2013 Project Life 365: Week 5 [Journaling]

Welcome to Week 5 of our Project Life! I always feel so satisfied when I finish up my layout for the week. How about you? Are you managing to keep up or are you finding it more of a challenge as the weeks move on?

This was a huge week of activities for our family. I don't think I even realized that until I sat down to put my Project Life spread together.

Although, I would prefer not to have inserts every week, I have yet to complete a week without one (except perhaps week 1?). And this week I have TWO pages of inserts. The first one is a Design A page that I am folding in half.

Here is the front fully open. Both events covered on this side are about my oldest son. The other side (not shown) are all photos taken by my oldest son on his weekend away.

This insert is Design D. It will remain as a full 12x12 page. Both sides are events that involve my youngest son. This side is the process of making his birthday cake as well as photos taken after a ceremony for him at our church.

This side is all photos of his birthday party. The clear acrylic banner on the bottom middle photo was not adhered when I took this photo so it is a bit wonky - sorry about that.

Trying out a little font fun with my letter stickers and numbers.

I was going to do a little more journaling but in the end just decided to leave both of these cards as sort of decoration. I sketched the pin and bowling ball for the fun of it. You can see residue from other things I was considering adding to the card.

Here is the final page of the week's spread. It covers a field trip I chaperoned for my middle son, journaling from my two youngest kids (my oldest son did some journaling about his weekend away on the other page) and more pictures from the weekend's big events.

I often wonder if I should include so many photos from one event or if I should just do a separate scrapbook page. I think of this as a photo album combined with a journal of sorts. When the kids were all little I kept journals for each of them where I wrote about current milestones and other things they were doing. As they got older and busier, I stopped keeping these up. I think of Project Life as our family journal with photos. A Commonplace Book, of sorts, like my oldest has to write for English class. Click on the link and check out the history. Very cool!

Here is a little detail I added. The acrylic tag is Basic Grey and the heart is from  a pack of stickers I picked up a couple of weeks ago and I don't remember the brand.

I added the Martha Stewart BON VOYAGE sticker to cover up the trash can eyesore. The trash can is still visible but kind of blends into the photo instead of sticking out like a sore thumb like it did before I added that sticker.

I bet you were wondering if I was going to use any of my own stamps in this week's layout. Well, I didn't want to disappoint anyone, so here is the laptop - designed by my 8-year-old. To see all 15+ stamps I made go here, to see my "HOW-TO" post, go here.

The conversation bubble is from a Basic Grey embellishment pack. I used the backside because I much prefered it plain white. Ignore that third "l" on the end of "calll!" Just a little oops I decided to ignore. Or perhaps that is how aliens spell "call"???
Ahh! And yet another stamp of mine! I used this one to make a pattern for my date/title card that I have turned into a "week in review" card.

 

 

JOURNALING for PROJECT LIFE

Thanks for stopping by! But before you go, I was wondering how others keep track of their journaling. Do you write it on journaling cards as the week goes on or do you have an app for your iPhone or do you use some other method? I've been using OhLife.com's emails for the past two years or so, but have only recently downloaded the info and printed it out to include it in my album. I've heard a lot of buzz about DAY ONE, so I am considering that option. I do not have an iPhone yet and only have an old iTouch without a camera so I wonder if it would be worthwhile for me. I do use a MacBook and I've heard it can be used on a laptop just fine. Let me know if you have any thoughts on DAY ONE or any other journaling system. I'd especially love to hear if you have any good journaling tips.

 

PROJECT LIFE on PINTEREST

Do you have a Project Life board on PINTEREST? If so, leave me a link to your board in the comments and I'll follow you back. I love finding more friends to share inspriation. If you'd like to check out my Project Life board, go here. 

Project Life Freebies on PINTEREST

And here's a link to my PROJECT LIFE FREEBIES board as well.

PHOTOSHOP TRICK

I'm sure many of you Photoshop users out there already know this trick but since I only just discovered it myself (FINALLY!) yesterday, I thought I would share. In order to blur out peoples' faces or other private information, you just need to use the SMUDGE tool which can be found in the BLUR Tool (drop down menu on the side bar. 

It is far easier than all the other attempts I had made in Lightroom or in Photoshop up until now. And while we are on the topic, if anyone out there uses LIGHTROOM and knows a quick fix for the same thing there, please share!

