Project Life | plans for 2015

15 December 2014

Despite my initial 2014 Project Life plans and catch-up strategy, I am still barely one-quarter way through this year’s album, but I’m planning to get it done. Although I’d prefer to finish it sooner rather than later.

But with 2015 creeping up on us, I’m looking ahead to my plans for next year…

Things I’ll do the same

12×12 albums – I love all the space that 12×12 gives me for documenting everything that I need to, especially when the week gets busy, so no change here. I’ll be using these We R Memory Keepers faux leather ring albums. I ordered them earlier this month and I can’t wait for them to arrive! I’ve heard lots of good things about them, and the colors are lovely, so I’m pretty excited.
Weekly format – I did consider moving to a monthly format since not all our weeks are very exciting. But I love the structure of the weekly format so I’m sticking to that.
Standard weekly title cards – I will keep these consistent throughout the year, because I really enjoyed having one less thing to think about. But I will probably switch up the design of these for next year. The question is – to what?
Design A page protectors – I like having the predictability of having standard designs so far. Boring? Maybe. Less stress for me? Definitely. I’m absolutely open to changing things up during the year if I need to though.
Continue with weekly journaling – At the end of each week, I usually try to make notes of everything that happened. This is such a life-saver, especially when I need to play catch-up. It’s also super helpful for putting my spreads together and helping me with having more journaling.
Use the kits and 6×6 paper pads that I already have – The big goal is to try not to add any more of these! I love including a mix of kits and paper pads, but I already have quite the collection so I’m remembering to be selective and use what I already have.
Use inserts if I need to – Since I’m planning to spread out my year into two albums, I’ll add inserts if/when I need to. They’re also great because I don’t feel confined to just the two standard pages.
Work in batches – I used this strategy, especially when I needed to do major catch up. But I love it in general just for completing my spreads.

Things I’ll do differently

Gather standard supplies for weekly spreads – I think I’ve more or less figured out what my go-to supplies for Project Life are. Now I just need to put them all in one place for easy access and quick creating.
Do better at uploading, editing and printing photos – I do this fairly regularly now, but still not as routinely or consistently as I’d like to be.
Include more journaling – I have my week-in-review cards, which I love. But I want to include more stories and contexts for the photos that are going into the albums.
Include more perspectives from the rest of my family – I’m not sure how I’m going to do this yet, but I think it would be really neat to have stories told from their perspective as well. Suggestions, anyone?
Stay on track – Since I’m still playing catch-up for 2014, I’m far too familiar with the feeling of being behind. I’m going to work on keeping up as much as possible next year, for sure.
Try using square photos. Because I print at a printer, printing square photos means just a little more work for me. But square photos are still super trendy so I really want to try it at least once just to see how I like it.
Go hybrid – There are so many great digital kits out there (like Rachel’s, Peppermint’s, and Liz’s) so I certainly won’t be able to resist including those in my albums. Plus, they don’t take up space like physical kits do, so I can make an exception in using them, right? I’m not super tech-savvy so I don’t think I’ll be doing anything mind-blowing with the digital kits. But I want to use a mix of digital products and physical kits next year.

I love how flexible Project Life is and how easily you can change things to make them work for you. See what Andrea, Carly, Caylee, Rachel, Kellie, and Kelsey are doing for their Project Life next year.

I can’t wait to document 2015.

Tell me, what are your plans for memory-keeping next year?

Project Life 2014 | week 16

8 December 2014

Continuing with the pages I promised to share, here is week 16 with all the details!

Week of: 14 to 20 April, 2014

What happened this week: A girls’ day out, Good Friday, and Easter Sunday.

Left-hand side

I layered one of One Little Bird’s Hopscotch cards over a Project Life card and used a paper clip to attach a receipt.

Techniques: Again, nothing particularly new or fancy here because I just want to get caught up! So I’m keeping things simple as much as possible, and going to back to things I’ve tried and know I love.

That includes using vellum over screenshots of Whatsapp conversations, email messages, and tweets, Roundabout days tags from Paislee Press and that “Today I am Thankful” sticker from MAMBI, which I stuck on a piece of vellum before laying it over my screenshots. (I also used these similar techniques here in Week 10).

Right-hand side

Thoughts: Compared to Week 15, I had darker colors and photos this week. Nevertheless, I really enjoyed including memorabilia from our week, like that Shrove Tuesday name card and receipt.

Another week in the books!

