Project Life 2011...assembling my album

Edited for ?'s and comments:

Allison wrote: I am getting married this year and have been planning to do a "project life" type scrap book for our first year of marriage beginning on our wedding date. Is the Project Life kit flexible enough to start on any day of the year? My answer: YES. Start your album on your wedding date and then you will end on your first anniversary. It will be the BEST gift you give to yourselves.

Kristyn wrote: Thanks a lot Mish (sarcasm here). You got me hooked on ANOTHER love. When I saw your initial post last week...I knew I just had to have it. So, I ordered immediately and recv'd mine yesterday as well. I am soooooo excited to do this...thanks for the great post...keep them coming. Thanks for keeping it simple and real. Love your blog. Love you. My answer: Hee Hee Hee....if I've ever enabled you guys to do/purchase anything, this will be the BEST thing yet. Do it. Get it now so you can keep up. We'll do it together. Seriously. You will thank yourself. It does take effort though so you need to commit to it. So easy though.

EDIT: I'm loving that so many of you trying out Project Life. We can do it!! Together. :)

Are you ready for some Project Life 2011? Let's get started!!

As a preface to my post today, let me tell you about Project Life. Becky Higgins created this fabulous tool for us to simplify the way we scrapbook. I have admired Becky from the very first time I saw her hand drawn lettering in Creating Keepsakes magazine. I have followed Becky throughout the years and have peeked into her life through her amazing scrapbook layouts. I've used her sketches, I've seen all her hair styles, I've watched her little kiddos grow up.....lots of good stuff from Becky. She is amazing and always willing to share and that's why I love Project Life so much. I should do infomercials.

The basic idea behind Project Life is that you get an all inclusive album kit that helps you document and preserve memories. You pair your photos with pre-designed components from the kit, including journaling blocks....and you end up with an entire, completed album at the end of the year. I intend to use my kit as a 365 album where I take a photo a day and journal that photo for each day. I know many of you purchased the kit after reading my posts.....you're brand new to the concept. I would love to share with you how I set up my album. Let's go..

Becky encourages us to take a photo with our new kit. This can be one of the first pages in your album for 2011. :)

I'm blogging to you from the comfort of my living room. Specifically the big, green, comfy chair. This is where you can picture me every time I do a Project Life post. I keep all the components of my album here so that it's easily accessible and I can work on it when I have a few minutes here and there. This is key for me. If my album were in my actual studio, it would get cluttered up and pushed aside. I'll share in another post soon about how I store my Project Life, my Selphy printer, and all my supplies so that it's neat and tidy. I have to say that my family loves looking at these albums in progress. Keep it out, let them see it. It's fun. It's what life is about.....creating memories.

Here we go with the assembly of my Project Life album. I chose the Amber Edition because I love the cheerful colors. The basic guts of Project Life are the album, the unique, divided page protectors and the journaling inserts. Look at those cute boxes. Yummy, aren't they?

