing in the same way. At the very end of his Writing Journal, I found this gem, which was just begging to be cut out and slipped into a 4x6 pocket:



That is so Dean! The right side of the layout mostly focused on Dean's Ho'ike and the last day of school. He looked adorable in his Aloha Shirt and did so well in his hula performance! I was so proud! I also loved that I thought to take a photo of him on the last day of First Grade holding the same chalkboard we used to mark the first day of First Grade to create a fun comparison photo - and I was floored at how much he's grown this year! (just a little something I probably never would have done had I not been doing Project Life).

I used more Elle's Studio goodies on this half of the layout as well, including the Cameron Frames, which are a new fave.  The "Right Now" card and the "Kinda Amazing" card are from the Studio Calico PL kit. And I have to mention that I absolutely love that Joel was able to capture that photo of Dean's "auditorium" at school during the Ho'ike performance! Such lucky kids. The "Summer is Here Again" card is from Echo Park (sorry I don't remember the name, but it was a 12x12 sheet with 12 different 3x4 cards to cut out). And finally, that Yellow Arrow Paperclip on the top right photo - my new obsession that I think I've already mentioned. I can't stop using those things - in every color under the sun by Freckled Fawn! Love them.

And that's it for Week 21. Would love to hear what you think.

I think it's fun when Elise Cripe does this, so I thought I'd start as well:

Ratio of photos taken by Jen to photos taken by Joel: 9 to 1
Ratio of Galaxy S3 Phone Photos to "real camera" photos: 7 to 3

I will be sharing a link to this post on The Mom Creative blog.