There's one thing, when I'm scrapbooking, that drives me completely nuts: not being able to find the right Project Life cards to match my photos + stories. Sometimes I have cards that perfectly explain and express my feelings about the week that I'm documenting. On these occasions, I feel like a scrapbooking ninja - a pro. Today was not one of those days.
This morning I wanted to scrap the final page of my hen party layout and a page about the day after. I had the photographs already printed out, with the journalling completed, using Paislee Press templates. I started digging through my stash of cards (I keep all of my 'kit' cards in one big, gigantic pile) but none jumped out at me. I found a couple the might work but the colours didn't coordinate and they didn't really work for the stories on both pages. So I pulled everything out - and I mean everything. All of the Project Life cards that I own; core kits, mini kits, partial kits, odd cards, all over the craft room floor. Eventually I dug into one of my Heidi Swapp core kits and threw together a pretty neat layout (blog post to follow!). However, I was disappointed that I couldn't find the right cards in my kit stash because I knew I had some really great ones in there.
I started thinking about how I could incorporate my stash cards more frequently into my layouts - and I came up with an idea. What about if I reversed my process? What if, instead of matching my filler cards to my photos, I matched my photos to my cards?
So I challenged myself to choose 5-8 Project Life cards from my stash and use each of them as a prompt for a photograph. I tried to pick cards which I thought would relate to things I'm doing this week and also cards that could go together in a layout (I stuck with all Studio Calico cards on this occasion). This way, I'll have a few ideas about things to photograph but I shouldn't get stuck on any of the prompts or end up taking photographs of things which are unrelated to what's happening in my life this week. Hopefully, once I've used all of my prompts, putting together my layout should be an absolute breeze! For anyone who's curious, these were mey choices:
1. Books and coffee: two of my absolute favourite things. I'm always drinking coffee and reading books, though I don't usually photograph myself doing it. I feel like I've been unconsciously saving this card for a special occasion, as I really love it but I've had it for ages. Maybe a selfie for this one?
2. I picked this one as I'm seeing my parents a lot this week, which I don't normally. I already have a couple of photos from yesterday that I could use for this prompt (my parents scoffing breakfast baguettes at the car boot sale!) but I'll also take some more over the weekend when I visit.
3. I am mid-project right now! I've got lots of wedding crafts and DIYs going on at the moment so this one should be easy to do.
4. This could possibly relate to some of my wedding projects, too. Or maybe I'll come up with something else clever this week. It could be something like a smoothie recipe (I've experimenting with different flavours recently!) or maybe I'll find a smart way to raise some extra wedding funds.
5. I go through phases of being obsessed with different things. At the moment I love bubble tea, eating antipasti and shopping for my wedding. Or maybe I should just write wedding in big fat letters all over the card. It's hard not to be obsessed with wedding planning when it's less than ten weeks away!
6. It rained pretty heavily today. That's British summer time for you! We were forecast rain tomorrow but I've just checked and it's supposed to be dry now. Shame I didn't snap a picture earlier on! Might have to be creative here but if I can't make it work, I'll just leave this card out.
7. I've got a love/hate relationship with my glasses. I never wear them outside of the house but Adam thinks I look cute in them. They're a part of my that hasn't featured in my album yet. So another selfie for this one, I think.
8. My last card. This one is pretty open - I'll see what awesome things come my way! I've got a pretty awesome weekend planned so this should be easy.
I'll post again in a few days to share the photographs I take for each prompt. If you want to, play along and tag me in the comments box below or on Instagram. I'm interested to see what difference working this way will make to my process and final layout - let me know how you find it, as well. Did it speed up your process? Did you find working from a prompt hard to do, restrictive or inspiring? Catch up with you soon!
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