Project Life 2013: Week 52, Year in Review, and Final Page

Today I will be sharing the rest of my 2013 album with you. I took these photos two times actually, since I accidentally deleted them the first time. I can't wait to share them with you, because these photos wrap up all of my Project Life albums for 2013. Three years of Project Life, 9 albums filled, and I am still loving this project. I am a huge fan of Project Life, if you can't already tell. If you ever have any questions about Project Life, my process, etc…please do not hesitate to ask. I am a big proponent of documenting your life, so any framework you use to go about it is fabulous, and I am happy to help any way I can.

Onto Project Life, let's see some pages, shall we:

Week 52: December 23rd-December 31st

Left Side: 

Right Side:

Close-Ups:

 Year in Review:

Left Side:

Right Side:

Final Page:

Thank you so much for stopping by today, I appreciate you being here. I will be back tomorrow with my last few days of photos to share from December Daily, and I will be back on Friday with an update on the #40Days40Bags challenge. That is the plan, unless the kids have no school again. What is it with snow in the south, it makes everyone paranoid? With no more school in the forecast, I am hoping school will just be delayed tomorrow. Only time will tell on that one however.

How is your Project Life albums coming along? Anyone else completely finished with 2013? It is such a good feeling, I feel like dancing. Yes, that will probably happen later today, especially since it is snowing outside. There will be dancing in the snow, snow angels, and hopefully a snowman if the snow is wet enough. Until next time….

Happy Scrappin'

xoxox

Toni

Favorite Project Life Layouts from 2013

Happy Tuesday my friends, today is an exciting day in our little house in North Carolina. School was cancelled today because it is suppose to snow this afternoon, a 100% chance to be exact. I know for many of you this seems kind of silly (maybe even downright ridiculous) to cancel school when it hasn't even snowed yet. I find it humorous, but when you live in the south, there are no snow plows, and not much infrastructure to help with snow, so everyone kind of overreacts and panics. I am hoping for at least 4 inches so that I can get some good pictures. I am not really a cold weather person. Not. At. All. I like warmth, not being cold. Brrrr….I am however super excited about the possibility of taking snow pictures today (for Project Life of course,) we'll see how long the kids hold up, we don't have snow gear, so it will be interesting. There probably won't be much snow so it shouldn't really matter either way. Is it just me, or does that sound like famous last words? It's like I am tempting fate. :-)

Ramble over, today I am not going to share the last few pages of my 2013 album like I had planned, you will have to wait for that until tomorrow. I am sorry about that, I do not quite have those ready yet, I blame my camera, well actually me, because I accidentally deleted the pictures. *hanging head in shame* Don't you hate it when that happens? I will be re-taking some pics today and sharing those pages tomorrow. Today however, I will be sharing my 10 favorite Project Life pages from 2013. I had a lot of fun reminiscing and coming up with my top 25 layouts from 2013 last week, and it seems like many of you enjoyed it, so hopefully you will like my round-up of Project Life from 2013 today as well.

Favorite Use of Wild Animals on a Layout (yes birds count):

Favorite Tutorial: Project Life: My Step by Step Process:

This was one of my most liked posts and showed you how I went from this group of images,

To this rough layout in Photoshop Elements,

And finally to this finished layout.

*You can find this step-by-step tutorial in full HERE.

Favorite Layout of a Proud Mom Moment:

Favorite Hand-Stitched Layout:

Favorite Soft Photos on a Layout:

 Favorite Layout from Washington State Trip:

Favorite Layout Supporting the Seattle Seahawks:

Favorite Layout that Shows How Sweet Teenage Boys Can Be:

Favorite Layout Focusing on My Hubby, love you babe!:

Favorite Layout Combing Difficult to put Together Events (Thanksgiving and Christmas):

full layout with insert front, insert is a Design F page protector trimmed down

full layout with insert back, insert is a Design F page protector trimmed down

Thank you so much for joining me today at life, scrapbook, repeat. If you liked looking through these Project Life layouts, there is a direct link on the right side of this blog if you look under "labels" and click "Project Life Tuesday." You will find lots of Project Life posts there. I also have a You Tube channel and currently have one video uploaded, but will have another one ready to go very shortly. My link to this video on my You Tube Channel is HERE if you are interested. I would love it if you subscribed to my channel and follow along. I plan on making 2 Project Life videos a month and subscribing is the easiest way to make sure you see each and every one. :-)

Let's talk Project Life today. Are you still loving the process? Are you new to Project Life? Or are you wondering what in the heck it is? Where do you fall in these categories? If you are new to Project Life, and curious about what it is, I highly recommend watching the video at this link HERE. This short video by Becky Higgins, the creator of the entire Project Life concept, is just a perfect explanation. If you have any ideas for future Project Life topics I can include on the blog, I would love to hear your ideas. I want to make this blog a place that truly inspires others to document their lives and have fun along the way. I would love to hear your suggestions and comments. Until next time….

