Project Life - Title Page and Week 1

This week has flown by and I've had every intention of getting this post up a lot sooner but lets be honest, I just wasn't ready.  I didn't realize how hard it was going to be to come up with the title page for my Project Life album.  I easily could have just gone with what came with the kit and that would have been perfectly fine.  The thing is I'm seeing so many other really great title pages out there that had amazingly lovely family photos and really wanted to put our faces on there too.  The only really great pictures we had of all of us were from November and I had already used them in last years book but I decided to use them anyway.  I just had to figure out a way to change them up a bit.  I opted to use one photo of the three of us and then crop other photos to make single shots of Larry and I to go along with a single shot I had of Simone.  I also used an action in Photoshop Elements that I got for free from The Pioneer Woman to change up the appearance of the photos.  Here's a look at the whole title page;

The action that I used was Soft & Faded and it gave the photos such an interesting tone.  It's not quite sepia but has the same flavor, just more soft and I love how it looked.  Here's a look at the original photo and the edited photo so you can see the difference.

Once I had the photos printed I knew bright bold colors weren't going to work so I opted to switch out and change up the cards that were meant for the title page. 

For the top left card I printed out our name and added the year and just placed it over some of the lines of text on the card.  I wanted to make sure our name and year were on there somewhere.

The 3 on the middle row is from a set of digital numbers from Ali Edwards at Designer Digitals.  I placed it on top of a grid background and changed the color to a taupey-brown shade that I picked up from the background on the photos.

For the card on the bottom left I added two pieces of gold sequin trim that I purchased at Michael's at Christmas time.  I had intended to use it in my December Daily but it never made it in. You can see it close up below.  My life would not be complete without a bit of sparkle and it makes me happy to see it here too.

The bottom right card was not meant to be on the title page but it looks exactly like the one that was.  The original postcard that was intended for the spot was red, white and blue, like an old airmail card.  I loved the idea and knew I wanted to use it but the colors didn't look right.  I looked through the other cards that came in the kit and found this one, exactly the same and the tones I needed!

I struggled for awhile on what to put on it.  Since I haven't been scrapbooking the traditional way for a very long time my stash of embellishments is pretty non existent so I went digging in my old supplies.  I knew wanted to put a postage stamp on it so I found this P rubber stamp in my collection and I also found an old pair of decorative scissors that cut a stamp edge.  I stamped on cardstock, cut it out and inked the edge in a celery green ink so it would stand out against the cream background and I love how it looks.

Once I knew I was going to complete this to look like a postcard that was ready to mail I decided to turn it into a dedication of sorts.  I wrote a note to Larry and Simone and signed it.  I addressed it also but I've blurred that part out for security.

Before I even started the title page I had pretty much finished by first week's pages, it was fun to do and I'm kind of glad I got my feet wet by doing that first week first.  It helped getting the creative juices flowing.  Here's a look at the two pages together.

 It's always interesting when I start these types of projects, I never really like the first pages I do. I feel that way when I do my December Daily album too and it takes a few days or in the this case it will take a few weeks for me to see that I'm on the right course and things make sense to me. I'm not exactly sure why; perhaps because its new, its fresh and I'm out there on a limb hoping with all hope that it looks good. I know I have my own style and I know it will come through as I progress through it but getting there is always a struggle for me.

We had some fun stuff this week, The Oregon Ducks played and won the Rose Bowl which was super exciting. I scored a super cool vintage typewriter on Craigslist for $25.00, cue happy dance. Simone got her 2nd haircut, a nice healthy trim off her length and she continues to excel at writing her name on her own.  I started and plan to continue on an Instagram photo challenge and spotted a QR code on our bananas of all things.

Here's a close up of the left side.  I'm thinking I need to add something to the title card with the dates in the upper left corner, more to ponder I suppose.

And the right side.

My goal is to post this project on Wednesday, my week ends on Saturday so that will give me time to gather, print, complete and post by then.  I'm excited for this and can't wait to see what unfolds for me.
Have a wonderful weekend!