Laura Vegas

Project Life 2017: Week Thirteen

May 1, 2017

Happy Monday everyone! I'm back to share another week in my 2017 Project Life album. This is week thirteen, and the last week of March. And another week that ended up with lots of green and black. I have a hard time getting away from those colors, I guess.

I'm still turning to the chipboard stars and hearts a lot. I'm not sure what I'll do when I run out of them. I'm also still peeling off several layers of the chipboard, to keep them on the flatter side. As much as I love chipboard, I'm trying to keep the bulk out of this album.

I need to work on getting Joe into the album a bit more. I think the only photos related to him so far are the ones when he's had his picture in the newspaper. I would ask him to take some photos at work, but he's got a pretty lame phone which takes really lame photos. Lol.

I've been using lots of alpha stickers on tags and/or photos, to add a small description. I had texted Alyssa to remind me where this photo was taken and what they were doing, and when she texted me back with the info, I said "that's long – I'll type that up". Might need to do that more often, for those times when I don't have the right tiny alpha stickers for the space.

Alyssa's roommate had asked if I would attend her junior flute recital, and of course I said yes. I kept asking Alyssa when she was going to do her clarinet recital, but she has no interest. She's not required too, with her major, but she could just for fun. Apparently, she doesn't think that sounds like fun. Lol.

I got on this muffin making kick a while ago, and I've been doing it every weekend since. Mini Chocolate chip muffins for Sarah – since she kept wanting me to buy the little packs of mini muffins, and I told her that I could make them for so much less. And egg muffins for Joe (and some weeks for myself) – since then he's far less likely to stop and grab breakfast somewhere on his way home from work in the morning.

I just love this photo of Alyssa and her boyfriend, Anthony, taken before the sorority formal. I used a digital journaling card from one of Ali Edward's Story Kits, and took off the yellow silverware that was on the black part of the card. I then added on the "let's go" digital brush, changing it to grey.

So, that's a look at how our March went. I'll be putting my April photo order together today or tomorrow, so that hopefully, it will arrive in time for me to start working on it over the weekend.
Project Life 2017: Week Twelve

April 27, 2017

I really hope you all don't mind me sharing these Project Life spreads with you. I worry they'll all start to look the same, and not be all that interesting. Lol. But it's the only creative project I have to share right now, so I'm going to keep sharing 😉

So, here's week twelve in my 2017 album. I knew going into this week, once I had my photos sorted out by week, that I would need more 4×6" pockets for my spread. I didn't have enough photos to justify adding in a 6×12" insert page (something I've done for previous weeks that had more 4×6" pics), so I simply used two of the same style pocket page protectors, allowing me room for three 4×6" photos, along with my weekly title card.

Week twelve happen to be the week of spring break for Sarah. And since a few of my daycare kids were home for the week with mom (teacher, also on break), I was able to sneak in a few unplanned vacation days. Sarah and I went to take campus tours of the two colleges she's deciding between. I wanted to include a 4×6" photo from each college visit, hence the extra need for 4×6" pockets.

To create the journaling card, I used a digital card from Ali Edwards, and just removed the text at the top of the card, so that I was left with the ruled lines to journal on. Then I used a digital brush, also from Ali, to add the "college", and typed "campus tours" to finish it off.

And yes, I'm slightly addicted to that bunny Snapchat filter! I had to include a selfie of myself using it. It's crazy how I feel so much better about myself with a bunny filter, than just a regular photo of myself. Lol.

Love having the calendar cards added into each week. I'm using one from the Project Life app, which I have printed along with my photos each month. I actually send them to my laptop first, so that I can add the little stars to mark the weeks, and then send them back to my phone for adding to my photo order.

Since I've been leaving the album out on my desk for days at a time, I tend to walk into my scrapbook room here and there, randomly adding a little something here or there to the pages. Sometimes, I think the page is done, but then I end up adding something else to it another day. I jump back and forth, so I'm really just working on the entire month's spreads all at once.

I sometimes think I need to add a little something to each photo – as if every photo in the album needs an explanation. But I also realize that that is not the case, and sometimes a photo can just be a photo. Like the one above, which is actually a photo I took of my February Project Life pages, once I had completed those.

Sarah had shared quite a few photos from her day trip to San Francisco (just like when Alyssa goes places, and shares a lot of photos with me), so I just picked out two photos to include here. I love the one of just her, taken at night, with her beautiful smile, and then the one below of her and her best friend, Natalia.

I did feel like I needed an explanation of the photo on the right. We don't get too much crazy weather in this part of California, so when it randomly hailed one afternoon, I had to get a quick photo of it. I simply added some tiny alpha stickers to my photo, which conveniently lined up along the doorway thingie (I'm not going to try and figure out what it's called).

I've got one more week for March to share with you, and I'll share that on Monday. Hope you all have a good rest of the week and a great weekend!
Project Life 2017: Week Eleven

April 25, 2017

I'm back to share week eleven in my 2017 Project Life album. This was another easy week, as I didn't have too many photos. Half of my photos came from Alyssa, so I'm glad she was out and about, and taking photos!

