As it turns out, keeping a personal blog is not something I am great at :) I tried, had fun with it, but just couldn't keep up with it. And personally, I am more passionate about getting my family photos and stories into a scrapbook that my friends & family can sit down with and flip through....and that got me thinking...
Let me back up a little. I have loved scrapbooking for a long time. I started scrapbooking when I was a freshman in college and was instantly hooked. It was a perfect creative outlet for me and perfect way to either have a little "me time" or to do together with my friends. And being a photography major, I especially loved having a creative way to keep track of my pictures and the stories that went with them. So scrapbooking was my big hobby through college, engagement, marriage and motherhood...as soon as Matt & I found out that our first baby was going to be a boy, I registered for baby necessities...and then stopped at the scrapbook store to buy blue scrapbook supplies :) I loved scrapbooking even more now that I had an adorable little baby to scrap. However, when our second baby came along I very quickly got very behind in my albums. And I just kind of accepted that I would n ever catch up and that I would always be behind...a few years and two more babies later and I was starting to think that my hobby that I had enjoyed so much was a thing of the past for sure. Enter Project Life!!!
Right after I had baby #3 I learned that one of my favorite "famous scrapbookers", Becky Higgins, had started a company called Project Life. She was also a Mom who had gotten behind and came up with a solution - a solution that allowed her to catch up and to stay current and to keep her photos from just sitting on the computer, never being seen or enjoyed - and that solution was Project Life.
Project Life is AMAZING!!! It is the easiest, most do-able, enjoyable method of scrapbooking ever! I am such a huge fan and "believer". People, all you do is slip your photos into photo pockets and slip in cute little journaling cards next to them and jot down your memories on them. That's all. For real. It's amazing! Of course you can take it a step further and embellish if you want to, but you don't have to. There is no cutting, glueing, designing, matting, embellishing or anything like that required at all. Seriously if you can slip a picture into a photo pocket and you can write down a caption - you can do Project Life!
As soon as I tried Project Life for the first time I fell in love with it! And I have SO enjoyed having our family pictures in albums, and catching up on all my "lost years" of family scrapbooking! And since I have started, about a dozen of my girlfriends have all made "the switch" and started doing Project Life albums too. And we have the best time getting together and working on our albums together. I really believe these aren't just cute little hobby projects. We are documenting the memories and moments that God has blessed us with and we are capturing little bits of our family history and story so that our kids can enjoy it and have their life documented for future generations to enjoy.
So it is out of my love of Project Life, and of truly enjoying helping others work on their albums and get their photos off of their computer and into albums for their family to enjoy that I am switching the focus of this blog. I am no expert, but I hope that posting some tips and inspiration and ideas will help and encourage others who may be interested in Project Life. If you want to learn more, head on over to www.beckyhiggins.com and check it out! The "about" page is really informative. They also have an online store where you can order stuff, however Micheals, JoAnn Fabrics, Hobby Lobby and Meijers all carry Project Life products also.
If you have any questions about Project Life or getting started with it I would LOVE to help you out! My next post will be all about getting started on a Project Life album, it's SO fun! For now, I'll leave you with the company's motto which I absolutely love...it sums up my feelings about photography, scrapbooking and documenting and remembering life perfectly....
"Cultivate a good life and record it" - Becky Higgins
