Project Life: Not Enough Photos?

I can finally say that the April Project Life Spreads are done. You might recall that I skipped them a little while back.  The month of May was a lot more exciting and I also had a new JBS Mercantile Historian kit which worked so much better with May's photos than with April's. I have discovered that it's perfectly ok to jump around when I make my PL layouts. Project life should be fun and not a chore.

I often hear friends say they could never do Project Life. Some say they just don't have enough photos. Others find it tedious to keep up chronologically. I think it's like any other project you take on. If it's supposed to be fun, you can't make too many rules. Skipping the month of April was beneficial to me. I worked with the photos I found inspiring at that moment which meant I completed the layouts pretty quickly. Now that I finally got around to April, I am content to work with some scraps I have been inspired to use.

April was a slow month for my family. I do take photos almost daily. I don't document something every single day. Most of my PL spreads are summaries of the month. They consist of photos I want to include in my albums but that I don't want to make full size layouts for. Each month, there are a few consistent themes I like to try to include: the weather, something small around my home that I appreciate, video games we are playing, and any movies or TV shows we are watching.

This month, I only had enough photos for two pages. I am fine with that. Like I said before, not all months are packed with activities. The goal is to capture a snippet of your time and share it in your albums. The goal is not to feel bad that you don't have every single day chronicled. April's PL pages included the weather, photos from a flower walk around the island, our broken dishwasher, a themed store display and the months favorite games.








There are no rules for your own Project Life albums unless you choose to make them. Having enough photos does not mean you need photogenic kids, lots of trips to restaurants for food photos, or photos taken every day. You can have a lovely set of PL layouts regardless of the number of photos you took that month. Just keep in mind that some months will have tons of photos and others will not.

Here are a few guidelines( not rules) to keep in mind:
-Decide how you want to document your PL photos. Weekly? Monthly? I find that the monthly approach works best for me. I keep the photos in a relatively chronological order, but this approach allows me to move them around if I need to. I also find it less time consuming than the weekly approach.

- Organize. I make a separate folder for each month's PL photos. Throughout the month, I move photos into it. I then sit down and make a list of the topics I want to cover. Some are consistent. Other topics revolve around events that took place that month. Knowing what photos and topics I have gives me an idea of how may pages I might want to make.

- No photo? That's perfectly ok! Some topics don't need photos. When necessary, just journal or make a list to cover a topic you want to include in your album.

-Jump Around! Start anytime you want. No one says you have to start a PL album on January 1st. Jump around to the photos that inspire you most. Then try using the product that inspires you for other months.

My April Project Life spreads included just 2 layouts. Currently, I am working on June and July. They will be part of a summer spread. I have made a few cards as I have gone along. What remains to be seen is how many pages they include. Whatever the number, I know I will be happy to include them in my album.

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