At first, I thought the whole 365 Project idea was ABSOLUTELY CRAZY. C'mon, who can actually do this, when we struggle to keep up with "major" events to scrap? Then in the 2nd week of Jan, I noticed when transferring my photos to my computer that I basically had already taken at least one photo per day this year, and the beauty of the simplicity of the everday things I was capturing absolutely thrilled me. And so, I gave it a shot.
I didn't want the pressure of a "design" though, to keep it simple and quick (to give myself a chance to actually stay on top of this!). I'm still scrapbooking the bigger events & longer stories of our lives in our annual family album, but I'm keeping this straight forward. I've chosen 4 templates (2 covering 2 pages and 2 w/all 7 pics on one page), and 3 basic background papers, white, kraft & black. I'm using Kellie Mize's Tortuga Template #9, which provides various ribbons & trims that are customizable. Once a week, I pick a layout and then drop in my photos throughout the week. At the end of the week I choose one of my 3 backgrounds, throw a string of ribbon along one of the edges and then place one other embellishment (flower, snowflake, button, workart, etc.) that ties into the season/theme/pics, in the corner and I'm done.
Typically, this kind of simplicity in scrapbooking makes my skin crawl, because my mind won't let go of the inifinite possibilities digital has to offer. But the satisfaction of being "caught up" and the joy of these little tidbits we're capturing is so great, that I've been absolutely thrilled with this project! For anyone considering the idea of starting this - I would highly recommend picking a simple strategy like this and giving it a shot. You can always get more elaborate later, but something simple at least gets you started. Maybe the feeling of success will be what you need to keep you going?! I know it has unexpectantly been really great for me!
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