Happy Scrappin'

xoxox

Toni

Using Paper Bakery's January Capture 365 Kit for Project Life

Today I am sharing my first Paper Bakery pocket page layout with all of you. I am on the Design Team for the Capture 365 kit, and it has been a lot of fun playing with all of the goodies that were sent to me. Some of my favorites are the Basic Grey RSVP 6 x 6 paper pad, the gold triangle sequins, wood buttons, exclusive Paper Bakery flair, and also the amazing October Afternoon letter stickers. There are still kits available HERE if anyone is interested.

The Project Life layout I am sharing today is from 2012, yup you heard that right 2012. I finished all of 2012 up to August 25th, and then I got sick, kids started school, we were house searching. Then I had a few weeks where I was able to work on Project Life, and then yup you guessed it, I got behind again. I am not bothered by it though. I have the photos, most are already in their assigned folders, and I just have to finish it up. Here is what I came up with for this week of Project Life:

 Full Layout:

Left Side:

Right Side:

Close-Ups:

And because it's me, and because I believe in being honest, and well because as you know I love a list, yup you guessed it…I am making a list I can hi-light and cross-off for all of the 2012 Project Life pages I still have left to do! I am really excited about this!!! You might be wondering why I am doing this, and I am happy to tell you. It makes me accountable, and I also thinks it encourages others who fall behind and think they cannot get caught up. I can tell you first hand that it is possible, and if you are curious you can look at THIS blog post form October 2013 that discusses getting completely caught up on 21 weeks (or end and beginning pages) of Project Life in only five weeks

So for my 2012 Project Life Catch-Up Plan, I will be sharing two weeks a month or so until it is all caught up. I might be combining one or two of these weeks, but we'll see how it goes, and how many photos I have. Everything in yellow was finished in 2012, and everything in aqua will be finished this year. It looks like I have 10 weeks, and one ending and one first page to complete. Not too bad. The other 42 weeks of 2012 are done, so that is amazing. I will just keep plugging ahead.

2012 Project Life Catch-Up:

First page of Volume 3
Week 36
Week 37
Week 38
Week 39
Week 40
Week 41  have memorabilia in pockets
Week 42  1/2 of photos printed
Week 43
Week 44  memorabilia in pockets
Week 45  memorabilia in pockets
Week 46  memorabilia in pocket
Week 47
Week 48  memorabilia, couple photos
Week 49  memorabilia of new house
Week 50  memorabilia, school visitor pass, schedule, etc...
Week 51
Week 51
Ending page

I want to thank you for stopping by today. I will be back tomorrow with some much more recent Project Life layouts to share; the last week of 2013, my week in review, and the final page of 2013.. Next Tuesday, I will be sharing my first few weeks of 2014. You can also expect some more goodness later this week on the blog; Wednesday will be Favorites from Project Life 2013, Thursday I will be showing you my last few pages of my December Daily album, and Friday a #40Days40Bags write-up. I hope to see you back later this week.

Let's talk catching up on unfinished projects. What are your best strategies for catching-up? Are you also a list maker? Do you have any other pointers you could share that might help a fellow crafter out? What projects are you currently trying to wrap-up? I would love to hear your thoughts in the comments section below. Have a great Monday!

xoxox

Toni

Documenting #30DaysofThankful using Basic Grey Persimmon

Can you believe it is already Friday? Wow! Where has this week gone? I am finishing up this blog post this morning and boy is it freezing here. I realize this is all relative, depending upon where in the world you are as you read this blog post, but North Carolina is never this cold. Never. This. Cold. How cold is it? Well at 6:30 am it was 14 degrees. It's so cold that my dogs will not move off of their dog beds in the family room. They keep looking at the fireplace, back at me, at the fireplace, back at me, I think they might be trying to give me a hint or something.

