I absolutely love starting fresh with any project. Project life is no exception.
And January is THE BEST time for this project. In January, the whole year can feel super inspiring. It's easy to think that you'll never get tired of printing photos and tucking things into pockets. Spoiler alert : it will get boring. It might get mundane. But it's so worth it. So, so worth it to stick with this project.
Like probably many of you, I begin Project Life 2013 on a major high, thinking I'll somehow manage to stay super up on documentation for the remaining 52 weeks. I mean how could I not? Making my title page this year was SO enjoyable I wanted to make another 10! I wanted to just guess how the rest of January was going to go so I could fill in all the pockets RIGHT AWAY! ;)
But, experience says that rush will fade a bit.
So I am setting myself up to stay inspired : I've got a cleared out desk (I recycled and gave away anything that I didn't want to use right this second to be sure I was down to only embellishments that I am excited about or are realistic for my current style). I've got the Seafoam kit that I can't wait to play with (plus a baby kit with the cutest elephant cards). I've got a goal to take more photos. At this point, that's pretty much the best I can do.
I worked from the Seafoam kit (which hooray!! is available here!) to create the title page. I added extra embellishments here and there, to keep things interesting and inspiring. The 3x4 cards are all meant to be on the front page. (The kit designates some cards for front page or back page in addition to just journaling cards to be used throughout the album.) I added a label with our last name and stitching to one and two flair badges to the other (one from Ormolu and one from Evalicious).
I used the "at the start" journaling card to set the stage for 2013. Fun fact - I totally messed up the text on my "at the start" journaling card, so I just trimmed off the side graphic and glued it on top of another similar journaling card (after I was happy with my handwriting and text on that one). The best thing about the pockets is they hide "errors" like that. Don't be afraid to write on & USE this stuff.
I embellished the gray & white striped card by repeatedly date stamping the first three months of 2013 (before I remembered this album would likely go through four months - oops!). Not sure if in Classic Elise Style, I am just going to pretend that didn't happen or go over the whole thing with APR 2013...
The guy & girl paper clips on that gray tag were from Studio Calico awhile back. Love that we are beginning this year as a family of two and will end it as three.
I decided to stick with the neutral palette and cut down a piece of 12x12 Seafoam paper for that top right 4x6 pocket. If you want to stay neutral but don't have the paper pack, you could totally use one of the title cards (and use that label printed on it to hold your last name or the year).
I like to have photos on my first page, so I added a few (one from August 2012 and one from this past December). I am not picky that my title page photos are super current (obviously), but I am very particular about choosing photos I love. I stitched around one of them with white thread and added a wood chip "love" and gold "C" letter sticker.
Last year, I covered the little plastic thing at the front of the album with pages from my big calendar. This year, I decided to hide it with a trimmed down sheet of 12x12 paper. I added a kraft circle label and a "C" flair badge on top. I currently have my pages in an old album, but will be transferring them to the Seafoam binder when it's available.
So that's the beginning. HOT DAMN, I AM PUMPED TO MAKE THIS YEAR AND THIS ALBUM AWESOME. Fingers crossed I can ride the wave... :) Look for my week one post on Sunday morning.
Supplies used : Seafoam core kit, Seafoam 12x12 paper, Studio Calico "girl & guy" paper clips, Ormolu and Evalicous flair badges, Freckled Fawn wood chip love, American Crafts gold letter sticker, Martha Stewart & Avery label.
Tools used : Design A pocket pages, Fiskars corner rounder, Zig Millenium pen, Rotatrim paper trimmer, Office Depot date stamp, staz-on ink. All photos were printed at home on my HP Photosmart 2575 printer on Office Depot semi-gloss photo paper.
Project Life is a memory-keeping system created by Becky Higgins. I use photos, text and stuff to document our life weekly. You can see all the posts from 2012 here and 2013 here. Do you have a question about how I am tackling this project? Check here.
