Project Life Special Guest: Nicole Reaves

Welcome to another week of Project Life at Elle’s Studio.  I am thrilled to introduce to you our today’s Project Life Special Guest, Nicole Reaves.

Nicole lives in Michigan where she is a stay at home mom to Morgan and Parker.  She has been married to her husband Mark for eight years and enjoys crafting, biking, and creating new goodies for her small Etsy shop. 

Each and every week I look forward to visiting Nicole’s blog and seeing her Project Life pages. She creates such fresh, clean pages full of bits and pieces of life.  I’ve notice that she always focuses on the stories that are important to her and her family.   I find her work very authentic and inspirational, and I think you will too!

1.  When and why did you start Project Life

I started Project Life at the beginning of 2012.  After completing my son’s first year album last year, my actual scrapbook layouts were few and far between.  Project Life seemed like the logical way to document our everyday lives in a fun and simple way.

2. What do you love about Project Life?

I love that it’s so customizable.  Project Life can be whatever you want it to be.  You can document a photo-a-day, a week at a glance, or a month in review.  Make it work for YOU.  For me, each 2- page spread is a week in review and I love that each layout is a fresh start, of sorts.  New photos to focus on, new stories to tell, new products to use.  Simple or embellished, I love the chance to change it up each time.

3.  Any tips on keeping up or catching up in your album?

Planning out the week before I work on it has been a huge help with staying caught up,  By knowing how I’m going to fill each pocket, or if I’m going to need an insert that week for extra stuff/stories, I’m not wasting time editing and printing photos I may not use.  I also use a planner dedicated to keeping notes about our week.  I leave it right on our kitchen outer so I can easily write in where we went, what we did, funny things the kids said or did, as it happens.  I always refer to it during the planning process so I don’t forget the really important stuff, and then I can fill in the rest.

4. How do you make time for Project Life?

I work on the previous week of Project Life every Monday afternoon while my son naps.  That three hours is like an appointment with myself to get the week documented.  I do get a little prep work done before that though.  On the Friday prior, I plan out how i am going to fill the ocikets with the photos and stories I have so far, leaving room for the weekend.  On Sunday night I upload, edit, and print all of my photos at home.  I also set up my scrap space with the products I know I want to use.  It took me several weeks, if not months, to find my groove but now it’s become part of my routine that I really look forward to.