Summing Up a Month
Last year, I started doing monthly summary layouts to include in my 9x12 Project Life albums, and it’s become one of my favorite ongoing projects. They vary considerably in the amount of detail they include, and the number of photos. Some months it’s a single page and other months it’s a two-page spread, but whatever I end up doing that month, I love the chance to reflect and capture the things that made the month special.
This year, April was dominated by a trip to Europe that I chaperoned. We visited the Alps, Cinque Terre, Provence, Monaco, and Barcelona, and I took over 1700 photos. The trip was ten days long, and in the days leading up to it, I was busy making preparations. So I knew my monthly summary would include it in one way or another.
I have chaperoned seven April vacation trips to Europe thus far, and every year when I return, I put together a 6x8 album documenting my travels. For me, the main road block to starting the project is printing and trimming the photos. I hate doing it, so I decided to delegate this year, and placed an order with Persnickety Prints. I think I will always do this in the future. At least when I want 100+ prints. It was so much easier than doing it all myself. However, since it was my first time ordering prints from a vacation, I was a little unclear on how many photos is a reasonable number to order, so I ordered over 400. Oops. I ended up using over 200 of them in my 6x8 album, leaving another couple hundred left over. Those leftovers have ended up in a few different places, but one place I used them is on my monthly summary for April.
That was a long way explaining why April’s summary layout is photo-heavy. I ended up with a two page spread, with twelve photos. Of the twelve, eight are from Europe, two are from before, and two are from after.
I had the chance to use some gorgeous stamp sets from Everyday Explorers Co. on this one, including two new 6x8 sets - Calendar Days and Away We Go. I also pulled out an old favorite, the Right Now stamp set. I ended up making all the “filler” and journaling cards myself for this layout. I don’t always do this, but I find that if I really want the layout to have a specific look, making my own cards is the best bet.
I often arrange the photos and cards in a pattern when I’m putting layouts together, and you can see that I did so on this one. On each half of the layout there are three cards, one in each row, and as you go from the top row to the bottom row, they’re placed middle, left, and right. I do this all the time. If I have nine pockets, and three are for cards, I’ll place one card in each row, and I won’t repeat the position in the row. I also prefer the positions to be staggered, rather than, for example, left, middle, right. This is, of course, entirely personal preference. I’m rather particular, in case you haven’t noticed.
I decided to use the calendar days stamps to create date labels for each photo. I found that the boxes and tags that come with the stamp set have plenty of room for the date, month, day of the week, and a short note, so that’s what I ended up doing. I stamped a box in black, then added the date, month, and day of the week in various shades of green.
Some people have noticed that the Calendar Days stamp set doesn't include a 31, probably due to space constraints. This definitely isn’t an insurmountable problem. I made the 31 in the image above by strategically inking only the 3 half of the 30 stamp, then only the 1 half of the 01 stamp. You experienced stampers out there probably knew you could do that, but I wanted to mention it just in case anyone is new to stamping.
I made filler cards for this layout using the Away We Go stamp set. I love this set so much. There are so many possible combinations of elements available with this one. I ended up using the stamp outline, but the set also includes tags and tickets. I used the same shades of green that I used on the date labels. I took plain white cardstock and stamped a light pattern to add a little texture, then adhered the accent pieces and added washi tape.
The two journaling cards are done in list format. This is the journaling style I turn to most often on these summary layouts. Just a list of the highlights of the month. It’s simple and fast, and I truly do love looking back and reading my lists from the past - seeing what has changed and what has stayed the same. The Right Now stamp set is one of my go-to sets for this purpose. Stamps can sometimes serve as journaling prompts, and this one definitely does. Reading, listening to, eating, loving. Just a bunch of short lists. The lists, along with the notes I wrote on my date stamps, are enough for me. I’ve included enough photos and words to capture this period in time.
In the image above, you can see a tiny piece of washi tape on my stamp set. At the beginning of the year, I set a goal to use every single stamp set I own. This is ambitious, given the number of stamp sets currently in my possession, but I’m trying. Anyway, once I’ve used a set, I mark it with washi tape. So that’s what that is. In case you were wondering.
The butterflies and flowers I used on this layout are from Tim Holtz and they might be my favorite embellishments ever. They are definitely my CURRENT favorite embellishments. I pull them out all the time when I want to add a little something to a project.
So, my April summary is in the book. Like I said, a monthly summary layout, for me, can take various forms, but I generally choose some favorite photos from the month and jot down some lists. And I really do love seeing them in my albums.
The Everyday Explorers Co. stamps I used on this layout are available in the shop, although a couple of them are currently sold out and only available for pre-order. The link I shared is an affiliate link, so thanks in advance if you use it!
