Documenting More Than a Decade

A year ago Katie Pertiet at Designer Digitals came up with this fabulous idea to "Document a Decade". She created a series of templates to use for this project. I immediately wanted to do this project. I had met Jeff in 2000 and let's just say that it was a decade full of changes. I wanted to document the changes in our family and I am SO glad that I did. Out of all of the albums that I have created my "Documenting a Decade" album is my absolute favorite. It is so fun to page through and see the growth of our family. As you probably know by now, I take a lot of pictures so I was worried about how I could get more photos on one page. I decided that for each year, I would do a family spread and then a spread for each of my kids once we had more children. I also created little sections/chapters for each year.

I have LOVED looking through that album. You can find it here if you would like to take a peek. I decided that I'm not going to stop at a decade. I'm going to continue to do it each year for as long as I can. If I can continue to do this little project for the next 20 years, I will have 30 years of our family's growth all together in one album. I just think that would be pretty neat to have.

Yesterday I started working on the pages for this year. You can find them below...

I also have a little title page for each year...

The back page of my little "chapter" has all of the highlights for that year listed...

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I just think it is such a great project to do. Families change so quickly and it is so fun to see the growth in one album.

Thanks for stopping by and have a great day!

Scrapbook YOUR Story

I would have to say that my favorite thing to scrap is my children...hands down. I love to capture the little moments and big moments of their lives and put them on paper so they will always remember them. Documenting life is certainly one of my passions and I think I could say that their lives have been pretty well documented over the years. They each have scrapbooks upon scrapbooks filled with memories that I hope they will always treasure. This year one of my goals is to try and get MY story on paper. I struggle with creating scrapbook pages about myself. I don't know if it is because I don't want my photo on the page, or if I believe that my life is too boring to scrap. Regardless of the reasons, I rarely do a page on myself and yet, I truly believe that I should. Years from now, I think my children will treasure the peek into my world. Today I was dusting our room and came across a music box that is very special to me but the kids have not heard the story about it. I decided to do a page on it and this is how it turned out...

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It felt so good to write about something so special to me and to know that this story is getting passed onto my children. As I look around their home, this is just one little item that has a very special story attached to it but I can see more items that have a story attached to them. I don't think it is easy to write about yourself but I would say that this page was and I feel so refreshed getting it down on paper. I encourage you to do the same. Find an item that is special to you and write the story of why it is special to you. I guarantee you will be happy that you did.

Deconstructing Project 365

Almost two years ago, I reluctantly started doing Project 365. I saw plenty of wonderful inspiration in the gallery and I thought it would be so cool to look back on how our days had been spent. I wish I would have done this when my kids were babies. I say "reluctantly" because I wasn't convinced it was something that I would follow through with because I'll admit it, I like scrapping what I want and I generally don't use templates. I think templates are fabulous but I like the freedom of a blank screen. I started the project at the beginning of 2010. I wanted it to be simple in hopes that I would follow through with the project each week. I created a basic template that you can find below. I included seven pictures and a little bit of journaling regarding each picture.





This is what I learned from the first year of Project 365

- I can do it and it is pretty simple if I use a template and stay caught up
- I love having a record of our daily lives
- it wasn't a problem to take a photo a day

When I began thinking about continuing the project in 2011, I tried to figure out what I really wanted out of the book. I would say that the first year, I was just kind of trying it out to see if was something that I could commit to. I found out that I could indeed keep up with the project and enjoyed it. I also discovered that there were some things that I wanted to change for 2011.

1) Journaling - our lives are SO busy that I knew I wanted to record more of what goes on in given week than the description of seven pictures. I love the way that my dear friend Elena who is also on the Creative Team at DD did her journaling for 365. She just listed random things and I followed her lead for this year. I am able to include so many more details with this method. I will certainly be following suit for 2012.

2) Focal photo - I decided that I wanted to include a larger focal photo on each page to make more of an impact.

3) Special Events - In 2010, my book contains exactly 365 photos....one for each day regardless of the day. I decided that I wanted this book to be more inclusive of our lives and that means including special pages for birthdays, holidays, trips, fun family outings. I think that this has been my favorite addition to this years book. I have so many more photos included because of these fun events that I wanted to document on a larger scale. You can see the bottom spread in which I have Quinn's first field trip on the right. I like this because if I fall behind in scrapbooking, I know I still have record of it right here in this album. Honestly, 365 takes the pressure off and allows me to have more time for what I call "fun scrapbooking".

