Project Life Organization

As I look back into my 2010 Project Life album, I'm amazed. Some pages are completely done- and some have all journaling but no photos. Others have bits and pieces from an event to one day be placed in their prospective pockets. Some are beautiful, others are messy. And I totally love it. It feels so much more REAL than my previous scrapbooks, with all their fancy, labor intensive fluff. This book is well used, and I love every bit of it.

My organization process has not changed much. Journal during the week and go back and print once every few weeks. I must say I was much better with keeping up on journaling back then.

I find it funny that I randomly took this picture and later realized it was the first journal entry into project life (see the far right journal card)

These are my favorite pages to "catch up" on because all the journaling is done :)

I think one of the things I love the most about project life is that it allows me to "scrapbook" in segments of time. For example, that wedding invitation you get (and the bridal shower invite/thank you card, and the save the dates and the memorobilia from the wedding....yadda yadda yadda) immediately go into my book. Yes, even if it's months away. I slip it into a 8.5x11 sheet protector and ignore it until the wedding comes and goes and I have pictures from the event. Here is my cousin's wedding (she was such a beautiful bride!), photos were printed from the photographer and are safely tucked away. Once I print the rest of them, I will take the 30 minutes needed to adhere the memorabilia and then I'm DONE. How awesome is that? 

Memorabilia safely (and chronologically) tucked away.. this is one of my "messy" pages

All the printed photos are in the same place as the memorabilia for future scrapping :)

Project Life has also allowed me to be organized. Remember that box I mentioned in my last post? It's the same one you all have, containing a mishmash of previous years' memorabilia, napkins, newspaper articles, nametags and anything you brought home from an event because you thought you might scrap it one day. Yeah, I haven't either. The point is that currently, that box isn't growing. Anything worth "saving" to be scrapped goes right into the book. AND there's another bonus.. I stopped "saving" the things that didn't fit into the book and instead took pictures of those items so that they wouldn't be forgotten. So now I'm more organized and decluttering? Say it isn't so!

Newspaper stashed away in a 12x12 page for safe keeping

So, I have to confess.. I LOVE inserts. The reason why is because I like to print a lot of photos. I know some people can choose just a few photos a week, but I can't. I've decided that since PL is my ONLY album each year, I'm going to fill it with as many photos as I want. Sometimes that means my album is HUGE. If there is an event (vacation or holiday) where I want an abnormally large amount of photos printed, I plan to just make a photobook instead. It takes up less space, and I can make as many copies as I want. The other option is digital photo collages, which are very handy to have.

Continuing the organization topic.. I basically use design A for my week and any extra photos go into inserts, and that's where I take the opportunity to scrap the "old way", but only if I want. These photos are all from Christmas, so there are quite a few inserts. I really do try to limit them to one or two inserts per event.. sometimes it gets out of hand.

The front of insert was decorated with Becky Higgins' paper (LOVE that it's double sided!!) and just a few clear Christmas stickers. 

This is the back of the above insert and the front of another. Nothing fancy here, but a good example on how to cram a lot of photos into your book!

Another tool I use VERY frequently is the Planner Pages by Marcy Penner (who also has some AMAZING printables BTW).  I am admittedly type A, and these pages satisfy my serious neurotic tendencies. They are especially helpful when I have a lot of inserts. The following are pages from my October New York City trip. Notice there is only a general outline of what we did and the dates. I will devote an entire post to finishing this layout series, but for now a teaser.

Thank you Marcy Penner for your fabulous pages! These are the older design, she now has a few others that I have yet to try.

So many postcards, so little album space...

My central park leaves are safe and sound for now!

And last but not least. Remember that eye candy I promised? I have found a love for washi tape. After a quick run to my favorite chain craft store..Here's my little treat to myself :)

Happy Crafting :)