Project Life 2016: Week 5

And now on to week 5...

Supplies:
Template - Pocket Template Maker by Mommyish
Obsession by Just Jaimee and Studio Basic
February 2016 Storyteller by Just Jaimee
February 2016 Storyteller Stacked Pocket Cards by Just Jaimee and Erin W.
Storyteller 2016 Month Calendar Card by Just Jaimee

Project Life 2016: Week 4

On to week 4... everyone was healthy this week!

Healthy and very busy with lots of performances...

Supplies:
Template - Pocket Template Maker by Mommyish
Alpha - January 2016 Storyteller by Just Jaimee
Storyteller 2016 Calendar Card by Just Jaimee
Everything else - February 2016 Storyteller by Just Jaimee

Project Life 2016: Week 3

Clara had had a great school year up until this point with not being sick or injured.  This was our first big ordeal.  Clara started throwing up in the middle of the night, and since she had complained of a sore throat the day before, I assumed strep.  Made an appointment to see the doctor first thing in the morning and had no clue that we would be sent straight to the ER (not strep).  Her heart rate was way too high and they needed to get it down (assumption was that it was due to dehydration).  We spent the day in the ER getting her rehydrated, which would have gone much smoother if it hadn't taken 5 tries and an ultrasound machine to finally get a vein for the IV.

Here's our week 3...

Supplies:
Template - Pocket Template Maker by Mommyish
Highlights word art - Year in Review by Just Jaimee and Mommyish
Storyteller 2016 Calendar Card by Just Jaimee
Everything else - February 2016 Storyteller by Just Jaimee

Project Life 2016: Week 2

I'm not sure why, but this year has been a struggle.  Both with keeping up with project life and with posting here.  I just listed out all of the layouts/spreads I have to post and I do have 22 to post... sounds like a lot, but I'm still behind (and I don't even want to think about the fact that I haven't finished 2015 yet).  BUT, the good news is that I'm loving my PL plan this year, I really like the way it looks.  I just think that being behind is what's weighing on me.  Once I get closer to caught up (and maybe finishing up 2015), my motivation levels will change.  I think my issue is that the more I document, the more I want to document.  I want EVERYTHING scrapped and in books, it makes it hard to stay focused sometimes.

So today I'm going to spend a little time getting some blog posts done!  Here's week 2....

Supplies:
Template - Pocket Template Maker by Mommyish
Calendar - Storyteller 2016 3x4 Month Calendar by Just Jaimee
Everything else - February 2016 Storyteller by Just Jaimee

Project Life 2016: Week 1

Aaarrrggghhhh... I still can't decide what to call my posts this year.  Isn't that crazy?  It's such a minor thing, but it's really bugging me.  I have changed the title several times now... curious to see which one I land on.  My overall project is called our Family Yearbook, but my weekly pages are the most traditional project life pages that I've done since the first year.  So, my current thought is to call my posts with my weekly spread Project Life and call all other posts relating to my book Family Yearbook.  We'll see if this sticks.

So after all of that nonsense, here is my week one...

Now, the info on the product that changed my project life world... the Pocket Template Maker Actions by Mommyish.  I'm totally in love!  So many possibilities, so easy to use and the clean look I was going for this year.  It does take a little effort to create a template from scratch each time, but I'm finding that takes no more time than trying to fit photos into a template that doesn't quite work.  Now I just open up the photos I want to use, go through them one by one and create a "pocket" in the size and orientation that I need.

Here are the rest of my supplies (links on pinterest)...

Family Yearbook 2016: Week 0

Wow!  I can't believe that I didn't post one single time during the month of January!  January is usually one of my heavier posting months, as I always start out the year with good intentions and can be a little over ambitious.  This year had a bit of a rough start on the scrapping front.  It wasn't until a couple weeks into 2016, before I really figured out my direction for this year.

Not long after my last post, I saw that Cathy Zielske had released a new set of clean and simple templates that could be used for project life.  I was drawn to them and the clean look, so I immediately bought all of the 12x12 sets and declared them my templates for 2016.  I did one set of pages and called them week one.

That was all fine and good, until week 2.  I couldn't make it work.  Just not enough choices yet (I'm assuming that she will continue to add options to this collection).  I was seriously stuck.  I lamented about it at The LilyPad and was immediately steered toward the product that would change my Project Life world!  But that information will have to wait until my next post.

