Project Life Update | January Part 1

Hello again!

If you've stayed with me this long, I thank you! If you are just joining me, hello to you as well! Happy you are here and happy to be sharing my Project Life pages for January. Specifically, my January introduction page and weeks 1 and 2.

Yes, I realize this is March! Life's been busy and my mantra with this blog and Project Life or any memory keeping projects is simple…live life first. So, while I may get pages completed (and let's face it--that's a huge accomplishment for me); I don't always get them photographed and blogged. But I digress.

So, here we go. First up is my January introduction page. I basically do these because 1. I love them. 2. I love the calendars and the monthly review. 3. It helps give context and organization to my album. 4. The right hand side gives me a place for a longer story/personality page/fave photos roundup, as found in our eBook, Project Dig Deep. And finally, the biggest reason is number 5. Because when I get behind with the "weekly" approach, I can always just forget the week in review and do them by month. My back-up plan so to speak. Anyways, I love it.

Title page is a free download from Persnickety Prints found here. January month in review card and weekly review cards are from Tracy Larsen, found here. (I think she is working on a 4x6 version--I just tweaked mine to 4x6 in Photoshop Elements.) Quote card is from the teen theme pack, I think, from Becky Higgins Project Life® found here. Calendar from Paislee Press found here.

And on to week 1. Here is where I use the majority of the Collect Photo App cards. For more information and a tutorial, see my prior post here.

I have a title card, a quote from my daughter and a week in review card each week. I love having a design plan, a place for these cards to go. It takes the decision making and agonizing over what goes in what pocket so much simpler. Yes, if you do Project Life as originally designed, this is done for you. But even then, there were too many decisions for me. I've gotten faster, but I cannot tell you how much I love having some pages pre-planned. Because I'm ordering out my photos and it can take a month before I get enough to send out, I really like having a plan for where these go.

Here is the main "spread" for week 1. (spread meaning left side + right side). This was January 1-5. Welcoming the new year, enjoying New Year's Day and the weekend together. Pretty much a magical start to the year.

I decided to add a "Maggie Quote" each week instead of a different quote card. She's saying so many funny things now, I just want a way to remember some of them. I'm using a Paislee Press card that I tweaked to make it work. Find that here.

And on to week 2: January 6-12. Decided to clean up my bedroom/scraproom. It's a bit overwhelming and only somewhat better, but at least it helped get me going for the year. I changed up some of my table for a cleaner look. Goodbye avocado green, hello mint green thanks to cute boxes from Ikea.

And I had to include a little extra bit about Torchy's Tacos. Seriously yummy and "damn good" as they call them. Maggie loves that "baby Jack Jack wears a diaper." (she's a bit of an Incredibles fan)

As for products, I'm using a kit I pulled together from my physical and digital stash. Lots of Paislee Press papers I made into title cards, cards from Midnight and Seafoam, cards from Dear Lizzy kits. Basically neutrals with pops of mint and pinks/corals. I'm calling it the Mint kit. Totally nothing official, just having fun with it and my goal is to use my stash more this year. I'm also still subscribing to the Studio Calico Project Life kit. That cute "Love This" card is from their January kit, Copper Mountain.

If you have any questions for me, just ask below. Am happy to help!

Also, I am thrilled that Big Picture Classes is running our class Project Life Lessons again! I teach it along with Megan Anderson and Elise Blaha Cripe. Both of these ladies are completely amazing and I'm honored to be teaching with them. 

About the class: it's three weeks long and we each share our processes, tips and tricks, along with ideas for improving your Project Life® processes in each of these main categories: photos, journaling and creating Project Life® layouts. It's fun, we have videos and downloads for each week (handouts for content + free cards you can use in your album.) There is also a Pre-Class, which is available immediately upon purchase of the class. It's packed. Seriously packed. I've taken lots of classes so I know! :) 

The awesome thing is that there is an early bird discount available until March 12th. (price will go up from the discounted $30 rate to the regular $45 rate the morning of March 13th.) So really, grab it before then!! You could buy a mini kit with the savings! :)

Class begins April 17th and I hope to see you there! 

To find out more info and to sign up, click here.

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