So I made it to day 14 of my December Daily and then as I suspected, life happened. By the time I had time to go back and get started on it again I was, in all honesty, over December. The tree was down, everything was packed up and we were moving towards the New Year. So if I couldn't do the December why in the world would I attempt starting Project Life? I documented everything in Chen Chen's first year home in so many places...random photos on my computer, this blog, Instagram, Facebook, random notes all with the intention of doing a photo book at the end of the year, I hope to still do that but honestly don't know when it is going to happen. By tackling PL I hope to have 1 place for everything and will be able to tackle it in more manageable portions. I learned some valuable lessons while doing the DD, things that will help me be more effective (hopefully) at Project Life.
First of all I need to simplify. I treated my DD pages like mini scrapbook LOs and just piled way too much on there. Too time consuming and in all honesty, not child friendly as in I cringed whenever Chen Chen would pick it up to look at it as I could just see her little fingers picking things off the pages. Kind of defeats the purpose of the whole project doesn't it? Project Life will be much simpler, way less stuff and I am using a 12 x 12 format & using the Becky Higgins Project Life page protectors and will mostly be using type A to keep...it...simple. I will still be doing layouts so I will hopefully be able to resist the urge to pile the embellishments on as I will have another outlet for that!
One thing that worked well with my DD was having all my supplies pulled together and organized separately from my regular stash. Knowing this I gave my Cameo a workout last night and started cutting out phrases, journaling cards, embellishments etc. so they are ready to go.
I also made some PL themed flair, i've been seeing some cute ones all over Etsy and Instagram so I decided to DIY some for myself :)
I plan to print my Instagram pics at home so I don't have to wait to order them, I may print out my 4x6s or have them printed at Walgreens or Costco (whoever is offering a coupon or sale!) just depends on what kind of time crunch I am in. I think the best blog post i've found on how to get started with PL is this one. So many great tips and tricks and she takes the intimidation out of starting such a huge project. After reading it I was all "I can DO this!". My photo pocket pages should be getting here today, but while I was waiting I went ahead and made my title page...see, I told you, s-i-m-p-l-e.
This evening I am going to tackle coming up with a way to organize things weekly so I don't lose all the bits and pieces I want to incorporate into my pages. I'm not a planner when it comes to making my layouts, I just sit down and start at it so it will be a shift for me to plan things out in advance, it will be interesting to see how that goes!
You really can do it. Do it how it works for you. I've learned a lot this first year. I ordered some of just the baseball pockets and the coin pockets...because sometimes our favorite albums are the ones where all I did was print the photos of Emma's first year with us, and slip it in a sleeve. She has asked to see those more than anything...well, the Disney album too ;)
I am like you, I sit down, and make something....planning is not my thing. If I could have a designated area, would be great, but I don't think I can work that way! Hoping to simply it too.
LOVE the title page! perfect, it doesn't need anything else. Honestly, I look at my PL and wish there was less other stuff...so I'm hoping the smaller pockets to hold the instagrams will help. I want to see more of the photos.
Posted by: Patricia Roebuck | January 03, 2013 at 08:34 AM
congrats on making the Elle's Studio team! And your title page looks awesome!
Posted by: Emma Miya | January 05, 2013 at 06:14 AM