Anyone can scrapbook, and everybody should.

When it comes to Project Life, each of us fits into one of the following categories:

1 - You don’t do Project Life and are sick of seeing blog posts about it.

2 - You do Project Life, you love it, and you are hooked.

3 - You’re thinking, “What the heck is Project Life?”

I’ve been through a few scrapbook phases in my life; from the early days of ticket stubs, school photos of friends, and random bits [barely] adhered to pages with a simple glue stick, to a more elaborate form of scrapbooking with more-embellishments-than-photo-fare permanently attached to fancy cardstock and patterned paper.

No matter what format you choose, keeping a book with some photos and tidbits about life as it is right now {aka: a scrapbook} is important. It’s personally important so you can look back and see how far you’ve come in this life, or where you still need to go. And it’s important to your friends and family because some day, whether you like it or not, someone will want to know about your life. They’ll want to know how you lived it, who or what you loved in it, and how you spent your days.

The idea of page protectors with little sections to slip bits of paper and photos into just appeals to me. I can’t think of a simpler, more workable format for saving photos and memorabilia - and in the end, calling it a scrapbook. Lots of people call this Project Life {the simple, yet ingenious brain child of Becky Higgins}.

Carrie got me started on Project Life last May, and in the beginning I resisted. I didn’t want to do the traditional weekly spreads – didn’t want to conform. I ended up just printing lots of photos, saving a few odds and ends to include, and the result is that I have a nice collection of some of my favorite photos for the second half of 2012. I like it, it’s a cool collection of photos in chronological order, but it’s not the way I want my 2013 book to be.

This year I’m committing to Project Life in its traditional format with weekly spreads. I even bought a kit complete with journaling cards, all in a cohesive color scheme, and I’m taking daily notes in my hard-copy calendar/journal. Sometimes I’ll share my pages here on my blog, but for the most part I’ll probably keep it to myself.

You don’t need the actual “Project Life” page protectors to do this project! There are plenty of other brands, sizes, and shapes of page protectors and three-ring binders {sold at Target, Michael’s, OfficeMax…}. There’s no right or wrong way to make a personal scrapbook. Our scrapbooks should be as unique as we are.

So, go ahead - start documenting your life!
Somehow, just document it.
Because anyone can scrapbook,
and everybody should.
♥