How I Scrapbook; My Current Keeping and My 2017 Plans
Hey there!
Where on earth did 2016 go? Wasn't it just Valentine's Day last week? Didn't I just purchase spring flowers for projects? Apparently 2016 flew by and as fast as we could snap pictures, 2016 turned the pages of the calendar.
Now it's time to start thinking about our memory keeping for 2017. It's time to think about what we did this year and decide if we want to do the same thing next year.
I remember viewing videos from several YouTubers and watching them memory keep in the standard Project Life method. I also watched other YouTubers memory keep in the scrapbook method. I made the decision that I was more of a scrapper, so for several years that's all I did. I would purchase 12 X 12 scrapbook paper and glue pictures and paper cutouts to bright pages. I'd add a rhinestone here and a piece of washi tape there. I'd follow the scrapbooking method to the letter, every now and then adding some Project Life elements.
My yellow embellishment drawer
Then last year I loosened up and began merging the Project Life method and the scrapbook method.
Project Life Method
Project Life by Becky Higgins is defined as a way to "cultivate a good life and record it". Project Life consists of plastic project pages and a core kit of pre-designed cardstock cards. They are created as a simplified approach to memory keeping. Instead of gluing thing to paper as the main activity, sliding pictures into page slots and adding the project life cards to other areas on the page is the main activity. You focus on telling the story rather than creating scenes around it.
Scrapbook method
Scrapbooking is "a method..for preserving, presenting, arranging personal and family history in the form of a book, box, card". Scrapbooking focuses on the embellishments around the picture - adding paint to a page, gluing pieces of materials (wood, craft, fabric) to the page. You tell the story through the "picture that you paint" next to the picture.
In 2016 and previous years, I have used a 12 X 12, 3 ring binder and a mix of scrapbook pages and project life pages. Sometimes I have more of a visual story to tell and I want to pull out markers and buttons and fake flowers to work with my picture. Sometimes I just want the picture and a journaling card to tell the whole story. The beautiful thing about record keeping is that you do it anyway that works for you.
In 2017 I think I want to try a monthly/seasonal type method. I still love the idea of combining Project Life and scrapbooking but I want to be more creative in my record keeping binder. I will still have a main album for the year but I will add more flip books and smaller, more tailored binding systems for things. For example, this year I created a special Vegas book for my birthday/book club trip in April. I had so much fun doing this and it meant that all of the memory keeping for this certain time/event was housed in one area.
In the middle of 2016 I bought a printer that prints out fantastic pictures. I plan on whipping those babies out and getting them documented. While I've done better than past years, I still feel like I have quite a bit of work to do. I hope that by keeping my main album but adding more specialized albums, I'll be able to get the pictures and words out faster and I won't be scrambling at the end of the year to get things done.
Have you thought about what your recording keeping will look like next year? All the fantastic albums and binders will be out soon. Think fast! But above all else, have fun!
And, just to say, I was not paid by Becky Higgins or Project Life to promote their product. I'm a memory keeper and I use everyone's products when it comes to my memory keeping needs.