Now what to do with my original week one?  I could redo it completely with the new templates, or I could figure out a way to make it work in my book.  So, since this year's book is supposed to be a mix of styles along with my project life pages, I decided to leave these pages mostly alone.  I did take out the week one card and replaced it with the "bring on 2016" one.  This was questionable as a week anyway since it was only 2 days.  The main reason for my delay in posting is because, although I have completed other spreads for this year, I just now made the adjustments to this spread this morning.  I was a little distracted this month, as I participated (and finished!) the Month of Challenges at The LilyPad... thirty one pages/projects in 31 days!  It was so much fun, but I'm looking forward to some downtime to get caught back up on a few things like posting here.

So, after all of that rambling, here is week 0 (not sure what else to call it)...

Also to add to my confusion this year... I'm not sure what to call my posts.  I had decided on Family Yearbook, but now I'm not so sure.  That's the title for my actual book, but I may title my project life page posts as project life again.  Hmmm.... I just don't know!!

Supplies (links on pinterest):

Family Yearbook 2016: Title Page and Plan

I'm still here!  The holidays got the best of me and I'll keep working to catch up with my posting.

So, it's that time again!  Time for a new project life plan.  I didn't make any real significant changes in past years, but this year I'm shaking things up a bit more.

I think my title page speaks to a bit of it...

So here are my changes for 2016:

1. I am no longer calling my project "project life", it's now our family yearbook (more on that in a bit).
2. I'm no longer limiting myself to one template set per year (crazy, I know!). 
3. I'm going back towards the original PL plan with my weekly spreads.  No extra pages, just a two page spread summary of our week.  My weeks got too complicated and too big in 2015, I didn't like the flow of them and I lost all motivation to work on them when all of my weeks were turning into obnoxiously long 8-10 page spreads.
4. So, the point above might make one think that I'm going against my "scrap all the photos" philosophy of last year, but that's not the case.  This is why this is now a yearbook vs. a project life book.  Each week will have a project life spread, but behind that spread will be scrapped pages of any photos/events that need more space.  My project life page will serve as an index, so to speak.  Why do this?  Well... this year my weeks got out of control and when they got out of control, they got really weird.  For example, in December I had a week (which I haven't posted yet or finished for that matter) where Clara had a dance performance on Friday night where I took lots of photos and then we had a one photo event on Saturday.  The flow ended up being a two page spread of dance photos with a random single event photo tacked onto the end.  I don't like that. It bugs me.  So now, a photo representing the dance performance and the one other event photo will go on the PL page and a spread with the rest of the dance photos will go behind.  These extra pages will probably still be pocket pages, but I'll have more freedom with my template choices and I'll get the chance to play with more fun, themed kits.  The one thing I need to watch though is keeping these extra pages an even number.  If this ends up being a problem, I may split the projects into two... with a PL book and a book of the other pages.

Things that are staying the same:

1. I am still printing these as 12x12 photo books from Shutterfly.  I will print multiple times a year again.  Three times worked well last year, but I might up it to quarterly depending on how many extra pages I'm adding.
2. Ideally I would like to pick one template set for the year for the PL spreads in my book (I know I said above that I wasn't going to limit myself, but that was for the book in general, this is for my PL spreads specifically).  This was my plan, I even bought a whole new set of templates when they were on sale.  I see people using these templates all of the time and I LOVE the look.  However, I sat down to use them on my title page and I just. couldn't. do. it.  Sigh.  It was another case of a style that I admire and love to look at, just not working with the way I scrap.  I was having huge internal battles with myself just trying to make a title page... I couldn't do that to myself for a whole year.  So, now I'm on the hunt for a new set to use all year (suggestions welcome!).  The template I ended up using is one I bought for my extra pages, but it worked well here and buys me some time to find a new year long set.
3. I would like to have a set journaling font like I did last year.  That worked out really well for me.  I'm not 100% sure, but I think I'm going to be using The Sidekick by Heather Joyce. (I tried it out on my title page here)

Hmm... I think that's it!  I'm excited to get started and see how this new plan works!

And as before, I have new pinterest boards set up this year.  One for pages and one for supplies.