Playing with Pocket Life with Melissa

Hello, everyone! Melissa here with you (again!) today to share not only the last Pocket Life layout using the December kits, but also the last Pocket Life layout for the Citrus Twist blog this year!

Although you can start your own weekly album at any time, the end of one year and the beginning of the next is the perfect time to evaluate whether you want to start this project or make changes to your process in the new year. I'm heading into my fifth year of this style of documentation, and my own process has gone through lots of changes during that time.

My first year (2009) I took the photo a day approach, and then after taking 2010 off, I started again with a photo a day in 2011. Halfway through that second year I found myself getting bored with just one photo and one journaling card a day and gave up on the project...until I stumbled across several designers who had really made the project their own, moving beyond just a photo and a journaling card to add all kinds of different sizes of photos, patterned papers, and embellishments. I was hooked again and picked up my 2011 album and have been completing "make-up" weeks in it ever since while continuing to document 2012 and 2013 in the same style.

I'm still quite in love with a more embellished album with a less rigid photo requirement, but I'm feeling a change coming on for 2014 again. Next year I'll still continue with my Pocket Life album, but in a 6x8 format instead of 12x12, and with a looser framework for time. I'll still do my best to edit and print photos on a weekly basis, but I won't try to contain my pages to just two sides of a page protector per week. Some weeks may just have two, but others may have many more than that. With all of the options coming out for 6x8 page protectors including Simple Stories' Snap, Studio Calico's Handbook, and October Afternoon's Daily Flash (that you can find in the Citrus Twist shop), I think it will be a fun change, and I absolutely love the way that the little binders look and line up on a regular bookshelf- not just ones sized to hold a 12x12.

I'll still be finishing up my 2013 album and finishing those last few 2011 weeks next year, though, so you'll be seeing a mix of 12x12 and 6x8 from me in 2014!

One thing that will definitely continue in 2014 are the sketches that the design team posts every week! You can either save the image below or download a PDF of this week's sketches here.

I hope that everyone has a safe and happy new year!