Project Life 2013 | Week Thirty

I try to make PL as stress less as possible. I do week spreads, but I order pictures every month. I have a little box in my purse with PL journaling cards when something pops in my head I want to capture while at work. I have been doing traditional scrapbook LO since I didn't what to loose those. I have a nice mix of PL and traditional layouts.
My plans for next year?
-skip the corner rounding
-take more pictures
-experiment more with mixed media with the journaling cards
-use my stash more

I'm into my third year of PL and I don't think I could ever go back to traditional. I am not super creative so I feel like PL is made just for me!! Am loving using your products and my silhouette which has mixed up my albums nicely. Will look forward to whatever you come up with :)

Hi Ali, so great to see another PL page from you. Just want to say do what works for you, but please don't stop PL-ing! hehe. I'm a SAHM so keeping up with PL has been very do-able. For me traditional lay-outs are not really affordable, especially since I'm in South Africa and overseas products are relatively expensive and hard to find. But I am looking for new solutions for the page inserts I'm doing for additional photo's. I know whatever you do will be amazing. Ps love Simon's t-shirt.

Hey Ali!

Totally RAD pages!! Love the idea of mixing up PL pages a bit in the new year. I have to laugh at myself because I am 5 weeks behind on this year and already I am thinking about next years PL:-) How is that for POSITIVE thinking?:-)

On another note. I am leaving for the States this Saturday and will be in Fort Lauderdale for 2 weeks. I have been dreaming about those PRECISION PENS that you write on your photographs with as we don't get them in ZA. Any idea about a contact in FLL where I can buy them? I am SUPER SUPER EXCITED to be coming to the States again and have charged my camera battery already because I plan on taking hundreds of photographs for my PL pages while I am there:-)

Happy scrapping!

I found an app called CollectPhoto that gives me a calendar to add daily photos to (or not--can be less often if I want...) with any notes I want to add. It's given me the ability to easily journal every picture I take. I'll either have Persnickety Prints print up each photo on 3x4 cards or just use the notes in the future when I want to scrapbook in either PL style or traditionally. I'm all for mixing it up more.

This is my third year doing PL and I still love it. It actually makes me feel more free to do traditional layouts, as the main stuff is documented. I fell the pressure to have everything in a scrapbook, and PL takes that preassure away, I think I enjoy even more doing traditional layouts after PL, because I don't feel I have to do it, you know? So I have a scrapbook álbum for my layouts each year, and PL. You are so right that it feels like we use a diferent part of our brain to make layouts, LOL!

I have been doing PL since it was called Project 365, so, since it's inception. It has been fun and interesting to look back on the evolution of my albums as well as the evolution of how PL has been transformed over the years. I can honestly say, that this year is the first year, that I have really done a good job of keeping up with it. While each album is nearly full, there are gaps. I just look at the gaps as those times in my life as times that were so busy just living life. And I am ok with that. I have totally embraced your philosophy that "it is ok." I am not sure why this year has been easier to keep up, if it's the abundance of PL choices out there, pages protectors, journaling cards, etc OR if it's just me making a conscious choice to prioritize my life such that I make it something I do each day. A little bit of creative reward at the end of a productive day of living perhaps?

I have found it fun to try mixing up different page protectors and different sizes of photos. PL kit clubs have really helped a bunch too. Having some coordinated items to reach for during those busy weeks helped me to be more efficient. One year, I used primarily items from my scrapbook stash. That year was challenging on one hand but also rewarding to use items I already had on hand. Looking forward to seeing how your PL pages evolve over time as well!
Take care you.

I love the light, airy look of this.

I did weekly project life thru the end of May. I decided summer is too busy to do weekly, and I have everything from summer, recorded and ready to do event scrapping but in the divided page protector format. I too tho find I miss those nice one page layouts that focus on something different, not necessarily events.

PL is cool, but sometimes bcz of my lifestyle I feel like its monotonous, so I'm thinking of going back to regular one page layouts, then sometimes just fill in with divided pp, which is what I've basically always done anyway.

I also like combing thru all my photos to find a few great shots to edit and make enlargements for layouts. That's like my favorite thing right now.

I was wondering where the geo tag embellishment came from? It looks like a stamp. I've been looking for a geo tag stamp for a while now. Great layout as always!

Love your project Ali! Project Life got boring fast for me. My scrapbooks are a mix of it and full page layouts. I use all kinds of page protectors and LOVE the mix. Sometimes it's a challenge to fill out the other side when doing a protector with many pockets, but it keeps it exciting!!! The very fact that it change things up is what keeps the juices flowing. Looking through the last four years of my albums always brings on happiness, because everyone of them is so different! But it's done! Documented!
As always, thanks for sharing your stories.

I include quite a few 12x12 layout pages in my PL. I do a 2 page layout so it will fit in well with my other pages. The reverse side of the 12x12 I set up and adhere as I would a PL page protector. No one has every noticed that the page isn't in a PL one.

I also include 6x12, 8.5x11 and baseball protectors. I usually just include one page with extra photos or memorabilia.

I definitely recommend using different page protectors each week. It definitely keeps you on your creative toes with the different sizes & layout. :) I'm not sure why "Design A" became the standard week after week after week...

Yes to mixing up the different PL page Designs! PL can grow and change with you, through weeks and months and travels and seasons. I am working on PL in the present, as well as making pages for past years. I see those pockets, especially 4 x 6 and 6 x 6 and 4 x 4, as blank canvases to make a "look" that I have not tried before.

I am doing school albums for the kids based on the school days kit. It's 12X12, so it helps scratch that itch for me. It's not "daily", but I find that when I let the photos sit for a while, I can pick out what is truly important. With three kids, if I documented every day, we would have no space left to live in...the books would take up the whole house! Then, I have albums for each child with just little "special" things in them...early years, interests, hobbies, photo shoot days that turned out really well, special play days.

PS: I did buy a lot of different styles of pages so that I could tell stories in different ways...I like your Christmas album approach and have incorporated that same train of thought in laying out my Project Life book...except I don't do my PL by week, it's by month, or season, depending on how much time and grace I have to scrap.