Project Life

Years ago my sweet cousin introduced me to scrapbooking. She'd been doing it for years but I hadn't taken the plunge yet. My husband and I were both students at the time, and money was TIGHT! I worried about adding the expense to our already tiny budget. (Although, my husband encouraged it!)

Not long after our son passed, (you can read a little about that HERE) my cousin called and invited me to her weekly scrapbooking night. I took the prints I had of my little guy and headed to her house. I don't know that I've ever told her how much I appreciated those evenings we spent at her home. Those weeks that followed his death were so very, very dark. Grief is temperamental and some days it swallowed me whole.  Sitting in a room with her, my sister and cousins documenting his short life and the enormous impact he had on us was so therapeutic.  Our little group kept my head above water and I so appreciate them. They created a safe place for me to walk back into those experiences that were so tender, so miraculous and so devastating at the same time. She also generously shared her scrapbooking stash. I often wonder if I took advantage...I hope not but sure apologize if I did.

From that, my love of scrapbooking was born. I really did enjoy creating pages and watching our lives fill the pages of a binder on the shelf. After we adopted Kaleb, my time became more and more limited and my scrapbooking days dwindled. Years later they were pretty much nonexistent. I didn't have an hour to spend on each page, especially as we added more children to our family. Years were ticking by, and our photos were piling up. Documenting our lives was important to me and I couldn't seem to find a way to keep up with it all. I realized as time went on and my photos sat untouched longer and longer, I was FORGETTING. It was getting to the point where I could flip through our photo's and not remember exactly where we were or what we were doing. More importantly, I knew I was losing the feelings behind why I took the photo in the first place. That just added to my guilt. 

In 2011, I discovered Project Life by Becky Higgins. I had "known" Becky (I didn't really know her although I would totally be her friend!) for a long time through the Creative Keepsakes magazine and her published books, so when I saw her new product (I'm not sure how long it had been out before I snatched it up) it was a no-brainer. It has changed. my. life. Not only have I been able to keep up on documenting our lives but I've been able to go back and catch up on years I've missed. The guilt is gone! 

The first kit I purchased from Project life was a core kit and it came with beautiful, coordinated filler and journaling cards. The sheet protectors I chose had four 4x6 slots and four 2x3 slots on each page. (She has lots to choose from) I simply slipped my photos into the slots, journaled my memories about each photo on the 4x6 or 2x3 stylish journaling cards and added them in the appropriate spots. And done!

Since then Project Life has introduced a digital version so you can complete the pages with never printing a photo or physically writing on a piece of paper. I never did try digital but I signed up at lightning speed for the Project Life App when she released that. I've never gone back to paper although I still have a couple boxes of photos I need to do so eventually I will once again. Now I scrapbook from my iPad or phone when I'm watching TV, sitting in the car rider line or waiting for an appointment. Anytime I have a few minutes to kill I can pull out my phone and complete a page in no time at all. I no longer have to worry about losing photos. I create a project life page, print them and tuck them in my album.

Project Life has a way to print the pages from their app or order albums but I choose to print them at home. Our printer does a good job and it's the most economical way for me to do it right now. My pages are saved on my computer, so if I decide down the road to print them another way I certainly have that option.

I'm sharing all this with you today for one reason, though. (No this isn't a sponsored post. Becky Higgins has no idea who I am and will most likely never even see this post!) I've mentioned I never really expected to share my novel with anyone other than my immediate family. The roller coaster of emotions I went through as I pushed myself to put myself out there was intense. I didn't sleep for a few weeks after I clicked the "publish" button. No joke. Project life gave me an almost immediate way to document my feelings. It was all done within a day or two! 

See!

These pages were created on the app on my phone. For each month I choose a different color background so I don't have to add the date to every page. This month was white. You can see different choices below. 

Look at my baby! She's eight now. Time. slow. down. Below are the physical 12x12 albums. I slipped each photo and the cards in and done.

Kyleigh is so tiny, too! That bottom right photo? Sometimes when I would speak firmly to her she'd solute me and say, "yes, Ma'am!" Like, okay I see you are serious about this. Got it! :)

 This kid is driving now! 

Below is one of my 8x8 albums. These pages were done with the Project Live app and printed at home on my personal printer. We have the HP Instant Ink program which allows me to print 300 copies a month with as much color as I want! It really makes printing these so economical and the quality is great.

This size (8x8) is so great for little hands. (These 8x8 albums are not Project life. My local craft stores don't carry that size and so I used these instead. They fit great.)

Excuse the poor lighting but this is the best reason to document! She giggled and giggled looking through our albums last night. I don't know why she brought the kitchen chair over, though. I guess to be closer to the pictures. Silly girl.