Laura Vegas

Hey everyone! I'm back with a look at week thirty six in my 2017 Project Life album. 

I used a journaling card from In A Creative Bubble above, and I didn't have a ton of info from Alyssa to fill the entire card. I ended up just adding a piece of washi tape to fill the space above the journaling. 

The calendar cards are from a kit in the Project Life app. I saved them from the app, onto my phone, and then uploaded them to Dropbox to grab off my laptop. I pulled them open in Photoshop, and added the little stars (a digital brush) to mark the dates that the week fell on. Because I like being able to know exactly what week "week thirty six" is without counting it out on my fingers 😉

Awwww. My two favorite toddlers. Who were super good friends, being so close in age. And both have moved on to preschool, and I miss them both like crazy. 

I added some alpha stickers to the "i love" filler card, and went with "scrapping" since it went with the photo below the card. I guess I could have added an arrow or something to point down to the photo, but I'm sure it's all self explanatory when you flip through the album. 

Such a cute photo of Derek and such a cute story. That's what I love about Project Life, is that I can get all of these small, everyday moments and stories documented. And together, they give a great view of our daily lives. 

I'll be back tomorrow to share one last completed week in my 2017 album. Which means I need to get working on more weeks soon, so I have more to share.

Hey all. I'm back to share week thirty five in my 2017 Project Life album. I'm pretty sure these all start to look the same to a lot of you, and I feel like I repeat myself a lot when sharing these. But I still enjoy sharing whatever I'm working on here on my blog, and well – this is what I've been working on 🙂

That "rise & shine" card is pretty bright, isn't it? Lol. It's from Simple Stories, and I thought it would tie in with the yellows I had going on in a lot of my photos. 

I used a digital brush from Ali Edwards to add the "saturday stories" to my journaling card. I feel like I should get a gold star sticker when I brave Costco on a Saturday. Lol. 

For this second journaling card, I used a PNG file from one of Kerri Bradford Studio's cut files, adding "work" to the top of my card. I had a little empty corner in my photo, and wanted to cover up some of my kitchen counter tiles (which I hate, btw), so I added half of a label sticker and some tiny alpha stickers. 

If you happen to remember the story about how I accidentally threw away concert tickets that Alyssa had sent to the house – well, this is the concert that they were for. I'm so glad they were able to reprint them for her and her roommate, as they had an amazing time at the Khalid concert and at the meet and greet afterwards. 

I was looking for a green filler card, which is one color that I don't seem to have enough of in my filler card stash, and I decided to use this days of the week card. Because it's true. I'm pretty much a hot mess every day of the week, just trying to hold my little life together 😉

I'll end this post with these three adorably cute little faces, and I'll see you back here tomorrow for a look at week thirty six!

Hey everyone! I finished up four more weeks in my 2017 Project Life album a week ago and figured I would share all four of them here with you this week. If my PL pages aren't your thing, I apologize. Lol. I do have a few layouts in the works, surprisingly enough. It's been a while since I've created one, so I'm looking forward to having those finished up and ready to share soon. 

So, here's a look at week thirty four. I had more photos than usual for this week, so I worked in a 6×12" insert page. 

Here's a look at the first half of the weekly spread, with the 6×12" insert on the right. 

I kept with black and white filler cards, as I felt like I had a lot of darker colors going on in my photos this week. I added an older green glittered chipboard star to the center of the black and white diagonal striped card, and a white puffy star sticker to the center as well. 

I didn't witness the eclipse that everyone was talking about, and viewing, last August. But I did still manage to document in a Instagram post that day, when I realized it must have been happening, as my house went super dark. The "eclipse" was just added to my journaling card with a brush script font that I have on my laptop. 

I feel like I add "yum" to a lot of my food photos, as it's an easy description. It also uses alpha stickers that I don't use as often as others, with the "y" and "u". Always a plus 😉

I try and link to these weekly title cards every once in a while, even though I've linked to them a ton over the last year. I get asked about them a lot 😉 These are the Weekly Edition Journaling Cards, from One Little Bird. I just have them printed right along with my photos, making them super easy to use.

Sarah sends me so few photos each month, so I have to use what she sends me. Even with silly little "perfect pairs" on them. Lol. 

In the previous week, I had a photo of a paint can, and this was the end result of that can of paint. I painted a chalkboard wall in Sarah's room, after really loving the look of the one in Alyssa's room (that was actually Sarah's room when I painted that wall, before they switched). 

Here's a look at the second half of the weekly spread, with the 6×12" insert on the left. 

