I spent most of November and December stressing over my Project Life plan for 2015. This year will be my fifth year of doing Project Life and I really wanted to mix things up a little and take a slightly different approach. Don't get me wrong. I love my 12x12 albums and the Design A page protector....they are my go-to, my easy fix, the ordinary. But I wanted something a little less ordinary. I wanted something that let me use all of my photos and get them printed and into an album. I take ALOT of photos people. Like a whole lot. And I love taking photos. That's definitely not going to change any time soon. But sometimes when I tried to pull a spread together for my PL album, I had to pick and choose which images to use and then the rest from that week kind of got left behind. That kind of bugged me.
Another thing I know about my style is that I tend to tell the details or my feelings about a photo, but not necessarily big long stories. This used to bother me because I felt like I should be telling more stories....kind of like I was doing something wrong, but then I realized that maybe that's not my style and that's ok. I'm in awe by pages and PL spreads that are so full of stories. Pictures and creating are my favorite so I'm sticking with that.
So after lots of contemplation and thought, I finally came up with a system that "might" work for me. I'm saying might because it's January and I am only 6 days into the month, but so far, I love it. My Project Life approach is going to go something like this (hopefully):
Monthly Project Life BOOKS
I love taking photos, making mini albums and Project Life, so why not combine all three, right? I'm hoping that monthly PL albums will allow me to get all of my photos in one place, as well as all of our memorabilia, artwork, etc. And well....mini albums, gosh, I just love them. I love making them and finding new ways to make them. My favorite part of my December Daily® album was all the "inserts" and extra photos I added. I like being able to "touch" and "feel" my pictures and "stuff", and sometimes the plastic page protectors make me crazy. With the monthly PL book approach, I'm planning on adding in lots of extra bits and pieces of our life.....stuff that probably got left out, or trimmed down to fit in a pocket.
I'm planning on still using some page protectors throughout my books and I will definitely be using the Studio Calico Project Life kits, but I also want to use MORE of my supplies and kits. I want to use my stamps and stickers and alpha. I want to get creative and really push myself to make our books fun and different (this is totally January Stephanie talking, can't you tell???). I want to include art journal pages and my children's drawings. I want to include smaller layouts and photo collages. Lots of photo collages. I want to have enlarged photos and full text pages. Basically, I don't want any rules. I know Project Life doesn't have rules, but I totally made some up for myself over the past few years and kind of got stuck in those rules. So I'm throwing all of MY rules out the window and going with the flow!!
My hope is to do 12 different sizes of Project Life books, but who knows. The more I think about it, there are really only so many possibilities, so I will likely do some duplicate sizes. Regardless, each month will be super fun (for me, at least) and full of memories. I know it sounds like more work than just a typical 12x12 album, but I'm really needing something different and something that gets me excited, you know! We shall see how it goes!!!
I used the Far Far Away Project Life kit to set up my January book and have mixed in the other kits, stamps, etc. for my January photos so far. (You can the beginnings that in the Creative Team gallery). It's been fun and thrilling and I'm looking forward to continuing this process. I'll also be sharing a walk through video of my January Project Life book on the Studio Calico blog later in the month, so stayed tuned!! :)
Ok....so what do you think??? Sound interesting, fun, crazy, all of the above? Do tell!!
Sounds like it will be cool. Might be extra work though. I am actual going to downsize from 8.5x12 to 6x8 and maybe just have more pages. I also want to save more paper bits to include
ReplyDeleteYes! You are totally right! I think it will be more work, but I kind of love minis and they make me happy, so I'm going to think about them in that light! And worst case, I can switch mid year! I'm looking forward to being able to end a month and start something new!!
DeleteLove the idea of including more of the kids work - I think those are my favourite bits of anything I make x
ReplyDeleteThanks Suse!! I don't include enough artwork!!!
DeleteOh. My. Goodness! This is brilliant! Genius! I LOVE this idea so much, and i can't wait to see it progress over the year. I've been "doing" PL for the last 4 years...although that includes some incomplete albums and a couple of false starts. I struggle sometimes, too, with the stories and deciding what goesn into a PL album and what gets a traditional layout. I'm not sure i could commit to this plan, but I appreciate and admire it all the same! The work you do is always beautiful and amazing.
ReplyDeleteThanks Jen!! I'm looking forward to seeing it progress over the year, as well. I think the beginning of projects are always a little hard for me because I'm such an instant gratification person, but hopefully keeping the "big picture" in mind will keep me motivated!! I'm already looking forward to stacking these babies up and snapping a few photos!!
DeleteHoa, tu breadstorming, me parece genial, yo también creo que en este trabajo de scrap, la regla es no tener ninguna regla que encasille la creatividad. Pero seguro que lo que hagas será genial. A mi me gustaría introducir sabiamente,tanto en mis fotos como en el propio L.O, otras manualidades, dibujos de mi hija, labores mías, algún bordado, etc...,
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Oh yes, Manuela! Pictures, embroidery and artwork are wonderful ideas!!! Hope you are feeling better!! xoxo
DeleteThis sounds AMAZING!! I love the idea of adding in different bits from your life just as a stand alone page (such as art work from your kiddos) I cannot wait to see your albums!!!
ReplyDeleteThanks Christine!! Your comments always make me smile! I can't wait to see these albums staring accumulating!!
DeleteWow love this idea for 12 albums. But are you using mini albums like ths SC handbook or will you make your own ones? Can't wait to see who it all will look like.
ReplyDeleteThanks Lydia! I will likely make my own album covers and punch my own rings. At least that's my plan for now...I may branch out and use a 4x4 album, or maybe even a Handbook for the summer months, but I'm going to just play it by ear!
Deletelove this idea!!! so unique and it makes complete sense for more of a don't hold back approach. Can't wait to see how it all comes together!!!
ReplyDeleteI can't wait to see what you come up with! I know this approach would be too much for me, but you, you can totally pull this off, and brilliantly!
ReplyDeleteThanks Carson!! It might be too much for me too, but we shall see!! I like challenges, though.....and now that I wrote it on my blog, I kinda have to stick with it, right??? Ha!! :)
DeleteI love this - this is so YOU! I know the feeling of having to choose between the photos and leaving some behind; it works for some, but not all, and I Think that it is so great that you change things up to make them work for you. Can't wait to see your first book. I hope you have FUN:)
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ReplyDeletelove your works, they are so bright and tender same time!
ReplyDeleteWhat a wonderful idea. It's true. To put together some "smaller" books is a lot fun. I love to work on some minis or the december daily. It's fun to work on it almost every day and decide what to put in there. But I know, this would be too much for me for every week/month. So I can't wait to see how your pages are coming together.
ReplyDeleteThis year I'm doing monthly/theme based project life. I keep a journal where I write down stories every day and I collect everything over the month. At the end of the month I sit down and put together one or two spreads where I focus on the stories I want to tell. Photos are important, but I want to read more words, more longer stories in my Project Life this year.
There are so many different ways to tell a story and it's fabulous that you are embracing a style and approach that shares your family's tale in a way that works for you. What you've already put together is a wonderful mix of sizes, textures and photos. It will be fun, informative and inspirational to watch your albums come together. Happy 2015, Stephanie.
ReplyDeleteThis sounds so great! I cannot wait to see what you come up with. I love your style. I bet you will inspire many of us to try new things with our memory keeping. I love that you want to incorporate more of your kiddos stuff. It is so hard to know what to do with it all or how to hang on to it in a meaningful way. There is so much stuff!
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