The BEAUTIFUL thing about project life is that you can work on it in segments. I spent about 20 minutes uploading photos to shutterfly.com (they had their "100 free prints" deal that I can't say no to!). Once they arrived, I got straight to work- which is made easy because Shutterfly actually prints the date the photo was taken (if it's part of the photo properties) on the back of the picture. Super easy! All I did at first was place the photos in their "week", this took about 10 minutes. Then, I sat down and did one layout at a time- I take my time with this part, usually pulling up my calendar to make sure I'm not missing anything when I journal. Each layout takes about 20 minutes. So here's your breakdown:
20 minutes- upload photos
10 minutes- place photos in their "week"
20 minutes- finish layout (corners rounded, title card and journal cards filled out)
SOOOO much better than my previous average of 2 hours per layout, and that would not have included pulling ALL my crap out, taking over my desk, and getting photos printed!
I find it easiest to work backwards.. as in start from last week and just go backwards from there. I still love and use Marcy Penner's planning pages.
Now that I'm back into the swing of things, I have lots of photos printed and in their weeks, but no journaling. I also have things stashed like vacation memoribilia and birthday cards that kept falling out which annoys me like no tomorrow- so I just put them in a cheapie 8x10 page protector until I had a chance to do something with them!
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| This is what my album looks like post vacation! Everything in one page protector until I get photos printed! |
I digress!
So I also had some birthday cards that kept sliding around the album... which is a big pet peeve of mine. I originally was going to put them in a page protector and get back to them, but then they would be super bulky and annoy me that way (I'm a little type A if you hadn't guessed). So I decided to take the 10 minutes and put them together the way I have done for the past 3 years. Once upon a time I made some youtube videos that explain this concept much better, but I still have terribly slow internet and will have to resort to photos for now :)
SO- I am not a good birthday card/christmas card/valentines day card thrower awayer (no those aren't words but they convey my lack of ability to throw away something so sentimental!). I just can't do it! I love looking back on them, reading the inscriptions or just seeing the handwriting of a signature of those I love. I like the big envelopes Becky has come out with, but you get so much BULK when you just pile those cards in there! So, my solution was to put them onto a single sheet of cardstock in a way you can still read them! I use 8x10 size for just a few cards and 12x12 when I have a bunch.
Here's what I do:
1. Separate the cards into vertical and horizontal cards. In this case I only had one horizontal card. Then I figure out which cards mean the most, and which ones I want to read the front of (the butterfly card was from my husband, so it HAS to go up front!). I separate the vertical cards into two piles, one for the front and the other for the back of the page.
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| The verticals are in 2 piles, and the lone horizontal card sits there with a smile :) |
2. The next step is hard to describe without video, but I'll try. I try to organize them by size, and choose the largest card for the back. I place it in the top left corner of the page, then glue it down. At this point you just have one adhered card. Next, I place the second card on top of it, and only glue on the first card so that I can still open both cards. I continue this process until all cards are glued to eachother but NOT the cardstock. If you can, put the horizontal card on the cardstock but make sure you don't prevent the cards from opening. Man I hope this isn't as confusing as I think it sounds.
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| Only adhere the cards to themselves, NOT the cardstock! Then sneak in the horizontal card where it fits. |
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| Horizontal card still opens but is adhered to the cardstock! |
Repeat the process on the other side of the cardstock. You could use a second piece of cardstock but we're trying to reduce bulk and it works fine if you just use the back.
Your result should be a much less bulky collection of cards that you can still open and read the inscriptions. I will occasionally try to embellish, but I prefer to keep it simple- some washi tape and a small title usually work for my taste. Get as creative as you want though :)
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| The finished product |
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| I prefer just one piece of cardstock to reduce bulk. |
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| The other side is finished. Nice, neat and simple! |
So what to do when it's done? Put it into a page protector and call it a day!
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| No more cards falling out of albums! Yay! Now to finish that week's layout! |
So if you are still confused, I'll reference my previously made video, which should clarify it a little better!
Let me know how this works for you, I love this method and use it pretty regularly. It keeps my albums organized and really doesn't take all that much time.
Happy Crafting :)
Awww you're pregnant! Congratulations! I loved your pl albums! Huge inspiration from me! Happy for you!
ReplyDeleteThank You! We are very excited, I'm trying to catch up with project life BEFORE he gets here!
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