paper: pretty paper. true stories. {and scrapbooking classes with cupcakes.}: Looking back at Project 365 :: Part Three

PART THREE :: Projects and Products for a scrappy 365

Once I started taking all these Project 365 photos, I wanted to find a way to scrapbook them, but there were a few obstacles that came to mind straight away. The logic went something like this:

...These photos are a mix of a little bit of nothing, a little bit of something. Like balancing a picture of the bookshelf with a picture of The Boy’s birthday cake. It needed to be something that worked for the ‘unimportant’ photos just as easily as the bigger occasions.

...As much as I wanted to participate for a full year, I knew there was every possibility that I could stop at any point, and I didn’t want a big album that was left half finished.

...To match my attitude of ‘digital shots don’t cost money’, I didn’t want to spend on the scrapping side. I have enough stash to build a new city out of paper, then wallpaper that. So there had to be enough there to make stuff.

...I wanted to create this for me, but I didn’t want it to control me. It needed to be quick and simple and something I could pick up and put down with ease rather than something I needed to complete all in one scrapping session.

From there, my crafty process involved twelve minibooks, each holding one month of scrapped 4×6 photos. Each one is different, and I like that, though I know many people would prefer for a year long project to have the same style from day one to day 365. The smallest book is 4×6, and you have to turn the book as you go to accommodate both portrait and landscape photos. There is nothing more to the ‘page’ than the photo itself, some with embellishment on top, some without. The largest book is about 8×8. Most are around 6×8 in size, as I decided after the 4×6 books that I wanted to be able to include both portrait and landscape without turning the book.

These books are pretty much entirely made from stuff I had on hand. Cardstock, book rings, and bits and pieces of other stuff. When I scrap, I almost always cut up my patterned paper, and then when I finish a 12×12 layout I have all this extra paper left sitting on my desk. If I’m not going to use it again on the very next layout, I shove it into a box. In past years, that box has been a wasteland and eventually it’s ended up donated to somewhere who could get more use from it. This year, it became the ingredients for these minibooks. Once a month I would go through the box and cut the big pieces to 6×8 and throw the small pieces back in the box. Offcuts are just as good as full sheets of paper in this case, and it gave me the opportunity to use more of a paper I liked. That always makes me happy. As I completed each page, I kept the box handy and used the smaller pieces I had thrown back in. I didn’t worry about making the pages from one month match. I figure each day has its own agenda and each page can have that unique identity too. I repeated the overall feel of a page (much like a sketch) several times, because let’s face it—there are only so many geometric ways one can put a 4×6 photo on a 6×8 sheet of paper. That combined with the pull-from-the-box supply technique made these books super easy and quick to put together.

I have one left to complete—December—and then I am going to display them all together in my house. I’ve been keeping an eye out for the perfect basket to match our living room. When I find it and put all twelve there together, I’ll share the whole shebang. For the moment, here are a few little looks at bits and pieces.

If you scrapbook digitally—or want to give it a try—there are plenty of things out there to make the scrapping side of Project 365 even easier than paper. Digitally, you can choose to scrap one photo per page, one week per page, one month per page or one month over two pages…and so forth! Check out this template and this template for one photo per page, this one and this one for a week per page or download a free template for one month all on one page. If you haven’t used a page template in Photoshop just yet, check out this tutorial or this walk through. Once it clicks, you’ll be amazed at how easy it makes scrapping. There is just no paper equivalent for making everything magically snap into the perfect place!

ETA: Brand new digi stuff for Project 365. Seriously cool.
One kit that would work for the entire year
A kit that will have a new edition for each month of the year
Date overlays to go right over your photos (cool for digi or paper projects, as you can print your photo with the design over the top)
Templates for 8.5×11 pages so you can print at home

One other thing I discussed briefly in the magazine is the idea that you can take on lots of other projects that have the same focus as Project 365 without being an every-single-day event. Scrap your Day is one day per month—we’ve been taking pictures on the 25th every monday rather than every single day. Ali’s Week in the Life project lets you focus on one concentrated week of snapping pictures rather than just one picture every day. Both of those include support on the scrapping side too, with flickr groups and example pictures, sketches, product lists and anything else you might need. Digitally, you could start with a page like this with just one picture from each month of 2008. It’s like a trial size version of the full project. Or focus just on the photography side and join in with a weekly photo topic like Happy Bokeh Wednesdays, Corners of my Home Thursdays or Macro Mondays. There are plenty challenges out there that would result in one lovely photo every week, and fifty-two lovely photos is a pretty big accomplishment by the end of the year.

Which leads me to declaring my photography plan for 2009, just for the sake of saying it in public and holding myself accountable. Roughly, I’m planning to carry on with taking a picture every day at least until our first anniversary. It’s part of my routine now and doesn’t feel like a hassle…it feels more like breathing so I think that’s okay to carry on. But I needed something new as well. Something with focus. So in 2009, I plan to photograph fifty different London landmarks. And I mean photograph them as best I can, not get on a tourist bus and snap all fifty in one day. There are so many beautiful places in this city and so many are free and allow photographs. So that’s the idea—get out and about and take pictures. We’ll see what happens with this project…it’s still quite loose in my mind. I need to take the first few sets of pictures before I decide what I will do with them. We shall see!

Happy New Year to you, no matter how much you do or do not plan to put your camera to work! May it be a fabulous 2009 for us all.

xlovesx

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