Saturday, May 18, 2013

Project Life Is Not for Me

There, I said it! While I am in awe of the time, creativity and diligence that goes into creating a Project Life album, it's just not a good fit for me at this stage of my life. Maybe it's because my kids are both in high school and shudder when I take the camera out. (At least my son does.) Maybe it's because I choose not to scrap about the piles of laundry that need to be put away or the faded supermarket receipts that need organization. Lord knows, I think about that stuff enough in real life, I don't want to think about it when I scrap. Or, maybe it's because I failed miserably at my two attempts to do Project 12. Both times, I made it through March. No further. If I can't do 12 layouts of this type, how can I commit to 52? Maybe it's because I am not a chronological scrapbooker. Instead, I scrap what inspires me...at that moment. I just don't want my scrapping to start to feel like an obligation and I'm afraid that's what Project Life would be....something else for me to fall behind in doing. I am just trying to keep it real.

The fact that the Project Life process doesn't fit with my scrapping style doesn't mean that I am not drawn to a good recap page that highlights events that are not worthy of a full spread. So, I thought I would give a "Year in Review" page a try. I was inspired by Lisa Dickinson's page that you can see here. I kept the overall design of Lisa's beautiful page.  However, rather than matting Instagrams, I cut out 12 Polaroids using a Papertrey Ink die and then filled the center with square pictures that I punched from 4x6 prints. (Note:
I had to snip a little off the bottom of each Polaroid in order to fit all 12 on the page.) To simplify things, I used two Studio Calico kits (34th Street and Penn Station) that I found under the Christmas tree plus a few trinkets from my stash.

Here's my layout:

Let me tell you a little bit about my process for creating this page. Since there were so many photos, I kept my color pallet fairly neutral using various shades of beige, yellow and blue. Also, I used papers with relatively small-scaled patterns. (Many were B sides.) After cutting out all of the Polaroids and pictures, I began arranging them on my page just so that I could get a sense of how the patterns and colors would go with the picture for a particular month. (Note that the yellow dot is actually the stamp that coordinates with the PTI die.) Once I decided on the basic order of things, I adhered the pictures to the frames and then to the background paper. At this point, I embellished each Polaroid as if it was an individual "page." I did repeat some elements (buttons, wood veneer, washi tape, the Martha Stewart starburst punch and the blue alphabet stickers) to create several visual triangles and create a cohesive look.

Here's a closer look:


Since this page was jam packed, I put a list of events on the back of the page. They are:

  • January -- Mark's last Jazz Band Concert at East Meadow High
  • February -- Jenn at the Polar Bear Plunge
  • March -- Melissa's 8th grade Sports Night at Woodland
  • April -- Mark's first day of work at Pathmark
  • May -- Thomas helps Sal plant string beans
  • June -- Melissa's 8th grade graduation
  • July -- Mark's new car
  • August -- Cruise to Bermuda on the NCL Star
  • September -- Kitchen renovation
  • October -- EMHS Jets Marching Band at NYC Columbus Day Parade
  • November -- Superstorm Sandy results in 10-day power outage
  • December -- Christmas Day

Make sure to stop back early next week. I will be sharing a card I made using the centers of those Polaroids.
Supplies:
Studio Calico Penn Station and 34th Street kits 
Additional Supplies:
Tools: Die (Papertrey Ink), Punches (Martha Stewart Starburst and Snowflake, Marvy Uchida Square); Tim Holtz Tiny Attacher
Stamps: Papertrey Ink
Ink: Stampin' Up!, Jenni Bowlin
Additional Embellishments: Chipboard Alphabet (Heidi Swapp); Alphabet Stickers (Lily Bee); Buttons (Bella Blvd.) Glazed Brads (Basic Grey); Wood Veneer (Studio Calico)


7 comments:

Staci said...

Fantastic LO! Project Life isn't for me either. I scrap too slowly and my DS is in college.

caz hancock said...

I am loving PL but i understand it is not for everyone, i have to say though that i cant be bothered saving reciepts etc, i bin them all.

Love your layout what a fabulous way to document a yea

hanes132 said...

I LOVE this idea!--&not Only because I'm honored to have scored a month of my own! :)

I'm suppose to be making a photo book for each year of Paul's life. I have 1. So I'm 2 (nearly 3) Behind! This seems much more Doable & Super Cute!!

Leslie Miller said...

We are committed to so many things in our daily lives, it makes more sense to keep our craft time fun and unscheduled and free and impulsive. What you've done here is a great idea. A literal snapshot of each month. Well done!

linda said...

lovely recap page! i know how you feel regarding PL. i could never do it daily and keeping getting into the style and out of it continually. maybe i just need recap pages!

TenSGal said...

I had to chuckle because I was a Project Life "ain't gonna do it" kind of person for a long time. Then a friend of mine was named to the digital creative team and she encouraged me so I said...why not?! I am a long time 12x12 scrapper and love the whole artsy thing of creating pages....but I just can't seem to stay caught up. So I did jump on the PL bandwagon and have just finished week 24. I can't believe I've stayed with it for so long but for me it's kind of freeing and I can complete pages much more quickly than traditional scrapping. I've kind of let go on my old style scrapping although I do 12x12 occasionally still. I'm lucky though....I have great and willing subjects...2 grandkids and one on the way. And they LOVE looking at my PL book.
I do have a friend who is doing a PL type layout monthly and that seems to take the stress off the weekly thing. :)
Anyway, sorry for the rambling but your post caught my eye!
Susan

TenSGal said...

And PS....I don't do layouts of laundry! LOL!!!