My Version of Project Life

I know many are doing (or have done) some form of a picture a day type of project.  Some document their lives by taking a picture everyday, some do it weekly, and some do it monthly.  There really is no right or wrong way to do this, it's basically just what you prefer!  Back in 2009 I tried to do the picture a day, then called Project 365.  At first I didn't miss a day.  Then I would miss maybe a day or two a month.  Then it turned into a day or 2 a week...well you  get the picture!  I continued to take pictures throughout the year, but it definitely wasn't everyday.  My intention was to do the album digitally in 8x8.  So I had a couple layouts done for January, but then I got behind on the layouts.  I continued to file my pictures into the appropriate monthly folders, but never did the layouts for them.  Recently I was going back through the layouts I did and I can't even convey the emotions I felt and how nice it was to look back at those pictures and remember those moments that most likely would have gone undocumented, especially those of my sons.  After falling so behind back in 2009, I always thought I could never commit to doing another one of these types of projects.  Suddenly after looking at the beginning of my 2009 Project 365, I really wanted to try it again this year.  I decided to do it digitally again, but this time I didn't want to do a separate album and have each 2 page spread be one week.  I wanted to try to incorporate these pictures into my family scrapbook, but not take up too many pages...oh the dilemma!  Sooooo, I ended up making my own digital template, based on Becky Higgins Project Life, with a tweak here and there to fit some portrait pictures.  Then all I had to do was drop in my pictures and add my journaling.  The templates I made are in 12x12 size, but I am going to resize it to 6x6, and I will be able to fit a whole month on a 2 page layout.  Here is what I mean...

These are 2 separate pages, which make up 1 week.  When resized to 6x6, they fit next to each on a 12x12 page.  The next week, I did the same thing and those 2 pages will be next to each other and will fit under the previous week pages, making up the left side 12x12 page, looking like this...

I did the same for the following 2 weeks of January, which will then be on the right side 12x12 page, and look like this...

So all together the full 2 page layout, which covers the month of January looks like this...

I hope this made sense, it's a bit confusing to explain.  The paper I used for January was Echo Park digital Wintertime Collection.  LOVE Echo Park!!!  I just love that I can fit the whole month, day by day, on just a 2 page layout and it can go right in with my regular family scrapbook, where I can still have my traditional layouts as well!  I love that I can feel like I have these memories already scrapbooked and not feel like I'm behind yet another year. 

Counting down to Disney!!

Woohoo!!  It's that time!

We are at our 30 day countdown to our trip to Disney World!  This time we are going to celebrate my sons' 5th birthday.  I can't wait!  My mom and dad are coming as well, which makes this trip pretty special.  I feel I am super lucky to be able to have divorced parents who can still be friends and go on vacation together to celebrate their grandchildren's birthday.  Anyway, onto the calendar...

This is another hybrid calendar made with digital paper, photoshop, and my Cricut!

 

First I worked on the calendar part using digital paper from Digital Design Essentials.  I darkened the background, and lightened the paper for the circles.  I then used the Mickey font and the Disney World font for the letters and numbers.  The size of this portion is 8x8, which is then matted on white, then matted on black.  Once this was done and printed and matted, I worked on the Cricut portion.

I used the Mickey & Friends cartridge for the heart with the Disney, the gloves (border option), and for Mickey and Pluto.  "Countdown" was using the Disney World  font and "to" was using the Mickey font and I just printed that out and cut it by hand.

For the Disney heart, I used the same digital paper I used as the calendar background.  I just printed a patch of the digital paper on regular paper and then cut it with the Cricut.

 

I also cut out little Mickey heads from the cartridge and this is what my boys will put on the dates as we countdown to when we leave.  Every night before we go up to bed, they each take turns and stick one of the heads on that days date.  We even have a special place in our kitchen where I put the countdown calendars, and when I went to put this one up they went right to it and told me where to put it.  The whole thing is mounted on 12x12 paper.

I can't believe my boys are going to be 5 years old!!  I can't believe we will be able to celebrate their birthday (hopefully, if all goes well) in Disney World!  I am really looking forward to this, but I am trying not to show too much excitement because I am always afraid that once I do, the thing I am excited about won't happen!!  So for now I will cross my fingers and hope for the best and maybe pretty soon we will be in the happiest place on earth! :)

Countdown Calendar

Every summer we take a trip to go see my mom who lives on the Outer Banks of North Carolina. This year my boys started in May with the question, "When are we going to Grammy's?" It was never ending and they just couldn't understand just how long it would be before we left for vacation. When we went to Disney World I made a countdown calendar for them and it helped with the excitement and the questions about when we were going. So I decided to do the same thing for this trip.

First I made the calendar part, which counts down from 30 days to 1 day then the day we leave for Grammy's. The background paper is digital from Digital Design Essentials and the numbers are digital from Atomic Cupcake.

I added the beach elements from the Cricut Cartridge, Life's a Beach. Love that cart!! I know I will be getting a lot of use out of this one. Then I made little circular tags for my boys to place on the day right before they go to bed. They each take turns each night. The little circles are from the Going Places cartridge. I chose the cat because my mom has cats and it represents her, the house because it's my mom's house, and obviously the suitcase because we are going on vacation!

This is the calendar before we started the countdown:


Here is the calendar a little while later:


And here is a closer look at the tags or whatever they are called!

This has really helped and I haven't heard the question, "When are we going to Grammy's" since we started this. My boys love it and get really excited when it is their turn to put their circle on the calendar. Oh, and I know that there is a comma missing in Grammy's. I forgot to glue it on and then got lazy and just forgot about it! I'll just call it creative license! :)