Recent layouts - trying new things

Finally spending time with my paper again! Here are some of my latest projects:


Title: Nurture this relationship

There are several new-to-me techniques in this layout:
1) Write your journaling about something other than what is conveyed in the picture. The picture is from our trip to Canada, but the journaling is more about how my sister and I want to live closer to each other.
2) The 6x12 size.
3) I used Tim Holtz distress ink in Antique Linen to dye the paper that I journaled on.
4) I purposely used ribbon in a new way.
5) Not a new technique, but a new mantra - I am trying to use up what I have. The "nurture" epoxy sticker is part of a set I have had *forever* and I am glad to finally be using it!



Working Title: Grape Stomp

Trying something different with this one as well. I used brown rhinestones to continue the strand of lights in the photograph and clustered my photos in a way I don't normally do. I am debating whether this needs a title above the rhinestones -- I don't know what it should say though and none of the letters I currently have would work. I don't really want to hand write it either, so I'm leaving it as is for now. I consider it an experiment in white space : )


And a sneak peek at Week in the Life in its current form - I'm getting close to done!

Week in the Life Progress

I know it is practically July and I still have my Week in the Life banner on my blog and I haven't shown you any pictures of the album yet. True confession here, folks: finishing projects is not my strong suit. I am a good shopper and a good planner and a good starter, but finishing... well, there's room for improvement there. I am determined to get this one done, though, so here is an update on the album.

I have all of the memorabilia assembled, I just need to finish doing the photos! It is taking a while because I am cropping my photos to fit 4 photos onto one 5x7 canvas. Ali Edwards made it look so easy, a one day project. Yeah, well, it's not that fast for me. Here is a sample of one 5x7 from Wednesday:



Each day will have a page with a large 8.5x4.75 photo on the top left, a 4x6 picture of what I was wearing that day (lower left), and the first page of notes for that day. At the end of that day's section, there will be room for another 8.5x4.75 photo (or layout), and the rest of my notes from the day. The notes are included exactly as I originally wrote them in my notebook, no editing, no transferring to nicer paper, no stress. I had thought I would write more when it came time to put the album together, but I'm trying to make it easier on myself to finish, so I just ripped them out of the notebook and plopped them in the page protector. Good thing they fit!



In between those "anchor" pages of sorts will be various pages for miscellaneous paper from the day:


as well as baseball card divided page protectors for memorabilia, smaller photos (the aforementioned 2.5x3.5s) and journaling:





(The letter on the right is from my uncle Eric, who does not have his own email account or access to the internet. His handwritten letters are definitely a part of my day-to-day life and I am so glad this one was dated within the dates of week in the life so that I could include it (even though it arrived later the next week). This is something that I will look back on and be glad that I have, and it serves as a reminder for why I want to FINISH this project!)

Week in the Life Intro Page

I finished my intro page for my week in the life project:

I used a quick page that Ali Edwards made for Shutterfly. All I had to do was crop it down to 8.5 x 11 and add my pictures and journaling! Pretty easy. I tried to pick every day photos that capture us right now, rather than try to pick the most monumental pictures from the week. Those will go on the pages for the individual day.

Week in the Life, Day 7

By the numbers:
83 photos
3 pages of notes
2 receipts
1 church bulletin

By the photos:

Week in the Life, Day 6

By the numbers:
70 photos
3 pages of notes
1 jersey number
1 bike number
2 route maps
1 wristband


By the photos:

Week in the Life, Day 5

By the numbers:
51 photos
2 screenshots
2.5 sheets of notes
1 business card
Hill Country Ride postcard
Spandex Saves tag

By the photos:
Kick-off dinner for the Hill Country Ride for AIDS

Test riding the tandem:

Laying out our gear in preparation for the ride tomorrow:

Charging the iPhone, a necessary task:

Putting the Netflix out in the mail after watching it:

Week in the Life, Day 3

By the numbers:
151 photos!! You got that right, it more than makes up for my 4 photos yesterday.
2 printed out emails
3 pages of notes
3 pages of thoughts on the conversations I had today

By the photos:
Apparently what I look like while I wait for the bus in the morning. Squinty and ready to get away from the bus stop.


The bus finally arrives. The bus driver said he was going to charge me for taking his photo.


Trying to finish my nemesis, aka Chapter 3


Frozen yogurt after an impromptu outdoor Earth Day movie. Do love that husband of mine, especially since shortly after this smiley photo I had a dissertation meltdown moment.


I thought I should add that I was able to take so many pictures because I held my camera along my whole (walking) commute against my body and took a picture every time I reached a milestone, either by turning, going up stairs, or crossing the street. I did this both directions to get both perspectives.

Week in the Life, Day 2

By the numbers:
4 photos, all on my camera
1.5 pages of notes
1 hot drink sleeve from Prufrock's on campus
2 receipts
1 typed out story about my thoughts from today
1 great happy hour with an old friend (but I forgot to take a picture)

Note to self:
Day 2 is just as exciting as Day 1, so take more pictures! Here's to Day 3...

Week in the Life, Day 1

By the numbers:
32 photos (31 on my camera and 1 on the iPhone).
2 pages of notes
2 receipts
1 printed email
2 printed journal articles, I will probably include the first page of both of them
1 page ripped out of the Lands End catalog

By the photos:








Thoughts:
I got a message on facebook today from a friend who is doing some linguistics research and wanted some help. He sent a copy of the paper he is working on to an email account that I don't check very often anymore (too much spam). I checked the account, and there was a super sweet email from my sister that she had just sent yesterday. I printed her email out to put in my Week in the Life - I don't think I would have documented it without this project! That will be a very special thing to have in my album. And it makes me wonder what the odds are that I would check that email account TODAY, when the last time I checked it was over a month ago.

Getting ready for Week in the Life

Ali Edwards' Week in the Life project starts on Monday, and I am getting ready. I made a little notebook to jot down my notes as I go about the week. "Made" is a relative term, since all I did was adhere a journaling block that was in some leftovers from an Archiver's class to a notebook I already had. What I like about this particular notebook is that it came in a clear poly envelope, so I can use that envelope to save my paper miscellanea from the week (receipts, etc.) It was left in the giveaway pile in my office's common lounge and I grabbed it a few months back, thinking I could recover it somehow and make a cute notebook out of it. I was hesitant to use it for Week in the Life for fear there was a more "perfect" project that I could use it for. Yeah, trying to let go of the perfect thing, so I bit the bullet and said, "This is the perfect project. I am using it."

I am also finishing up projects that would otherwise distract me, as per Aby Garvey's advice, and so you can see a little bit of the pink and green shower invites I am working on in the upper right corner. Hoping to get those mailed this weekend! They are so cute, but I don't want to spoil the surprise for the intended recipients, so I will wait til next week to post a picture.