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Can I start a Project Life Now?

sarahme85

sarahme85

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Jul 17, 2012
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I knew about it, but I didn't have the time really to start comprehending it.

If I do start - where do I start?
 
Sorry, you have to start in January, you're too late. :/

Heehee, just kidding - I'm actually not the scrapbooking police. I guess the first thing you should decide is if you are going to do it traditionally or digitally. You can find the traditional Project Life stuff from Becky Higgins on amazon - she's also got a digital line at Jessica Sprague's site. Although I like Becky Higgins stuff, I decided to do it digitally and I've just been using plastic pocket pages like these from Valorie Wibbens (here at the pad) and other stuff from my own stash.
 
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so those by valorie are actually DIGITAL page protectors - would you need a background paper??
 
I'm thinking I will start... most definitely. I take a lot of cell phone pics and based on the sizes of the journal cards and sleeve spaces. I could probably take my photos from my phone's memory card and date them back to the start of the year and go from there. Keeping it simple and focusing on the cool journal cards and even do quotes, scriptures, lyrics or anything to fill in where my memory might go blank.

This is exciting!
 
I planned on doing it this year and still haven't started :whistle. Maybe we should encourage each other.
 
I started last year at the end of September. Of course I got done through the end of November and then fizzled out. Picked it back up in January and it didn't last long. It's not because it's not easy or fun...too many CT commitments on my end. I can't do PL layouts for every assignment KWIM?

I say start when you are excited and go for it. I've tried digital and traditional. They both have their challenges. Keeping a journal and some way to organize any mementos if you go traditional helped me a lot. I used an accordian folder and made a slot for each week. I could put little things I collected for my traditional pages in that week's slot along with little notes I wrote myself. Then on Sundays I would try to put it all together. The going to the store to pick up the pictures got kinda tiresome - but honestly I love my pages and I'm going to kick myself in the butt and start doing it again the first week of school.

So go baby go....Just do it! Be rebel...start this week. :)
 
Of course you can start right now! It's always the right moment to start documenting the day-to-day little things. If you use Val's digi protector, you can use a neutral background, or even leave it white if you want. Here are a few examples by Debra:
 
Heathergw has lots of digital PL pages posted as well for inspiration.

Mine is physical page protectors but the pockets are filled 90% with photos or printed journaling cards. I have one of the BH core kits but only use the cards rarely. I find it easy to type the journaling on the photos or on cards. Perhaps, it's because I can say more typed.

I say go for it! It doesn't have to be a week by week thing so you wouldn't have to try to recreate exact weeks if you were going to go back in time. Maybe you only go back to the beginning of summer and start there...
 
Stacy, when you print your cards (like those in the shop) what do you print on, white card stock? Could I print on an 8 1/2 x 11 piece of card stock and print? What do you use to cut them out? How do you get the pretty rounded corners? Don't they have rounded corner punches? I don't think I'm quite ready for a cricut thing yet, lol. Don't have enough time to devote to paper crafts just yet :)
 
When I decided to do PL, I splurged on an Epson Picture Mate Charm (found a deal for right around $115 for it) because I knew that if I had any chance of keeping up with it I had to print the photos at home. The Charm only prints 4x6 and it had really good ratings. I've been using all year and I think I'm on my third pack of ink/paper. I print the cards on the photo paper just like the photos but I know of plenty of people who put several journaling cards on an 8 1/2 x 11 sheet of cardstock when they have enough and print them that way.

I use Designs by Lili 4x6 templates to do photo collages and to put my journaling cards on there to print so I can cut them in two.

"Santa" also bought me a Crop a Dile corner chomper from Joann's with a coupon so that I could round out the corners.

http://store.scrapbook.com/wr-70904-6.html

Other than that, I have some paper flowers and some of those little word art stickers that I use on the physical cards. I might use flowers etc on one card per week, the rest is all printed stuff.
 
wicked, i just noticed you lived in central florida! i'm over on the west coast :) thanks for all the tips. I'm going to have fun researching different techniques. I'm think quite possibly doing a mix between digi and traditional because digi would be quicker, and traditional would feed my need for texture and depth!
 
sarahme85 said:
Stacy, when you print your cards (like those in the shop) what do you print on, white card stock? Could I print on an 8 1/2 x 11 piece of card stock and print? What do you use to cut them out? How do you get the pretty rounded corners? Don't they have rounded corner punches? I don't think I'm quite ready for a cricut thing yet, lol. Don't have enough time to devote to paper crafts just yet :)
Click to expand...

I print stuff out for PL all the time. It really depends on what is available to you. You could totally print out the cards on white card stock with a few on the page. A lot of the time though I print mine out on photo paper at my local walmart. Printing everything all in one place is easier for me. For my rounded corner's I've been using a punch by EKSuccess. I don't have a link for you sorry. I bought mine a gazillion years ago, but oddly enough I have been seeing a ton of PL people using it. Check out http://cathyzielske.typepad.com/my_weblog/Cathy Zielske's Blog, she uses it and links to it in all her PL posts.

Be sure and share when you start your PL. We would all love to see it!
 
You can start wherever you are. I've been doing Project 365 for 4 years now. 3 years I just took photos every day (yes every single day). It comes into habit especially when I have my iphone and regular point and shoot camera with me. I carry it everywhere. Daily or weekly depending on my time I upload my photos to my blog and journal about my day. I do all mine digitally. I have printed up 2009, 2010. I just ordered my 2011 book (had to wait for a sale as they can be expensive to print up digitally). Of course, working on 2012 but this time I am doing it project life format. If you look at my gallery you will see that the pages this year have so much more journaling on them. I use the one format each week sometimes rotating it or stretching out the squares to fit bigger photos to highlight them. Last week I sat down with my kids and we looked at 2009 and 2010 to see what we were doing on a particular day. It's pretty neat to see and they were very excited to see it.

I am also doing a mini book 4 x 6 weekly postcard type also digitally. You can see those pages in my gallery. They are listed as week 1, week 2, etc. These get printed out like regular photographs and inserted into a regular photo album that has top and bottom. I also from time to time make cards or 4 x 6 art work journaling things that I insert into my book. It's like a mini version of project life. My kids each have a book as well and we are doing it together. You can see my gallery here.

Good luck.
 
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