Earlier this month, I received my Project Life order from Amazon.com and couldn’t wait to get started!

I’ve been following the creator of Project Life, Becky Higgins, for about 3 years now and have just recently purchased some of her products.  Before I knew of Project Life, I was doing something similar using products from We R Memory Keepers.  I mentioned it in this blog post.  But, when Becky introduced the 6×12 Page Protectors and Big Envelopes, I just had to get them!  I have two girls who are both in school and sometimes when they bring home artwork or writings, I just don’t know where to put them and have wanted something to keep them all together with photos and other memorabilia.

These are my current albums.  As you can tell, I’ve fallen behind and have not found a good way to keep my labels on.

I still have a lot of work to do to make my albums more story-like.  Before, they were pretty much 12×12 sleeves and more about scrapbook/digi-scrapbook pages.  It’s nice and all but I have a yearning to tell a story.

Here is a 6×12 page protector with an art piece Kylie made at her preschool.  It is special enough to me that I want it to be in its own sleeve.  During her parent-teacher conference a month back, her teacher told husband and I that she was an excellent scissor cutter (better than her classmates), and was proud of her ability.  I was very proud as well, mainly because when Kida was at the same preschool 5 years ago, we had this same conference and her teacher asked us, “Does Kida know how to cut with a scissor because she didn’t know how to hold a scissor and struggled with cutting paper.”  I told her teacher that I just never had her use a scissor because I thought it was too dangerous.  I learned something about myself that day.  I learned that I have to let go of the fear that my kids will hurt themselves because getting hurt is sometimes the best way to learn.

This page is my first real Project Life page for Kylie.  I took a bunch of photos and wanted to finish this page but realized that the photos I took were vertical and these pocket pages are horizontal.  I’m going to order the vertical ones so this page will have to wait.  In the meantime, I’ve been taking photos just about every day of both my girls and writing notes for some of them.

Credits: The 3×4 card with Kylie’s pronunciations on the right is an idea I got from Paislee Press’s Project Life.  The card design is from the Picture This Journal Blocks by Designs by Anna & Kitty Designs.

Digital Project Life

Yes, I am hoarding Project Life.

I have also started a digital version of Project Life through Shutterfly.com.  Actually, I tried to start one a year ago but never finished.  I believe I only completed one or two pages and then backed out of it.  I guess because I didn’t really trust it.  I went with Kodak instead and created a beautiful book of Kylie’s first years.  The downside was that the book was very boxed.  I had very little flexibility as to what I could do.  Maybe it was just that I didn’t know my way around putting text wherever I wanted or rearranging photos to my taste but I struggled with it.

Digital Project Life is different.  There is so much flexibility.  SO MUCH.  I’m creating my pages with my jaw open and my mind thinking, “Wow, I could do that?  Let’s try this…wow…crazy…amazing…OMG, could I really do that?…wow…wow…wow.”  Honestly, there is still a small limit (hint…better fonts) but otherwise, I love everything about it.  There are tons of backgrounds and elements to use and I could put a text box anywhere I want to and write as much as my heart desires.  I dreamed of one day being able to utilize something this fun and creative and Becky made it all possible.

This is the first two pages of my Digital Project Life.  My goal with this book is to mainly document this blog but I’m also including other pieces of my life that I don’t blog about.  This book is going to be about me.  Life through my eyes and through my camera.  I’ve noticed that most mothers who create digital books or scrapbook tend to focus on their kids and/or the whole family from a 3rd person point-of-view.  I have 4 binders for that (see above, photo #2) but I also want my girls to know who I am besides the person they know as, Mom.  I guess it is something that I wish my mother had.

So far, I’ve completed January.  I’m putting one day a week into this Digital Project Life.

You might ask, why do you want to do this?  I do this because I want my daughters to know how important it is to enjoy life and to document it so that they can have something to remember by, and pass it down to their kids.  I want them to know their mother as a person with dreams and goals for herself.  I want them to know the love between their mom and dad and the almost normal life we try to create for them.

Next goal is to start Kida on documenting her life.  I’ve been eying K&Company SMASH folios and a few other pieces from that collection.