Project Life 2011

I've spent the past few days working on finishing and then reviewing my 2011 Project Life album and I'm happy to say its done and off being printed as we speak.  Here is a look at the cover and you can click the link below to take a look at the finished book if you like.

The Picinich Family 2011 Project Life album

The first year I completed the project (2010) I used the kit Becky Higgins created, took a photo every day and wrote something by hand about every photo.  I found that to be incredibly daunting and a lot of handwriting that I don't particularly care to do.  So when 2011 rolled around I decided to try something different and use the digital photo books that Becky had created for the Ziblio website.  I wanted an easier way to handle the journaling, because I definitely prefer typing to handwriting.  I did however continue with the photo-a-day approach and managed to take one every day.  That makes two years in a row now, 730 days of photo taking!  Needless to say I'm totally wiped out and ready to move on to something different.  That's not to say I probably won't continue to snap some form of photo everyday especially with the fantastic camera on my iPhone 4s.  I'm thinking its a pretty ingrained habit at this point.  I just wish hitting the gym was as habitual for me but I digress.

There are many different versions and tons of different approaches to this project floating around on line.  I find myself drawn lately to wanting to do more paper crafting with this project and include more than just photos.  I want this project to be about life, like many are doing so very well.  Here are some of my favorite examples;

Ali Edwards

Gluestick Girl

Mish Mash

All very talented ladies, all of whom are taking the approach of week in the life versus everyday.  I like to idea of seeing what you have at the end of the week and then working with that.  I also really want to try crafting more with this project and not just follow my previous pattern of only taking the photos and writing the words. 

That being said I did purchase a kit from Becky (click here to see the whole line).  I chose the Clementine version as well as the matching album.  You can see them both here;

Clementine Core Kit

Clementine Album

Something about that line just spoke to me.  I'm still very much on an orange kick, it's sticking and I love it, so the album of course was something I loved.  The interior cards that were designed for this set are just so cute, definitely something I would gravitate too.  I'm looking forward to them arriving early next week and filling in this week and staying on top of it. My issues with the handwriting still need to be worked out but I have a few ideas to make it easier for myself.

I'm really going to try to use as much stuff as I can that I have accumulated over the years and really keep it simple for myself.  I hope to post photos as I go, so check back in a few weeks for that.

Here's to a fantastic new year of Project Life!