Those Unfinished Scrapbook Albums

6 years. SIX WHOLE YEARS and I've finally finished an album that has become the bane of my scrapbooking existence. It actually became a joke between my scrapping friends and I when we would get together to scrap... oh you are working on "that" album again, huh? Of course that was back when it took 2 hours per layout. I would be so annoyed, wanting to work on newer albums and pages, but being determined to get the album "done". It really did take the fun out of scrapbooking.

Once I started Project Life, I mentally put my older albums on a back burner because I didn't know what to do with them and almost all of them were only half finished. The prospect of finishing them "one day" was there.. but never actually happened.

Well, this week, nesting has taken FULL EFFECT. I have reorganized everything, and I decided to tackle that album, but do it project life style! 

The album in question? My bachelorette weekend. Several of my friends and I went to Downtown Disney in Orlando, where we shopped, laughed and at night, went to Pleasure Island, which was a safe way to "bar hop". We had a great time, and I really want to preserve all the fun we had- which is why I was hellbent on finishing the album. 

I will warn you, the photos you are about to see contain a bunch of ladies drinking adult beverages, laughing at stupid things, and making goofy faces. View them at your own risk :)

I also decided to take them out of the album and put them into my 2007 family album. This will also eventually be a project life type of album, but for now, it holds memorbilia from the year as I really don't have any photos printed for it yet!

Below are some of the beginning pages done the "old way". There are a bunch more, but you get the idea. It's AMAZING how my style has changed. I don't love these pages but I wouldn't change them for anything :)

And HERE is where things basically stopped:

So as you can see, I put the photos and background paper in, but never quite got to the last few layouts. I had big plans for some of them, actually, but I never had the time or motivation. 


So I started on one of the pages. The first lesson in integrating old with new? The first page (left side) has to be the OLD style- so I pulled out my old scrapping supplies and went to town. I had already pre cut several photos with good intentions, so now all I needed to do was adhere!

BTW, don't mind the random crappy image quality. I'm still learning how to use my Canon 7D and it's TOTALLY operator error.

Step 1: Layout ALL YOUR photos to see what you have!

Used the 6x6 pages, and LOVE them!

A very easy, and FINISHED page! Nothing fancy, but DONE!

Okay, so now I can continue the Project Life style.. using inserts instead of full 12x12 layouts! So I went to the next page, started to layout my photos to see what I had, then hit a roadblock...

I had WAY too many pictures! This was one of the biggest troubles I had with traditional scrapbooking. I would try to cram a million photos into one layout. So, I started thinking and decided the best way to handle ALL these photos? INSERTS :) I use inserts ALL THE TIME with my current albums, why not here? So the "layout" will be full 12x12 pages, although not traditional layouts. And the insert can fit a TON of photos, but is smaller than 12x12 so it fits snugly in between the two 12x12 pages. 

Left 12x12 page is Becky Higgins design E. The middle (has a sticky note on it) is Becky Higgins design G (one of my FAVORITE designs)

The right side is a We R Memory Keeper page. I've left a blank space for journaling. 

There. DONE. Why have I waited SOOOO long to get this album done?

On to the next. I had big plans for the next page. One of the things we did was try to get me to take a photo with as many guys as possible. It was fun, and I wanted to make this big layout with all the boys.. well that never happened. What I DID do, was use design J as an insert, and you know what? I like it better than the original idea. WAY less work, and still gets all the photos in there. I love the versitility of the project life way of scrapping. The outcome may not be exactly the same, but it works and takes a FRACTION of the time. 

Used Becky Higgins Design J for the first time, which worked perfectly!

On to the next! 

Laying out the photos

Both are We R Memory Keeper pages. I was glad to use them up! Again, blank area for journaling!

AND.... on to the next and LAST page! HOLY COW, is that possible? 

Again, I layed out the photos to see which plastic I would use. 

Left and right are both We R Memory keeper pages. I will be journaling in the blank areas :)

And I'm done....?

How is that possible?? I think total time, start to finish was maybe an hour and a half, and that included food breaks, potty breaks, taking photos, and getting some old scrapbooking stuff out (and putting it away).

THIS is why I love project life. Are the above pages my most favorite work? No. Are they done and somewhat cute? YES! Can my friends and family look through the album and get an idea of the memories created? YES! Can I take a big breath in and shout "I'M FINALLY DONE WITH THAT ALBUM!!!" yes :) Can I choose NOT to use pink and black pages in an album again? Oh yes!

