Project Life [weeks 1-4]

I can't say enough good things about Becky Higgins' Project Life. The system of creating weekly scrapbook pages has so many benefits, including:

- keeping me on schedule (HUGE for me, I need deadlines or it doesn't get done);
- letting me be as creative as I have time for;
- regularly showing something CURRENT to the kids and seeing them get excited;
- providing a place to keep "randoms" (clothing tags, art, tickets, mail, whatever);
- documenting the everyday stories (ones that would otherwise be lost forever);
- using my supplies (how many new products have gotten use, finally);
- printing photos out (last year I took thousands, printed only a dozen); and
- staying close to one of my most important goals as a mother - memory keeping.

Thank you Becky Higgins. Without being too dramatic, I consider this a life-changer project. The only thing I don't love? The page protectors have been out of stock on Amazon! I didn't decide to jump on the [huge] bandwagon until New Year's Eve and they were already sold out by then. But I'm not letting that stop me, and have taken photos of the "pages" anyway.

So, photos shall we?

Week #1

A snippet of an email sharing a great word for this project.

I used a page protector D (instead of the usual A style) for the right hand side. Going forward, I think I will be consistent and use all style A layouts.

I was excited to stamp right on the photo (although I felt a little naughty doing it, must get over this!) I had to use the embossing gun to set it so the ink doesn't smear. As you can see, I didn't do a great job. But that's the beauty of this project. It's real life, smudges and all. The photo actually buckled a little too when I had the gun on a spot for too long. Next time I'll know.

Week #2

Why not record some dreams from the week?

This week I included an insert about how thankful I was to spend the afternoon downtown since the next day it was cold and snowy. The insert is in a regular 8.5 x 11 page protector that's trimmed down and secured by sewing on washi tape at the edge.

Week #3

The clear bag with a large, graphic Spyder from a purchase this week is perfect for Project Life. Just punch two holes so it will fit in the album, reinforce, and you have a peek-a-boo divider between the pages.

Can I tell you how hard it is to keep little rectangles lined up on a mat board to take photos when it's been turned into a train track?

Oh my, the butter incident from Jackson's first attempt at making toast. So glad I captured this memory! Love writing on photos with permanent marker.

Week #4

Inspired by one of Ali Edward's posts on looking at a photo and coming up with a variety of different stories to tell. Love that idea. So I brainstormed 4 different stories to go with the egg photo.

Seriously, before this project I had no idea there were so many different kinds of security envelop liners. Never even looked twice at them. How cool that this represents the variety we received in the mail this week!

Thanks for sticking with my longest post ever. I'm surprised and delighted that I'm not behind on this project yet!