This year I’m keeping a my favorite things album for myself. Since joining the Hip Kit Club design team, I’ve been doing a few Project Life spreads in my 2015 album, which I never completed. Since I have to do spreads for certain assignments, I decided to work in that album so I at least complete the pages that I actually had photos printed. I sort of got a bit of my groove back in making these pocket page spreads, but I knew that I didn’t want to keep any sort of Project Life album because I always fall behind and it frustrates me.
Yet, I still wanted to play around with cards. I get some really lovely cards from the Hip Kit Club, and if I don’t use them in my planners or spreads that I have to make, they don’t really get used. I also wanted to try out the Project Life 12×12 size, but again, didn’t want to commit to the whole thing.
Then I remembered a book the lovely Suse Fish kept for her daughter. I totally wish I could link the video to you, but unfortunately it’s no longer available. But Suse took a plain 12×12 white spiraled album that she purchased at Hobbycraft (she’s from the UK, btw) and kept a faux Project Life album. She used Project Life cards and cards she made from pattern papers, and documented her daughter’s little moments in the Project Life style but on a 12×12 paper canvas. I absolutely loved the idea because you weren’t constrained in a pocket and could deviate if you wanted to without having to buy more inserts, cause you didn’t need inserts! So I went on the hunt for a similar album here in the US. I found one by Darice at Consumer Crafts and purchased it. It’s an okay book, not as sturdy as the one Suse uses, but for now it will do.
My very first spread was one I did for the Hip Kit Club. It was documenting my favorites in 2016. I loved making that page so much and I loved how it came out even more that I decided to dedicate this entire album to only documenting my favorite things. Hence, my favorite things album! That way I can play around with the 12×12 Project Life format but without committing to keeping an entire Project Life album. I can work in this book anytime I want, whenever I feel like it. And I absolutely love that.
I’ve only filled three pages in this album, but I still wanted to share them. I don’t dip into this book very often, only when I have the urge to do Project Life, and I have a feeling it’s just going to sit around for a lot of time before it gets played in again. I don’t have urges to do Project Life very often and when I do, it’s usually when I don’t have things to scrap in my planners. Still, I made the effort to print out a few of my favorite things and have them handy whenever I do feel a tickling to complete a Project Life spread.
