Project Life / Pocket Pages Discussion

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Project Life / Pocket Pages Discussion

So I decided to attempt Project Life. I may do hybrid, I haven't decided quite yet. However, I realized at some point doing a layout a week would be too much of an undertaking for me. So I have since opted to do one a month. I was wondering if anyone has any tips to help me stay motivated etc.

As having just completed my first year, I am no expert, but I think the one thing that kept me going was the end result. I love looking back and seeing all the little things that happened throughout the year. I did two pages a week last year, and now am doing one page per week in the hopes of actually getting in printed at the beginning of next year. The book for 2015 was over 100 pages, so....that is a lot smiley

I have not done project life, but I have done two year books (so it would be kind of similar). I do monthly spreads for each month, the biggest thing I can say is to make time each week or month to put your pages together.

The biggest advantage I found was to layout the photos and journaling for the week separately from doing the decorating. This way I could stick to a rigid schedule of every Saturday at least getting my photos in place, then when I had the time and interest I would do the decorating.

Thanks for the tips ladies. I'm gonna start the January project life layout this week. Wish me luck. smiley

Good luck! I can't wait to see what you come up with!

Gina Paulus just posted a question that I am re-posting here:

can we talk about Pocket Pages?

I have been blocked for about 2 yrs, recently I have discovered pocket pages, and I can honestly say I love them, my layouts are normally all picture, but now I went from not making any pages to 6 pages in the last few days, but i have noticed I am not journaling as much as before, any suggestions? I also love the fact that I am not torn by not using elements, but I feel like I should put some on them

thanks @Emily!

Gina...I'm not a pocket scrapper, but how about adding some journal cards to your pages instead of all photos? Some of them are decorated enough that elements might not be needed, but using some cards in place of photos might help prompt you to do more journaling. You could use one that only has a few words for a title and then use another one or two to help tell the story, and that would still be pretty fast.

As far as elements go, what about using a flower or brad or theme element to cover up Uncle Harry's knee in the corner of that cute shot of the baby playing on the floor? If it'd overlap onto an important part of another photo, tuck it under that one and over the one of the baby. What about staples or tape holding cards in place, or a ribbon used as a border? Or fill an unused corner of a journal card with a themed element or small flower cluster. You can still add elements and have your layouts look great; it's just not a requirement.

I can offer your my Pinterest board with more ideas than you probably want smiley But I always find looking through can help if I'm stuck in a rut or looking for a new idea to try.

thanks Ladies! right now I am scanning a bunch of pictures, I will have to keep an eye out for the journal cards

@Holly, I do try to use elements but sometimes I am off on sizing, and it drives me crazy, to me it always looks to big or to small

@gina...I know the feeling, sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. I will agree Pinterest and Marisa's board are full of ideas. I love seeing how other people do it, and are constantly amazed with how creative a pocket page can really be!

I just shoot photos and then see if I have enough for a week or not. Sometimes I do 2-3 weeks per spread. Takes the stress away:) I also do Hybrid PL and am thoroughly enjoying. To further un-stress, try using one album for all- vacations and daily stuff.
Oh, and to organize myself, I upload all photos I shot (mostly on my phone) to Dropbox. I make weekly folders where I put all photos I shot, received my whatsapp, downloaded etc. This really saves me hours of gathering photos. I even do it once a day sometimes.

These are great tips (great enough that I'm totally resurrecting this thread smiley ) - does anyone have any thoughts on... when you do weekly or monthly pages like this, do you use the same kit throughout the book to keep it easy or do you mix it up?

I am dedicated digital pocket scrapper, which I've been doing for five years now, so I have a pretty set routine that keeps me going. Every Saturday I go through my photos, edit them and add them to my pocket template. I don't do the decorating until a later date. Splitting the tasks up like this makes it manageable to keep up with. And now that I have my past photo books printed out, dropping the ball would make me so sad!

I use different kits for each week's spread. Using the same one for a year would be way too dull! You can see all my pages here. Let me know if you have any questions because I'm actually in the process of making an FAQ type blog post with everything about my pocket scrapping.

Thanks! Very helpful. A great idea to have a routine for it.

Do you do any pages besides pocket scrapping? Do you print as a book or individual pages? And sorry - one more - 12x12? 8.5x11? A different size? I've been out of this for a while and just getting started again. All my stash is 12x12 and that's what I'm used to working with, but it also feels big and cumbersome to me once it's printed. I've thought about designing them at 12x12 but printing at 10x10. Hmm. Wonder how that would work.

Do you do any pages besides pocket scrapping?
I do hybrid work in a travelers notebook and junk journals. And I occasionally make a digital page that's not pockets. Very rarely. You can see my whole gallery here.

I print as a book when the year is finished. I do keep track of my pages now so that I know the year can fit in one book. In the past I was more reckless and I have several books for a year, which I don't like. The photo book company I work with has a 100 page limit, so that means I have to do a few weeks as a single spread. Which usually works out fine as there's always a few weeks with fewer photos. I work in a 12x12 format, although I print at 10x10 which I much prefer as it fits on my shelf and my lap better.

I have a few posts about the books I've made:
https://www.digitalscrapbook.com/blog/my-2018-photo-book
https://www.digitalscrapbook.com/blog/kenya-photo-book
https://www.digitalscrapbook.com/blog/my-2016-photo-book
https://www.digitalscrapbook.com/blog/my-2015-photo-book