I usually start out with the idea of using two different pocket page protectors for each week – the one that holds (2) 4×6's and (5) 3×4's, and one that holds (9) 3×4's. I actually used two of the same design for this week, but that was mainly because the following week I needed a lot more 4×6" pockets.

Have I mentioned how much I love these Weekly Edition Journaling Cards from One Little Bird? Yes, I know I've mentioned it, but I'm going to mention it again. They make adding the weekly title cards to my spreads so easy.

I recently purchased the This Week 4×6" digital journal cards from Paislee Press, with the intention of using them for my 2016 Project Life album. I am still trying to figure out how I'm going to go back and finish the entire year's worth of spreads. And while I do have title cards in place for almost half the year, not a single one of those cards actually has the week or date on it. And I'm not sure how I would even want to add the weeks to those cards.

I think using the digital cards for the weeks will really help me in making some progress on that album. I used a lot of 4×4" in that album, so I really like that this other set of weekly title cards can easily be cropped to 4×4", as well as using the 4×6" version. I'll be adding the entire set of 52 cards to my next photo order, so I can work on switching them out in my album.

I think I did a lot better with my March journaling cards, remembering to leave room in the right places to add any little embellishments. Like for the card above, I made sure to leave room on the bottom, since I figured I would add a little washi tape there.

Since I used two of the same pocket page protector, this left me with spots for three 4×6's (in addition to the weekly title card). Since I only really had two photos that were 4×6", I combined a 3×4" photo and a 3×4" filler card into one of the 4×6" pockets.

While I'm mainly using the black and white digital journaling cards, I keep some of the other sets I have in mind if they work for the photos. I pulled the "get up and go" card from one of digital Story Kits from Ali Edwards, and also added some digital stitching down the middle.

It's a good thing I have a pretty large supply of enamel dots, hearts, stars, etc. I've been using them a lot on these pages, since they're super easy, and add very little bulk.

Just like on last week's spread, I pulled both of my filler card from my Simple Stories 3×4" card stash. I added a little washi tape to the top and bottom of the "snapshots" card, and added an enamel dot to the center of the camera.

I felt like this photo of Alyssa and her dad needed a little something, but wasn't sure what to add. I then remembered some photo overlays that I've had forever – I think they're from the original Project 365 kit, from way back in 2009. I simply added an overlay over the photo and slipped them both into the pocket.
Project Life 2017: Week Ten

April 24, 2017

Hey everyone. I finally got around to finishing up my March Project Life pages this weekend. Since I don't have a baby in the house right now, I don't have to keep the desk in my scraproom clean, since there's no one napping in there. So I've taken to leaving my album sitting out, and I randomly go in and add one or two things to the album.

Those little bits add up, and I put the last touches on this weekend. I'm sure I could still go back and add things if I left the album out. But I'm going to call them done, so I can move on to a few other things that need my attention.

The month of March was pretty simple, as we didn't have a ton of photos. February had a lot more photos, which is why I ended up adding in some insert pages to a few of the weeks. But March ended up being pretty straight forward, with a two page spread for each of the four weeks.

Alyssa ended up taking two trips to San Francisco in March, with the photos above coming from the trip with her best friend/roommate. I remembered the caption she added to some photos she shared on social media, and ended up using that for my journaling card. Doesn't that mac & cheese grilled cheese sandwich look yummy?!

Gosh, I miss this face! I had quite a few photos of little Eli on his last day with us, but had to use this one with his big smile.

I think I only ended up typing up 15 journaling cards total for my March spreads, which means I did 3-4 cards per week. By keeping them simple (mostly all black and white), and pulling from the same sets week after week, it really takes no time at all to type these up. I even had room on the last sheet I printed on, so I went ahead and typed up 3 of my cards for April already.

I pulled both of my filler cards for this week from my Simple Stories 3×4" cards. I find that whenever I have a simple filler card, like this polka dotted one, my first thought is always to just add a chipboard heart or star to it and call it done. Whatever works, right 😉

What's this? Another dog photo from Sarah? Lol. I actually love it now, and fully expect at least one dog photo when I request photos each month. And no, I have no idea who this cute dog belongs too.

When I snapped the photo above, I never intended to keep it. That's Sarah, still sleeping, at 1:00pm in the afternoon. I took the photo super quick, to send to Alyssa, since she was asking if Sarah was around. I'm actually glad I kept it, as it's a normal teen sighting.

I'm really putting all of my alpha stickers to good use, working on this album. There are some that I really, really wish I had more of, as they're not around anymore (Lily Bee mainly). And I find myself digging into a lot of alpha stickers that I've had forever, but have never even used (like the cursive Basic Grey above).

I'll be back tomorrow to share week eleven. Hope you all have a wonderful Monday – as wonderful as a Monday can actually be 🙂
School Albums: An Updated Look Inside

April 20, 2017

Today, I wanted to share an updated look at my girl's school albums. I have done many posts about their school albums over the years, starting back in 2009. You can find any and all blog posts related to these albums HERE, or by clicking on the "my school album system" image on the blog sidebar. I have kept with pretty much the same basic system over the years, and have changed very little of how I go about putting these albums together and adding stuff in each school year.