4) Quote - I take a lot of inspiration from what others are doing. My dear friend Carol who is also on the Creative Team at DD has an awesome book going this year. She included in her album quotes that she liked. I LOVE that idea and was quick to incorporate it into my own album. On the bottom of each page, I wrote a famous quote. I really enjoy finding these quotes but I know that I won't do that part again next year....I'm running low on quotes.

5) Color Palette - I used a neutral color palette and color photos. I'm pretty sure that I will use neutrals again for 2012.

I'm just starting to think about next years project and what I want it to include. I thought if you were interested in going on this journey, it might be helpful to hear what things did and did not work for me. I would highly recommend it. My advice would be to just set aside a time that you will complete this project each week. My pages take me about 25 minutes to complete and I know that years down the road, I am going to love having a record of our entire year at my fingertips.

Thanks for stopping by and have a great weekend!

Project 365 - Week 37

We are on Week 37 of Project 365. I think it is hard to believe. I have really tried to stay caught up all year and it is paying off. I have added some "special events" pages this year so it is turning out to be more work but I think I am going to be happier when it is all said and done. I'm so glad that I have a template to work with and the pages don't take much time at all. I think that is probably the key for me.

Here is my latest spread. It includes a "back to school" page on the left and just every day photos on the right.

Here is a look at a few of the other recent pages for this project:

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Thanks for stopping by! Have a great week!

All About Me Pages

I think it is obvious that my favorite thing to scrap would be my children...they have scapbooks upon scrapbooks to prove it. I love seeing the world through their eyes and trying to capture the joy that is so much apart of their childhood. I have scrapbooked for about twenty years and I can honestly say that before coming to Designer Digitals, I had never created a page about myself. Designer Digitals has a monthly "All About Me" challenge. Without this challenge, I probably never would have even thought about doing a page about myself. However when I really think about it sure makes sense to do them.

Earlier this summer, I created a page for each of my kids regarding what they are into at this particular stage of the game. I thought it would be kind of fun to do this for myself. As many of you know, my mother passed away many years ago and there is so many details about her life that I wish I could remember or even that I wish I would have asked her. Once I became mom, this became even more apparent. I was so overwhelmed and had so many questions for her....seven and half years into it and I still feel overwhelmed! As I sat down to write this page, I kept thinking about her. I wrote about the things that I enjoy doing with my kids...I wondered what were her favorite things about being a mom....I wrote about some of the little things that frustrated me as well as the things that I am passionate about. I really wish I could get her perspective on her life as a mom. I kept this in mind as I created this page and I really had fun just rambling out random facts about who I am at 39 years old (YIKES...when did that happen). Someday my kids will get a kick out of this...I hope!

I decided that I should have a photo on this page despite my aversion for being in front of the camera. I set up the tripod on our back patio. Ellie came out and saw what was going on and her eyes lit up. She took over from that point and had me doing all of the goofy little poses that I always suggest for the kids. Then Amelia came out and wanted in on the action. Wiley was wandering through as well...I tried to get some shots with him but he really wasn't interested. It was kind of fun even though I feel a little weird about having my face all over a page. I guess I am just making up for the fact that I am never on any pages because I always have the camera...I like that!

Here is the page that I created:

Here are some additional All About Me pages that I had done last year...

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I hope you take some time to create some pages about yourself. They are fun to do and YOU ARE IMPORTANT. You have a story to tell and believe me there are many people that really want to hear it.

Thanks for stopping by and have a wonderful weekend!

Why I do what I do...

I scrapbook a lot. I am constantly sacrificing sleep for scrapbook time because I love it so much. I find it relaxing, I love the creative side of it, it challenges me to learn new things AND it is a great way to preserve our family memories.

Today we went to the beach in the morning and then after lunch I was out mowing the lawn. The kids were inside. I had no clue what they were doing. Ellie came outside to get me and says "Mom, you have to come and see this". I'm usually worried when I hear this statement. She takes me downstairs and I find all of my "paper scrapbooks" spread out across the basement floor. The kids had been going through their scrapbooks. Ellie wanted to show me pictures and quickly asked "do you remember this..." A few minutes later I went back to mowing the lawn with a smile on my face.

