SYW348 – Finding the Right Project Life Format with Leanne Millo

Leanne Millo: [00:00:00] As funny as it sounds, I know I've said yes to more plans in my real life than I might have originally. Because I knew they'd make great photos or I knew they'd become stories with my friends that I would love to have documented, and I think it just really helps you look at those little details in your life and appreciate things and have gratitude for things and just take the time to notice.

Jennifer Wilson: Welcome to Scrapbook Your Way, the show that explores the breadth of ways to be a memory keeper today. I'm your host, Jennifer Wilson, owner of Simple Scrapper and author of The New Rules of Scrapbooking. This is episode 348. In this episode, I'm chatting with Leanne Millo about her journey through multiple Project Life formats and what she's learned along the way.

Leanne shares how she landed on a Creative Memories 12x12 approach that lets her capture every week of the year in one album

Hey, Leanne, welcome to [00:01:00] Scrapbook Your Way.

Leanne Millo: Hi, and thanks for having me.

Jennifer Wilson: I'm looking forward to getting to know you better and having our conversation today. Can you start by sharing a little bit about yourself?

Leanne Millo: You bet. So my name is Leanne. I'm based near Edmonton, Alberta in Canada. I'm in my early 30s. I live with my husband and our mini goldendoodle, Daisy. She's four. I'd say we're a pretty active family. We love being outside, traveling, cooking, gardening, all the things that you'll see recurring through my photos in my weekly scrapbook spreads.

Jennifer Wilson: Wonderful. Wonderful. Now we're gonna get more into how you approach scrapbooking and how that, how you got into it, uh, today. But I have a few icebreaker questions I always like to ask. Do you have a favorite recent layout or project?

Leanne Millo: For sure. So I think my favorite honestly tends to be just whatever I'm currently working on. I kinda get, like, obsessed with each project, and then ready to put it to the side. But currently, I'd say my favorite still happens to be my Project Life album. I'm [00:02:00] doing 12 by 12 every week right now, and I've kind of been doing a different format.

Getting to explore that over the last few months has really brought back my creative spark and kind of excitement for scrapbooking again after a little slump recently. In my Project Life, I recently did a travel spread for a work trip I just did to Washington, DC, and I really like being able to mix those, like, specialty highlight pages, as I call them, into my Project Life really seamlessly right now.

So I'm typically going for a more traditional style on those, and having fun mixing them in to kind of be a little bit different than my regular weekly layout, which is more of a grid. So just getting to play around with that has, has been a recent favorite.

Jennifer Wilson: Yeah, there's something really powerful about switching up formats, even if the kind of underlying intention and approach is very similar. Something about sizes and shapes makes our brain, you know, put together the puzzle a little bit differently.

Leanne Millo: So true. I know, yeah, you can be doing the same project, but changing up the format can make a, a really big impact. I feel like I've [00:03:00] tried so many, so many different ones.

Jennifer Wilson: Well, I can't wait to hear about that. Um, is there something new you're excited to do, use, or try? And this could be in scrapbooking or in everyday life.

Leanne Millo: Yeah. Uh, I'll give you a scrapbooking one. It's kind of funny, but I recently upgraded my paper trimmer, and using it for the first time this week feels like it's changed my life. As dramatic as that sounds, but I think all the paper people here might feel us on this. I've tried, like, three or four of the main trimmer brands, and I'm always struggling whether it's misalignment or the cut's just getting dull.

My recent one was a rotary style one, which I was hoping would make a difference, but it took multiple blade passes just to cut through photo paper, and I hated it. So I recently switched to the Creative Memories 12-inch trimmer, and it feels like it's like the Cadillac of paper trimmers. I didn't realize there could be that big of a quality increase on a paper trimmer, but it's crazy, and you can swap out different blades, so you can even do, like, scalloped edges and stuff with a paper trimmer.

So [00:04:00] I'm just super excited to use that in some of my upcoming products. Or, sorry, not products, but projects.

Jennifer Wilson: Yeah, no, I totally hear you. I have used so many different trimmers over the years, and, uh, the Creative Memories trimmer is my current favorite as well. It's been very very reliable.

Leanne Millo: Nice. Yeah, I know. I'm,

I'm behind the times with that.

Jennifer Wilson: No, and I mean, I was like, "Oh, I don't know." And, um, I had never ordered from Creative Memories before, and that's gonna be, I'm sure, part of our conversation as well. And then, um, but some friends recommended it, and so I ordered a couple things, and I got the trimmer, and it was so amazing, and I'm like, "Oh, I need to order refills." And after I'd already ordered the refill blades, I discovered you can also order them on Amazon, so.

Leanne Millo: Oh, I haven't checked there.

Jennifer Wilson: In case you need that trimmer blade really, really fast, so.

Leanne Millo: Yeah. That's awesome. I know, it's like butter. Like, gliding that blade across, it's like, wow, that is, that is nice.

Jennifer Wilson: I've been, I've been very happy with it for sure.

