I'm kicking things off with Week 11 of my Project Life album. Kits are the perfect thing to use for this project, especially when you have scraps and little bits left over after you've made several layouts- they give you that mix 'n match look right out of the box!
I have to confess that I almost skipped over Week 11 in favor of getting another week caught up. It was my birthday week, so you'd think I'd be thrilled to work on it, but at the same time it was my birthday week, and there was so much to document! As in four inserts worth of stuff!! Yes, I who try desperately to keep inserts to a minimum included four of them for this one week. I don't regret it, though, because it immediately made a home for a bunch of stuff that I might otherwise have never gotten around to using.
So, grab a cup of tea, coffee, or your comfort drink of choice, and settle in, because this is going to be a looooong post!
We'll start on the left side of the main layout where you'll find adventures at the duck pond, crafty fun, home improvement projects, gym time with Glitter Girl videos, and one lazy cat.
I picked up some add-ons along with the Studio Calico April kit, so I had a variety of alphabets to choose from. I used lots of them for this week, including two here in the title slot. I had so many photos for the week that I ended up putting the dates in some empty space on this photo.
I also got really, really scrappy with this week- it was so fun! I followed Michelle Wooderson's method of treating each pocket like its own little layout and loved it.
The kraft labels in the photos above and below weren't in the kit- they're from Martha Stewart's office supply collection at Staples.
Those sweet Sassafras butterfly stickers from the kit completely stole my heart, and they turn up a lot on this week's pages.
Washi tape makes an excellent resting spot for a title and a little brad accent (the brad is from the Echo Park This & That Charming set, which was a shop item at Studio Calico in April).
On the right side of the page we have my birthday sushi lunch (a day early), crop night at church (where the cherry blossoms were blooming), waiting (im)patiently at home for my new iPad 3 to arrive, and birthday festivities.
These little labels from the Miss Caroline collection by My Mind's Eye were also an April shop item at Studio Calico, and I don't regret buying them one bit. I think I used up half of each sheet I bought (there were two different ones) on Project Life alone!
Along with getting scrappy on this layout, I also got stitchy. These are things that I'm no stranger to on my traditional layouts, and I'm happy to have finally transferred them over to Project Life.
More washi tape and another butterfly sticker here.
And both the pockets above and below use those label stickers again.
The first insert for this week is filled with cherry blossom photos. Yes, I'm clearly obsessed with them- it's one of my most favorite times of the year!
I've already scrapped some of these photos on traditional layouts and will probably do more in the future, but I wanted to include them in my Project Life, as well, since it's such a big part of the week when they're around.
I also included an insert of nothing but birthday photos. Again, many of these will be scrapped again later, but it feels so good to have them included here, too.
Both of the inserts above use Project Life Design G page protectors, but for insert #3 I turned to a 12x12 Big Envelope page instead. I've blogged before about how I use these to save bits of Christmas wrap each year, and they're also perfect for corralling birthday memorabilia. There's a little bit of everything in here- all my cards, some cupcake toppers and wrappers, gift tags, ribbon, the outer wrapper of the pastry ring that Darren picked up as my birthday cake, and, of course, pieces of the gift wrap!
In fact, I let a huge piece of my favorite wrapping show through the back of the envelope. It actually matches the kit papers really well!
I won't lie- this envelope is pretty thick. But it holds a ton of stuff, and if I have to expand my Project Life album to 2-3 volumes per year in order to keep stuff like this contained and organized, then I'm good with that.
The final insert looks kind of puny compared to the others, but it's what would have probably been the only insert for the week had the other events not been going on. This one contains just normal "stuff" from a week- a note from Darren letting me know he was going to the lab, chopstick wrappers from the sushi restaurant, and the cute little "Pansy Crossing" sign that Darren made that I rescued from the yard before it rained later the next week.
The back of the insert serves purely as a place to show off some of my favorite patterns from the kit papers.
Whew! And there you have the biggest week in my Project Life album so far! I didn't even do that much for Christmas last year, though now that I've seen how much I like those envelope pages in my Project Life albums, I may just have to include one for Christmas this year, too!
Supplies (click on images for product links):