Keeping Track of Life: Looking Back at September 2015 Pages

Lately, I have been sharing the pages that are a part of my yearlong album, Keeping Track of Life or KTOL. It's an album that I am making in a class that I take at my local store - The Paperie. The class is taught by my friend, Krista. In this class, we get together each month and make a layout and a set of pocket pages for a month's worth of photos. I've fallen behind (I usually do in this class) and I'm playing catch-up. While I wait for some supplies to arrive, I am sharing some pages from my 2015 Keeping Track of Life album.

Last week, I shared the August spread from my 2015 Keeping Track of Life album and wrote about how I love looking back at this album. It is a wonderful thing to see how our family life looked back then. Of course, I flipped through the whole album and the pages from my September spread caught my eye.

We spent some time in the Bahamas last September. It was a fabulous family vacation and one that my kids still talk about. Here's a look at the spread.






And here's a look at the layouts we made in class. It is supposed to be a 2-page spread but I broke mine up and placed the two layouts back to back in a single page protector.








There's nothing fancy about these pages because I made a 6x12" album about this trip.  I shared photos of this album in the two blog posts - Bahamas Album Part 1 and Bahamas Album Part 2. - earlier this year. It has all the details and stories and ephemera of a truly great family trip. But I wondered what else happened in September last year.

Turns out, quite a lot happened. We remodeled our upstairs bathroom, Gabe lost his first tooth and Ben started a new pre-school. You wouldn't know it though because none of that is in the album. I guess I was still excited about the trip when I made this spread and didn't even think about these other details but I missed finding those stories when I looked at the album. Luckily, I took lots of pictures and they are organized on my laptop so adding them to this album won't be a big deal. 

I don't know if you go back and look at your older albums but it's something that's I encourage you to do. Don't worry about changing things around or adding more layouts - just enjoy them. Making a scrapbook album is fun -absolutely - but looking back is fun, too. I promise.

Cathie

Keeping Track of Life: August 2015 Pages

Lately, I have been sharing the pages that are a part of my yearlong album, Keeping Track of Life or KTOL. It's an album that I am making in a class that I take at my local store - The Paperie. The class is taught by my friend, Krista. In this class, we get together each month and make a layout and a set of pocket pages for a month's worth of photos. I've fallen behind (I usually do in this class) and I'm playing catch-up.

The last couple of weeks, I have been working on my Keeping Track of Life album. It's a lot of work but it's worth it. If you're curious, here's what I've been working on.

January: Layout and Pocket Pages
February: Layout and Pocket Pages
May: Layout and Pocket Pages

This week, I found myself looking through my album from 2015. My youngest started Kindergarten this month and sometimes I wonder where the time has gone. My kids have grown so much in the last year. They aren't babies anymore and I wanted to look back. That's one of the best things about this album - looking back.

Here's a look at my pages from August 2015.









I absolutely love looking at these pages. I love seeing how much the kids have grown and remembering how much fun we had last summer.  Last year, Gabe had baby teeth! This year he's got a big kid smile. Looking back reminds me how much I love this project and that inspires me to keep going. There is no such thing as too much inspiration - at least in my world.

Thanks for stopping by!

Cathie

Keeping Track of Life: April Pocket Pages

Lately, I have been sharing the pages that are a part of my yearlong album, Keeping Track of Life or KTOL. It's an album that I am making in a class that I take at my local store - The Paperie. The class is taught by my friend, Krista. In this class, we get together each month and make a layout and a set of pocket pages for a month's worth of photos. I've fallen behind (I usually do in this class) and I'm playing catch-up. 


Today, I am sharing the April layout and pocket pages for my Keeping Track of Life or KTOL album. Let's start with the layout I made in class.



This lovely layout was designed by for the class by the instructor (my friend), Krista Wells. I added the title and the wood veneer tile but that's pretty the only thing I added. Well, the photos are mine too. I have no problem putting my 2 boys on pink pages and I'm not worried about whether they mind. Pink is just another color in my world.

This month, I used 2 8.5x11" pocket page protectors for the smaller stories. The first page is mainly photos of my kids and our puppy, BG. I love these cute photos and my KTOL album is the perfect place for them.



I made the journaling card using some scraps leftover from class. This is something I like to do to tie the pocket pages into layout we make in class.



Here's a closeup.



The next page has lots of room for journaling. I took the boys to a local play place over the Easter break with some friends and I wanted to have room to tell the stories from that adventure. I added lines to my journaling cards using a FriXion pen. When I'm finished, I will use my heat gun to the erase the lines. The FriXion ink disappears when it's heated with a heat gun.



