Usually around this time of year, scrapbooking forums start buzzing with ideas for new classes and projects, like Project 365, Project Life, December Daily. And I’m going to ignore them all. I might get in trouble for saying this, but this year I want to tell people to just say no!
I have done several yearlong projects over the years – and I’ve finished every single one. I love the finished products, but they are exhausting! There’s the stress of keeping up and figuring out new ways to make each page or photo interesting and creative. My current Project 365 on my iPhone features about 185 photos of my dog. (That’s always my last resort when I forget to take a new picture during the day!) And then there are all those supplies – digital or paper – that you hoard in the first few weeks and never use. How many of you have a stack of journal cards you don’t know what to do with now?
I do love seeing all of the great projects in the galleries and I even feel a bit left out of all the excited chatter in the forums. But I won’t be sitting out entirely. All of these projects mean lots of new and cool products that I can use in my other pages and scrapping. Here are some fun ways to use them…
Use Project Life or Project 365 templates, like Lauren’s Transformers Photo Breakdowns, to create multi-photo pages capturing big events, like birthday parties or a vacation.
Create pages about your everyday moments using word art and date elements for these year long projects. Little Butterfly Wings’ This Is My Moment is just that kind of kit!
Make a mini-album using printed out journal cards, like these Super Kid Journal Cards by Snips and Snails Designs. Journal cards make great frames and matts or can be used in so many ways on your pages!
Print out December journal cards or tags to use as labels on your Christmas gifts. Love these It’s Christmas tags by JM Designs.
Just do your own thing. Our One Story Designs designers collaborated on December Captured, which features lots of great elements to help you document your month, but you can see I used them to create a page that has nothing to do with the holidays!
So for those of you joining me in not joining in, I think you’ll find lots of creative ways to capture your memories in this coming year!
~ Robin
5 Responses to Project Don’t Join
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Well, I began last year, at the beginning of the year. It sounds really exciting at the begining. But I failed, it was too exhausting, and I forgot to take the pics. I made some nice pages, but it was a real fortune for nothing at the end. I will probably make some pages this year, but only digital, and print them at the end of the year. Like I do with my art journal.
Thank you for sharing what you think, I now know I’m not alone.
I’ve just said no to PL for a couple of years now, and it will probably continue. I love the idea, but I know I would end up with a bunch of supplies and a huge guilt complex for not using them. The digi supplies are fun to use on regular pages though!
Phew!! Thank you for posting this! I’M NOT ALONE!! It IS exhausting, and I find it takes the fun out of scrapbooking which I love tremendously.
I tried that last year and failed! LOL I missed the forum where my project was held. But I really can’t this year. 1st, I can’t afford it right now. Even more importanly, unlike you, I haven’t finished any of them! So I want to go back and finish what I’ve started…
Thank for this post. It makes me feel good to get “permission” to not join in on these projects. I always get of track at some point and then feel like a failure and that’s not what this is about.