Keeping with the same system, and approaching each year in the same was as the previous years, makes it really easy to keep up with this project year after year. From the beginning, I knew I wanted to keep these school albums simple and easy. They're really meant to hold all of the "stuff" that goes along with school. Mostly memorabilia, and not so much photos and/or stories. Those can be saved for layouts. My goal for these albums was to contain the "stuff" that comes from 13 years of school.

I think the last time I shared a look inside these albums, I had shared Alyssa's freshman year of high school. So I figured I would share her sophomore, junior, and senior year's for today's post. I should really be fair, and share Sarah's at some point. I haven't added anything in to her senior year yet, which is why I pulled out Alyssa's album.

Each school year starts out with an envelope page. I'm using an older Kit-Of-The-Month school kit from Becky Higgins, from back in the Creating Keepsakes days. They came with these awesome envelopes that had the grades printed on them, and little pockets across the bottom. While these aren't something you can buy any longer, Becky Higgins does sell 12×12 envelope pages that would totally work for this.

Inside the envelope pages, I keep a sampling of their work from the year. Once they got to the higher grades, I saved mostly writing samples, journal pages, maybe a test or two, any cool reports, and anything else that felt interesting enough to save. Even in high school, I was able to find a few drawings they had to do as part of their classwork.

These envelopes came with little pockets along the botttom. I usually stick their school ID in there, if I have them. Sarah seems to hoard hers somewhere, so I hope to track them down at some point and add them in.

After the envelope page, I add in some 8.5×11" page protectors. When they were younger, I would put their class photo in first, followed by their final report card from the year on the backside. Since they stopped having class photos around 6th grade, I usually start out with the final report card from the year. We have state tests they have to do each year here in CA, so I'll add those test results on the backside.

I then add in any awards and certificates. I don't necessarily use one page protector for each certificate, or even put just two in each page protector. Depending on how many they've received that year, I may stick 3-4 in each page protector. While it would be great to be able to see them all, it can bulk up the album more. They're easy enough to pull out of the page protector, so if I need to add a few extra in, I'll do that. I still usually end up with 3-4 page protectors just for awards and certificates.

Once the girls hit high school, we had high school sports to work into the albums. While I have separate sports albums that I'm working on for them, those contain city sports. I wanted to keep the high school sports within their school albums. I use 8.5×11" page protectors for this as well, adding in their team photo, their individual photo, any awards and certificates, and the season's schedule if I kept it.

At some point, I started adding in 6×12" page protectors to hold any band concert or drama performance programs. They're almost always these smaller programs (an 8.5×11' paper folded in half), so they work nicely this way. I simply staple them to a piece of kraft cardstock, stapling them on inside of the program and only at the top – this makes it easy to open them, as well as turn them over to see the back of the program. I will add these to both sides of the protector if needed.

Next up is their official school photo. The school kit that I'm using came with these 12×12" pages, with the grade printed on and an embossed "box" to hold the photo. I add in their 8×10" photo each year. For the younger years, where they did spring school photos in addition to the fall school photos, I just added a 5×7" of their spring photo into the envelope page.

Alyssa was in the county honor band for 3 of her 4 high school years, which had a much larger concert program. I added that into the envelope page, and tucked her patch into the pocket on the front.

I ended up with several different ID cards during their high school years. They had a lunch ID, an internet ID, and their regular ID card. I saved whatever cards were given to me, and tucked them into these little pockets.

I followed the envelope page with several 8.5×11" page protectors, adding in her final report card from the year, as well as any awards and certificates. I must not have photographed them, but they're there.

Followed by high school soccer. The team photos (or even class photos from their younger grades) are 8×10", so I always just adhere them to a piece of white cardstock before slipping them into the page protector.

I usually don't get an 8×10" individual photo, so I'll add the 5×7" individual photo in. But this year, I had an 8×10" photo, so I used it.

Again, a 6×12" pocket page to hold band concert programs. I also added in a 8.5×11" page protector, since I had one program that was larger in size.

After her school photo page, I added in an extra 12×12" page protector to hold newspaper clippings. At some point, I hope to do something with them, even if it's just trimming them up if needed and adhering them to cardstock. But for now, they're all in the album where they need to be.

Senior year. It happened so fast! I haven't looked in these envelope pages for a while, so I can't be sure if I have anything unique in there, as opposed to previous years. I know there's another county honor band concert program in there, since it's a larger sized program with many pages. I know there's also some senior year stuff related to scholarships and college acceptances.

There's a part of me that wants to do something with the girl's patches, varsity letters and sports patches (Alyssa also lettered in music and scholastics), etc. Since they didn't get letterman's jackets, it would be fun to do a shadow box or something. Someday maybe.

