Catching up on posting Project Life, still! Week 6 is coming soon.
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Archive for the ‘Project Life’ Category
Project Life: Week 5
Monday, February 20th, 2012Project Life: Week 4 (the simplest spread ever)
Friday, February 10th, 2012
Just trying to catch up on posting my Project Life spreads!
I decided to only take this week to Friday and include Saturday in the next week, since that’s the day we left for CHA. I want to see the whole CHA trip in one spread.
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Project Life: Week 3 – Giving Perspective
Wednesday, January 25th, 2012
Hello, Project Life!
I had a hard week.
I get overwhelmed when there is more to take care of than I can wrap my mind around. And all the while I know I’m happy and I love my life, but that doesn’t stop the tension from seizing my muscles, shooting pain down my arms, in my jaw, causing numbing sensations in my lips and mouth.
I’m prone to anxiety and sometimes that leads to a sadness approaching depression, but not quite.
So I didn’t feel interested in taking photos this week. I took a few. And I saved ephemera from much of what I was doing, sticking it in the pockets of my book as the days went.
Then it came time to put it together, and wow — that had a powerful effect on me today.
You know the old criticism that scrapbookers aren’t “real” and that we only share the good stuff?
Well guess what? What is real is how fortunate we are — most all of us living in 1st world countries right now are living an existence 100% unfathomable to most of the entire human race. Human existence for most has been one of malnutrition, hunger, violence, pain and sickness, poor shelters, and short lifespans.
So when I finished putting my week together in Project Life — I saw what was real.
I journaled about my struggles this week — though pain is relative, what pain we do feel is still real. But what my Project Life showed me that what is also so real about our lives is that we’re so unbelievably fortunate.
My difficult week included a trip to my massage therapist, a family trip to expensive coffee, new clothes, dance classes, a breakfast date with my sweetheart, and a short film that Izzy and my son helped make.
And those are just the most obvious things. There is so much brilliant color in my life.
I’m being authentic. I shared the reality of my stress this week. But today Project Life showed me the rest of what is truly real. And it made me feel so happy and grateful today.
This is something I could not have gotten had I only saved the usual stuff scrapbookers normally save in the hopes of eventually making a page of it. This is an immediate picture of how great my week really was.
Closeups…
I’ve become so enamored with having an immediated place to document the small stories that when I saw a note I had jotted down last December, I couldn’t bear to file it away in my box, which is stuffed full of hilarious stories, still un-scrapped. So I added my little December story to a card and added into a pocket for this week. It’s the black and white journal card.
If you’re on the fence about Project Life, just do it. Keep it simple, but do it! As long as you’re keeping it simple so it’s doable. I can’t imagine anyone ever regretting it.
Project Life: Week 2
Sunday, January 22nd, 2012
Hello, Project Life!
So I ran into some funny little problems this week, which you can see in the photo above, and which I will talk about below.
Project Life: Try This Super Easy Process
Wednesday, January 18th, 2012
I’m finding Project Life to be the easiest thing ever. Unfortunately, I ran out of time to pick up my photos for last week’s spread, so I decided today to share some mid-week photos of my album, plus the process that I’m using that makes it easier than you can imagine!
Project Life: Week 1 (The “Now I Get It” Post)
Tuesday, January 10th, 2012
Okay, let me just say I had no idea how satisfying Project Life could be!
Now I get it.
There is just nothing like being able to take the little things you’ve collected that day or that week and do something with them NOW, instead of adding them to a pile or a file or a folder for eventual scrapbooking. I love the immediacy of Project Life!
Photo Stories: Are You Committed?
Friday, January 6th, 2012
I’m committing to something.
I’m committing to talk more about what has become one of the most important aspects of memory-keeping for me.
I’m committing to share more about how it fits within my own system of scrapbooking and how it might fit within yours.
One year ago I shared The Most Important Word for You to Learn for the year and How You Really Can Tell All of Your Stories.
If you weren’t around here at that time, I hope you’ll read both of those linked articles. But the gist of it is that you can add your thoughts, journaling, important information to your digital photo files! They become part of the information of the photo and they’ll transfer with your photos, too.
That means that someday when you’re gone and your adult children or grandchildren are shuffling through your most important photos, they’ll have your words, too.
Above is a screen capture of a photo I took in December. To the left in the caption box is my journaling.
The other day I mentioned my curiosity to know whether any of you had started and continued documenting your photos. Here’s what Tammy said:
Just wanted to let you know that I did start adding info into the caption section of my photos (in Picasa). I haven’t kept up with it completely, but love the ones that I did. I also love that when I upload to Facebook, that info automatically becomes the caption there as well. I do still put the info into my Project Life, or traditional pages — what struck me most was when you said that there isn’t any way to know how future family members will view photos, and that the printed photo is not the only copy anymore, so you don’t have to be as worried about what you do with that one print. I figure it is possible that some of the digital files will end up in one place, and the scrapbooks may end up in another, and that is all good. Thanks for the metadata journaling tip! I’m definitely going to do more of that this year. –Tammy Brandt
I’m so happy to hear this!
If you’re curious to know more about the diverse and awesome benefits of adding your words to your photos, plus a simple way to do it, please read these two articles:
This process has transformed my thinking about scrapbooking.
Who wants to join me this year in adding our words to our photo stories?
Please leave a comment with your commitment.
I’ll do random periodic check-in’s with you to keep us remembering and feeling excited, and to help you make it mesh with your scrapbooking!
So who’s in?
Project Life 2012: My Intro Page
Monday, January 2nd, 2012
Looks like I’m taking the plunge…
I’ll be taking a family photo soon and adding it in. I also think I’ll pull out that top right piece and replace it with something that doesn’t fight for attention.
I’m still formulating in my mind how Project Life will fit into my scrapbooking system between the two main parts that I’m so passionate about:
- Chronological access to the photos that best tell our stories, along with my journaled notes in the photo file’s metadata, organized by quarter. This can be found on my computer, on our tv, and on Flickr.
- Scrapbook pages that tell the stories that can’t be told with a photo and it’s journaling alone.
One thing that’s missing from above is the day-to-day ephemera and thoughts that don’t seem significant enough to bother saving for a scrapbook page. In 2010 I started a scrap journal — like a smash book — where I could write a few thoughts and stick in my stuff. That journal morphed into a place to brainstorm and doodle and generate ideas.
So I’m thinking I’ll start adding the stuff and the small everyday thoughts into Project Life, instead. I’m just not sure how many of my photos I’ll include, and how I’ll determine which ones.
I want to have a defined purpose so I don’t end up duplicating memory-keeping, since I’m so happy with the day-to-day chronology of my digital pictures. And because I have other things I want to spend time on, too. I figure the slant I decide to take for Project Life will manifest in the first couple of weeks.
What I do know is that I’m not adding a photo for each day.
Here are some closeup’s of embellishments I added to my front page.
#5 Banner piece is from Calico Studio’s Die Cut Tags (on clearance!).
These flower brads are years old, and I think these particular Thickers numbers are discontinued too.
I used 2-inch Scalloped Punch to punch out one of the gridded cards from PL, and this heart punch with one of the patterned cards. The wood chip house is made by Studio Calico (also on clearance, and a definite product fave of mine!).
While I was pulling out the embellishments, I found a few others that match the Clementine Project Life kit (minus the green pieces). I’ll be keeping them with my Project Life kit this year.
Studio Calico Chipboard Butterflies
Echo Park letters and banners
Studio Calico Tags
The party pins were from Girls Loft and are no longer available.
So if all goes well, I’ll post my weekly spreads.
Are you doing Project Life this year? What are your plans for it?