Heather Johnson Photography

On April 30th I played along with Ali Edwards and documented a day in our life. (For those of you unfamiliar with the concept–it’s basically Project Life on steroids. You capture your everyday, all day long.) I have always found the concept cool, I think it’s going to be very interesting years from now to look back on what a day looked like when I had two little ones. One of these days when I do it I need to be sure to take a picture of myself in “mom mode.” You know…bags under my eyes, hair all over–the way I roam around the neighborhood. THAT will surely be keeping it real!

I had originally placed photos from that day into my week eighteen layout that I shared last week, but this past weekend I redid my week eighteen because I was just not happy with it. I much prefer “special things,” like this project was to me, as inserts. In a later post, perhaps next week or something, I will share what my new week 18 looks like. There are some pictures of Marie in a tutu to die for!!!

I really liked what Elise did with her Day in the Life, so I used that as inspiration for my insert. I did not have a coin page protector, but I did have a Design F protector, so I resized all of my photos to 3×4 (most of my photos were taken horizontally so I had to get a bit creative there!) and got to work. Here is the front of my Day in the Life insert:

And here is the back:

I used the new Project Life pens (I bought them on HSN–I think these will be available on Amazon soon?) to write directly on many of the photos–that is my new favorite thing! Love how it looks, and the more I write the more comfortable I am getting with my handwriting. The little round labels were some I had from 2007 when I took a class from Ali at a big scrapbooking event in Virginia. (7 gypsies was the brand, that’s all I know.) On either side I left a 2-3 photos devoid of any sticker/writing just so there was somewhere for my eyes to rest. The Morning, Afternoon, and Evening cards are from the May Studio Calico kit. I love EVERYTHING about that subscription and am so glad I did it. Makes doing inserts that much more fun for me–I always like something different!

I even managed to work in a few do-dads from the  May kit. I had to borrow adhesives, and still don’t know what on earth I am doing–it’s so simple I hardly think it could be called embellishing, but I am having fun. That’s all that matters right?

What is going on with this Digital girl????

Would love to hear your thoughts. I look forward to doing this again this month. The Design F protector is just THE BEST for this!

Here we are, another week!

Whole Spread:

Left Side:

Right Side:

What we were up to this week: I have to get better about writing in my “Week in Review” card as the week hums along. I used to do it that way, but as of late I sit down and try to do it at the end of the weekend. I can’t remember Saturday morning by that time, let alone Monday! I do know that we spent a lot of time outside last week enjoying the spring weather that took FOREVER to get here. Holly was gone from Thursday afternoon-Sunday, and I had 24 hours to myself! All in all a good week:)

Techniques used this week: Lots of recoloring, lots of brushes per my usual. I really liked using a different brush for my calendar card, it might be hard to see but there is a little stamp over the days of the month that says recorded. So cute! I realized that I never talk about iphone versus DSLR photos, so from now on I am going to try and make a point of it each week. The sandbox photo, looking through the leaves, is an iphone photo as well as the black and white photo of Grandma with the girls. (Oh and the little instagram of Marie in the chair–her dad’s chair believe it or not from the early 70′s!) The rest were taken with my Nikon D700 and 35mm f/1.4 lens. The instagram with the black border was sent to me by the gal in the photo–I am never shy about asking photos to be taken in my absence and/or asking for them to be sent along later when I find out there was one taken. Everyone contributes to this album!! (My husband is a rockstar at taking photos when I am not around–he was responsible for all of the Easter ones and the Grandma photo from this week.)

Other thoughts:  It just occurred to me that we are five weeks away from Week 26. That’s the mid-point of the year. What the?!?!

Supplies used this week: Most of the items are listed in the icons below. the #photooftheday brush was a free download at The Persnickety Prints blog, but for the life of me I cannot find it. The journaling strips are from a page template set I had in my stash, I just dragged them over and placed them in. (Incidentally, that’s a good tip to keep in mind. If you are a collector of digital page templates like I am, remember they are filled with elements and such that can you can add to your pages!)

Welcome to another installment of Holly’s baby album. (If you missed my first post regarding her book, check out the first eleven pages before diving into this post. It’s very photo heavy!!)

When I first began putting this together I often became quite confused when categorizing what photo went with what month. My iphoto library had all of my photos labelled by how many weeks old Holly was…and it didn’t take long to get quite the headache as I tried to keep track of which week fell into which “month old” section. I finally threw in the towel and decided that since Holly’s birthday was practically on the 1st of the month (she was born October 2nd) that October 2007 = month one, November 2008 = month two…etc. It made everything soooo much easier!

