I have a scrapbooking plan for next year. As my honey says, I always have a plan for everything. It's just how I work. I like lists, school supplies, and plans. Those things just rock. And it's the only way my otherwise-chaotic life doesn't overwhelm me. And I honestly, truly believe that pre-planning gives me more free time for fun things. Which is how I find time to scrapbook and quilt. Well, besides not watching TV – biggest waste of time ever, in my opinion. I spent way too many years watching it every single evening for hours. And I have spent the last seven years NOT doing it and my life is so better for it. Funny thing – I watch more TV than anyone else in the family, I would guess. Tom grew up without a TV for much of the time and would love to totally get rid of the TV (he would have to watch UT games on the computer, though – he's not giving those up!). And I don't watch much. But don't mess with my "Biggest Loser," Grey's Anatomy," or "Private Practice." Everyone needs a wee bit of mindless entertainment. So now you know my guilty pleasure. And, wow, I sure have gotten completely and totally off-topic. Holy diversion!
Anyway, back to the scrapbooking plan.
Part I:
As always, I cannot imagine my life without DesignerDigitals. I could give up every other part of this plan and not care, but not DD. I've been scrapbooking digitally for over 4 years now and it suits me so very well. I love the process, the result, and the way the layouts look when they're printed.
And, oh my gosh, the lack of mess, the saved space in my house, and the lack of bulk in my albums is awesome. Just awesome. Not to mention that DesignerDigitals has the best digital products ever. Even if I wasn't on the Creative Team at DD, I wouldn't shop elsewhere. There just is no comparison to any other store. So, Part I includes the same digital pages that I've been doing. You can see my gallery here.
Part II:
I will also be doing Becky Higgins' Project Life this year. I tried it back in January of 2010 when it was still called Project 365. But, ummmm……we put our house on the market that month, had to keep it in show-condition constantly, then sold it, packed up and moved. Guess what stayed packed up for months? Yep. So much for Project 365. It's hard to catch up on a daily project when you are 3+ months behind. So, I'm trying it again for 2012. (And I'm bringing along a friend – I Blame Vetne – tee hee!!! Love that she's doing it with me!! Sharyn and I have sooooo much in common that it's freaky. Seriously freaky. And I love her. Even when she blames me. LOL. ).
Holy heck – this must be my day to digress and include parenthetical remarks. Okay, so Project Life. It's a hugely popular system and I just had to try it again. I love that my kids can write in it, that they can have a say in the content, and that it will reflect more about our family than just MY experiences. And I'm doing it in a way that works best for my family – I will not be following a prescribed plan. It will also NOT be a daily project throughout the year. I know myself way too well to attempt that. It will be my life – it may be daily sometimes, it may be weekly sometimes and it may be monthly if that's what works best. It will be LIFE. And it will be simple. Super-super simple. (See Part III for reasons why.) And I also plan on mixing it up with digital pages interspersed. I'm hoping to have one album to put everything into. Digital pages about specific kids will go in their own albums but pages about our daily life will go into the Project Life album. If this plan works, I will try to do this every year. I would love to have a system that incorporates everything.
Part III: I am giving away or selling all of my paper scrapbooking supplies. I am done paper scrapbooking. For reals this time. And I know some of you are scratching your head. Because isn't part of this post about Project Life – which is paper? Yes. But Project Life is not scrapbooking as I've done before. As Becky says in the package insert – it is scrapbooking without the scrapbooking. And that is exactly how I plan to do it. Memory-keeping on paper without the scrapbooking.
Here's part of the reason why: I'm currently doing a paper December Daily album and this is my dining room.
And I'm not enjoying it at all. It feels like work and it's making a huge mess. I don't like either. And, if it's not fun, I won't keep it up. This is supposed to be a hobby and preserving memories – not more stress. So, my Project Life album will be filled with journaling, photos and ephemera – that's it. I'm not blinging up my pages or adding lots of little pretties. So, I simply don't need any other supplies than those that are included in Project Life. I reserve the right to make it my own, but simply and easily. I want the focus to be on the photos and the stories – our LIFE – not on the scrapbooking products.
So, that's the plan. As soon as Christmas is over, I will go through the remaining scrapbooking products I have and box them up to get them out of my house. And I cannot wait for the new year to start so that I can put this plan into action. I will do another post with the specific Project Life products I'm using. I'm starting with the Clementine Kit. 🙂
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