Life Outside the Fishbowl

November Project Life(ish)

Catching up on my posting my pages from the end of 2014...

November, as usual, was quite busy.  Thomas's science class had a field trip to the Hidden Pond Nature Center to learn about watersheds. It was amazing.  I was astounded that Lake Braddock is the only school that takes advantage of the Nature Center this way.  The kids got to take samples, determine water quality, look for invertebrates, and much more.

In addtion, the AAP kids participated in NaNoWrMo - with a 5,000 word minimum.  Thomas wrote over 6,000 -- quite an achievement for a boy who doesn't like writing. Rachel was inspired to start writing her own novel, about dragons, complete with illustrations.

Here's the Design H page that opens the month (front and back):

My Girl Scout troop did another round of archery. This year they got to use the foam targets as well and had a mini-competition at the end.   The Design A page has another archery pic, plus a shot from them at a local gem & mineral show.  

I also included a shot from my first watercolor class - when we finally moved on to painting a still life, as well as some packaging from the Lucky store (our new favorite shop), and of course, the changing leaves - my favorite part of fall.

The backside of the page has more Thanksgiving-related cards.  We ended up hosting this year at the last minute when our friends had a burst water pipe. In between gettting their college son's clothes washed, cooking and hosting I completely forgot to pics.  Instead, I included a shot of the first snow of the year and the kids volunteering at our church packing boxes for Operation Christmas Child.

And that wraps up November.

Catching Up With Project Life(ish)

And finally getting around to photographing last fall's pages.

I'm still working on my December pages along with my December Daily -- and I keep moving things back and forth between the two.  But I am ready to finally call the rest of the year finished.  I'm sharing two pages per month with you as this post is already quite picture-heavy.  Most of the supplies in these came from either Studio Calico or Cocoa Daisy's monthly kits.

September --  Did I really not post September?  First up, my front and back Design H page.  I still get shudders when I think about buying all those school supplies. I included our weekly schedule on a pocket card - all the afterschool activities, scouts, sports...

And important shots, like the first day of school.  The color's a bit wonky - which is what I get for not photographing these outside when the weather was still way above freezing.  I'm not going to even mention the snow we're supposed to get this afternoon...

onto October's Design H page to start the month...

and I'll share one of the Design A pages. Scouts, more scouts, Girl Scout cookie training and Halloween.

which leads into November...  and another post....

 

August Project Life(ish)

I've been working here and there on Project Life, but with all the rain this past week, it seemed like a good day to hunker down and finally complete the past few months and call them done. 

Today I'm going to share pages from August.  The main things this month were camping - Boy Scout and Girl Scout - and getting ready for a new school year, and a new school. Ah yes, the joys of middle school. And lockers. Rachel's counting down the days until she gets a locker, too.

 The start of each month for 2014 is a Becky Higgins Design H page. I've highlighted the two overriding events in August - camp and middle school (and the joy of lockers). The flip side highlights a trip to Eastern Market in DC. It was a field trip as part of a photography class I took through the Art League of Alexandria. 

I also used a Design A page for the month.  The front side is all about camp - tents, swaps and face painting (sigh..). I broke out Tim Holtz's new Alphanumeric thinlit dies for the camp name.  I really like these dies. They are magnetic and easily stick to the plate, so you don't easily lose them. 

I really love this Slug a Bug stamp from the Cocoa Daisy's July kits and was really excited to use it -- although not so excited about the sharing the story of me running up a boulder and putting a big old hole in the radiator....

And the rest of the month - ticket stubs, the start of Doctor Who's Season 8 and a fun shopping day at Tyson's Corner where the kids found this amazing candy shop.

For the cards, I used items from both Cocoa Daisy's monthly Day in the Life and Studio Calico's Project Life kits. The stars and the 'take a hike' are from the Poet Society kit. The transparency graph is old Maya Road. I have been looking for those puffy quotes - I swear they are from a kit.

I've linked up some of the supplies that I used that are available outside of these kits.  Full disclosure: these are affiliate links, and I would recieve a small commission if you decide to purchase through them. Any money I receive just helps me offset the cost of this blog.

 

2013 Project Life(ish)

I'm playing catch  up on last year's album.  I decided this past January to start adding Project Life pages into my annual albums - but to do more of a monthly summary than a week-by-week tracking. I had so much fun doing this that I'm going back to past years and adding in summary pages for each month. 