Month three was her first Christmas:

It was also the first month I began making enlargements. You’ll notice as you go through these pages that I keep it extremely simple and stick to just photos and journaling cards. Save the two examples you see in the picture above, there are virtually no digital embellishments or brushes to speak of throughout this entire album. Truthfully, it’s just too overwhelming for me to go that deep into the design of the layouts as I am trying to “catch up” so to speak and get a book from the past complete.

For the most part each month is made up of four pages. One side of a Design A page protector serves as a title page on the left denoting the month of her age, followed by either a Design A or Design B page protector. (I used to shoot images vertically a lot more!) The month finishes up with another Design A page protector, which is the end page for one month on one side, and the title page for the next month on the other. Is that clear as mud?!

I love the impact of the 8×10 photo! I have been putting them in the album every so often–always highlighting a favorite photo. The back of this particular insert highlights Holly’s first Christmas, so I made the facing Design A page a collage of only Christmas photos and memories:

In my hurry to photograph these all on Sunday night (the sun was setting and I was literally out on the deck in my pajamas!), I somehow missed the title page of Month 4. I will be sure to update that soon! Here is the rest of Month 4:

Month Five. The first month I introduced a Design B page protector:

And added in another 8×10 insert:

Month Six I substituted a Design G protector for an A or B because I had so many Easter photos and not much else. Boy oh boy was I an “event” picture taker and not an everyday one!:

Month Seven I had two special inserts–a 6×12 insert and another 8×10 enlargement. The 6×12 insert houses a letter to Holly I wrote in January of 2008. I don’t believe I had them printed up on my initial posting of her baby album, but there are two other letters (both in the same 6×12 page protector) placed in month 2. I wish I had kept it up monthly, which was my original intention, but I only made it to three letters. Oh well. At least I have those!

Month Eight contained a special Design G insert about Holly’s first swimming lesson:

I have photos placed into Month Nine already, but the journaling cards were not filled out so I will save that month for my next post. I hope to be finishing this up sometime this summer–would love to hear what you think so far!

Fellow creative team member Donna said it best in her video clip last week–we digital Project Lifers can have insert envy! It was the driving factor behind my change this year from Shutterfly photobook to individual 12×12 printing with Persnickety Prints, and I must say I am loving what I have been able to do this year and it’s amazing how it adds so much more to my album. I haven’t been able to share much of these inserts yet–so sit back and enjoy as I share what I have been up to these first seventeen weeks or so…..

My first insert, week two. (I noticed the typo in my first black box after I uploaded this, sorry, too tired to correct it!) The Design H page protector works great when you have just a little bit extra to add in a week:

The following week I had an insert detailing our visit to the Children’s Museum here in Saint Paul. I did a few things worth noting on this insert–I used some digital embellishments to “jazz” up the photos (to date I think this might be the most complicated insert I have done in that regard) and I also used some of Cathy Z’s templates to journal with that I just printed as photo prints. Sure…they are glossy…but I don’t care. Saves time to put them all in with the Walgreens order–and truthfully I am all about saving time. Printing out photos, at least for me, adds more time than I have each week. (And I live less than a mile from the Walgreens I use to print!) I do use Persnickety prints to print my bigger items, like 6x12s and 12x12s, but the rest? All Walgreens. My Walgreens is pretty spot-on with my monitor as far as color and brightness goes. The left side in the photo below is the front of the insert, the right side the back.

Design G page protectors might be my favorite for inserts–love the combo of horizontal and vertical photos you can get when you use it. Here is a close up of the journaling card and the Avery Index Tabs I use for labeling:

On Week Four I tried a 6×12 insert. I have a new favorite!

As you can read in my little text boxes, this insert was really all Holly’s doing. I thought it was a great way for her to contribute to the family book, and she just loved doing it. (And loves to point out this insert when she shows the album to someone else!) She can operate a point and shoot camera with no problem–seriously, give one to the kids and see what they come up with. It’s amazing! If you like the Design Editor template I used you can find it on etsy.

Week Five brought THREE inserts. I seriously get giddy when I look at all of the layers. I am really getting in the groove now! The top insert you see is a Design I page protector that can showcase six 4×4 photos. (My photos are all instagrams.) Behind that is a 6×12 page protector that I used to detail out my Day in the Life for January. And behind that? Another Design G page protector about our visit to the American Girl Doll store at the Mall of America.

Here is a bit more detail. If you like the products I mentioned, you can find Ali Edwards 6×12 templates at Designer Digitals and Rebecca Cooper’s FREE templates on her blog. The circle date tag is a template set from Cindy Schneider. Cindy Schneider’s templates are the coolest things EVER, I love all of her products. Everything is customizable–seriously check her out.

The backside of my 6×12 insert is, of course, another photo enlargement. Is that not an adorable father and daughter moment? You also get a glimpse of the Design G of our lunch date with friends.

