HP's First Haircut

Taking a break from the Project Life fun to share a simple layout with you. I made this back in early may at the Paperie retreat as well. I really wanted to capture Hudson's first haircut in his scrapbook album and how he was such a littel superstar through the whole thing. I think it helped he was only 8 months old at the time, so perhaps a little too young to be frightened of it all. He sat pleasantly through the whole thing and looked extra cute after it was all done: 

In making this one, I chose a bold patterened paper background and then layered with a bold dot print, punched iwth the notebook edger punch. A strip of washi tape over that and a tabbed journaling car was put on top. I decided to mat the pics in white to help them pop off the page, and used light grey letter stickers by Amy Tangerine for the title.

I embellished them empty space next to the journalling with a cluster of stars - a mix of felt, glitter, and metal - to reflect the journalling about him being a superstar:

I also added a glitter star, a strip of the punched dot paper, and a strip of washi tape in a cluster at the top. This picked up the look of the page and gave me a place to note Hudson's age.

I really like the way this one turned out. Now I should probably do his second haircut, which came before he was a year old. Yep, the kid had two haircuts before he had any teeth and before he turned one. Crazy I know! We're already gearing up for haircut number 3 .. which you can see is long overdue (pun intended!):

Project Life Week 19

While week 18 still looks like a work-in-progress, with some pics printed and placeholding:

I'll move right along a share week 19, which was Mother's Day week and my little nephew's fourth birthday party. Those two events combined meant we spent much of that weekend around the bay. Here's the two-week spread, without the insert shown:

And here it is showing the insert from Mother's Day ... more on that in a bit.

Here's a closer look at the left side of the page showing some nice spring weather, our little funny face, and a lunch date for D and me:

A closer look at the left corner. The picture of HP with the wine bottle is priceless. He hauled it out of the recycling box in the kitchen and came barrelling around the corner with it in hand, smiling and laughing, all proud of himself. Of course we took it and put it away so avoid any attempt to chew on the bottle or break it :) Then there was an impromptu lunch date that week for Des and me. We enjoyed conversation and delicious food, sans babe. Nice for a change.

Now for a closer look at the right side of the spread, which focuses on Logan's birthday party celebrations. There are pics from lunch, from Des playing his new game and then Des and Jason (Logan's dad) playing the game after Logan tired of it ... boys will be boys I guess! And my favourite story/pic from the day, Logan blowing out his candles before the end of the happy birthday song. Upon realizing it, he threw his hands up and declared that we had to do it again. Which we did ... his birthday party afterall!

I also ended up with an insert this week just because there were too many fun photos and happenings to pare it down. I used the insert to cover the Mother's Day events, which was perfect. Here are the front side (left) and back (right) of that insert. I used one of the page protectors just cut in half:

On the front, I made a title card, included a pic of me and my boy and the story of him still calling me "bob" instead of mom, and then a pic of Hudson, me, my mom, and my nan. On the back was a pic of Mom getting her Mother's Day gift from us, some snuggles from HP, and I added in the tag from my running jacket present from HP and D. I also added in the card from Des and Hudson, just punched holes in it and stuck it in:

Thanks for looking ... hopefully weeks 18, 20, & 21 will be ready soon :)

Project Life weeks 16 & 17

While I work on getting the more recent weeks of Project Life (weeks 18, 20 and 21) up to date, I'll continue to get you up to date on past weeks sharing Weeks 16 and 17 with you now. 

Week 16 was a full, busy week. I started back to work. Hudson P started in daycare full-time. We enjoyed dinner with friends and some awesome April weather, meaning playtime in the park. Here's a look at the two-week spread:

In laying out the week, I decided to group pictures. I used the right-side for my return to work and HP's start in daycare, grouping my work pictures, the details on a journaling card, and a card that I received from my VP on my first day together. I then grouped HP's story and a picture sent to me from his day in the park that first week on the bottom corner. Here's a closer look at that:

On the right side of the spread, I grouped pics and a story from our dinner out down the left half, and then pics and a story from our afternoon at the playground down the right half:

Here's a closer look at the night out ... where you can see Hudson's little buddy getting ready to pull on his hair. And instead of Hudson's daddy putting a stop to it, he encouraged it. All in good fun until someone starts to cry right?!