The envelope page was followed with some 8x5x11" page protectors. First up, as I did with all the prior years, was adding in her final report card from the year. Then I added in any award and certificates. Alyssa ended up with a ton of those her senior year, so most of these page protectors have multiple certificates in them.

This was the only year they took a band photo for the yearbook. I love it. But it makes me wish they had taken these photos the other years too. Alyssa received some band awards, which I added after her photo, along with some concert programs.

I think this was also the first year they had an official photo for county honor band. I made sure to go online and purchase one, so that I could add it in her album. I think it was originally 8×12", but I knew that I would trim it down to 6×12", since the top of the photo was all white. I also added her high school graduation program into a 6×12" page protector.

On the backside of the graduation program, I added in the program from the Senior Baccallaureate, tickets from graduation, and her senior announcement that we sent out to family and friends.

And of course, her official senior year school photo. Which senior year, they take in the drapes and tuxes. At a photography studio. This school photo cost me a LOT more to add into her album. Lol.

I also added in an extra 12×12" page protector to hold newspaper clippings from the school year. Again, at some point, I'd like to pull these out, see what I actually have to work with, and then do something with them. But in the meantime, they're contained and where they need to be.

And this right here is 13 years worth of school memories. School "stuff". When I first started these albums, I was so sure it would all fit in just three albums. Four albums worked out much better, since the envelopes themselves can take up a decent amount of space. I think they contain a great overview of their school years, and all of the important stuff is added in and easy to find. I'm sure I could go thru some of the envelope pages again and pull out some papers that don't really need to be saved. But if you ask me, I'd rather have a little too much and pull something out down the road, than save too little and regret not keeping something.

There's so many ways to document your child's school years, and I think it's really up to each of us to decide what we think is important enough to save. Or how much time we want to put into organizing what we decide to save. For me, this worked. Like I said, I started these albums back in 2009, and I have kept with the system that I set up at that time. Very little has changed, which is kind of crazy to me. I'm the kind that usually changes my mind about things a lot.

But this system, for me, was easy. Easy to set up, and easy to maintain. It's the one larger project I've started, that I kept up with every single year. And with Sarah's high school graduation only 5 weeks away, I'll be able to get her senior year in the album completed and finished up as well.
Daycare Album Project: Part Two

April 18, 2017

As promised, I'm back to share a little more more of my daycare album project I've been working on. I won't bore you with photos of all of the pages, since it's 95% photos. But I thought I would just quickly share the divider pages for the three other years I have completed.

The first two years that I picked to start this entire project was 2007 and 2008. I'm not sure if I had a reason for picking those years. But I do know that between those two years, I had a massive amount of photos. I was really into photography during that time, and I had tons of kids around me at all times. I was also super good about editing my photos, as opposed to a few other years where I'm going to have to stop and edit photos before I can even think about printing them.

I don't think I mentioned this in yesterday's post, but for my 6×12" divider pages, I actually trimmed down large page protectors for these. While there are actual 6×12" page protectors out there, I happen to have a ton of the full 9×12" protectors, and I was pretty sure I would never get around to using that many. So I simply stuck my 6×12" patterned paper inside the protector, machine stitched along the side of the paper, and then trimmed off the excess with my trimmer.

After finishing up 2007 and 2008, my next choice to work on was 2015 and 2016. These years contained mostly phone photos. With a small handful of DSLR photos mixed in. There are definitely some phone photos that aren't the best quality, as it wasn't until a year and a half ago that I finally got myself a real iPhone, instead of using an Android or an older hand me down iPhone. But, photos are photos, and I'll use the low quality ones over not having any photos at all.

So, that's where I left off on this album project about a month ago. I mentioned yesterday that I did just order my photos for 2013, and there are all of 32 photos for the entire year. Kind of sad. Lol. Seeing as how there are so few photos for that year, I'm not quite sure why I haven't taken care of them and worked them into the album. I think 2009 will be my next year to tackle.

I'll be back on Thursday to share an updated look at my girl's school albums 😉
Daycare Album Project: Part One

April 17, 2017

Hey all! Hope you all had a wonderful Easter! I've got a few album projects that I thought I would share this week, and I'm going to start with the daycare album project I've been working on. I want to backtrack a little bit, and share what I wrote about this project back in January (in THIS post), when I had just started on the idea.

I've had this idea in my head for over a year now, in terms of doing something with the years and years of daycare photos I've accumulated. I've been doing daycare in our home for 15 years now. For many, many of those years, I would take photos of the kiddos constantly. And for many years, I also scrapped all of those photos as well. At some point, I made a conscious decision NOT to scrap the daycare kiddos so much. And somewhere down the road, I made the decision to turn a huge majority of those layouts into a digital book (shared HERE and HERE), and gave most of the layouts to the families to keep.

So while I still have three albums that hold layouts of the daycare kiddos, and I have a few digital books of various kinds of them, I can't help but think about all of the photos that are just hanging out on my external hard drive. Or in a box, or on negatives, seeing as how the first five years I did daycare, I was shooting with film.

