Project Life® 2016 | Week Seventeen & Transition Page

Today I'm sharing my Week Seventeen which signals the end of my first album for 2016. 

I split my Project Life® years into 3, 4-month albums - so January through April, May through August, and September through December. For some people that might be way too much (too many albums) but for me this set up continues to work for the stories I want to tell. 

I'm not up-to-date for the second album (May through August) but am slowly but surely working my way through as I go. 

At the bottom of this post I'm sharing what I did on the last page of this album and a short video overview of this album. 

Here's a look at my Week Seventeen: 

This week is just a mix of cards that were on my work table from a variety of sources including the Believe Story Kit™ (available via subscription through the 14th), the Scout Documenter Kit (from Studio Calico), my Gratitude Journal Card set, and my Celebrate Journal Card set. I've recently been doing a lot of spreads that include a whole lot of repetition with the cards so it was fun to mix it up again between different sets. 

Loving my "currently" craft die (added to the card in the middle on the right) - that little bit of texture on a journal card is great. I use the Evolution for my manual die cutting machine. 

Still writing on my photos to tell just a bit more of my stories. 

Fun sequin heart is from Freckled Fawn. Katie took this photo of Anna when Anna told her that she needed a new headshot and it must be on a white background (ha). 

Little stories throughout the year = one big story at the end of the year. 

Are you struggling because you feel like you have to tell every story? Give yourself a break and just tell something vs. thinking it has to be everything. Little somethings add up to a bigger something in the end. 

The second half of the week including heading to Kentucky and Tennessee for meetings and for the Inspired Retreat

SUPPLIES

Next up I'm sharing a video overview of my first album for 2016: 

Here's a closer look at what I did on the last page of January through April 2016: 

To keep it super simple I pick one sheet of 12x12 paper and cut it up to fit into the pockets. 

From there I took out one 3x4 card and added in a cute sentiment card (which is actually the back of the gold foil stars card that you saw in the spread for this week). In addition I added three transparent circles - two are from Freckled Fawn and one is from Studio Calico (2016). 

Puffy yellow hearts also from Freckled Fawn. 

SUPPLIES FOR TRANSITION PAGE

  • Pattern Paper: Studio Calico 
  • Large circles: Studio Calico, Freckled Fawn
  • Puffy Hearts: Freckled Fawn
  • Metal Love Tab: Freckled Fawn
  • Tiny Attacher

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22 thoughts

  1. TheUrbanDisplay says…
    07/13/2016

    I love your pages as well as your attitude towards several albums a year. Sometimes I tell myself not to document so much because of the shelves getting full. But maybe I should rather embrace the many volumes I create.

    Reply 1 Reply
    1. tesoro_de_recuerdos says…
      08/09/2016

      yes you should! If it brings you joy, so why not :)
      Julia from Switzerland

  2. mtercha says…
    07/13/2016

    Loved it! Thanks for sharing. This is one of the reasons why I decided to transition into a PL type way. I found as I did my third WITL, I loved the idea about capturing the every day, and things have been moving pretty fast here, and there's no other way I'd capture it. I'm still thinking things through and stumbling a bit. I also admit I loved having an ongoing project, album on my desk. And this is a way for me to have that. Anyway, thanks!! Michelle t

    Reply 0 Replies
  3. asackr01 says…
    07/13/2016

    thanks for sharing - also love that little butterfly from anna. :)

    Reply 0 Replies
  4. kyla14 says…
    07/13/2016

    LOVE IT! Thanks for all your inspiration. I too will have 3 albums this year. My kids are little and adorable so I need 3 albums. Maybe when they are older and are not so accommodating with the Mommy Paparazzi I will have less albums. It's an ebb and flow. And thank you for the reminder to include more art work. Love that.

    Reply 0 Replies
  5. patowle says…
    07/13/2016

    Telling the highlights...this is what I need to work on. I really need help with photo organization, because what I end up doing is printing over 100 pictures per month because I don't have time to figure out what pictures belong to what week. I just print a ton and end up using most of them. The result is albums full of pictures but lots of empty spaces because I'm overwhelmed with all of the stories. I want so badly to keep albums for our family but my time is so limited. Any ideas, Ali? Or anyone?

    Reply 5 Replies
    1. AliEdwards says…
      07/13/2016

      I print 7 photos per week. Sometimes maybe one or two more (or a few more if I'm using an insert), but mainly I stick with that because it simplifies everything. I pull out my album and it sits next to me on my desk while I choose and print the 7 main photos that will be the stories of the week.

    2. SFK14 says…
      07/13/2016

      I use a monthly approach for my PL. Some months I have just a 2-page spread for the whole month, and sometimes I have 6 pages. I edit and order prints every couple of months. Like Ali, when I am choosing pictures I have my album open beside me and use mini sticky notes to label the pockets.