A little while later I went in and found them in the same positions except now they were laughing hysterically. Ellie was reading Amelia's baby books to her. I always did a monthly recap for each the first two years of her life. Ellie was reading to Amelia how she liked to put Ellie's underwear on her head and crawl around with it on. They thought it was the funniest thing ever. Honestly I don't remember this but I looked and there were pictures to prove it. I often think of scrapbooking as "my outlet" because it brings me so much joy but it was fun to see today how it brings them joy.

There are so many different ways to scrapbook. It can be as simple or as complicated as you want it to be. The most important thing is that you are getting the stories down and passing them on to future generations. My scrapbooking journey has changed a lot over the course of the last 20 years. My style has changed, my approach has changed, my subjects have changed, my life has changed, technology has changed....there have been a ton of changes and yet I am doing the same thing that I did twenty years ago...telling my story.

I thought it would be fun to share with you how my albums have changed over the last seven years. I am a little hesitant to show you because I worry that the "OCD officials" might show up at my door to get me. I certainly wouldn't argue with them. I guess the first step is admitting it.

I wish my albums all looked the same but they don't. The albums in themselves are a representation of the changes that have occurred in my scrapbooking world. Here is a look at the first set of albums for my kids. I have albums before this time period but they are all random albums put together using traditional paper. When Ellie was born, I used all dark blue Close to My Heart albums. I did all double page spreads. She has a significant amount of traditional paper albums. When Amelia was born, I started with green albums and then Quinn arrived and he got a different shade of blue. He only has two traditional paper albums because I went all digital shortly after his arrival. Quinn has more than made up for it in the digital world.

Once I decided to go all digital, I used only Shutterfly albums to document our memories. Each album contained all two page spreads. Each of my kids got about 3 albums a year....some of the layouts would be included in all three of their albums. This was another bonus for the digital world. When I was doing the traditional scrapbooking, I would make the same layout three times. Thank God for digital!

Then I decided that I liked making single pages better than spreads and focused more on the "little stories" of our lives rather than just the big events and holidays. This is where I am today. I use We R Memory Keepers 12 x 12 D Ring Binders and absolutely LOVE them. Each of my kids has their own album(s) and I also have a family album as well as art journal and heritage albums. These need to be labeled...Ellie reminded me again today.

As you can see, my scrapbooking has gone through changes but the idea stays the same. All of these albums contain portions of our story...a story that is worth preserving. I hope that my children and their children will be able to look back and know how we spent our days. It doesn't matter what kind of scrapbook you are creating or even if you are scrapbooking at all. I just think it is important to record the details of life because you are important and you have a story to tell.

Make a List

I will admit that journaling is my least favorite part of scrapbooking and yet I know it is the most important part of each page. I know that years from now, the photos will give the visual but it will be the words that will be the most meaningful to my children when I am no longer here. I know that because it is the letters that I received from my mom when I was in college that I LOVE to pick up and read. They bring me peace and love.

My own children reinforce this theory as well. When we get pages back, they always want me to read them...and then reread them. When I write to my children, I really try to write from my heart. I want them to always know how much I love them and how much I enjoy them...not just now but I want them to know this years from now when they look back on their childhood.

One of the more simple ways that I have enjoyed journaling is by making a list. Every year, I do a page for each of my children that highlights their personalities, hobbies, likes, dislikes, things they say...you get the point. It is just a list of random little things that I don't want to forget. Each stage passes so quickly and it is my way to take a "snapshot" of their life right now. This technique is so easy and I think it is so valuable. I am including the three pages that I made this week for my kids. I created the entire page first and then I just sat back and wrote about every little detail about their life at this stage of the game. This is my kind of journaling...no worries about sentence structure...no worries about grammar...just a simple brainstorm that took about 10 minutes tops. This technique can be used for anything....you, your spouse, your home, your job, a difficult situation you are going through...a trip....anything. I think you should give it a try. I know that I will be using it again and again.

All products are from Designer Digitals.

I hope you give this a try. I think you will agree it is an easy technique that certainly allows you to record a lot of meaningful details. Thanks for stopping by and have a great day!

