Evalie Rose's 365 Album

Before anyone gives me credit for this...just know that this idea was from my friend KRISTIN! She is the creative genious (along with Becky Higgins) behind this project ;) She's the one who suggested taking Becky's Project Life and making it into a baby's first year album.

Becky Higgins is a famous scrapper who invented what's called Project Life 365. You can hear all about it here: http://beckyhiggins.com/videos/. You can buy a kit for this project and literally just throw all the pieces in pockets, take a picture every day for a year, write about the pictures, and at the end of the year you're DONE!

BORING (to me).

I have a MILLION (well, thousands) pieces of cardstock and patterned paper. I also have a paper trimmer. Paper + trimmer = card that will fit into little pockets.

The one thing I did need to buy for this project was Becky's AWESOME AWESOME AWESOME pocket page protectors. You can buy them here if you're in Canada: http://scrapbookersinnercircle.com/cart.html#ecwid:category=177912&mode=category&offset=0&sort=normal

Well worth the $$$!!!! They are incredible! And, you can't buy them anywhere else...

In addition to Becky's basic layout, I did the following:

1) I have an intro 12X12 page for each month. This is a KI Memories Calendar (my sister picked them all out for me!)

2) An ending 12X12 layout for each "photo of the month." I'll use an 8X8 photo each month to show how Evalie has grown.

3) An intro and ending page for the entire album

4) Space for a two-page 12X24 layout at the end where I will either do something like a square-punch grid of a bunch of photos over the year, or some other way to quickly document the growth of Evalie over the whole year.

In Becky's album, the entire thing has a "theme." Meaning, there is one colour scheme, one kind of "look" to the whole thing.

Again, BORING. I couldn't scrap an entire 365 days looking the same! I like variety!

So, each month of my album has a different colour scheme, a different theme to it. The one thing that brings cohesiveness to the entire album is the colour PINK! How appropriate!

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Here's a look at the album, all ready for our little beautiful baby girl! Now all I have to do for her first year of life is slip a picture in a pocket for each day (and who cares if I CHEAT?!) and by the time her first birthday rolls around, we'll be able to see how much she's grown! YAY!!!!!

April 2011 (the month we're expecting HER!!!):

May 2011 (has purple, because May is my birthday month and MY fav color is purple!):

Wasn't afraid to use some stickers on the outside of the pages.

Things I loved about doing this project:

1) Although it took quite a lot of time to put this together (mostly CHOOSING papers was time consuming), it is SO NICE to have this accomplished and ready for our baby!

2) Once I made the choices of papers/themes for each month, I was able get it done fairly fast (overall the whole thing probably took me about 25 hours total)

3) The coolest thing was USING UP MY STUFF!!!! I went through ENTIRE SHEETS of stickers and paper! NO LEFTOVERS!!!!!! Love doing that! Love the feeling of using something I have enjoyed seeing in my stash for a long time...to putting it in an album where I will see it forever :)

June 2011 (love the soft grey/silver with the white and pink of this month):

Mmmmm....TRANSPARENCIES!

July 2011 (bright for SUMMER!):

August 2011 (uses the new Hopscotch line by Basic Grey...a fav!):

September 2011:

October 2011 (isn't this Basic Grey line just YUMMY??):

November 2011 (simple in just pink and brown):

December 2011:

January 2012:

February 2012:

My plan for the year looks like this:

1) I will have NO PROBLEM taking pictures of my baby every day! I am sure of that!

2) If I forget a day, or a number of days...it's OKAY! I can live with that

3) I'll order pictures online and upload them every week or two. Then, I can just walk to Costco with little Evalie in the stroller and pick them up (and get a hot dog!)

4) Some of the pictures will be vertical and some horizontal...some will be colour and some black and white...some will be 4X6 and some 3X4...I am flexible

5) I'll journal on the little slips whenever I want to. If time goes by and I haven't journaled, I will LET IT GO and keep moving on! NO PRESSURE!

6) I will ENJOY this project. I will not allow it to be on my "to do" list as a chore. IT IS FUN :) It's for the purpose of maintaining my sanity as I adjust to motherhood!

March 2012 (love the fresh green papers by October Afternoon in this one!):

April 2012:

Mission: ACCOMPLISHED. Ahhhh...feels good!