Project Life week 4

I think I have come up with a way of doing Project Life that works for me. If you saw my post on weeks one and two, then you'll know that I didn't really have a color theme going. I just used random paper scraps. While I liked the look it gave me (and the fact that I was using up paper scraps!), I wasn't completely satisfied. I felt like it was too random, if that's even a thing. So, for week three, I tried to do a color coordinated thing with blue and purple and it just did not work. In fact, I cringe a bit every time I look at it. I really need to redo it, but I've got so many other things I want to do that so far I've just been saying "It's done- let's move on!" Eventually, it will probably bug me enough that I'll redo it, but until then, I'm leaving it as is.

Last week, I went to Hobby Lobby when they had their loose scrapbook paper 50% off. I picked out 8 sheets of 12x12 paper that matched (or at least came close to) the year & week cards I'm using. Four sheets had dots, and the other four had this distressed textured look. I cut them to fit my baseball card sleeves (2 1/2 x 3 1/2) and got 16 from each sheet, for a total of 128.That means I got 128 for less than $2.50, which is enough for more than 14 weeks, even if I use one in each slot every week. For less than $10 I can get enough for the entire year. Obviously, if you are using the 12x12 pages, with a two page spread each week, it would cost you much more. But if you are using baseball card pages as I am, than it could work for you. You can do the same thing with any coordinating papers; this is just what I decided to do.

I love that I can still have the random, mix-and-match look that I like, but it still looks coordinated because all of the background papers are... I'm not sure what to call it. They have the same intensity of color? Hue, maybe? I'm sure there's a word for what I mean, but I know nothing about design or art, really.

The pages come together much quicker when you don't have to fret over the background. This is proven by the fact that it's Monday and I am through with last week already! It took me more time to cut out the pictures once I'd printed them than it did to pick the backgrounds. I realize that the point of the official core kits is that they are all color coordinated, but I just couldn't see spending that much on an album and the core kit and the pocket pages and whatever else goes along with it, all for something that I wasn't sure I would enjoy or keep up with. I'm enjoying it so far but we're only four weeks in- anything could happen before the end of the year!