I have a confession to make. I have a love/hate relationship with Project Life. I it the first time in 2011: 1 core kit; Design A page protectors; Ali Edwards day overlays and rounded corners on every single photo. Easy Peasy and I love my album. But I got burnt out, stopped scrapping for a few years. In 2015 I tried again. All sorts of page protectors. More decorations. I quit after 6 weeks. It just wasn't working. Tried again last year. I took several days just making the spread for week one. That's as far as I got.
This year I was determined to try again. Maybe a loosey-goosey monthly approach, since I tend to get hung up on fitting everything I want in one week. I'd heard of the Collect App, and now that I switched back to iPhone, I started playing with it in October. I'm hooked. So easy and fun to add a photo (or 2) a day, with journaling. Loving the little polaroid styles. I thought to myself "this will simplify things".
Yeah, it's just not that easy. There are always those photos that mean a little bit more, that deserve a larger size and longer journaling. And there are all those digital files I've accumulated over the years. And the many physical cards to go through. And the fact that I can't stick to a particular 'kit', I like to mix old and new products. And while I admire spreads that have tons of white space, clean and simple, I LOVE COLOR. I just can't help myself making things harder. LOL.
Without further ado, here are my January pages.
The acrylic "Fox" is an Ali Edward's One Little Word custom order. I'm happy I got it in black instead of white, though I kinda wish I'd asked for a lowercase F. Oh well, maybe next year.
I am using a mixture of page protectors. In some cases I'm using the fuse tool - my new best friend!!! - to close some 4x6 slots down to 3x4, in other spots where I have a 4x6 on one side and two 3x4's on the back, I just adhere them together so the 3x4's don't shift around.
Overall I'm happy with how these pages turned out. Everything is in chronological order, but I didn't attempt to keep any certain amount of days within a particular spread or number of pages. I will actually be starting February on a right hand side, which works great for separation. Here are a few of my favorite details.
I enjoyed spicing things up with elements outside the page. Foam Thickers are my absolute fave, I like the look and feel of them. This 'kitty power' flair is part of the
"Always Stronger Together" set that Kelly Purkey is offering as a fundraiser. (the designs in the set were part of a collaboration). I got two sets and gave one of the kitty to my oldest who marched with me in the local Women's March. Such an uplifting experience, and a perfect set of flair to document it! That thin pink washi was a fab find at Michaels. I found several sets of thin washi and some cute little phrase stickers and tile letter stickers, helping restore my faith in them.
I think this is my absolute favorite little grouping in this month's pages. That Harriet Hippo card from a set Brandi Kincaid designed for Feed Your Craft is just perfect. C's first lovey was a hippo, named appropriately Hippy, and they have acquired an extensive hippo collection the past 13 years. I've been buying every Harriet product Brandi has created because there are alot of hippo related photos I still have to document!
That's it. I started February's pages, changing my approach just a tiny bit, and we'll see how that goes.
xxx whimsy
