Project life 2014 introduction/planning pages

So one of my bold intentions/strong commitments for 2014 is to really put this blog out there and get into remembering, inspiring, and making changes to this blog....

Oh yeah those are my past one little words- still significant to my journey even years later. 

One thing I want to share is the process of project life that I take. I know there are so many people out there looking for inspiration and some that even have come to me personally asking how I do it. So tonight while working on my project life I thought... What a perfect time to start sharing since it's the beginning of the year! I personally start my albums back in October since I go by Emma's birthdays not yearly... Still the new year always seems to be a second pivotal change in my albums. 

Okay so if don't go about doing weekly. That seems to put too much restriction on myself. What if I have one week where I'm like screw this week it sucked... Then I don't feel inspired, I don't want to remember it... So do I end up making that week? NO! So I only create a slight dividing 4x6 card that says- Hello January, Hello February etc... Also last year I did Hello Autumn, Hello winter too. 

When I feel inspired to do project life I pull out my 12x12 lilac we r memory keepers 3 ring binder, my core kit sunshine edition (which now contains capture by we r memory keepers and some studio calico leftover cards), my iPhone (which I'm pretty much 100% even tho I have a canon rebel camera), my canon selphy printer, and my pens/embellishments/thickers etc that I'll talk more about later. It's only extra stuff that's not needed. I also use my filofax, Instagram, Facebook, and this blog as references to what I want to record. I also use post it's as a way to pre plan my layout. Now I don't always do this either, but I do find I enjoy my pages more when I have that extra planning completed. Probably just because I can't pass up an opportunity to make a list and plan stuff out. 

So once I've gathered everything I find different ways to keep my toddler involved to a point. Sometimes she doesn't care and will play toys or watch her shows.. And sometimes the best time to do it is when she's asleep. Tonight I gave her my extra pens and some cardstock and asked her to make me a pretty picture. Sometimes I'll give her a card and ask her to write/draw something. They always make a great add in to the pages. 

Once I have her happy I'll put some music on in the background. I'm always so relaxed and calm when I'm listening to good music. My playlist always includes bands like artic monkeys, muse, broken bells, arcade fire, black keys, John Mayer, the avett brothers, and imagine dragons.

I always keep page protectors in my album ready to go, but I don't pre place my 4x6 or 3x4 cards. I know some lay out the entire album... That just would never work for me. So I do this-

Those are technically the backs of the cards in the spread before the one I'm working. Most cards you buy any more I double sided, but I don't use the backs I use a new card. So there is technically 2 cards per slot. So I mostly use design A page protectors which have 4- 4x6 slots and 4-3x4 slots. Now I see how confusing this page looks, but the other side is going to be a fun cover page into that I'm still working on so it looks like it's all 3x4... But I just used two 3x4 cards in a 4x6 slot. It's so flexible you can seriously do WHATEVER you want!!

Here is the planning page on the next side. I'm using a different type of page protector that fit my one little word printable inserts perfectly. 

That's all for tonight, the next time I continue to work on this spead I'll take photos and show you how I journal, print photos, and insert everything into the album!