Project Life Catch Up | Kelly Noel

Hello SC friends! I'm currently 10+ weeks behind on Project Life. Yep, that's a LOT of weeks. However, I'm not stressing about it. I know that with a few focused evenings of Project Life-ing, I can get it done no problem. Are you behind too? Do you feel like you're spending too much time on each spread? Here are my top five tips to "just get it done"!

1. If you're like me, things go faster when you include lots of photos. If you have plenty of photos for the week, by all means, use them! This means less embellishing and less planning what goes where, which makes for less work.

Planetarium Project Life Kit

2. Use digital stamps and elements. While you're planning out your spread for the week, think ahead and add some digital elements to your photos and then once you print, you are good to go!

3. Go to a one-page format for the purposes of catching up. I do this quite a bit. Some weeks I don't take a ton of photos, but still want to document the week. I just make sure that the weeks I decide to do this will go side by side. For example, week 31 and 32 in my album are one page weeks. That way it doesn't mess up the flow of the album and every page is filled.

Marks & Co. Project Life Kit

4. Break it up. I tend to work in small chunks of time (while the baby is napping or while the big boys are doing something independently), which can be frustrating sometimes when you're trying to "just get it done". What works for me is working on one portion of the week at a time. For example, I'll do the planning for the week in one sitting, then print the photos in another. Finally, when I have some time in the evenings after everyone is in bed, I will sit down and put everything together.

5. Move to a monthly format. Last year, once the summer came, I had a really hard time getting my weekly spreads done. I became too far behind to think about tackling all those weekly spreads, but monthly I could definitely do. I highlighted the most important things that occurred during those months. The entire second 1/2 of the 2012 album is monthly and I still love the way it turned out.

Block Party Project Life Kit

I hope these tips will help you if you're fairly behind like me. Don't let it get you overwhelmed. Stick with it and you'll love looking back at your album year after year.