Happy 2012! Who's ready to get started with Project Life?
Just before Christmas I got my Clementine Core Kit in the mail, which is what I plan to use for my 2012 Project Life album (I absolutely love this design by the way!). Almost immediately, I started putting together my 2012 album. Of course, this is not something you have to do, but I really think that having my album put together and organized ahead of time was key to my success with Project Life in 2011. For those embarking on this project for the first time, I thought it might be helpful to share exactly how I put my album together. The whole thing took me a couple of hours. I basically did it in the space of one evening after the kids went to bed, with everything spread out on the living room floor and half of my attention on the TV in the background. Not a lot of effot, but totally worth it.
I was going to type up my process step by step but then I realized that Becky Higgins has basically already done that for me but in video form, so it's even better. You can watch her video here. Just note that she is using one of the older Project Life designs. Things are set up a little differently now, so you won't have the colorful monthly dividers in your kit, for example (although if you want something similar these Scrapbook Dividers will be back in stock this month). Once all the title and journaling cards are in the album, this is an example of what a layout will look like:
(Just to note, I alternated the Clementine journaling cards with the basic grid journaling cards).
Of course I can always change things later on, but it is so helpful to have the framework set up ahead of time.
One additional step that I take is to add the dates to my title cards in advance. Of course, you'd only want to do this if you're sure you are going to do one layout for each week of the year (or you could always just use sticky notes instead if you're still not sure exactly what your plans are). Having the dates already on the layouts was so helpful this past year as I was adding extra items to my album because I knew exactly where to put them even if I was behind on printing pictures or journaling. It was just one little thing that really helped keep me on track.
(The date stamp I used here was something included in a previous version of Project Life, but you can find something similar in almost any office supply store.)
My biggest piece of advice to anybody starting out on this project in 2012 is to keep it simple. There is a lot of amazing inspiration out there, which is wonderful, but sometimes it's easy to get overwhelmed with ideas (I speak from personal experience here). Just remember that the beauty of this project is its simplicity. Don't overthink it. Just do it.
