Project Life - My Version

Okay, to recap my scrapbooking obsession the past month I completed Project 365, started my plan for the Becky Higgins Project Life Kit, and completed my 2008 family album. If only I could be so inspired and energetic about housework!!
Now I am excited to begin work on my 2010 family album. I will continue with my "hybrid style" working on combining the aspects of Project 365 that I appreciated along with adding some more traditional scrapbooking and experimenting with new products and techniques. It is exciting to be working on current events in our life since that hasn't happened since I started scrapbooking with Madison's baby album. It will be nice to formulate layouts in my head as I am taking the photos or find inspiration in blogs and magazines to use immediately.

I will be using many different products for the album but am using the Memory Works "Simple Stories Kit" to tie it all together. Each month will start out with a compilation layout of just randomness in our lives that doesn't tie into a specific layout. This is kind of my version of Project 365 for the album. I will be including a small calendar on each of these layouts as a different version of journaling. For this month I printed small photos for the collage and added the dates it happened to connect to the calendar. For February I am really hoping to work on my photoshop collage skills to try and create a nice collage of photos I can have printed 8x8 and then add it to the page. I am sure it will take a little time to create but I think the final look will be a bit more polished.

After the month recap pages I will include probably 3-5 layouts that highlight some of the bigger events of the month.

I have to say having a system simplifies the process so much and allows me to complete pages so much faster. I was able to do all these pages in about 6 hours time while scrapping with a friend, munching on snacks and lots of chatting mixed in. For me that is pretty impressive since I have often worked on one layout for 3+ hours. Knowing the direction I am heading and trying to focus on the photos and journaling really helped keep me on task and moving forward. I plan to organize and print photos at the end of each month with the goal of having those pages completed before print time for the next month. Right now that seems managable.

The final component to the 2010 plan is throwing in layouts that don't need to fit chronologically in any necessary order. Currently I am working on a "Thursdays With Nora" layout and "Maddy and her Books" layout. I am taking the photos over a longer period of time and then will make a fun layout to add into the album whenever it gets done.
So there you go, the plan for the year. I hope to share some of my layouts each month as I complete them, more to keep me accountable and moving along. I still wish there was a better way to post the layouts. I have experimented with all different things and it still doesn't please me. I suppose the real solution is getting a 12x12 printer/scanner but not seeing that happen in the near future!!!

Want to check out other people and their project life photos? Go here for a great list of links!