Just this past weekend, I started working on the plan that I've had in my head. I'll be doing a few 9×12" pocket page albums, and the albums will be 95% photos. I really won't be adding much to them, other than divider pages and maybe a small page of journaling for each section. I randomly started with 2007 and 2008, and put in a huge order for photos from those years that will be here at the end of the week. I hope to share more about this project really soon.

Ok, now that I'm done backtracking, I can get on with what I came up with. As I mentioned, I'm using 9×12 albums, and pocket pages. The pocket pages will consist of ALL photos. I'm not trying to work in cute filler cards, or journaling cards, or any embellishments. This project is all about getting the photos in albums.

I'm breaking this project down by year, tackling a year or two at a time. And for each year, I'm breaking things down by quarters. I'll share more on that later in the post. I wanted to address my divider pages first, since that's the first I'm sharing in these photos. This post will walk you thru one full year in my album, which is my 2016 photos.

I created 6×12" divider pages to mark the start of each quarter in the album. I have tons of this white grid patterned paper, so I thought it would be perfect for these pages. I planned out my months in my Silhouette software, using cut files from Kerri Bradford Studio. I die cut the first and third month in each quarter in a larger, chunky word from colored cardstock – and then die cut the middle month of each quarter in a cursive word from black cardstock, along with the year.

I ran the two colored cardstock months thru my Cuttlebug, using a few different embossing folders. Just to add a little texture. I adhered all three months to the bottom of the 6×12" graph patterned paper.

I added a large strip of patterned paper along the top of the 6×12" page, matching it to the photos that showed to the right of the divider page. I ended up using all Bella Blvd patterned papers for this project, since I have so much of it in my stash. I also added a scalloped border strip along the bottom edge of the patterned paper.

I used a second piece of the graph patterned paper on the backside of the 6×12" divider page, adding a large strip of colored cardstock along the top, with a scalloped border strip of black cardstock.

My thought for the backside of the divider pages is that I could possibly add some journaling at some point. Or notes. Or just little tidbits of whatever I can remember from the time the photos were taken. Could be what kiddos I had at the time, what our schedule looked like, or any funny stories that pop into my head while looking at the photos. Or maybe they'll get left as-is, and I'll never add anything to them. We'll see what happens.

As I mentioned before, I broke down each year into quarters. Three months worth of photos in each section. I pulled the photos from my external hard drive, and copied them all into new folders on my laptop. I copied over pretty much ALL the photos from each month. From there, I would see how many I had to work with and start narrowing them down if needed.

There are 3 different styles of 9×12" pocket pages. There's one with a few 4×6's and a few 3×4's, one with all 3×4's, and one with all 3×3's. I decided that my goal would be to use one of each design for each quarter. That would allow me 56 photos total for each quarter – and breaking that number down, I knew I would need (4) 4×6's, (28) 3×4's, and (24) 3×3's.

There were a few quarters so far (as I've only completed 4 of the 15 years) that didn't have enough photos for the three pages, or that had so many photos that I wanted to include that it required a fourth page, or that needed a different mix of pocket page designs (depending on what my photos looked like orientation wise).

I took each quarter as it came, even though I tried to stick to my original plan when I could – using three pages, one of each of the three pocket page designs. If I had to adjust the plan, I did. I worked on a few older years of photos, and narrowed down a huge amount of photos to just the 56 photos without any problems. I think I had a tendency to take multiple shots of the same thing back in the day, when I was using my DSLR more.

I found that when looking thru the photos from the last two years or so, I had a harder time narrowing down my photos to just the 56. While I did have some that were very similar shots, I didn't have the same type of multiples that I found in earlier years.

I would say that 95% of the photos from the last few years are phone photos, so I think I ended up with a wider variety of shots as opposed to earlier years. When I used to take photos with my DSLR, I would tend to pull out the camera and take a bunch of photos at once. While with my cell phone, I take them more randomly here and there.

Once I would get my photos narrowed down to whatever number I settled on (usually 56, but sometimes less or more), I would start prepping them to print. I usually started by picking my 4×6" photos, since there was only 4 of those most quarters. It was easy to spot which photos needed that full 4×6" space, and couldn't be cropped into the smaller sizes.

From there, I would then move on to the 3×3" and 3×4" photos. Some photos will only work as 3×4's, as they're all vertical orientation in the pocket pages. A large majority of my photos can work in the 3×3" size as well, especially since I take most of my photos on my phone as squares. But it's fairly easy to find which photos will work better as 3×4's or 3×3's, and some will work either way.

I've completed four years so far, and I think I ended up with maybe 3-4 empty spots total. Like the page above. I ended up using 4 pages for that quarter of 2016, but was just one photo short of filling the full 4 pages. I figure I'll just add in a 4×6" filler card, or even just a piece of patterned paper. I haven't done it yet, but I'll get to it at some point 😉

When prepping my photos to print, I knew how many of each size photo I needed, and I would work from that list as I went. Once I had my 4×6's picked out, cropped and saved, I moved those original photos to my "used" folder, so I could keep track of what photos were left to work with. I would slowly move photos to the "used" folder as I went, which made it easy to see what was left when picking my sizes.

