Comments on: PRT135 – Your Weekly Date With Yourself

By: Adel O

Adel O — Wed, 19 Dec 2012 04:00:00 +0000

Hello all,
I have finally counted my albums- at least 25 12 x12 albums and about 10 minis. Trying something new for my son’s special trip to San Diego, I bought and used a mix and match album from Simple Stories. I loved it. Then I had just finished my daughter’s third album, and as she gets older (15), a 12×12 just seemed too much. Maybe the new Snap album would work, as well. After listening to the show, I asked myself, why couldn’t I use a Snap album for Project Life? The kids love flipping through it and I know that a full 2 page spread is usually too much per week. And as extra confirmation, Cathy Z. had a field journalling (8×9 size) give away – a place to catch stories, patterns of life and pictures and bits of life. I am getting very excited to try out the Snap album as a smaller version of PL for 2013.

By: Natalie (QSOgirl)

Natalie (QSOgirl) — Fri, 16 Nov 2012 19:03:00 +0000

It was refreshing to hear people in the “industry” talking about how overwhelming Project Life is–not just in terms of doing the project and “keeping up” if it’s a weekly/daily thing, but in terms of the physical volume it occupies. Sometimes it feels like I am the only one who had a real concern with this!

I am doing a photo-a-day approach this year (the first full year of my daughter’s life; in lieu of a baby book), and as we are getting to the end of the year, I’m realizing that my album is overstuffed, and I really don’t want to expand into two albums… so I’m going to have to go through and re-think some of my inserts.

I did a photo-a-day Project Life in 2010, as well, and it fit well into one album because I didn’t get fancy– I just used the cards (provided with what are now the “core kits”) and the photos. But I was also satisfying my “creative” scrapbooking itches by doing layouts for other years at the same time.

Sometimes I wonder what people’s album collections look like who do (multi-album) Project Life projects year after year after year (sometimes on top of other scrapbooking!!). I find it very fascinating and rewarding to look back at the details of our lives in the two times I have participated, but I don’t think that I will ever be sorry that I didn’t preserve every small detail for a span of years (and years). And if you’re passing it down to your progeny? Oh my, how overwhelming! I will do the project again if I have another child (so that he/she has the same detail for the first year), but otherwise I think it’s something I would only revisit occasionally (every 10 years? if that?). Right now, I would rather dedicate my time to making “regular” layouts about big and small events. Maybe those albums will take up more space, but not only will they be what I have determined to be the important (big and small) things, but they will also be my creative outlet.

P.S.Just for the sake of including my (12×12) album count: I have 1 album from a trip to China in college, which has never been finished (so SO sad about that), 11 scrapbook albums (including 2 dedicated albums for our wedding) for 2005-2011, excluding 2010, one finished Proj 365 (2010) and a Proj 366-in-progress. I’m not counting the photo albums, photo books, and jury-rigged photo-album-scrapbook-mashups from earlier in my life :)

By: Linda Tieu

Linda Tieu — Wed, 14 Nov 2012 15:59:00 +0000

I scrap on regular sized paper (A4 here in Europe) and scrap whatever I fancy at the moment. But I organize the finished layouts by date as well as a select subjects – All About Me, About Us, Italia – those subject ones are sort of general, all encompassing and date doesn’t really matter. It’s a mix, but all in album format, so they can sit on my shelf together and neatly. I’ve been rotating my display of minibooks in a common area that I semi-decorate for the season. So that works to showcase my scrapbooking to others as compared to the bookshelf where the “permanent library” lives.

For December Daily, I have a template prepared and will simply scrap daily pages and add into my regular album. So those pages will look similar… but not be in a separate album. Although I could take them out and put them together if I wanted to for whatever reason.

By: Noell

Noell — Wed, 14 Nov 2012 15:42:00 +0000

This makes me curious about how you compile your albums. Are they chronological? Will you have separate 12×12 pages for December? Please share!

By: Linda Tieu

Linda Tieu — Wed, 14 Nov 2012 10:59:00 +0000

I can really relate to this episode regarding organization of our albums and having enough space. I also stopped creating minibooks because I didn’t know how to keep them. I’m starting to think that minibooks will be “extra” and disposable for me – in the sense that it’s to show and tell, rather than keep. I like the neatness of having everything in albums and just recently blogged about doing my december daily in my album as pages, rather than separately. It made me wonder if people stop scrapping in their normal albums when they create a separate december daily? Or do they expand on specific stories on traditional pages in their albums in additional to the december daily album?

By: Noell

Noell — Sun, 11 Nov 2012 17:29:00 +0000

I’m another NON_HOARDER by nature! I tell my kids all that time that they’ll better enjoy the things they love when it’s not surrounded by so much clutter that they don’t. So that resonated with me when you applied that to layouts for our kids to inherit.
I know there is guilt around the community about the idea of throwing away layouts. I’m glad the Roundtable can be a voice for supporting those who feel they’re better off without the pages that mean nothing to you.

