Project Life

So, some of you may have listened to my rave reviews and possible obsession with a memory keeping system called Project Life.  Becky Higgins is the creator of this new-age of scrapbooking.  I remember growing up and making scrapbook pages with my mom and my sister, but it would take me hours to complete an entire page.  I would have to get my creative juices flowing, which could sometimes take up to an hour.  In the summer of 2011, I started creating traditional scrapbook pages for our honeymoon, but I think to this day I only completed 2 spreads because I could not figure out what colors, stickers, cut outs, and pictures to use.  Then, I was introduced to Project Life.  It is, without a doubt, the ONLY way I will scrapbook for the rest of my life.  It is for a traditional scrapbooker to the person who keeps all their photos on their computers or in boxes.  All you you need is the following:

That's it!  Can you believe it?!  Sometimes I still don't believe it's that simple.  No need to worry about being creative because Becky provides you with SEVEN different color options! You can choose whichever fits your personality!  You simply place your pictures into the photo pocket pages along with the journaling cards, begin to journal and you're set!  BUT, if you want to be creative, nothing is holding you back.  Isn't that great?!  You can add stickers and embellishments and MORE!  I truly believe this is the most effective way to document your life.  It is quick, easy, and something that a college student, wife, or mother could fit into their busy schedule.

This can be done by events in life, like a family vacation, birthday, anniversary, or sports teams.  The way I addressed my very first Project Life album for the year of 2012 was by week, whether I took 7 photos in one day or 7 photos each day of the week.  This is what makes this project so great, it is up to the person creating it.  Do it however it works for you.  Becky created this to be simple, easy, and way to capture the everyday moments that may pass us by if we don't take a moment to document it.  This could be from a daily chore like dishes, or where you eat breakfast everyday, or where your family leaves their shoes (which may or may not drive you crazy)...these are the moments that last.  We don't always want posed photos (even though I use a lot of those), but Becky has gotten me to think more about the everyday, like the grass in our backyard that desperately needs to be mowed or putting the camera on a timer and capturing Kyle and I sitting in OUR spots on the couch catching up on our favorite TV shows.  These are moments that I want to capture and remember and show our children what our life was like before we had them.

I am so passionate about Project Life that I have already gotten my mom, my sister, and three friends on the bandwagon and I hope to get some more of you out there to document your lives! I sat down in January and looked through my two 12x12 albums that were full of our memories from 2012 and I was SO proud of what I had accomplished and even Kyle said to me, "I am really glad you doing this because I would have forgot about most of these things that happened."

I am going to show you a few snapshots of my 2012 album to give you glimpse into what a finished album looks like.  I used the Clementine Edition and LOVED the colors!

   Here is my title page.  Becky provides you with designated cards for each 4x6 and 3x4 slot, which makes it super simple to create a title page.  I added a picture of us, along with some stickers for our name and the year. 

Here is one of my first pages and Project Life at it's simplest.  I put in a title card on the top left and put the dates of this week.  If I were not doing it by weeks I could title it by event like, "Birthday Party".  I also put in 6 journaling cards to write about each picture and 1 pretty filler card.  I slipped in the pictures and then journaled and here you go.  This took me about five minutes to complete.  As you see I took everyday pictures.  Bottom left I had given blood,  to the right of that was a new Bible study I was starting along with my bible, the top was a picture of a piece of paper that showed where we were on the housing list for a base house.  These aren't necessarily "pretty" pictures, but they were what was happening in our lives. 

Here is an insert from when I visited Oregon in February 2012.  Kyle was in California for training, but he was able to come up to visit for 48 hours.  In this layout, I had cut down some pictures to place in the 3x4 slots and I also put a movie poster in from a movie the girls saw.  I also added in some 5x7 plastics for pictures I wanted bigger from our family photo.  Now, if you look up at the top left with Megan and Greg and you see a little QR code (I'll show you exactly what that means a little later).

Here is a layout where I included another movie poster, a picture of me making muddy buddies for Kyle's homecoming, along with gas prices. 

