Project life 2014: finding my style

I have been doing project life for 6 months this year and I have tries many different things. I have tried the beautiful white templates, I have tried the "original" approach without any added embellishments, I have tried sticking to my studio calico kit....

So far after the fist month, this is what I am gonna forget about:
* Unedited pictures. When I started I was all like "it is about the memory, not the picture". Turns out that is not true ;) At least, not for me. I now do all my pictures in PicTapGo before I print them. I just do them every day at the end of the day on my phone, takes only 5 minutes and makes such a difference!

I lighten them up mostly, which also works wonders for pulling the colors more together.
* Using apps to add words that force me to crop (like Abeautifullmess and Rhonnadesign). I just do not really like using the square cropped pictures all the time. I like using pictures either on 3x4 or 6x4 so they fill up the pockets.

And this is what I am going to keep:
* Not giving up a whole picture for a week number, but adding that to a picture that sums up the sentiment of that week.

* Week in review cards: just a small list of the things we did that week, so I can incorporate the things I do not have pictures of as well.
* Inserts! Just not for events, but for the things I want to tell a story about. If there is a birthday or a holiday, I make a separate picture book. But for our garden renovation or my boys new hobby (playing on the playground around the corner) I love to make inserts. Preferably all in different sizes & shapes!
* writing on pictures with white sharpies! Just love this!

Hopefully in 2014, I will have found my style and that album will be more consistent in style.
Though I also kinda like the fact in this album all spreads are totally different from each other :)

Mini album: a pregnancy documented

Right now I am working hard to finish up my mini album on my pregnancy. The little one that came out is two now, so I guess it is about time :) I don't know why it took so long for me to get started on this album. Maybe I just had to find out about Project Life first!

I pick a pink mini album, even though I had a boy. I love pink, it is MY album, so I  get to pick the color!

As I miscarried 12 weeks into my first pregnancy, I was a little hesitant recording the first months this second time around, something I wish now I would have done different, but that's just the way it is.

As I did not have either my iPhone or my DSLR then ( so much can change in 3 years LOL!) I do not have that many pictures. And what I have is not the greatest quality wise either ( another regret- but that is just the way it is).

So I have focused on making what I have photo wise look as good as possible, and make sure all memories and feeling are recorded. 

Luckily I did keep a written journal ( and a weight chart - why did I think I wanted to remember gaining 20 kilo's??? LOL) so that will be the focus of the album. Not the weight chart, the written journal :)

I also decided to inculde the birth and some of the earliest photo's. I feel the first couple of days with your new baby are basically part of the birth, as everything is new and a first.

I stuck to one kit for this project, the midnight edition by Liz Tamanaha (physical and digital) to keep some sort of unity. I love the black and white in this kit. And the phrase cards are just perfect for this project: nobody is more "so very loved"!!!! All the prompt cards worked very well by the way, also loved the "Hello There" one and all the 3x4's with prompts like "Today" and "This happend". 

This is also my very first time to actually use the bifold cards as they are intended. I was always letting the pictures do most of the talking, but in this case I had so many stories and feeling to record, I actually used a lot of these to include as much of it as I could.

Week 29-back to color

In week 28, I was totally inspired by Trisha Harrisson & Annette Haring to use lots of whites an print photo's ready to go. It was really easy putting together that week, just slipping the photo's in the pockets and done! And it did not look to bad either.

So I did the same with my pictures for week 29.

However, when they arrived, I was kind of sad about finishing the week so quickly and not having any of the paper-cutting, sticking-things-on kinda fun that I got out of the more colorfull pages.

And my Project Life album looked more like my photo albums do: they are clean and white with large pictures, focussing really more on beautiful images than stories.

So, I cut all the prints up again :)

As I had originally printed them in white templates with a small line of text underneath, and it seemed a waste not to use it, I cut the journaling out as well and used that in the spread.

Turns out I like that most about the whole spread!

So, as my goal for 2013 (my first PL year) is to find my own style, I can now safely say all white is not it.

One thing I started doing recently and liked ( so I am going to keep doing it) is use a picture for the weeknumber card.

I just pick a general picture, or one that captures the week somehow ( or shows off my tan) and add the week number & dates. This way you do have a week number in your spread, but you do not have to sacrifice picture-space.

So at least I have "weeknumber cards" covered. Now onto finding the rest of my style. 23 more weeks to do so (doesn't time fly??)

Sharpie love!

I am just in love with my new white sharpie pen! I usually put white text on my pictures in Indesign, which works great.

But now there is a whole new player in town! With my Sharpie I can draw my own words! Whoopie! 

So love this! Hope to show more soon!

Oh, and the picture above is from my other new love: inserts. More on that soon!

"This is me... @2"

I have read a lot of posts and saw even more pictures of everybodies "this is me" class projects. Loved all of them. Wanted one of my own.