By: Jen Campbell

Jen Campbell — Sun, 11 Nov 2012 13:29:00 +0000

Haven’t had a chance to finish listening yet either, but I also needed to chime in before I forgot! I haven’t counted my albums but I’m guessing I’m up around 15 (mix of 8.5×11 and 12×12) since I started scrapping in early 2004. Recently I went back through some older post-bound albums and moved the layouts into D-ring albums. And while I was doing that I trashed a bunch of the older layouts. I got some serious flack on some online message boards about that, but I was TOTALLY ok with it! I am by nature NOT a hoarder. In fact – I am ruthless about only keeping things I need and love since we are a military family who moves every few years. My scrap stuff is by FAR my largest collection, and although I am ok with that, I realized that a lot of the older layouts that had nothing on them but some pretty pictures of scenery weren’t things i “loved” enough to keep. Also, I totally agreed with Karen when she made the comment about her future daughter-in-laws having the final say on her albums! I would be wonderful if my 2 boys (5 and 2) want to keep few of my layouts, but I also subscribe the idea that I do this hobby for me, not any potential future generations. That being said, I recognize that it will be my job as a parent to convey to my kids that they are welcome to keep only what they want from my albums – no guilt involved if they decide to trash the rest when I’m gone. I will likely ask them at some point if they would like to sit down with me and choose some layouts that speak to them so that they can enjoy a few instead of feeling burdened by the massive collection of what is MY hobby – not theirs.

By: Karen Schreiber

Karen Schreiber — Fri, 09 Nov 2012 19:37:00 +0000

It was interesting hearing you talk about the problem of your growing album collections.There are two ways I have avoided that problem.I have older children (27 and 30) and years ago I purchased for them their own blank albums. When I make a page about them, I give it to them for their album. The second way is to make albums for others and then you can give them away! I have made one for my mother and father-in-law about their early years of marriage; one for my mother about some special times we had as a family; one for my daughter about her 4 years of collage; one for a friend about the house she grew up in; one for a friend’s daughter that went off to collage; and one for my daughter’s friend who’s mother passed away. Each of these books I know were special to the people who received them. I see them opened on their coffee tables and know that they look at them often.

By: Jana_NJ

Jana_NJ — Wed, 07 Nov 2012 15:53:00 +0000

I always Love when Karen is on she is very real, I agree with her I’m also actually buying another album for project life so my first year will be 2 albums, as I live in a condo I don’t see this as a good sign as well I love love project life but I also will have to find another solution I’m thinking to use digital pages and do just 1 spread and use plastics for the memorabilia. I have to decide yet. I wished she would come out with some 8.5 x11 pockets.

By: Susan Manohar

Susan Manohar — Mon, 05 Nov 2012 10:12:00 +0000

First, love the show as well as the membership videos! You really have created an outstanding service :-) Regarding albums, it’s interesting to me how physically enormous in size so many of the 12×12 albums are. I love the concept of a 3-ring album, but I’ve found the ones that I’ve purchased are too unwieldy to look at easily, especially for small children. So for trips and specific events, I’m making more photo books. I still haven’t settled on a specific album style for my everyday layouts. I’m wondering if others feel the same way, as well as if they’ve come up with a good solution? My only solution now is to stick with post bound albums, but I’d welcome any suggestions. Thanks again Noell and Izzy for another great episode!

By: Mel

Mel — Sun, 04 Nov 2012 09:48:00 +0000

Loved the episode and the new-ish voice of Lisa along with my fav Karen! Just counted my albums and coulen’t believe I had twenty – gulp. Also trying to cram project life into just one album. Thanks as always for a great show.

By: Jennifer Kellogg

Jennifer Kellogg — Sat, 03 Nov 2012 16:32:00 +0000

I’m still in the middle of the episode but I have to share! I’m taking a class right now where I am creating two layouts a week. I put Command strip hooks on the wall in my office/scrap room. I put the layouts in page protectors “sideways” so the holes of the page protector are at the top of the layout. Then I pop them on the hooks! It lets me (and everyone else) look at the work I’ve done before I stash them away.

By: Noell

Noell — Sat, 03 Nov 2012 14:56:00 +0000

Thanks for the idea, Kathy. I think it would take Izzy at least as long to IM them to tell them they’re robotic and that they need to unplug and then plug in again — especially if they’re newer to the show. Plus, they’re not always looking at the window (we do actually IM guests once in a while regarding other problems).

