Well, we’re a quarter of the way into 2013, and I’m keeping on top of my Project Life album. (Yay.)

Using my new system of only printing what I know I’m going to use and sticking pretty close to only the kit elements is serving me well. I’m able to do a week’s worth of photos standing at my kitchen island in less than half an hour.

Week 12 was a big week for the Prices. We finalized Posey’s adoption + celebrated Easter, so I included an insert. (A cut-in-half Design A page protector.)

The date card + the pennant card were free printables I found through Pinterest. (I try to repin items I find, but sadly I didn’t with these cards, and now I can’t find them. So even though I’m a failed pinner, you can still follow my Project Life pin board if you’d like.)

That Friday my friend Karla and I took the kids to their first movie to see The Croods. I created this print in Photoshop and purposely left space for the ticket stubs.

This is the back of the insert. The top photo is the view out the window of the courthouse in Minneapolis. I took these pictures of Posey outside the courtroom while we waited to go in for our hearing. She is the precious-est.

The card on the top right is the program from church. The two 4x3s are free printables. These are all also the only pictures I took of the kids on Easter. My camera phone was too full (had to use Aaron’s) and my dSLR battery died after only a few clicks. Whoops.

And that’s a week 12 wrap.

I know some of you have recently started Project Life albums. How’s it going?

So far I’m doing well staying on top of my 2013 Project Life album. It’s so much easier this year, because I’m staying more organized and doing a better job of only ordering the prints I’ll need.

If you’re scared of starting on Project Life because of the time commitment, I put together all three of these weeks during one naptime.

Week 3 (with insert)

I cut down a Design B page protector for an insert of our family photos, which we got back from the photographer during this week.

I also purchased some Ali Edwards Photoshop brushes, which are the digital elements you see on some of the photos. I love them!

I ordered week 3′s photos from CostCo, and they were all trimmed just slighly off, which meant some of the digital elements (like the box on that “love” photo above) got cut off. I also had to place the order twice, because I forgot to check “lustre” the first time. If you’re ordering from CostCo, remember to check lustre!

Week 4

This was the first time I didn’t use a 4×6 week card, because I didn’t want to split Posey’s 9-week photo between two 4×3 sleeves. I probably won’t do that a lot, but I think it works every once in a while.

That Sunday, Harry and I met friends at the aquarium in Mall of America, so this whole page is about that. The two stamps above are also Ali Edwards brushes.

I created the above image using the app InstaWeather. It puts the current weather over a photo, and there are about six different skins from which you can choose. It snowed on us the entire way home from the mall that day, so I thought this was a neat way to mark it. (The app square crops your image like Instagram does, so I put the 4×4 image on a 4×6 canvas in Photoshop and added the text to the right.)

Week 5

I ordered weeks 4 and 5 prints from Persnickety Prints, and the quality is just so much better. It cost me about $26 (including shipping and I got rounded corners on the 4x3s), compared to the $9 I spent at CostCo for just one week. (Although I did order several doubles of our family pictures for grandparents.) So it’s not too much more, especially if you order several weeks at once to save on shipping.

I’m really loving the Clementine core kit. The colors and designs are much more “me” than the Colbat kit was. Linking up with Jessica at The Mom Creative again this week. Can’t wait to see everyone else’s spreads!

We may only be two weeks into 2013, but I’m feeling pretty happy that I’m on track with Project Life.

Thank you so much for the response to my recap last week; I’m glad it was helpful! A few updates, because I forgot a couple of things and got a few questions.

• When I order prints from Persnickety Prints, I choose the Project Life choices from the drop down. They have a long list of printing options, so just scroll down till you see “Project Life 4×6″ (or whatever size you’re ordering).

• Why inserts and why not additional spreads? I like inserts, because it feels more contained. When I turn the page to another spread, I want it to be another week.

• I sent my photos to CostCo this week, and I think this is what I’ll do on a regular basis. They’re not as fast as Walgreens (mostly because CostCo has terrible hours), but it cost me less than $2 to print my week 2 photos. And they quality is way, way better than Walgreens.

• I’m using Evernote to make little notes about my week. Nothing specific, but just stuff like “Jan. 4: indoor playground.” I might not use or need them, but this way IF I get behind, I’ll know what we did on what days. (Without having to dig into my photos’ EXIF data, which is what I had to do last year to know which photos went with which weeks.)

• I use the app Over to overlay text on my photos right on my phone. It’s slick.

OK, on to 2013!

Title Page:

I was going to use some of our family photos for the title page, but I really liked the picture from the photo booth at our shower, so I decided to use that instead. The monogram card is a freebie from Cathy Zielske. The “so happy together” card and the background of the 2013 card were freebies I found through Pinterest, and I honestly can’t remember from where. The other cards are from the Clementine kit.

I decided to use a Design F page protector instead of the more traditional Design A, because I wanted to use individual pictures of each of us. Which I didn’t do, exactly, but that’s because I fell in love with that shot of Harry and his daddy and really wanted to use it.

Week 1:

Left side:

The Happy New Year card is also from CZ. The scripture is the She Reads Truth memory verse for that week. The picture of Posey on the far right was originally a 4×6, which I didn’t have room for, but I liked it, so I cut it.

