Laura Vegas

Hey all! Now that I shared a bit about my plans for my 2018 Project Life album (in yesterday's post), I wanted to share my completed first week with you. I think this first week is a good indication of what my weekly spreads will look like this year. Now, don't quote me on that, because who knows if I'll change my mind at some point, or add a few extras in at some point.

I love the simple weekly title cards. While I love the idea of making the large numbers a different color, to coordinate with the page – I also know that would really only work if I was printing these title cards as I worked on each week, since I wouldn't know the colors that are most prevalent in my photos. Since I ordered the first twenty six week's worth of title cards, I stuck to the basic black/white/grey and I think it pairs nicely with my black and white journaling cards. 

I found that I used a lot of simpler filler cards in my 2017 album, with most basic patterns like polka dots, stripes, tone-on-tone patterns, etc. While I still have a huge amount of these types of filler cards in my stash, I also know that I have a harder time finding certain colors. I've been thinking that I will go through my patterned papers, and maybe even my 6×6 paper pads, and cut down my own 3×4" filler cards from some of those colors/patterns that I know I'll use a lot. 

In last year's album, I had a lot of journaling cards that had room for "extras", like a strip or two of washi tape along the bottom, a few stickers at the top, etc. The digital journaling cards that I decided to focus on this year don't really leave me much room for extras, and I'm totally fine with that. There are two cards, the "this story" card above being one of them, that have a lot of room for journaling. Which for me, is much needed. I like to include the details.

The digital journaling cards from In A Creative Bubble are ones that will often have a little space to add something extra. Usually, I just add a few small enamels, or there might be something to circle (like the "PM" above) or write in. 

I think the Pocket Maps photo templates (like the "fun projects" photo on the right) will be a great addition to my weekly spreads this year. I mentioned this in yesterday's post, but I think this will eliminate my need to add embellishments and details to photos that don't get their own journaling card. Working 2-3 of these Pocket Maps into each weekly spread allows me to add some extra journaling/details, but still keep the photo and text in the same pocket. 

The journaling card above on the left is the one card each week that will give me the freedom to "play" a little. While the other digital journaling cards that I picked out to focus on this year are pretty straight forward, this one starts out with only the ruled lines. So I'm able to add whatever I want to the top of the card. For this particular card, I used a PNG file from one of Kerri Bradford Studio's cut files ("dinner") and a digital brush/stamp from Ali Edwards ("mon/tue/wed/thu/fri/sat/sun"). 

I'm also keeping my filler cards pretty simple. I did add a little something to the card above on the right, and I'll tell you why. I wanted to use the pink filler card, as it picked up the pink in one of the photos from the first page of the spread (on my planner) and also the pink on the shirt of my daycare girlie in the row above this card. But the card had a white circle in the center, and it said "details" at the top of the circle. I couldn't think of anything to add to that circle, but I did come across another filler card that was white and had this "show up & shine" black circle on it. I simply freehand cut out the black circle and adhered it onto my pink filler card over the white circle. Done and done. 

But as for the other two filler cards on this spread, the yellow polka dotted one and the striped one above, I left them as-is. Normally, I would feel the need to add something, like a chipboard heart/star/flower, a tag or label sticker, etc. But I actually feel like they're good just as they are. I also pulled up a movie poster image to document that the girls and I went to see Pitch Perfect 3. I was telling them we needed to take a photo at the theater, but there wasn't a good spot to get a pic with the poster. I need to remember to document more things like TV shows, movies, music, etc this year.

Same goes for my photos. I didn't add a single thing to any of my photos on this weekly spread. If this was last year's album, I would have added little stickers, labels, enamels, etc to a lot of my photos. It's something that I really enjoyed doing, and loved the look of. But I also love the simple look of photos and cards. 

I guess my main thinking going into this year, is that I want to stay on track with my album, and I don't want to end the year being 5-6 months behind (which is what happened last year). Simplifying things should help keep me on track. And I'm also thinking that will allow me more time to try and tackle some other projects that I never got around to finishing last year :)