Summer 2013 Project Life

I finally just decided to snap a few iphone photos of what I have done so far with my Project Life album from photos we took last summer.
It is nowhere near complete, in fact most of the pages themselves aren't complete. But I got a good jumpstart on it at the weekend crop I went to end the about a month and a half ago.

I didn't get to the crop until around 6:30. By the time I had eaten dinner and settled in, it was about 8pm. And I spent the rest of that first night sorting and organizing my photos. If I would have known how long it was going to take, I definitely would have done that at home. Although at least I had them all printed up and wasn't missing any like I was the year before at the same crop! :)

So on Saturday morning I was ready to go.
Week 1 -

I am following absolutely no rules with this except that I wanted to go week by week. But as you can see, the first week had several spreads, since we did a lot that week including a trip to the zoo and a Chocolate factory tour with friends.
I am also using a variety of type and size page protectors. I have a smaller one (6x12) there on the left for part of the factory tour photos and title card.
Unfortunately, I couldn't find my Instagram page protectors until I came home. They were in one of those closet piles I have been sorting through. But I made do with the 6x12 and some patterned paper as fillers.

My steps for each week -
1. Decide which photos to use. Then it was like putting a puzzle together trying to figure out where I wanted them to go.
2. Create the weekly title card as you see in the first photo.
3. For each page, create simple title cards for activities, or titles next to or on photos.
4. Embellish using flat accents on some of the cards. Most of my 3d embellishments will be added last, since I didn't bring many of those with me.

And you can see lots of blank cards throughout, most of them grid but some with designs. I am going to type my journaling on these, and that is going to be the last step.

Week Two -

Week two is only three 12x12 pages. Same process for this one. photos, some matted on patterned paper, (Especially the instagram ones), minimal flat embellishing for now, and a title card for the week and some other titles.
As you may have noticed, I am pretty much using Simple Stories Summer lines for this project. But when I went to do the Six Flags page, I decided to mix in some of the October Afternoon Midway line since it coordinated pretty well color wise.

Week Three -

Since my second photo for week three won't cooperate here on Blogger, I am just sharing one. But there are two 12x12 spreads for week three and one side of a 6x12. Same process for these pages. I plan to do a lot of journaling on my blank cards.

Oh and the story behind "the tooth wiggle". Erin had this loose tooth in the front for months. We are talking a really long time. And we would always catch her wiggling it. Non-stop! So Mike and Erin posed for a "tooth wiggle" photo on Father's Day. :)

So that is what I have so far. I have all of my supplies for this album stored in a Crop bag, so whenever I want to create a few pages, it is all in one place. 

Now to the weekend! I was worried Mike wouldn't be able to come home this weekend at all because of a big project he had going on at work. They were not able to finish on Friday because of the windy weather at the job site. So he had to stay there so they could hopefully get it done on Saturday. Thankfully they did, and then he decided to just make the drive home even though it would only be for one night. Exhausting for him, but we were just so happy to see him.
On Sunday, he was so tired in the afternoon from playing pretty much non stop with the kids after church, that I told him to just lay down for a little nap before he had to make the commute that night.

Erin and I decided to go out for a little bit while he was resting.
Our city (St. Louis) is celebrating it's 250th birthday this year. So they have these 4 foot tall fake cakes decorated by artists and students all over the city and outlying areas.
Here is some information about it with a link to the full list of 250 cakes and their locations if you are interested. STL 250 cakes

I have been talking to the kids about spending some of our time this summer doing the cake scavenger hunt. A lot of the cakes are at some interesting places that we want to visit anyway, like Lemp Mansion, the Franklin Lloyd Wright house, and more. I know we won't get to all of them, since some, like the one at Meramec Caverns,  is at least 45 minutes to an hour from us. But we are going to try!
Erin wanted to get a jump start yesterday while Mike was napping.
The two of us decided to visit 4 of the cakes closest to us.

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This was cake number 3 from our stop yesterday. Two others were at restaurants on The Hill (an Italian neighborhood here known for great restaurants and markets.) And the other was at Tower Grove Park which is definitely the closest.
At each cake, she wanted a picture and then had to write out the location on her "list".
It's going to be a lot of fun finding the other cakes this summer. There are quite a few downtown, so I thought that would make a great "field trip" day :)

When we came home, Mike woke up from his nap and decided he was not driving back that night. Still too tired. So we had him home for an extra night. :)

Now it is Monday, and I have a busy week ahead finishing house projects, volunteering, tutoring and helping on a field trip, but definitely have some scrapbooking time scheduled.
Hope you have a great Monday!