I named my files for printing so that I could keep track of what was what – the photos for this section were named "DaycarePL_2016_Qrt3_1", "Daycare PL_2016_Qrt3_2", etc. I combined (2) 3×4's on a 4×6" print, and combined (2) 3×3's on a 4×6" print. So I ended up printing about 30 photos total for each quarter, since most of the photos actually had two photos, which I cut apart.

I've used two different sites for my printing so far. The first batch of photos I ordered from Persnickity Prints, as I had a large print credit for 4×6" photos that I had bought when they had a big sale about a year ago. Since then, I've been adding a batch of photos to my FreePrints order each month, since anything over my 85 free prints a month is only 10 cents each (and it doesn't affect my shipping at all).

Once I have my photos in hand, I sort them by sizes, and then just start slipping them into the pocket pages. I don't over think it, but I do try not to get too many of the same kiddo on one page, and try to split up photos that look too much alike.

I was looking back at layouts I've made, and I think I've only created 6 layouts in the last year and a half about my daycare kids. I just don't create them like I used to years ago. That's the biggest reason that I wanted to do this album.

To get all of those photos of all these adorable kiddos off my computer and my hard drive, and into something that we could all look at. If I do get around to getting all 15 years worth of photos in these albums (which will be a challenge, since 5 of those years were film photos and involve negatives), I'm sure I'll end up with more albums that I think I'll actually need.

Then again, I have a few years that have next to no photos at all. Sadly. Those were the years I touched my DSLR far less, and didn't have a cell phone with a camera yet. I just printed my photos for 2013, and I have all of 32 photos total. For the entire year. So that year will only have one section. I think I have two more years that will be very small.

That wraps up my 2016 year of photos. I'll be back to share a small portion of my 2007, 2008, and 2015 tomorrow. I won't be sharing all the pages, as they're just photos and to anyone but us, they might be a little boring. Lol. But I thought I would at least share all of the divider pages. Plus, it gives me a reason to do an extra blog post this week 😉

I've actually got a similar album idea in the works for my girl's sports photos. I have them both started – lots of photos already printed and in place, and divider pages made up that include team photos, individual photos, and die cut team names. I'll have to see if I can finish up enough of the albums to do a post on those.

While I love making layouts, or more involved albums, there are times when straight up "photo albums" just work. And this was totally one of those times.
Kerri Bradford Studio: My Fantastic Squad

April 11, 2017

Hey everyone! I've got a new layout up over at Kerri Bradford Studio today. Quite honestly, I went back and forth, and then back and forth some more, trying to decide what to create for Kerri this month. I actually started two other projects, and then tossed them to the side, before starting what ended up being this layout.

I was scrolling thru my Instagram photos the other day, and came across a photo of myself with several of my daycare kids. I had written something about how I ever had a "squad", these little people would be my squad. I've been better about getting in the photos with the kids here and there, and I knew that some of those photos would make a great layout.

I went digging around for photos from the past year, so that I could focus on my most recent kiddos. I was able to find photos with all but one of my daycare girl's, who moved away a year ago to another state. They're not all the best quality photos, but I love them all the same.

I used a template from Kerri's Storyboard #1 kit to collage my photos together. I left one space in the template empty, knowing that I wanted to add either my title or my journaling there instead of another photo. I simply trimmed a piece of cardstock to fit over that area on the template once it was printed and adhered it in place.

After I printed out my photo collage, I went looking for patterned papers to use. I ended up picking the recent Lovely Day collection from Dear Lizzy. That painted striped patterned paper just felt like it matched really well, with all of the color I had going on in the photos.

I matted the white cardstock, used to cover the empty space in the collage, with some of the pink patterned paper that I used along the bottom of the page, so that it would stand out more. I then used the Weathered Door [all] kit to create my title, die cutting it from blue patterned paper, and completed the title with a few alpha stickers and Kerri's One Fine Day stamps.

I wanted to add a little something along the left side of my photo collage, so I die cut a flower border from the Borderlines #1 kit, and tucked it under the edge of the collage. The "hey, hey, hey" card that I cut from one of the patterned papers covers a lot of the border up, but it still adds a little something-something.

The crochet flowers are from an older Dear Lizzy collection. They have cute little brown crocheted centers to them, but I decided to add some coordinating buttons to the centers. I also added a few navy blue enamel dots near the crochet flowers.

Sadly, we've lost quite a few members of our "squad" over the last year. We had one move away to another state, and two that moved on to pre-school. And then a few unexpected departures, that I didn't see coming. But all for good reasons, as a few of the little ones are able to stay home with mom and/or grandma now. But our squad is smaller right now, and we're hoping to add a few new members very soon 🙂
My Photo Ordering Process

April 7, 2017

Hey everyone! I thought I would share a bit about my photo ordering process today. I've had some questions on Instagram, and maybe some here on my blog or thru emails, so I promised I would do a blog post about it for anyone interested.

