For those of you who don’t stalk scrapbook divas like we do, you may not know our good friend Becky Higgins. She is like the Beyonce of the scrapbooking world (without the leotard) and Ashleigh thinks if we actually knew her they would be BFFs.
Last year Becky came up with a genius scrapbook kit called Project 365 which sadly sold out in less than a day. But we were sold on the concept which was taking a picture a day for a whole year! It sounded crazy hard at first but also wonderful and liberating. Becky, do you actually mean we’re allowed to just develop 4 X 6 pictures and insert them into slots in albums? No photo enlargements, page layouts, color schemes, or embellishments with hidden symbolic meanings? And it’s still scrapbooking? Yes? I’m sold!
We were also sold on the concept of documenting the everyday events of our family life. While no one else may want to see the mundane day to day happenings in our house, in 5, 10 or 20 years it will be fun for us to remember the time Jared (12) brought home a half eaten pan of cherry jello from Jr. High.
Since we didn’t have the kit, I found an album with 5 slots for pictures on each page. Then we bought all the paper and embellishments from a scrapbook line called Friendly Forest because it had bright colors and cute little critters. We printed the week titles out for the whole year and we were ready to go.
I kept a lttle notebook with a short note for each day. I printed pictures once a month and then sat down with my supplies, handwrote my journaling and added some embellisments. It took about 3-4 hours a month.When the year was over I summed up the experience on the last page:I was highly persecuted for starting this project and embarrassed myself more times than can be imagined by asking to take a picture (like of my veterinarian and of a church meeting). But in the end, I documented things I never normally would have and have a fun record of our family. Already the kids pull out this book more than any other scrapbooks. When I started Project 365 little did I know what excitement this year would bring. Who knew on Jan. 1 that in the coming year our family would: be expecting a baby, have a job change, ordain a deacon, have a baptism, get two new cars, go on two vacations, have a big calling change, remodel part of our house, and get a dog. Makes me excited for 2010. I say, “BRING IT!”
The great news is that Becky has been at it again. Bless her heart. Go to her website to checkout Project Life. Same idea, very versatile, totally cute! We have several friends that have bought it and some are taking a picture a day while others are adapting it for their needs. I bought it for my teenager to use for all of her high school pictures and memorabilia. You can start it Jan 1st, start on your birthday or start Feb. 19th. There aren’t any rules, just enjoy!P.S. I would like an award for typing this whole post one handed while I hold my little lovey who won’t stay asleep. Who says I haven’t been productive today?
It’s me, Ashleigh. I would like to start by awarding Kathryn the “Great blogging while holding a baby award.” Well done.
Now I would like to share a few of my layouts! Very simple and minimal scrapbooking, but hey, I’m done documenting 2009!
I enjoyed having a new perspective on what is document worthy. I love that I have pictures of the simple and little things. I have a picture of Justin throwing a fit in Target because I had my camera in my purse, and I wanted to show him what he put me through someday. I love that I have a picture of Jenna’s face when the Jenga game fell. I love the picture of Dave going all out in Karaoke. I love the pictures of report cards, coupons, band-aids, neighbors, day trips, holidays, food and projects. After all, we got in the habit of taking pictures of our silly projects because of our quest for a “picture of the day.” Mid-year, we decided to blog these project pictures, and “bee in our bonnet” was born!
It's now the end of February, and so far I'm on track. But rather than dealing with paper, I just keep it all on my other blog and plan to use Blurb to "slurp" it all up, add some info and have it printed at the end of the year. The bonus? I can print one up for the grandparents for Christmas presents. Lazy scrapbooking at it's finest.
(Don't you love how scrapbooking has evolved? Not like I've done actually DONE IT in the past five years, but I still remember when Sierra was a baby stamping my own patterned paper…)
By the way, in my book, a blog post definitely counts as being productive.
Found your blog from a comment you left on BH's blog yesterday. Love your album! So cute and I love the black. (Wonder if Costco still sells the album you used.) Anyway, thanks for sharing. I like to see how others are doing this project. Love the other creative ideas on your blog. So cool. I'll be bookmarking your blog for sure!
I was a freshman @ BYU with Becky's brother and followed all of her stuff when I started scrapbooking. Today, I finally got all of my stuff organized and am ready to start to catch up on the last 4 year of scrapbooking. I love this idea and may adapt it for catching up and/or moving forward…it's certainly cheaper than my CM books!
P.S. Where did you find your albums???? And, can you add the 8 1/2 x 11 pages like other people are doing with their 365 projects???
You girls are killing me, KILLING ME!!! You crack me up constantly and I, having the privilege of knowing you, love reading your entries with your voices in my head. It's even funnier. Love it! BTW, this blog is a regular topic of discussion at bow day each week. I tell everyone about it and they fall in love too! Good job sisters!
Allison- Thanks for your support. Your endorsement is worth a ton! I hope one or two of your 5 million friends will be our friends too. 🙂 I know you can hear us in your head, but I hope you are doing a few impersonations of us too, that would be funny.
Allison, as long as you read all of Ashleigh's posts in a Jan Brady voice, it will be fine by me. Just don't read mine in an Eyeore voice or anything 🙂
Jen- That's funny about Becky's brother because our brother was in the same BYU ward as Becky. So, that's another reason Ash thinks they are BFF. 🙂 The album was at Costco but you know how Costco is, you never know when stuff will be gone. Mine is post bound so you can add whatever size 3 hole punched pages you want.
Rebecca- Your blog is a scrapbook, journal, home improvement book, family newsletter all in one, you'd better be printing that out. It's awesome!