Fast forward to today. I've been seeing Project Life for years now, and as always, I was interested in the digital aspect of it. I have an android smartphone so I couldn't do the Project Life App. So this year I decided to try my hand at it again. Being new immigrants in Canada, we were making memories and milestones everyday. I needed to document these moments again. This time I bought digital core kits from Project Life and used them to make layouts for my usual 8 x 11 size and printed on Matte paper at Shoppers. I just slipped them into regular plastic protectors from Staples.
It was also wonderful since they were having a sale in printing services. Just $1.99 instead of the usual $2.99. I was able to make several layouts this way, but then I thought preparing the digital layouts was still taking too much of my time. I needed something that will allow me to just print the photos, write the journaling and be done. Again, Project Life came to mind. I remember the video that Becky Higgins had when she was explaining the concept of Project Life, that it was meant to make the scrapbooker's life much easier, fuss-free and more importantly, guilt-free.
So last week, I dragged my husband to Michael's. Downloaded the 40% off coupon, and just went to town! Scrapbooking albums were 40% also, so I bought 2. I also bought the big pack of page protectors, the Blush Collection and Strawberry Collection Core Kits, a photo box, a roller adhesive and Recollection scrap cardstock. My husband and I divided this loot among ourselves and use a coupon each to get 40% off the most expensive item.
My husband bought me a new Canon Selphy CP910 WS the week before from the Mcbain camera store at Southgate, and I just knew this would make my Project Life project a lot easier. We actually have an old Selphy that we used for our photobooth business, but this new one had wifi so I can print from my phone, laptop, even from my camera!
So I was able to do my very first weekly layout. It was nothing special, no embellishments or layers, I was so proud of my work! I've decided this is something I would like to stick to.
And so I took the plunge. Being excited about a project often means shopping for more supplies for me. So I went back to Michael's, used the 50% off coupons from the printed receipt, and bought more "essential" supplies like a corner rounder, some punches, rubber stamps, and one more core kit, Heidi Swapp's Favorite Things.
I realize now that many are moving from traditional and paper scrapbooking to digital while I am moving from digital scrapbooking to the paper or hybrid one. Oh well. It makes me happy so I do it.
I was so excited about this project that I decided to make an album for my daughter too. We left her album in our home country when we left, and since we still have the digital files, I can make her an album again. After another trip to Michael's to buy another album, here is her title page.
I do hope to do this weekly. I am almost caught up now, just 3 more weeks to go, but I still have to got back from June to January 2015 and I intend to back-scrap 2014 too. Here's to a new scrappy adventure!