 

Can't wait to see your lovely pages. I always feel so inspired after Project Life Tuesday.

To see all of my Project Life layouts of the past few years, go here.

I'm linking up at The Mom Creative for Project Life Tuesday. Check it out for lots of PL inspiration! Don't know what Project Life is? Go to Becky's blog for more information.

 

Comments

[Smitha Katti]

I love how you put this spread together!! I especially love the "special day" card!!

[Sue]

Great pages (again!). I love how bright and fun this spread is. Looks like a super busy week for you guys!

[Rebekah]

Great job! Some weeks with lots of activities are just full of life and you need those inserts to capture it!! Thanks for the tip on blurring. I'm always wondering about an easier way!

[Cerise]

The birthday looks like so much fun! Love the cake and cupcakes.
Great idea to have your son journal about the party. I can't wait till mine are writing and can be included in the journaling.

[Suzanne]

I use Day One for journaling. I heard the buzz about it also, but thought it was one of the more expensive apps however, I am very happy with it and as long as I use it everyday, it was worth the money. You don't have to add pictures if you don't want to either. It's nice to pull that up when I'm working on my layout for the week to remember all that happened over the past week. I have a horrible memory.
Never knew about the blur tool, thanks for the tip. This week I just put a heart embellishment over the faces I didn't want shown for posting online and I kind of liked that. Also followed you on Pinterest :) mine is http://pinterest.com/onehappyfamily/
Thanks for all the good info and inspiration this week!

[Nihao, Cupcake! by Margie]

Thanks!It will happenbefore you know it. The cliches are soooooo true.

[Anita]

Your pages are so much fun with all your stamps and the drawing you made!

[Nihao, Cupcake! by Margie]

Thanks!

[Andrea]

Those Ninjago cupcakes and cake are so cool. Great week and great pages to reflect that.

[Nihao, Cupcake! by Margie]

Thanks! Special cakes for birthdays are one of our favorite traditions.

[Nihao, Cupcake! by Margie]

Thanks for your input on Day One. I may just take the plunge one of these days. I liked your hearts. I've used coins over faces before but hearts is lots more charming. I'm now following you on Pinterest! Fun! Thanks!!

[Nihao, Cupcake! by Margie]

So true! I think I still haven't recovered from all the activity. And on to documenting yet another week. Don't we get a break week in there somewhere?! Haha!

[Nihao, Cupcake! by Margie]

Thanks! I'm still having fun. Hope you are too.

[Nihao, Cupcake! by Margie]

Thanks! I still might add some journaling to it. Hmmmm... or perhaps I should move on & get started on PL week 6!

[yin]

Hi Margie, so nice to have you visit my blog. I'm glad I came by too - your pages are full of life! I really like the CELE 8 BRATE card! And are those ninga cupcakes? Cool! Will check back more to check out fellow mom of boys' pages :)

[Kelli]

I am so amazed at your cake and cupcakes! I do fun cakes for my boys, too, but I haven't attempted anything that complicated yet. So inspiring!
Thanks for the tip on blurring! I've always wondered how to do that!
For journaling, I keep a line-a-day journal in my email draft folder and then periodically transfer it to a 5-year line-a-day word document I created (which I'll be offering on my blog hopefully next week). I've thought about one of the apps, but since I'm doing the line-a-day journaling, it works to just multitask it.
Here's the link for my PL pinterest board: http://pinterest.com/shapika/project-life/

[Nihao, Cupcake! by Margie]

Thanks, Kelli! My cakes and their complexity have been a 13+ year process! I started on my oldest sons 1st birthday. With each child comes more practice and then add in bake sales, etc, and it is a natural progression! :) Its a fun hobby. Do you post your cakes? Id love to see. Ive heard about line a day journaling. Im so impressed by that and the five year commitment. Thanks for your pinterest link - turns out I was already following you! :)

[Kelli]

Margie, I do post most of my cakes. You can find them here: http://www.whimsikel.blogspot.com/search/label/Food. It is SUCH a fun hobby! I love when I have an excuse to make it a priority for a weekend.

[Nihao, Cupcake! by Margie]

Thanks for the link, Kelli. I cant wait to check it out.