For those of you that feel too busy for traditional scrapbooking or feel not gifted or motivated enough to pursue artistic scrapbooking, there is another simple option for memory keeping -I call it Photo-Journaling.
I stumbled upon this interesting idea on Ali Edwards' blog, in which she describes how she challenged herself to take a photo a day of every-day life with her family and to post weekly entries in what is called "Project Life". The idea was actually hatched by Becky Higgins, who devised a unique system for preserving photos and memories, in a scrapbook kit available through Amazon.com. She offers pages of divided photo protectors that fit into a 12" x 12" binder, designed to accommodate a variety of sizes of photos and journaling blocks. The kit comes with coordinating, pre-cut paper for matting & journaling, as well as clever labels. Definitely check-out Ali's blog (I think she's currently on week 26 of her project) to get some great tips and to follow her progress.
When I decided that it would be fun to try "Project Life," it was sold out, so I came up with an even easier & less pricey alternative. I ordered divided page protectors made by C-Line Products Inc. that are traditionally used to store baseball cards. Each archivally-safe page can accommodate nine 2 1/2" x 3 1/2" inserts, and the pages fit nicely into a standard 10" x 11 1/2" 3-ring notebook binder. My goal is to keep a "photo journal" of interesting or fun things I do every day. I am allowing a double-page spread for each month, which gives me 18 spots for photos or journaling. So I try to keep a point-and-shoot in my handbag at all times, and I try to keep my SLR Nikon charged and handy, so that when something worthy of memory-keeping pops up, I can capture it spontaneously without much effort.
I make it a point to take these shots vertically so that they'll fit into the baseball card slots that way. I try to download and sort these daily photos weekly, and move them into their own monthly folders, to make it easier to print out. I print them nine-on-a-page using the "wallet-size" option on my computer. -That way they fit nicely into the baseball-size slots. I made a cardboard template of the perfect 2 1/2" x 3 1/2" size, which enables me to cut out a quick mat if I wish, for those photos that are a little smaller, or if I've cropped an image out of a larger photo.
I've put together my own "kit" by gathering stickers & journaling blocks and tossed them in a plastic container in which I also keep the extra trading card holder sheets & photos waiting to be entered. I also keep my calendar on hand, onto which I have jotted down the major events of the day -even if it's just a simple "Grilled Pizza Dinner with Laura" to jar my memory & to keep them in order.
Several companies now offer truely fabulous products to make this type of scrapbooking even easier for those on the go with limited time for memory-keeping. Crate Paper, Inc. and Simple Stories as well as Technique Tuesday (accompany that Ali Edwards designs for) all carry wonderful scrapbooking paper, ephemera and journaling aids.The images on the upper right are from a free download available through Ormolu, a wonderful company that sells on-line graphic art for scrapbooking and card-making. Funny, I've been following Ormolu's blog for over a year and i still don't know the blogger's real name, but she is also a "Project Life" enthusiast. You can see images of her "photo-journaling" here at Ormolu's blog.
So I hope your summer is going well and that you're taking lots of pictures of all your warm-weather activities. -I've just given you a great tool for preserving those memories quickly and efficiently. As always, I'd love to hear what you think.
Happy photo-journaling! Enikö
