Project Life is a fairly simple way to get into scrapbooking, with kits readily available online and in Hobbycraft in the UK,
I am not into scrapbooking and I am not into crafting really, you can make this system as complicated or as easy as you like and use it for anything you want.
How do you ‘do’ Project Life
My use for it is a photo album, and a handy way to keep my holiday memories and souvenirs together, rather than leaving all of my photos on my computer and never looking at them. I decided it would be a nice thing to make to look back at when I’m old, to have memories of all of the places I have been, it’s all very well putting them on instagram but I doubt that will still exist when I am that old! You can use it for whatever you want! Recipes, photo album, baby book…the list is endless. Some people document their life on a weekly basis with a page for each week but frankly in my house, ain’t nobody got time for that!
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| Photos from PersniketyPrints |
How to Start
I bought some clear pages with different sizes so I could put different types of pictures and things on different sheets. This means that you can put different sized pictures in different pockets, they just slide in sort of the same way as a punched pocket. I bought a black and grey chevron album and two sets of cards, one for travel and one black, white and gold as I love that colour scheme.
Think of what type of theme you want and go with it. I like clean designs, inspirational quotes and my album will be of travels, so I stuck to black and white, pictures, not much writing and some travel based cards.
What about all of the extras?
There are so many different things you can use to enhance your Project Life album but really you don’t need them to make it look nice, it depends how far you want to go. I use my Dymo label maker to write the titles of places or things to stick onto cards or pictures so I remember when or where the pictures on a certain page were taken, but that’s about as fancy as I have got. You could also just write notes on the blank or lined cards available, or type them on the computer, print them out and slot those in too. Some shops to buy crafty things to use in the UK are below but you can google and find so many more.
- Hobbycraft (online and in store)
- Papermaze (online)
- Paperchase (online and in store)
- Crafty Charlie (online)
How to fit two 3×4 photos onto a 4×6 for photo printing
Many of the Project Life pockets for photos are 3×4 which appears impossible to get printed online or at machines in Boots or Snappy Snaps. Instead you can use photo editing software app’s on your phone, I use A Beautiful Mess, to create one photo, but split in two.
You upload that to Boots or whatever photo printing site you are using, and have it printed on a 4×6 sheet. Then you can simply chop it in half using scissors or a guillotine for a sharp edge. Or when I am feeling extremely lazy, I order photos from the fabulous Persnickety Prints as they will print in any size and even print your photos so they look like polariods.
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| My very blurry Hong Kong page |
How to cut out one large picture to fit in all the separate pockets
It really stands out when you use one big photo and cut it out to fit all of the pockets, it is a bit tricky but you can find a tutorial here. I suggest their tutorial as I haven’t done this myself, I think it looks nice but I don’t want to cut up my photos to be honest, it looks like too much effort!
How to make the corners of your photos rounded
You can purchase a little tool to do this, just slip the picture into the tool and make sure it is level, press down and voila, your square corner is shaped into a rounded corner. I bought mine from Crafy Charlie but you can get them on ebay, at Hobby Craft and many similar places online. It does make the album look really cute.
Do I need to buy a core kit?
If you are making a simple photo album then you don’t need to buy a core kit unless you want to. Just find a few sets of cards online that you like and use those. Most of the pockets will be taken up with the photos in my one so I didn’t bother.
What can I include?
I included photos, stuck restaurant cards to some of the cards I had with glue dots, used some instagram photos I printed on photo paper, menus, a friendship bracelet I was given in SaPa. You can use anything that you think will remind you of your holiday and bring back memories.
I will update when I have completed a few more pages.
Let me know if you have a Project Life album, or send a link to your blog posts about it, I do love looking at other peoples too.