Here's a closeup of the simple cards that I made for this page.






I like to add extra embellishments to my pocket pages. It's a great way to use up all the lovely supplies in my stash.

And here's the last page.


Simple-ish is the way to go when you have to get something done quickly. I might go back and a few ink splatters. I don't think you can have too much color or too many ink splatters. All I have to do is finish the journaling and that should take too long.

If you're curious to see what I've been working on the last couple of weeks, you can check out the finished pages below.

January: Layout and Pocket Pages
February: Layout and Pocket Pages
May: Layout and Pocket Pages

Thanks for stopping by!

Cathie

Keeping Track of Life 2016: March Pocket Pages

Today, I am sharing the pocket pages are a part of my yearlong album, Keeping Track of Life or KTOL. It's an album that I am making in a class that I take at my local store - The Paperie. The class is taught by my friend, Krista. In this class, we get together each month and make a layout and a set of pocket pages for a month's worth of photos. I've fallen behind (I usually do in this class) and I'm playing catch-up. 




This week, I am sharing the pocket pages that I made to go with the layout we made in class in March. I never got around to finishing the pocket pages until this week.

Here's the layout.



Krista designed the layout and picked all the supplies for the class kit. My challenge was to finish my pocket pages using the supplies left over from class and some things I picked from my stash to go with the layout I made in Krista's class in March.

I put all my pictures in the pocket pages first. It took 2 8.5x11" pocket pages to fit everything. That left me with 13 empty pockets that I needed to fill with journaling cards and embellishments.



I sorted through the supplies that I have set aside for KTOL class and used Krista's layout as a guide to direct my color choices. Sadly,  the pretty blue papers I used in last week's pocket pages didn't make the cut.



I selected these papers to go with the layout. Then I cut up what I wanted to use and slipped them in the pockets. Once every pocket was full of paper, I was able to add journaling and embellishments.



Here's a look at the final results.



In addition to the paper (above), I also added some Tim Holtz Chit Chat Stickers and old Studio Calico wood veneer stars to my pockets.



I purposefully used the pattern paper we used to make the layout on pocket pages.  I had a few scraps left so I also added hearts, circles and stars punched from pattern paper to each spread. This helped tie everything together.



Here are some closeups...



I didn't have any photos or journaling to add to the see-through pocket below so I decided to make a shaker pocket. The stickers are stuck on the outside and the wood veneer stars are on the inside. I used my Fuse Tool by We R Memory Keepers to seal it shut.



Here's what the other side of the pocket looks like.



The navy blue heart comes from the text pattern paper by Shimelle - it's on the B side. It was exactly what I needed to finish things off.








I love how these pages turned out. I don't think anyone would know that they were made months apart if they were looking at my album. It took me a little over 2 hours - I think it was 2 hours, 7 minutes to be exact - to finish these pages. It was time well spent.

There is still lots left to do to be completely up to date with this album. I will keep working away and sharing my progress. If you're curious to see what I've been working on the last couple of weeks, you can check out the finished pages below.

January: Layout and Pocket Pages
February: Layout and Pocket Pages
May: Layout and Pocket Pages

Thanks for stopping by!

Cathie

Keeping Track of Life 2016: May Pages

Today, I am sharing the pocket pages that go with the mixed media layout I shared on Monday - We 3. These pages are a part of my yearlong album, Keeping Track of Life or KTOL. I like having a yearlong project but I often fall behind and right now I'm inspired to play catch up.

What I really like about KTOL is that I even though I am a part of a class it's easy to customize my album. I like to use my own supplies from time to time to make 3x4" cards or to embellish my pages. It's great way to use some of the supplies that are sitting in my stash just waiting to be used.

So, here is a look at the pocket pages I made for May 2016 for my yearlong album.








All that pretty plaid paper is from Lawn Fawn's Perfectly Plaid 6x6 paper pad. I only bought one pad but I probably should have bought more. I just love these papers.



The enamel hearts are from Illustrated Faith - Bless Her Heart. I love hearts. I always have and will definitely need more of these.



I also used some stickers from a sticker book from Amy Tangerine's Better Together collection. These stickers books are awesome. There are 150 stickers in one pack and they are great on so many projects.



Making my own cards is great for using older supplies sitting in my stash. Do you recognize that cork camera? It's very old Studio Calico. I loved them when they were first released and I love them still. So, why not use them? They still look great and the adhesive is still perfect.



And there you have it. Another month completed in my yearlong album and I used some older supplies and some fun new supplies in the process. I call that I win-win!