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Project Life is a memory-keeping system created by Becky Higgins. I’m embarking on this year-long project to document all my memories in 2014. You can see my other Project Life posts here.

Project Life 2014 | week 15

2 December 2014

As promised, I’m sharing more of the Project Life spreads that I managed to finish over the last weekend.

Oh, these weeks seem like such a long, long time ago. And rightly so, because they happened in April earlier this year and we’re already in December.

Anyhow, I skipped week 14 because I have almost no photos for that week and I’m still trying to figure out how I am going to fill up the 12×12 spreads.

Week of: 7 to 13 April

What happened this week: A new blog layout, dinners with friends, and some happy mail.

Left-hand side

This pocket is also a flip card, which I used to add more food photos underneath.

Right-hand side

The yellow tag is a printable from Studio Calico, and the stamps are from Heidi Swapp and Kelly Purkey.

Definitely can’t get enough of those gold stickers from MAMBI!

Techniques: Nothing particularly new, besides using cards from Dear Lizzy’s Daydreamer kit, which tied everything together nicely. Plus, I loved including the printable from Olya in this week’s spread.

Thoughts: I especially loved the color scheme this week – colorful, bright, and happy. It was a good week.

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Project Life is a memory-keeping system created by Becky Higgins. I’m embarking on this year-long project to document all my memories in 2014. You can see my other Project Life posts here.

Project Life 2014 | week 13

26 November 2014

Finally, some Project Life spreads.

I had the photos and cards ready to go for awhile now since our catch-up on Project Life challenge earlier this year, but I finally had time to add the finishing pieces and journaling. I’m sharing week 13 today, and I’ll be sharing the rest of the completed spreads in the coming weeks.

Week of: 24 to 30 March, 2014

What happened this week: Nothing too exciting happened during the week, except a commendation email from my professor, which I included a screenshot of. But we had lots of food, fun and family over the weekend.

Left-hand side

Techniques: Round about days from Paislee Press and the same technique of stamping on photos.

Right-hand side

Oh, I do love Nutella. And I think the gold heart and vellum circle might be my favorite part of this week’s spread.

More gold MAMBI stickers on photos – yay!

Thoughts: Working on this spread (and the rest of them) made me so happy to have these memories from earlier this year documented. And although I still have so much to catch up on, I remind myself that at least it’s progress. Plus, remembering how much I love this project is huge motivation for me to keep going even when it feels overwhelming and daunting at times.

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Project Life is a memory-keeping system created by Becky Higgins. I’m embarking on this year-long project to document all my memories in 2014. You can see my other Project Life posts here.

Project Life | 12 tips for catching up

7 October 2014

Back in August, Olya and I embarked on a two-week #letscatchuponprojectlife challenge to catch up on more than twenty weeks of Project Life. Spoiler: we didn’t catch up on twenty weeks of Project Life spreads. Instead, we made progress and pushed forward in our documenting.

During those two weeks, I learned some things that I’m planning to continue doing, so I (eventually) finish documenting the year. Because I’m absolutely determined not to give up on this project (unlike how I did last time).

Here are some things I’ve learned from Project Life catch-up:

1. Remember that the memories preserved are worth documenting,
(even if that means catching up on twenty weeks’ worth of spreads).

Each time I flip through my album and look at the completed spreads, I get motivated to continue with Project Life because so many precious memories are preserved that would otherwise have been lost or forgotten.

2. Forget perfection.

Not every spread will be perfect. And that’s okay. No one’s going to notice that the colors of my Project Life cards aren’t perfectly matching or that I could have chosen better embellishments. Instead, just pick what works, what you’re happy with and move on. There’s still plenty to do! After all, you could spend hours trying to find that perfect embellishment/card and still not find it in the end. Embrace imperfection as part of the memories and the process. Because that’s exactly the way real life is.

3. Keep things simple.

This is in the same vein as the previous point. I like to limit my stash to a certain number of supplies/embellishments so I need to make fewer decisions, which means things are kept simple. No need to over-complicate things.

4. Write things down because you WILL forget.

As much as I like to think that I will remember what happened last week, I won’t and I don’t. (Sometimes, I don’t even remember what I had for lunch. #truth) So the next best thing is to write things down so I can refer to them when I work on my spreads later on.

5. Be diligent in the little things.

For me, that means regularly importing photos onto my computer, recording our weekly happenings, and slotting memorabilia into the respective weeks as I collect them.

6. Stay focused.

Keep your end goal in mind and don’t let yourself get distracted by the less important details.

