project life 2015 : june (& future documenting plans)

These are the last Project Life spreads I’m going to make for awhile, and even though I know it’s a good decision I am also really sad about it! As I placed them in the album and paged through the rest of the year, I second guessed myself because it is really so cool to see laid out like this. But I’ve decided to try a new and easier form of documentation, at least during these crazy years with little kids.

I’ll talk more about my change of plans in a bit, but first here are the layouts from June, if you’d like to see.

These were made using the Project Life app, along with some digital templates by Paislee Press, Big City Quiet, and using the Collect app. I think I had finally gotten the hang of balancing my spreads in the app.

I added some written journaling and a tiny wood veneer embellishment.

On the right side I just wrote some journaling and called it good.

The next spread, roughly the second half of June, was a little more busy but fun.

I took these two Instax photos of the kids for a project, but they turned out too dark to use. I still thought they were cute so I added them in here.

I glued down a movie ticket stub here.

On the right side I added small labels on top of two photos.

I realized I did not have much more to say to fill in a whole 4×6 spot with journaling, so I just stuck a shipping tag on there and cut up a filler card from the physical version of the midnight edition.

So the deal is that I am switching from Project Life to Chatbooks starting with July. Chatbooks makes 6×6 books of your Instagram photos automatically; they are 60 pages (one photo per page) and are $6. You can edit the cover and the captions and a few other things. I haven’t gotten my first book yet, but when I do I will be sure to update you on how I like them! But I’ve heard good things.

I decided to do this because I’m in the business of simplifying my life these days. Since I am already putting the effort into my Instagram feed, I figured I’ll just try to post a little more frequently and we’ll have some of the best photos of our everyday life printed easily. Doing Project Life through the app wasn’t that difficult, and I still highly recommend it, but Chatbooks are even easier, and smaller, and cheaper.

I’ve had some emotions about my decision, and have had to let go of some anxiety about not having things documented as thoroughly, as silly as that may sound. But I think the Chatbooks coupled with my 5-year journal do a pretty good job, and of course there is also my blog. You may have noticed that I have been posting more photos and life updates lately; that is partly for my own record and partly because I just like that blogging style and want to do more of it.

I do love crafting with paper, but I still plan to continue yearly projects like December Daily and Week in the Life. In fact, I’ll be documenting our week next week and I’m pretty excited about it, especially after getting Ali Edwards’ amazing kit. But I figure I have enough other crafting projects that I also want to try that I don’t want to spend all my spare time on everyday documentation.

So that’s my plan! I probably didn’t need to denote so many paragraphs to my explanation, but I’ve been such an evangelist for Project Life (and I do still truly love it) that I felt the need to over-explain. :)

Next week, during Week in the Life, I am going to attempt to blog every day with the previous day’s photos and words. I don’t think I will focus as much on specific times this year as the stories in general. I’ll be using some prompts like “I want to remember” and “around here” to do my journaling. Have you ever tried a project like this? It’s intense but SO fulfilling!