Project Life - My process

Despite the lack of time, my PL is up and running... I figure that I might as well keep the same process in place than last year (with a little bit of tweaking here and there) since it worked for me. As I mentioned before, I let go the idea of having a "Design Team-worth" result and focus on getting the story told on a regular basis. 

So here is my process:

1. Take pictures: I have my big camera that usually stays home or come with us on special occasions and a small one that stays in my handbag. I do not take pictures everyday. Since I am working full time and evenings are a bit hectic, it happened that I only had pictures during the week-end, or even one day. But it still works great since it is all about our time together as a family.
2. Edit the pictures: this is for me the most time consuming part. I download both cameras on a weekly basis, usually on Sunday evening (seeing all the fun we had helps me fight the Sunday evening blues!). Editing includes cropping, resizing (I put a lot of pictures in the 3X4 pockets), improving and adding digital elements.
3. Once I have all my pictures for the week ready in the "for print" folder, I go through them again and write down stories either directly on the 3X4 cards or on a post-it (which will be added as a small tab to the picture when printed).
4. I order my pictures every 5 to 6 weeks, then I spend a full evening putting things together. 

Quite straight forward.  From time to time, I might spend time creating something a bit more fancy with paint and stamps, just for fun, but this is more an exception than the rule.

I am making some changes this year though:

• I do not round the corners anymore. When working 5 to 6 weeks worth of pictures, this is far too time consuming to bother. And I actually like the result.
• I still need to figure out how I will write the dates on each page. Still not sure about how I want to go (week number, hand written, stamped ???).
• The step 3 of the process described above is new this year. Last year I though I would remember what I wanted to say based on the pictures when they would be printed, but I found out this was not the case, so I try to have all my notes gathered every single week.

I notice that the last weeks of 2012 and this year, I am much more relaxed about the full thing. I am so positively surprised by the result of last year that I am finally able to say to myself: "It's OK (enough) like that". 

Journal or not journal?

I am very fond of documenting our everyday life. I do my best to record small and big stories of our family. Since starting Project Life, I feel much more on top of this goal and more relaxed when I decide to take time to sit down and do a “full lay-out”. The creative scrapbooking is now again just that: creative. Although I gave up on experimenting with all the new techniques that keep showing up for lack of time and resources, I can still play with my basics: paper, scissors, glue and stamps. My hands are leading the way, time flies by, I am in the zone… And this is all I ask for these days: a small escape, a bubble of me-time, a creative outlet.

This layout has been done start to finish within a nap-time (ok, it was a long 1h30 nap for the oldest one, thanks to a swimming lesson in the morning ;0). 

So when the pictures are enough to tell a story, or when I am happy with my page and am afraid that adding text will damage the result, then I say to myself: you do not HAVE TO journal. Well, I know this goes against most of the scrapbooking gurus’ rules… Guess I can live with that!

Scrap on a budget

While I always considered myself rather careful about how much I spend on scrapbooking, I must admit that my financial situation so far allowed me to indulge in shopping without too much remorse. Not that I would spend hundreds of euros every month, but when I found a stamp I liked or some new pretty paper, I would not think twice and buy it. This year, I am making a very strong commitment to a personal goal that has been on the back burner for too long, as I am working toward getting certified as a STOTT Pilates instructor. In order to do so, I plan to reduce my working hours for a couple of months to 4 days a week instead of 5 days a week. This means more time to study, learn and teach, but it also means less money on my paycheck. So for the coming months, I will earn just enough to make the ends meet. With a house and two kids to provide for, it is quite a scary, but this is a choice I am now ready to make because I know I will regret letting this opportunity pass by. 

So in 2013 I will have to scrap on a very strict budget for the very first time in years. I searched the web for tips and tricks and found some great advice. After careful reading and some brainstorming, here are the 5 strategies I would like to stick to for the coming year:

