Taking Project Life Digital

In January, I shared a little bit about my Project Life journey and what I’ve done in my albums over the last two years. At the time, I had not printed out any of my digital pages from 2013 to compare to my paper pages from 2012. But this March I finally sent them all off for printing—and I have to say, I am totally in love with my digital version of Project Life!

I know I’ve been promising to show off pictures for a long time now… so, I wanted to begin by sharing one of my favorite two-page spreads!

Over a year ago, I shared a digital version of Week 3 & 4 here on the blog. Here is what Weeks 3 & 4 look like in living color:

One of my favorite things from this year are these filler card templates by Misty Cato:

Just like I did in 2012, I kept notes on hand for each month so that I could compile a short weekly list to add as the main card for each week:

I left blank spaces and labels all throughout the book so that I could come back with a date stamp once they were printed.

In hindsight, this was not such a brilliant plan… to try to stamp onto photo paper. I will not be doing this again! It’s too much of a pain in the behind… and too easy to make a complete mess out of all my hard work!

This is actually one of the better looking dates here:

Here’s the right side:

As I cut out more of these pages and placed them into my album, I fell more and more in love with them. So, I thought I’d end this post by sharing…

My 5 Favorite Things About Taking Project Life Digital:

1. It took a lot less time. The whole reason I set out to complete my 2013 album digitally was that I knew with homeschooling, designing and trying to keep up with stuff around the house, I just didn’t have the time for all the cutting, gluing and sewing that my paper scrapping would require of me! One side of a two-page spread would take me all night to work on. It took me about an hour to complete one digital layout from start to finish. And it was SO much easier for me to catch up when I was behind because of this!
2. Everything was matchy-matchy! I typically would use one digital kit for each 12 x 12 spread. Sometimes, like did here for Week 3 & 4, I would combine two kits with similar colors and use bits and pieces on both the left and the right sides. But I always knew that my papers would match and all my colors would be in harmony. I sometimes spent hours with my paper album saying to myself “No, not that paper… maybe this one? No… maybe pink? Yellow? No… these don’t match now. Ugh!” I didn’t do that this year. By sticking with one kit, I knew everything would totally coordinate.
3. My super-flat pages all fit into one album. My pages from 2012 are split into two albums because of their bulk. Now, I did scrap some weeks that took up two pages. And there were a few trips to Disney that got two pages of their own (on top of the regular week’s spread). But 2013 is going to easily fit into one album (once it’s all cut out, that is). There isn’t any bulk to these pages! And that’s going to save me the cost of one more album and two more sets of page protectors… not to mention the shelf space it will also save me!
4. My stash was inexhaustible. My paper and elements are digital—so, not only I could use things more than once, there was never any waste either. There were element packs that I went back and used pieces of all year long. There were certain kits I used again and again. With digi, you never run out of something—so you don’t have to hoard your supplies! I loved that.
5. There was never any clean up. As much as I love getting out all my washi, my notecards and my scissors, I hate putting it all away at the end of the night (which I have to do when there are little people in my house!). All digi required of me was some free time to sit at my desk to scrap.

For me, going digital helped me to focus on what matters most (getting those photos and memories recorded!) while still being able to create something beautiful at the same time. I really love how it turned out and I’m looking forward to share more photos and talking more about my process.

If you have any questions for me about how I’ve been doing my not-quite-hybrid, not-quite-traditional-digi album, feel free to leave me a comment. I’d love to hear your thoughts!

Until next time, Happy Scrapping!