Welcome to the (first?) Daily Life Scrap Week(end)

I thought it could be a nice idea to share some insights about daily life scrapping with you, as I´m very excited with the progress of my 2014 album and I see this excitement about Project Life in different communities I´m at. So, as I have plenty of things to write about, I deceided to dedicate a week  some weekende to post about it. The posts will be different from each other - some will contain texts, maybe tutorials, products I tried and liked, and whatnot... Maybe there´s a freebie or two waiting for you all someday too! Before I start writing my heart out - yes, I´m in a wordy phasis - I´d like to invite you to interact here at the  blog: Do you have any doubt about daily life scrapping? Do you have something you´re desperately seeking and can´t find? Do you have advice for me (I´d like to here!) or maybe want to invite me for a CT guest spot? Don´t feel ashamed of comenting, or even sending me e-mails (to loriensworkshop at gmail dot com).

Daily Life Scrap Week: Day 1 - My Experiences and what I´m doing

If you are following my blog, you probably know that I am trying to put a daily life album together this year. You may even remember that in the beginning of last December I was scrapping photos from January at my daily life album for that year (if you don´t remember that post, check it - theres something you may there). I stopped the 2013 album at Chinese New Year (Last weekend of January).

It wasn´t my first time trying to put a daily life album. In 2012 I tried a hybrid A4 shaped. Take a look on a pages I´ve done for that album - oh my, I like the digital better, lol:

But, guess when this album stopped being done to never get touched again? Yes, at same time as the 2012 one, at Chinese New Year.

Another thing I tried to do last year to document my life was to write, at the end of each month, seven random words things about the month, to put as the month introduction at the album in a page with a photo of myself that month (so I try not to forget to have pics of myself). This one was made with Hey!Robot kit by Scrappiness Designs:

At the first months, it worked like a charm. But then, I was feeling that only words weren´t enough. And I lost one of the months words (I thought I´ve wrote them on my personal blog, but I didn´t), I had a month that couldn´t simply be described in few words, and, in October I´ve given up doing this. But the idea still sounds good to me, just needed some tweaks to keep working... Now that you know what I´ve done before, time to know what I´m doing this year.

How I plan to manage my 2014 life album:

1) Like on the other years, I´ll avoid putting pictures of my cats on life photobook. I take lots of pictures of them, and if I put them on the album I could easily have more cats than people and places on the pics. They will appear only if it´s somehow important, or as placeholders.

2)Also like other years, I assume that my everyday life is made of routine, but not only about it. I´ll try to keep a balance between routine and occasions, alowing myself to scrap about what I please. Although I admire lots of people who take photos everyday and do p356-style albuns, it doesn´t suit my style, at least for now. And, if I have lots of pretty photos of a specific day, I may chose to put more photos on that day (and none of other day).

3) I won´t divide my album in weeks, as I don´t feel my life is divided like that, and I´ll give me the freedom to make whole pages for days I really enjoy - even if they don´t fall on the same double page on the photobook, and, at same time, I´ll give myself the freedom to scrap about totally different things on the same page. I also allow myself to work with two or more kits at the same double spread and to change kits for the next double spread as I please (I can keep the kit from the last one or not).

I deceided this based on what made me procrastinate with 2013 book - sometimes, I was overworried about form, or how to make all the photos of the same thing fall on the same page, that I ended up on a creative block. 

I guess pictures will help you understand better on what kind of freedom I´m allowing myself. Do you remember this spread? It´s for January first (on the left) and second (on the right), made with Snow Capades by Joyful Expressions and I shown it some posts ago:

It´s a super traditional P366 spread, right? Looks what comes next:

Left page is still from Jan 2nd, right side is from Jan 3rd (yes, it´s same event on that hybrid page I shown you above, I attend to it at same place every year, this year was the thenth) and a journal description about the next few days. What is more, this page is made of a blend of different kits from different designers I found on Pixel Scrapper. As I have the option of downloading single elements there, I almost never download the full kits, getting only what I´ll use (and often I get the assets while I´m making the layout...). If you are interested, the full list of credits is here.

4) I will use lots of templates, to help keep pages good looking and in hope that this will save me some time - what isn´t still happening, lol. I take more time on this kind of page than on a 1photo+cluster traditional ones. I´ll talk a little bit more about templates tomorrow.

5) To the opening page of each month, I´ll keep the 1 photo+journalling model, but, for the journaling, I´m planning a flexible list of topics that may be covered, that includes the month´s weather, my mood, what I´m doing that month, the most meborable days and so on. I made the January page this night, based on the instructions of a Scraps´N´Pieces Speed Scrap, hosted by Amy´s Designs:

This page was made with The Best is Yet to Come blogtrain portions by Jessica Art-Design, Scrumptiously; Digi Dewi designs and Catherine Oslon. If you want to check this blogtrain, the list is here and some portions will only be available till tomorrow.

Thanks for reading this long post, I´d really like to hear for you about (daily) life scrapping or anything else you want to comment!