My Project Life Process right now.

I know, I know! It's January 2014 and I've only just completed November 2013. 

But don't get excited, because that's the only month I have completed for 2013!

Now moving onto September 2013...here's what it looks like so far.

I am happy to report my Project Life process has been reviewed, revised and refined...and repeat.

Today I'm sharing my process (read: strategy) to complete 2013 by the end of February. That's my aim. I will keep you posted on how it pans out.

Those of you who are regular visitors to my blog (thank you!!) will know I have been working on layouts of my boys as babies. That is still rolling along but my focus for Jan/Feb is completing 2013. And you may also know I primarily do monthly or event spreads.

So this is what I'm doing right now.

HOW I ORGANISE MY PHOTOS ON THE COMPUTER?

I have a folder for each month, and then sub-folders within those. The folders with day_month_year are from my camera, and then I have a folder for photos from my phone, and my husband's phone.


HOW I DECIDE WHAT LAYOUTS TO DO? 

Step 1: Events
Firstly, I will work on events from the month. For example, our afternoon at Bribie Island, or putting up the Christmas tree -- anything where I have taken a series of photos from the one day.

Step 2: Monthly Overview
Once the event/s for the month are accounted for, I move onto selecting the photos for my monthly spread/s. It could be 1 x double page layout, 2 x double page layouts, or just the one page. 

I prefer the flexibility of monthly spreads because I don't feel the pressure to have sufficient photos for every week, or to have a two page spread every single week.

Step 3: Individual page for the kiddies
Once I have completed the event and monthly overview pages, I work on the overprints and the "highly commended" photos.

The "overprints" are the photos that I have printed twice (mostly because the colour was out, or I forgot to print with a border). 

The "highly commended" photos are ones I really like of the boys which I was not able to include in the monthly overview spread. 

These handful of photos go into the boys' albums as a single page layout dedicated purely to them. Here I will include details of their school excursions, drawings they have done, quirky quotes and any other details I want to record.

Here's a look at what I've done for the pages in the boys' individual albums for the Nov 2013. 

The focus was on getting the photos into pockets and telling the story. 


Here's a close up of the journalling. 

STAMPS: Kellie Stamps (Photo Bomb). Dear Lizzy roller date stamp.

That's my process for now.  I'm happy to say it's proving productive, and I'm having fun -- no pressure, just keeping the documenting wheels in motion. 

What's your Project Life or memory keeping process right now? Would love to hear about it if you would like to leave a comment and share.

That's it from me today, thanks again for stopping by! xx

This week's crafty learnings.

Whenever I scrap, I always learn something new. It could be about my own scrapping "style", or I tweak my memory-keeping approach. Or maybe I find a new way to do something, or I find a new technique to try. 

Today I'm sharing my learnings from this week.

1. Finish one event/month for both boys before starting pages for a new event/month.

Because I am scrapping photos from many years ago, I like to gather the prints from the one event/month and then divide them into a pile for Isaac's album, and one for Jacob's album.

I will then complete the layout for one child before moving on to the other child's album. This way, I feel less overwhelmed and have a sense of completion after each spread.


2. Make your own patterned paper with stamps

This was a fun one. Choose a couple of stamps you like, arrange them on a clear block and away you go. 

Here, I have used the cutlery stamps from Amy Tangerine's Ready Set Go stamp set.

Here, I used the Currently mini stamp set from Give a Girl a... the cutest colon stamp I've ever seen!

3. Better alignment with DIY pull-tabs when using double-sided tape

This may not be news for many of you, but I only discovered it a few days ago. I'm a shocker for sticking things down crooked, but this little trick helped me heaps.

I adhered the double sided tape onto my photo/tag. I then peeled back approx 2cm of the backing, and folded it back to create a pull-tab for when I flipped the photo/tag over.

The pull-tabs acted as a "spring" so the photo didn't stick unless i applied pressure. This allowed me to position the photo/tag until it was to my liking.

Then I held the the photo in place with one hand, pulled one of the tabs to fully remove the adhesive backing to stick it down, and did the same to the rest of the tabs. This really helped minimise crooked photos etc. (those pudgy little hands are Jake's)

I'm so happy to have completed the Christmas pages for the boys. Now I can move onto another month!

Why not try making your own stamped background -- the possibilities are endless! 

Have a great weekend everyone, and thanks for visiting xx