Project Life

I’ve been scrapbooking for about 10 years. My first attempts very fussy and uncoordinated, as first attempts often are. I pared down the embellishments, but it was still a struggle to keep up with the thousands of pictures I took of my boys every year.

This is one of my favorite layouts ever, celebrating my oldest’s love of blueberries. However, all the printing, trimming, matting, etc. was taking a lot of time, something I did not have with two little boys running around.

A year ago I decided to go digital, which made my life a lot easier. And freed up a lot of space in my craft drawer 😀

I wanted something even simpler, though – something where I wouldn’t have to worry about the background or the alignment, something that would allow for quick notes and the endless bits of paper that come with the business of life. When I saw Becky Higgins’ Project Life, I decided it was what I’d been looking for.

I ordered the Core Kit in the Turquoise edition, of course 😀

The Core Kit includes 4×6 and 3×4 cards for your layout titles and journaling, stickers with days of the week, months of the year, dates, so you can apply them to the cards or your photos, etc.

The kit components are meant to be used with the coordinating photo pocket pages, which come in a variety of layouts. Due to the popularity of the product (and the timing as well, everyone getting ready to document the past year, or the new one) the photo pocket pages were not available, so I got a multi-pack from We R Memory Keepers, which work with the Project Life-sized cards.

I didn’t get the PL Cardstock Kit because I want the freedom to use whatever paper I choose, if I decide to use a paper background. Also, I have SO MUCH cardstock and solid paper in my stationery box that I can probably get by for a few months. Or years, if I’m honest with myself. Also, the page protectors I bought fit in a regular post-bound scrapbook album, so I didn’t get the Project Life binder because I already had an album for this year.

I am pretty excited to start my 2012 album. I made a baby album for each of my boys when they were born, but other than those, I do an album per year. Sometimes it’s more than one album, like when we went to Disneyland for the first time, so I just label the spine accordingly – 2010, or 2009 Jan – May, etc. – I don’t limit myself or try to fill up pages, I just scrapbook according to the pictures I have. And that was way too many sentences that started with “I”.

Okay, one more. I’ll update you on my Project Life progress in a few weeks, there are 5 pages left in 2011, and the photo machine at Target was broken so I couldn’t get my one-hour photos last week. Arg. Hate to say it, but in five times I have ordered pics from Target, only once has the process gone smoothly. Time to find someone else, I say!

Are you trying Project Life or some other way of documenting your life? I’d love to hear about it!

Oh, FYI – I purchased everything I mention in this post. If I’m ever given/gifted anything (ha), I’ll make sure I tell ya!