Two Pages a Month

I really love it when I get to the end of a year of scrapbook. It is not just the reward and satisfaction of completing it that makes me so happy. It's looking through all the pages, finding what the boys call  our 'slice of life' captured, remembering the big events, small moments, new experiences, everyday-ness, fun, laughter, great days, tough days, family, friends, everything that makes up the story of our year. 

It's a scrapbookers' way of taking stock! According to my pages, in twenty fourteen, we celebrated my parents in laws' 60th anniversary, our niece's wedding, dh's sister's surprise 60th birthday, Christmas, Chinese New Year, and more; went overseas twice for holidays, once for school trip, once for work and once for 10K in Bali, had friends  relatives from China, New Zealand, Malaysia and Taiwan visit, had a Primary School Reunion (with classmates from when I was twelve!), and sent one son to live in his school hostel for a year.

And because I did a photo a day the whole year, I was able to capture even the titbits and the unique 'slices of life' that is ours last year. Let's see, in twenty fourteen, all of us caught conjunctivitis all in one week (yikes!), J forgot to turn up for a talk he was to give on 3D printing, the boys took turns throwing out my not-yet-eaten take-out dinner by mistake(!),  I dressed up as greek goddess for a dinner, tried green tea everything (mochi, ice-cream, cookies, kitkat, mooncake, latte, you name it), did lots of online shopping, my husband caught onto healthy eating (made his own salads and work lunches everyday!), took over entirely to plan our Taiwan trip, we made 'Tank Cakes', had homemade pancakes every weekend, and the favorite family activities was World of Tanks, card games, movies and anime!

Actually I don't always have a photo a day, sometimes I go a few days before remembering and then I look around and add pictures of a corner of our home, a book we are reading, a newspaper article, or a movie we watched, and these have really added to the interest in the pages and completeness of the year as we lived them! And because I use only photos from my iphone, sometimes taken in a super hurry, blurry, in not so good light, or with one son trying to run away (lol), they are what I get. My pages are imperfect but personal, and totally awesome.

Here are the pages I have not yet posted from 2014:

For this Oct page, I had some badly lit photos and decided to play around with a photoshop action filter - bright & pale by chic chick  what a lovely glow!

(Credits: graph grids by SplendidFiins, paint artfrom Across the board by Amy Martin Designs, and the following are all from The Lilypad's Currently collab: wordstrip and lace by Kaye Winiecki, flair by little butterfly wigns, arrows, flower, traingles, word strip by Sara Gleason, glitter by valorie webbers)

The 2nd half of October featured more vibrant colors- lots of red from my niece's pre-wedding ceremonies, and my good friend was featured in the papers!

(credits:Dymo words by Allison Pennington_Currently, paper from Chelle's Creations'_ladybughug_playdate freebie, doodle from J Barrette's perfect fit, alpha from Raspberry sorbet by Kate Hadfield, doodle hearts by Michelle Godin in My Manly Man, heart, string, and tape from heimili by pink reptile designs)

In November we left for Taiwan holiday in the 4th week, and were back only in mid December. As I did separate pages for the holidays, I only made one layout each for Nov and December. This was the time after exams when the boys were home and relaxed but I had my wisdom tooth extraction (ouch!)

(Credits: Cork_Coaster_Heart and Holiday_Spot_Fave_Cut_Out_GinaCabrera of Digital Designs Essentials, Wish Alph by Rachel Young, Paper from a freebie by citrus&mint, confetti and label from year in review by Mommyish designs, arrow, brush, paint, painted heart, painted 'Cheer', wordstrips all from Fun-tastic by Sugar Fancy designs)

And this is the last page - 2nd half of Dec after we are back from Taiwan, filled with home improvements, Christmas celebrations and New Year get-togethers. I did a suitably golden, glittery, starry page :)

(Credits: glitter from 2am's_bestyearyet, Alpha and talk bubble from We all fall down Kit by Allison Pennington, Glitter_Star by_GinaCabrera of Digital Designs Essentials, flower from WinterWoodland by Maya De Groot, poinsettia from MissMint's_UglyChristmasSweater, flower and wordstrips from Celebrate Life by Studio Basic, stars and stitch by Erica Zane, washitape by JustJaimee, and paper from Mommyish's autumn daze)

And Tada! Here they are, my photo a day for 2014, two pages a month!

2014 Year In Review

I really want to challenge you to try this, take a photo whenever you can, and with whatever you captured, just slot them into a layout and you will see your year develop! I have shared my process here and  also here, you can try using my templates or any other templates, just get started, keep it simple and you will find it is totally doable!

2015 will be the fourth year I'm recording a photo a day this way, and I really have no thoughts of changing it up. So I've whipped up 8 more templates to do these Half Monthly pages, this set is on sale at $4 until this Sunday! Get them in the Store.

As is customary :) I have made a ninth template for you to download and try out :)

Download this free digiscrap template here - have fun creating!

Project Life December Pages
Because I already captured a photo a day, I only pick up stories I want to elaborate more or anecdotes or conversations to add to my Project Life pages, usually only a couple spreads a month.

I went for a light and pink palette here, with a touch of blue, taking a cue from the 'Life does not have to be Perfect' quote card. This is one way you can tie things together on a page.
We brought the boys with us to attend a local theatre production - we love that they enjoyed it as much as us (!)

Our Christmas page is full of gold and glitter - you see I usually follow a color theme each page, it is really easy for a page to look puled together and just great!

 And for the last page, taking a cue from Elise Blaha's 2014 by the Numbers review, I did one of our own!

We worked hard, studied hard, made home improvements, are obsessed with building tank models and anime figurines, played lots of games and watched lots of movies and anime and korean drams, some of us read a lot, listened to lots of music, and had ten new experiences in 2014!
It's by no means all that make up our year, but a fun recap that the boys participated and counted along with me. The piece of paper we scribbled the count items on is inserted behind in one of the pockets.My album is done!
P.S. as you can see, this page took on a very colorful turn, taking the cue from that photo of us in various colored Uniqlo's Ultra Light Down jackets :)

Double pages using Yin's Templates
I really love getting to see pages made with my templates, and these are so lovely, glad to share them with everyone!
Hannah Hurey's pages are always so classic and calm, simple and elegant. They are proof that all you need are gorgeous photos and great arrangement! :) Thanks Hannah for taking the time to send them to me!

And Marlyn Ramirez always have such lovely pages focused on the people in her life. Thanks Marlyn for taking the time to make my day!

By the way, this is a free Christmas themed template from last year that you can download here. 

Need more inspiration? Check out these Pinterest Boards:

Yin's Board, Laura's Board, Lisa's Board, J Austen's Board

I could not find a way to contact these ladies, but since these are public boards I think they wouldn't mind me providing a link to their boards, in case others would like to follow them. Thank you so much to J Austen, Lisa Kelly, and Linda, I'm very very honored!