A fun photo of the Arts & Entertainment Team that Alyssa worked with at school.

The A&E team had a busy week, getting ready to kick off the school year with their big Block Party event. I loved all of the Snapchat photos she sent me as they were preparing for the big day. Part of which included canvasing the surrounding neighborhood to leave sound advisory flyers, as the Block Party involves lot of music of course.

I had an empty 4×6" pocket on the insert page, and I went with one of the first filler cards that stood out to me. The "everything is amazing" card is from a Becky Higgins Project Life kit. 

I was short another 4×6" photo for the week to fill this top pocket on the second page of the spread. I could have made one of my photos a 4×6", but I had these two photos of the daycare kiddos that I wanted to include, so I simply adhered them to a 4×6 piece of cardstock to slip into the pocket. 

For a while, I was using a lot of these little white tags and adding them to my photos here and there. I must have forgot about them, because I don't think I had used them in a while. They're just the right size for adding a few alpha stickers to them to describe the photo. 

I'll be back tomorrow with a look at thirty five! 

I'm on a roll. With Project Life, and with blogging! I actually have four more weeks of my 2017 album that I'm planning on sharing next week, so I thought I would sneak in another week of my 2018 album before I switch gears back to 2017. Here's a look at week two in my 2018 album. 

Alyssa is still really good about Snapchatting me throughout the week, and I'm still really good at screenshotting those pics. I don't use a ton of them in the album, but they're nice to have if I do want to include a few (or use them for other things). I like that they have some text on them, since they usually don't require any additional journaling. 

I didn't have a ton of journaling to fill this digital journaling card, so I ended up adding the actual recipe for that delicious bagel right onto the card with my journaling (which was copy and pasted from my Instagram). 

I'm trying to not let it bother me that the navy blue and white striped filler card is the only card on this weekly spread that has rounded corners. Lol. Surprisingly it doesn't bug me all that much, but I do wish that all of my filler cards had square corners. 

My friend, Deneen, and I get together every now and then, either to just hang out, go shopping, or craft together. And yet we never seem to think to take a photo together. I did think to snap a quick pic while I was over her house one evening last month. But next time, we'll both have to get in the photo. 

Funny story about that filler card above. I had ordered some card packs from Simple Stories a long time ago – the packs that have a variety of 4×6", 3×4", and 2×2" filler cards. I didn't get the one I ordered, but I did get a Disney themed set. Luckily, I've been able to make a lot of the cards work, since they do have some more neutral patterns (although Disney colors) like the polka dotted card above.  

The digital journaling card above is the lined card that I get to play with a bit, by adding something to the top of the card. For this one, I used a PNG file from one of Kerri Bradford Studio's cut files. I resized it to fit the space, and changed the "loved" to a shade of dark green. 

For so many of my photos, they have also been shared on my Instagram. So when it comes to adding my journaling in my PL albums, I will open Instagram on my laptop, and just copy and paste the journaling from there. I edit it to fit when needed, or add a little more if needed. But it's always nice that I don't have to start from scratch for all of these. 

I was soooooo close to adding some embellishments to the black filler card above. I love the fun camera pattern, but I felt like I needed to add a little green and/or navy blue to the second half of the spread, to tie in with the first page. I even went so far as to adhere a tag and a chipboard heart, before changing my mind and pulling it back off. 

I knew that if I added something to that card, I'd then feel the need to add something to one of the other cards. And I'd feel the need to add some red and/or black to the first page of the spread, to tie in with the second page. And that would defeat my "keep it simple" approach to this year's album. 

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 :) 

Seeing as how it's the middle of February, I thought it would be a good time to hop on and share my plans for my 2018 Project Life album. I have loved working on my 2017 album, and overall I really do love how I went about doing my weekly spreads. But I also knew that I wanted to make a few changes to this year's albums. 

What's not changing: I'm still doing 9×12, as I just love this size. I'm using the same album and pocket protectors that I used last year, since I stocked up on them last year when I found them on a deals website (they're from Seven Paper, which isn't around anymore). I'm still doing my monthly photo orders using the Freeprints app, so I wait until the end of the month to order my photos. While I love the idea of working on my weekly spreads week by week (meaning I would print at home), ordering my photos once a month just works well for me. This means that I'm usually working on a month at a time, and I aim to get those weeks done before I get the next month's photos. 

