Laura Vegas

Hey all! Back to share another week in my 2017 Project Life album. Here's a look at week thirty one, otherwise known as the first week in August. 

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.  

Random tidbit. I rarely even take photos with my DSLR camera anymore. I take 99% of my photos with my iPhone 6plus. I'm dying to upgrade for the portrait mode on the newer iPhones, but it's just not in my budget, as we buy our phones outright with the cell phone plan we use. Anyways. That photo on the left was taken in the early evening, and it was actually pretty dark out. 

There's a glare on that side of the photo above, so it's hard to get a really good look at it. But it's amazing what a quick little edit in PicTapGo can do for a photo. You'd never know how dark the original photo was looking at the edited version. I use the PicTapGo app to edit all photos that I take with my phone. 

My parents celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary last summer. My sister was down visiting for the family BBQ we had two weeks prior to this, and us siblings were chatting about what we could get them late that night after my parents had left. 50 years calls for gold.

We somehow came up with the idea to spray paint a brick gold, and cover it in glitter. Might seem like an odd gift, but we knew that my parents would appreciate something crafty like that.

I've said this before, but I find it so cool when the colors just seem to work together in most of my weekly spreads. These photos are taken randomly throughout the week, and some even come from Alyssa and/or Sarah's phones. I just take all of the photos for each week, lay them out, and then work photos into the pockets that give a good, overall look at our week. I don't include all of the photos, unless it was a week with limited pics to begin with. 

But somehow, they just seem to work together. I almost always use just two filler cards per week, since the rest of my pockets are filled with journaling cards. I love the challenge of pulling two filler cards, and having those two colors/cards pull all of colors in the photos together. 

I have realized that there are certain colors that are lacking in my 3×4" card stash. Like navy blue for instance, which is a color that appears in my photos a lot. I've also realized that, despite the use of the "high five" card above, I gravitate towards simple filler cards. Especially basic patterns and tone-on-tone patterns. I'm thinking about going thru my 12×12" patterned paper stash, or even my 6×6" paper pads, and trimming up a bunch of 3×4" cards from those papers to have on hand. 

I've got two more weeks ready to share, so I will be back next week to share those with you. And I'll also try and type up an updated post about how I do my digital journaling cards. 

I've also got my January 2018 photo order in my hands, so I'm looking forward to starting on this year's Project Life album as well. 

Hey everyone! I'm back to share week thirty in my 2017 Project Life album. Just like week twenty nine, week thirty had more photo, so I added in another 6×12" insert page. Granted, all of these photos were taken over a two day period. We did a little staycation that week, so these photos were from little day trips. I can't remember for sure, but I'm guessing I didn't have any other photos from that week.

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

I originally had the colorful geotag (is that what that icon is called?) filler card by itself in the pocket above, and the navy blue striped card was in another pocket on the insert. I added an additional journaling card in it's place, but still wanted to include some of the navy blue. So I trimmed off a small piece, and adhered it to the bottom of the geotag filler card. The chipboard camera is from Bella Blvd, along with the little sticker below it. 

I actually did a layout about our day trip to San Francisco, which you can see HERE. I picked just a few photos from that day to include in our Project Life album, to sum up our day.

I'm not sure that I love the "let's stick together" chipboard piece that I added to our group photo, but I was looking for something a bit larger in size, and I liked that it was yellow to tie in with the yellow on the opposite side of the spread. I try not to overthink it. I was going to have the tiny alpha stickers say "we're crazy", but since there wasn't an apostrophe (and I didn't want to catch any slack for punctuation), I went with "so crazy" instead 😉

It's a funny story now, but it was NOT so funny when it happened. The fact that I actually threw concert tickets in the recycling bin just kills me. They just landed in the pile of mail that I opened that was going in the recycling, even though I literally took a photo of the tickets as soon as I opened them to let Alyssa know that they arrived. 

I didn't mention how the photo relates to the story in my journaling, but this is just where we parked while she ran in to get the tickets reprinted. So glad they could do that for her. We stopped on the way to the fair, so we saved her a drive out there to get them. 

This photo goes with the journaling card below. I don't always think to take photos like this, but I'm glad I did. Of course, I wasn't the only one in the car trying to navigate our way to where we were going. We usually had at least two people giving directions, using different apps or map programs. Lol.

I thought this was a cool shot I managed to snap going across the bridge on our way home from the city. I wasn't planning on taking a photo, so the fact that I whipped out my phone and snapped this before passing the good spot on the bridge was impressive. There may have been other good spots on the bridge. I honestly don't even remember. 

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

This weekly spread turned out to be very colorful, didn't it! We didn't actually go on any rides, or play any games, while at the state fair. But I couldn't pass up taking a photo of the ferris wheel. 