For those who are just thinking about project life, and are still debating it, think about the time it takes you to do one layout. Now think about all those unfinished albums and count roughly how many layouts you need to finish. Now multiply them. For me, 2 hours per layout was a safe average. That meant in an 8 hour session, I got 4 layouts done. AND.. I had to pull ALL my stuff out and really make a day of it. I don't know how many project life layouts I can do in eight hours, but what I can tell you is that it excites me to know that it's a bunch. 

Take a look at your older albums and see what you can do to get them finished!

Happy scrapping :)

My TOP 10 Project Life Videos

I am in full on "nesting" mode. I have rearranged little man's closet three times. His room is almost completely done (I went with a "world traveler" theme- it's very pintrest worthy, and will share once he is born!). I've organized my hard drive where I keep all my photos and now I've organized my social networks... when does it stop?!

I was thinking, I have 29 videos posted on my youtube page DEDICATED to project life.. I feel as though I should pay homage to them somehow. I LOVE making videos.. but since we've moved to the country, our satellite internet service just wouldn't cut it, which was the WHOLE reason I decided to be a blogger instead! We are supposedly getting real internet.. I hope by January of 2014 but we will see.

SO! Here is a list of my top 10 videos:

1. What is Project Life?
By far one of my most watched videos! It's long by youtube standards, but it's basically the reason I started using project life and why I will probably NEVER go back to traditional scrapbooking!

2. How I scrapbook my Christmas Cards 2011
Do you save your holiday cards? Me too, and it was bulking up my albums! Here is a great solution!

3. How I Lay Out Project Life Pages
Only 5 minutes long, this basically shows my process of laying out my project life pages. It's nothing fancy, but some people aren't sure how to go about it!

4. My Nightly Project Life Routine
I no longer do this EXACTLY, but this is good for the beginner to see :)

5. EASY Thanksgiving scrapbook "layout"
Showing off why project life is so darn easy. I love inserts, and use them frequently in my albums!

6. Print Your Own Journaling Cards
Many subscribers asked, so I put together a "how to" for printing your own cards

7. Project Life Update- January to April 2012 

Just an update on my album. After recording this, I had to finish one of the pages so the follow up video is here: My Type A Personality Kicked In

8. Thank You Marcy Penner!
I STILL use and love her planning pages, they make things so much easier!

9. Have YOU ever felt GUILTY about scrapbooking?
I made this video to be honest about where I was at that time. Most people out there cannot keep up with the weekly version of project life, and instead "catch up" in blocks of time. And that's OK!

10. Setting Up Project Life
Just my method of setting up a new project life album!

And if that's not enough, here are two awesome bonus videos on how I organize my photos and in general!

BONUS: How to Organize Your Digital Photos

Double Bonus: Project Life Organization

These videos are truly nothing fancy, but they've helped a lot of people get started with project life! I hope you enjoy watching them! 

Happy Crafting!

Hellloooo Seafoam Kit :)

It arrived! I was so excited to see my gorgeous little Seafoam Core kit arrived! I was then met with complete sadness since I had to go to work and would be working long late hours over the next several days. Once I had the time, I  opened the white box and was so DELIGHTED. So much eye candy, so little time.

Warning: this will be a long post, so grab a cup of coffee and snuggle up :)

Love this white little box :)

 I was so pleased when I opened this kit. The first thing I noticed is the quality change. It was very apparently much improved from previous years! To start with, the colors are simply, gorgeous. They are so pleasing to the eye, and coordinate well. The title cards are just beautiful and I was pleased to see that ALL of the 3x4 cards were journaling cards at least on one side. This makes it so much easier than trying to separate the decorative cards from the journaling cards. The second thing I really noticed is the printing quality. The cardstock is a better quality than previous years and the cards are cut very smoothly (none of the "ragged edges" I saw in other years). I also appreciate the tray, as much as I didn't think I'd use it.. I may just find myself stashing it in a drawer for ease of use :)

Title Cards, same pattern is vertical on the opposite side

4x6 Journaling Cards (each side has a design, there are really only 4 different designs)

The "meat and potatoes" of Project Life: the journaling cards! These are the basic color schemes for the seafoam kit

The front title page looks nice, but I plan to personalize it as the year passes.

Very first Title Page

So, there she is, in all her simple and beautiful glory. I like how many of the journaling cards only have a simple design on them- it leaves the photos as the star but still gives a subtle sense of cohesiveness.



As for MY album? Yes, of COURSE I've started adding photos (who am I kidding). I am using some of the freebies you can find here. I love the calendar cards by findingnana.com and will also be using the week numbers by september blue- they are so much easier than buying eight million stickers. I will note the yellow on the week numbers is a bit brighter than the mustard yellow color of the kit- but I don't mind it, and actually prefer it :)

Still have to fill in my January 1st journal card! I love the way the week number cards turned out!

