Project Life 2012, Week 34 + my Project December plan

Yesterday I shared my product picks that I'll be using for my Project December pages....Project Life combined with Daily December.  Today I'm sharing Week 34 of my Project Life album so that I can give you visuals of what my plan of attack is for my Project December pages. 

Some thoughts first.....

I pondered long and hard about how I wanted to approach doing a Daily December this year.  Last year I kept my Project Life pages and my Daily December album separate.  I ended up getting confused as to what photos to include in Project Life and what to include in the December Daily album.  There was overlap of photos and stories.  It was time consuming trying to figure it all out.  I got frustrated and still haven't finished the last 2 weeks of Project Life 2012 and my DD album is about half finished.  When I look at my PL album, there seems to be lots of gaps for the month of December.  It looks like we didn't celebrate much for the holidays.  That got me to thinking...what if no one ever knew I did a DD album for last year?  My PL album wouldn't have the stories or the photos.  

Fast forward....

So moving on to this December, I have made the decision to combine my Project Life with a December Daily.  I'm calling it my Project December.  I will continue to complete my December PL pages as I've done all year long.  For my DD portion, I'm going to be adding inserts right in between my PL pages.  I'm not going to worry about what photos and stories go where but my basic plan is to have the every day happenings go in the PL 12 x 12 protectors and the holiday happenings go into inserts that are any smaller than 12 x 12.  I'll be using Project Life page protectors and some others from my stash.  

Some visuals...

Let me walk you through my Week 34 of Project Life to show you some visuals of how my Project December might look this year.  This was back to school week, Jordan got her braces off and it finally rained after a long drought.  I had 3 inserts in addition to my regular PL pages.  There are lots of photos so I won't go into detail about the happenings of Week 34...but there's lots of good stuff if you'd like to study the photos on your own.  Here goes...lots of photos so hope you stick with me. 

This is the 2 page regular Project Life week.  This is how I still plan to handle December's PL.  I will have an insert that denotes what week it is in the upper left hand corner. 

The rest of my inserts will continue to be a mix of 4 x 6 photos, 3 x 4 photos and journaling card inserts.  I also plan to have a Week in Review insert for each week.

I am planning on using a color scheme that is definitely holiday-ish for the entire month of December.  I am adding aqua and yellow and wood grain to a traditional red and green theme.  I debated on this for the events that won't be holiday related but here's my final thought.....you decorate your house with holiday items for the entire month of December even though it's not Christmas every day.  So why not let my entire month of my Project Life album look festive too?  You'll see in my upcoming posts that even though I'm using holiday colors, my album will still look fairly neutral at times.

The weekly inserts will continue as this is a fun way for me to get all scrappy.

I've also been experimenting with the Phonto app on my iPhone.  When I have a few minutes here and there I've been adding journaling right to my photos.  I save them to my photo album on my iPhone and my journaling is done.  I'm definitely going to continue this idea + it's fun to add chipboard letters or stickers along with the photo journaling.

Some 4 x6 inserts with smaller and multiple photos.  A great way to get scrappy and use up those fun holiday products.

For those moments when I take a bunch of photos, I'll be using the Diptic photo app on my iPhone to make collages.

I've been converting a lot of photos to black and white.  These photos of the girls were somewhat blurry and the night time lighting was awful but you can't tell as much when they're converted to black and white.  I like the contrast to all the colors, especially with a mix of holiday colors coming up in December.

More Phonto journaling on a photo + stamping + Washi + stitched on accents.  This December I am planning on using red thread for most of my stitching.

Here I combined the Phonto journaling on the photo with a wood veneer arrow.  Just a little pre-planning and you can have some really creative inserts.  I'll also be giving the typewriter a work out.  I love that I can fit a lot of stories in by typing vs. using my somewhat large and loopy handwriting all the time.

The Week in Review inserts.  I'll be making these in advance so all I have to do is type or write in the events.

Some 3 x 4 slots will have photos, some will have journaling cards.  I'll be using lots of labels from my shop for typing journaling + shop items like my manila tags that are so easy to run through my typewriter. And date stamps.  There are so many that have fun sentiments along with the dates.  I love them.

Here I had an extra 4 x 6 photo that I just didn't want to crop down.  So I used (2) 3 x 4 slots and just trimmed my photo in half.  I used the Photo app on this photo too.

Fun graphic inserts where I perhaps didn't have a photo or particular story to tell.  This is a great space to just up more of your fun holiday supplies. I think I might need more chipboard alphabets.  Making a note to self.