What's changing: I think my 2017 weekly spreads were pretty simple, but I think I'm going to go even simpler this year. I focused on the photos and stories a lot last year, but I also had fun working in embellishments and adding fun things to a lot of my photos. It was a great way to dig into my stash and use products that have sat untouched for a long time. And when I was in my zone, it didn't really take me all that long. But my thinking, at this point anyways, is that I'm not going to worry as much about adding all the little embellishments and I won't be adding stickers/labels/etc to photos that often. That might change, so don't quote me on this. But I'm aiming to really make this year's album about photo and stories. Also, while I'm still going to use digital journaling cards (and most of them will be simple black and white), I'm going to limit the cards that I do use. I have SO many great digital cards, but I want to limit the time I spend digging around in folders, looking for the perfect card. 

Weekly title cards, using the Pocket Guide No.4 kit from Paislee Press. This kit has a ton to it, but the weekly title card was what caught my eye. Once you open it in Photoshop, you can change the number, add the dates (or anything else you would want to add below), and even change the color of the number if you want. I changed my number to a light grey, knowing that I'd be using black and white journaling cards. 

I like that I can add the dates to these cards, along with having the week number. Last year, I added a calendar card to each weekly spread, so that I could easily know the dates – and not just try and count out what week "week 37" was in the year. Lol. While I liked the calendar cards, they did take up a 3×4" pocket that I would love to free up for an extra journaling card or filler card. 

I created weekly title cards for the first half of the year already, and added them to one of my photo orders. I'll do the second half of the year in a few months and once again add them to a photo order. 

"This Story" digital journaling cards. Cathy Zielske offers her Scrapbook Your Year class, and these cards come from that class. What I love about so many of Cathy's digital journaling cards is that as you type your journaling, it formats itself. I have a lot of cards where you have to make each line it's own layer, and position the layers to make the lines evenly spaced and all. They're just more work. I can even copy and paste journaling (like when I pull it from my Instagram pics), and it totally formats it like you see above.

I also love this particular card, because they're already set up with four cards on an 8.5×11" page. Just saves me the extra steps of doing the cards one by one, adding the lines around the edges so I know where to print, and adding them onto the page for printing. I can type up four at once, and they're done in no time. 

My plan is to incorporate (1) of the "This Story" journaling cards into each weekly spread. 

J-Card Weekdays digital journaling cards from Cathy Zielske. Again, I like these cards, because they format your text as you type and they're just so easy to use. Also, they have plenty of room for journaling, just like the "This Story" cards. I usually have a lot to say, and these first two card choices are great for those photos that have a longer story to accompany them. 

My plan is to incorporate (1) of the J-Card Weekdays journaling cards into each weekly spread. 

In A Creative Bubble digital journaling cards. Specifically the Recorded Journaling Cards – I'm linking to her newest set, but on that same page, you'll find links to the other six sets. I used a lot of these cards in my 2017 album, and love them. She's got a huge selection of awesome pocket page cards, but these black and white ones caught my eye last year, since I knew I was going to use mostly black and white journaling cards. I mentioned that I want to spend a little less time digging around for the perfect card, so these will be one of the few cards that will require me to dig a bit. But I'm only digging through 7 kits, so that's not bad. 

My plan is to incorporate (1) In A Creative Bubble journaling card into each weekly spread. 

Lined digital journaling cards. These cards are actually from Ali Edwards, from her Oh Summer I Love You So kit. The digital card actually has "oh summer, I love you so" on the top part of the card, but I delete that part off of the card and use it just for the lines. I've used this one a ton over the last year and a half, and it's my go-to way to get a simple lined journaling card. I could probably do this on my own, but I love that it's done for me. This will be the one digital journaling card that I can have fun with, and personalize to fit my photo. To add a little something to the top of the card, I can use digital stamps (like the "delicious/gross" and the "mon/tue/wed/thu/fri/sat/sun"), PNG files from Kerri Bradford Studio's cut files (like the "dinner" and "loved this"), use my physical stamps, or use physical product like label stickers and alpha stickers. 

My plan is to incorporate one lined digital journaling card into each weekly spread.

***With that being said, should I need more than those 4 journaling cards for any given week (especially weeks with inserts and more photos), I'll double up on one of the above types of cards. 

Pocket Maps by Sara Gleason. These Pocket Maps come in six sets, and I ended up buying all six of them so that I'd have plenty of options. They're layered photo templates, with fun little phrases and space for journaling. You could easily create this same look on your own, but I love the ease of having things done for me. I found that in my 2017 album, I always had a lot of photos that didn't get their own journaling card. And while I know I don't actually need a journaling card for every photo, and not every photo needs a story, I do find that I like to include details. Even if it's a short little story or description. Which is why I added a lot of label stickers, alpha stickers, tags, etc to those photos without a journaling card. I think these Pocket Maps will be perfect for sneaking in a few extra "stories" or descriptions, without needing an extra pocket for a separate journaling card. 

