You may remember when I talked about 2011 being the year of story for me. While I never blogged any more about it, I have in fact kept the word "story" at the forefront of my mind this year. One of the biggest aspects of the word "story" for me this year was a focus on documenting my family's story. In whatever form it takes - journals, scrapbooking, blog posts - documenting has always been hugely important to me. After taking a year off, I started up my photo a day project again this year, but as I mentioned back in January I was also searching for a way to record our lives in a more tangible way. Since I haven't done any scrapbooking in quite a while, I have been making promises to myself for ages that I would somehow get my family's photos and stories off the computer and into something that they can actually touch and see. I always thought I would put my previous years' daily photos into photo books, but almost four years after starting that project, it still hasn't happened.
Enter Project Life.
I started using this brainchild of Becky Higgins at the beginning of the year, but I wasn't sure if I would stick with it and how it would work for me.
Well, it's now been almost a full year and I can tell you that I've stuck with it. And loved it. I finally feel like I have a way to record our daily lives in a way that is manageable (read: simple) and also meaningful. I always thought I was strictly a digital girl so I am surprised at how much I love having an actual, physical place to print and store my photos. (Although speaking of digital, there will soon be a digital Project Life as well.) I think what I love most about this format is that I also feel like I now have a place to put all that extra "stuff" that I want to keep but never knew where to store before: programs, cards, and artwork for example. I just put extra page protectors in the middle of my weekly layouts. For example, here I included extra photos from Claire's birthday back in March and a story about leprechauns that Ella wrote in school:
Without fail, whenever I am working on my Project Life album I turn to Matt and say "I can't believe how much I LOVE this." Truly, it has filled a gap I didn't even realize existed. And the best part is that my kids ask to look at it all the time. Which truly is the whole point anyway.
This is how I have used Project Life in 2011:
- I take daily photos and post captions/journaling in my photo a day blog. I try to never get more than a week behind, although I have been as much as two or three weeks behind at various points during the year.
- I have tried to take all my daily photos horizontally in order to fit the design of the album. It was actually much easier than I thought it would be. I still have plenty of vertical photos included as extras. There were a couple of instances when I didn't have a horizontal photo to use, and in that case I merged two vertical photos together (examples: July 17th & September 26th). This year, there actually is a new page design for vertical photos, but I will probably stick with the horizontal design.
- Since I don't have a photo printer, I print out my photos about once a month and put them in the album. I have a file where I save all the extra items I want to include, and I usually add them to the album at the same time I add in the photos.
- I fill out the journaling cards as I have time. I am a few months behind right now, but since I have all my journaling already saved on my photo a day blog, I'm not too worried about it.
These are some changes I'm considering for Project Life in 2012:
- I will still stick to the one layout per week format, but I may not worry so much about having a photo for every single day. As long as I have enough various photos + extras from the week to fill a layout, I will be happy.
- I'd like to involve my kids more in the album, especially Ella now that she can write. I thought this was something I would do in 2011, but it just never really happened.
- Handwriting all the journaling cards can be time consuming, so I'm considering incorporating printed versions of digital journaling cards in 2012.
I'm posting about Project Life now because the new 2012 versions will be released soon, and now is the perfect time to think about possibly doing this yourself for 2012. I use it for my daily photos, but it can really be used in any way you want. If a weekly layout is too ambitious, a monthly layout would work just as well. The beauty of it is that it can work for anybody, whether you are a current scrapbooker, former scrapbooker, or never scrapbooked a day in your life.
I'm also excited that I have been asked to be a part of the newly formed Project Life Creative Team. I was absolutely floored to be asked by Becky to be a part of this team, but I am really excited to share more with you this upcoming year. I truly love and believe in this method of documenting our stories.
For more inspiration, check out Ali Edwards' Project Life posts. She has been a huge inspiration to me (in many ways) and I love what she always says about Project Life: It can be anything you want it to be. Truly, it can.
And for even more inspiration, check out the rest of the Project Life Creative Team:
Any questions? Let me know and I'd be happy to answer them!
