catherine saunders | a project life catch up formula

It kind of feels like I’m always playing “catch-up” when it comes to documenting, but lately I’ve been plowing through older layouts with the help of a simple formula. I select photos, include journaling, and add white space and/or pattern. I’ve been using the minimalist photo templates to mix up photos and journaling and then adding patterned papers that compliment the colors in my photos. Here’s the scoop on how I’m getting caught up.

First up: the photos. I start by going through the photos from a month, week or trip, whatever it is I’m documenting, and selecting a few photos that best tell the story. I definitely pick my favorites, but I usually include at least a couple that aren’t necessarily the best photos but they help tell the story.

Here’s a look at a full layout documenting part of our vacation last summer.

We spent a day at my alma mater, Northwestern University, which is just north of Chicago. I hadn’t been back since graduation many (!) years ago, so it was a real “worlds colliding” moment seeing my husband and children on the campus where I spent four very formative years. We took so many pictures that day, so it would have been easy to fill multiple layouts; but I picked my favorites, the ones that best told the story, and used those to document the trip in one layout.

Here’s a closer look at the left side:

I included three photos from the flight to Chicago and a few shots from around campus. It was Owen’s first flight, and at three months old the sweet little guy slept almost the entire time. Definitely photo-worthy!

The second part of my formula is adding journaling to photos using templates. On this page I used 4×6 photo templates vol. 4 to add text to the vertical photos quickly and simply. A little journaling goes a long way toward captioning photos and including any details you want to remember.

Finally, I like to add some white space and some interest. Usually, that means white 3×4 cards and little bits of digital patterned paper. In this layout, a white 3×4 card creates a little breathing room and a pattered paper from joie de vivre adds some interest.

On the right side, I chose some of my favorite photos from around campus and used 4×6 templates vol. 5 to add journaling to a couple of them.

I love the simplicity of using full-bleed photos alongside photo templates, but that usually means adding some white space to break things up.

On this page, I used a patterned paper with a white background from joie de vivre and word art from pictures + words no. 18 printed on a white card to add some journaling, pattern and white space.

The “here” text is also from pictures + words no. 18, but I printed it on kraft card stock to tie it together with the kraft patterned card on the left side of the layout. I finished the layout with a picture of Nick holding Owen in front of our car loaded down with triathlon bikes to capture the road trip portion of this vacation.

Next stop: Door County, Wisconsin for a half Ironman with friends!