Now that the kids are back in school I've got more uninterrupted time to work on projects, including putting together these pages for February and March of last year.  I used Becky Higgins Design F protectors for these pages and you'll notice a few elements from this month's Cocoa Daisy and Studio Calico kits. I just got the September Cocoa Daisy package in the mail this afternoon and immediately rifled through it to see if there was anything I wanted to add to these months.

Last February we were at the end of Cub Scouts and preparing all the boys to move to Boy Scouts, including finishing their Arrow of Lights and the Blue & Gold banquet.  On the Girl Scout side, cookie season was just starting up and we had Thinking Day.

March saw Thomas cross over to Boy Scouts and Rachel and I spending lots of time at cookie booths. Then there was Easter and all that goes along with that - dying eggs and hunting for eggs.

There's a story behind the cupcakes -- albeit a frustrating one. I'll have to do a layout on that one of these days.

July Project Life(ish) - and a Free Download

I really have fun putting together Project Life spreads and July is no exception.  What makes things even more fun is creating my own cards, like I used this month.  I collaged two 3x4 cards and used them throughout my month combining them with digital stamps and brush files.

I had posted my first page of the July pages on the ScraPerfect blog. Here's the front and backside of my first July page, using a Design H protector. The front side is very clean & simple, but I had a bit of colorful fun on the reverse side.

And that July card?  I made it using my collaged card and a digi brush from Kerri Bradford.

My next page is a baseball card protector.  I wanted to showcase some of the photos I took on our trip to NYC, along with a commemorative coin.  I used a Studio Calico digital stamp on the same card with a wooden arrow pointing to New York.

The flip side has more photos, and a map of Central Park. I used a marker to highlight the route we took through the park.  Then I was back my standard Design A protector. I'd been saving this "travel time" card for awhile. 

The flip side of that page, and more fun cards, including using the second collaged card with another Kerri Bradford png file.

I enjoyed making these pocket cards and I hope you enjoy using them as well.  You can print them out and use them as is, or add a digital stamp or brush as I did. 

Just click the link to download. I'd love to see you do with them!

 DOWNLOAD HERE

 

The Rest of May Project Life(ish)

Today was full of sunshine, a stark contrast to yesterday's torrential rain.  It's so fabulous to have temperatures in the high 80's during August. It gave me the opportunity to take my 2014 album outside and photograph my pages. One thing I can say about the rain, it does make it easier to sit at your desk and spend a day catching up and finishing projects.

So... May.  I posted my Design H "cover" page for the month earlier this week.  I have two Design A pages to round out the month. On this page I used a tiny black alphabet from a kit liberally and accented my cards with wooden and cork embellishments. The bottom left-hand pocket contains my list of important dates/events for the month.

The flip side is all about our trip to France. I cut a map out of a brochure and used that as a pocket card. I also included typed journaling, something I don't usually take the time to do. 

To include print journaling on a card I used Photoshop Elements. I created a new document that was 3"x4" and inserted a text box. When I was happy with my journaling I first printed it out on plain paper. This serves two purposes as you can not only check how it'll print but also use the plain paper as a feeder sheet and ensure that you have your text printed exactly in the right place.

And for the second page protector I used several overlays.  The top right-hand pocket has a dotted vellum sheet from DCWV and directly below that is a yellow cardstock overlay.

On the flip side I used more wooden embellishments, a tag, and a bit of washi tape.

I used my iPhone to capture those sparkler photos from a Memorial Day party. I'm pretty tickled that they turned out! I was trying out the Slow Shutter & Cortex Cam apps that evening.

May Project Life(ish)

This past weekend I drove to Camp Ockanickon to help ferry boys back from Boy Scout camp. After a misadventure with a large rock (or small boulder) and a new radiator I was happy that everyone was tired and just wanted to hang out yesterday. It gave me a large chunk of concentrated time to catch up on my Project Life pages.

However, today's weather isn't cooperating with my photography plans so I've only got the first part of the month to share today. 

I use a Design H protector at the start of each month and I try to include a photo or two of the most important events.  For May it was a trip to France on Lake d'Annecy in the French Alps. 

I love the cork embellishments by Studio Calico so much that I picked up a DCWV cork stack at Michaels and made some of my own, using white embossing powder and stamps. For these delicate designs (i.e. smaller words) you want to use fine detail powder.

