This is my last blog post of 2011. Wow! I’m really looking forward to 2012. Lots of goals, as I mentioned the other day…
One thing I’m really excited about is continuing my Project Life. 2011 was my first year doing Project Life, and I fell in love with it very quickly. For 2012, Becky Higgins (and her design team) have outdone themselves with the new designs and updated products.
As one of my most favorite Christmas gifts, I was given the Clementine edition. I realize that there are still a few people who are unfamiliar with Project Life and all it’s awesomeness…and even if you are familiar with it, you may not have seen the new Clementine edition yet.
So, a tour:
This piece of lovliness is the Clementine edition binder in all its glory 🙂 Becky partnered with We R Memory Keepers to make the new binders and they are fantastic. Nice and shiny and sturdy and fabulous!
Here’s the Clementine edition Core Kit – full of goodies! This is the box that holds all the necessities – journaling cards, stickers, and title cards. Here’s a closer look at all of these things:
These cute boxes hold all of your 3″ x 4″ journaling cards.
These are the cards you use to fill one journal card slot on each week’s layout. The cards displayed on the bottom are part of your first and last page layouts.
Here are your title cards, and larger first and last page cards. Aren’t the designs just scrumptious?!
First and last page cards
Title cards – one for each week’s layout.
These are the folded journaling cards. Each card has a design on the front and the back, so you end up with 8 designs to choose from. Use these when you have a little more of a story to tell than will fit on your regular journaling cards.
Here are the stickers – some sheets have the days of the week, both in color and transparent; other sheets have just numbers, again in color and transparent. The orange sheet of stickers is arrows. You can use these on your journaling cards to point to the picture you are writing about, or any other creative way you can think of.
Becky thought of everything! This is inside the binder – it keeps the pages nice and sturdy and helps the book close easier.
I always keep my Becky Higgins boxes – as you can see I’m kind of an addict 🙂 The boxes themselves are super fantastic, too. The big ones in this picture hold all of the keepsakes from my daughter’s school days, from preschool through 3rd grade (she’s in 4th grade now). Not sure what I’ll use the small box for yet, but I’ll think of something!
So now that I’ve unpacked all my goodies, I organized it so it’s easy to grab and go. I got this cute divided fabric tray at Target for $5.99! Shut-up! Yep, $5.99. And it’s the perfect size for all the cards and stuff.
See? Perfect.
Journaling cards here…
Stickers and folded journaling cards here…
And title cards and pen here!
I’ve got a dedicated and organized space for my 2012 Project Life. I’m ready!
Come on 2012!
Happy New Year!
3 Responses
I got a project life last year and never used it. I think it scared me. I don’t know why ii want to do it this year though! How do you do your layouts? One page a week? Does it matter? One a day? Any other tips for me? Thanks for posting this, I needed some motivation!
Hey Jenna! I’m going to respond here and on the blog because I think a lot of people feel the same way you do. Don’t be scared! Project Life is by far the easiest scrapbooking I have ever done.
Personally, for 2011, I did one picture per day and my layouts were weekly. At times it was a lot to keep up with. For 2012, I am going to try for a picure of the day, but I’m not going to be such a stickler about it if I can’t do it. And some days, I just don’t have anything to photograph, or I’m too tired or busy to care!
The cool thing about PL is that you can make it whatever you want. If you want to only put the big moments in there, do that. If you want a picture a day, do that, or one a week…whatever. There is no right way or wrong way to use it.
I have spent countless hours looking at other people’s PL layouts, and to be honest, it can be overwhelming. A lot of real scrapbookers make these amazing layouts that I’m so jealous of, and it makes me feel bad that mine don’t look like that. But when I go back and look at what I have done, I’m happy with it. So make it your own – use other people’s layouts as inspiration, not to beat yourself up over your own.
Here’s a link to a post I did showing some of my layouts: http://onetoughmom.blogspot.com/2011/08/project-life-update.html
I’ll be posting my layouts in 2012 a lot more often. I’d love to see what you do with yours, and we can encourage each other to stick with it. Now that I have completed 2011, I LOVE my first book. It’s so fun to go back and look at the entire year in one album.
I hope this helps Jenna! Thanks so much for stopping by! Happy New Year!
Jenna, approach PL as you would eating an elephant: one bite [day] at a time.
I recommend pre-filling the pages. Why? I started my first PL without pre-filling. OMG. I agonized over my journal card selection each day for two weeks! I realized this was NOT going to work.
So I filled each and every week with the cards – each two-page spread had a title card, filler card, and seven journaling cards. {This year, I spent about two hours before I start using my PL.}
Many people freeze when they pick up a pen to journal. Once I had the journal cards already selected, I pulled one out each night before I went to bed and wrote a sentence or two about something from the day. The card is only 4″ x 3″ – with less space to write since each has a design! I rarely allowed myself to write more. (umm, I can write and write…)
I used 5″ x 7″ lined post-it notes, one per week, to keep track of photos/4×6 fillers. I wrote ‘week’, Sun thru Sat on individual lines – two weeks fit on a sheet. Each day, I jotted a few words to remember the photo. And when I didn’t have the energy to write a card, this served to help me later.
Most Sundays, I would download photos and select and order that week’s prints. I used a one-hour option. I’d pick up the prints, finish any journaling cards, and slap on the day sticker – color on cards, white on photos. And then I’d stick everything in slots and declare the week done!
One day at a time.
One week at a time.
Suddenly, I realized I’d already done 18 weeks. I remember my shock!
I only fell out of the routine the last month. I started mine in Sept 10 when my youngest, twin sons, started their senior year of HS. {That helped with ‘stuff’ – my goal included capturing each last time or graduation-related event. We ordered gowns in OCTOBER!} I knew August would be tough, with one going away and one staying home. Well, June through August also found us dealing first with my father’s cancer diagnosis and then his death in mid-August. So, yes, I have my notes for August. But I haven’t finished the weeks.
One day. One memory. One photo – or cartoon – or receipt from lunch/dinner/groceries – or tag from new clothes – or….
You can do it!
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