Okay that was it for the main PL spread.  Moving on to the smaller inserts, here's what the 3 look like between the PL pages.  For me, it's very important that the 12 x 12 main spread be visible.  So all of my inserts will be smaller than 12 x 12.  Doesn't matter what size...6 x 6, 5 x 7 , 8.5 x 11, 8 x 10.....just smaller than 12 x 12.  I have to say I love my weeks where I have inserts because I know there are lots of good stories in between those pages.  

Here, I turned the first insert over to reveal the next inserts.

And again, I turned the page to reveal the next set of inserts.  Can you see where I'm going with these inserts?  These will be the guts of my December Daily portion of my Project December.  These will hold all those extra holiday moments and stories.  They'll just blend in with my regular PL pages.

Here's the last insert on the left, below.  I'm not really going to worry about if my December Daily portion is actually "daily".  I'm just looking to capture the events of December.  I have lots of numbers for 1-31 for the month of December which I'll be using as accents so if I do take a photo daily I'll use them.

Here's an insert that is a traditional scrapped layout.  I don't do many of these because they are more time consuming, take up a bunch of space in my album and quite frankly, big pages intimate me a little. I prefer to work with card size inserts probably because I've been a card maker for so long. But I do love a good layout once in a while.  This is an 8.5 x 11 page of having 2 high schoolers now.

I like to fill traditional layouts with larger photos like the 5 x  7 size I used on this layout.  Less space to fill up.  Typewriter journaling on textured vellum + lots of fun embellishments.  I'll probably use my favorite photos in December to create a few traditional layouts.  There's just something about a giant photo that I love.

I love the mixy matchy look of chipboard alphas & stickers.  It's kind of a good plan because then it looks like you planned to be all mixy matchy from the get go....especially when you are nearing the end of December and start to run out of specific letters.

Woohoo, a second traditional 8.5 x 11 layout. This week took me forever, I tell ya.  This was another favorite photo that I snapped of Josey in her bed.  So many wonderful details about my teenagers that I wanted to capture.  This would be a great idea for a layout you might do in December of your living room all decorated...you could make notes about each little item, etc.

More chipboard letters, tags from my shop for little typed details, stapled on journaling spots, etc.

This is a Project Life insert of when Jordan got her braces off.  In December this might be for one event or I might have a photo from several days here.  I'm just gonna go with the flow and see what happens.

All of the inserts were photos except one which I got a little scrappy with.

Below shows 2 inserts, side by side.  Again, these might contain just 2 separate stories in December or they might hold photos from several different days and events.

I'll save at least a few inserts to get scrappy and add some journaling.  Here I used papers, embellishments and a tag from my shop.  So easy to keep the tags on hand to run through my typewriter.  For me though, I want to keep the photos front and center. I don't want my album to look like a decorated Christmas tree, drooping with embellishments.  Keeping it simple, friends. But with a little holiday bling here and there.

Here I added 2 scrappy inserts for journaling + an additional photo on each.  I much prefer these smaller inserts than a giant 12 x 12 layout.  I've still captured all the stories.  So glad I took that pressure off of myself that I don't have to do big layouts all the time. Remember, there is no norm to follow.  Do your own thing and be satisfied with it.

This insert looks kind of like a traditional layout....but it's not.  Great compromise, huh?  Just imagine that these photos and embellished inserts will look holiday-ish in a few short weeks.

Neutral papers with graphic designs are a great way to add pattern to your inserts without too much color or themed holiday designs.  Anything with grids or a ledger pattern is A-okay in my book.

My library cards are another great shop item I carry that I'll be using for journaling or stamping.  They're just the right size to run through a typewriter.  Picture that stitching in red for the holidays.  It's going to tie all the little elements together.

And, the end.  I know this post was like reading a book but I wanted to give you the big picture of what's to come.  There are lots of you out there that are wondering what to do with your Project Life and Daily December albums too.  I think I have the perfect solution for me....and perhaps for you too.  Thanks for stopping by and I'd love to know your thoughts or tips or suggestions for what you're doing this year.  And Lisa.....my heart was happy to know that you pulled over in the Starbucks parking lot to read my post.  I've spent a lot of time compiling these posts to share with you all so it's good to know that they are useful.  :)  Speaking of sharing.....I have the super duper fun posts coming up now.  I have journaling card inserts, pocket pages, Week in Review cards, embellished envelopes and more to share all throughout the month.  So come back soon.