When it comes to creating layouts, my go-to method of photo printing is to print them myself on my photo printer. It's easier for me to print as needed, when it comes to layouts, since I never know what size/orientation I'll want my photos until I'm ready to create a page. Or I'll decide to use a photo collage, which means individual little photos would be of no use to me.

However, when it comes to working on my Project Life albums, I go the other route and order my photos. Back in the day, I would use Costco for quick photo orders, since it's super close and convenient. But about a year and a half ago, I learned of the FreePrints app, and have been using them ever since. More on that below.

I use my iPhone for 95% of my photo taking these days. It's easy and it's always with me, and often times, it actually takes better photos than my DSLR camera. I also edit my photos on my phone, using the PicTapGo app. I am pretty good about editing photos as I take them, and I'm also pretty good at deleting any photos I don't need on a daily basis. My phone doesn't have a ton of storage on it (one big regret was not getting one with more storage), so I don't keep 14 photos of something, when I only need 1-2 photos of that same thing.



So what I've been doing for the last year and three months or so (basically since I started back up doing PL) is ordering my photos at the end of each month. I don't try and print photos on a weekly basis for Project Life, or even work on it on a weekly basis. I wait till the end of the month, and then do one big photo order. This is also when I ask both my girls to send me any photos they have for the month, so I can add those into my order as well.



The first thing I do, when I'm getting ready to do an order, is go thru and check for any photos that still need to be edited. Usually, this just involves brightening them up a bit or making the colors a bit more crisp.

Then I turn to the Project Life app on my phone. When working with the app, you can pull photos from your phone, from photos you've uploaded to Dropbox, or from the Cloud (which I will not even pretend to understand or know anything about!). Dropbox is a great way to get photos either from your computer to your phone, or from your phone to your computer (if you're not wanting to plug it in, that is). If I have any photos I've taken with my DSLR that I want to order, I upload them to Dropbox on my desktop, and then grab them from the Dropbox app on my phone.



The main thing that I use the Project Life app for, when doing my photo orders, is using the 4×6" template that allows you to put two 3×4" photos on one 4×6" print. It's super easy to use, and I can whip them out in no time. This is something that I also do in Photoshop a lot, when working with photos that are on my computer.

Now, when I worked on my Project Life album last year (2016), I was working with all sorts of different page protector configurations. So I used a lot of 4×4" photos, in addition to the 3×4" and 4×6" sizes. Oftentimes, since I wasn't sure what size I would want each photo, I would just order most of my photos in a variety of sizes. That way, I had options, as to how the pages ended up looking. It also meant I had TONS of leftover photos.

This year, I'm working with an actual 9×12" album, with true to size 9×12" pocket page protectors. These hold 3×3", 3×4" and 4×6" photos. I haven't even attempted to work any of the 3×3" pocket protectors in yet, and I think that's because to get that size photos, I would have to print them myself, sizing them in Photoshop. Which I can totally do. But working with just the 3×4" and a few 4×6" has worked out really well so far, so I'm sticking with those two sizes for now.



I will often use the Project Life app to crop my 4×6" photos as well. I actually take the majority of my pictures on my phone as squares. I'm not totally sure why, and sometimes I do regret it. Maybe it's because it's easier for me to visualize the shot, knowing that I'm going to post a photo to Instagram in the square format.

Anyways. The photo above was a square photo (although I did take landscape oriented photos that day as well), and I knew I wanted it printed as a 4×6" pic. Bringing it into the Project Life app, and using the 4×6" template is a quick way to save it cropped exactly as I'd like it to be. You can also use the templates in the app to put multiple 2×2" pics on a print, or a variety of other configurations.



I mentioned that I've been using the FreePrints app to order photos for almost a year and a half now. I've blogged a bit about them before, but I'm going to give you the scoop on them again, for anyone new here.

I had tried a few different app/sites, as far as ordering photos straight from my phone. I was most happy with the FreePrints app. You can get up to 85 prints a month for free, and all you pay is shipping. The shipping isn't super cheap (it never goes above $9.99, even if you add on more photos – which btw, are only 10 cents each and a great deal!), but it still worked out to less than I would pay for those prints if ordering from Costco. Plus, it was super easy to use and it's a great way to get those photos off your phone and printed.



You can pick them from your camera roll, or even off your Instagram account, Facebook, and/or Dropbox account. The photo above, on the left, shows photos that I had uploaded to Dropbox from my computer. These are photos that I worked on for a daycare album project I'm doing, so they include lots of 4×6" prints with two photos on each.

I usually use up my free 85 prints just ordering my photos from the month. But since additional photos are only 10 cents each (and the shipping doesn't increase at all after the $9.99), I like to try and add on some extra pics for other album projects I have going on. I've never tried ordering photos straight from my Instagram (shown on the right), but I'm sure it's a great way to do it too.



Once you pick your photos from your camera roll, Dropbox, etc, you'll be able to go thru all the photos in your order and double check them for any changes. The screenshots above show a few of my 4×6" photos with the two 3×4" pics on each.



