the month of january $

I've learned a lot during the Project 365 process and one of those things I figured out early on was that the weekly scrapbook layouts are a killer. As every week passed, I became further and further behind. Every week I tried to come up with a new layout and it was exhausting. By the end of the year I had fallen so far behind it has taken me three months to catch up. I finally did, but as I finished it up I promised myself I would do things very differently this year. I still want to do a book of layouts at the end of the year, but I need to simplify the process or I will go crazy.

One of the biggest problems I had when I put my 2009 book together was pagination. Some weekly layouts were one page and some were two. This created a big problem when I layed out my book. Many of my one page layouts had to be redone as two page layouts to make everything flow properly. The other challenge was doing a new design every week. It took too long and it working on them became a pain and not enjoyable in the least.

To eliminate both of those problems I checked every digital scrapbooking site I could find and specifically looked for designers who designed templates by month instead of week. Weeds & Wildflowers has monthly templates but they missed the mark for me because they are built for only horizontal pictures. That doesn't make sense to me, so I kept looking. Design House Digital also has month templates, but the individual pages don't have room for journaling - you do all of the journaling at the end of the month. That didn't work for me either. Anyway, I kept looking and I found great monthly templates by Biograffiti at Scrap Artist.

The Biograffiti templates are great. Everything is organized by month and is pre-dated with date elements that I like and that are my style. It only took me ten minutes to put in all of my pictures. The text boxes took a bit longer, but once I had my background papers in place and my first text box made, all I had to do was copy and paste across all of my pages for the month and then enter my journaling.

Anyway, here's what I came up with for January:













Templates: P365: Simple Solutions {Jan. 2010} template set by Biograffiti from ScrapArtist
Paper: Oh Boy! by Carina Gardner & Crystal Wilkerson from Design House Digitals/Jessica Sprague
Border: Life 365 by Gina Marie Huff from Weeds & Wildflowers
Handwritten Words, etc: Studio 365 Weekly Album by Karla Dudley from DigiChick
Font: Pea Hannah Vanilla

February is going to be very similar but using different papers and a different set of dates that come with the February template pack.

I thought I'd post this in case anybody found it helpful. :)

Comments

Sheri said…
Jen - this is amazing!!! Way to go on doing the weekly layouts again! I know exactly what you're talking about in making it simple this year around. I still want to do something for the photos I take this year too, but like you I won't do it like I did last year...just too much work! Thanks for sharing your process, I know many people will benefit from it...I know I have :) Btw, so glad you got the OH BOY paper packs...when I saw them I thought of you! Love how you used them here! Great job!
Unknown said…
wow... great Pages!
Mari said…
I haven't done digital scrapbooking, but am really interested in it. I think you are so smart to be doing this right away with your pictures. My kids are grown and I feel like I'll never get all my pictures done!
Jennifer said…
Thanks everyone!

Sheri - it is a really cute set! It's funny - I saw you mention the set on Facebook. Then a couple of days later I was on Design House Digitals and I saw it and liked it and realized it was the same set. I like it because although it's boy oriented, it's all primary colours which I am drawn to having boys and a girl. It's great! I just hope they make more elements to go with it.

Mari - you should start digital scrapbooking. You would love it! Maybe you could start with your 365 and see if you like it?
molly said…
Your pages are just gorgeous!
Jennifer said…
Thanks Molly and thanks for the great templates! It makes it very easy and for that I am very grateful. :)
Linnea said…
Wow! Very creative and beautifully laid out. Your shots of the children are wonderful, tool...so captivating. Keep it up. You certainly have talent for it!
Darla said…
i will definately check that out! i did a blurb book for last years 365 and it took me ALL night to finish, without the writing...lots of work, and i wasn't really thrilled with the outcome. i settle just so i would be finished. this year i am hoping for something easier, this may just be it! i love your blog btw, and thank for stopping by mine! :D