Here is the same layout with the 5x7 showing the back picture. 

This is a layout showing Design G.  I like this design because it includes vertical pictures with the horizontal.  This is when Dad was visiting and we went to watch his favorite comic book into a movie, "The Avengers", I had a Flat Stanley, and I introduced Dad to the HBO show Game of Thrones. 

Since Kyle is gone a lot for the field or on ship (like above), I encourage beg him to take pictures.  I want out album to consist of his life when he's gone too, not just mine.  He has done a good job so far, but I need to kindly remind him. A lot. :) But, I really want him to journal about his pictures, since I wasn't there.  As you can see, he still hasn't journaled from RIMPAC in July, but I WILL get him to! :)

Here is an example of a layout with all of my pictures from the same day.  This was my birthday, so I included pictures of me and my girlfriends at dinner because Kyle was away.  

This layout includes the monthly divider that says "August", which I LOVE! This is another everyday life layout.  Pictures of a text message with Kyle, my work, news about the Colorado shooting (I am still trying to figure out how I want to write about that), and my morning routine (coffee and work clothes).

This layout includes our vacation in Las Vegas.  I included a picture of the weather on the left.  This also has Design H which is another favorite. 

Same layout, but with Design H flipped to other side. The right side is Design D with 4 vertical 4x6 slots.

This layout is from when my family visited us in August.  I did not need much journaling for this layout, so I only used 2 journaling cards and then cut down pictures to fit in the rest of the slots.  Design F is shown on the right. 

This layout I cut up some pictures to fit into multiple slots.  The main thing I want you to look at is the picture of Tyler and Katrina in front of the waterfall.  There is that QR code again :)  First, I upload my videos to YouTube.  Then, I copy the link for the video I want, go to this website, which is a QR code generator, and paste it in the link area.  It will create my code for me. Then, I copy the code, paste it in a Word Document and I can resize it to make it small, medium, or big.  

So, here is the AMAZING, AWESOMENESS of the QR code!

This is another basic layout.  No inserts, just Design A.  I like to include screen shots from my iPhone, like the news (left side) and what my home screen (right side) looks likes.  

This layout was not complete with journaling when I had taken the pictures, but I wanted to include popular TV shows that Kyle and I enjoy watching.  

Another basic layout of when I flew home in November.  I also included a picture of a football game that Kyle had taken.  On the far right 3x4 I included a picture of a book that I finished reading. 

Here is my layout from the last week in December.  On the bottom left I included The Durant's famous streudel recipe that I baked for the first time!  I also included in a 3x4 a screen shot from FaceTime with my family, which I am in love with! Along with my pictures, I like to include pictures that I get texted to me from family, like the picture on the right side of Macie and Lexi, my nieces. 

So, there you have it!  A glimpse into my 2012 Project Life.  I truly hope that you feel motivated to begin documenting your life.  As you can tell from my layouts, some weeks I did very simple layouts and some I did extra inserts to add more.  Do as much or as little as you like, the only goal is to get your pictures off your computer and into an album!

Along with everyday life albums, Becky also created Baby editions, childhood editions, and there will be new editions coming out in May! Click here to see her products.  BUT...right now, TODAY, March 25, she is selling two different kits on HSN!  You can go to HSN and purchase your kits which come with the binder, the core, kit, 60 pages of plastic photo pages, and monthly dividers for only around $50! That's basically half off! Here are the editions below.

The Jade Edition.  Click here to buy on HSN.

The Blush Edition.  Click here to buy on HSN.

There is about 6 hours left to purchase at this price and I'm not sure when they will sell out, there have already been 16,700 sold!  So go buy yours, friends and family!

I bought the Jade Edition for next year and so did my mom and sister!  Go buy yours! If you don't buy today, Project Life is sold only from Amazon and great prices year round, but this price you can't beat!

Keep checking back for updates on my album for this year!

P.S. I do not make any money from this, I am just passionate about getting people to document their lives!  I do wish this was a direct home business though because I have already hooked a ton of ladies and I would be making a great profit! :)