Project Life

As Slingshot’s birth approached, I knew I wanted to be a little more intentional about documenting his life for a baby scrapbook.  I have a baby book for The Little Apple, but I was never really good about filling it out.

I started reading about Project Life last year.  I am NOT a scrapbooker (though I do have a few from junior high and high school).  Many years ago, I bought a whole bunch of scrapbooking supplies, but all of the paper, the cutting and arranging and adding embellishments just completely overwhelmed me.  So at first I was skeptical about Project Life.  But as I read about it more and more, I realized that it is intended to simplify scrapbooking.  You can add all that fussy stuff if you want, but you can also keep it super simple with just pictures and a note or memory.  You can just put your pictures and notes in the plastic protectors and be done with it.

The ultimate goal of Project Life is to document the every day.  To remember all of the little things.  But also to live your life.  And as a busy mom of two young boys, I absolutely LOVE that.  Through this blog, I have documented some stuff.  Big projects around the house.  Fun things I do with the kids (crafts and activities).  Big events like birthdays.  My passion for cooking and baking.  But what about all of the day to day?  The things The Littlest Apple says.  What shows we watch, the books we read, the music we listen to.  The errands we run.  Our daily routines.  Our fun family bonding times.  The mundane and ordinary parts of our days.  I’d love to be able to look back in 15 years and reminisce about those little things.  So that’s what Project Life is to me.

I decided that not only did I want to make a Project Life album to document Slingshot’s first year, but I’m also making a Family album that is for all 4 of us (mostly from my perspective, of course).  It’s hard to decide how to document the kids…do they each get their own album every year?  Do they each get a baby album (for the first year or so) and then just the Family Albums?  I’m still figuring it all out right now, especially what I want to do with The Little Apple’s first 4 years.

But for now, I’m jumping in.  I’m doing a page for each week.  Since I’m still learning about the process, I’m keeping it super simple right now.  Pictures (many of which were taken from an iPhone) and notes on the journaling cards popped in to the plastic protectors.  Every once in a while I’ll throw in a receipt, keepsake paper, or other bit of ephemera.  Maybe a few stickers.  No real embellishing or fancy papers or fancy cuts.

Just memories, plain and simple.

Here is Week 7 completed…. (since these are pictures of the pages protectors, there’s a bit of reflection in places)

Slingshot’s Album:

Close-up of the left side….

Close-up of the right side…

Family Album:

(Yes, I used that picture of the boys in both albums. Love that one!)

Close-up of the left…

Close-up of the right…

And here is a page from Slingshot’s second weeks.  Even though he’s only 7 weeks old (today!), I’m already finding myself forgetting the little things from those first few weeks of his life.  And I don’t want to forget!  It’s so nice to be able to look back at these pages and remember it all.  THIS is exactly why I’m doing Project Life.

Do you scrapbook?  Are you doing Project Life?  Did you make a baby book for your kids?

Disclaimer: Becky Higgins, creator of Project Life, has no idea who I am.  She isn’t paying me for this post.  This is just an amazing product that I wanted to share with you!!