Archiving Images Using Aperture

I keep a lot of images off line due to storage space. Most of the time I do not run the images through Aperture before they go onto DVD. What I'm wondering is I want to use Aperture to manage the images still keeping them off line. But each time I import the images it creates a new project, which I don't want. I want to put the images into a folder under a different project but Aperture will not let me.

Am I going against the grain for Aperture. Does anyone have a better workflow suggestion or solution?

Thanks.