A lot of people have asked how I decided what went in what album. When I started using Project Life at the begining of the year, there wasn't a lot of 8x8 product available. You couldn't even order from the app. That definitely affected my decisions on the albums.

A little background before I share a breakdown of the albums. I have owned a camera since I was five. Growing up, I was meticulous with organization of my photos. I would get duplicates printed of every roll. I would put one in an album with a caption for every picture, then I would file the other set in a photo box and lable the negative. (Yes, I know this is crazy for a kid to do.) I also made a few scrapbooks along the way and quit in 2004 when I graduated high school. It was too difficult to keep with with in college and I simply didn't have the space. Another note, I went to exclusively using my digital camera in college. Prior to that, I had a hybrid of film and digital. (Digital wasn't as good as my iPhone is now!)

After college, my life breaks down into these categories: college, living in Florida, single life in Dallas, wedding, and now marriage. Also, I wanted to give my mom an album for Christmas of all this time of family photos.

Essentially for me, I had two projects running in parallel: my personal life and then my family's events. 

To accomplish the family album I broke it down like this: Christmas, Thanksgiving, Family Vacations, other holidays, and random events. By breaking it down like this, I could break it down into smaller chunks and feel accomplishment along the way. I solely used the app  and printed 8x8's for my family's album so that people could get copies if they wanted.

To accomplish my personal project, I used a hybrid of product based on what I needed. I had a lot of pictures printed out as well as some physical kits that I bought. I also liked using the app. Here's how I broke it down:

- 12x12 album for college.

- 6x8 album for post college living in Florida. (not a ton of pictures, some already printed, some app)

- 12x12 album for living in Dallas (I had already done a #Project365 for 2013 but didn't print the pictures out)

- 12x12 album for our wedding

- 12x12 album of trips that both my husband and I had taken prior to marriage

- 12x12 album for 2015

- Two 4x4 albums for my instagram feed over the years

 

I also gifted three 8x8 albums using the Project Life App for Christmas. 

Stay tuned for more posts on what I used within these albums and how they turned out!

-Jordan

Examples of pages made with the Project Life App:

 

Check out BeckyHiggins.com to learn more about the Project Life system

11 years of photos in 1 year while working full time. Sounds crazy?

Well this is how I did it.

The key products I used were: Project Life, Project Life App (available in Apple iTunes store and in Adroid store February 2016), and DropBox.

STEP ONE: ORGANIZE PHOTOS

One of the great features is how Project Life App links with DropBox. I thankfully have been backing up my pictures in DropBox for a long time. Mine were already organized. I organize by year and then categorize within. I now put the full date instead of just year because I can scroll in order.

I have a "PHOTOS" folder, then I have a folder for each year. Within the year I put "YEAR_MONTH_DAY_EVENT" as the file extension and drop them within.

Thankfully, I have been backing up my photos like this for awhile. I had to go back an organize 2012 because that's when I transitioned to using my phone over a point and shoot camera. I didn't have a great system and all the pictures were just backed up into my camera roll.

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STEP TWO: CHOOSE A PATTERN/WORK IN "BATCHES"

What I mean by this is, choose how you are ​​going to go through to make your pages. Are you going to start by year? Or by category? It took me a bit to get this down. My main goal was to create a family scrapbook. If I completed that, I would call it a success. I wanted to give my Mom and Dad a scrapbook by Christmas. To accomplish this, I did it by category. What are the biggest family holidays? Thanksgiving and Christmas. I did all the Christmases. Then Thanksgivings. Then family vacations. Then random holidays. Then random events. That way I tackled the biggest fish first and felt a snowball effect of accomplishment.

STEP THREE: ORDER MONTHLY FROM PROJECT LIFE APP

This project wil be crazy if you don't. I was also doing my own personal pages for 2014 and keeping up with 2015 at the same time. I put in one order a month to spread out the cost.

TIPS:

1. Use your spare time. Don't get on social media. Make a page. I used my spare time while waiting... at the doctor, oil changes, waiting on people, etc. You'll be surprised how much you can accomplish my using those 5-10 min time increments.

2. Done is better than perfect. My 2015 album has waaaaay more detail because I was doing it in real time. On everything in the past, I just wanted to get it done. The events are labled and maybe a sentence or two on journaling. I actually left white space if anyone wanted to add their own thoughts after printing out. Also, I didn't worry about a two page spread. Just made pages and organized later after they were printed out.

3. BACK UP THE IMAGES. O my goodness. I wish I had done this initially. I almost had the project done and then my phone was destroyed via water bottle. I lost everything and had to start over. You can now export your images straight to DropBox. Once you complete a page, click the icon on the bottom right corner to start the process. I always backup in 12x12 so I can print either size.

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Stay tuned for a post on what is in each album, and I'll answer further questions on how I did it!

-Jordan