Project Life Continued

As I mentioned in my previous post about Project Life, I started experimenting with using the concept to scrap events instead of weekly summaries. The small pockets make a lot of sense when you might have just 2-3 photos for a given week but I needed to figure out how to make some of the page layouts from my variety pack work for my needs. I can't just let them sit there! Here is the same layout done two different ways.

This is a bunch of photos from a family reunion. I packed in a lot of shots in just one page while still using 3 filler cards. The card on the bottom row was stamped with the camera and sentiment to customize.

The above layout from an Oktoberfest getaway had photos that couldn't be cropped down much. I just cut the photo and placed them in adjoining pockets.It works really well for almost all of them. The cardboard cutout of the St. Pauli girl did have her face sliced in half...oooops! There's still a poster of her in my husbands bar if we ever need to reference her face.

Project Life Review

I've been interested in the Project Life concept for a few years and love what Ali Edwards does with it so I took the plunge and started with ordering a set of the page protectors in a variety pack. Since I've really only seen samples of people scrapping the weekly events like it's intended I thought that is how I'd use it. To commit to that you need to be really good about documenting and actually printing your photos. I don't fall into that category of people. I had the supplies and I wanted to start so I used an event from last fall as my virgin page.

For this layout I rounded all the corners, created my own filler sections with scrap paper, and embellished with washi tape & thickers. It was fun and took a fraction of the time it usually took me to create a traditional layout. I liked it but was still thinking I needed to follow the weekly collection of photos mantra to make it work.

All that changed when I received a free sample Project Life kit with my Studio Calico card kit. It was a small sampling of the cards to insert and since I had them...why not use them? I started with some photos I've been meaning to scrap for 3+ years. Our trip to Holland and Belgium. I had stacks of photos to deal with and it was daunting. No problem! I just started sliding those puppies into the layout and journaling on the cards with a little embellishing along the way. I finished a good representation of our trip in about 8 page protectors in less than 2 hours. Woah!

I had firmly been against buying the filler cards for Project Life because I need more paper like I need to gain 10 pounds. But I was torn because now I've seen how much faster I can go with them and how much more likely I am to do it if I have the cards. 40% off the kits was all I needed to buy my first two filler sets and I've now scraped over 30 pages. It feels great have my memories out of a box and in a book. The new format allows me to enjoy the memories and not focus on the embellishments and layout. I'm a fan and over having to conform to it's original intent. I am still creative as I'm able to create as much or as little as I want with each layout.