Pardon the blur- trying to keep SOME privacy :)

I am awaiting the seafoam cardstock and a printed photo for the last little bit from my insert! I think I may change the chevron color now too, so I can match the kit.

So, you may be asking, what ELSE have I done to help keep up with my project life. In previous years, THIS is how I organized my albums. It has worked great for me- but now that there are no separate "decorative" cards, I think I'm going to try a new approach. 

Here is my plan for organization:

1. Instead of pre-filling layouts with journaling cards, I plan to pull from the organizational tray each week as I need them. That way I am not constantly pulling out unused cards and wondering where to stash them.

2. I have printed off the first 25 weeks worth of "week numbers" by september blue. They can be found on my freebie page. I didn't cut out each circle yet (man that is time consuming), but I did cut them to a manageable size and slip them in the appropriate pocket.

3. I've also printed out all the organizational pages by Marcy Penner. I had to play around with different printing styles to see what I like. I'm pretty sure one double sided page is how I will use them. I date them and 3 hole punch them, and put them in the right places. I only did this for the first 25 weeks for speed, but I will go back and finish them.

4. I've printed all my calendar cards from findingnana.com and have inserted them in their respective places.

5. I continue to use evernote.com to stay ahead. If you aren't sure what I'm talking about- see my post here. At the end of each week and when I have my photos, I print off my evernote page and start my journaling. In each day I make a note of which picture to use by writing "(pic)" next to the subject. This also helps me with keeping up.

6. I will try my best to print weekly, or at the very most bi-weekly. I've done the math and it is so much cheaper to print locally and avoid shipping costs, so I've found a great photo lab that lets me upload images and sends me an email when I can pick them up. This is definitely the part of project life that is the hardest, but I am committed!


So, there you have it. My seafoam kit has arrived. My first week is almost done and I'm on a roll. I hope this inspires you to get started. 

Some last things for you to consider:

What do you use for organization? What has and has not worked for you in the past (both regular scrapbooking and project life). How do you "keep up" with project life and are you planning on doing anything different this year?

Happy Crafting :)

Keeping Up With Project Life

I'll admit it. I'm totally stressed out. I really want to hold out for the project life seafoam kits to come out, but it's already January 8th and I am getting impatient! I had a fleeting moment of thought that.. maybe I should just get the Olive Edition. No.. noooo.. I will wait :) And I will stalk amazon. Easy as that.

Anywhoo, I thought I would share my secret project life weapon. It's the thing that keeps me the MOST organized.... Ready? It's my iphone. Yes, I am that nerdy :) No- really, anyone with a smart phone realizes the power you hold in your hands! So what exactly do I DO with my phone that makes it a secret weapon? I found a great little BIG app and website called Evernote. Never heard of it? Let me introduce the two of you.

Enter the sleek and sophisticated Online version. Easy to navigate and edit. So great I even took photos of my favorite recipes and uploaded them so that I always have them to share with others!

Online Screen Shot of Evernote.

Now meet it's little sister, the mobile version. Sure, it's not as graceful, and a bit buggy. It's TOTALLY worth it in my book. Why? Because this little girl keeps me organized. You know those 15 minutes you spend in bed at night, checking emails, looking at facebook and cruising the net on your phone? I spend 5 of those entering my daily note. As you can see they are not that detailed- just a blurb reminding me of the day. I COULD add photos, but that's more complicated than I want to get right now. Plus you can't synchronize any files over 25mg unless you pay for the product.

Iphone screenshot

My VERY FAVORITE part of this app though? The ability to record a voice in a document. For example, January 1st I had an hour long commute to work. I hopped on evernote and started blabbing about new years resolutions, etc. Then I hit save. I didn't even have to type (which was good because I was driving). That feature alone has saved many of my project life weeks. I just go back, cringe as I listen to myself talk (why DO we sound so different in our own heads?) and jot down the days. Sometimes, when I am a few days behind, I will just start with "yesterday, (and give the date- you'll thank me for that one), we did this. the day before, we did this, and the day before that we did this. " I start losing track at about 5 days out, so I try to get something in everyday.

Iphone screenshot #2. Just in case you were wondering..
bad night= food poisoning. I'll spare the details.

Okay, I am totally not endorsed by evernote, but I want to share what works for me so that maybe it will help others! I really hope Becky Higgins makes an app, it would be much easier. In the meantime, Evernote is free. Try it out! (and bear with the weirdness of the mobile app- it's worth it)

Happy Journaling :)

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 :)