Thanks for stopping by!

Cathie

Catching Up with My Yearlong Album

Currently, I am working on my yearlong album. Last week, I wrote about how I need to start working on that album again because I haven't done anything on it in a while. There's quite a To-Do list and I'm working my way through it and sharing it all here.

I don't mind being "behind" with this album. As a scrapbooker, I'm behind all the time because I can only create a scrapbook page or mini album after something has happened. So, I don't worry about being caught up but I do like to finish what I start and that brings me back to my yearlong album. It's started and well underway but not where I would like it to be.

On Monday, I shared a mixed media layout that I made for the February and today I'm sharing the pocket pages I made that go with the layout. I tend to take a lot of photos each month and a lot of them end up in this album. Also, I like to  add embellishments and ephemera to the photos so some months have more pages than others. For example, in February I filled both sides of 3 pocket page protectors (8.5x11") to make 6 pages. That's a lot for one month but sister and her kids visited that month so there were a lot pics to fit in.


Here's a look at February's pocket pages starting with the first page. It's the page that is opposite the layout for this month.



Here's the first 2 page spread.



A close up of the left side...



A close up of the right side.



Here's the second 2-page spread.



A close up of the left side...



and a close up of the right side.



And here is the last page.



The large transparency hearts are from The Freckled Fawn's January embellishment kit. The puffy hearts, metal "love" clips and circle stickers are from their February embellishment kit. I am a sucker for these kits. They have the loveliest embellishments that are the perfect size for pocket page scrapping.

So, there you have it. That's February 2016 done! I'm going to keep working away at this album for the next couple of weeks. I love looking back at all the photos while I'm scrapping. It's fun to remember how much fun we have had this year. It helps make the work worthwhile.

Thanks for stopping by!

Cathie

Restarting a Yearlong Project

Since I finished sharing all the photos from my France album last week, I decided to return to my month-at-a-glance album. I haven't done much with it for a long time and after flipping through it this week, I realized that it needs some attention and work.

The album is part of the KTOL project that I work on each year. KTOL is short for "Keeping Track of Life" and it's a class that my friend, Krista, teaches at my local scrapbook store (The Paperie).  Each month we create a layout and pocket page spread with our monthly stack of photos. It's a lot of fun and I enjoy scrapping with my friends for a couple of hours each month.

I haven't been working on my album in between classes so I bunch of half done pages and missing layouts. Specifically, I have to work on a layout for each month - that's all 7 layouts we've made so far in class. Some layouts are just missing photos but I missed a couple of classes so those layouts are not even started. The situation is the same for the pocket pages. I have February's pockets pages finished but all the other months are not done. That's 6 months of pocket pages and 7 layouts - if we're still counting.


Here are some of my almost done pocket pages for January.










It feels a bit overwhelming but I know it is doable because I have been here before. Each year, I fall behind with this project. I am not a chronological scrapbooker so this doesn't worry me but I know that if I fall too behind it will be too overwhelming to finish. All the work is worth it though because I love this album when it's done.

So, now what? For me, the key to finishing this project is to make a list of what I need to do to get "caught up" and to work on that list each week. Having a to-do list will keep me focused when I sit down to work. As I work my way through my to-do list,  I will share my progress as I go.

Wish me luck!

Thanks for stopping by!

Cathie

How to Make a Travel Album: Finishing Touches

This week, I am putting the finishing touches on my France travel album. I have all the photos and stories in place and I have added embellishments. I'm not ready to call the album done though because I keep adding things when I flip through it.

Here are some of the pages I've been working on this week. You can see all the fun we had during our 24 hour stay in Paris!
















Below is one of the interactive pages I made using my Fuse Tool by We R Memory Keepers.









This journaling section sets up the story for the next few pictures. Although I did use journaling spots from time to time to add some more details.









Sometimes a photo really doesn't need any journaling.



And sometimes it really does!






The morning after the Adele concert, we went to the Musee D'Orsay. It was absolutely amazing to see Monet and Van Gogh paintings in real life. I would love to go back. I'm so glad that I took pictures of the art so I can remember how it felt to stand there and take it in.










I love embellishments but I don't want to bury the photos and stories under too many. I'm cautiously adding a few at a time because the album is small - only 4x6'- and it has a lot of photos. I may have to save all the pretty supplies for another project. I'm going to give myself another week to add any last finishing touches. I need a deadline or I will pick at it for ages.

Thanks for stopping by today. Come back next week and see my finished album. I can hardly wait to share it all and move on to something new!

Cathie