My Approach to Scrapbooking: I Use Project Life!

I started scrapbooking when I was just 15 years old. It was all about binders with basic 8 1/2 x 11 page protectors, die cuts, stickers, fancy scissors, and lots of glue. 

I soon moved to 12 x 12 pages. I kept up with the "trends" in the scrapbooking world: inks, mists, masks, SO many embellishments, patterned paper & using lots of time being super creative.

 I loved that way, but after I was pregnant with my 2nd child and I was so tired and sick, AND keeping up with a toddler, I was so interested in, the-new-at-the-time, Project Life.

I bought my first Project Life kit in 2009, the Turquoise Edition. I took a photo-a-day and loved documenting my family's story that way. 

The next year I did, I used the Amber Edition:

The following year, I used the Clementine Edition:

For my album the following year, I used the Honey Edition:

Now fast-forward to today. I have 3 kids and life is even busier. I scrapbook often, but when I get behind I can catch up easily since I keep a family blog that I can reference to fill in the stuff I miss. 

For my 2014 album, I selected the Midnight Edition.

I used the Favorite Things Edition in 2015, of course, because I love the pretty stuff Heidi Swapp designs.

After 14 + years of scrapbooking I have quite a few albums I have finished & I have lots of things I would like to still scrapbook. Instead of dwelling on what I have yet to do, I celebrate how much I have done! Scrapbooking is not supposed to be a chore. At least that's what I try to remind myself since I am extremely slightly OCD and hate ever feeling like I have to catch up on things.

I am a HUGE fan of Project Life and I love to share what I do for my scrapbooking and see others start their own Project Life albums since it just makes so much sense to busy moms, or anyone really!

Each year I do an album as a family yearbook. I take a picture each day and maybe a few times a year I add an extra layout for a trip or to add in some photos from family pictures or some other special occasion. I personally find it really hard to narrow down photos to use, so the photo-a-day approach really helps me from getting too carried away. It allows me to look at the big picture and include bits of all that is happening with us and not 16 pictures of my kids in slightly different poses because they are all too cute to choose from.

For my 2016 album this year, I am using the Bloom Edition.

This past weekend we went camping in the mountains and I added an extra double-sided spead with the panoramic page protectors that fold open to include more photos. How awesome that I could put this together with a little window of time between doing errands and picking up my kids at school!

{I used cards from the Maggie Holmes Edition}

I also use Project Life to make albums for my kids' school years memories. My son's Kindergarten through Grade 2 memories fit in one album. 

He is now finishing up grade 3 and my daughter is almost done Kindergarten and I started albums for them early in the school year and update them every few months, give or take, so that it doesn't get too behind and weigh on me as another "To Do" in life. 

My daughter finishes kindergarten this week and I have to add only a few photos and then I'll start the summer knowing her kindergarten memories are preserved. 

I love taking pictures of their artwork to include in layouts and having them make handwriting samples of their printing. I have also had them make lists of who their friends are, draw self portraits, and include other bits of who they are during each year since they change so quickly.

Same thing for my son's album, I just have some photos and pictures of his artwork that came home this week to add as he finishes his school year in a couple days.

For family trips to Disneyland, I make an album for each trip and those are the ones my family looks through the most. 

All my scrapbook albums now have a home in a Kallax Shelf from Ikea in my living room. My kids look through the scrapbooks often and I love having the chance to look through them together.

{I have 21 post bound albums & 3 D-ring binder albums filled with "traditional scrapbooking" layouts. I now have 13  Project Life albums, and that's not including mini albums! I love memory keeping!}

This month the shelf got some Canada Day decorations added on top, too!

Hopefully this post inspires anyone who is searching for a simpler way to get their photos & stories into tangible albums to give Project Life a try. (I buy my Project Life stuff from Michael's, but it's also available to buy online from Becky Higgins' site.) It is so worth getting our memories recorded for ourselves & our families!

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