Project 365 Details

I'm going to start answering certain reader questions as their own blog post, because some of you might wonder the same things. So here we go...my first reader question answered!
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My fellow mama friend, Rachael, asked: Katie, can you tell us more about the 365 project? I know it's a Becky Higgins thing but can you elaborate on the type of album and pages you are doing and possibly post a picture? Thanks!
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As some of you know, I am a huge Becky Higgins stalker fan. She's somewhat of a scrapbooking celebrity and I get tons of inspiration from her ideas and her blog.
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In January, she came out with a great kit called Project 365. The idea was to take a picture every day for the whole year and journal something significant about that day, compiling it all into a single scrapbook. Even if you're not a scrapbooker, this concept is an easy, streamlined way to document a year in your life. Her kit was extremely reasonably priced, but Mike was out of a job at the time, so I couldn't purchase it. The kits quickly sold out and by the time I had some money at my disposal, it was too late.
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So I had to get creative. I used the 12x12 We R Memory Keepers album that I always use because I like the 3-ring binder style. (you can buy them online here or here) They're leather and have a pocket on the spine so you can label the album's contents.
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As for the page protectors, I had to do a little searching. The pages that came with the kit had 4 pockets for horizontal 4x6 pictures at the top and 4 vertical 2x3 pockets for the small daily journaling cards along the bottom. I have a friend who sells Close to my Heart scrapbooking supplies and found that they had 12x12 sheet protectors with 6 - 4x6 slots for pictures. I figured out how to make that work.
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When the kits sold out, Becky posted pdf links to print out the journaling card templates and weekly date inserts that were included in her kit. What's cool is that this allowed me to type directly onto the journaling cards and print them that way, instead of writing them personally (because I don't like my handwriting).
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*I tried to link the free download site, but it's no longer valid. If you want the templates, send me your email address and I'll gladly send them to you.*
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Her kit also included day-of-the-week tabs and rub ons, so again, I got creative and used my HP program to add a "title" to each daily picture in the form of the date. To keep it streamlined, I use the same font and size each time, varying between black and white, depending on the background of the picture. (I add this before sending the pictures to be printed.)
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I knew I wanted to do Project 365 from the beginning, so on January 1, I started taking a picture each day. This was the easy part for me because I take TONS of pictures. I try to vary my pictures between shots of people/events and shots of something else significant. Even 10 months into this habit, some days I forget to take a picture and have to put a "filler" picture in the album; something that I want to remember but may not have happened that day.
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For instance, I have a picture of a Pull Up with coordinating journaling about how we were tackling getting Ryan to wake up with dry underwear at night. I have a picture of our Bibles on a Monday because we host a weekly Bible study in our home on Mondays.

I've also moved pictures from one day to the next, knowing that I likely won't remember that I switched dates years from now. For instance, Ryan rode the bus to school for the first time on my birthday, but I already had a picture of the day (POD) for my birthday, so it will forever be documented that he first rode the bus on August 20th, not the 19th. (I know - GASP! I'm such a rebel.)

I have a picture of my tennis shoes on a day when I needed to vent and called my neighbor to go on a long, last minute walk to air my frustrations. The picture of the shoes isn't all that interesting, but the journaling that goes along with it explains the "story" behind the picture. Plus, years from now, we might have a laugh over how ugly Nikes were in 2008.

The first time I took Kaylin to have lunch at Ryan's school, I brought my camera, but the battery was in the charger at home. I ended up taking a picture of the kids' lunch bags when I got home as my POD. Again, not exciting, but how many of you have pictures of lunch boxes from your childhood? Seeing them today might be fun and nostalgic. I know it would be for me because I don't even remember who was ON my lunch box!

The day we found out I was pregnant, I took a picture of the pregnancy test.

Right after we got our new camera, Mike was playing around with it and caught this picture of me in "planning mode" for Ryan's carnival birthday party. Seeing this picture months later is a little glimpse into my world during that time. Had I not been doing this album, I might have deleted the picture because it's really nothing special.

Wednesdays are the day when Mike's mom comes over to watch the kids so I can get my hair cut, run errands and catch up on my to-do list. One week on a Wednesday, nothing extraordinary happened that day, so I took a picture of my crossed-off to-do list. Again, it might be interesting to look back on years from now.

I try to take pictures of seemingly boring, everyday events like swimming, backyard picnics and playing board games with Mike. Most of these things aren't scrapbook-worthy, but give a realistic picture of my life.



Here is a sample of my journaling. Now that I know how to use Photoshop, I've figured out the font and appropriate size to use to type directly onto the template. I use CK Becky font (yes, it's Becky Higgins' handwriting...I used the word "stalker" for a reason...) in 16 point. I then print the journal blocks side-by-side (as they were downloaded) as a standard 4x6 picture and slide it into the bottom slots of the sheet protectors. Below is a journal for a 2 day block and the pictures that go along with it. Journaling comes fairly easy for me, and I try to keep up with it every month or two so I don't get too far behind. Some of my journaling is even pasted directly from my blog posts.



And now that I'm finally learning Photoshop, I can easily use a vertical picture for my POD and I occasionally combine 2-3 pictures if I can't decide which to use for my POD or if a series of pictures tells a better "story."



And finally, here are some pictures of the completed layouts...



While reading through my journaling blocks (to make sure there's nothing too personal in there!) I just realized I printed the wrong picture for what I journaled about on June 12th. Oops! That happens every now and then...I can't keep it all straight and organized ALL the time!