But, I decided to do it just a tiny bit different.

Using a Simple Stories Sn@p binder & pageprotectors and Becky Higgins Project Life Core Kit Honey ( my absolute favorite one now!) I started a "This is me @2" album for my now 2 year old son.

It features his friends,

favorite toys, favorite tv shows, favorite foods...

... Basically all those things that are going to be totally different by next week :)

My plan is to to this again when he is 3, and 4, maybe even 5. So that he will always have 

Keep calm & continue Project Life

During my first half year (5 months actually, as i started in Febuary) i have made layouts that are very different from eachother. Guess I am trying to find out what my style is. I will let you know when I have found it :)

One thing I always did, was decide on the colorscheme of the LO based on the pictures I wanted to use. 

Sometimes that works out great:

In this LO I loved how the right and left side turned out individually, but also as a spread.

However, some weeks I just don't see a particular color standing out. Or it all just does not seem to go together, no matter how many kits I have to my disposal. (5, just in case you were wondering).

Wonder what you guys do with these though weeks...

Project Life: Scrapping finally makes sense! (of: Wat is Project Life???)

(English below) In februari ontdekte ik Project Life via Pinterest. Ik ontdekte dat dit in Amerika een fenomeen is en werd nieuwsgierig. Ik ging naar de site van Becky Higgins, de bedenkster van dit alles en bekeek het introfilmpje.

En toen klikte het!!!!

Ik heb het altijd leuk gevonden om boekjes te maken, van een vakantie of een speciaal event. Maar, hopelijk beledig ik nu niemand: het voelde altijd een beetje.... nutteloos.

Je hebt tegenwoordig zo 400 foto's van een weekje vakantie. Daarvan zijn er zeg 70 ook echt de moeite waard. En daar gebruik je er dan 6 van? Want ze alle 70 verwerken in een scrapalbum, dat is niet te doen (of je moet echt heel veel tijd over hebben).

Door Project Life heb ik elke week een goede reden om iet te maken en lekker creatief bezig te ziijn. En ik heb meteen een plak om al die foto's in te verwerken die altijd maar op je telefoon op camera blijven staan omdat ze nergens "bijhoren".
En voor die grote evenementen als verjaardagen, vakanties of feestdagen wara je echt die 70 foto's wilt bewaren, maak ik dan gewoon een apart fotoboekje.
Heerlijk, zo logisch als het allemaal is!

De foto's hierboven zijn van de eerste spread die ik ooit maakte. Hij vat de hele maand januari samen (omdat ik hier dus pas in februari aan begon).  Korte uitleg van hoe dit concept in elkaar steekt (voor wie geen zin had in het filmpje):Je hebt een album met daarin hoezen met vakjes. In elk vakje kan je een foto of een kaartje met een verhaaltje steken. twee pagina's naast elkaar noem je een spread en iedere week maak je één spread over wat er die week gebeurde in je leven. Dus niet alleen grote dingen, maar ook een foto van de rommel in de keuken na een gezellig etentje, of de plek waar de kat altijd ligt te slapen. Zo leg je juist die dingen vast die je nu normaal vindt, maar over een paar jaar glad vergeten zou zijn. En dat is nu juist het leuke aan dit project, het "Documenting the everyday", het vastleggen van het alledaagse.

Ik gebruik de kits van Becky Higgins (daarin zitten kaartjes in een bepaald thema of kleur), in dit geval de Seafoam editie (dat was de eerste die ik had aangeschaft, toen nog uit Amerika vandaan), maar je kan ook zelf papier knippen. Op Pinterest zijn ook veel gratis printables te vinden (zoek: "Project Life freebie").

Ps Hoewel ik deze pagina nog steeds leuk vind, moest ik duidelijk nog wel oefenen op het verdelen van een foto over meerder vakjes. Zie rechter pagina links onder :)

This February I first came across the what I think you might call "phenomenon" Project Life. I checked out Becky Higgins site, and all of a sudden, IT ALL MADE SENSE!

I had always enjoyed making things. Little mini books from a holiday or an event. But, and I hope I don't offend anyone by saying this, it always seemed... Useless.

400 pictures of a holiday, from which I actually like about 70. Scrapping just a couple is a waste of the rest, and scrapping them all is, well, impossible.

Project Life finally gave me a reason to make something every week, as well as telling me which pictures to use: those random pictures that normally never make it into any picture album, because they don't "belong" to any category or specific event.

So for me, Project Life really made sense of all of it!

This is the first PL spread I ever made. It does not have a week number, because I was starting half way through February, i just rounded up January in one spread. But that is so great about Project Life: there are no rules! You can do whatever you want!I used the Seafoam kit and some random stuff. I still like it :)