Creative Memories + Project Life= One Happy Mama

Another part of my organization mission was to get caught up on Sophia's 0-5 year album(s). I still have her 3-5 year pages to do.

 

I had been looking into Becky Higgins Project Life series because it seems simple, quick and meaningful. BUT, I have a HUGE stash of papers/stickers etc. They are are divided into scraps in the first and whole pages by color in the other two. As you can see, I have a bunch of papers to use. I can't see just wasting papers.

 

Plus, I have a ton of Creative Memories pages, page protectors, and 1 album I bought a while back. So I just can't see throwing away 45 Creative Memory pages, page protectors, 1 Creative Memory Album to switch over to Project Life. So I did a little investigating.

And I made my own version. Sorry. I can't waste. I'll switch over once my stash of papers etc. goes down.

 

Here's how I started I bought a multi-set of Becky Higgins Project Life plastic pages (that I eventually will use) on sale. 

 

She usually uses 3 x4, 4, x6 and 6 x6 pieces of paper or photos. I will eventually use these pages once I'm done with Creative Memories. And it was a helpful reminder of layouts as I looked over at the possibilities it  has at the bottom.

 

 

Then, I chose 2 of my favorite paper collections that I could cut into pieces if I needed to. And set them aside (I already have some of these in my scraps)! I went through my scraps first and found any papers that might coordinate with these 2 sets.

 

Side note: As you work, you may begin to realize that you need more paper to complete your layouts, which is why I chose 2 paper collections that coordinated so that I:  a)didn't have to buy new paper but also  b) it all coordinated. So definitely start with a paper collection that you have an abundance of.

Then I went through my scrap box and cut as may 3x4, 4 x6 and 6 x6 pieces that I could.

I also cut a few 3 x4 solid papers that I could stamp with my special stamps I use for writing.

While I was waiting for that to dry, I tried to figure out what pics I wanted to start with.

 

 I looked at Beck Higgins drawings on the cover of her plastic covers and tried to lay them out.

I also used stickers, and scrap booking printables to glue down to either 3 x4, 4 x6 or 6 x6 scrappy papers.

 

Essentially, what I did was create all of the papers that Project Life creates in their collections. Gather your stickers, scrappy cut outs etc and glue them down to a 3 x4, 4 x6 or 6 x6 piece of coordinating paper. I made ALL of my "papers' ahead of time (where I glued things down and pre-cut everything). It takes time, but it's worth it in the long run. It took me about 2 hours to create my pieces.

What I found is even though Higgins says it should be a 3 x4 etc. I found spaces like this where it was a 2 x 6. Not sure why, but it's easy to fix.

 

 

A quick fix is is a 2 x 6. So as long as your papers coordinate and you have extra, you are safe.

I filled any wonky spaces with rick-rack or ribbon and a little Zip Dry.

 

At least this way, I'm using up all of my: A ) all my creative memory 12 x 12 pages, B) Using up my paper/sticker stash and C)using the Project Life process and I'm recording family memories using my scrapping process.

 

But I'm about half way though Sophia's year 3-4 and it's only taken me 3-4 days. It goes so quickly!