05 January 2009

A Finished Project: Every Week Album

This is the time of year when many people are starting new projects, but I'm just finishing one up: My 2008 Every Week Album.

This is a project from a Danelle Johnson class which includes a photo and journaling for every week of the year. I actually took this class back in April, 2007, but I held off on adding photos to the album until this past January. I blogged about it initially here.

When I first started this project, I had every intention of keeping up with it at least monthly. That worked great until about April of last year, when I fell off the wagon. When I picked it up again last week, I was eight months behind. Take it from me: The key to this kind of project (whether it's a photo a week or a photo a day) is to KEEP UP WITH IT. Do not try to do it all at once. It was easy to do one week or month at a time. Eight months at a time? Not so much.


Whining aside, I'm pleased with how the album turned out. Since I don't normally do this kind of scrapbooking, it was interesting to look at photos that span the course of a year. Given the fact that 2008 was a particularly difficult year for me, I found that it was a good exercise to write about some of those experiences. In a tangible way, it helped me see that in spite of the rough patches, life somehow goes on. And it is mostly filled with good stuff.



In the class, Danelle gave us a stack of 5x6 chipboard cards joined by a big ring. We created spaces for journaling using stamps. I used mostly 4x6 photos for the album (I cut a few to smaller sizes), then I journaled on the opposite side of each page. She provided a pack of patterned paper and stickers which I used throughout to create a consistent color scheme.

For the most part, I used my own handwriting for the journaling, but in a few cases, I printed text from blog entries or scrapbook page journaling and included that instead. Sometimes I wrote a little...sometimes a lot.



I'm pleased with the end product, and I know we'll enjoy looking at this snapshot of 2008 in years to come.

9 comments:

Heather said...

Very cute!!

Fonda said...

What an accomplishment. This will surely be a family treasure!

Sarah Coggins said...

Beautiful album! Definitely something you all will treasure. :)

Thanks so much for the kind words you've left on my blog the last few days. They have really meant a lot.

Kristina said...

That's a great album! I'm a complete failure at year long projects like that. Thanks for sharing it!

Lynn said...

What a wonderful album. I'm sure you will treasure all the memories that it holds.

I completely get what you are saying about keeping up with your project. I'm doing a 365 photo and I'm already forgetting that I have to take a photo a day and post. Crazy me. Oh well, I hope I can keep up with it.

Linda said...

Such a beautiful album. Congrats on finishing it too. I'm pretty sure I would have forgotten about it. :)

Anonymous said...

Janet that peacock feather awesome! You will need to bring it with you when you are at MB. I would love to look at it!! Good for you! I have tried to do the week things and the 365 thing...no success yet! You should be proud!!

Janet said...

Hey, thanks you guys!! Believe me, it was pretty much no fun doing 8 months all at once. Don't recommend that at all! lol BUT I am happy to have it done!

Katie, I'm sitting here going what peacock feather...do I have a feather on my project?? Duh!! :-) I'll bring it next time I'm in which may be Sunday. Are you working Sunday?

toners said...

Awesome job! This will be great to look back on in years to come :)