We watched a single horse race. Joe would have loved to stay there all day long, as he loves the races. And loves to bet on them. Which is why I won't let him stay there all day 😉 I was all set to snap a photo of the horses, once the gate opened and the race started. I was waiting at the fence, phone poised and ready.

And then I happen to look away for just a second (I think because someone was talking to me), and I missed it. Geez. I was so mad at myself. Lol. I had to settle for a photo as they came around to the finish line. 

I should add that we did NOT like it "hot, hot, hot" that day. It was 101 degrees out that day, in the blaring California sun. We were drenched in our own sweat the entire day and we were all miserable. I guess they don't make stickers like that. Lol.

But I think we still managed to look good – at least on camera – drenched in our own sweat. Lol. 

I included three photos from the baseball game we went to that evening. I actually did a layout using these same three photos, seen HERE, but wanted to include them all in our Project Life album as well. 

I'll be back on Friday to share a look at another week in our album 🙂

Hey all! I hope you all had a great weekend! I told myself that I wanted to get at least two weeks in my 2017 Project Life album done this past weekend, and I actually ended up finishing five full weeks. I was totally in my zone, and it felt good to get a chunk of the album checked off my to-do list. I've said this before, but I know these probably end up looking the same to you all. But I still enjoy sharing them 🙂

So here's a look at week twenty nine. I had a few more photos than usual for the week, so I added in a 6×12" insert. This was just one of the full 9×12" pocket pages, with all of the 3×4" pockets, and I trimmed off one row of pockets to make it a 6×12" pocket page. 

Here's a look at the first half of the weekly spread, with the 6×12" insert on the right side. I've mentioned before that I intend on going back and adding some little tabs to these smaller inserts, so that they stand out more and don't just blend into the page behind them. 

Weekly title card of course, added into one of the 4×6" pockets. I added a corrugated flower to the center of my filler card, along with a small sticker. The flower is actually a button. I hate leaving buttons "naked", but I didn't want to add thread to the holes. I went with some tiny little enamel dots. The darker ones do look pink here, but they're red. I went with red and a light pink, to go with the touches of pink and red in a few photos. 

I've gotten so bad at taking photos at family get-togethers. This was a big family summer BBQ that my brother and his wife host every summer, and it's pretty much an all day (and late into the night most years) thing. Yet I think I took all of three photos, with two of them being not-so-great quality pics at night. I ended up including all three photos, since I had the space.

I have a pretty big collection of stickers from over the years, and a lot of them were ones that I never used when making layouts. They're getting put to good use in my pocket pages though, which is nice. My Tiny Attacher from Tim Holtz gets a TON of use as well. I add little staples to everything.

Had to document my Amazon shirts. Lol. I would have never thought I'd be buying a lot of my shirts off Amazon, but I found some good ones that I loved a year or two ago. I actually rarely wear them anymore, but I wore one every single day of the week up until last fall. And in case you're curious, here's a LINK to the shirt I'm wearing in that photo 😉

I love filler cards that are good on their own, and I don't need to add anything too. I do enjoy adding little embellishments to the pockets, but I'm all about keeping this project simple, so if I can leave a pocket super simple with just a card, I'm all over it. 

On the simpler journaling cards, like the one above, I try and leave a little space at the bottom, underneath my journaling. And my go-to embellishment for these cards, to add a bit of color, is to add a few pieces of washi tape at the bottom. Quick and easy.

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

The "omg" gee stickers, added onto a label sticker, could have easily worked on the photo/story below this photo/story too. Lol. Yes, I freaked a bit when my hair color solution ended up being BRIGHT orange. I was scared for my hairs! I'll never buy the "cream" formula again, even if they don't have my color in the regular one that I always use.

Seriously. Who knew that you're supposed to clean your washer? I had no clue. And as I type this, I'm trying to remember how often it said to clean it. This happened about seven months ago, so I'm pretty sure I'm due to clean it again. I have learned to leave the lid open after doing a load, and letting it air out and dry. I think this has helped, even if it bugs my OCD-self that the lid is open for hours. Lol.

Isn't she cute! Emelyn had climbed up on the hope chest that happens to be right below the window in the front of the house. It's the one piece of furniture that I let them climb up on, since they like to watch for mommies and daddies to come pick them up.

I wasn't quick enough taking out my phone to get a great photo of her sitting there waiting. Since the minute I took my phone out, her mom came around the corner. But I also WAS quick enough, since I caught that happy look on her face, as she saw her coming. It's blurry, but I still love it. 

I ended up with some glare on the left side of some of these photos. I don't spend too much time snapping these, so my apologies for not noticing that or I would have retaken it. I added a few phrase strips to the photo on the left. They're from Studio Calico, and some on a sheet with rows and rows of little strips that can be torn apart. I've been using them more and more, now that I found them in my stash.

Since I had used a corrugated flower embellishment on the first half of the spread, I included another corrugated piece on the second half. This time, I used a large arrow, pointing down to the story below it. 