I have used the brush and text technique you see in this insert at least three times now. (I am pretty sure I will be doing a video of it soon.) It was first used in week fourteen last year, and again in week fifty-one. I find it much easier to journal (particularly when I am trying to say something really meaningful) when I can repeat the same prompt over and over again. Ali Edwards is an expert at this, in fact that’s her brush I use to prompt me.

On Week Seven I had two inserts, one for our anniversary dinner (which happens to also be Valentine’s Day), and one containing a cute card Holly made for me in school. I had only my iphone with me at dinner so instagrams were my main way of recording. Instead of using a Design I page protector, I opted for some of Nettio Designs 4×6 Journalers so that I could include a bit of the story. My favorite is the bottom photo–I detailed out what each of us ordered at dinner. I guarantee you on our next date night to this restaurant we will order the EXACT same thing! Holly’s card is in a 12×12 page protector I trimmed down with a rotary cutter and ruler (from my sewing supplies) and then sewed a seam up the side. I had NO IDEA that was so easy. I now look for anything odd shaped so I can make my own size page protector–embracing the sewing machine really gives you freedom! I didn’t change needles, or stitch size, or anything. Just put the page protector under the pressure foot and away I went! Try it!

On Week Eleven I used a 5×7 page protector to enlarge a photo I thought was just too precious to get lost in the mix of the weekly two-page layout. To embellish I just used a brush and a text box:

For Week Twelve I again had more than one insert. I used the Design J protector for the first time to display some instagrams, and a Design G protector to tell the story of our first non-kiddo getaway since Marie was born. Here is a look at how it all looks in the album:

A look at the back of Design J (all three journaling cards are from the Studio Calico Project Life Kit) and a peek at the “getaway” insert:

One of my favorite things in this insert was a screenshot of my iphone’s GPS route as we drove away from the house. I consciously did that, knowing it would make a cute 3×4 addition to the page:

I had a lot of additional photos Week Thirteen because of Easter. Here is what I did to include them:

Can you see the other insert peeking out above the 8×8? FAVORITE ONE OF THE YEAR SO FAR! It was Marie’s first haircut, and I knew the moment Kid’s Hair handed me the little clear envelope with her lock of hair in it that it was going in a 3×4 slot.

I hope this shows some of you, that maybe have thought about going digital, how easy it is to have a hybrid approach to the project. The weekly spreads (if you choose to record that way) come together very quickly when they are done in Photoshop and if I have the urge to play around with physical products–well the inserts are giving me just enough of that to make me happy. Using Marie’s locks from her first haircut in a 3×4 slot–I so wouldn’t be able to do that in a Shutterfly photo book–has totally sold me on doing my albums this way even though I really don’t have the space for them in my house. (I am telling myself I am going to have custom shelves made someday!) My inserts aren’t too complicated (yet) but I am sure  as my confidence grows I will be doing some fun things in them. Right now, though, it’s mainly journaling cards, my writing, and photos. I am finally off of the waiting list for Studio Calico’s Project Life kits, and received my first full kit just the other day, so it will be interesting to see if I even know what to do with the little do-dads that come in the kit. If I can’t figure it out, look for a giveaway here as I unload them!

Let me know if there is something you are wondering about that I missed linking up. Would love to hear what you think about the inserts.

Have a great weekend!

Still struggling to post more than once a week. It’s safe to say we are in the busy season of summer…AND I am making a really disciplined effort to get to the gym. (It takes up soooo much time!) Here is week eighteen of my 2013 album.

Whole Spread:

Left Side:

Right Side:

What we were up to this week: This week was considerably more low-key than the week before. After the glorious spring weekend we had during week seventeen it turned into winter again on Monday–even snowing May 1st and 2nd. Honestly….it was a bit depressing. Couple that with Marie not feeling well, me not getting any rest, and it’s no wonder I napped not once but twice over the weekend. Definitely a tough week all around.

Techniques used this week: Lots of recoloring, lots of brushes per my usual. Instead of doing a traditional two week spread, I used “side B” to detail my day in the life on April 30th. I probably should have done an insert like I did for January’s day in the life (as now I have photos left over anyway for one) but at this point I am not going to redo it.  Lesson learned for me–I like my two page layouts for the week much better!!

Other thoughts:  I really am in a rhythm with this whole Project Life thing. It’s now been 70 weeks straight and honestly it doesn’t feel like it takes up any time at all. (Creating blog posts is by far the most consuming part believe it or not!) Everyone is used to me always having a camera, everyone is always on the lookout for stuff “for the book,” it truly becomes very much a part of our life. I was describing it to a friend the other day and said it really acts (at least in my home) as an interactive photo album. Can I just say, again, that it is the coolest thing I have ever done?! Still blows my mind, after all of this time, that I never gave up or became disenchanted. I get disenchanted with projects so easily….

Supplies used this week: Most of the items are listed in the icons below.