One week down, 27 to go!

This is what my morning looked like a week ago...bags packed and he was ready to leave for 6 months.

Now for most Military families this scene has happened many times for them. I, on the other hand have been very lucky in that my husband has not yet been deployed. Well all that changed with our current posting. Now don't get me wrong, I am proud that my husband serves, as I am proud of all others who make a this huge sacrifice, I guess I have just been living in the world of denial that this day would eventually come and that it would include me being left alone with 2 children very, very, very far from family!

Ok, self pity train moving on for at least awhile!

In the last few weeks leading up to deployment, I had spent any free moment that I had trying to put together this little deployment book for my husband while he was away. I saw the idea on Pinterest a few months ago and thought that it was a great idea and that I could make one as well.

                                                                                              Source: etsy.com via Kelly on Pinterest

I decided that I didn't want to make too bulky as it would have to be packed and there is limited space for packing. I also wanted to design it as a count down to when he would be back. So that he would have a little surprise to look forward to looking at.

With that in mind I designed it to be a two page spread for each month that he would be gone. I used a total of  9 brown lunch sacs to put this together.

Here is the cover, I will apologize now for the off lighting we had miserable weather the day I tried to take this shots, while doing it in secret.

Inside front cover.

Pocket between front cover and second page. Inside the pocket are hubby's birthday cards as he will be away for his birthday this month.

Keegan's card for Daddy. We included a picture with Keegan holding a plate of little cupcakes.

Here is my card.When I saw it online at the Silhouette Online Store, I knew that it was a perfect little card to use.

I love that it pulls out to reveal a little area to write a note!

Here is April's spread.

 A close-up of the left page. I found another great little Print and Cut in the Silhouette Online Store and thought that it went really well with my color's. The stamp used to highlight the date of hubby's birthday is CTMH Canadian Celebration.

 This is LO for the month of May. I cannot possibly point out how much I love being able to pick and choose all the amazing images that are in the Silhouette Online Store. Point in case, here is another great Print and Cut image that I found designed by Echo Park. One other thing that I love is the ability to customize these pieces. Which you will see later, in that I altered some of the designs to get a better color co-ordination with the pages that I was using them on.

One more thing I want to say about the image, I swear the Echo Park designers were channeling Keegan, as one of his favorite sayings for last couple of years has been "this is the best" fill in the blank. We tend to have a lot of "this is the best day every." Which is why I found this image so apropos.

The next LO is for the month of June. Which not only has Father's day in it, it is also our Anniversary.

A close up of the left page.

The pocket for this month contains an Anniversary card and a Father's Day card.

The Anniversary card.

The Father's Day card the Keegan picked out and I cut on the Silhouette for him.

July's LO is a picture of each of the boy's sleeping.

August's LO.

 September's LO. I had to include a picture of the fur babies.

A close-up of the left page.

 Here is the final LO for the book.

 A close-up of the right page.

 The back inside cover I left blank as well as a couple of pockets so that hubby would be able to add pictures that he gets while he is away.

 Here is the back cover. I couldn't resist adding a Canadian Flag.

To bind it all together I used the Crop-A-Dile to punch 3 holes along the edge of the bags. I then used 2 1/2" binder rings for the top and bottom holes while I used twine for the middle hole.

Thanks for looking. One week down, 27 more weeks to go!

Supplies Used
Echo Park images from the Silhouette Online Store
Silhouette Cameo
CTMH Canadian Celebration stamp set
Tim Holtz Ranger Distress Inks Fired Brick and Black Soot
Basic Grey Wander Paper 6x6 paper pad
Sew Stamper
Gelly Roll Pen White
Black Sharpie
Crop-A-Dile
1/2" binder rings
Twine
Brown Lunch Sacs
Buttons