Project life weeks 1 & 2

It's been a bit of a project life show around here recently but I am keen to get these two layouts out of the door and onto the blog before the uni term starts this week.

Gosh, I am loving having the new templates to play with. It brings such freshness to this project and I am feeling far more inspired.

I bought several new kits for 2014 too. I decided to move away from strictly project life downloads and instead buy digital paper and element packs and make my own journalling cards. After a year of this project I know how I like to work and can get more value out of making cards myself.

So weeks one and two, here goes....

Photos: 
Week one, had those photos from the farm as well as a few snapshots from New Years Eve.
After seeing how well big photos turned out in the printed book, I am keen to keep blowing the photos up large. That photo of the boy and me was a no-brainer- it had to be big!

Week two had slightly less photos so week two tells two stories. The left hand spread details my thoughts on my Project Life book and the right hand spread, the story of the scarf (which will make it up on the blog at some point!)

Journalling: 
Week one typically focused on an overview of New Year. I love writing on photos and adding text and photos to one journalling card like that "this week" card.

Week two, as well as holding the two stories, also has a brief summary of the week. I am using an app on my phone to record a few words about what happens each day. It's a good way to jog my memory when I come to make the spread and when I have space I think it will be fun this year to record those seemingly hum drum details.

Techniques: 
I love the squares. They really are the perfect size for journalling and for photos.
I am also enjoying using two different templates. These two weeks I kept the same format- one template for the left hand spread, the other for the right. I am keen to change this up although I think the templates will be dictated by what sort of photos I have.

I'm very pleased with the week cards I made for each spread. After looking back through my PL album from last year it would have been nice to see the date somewhere on each layout. They are also great space fillers when there aren't that many photos!

I want to get better with my graphics tablet this year so played around with it for the week two spread and made that title card "the story of the weaving". I think more practice is in order but gosh, there is so much possibility with this tool!

Anything else: 
Still striving for simplicity and trying to make this project simple and easy to complete. I am trying to make a point of saving any journalling card or template I make, in the hope of building up a library. That way, when time is short, I can use a ready made card, pop photos in, add text and it is still all in my style. That's the plan anyway, before I get distracted by pretty paper and fonts!

New Year, new Project Life. I'm excited to get going again.