This was a fun story from a concert that Alyssa went too with one of her friends from college. Her friend won tickets to a R5 concert, where they were two of the oldest people there. And I just now realized I typed on my journaling card that they were two of the youngest people there. Ooops. Lol. I need to retype that, because that's a huge error in this funny story.

They did get the chance to meet the opening act, Haley Knox, after the show. She's a new rising talent, and I think the Snapchat photo that Alyssa snagged with her is just the cutest.

Hey everyone! I made a goal this past weekend to fully finish up at least two weeks in my 2017 Project Life album. Sounds easy enough, since all of my journaling cards were typed up already for those weeks. And yet all I was able to finish was one single week. Lol. But hey, that's one more week checked off the to-do list 😉

Seeing as how I started out this year with 6 full months of last year's album to finish, I'm keeping these weekly spreads fairly simple. I mean, they've always been pretty simple if you ask me. When I started back up with PL a year ago, I knew that I wanted them simple in nature, so that it would be something that I could keep up with and not stress over. 

One thing that I'm probably going to change for this year's album, is that I won't be adding the fun little calendar card (seen above) to each week's spread. I like having it there, as I don't want to do the math when I read "week twenty eight" on the weekly title card. So the calendar card tells me exactly what week that was. 

But I found that most weeks, I usually had at least eight photos that I wanted to include. And with the calendar card added in, it left me less spots for journaling cards, as I always like to add at least two filler cards to each week. And including the stories to go with the photos is very important to me.

I recently dug out some kits I had got during a huge sale at Studio Calico about a year or so ago, and sorted out all of the cards and embellishments that came in those kits (that cork circle sticker above is from one of those kits). I am really wanting to organized my stash to fit my scrapping needs in a way that makes more sense to me, taking into account what and how I document these days. I've got a good feel for what I tend to add into my PL spreads, and I want those items to be easy to get too. 

I get asked about my journaling cards a TON, mostly on my Instagram pics when I share them. I did a post about a year ago about my digital journaling card process, but I think it's about time to do an updated post about them. I'll work on pulling something together soon 🙂

I'm hoping I can crank out at least one more full week to share by Friday. I've got a house full of infants every day this week, so I've been totally drained by the time they leave each day. Which means I've done pretty much nothing at all in the evenings. I wish I felt more creatively motivated sometimes, but I just go with it when it hits at this point in life.

Hey everyone! I feel like it's been a while since I've shared a Project Life spread. I went and checked, and the last time I shared a weekly spread was over two months ago. That last week that I shared was week twenty six, which meant that I officially completed the first half of my 2017 album. Actually, I end up with two albums for each year. So one album, containing half the year, is complete. 

I realize it's 2018, and that I still have a full six months worth of my 2017 albums to finish up. But I've been working hard to get those weeks finished up. I've already typed up a huge amount of my journaling cards for those last twenty six weeks, and have all of my filler cards added in. So I am making some good progress 😉

I managed to finish up week twenty seven yesterday, and wanted to share it super quick with you all. I got together with one of my best friends, Deneen, a few weekends ago, and we talked a lot about Project Life. She's looking to complete an album this year as well, so I was sharing my tips and tricks with her. She asked about my weekly title cards that I used in my 2017 album, which I just love. 

I try and link them every once in a while, even though I do mention them quite a bit, since I know I get asked a lot about them. 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. 

I'm also finding that I have some go-to digital journaling cards that I use more than others. Just like the J-Card: Weekdays from Cathy Zielske shown here. It's easy enough to work on numerous weeks at once using the same digital journaling card kit. I just pick one photo from each week to go with the cards, and then pick the card for the day of the week that goes with the photo and type it all up. 

I also use the Check It Cards No.01 kit from Cathy Zielske a lot, like the "thinking about" card above. Same deal as above. I will pick one photo from each week (working on numerous weeks at once), and then pick a card from the kit that goes with the photo. It's just easier to work from one kit sometimes, rather than jumping from kit to kit, looking for different journaling cards. 

And look at that. I actually used a stamp in my album! I have tons of stamps, and yet I don't think to use them very often. I'm looking to change that, and I really want to use them in my Project Life album more often. The stamp above, "here's what happened", is from Ali Edwards. 

I ended up keeping this weekly spread super simple. I mean, I know that most of my weeks are simple overall. But this one felt simple, and it came together in no time at all. Which is nice, when you're twenty six weeks behind 😉

 A few little 2×2" Project Life cards to add to my filler cards, a few stickers, some alpha stickers, an enamel dot, and a few tiny staples, and I was done. 

I'm hoping to get a few more weekly spreads finished to share soon. I decided to skip the "what we ate" feature this week, since being gone for four days (along with preparing to leave and recuperating after coming back) meant I haven't been that great on the cooking front lately. And speaking of being gone for four days, I will be back tomorrow to share photos from my trip 😉