Disneyworld Album

Once I start a project, I usually struggle to put it down. It was one of those weeks when I knew that I needed some "me time". I told Jeff that I needed a day to myself to get recharged. I can't tell you the last time that I had a day to myself. He took the kids today to the park, out for lunch, and to the rodeo. I was soooo grateful! I spent the day sitting at the computer doing this project and by the time they came home, I felt completely refreshed.

Here is the cover to the album. I created this a long time ago and it felt good to finally put it on the book that has been in the back of my mind for 9 months.


When I started doing these pages, I was planning on creating the background similar to the cover. I wanted to use clouds and sparkles and flares to create a magical scene. When I started playing with the brushwork, it didn't feel right. It seemed like the more brushwork that I added, the more it took away from the photos. I decided to take the brushwork off with the exception of one large fotoglow which was set behind the matte and the title for each page. It is so easy to redo things in Photoshop...another reason I love it so much. So the result of my work is a very graphic looking page with clean lines, bright colors and a few embellishments placed throughout for fun.

The two pages below are my favorite. The page below because I had so much fun seeing my kids with the characters. When I look at this page, it brings me right back to this morning.



This page is my other favorite page because I know my kids are going to LOVE looking at this page and seeing all of the familiar faces from the parades that they just loved when we were at Disneyworld. I'm excited for them to look through the album.

One of the reasons that I was so intent on finishing this project right now is that Shutterfly is having 50% off their 12 x 12 albums right now as well as free shipping for orders over $30. This album ended up being very economical for me. LOVE THAT! Shutterfly has redone some things on it's site. I couldn't post this in the regular gallery because they are not currently letting you do that for custom books but here is a link if you would like to take a peek. It is pretty small on the screen but there is button you can hit if you would like to see it bigger. http://share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=3AcNHLlu3YuxA

All products are from Designer Digitals.

I have to say that I'm happy that this project is over and I can get back to scrapping the day to day stuff which is my favorite. It is always a good feeling to complete a project.

I hope you are having a good weekend and thanks for stopping by!

Album Time - Disneyworld

Our family enjoyed a trip to Disneyworld last October and I have yet to start the album...that is until tonight. I have done some individual pages for each of the kids with some of their highlights but honestly the idea of putting together an entire album seemed like a lot. I know that I prefer to scrap day-to-day pages much more than tackling an entire album...although I would be the first to admit that I love having everything together in an album once it is complete.

I have made many, many albums throughout the last twenty years of scrapbooking and as I look back over the progression...I can see that I have learned something new with each one of them. My style and preferences have certainly changed. I am not planning on going back to redo the albums that make me cringe...I just chalk it up as part of the process and the important thing is that the memories have been recorded.

I have also learned a great deal about creating albums by looking through the online gallery. There are so many amazing and inspiring albums. I just love to see other people's pages come together and I have learned so much.

Tonight I decided that I had waited long enough to tackle this project. I think one of the reasons that I have been so hesitant to do the album is that I couldn't quite decide what kind of look I wanted it to have. After tonight, I think I have a few things figured out and a few things that I still need to figure out.


Here is what I have figured out (0f course this is all subject to change)...

1) I prefer albums in which all of the pages are tied together with a specific type of look. That doesn't mean that every page is the same but they are consistent. I decided that I wanted to use Lynn Grieveson's Lots of Shots templates. I just love that they are so clean and include so many photo areas. I shrunk Lynn's template down a bit so that I could frame the photo area. I love her templates as is but shrinking it down just feels more like me. Using a template makes the whole project a lot easier as well and it is easy to change templates to fit your needs.

2)I want to use a similar type of alpha for each of my titles. Maplebrook Studios has an entire line of Jelly Alphas. Some of these alphas come in their kits as well. The Jelly Alphas are my absolute favorite and I knew that I wanted to use them on this project.

3) I decided that I want to use bold and fun colors throughout this album because that is what Disneyworld is all about...FUN!

4) When I create an album, I always want things to be consistent and that means using similar types of embellishments, colors, design, and also fonts. My absolute favorite font for journaling is Century Gothic. I love that it is clean and easy to read. I use it A LOT. It was a given that I would use it for this project as well.