Leanne Millo: Awesome.

Jennifer Wilson: All right. So tell us how you got [00:05:00] started scrapbooking.

Leanne Millo: For sure. So my actual introduction for scrapbooking was through my mom, probably back in the 2000s. She was super into scrapbooking when I was growing up, and her best friend was actually a Stampin' Up! demonstrator. So they would do crop nights at their house with all of their girlfriends, and I would get to tag along, and they would sometimes let me try to make my own cards, or I had, like, a mini kid scrapbook.

But it wasn't really anything I did with consistency as a kid.

Jennifer Wilson: Mm-hmm

Leanne Millo: Kind of skipping forward, I guess, to where I would actually say it became my hobby was, I think, in 2021. I had just graduated university, and I was kind of being re-exposed to the world of memory keeping through creative journaling. And I was kind of doing that in a vertical weekly Happy Planner style.

I had followed creators like Mary Ellen from Planning with Bumble, and I was kind of using the vertical weekly space to record all of the facts from my week, and I was [00:06:00] using the Happy Planner sticker books to decorate the spreads. And I had kind of been doing that for about two years before I started to wonder if there was a way to include photos in my process. Because I had so many good memories written down, but I'm also super visual, like I'm sure most of us are, and I just kind of wanted to add that photo in.

I've always been, like, the kind of person that has, like, 10,000 photos on my phone, so naturally I feel like scrapbooking started to make sense. And there was so much great online content in 2021 that was pulling me in. So I kind of went back and forth between the journaling and dabbling in the scrapbooking.

But then after a couple years, around 2024, is when I found the Ali Edwards Instagram account, and I started to learn a lot more about the projects that she does with her community and her just general mentality on storytelling, and that's kind of where I segued into things like Project Life, Week in the Life, and dabbling in scrapbooking more seriously.

Jennifer Wilson: Awesome. I love hearing, uh, everyone's story is little bit different, but there's certainly always [00:07:00] commonalities. You know, we often find it through someone else. Um, I'm curious if you still do any kind of things in a planner. Whether it's, I mean, outside of functional planning, but like, you know, decorative or memory keeping type planning. Is that still part of your creative process?

Leanne Millo: I feel like I still go on and off. Like, this year I bought a Hemlock and Oak weekly planner, and I've been really liking that. But I, I don't know. I was trying to do a more, like, graphic and creative style of just, like, journaling in that planner, kind of like Jenn Boom Creates inspired. Um, she's so great with all of her different calligraphy and pens and stickers.

But that became a bit too much work for me to keep up with, I think. So now I've kind of just gone back to doing a more basic use my fountain pen, write down what happened each week, and then I've got that at least as a log. So if I get behind in my scrapbooking, I still have those kind of real time notes from each week.

Jennifer Wilson: That's really helpful. Yeah, I love kind of, um, [00:08:00] observing that, okay, I really like this. I can appreciate that others can, can manage this, but it may not be fitting to my life right now. So what can I do to make it, you know, more practical for me, and then also support the other things I'm doing? So, so. Yeah, awesome transition.

Leanne Millo: I always wanna dabble in every hobby. It's like I gotta try it, but I can't keep up with them all.

Jennifer Wilson: I get it. I get it, especially this time of year with like, there's so many wonderful planner videos with folks that keep up with like seven different things, and I'm like, I would love.

Leanne Millo: I know.

Jennifer Wilson: To be this person, but I'm not this person.

Leanne Millo: The planner stack, right?

Jennifer Wilson: Yeah, yeah.

Leanne Millo: Yeah.

Jennifer Wilson: Tell me how kind of your, your interest in scrapbooking evolved into kind of doing Project Life with pocket pages. How did you get started with that?

Leanne Millo: Yeah. So I decided to start Project Life for the first time in August of 2024. I had been seeing it online from, again, so many amazing creators, and honestly, it took me a couple [00:09:00] months to kind of work up the courage to actually start. I was, like, debating, oh, do I need to wait till January and start a new album, or, you know, how do I kinda get into this?

At the beginning, I was definitely a little bit too precious with my stuff. Like, I was not wanting to waste stickers or reprint photos if I messed up, and I hadn't really found, like, a s- a style for myself yet.

Jennifer Wilson: Mm-hmm.

Leanne Millo: But eventually I kind of just decided, okay, I need to start this. I started in August and I said, let's just go for it and, you know, see if we even like this hobby.

So my strategy for kind of getting started was, one, just referencing layouts or sketches from other people online to try to build, like, the muscle behind it. And start to understand what looked good in layouts and just ease into scrapbooking. Um, another thing that I did was kind of the reason why I ended up in pocket pages was I was trying to find scrapbooking products that I could actually find in person locally near me.

So I started, out in 12 by 12 because it was really the only [00:10:00] size scrapbook I could find at an in-person craft store. It was super accessible. I bought a binder album, and then I just ordered some page protectors from scrapbook.com. I ordered one set configuration to just keep it easy. And honestly, I had so much fun just slotting photos into the pockets each week, and it was really easy for me to keep up with in real time.

