And then I had children, and found myself taking more photographs, collecting more "bits and bobs" than ever before... and wanting SO much, to document every little phase, that the prospect of the "hours of scrapbooking" became totally overwhelming.
I needed something that would help me collect everything together in a quick and easy way that wouldn't totally suck all the creativity out of it.
I have totally and utterly fallen in love with the latest scrapbook craze that is known as "Project Life"... It has so much to offer, but is a little on the pricey side if you go the whole hog (album, page fillers, journalling cards, scrapbooking cards etc)... so I decided to compromise and invested my Christmas Amazon voucher in a tonne of "Project Life" scrapbooking and journalling cards and use my own album and a faithful pritt stick.
I am SO pleased with the result...
I completed both the girls scrapbooks in three days...
THREE DAYS!
And I'm not lying when I say Heidi has spent at least twenty minutes every day this past week browsing her own special book.
Of course, documenting the first four months of her life was not particularly easy... but it helped me so much to lay to rest a lot of the old emotions... I scoured through my journal and blog entries, picking out little quotes here and there, deciding on what would be helpful for her to see in her young life, and what might be a bit emotionally taxing for a little girl to read. Perhaps on her 18th birthday I'll print out all the blog posts from the time of her illness (if she hasn't read them for herself before then)... but until then, she needs to be able to understand what happened in a way that she can grasp.
Not too much too soon.
So now I'm gearing myself up to do one more scrapbook to fill the gap before this newest baby arrives, and rather than dreading the prospect, or feeling utterly overwhelmed, I'm really excited about sifting through all my pretty little bits and bobs again and documenting these early years.
What a gift to be able to look back over these past three and a half years and see all that the Lord has blessed us with. They have been a rollercoaster ride of highs and lows, but creating these books full of memories causes you to stop and be thankful.
I really have every reason to be scrap happy :-)
You can get hold of Becky Higgins Project Life resources on Amazon...
I have used...
* Project Life Girl Themed Cards
* Project Life Travel Themed Cards
* Project Life Home Themed Cards
Disclosure: This post is not sponsored or supported by anyone... it is purely my own opinion and recommendation!
Thanks Claire, as if I needed any more creative ideas to fill my days, think I might be paying hobby craft a visit this afternoon!
ReplyDeleteWell done on finishing. Looking forward to our 'show and tell' session x
ReplyDeleteLovely! I wonder what time you went to bed at last night? :-)
ReplyDeleteI love the idea of Project Life. Yours look gorgeous Clare! I really must get on the ball with putting a few scrapbooks together! :) xx
ReplyDeleteJust had a read. I got some of the project life bits last year and need to use them! It's so fun... Maybe when Grace is tiny bit older I'll have little but more time to put a little album together for her x
ReplyDeleteLooks Fab I might try and do this next Jan for an 18 yr old
ReplyDeleteLooks great Claire I will be checking those links out. i have two unfinished scrapbooks in the loft - just don't have time these days! x
ReplyDeleteI follow a few bloggers that do Project Life and I think it would have been something that I would absolutely love to have done if I didn't have blogging in my life. In fact I used to make little scrapbooks all the time. But i just have my hands full with blogging too much and I don't think I would have enough time to dedicate to it. What you have done so far looks gorgeous. x
ReplyDeleteI've always loved scrapbooks but then everything piles up and I never get around to starting because it's just so overwhelming - I'm very tempted by Project Life but I think I might just get the blog printed for the children one day instead, I'm not sure that right now I've got the time to do it justice. Yours does look beautiful though!
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