My plan is to incorporate 2-3 Pocket Maps photo/journaling cards into each weekly spread.

So there you have it. My loose plan for this year's Project Life album. I'm sure I'm not covering everything, but as I start completing a few weeks, I'll get a better feel for how it's going to go. And speaking of completed weeks, I will be sharing week one of my 2018 album tomorrow, so you can see these ideas in action ;)  

Hey all! As promised, I'm back to share week thirty three in my 2017 Project Life album. I feel so torn when I do have time to work on my albums. I want to get going on my 2018 album (and yes, I've been working on it), but I'm also excited to finish up the rest of 2017. Only nineteen more weeks to get done! 

I try and link to these weekly title cards every once in a while, even though I've linked to them a ton over the last year. I get asked about them a lot 😉 These are the Weekly Edition Journaling Cards, from One Little Bird. I just have them printed right along with my photos, making them super easy to use.

Most of the digital journaling cards that I use, I use as-is. The card above is one that I use with only the lines on it – it comes with a phrase at the top, which I always take off. I like having a basic, lined card to use, that I can then add something to that top section. Here, I've added a phrase from Kerri Bradford Studio. All of her cut files come with the PNG files as well, so they're easy to use digitally. 

I've been cleaning out my stash quite a bit the last few weeks, and doing a little re-organizing and a little purging. I've been re-working things to fit the way I scrap these days, so that the things I use often are easy to find and grouped together better. That's actually how I came across the aqua chipboard label that I added to my photo above. And it just so happen that the Simple Stories alpha stickers I wanted to use fit perfectly inside. It's like they were meant to go together.

I've also used that same basic, lined card for my journaling, but left the top part blank. Then I'll just look for things in my stash to add to the card, like the label sticker and alpha stickers I used here. Those black alpha stickers are from a Project Life kit that I picked up forever ago. It came with a ton of alpha stickers in tons of colors (or maybe they were a separate purchase, but designed to go with the kit), but they're kind of sheer when you use them. It finally dawned on me that they'll work well if I use them on something white, like this label sticker. 

I added an enamel arrow to my photo, since the journaling goes with that photo. And the number stickers tell you which mailbox belongs to us. 

I was going to journal about the can of paint, and my plans for it. But I have a photo that shows up in the next weekly spread that will have the story about what I painted. And no, I didn't paint my actual house 😉 But I found that little chipboard house (from Simple Stories) and it matched perfectly, so I used it.

Hey everyone! I've got two more weeks from my 2017 Project Life album ready to share with you this week. This past weekend, I started on my 2018 album, so I'm hoping to get a few weeks finished up so that I can share how I'll be approaching PL this year. But for now, here's a look at week thirty two, from 2017. 

It's rare that I take any photos of Sarah, since she'll pretty much kill me if I try. Lol. But since she claims she never takes photos, and hardly ever has any to send me when I come asking for photos at the end of each month – I have to resort to snapping one on the downlow 😉 And yes, she was mad when she found this on my phone weeks later. Lol.

How adorable is this little baby boy? Who isn't so little anymore, but still has the cutest smile. I used my one filler card on this page to also say a little something about the photo. adding some alpha stickers to the white box on the card. A little torn piece of washi tape was all the embellishing this card needed. 

I feel like I've been doing a good job at getting myself into photos over the last year or so. But they're almost always Snapchat photos, with funny filters. I should really try and get regular photos of myself now and then. Lol.

Again, my colors just sort of worked out for this weekly spread. I picked up the yellows, oranges, and aquas in my photos, and then went from there when it came to add my filler cards and embellishments. I was digging thru my older Pebbles chipboard pieces, and couldn't settle on one color to use. So I used a yellow circle piece and an orange chipboard flower in the center, adding an aqua enamel dot in the center of the flower. 

I love these digital journaling cards from Cathy Zielske, and the "today was" card worked well for my journaling about my laptop issues. I checked marked the "craptastic" box at the top, of course 😉 I had added a little label sticker to my photo, and knew that I was going to add some alpha stickers, or hand write something on there. I finally realized I should just use "crap", since it was fitting. 

I'll be back Thursday to share week thirty three. Wish me luck finding some time this week to do a little more work on my 2018 album, so I can share that as well 🙂