Project Life: My thoughts so far

Thought it was about time I shared some of my very own Project Life pages around here!

I want to share my own thoughts and overall process first though :).
I started at the beginning of the year.  It's my first time attempting to document my every day life in this way.  Everyone's excitement out there was contagious! I wanted to join in sooo bad!
I was very hesitant and wondered if I could keep the momentum until the end simply because I was busy with an infant and a (back then) a 2 year old at home.  Besides the time factor there was the amazingness I was seeing out there in the blog/instagram world.  There really are some fantastic spreads being made out there.  It started to make me even more hesitant.  Could I produce something just as great looking?  But alas I went for it and kept up with it.  Once I got settled with the routine of it all I told myself a few things:

1.  Stop looking at what every else is doing!
2.  You don't need to buy more stuff!
3.  Keep it Simple!
4.  Do it your way!
5.  Keep it Simple!
6.  Enjoy it!
7.  It's going to be worth it to look back on in years to come!

These Life Love Paper  cards have been perfect!  They fit right in with my colour theme.

These three words "Keep It Simple" were my mantra.  I went as far as keeping a simple colour theme .. pink/yellow/black/white/grey and that helped!  I kept it to my style and made a pretty good effort at keeping up with the weeks.

Then .... summer came and summer ..... went and well I just couldn't do it. I skipped one week and that turned into skipping the entire summer. No worries I told myself! I knew I was not even going to try to make those weeks up! It was just not possible for me!

To make myself feel better I made myself a blurb book with all of our summer instagram pics.
I love how it turned out so I was happy that summer was documented .. one way or another :)
I knew when  September rolled around I would get back on track and I'm happy to say .. I did!
Well kind of.
My printer broke so I couldn't print out my pics at home but my sweet husband fixed that with a brand spankin new Epson Artisan 837 (which I LOVE).  I didn't receive the printer until the end of the month though so another month was shot.  Nope!  I made it work for me and I told myself to just do a 'September in a nutshell' and print out the photos that 'best' summed up the busy month.
And thus here is the spread for the entire month of September.














See the 'September' calendar on the top left .. it's from Paislee Press and it's fabulous. Totally customisable in photoshop .. I even added a few of my own words. I highlighted (in photoshop) the week that each spread corresponds to.   It says 'This month came and went so fast!"
I'm loving the cool touch that little calendar has added to my previous months spreads as well!

 The one thing of course that I have stocked up on are the Becky Higgins page protectors! These are the 4x4 square that fit a 4 inch instagram perfectly! 

I'm a fan of putting more than one photo onto a 6x4 template when I can't choose just one (like the "happy birthday"  above on the right).
I started using templates I purchased but as I got more comfortable with Photoshop I just quickly made my own.

And just like that our life during September 2012 has been documented!

Moving onto October:
After I received the above Instagram page protectors I discoverd Becky Higgins also had this design :an instagram on one side and a 3x4 slot on the other - genius!

Stamps by Kelly Purkey.  Screenprint cards by Life Love Paper. Calendar from Paislee Press.

This is the front side of a 6x12 page protector that I used as an introduction to the week.
On the back side I made a grouping of black and white photos of my one year old's first week as an official walking toddler.  See photo below (left side).

 All journaling cards from Paislee Press.

I'm almost done with last week but for now I'm a happy girl to have project life up to date (my way) >>><<<

4 comments:

Danielle said...

I LOVE the kind of photos you take!! That already makes your PL fabulous, but you added fun details too.

Mandalika said...

You are so good to be up to date! (I am months behind).
I love your pages and also your tips but I think if I have to take one thing away from it it would be that I don't need to buy more stuff LOL

Claire T said...

I am so impressed you are up to date! I went the blurb route with my summer instagrams too. I have completed up to the end of June so I have a lot of work to do... it will be worth it! Love your mantra. I need to remember that!

Valerie Bishop said...

I love your simple take to PL! If I was doing a PL that's how I'd have to do it or I'd be sick of doing after a month!