By: daney

daney — Sat, 03 Nov 2012 13:35:00 +0000

This is similar to my approach. I do 3-4 kid years per album, thinking they will have 6 when they graduate (baby album stands alone). I started this way from the beginning. When I was first pregnant with my oldest daughter, I attended a crop where there was this incredibly nice lady with 3 growing daughters. This was 11 years ago and everything wasn’t quite yet digital. She maintained 4 albums at all times, one per year per child and one for their family. Every roll of film was printed with 4 copies and she did a 2 page layout of everything for the family album, then replicated a single page version (same elements and colors, etc) for each girl’s book (focusing on photos of that particular child). I watched her and thought – HOW???? so, I let go before I started and set up a system I could maintain and that means the girls won’t need a UHaul to take their books to their own homes someday. My highlight books are similar to Stacy’s School of Life books. I do 12 specific themes but am not regimented about it, and I swap if there’s something I want to do that’s different any year.

I do some special layouts that don’t fit in the highlight albums (story layouts) that I keep in special themed albums that are for me. Someday, the girls can sort those into 1 book for each of them – there won’t be hundreds. If they let go of our family books, I am ok with that – their stories are in their books and there are only 5 or so albums that cover time they weren’t here for (my heritage albums, my childhood book, etc)

By: Noell

Noell — Fri, 02 Nov 2012 18:41:00 +0000

Thanks for the encouragement — and now that i think of it it’s very PRT-ish…you’re telling us to just let go and stop being so perfectionistic about it! Love that!

By: Angel

Angel — Fri, 02 Nov 2012 18:25:00 +0000

I have been a long-time listener and love the show. I especially love Izzy’s laugh! My comment is about putting pictures in frames. I used to feel the same way the panelists do. I would start to go through my pictures trying to find the EXACT perfect ones to put in the frames and hang up. Invariably I would get so overwhelmed with all the choices that I would give up. But then I realized that NO pictures ever made it into frames this way. So I started just scanning through a few directories of pictures and picking some good ones. Who knows if they are the BEST ones to frame but at least there are some pictures up now. And you can always take the pictures out and put in new ones. At least this is what I’m telling myself. Will I ever do it? Not likely but the option is there. Great show as always and love the new format.

By: kathyinmn

kathyinmn — Fri, 02 Nov 2012 17:58:00 +0000

could you guys IM along with skype? So if someone is talking and sounding like a robot, you’ve have another way to alert them?

By: L Squared

L Squared — Fri, 02 Nov 2012 13:36:00 +0000

I love the idea of doing PL digitally and just posting on your blog and not even worrying about printing – still preserved and shared, but not taking up physical room. Great idea! We are so lucky that there are so many ways to keep memories these days – digitally, blogs, Facebook, and with paper.

By: L Squared

L Squared — Fri, 02 Nov 2012 13:35:00 +0000

I really enjoyed this weeks episode, I have been scrapbooking since middle school and though I’m young and without kids as of now (27) I do have a a few albums. When I was back home a few months ago my mom was going through her own “high school/college box” and was thinking about throwing away her scrapbook, I told her not to do it. I loved seeing it and all the things she saved as well as how different our high school experiences were.

I have recently converted more towards digital scrapbooking, mainly because of storage space for supplies in our little apartment. I also love how many layouts I can fit in an album. I still do a paper December Daily and cards, as I love to get messy. I have thought about doing Project Live, once we have kids – or for a baby album, and found that discussion most interesting. I think that someone who already scraps viewpoint on project life and the extra albums is different than someone who is using it as their only form of memory keeping (or as a photo album PLUS). I love how my mom has so many photo albums, and I know that she tried hard just to keep them up to date and in order but I wish there was more recorded story. I wish there had been project life for her, even though she doesn’t like scrapbooking. I think those of us recording stories in other forms, especially layouts probably need assess the role of project life in our memory keeping eco system a bit differently. I loved all the ideas.
Thanks for another great show!!

By: Tiffany Mitchell

Tiffany Mitchell — Thu, 01 Nov 2012 19:40:00 +0000

I went through a similar realization after moving a few times of how many albums I had created. The latest move my husband voiced his concerns and we had a discussion about it. Many points that you touched upon, like if I continue to create at this level, how many albums I would have accumulated in my house. I have 24 albums (been avidly scrapping since 2002) It was at this point that I decided Project Life was a route to go.
My husband said he would much rather have photos in a photo album than my scrapbooks because he is afraid to break my pages. I thought the PL pages were a good compromise. He gets to look at the photos and I get to tell the story.
I only made one or two mini books before realizing the space issue for them and decided to not make anymore.
I still create pages along side my PL album. More for the joy of the hobby than anything. I do make conscience choices about what pages I create before I start. I pray that my children want some of the pages that I have created for them, but I know that the reality is they won’t want it all.
Thank you for addressing this topic! I always wonder what people are doing with all of the pages they create. Especially those that focus on being caught up!