Here is Batch 3 of my 1year anniversary. Batch 3 takes FOREVER! It's the stage where I constantly repeat my life mantra "good enough." While this mantra isn't exactly the best for my life, it works for Project Life. Since I struggle with the creative, play aspect, I second guess every little thing that I do. Does this enamel dot look good here or 0.1mm to the right? Does the "love you" or the "❤ you" stamp look better? When I look back at these sessions of second, third, fourth, thousandth-guessing, I want to smack past-me on the head and scream, "IT MAKES NO DIFFERENCE!" It actually doesn't. The products are not the focus of this project. My skills are not the focus of this project. That's because my lack of creativity will never take away from the moments and emotions captured in these photos. My insufficiency can never take away from the memories. So I stick with "good enough."
When Andy (my fiancé) looks through our albums, he doesn't linger on the aesthetics. He reads the journaling and looks at the photos. He thinks back to these times and goes, "Oh yeah! I said that! I'm funny 😝" In the different PL groups on Facebook, the posts that make us put our hands to our hearts and feel rewarded are the posts about family members looking through the Project Life albums and enjoying the past memories.
So I push through Batch 3 to get the spreads done. It's better to record the memories instead of having shallow, gorgeous pages. Don't get me wrong! There are people who can beautifully record memories. These people are so so so talented and I am incredibly jealous of them! I want to grow to do this. But until then, GOOD ENOUGH!
I wanted to try out something new on a few photos. Ali Edwards often includes word strips in her story kits. In her layouts she stacks multiple strips on her photos. It's a way to use up the products while drawing the eye across the page. So I tried it out. I don't quite know how I like it yet. Only time will tell.
Again, skipping over this first page for now. I promise to write a post on how I scraplifted this layout.
On this second spread, I added a chipboard "1" from Ali Edwards' Tough story kit to the food picture. The kit comes with numbers 1-5. This is perfect because I originally organized my photos from this day into 5 major sections. So our first stop gets the first number. On the full sized photo I added some word strips, the new thing that I'm trying out. I think it looks ok!
This third spread is from Target (obvi~) and since it's our second stop of the day, I added the number 2 chipboard to the red polka dot card on the lower right card. Honestly, this card REALLY bugs me. I couldn't center the circle correctly and it's just so off to the right. I tried to fix it, but there is residue on the card from the sticker so I decided to leave it. Good enough right? I also added journaling onto the Together card. More word strips onto the two photos on the right side of the spread. I love the ones that came with the AE Wild Story Kit, especially the "I'll keep you wild." It perfectly describes our relationship. I'm weird (as you can tell from the photos) and he is....weird too, just good at hiding it. So I love these moments where I do something he secretly wants to and he says, "you look so stupid," because that's code for "I love you."
For spread four, I journaled on the Magic card and added a circle die cut from Pink Paislee's Atlas collection. I also added a transparency from the same collection onto the lower right card. It looks pretty cool because the arrow is parallel to the shoreline. I taped it onto the page protector instead of onto the photo because I thought the tape might show through and I didn't want to mess up the photo. It's actually not that obvious so I'm keeping it the way it is. A wood veneer on the upper right photo.
Spread five is a reflection spread. Onto a journaling card from Ali Edward's Wild Story Kit (still available here), I reflected on the beauty of God's creation. Maybe when I go back to this place, I'll write a more comprehensive piece. For now, I'm satisfied with just a short blurb. I tried something that I learned from Ali Edwards' class content that comes with the kit subscription. I stamped a phrase with VersaMark ink and heat embossed with Zing! embossing powder. It came out too heavy on the right side, but it's good enough. After I keep on practicing this technique, I'll get the right pressure. There's also the chipboard 3.
I didn't do much to spread 6 Pt. A because I embellished and journaled in it in the previous batch.
Spread six pt. B has a label on one of the pictures. You know, all the other couples don't care about who they PDA (publicly display affection) in front of. As a New Yorker, I see people making out and groping one another ALL THE TIME. There are so many viral pictures of public inappropriate conduct. Andy wouldn't take a quick-kiss picture because some dude was fishing near us. 😑
So I took a pouting picture. Good enough.
I added the chipboard 4 to spread 7. I tried out something new here. I printed a circular digital stamp onto vellum and punched it out with a 1.5in circle punch. It looks pretty cool because you can still see the blue and the words under it. I also stamped "we loved this" onto vellum and added that to the picture of the restaurant. The bottom right photo has the name of the restaurant we went to. Again, I added a word strip. Again, THIS RESTAURANT IS AWESOME!
Spread 8 has journaling on the ledger card and a wood veneer that says "love it here." The coaster is taped down onto the OLD/NEW card. I added the chipboard 5 for our fifth and last stop. I then added a "let us celebrate" wood veneer because this entire day was for our 1year anniversary.
Spread 9 is the ending spread. I love the card on the lower left. "Tell me, what is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?" - Mary Oliver. It's a difficult question. As humans, there are so many things that we want to do. A lot of these things are self-centered, but not necessarily selfish. Some of these things are others-centered, and selfish. One of the key places that we see this is in relationships. For the other person, whether it be our significant others, friends, or family, we have a fierce desire to love. We confuse how to do that. Instead of understanding that love is action, we think it's emotion. Honestly, the emotion doesn't do crap for us most of the time, especially when it matters. That emotion deludes us into thinking that relationships are real and substantial. But the emotion ebbs and flows. It's the most unstable foundation any relationship can be built on. So relationships based on it will ebb and flow. Ultimately, the emotion is self serving. The false reality, false substantiality, provides false stability.
Relationships based on action are hard. Something that I struggle with everyday is making sure that Andy is NOT the center of my life. My life has a different center, a different King. If I'm not on my guard, He gets displaced. I want to spend my life serving my one true love, Jesus Christ my King. Andy will be my life partner in that goal. That "thank you" wood veneer is directed to Andy for planning such a wonderful day, but also to God, for Andy, but mainly for His grace, mercy, and sacrifice.
So! My 1year is FINISHED!!! YAYAYAYAYAY :)
I'm really glad that I got this very special memory documented. This is mainly due to the class that I'm taking over at Studio Calico. The challenges and the timing of the lessons helped me push through each batch. There's something so satisfying about having my memories documented. It comes from knowing that in a few years from now, when I need to refresh my memories, I can just pull out my gold anniversary album and walk down memory lane. Thanks for sticking with me through my process and I hope to upload more projects soon.
Supplies Used:
AE Story Kit (Wild, Tough, Gather, First, Heart) - Ali Edwards
Atlas (Die Cuts) - Pink Paislee
Watermark Ink - VersaMark
Silver Metallic Embossing Powder - Zing!
Metallic Gold Label Stickers - Teresa Collins
New Adventures - Kelly Purkey
