As mentioned at the end of 2013, I am no longer completing my Project Life album on a weekly basis. I did that for two years. I enjoyed the process and I love my albums. This year I am taking a much more relaxed approach and playing more with this project. I don't have much of a plan other than to complete at least one (and sometimes many more) spread a month.
The big win is that I can never be "behind" on this album. I also like that I don't have to worry about having seven horizontal 4×6 photos each week and can group photos by subject instead of date. I love that I will be under no "weekly deadlines" and will be blogging just once a month about my album.
I feel like this has been said a million times before, but there is no right or wrong way to approach documenting your life. Don't worry about what anyone else is doing…just find a route that works for you then adjust, adjust, adjust until you love it. (And when you stop loving it, quit.)
I've had fun with my spreads this month and I looking forward to continuing this project. Here's what January looks like…
My title page took up a front and a back side this year and so I needed just a one page layout for the right side.
I decided to take a bunch of photos of the three of us separately and wound up with some gems.
I used the Afterlight app to convert them to black and white and tucked them into pockets with a hello card and a floral pattern from the Sunshine Core kit.
click to enlarge.
Then I did a checkerboard spread of 3×4 cards and photos, alternating white and black cards with photos from the first week of January.
All of these photos (and every photo in my album so far) were taken with my iPhone.
The vertical iPhone photos are just perfect for this sort of layout.
click to enlarge.
I loved the look of the checkerboard layout and so I continued it through to the next spread.
This is my Studio Calico Creative Team spread for the month and everything here is from the Sugar Rush Project Life kit. I picked 12 photos from January that represented the "TOP 12."
These are random little things (like Ellerie's first card from her penpal and how I started eating quiona for breakfast) + a few big things (like how Ellerie cut her first tooth and can now sit up).
I love this approach to "a month in review." I know I will not do this every month but it totally could be used that way.
What I really like about the checkerboard format is there is TONS of space for journaling. I wrote all over my 3×4 cards (my hand actually hurt when I was done) and got a bunch of little stories down.
click to enlarge.
One of my goals this year is to get a photo of the three of us every single month. I am going to include them in my Project Life ablum as a full 12×12 photo.
I had this one (taken with TimerCam and edited with Afterlight) printed by Persnickity Prints.
I added some simple journaling about what was going on when we took the photo to some journaling spots and layered them right on the photo.
I decided to fill the opposite page with black, white and gray 3×4 cards. Mostly because if I don't start using more 3×4 cards I will likely drown in a sea of them.
click to enlarge.
I didn't have another 12×12 photo for the backside so I just stuck a piece of patterned paper in there with a quote from a past SC kit.
Perfect quote for this album.
For the next page, I used a Design B pocket page and tucked 6 3×4 horizontal photos of Ellerie and I from the past few weeks. (Some are even from December, but who's counting?).
I embellished the top 4×6 pockets with 4×6 cards cut diagonally and sewed them into place. I love the mix of paper patterns and am so happy to have these photos all together.
And that's January! Thank you so much for following along. See my title page for this album here and 2013 album progress here.
product sources: Studio Calico Sugar Rush PL kit, Seafoam core kit, Midnight core kit, Sunshine Core kit, Studio Calico past project life kit pieces, We R Memory keepers 12×12 pocket page, Design F pocket page, Design B pocket page, Meredith Carty (3×4 card), Elise JOY photo calendar, Scrapbook and More flair badge & 14 tag, Two Peas hello card, staz-on ink, Pigma Micro 01 pen.
Except for that 12×12, all photos were printed at home on my Epson PictureMate Show.
enJOY it 
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