Hi everyone! It’s Carly here to share with you my design approach to documenting in my Project Life album and how creating modern clean layouts is so easy to do with just a few simple design tips.

First let’s talk whitespace. For me whitespace is one of the simplest ways to create a clean and modern page, and the easiest way to create more whitespace in your layout is to print your photos with a white border. I typically print all my 4×6 photos with borders and my 3×4 images usually have a white board if not around the entire photo, the top or bottom of the card will have whitespace.

Another trick I use for creating more whitespace on my pages is to do all my journaling on either a 4×6 or 3×4 white journal card.  For example, I start each month with a “Currently” journal card which is always just black text on a 4×6 card. For additional journaling I often use the smaller 3×4 size and again I love the simple design of black text on a white journal card. Sometimes I’ll dress up the design of my journal cards with either a digital stamp like what I did with the words “these days”, or a small embellishment, but definitely I take a less is more approach.

Another design tip I use to keep my layouts clean and simple is to add my journaling or a digital stamp directly on my photos. I find this simple design trick is a great way to still keep your page clean, at the same time it adds interest to your photos and help your images tell more of the story.

The main purpose of my Project Life album is for capturing and documenting all the little things in my life that makes me, uniquely me. I use annual digital books to capture the bigger moments like birthdays and other celebrations, and I have a Letters to My Daughters book specially for documenting my girls, but when it comes to my Project Life album it’s all about documenting the little details. Because my PL album’s main purpose is focused on capturing the little details around me, my photography reflects that, which brings me to my final design tip – simple photos.

I find that often it’s those smallest most ordinary moments in our lives that can capture our biggest emotional memory, which is why my photograph focus for my PL album is to photograph the little details around me. It may sound really simple, but taking those detail photos like the flowers I picked up from the market, or what I’m having for lunch, or even of my living room just after cleaning it, it’s those little bits and pieces of our lives that make us who we are.

So next time you’re doing laundry take a picture of the pile of clothes in the hamper or maybe of the folded ones at the end. Or what about capturing the mail on your entry table, or your child’s school bag at the backdoor. Focus on capturing the little things around you.

It’s sometimes hard to think about photographing the little things around us on a daily basis because it just seems so ordinary and mundane, but believe me, it is those little details that make our lives special and they have such a wonderful way of telling our own unique story.

If you have any design or documenting questions for me please feel free to leave me a comment below and I’m always happy to help.

– Carly

Products used: 3×4 photo template, smitten journal cards, behind the lens journal cards, and xoxo.

To see my other Paislee Press projects you can visit here, and of course you can always visit me at my blog, on Instagram or over at Pinterest.