One reason I liked this app over the others that I tried relates to square photos. If anyone other than myself takes lots of square photos from their phone, that is 😉 This could also come in handy if you're ordering straight from your Instagram as well. If you upload a square photo, it keeps it square. In other apps I tried, it forced it into a 4×6" image. I loved that this app kept them square! Then you simply trim off the sides once you get the photos. I love using 4×4" photos on layouts, and they can come in handy for some pocket pages as well, so it's an easy way to get them printed.

I mentioned that I'm really only using 3×4" and 4×6" photos in my Project Life album, so the majority of my photos from each month are set up as 3×4" pics in the Project Life app for printing. But I still go in and order all of my photos, since I might want them for other projects, layouts, or albums. Basically, I will end up with lots of duplicates, but that just means that if a photo gets used in my Project Life album, the chances are really good that I have another copy – maybe in a different size – to work with for other projects.



If you've ordered any regular photos – meaning vertical shots or horizontal shots – you will want to double check the cropping on each one. Especially if they're phone camera photos, since those are sized differently. A different ratio. Whatever it's called ;)

Long story short, each month I pretty much order any photos I took that month. I even order some of the photos I take of scrapping projects, since I have been known to use them here and there. A large majority of the photos I order, I order in at least two sizes – mostly 3×4 and 4×6, but also 4×4 for any photos that were taken as squares. Quite honestly, my order can get confusing. My camera roll can get confusing. Pulling in photos from the girls, all of the edited versions and Project Life app versions. But I'd rather have extra photos, than missing photos. I definitely pull from those extra photos for layouts and other projects all the time.

Once my order arrives (usually, in less than a week), I cut apart the prints with two photos on them, and trim the edges off the square pics. Then I use my phone as a guide to separate them out into the 4-5 different weeks of the month (depending on how the month falls, sometimes I order the first week of the next month as well). The phone tells you when the photos were taken, so it makes the sorting process easy. I have 4-5 envelopes that I use over and over, and just stick the photos for each week in one of them until I'm ready to slip them into the pocket pages.

And this is just part of my process. Once I sort out the photos, I then move all of the photos from the month over to my laptop and delete them from my phone. Unless there's a photo that I really want to have handy, then I'll keep it. Most of the photos I take end up on Instagram, so if I'm wanting to show a photo to someone, I can simply pull it up there. Like I said, I don't have a ton of storage on my phone, so I've just gotten in the habit of moving my photos off it every month.

I feel like I made that all sound like more work than it is. I promise, there's a method to my madness 😉
Project Life 2017: Week Nine

April 5, 2017

Annnnnd, I'm back. Sharing week nine in my 2017 Project Life album. Which is the last week I have completed. Since I only order my photos once a month, I'm working on a month at a time in my album. I should have my March photos by the end of the week, and then I'll get started on those weekly spreads.

Week nine was technically the last few days of February, and the first few days of March. I didn't end up with many photos for this week. Very few, in fact. That photo up there, "their stuff", has a story to it, even though I didn't journal about it. And here it is, taken straight from my Instagram:

"I love when a certain little dude brings me all the shoes and jackets, thinking it's time to go home … and it's not even 8:00am. You're not the only one excited to get this weekend rolling, my friend, trust me ;)"

After including several dog photos from Sarah, figured it was worth journaling about! Since I had a few photos that included pink and yellow, those were the colors I decided to go with. It made the spread feel different than my previous weeks, with that bright splash of color.

Awwww. My little squad. My people. Not including the little one that didn't quite make the photo. Again, I shared this photo on my Instagram, so I simply copied and pasted what I wrote there, and used it for my journaling.

I'm getting smarter with my journaling cards now, making sure I leave a little room if needed to add a little embellishing. I can't remember if I've used washi tape on any of my other weekly spreads. But it will be a great item to add, as it's nice and flat. I added two torn pieces to the bottom of the card above, a few mini staples, and an enamel heart. Simply and easy.

I ended up including three photos from Alyssa's concert, since I loved all three of them. I always make sure to take a picture of the girls together after concerts, since it's nice to have my girls together in one place. The other photo was a 4×6", but I trimmed it in half so that I could include it in the 3×4" pockets.

Alyssa took that photo before the concert, while on stage. And I think it's super cool. A totally different perspective, as we're always sitting way up in the balcony, looking down on the band.

I also wanted to include the photo Alyssa gave me of her and two of her closest friends, and bandmates. I used one of the journaling cards I picked up from In A Creative Bubble a few weeks ago, and can tell I'm going to love incorporating those more in upcoming weeks.

I haven't dipped into my Story Kits, from Ali Edwards, for my Project Life pages. I like the idea of keeping those kits intact, as I want to use them first for the stories they're intended for. I recently decided to add the stamp subscription to my Story Kit subscription, which means I also get access to the digital content for the kits.

I had just downloaded the newest theme's kit, Eat, and noticed this fun little journaling card with the silverware on it. Since the photo to the left of the journaling card was taken at the Initiation Dinner for Theta, it felt like a good match. Plus, the yellow silverware added a splash of yellow to tie in with the rest of the spread.

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