Tuesday, December 31, 2013

Hello 2014 and Project Life

Hello! Happy New Year to you, a little early here as when the midnight does roll around I will be fast asleep :) I wanted to share my excitement in finally figuring out how the style of Project Life is going to work for me in the coming year. It's taken me almost 2 years to get to this place but I am so glad I'm here now! I wanted to share in case it possibly helped anyone else or got you thinking about it in a new way.

LOVE documenting over 50 photos in the span of 1/2 an hour and then taking my time to go back and pretty them up...if I want.
 When I first tried Project Life in 2011 I was intrigued by the idea, bought a core kit (Amber) and started with some page protectors in style C that I had won from a local scrap store. From all that I had read up to that point I understood the goal was to document life by weeks and taking pictures everyday. YIKES. I was instantly overwhelmed within only a few layouts and was bored with the core kit. I know some people love to have their album look completely the same throughout, which is just great if that suits you, but that is just not me. So, I put my core kit and page protectors away and thought, "I guess PL isn't for me."  I went back to doing traditional layouts.
With my Cameo I can cut journalling and patterned paper cards. It is great to finally use up pretty paper!
 But I struggled with traditional layouts as well. I always have. I love taking pictures and love printing them and getting them in albums, but I don't love figuring out a design, even with a sketch. And you don't get many photos done at a time. I kept up with it so there weren't huge gaps in our family life but there were so many photos I would have loved to include and just couldn't get it to work for me. 

I'm not sure what started the change in my thinking, but I dug those page C protectors out and realized they are sized more like a card or even smaller. I LIKE that. I love making cards, I love the detail work and smaller scale. It was like a light bulb moment to realize, wait! I can do this Project Life thing how I want and treat each space like a card. And I don't have to do 2 page spreads that cover a week at a time. I really dislike 2 page spreads. I like to treat one page protector, the front and sometimes the front and back as one layout. Plus I am totally okay with my albums being a mix of products and colors.
Altered a journal I already had to plan my pages and take journalling notes. I love how much stamping I can incorporate into my photo keeping now!
 Once I realized these things more positives kept coming up and I bought more page protectors in different styles. I printed over 50 photos that had been taken in the last few weeks and was thrilled to get them all arranged and ready to add the fun embellishment part to without having to think of a design.
I found a fabulous freebie from Marcy Penner HERE. I printed mine small so I can adhere them to my page and right with it take notes for journalling. And it's only one page layouts, yea!!

So, if you've made it this far I wanted to give a run down list of how and why I am going to be doing Project Life in 2014, my way :)

* My husband really enjoys the photo heavy style of PL and my kids love looking through all the fun things in our life.

* I will NOT be keeping track of weeks. I will note the month and year and that's it. I love the freedom that gives me mentally to ebb and flow naturally with whatever life throws at me.

* I will mostly do single page layouts. Those are my favorite.

* I will NOT be buying any more core kits. I have way too much pretty patterned paper to use up first. So who knows when or if I will ever buy another core kit! I love finally having a use for all the pretty patterns I have. Seeing all of it cut up into the cute cards just makes me happy.

* I will round my photo corners. I just like them rounded and it matches the journalling cards.

* I will be using lots of stamping and lots and lots of Silhouette cuts to embellish. I cannot tell you how much I love my Cameo!

* I will be incorporating birthday cards, Christmas cards and other such items in my binder. It's really great to have a place for all those things!

I am really looking forward to having many more photos printed and documented for the enjoyment and reminding of myself and my family. We really do live an amazing life!

1 comment:

Charlotte C said...

Good luck. I'm lost, but that's just me. I have never followed anything about PL b/c I could not see me documenting anything on a routine basis.