If you sit and look at my scrapbooks, you'll notice that almost all my scrapbooks stop in 2009. That's the year I got sick and just lost all interest in everything, including scrapbooking. In 2010 I was diagnosed with Thyroid cancer and things just got worse. I rarely have pictures of that year and in my scrapbooking life.. 2010 is known as the lost year. I am an organized person by nature, so when I tried to go back to scrapbooking I was frustrated and overwhelmed and just gave up. I have been a long time fan of Becky Higgins. I liked the idea of her first kit.. Project 365, but I never ordered it. It was not until 2011 that I decided to try it and by the middle of the year decided to let go of "regular" scrapbooking and make project life my exclusive way of memory keeping.
Fast forward to now and I am behind..... way behind on my project life. All my albums are started, but none are finished. Every year is different, there are years I start with full force and others that I am so overwhelmed with the previous year that I can even begin to think about the next year. As I look at my albums, they are all different. I started doing the photo-a-day thing exclusively with the Amber edition kit in 2011. The next year (2012), I started doing a weekly spread, mixing the Amber and Cobalt edition kits with my regular scrapbooking supplies. That album was never finished either. In 2013, my motivation fizzled, I rarely took pics and the old feeling of .. "Why am I doing this?" popped into my head. But.. I refuse to give up and I am determined to finish my albums. Here are some things I am doing to help me finish my 2011, 2012, & 2013 albums. I also decided to go back and do 2010.. Project Life style. That year was hard, but that's life and it has to be documented in someway.
1. JUST LET GO!!!!!! My albums don't have to be like everyone else's. Becky Higgin's developed these albums to make our lives easier, help us create memories for our families without guilt.. while still enjoying our lives to share in even more memories.. Project Life is not complicated, WE make it complicated. Project Life.. is what YOU make it.. it's your memories.
2.EVALUATE!! On Creative Live.. Becky Higgins said to evaluate what we have as far as our memories and have a plan for the end in mind.. That helped a lot and I'm planning a blog post on that soon...
3. ORGANIZATION...I've tried this before.. sketching my pages a la Marci Penner, but things would never end up as planned, I would forget to order prints.. OH THE PICTURES..... That was a chore and disaster in it self... To help me with my 2014 Project Life, I am using the COLLECT APP.. I love it!!!!! I keep a "TO PRINT" folder of the pictures I need, which ensures I don't forget to order any photo again. After I order the pictures, I put them in the folder by year and month. I am really liking the monthly spreads, it less daunting for me than the weekly spreads.
4. $$ MULA$$$.... Scrapbooking in general can be expensive... But the best advice I can offer is Wait for sales. I have been buying my pictures through Shutterfly. Every month or so they have the 101 pictures for free and I take advantage. I also bought my kits on sale. BIG Bummer is that I missed out on THE JUST ADD COLOR KIT... still kicking myself on that one.. hopefully it will come back soon..
THE PLAN FOR 2014...
Like I mentioned I am doing a monthly spread, I am using snipets from different kits, my goal is to use a different kit or paper pad each month.. keeping the month in the same color scheme for a more cohesive look. I have always wanted to do mini albums like Cathy Zelsike's 30 days of grateful, or Ali Edward's Day in the Life/ Week in the Life, and December Daily.. I want to incorporate these elements into my Project Life somehow.. Don't know if I'll do it every year,but it's my plan for now.
THE KITS...
I already have the Amber edition and Cobalt editions, but last year I bought the Seafoam edition and enrolled in the Studio Calico Project Life monthly subscription. Since I didn't do much scrapbooking, I still have those.. intact.. lol!
I have since bought a whole bunch of BH themed kits, mini kits,and 4 more core kits. Top row left.. 5th & Frolic, Kraft, Sea foam, Azure, Midnight, and Clementine.. I keep forgetting I bought clementine in 2012. I have my eye on the Sunshine edition, Cinnamon edition, and others...lol! I want to get one of the new stampin' up project life kits as well.
I (heart) you.. scrapbooking!!
Love,
Michelle
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