All month long, I saw various posts popping up about this week or that of PL. It seems I may be in the minority of documenting just parts of the month rather than doing it week by week as so many do. This brought up a big question for me. Even if I am taking the monthly approach, should I print the photos little by little then work on my layouts throughout the month? If so, which photos should I print?
I had a lot going on this month. My son resumed his on-line homeschool classes and I found myself wrapped up in teaching him, housework and my regular DT work. The questions sort of answered themselves. It would seem that around the end of the month I have a bit of a slow stretch in between assignment due dates. This gave me the opportunity to go back through my photos and organize them. As I did so, I realized something very important.
I created a PL folder inside my January 2013 photo folder. I went through all of January's pictures and chose to drag and drop a select few into that January PL file. As I was saving my instagram photos to the folder, I began to see some bigger picture type stories emerging over the course of the month. Now, there is nothing wrong with me using those photos for my PL layouts. At the same time, I want to delegate my PL layouts to little moments that might not make it to big layouts. Waiting until the end of the month allows me to figure out which photos belong where.
While I did print a few photos in 4x6, I printed the majority in wallet size. Otherwise, my PL layouts might get bulkier than I want. After all, they are supposed to be an intro to the month's full page layouts. I also like how my Instagram photos print as little squares. I get some regular wallet size photos in the mix as well. It's a nice selection of photo sizes for visual interest.
I decided to lay my photos out on the pockets to see how many PL layouts I am going to need. As you can see, January is a bit of a slow month. It looks like a one page spread is going to be perfect for me. Now comes the hard part...do I use a kit for the whole spread? Or do I choose to have a different paper for every photo?
I ended up using a few paper scraps from my JBS Mercantile kits mixed in with my PL Seafoam cards. As I was working on the layout, I wasn't sure I would like it. In the end, there is something about tiny cards in pockets that has an appeal to it, though I do admit that I am not as skilled at making Project Life cards as I would like to be. I find is funny how I can make a 12x12 layout without hesitation but somehow these little cards throw me for a loop.It will be interesting to see if I can adapt my knowledge of layout design to creating better Project Life Cards.
If you are looking for prompt ideas for PL, you may want to check out
the Little Things I love Challenge. Each month, you will be picking two things from your home and documenting what you love about them. Though the challenge is geared toward full layouts, it's also easily adapted to PL. This month, I chose to document my little " pay as you go" back up phone aka my Burn Notice phone and the places my cats wait for us.
My title page is my favorite so far. I know some people like to use group photos to begin their album. I chose the fireworks photos. I took a multitude of photos during New Year's eve. PL allows me to slip in a few extras that won't make it to the New Year's layout.
Overall, I am off to a decent start. I know I have some work to do this year. I'd love to have my cards look a little more pretty and dinmensional, though for now, the plain and simple approach is getting the job done.It's going to be an interesting endeavor, to say the least.
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