Hey there! I'm still all about Project Life when it comes to documenting life these days. I find that it's the perfect fit for where my little family is at this point in life. It is the perfect solution for the random photos that we end up with, and the random little stories that go with them.
Just like my previous 4 years, I'm continuing with the 9x12" size. I switched things up a bit last year, going with a monthly format rather than a weekly format, and loved it. I love that I'm not stuck with weeks of having too little photos, or too many photos. With the monthly format, I simply use however many pages I need to fit the photos/stories in. So I am going with the monthly format again for 2021.
Here's the first spread for the month of January.
I always like to give a little summary to my approach when I share the first pages for the year. Honestly, my style and approach to my Project Life album hasn't changed much at all over the last few years. So some of what I'll be including in this post has been shared before ;)
I am not going to limit myself to just one or two spreads per month. I don't like to narrow down our photos too much. Since Project Life is my main way of documenting these days (I just don't do too many individual layouts anymore), I like to include as many photos/stories as I can within the album. This way, if I don't get around to making a single other project/layout during the year, I'll be totally ok with it, since everything is in my PL album.
This year, I'm using the monthly title cards found HERE, by Designed by Soco. Last year, I created my own monthly title cards, using a digital stamp for the month, and using a colored background to coordinate with the colors of the spread. It was a pain in the butt, if I'm being honest. Lol. I much prefer the look of white title cards, with black text, and ones that are already done and ready to print ;)
I'm using the same 9x12" albums from Seven Paper (an off brand of Studio Calico several years ago) that I stocked up on years ago on a deals website. I have a huge collection of pocket pages for these albums, and one of the page configurations has the twelve 3x3" pockets. I finally started working those into my album last year, and am continuing to add at least one of the 3x3" pocket pages into each month.
Here's the second spread for the month of January.
I love doing my individual journaling cards, which I've been doing for years (I did skip those in my 2019 album, since I fell super behind that year, and ended up going with a large 4x11" journaling card for each week). I do all of my journaling cards digitally, typing them up in Photoshop and printing them out on matte presentation paper.
Here's the third spread for the month of January, with a 6x12" insert on the right.
I will also be using some of the digital journaling cards that I used in my previous Project Life albums. My go-to cards come mostly from Ali Edwards, Cathy Zielske, and In A Creative Bubble.
And while I love the ease of pulling up a digital journaling card, and just adding my journaling, I create a lot of my own cards using a blank canvas and digital stamps. I simply type up my journaling on 3x3" or 3x4" canvas in Photoshop, and then add digital stamps along the top/bottom of the cards. My collection of digital stamps is HUGE and they're so easy to add and size to what I need.
Here's the fourth spread for the month of January, with a 6x12" insert on the left.
I also love to add in 6x12 pocket pages here and there as well. A lot of times, it may be to fit in an extra 4x6" photo, as the pocket page formats that I use the most are the 3x4" and 3x3" pockets.
Like I mentioned earlier, I always start out using one of the 3x3" pocket pages for each month, but some months I've ended up adding an additional page. Some months, I have a lot of photos that just work better as little square photos, and some months, I don't. These pages are also good for fitting more photos on the page.
Here's the fifth spread for the month of January.
Once I start to get journaling cards added in, I work filler cards in here and there was well. Since I do like to include a little journaling for almost every photo, I will sometimes only need 2-3 filler cards for each spread. While I would love to add in more filler cards at times, my goal is to get as many little everyday stories in the album as possible.
I also decided to simplify my font choices for the year. I'm using one main journaling font, which is Rad Notebook by Rad & Happy. I also have one other font that I use here and there (called Miserably Lose), mostly for when I add a date or something to the bottom of a journaling card.
Here's the sixth, and final, spread for the month of January.
One thing I decided to add to the monthly spreads this year is a "book stack" photo, which is a photo I've been taking at the end of each month showing all of the books that I read that month. I also created my own 3x4" filler cards for each month, to go along with my book stack photos, using the Monthly Book Circle digital download that Ali Edwards offered as a freebie on her blog.
And yes, I do realize it's September, and I'm just getting around to sharing any pages from my 2021 album. What can I say? Things got away from me this year. Lol. It wasn't until the first part of June that I managed to get my photos added into the album for the first 4 months of the year. It wasn't until the middle of July that I managed to get my May and June photos added into the album.
That's when I decided to devote some serious time to catching up in my album. I had the last week of July off work (I took a vacation week), and spent a lot of time that week working on my album. And I also put reading on the backburner during the month of August, using what would be my reading time for typing up journaling cards and such. By the 3rd week of August, I had officially finished up January through April - meaning those months were totally and completely done. I have my May, June, and July photos all worked into the album and am about halfway done with those months as well.
While my PL style has stayed the same (for the most part) over the years, it's a simple and easy style that makes it easy to get-it-done. So even when I do fall behind, I never worry that I won't be able to catch back up.
For more info on my Project Life process, please check out these posts I put together:
PL || Photos
PL || Filler Cards
PL || Journaling Cards
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