      Sometimes I use the app Day One on my iPhone to make notes about pictures when I know I won't be printing/putting in the album before I forget the story that goes with a picture I took.

      I am by no means "up-to-date", but when I look back on what I do already have in my albums, I see what Ali described above- lots of small stories adding up to a big story of our family. Sometimes I get a hankering to do a weekly album, but I have chosen the philosophy "having some is far better than having zero" and after a couple of years of that, I am so thankful for what I do have. I hope you find a way that works for you!

    3. Cdwalrav says…
      07/13/2016

      Did you take Storytelling with Project Life? Ali does a great job showing how to navigate through photos and choose a sample that give a general overview of your week.

    4. patowle says…
      07/24/2016

      I haven't taken the class. I'm notoriously awful at keeping up with classes, but I will definitely consider it! I am going to try doing PL more traditionally starting with 2016. I'm finishing off 2015 in my free flowing style, but I think I need more structure to keep from going overboard. I've switched to taking pictures 95% landscape style, so I can stick with Design A pocket pages, which helps with using my PL cards, as they are mostly set up for Design A. Now, I just need to limit myself to 7 or so pictures per week and I'm hoping that will help! I am going to get a calendar for my desk to keep my weeks/dates sorted out, and I've recently downloaded the latest Mac OS software to sync up with my phone and now I can organize my pictures better. Little by little! Thanks for the input, everyone.

    5. ksenia says…
      10/06/2016

      I know I'm late to the discussion but I wanted to chime in because I too had the problem of taking a ton of photos and becoming completely overwhelmed. Now I use Instagram to document my "stories." It is the only thing that works for me because each story is a sentence or two long (on rare occasions they are longer) and these little pieces seem manageable. So at the soccer game, for example, I take a photo and after the game I Instagram that photo with a description, observation, or something unique/interesting about the game. I average about 1 photo + caption per day or 5-10 per week. When I'm ready to print my photos for any project or album, I already have the words that go with them. I have been able to maintain this tiny, bite-size memory keeping system for the last 4.5 years -- longer than any other system I have tried (traditional PL, blogging, etc.) My Instagram is set to private, so only people that I trust who are close to me can view my somewhat intimate family "journal".

  6. samanthas says…
    07/13/2016

    Best week ever! :)

    Reply 1 Reply
    1. AliEdwards says…
      07/13/2016

      We had a really good time :).

  7. KProffitt says…
    07/13/2016

    Love it so much, Ali! I usually end up with 2 albums for each year!

    Reply 0 Replies
  8. curnes says…
    07/13/2016

    LOVE it! Thanks so much for sharing. I couldn't find the "You're all sorts of lovely" card in my Scout kit. Anyone else have this issue??

    Reply 0 Replies
  9. sarajeanne12 says…
    07/13/2016

    Ali I was wondering where you are getting your albums now? The We R Memory keepers albums used to be readily available but now I am having a hard time finding them. The colored ones are especially hard to find but I also need a few black ones. If you have any sources to look at I would appreciate it. Thanks!

    Reply 2 Replies
    1. AliEdwards says…
      07/13/2016

      Hi! These are the ones I ordered last time since the others were becoming hard to get - mixing it up with black and white stripe (I ordered 6): http://bit.ly/AEPLHSstripe

    2. sarajeanne12 says…
      07/15/2016

      Thank you! Those are pretty cool. It might be interesting to mix it up...and the price is good too!

  10. ScrappinMyHeartOut says…
    07/13/2016

    I will never tire of looking at how you craft your stories - so much heart goes into it all. Beautiful.

    Reply 0 Replies
  11. DonnaDKS says…
    07/14/2016

    Thanks for sharing! Video overviews are my favorite.

    Reply 0 Replies
  12. CarolynMarnon says…
    07/25/2016

    First-I love Anna's butterfly picture. My word this year is JOURNEY and I want to journey to Paris one day. So I see Eiffel Towers in her butterfly. Beautiful.

    Second-where do you store all your albums? I imagine you would need a warehouse (maybe not quite) to house all the albums you complete each year. How do you do that without your house getting cluttered?

    Reply 0 Replies
  13. tesoro_de_recuerdos says…
    08/09/2016

    Oh Ali, you made my dream come true! It's like sitting at your house and looking through your (completed) album! ;) I so needed to see a completed one, I couldn't imagine one being really "finished" :) thanks for the motivation of getting it done. I really think overall it is so much more interesting to see the different stories instead of just one "event" (with similar photos/the same colour scheme) over the time. That's really enlightening for me! I also need to get into the habit of taking different photos (angles) over the time, I think yours are so versatile (not sure if this is the right word). Thank you! xo

    Reply 0 Replies

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