Right side:

Shower photos!

Week 2:

I haven’t added the dates to this spread yet, because I decided that I want to get a date stamp. I’d planned to run to Archiver’s yesterday, but I didn’t make it there. So when I do, I’ll stamp the card with the dates for this week. (And I will probably redo week 1′s card.)

Left side:

I ordered the monogram card in both black and white and color, and liked the b&w for the title page, so I had an extra one.

Right side:

On Saturday we went to Nickelodeon Universe in Mall of America with friends. It was so fun, and Harry had a blast.

I was able to do the layout for week 2 in less than 15 minutes this morning. It’s easy when you order just the prints you’ll need and you rely heavily on the kit.

Project Life is by far the easiest, simplest way to keep your family’s memories. Linking up with Jessica at The Mom Creative today. Lots of spreads and inspiration to be found in the link up.

I finished my 2012 Project Life album last night. I had doubts it would ever get done, as two weeks ago I was only up to late September.

My album looks like it’s going to explode (I included a LOT of inserts), so I’m a little afraid to leaf through it too much, lest the rings pop open and the page protectors come loose and I cry a million tears.

In all honesty, there were a few times when I regretted starting this project; it requires a chunk of dedicated time when you get behind (and I got significantly behind several times), and I’d create quite a mess when working on it.

But now that it’s finished, I am SO glad I took the plunge. It’s amazing to look back at pictures of Harry from just this spring. 2012 was definitely the year he went from looking like a baby to looking like a little boy, and I’m grateful to have it all documented.

I waffled on whether to do it again, but Aaron encouraged me to go for it. He loves looking at it as much as I do, I think.

So since I didn’t blog too much about my spreads or my process, I thought I’d do a short recap — what worked; what didn’t, and what I plan to do differently in 2013.

(You can see the few spreads I did blog about here.)

A few things that worked:

• Include non-photo items

When my team and I went to Dallas in July, I made sure to pick up a few post cards, specifically for my Project Life album. I love the way this one looks cut across two 4×3 slots. (And please y’all, Don’t Mess with Texas.)

I also included screen caps of things like my lock screen (12:12 pm on 12/12/12!) and several of the She Reads Truth weekly memory verses.

Jessica at The Mom Creative has a great list of “bits of life” items you can include in your album. I always meant to include more of Harry’s daycare art in the book, but only ended up doing that once or twice. Really, you can include anything!

• Place Instagram pictures on 4×6 backgrounds

You can see how I did that in the above spread as well. Since IG photos are 4×4, you can’t print them at drugstore labs or even CostCo, without either letting them get randomly cropped or manipulating them in some way. So, in Lightroom (but you could use any photo editing software), I’d create a 4×6 template and then place my Instagram picture on it. That way I could still send photos to Walgreen’s to print without worrying about my IG pics getting randomly cropped. This also allowed me white space to write or add letters or washai tape or whatever.

• Persnickety Prints!

Persnickity Prints is an online lab I discovered through Becky Higgins (the creator of Project Life) just last month. I wish I’d found them sooner! They print 4×4, 3×4, AND they will round corners for you. They’re a little more expensive than Walgreen’s or CostCo, but when you get behind, just having the corners already rounded can be a time saver. (And the print quality is better.)

Below are two spreads with some 4×4 prints. I just glued the images onto some 4×6 card stock and put them in the page protector.

• Write ON your pictures

I use either a black Sharpie or a white paint-pen Sharpie to write directly on my images. I just like the way it looks, and it adds a little extra interest to the page without a lot of extra work or effort.

• Include a lot of pictures

The great thing about Project Life is you can really make it your own. I see some albums out there that are heavy on the journalling and light on the photos or heavy on graphics and digital elements or whatever. I take a lot (a lot a lot) of pictures, and I wanted to make sure I used as many as I could. (However, this is also one of the things I’m going to be better about in 2013, which leads me to my next piece of advice.)

What I’m going to do differently:

• Cull your photos!

This year I’m going to be more mindful of WHAT pictures I print, rather than just printing whatever pictures I took that week and then sorting through them. For week 1 2013, I mapped out ahead of time what images I wanted as what sizes (what as a 4×3 and what as a 4×6) and just printed those. I’m hoping this cuts down on waste (both time and paper).

• Be judicious with the use of inserts.

I also had way way too many inserts in 2012, and I’d like to reduce those both for time and the sake of the binder!

[For inserts, I just trim down a 12x12 page protector. I like Design C and Design F for inserts the most, probably.]

I mean, this one week this fall I had THREE inserts. (We went to a pumpkin patch and also Up North, so there was a lot to cover, but still.)

• Stay current!

Say it with me everyone: don’t get behind.

In 2013 …

I am using the Clementine kit this year.

I’m going to try to rely more on the kit, because I had a few 4×6 cards and LOTS of journalling cards left over in 2012.

I’m waiting on my prints for our title page + week 1 right now, so hopefully by next Tuesday I’ll be able to show you the start of my second Project Life album!

Happy memory keeping everyone!