Project Life Scrapbook

One of my goals for 2016 was to be better at documenting our life and all of the fun adventures we have together. The blog has been a great tool for documenting things, but I love having a tangible scrapbook that we can pick up and look through from time to time. I take so many photos both with my phone and camera, but I feel like they just get lost in a folder on my computer instead of on display in our house or in an album where we can enjoy them.

I've gone through periods of my life when I am really good at documenting things and keep up with scrapbooking. You may also remember I have made scrapbooks for my friends as a gift to them at their bachelorette party. It's a fun tradition that I benefited from as well, because my friends made an amazing album for me too! And in college, my roommate and I would spend hours watching movies and working on our scrapbooks. Because of that, I have a few albums of my college years as well as my first trip to Italy studying abroad. I have often picked those up to flip through them and reminisce on what a fun experience that was. Funny enough, one of the scrapbooks my college roommate made, was a graduation gift for her friend Andrew. You guessed it, the same Andrew who is now my husband :) so funny how life works out! It's so fun now to look through that and see so many pictures of myself, even though we weren't dating or even that close of friends.

I have also done smaller scrapbooks of our trips to Tuolumne Meadows as well as our Cabo vacation in 2013. But, I don't have complete yearbooks for the time Andrew and I have been together, which makes me sad. So, my goal for 2016 was to keep up with documenting our lives each month throughout the year, so at the end of the year I could purchase a complete book. Since so many photos are often on my phone, I discovered an app called Project Life that I thought I would try.

Although I do have some complaints about the Project Life app, there is a lot that I love about it. The concept of Project Life was to make scrapbooking easier and more affordable. Scrapbooking can easily become quite costly with all the stickers, paper, albums, tools, etc. that it requires. In addition to the cost, they are so time consuming to create. Project Life created pockets with cute "filler cards" so you could just print pictures and slip them into pockets. Then, use the "filler cards" for journaling and to add color & style. I don't usually print my pictures, and I already had so many things for traditional scrapbooking, I had never used their products. But then they created the Project Life app that follows the same concept. You can buy different kits for your filler and journaling cards, then just upload your pictures directly from your phone or Dropbox. It is such an easy way to keep up with scrapbooking. I use the app on my iPad, so it's easy to do a page in the evenings if Andrew is watching a show I'm not as interested in. And since I usually have my iPad with me on trips, I've also started pages right away a few times.

As I mentioned, there are a few things that bother me with the app. It doesn't sync between devices, so when I open the app on my phone, none of the kits I've purchased on the iPad are available and I can't see or edit any of my pages. I also wish that it was compatible with Digital Project Life on the computer, but that is a separate software. If they were compatible, I could easily add pictures from my computer that are not on my phone. I'm sure over time some of these kinks will be fixed, but for now, the app does help me keep up with documenting our adventures. I have all our pages saved from January & February, so I'm already a little behind. And plan to print the pages as a complete album at the end of the year.

I'll let you know how the album comes out once I have it printed. I still haven't decided if I'll continue to use Project Life in the future, or try out My Publisher or something similar like Young House Love. I would love to have complete books starting from late 2010 when Andrew and I started dating. And I might make a smaller album with pictures between 2007 and 2011 to document that time of my life. Plus I still haven't finished our college years! Man, this is going to take forever but I really want to have our pictures documented. Especially before we have kids, otherwise I'm sure it would never happen!

Also important to note, I think the android app will be ready soon, but right now it's only for ios. I shared a few of the pages I that I've made so far below. Or you can check out this Pinterest board to see more examples of Project Life.

I made these simple pages for the start of each month

Annual brewery tour in San Diego with Andrew's family!

My friend Jenny's Bachelorette Party in South Lake Tahoe!

Our trip to Bend, OR

Are you a fan of scrapbooking? If not, how do you preserve your photos?

A Gift For The Bride to Bea

As you know, one of my best friends in getting married in a few weeks. I wanted to do something extra special for her to celebrate this important time in her life. Gift giving is always something I've prided myself on. I love thinking of unique ideas that are especially meaningful for the recipient. And of course, this was no exception. 

In the past, I've made a sort of "brag book" for friends getting married. Which is basically a completed scrapbook filled with everything except pictures. There are pages for each event from the engagement, leading up to the wedding and honeymoon. All the bride has to do is add pictures as the events happen. However, I knew I wanted something more personalized and special for Erica. And I wanted it to be complete when I gave it to her.

I decided what better way to celebrate the bride, than to compile a book of memories from her closest friends. And what better time to present the gift than at her Bachelorette Party when almost everyone was together. 

Now, this gift isn't for the faint of heart! It takes a lot of prep time, and then of course time to assemble the final product. But the completed book, and the look on the brides face when she opens it, will be completely worth it! So, I'll walk you through the steps I took in case you'd like to create something similar for a bride in your life!

First, I used the email list for the Bachelorette Party, and added a few family/friends I knew were close to Erica. Then I sent out an email, explaining the gift and requesting that everyone please share a few pictures and a message to the bride. The message could be anything from a quote, to marriage advice, to memories shared with the bride if they wanted to be included in the book. I knew that it would take some time to get this back from everyone, so I sent the request a few months in advance. I sent periodic updates to those who I hadn't heard from, and kept a list of those who had replied. 

Many of the girls had trouble finding pictures, but thankfully our friend who had organized the Bridal Shower had a ton that she shared with me. I'm also a picture hoarder, so between that and what I could find on Facebook and Instagram, I gathered enough pictures for everyone. 

I organized the messages the girls sent in a word document, and sized them and used different fonts so each page was unique. I also organized all the photos and had them printed in a variety of sizes. I used to scrapbook a lot, so I have a lot of supplies laying around. And luckily, I even had a scrapbook, pages and page protectors to use for this project. But you can get everything you need at a craft store like JoAnns or Michaels. I did make a quick trip to the craft store for cute paper and stickers to embellish each page. 

Once I had all the pictures and messages printed, I cropped them down and used a corner cutter to round the edges. Since I mostly wanted the focus to be on the photos and messages, I selected a simple paper for the background, and arranged the photos and messages on top. Then I just added a sticker or two, and the name of the person that page was from. Each girl had their own page, and then I did a 2 page spread for the bridesmaids. Mostly because I am indecisive and have so many photos of the five of us, I couldn't fit everything on one page. 

I decided I wanted to start the book with something special, not just jump into the pages from friends. So the first page highlights their engagement. You can read more about their engagement on Erica's blog, but Corrie proposed in Utah while they were snowboarding on Christmas, and the ski resort photographer captured the whole thing! I also included a page of their engagement photos, which were taken by the lovely Stephanie at AT&T Park! Perfect for these two Giants fans! After the Engagement photos, I jumped right into the pages from all the Bride's friends and sisters. 

Missing a caption  on the right because she's a new mamma :) so I left a space to add it in later! 

I hope it's something that Erica's treasures forever! It was so fun looking over all the photos, and reminiscing. Most of us have been friends with Erica since high school or even elementary school, so you can only imagine some of the old pictures and memories! Hopefully this book reminds her of how many people love her, and how excited we all are for this new chapter in her life! It's proof of all the support she and Corrie have as they start their lives together!

One of the best parts was watching Erica open this after breakfast one morning in Palm Springs. No one had seen the completed book yet so all the girls were eager to see "their page" and laugh over the old pictures and memories we've all shared with Erica. It's the gift that keeps on giving!

If you have any questions about how I made it let me know! It's pretty straight forward, but I wanted to share the idea since I can't think of a Bride who wouldn't love receiving a gift like this!