Picture my life/ Project Life

This year I decided to do hybrid scrapbooks for us all. Which for those of you who may not be familiar is mixing traditional scrapbooking with pocket scrapbooking. I made this decision for a couple different reasons:

1. COST-- I do 2 layouts in 3 books every month. I like CTMH, in case you didn't already know that about me, and that gets a little pricey when you are ordering 1 Workshop on the go, 2 paper packs, 2 sets of embellishment, possible an extra package of card stock, ink and god knows what else you might really want!
2. I think I can get more pictures of our lives, especially at Christmas ect, in the project life books.
3. It may give me more time for card making, mixed media, sewing, oh and for my husband and kids.
4. Plus, I like a challenge. And something new is always a challenge as is blending styles!

So stick with me here for a bit and we will learn how I'm gonna manage it together!

January was a tradition month with the Snowhaven paper pack. 

I did mostly traditional layouts, as you saw, for the oldests "Frozen" birthday, but I tossed in a smaller pocket page protector just to give me alittle more room.

The rest of February will be Picture My Life (PML).

I wanted to share tonight my plan for making that happen...

I have been thinking for awhile how to go about ordering my pictures... With my Workshop on the Go (WOTG) kits I had them a month early so was able to pull them out and order pictures based on those layouts.

That doesn't really work for PML... So I needed a plan... I scoured Pinterest as most of us do. Picked the layout guide from Erratic Project Junkie to order my pictures and it worked... Until today when I sat down to put all my page protectors and a bunch of those layout guides in my new album for them and realized half of the pages on her guide aren't available where I live.... So I hit Pinterest again... I stumbled upon The Scrap Master and decided to just copy and paste the pictures she has of each layout into word and work with that.. printed it... nope too small to write in the little squares... ok.... a text to hubby "Can I create in Adobe?" "Nope" Crap... ok... now what...

So I sat down in Microsoft Word and just drew boxes and sized boxes and drew boxes and sized boxes. And played and played and well you get the idea...

But I created something I'm happy with!! Take a peak!!

I printed them double sided so 1 layout gets one sheet.. in theory. If this layout will work for you I am more than happy to share I'm just not knowing how to upload the pdf file...

I like that there is room on the second page for me to add different layouts as I get them. Right now this is mostly what I have. I don't have C, L, (planning to order those this coming week) and G I'm currently out of, but I really like it!

So, now we have that does and useable-- Enter the binder!

Pretty right? I looked for just a plain old binder but couldn't find one the right size... Also this one cost $8 more than some standard binders so why wouldn't I invest in a pretty one??

When you open it up the layout guides are right there either ready to help make your layouts or plan the next ones coming. I plan on just tossing the guide when I finish the layout but maybe we will laminate a few and just reuse from month to month, we'll see.

Behind the guides are my standard 12x12 CMTH side loading page protectors.

 Then its on to the pocket pages. I put them alphabetically cuz thats just how my momma raised me, but you could definetly organize them by the ones you will use most, size, whatever makes your heart go pitty pat!!

I cut the dividers on my cricut with the CTMH Artbooking cartridge and did some hiding/contouring and sizing in craft room.

Now, the plan is that I can sit down every month. Load my pictures to the web. Grab my guides and plan my pages based on the orientation and sizes of the pictures I took that month. I order one set for each album individually. So when I go to pick up my orders there is an envelope for me, one for the oldest and one for the youngest and any other picutres I might need are in thier own orders too. It just makes it easier for me. That way as you can see below, all I do is jot a description of the pic on the layout and move on. I think I would have to be alittle more descriptive if I was sorting out one one big order.

This layout I know will be a hybrid layout because the layout before was the "Frozen" party. So I hand drew my plan on the 12x12 layout space.

I also jotted down where I wanted journaling to go so that when I go through the cards to put them in the book I can pull out the right size and orientation of cards meant for journaling first and not accidentally put those to the back side.

I am sooooo excited for this layout!!! I bought this really cool guitar stencil back in November that I haven't used yet. So I thought I would mist a 12x12 with the stencil and then trim that to fit in the pockets. That's something I never would have considered doing in a traditional book so I'm stoked to give it a go. To plan it I layed the stencil over the page protector and marked where the guitar would go on the guide.

  And this last page I wanted to use D again, because I have LOTS of them left from a xmas present for hubby so wanted to get them used and balance my book alittle. Since I didn't want to use another guide for that layout I just drew it in and marked it as a D.

Well, there ya have it folks. Thats my PML plan. Stay tuned to see if it works as well as I'm hoping it will!!!

I wish I had a finished layout to show you but sadly not yet... Monthly club night is this Thursday though!! Here's hoping I get to go!!!

Ta Ta for now!!!

EDIT: I found the pin that inspired me to organize my protector in the first place lol, I may have just left them in a pile.. here she is The Crafty Pickle