I like to use good design principles in my pages and I treat each side of the protector like I would a regular layout. Here I've repeated colors -- the red -- in each pocket, as well as black and white.  On the flip side of the protector it was the colors of the kraft paper and cork that help tie everything together.

If the weather cooperates tomorrow I'll have the rest of the month to post.

Catching Up With Project Life(ish)

I've been slowly working on my monthly Project Life pages when I get a chance. What I'm doing this year is putting together a Design H page (6"x12") with several Design A pages and summarizing each month as a whole instead of week by week Although I do stick to putting things in chronologically, it gives me a bit more freedom in how I plan my layouts.

May's still in progress, however, June is now finished!  This is the front and back side of the Design H protector. I like to start off each month by choosing a couple photos that best summarize the month to highlight on the first page. For June it was my son's birthday and a horseback riding event with my Girl Scout troop.

I also like to include a journaling card with important dates/things we did during the month. I'll stick it anywhere it seems to best fit.

June was a bit different as I only used one Design A protector. Instead of a second Design A there's another Design H with photos of my son's 6th grade promotion - well, photos of him with all his friends - and a smaller 5.5x8.5 size holding the program.

Now, off to finish up May...

 

April's Project Life(ish) Pages

I've been a bit hampered by the weather & camp schedules in trying to photograph my pages. Can't tell you how many times I've taken pictures just to end up trashing them. I may have to resort to taking them out of the protectors, but I'm resisting.

So April's Project Life pages start with a Design H page, like all of my months this year. I ended up with four page protectors for the month, more than usual.  We did a big walking tour (unintentially) for the Cherry Blossom Festival and I wanted to include a map of just how far we walked.

I used a mix of kits, files cut from the Silhouette and home made cards. The pocket card below was made using the Best Glue Ever & gold leafing.  It's a fun way to celebrate the end of all the snow we had this winter.

For the first full page, a bit of Heidi Swapp (stickers, color magic tag), Thickers, and wooden stars. Love the stars.  I used the Word Swap app to make my kiss & ride picture.

The flip side... lots of school events this month to record as well as the end to Girl Scout cookie season as we delivered our Gift of Caring cookies to the USO at Ft. Belvoir.

On this sheet I used a 4x6 card to list all the activities from the calendar. As well as record my *ahem* win at duck pin bowling.

The flip side of this page and the facing record our long day out walking downtown to see the cherry blossoms. For fun I should have also marked every time Rachel complained of either being tired or her feet hurt.  I printed a map of downtown and used a red marker to highlight our route. The "well traveled" words come from a Kerri Bradford digital kit and were cut using my Silhouette.

The final page brings us to Easter weekend and AwesomeCon where we got to meet the lovely Billie Piper. I've already done one layout for AwesomeCon so I didn't feel the need to add any more pages with photos. I did want to include photos from our annual egg hunt, as the kids really look forward to it every year.

Whew! And that's a wrap for April.

 

March Project Life

I was looking through my blog and realized I never shared my March project life (ish) pages -- and then realized why. Every time I pull out my album to photograph it I start messing around and making changes. Well, I'd like to say today was the exception, but I'd be lying....

However, I did make myself stop long enough to get March.  I'm starting each Month with a design H page by Becky Higgins. Here you can see the front and back. I've used a mixture of cards from Studio Calico's and Cocoa Daisy's monthly PL kits and a bit of pattern paper throughout the month.

The "twenty fourteen" card is a digi from Paislee Press - and it's free! You can download it here.

The rest of March is made up of two design A pages. Love that camera paperclip! If these cards look familiar, it's because you have seen them before. You can get the details on how to make them using the Best Glue Ever from the ScraPerfect blog here.

The next two pages make up a large spread from the school's Al Fresco weekend program at Camp Letts in Maryland.  It was a much colder weekend this year. We made Al Fresco history, being the first weekend to get snowed on. And not in a good way, for us parents at least. The kids thought it was great, despite being woefully underdressed (most didn't have snow boots) for the amount of snow that fell. So much for the 2-3 inches we thought might happen...


And the final page for March. I really love these printed cork circles. I just got a new Studio Calico pack in the mail yesterday and I'm itching to use them. I used the InstaWeather app for several of my photos - you can choose the overlay that gets added to your pic, which is a quick and fun way to record the month. Unless it's snowing. Again.