I think not having the pressure of needing to create a traditional layout and figure out what looks good and instead just kind of have the crutch of the pocket page configuration to set the lay up- layout up for you is really how I got hooked and how I kinda got started into that project.

Jennifer Wilson: Yeah, yeah. No, I, I love it and I lo- I know that's why so many people love Project Life as well, 'cause it does kind of reduce the pressure a little bit while still, like, feeding this need that we have to, to capture our, our lives. And as you said, you were already doing quite a bit of this with your journaling, but now you're getting to add those photos as well.

Leanne Millo: For sure. Yeah, the format just makes it so easy. Like, you can [00:11:00] decorate, you can journal, and you can have your photos all in one. It's, it's just so easy with the page protectors.

Jennifer Wilson: So why would you say it's important to you to capture these everyday stories versus just, you know, birthdays, holidays, milestones?

Leanne Millo: Yeah. I, I know I'm a sucker for the big stories, but the everyday stories is where I spend so much of my time documenting. And I think my main goal for capturing these, honestly, it's, it's for myself. Like, at this point in my life, I don't have kids. I don't know if people will wanna look back at this stuff, but I know that I already do enjoy really looking back at my albums, even from the last couple years.

And there's just so many little details in our lives that maybe at first seem kinda mundane or, you know, you just assume that things will always be the same or that they're so small that they don't have that much meaning. But I think things are the same until they aren't, and maybe some of those small details will actually become important later in your life.

Like, suddenly you don't drive that car anymore [00:12:00] or you don't wear those clothes anymore. And I always think of a classic photo shot that a lot of people started doing during Week in the Life. It's the one where people are either, like, loading a washing machine or loading a dishwasher, and it's something that looks so every day.

But I saw some people in the comments point out that, you know, maybe their dishwasher used to have wine glasses in it and now it's filled with toddler cups. And you just don't consciously realize, like, those little shifts in your life because they're so small. But then looking back and seeing it photographed or seeing you journaling about it is so powerful.

And I think it just kinda helps you be a witness to your own life and kind of appreciate maybe the things that later you'll think are the good old days and, I don't know. As funny as it sounds, I know I've said yes to more plans in my real life than I might have originally. Because I knew they'd make great photos or I knew they'd become stories with my friends that I would love to have documented, and I think it just really helps you look at those little details in your life and appreciate things and [00:13:00] have gratitude for things and just take the time to notice.

Jennifer Wilson: Yeah, no, that's so beautifully said, and it like, it sounds like it's helped you like even further engage with your life, and that's, you know, there's, that's 110% win-win for everything. That's amazing.

Leanne Millo: Mm-hmm. Yeah, I feel like it really is kind of just the way I experience life now. Like, I'm looking for those little stories, looking for those little photos, and yeah, just trying to add some context maybe to the things that are happening each week.

Jennifer Wilson: Yeah, your, your example of sharing how those like those mundane photos can change. Like, I think back to, I think it was like a 2014 Week In The Life, and there's a photo of me, like, putting laundry in the dryer or something like that. And of course, I have these like... I had a three-year-old at the time, so I have all these like tiny pink clothes. And now this three-year-old is turning 15 and who wears like all black. Um, so yeah, things definitely can change.

Leanne Millo: Totally. Aw, yeah, it's probably crazy to look back, especially after that many years of [00:14:00] documenting too.

Jennifer Wilson: Yeah. So you mentioned that you, um, you found Ali Edwards and you've kind of dabbled in some of her projects. Uh, what, what, what projects are part of kind of your suite every year, or maybe that you're thinking about trying for the first time?

Leanne Millo: Yeah. So Project Life I would say is kind of my staple. It's my quick weekly progress. It's the one I don't really let slip whether I take on other projects or not. Um, but I've tried Week in the Life. I've done that twice. I've done December Daily twice now, and I really love doing travel albums. Travel albums were kind of the first standalone album I tried outside of Project Life.

I was doing a travel album for our honeymoon in 2024, and that was really great. I loved being able to just mix in all the different ephemera that we were collecting and just, like, not let all those tickets die in a box in my closet. That was so satisfying to me. I'm not sure if I'll continue to do Week in the Life, honestly, because I capture so much of my daily life pretty consistently already through Project Life. [00:15:00] But I'll definitely be keeping up...

Jennifer Wilson: That's a good point. Yeah.

Leanne Millo: It's... I don't know. When I look back at Week in the Life, I don't know if it's... There's something about it that feels like it's so much effort, and it's kind of the similar stories that I already capture. So.

Jennifer Wilson: I think, and this is like, I guess this is just an opinion that might apply to some people and not apply to others, but if you are doing Project Life, you might not need to do Week in the Life. But if you're not doing anything that's like Project Life, that's like a really kind of everyday documentation, you might find that Week in the Life is enough to kind of capture what life is like right now without feeling like you have to add another project.

