I'm (once again) trying Project Life this year, but as a single person with no kids, I feel as if my pocket pages get a little stale. I want to do something to try and shake it up a bit, but I don't know how to do that. I already know that each week will have the same two cards: A title card and a "Countdown to Hamilton" card. Other than that any tips would be helpful. I never seem to like my weekly project life layouts (I stick mostly to major events as those are the only pages to get printed) and I think it's because they all begin to look the same. Anyone have any insights or tips to keeping it fresh? Thanks!
Do you add things like screenshots from social media, shows your watching, new clothes you bought, maybe just more little things to change it up
Have you considered a monthly spread? That way you don't feel the pressure to FILL every week. OR, you could fill your weeks with fun quotes or art journaling that you create. Love the screenshot idea. Maybe a video of the week as well... with a QR code?
Thanks for the ideas. I have a bunch of general "currently" cards that I just made for fillers like reading, watching, scrapping. Then I have this week on: Pinterest, Instagram and Facebook. I also have a list of movies I've seen over the week. I wish I was decent at art journaling. I'm pretty bad at it, actually. Haha I think I'm going to peruse pinterest too for ideas.
@krscraps A countdown to Hamilton??? When are you going? I just got tickets for February for my birthday and I can't wait!! I use the template maker actions by Mommyish and I'm going to pick up the new set for my 2017 pages so I can use a big photo or two to stretch my content vs. having to fill lots of little pockets. To add to your regular cards you listed, I also like to have a calendar card each week, it helps me when I want to go back and look up specific time periods in my printed books. I'm the queen of random photos when it comes to PL... I snap tons of random photos throughout the week, just in case I need filler with PL. They're just anything I find interesting. For example... the other day my daughter and I were walking down the street and came across a little cardboard flying super hero guy lying in the street, it was kind of random and cool, so I snapped a quick pic with my phone. I may or may not actually use it on my spread for that week, but I would rather weed out extra photos than not have enough. So maybe an idea is to just look around you with fresh eyes as you go through your week... you never know what you might find!
How about just picking one theme or event each week to scrap about? So week 1's page might be about a visit to a special location. Week 2 might be about a special person. Week 3 might be about a new recipe you made that week. Not planned ahead. Just whatever day you scrap once a week, look back over the week and choose something you want to record.
@tkradtke August 26th is the day for me. It was the first opening I could find to get tickets. I have a countdown going until then... not that I'm excited or anything. Haha. The first few weeks are usually easy for me, it's once I get into mid-February that I struggle with it. We'll see what comes of it.
I love the idea of themes per week. prices of things like staples in my shopping basket routines, products I use how many loads of washing what I carry with me where I stand in the news
I actually like the repetition from week to week. I know @tkradtke does (or used) to take pics of her kids every week in the same spot outside her house. Maybe you could do that out your front door or a window in your house? Then it's repetitious but, of course, also changes with the seasons. You could take a selfie every week or take a photo of your favorite outfit for the week. If I were single with no kids, I would probably do PL monthly and then do 'inserts' (putting smaller configs of pockets on a white canvas so once the page/album is printed, you cut off the white part & then it looks like an insert in a paper album) when some kind of special event/occasion rolled around.
I think I would do a photo-a-day challenge to remind me to take photos of new things. I follow the Fat Mum Slim photo a day lists. I don't always do them, but just having them handy gives me inspiration to get some different kinds of photos when I have a free second. I still try to keep it "relevant" to my daily life within the theme. Another possibility would be to work in some AAM journaling. Like, leading up to holidays, you could add some older photos and journaling about favorite holidays or family traditions in the past. Or in the fall, add some "back to school" memories. Life and memory is a continuum, after all. Come to think of it, I might do some of that myself!
What format are you using? 12x12? 2 Page spread each week? Just curious...as it might help me brainstorm for you a bit. One year I used a calendar card that had space for me to sort of write out my daily agenda... that was kind of cool in retrospect. Also, keeping track of your "currently" items is a great idea! What are you watching, reading, loving to eat, etc. I agree that a photo challenge might be a good way to get some creative inspiration. One of my favorite things when trying to keep things fresh is to look at things on a more micro level - the zoomed in details of the everyday stuff in life. (Think like, zoomed in on baby toes for baby photos, etc)... sometimes a completely different perspective can at least break up the monotony of including similar things week after week. And I agree with Jen - maybe don't put yourself in a box that makes you do a full spread, or even 12x12 for each week... what about a more fluid approach like @tkradtke is taking, where your photos and story telling are just added chronologically rather than in week blocks? These are just a few ideas I can think of to throw out there for now.
I am not familiar with the template maker. I only started to use Just Jamie's pocket templates. I might need to look at that!
