Laura Vegas

Seeing as how it's the middle of February, I thought it would be a good time to hop on and share my plans for my 2018 Project Life album. I have loved working on my 2017 album, and overall I really do love how I went about doing my weekly spreads. But I also knew that I wanted to make a few changes to this year's albums. 

What's not changing: I'm still doing 9×12, as I just love this size. I'm using the same album and pocket protectors that I used last year, since I stocked up on them last year when I found them on a deals website (they're from Seven Paper, which isn't around anymore). I'm still doing my monthly photo orders using the Freeprints app, so I wait until the end of the month to order my photos. While I love the idea of working on my weekly spreads week by week (meaning I would print at home), ordering my photos once a month just works well for me. This means that I'm usually working on a month at a time, and I aim to get those weeks done before I get the next month's photos. 

What's changing: I think my 2017 weekly spreads were pretty simple, but I think I'm going to go even simpler this year. I focused on the photos and stories a lot last year, but I also had fun working in embellishments and adding fun things to a lot of my photos. It was a great way to dig into my stash and use products that have sat untouched for a long time. And when I was in my zone, it didn't really take me all that long. But my thinking, at this point anyways, is that I'm not going to worry as much about adding all the little embellishments and I won't be adding stickers/labels/etc to photos that often. That might change, so don't quote me on this. But I'm aiming to really make this year's album about photo and stories. Also, while I'm still going to use digital journaling cards (and most of them will be simple black and white), I'm going to limit the cards that I do use. I have SO many great digital cards, but I want to limit the time I spend digging around in folders, looking for the perfect card. 

Weekly title cards, using the Pocket Guide No.4 kit from Paislee Press. This kit has a ton to it, but the weekly title card was what caught my eye. Once you open it in Photoshop, you can change the number, add the dates (or anything else you would want to add below), and even change the color of the number if you want. I changed my number to a light grey, knowing that I'd be using black and white journaling cards. 

I like that I can add the dates to these cards, along with having the week number. Last year, I added a calendar card to each weekly spread, so that I could easily know the dates – and not just try and count out what week "week 37" was in the year. Lol. While I liked the calendar cards, they did take up a 3×4" pocket that I would love to free up for an extra journaling card or filler card. 

I created weekly title cards for the first half of the year already, and added them to one of my photo orders. I'll do the second half of the year in a few months and once again add them to a photo order. 

"This Story" digital journaling cards. Cathy Zielske offers her Scrapbook Your Year class, and these cards come from that class. What I love about so many of Cathy's digital journaling cards is that as you type your journaling, it formats itself. I have a lot of cards where you have to make each line it's own layer, and position the layers to make the lines evenly spaced and all. They're just more work. I can even copy and paste journaling (like when I pull it from my Instagram pics), and it totally formats it like you see above.

I also love this particular card, because they're already set up with four cards on an 8.5×11" page. Just saves me the extra steps of doing the cards one by one, adding the lines around the edges so I know where to print, and adding them onto the page for printing. I can type up four at once, and they're done in no time. 

My plan is to incorporate (1) of the "This Story" journaling cards into each weekly spread. 

J-Card Weekdays digital journaling cards from Cathy Zielske. Again, I like these cards, because they format your text as you type and they're just so easy to use. Also, they have plenty of room for journaling, just like the "This Story" cards. I usually have a lot to say, and these first two card choices are great for those photos that have a longer story to accompany them. 

My plan is to incorporate (1) of the J-Card Weekdays journaling cards into each weekly spread. 

In A Creative Bubble digital journaling cards. Specifically the Recorded Journaling Cards – I'm linking to her newest set, but on that same page, you'll find links to the other six sets. I used a lot of these cards in my 2017 album, and love them. She's got a huge selection of awesome pocket page cards, but these black and white ones caught my eye last year, since I knew I was going to use mostly black and white journaling cards. I mentioned that I want to spend a little less time digging around for the perfect card, so these will be one of the few cards that will require me to dig a bit. But I'm only digging through 7 kits, so that's not bad. 

My plan is to incorporate (1) In A Creative Bubble journaling card into each weekly spread. 

Lined digital journaling cards. These cards are actually from Ali Edwards, from her Oh Summer I Love You So kit. The digital card actually has "oh summer, I love you so" on the top part of the card, but I delete that part off of the card and use it just for the lines. I've used this one a ton over the last year and a half, and it's my go-to way to get a simple lined journaling card. I could probably do this on my own, but I love that it's done for me. This will be the one digital journaling card that I can have fun with, and personalize to fit my photo. To add a little something to the top of the card, I can use digital stamps (like the "delicious/gross" and the "mon/tue/wed/thu/fri/sat/sun"), PNG files from Kerri Bradford Studio's cut files (like the "dinner" and "loved this"), use my physical stamps, or use physical product like label stickers and alpha stickers. 

My plan is to incorporate one lined digital journaling card into each weekly spread.

***With that being said, should I need more than those 4 journaling cards for any given week (especially weeks with inserts and more photos), I'll double up on one of the above types of cards. 

Pocket Maps by Sara Gleason. These Pocket Maps come in six sets, and I ended up buying all six of them so that I'd have plenty of options. They're layered photo templates, with fun little phrases and space for journaling. You could easily create this same look on your own, but I love the ease of having things done for me. I found that in my 2017 album, I always had a lot of photos that didn't get their own journaling card. And while I know I don't actually need a journaling card for every photo, and not every photo needs a story, I do find that I like to include details. Even if it's a short little story or description. Which is why I added a lot of label stickers, alpha stickers, tags, etc to those photos without a journaling card. I think these Pocket Maps will be perfect for sneaking in a few extra "stories" or descriptions, without needing an extra pocket for a separate journaling card. 

My plan is to incorporate 2-3 Pocket Maps photo/journaling cards into each weekly spread.

So there you have it. My loose plan for this year's Project Life album. I'm sure I'm not covering everything, but as I start completing a few weeks, I'll get a better feel for how it's going to go. And speaking of completed weeks, I will be sharing week one of my 2018 album tomorrow, so you can see these ideas in action ;)