So.

Leanne Millo: 100%.

Jennifer Wilson: Some certainly love love doing both, but I think they are kind of good options on the buffet of which you can choose from.

Leanne Millo: I think so too. Yeah. I think that's why I've kind of drifted away from Week in the Life. But you know, the, when you see the collections and they're just so good, it, it draws you in every year. But this year I resisted. Um, I might try to see if there's ways I can use some of those products just in my [00:16:00] regular storytelling instead, so I can still kinda play with those items, but probably don't need the full album.

Jennifer Wilson: Yeah, no, and I've, I've tried to do that as well with December Daily, and like do I need to do a full album? Because it is a whole endeavor, but the products are so pretty and cute, and the sneak peeks for this year are already getting me, and I'm like, "No, I can't do it." But.

Leanne Millo: Same. Same. I know. I was debating.

Jennifer Wilson: The puffy shaker stickers?

Leanne Millo: I did. I know, they're so good. Yeah, I know, I love the color palette for this year. I was on the edge for December Daily this year, and I think I'm doing it. I saw the sneak peeks and I'm like, "Yep, okay. Sign me up.

Jennifer Wilson: I was gonna do just like digital or maybe just a layout, and now I'm, I need the folks to talk me down because I'm getting very excited.

Leanne Millo: I know. I don't know what it is about the Christmas stuff that just seems like it has extra pull.

Jennifer Wilson: It does. I mean, it brings out kind of that sense of childhood joy and like the anticipation that we had. And, um, as adults we [00:17:00] don't get quite as much of that, so we have to get it in other ways.

Leanne Millo: So true. Yeah. Uh, it is a good project too. I like looking back at those albums.

Jennifer Wilson: Now you mentioned that you were doing some, you'd done some kind of more traditional layouts within your Project Life album. Do you do any layouts kind of outside of Project Life?

Leanne Millo: Not in 12 by 12 at this point.

Jennifer Wilson: Okay.

Leanne Millo: I don't know. I know there are people that do kind of like the separate story albums is what I've heard them called. I just try to put all of my stories into one. I just want one big album for the year, and then if I'm not doing that, it's like for a specific cause, so like a travel album.

But I'll still usually put a little highlight of a trip into my Project Life or my main album for the year. But yeah, I try to keep it all in one place and hopefully reduce the amount of albums I have one day.

Jennifer Wilson: Yes, yes. They, they do add up over time, for sure.

Leanne Millo: Mm-hmm.

Jennifer Wilson: I was having a conversation, um, with someone yesterday about [00:18:00] how there's, there's been kind of some conversations in the community about converting from ring binders to Creative Memories albums just for the point of saving space. Now, this won't work if you have, like, super, super chunky pages, but if your pages are relatively minimal, and particularly if your pages are digital, you know, you can get a lot more pages in a, a narrower format than you can in the ring albums, so.

Leanne Millo: It's actually drastic. Like, I recently did a comparison video on the Creative Memories album versus the ring binder, and even if the spine doesn't look that much different, even just, like, the horizontal kind of, like, wingspan of the 12 x 12 binders is so big to just allow for that binder mechanism. Like, when you're holding one in person, it's like, wow, that is... It is huge. So.

Jennifer Wilson: For sure. So tell me about how the, the Project Life albums that you've completed already, what were the ... You mentioned the first one was 12 by [00:19:00] 12, and then I know, I think you, you went to 10 by 8. What were your experiences in working in those ring albums?

Leanne Millo: Yeah. So I really love the 10 by 8. I honestly had such a good time working in 10 by 8. I think one of the biggest reasons I love that size is because I'm just a sucker for the big full-page photo enlargements that you can do in that size with a regular printer. So that, like, horizontal 8.5 by 11 sheet. Um, I also really like that in those ring binders, and especially in the 10 by 8, you can include so many page sizes and different page protectors into your projects.

Jennifer Wilson: Mm-hmm

Leanne Millo: I used a ton of 6 by 8 page protectors in there. I definitely dabbled in all the craftiness, and I've sewn things together to make custom p- page pockets, and I've used my fuse tool to make different things. And I just feel like the 10 by 8 has so much room for creativity and a mix of page protectors and outside the page layouts and, and big photos, which I'm a sucker for, [00:20:00] so.

Jennifer Wilson: Would you choose that again for another type of project?

Leanne Millo: Yeah. I think where I've kind of settled with 10 by 8 is that when I do it for Project Life, it felt like it was maybe a little bit too time-consuming for that project, because I really wanted to keep up with being current. But then I'm spending so much time you know, making these.

Jennifer Wilson: Customizing.

Leanne Millo: Layouts and, yeah.