I'm going to approach this project a little different than I usually do. I'm going to start by just placing the pictures in the templates, picking the colors and doing the titlework initially on all of the pages. I haven't figured out what kind of brushwork and edging that I want to use yet so I plan on adding that at the end. I also need to fine tune my embellishments. I don't know how this will work but the whole process seems less daunting to me if I break it down into manageable chunks.

Here are the bare bones of my first three layouts:

As you can see, I have a long road ahead of me but at least it is a start. I have found that once I start something, I usually get more focused on finishing the project before I move onto other things. I sure hope that is the case here. My kids will be so excited when I complete this because they really haven't seen much of the Disney photos yet so that is a little extra motivation for me. This album is well overdue.

I hope you found this helpful. Have a fantastic day and thanks for stopping by!

All products are from Designer Digitals.

School Project - Second Take

In May, I did a blog post on a project that I embarked on that started with my children's school photos. I never knew what to do with them and they usually just stayed in the envelope. I started the project with the left side of the spreads that can be found below. The left side consisted of my child's school photo for that particular year as well as the highlights from the year. I asked her questions about her year and it was a fun little project to work on together. Then Doris (aka echogirl) decided to follow suit and did a similar project but added additional pages with other school photos. That is one reason I love looking through the gallery...it is so inspirational and it is such a fun way to share ideas. So I started to think if I could take this project one more step and this is what I came up with.

I will do a one page spread for each school year of my children. The page on the left will contain their school photo and little tidbits about their year. The page on the right will include some random photos from their life at school as well as their class picture. I used some simple templates which made this project come together really fast. I will just switch out the photos and colors each year. I think it will be so fun to put all of these in one album and look back on them when my child graduates. It will be such a nice little recap of their school years.

Here are some pages that I did for Ellie. I also created pages for her preschool years but I need to find the photos for the right side of the spread.

Here are the pages for Amelia's preschool years...

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I love to work on projects. They can be time consuming but I am always so glad when the project is complete and I can look back on my work. I know that down the road, my kids are going to love the results of this little project.

Thanks for stopping by and Happy 4th of July weekend!

Project 365 - Week 20

It is hard to believe that I just finished Week 20 of Project 365. I really wish I would have started this project many, many years ago. It would be so fun to go back and look at how we spent our days when Ellie was a baby. I think the thing that I like most about Project 365 is that it takes some pressure off of the rest of my scrapbooking. That might sound funny but it really does. I feel more free to scrapbook the pages that I want because I know that I have record of everything in this album. I just want to remember little details but it might not call for a whole page. I really find this project fits with me. I am continuing to do a photo a day and have my weekly pages. I am also highlighting the special days with their own pages just like you can see below with Amelia's graduation. When I started the project for this year, I was using a combination of black and white photos as well as color on each page. I have decided that I like the all color photo pages the best so I have gone back to tweak a few things. Little by little, I will get there. I hope that if you embarked on this 365 journey with me, that you are enjoying it and have developed a system that works for you. It may seem tedious at times but in the end, I know you will be thrilled that you did it.

All products are from Designer Digitals.

I hope you having an awesome week. Thanks for stopping by!

Documenting a Decade

I have been busy trying to complete my "Documenting a Decade" album and I'm so happy to say that it is done! I'm so glad that I did this project. It was so fun to go through old photos and to see how our family changed from year to year.

The introduction reads as follows: This book encompasses a decade of growth for me and our family. In January of 2000, I was single, 28 years old and hadn't met the right person. I thought my dreams of getting married and having a family of my own were not likely. God thankfully had other plans for me.

Ten years have come and gone. The blessings in my life surround me and I couldn't be happier. I have a loving husband who I adore, three incredible children who fill my life with love and a sweet, chunky little English Bulldog.

My heart is full of gratitude. Time is such a precious gift and this book is a representation of how time has blessed us. We have certainly grown together over the last decade. We thank God for the gift of life, for the gift of time, for the gift of family, for the gift of love, and most importantly for the gift of Jesus.At the beginning of this book, it was a struggle to find pictures of just Jeff and I. By the end of the book, let me tell you there certainly wasn't a shortage of pictures of the kids. I decided to do a spread for each child for each year. This made the project alot bigger but I am happy that I did that. At the end of each year, I wrote the highlights for that particular year. I hope to continue with this project using the same format for each year. I just think that down the road, it will be so fun to look through.

