Scrapbooking

I love scrapbooking!  I like preserving my photographs and memories in a beautiful way for myself and others to enjoy.  I think that I started scrapbooking in high school, but I always loved documenting my life even before I began scrapbooking.  I always bought those interactive books that you could fill in with information all about you. 

This is from a high school senior year album.

The Beginning
My first scrapbook was created out of a sketch journal that I had.  It was incredibly primitive form of scrapbooking.  I'd cut around the people in the photograph, attach it to colored cardstock and stick it in the book with a title and some journaling.  While it was not beautiful looking back, it was a start!

I created this layout the summer after my senior year.

I remember when I found a scrapbook store in a nearby town and loved shopping there.  I'd spend most of my high school summer job paychecks there.  I gradually started to use actual scrapbooks, designer papers and eyelets and brads (they were very popular at the time, and a pain to add to your pages!).  I also started collecting enough supplies that I needed organizers for it all.  I pretty much would create 1 new scrapbook, which documented a year's worth of photos.

By college, I got a lot fancier with my scrapbook layouts.

Mini Albums
Then I started creating (and still do!) mini albums of specific trips or themes.  I enjoy picking up lots of coordinating paper and supplies and putting a few photos in whatever beautiful little album that I can find.  I really love mini albums, because as opposed to my yearly scrapbooks - I generally finish these albums.  Sometimes my yearly albums sit around for months - or sadly, years - until they're finished (and my husband loves pointing this fact out!).

A mini album of a trip and December Daily.

The Problem
Then something happened when I got an iPhone... I was taking a lot more pictures of everyday things.  Having a camera at your fingertips is a pretty amazing thing, but it became increasingly more difficult to scrapbook.  I had too many single picture layout, and I was losing interest in scrapbooking these layouts.

Here's a layout that I created which had multiple "everyday" pictures.

The Solution
It's called Project Life.  It is an incredibly new and interesting challenged in scrapbooking that I'm taking on this year.  I really enjoy it, because it's a much easier way of scrapbooking.   For my project life album, I document a week at a time.  It really shows more of my daily life than my previous scrapbooks did; they generally only showed specific events. 

 I'm excited to continue, change and expand upon my Project Life albums.  Please comment with any questions that you may have about this scrapbook style, and I will try to do my best to answer them!