Did any of you play along with the #30DaysofThankful hashtag? I did and I just love it, I love focusing on what we are thankful for. This is something I work on and pay attention to everyday, but in November, it is so great to see so many others doing this as well. This is the third year that I have documented something to be grateful for in the month of November with photographs, but this is the first time I found a good way to put it all together on a scrapbook page. I really like how it turned out, and I hope you do to.

I have a layout to share with you today. I challenged myself to come up with a different way to display all of the photos I took on my I-phone this past November. I did not want to make a mini book, but instead wanted to somehow come up with a layout that could hold all of these photos. I managed to fit 29 photos on this layout, a new personal record for me!

This layout went together very quickly once the photos were printed. I do not have a large format printer. So I printed them in two groups of images sized 6 inches by 6 inches using my small Epson printer and some help from Photoshop Elements.  Once the photos were printed, I just stuck them down on the left side my dark woodgrain background page using my trusty American Crafts dot runner adhesive. The photo collage (in it's entirety measures 6 inches wide by 12 inches tall, if you were wondering.) Next, I stuck down the Basic Grey Persimmon letter stickers. Then I added the Basic Grey Persimmon envelope, banner, and subtitle stickers. I decided I wanted some more stitching, so I hand-stitched the letter stickers down. I wanted to make sure to include a lot of journaling and to document all of the different things I am thankful for at this time in my life. I decided not to use the journaling card that came with this envelope because it was very cream in color, and the photos are so bright white that it just didn't jive, if you know what I mean. I will use it for journaling at a later date instead. My handmade journaling card is not very fancy, just a piece of scrap white card stock cut to fit and folded in half. It opens up like a book with writing on the front, inside, and back. Sorry I don't have a photo of it here on the blog. I think it got deleted somehow. My last steps were to use a date stamp at the top of the journaling card, a couple yellow enamel dots, a wood heart, and a little splash of Heidi Swapp Gold Lame Mist.

Thanks so much for stopping by today. I appreciate you being here. I hope you are warm wherever you are located and that this Polar Vortex leaves and never comes back. I will be back next week with five blog posts with all kinds of goodness to share. I hope to see you back at life, scrapbook, repeat very soon. Have a safe and fabulous weekend ahead!

Happy Scrappin'

xoxox

Toni

Favorite Scrapbook Layouts of 2013

Happy Thursday! I don't know about you, but I always love reading blog posts recapping favorite events from the previous year. It's fun to look back at what someone considers yearly hi-lights, if you will. For this reason, I decided to write a blog post incorporating favorite layouts from 2013. I plan on making a similar post every January from now on, in this hopes that it will be fun to look back on from year to year.

Favorite Layout Using Muted Colors:

Favorite Layout with Sentimental/ Heartfelt Journaling:

Favorite Layout Using Leftover Bits and Pieces From My Stash:

Favorite Layout Using Strips of Patterned Paper:

Favorite Layout Incorporating Gold:

 Favorite Layout About Extended Family:

Favorite Layout of a Teenage Boy:

Favorite Layout of Washington State:

Favorite Shot of Nostalgia, and yes I shook Donnie Wahlberg's Hand:

Favorite Multiple of Three Layout:

Favorite Layout of Hubby:

Favorite 2 Photo Layout:

Favorite, "I Made This Just Because" Layout:

Favorite Everyday Bro-mance Captured:

Favorite Sibling Moment:

Favorite Summer Splash:

Favorite Layout of Two Furry Friends:

*ETA we have since lost one of the hamsters, much to my daughter's dismay, 

so thankful this was documented beforehand*

Favorite Layout of My Best Girl on a Really Bad Day:

Favorite Hybrid Layout Using a Digital Template:

Favorite Enlarged Photo:

Favorite Layout in which I Scribbled Like a Child:

Favorite Layout of Local Birds"

Favorite Snowman Layout:

Favorite Buddies Layout:

Favorite Quick and Simple Layout:

Thanks so much for stopping by, I appreciate you being here. I hope you enjoyed this roundup of 2013 layouts. I will be back tomorrow with a new layout to share…I think this one would fall under "Best Use of a Whole Bunch of Instagram Photos." Next week I will be sharing Favorite cards of 2013, Many, many Project Life pages, the final pages of December Daily 2013, #40Days40 Bags, and some more surprises for you. I sure hope to see you back here at life, scrapbook, repeat.

Until next time, Happy Scrappin'

xoxox

Toni