How I do Project Life and Week 12

Last week, I wrote a bit about why I do Project Life. I figured this week, I'd write a bit about how I go about it.

First of all, I use my iPod touch to take all my pictures. The quality suffers a little, but I actually take pictures, which I rarely did before. I transfer the pictures to my computer, usually twice a week, and rename the files to the date the picture was taken. Any editing to the photos is almost always done with various apps on the iPod. I print most of my pictures square, because it leaves room for journaling and/ or the date. I print the pictures myself, on white cardstock (which is funny because I have a huge stack of photo paper, but never think to use it).

I keep a small piece of paper on my desk with the dates for the week and every day, I try to jot down anything interesting that happened, or if it's a holiday or if I took a picture that day that I think I'll want to use.

I keep up with Project Life every week. That means I don't use a whole lot of embellishments or scrapbooky style layouts. I keep it simple because I know if I get behind, it will be less enjoyable and more like a chore. As it is, I never finished my wedding scrapbook from 13 years ago,and I never started the one from our honeymoon trip.

My weeks are Sunday to Saturday. I know a lot of people do Monday to Sunday so they don't have to break up the weekend, but that's not been a problem for me so far.

I use baseball card pages for my album. There are 9 pockets, each 2 1/2 by 3 1/2. The first pocket is always a date card with the week number on it and the last pocket I use to list what book(s) I read that week. That leaves 7 pockets, one for each day was my original thought, but I don't think it's ever worked out that way. I often use 2 or more photos from the same day, and other days have none. But it works for me.

Whenever I sit down to work on Project Life (usually on Sunday, but it varies), I start by looking at the list I jotted down of anything that happened during the week, and I decide if I want to use any of it. I also go through the photos for the week and pick out the ones I want to use. I pick at least one art/ craft photo, most often an art journal page. The rest varies depending on what pictures I've taken. I usually have a couple pictures of my dog, as well as some sky or other scenery pictures. If there's a holiday, I print something for that; if I don't already have something, I'll look online for something that works. If I still have another space to fill, I find a picture from a TV show I've been watching or one of those free printable quotes or art prints to use as a filler card.

I've talked before about the background papers I use. I'm still using the same system and I'll probably continue to throughout the year. I've been downloading freebie journaling cards for two years or so. I really thought I would use them and printed a stack of them at the beginning of the year, but I only use one or two a week. My pages are mostly pictures, although I am trying to do more journaling.

I don't know how long it takes me to do the week start to finish. Less than an hour if I was just working on Project Life, but I'm usually watching TV or something and get distracted by that and just watch for a while before going back to what I'm working on.

That's pretty much the process I use. There's not much to it, but I thought I'd record it here, and maybe compare at the end of the year to see if anything has changed.

Here's week 12. I've decided to try writing a bit of explanation of each day picture. Most of them are self-explanatory, but I'll give it a try.

1 Date card with week #
2 St Patrick's Day
3 Sky picture
4 Art Journal page
5 Sky picture #2
6 Annabelle- I take a lot of photos of her in front of this door, mostly because she runs when she sees me with my iPod out to take a picture, but she has to stop here to wait for me to open the door
7 Annabelle again- she gets mean when she thinks you are after her treats
8 I'm currently obsessed with Martin Freeman. This week I watched The Office (the UK version).
9 Read this week: The Game and Locked Rooms, both by Laurie R King (#s 7 and 8 in the Mary Russell Mysteries series)



I am linking up with The Mom Creative for Project Life Tuesday!