Project Life Reflections

Today I thought I'd share the last page of my Project Life 2012 album.  I used a variety of elements from the December kits.  Basically, anything that fit the grey and green color scheme went down.

Hello 2013

Now that I have finished (Yayyy!!!  SO excited about that!) my first Project Life album, I wanted to share with you some reflections or things that I've learned as well as my plans for 2013.

1.  Week at a Glance:  Although I stuck with this format for most of the layouts in the album, I found it difficult sometime.  Some weeks I had more photos than I could fit on a spread and other weeks I barely had enough.  Because I was working on last year's photos, I would also have a hard time keeping up with the week numbers.  I think I used the same number for a couple of the spreads.  Oops!  My plan for 2013 is to create event layouts for each month.  In other words, I will create however many page spreads that I need for each month.  The title card for each spread will contain a title, the same type of title I would have used on a scrapbook page.  The large journaling card will contain the date.

2.  Process:  When I first started my album, I did a lot of prepping and planning the pages.  For instance, I sketched out pages in a notebook and listed which photos went on the page. 

What I quickly discovered is that the planning was taking up way too much time.  I started printing out all my photos, one month at a time, and learning to just make them fit.  When my kits arrived, the photos were already printer, corners rounded, and inserted into the page protectors just waiting for cards and journaling.  This system also enabled me to work on my spreads over the course of two weekends, usually not back to back either.  I was able to continue this routine for the entire year, despite my full time job, my kids' activities, and my husband being gone half the time. 

3.  Page Protectors:  When I first started this project, I bought the Becky Higgins Big Variety Pack of Page Protectors.  What I found is that I had to force myself to use ones other than Design A and Design F.  Those are my two favorites.  When it was time to buy refills, I bought a pack of all Design A's.  In my 2013 album, I am going to use only Design A.  And the occasional insert.

4.  Memorabilia:  One thing that I didn't do well in 2012 was include memorabilia in my album.  You know, things like kids' artwork, ticket stubs, report cards, cards, etc.  I hope to do better in 2013, but it all depends on how much "stuff" I saved this past year.  However, I am going to be more mindful of keeping and organizing artifacts for 2014.  I am going to use this system for saving everything.

Toni at A Bowl Full of Lemons uses this magazine holder and file folders labeled for the 52 weeks of the year to house all the paper stuff she wants to include in her album.  I am going to simplify her system a bit by having a folder for each month.  Hopefully, having a place for all that paper will make it easier to save.

5.  Corner Rounding:  I rounded all corners in 2012 and was debating whether I wanted to continue doing so in my next album.  After my EK Success corner rounder broke and I couldn't a replacement for it, I was thinking of giving up on the corners.  Having matching arc's is important to me, but finding a suitable tool was not happening.  Until . . . I found this baby.

I found this at Michael's and bought two of them for less than $15.  Yep, I'll be rounding corners again this year.

6.  Backwards and Forwards:  I have enjoyed this system of documenting life SO much that this year I plan to work on my 2013 and 2014 photos simultaneously.  Now that I have one year of photos under my belt, I think I can do it.  Especially since I plan to organize my spreads by months, not weeks.  I'll keep you posted!

Happy New Year!  See you soon with the title page for my 2013 and 2014 albums!