I wanted to share with you the exact process I go through when putting together my Project Life spreads, including the time frames. This way you can see that it’s totally doable! I put together this particular spread completely while in sole charge of the kids, so I didn’t even need dedicated alone time.

Sunday – end of the week : sometimes I won’t get started until the following weekend, but I didn’t expect to take more pictures and we were staying home from church recovering from sickness so I got started.

10:30am : I create an album in my photos on my iPhone which is my only camera. I put all the photos from the time period in it – for me that’s the past two weeks. Immediately I remove the ones that are super similar to each other or that don’t fit. I assess to see how many horizontal v. vertical photos I have. (5 min)

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11:20am : I look at the photos again and realize I have too many horizontals. I notice a theme with a few of them that I can combine into one 4×6. I edit these three photos on my phone (I use PicTapGo) & upload them to Flickr so I can access them on my laptop. Then I get on my computer to format them in Photoshop Elements. I also find another set of photos on my computer to edit in PSE. (20 min)

11:40am : I edit all other photos on my phone and upload them to Snapfish, which is what I use to order prints. (20 min)

12:00pm : Do some brief editing on Snapfish – just cropping to 4×6 and adding a white border to some. (2 min)

12:06pm : Place my photo order.

***

3:30pm : David brings home my prints. They were available to pick up at Walgreen’s within an hour, but I wait and let him pick them up for me when he was out already. I arrange them briefly. (2 min)

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6:22pm : I fill out and print the week in review cards using PSE. (18 min)

Saturday following

9:00am : I add brief journaling using white labels and vellum. I end up switching a couple photos around. Realize I had a few extra things that I thought about including (a postcard from a friend, the daycare report from Liam’s first day, and his hospital bracelet). I decide to leave them out and put them in the big envelope at the back of the album instead. (15 min)

9:15am : Step back and call it done!

As you can see, choosing and editing photos is a lot more time consuming than putting the spread together has to be. If I can only keep on top of that, then I know I will stay caught up. This week I didn’t even use any extras, even with the core kits, but only the supplies you see in the photo above.

I still love this project, and have really streamlined my process. This works for me even with our very full life!