And here's a closer look at the grouping of stuff from my return to work. A quick pic of my desk, my first day back outfit (reminds me of being back at school!), a little note, and the card that was waiting on my desk for me that first morning. I just stuck the card in the slot for now, but I do have plans to go back and properly mount it on a background, and maybe to cut a slit across the top so the card can be flipped open and read without taking it out. We'll see :)

Moving right along to ...

We spent more time around the house this week, just relaxing into our new two-working-parents routine. Here's the two page spread:

I liked how the photos pulled together for a green/blue/yellow colour theme. Worked nicely with the Project Life kit and the extra supplies I had on hand. And yes that's a toilet seat around my child's neck:

Hudson is a bit of a Bam-Bam. And this week we had to replace the toilet seat from the half bath downstairs as he had pushed it so hard he cleared snapped it right off. We also had to install the gate on the stairs as Hudson had also figured out how to slide the uninstalled gate over through the spindles and make his way up all on his own. Fun times!

On the left-side, we see plenty of morning snuggles and other morning routines, from picking through the cupboards, to pulling on PJ pants until being picked up, to running around mid-dress!

Here's a closer look at a 4x6 slot where I used a couple of smaller pictures of family visiting HP on a Sunday afternoon. I wanted to get more pics in this week, so resizing them made that easy-peasy:

I also love the look of the washi tape layer on over empty space on a photo, leaving me room to stamp and play a bit:

And finally, there's this pic from the week, perhaps one of my favourites. Our little post-bath froggy, having a fun time before bed. xoxo HP.

Good Day for Ridin'

The sun is out today and any Friday the sun's shining is a good day in my books. And if you're a motorcycle enthusiast, like Hudson's Uncle T, it's also a good day for ridin'.

This is a layout I did earlier this month at the Paperie retreat, showing Hudson sitting atop the (parked) motorcycle with his Uncle. We were lucky to spend quite a bit of time with Uncle T while I was off on mat leave and it shows. The smile on little man's face is always quick to appear when Uncle T is around. He's also one of the few people Hudson is happy to go to when he's just waking from a nap and one of the few he'll reach for in a crowd, other than mom and dad. This pic, taken when Hudson was about six months, is a favourite of the two of them.

The paper, with it's motorcycle image printed on the corner, was perfect for the page. I then blitzed it up a bit by layering a star mask on and spritzing with some Mister Huey's ink.

I also can't resist a bit of paper/embellishment layering. Off setting the photo I add a brown "cool" bingo card from the same paper line as the background sheet, which was placed on top of a misted manila tag. On there I added a few star chipboard pieces, some twine, and a phrase sticker.All that was placed on top of more squares and banners of patterned paper and some washi tape. The final bit in this cluster was that leather tag. It was just something kicking around my mixed button stash. I was holding onto it for some unknown reason and good thing! It was the perfect rugged touch for the layers.

After I added a few journaling strips and the date, I still felt like it needed a little something. Poking around my supplies, I found a couple of fun metal buttons that fit perfecting in the motorcycle wheels, playing up that design element. Altogether, I was happy with the end result.

Yes, the sun is shining. It's a good day for ridin' indeed. Happy Friday everyone!

Project Life Weeks 14 & 15

Happy almost-Friday-a-short-week! I'm back today with another couple of weeks from my Project Life album - Weeks 14 & 15. Let's kick it off with Week 14, also known as Hudson's actual birthday week and Easter week. We celebrated Hudson's birthday at home with his monthly photo shoot, a visit to Grandma's, and cupcakes. For Easter, we headed around the bay first to my mother's and then to Des' home in Southern Bay. We were back home Saturday night to spend Easter Sunday as a family of three. Busy, chaotic week, but fun too!