7. Work in batches.

This continues to be such a HUGE life-saver for me. Working in batches means planning multiple spreads in advance, editing my photos all at once, printing large numbers of photos, and slotting photos and paper in once I get everything together (I typically spread this out over several days). This works in contrast to working on one spread at a time and having to repeatedly sort/edit/print/journal/etc. for each week.

8. Don’t procrastinate.

The more you procrastinate, the more your weeks will accumulate.

9. Instead, do the next thing.

Don’t let yourself be stressed out by the overwhelming number of things you need to do or weeks you have to catch-up on. Rather, choose one thing to start doing and just do it!

10. Find out what works for you and do it.

Situations won’t always be ideal, but work around what you have. For me, I print at our local photo shop instead of at home and use only Design A page protectors instead of having a variety.

11. Have a plan of action.

If that means finding accountability with friends online or in real life, do it. If that means planning things out like this, do it. If that means sketching out your spreads beforehand, do it.

12. Don’t fall behind.

I know this one sounds so obvious. But it’s true. Once you get caught up, stay current! But if you fall behind (like me), just refer to all the points mentioned above 🙂

What other tips do you have for catching up on Project Life or staying current? Share them in the comments below!

P.S. You can also read about my Project Life catch-up progress here.

Project Life 2014 | week 12

26 August 2014

Week of: 17 to 23 March 2014

What happened this week: In contrast with the week before, this week was pretty routine. It seems like there’s a trend with one week being pretty exciting(ish), and the week after being a little quieter. But I’m totally fine with that.

That said, some highlights this week included new scrapbook supplies (yay!) and a lovely letter from Vanessa.

Left-hand side

For some reason, I kinda love those gold stars in the corner of the bottom left photo.

Techniques: On the left-hand side, I used embroidery thread and hand-stitched a border along the heart-shaped card in the middle row. I also stapled a Roundabout days tag to the middle of the top right photo.

Right-hand side

I included the “Thankful” sticker from MAMBI because I thought it made a good combination with Vanessa’s beautiful handwriting of Robert Downey Jr’.’s quote, “There is unpanned gold in every soul you run into.” (She also has a free printable of it here.)

I stapled a wood veneer star onto a 3×4 card from Amy Tangerine’s Cut and Paste collection.

And more gold stickers on photos.

Thoughts: No photos of people this week but I still love how this spread came together. I think kraft and gold make a pretty good combination.

So glad that week 12 is in the books!

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Project Life is a memory-keeping system created by Becky Higgins. I’m embarking on this year-long project to document all my memories in 2014. You can see my other Project Life posts here.

Project Life 2014 | week 11

21 August 2014

Week of: 10 to 16 March 2014

What happened this week: Quite a few highlights this week, including visiting my friend’s brand-new baby girl, my photo being featured on Becky Higgin’s Instagram feed (that’s a highlight, right?), having dinner with my parents and friends, and finally removing the probation plate off the car for good!

Techniques: No earth-shattering new techniques this week. But stamping on photos is still my go-to technique when there’s empty space on a photo. Also, I trimmed a 3×4 Project Life card to make a journaling spot in the bottom left-hand corner.

Left-hand side

Right-hand side

Thoughts: The Studio Calico printable labels made an appearance this week. But overall, I’m still going with my familiar favorites – wood veneers, gold, washi tape, and stamps. Doesn’t get old.

I still have plenty of catching up to do, but I’m plodding right along with this project.

In case you missed it, I shared my Project Life catch-up progress here earlier this week.

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Project Life is a memory-keeping system created by Becky Higgins. I’m embarking on this year-long project to document all my memories in 2014. You can see my other Project Life posts here.

Project Life 2014 | catch-up progress

19 August 2014

Last week, I shared in this post about catching up on twenty weeks of Project Life in two weeks. Sounds pretty crazy, I know. Daunting as it sounds, part of the inspiration and motivation has come from scrolling through the #letscatchuponprojectlife hashtag on Instagram and seeing so many of you do this together.

This past weekend, I turned the plan into action and I spent about six hours pushing paper. I would’ve spent more time if I had more to spare. But alas, the weekend went by so quickly.

During the week prior to the weekend, I spent my free evenings planning my spreads, sorting through photos, editing, and compiling my week in reviews. On Friday, I sent the photos off to print at my local printer and got them back the same day.

So all I had to do this weekend was trim the photos, add them to the respective spreads, and choose paper to match. I don’t know if six hours is a long time to be just choosing paper for nine layouts. It probably is, considering all I had to do was just slot things in and the fact that all the spreads aren’t even actually complete.

