Project Life 2013...Week 25 using the Gossamer Blue LIfe Pages Kit

Edit:  Text has been added to this post now that I'm back home from vacation.  

Today I'm sharing Week 25 of my Project Life album which features all products from the brand new Gossamer Blue Life Pages kit.  The kit sold out rather quickly and I'm so happy that many of you are going to try out the kit......and I'm just sayin' but I just got a peek at September's Life Pages kit and it's so awesome.  Seriously, you should just subscribe now so that you can get one and shop early for other Gossamer Blue kits that coordinate.  Even if I wasn't on the Design Team, I'd be giving a shout out to next month's kits.  I'm so excited about it.  

Okay, here's a little shot of the beginning of my week.  I think it's kind of fun to see the work in progress photos from other Project Lifers so I'm sharing too.  I've got my photos printed, my sketch nearby and my Gossamer Blue Life Pages kit ready to go. 

This is the 2 page spread which has a 6 x 12 insert also.  

This is the 2 page spread without the insert.  

For this week's spread all of the journaling cards and embellishments, except the chipboard letters on the main date card, are from the Gossamer Blue Life Pages kit.  The kit takes up a small amount of space but boy does it go a long way.  I think I finished 3 full weeks and some inserts and still have some pieces leftover from the kit that will go into my stash. 

This week was just a jumble of events....photos of the pets, our first garden picking of onions, deciding on some furniture placement, lunch out with the girls, and Eric's shorts flying out the window.  You know, typical family stuff.  Notice the smiling photos of the girls right below.  Sweet, aren't they....I'll show you out takes at the end of this post.

This features my main 4 x 6 dated insert.  The Gossamer Blue Life Pages kits come with plenty of 4 x 6 and 3 x 4 inserts.  They are printed on both sides so that you can orient them vertical or horizontal.  Love that.

I used a strip of patterned paper here to give division on a photo.

Here I used a die cut portion of the beautiful gold letterpress cards.  I adhered this on the outside of the page protector then added an ampersand and the small bead.

Here I used a 4 x 6 card for my base then added photos of Eric and me having a margarita.  I used the exclusive stamps , some wood veneer and some Washi tape too.  If you purchased other kits, you'll notice that the exclusive Gossamer Blue items in the Life Pages kits coordinate with other kits.  In this case, the colors coordinate with all of the October Afternoon Travel Girl papers and embellishments.  I love that feature that Lori has taken into consideration.  It makes perfect sense to have all the kits coordinate.  They stand alone by themselves too so if you just get one kit, you're still good to go.

These are two of the GB 3 x 4 cards.  All of the journaling cards will have square corners so you can have the choice to round them or leave them square.  Since I print all my photos with a white squared border, I love leaving them squared.  It really adds a nice touch to my album.  I will still mix in cards from other companies that are rounded, it doesn't bother me at all. 

The GB cards bit into the pockets very nicely with a little room to spare & are all evenly cut.

Some of the cards will have white space to add photos or journaling and some of the cards will be more like filler cards that have a full design.

Here I added a photo to the journaling card on the left.  I used the letterpress card to add some embellishments, stitching and journaling that was first typed onto vellum.  The letterpress cards are hard to fit through a typewriter so the vellum is an easy fix to add journaling if you don't care to hand write it.

Here is the 6 x 12 insert that I added for this week.  This side features photos of flowers from my flower beds.  They were so pretty.....before the weeds took over that is.

This is the back side which features the new swimming pools we got this year.  One for us and one for Charlie.  I used 2 of the Gossamer Blue journaling cards with stamping added from the exclusive Elle's Studio stamp set designed for GB.

I love working with Elle and Lori when developing the concepts for the stamps.  Many times we are going to try to have the stamp set coordinate with the theme or feel of the kits for that particular month.  I think you'll really enjoy the stamps.  There will be typically be a 3 x 4 stamp set for the Life Pages kit and smaller stamp set for another Gossamer Blue kit.  The 2 stamp sets will be designed so that they can interact with each other.  Many of the sentiments and shapes will fit into the other stamps designs.  So if you like to purchase both of the kits that have the stamps, you'll be pleased that you get lots of options when stamping.  The stamps are great quality too, made right here in the USA.

Okay, that's it for today's post but before I go I wanted to share with you some out take photos from a lunch date with the girls.  Many times we look at other people's Project Life pages and we are given the impression that perhaps our photos don't compare...that maybe we don't take good enough photos...or maybe we should have more perfectly posed photos.  If that is what you are striving for, I say go for it.  But for me, I want my album to reflect our daily lives.  I want to see the goofy photos, I don't care about the messy stuff in the background, I don't care if my pages have 10 different things going on.  That's my life and that's exactly how I want to remember it.  :)

Case in point is the many photos we sometimes have to take to get a good shot.  This is ALWAYS the case with my girls.  They get really tired of me taking photos but they know the routine....smile and then you're done.  Torture, isn't it?  To get that one cute photo that you see on the top right page up above, I had 3-4 other photos first.  Like this one where the girls are giving me that, "can't we just eat our hamburgers in peace, Mom?" Answer...."No you can't". 

And this one where they go about eating but I can tell they're about to cave in.

Here we go, jackpot!  They know that Mom won't quit until she gets that good shot.  I usually make them laugh and they cooperate.

And whaddya know, the girls then love to look at the photos and ask me to email them or put them on Facebook so they can tag themselves.  I sometimes like to print out these goofy photos because they really show the real us.  

With that said, I think there's a definite time to just  put the camera away and enjoy the moment.  Sometimes just being in the moment is better than capturing a photo.  I remind myself of this quite often and slip the iPhone back into my purse.  

Hope you enjoyed today's post.  Thanks for stopping by.....and I hope you enjoy your first Gossamer Blue Life Pages kit if you purchased one this month.  :)