Project Life Tuesday: Week 9
Welcome to Project Life Tuesday 2013 If you are new to The Mom Creative, welcome. I hope you will stay awhile. I’m Jessica – wife to Matthew, mom to Elias, a silly and spirited four-year-old, and Adeline, a spunky one-year-old. I’m also a marketing professional, savvy deal finder, photo lover and memory keeper trying to juggle it all.
Each Tuesday, I share my most recent spread as well as host a linky for readers to link up their pictures/layouts. Some links are affiliate links.
I got one spread done by the skin of my teeth for today. I actually finished the journaling this morning before work – eek! I am so thankful for the accountability of Project Life Tuesday. I know there are many weeks that I would otherwise probably push Project Life aside. One thing I know for sure – I never regret working on this album. It is such a family treasure.
Week Nine: March 3-9
Pages used: Design F
Gosh, it was such a delight using the Jade kit this week. I am so in love with it and am so happy I switched from the Seafoam kit.
For the first page, I trimmed for 4×6 date card down to 3×4. (My date card is from the Seafoam kit. I had already stamped the dates for the first 5 months of the year, but since the kits match so well, I’m not going to waste the cards by restamping Jade cards.) The little stickers are all from American Crafts.
I’ll be sharing a tutorial tomorrow on how to make Elias’s crazy hat pictured in the bottom left. He wore it for Dr. Seuss week at school. 🙂 I realized after laying out the spread that I had forgotten to work in the picture of Elias with his Lorax mustache so I shrunk it down to 1.5×2 and added it to the journaling card. I love that card!
The 5×7 insert is two additional pictures of the kids playing. I love adding bigger pictures to my album. They really stand out and make the album more interesting to look at. I added embellished paper clips from American Crafts on each picture to act as a tab and a fun accent. Adding inserts really adds to an album’s bulk, and I will likely have three albums this year since I have been using so many inserts. I have decided I would rather use lots of pictures and have three albums then not use all the pictures that I love each week. Project Life is my way of documenting the year and most of the other photos I take just collect space on an external hard drive, so printing as many as I can is the way I roll.
The Design H insert is filled with photos from Elias’s first soccer game. I took so many photos that day that I really wanted to set them apart. I love the simplicity of this insert and the “remember today” card from the Jade kit is so perfect.
The last page is very simple. I used a couple more American Crafts stickers and let the journaling cards add some color to the spread.
Day in the Life
I want to mention this because I think it is important. Last week I mentioned that I was planning to do Day in the Life on Thursday. Life was just too hectic and I didn’t do it. I then thought, I can do it Friday. But I didn’t do it then either.
And that’s okay. There are no rules. No musts.
Project Life is about what YOU make and want your album to be. Use Project Life Tuesday as inspiration for your album, but ultimately remember that no one is going to be looking at your album and comparing it to someone else’s.
Your story is important. Your memories are important. Just do it! (And I do plan to do day in the life in April. For more thoughts about Day in the Life, check out Ali Edwards’ post today. I love that she also has a ‘no rules’ philosophy.)
Project Life posts worth checking out
SALE: Through April 5 you can get 20% off all Project Life mini albums. I have the Cinnamon
101 Free Prints: In case you missed it on Sunday, Shutterfly is having a massive sale – 101 free prints! YEOW! To get your prints, simply use the code 101PRINTS
at check-out. It is valid through today (Tuesday, April 2). Shipping is $6.99 on 101 prints, but if you only order 99 prints, shipping will drop to $4.99. Sweet!
I love these life quote free printables from Smiling Katie.
This simple spread from Dani is a great reminder that Project Life doesn’t have to be complicated to be sweet.
Your turn to link up! Also, just a friendly reminder to please remember to link back to The Mom Creative in your posts. Thank you!
Thanks so much for the Shutterfly deal – I need to print a bunch of photos from trips I’ve taken so that’s perfect.
And the Jade kit *is* awesome – I got mine last week. Love the huge number of designs, and I did a swap with someone for parts of Blush, so I’m pretty stoked to have a lot of cards handy.
Love that you did a swap for some Blush cards. GREAT idea!
Yeah, I didn’t love Blush as much, but wanted some cards, and there are SO many that it really makes sense to swap, even between 3 or 4 people. I’d like to do that for the kits coming out in May, too.
Wow! Thanks for the link to the Freebie from Smiling Katie. I have gone through her entire freebie archive and printed lots of them.
Awesome!
Just, fyi…the free printables are made by a girl named Smitha, not Katie. Her blog is Smiling Colors 🙂 Just thought you might want to correct that Jessica.
