Hey there! I'm back today with my plan for Project Life in 2013. After I figured out what didn’t work in 2012, it was easy to figure out what would make Project Life work better for me in 2013. Warning: some of these things are really obvious. They’re also things I should’ve done from the beginning with 2012’s album. But I didn’t so I’m making a point of them this year.
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Weekly title cards. I’ve decided I’m going to create one simple title card I like, then replicate it for each week of the year. It'll be easy to tweak each week's card to fit the color scheme.
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Journaling cards. As I mentioned yesterday, I got way caught up in downloading all these super cute journaling cards. I was left with a giant pile of cards I’d printed, plus the cards in the Clementine kit. When it came time to choose my cards it took way too long to pick the ones I wanted to use. This year, I’m going to use the Seafoam core kit (I can’t wait for it to go on sale!) and then supplement it with some carefully chosen journaling cards. There are some cards I printed last year I turned to time and again and between those and the core kit, I should be set. No more searching for cards.
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The receipts. And notes. And artwork. This stuff was out of control. I keep everything. I was excited to include it in my PL album last year except that I didn’t. I just let it pile up. So this year I’m going to be more careful about what I keep and then instead of throwing it in the file in my kitchen, I’m going to bring it down to my scrapbook area and stick it that week’s page protector so it’s there when I work on that week.
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My handwriting. I haven’t solved this one yet. Hmm, search for a typewriter at garage sales this summer? Until then, I’ve gotten some new pens and I’m hoping they magically improve my penmanship.
- My plethora of pictures. There’s really nothing I can do about this. I take many, many pictures. I’m always going to want to include them all. That’s what inserts are for, right?
- Use stamps. I've got plenty. I need to use them on my journaling cards.
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Taking notes/writing down quotes/journaling. I didn’t do a great job of writing things down this year. Combine that with a lack of blogging and it was a disaster when going back and completing weeks. This year I’m carrying a notebook, leaving one out in the kitchen and in my bedroom as well as on my scrapbook desk. I’m also journaling about my day each night (more on that tomorrow). My memory is not great, and while most of the time I can see a picture and remember what we did, I’ve come across too many where I couldn’t and I don’t want that to happen in 2013. I plan to include my children and husband more, too.
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Keep it simple. Stop trying to make it someone else’s style. My kids don’t care, they just want to see stories + pictures. That’s all.
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Keep up with it. This one is obvious but it’s also obvious I failed at it. I need to make a point to sit down each Sunday and work on my album.
So that’s my plan for 2013. Nothing earth-shattering, but hopefully keeping it simple will work for me. We’ve got a few Project Lifers on the WCS team. I asked them to share a few tips about what has worked for them with Project Life.
Celeste
“1. Use stock photography when you don't have a photo. I used movie posters for each movie we went to see in 2012
2. I did PL digitally in 2012. I already started prefilling the weeks for 2013 making a title card and adding a journal card and some filler cards. So I'm at week five. I'd like to do a couple each week to stay ahead.
3. I could not live without Valorie Wibbens stitched pockets. Also, I hope Emily Merritt makes her highlight of the week cards again for 2013! I bought a lot of In A Creative Bubble cards last year too!”
I love how Celeste uses the movie posters!
You can check out more of Celeste’s Project Life pages here.
Deb
“1. Printing photos. I purchased an Epson Artisan 837 and started printing my photos at home. I like that when I work on my layouts I can choose the photos, print and keep going rather than having to wait a few days to get the pics back. Before I had the printer, I would order prints every two or three weeks. Once I knew which pics I was using I would write out my journaling so that by the time the prints arrived, I was done except for sliding in the photos.
2. Get your kids involved. I haven't done this too often, but I'm hoping I'll talk my boys into participating a little more.
3. Use a template. I sometimes print it out and jot down notes about which photo will go where so I'll know how many to print, where they're going and what size I need. The boxes aren't to scale because I made it to fit on a letter size sheet of paper. “
(You can find Deb’s template here, just right-click and save it.)
You can find more of Deb’s Project Life pages here.
Lisa
“One big thing I have taken away from this (my first PL year) is that this is my go to way to memory keep from now on. I will do layouts when I have a longer story that I want to record and whenever I just feel like it :) but the PL albums are the ones I will work in mainly in 2013. I am also pondering on just adding the layouts into the album also. “
Lisa wrote an awesome post about all the things she recorded in her PL album in 2012. If this doesn’t inspire you to do Project Life, I don’t know what will! Check this out!
You can find more of Lisa’s Project Life pages here.
Christine
“My biggest learning from doing Project Life is to be flexible. I had all these rules that I made up in my mind and it made keeping up with Project Life really difficult. It doesn't have to be a 2-page spread every week. It doesn't have to be weekly. It doesn't have to be just pocket scrapbooking. I started integrating regular layouts right next to Project Life pockets. And also, do it your own way. I felt the pressure to get really scrappy, rather than try to keep it simple, when I saw what other people were doing. You should really just do it how you really like it, how it fits your style, rather than feel pressured to scrap how you see other people doing it. Because trying to do it other people's way is really hard for a whole year!”
You can find more of Christine’s Project Life pages here.
So there you go. A really long post chock full of tips and ideas for Project Life! Come back tomorrow for more weekly spreads from all of us as well as some of our favorite products to use in Project Life.
