Hey all. I've for sure been quiet on this little blog of mine lately. I just haven't had many projects to share, so with that, there's less blogging happening. It's been almost 3 months since I shared that I had completely finished my 2018 Project Life album. Once I got that album all wrapped up, I was finally ready to start playing catch up in my 2019 album. I thought I'd share my plans for this year's album, before I start to share my actual weekly spreads.
Step One | Photos
The one thing that I've been good about is doing my photo orders each month, and getting my photos into my Project Life album. That's a huge win in my book. I order my photos a month at a time, still using the Freeprints app, just like I've been doing for the last two years. I sort them out into the weeks, and slip them into the pocket pages.
Step Two | Weekly Title Cards
I also had all of my weekly title cards added in. For the last few years, I've used digital kits that I've purchased for my weekly title cards. For my 2019 album, I searched for 2019 weekly title card digital kits, but didn't find many options – and what I did find didn't interest me. So, I created my own cards, which I print along with my photo order each month.
I used a black chalkboard digital patterned paper for the background. I've used white cards with black text for the last two years, so I thought the black with white text would be a nice change. I spent more time then I should have settling on a few fonts to use, making sure the brush script font that I picked (I had a few options that I tried) would fit no matter what week it was – a short week like "one" or a longer week like "twenty-three". The font is called Butterfly, and came in a font package that I purchased a while back (not even sure where I found it).
Step Three | Journaling Cards
Somehow, I ended up a good 7 months into the year before I gave any thought to working on adding journaling into my album. I knew that I needed to approach this year's album a little differently, if I was going to successfully catch myself up and get back on track.
I tossed around several ideas involving my usual digital 3×4" journaling cards – ways to do them quicker, make them simpler, etc. But even 4-5 journaling cards per week takes times. And I wanted something simpler.
Then I got the idea to do a single journaling card per week. A larger journaling card, that I could essentially add in-between the pages of each weekly spread.
To help create my journaling pages, I started with a template from Ali Edward's 6×12 Words & Photos Layered Template Vol 2 kit. I ended up tweaking it quite a bit to make it work. I eliminated the photo part of the template, changed it from two columns to one column of text, and changed it from a 6×12" template to a 4×11" template.
I also used Kerri Bradford's Simple Staples kit to add a black and white diagonal striped border along the top of the template. I like consistency in projects, and the black and white will tie in nicely throughout the entire year.
I decided to just do bullet-point style journaling on this one "journaling card". I suppose I could have numbered my journaling, and maybe added little numbers to the photos that matched to each journaling tidbit. But that would take more time. Honestly, I feel like it's easy enough to match up the facts/stories with the photos they go too. If 20 years down the road, we can't figure it out, it will be a fun guessing game 😉
I added the week along the top of the card, and then started adding my journaling. A lot of my text is simply copied and pasted from my Instagram, since a lot of the photos/stories are ones that I've shared there. For any photos that weren't ones that I've shared, I typed up some facts or asked the girls for info if they were their photos.
Some weeks, I filled up the 4×11" card, and some weeks I didn't quite have as much to say, leaving more empty space on the bottom of the card. But I'm ok with that. For about 2 seconds, I debated adding a piece of patterned paper on the backside of these cards, but then decided to leave them as-is. If I ever have a week where I have a TON to write about, I can always extend my journaling to the other side of the card.
The template had the "oh yes, this is life" phrase along the bottom, and I decided to just keep it the same for each week. Keeping things simple and easy.
I was able to print two of these 4×11" cards on a single sheet of 8.5×11" cardstock. I then slipped them into 8.5×11" page protectors, which customized to fit my cards. I machine stitched along the edge of the cards, and then trimmed off the excess – creating a custom made 4×11" page protector.
Creating just one single journaling card/page for each week really simplified the PL process for me. I've already finished up 3 full months, in very little time. I figure if this is the change I need in order to get this year's album on track (and hopefully keep up-to-date), then it's a good change.
Step Four | Filler Cards
Just like my 2018 album, I plan on keeping this year's album very simple. Photos, journaling cards, and filler cards. No extra embellishing, no stickers, no chipboard – basically, no extras at all. Last year, I ended up using filler cards from the Project Life app for about 80% of my album (I started using them exclusively about 4-5 weeks into the year). It somehow just worked for me, and simplified the process.
I think I'm doing the same thing for this year's album. I still have a ton of the filler cards that I've printed off of the Project Life app. I set them up using the PL app, adding two 3×4" filler cards to a 4×6" print. And then I upload them to my photo order, and have them printed as photos, and then simply trim them in half when I get my order.
I just added another huge batch of these filler cards to my last photo order, which you see in the photo above. I still need to trim them apart. A lot of these are ones that I've already used at some point in last year's album, but I like them enough to use them again. I just look for designs/colors that I know I will use.
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That's pretty much my plan of attack for this year's album. Keeping things simple, so that hopefully, I'll be able to catch up and stay caught up. I'll be sharing a full month's worth of weekly spreads tomorrow 😉
Laura Vegas 