But boy, I had so much fun pushing paper, you wouldn’t believe it. I’m totally in love with scrapbooking and this project. I was so absorbed in it all that I didn’t even have time to photograph the mess.

With the exception of week 14, I currently have the papers and photos for week 13 to 22 complete. That said, I am by no means ready to call these spreads done, but the skeleton is there with the photos and papers picked out. Now I just need to go back and add my weekly title cards, journaling and embellishments.

I don’t know how well I’ll do with the catch-up plan this week, since I’m starting a new term and have a full workload at school this fall. But I hope the inspiration I received this weekend is sufficient motivation for me to press on to completion.

How are you doing with your Project Life catch-up? We’re in this together so let’s keep pressing on!

P.S. If you need more inspiration and motivation for catching up on Project Life, Caylee, Olya, and Lauren all have some great tips to help you out!

Project Life 2014 | week 10

12 August 2014

Please forgive the less-than-stellar photos this week, especially the slanted images. It slays my inner OCD-self but I haven’t been able to re-photograph them. I’ll do better next time, promise!

Week of: 3 to 9 March 2014

What happened this week: In contrast with last week, this week was a lot quieter – filled with more “routine” things, but still memorable, nevertheless.

Techniques: On the left-hand side, I used the “Blessed” MAMBI sticker as a “statement piece” on a 4×6 card because the bold text helped to balance out the photo-heavy right-hand side. I think that might be my favorite part about this week.

On the right-hand side, I used a piece of vellum + a MAMBI gold sticker (love those!) over several screenshots of WhatsApp conversations that I wanted to remember.

Left-hand side

The striped yellow and orange polka dot patterned papers are from We R Memory Keeper’s Inked Rose collection, and the bottom right 4×6 card is from Amy Tangerine’s Cut and Paste collection.

I made a flap to hold extra food photos from all the yumminess that was consumed this week. The notebook patterned paper is from Kelly Purkey’s Mon Ami collection.

Right-hand side

AmeliaWrites-PLweek10

That green card and “Daily Routine” sticker is also Amy Tangerine.

I couldn’t stop using the gold MAMBI stickers – so good.

Thoughts: For some reason, I like the collection of photos I amassed this week. Something about the ordinary things makes them special.

And those gold MAMBI stickers and gold Studio Calico chipboard shapes definitely drew me in this week. I had to stop myself from going overboard with those. (But really, can you actually ever go overboard with the gold? I really want to know.)

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Project Life is a memory-keeping system created by Becky Higgins. I’m embarking on this year-long project to document all my memories in 2014. You can see my other Project Life posts here.

Project Life 2014 | catching up on 20 weeks of Project Life in 2 weeks

11 August 2014

A couple of months back, I shared my plan for catching up on Project Life. Since then, I’ve made some (small) progress. But now, I’m also about ~~twenty~~ TWENTY weeks behind!

That said, this week is where all the talk stops and the action starts as Miss Olya and I commit to catching up on our spreads in the next two weeks. Maybe this sounds a little crazy, I know. I think so too. In fact, I’m both a little nervous and terrified if I will actually be able to keep up with this. But we’re going to keep each other accountable and pull through this, never to be this far behind on Project Life again.

I’m pretty sure we’re not the only ones this far behind so please join us as we challenge ourselves. I’m looking forward to seeing all the progress with the #letscatchuponprojectlife hashtag on Instagram. Olya even made these rad looking Project Life printables, which are the perfect reminders and encouragement boost.

Thanks to Olya, here’s the plan that we’ll be following in the next couple of weeks:

image by Olya Schmidt

I’ve never been fully “caught up” on Project Life before, so I’m excited to get this over and done with once and for all. No more nagging feelings on being behind.

We’re making this happen from today, August 11 until August 24.

And I’m so excited to see where all this takes us.

Things I’ll do the same

Things I’ll do differently

1. Remember that the memories preserved are worth documenting, (even if that means catching up on twenty weeks’ worth of spreads).

2. Forget perfection.

3. Keep things simple.

4. Write things down because you WILL forget.

5. Be diligent in the little things.

6. Stay focused.

7. Work in batches.

8. Don’t procrastinate.

9. Instead, do the next thing.

10. Find out what works for you and do it.

11. Have a plan of action.

12. Don’t fall behind.

1. Remember that the memories preserved are worth documenting,
(even if that means catching up on twenty weeks’ worth of spreads).