Project Life- Spread 2: Christmas!

A couple other things I want to mention regarding my approach to Project Life (a couple 'philosophy' type things I'm embracing to make this work for me): the photos aren't necessarily in any kind of 'order' in the page protector (other than the fact that the pics are from that week) because I don't want to have to worry that much about making them 'fit' into the page protector. They also aren't necessarily 'stellar' photography; I figure any decent photo that documents something is better than no photo at all. And, since the Project Life materials are all color-coordinated, I'm not worrying too much about coordinating anything 'with' the colors in the photos, or getting all 'scrapbook design-ish' over these pages. I want to make doing this as easy as possible so I can keep up with it!

This is the second week in my album: Christmas week. I jazzed up the title card a little (yes, right after I said I didn't want to go all 'scrapbooky' with this album, I did it after all... lol!) with a felt holly sprig that was a gift tag from Mom's package. I also made some photo collages in Picasa so I could include a few more photos.

The left-hand page includes a photo collage of the Christmas tree, the presents under the tree, and the Yule log on television (we watched a crackling fire and listened to Christmas carols while we opened presents!), the row of journaling cards with a couple extras- small photos of vintage books (from my childhood) that Mom sent me for Christmas, a business card from my Doctor's office, journaling with a 3-D sticker, a fortune from the Chinese dinner we had on Christmas Eve... The bottom row is two photos I took during the week: the left one on my way home from work one afternoon, and the right one was taken at my Dr's office during my yearly physical. (the office tech mentioned she was a scrapper, so I knew she'd understand when I whipped out my camera!) 

a close-up of the title block: I covered up the design on the card with a piece of die-cut scrapbook paper.

Here, I stuck some file folder labels to the photo for journaling space.

For this photo collage, I separated the small pictures using rick-rack stapled to the photo using my new Tim Holtz Tiny Attacher- I finally bought it (using a 40% off coupon!) after wanting it for months! (I think those teeny tiny staples are just the cutest!!)

another close-up- the lower right part of the page. I attached the fortune cookie fortune to a patterned tag from the Project Life kit.

Above is the right-hand page: more photos of Christmas day, including a 2-photo collage of opening presents in the top right corner: The left picture is Tom opening one of his present, and the right picture is Bisbee and Prescott opening one of theirs! (I love watching them do that!) The center strip is journaling (I included a couple Christmas stamps from cards on one of them), a photo of Tom messing with Ariel, and a grocery shopping list I saved.   

and, here are a couple more close-ups: the dogs enjoying their Christmas chewies (journaling on a vintage ticket stapled to the photo) and below, a pocket made using one of the photographs. 

The photo is of one of my Christmas presents to Tom: a radio-controlled mini helicopter. (he's been having fun with it so far!) I trimmed the photo to about 3x6, and taped down the edges of the photo to create a pocket. I added a journaling tag with details of our Christmas presents, and stapled a punched, stamped circle to the top edge.  Two weeks down, 50 (?) more to go!!