Well, I have made some progress – finally! – in my Project Life book.

I set up a scrap space in the living room this weekend and purposely ignored the chores, laundry, etc. for a few hours Friday, Saturday and Sunday so that I could get a little scrapbooking done.

I managed to get from January through April up to date. That, my friends, is a huge accomplishment, given that I had everything in piles – piles of pictures, piles of memorabilia, piles of printouts, post-its, etc. Organization was the first step, and then I just started putting things into pages.

For March and April, I gave up the notion of a two-page spread per week and just focused on getting groups of pictures together in logical arrangements. I actually like it pretty well, as it more accurately reflects our life – snippets of the everyday with a few things highlighted.

Here are a few of the pages. I’m using some different sized page protectors as well – 6×12 for the days when I have extra pictures, 8×10 for the kids’ school work and some printouts of some of my favorite blog posts I wanted to capture. (my blog is like my online scrapbook, so why re-do the journaling?) I also got an assortment of 12×12 pocket pages on scrapbook.com with some different configurations of pockets that I’m using when I need some vertical picture sleeves.

I have to say, I’m loving this process. I want to get April/May/June done so that I can work week-to-week and stay caught up. I love the simplicity and being able to capture what was important without getting caught up in all the frills and furbelows of “traditional” style scrapbooking.

I am also loving the fact that I’m using up my stash. Other than the Project Life kit and a few packs of page protectors (mentioned above) I’ve not bought anything else. I’m just using what I have – which is copious amounts of paper and embellishments – and I love that I’m making do with what I have and still making something pretty. I’ve decided to put my family calendar pages in for each month – thought it would be a good way to remember what we were up to each month. I’m using an 8×10 insert to hold them.

This is the back of the calendar page – a church bulletin and my self portrait marking one year since my surgery.

8×10 pages with my blog post.

Using one of the other inserts to get some vertical 4×6 pictures in.

loving the 8x10s to keep the kids’ schoolwork in the book.

This is one of the 6×12 pages (on the right) for some extra pictures I had. a blog post – why redo the work? just stick it in a page protector! Well, that’s a pretty photo heavy post! Thanks for sticking through to the end!!

More updates hopefully next week!