Getting it Done -- Step by Step
I recently shared my new method of
making Project Life work for me with a single page a week & smaller page sizes. Today I'm going to share my Project Life process from start to finish. This process hasn't changed much over the last six months -- just tweaked here and there to fit my needs for the week.
The Process
Step One: Organization
My first step is to make a list. I'm a writer and list-maker at heart and I always feel so much better when everything is written out in front of me. I divide my list into two separate parts: Photos & Events. Under the Photos header I make a list of all the photos I've taken (or might want to use) for the week, and under Events I write down stuff that happened that I definitely want to include.
To keep track of things that happen during the week, I use the Momento app for the iPhone. I have my facebook and instagram feeds imported into the app, and if I need to supplement, I'll scroll through some text message conversations with Jeff and see if I missed anything.
Step Two: Choosing/Editing Photos
Once I've picked the photos that I'm going to use I open up photoshop and resize my photos to fit onto 4x6 canvases (a few months back I wrote a tutorial with pre-made photoshop canvases that you can download for free). This way I can get them printed quickly at the Walgreens around the block. I use Walgreens because of the 1-hour printing, its cheap (my PL doesn't need professional photos), and its right around the block -- so I can usually get my prints super fast.
I generally re-size my photos to to 2x2 or 3x3-ish -- small enough to fit in the PL pockets, with enough room to see the card its mounted on and some embellishing around the photo. I'll go a little bit bigger if I really love the photo and want it to have a prominent place on the page.
Step Three: Sketching it Out
Once I have my pictures in hand I cut them apart and spread them out on my desk along with my notes from earlier. I then sketch out a basic grid in the shape of the page protector and fill in the boxes with topics/notes/events etc. This makes it easier to go one-by-one when creating each of the pockets.
I start placing photos, journaling cards, embellishments, scraps of paper, etc on top of the page protector trying to figure out what is going to look good (sorry this picture is so blurry -- it looked much better when I took it). I keep moving things around until I like the way they look, and then I take a picture with my phone (so I can refer back) and clear off the page protector.
Step Four: Finishing it up
As you can see, my finished page is definitely different from the photo above. I really wanted to use that journaling card that I made, but the colors were not coordinating at all, so I slipped it into the red chevron bag as a hidden journaling card.
I tend to stick with neutral colored backgrounds (white, kraft, grey, etc) and then pick one or two bolder colors to tie the entire page together. This week's colors -- red and blue -- were chosen because of the Fourth of July. Sometimes a color in a photo will really pop out at me -- or sometimes I really want to use certain products or paper and I let that be my jumping off point. But I've found that neutral backgrounds and a just a few accent colors will almost always give your page a cohesive look.
***The kraft 'T' journaling card is a silhouette cut-file that I created and is available free of charge to anyone who would like to use it (there is one for each day of the week).***
Thank you so much for stopping by.
