Project Life Tuesday

I started my Project Life album this weekend. I got through the entire month of January in less than an hour, including journaling all except last week.  I am just thrilled with that little statistic.

To me, that is one of the beautiful things about this kit. Everything is laid out for you, coordinated and organized. All I have to do is put my pictures in and do my journaling.  How simple is that?!?  Heck, I might actually make it all year if it is going to be this easy to do!

Here are some pictures of the pages I completed.

Cover Page
I decided to include a picture of the family on this page
and I stamped the year on one of the cards.

(you can click on the pictures for a larger view)For this week (the first week of Jan) I included a picture from New Year’s Day just because it was silly and I liked it. The rest of the pictures are from the snow that we had at the end of the week. All of the pictures are from a two day period of time, but I decided that it was a momentous enough occasion that I wanted to dedicate the whole two pages to it. 

I have also decided to do my pages Friday-Thursday because New Year’s Day was on a Friday.

I have also decided to include more memorabilia this year than I did last year. Why I didn’t think about it then, I don’t know. Sometimes a piece of ephemera is more appropriate to capture a day’s memories than a picture.  Anyhow, I used movie theater tickets for one weekend. We went to two movies in a weekend – almost unheard of for us – but with the cold temps and snow we had to do something to get out of the house for a few hours!

I have also decided that I am going to include bits and pieces from the girls’ schoolwork, awards, etc in this album. Because it is a 3-ring it is so easy to just pop in an 8.5×11 page protector and include the extras. I love that. I have always struggled with what to do with the things they bring home that I love and want to keep but that I didn’t really want to take up an entire page in a 12×12 album.  This is a perfect solution.

As a matter of fact, I am seriously thinking I will move to the 3-ring format for more and more of my albums. I started out as a Creative Memories album exclusive kind of girl. Then, in the past few years, I have branched out and tried some post-bound albums. Both offer some great features, and both have some drawbacks.  The 3-rings I have shied away from because the albums seem so heavy and bulky. But I am loving the ease of adding pages, moving things around, and my girls commented that it was easier to turn the pages when they are looking through the book. So, I may be trying a new album type this year.

The second page of this spread had exciting pictures like my dog, the scrap space and a sick girl, so I didn’t bother taking another picture.

I don’t know if you noticed, but I also decided I am not doing anything special with the “heading” card. I am just hand-writing the dates and circling the months. I decided that I was not going to stress myself out with this book by trying to make it “artsy” or extra-crafty. I am going to release myself from that expectation and just focus on capturing the pictures and stories. (and it feels good!)

Are you doing Project Life or a similar project?  How are you approaching it?  Leave me a comment and let me know (this means you!)