Documented Life unPlanner 2016 - catch-up on August

As I explained in the last post,  I've been busy! Though I haven't posted, I have stayed current with each week's calendars and challenges.  So here's the remainder of August. With this month finished, we are now 3/4 of the way through the year with only four months to go! 

I have completely filled my second binder and will now have to start a third. I love how chunky my two binders are, but really wish they could all be in one volume. This photo shows the binder as closed as it gets! For this binder, I did not use the kraft one that was included in the DLP kit. I found this one at Target and adore the pattern so much I will not even decorate it. The black and white  make all the colorful inside goodness really pop!

Week 2 Calendar (I chose not to do a Dare 2B card this month)

Week 3 Calendar (week of birthdays)

List Ten - 10 Places You'd Like to Visit in the Past

Front

Instead of using the regular List Ten template, I used a skinny, scalloped-edge page from the DLP kit. I used the centers of painted hole reinforcers for the bullet points. I covered the back with a painted collage sheet and added a "to do list" printed on kraft. Again, I love white pen on kraft!

Back

Week 3 PAC

This week's challenge was to document a happy event during the week. Since it was my birthday on Friday, that was my focus. This was an old journal card (with the face, "me" and a colorful background printed on it). I added lots of paint and then adhered the macarons image from a planner printout.  I doodled a bit and called it done.

Week 4 Calendar

Week 4 PAC 

The challenge was to highlight a favorite number. I chose "4" for my four grandsons. I stamped several different sizes of 4's in gray and pink inks on the background and then stamped the large 4 in black. I then doodled in white to "highlight" the number.

To hold this month's 4 PACs I used another stacked page protector. The photo below shows the front; the third and fourth cards are on the back.

Week "5" - last few days of Aug.

Since there were only 3 days left in August, I used only half a calendar page. The colorful circles for the dates were pushed from an old Stampers Anonymous catalog. The scalloped border is cut from a security envelope. Love those black and white designs.

Monthly Pocket Picks

I changed it up this month for the monthly pocket picks. Usually I use a page protector and fuse tool to enclose the bits and pieces of my month. Since this month was so busy and I had lots of photos, I decided to create a card stock fold-out.  Below is the "booklet" folded up. I had to add a tiny decorative clothespin to hold it closed! The spine is made from a decorative file folder I found at the Target $ Spot. I like the black contrast with all the colors. Most of this booklet is covered with the artist collage papers that were included in the kit. They are the artwork of Rae Missigman and Sandy Keene (co-moderators of DLP).

Front

 The top flap opens up and reveals a postcard I received from an art friend in New Mexico. It was so cute I wanted to save it.  I added a black tag with photos of Drew and Grant who we babysat early in August. To the right you can barely see a tag from some flip-flops I bought this month. This flips open.

Top flap open revealing the front of the left flap

The left flap is dedicated to my birthday. There are photos of flowers I received from my husband and the cards I received. The title, as well as the sequin border, were cut from one of my cards and adhered to the page. The label and ribbon are from the box of chocolate that Kelly and her family sent me, along with their note.

The center page has photos of all the boys and activities we did last weekend in Austin. On the right, I covered the back of the shoe tag with black paper and added a photo of an art piece I received in an art swap.

Top, left and right flaps opened

Lastly, this is the back of the booklet. Since we stayed a few extra days, I added a few more photos from that time as well as the stickers from the 2 ERs we visited!

 And with that, this binder is finished! On to September and the last quarter of the year!

DLP unPlanner - July

A few weeks ago I posted the beginnings of the July pages in DLP unPlanner; today I'm posting the rest of July.

July's theme was "I Vote Yes" - Saying Yes to New Experiences. Not sure how closely I followed that theme but July is done!

Below is the calendar for the second week of July when I was on my retreat.

The prompt for the PAC that week was to use a stencil. I posted this before I went on my retreat but to refresh your memory, here is that PAC.

Weekly view for third week of July. I used a darling line drawing of Lindsay Ostrom (from an ad for her class) which I colored and glued onto the calendar. I love her girls!

Week 3's PAC art challenge was to use a black background. Although it's hard to see in the finished card, I did start with a painted black card! Then I stenciled over it with a dark violet, added circle stickers and embellished into flowers with several layers of paint, rolled a chevron roller stamp with white paint over all and finished up with lots of machine stitching with orange thread. (I was trying to duplicate what Rae did for hers and it ended up being similar but different!)

The List Ten for Week 3 was to list ten favorite or meaningful gifts you've received.  I used a small piece cut off from a calendar divider I had partially used (about 5" square) and covered it liberally with paints, stencils, stamps, doodling etc. and added the list.

List Ten front

 I did the back similarly but added a vellum quote to the center.

List Ten back

Here is the fourth week (current week). As you can see, I have not filled in Sat. or Sun. yet! The background was done with scraped Dylusions acrylic paints and a light wash of white ink with a chevron roller stamp.

The challenge for this week's PAC is to use a border. I found a scrap leftover from some crayon melting/printing experiments from years ago. I glued it to the PAC base and added a cut scalloped paper border which I doodled on. I saw the flower shape in the print so outlined it with black and white pens to define it.

I included the four PACs into my planner by stacking them in half of a 4-pocket page protector. I used decorative paper and painted reinforcers for the spine with added stitching and then closed the right edge with washi  tape.

The end of the month is my favorite - the Monthly Pocket Picks (adding bits and pieces of memorabilia to a page protector to document the month).  This month I used a full page protector and added my own custom divisions with the Fuse tool. I love using black tags with white pen!  These pockets include highlights from July - Drew's 4th birthday, my annual retreat, little Mitchell's very first haircut, the Grapevine stamp convention, a few purchases and a little shaker pocket to commemorate the 4th of July.

Front

Back

Can't wait to start August!