Project Life (Ellie's book)

Finally ready to share some of my progress on "Project Life." I've mentioned before that I'm not doing a picture a day, but instead am using these books for my kids' scrapbooks. I've been working on Ellie's book and I'm loving this system! I started in August (when the school year began) and am almost caught up through January. Here are some of the pages in her book so far:

Cover Page

One thing I love about these books is that I can add bits and pieces of my kids' randomness. Like these little animal drawings that kept popping up all over the house last summer. :)

I have also been adding journaling inserts from my blog. So easy! I just pull up certain old posts that I want to include in her book and hit print. Then I insert an 81/2 x 11 page protector into the book to hold the journaling. Also fun to add bits of memorabilia like these little stars from Ellie's Star Behavior Chart. (which we still use on and off - they work like a charm every time!)

I love how some pages are completely random pictures (like the page on the left) and then other pages have a theme (page on the right from the beach). It makes it so easy to just use the pictures I really want her to have and remember.

These pages are from Ellie's first day of school. Sometimes I use a big journaling card and display it in a 4x6 slot if I have more to say than will fit on the little journaling cards.

I loved this blog post about a conversation Kenny and I had with Ellie and wanted to include it in her book with the "pool" pictures so again, I just printed it from my blog.

A lot of the vertical pockets I'm using to hold pictures instead of putting the journaling cards in each slot. I've found that one or two of the little journaling cards is usually all I need.

Love seeing her artwork throughout the book. This was a picture she drew soon after we told her she was going to have another sibling. Our family including "baby." :)

On this layout I had so many pictures that there wasn't any room for journaling so I just printed our December Traditions from my blog. (Grateful for blogging! It has made this project so easy.)

I've also inserted pages from my School Kits.  You can read more about how I document "school days" here.  

And I've added this packet at the back of her book for any other miscellaneous awards, artwork, etc. that isn't already included throughout the book.

I'm loving this and I'll tell you why. It's DOABLE. All I'm doing is printing pictures and inserting them in slots with a little journaling. It will be so easy to stay on top of. Especially since I'm just picking select pictures each month to include. I'm so happy to be printing my pictures again and to have a solution for my kids' scrapbooks!