AE Approach | Project Life 2011
My Project Life kit arrived on my doorstep last week.
As I was opening up the box I was thinking about how I want to approach my album this year. I peeked in at the Project Life Community at Big Picture (it's free) to see what people were chatting about and was inspired by all the different ways people have approached this album.
I love how people are liberating themselves from thinking this has to be a 365 project (which it totally doesn't and it totally can be) and making it work for them.
What I've decided is that I'd love for this album to be a family effort. I loved how someone recently mentioned that they kept their album in their kitchen/dining room and printed photos as they went along. I'm thinking that this might be just what I want to do. I want to encourage Simon and Anna and Chris to be participants in the documenting of our lives - even little things will go a long way in making it "our" project.
In this house I actually have some extra counter space in our kitchen that might be the perfect home for this project. I purchased a new little 4x6 printer that could have a home on the counter and will simplify the process even more. Hook up camera, pick a photo, print. Grab a card, write a few words. This means less time spent messing with the photos in Photoshop. Once I get everything set up there I'll share some photos and more details.
Having the album out in the open, in my experience, is really one of the keys to making it happen (even if it's only to stuff random things in the pockets like I did most of last year).
Here's some things I'm thinking about and ways to include my family in the process:
- I'd love to include cards of gratitude from each of us at least one week a month. This might be a nice Sunday activity for us.
- Maybe a family photo per month a la Tara Whitney's family photo project which I just love, love, love.
- I'm keeping it simpler this year and plan to just hand-write or use my typewriter on all the journal cards. No reason for me not too and I love that I can hand one over to Simon or Chris and ask them to jot down a couple things.
- I'm not married to making this a 365 project. I anticipate (from my past experience) that some weeks I'll take a photo a day and other weeks I won't. My album will be a combination of photos and what I like to call the stuff of life (papers, drawings, receipts, etc). What I love most about my 2010 album is how I really did collect things throughout the year even when I had zero focus on daily photo-taking and journaling.
A family journal, compiled by our family. It makes my heart beat just a bit faster thinking about it.
I'll let you know how it goes.
And for those of you wondering, my 2010 album is still in process.
i love how you put your 1st page together! i know you mentioned you purchased the turquoise edition. are you just using bits and pieces from it as well as some paper from your current stash? i'm curious to know what you are doing with the cards and things that came in the kit (other than the page protectors that you are obviously using). :)
I'm used a couple other papers here on the front page. I'm not planning on using a ton of supplies in this project at all - I want to fill it with photos and stuff from life rather than purchased scrapbooking products. I'm definitely going to be using the journal cards that came with the kit as they are super simple and I really like them design-wise.
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I love this! Mine should be getting here on Monday and I'm excited to get it started. I am calling mine an "eclectic" approach--similar to where you are going to have some weeks a photo a day and others where I'm going to maybe focus on just one day,a theme, what we are into at the moment or just the stuff of life. I love the idea of a gratitude card! I was thinking of that too. Love all the ideas at the Big Picture Forum too. Totally inspiring! Thanks for sharing Ali!
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Oh, and I also love that you used your IKEA page!!
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Love how you used the IKEA cover in your opening page..great idea! May have to copy that :)
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This will be my third year with P365 and I love it! I don't burden myself with a Photo a day, but look at it WEEKLY. I take pictures every week at least, and include the stories from the week. ie. week of Jan 1-5 . . . Jan 6-12, etc.
I do mine totally digital, and prepare my templates ahead of time, usually a couple of months at a time.
I keep it simple. Same paper background per month. For example, in 2009, all BG papers were dark brown, varying with the seasons. In 2010, each month had its own BG paper. This year, I'm going more simplified: White cardstock all year. All I have to do is add the photos and journaling snippets. Ta Da! Done.
I think looking at it weekly makes it so much less pressure!
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precisely what i needed for the push, thanks ali.
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this is exactly what I loved about doing project life last year. The fact that I could hand journaling cards to my children and they could contribute.
It's wonderful to get their take on the world. I just love it.
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I REALLY love the way you did your opening page (i might just lift this idea from you! LOL)! This will be my first time doing this project and like you, my heart beats alittle faster thinking about it! I am super excited! I'm also taking OLW :) What an awesome way to start out the new year :)
What is olw? Thx
OLW is Ali's class at BPC (www.bigpictureclasses.com) called One Little Word. :)
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I like the idea of keeping it out and stashing "stuff" in the pockets whenever you pass by. I did my album as a 5photos project, choosing my favorite five photos each week along with any little extras. Each side by side layout was a week (had some extras on weeks I was on vacation...one two page layout for each of those). I loved how I kept up with it at first but of course, got sidetracked around July. Maybe if I kept it out like you mentioned it might happen more easily.
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Love the entry page.
Do you think you will round the corners on all the photos and notes?
I love the look of it...but it looks like a lot of work...