Thanks again for hosting. As always it is a great motivator. And I love that so many people are still linking up as we are getting deeper into the year. Love your layouts – some adorable photos!
I am always jealous of how many photos you have in your album, I think it’s great to include them all if you took them! For me, I usually have the opposite problem, I forgot to take out my camera a lot or my week just wasn’t that noteworthy [life of a student I guess]. It looks like the jade kit goes nicely with seafoam, maybe you can work in cards from both kits through-out the rest of the album.
I want to challenge you to look at life with eyes for documenting. What can you document about life as student. There are so many things I wish I had taken photos of in college. Sitting in my classes. My books. Where I lived. Sporting events. Shows. the library. 🙂
Hello, I just found your site via Snap 2013. I have only been scrapping for a couple years (18 year old son and 9 year old daughter)…so I have tons to catch up on. You just inspired me to take time to work on those pages! Your pages look great, and I love how you journal. Thanks so much from your newest reader.
Char @HisandHerRestoration.blogspot.com
Aw, I’m so glad you are inspired. Project Life is a great tool to get lots of pictures/memories documented in an easy way. 🙂 Glad to have you here. Hope o meet you at Snap!
Oh My goodness! The picture on the left of Adeline is so adoarable I could just explode.
I took it laying on the floor, looking up at her. It is a bit different, but I really loved the angle. Thanks for your kind words! 🙂
Thanks for sharing the shutterfly deal!! On another note, I am interested in the PL mini albums, but the reviews on Amazon are mixed. Either people love it and say the quality looks great or they have legitimate and specific issues with the quality (noticeably uneven front window, stitching issues, bent plastic, etc.) I’m assuming yours is in good shape but didn’t know if you’ve heard from others about their take on the mini albums? (I wonder if Becky is aware of the inconsistency in the production of the product…?)
hmmm… my album seems to be pretty perfect, so I’m not sure what to say. You might consider ordering one and seeing what you think. Amazon has a super easy return policy.
I LOVE the idea of cutting a date card in half. On some spreads (like Design F) I really hate to use up a 4×6 slot just for the date. This is the perfect solution! Thanks.
Also, I just got my PL Blush kit from HSN in the mail. It is absolutely fabulous. Thanks for sharing about the deal. I’m trying to restrain myself from using it since this year I’m doing the Amber edition and the two don’t blend well. But, I might slip a few Blush cards into my daughter’s PL Baby Edition for Her album as they would blend perfectly.
Thanks for sharing all your great ideas.
Yes, the new kits are really fabulous, aren’t they? I haven’t seen the Blush kit in person, but if it is anything like the Jade kit, it is a 10! 🙂
I started out the year thinking I was going to pull of Day in the Life monthly too. I think it’s such a fabulous idea, but living life seems to get in the way sometimes. I figure if it happens quarterly then it’s more than I did last year and still gives a flavor of our days. Your pages, as always, look great. Thanks for hosting the link party. It’s such a wonderful place to get inspired and encouraged!
Yes, quarterly is still more than last year! That’s the way to think about it. 🙂 I appreciate your kind words.
This is my first year doing Project Life and I love it so far. I’m working on the current week and I took LOTS of pictures from Easter and the events leading up to it. Not sure how to include all of the good ones (and there are a lot of them). I’d have to either include a couple 2-3 inserts or do a separate layout for Easter, so two for the week (s well as an insert). Do you ever separate the holidays or do you always include them in your weekly layout using inserts?
I always include them in my week. I have had weeks that have had 3-4 inserts, so I just say go for it. 🙂
Linking here is a great motivator for me. Thank you. I have spent the last week or two telling myself that it’s not a competition and I can’t get it wrong, but sometimes I don’t believe myself. Thanks for the reminder that it’s about recording our families’ memories. I love seeing the Jade kit in action, too! Nice colours. Hugs, Fiona
I think linking is a motivator for a lot of us! 🙂
Weird! I just tried ordering 74 prints from my husband’s account and it told me that I’m not eligible for this promotion, using the 1001 prints?!? Never had that happen before?!?
Did you already do it from your account? Did you use the same credit card? If either of those are true, they won’t allow it…
Thanks again for the inspiration. I love seeing the Jade cards in use. I didn’t buy the HSN package – all the new kits are so cool I want them all! (So will probably buy most in digital form 🙂
That’s definitely the most affordable way – at least in the short term. I can’t help but wonder with the cost of ink+paper+ time to print/cut if it doesn’t end up being a wash.
Hi Jessica,
Your layouts are always an inspiration! Thanks for the heads up on the Shutterfly deal : ) And a special thank you for the shout out on my PL spread, it is very much appreciated!!
blessings,
dani