My 2014 book is complete!
Happy New Year, everyone! I’m pleased to be able to report that I have now documented a calendar year in my one-sentence-journal and photo collage book. That’s a whole year of family memories in one precious little volume. And it’s proof to me that this photo project is simple, affordable and achievable. So let me show you what my book looks like for this new year…
I ordered this cute Sanrio schedule book from Rakuten, again in B6 size. I chose this one because Kiki and Lala remind me of how all children look like cherubs when they are toddlers, and how precious this age is. It passes so quickly! Sigh...
I’ll use the space at the top of weekly pages for summarising the main events of the week. And the coloured section down the side I’ll use to record the weather. I’ve ordered a set of crystal weather stamps from Etsy to do this (see Maebad talk about these stamps in this video).
On the facing page, I’ll stick in my weekly photo collage. At the moment I’m still doing this on my laptop with PicMonkey, after processing each photo with VSCOcam on my phone. But to make it even easier, I’m considering making the collages on my phone. I’m looking for an something which will let me collage and add text in the one app. If you have any recommendations, please let me know!
On the monthly pages I’ll be sticking in my DIY photo stickers that I print on my printer at home. I try to take a photo every day; some months I have only a few blank spaces, other months I have many. But it’s still a good thing to attempt, and the finished product looks great.
Now that I have completed a year of this photo project (actually 15 months as this schedule book started in October 2013) I have a lovely book to flip through with my husband and children: all the special moments, big and little, are there. And over this past year I’ve come to some conclusions about memory-keeping:
- Chronological scrapbooking helps me overcome my perfectionism and actually get things finished. I have a shelf-full of theme-based scrapbook projects that remain unfinished! And,
- As much as I like them, too many embellishments and special products are actually an impediment to me completing a project. They make things more expensive, and more complicated. What I love about this book is that I don’t need to add anything to the book but my words and my photographs, and still it looks great.
I think I’ll use this page to highlight the days I actually get a sleep-through this year…
This is my motto for memory keeping, and I think it holds true of many other things in life too:
It’s better to do a small thing consistently, than to take on a massive project and fail after a few weeks.
Before I go, I wanted to thank Miss Vicky Bee who mentioned this project on her YouTube channel! She has started her own DIY alternative to Project Life too. Her channel has so many great ideas for notebooking, and her genuineness really comes across in her videos.
