My Project Life Evolution

I began doing Project Life in 2013.  We had bought our first house, been married for a couple years, and I wanted to document our lives together.  Once I learned how Becky Higgin's system worked, I began to purchase and accumulate her products.  Then I realized other companies had expanded to include similar products so I began to purchase their items too.  I also began joining groups, forums, and shopping online a little, only to see the world of pocket page scrapbooking was huge and there were so many options and so many different styles! 

My first album for 2013 was very mix n' matchy.  Any cards or stickers I had that matched my photos is what went in the album. There were a lot of bold colors and chunky stickers.  In looking back over the album, I hadn't planned any of the pages, I simply printed photos, found cards to match, journaled, and moved on. Certain words come to mind - childish, bright, real, bold, unplanned, complete.

For 2014, I tried a little harder to use softer colors, less stickers, and tried to focus on pulling what I liked from other people's styles to create my own unique style. I planned my pages, printed only what I planned to use, and specifically bought elements for the pages I had planned.  Words to describe my 2014 album - intentional, white, different, simple, wood, real, and complete.

One of the best things about memory keeping is that as trends, styles, and personalities grow and change, we can adapt to them in our art. For me, I pulled ideas and inspiration out of my last two years to go into what I wanted out of this year's album. I wrote out some words to inspire me while I work...

Fresh
Clean
Minimal
White
Wood
Hearts
Write
Black
Soft
Story
Real
Live
Simple
Complete

My favorite word in all three is "complete".   Because no matter how you or I document our memories or how often our taste and style changes, the main thing is that in 20 years, those albums are complete and those memories are preserved.