On Saturday, I hung out with my friend Bryn, who is an awesome scrapbooker and finally got to work on my Project Life album. I’ll be honest: I’ve been a little reluctant to jump in to this. My mom is wildly creative and very talented, and I wasn’t sure I’d ever caught the scrapbook “bug.” On the other hand, I get sad when I look at the pictures I have stored on my computer that never see the light of day besides Facebook, and I also want to be better about documenting my life beyond my own emo journals. What appealed to me about Project Life was the ease of use: everything matches and is ready to go.
I purchased the binder, core kit, and cardstock in Clementine. I also ordered the photo pocket protectors in Style B, which was pretty much all they had left. I’m really hoping that more styles become available ASAP, because it’s kind of a difficult set-up to work with.
Anyways, I started with my title page:
For my title page, I used the journaling cards, and then stamped (using some of Bryn’s adorable stamps!) and embossed the figures and the heart you see. I also used some puffy number stickers. At the bottom right corner, I did a little bit of journaling about how the year started off. All the paper came from the Clementine core kit. Awesome, right?
Next, I just went week by week to do the pages. I aimed to do a few things: a bit of journaling about the week and what took place, and to stamp the dates of the week, using a “normal” date stamp. On my first page, I also included my playlist for the month (I’ve been making playlists every month since I was 22 and have NEVER recorded them, which makes me sad, because I love music so much) and a blurb about the Photo A Day challenge I’ve been doing with Fat Mum Slim, because it’s been such a cool part of my month.
I printed my pictures using Rite Aid’s photo service. Which was okay for normal pics, but definitely didn’t work for Instagrams, which sadly were most of my photos. Thankfully, Bryn has an awesome printer and totally printed a ton of stuff for me. I need to figure out a better solution for the rest of my time.
A few things I want to be better about this month are:
- Taking more pictures! I take a ridic amount of iPhone photos, but I want to use my normal camera more often. I struggled to find things that I’d documented, and I need to do more.
- Holding on to ephemera. I was really glad I had some ticket stubs from our day trip to Chicago, but next month, I want to hold on to more things.
- Writing down ideas as I go. I relied on my planner a lot to fill in gaps and holes.
- Take pictures of myself and Andrew, as well as me with friends and family. I HATE taking pictures of myself. I’m not super comfortable in my own skin and I feel hideously unattractive in 99% of photos. This means I have a lot of pics of soup but not very many photos of me, or of me with those I love. I am trying to include one picture of myself in every spread, both so I can document me (and hopefully changes in my body) but also to get over this ridiculous thing I have with pictures of myself. I also want to do some serious documentation of our awesome time with my family (PREPARE YOURSELF, FAMILY!).
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I’ve seen a few other people around the blogosphere doing this project as well, but I had no idea it came from a box kit! That is so cool! It seems much less intimidating and scary now. Your pages look super cute!
Looks so cute! And the kit sounds like so much fun to play with. I’ll have to look into that…
I’m starting on my birthday which is next week! I decided to customize it a bit more though, and I bought my own album and scrapbook paper (I have a lot on hand, as well as other supplies, from other projects). I really want the Design A photo protector pages though, and since they won’t be available until mid-February (so they say) I’m just going to work on my layout but not actually fill in pages until I get them. It’s also one of my goals to take more pictures with my regular camera, and I need to figure out a good way to print them, too!
I like how you say you’re not a good creative scrapbook-er type and then your pages look AWESOME! :)
I think that many people are uncomfortable with being photographed, but sometimes grinning and bearing it can be really rewarding! I would personally really regret not having documentation of my life. Plus, the more photos that get taken of me (kind of a lot since I started documenting my daily outfits!) the more comfortable I have become with what I consider my bad angles and less-than-attractive physical attributes. It’s all just a part of who I am and seeing all the good photos that come with all the bad photos makes me love myself and what I look like in the moment!
I’ve always had a blog, and always thought that would be enough of a scrapbook. But since I closed Lemonade Life a couple weeks ago, and have no intention of restarting, I’m wondering how to keep a record so 2012 doesn’t just… disappear. Facebook is nice but it isn’t everything. I may have to investigate this as an option!
I’ve started so many monthly routines and a soundtrack is one of them. Such a great idea to have a physical documentation of those things. I’m so glad to have pictures of myself from different eras of my life, but in the last couple of years it’s dwindled and that makes me sad. Also, I’m mad I have so few photos of you and me! Now that I know you’re game, I’m gonna force you to take photos :)
Great job! You are very creative and talented!! Now we can scrapbook together!
Love,
Mom
I love that you’re doing this. It’s coming along great! I saw it on Elise’s blog and wanted to do it, too, but I think I’ll wait until next year when I’m back in America and don’t have to pay international shipping fees for the kit. :)
BOO FACE. You’re totally making me want to do this.
i seriously adore this. so cute & so different. i used to be a huge photo album maker and scrap booker and it’s definitely dwindled, thank goodness though for making photo books online though, at least that’s something.
This is adorable and I love this!! I wish I had time to do this kind of thing!
I love this! Are you keeping up with it? I just got mine last week, so I’m newly obsessed with it.