1. Define a budget: this one seems obvious I know, but so far, although I would have a rough idea how much I would be willing to spend on an on-line order, I would not often delete an item from my cart if I was a couple of euros above my so called budget. In addition, I never fixed a set amount to spend on scrapbooking each month simply because I was not buying a lot and I did not consider it necessary. Now, I have to decide on a fixed monthly budget (including photo printing) and stick to it. If I want something expensive, well, just like we teach the kids, I will have to save several months’ worth of budget before buying it (next year Project Life kit will be a big challenge!). Considering that I order for about 10 euros in printing each month (and I will not print less), I am now considering a total budget of 25 euros per month. 
2. Use what you have first: my current goal is to avoid buying new products as long as possible. In other words, no new stamps, or paper if I have something similar in my stack (how many orange pattern paper does one girl need?). On the other hand, I cannot scrap without stamping. So I know that whenever I will run out of black ink or embossing ink, I will resupply without question. 
3. Sort your supply & see what you use or not: this is somehow related to the previous point. Once I know all that I have and use most, I know what NOT to buy! For example, I recently bought some washi tape but I never use it, so I guess I should not buy more… I am reluctant to do that because I know I will come across items I once bought and will never use. I hate to think of “throwing them away”, because I paid for it… But I came up with a plan: I will put all these supplies in the kids’ supplies box. They will be very happy to have some pretty paper or stickers. This way, I am getting it out of my system without throwing it away, plus I have happy kids! 
4. Journal more, embellish less: oh yes, I am drooling over all those cute embellishments I see on the pretty pages in the 2 peas gallery or on designers’ blog… All these lovely fabric flowers, 3-D butterflies,  trendy tapes and … But truth to be told, twenty years from now, I do not hope to hear Nathan and Cécile saying “What a great rub-on you have added there maman!”, I would rather like to hear “thanks for writing this story down, I completely forgot about it!”. So it might be a bit less satisfactory for my artist’s ego, but tenfold better when I think about why I scrapbook. 
5. Explore smaller format: I will not stop 12x12 pages altogether, but I can try to tell some of my stories on A4 paper. It would save money for various reasons: I can save more scrap, I could print on my full LO with my printer, I can store it in regular binders…

I will for sure report on this endeavor in a couple of month! Look out for updates on this topic.

Project Life 2012

It has been a while... But I am back on this blog with a renewed commitment for sharing what matters to me. So during 2013, come on over to see a lot of fun happening here. This will include a regular post on my Project Life album.

This year, I have used the physical core kit Turquoise. I also used digital elements from Turquoise and Cobalt to dress up some pictures. I really like the way it turned out. Although I had the best intentions when I ordered my Turquoise Core Kit last year, I had no clue about how this adventure would turn out. Back then, I thought I would be doing much more crafty pages or inserts, but I also thought I would not be consistent. Well, today I can proudly look back at 51 weeks of everyday life (album still in progress). I am so happy with it. I did not do “designer pages”.  I did mostly stick to the cards in the kit, jolting down some words when I had the chance. My PL album is mostly pictures, but here and there some words black on white reminding me of the latest inside joke we share as a family, the cute words Nathan said to his little sister, a sweet email I received or an interesting article I found in a blog. Not much, I admit, but love is pouring out of this album like a strong perfume would fill the room when the bottle is open.

Below some of the weeks of this past year. Voilà et à très bientôt.

 

December Daily foundation

This is my third year embarking into the December Daily journey, and the first year I am sharing it on line. As for most of my scrapbooking projects these days, the idea is to keep it manageable and simple. I want it to be a pleasure for me to complete and not another load on my to-do list. More than ever, I am following Ali’s concept of preparing the foundation in advance and simply add words (on the same day) and pictures (as soon as I can since I cannot print them at home). You will also notice that supplies are very limited: I used one small paper pad from Toga (Les amis du Père Noel – p’tit bloc , pages are 15cm x 20cm) and some die cuts from the same collection (Les amis du Père Noel – Die Cuts Mots) . I started building my album back in early October and there were very limited choices on holiday-ish papers. The album is from American Craft (they are my favorites): Album Dring chestnut (29cm x 22cm). The rest is plain paper and I will hopefully have time to play around with stamps but do not plan to buy any for this purpose. Now, let’s go on a guided tour!

The cover page of my album is the result of an “unhappy” result of me experimenting embossing a big surface. I was looking for a nice regular plastic surface… Well… how to say… Maybe it was not meant to be…

Anyway, after half a box of UTEE and an hour of trying, this is the best I could get before calling it a day! I was ready for a fifth layer but my sweet baby girl decided it was time to wake up from her nap. I take that as a sign that I should stop experimenting and be happy with what I have. And actually, I am pretty happy. It took me a few days to accept it, but it is true. Ok, the look is more grunge than clean&simple. BUT, I actually like the fact that in the process the white paper which is the first layer got altered in some unique way.

The overall format of the pages is 20cmx20cm (about 8x8”). What can I say, I love squares! The first page is meant to be completely covered by a photo collage with the best pictures of the month.

Then the pattern for each day is: one big picture on the left page + journaling and four small blocks on the right page. One block could be a picture, some additional journaling or some pattern paper. I have also prepared 12 small inserts for additional journaling if some days get really inspiring! You never know, do you?

For now, it looks quite dull but what I like about this structure is that it leaves me with tons of possibilities: on days when I have no inspiration or little pictures, I can simply stick to the most simple version of the page, but on days with more to remember, I can add 1,2, 3 (you name it!) inserts or photo collage.

Last but not least, I cannot wait to have my sweet Cécile celebrating her very first Christmas…She is so precious to us, and last Christmas, we were so worried for her health during my pregnancy. Time flies by and all is well. I am looking forward seeing Christmas through Cécile’s and Nathan’s eyes. I am rediscovering this time of year thanks to my kids.