To start off, you'll want to find the inserts for the front and back page of the album. Up in the top right corner you can see the printed sheet that comes with the kit. I put together my front and back just like it showed. Easy peasy. No thinking involved. :)
Next up you'll want to insert all of the blank pages into the album. There are enough pages, and I believe a few extras, to complete an entire year's worth of photos. The great thing about the album is that it has 3 rings that pop open and shut. It's the only kind of album I use now. Those screwy things are nuts, I tell ya. I'll be adding in more pages of my own throughout the year so this is perfect for rearranging and adding pages. I'll be showing more of those pages throughout the year. All of my 2011 scrapbook pages will go into this album. One album. This includes vacations, birthdays, etc. Okay, I lied. I do have some ongoing albums for the girls for their sports pages and grade school photos, etc.
Next, you'll want to insert the monthly dividers in the front of the album. Please note: You can set your album up however you like. I always talk/write like I'm teaching a class so bear with me...if you wanna change it up, feel free to do so. The monthly dividers have a protective coating on them. Peel that stuff off. Next year I'm paying the reds to do this part. Not hard, just sticky little stuff. :) I keep all the monthly dividers in the front of my album. When I get past January photos and move into February, then I'll insert the February divider...and so on. Very cool for a quick monthly reference when the album is all complete.
Next, we've got the small card inserts. These are what come in the cute, small boxes. Loads of them. Such cute colors and designs. Way to go Becky.
The small card inserts with lines are your journaling cards. This is what you write on that tells about each photo. So each time I take a photo, I'm going to write about it on a lined journaling card.
These are the blanks as I call them. Patterned insert cards. For each 2 page spread you'll have 7 photos....one for each day of the week. You'll also have 7 journaling cards with one space leftover. This is where a blank insert card goes. Just a decorative filler card. This front card is my favorite design.
There's also a stack of lined journaling cards that can be folded. These are for those days when you feel a little extra windy and have more of a story to tell. You just write your story, fold it up and insert it just as you would the other journaling cards. You could even add some extra, small photos on these if you want.
Next up we have the larger insert cards. Since I'm doing a photo a day, I use these as weekly marker card inserts. (More in just a bit on these). For each two spread layout, one of these goes in the upper left hand corner of the page protector. Again, change it up however you wish...this is just what I do.
Okay, now we're ready to start our album for the year. I like to start my week on a Sunday because that's how all my other calendars work. So this year my album is starting on Sunday, January 2nd. January 1st will go in last year's Project Life album. I insert my Sunday photo for the week on the top left, just to the right of the weekly, dated insert card. Then I insert my photos like I'm reading a book. The next two photos (which will be Monday and Tuesday, will go in the bottom two slots on the left hand page. Then Wednesday and Thursday will go in the top two slots on the right hand page, etc. The journaling cards all go in the smaller slots. Last year I did more color coordinating. This year the colors of this Amber kit are more rainbow-y so I'm just picking cards as I go. No particular order. You can insert a blank wherever you like. I like to mix it up for each week. I'm wild that way.
The larger, weekly marker card goes in the upper left hand corner for me. This goes in the same place for all my weeks. I love to get all office supply-ee and use the date stamp and a black ink pad to mark each week of the album. This is something I will do in advance for maybe a month or more. Just use your calendar to keep track of what you need to stamp. I'll go in later with my journaling marker and add a little dash (-) in between the dates...and I'll circle the month too. I might use a small circle stamp for that part too.
Here's a close up of the journaling cards. Like I said, I'm gonna get all mixy matchy with these because they're just like Skittles.....taste the rainbow. Get funky with it. Don't think about it too much. My girls like to pick these out for me too. Fun stuff.

With the kit, you also get a stack of stickers. The colored days of the week stickers, I use directly on the journaling cards. You can do this in advance for several weeks, months....or the entire year if you are some kind of organizing wonder person. That would not be me. I use the tan arrow stickers to point to the corresponding photo for the day. So Sunday's journaling card will point to my Sunday photo slot. There are also clear days of the week stickers. Those will be stuck right on the page protector, over the photo for that day. Becky says don't stick the stickers directly on your photos. Listen to the Beckster. She knows her stuff. It's all in the name of being archivally safe. :)
Okay, now we are ready to roll with it people. Take those photos daily if you're going the 365 route. I'll be back soon to show you my first week of my album.....and how I print my photos....and where I store my supplies. Lots of good stuff here. I hope you enjoy the journey with me!

Don't you love this photo below? I do. I often have this little scene going on in my living room. Right on the ottoman. Maybe I should invent an ottoman for scrapbookers...with pockets and a hinged lid for storing our albums. Becky, could these ship with our Project Life kits? We'll talk later. ;)

In the meantime, I'd love to thank Becky for her amazing product. It has truly changed the way I scrapbook. I can do this. I can get it all done. You can too. No freaking out or feeling overwhelmed. This is it. Simple. Easy. LOVE. Thanks Becky!!