So, a few weeks before our first baby arrived this summer, we bought a camera. A big, expensive camera. Of course, the purpose of camera like this is to take lots of pictures. But as soon as my husband started downloading random glamour shots of our breakfast room chairs to iPhoto, I broke into a sweat. What were we supposed to do with all of these pictures? And what on earth would we do with thousands of baby photos?
Fortunately, I came across Becky's Higgins's blog a few weeks before our son, Ben, arrived. Becky has created a brilliant way to organize printed photos called Project Life. It's such a simple concept - essentially a fancy photo album. But therein lies the genius. For me, the hardest part of any project is getting over that it has to be perfect and getting started! So here's where I began...
This is the title page of my PL binder. I'll break down my process for you...
(1) I bought the Project Life 12 x 12 inch TURQUOISE BINDER (pictured below). It isn't currently available, but you can use any 12 x 12 D-ring binder. I also like THIS ONE from American Crafts.
(2) I'm using the Project Life Photo Pocket Pages (Design A), which you can purchase
HERE next month. They're divided so you can slide in four 4x6 photos and four 4x3 inch photos or journaling cards or whatever else you want. The plastic pages are 2-sided.
(3) I bought a few packs of the plain Journaling Cards, which are available on Amazon. They have rounded corners and a simple, light gray grid pattern printed on them. I'll share with you in an upcoming post how I print on these cards. I wanted to use the plain cards so I'd have creative control over each page, but Becky Higgins has lots of colorful journaling cards available in her kits.
I decided to fill the binder with "a
picture a day," or a layout each week, for our son's first year. The photos aren't really edited, and sometimes the text isn't perfectly centered. But I had an epiphany as I started filling the pages with photos and journaling cards: it doesn't matter that what I do with these pictures is
perfect, just that I do something. I've been assured by a friend with a little one of her own that I won't regret it. I'm loving how simple it's been to keep a photo record of Ben's first couple of months. And I don't have millions of random photos sitting in boxes or on my computer! I'll keep you posted on my progress.
