HOW to start a project life on a budget???

Hi I have heard alot of talk regarding Project Life and I think normally in order to do that kind of project you have to order a special kit well does anyone have tips on how to start your own pl thing for each one of my two kids????
THANKS LADIES!!!!!!

Since PL isn't readily available in Canada I have been downloading a lot of free journaling cards online and printing them off on some nice heavy cardstock - they turn out really nice. Search on google or pinterest, even Becky Higgins blog has some freebies.
I have also began cutting my pattern paper to size 3x4 or 4x6. One other thing that I have seen done is if you don't have the pocket pages just use a 12x12 cardstock as your background and divide up the page in the style you like.

I hope this made sense and it helps.

I don't do Project Life, but I have some of these sleeves and a 3 ring 12 x 12 binder. I'll put a few pics from a day of fun, or a hike and I make my own journal cards/embellishment from my scrapbook stash and use one or more of the 4 x 6 slots to put it in.

So pretty much what Veronica says above

I bought a ditto book and used the photo pockets that are in that, but I use the papers too a sort of cheaper version. I'm 12 weeks behind but as the camera has the date on of all the photos I just printed small pix off. Its coming together pretty good even if I say so myself. On a couple of bigger pix I've just matted one pic. I've even included a pic of my Costa Coffee card, how sad is that. Your children would love it I'm sure ours do.
Anne x

I need to get a pl book where do they sell them and do you use one book per child?
THANKS great ideas!!!

Project Life can be whatever you want it to be about, but it generally isn't a "one book per child" kind of thing - the idea is that it's the story of your ENTIRE family's everyday life over the course of a year.

That said, if you want to do individual albums for each of your kids, use however many albums you want, just like with any other type of scrapbook. I will say, though, that doing separate ones at the same time in separate albums seems to run counter to the idea of trying to do it on a tight budget.

To me, Project Life is just the original scrapbooks. Before layouts became artistic and expensive. When people just put their photos on the page and added scraps of paper or dry leaves, or ticket stubs...stuff like that.

When I first did PL i used materials i already had on hand. t felt really great to see those papers and embellies being used.

I want to do the same thing, but for my grandkids so they can see what Grandma did for a year or so.

• Crafting Marfa Said:

Agreed.

If I can ever get myself into the habit I'm going to use up all of the random paper I have for mine and print journaling cards off the internet.

Agree with previous posters....
You can use any album you want and just purchase the pocketed page protectors. Simple Stories has books out now for this type of thing but really any one will do....
You can cut up your own paper and use your own embellishments to do the journalling cards and just pop in the photos and you're done!
One of my BFFs did this for her 2nd son's baby book....she got really behind and it was just a fast way to put together his baby pictures....

Also, the Project Life stuff by Becky Higgins is being sold here now....as well as there is
a Canadian link to purchase if you go to her website.....I've bought it before.
Honestly, you don't really have to buy the actual PL kits....just put your own together!

Alison

I am doing PL for the first time this year. I did buy the Becky Higgins page protectors but for a lot of the journaling cards etc...I am using up my stash. I am cutting up 12x12 papers into 4x6 and 3x4 blocks. I am pulling out my old flat stickers and using them a lot. I am also using my stamps more and making my own tages, banners etc.. from my scraps. It doesn't have to be expensive at all really. I'm just doing one book for my family but I am still doing tradtional layouts as well. Hope that helps

I immediately thought of the free printables that lots of people seem to be making and featuring on their blogs. Almost all of the ones I've seen look pretty dang great! Also, a good place to see them- I think, anyways- is on Pinterest. Do a search for 'free printables' or 'free project life printable' or you get the idear. A few people have created some nice boards of the best sets.

You could also design your own, if you're good with computers. You don't even need Photoshop! I don't do PL, but a coworker likes it- and I've 'designed' a few cards for her, while at work, using Microsoft Publisher! Draw a box for the size you want, drop in some clip art- like graphs, ledger lines, whatever. I even made some cool calendar cards, this way, where you can circle the date and there's room for some journalling.

I had so much fun 'playing famous scrap designer' with Publisher that I decided I would learn some 'real' designing software and downloaded the free graphics program, INKSCAPE. It took playing around with it for a bit and two youtube tutorials, but in no time, I was making some (in my tiny opinion) kick@$$ journal cards.

If that's too time consuming, think about the APPS on your phone! There are a few nice apps that could be used to make PL cards- look for ones that can add text to pics. Instead of using a picture of your foot or whatever as the background, save a plain color or public doman image as a 'photo' in your camera roll (I'm going with iPhone stuff right here, since that's what I know). Then, open the image in the APP and add some text in a nifty font- use an app to crop it a specific size and print it out.

If you want to get started without putting out money for divided page protectors- cuz if I was unsure about it, I would want to PLAY first- just draw lines on a 12x12 (or whatever size you wanna do) piece of cardstock and glue everything to its place in this 'graph' and put the entire page into a 12x12 protector that you already have...

I've also seen the Project Life people making planners and organizing their supplies in specific ways- so don't forget that might help, too. And remember that Dollar Tree sells lots of little plastic bins- you could keep your cards in one, photos in another, whatever.

I'm not a lady, so if anything I posted here helps, feel free to thank me.
;-)


-kory k

Thanks, Kory! Already planning to download InkScape this evening.

Kory, ur so smart and crafty...those are great ideas! Thanks!

I did my first PL this year, and have stayed with it! I used a Doodlebug album that I won, and then used the divided page protectors that I found on sale. I use whatever paper/embellishments I want to - usually a 6x6 pad or a collection for my weekly layouts. I love it!

Here's a link to my blog showing how I started ... http://www.tanyaham.blogspot.com/2013/02/pl-cover-and-title-page.html You can click the "Project Life" tag on the bottom and it will pull up each post through the year if you want to see how I've gone through the year.

I really have enjoyed doing this kind of scrapbooking this year!

thanks tanya and Kory - great ideas!!!I think I will try it out in january!!!

http://www.bonitarose.com/search/label/project%20life

This is the cheapest way I have seen to do Project Life and it is fabulous!

EDIT: I don't know why it says in response to mindygail, I was just responding to the first question.