Project Life Weeks 27 & 28

I almost can't believe it, but yes I am CAUGHT up with Project Life!  Yes!  That feel likes quite an accomplishment.  Now mind you, I am not caught up with sharing and blogging them but just being back on track means a lot to me because I think it will be a lot easier to just have to work on one week at a time again. 

Summer is always busy and I knew I'd have a hard time keeping up but then vacation week put me back and then July is birthday month so each week has had a lot to include, which also equals more work!  But even with all that, it is still a lot quicker to do Project Life and have my photos and memories already saved, then to have to worry about trying to create scrapbook pages for each and every thing.  There's no way I'd have this much done covering our summer if I was trying to keep up with traditional pages.  So loving Project Life and really getting it this year, when creative time is at a minimum with a baby transitioning into walking.

Second piece of exciting news, my new binder and just released plastics arrived!!!  I am so anxious to incorporate them into my pages.  Did you splurge and get the new page protectors?  I've been squirreling away a bunch of Amazon gift cards and just went crazy.  I got a black binder, tall envelopes, two small variety packs - cause I just can't resist a sale, small variety pack 2, vertical and horizontal 5X7s, Design G, 6X12 page protectors - so I won't have to sew my own as much, and some more Design A because I was running short and wanted to take advantage of a big enough purchase to get free shipping.  It was like Christmas for me. 

I'm really happy with all my choices, but will say that having gotten the black binder I think in the future I will just use regular WRMK 12X12 three ring binders.  They are more, but I buy them with a coupon at Archivers and I think they are sturdier and will hold up better.  Also, the holes on the 8,5X11 horizontal protectors are a bit off.  I have to put them on the top and middle ring and I'd prefer them on the middle and bottom.  But the lower placement makes them stick out farther below all the other pages.  That's only a small issue and It's unlikely I'll use that one very often but something to keep in mind.

I guess I should get to my pages!  This week started with the joint family birthday celebrations for my husband and daughter and almost the entire spread is about this day.  I used a super cute collection from KI Memories that had long languished in my stash.  It was great to finally use it for the party decorations and then on my PL pages so everything coordinated.

I spent so much time and energy on making a banner and other little touches, like the simple table runner I ridiculously proud of, that I felt they deserved their own insert.  I don't really sew very much so being able to whip up my own table decor when I couldn't find exactly what I needed was a big deal, well to me anyway.  I doubt very much either birthday celebrant noticed.  I kept most of the journaling about the party on this insert as well.  I also put the menu on it.  I took some gorgeous photos of the food and I might just end up adding yet another insert with them and the recipes.

On the back of this one is a door sign that I actually forgot to put up!  Too much going on!  So as not to waste it I included it but am not sharing it because my daughter's name is display prominantly on it.  Since we elect not to share that bit of personal information on the blog, you'll just have to take my word that it's darling.

Behind the birthday party detail insert is a Design E, both front and back side of this insert shown above, cut down to get two 6X6 pockets.  That size was perfect for some spin art that my daughter did while at a sleep over at her Grandma's.  She also made some glitter glue art that I saved.  When we went to pick her up, it was so cute.  She had set up an art show and even had an invitation.  She was so excited about it that it had to get a mention in the PL pages.  She was also very happy to see it made mommy's big binder of stuff, as she calls it.

On the second half of this week's spread are a couple more photos.  The one with E has a vellum quote sticker I've had for ages, it was nice to finally find the perfect spot to use it.  The only photo not from the party is the one of Brad at Red Robin with his free birthday burger.  The entire week was actually quite busy and filled with seeing friends.  But I'd taken so many pictures of the party I was kind of photo'd out.  I did include some of the things we did in the handwritten journaling at the bottom, which kind of summarizes the week.  The "Sure Do ♥ My Life" print comes from Crystal.

This is actually July 15-21, I have no idea where I got those crazy dates for my title card from.  Whoopsie, sure wasn't paying attention when I typed that out!  It's annoying but I since I created it with the digital Clementine version, easy enough to fix.  My daughter's 6th birthday party with her friends features largely at the end of the week.

Okay, so once you get beyond the fact I have the dates wrong, see above, then this week was pretty fun to put together.  I used mainly digital elements, playing around with the Clementine kit for the first time.  By the way, those crock pot chicken tacos really are yummy, you can find the recipe here.  The one blank card is a place holder for a digital card I made.  When I finish last week, I'll slide it onto a 4X6 with another digital journaling card and get it developed at Costco.  When I was working on this week I had an odd number of things to print and didn't have a second half of it.  It's about my weight loss, nice to have lost the 30 lbs of baby weight and then ten more!  Go me!

There are three inserts.  The first one is about visiting my parents and my son getting his hair trimmed for the first time.  I wanted to clean things up a bit for his first birthday, which was at the end of July.  So that there was equal billing for the other kiddo the back is all about E getting this kitty helmet.  I think it's just the ugliest thing ever but she is in love with it. 

The next two inserts are about my daughter's 6th birthday pool party.  I've blurred out most of the kids, except for my own and my friend's daughter, I have permission to share photos of her.  The lighting at the pool wasn't very good and I forgot my zoom camera lens, figures doesn't it, so many of the pictures aren't the best.  To remedy that I used a lot of closely cropped photos in a baseball card holder.  Behind that is a third insert.  The 5X7 has the invitation to the party and on the reverse side is a list of all the kids who came, their present, and how we know them.  I thought these little details will be fun to look over in years to come.

It was a big party, with 24 guests including the birthday girl and her baby brother.  I put a few more photos from the party to show the location and the chalkboard with her name on it to finish off the party.  The present paper, die cuts, and stickers are by Doodlebug Design Inc.  The epoxy words "birthday" "friends", and "fun" are from a set I got ages ago from the dollar section at Michael's.  The orange and green papers are both Jillibean Soup.

I'll be linking up to The Mom Creative, as usual :)