I had a lot of success with keeping up with my monthly project life album last year, and I am excited to continue with it this year! I decided to change the size from 6×12 to 9×12, which I am optimistic about. I made the switch for two reasons: I like the variety of pocket page sizes, and I like the width of the full page photos better. Because only two online stores that I know of carry this size album and page protector, (and last year there were supply issues), I really stocked up on my page protectors, and will hopefully make it through the year without having to reorder. Much. Finger’s Crossed.
I’m not making or enforcing a lot of rules on myself for this project, other than to document what happens in our family’s life each month throughout the year. This might mean one layout for the month or seven. I’m looking at you July hiking pages. This month, kind of to my surprise, holds five simple layouts, though one is the album introduction page, so that one doesn’t really count, right? These layouts are not really “crafty” AT ALL, because I’ve been recovering from hand surgery, but done is better than perfect.
Earlier in the month, we had several days of snow. We only get a few days of snow a year, if we’re lucky, so it’s always exciting. I was super excited to use this stamp set from Elle’s Studio that I had ordered before the holidays in a fit of optimistic glee that we would actually get snow this year. I love how the snowflake stamps can be used to build patterns, and how well the other stamps worked together to help tell our snowy story.
This next layout is all about my surgery and the beginning of my recovery. I have been making an effort to go back through my stash each month and use all the “special” pieces I’ve been hoarding forever. This month, it was the wooden words, and the acetate “just breathe” card.
Another goal I have for this year is to use more of the elements from my Stories by the Month subscription from Ali Edwards. I’m finding the page protectors in the 9×12 size are really helping with this, and allow a meaningful, simple layout like this to come together quickly. I hope to include a page similar to this each month to hold multiple, smaller stories from the month as a whole.
Speaking of holding multiple stories, I also hope to include a “Henry Updates” layout each month, if possible. Last year, I had a separate 6×8 album for Henry that documented his first year. While I’m super glad I have this album, I found it cumbersome to keep up with two albums in two sizes each month. I felt like I was repeating myself constantly, and struggled to deal with different sizes when I was ordering prints. It’s a huge relief to have one album hold all of our stories for the year.
That being said, I still want to remember as many of the little details as I can of Henry’s childhood, so layouts like this are helpful. I was inspired by the incredibly talented Laura Wonsik, who does a great job of always including collections of little stories about her girls in her layouts. I feel like this page protector lends its self perfectly to this kind of layout.
I’m excited to continue my 9×12 montly project life into February!
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