With December Daily in full swing, I'm happy to be almost done with my 2018 projects.
I have to finish up my Project Life book (HERE), which shouldn't be hard because I'm documenting December in my December Daily album too. (I'm not worried about doubling up a bit because I look at them as very different projects). I hope to have that finished and sent off for printing at Blurb early January.
I've been thinking a lot over the last week about my scrapbooking plans for 2019 - what do I want to do more of? What do I want to do less of? Where do I want to go with this hobby? What's sustainable? What isn't?
Writing about my collection of photobooks recently (HERE) has helped me to chrystallise some of my ideas and feelings about this hobby of mine going forward. These are the four main projects on my mind right now:
1. PROJECT LIFE
I love having a family-oriented Project Life style project. By that I mean a year-long photo centred project about our everyday life with some journaling. I have made nine of these projects which have ranged widely from Becky Higgins original 12x12 physical kit to smaller photobook projects I have designed myself. I call them all Project Life because it helps to define it for me, even if some have ventured away from Becky's original concept. I have a previous post about my Project Life journey (HERE).
I just love capturing a little bit about our everyday lives over a year and have definitely learned that the sum is much greater than its parts. It's a labour of love that is so worth it at the end.
I plan on doing a digital project (using Photoshop Elements) and print the end result as a photobook. I have played around with a few different layouts but haven't decided on a plan yet. Most years I wait until I have a week or two of photos in January to play with before making a design commitment. It needs to be simple enough that I don't find it too much of a chore and run out of steam come mid year.
I might go back to a monthly or weekly 12x12 format. I love Cathy Zielske's simple Scrapbook Your Year set up (HERE) and that has worked for me in the past. I am really drawn to the idea of simplifying. This year's project was a bit more complex in terms of choosing a lot of different sized photos so sticking to either 4x6 or 3x4 appeals. For me, the more freedom I have in my set up, the more of a chore it becomes as the year goes by.
2. 5x8 COMMONPLACE BOOK/DIGITAL TN
I definitely want to keep another commonplace book/digital Traveler's Notebook to print as a 5x8 tradebook. This will be the third year of having a place to store my personal bits and pieces of life - recipes, quotes, song lyrics, photos, silly stories, TV, movies and all that stuff that might not have a place in my other projects. This is the fun project I love digging into on a quiet weekend at home.
3. REGULAR LAYOUTS
I've really enjoyed making 6x8 scrapbook pages using my Story Kits (and other digital supplies), printing at home and adding to my binders. 6x8 has been my size of choice for regular layouts since I got my first Story Book album from Ali's shop last May. (I wrote about it HERE) and I have filled three of those rather thick albums. That's about 150 individual pages made.
These are my 'real' scrapbook pages :) Product, photos, journaling. Each one different. Not part of a longer, cohesive project. Just regular layouts about anything I feel the need to document at the time from the heartfelt to the ridiculous. These are the pages I make with my digital Story Kit subscription and other kits. I love making these and plan to continue.
But I think it's time to move these pages/stories moving forward into the photobook format too (and away from the albums, which are not easy to source here). I think I'll try incorporating them into my commonplace book. Going from 6x8 to 5x8 layouts (which is the Blurb trade book size I love) doesn't seem too much of a stretch. (I've heard there are international services that print 6x8 books, but I think here in Australia the cost will be quite high so I am happy to fit into the 5x8 option I do have).
4. FOOD TRAVELER'S NOTEBOOK
Hoping to finish my food themed Traveler's Notebook (HERE) - I'm about half way and would like to hold a finished notebook in my hands.
SOME THOUGHTS
Even writing this post now has helped me think through where I am at with my scrapbooking. The photobook format is becoming my favourite method of housing my finished pages for various reasons.
I should note that when I say photobooks, I don't just mean a book of photos thrown together using automatic templates. I mean having my own digital scrapbooking layouts printed as books.
These are the current pro's for me in terms of moving away from home printing, page protectors and albums/ring binders towards more photobook projects:
1. Minimal, clean, digital scrapbooking is my jam. While I enjoy hybrid projects here and there, making my pages in Photoshop Elements is my happy place. I've dabbled with hand-made projects this year using binder rings and office binders but I just don't feel like they have the staying power and there is a lot of fiddling around with sizing, printing and cutting (not my favourite tasks). Half way through these projects, I end up saying to myself "this would just be quicker and better if I did it in photoshop".
2. Being in Australia, we don't have the same access to supplies like albums and page protectors (so the size I make my projects is bound by what size albums and protectors I can buy and that is determined by what is popular). I also keep finding the perfect size/style/colour of album, buy a few, then learn they are discontinued. Uniformity on my shelf is important to me as my scrapbooks are stored in our home, not packed away or in a scrap room.
3. Photobooks take up a lot less space on my shelf (a consideration for me) and don't have the problems associated with my scrapbook binders with page protectors - sagging, difficulty in flipping through, ageing rings that don't stay closed. The kids (and my husband) are definitely more likely to look through my photobooks over my binders just for sheer ease. (When my husband looks through one of my photobooks, he always says "You should make more of these").
4. The cost of printing digital pages (paper, ink, albums, page protectors) is comparable to ordering a photobook. I can also order multiple copies.
5. The various sizes available at Blurb (and other photobook printers) give me a lot of scope in the types of projects I can make - 12x12, 8x10, 6x9 and 5x8.
So that's where I am heading going in to the new year. I reserve my right to change my mind at any time :)
Has anyone else been thinking about their plans for 2019?