And it's, it's hard to keep up with that in Project Life. But I really love it for travel, and I really love it for December Daily. So I, I could see myself staying in 10 by 8 for both of those, or maybe separate projects. I have, um... I wasn't a scrapbooker the year that we got married, and I kind of wanna go back and do a 10 by 8 that's like the whole wedding era. Like engagement, all the showers, and I had a lot of friends get married in that same year, and it would be so fun to do something like that.

I could see that in 10 by 8.

Jennifer Wilson: Yes. That sounds like such a fun project.

Leanne Millo: Yeah. I love [00:21:00] like even using those little page attachers too to add in like.

Jennifer Wilson: Mm-hmm

Leanne Millo: Cards or brochures or different things, and that works really good in 10 by 8. That's a little bit different now that I'm working in 12 by 12. Um, but yeah, in 10 by 8 I really like doing, doing those kind of things.

Jennifer Wilson: So I noticed that you also created your own 10 by 8 album. So I'm curious, like, has it held up? Have you actually used it for a project, and would you, would you make one again?

Leanne Millo: Yeah. So that was such a fun project. I got super into researching bookbinding for a certain period of time, and I had found some videos that helped me plan out how to make my own 10 by 8 binder, and honestly, it's held up really great. I'm, like, super excited about that. I used it to do a Disney travel compilation album.

The album has, like, a section for each trip. And yeah, it's kind of like a highlight reel, so I wasn't a scrapbooker at the time I went on a lot of these trips either, so it's kind of nice to do a little highlight and, you know, your stories don't expire, so I'm working, I'm working on [00:22:00] some of those things from the past.

Especially where I live, like, I think Ali Edwards might be the only one that sells 10 by 8, and just being in Canada, shipping, conversion, ordering albums can be really expensive. So I thought, you know what? Let's try, and then if I want to make more 10 by 8 albums, I can. And, and yeah, I would honestly really recommend it if you're looking for a kind of a unique album size or something that you can't get near you, making your own with book- that kind of like book board and covering it with scrapbook paper, and it was, it was pretty easy and yeah, it's held up really well.

Jennifer Wilson: Very cool. Yeah, no, it's, uh, I was so impressed by like, just the process that you used because I've tried to even just do some of those more interactive pages in December Daily and I'm like, "Okay, I'm measuring and I'm trying and I'm folding and I'm trying to d- you know, do a dummy in advance." And I'm like, "Okay, something I'm not getting here about the dimensions and leaving the right amount of spaces."

And so yeah, I, I thought that was really impressive.

Leanne Millo: Thank you. Yeah, it's definitely a little bit of trial and error. There were some maybe mistakes, but you know what? It's paper, so you c- you can always rip it [00:23:00] off and glue it down again.

Jennifer Wilson: Very true. Very true. So you recently started working in a new format for your Project Life, as you mentioned earlier. Can you tell us more about it and how that came about?

Leanne Millo: Yeah. So right now, the new format that I'm working in, um, as I kind of mentioned, is the 12 by 12 Creative Memories album. And I can give a little bit of a backstory of how I kind of got to that since I was so heavy into pocket pages before. Um, like I was saying, I think the 12 by 12 binder that I started in wasn't necessarily the size for me, but it was available, and it was so large.

I, I learned a lot in that album, but I think especially doing double-page layouts for every week, it just felt like it was kind of too much. So from there, I shifted to nine by 12, and I honestly loved that size. Um, especially the page protector layout I used had a mix of three by fours and four by sixes.

It felt like it was the perfect amount of space to mix photos but also have enough room to use the cards and [00:24:00] the products, and I love it. Like, I would recommend anyone that just wants to do regular Project Life pocket pages to go nine by 12 in a heartbeat. The only little thing that bothered me about it was I just don't wanna have multiple albums for every year, and I can't seem to get through it in less than two albums for the year with the amount of page protectors that you need.

It's not, like, totally logical on why I don't wanna have two albums. It just feels like a, a pet peeve almost. Like, I just feel like it's satisfying to have one album for each year on the shelf. So.

Jennifer Wilson: I get it.

Leanne Millo: Yeah. It's... The dream is trying to, I guess, figure out everyone's perfect scrapbooking scenario. So for me, I'm looking for something that's the right size and that's one album.

So from there, I was trying to evaluate what I wanted to do. I did nine by 12 for a full year. Uh, that was 2025, and then I changed for the start of 2026 into the 10 by 8 that we were talking about. That was totally inspired by Ali Edwards because she's been doing [00:25:00] her annual project in that size, and I just loved the creative freedom of that, that kind of format that we were talking about.

When I did go 10 by 8, I switched from doing weekly spreads to having a divider set up for each month and just telling however many stories I felt was appropriate to kind of capture that month. So it felt like it shifted a little bit more to be highlight stories and then maybe have, like, one spread that just had a bunch of those little random everyday photos.

So I kind of found that I had lost some of that when I went to 10 by 8 because everything was just like, okay, I went... I did this weekend trip, and that's a, a spread for that, and then I would do this event, and that was a spread. And some of that day-to-day stuff, I felt like, I don't know, I wasn't telling it to the same level of detail maybe with 10 by 8. But yeah, it was also just a, a time investment, and I really wanted to stay current with, with my album.