Here's the two-week spread:

And a closer look at the left side. Lot's of spring colours woven through this one with washi tape, letter stickers, journaling stickers, and word stickers:

And a closer look at the right side with more of those lovely spring-y colours:

And a few close-ups for you. The colours this week got pulled from the lovely crocus springing up in the yard and the beautiful sunsets that graced the skies. I used a small shot of the budding blooms on a 3x4 slot, added some fringe grass and word stickers to round it out. The title card pick up on the lovely shades of yellow, orange, blue, and greens with some washi tape strips and letter stickers:

I also added a fold-out journaling card in one of the 3x4 pockets. shown with the 'chaotic easter' title. I embellished the front similarly to the crocus insert, with fringed grass and letter stickers, adding an arrow to indicate there's more inside. When you pull it out, there's a bit more detail about the craziness of our weekend going from one place to another with a child who wouldn't sleep! The photo next to it shows Hudson enjoying his fourth/last first birthday celebration with Aunt ML.

And moving right along to week 15, which was a quieter week spent around the house and with our family. The colours, the red, blue, and white were pulled from the photos, which all seemed to have some variation on those shades in them. Love it when it works that way. Here's the two-week spread at a glance:

And a closer look at the left side. I added some banner flags to the title card with some washi tape (yes, I may be a little obsessed with the washi!). I filled out a couple of 3x4s by spreading the journaling across two cards with a larger title, created by using a chipboard mask and some spray ink, all finished off with some more ... washi tape!

I love the pics and words this week. Love that we're close, both in relationships and proximity, to our families and that they get to enjoy time with HP.

And a close-up of the right side focuses more on the quiet time at home:

We enjoyed exploring flowers and snails (yum!) in the garden. We revved engines and drove little boy cars in the yard. And a first visit to Aunt Sandy's to get used to the new place before starting there full time in a few weeks.

 A few close-ups:

The bottom corner shows HP with his older cousins, while the top one shows him having fun with Uncle T.

There was even a bouquet of flowers for mommy - my very first!

That's it - April 02 thorugh April 15, 2012. Fun times!

Project Life - Weeks 12 & 13

Back at ya today with some more Project Life recaps, starting with Week 12's double page spread:

Week 12 was a slower week on pictures, so there were a few more journaling cards and a couple of filler cards to round out the week. Here's a closer look at the left-side:

That picture on the top was a follow-up to the story I captured in Week 11 about HP starting to walk. I finally managed a decent snap of him where he clearly appears in motion, without too much blur.

 The bottom right corner of the page includes a note my mom left for us:

She babysat for us on Saturday night and stayed overnight, which meant she also got up early on Snday morning - an added bonus of Nanny Pat. Des and I enjoyed a little extra snoozing and mom put Hudson down for his morning nap and headed for home while we were still asleep. Nice right? She left us a note detailing his various and sundry activities from the morning - love it!

And here`s a closer look at the right side of the spread - love the picture of Hudson on the top left, eating pizza, looking like the Godfather! Forgettaboutit ...

On the right-side of week 12, I also included this instagram photo that my wonderful hubby took for me. He was hanging in the shed with some guys, smoking a cigar. I love that he captured this for me to include. Makes me thankful for him. Hence the filler card with word stickers, punched hearts, etc next to it:

 

Above that is a pic of me and HP, cuddling on the couch. Melts my heart he does:

 

Moving right along to Week 13 - which was also the week of Hudson's big birthday bash. I still have the insert for this to do, so the double page spread captures basically everything else from that week:

The week took in party preparations, outdoor time with the boy, a visit to Aunt Sandy`s to get Hudson accustomed before mama headed back to work, and a movie for mom and dad. Here`s a look at the left side of the spread:

I stuck with a white, grey, red and black colour scheme as those were HPs birthday party colours, so the whole spread should look nice together. And of course those colours just happened to work nicely with the rest of the week`s photos too. And here`s the right side of the spread:

And a couple of close-ups for you - the week`s intro card with some washi tape and letter stickers.

And the movie tickets from the Hunger Games. I really do love including the little bits of stuff from our everyday life.

There you have it, we are now officially into April in Project Life sharing. Hope to have another couple for you this week, if the schedule allows. And of course, you will get to see the birthday insert when it gets done :)

Have a nice Wednesday!