Life Documented 2017 - First two weeks of Feb.

February Monthly Calendar Page

This is my monthly calendar for February, using watercolors, washi tapes and a felt heart sticker. The dates are written on punched card stock hearts.

First Week - days 1-4

For this spread I used watercolors on the backgrounds. On the left page I used days-of-the-week stickers and stamped dates, some washi tape and photos printed on my new Polaroid Zip Mobile Printer (love that for journaling!). The right page has a flower and butterfly cut from napkins and decoupaged on. The girl with balloons is a favorite of mine - cut from a notepad from the $1 Spot at Target.

Second Week

The backgrounds on this spread were done in acrylic paints. I also used some stencils. The dividers between the days are made with a new thin washi tape (Jane Davenport Mixed Media line). I stamped the days and numbers. For the right page I collaged bits of an artist paper download, added the blue circles with paint on my fingertips and then enhanced everything with white and black pen doodling.

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 - August

Can you believe it's August? Kids are starting to go back to school, but it's still super hot
here in Texas!

I've been delinquent in posting pages for the past few weeks. Two weeks ago, the DLP moderators posted the fifth week of July (since they post prompts every week on Saturday, that fell on July 29 so they considered it another week of July). I considered it the first week of August!  The only prompt was a PAC to incorporate two stencils. I didn't do one as I've done several cards with multiple stencils  in the past.

So now on to August! The August theme is: "And then again, NO - The Power of Saying NO". I have not done my monthly divider yet, but here are the weekly calendars for the first two weeks.

Week 1

The first week I went with a background of pink, yellow and orange - probably inspired by the Texas heat!

Week 2

For the current week I used a foam floral stamp and stamped repeatedly over the background with a turquoise ink and blended with ink to create the background. We are going to Chicago this weekend to visit my youngest daughter and her fiancé so I will have lots of stuff to add to
the last few days of this spread.

The PAC challenge was to use collage.  I started with a painted background and added a strip of the inside of a security envelope on the right side. Over that I added a small piece of tissue tape. The bird image is a black and white print-out left over from some other project. I lightly colored it with my new Prima water-soluble oil pastels. The scalloped border at the top is another security envelope - I love saving these pretty patterns! Then I stapled a small piece of hand-dyed ribbon to the top and doodled around the outside edge.

DLP unPlanner - June

June Theme - Unraveling the Past: Embracing New Beginnings

Monthly Divider

For this month's divider I used the Bo Bunny June divider included in the kit and added kraft paper to the center portion of the front. I used the month calendar already printed on the back. The spine is covered with collage paper which I have continued throughout the planner. I used an "Art Pop" card from Robyn Marie Smith for a pocket for my tag which has the month's theme on it.

Weeks 1 and 2 - Weekly View Calendars

For June I printed all the weekly calendars on white card stock. For Week 1 I watercolored the background with a Distress marker. The dates are stamped on white paper squares and glued to half-circle collage paper stickers. Added some stamping, doodles, stickers and done!

I left Week 2 white but collaged bits of a floral napkin in some areas. The dates are written on pennants punched from the inside of a security envelope. I added some washi tape, stickers and stamping. Simple but done.

As you read this, I will be flying to Vermont for a week. My Mom's 88th birthday (Wednesday) coincided with my 50th (!!) high school reunion on Saturday so how could I not go - even though I'm still recuperating from our last trip! 

Then on Sunday I will fly directly to Austin to babysit my two grandsons for a week while their parents go on a cruise celebrating a friend's wedding.  So, this will be my last post for a few weeks...