So that all led me to the shift of trying now in the second half of 2026, the Creative Memories. [00:26:00] So I just started that style in June, and honestly, I was kind of resisting going back to 12 by 12 because of the binder album earlier. Just being so large and, I don't know, it feels like it's like the OG traditional one and not as modern maybe as some of the other formats.

So I don't know. I had some kind of mental block there, but eventually I got over that. I ordered the Creative Memories album, and I really like it because you get the benefit of the binder, which for me is being able to reorder pages, um, with the Creative Memories album because they have a strap-bound system.

So you can still insert as many pages as you want. You can still reorder them. You just open up the straps and rearrange your pages. Um, and because you can buy the pages separately, you can add in as many pages or page packs as you want. Up to, I think, two inches is what I've seen online, which is like three packs.

And I kind of did the math, and for my goal to have one album per year, if I use two of those packs and I do a single page spread for each week of the year, [00:27:00] then I'll actually have enough page inserts or whatever to do one page per week and still have like 15 r- pages for like highlight pages, as I call them.

So if I wanna do a full page to cover a special birthday or do a trip page or just emphasize a fun event, I still have room to do that on top of my weekly pages. So that's been really fun for me to kind of mix and match.

Jennifer Wilson: Yeah, no, this is so awesome. I, yeah, I love kind of the troubleshooting you did to, to get there, and particularly to acknowledge that really like that weekly structure and that it helps you capture the, the little and the big and everything in between. Um, and then also finding a way to get it into all one album.

Leanne Millo: Yeah.

Jennifer Wilson: Is very satisfying, as you said.

Leanne Millo: When you're switching between albums, I'm like, "Do other people think about this this much?" Like, the size, the format, how many albums? And I don't know, but I spent a lot of time, I guess, trying to refine that. Um, in the Creative Memories albums too, the pages [00:28:00] are a white thick cardstock base instead of like a clear page protector.

So that's kind of a different point of this style. Um, I've been really liking that because I usually keep the bright white background as the base to kind of make a clean photo grid on top of it each week. So I like having that white background show through. Every week I kind of make a custom grid layout based on how many photos I have, and what's really cool about that is that you're not stuck to having the same grid layout on the other side of the page like you would with a pocket page.

So.

Jennifer Wilson: Correct.

Leanne Millo: Each week I have a fully custom grid, which is something really cool about this style.

Jennifer Wilson: Now what, like I've noticed that you've done kind of different like, you know, subgrids, like really smaller photos as well. How do you plan all that out?

Leanne Millo: Yeah, so my planning process is a bit different with this. So I kinda have to plan things out in advance. I kinda need to, like, do the math, and I usually start with figuring out how many photos I have and what kind of stories I'm telling. Um, [00:29:00] I like to use Canva to pre-plan my layout. Because I like how easy it is to just drag and drop photos in and resize and kind of make, like, a mock-up of what I'm thinking first.

So the math side of it, I mean, 12 by 12 is easy for that. At least it's a square. So you know your page is 12 by 12. If I were to put down two four by sixes, let's say side by side, then that would be touching edge to edge of that page, and it would be the full 12-inch width. So you can kind of figure out, like, you could fit six four by sixes technically on the 12-inch page, right?

Um, what I like to do is take a quarter inch off of each photo so that it makes the room for that white background paper to show through and make the white grid that you see. So if I'm printing a four by six photo, for example, I would actually print it at, like, 3.75 by 5.75 to make that border around everything.

And then I kinda just work on making those different templates, do the math, and try to figure out, you know, how many photos can I fit if they're all these different sizes. And [00:30:00] yeah, I don't know, it's kinda just pre-planning is really the key, I'd say.

Jennifer Wilson: How are you going from Canva then to your printer? Are you printing the photos from Canva or are you going into something else first? How do you get them from your concept to photos?

Leanne Millo: Little photos, yeah. So I don't print through Canva. I basic- on Canva I'm using what's called, like, the whiteboard layout. Um, so it's kinda just like a big free art board. I s- I solely use it for planning, and then I will print from... Well, all my printing I do from home, so I have, like, a little four by six photo printer, and then I have a full-size, like, letter size regular printer as well.

Um, for my specific workflow, I bring everything into Lightroom, edit it, and then I put it into Photoshop and do kind of, like, art boards that I print off from there. So I'll print my photos just directly onto four by six photo paper for the most part, unless I'm doing an enlargement. I'll print it off on a letter sized piece of, [00:31:00] like, photo paper, the glossy Canon one.

Yeah. I don't know. It's kind of a... Basically what I'm doing, I guess, is digitally planning it in Canva, printing everything physically and separately, and then I reassemble that grid layout on the page. So I'm not printing it off all as one. I'm printing each photo or card separately, and then actually building it out by gluing it all down onto the page.