D
It looks great with the rounded corners matching up with all of the journaling cards etc.
I think I will. Planning to just keep the corner rounder in a little basket on the counter ;).
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Looking forward to living with intention in 2011
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I've been doing a modified version of all this - using divided page protectors and all - for some time, but love Becky's kit because everything is ready to go.
Question for Ali or any others: If you *attempted* to use a photo a day, how did you choose just one photo to represent that day?? I don't always pull out my camera every single day, but when I do, I take several pictures throughout that day since it's on my mind. I'm trying to get in the mode of taking a picture a day (or some kind of 'life bits' a day) b/c I'd like to have that well-spanned overview, but worry I'll think too much about which picture to use! Does that make any sense? Any advice?
I actually think it's a fantastic exercise in getting over the worry of choosing just the "right" picture. As someone mentioned above you can always include more images and not have it strictly be a single-photo-per-day.
My vote would be to look through your images and print the first one that speaks to you. Over the year you'll have a great mixture of photos that spoke to you for any number of reasons.
Let go of the worry - pick one and move on :). YOU CAN DO IT!
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Love how you started the first page. Can't wait to get mine. I finally picked a OLW and I plan to incorporate evidence of it and how it progresses in our lives this year in the "family" album. I just did a wordle and will print it out as a 4x6 for the first page of the PL. Here's my wordle:
http://www.wordle.net/show/wrdl/2933019/One_Little_Word_2011-Healthy
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Just signed up for the class at Simplify 101-thanks for the coupon code! I think this will be a good start for me this year. I need motivation to put wheels on my goals/ideas...this sounds great, can't wait. I was wondering how exactly you file/store your 'stuff of life' stuff during the year? Thanks..Debbie
Debbie - last year most of the things I wanted to keep went into the Project Life album. I also have a 12x12 pocket page that keeps any extra things throughout the year. I like these from Cropper Hopper: http://bit.ly/h3eHKj
I'm definitely pretty selective about what I keep so it's not really too much.
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I received my Project Life kit 2 days ago and I worked on page one just alittle today.This is my first time in doing Project Life and I am so excited about doing it. Thank you Ali for sharing yor ideas on how you will be doing your book this year. I *love* your first page.
Mary
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Love your idea of keeping the album out so everyone can add to it. I was thinging about how to do something similar. Problem is there is no "extra" surface space in my house at the moment so I need to work that out first. Good goal for January.
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I am wondering if you have any ideas as to how I could go about covering the Project Life binder? I love all of the page protectors and many of the cards, but I would like to make the binder itself look a bit more simple. Any thoughts?
Hi Stacy - I put mine for 2011 into a black We Are Memory Keepers 12x12 album: http://bit.ly/hmTfv7
I didn't love the design of the cover last year but ended up getting over it throughout the year as it was always open. This year though I know that she made the binder a bit smaller so I'm hoping that this will work.
I like plain albums :).
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I am loving your dec daily and hope you will post your project life frequently.
Thanks for the inspiration.
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I'm always in awe of your inspiration. Hope you have a wonderful 2011!!
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Is the Project Life and the Sun.-Sat. a png file; if so; did you do it or can it be bought somewhere? I love it!! Thank you so much! I love the first page!!! :)
That's a part of the kit :).
I met to say Documenting Life not project life!! Sorry!
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[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by gluestickgirl, Mandy Robek, blissmamaof3, sportscardcollector, kelly mc willette and others. kelly mc willette said: love reading how Ali Edwards Design is doing her project life album this year....cannot wait for mine to be... http://fb.me/OGN2lYf7 [...]
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Are all the papers you used on the opening page part of the kit or do you use your own? I'm torn between the paper version and the digital version....
The top right paper and the bottom two spaces are all my own stuff. The top left paper is from the kit. I will definitely be using the journal cards that are included in the kit - they are all the same style as that top right paper.
this is my question as well. I'm so on the verge of ordering this but wonder how easily I could just do this on my own. How much of that first page of yours is from the kit?
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Ali, A few months ago, I saw where someone put the days of the week on each of their photos for PL and I'm pretty sure it was your handwriting. Do you have any digital elements with the days of the week for a 4x6 photo?
Hi! I also have a set of 365 overlays available here: http://www.designerdigitals.com/digital-scrapbooking/supplies/product_info.php/products_id/8895
That's perfect. Thank you!!
Hello, Not sure if this will help you or not but you can download Ali's handwriting font for free at Creating Keepsakes. You can even get Becky Higgins handwriting font too.
http://www.creatingkeepsakes.com/articles/CK_free_fonts
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Cool. I wondered what your approach to this was going to be, and I was wondering if this was something I should pursue. Thanks for the insight, friend.
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a friend and i purchased the kit and plan to split it. neither one of us plan to do the whole year so this way we can save a little $ and free ourselves from feeling pressured to document every.single.day.
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