ETA: I can now spill on this fact-
I'm on the creative team. Huzzah! So much mad talent up in that place- check out all these ladies. Amazing, I tell you! I am totally honored to be a part of it. Yay!
So- Project Life is all the rage with scrappers. Yes? Yes. I feel like this year it took off like gang busters. As evidenced by everything from all the inspo pages on Pinterest, to what product of mine is selling like hotcakes to that time Amazon sold out of everything in like 48 hours during that big restocking over the summer. It's THE thing. As well it should be frankly, cuz it's brilliant. It's one of those "why didn't I think of that?!" things. So simple and genius and completely doable.
I've done an album for the past two years now, and really didn't feel like I had a lot to add to the online conversation. I've not posted any pages before now. And there are plenty of other people who do an amazing job rocking Project Life and showing it off... I've just quietly worked on my own family's album and not said much...
But recently I've had a few friends- some who scrapbook and some who don't (yet) ask me about PL. How does it work? What do I need? When will I find time to do it? So, in light of their questions... and the fact that a new year is almost upon us, and I am gearing up to start my 2013 PL album, along with about a kabillion other people who want to document their lives- I thought I'd just spill my brain on the subject here for a bit...
I'm going to start with answering an email I just got from a client/friend/crafty mama- Amy... (her email is in blue)
1. Is it correct that you chose to do one family album, weekly, as opposed to an album for each son? I am contemplating doing five albums (not weekly, obviously, probably monthly), because my kids EACH have SO MUCH stuff from school and extracurriculars I want to include. I want to keep it simple, however, I know if I do one family album, all of the other STUFF has to go somewhere... Am I crazy??
For Project Life- I do one album for our whole family. Each spread is one week. Not necessarily a photo a day kind of thing...just our week in a nutshell. It's where I document all the noteworthy and delightfully ordinary moments. Life events, cute kid quotes, baby milestones, big and little stories, day to day activities. I also toss in all the bits- drawings from the boys, notes from Ben, grocery lists my mom writes out, ticket stubs, a bit of toy packaging, cold medicine box, doctor appointment cards, etc. The little evidence of our life. All that goes in. Some weeks there are more things- more bits (Oliver's baby growth chart, Keaton's class photo, the boys silhouettes that I do every 6 mos) and I put those in a smaller page protector insert. Same goes for if we do something big/photo-ful... State Fair visits, trip to the cabin, night at the skate park... pop all those photos into a smaller insert to join the overview of the week. That's how I do it.
Could you do it differently? YES! Oh, the beauty of Project Life. You could totally do an album per kid. You could do weekly (though my dear Amy has 5 kiddos, so that might be a lot to take on!) but you could also do monthly (each spread = one month overview) or looser- just add things as they happen. A really busy/active day could be one spread...then maybe the next spread ends up covering like 6 weeks... Just kind of a go with the flow style...
In addition to the main PL album I do that covers our whole family- I use the Design A page protectors and add those into the boys' seperate scrap albums. When they are babies- I do a page protector (front and back) for each month- to get all of those awesome "You at 5 mos!" kinds of things... I do that up to 24 mos- then I switch to every 6 mos.- So, the "Keaton at 3.5" page was just finished recently. The main page protectors all fit perfectly into a 12x12 album- so you could fully do a hybrid sort of album- with more traditional scrapbook layouts and PL page protectors mixed together. I also mix scrap layouts in my PL... it all works together!
2. Have you looked into those mini core kits, the childhood editions? I am confused by them. If I have my albums and regular core kits ordered, are those to be used as a supplement to the regular corresponding core kit, or are they supposed to replace the core kit altogether.... Hmmmmm....
The mini kits are an add-on sort of thing. Mix them in with you core kit. You may find- once you start- that you start to covet more and more journaling cards. And there are also a ton of shops online that sell journaling cards that work with PL (wink,wink)- just to keep it interesting...
3. Any advice on which pages to buy to get started? I am guessing the variety pack would be best, although that's not due out for a few weeks.
A variety pack could be fun- especially if you do a more relaxed loose approach as far as time covered... The first year I did it I used only Design A. This past year Design A was sold out when I needed to reorder- so I went with the big pack of Design A and D. I figured it would be fun to be able to mix in vertical photos- but it turns out my head is so set on horizontal shots for this project- that for many of the vertical spots- I just combined a horizontal photo with a journaling card (in Photoshop). And it also made it harder for me- when I sat down at the computer to start picking photos and planning my layouts- to keep track each week of what spots I had to fill- is this an all horizontal week? Is it mixed? And which side is which? So- for me- it just complicated things. This coming year I will be using all Design A - and will throw in inserts (I love the small variety packs 1 and 2) as needed. That said- you really just have to find what works for you. My friend Susan loves a combo of Design A and Design F - and totally rocks it.
4. Seriously, how/when do you get it done?!
This can be the tricky part. You really have to dedicate a set time each week to do it. It doesn't take a crazy long time- but you do need to make almost a ritual of it. Every Sunday afternoon (kiddo nap time?) sit down, round up the bits you've stashed throughout the week, crop them to fit, write your journaling cards, choose and order or print your photos. Just take a bit of time each week and stay on top of it. It only gets tricky if you get behind. (trust me.)
Ok, that's all of Amy's questions... and I guess I'd just to finish with- if you're thinking of starting a Project Life album- DO IT. Fully do it. Dive in. This project is one of my very favorite things I've ever made (other top fave thing I've made include my sons and my Week In the Life album) It's blast to do, a blast to look back through- it's just amazing. Go for it...
Here's a few shots of my album from this year...
(love that this album gives me a safe+special place to keep all the little bits of life that could otherwise be so easily lost... that note from Keaton, that he explained says "Dear Mama, Me love you."- I DIE. adorable.)
the basic page protectors are all you really need- but I do love me some inserts... perfect for special days, trips, events, or just bonus photo abundance...
here I popped some snaps into a nine grid and printed 6x6. perfect fit in the small variety pack page protectors.
for Keaton's birthday I filled a baseball card page protector with some photos and journaling cards to showcase his big day...
LOVE these coin slot page protectors for my "shot from the hip" photos that I always trim square- would also be perfect for instagram+hipstamatics.
and some full spreads...
(each of the spreads below have an additional small insert- so I photographed them twice to show each side of the insert)
Ok...so that's me, spilling my brain + sharing my album a little bit.
and, scene.