Jennifer Wilson: Are you adding any kind of additional embellishments, um, on top of that? Or is it very much kind of like a truly hybrid layout of you're printing out what starts as digital things and, and, and then adhering them back together in a collage?

Leanne Millo: Yeah. I feel like I kind of do a mix of everything. Like, if I, if I pre-plan anything digitally, I try to print everything separately, I guess, as, like, their own elements. So, like, I'll print my photos on photo paper. I'll print, like, die cuts or journaling cards or embellishments on, I think it's the Epson Premium Matte paper.

Jennifer Wilson: Yeah.

Leanne Millo: And... Or I'll, like, cut it out with my Cricut or whatever, [00:32:00] and I'll basically, like, manufacture everything for myself at home. And then I would take those all as if I had ordered a physical kit or if I had physical products, and then I would do, like, kind of a traditional scrapbook process, I feel like, to bring it all to life.

So, I don't know. I really like the three-dimensionality of having what feels like physical products to work with. Um, but I also do a lot of products that I'm, like, actually buying at the scrapbook store, too, or on scrapbook.com. I love, like, puffy stickers and other things, too, that aren't digitals that I'm producing at home. So, it's kind of a mix just of, like, where I'm kind of working from and with what products.

Jennifer Wilson: Sure, sure, sure.

You've mentioned quite a bit of the pros, uh, comparing this to the pocket pages. Are there any kind of drawbacks that you found? Things you're like, "Oh, I do kind of miss this one little aspect."

Leanne Millo: Um, I think, well, one is that when you're making up your own grids from scratch, you just have to think about it a little bit more. So as much [00:33:00] as that was a pro, it could also be a con, I guess. Um, like you said, how do you know if you wanna do two-by-twos or three-by-fours or, you know, even enlarge something as a six-by-eight, and then how do you fit all the other photos around that?

I think that's something that you kinda need to, like, build up your skill set around. So, you know, if you're just looking for something that's super easy, and you don't wanna think as much about how to make a balanced layout from scratch, maybe you could say that this, I guess, style could take a little bit more effort to get used to. Because you don't have the pocket pages.

That being said, sometimes I totally just recreate a pocket page grid. Like, I can look at a 12-by-12 page protector and just emulate that onto my white page. So, you know, you could make it as easy or as complicated as you want. I don't know. I'm also thinking about just, like, having the white pages. With the Creative Memories albums, I've been sliding those, like, protective kinda page protector sheets on when you're done.

Like, Creative Memories is a little different 'cause you're not sliding the page into the protector. [00:34:00] You're doing the page first and then sliding the protector over the side. I don't know if you've seen that.

Jennifer Wilson: Yeah, yeah. They do offer the top-loading page protectors now too, though.

Leanne Millo: Yes, that's right. Actually, I've been debating, like, trying to... I don't know. I need to explore more, I think, with the different inserts that they have.

Jennifer Wilson: Mm-hmm

Leanne Millo: 'Cause I also saw that they had, like, letter-sized inserts, and there's scrap journal-sized inserts and stuff too. But I just think in general maybe you have a little bit less selection.

Like, there's not as many page protector configurations. There's not as many things you can mix and match in. One of the things I'm trying to figure out right now is, like, if I do have a brochure or something, what's the best way for me to add that in now? It feels just, like, unnatural almost to not have this protective sleeve on for some reason, even though in my old albums I did outside of the page protector all the time.

Jennifer Wilson: Mm-hmm.

Leanne Millo: But yeah, I don't know. With the strap system, trying to figure out, like, what is the equivalent of, like, a plastic page attacher for this album so I could just, like, slot in a ticket or slot in a brochure. That's something I'm trying to [00:35:00] figure out with this one still.

Jennifer Wilson: I wonder if you could use like the Fuse tool along with their, you know, more full page pocket type pages in order to like cut it down to the appropriate size, but still have the appropriate left side binding.

Leanne Millo: Yeah. I was thinking about that too, 'cause like if I did get their kind of page protectors that are smaller, you could cut them down or fuse them or.

Jennifer Wilson: Yeah.

Leanne Millo: Have something that looks a little bit more like an insert and not as much like a full page.

Jennifer Wilson: Yeah. Yeah. And I don't know, like then because you don't have the same kind of, uh, flexibility because of the rings if those type of inserts are, make it more awkward too.

Leanne Millo: Yeah.

Jennifer Wilson: Because it is all closer together.

Leanne Millo: Definitely wanna order some and play around. I'm gonna have to put an update on that at some point. But yeah, that, that's the one thing I found that I'm kinda like, "Oh, I need to think of something for that," or, you know, buy some of their other products maybe and see [00:36:00] how I can make that work.

Jennifer Wilson: No, it sounds like this is, you mentioned earlier, you asked earlier, like, do people really think about this? And I 100%, no, you are not alone in the thinking about this.

Leanne Millo: Yeah.

