31 Things - Phase 1

Ali Edwards offered the 31 Things class a few years ago, and it is now available as a 'self paced' class.  The great thing about that is you can work on it as quickly or as slowly as you want, without the guilt of "being behind".

I signed up for the course about a month ago.  This course isn't about being creative, or stressing over which paper, embellishments and design to use.  Ali had a repeatable process for each prompt - a 6x4 horizontal photo at the top of a 6x12 page, a strip border below the photo and the rest of the 6x12 page holds the story, done on the computer.

That wasn't for me - I spend so much time on the computer as it is, so was keen not to do the story and print it out.  

So......I decided that I wanted to use up some of my supplies and put these stories in a dedicated 12x12 album.  A formula was required.  
I settled on each double page having the same 12x12 plain cardstock as the base, with an 11x11 patterned paper inside that - but each page would be a different pattern that co-ordinated with the other and the cardstock.  I did all of the 31 pages I would need over one weekend.  It actually took longer than I expected to get this done!

During the past 4 weeks I have been journalling notes for each prompt in a dedicated little notebook - sometimes on the train to and from work, sometimes after dinner and before bedtime.  And not in order - just as I felt like working on each prompt.

My next step in "Phase 1" was to add a title to each page for that prompt.  I love alpha stickers.  I have them in so many colours and styles.  I recently sold a lot off, which helped as I had fewer to select from.  Again, there was a formula for this - I used the same style and size alphas for just about every page, the same colour alphas for each of the double pages for most of them, and the same location on the page for each side.  Obviously I plan on putting the photo and the journalling card in the same place on each page too.

I'm almost ready for 'Phase 2' - transferring my journalling onto the journalling cards and adding the photos.  Here is what the pages look like so far - nice and simple.