Here is the link to my album, if you would like to take a peek. All products are from Designer Digitals.

Printing

One of my favorite things about scrapbooking is when I get the prints or the album back from the printer. We all just LOVE to look and remember these special moments in our lives.

The kids look at their albums often.

When I first started scrapbooking, I was a traditional scrapbooker and have albums upon albums of traditional two page spreads. When I switched to all digital several years ago, I continued to do all two page spreads but had them printed as Shutterfly albums. The kids would each get several albums a year and then I would do one album for the family to summarize our year.

Last year I got away from that method. I discovered that I enjoyed scrapping moments more than events and enjoyed making single pages. I also would have to say that the creative aspect of scrapbooking seemed to take more importance in my life than recording the events. Anna Aspnes from Designer Digitals recommended using a D-Ring binder from We R Memory Keepers. I tried this method and I LOVE it...it works for me. I don't fret about the pages not matching and these albums can hold a ton of pages. It also allows me the freedom to scrapbook what I want and I am not tied to scrapbooking chronologically.

Anna also recommended having prints made at Persnickety Prints. I just received my second batch of prints from them and I HIGHLY recommend them. The quality is incredible!!! I can't even begin to tell you how pleased I am with the prints.

Here is a glimpse into our world when our pages arrive.

I have continued to do an album in review each year which includes a highlight of the events in our lives. Jeff's mom always asks for this for Christmas. I had a year full of single pages but still wanted the majority of them to be double page spreads so I had to do a little backtracking. There are a few single pages in there that were favorites of mine and also my mother in law. At any rate, I'm happy to have the book finally done.
If you would like to take a peek, you certainly can. All products are from Designer Digitals. A few pages will appear white because they will be seen in upcoming issues of Creating KeepsakesMy 2010 Family Album

Week 9 of 365

It is hard to believe that we are on the tenth week of 2011 already. I'm continuing to enjoy project 365. Using a basic template allows this page to come together so quickly. I'm keeping everything consistent so that the entire book is uniform and it also helps me stick with the project because I know the pages take very little time.



This year I am including pages for special events in our lives as well as the day to day. This template is working well for me because it is easy to use and I can include a lot of journaling to summarize each week. Here is what week 9 looked like at our house.

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Documentation - Right Now

I started scrapbooking as a way of recording details many years ago. My scrapbooking has evolved quite a bit from that starting point but record keeping is certainly my number priority. My memory is terrible. As a mom to three little ones, I am constantly amazed at how quickly time is escaping. As a stay at home mom, my days often seem long and yet when I look back the years have flown by. There are so many little moments each day that tell so much about who we are. While I can't slow down time, I try to record as many of the details as possible.

The page below is one example of my way of recording some of the details. Once a year, I sit down for about 20 minutes and write as much I can think about my child at that particular stage...the little stuff that probably wouldn't make it onto a page and I would easily forget.

their height/weight
what they like to eat for breakfast?
what causes meltdowns?
what books are they reading?
what toys are they playing with?
what do they like to do in the morning?
what is the nighttime routine?
what funny things they say?
what do they like to wear?
where do they like to go?
what shows do they like to watch?
who do they like to play with?
what is challenging about this age?
what is wonderful about this age?
what qualities do you see emering?

It has been so fun to look back and when I do there are so many things that bring me back to the moment...things that would have escaped me and them if I hadn't recorded them. If you haven't done so already, give it a try. I know you will appreciate it down the road.

Project 365 - Week 2 & 3

I'm really enjoying this project again. There are different approaches to this project, some people really focus on the photographs themselves and use it as a tool to improve their photography. Others use it as a diary to keep a record of what they are doing. I would certainly fall into the record-keeping group although one of my goals for 2011 is to improve my photography.

Here is a peek at my second week spread. Some of the photographs are not mine. The team was nice enough to share all of their photographs with each other. I can't begin to tell you how much fun it was to travel with people who shared the same passion for photography and digital scrapbooking. Thanks to the team for sharing their photos with me.

Here is week three which of course will be paired with week four for the spread.

I hope people who started this project are enjoying it as much as I am. I know that years from now, these albums will be treasured.