Jennifer Wilson: If we're not thinking about it before we buy it, we're thinking about it once we bought it, and what we're gonna buy next, and how what works best for us, and what type of, you know, overall process feels easy, even if it does take steps. Sometimes that, those steps can feel easy and feel good. Versus things that maybe are technically faster, but they don't, they're not as fun or not as interesting or they're just, you know, not as satisfying in the end. So we have to decide what works.

Leanne Millo: Yeah.

Jennifer Wilson: Best.

Leanne Millo: Yeah. I know, I, and I think you're always trying to optimize, right? Like, in my dream world, my shelf for some reason would have, like, a consistent type of documenting, like all of the same albums. But something with my experience scrapbooking so far, I guess, is that I haven't been able to achieve that yet, and even if at the beginning I thought, like, "Oh, I really wish I could just stick to a style," I think it's actually [00:37:00] been really exciting also to try all those different things and go through all of those different projects and albums and kind of learn, like, what you did like about each one. And I think maybe there's, there's a scrapbook style for each maybe phase of life that you're in, right?

Like, it doesn't always have to be the same. I, I think just do what works for you, and maybe I'm in 12 by 12 for now, and maybe I won't be forever, and I think that's okay, too.

Jennifer Wilson: Yeah, no, it's so fun. You know, there's things that came about in the past 10 years that we n- didn't know were coming, and I'm sure that's gonna happen in the next 10 years. There's gonna be new innovations, things that look exciting and interesting, and we're gonna try it, and it's gonna work for some of us, and some of us are gonna be like, "No, I really like this other thing that I was already doing, and I'm gonna go back to that."

And that's, don't know, that's part of what makes it fun and interesting.

Leanne Millo: Yeah, I agree. I know, I love seeing how creative everyone is in the community too. Like, it's cool to say like, "Okay, this is the popular style right now," but it's also fun to just watch people kind of break out of that. Like, I don't see a ton of people doing Project Life [00:38:00] in the 12 by 12 on the white pages kind of in the way I have recently.

But it's funny to just talk to people and be like, "Oh my gosh, I didn't think of it like that. I'm gonna try this." Or then they start to send me inspiration on what else I could do to, you know, maybe solve this other problem or something. And I think it's so cool to just see everyone working together, and love talking about all these different things, and trying different things, and being inspired by everyone else.

Jennifer Wilson: Oh, yes, 100%. Now, I guess the last thing I wanna ask is do you have any advice for someone who maybe is curious about Project Life? So now that you've tried it different ways, you've found maybe a system that, that works better for you, what advice would you have to someone who, who wants to get started?

Leanne Millo: Ooh, that's a good question. I think don't be afraid to try different things. That's like something that I learned even, like I was kind of saying back at the beginning, you have all that kind of fear of just getting started. But, um, I think there's like a quote that's kind of like... it's something that's basically like you don't have to be great to start, [00:39:00] but you have to start to be great.

Like, you just have to get started. That's my biggest advice. You can refine your format. You can change your album. You can, you know, change even the frequency. Like, I know some people do weekly like me. Other people I think do monthly. Maybe you just wanna tell a couple stories. Um, I also wouldn't get so hung up on the format, and I would really focus on capturing like, you know, the actual stories behind why we do this.

Like, what are the little moments that you don't wanna forget? What are the photos that you wanna be able to look back on physically one day, you know, when you're sitting on your couch and flipping through these albums? Whether you're doing it in a planner, whether you're doing it in a journal, you're doing it in a scrapbook or a sketchbook even I've seen people do.

Like, there's so many different ways that you can just achieve the goal of Project Life, which I think is ultimately just, you know, giving importance and capturing everyday moments. And I don't know, there's just so many flexible ways to do it that I feel like just doing it in some kind of way that works for you is better [00:40:00] than not doing it at all. So I.

Jennifer Wilson: Yes!

Leanne Millo: Guess that's my advice.

Jennifer Wilson: I totally agree. Thank you so much for spending time with me and telling us all about your process. Can you share where our audience can find you online? Anything you might have new or coming up later this year?

Leanne Millo: Sure. Yeah, so the main place to find me is on Instagram. My account on there is sunday__plans. There's two underscores between Sunday and plans. Um, coming up I'll definitely be sharing more Project Life. Um, I try to share a lot of design tips too, so things like maybe design fundamentals or how to actually make things look good.

Those are some kind of content pillars I wanna focus on coming up. I've got travel albums in progress, and I'm definitely gonna be posting about December Daily. So if you wanna join us in the Christmas holiday scrapbooking, I'll be sharing a lot of that. Um, yeah, can't wait to just keep scrapbooking and sharing online.

Jennifer Wilson: Awesome. Yeah, again, thanks for spending time with me and chatting with us.

Leanne Millo: Thank you. It's been so much [00:41:00] fun, and I've really, um, appreciated the chance to come on and chat, so thanks for having me.

Jennifer Wilson: And to all of our listeners, please remember that you have permission to scrapbook your way.