Project Life {Week 2} Home again, home again, jiggety-jig...

On a roll now with {Week 2} completed and can hardly wait to share it with you at Project Life Tuesday hosted by Jessica of The Mom Creative blog.

Again...I'm late, I'm late...for a very important date! Well that would be because this week, most PLer's have completed up to Week 3 in their albums.  But you know my motto: better done than perfect ;}

After this week, I'm not going to worry about it anymore because ya know what...life happens...and I'm living mine and enjoying it to the fullest.  All year long PLer's are going to be behind because we get busy with work, families, holiday, vacations, sickness and just plain living life!  I do not want the false pressure of a posting deadline taking all the JOY out of this experience for me and I hope that...I'm not the only one ;}

For {Week 2} I completed three 12"x12" page spreads using a variety of 12"x12" page protectors.  Since I still do not have the "Design A" type page protectors I'm using what I have on hand so that I do not get any further behind.  Many of the PLer's are using the "Design A" type pages because they are conducive to the PL kits...of which I have bought into...so needless to say I'm really excited to get them because I'm looking forward to the smaller 2"x3" inserts for the journaling cards and for some of my photos that really do not require the larger 4"x6" formats.  Here is the first two-page spread:

Followed by the second two-page spread which actually includes a piece of my artwork, Joy Rising, that was completed in {Week 3} and this along with all of my Canvas Create pieces will be part of my album this year.

One thing that I'm noticing about myself for this project is that...I'm finding that I'm taking a heck of alot of photos! A typical one week, two-page spread using "Design A" type page protectors holds eight 4"x6" horizontal photos and eight 2"x3" vertical photos and/or journaling cards.  So when there are busy weeks with loads of stories, ephemera and photos to use...I prefer to then insert extra page protectors that are smaller than the 12"x12" standard pages.  I feel that it the helps album flow better from week to week.  But this week I had SO many photos that I wanted to use...that I simply used which size page protectors worked the best for the actual photos that I had selected.

The beginning of the week began with us getting back into the swing of things after the holiday break.  Which meant alot of cooking and shopping for REAL food!  All of which was prompted by my stepping back onto the scales and facing reality...yikes!

Page three is dedicated to the end of the week where on Saturday I was back on the road again for a day trip to Asheboro to meet up with my sister and her friend for a day of shopping and lunch.  Whenever we travel this route...we NEVER get tired of the wonderful views and I was going crazy with my iPhone all the way up and back trying to grab the beautiful things I was seeing.

Now for the details ;}  I decided from the get-go that I was not going to drive myself crazy, silly...digging through my stash or going out to the stores and buying a bunch of scrapbooking supplies.  Instead I'm making do with my dynamo label machine for a little bit of texture when I add very brief descriptions onto things like this label from the can of tomatoes we used this week.  I included it because I love the colors and the brand is one of our favorites since there is no preservatives or plastic lining the cans ;} 

Instead of taking up space to add my hand-written grocery list...I simply printed the Dynamo labels and placed them on-top of my photo of my grocery haul from Trader Joe's that week.

For the "title strip" area on Page One I simply went into Publisher and created a "Word Art" document and printed the title out as a photo onto glossy photo paper.  I shaded the stark white edges with a black indigo ink pad and secured the entire title strip into the page protector with some decorative tape.  I opted out of sewing the strip down into the page protector because this title strip works for both sides of the page protector {Week One and Week Two} and I just didn't feel the need ;}

For those areas that I did not feel like using my label machine, I am simply using Picasa (it's free and easy to use for now ;) to add the journaling directly onto my photos.  As in my "Weekly Weigh-in" JOY scales photo which I grabbed from my One Little Word project album.  Since this will be part of my life until I reach my goal weight of 130-135, I will be using this photo and format every week.  This is something that I really feel like it's ephemera and I'm looking forward to having the smaller spaces in the "Design A" page protectors to slip it into like the weekly weather reports captured off my iPhone.  Right now they are really in your face.  Then again...perhaps this is a good thang...more incentive to reach my goal weight ;}

Another habit that I'm trying to improve upon this year is...accepting myself...with self-portraits.  However...I really need to find a better mirror than the one in my closet...the lighting is just horrible.  On this particular day...the weather dropped and I got the chance to wear my new "gauntlets" that I had purchased in Charleston.  I saved the tag and punched a few holes in my photo to slip the safety pin into that came with the tag...how's that for ephemera...can't touch this...hamma time!

Details for Page Two included a tiny banner that I pieced together with embroidery floss and left-over bits of collage papers from my Joy Rising canvas...so sweet!

Lots of journaling on-top of photos on Page Two...like my To-Do List for one day out running errands...my Pinterest Inspiration for cleaning out our shower head...and my Week-at-a-glance journaling card for {Week 2}.

For the landscape portrait on the top of Page Three, I used Publisher for laying out the large landscape portrait at 5.5x11-inches.  On-top of which I inserted four smaller photos that I had edited in Picasa to add some journaling about my thoughts of the beautiful views along the way.  Click on the image and blow-it up in another tab and check out the "dead cow on the side of the road" photo on the bottom right-hand side...I've never seen that before!

For the bottom half of Page Three I made up a couple of photo mosaics in Picasa.  The mosaic on the left if from my morning ride into Asheboro and the one on the right is of my return trip home with the sun setting in my rear-view mirror.  Then in the middle is a photo of my hubby with the label from the bottle of wine that we enjoyed that evening...it was lovely ;}

Be sure to check out the "Drivin' down the highway" lyrics that I added to the photo mosaic on the left...found it so ironic that I was drivin' down highway 64 in my van ;}

Well hope that you find some inspiration this week for completing your own Project Life album.  Also for those of you feeling overwhelmed and just do not know where or how to get started...be sure to hop on over to Becky Higgins site for some great basics and wonderful videos that explain how the Core Kits can really make this a simple project.  It is never too late to get started...your year can begin and end whenever it suits you ;}

Be sure to hop on over to Jessica's site, The Mom Creative for her Project Life Tuesday post and tell her that Roberta sentcha.  And for even more inspiration, follow Jessica on Pinterest, particularly her Project Life boardwhich is full of Project Life layouts and loads of free and cheap print-ables. 

Fondly, Roberta

Comments

[Debbie McIntyre]

Awesome post again. Love how the book is coming along. You keep me motivated...xo

[Jules]

Your pages are looking fab, with or without the design A protectors. I love how you're incporating your artwork into it. And I like the dymo labelling effect, too!

[Julie]

Great pages! Love how you added your canvas to it...what a fabulous idea!

[april]

well anyone that uses the phrase 'hammer time' or 'jiggety jig' is my kind of folk :) I also love your bunting and inspired by pinterest...way to press on without all the regular page protectors :)

http://aprilbest1981.blogspot.com/2012/01/pl-week-three.html

[Bonnie]

what fun! It looks like you are really enjoying PL!