True Confession Time:
Sometimes I miss paper scrapbooking! I love all the convenience and versatility of digital scrapbooking, but there is something nice about having your hands on all your supplies, journaling by hand and the immediate gratification of a completed book. For 5 years I have been scrapping digitally and in that time the paper scrapbooking world has changed dramatically. I don't have the time or the money to put into it like I used to but I still have a large stash. However, thinking about finding all that time, a place where I can scrap and spread out to work and digging through my stored boxes of supplies is not overly appealing. To combat some of these issues, I have rearranged my bedroom and placed a desk where eventually I will be able to work. I'm not brave enough to share what the area looks like at the moment - mainly because it's still in the disaster sorting stage!
The desire to create paper scrapbooking pages and a nesting spot for my supplies has been fueled by the growing popularity of Becky Higgins' Project Life. I adore Becky Higgins and have followed her scrapbooking career and creativity since the time she was barely out of high school and venturing into life. Her ability to be creative and yet keep things simple and classic, has always appealed to me. The video in the link above does a great job of explaining and showing exactly what Project Life is, if you are new to it.
In fairness, Project Life is not the only or the first pocket system of scrapbooking, but Project Life really launched the idea into the spotlight creating the popularity which has spawned a multitude of amazing products. The end result is that Project Life or pocket scrapbooking, can be as simple or as intensely involved as you desire. It promises something for those who are delighted in the process and those who delight in the end product. And, the good news is that for those of you who digitally scrap, there is Project Life Digital!
After failing several years of Project 365, Project 52 and other similar photo projects, it is with a mixture of excitement and trepidation that I have decided to begin Project Life for 2014. This year I began by purchasing pages, drooling over "core kits" and other products. And this winter while I wait to begin, I am working on organization and planning. If you fail to plan, you plan to fail right?
In watching hours of videos, surfing Pinterest and blogs and based on my past failures at Project 365 etc, doing a picture a day is just not going to work for me. My primary art love is photography and I would feel constricted by having only one photo a day. Add to that being a busy Mom, I would soon fail at a photo a day. So, I have given myself permission to document the month, not necessarily the weeks, day by day. My hats off to those of you who are keeping up with one photo a day. My plan is to be more purposeful in my photography though. I don't want the photos to be only of events and special occasions. If I never do another year of Project Life, I would like this year to be a snapshot into our home, lives and personalities, so that my children will have something to remember from their day to day childhood. Some ways that I plan to be more purposeful are to take pictures of our home, some of our daily routines, changes in our garden and in my children, document hobbies, what we're reading and watching and show what is really important to us as a family.
As a creative crafter who has stashes of paper, fabric, yarn and fiber, I've also determined that I am not going to be able to pick one core kit and stick with it for a whole year. Variety is definitely a spice in my creative life. Therefore I will use some of the core kits I now have and add to them as I can. I will likely make some of my own pieces to use as well so that I can thin down my stash.
So I made myself some goals and maybe too many of them, but here they are:
1. Scrap a representative year of life in our family through photos and journaling. I hope to have some fun with the creative process, but keep it simple so it actually gets done.
2. Begin scrapping our state history field trips using the Heritage and Cinnamon core kits.
3. Scrap a family album representing our story for the first 15 years as an overview, using 5th & Frolic core kit, Love themed kit and the Polka Dot Party mini kit.
4. Work on previous years digitally as I can, making overviews to have printed as books.
5. Organize my new, small, scrapbooking area.
6. Dedicate time in my schedule to do this.
7. Have fun!
I'd love to share with you some links to help you get started if you are interested.
Tips on organizing from Through Crystal's Eyes that I thought were helpful. I'm also going to print out some calendar pages from Donna Young so that I can keep track of details for journaling. I may print these out and include a calendar page each month as well. You can see an enviable Project Life scrapping space at Mish Mash. Loving Life's Little Blessings is having a video series on getting started and organized in PL.
Digital Project Life Freebies - You can even get two free templates that you can use with any papers and digital products you already have. I've also been designing some kits that can be used with digital including Everyday Heritage - My Community and Everyday Heritage - My Cookbook and my cooking kit Cuisine has journal cards and filler cards included. Here is a template for planning at DebDuty
Inspiration at Project Life Tuesdays, where there is a linkup, so be sure to check out the links on each post to find inspiration and other scrappers and bloggers participating in Project Life. Other blogs I've enjoyed for Project Life inspiration are:
Becky Higgins
Family Bees
Ali Edwards
Melanie Britt
Children's Art Scrapbook
Cathy Zielske
Elise Cripe
Field Journaling
Figuring Out Forty
Kerri Bradford
In A Creative Bubble
Simple Stories
Mish Mash
Our Life
Pink Ronnie
Miriam
Project Life documenting a young man's life
Well, that's probably more than enough for a start. You are probably overwhelmed if you have read this far, but I'm having fun planning and will be doing some more posts. I would love to hear from you if you have done or are planning to do Project Life - even if it did not work for you!
More to come! Happy Scrapping!
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