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In my 'real' life I struggle with people-pleasing and perfectionism. Always have. Reaching my 40's has done a lot to curb that - you just start to feel like you earned the right to be yourself. In case anyone needs to hear it coming into 2019 (me!), I just wanted to say that whatever you want to do, it's OK. If you want to take a break from Project Life this year, you can. If you feel like digital scrapbooking isn't real scrapbooking, it is. If you think you aren't doing it right, you are. If you think that little notebook you are decorating with words and photos isn't scrapbooking, it is. If you want to make three albums worth of layouts this year, awesome. If you know you will be lucky to fill one album, that's awesome. If you want to scroll through instagram and not make anything, that's OK too. If you want to completely, radically change the way you scrapbook, yes! If you want to keep doing what you've been doing, yes to that too. If you think you need to do what everyone else is doing (Travelers Notebooks! Project Life! 9x12! 6x12! Bigger! Smaller! Messy! Clean! Arty! Graphic!), you don't. If you feel overwhelmed, simplify. If you feel bored, play. If you haven't finished your 2018 projects but feel inspired to start something new this year, do it. If you have half a year documented and feel you need to finish even if it's making you miserable, don't. Half a year documented is fantastic. If you love arty pages but just can't pull it off (me!), just do your style of pages and oooh and aaahh over those other amazing pages on instagram. If you think there is a specific 'way' to scrapbook, there isn't. If you think the scrapbooking police will arrest you, they won't. (Excuse me ma'm, is that item you are glueing into your December Daily acid free?) Make this hobby an amazing way to spend your time every week rather than another chore. Make it fun - whatever that means for you. I give you permission :)

I've been playing around with various Project Life options for this year since about October and this morning settled on a plan going forward which is different to all the other plans (of course). I knew I wanted to make mine digitally and have it printed as a book. I was tossing up between 12x12 or 8x10 but have settled on 8x10 because it's a bit easier to fill and smaller on my shelf. I've made various test templates but have just decided to stick with a tried and true grid which mirrors page-protectors. It just works so well for photos, journaling cards and filler cards. I'm doing a weekly two-page spread, old-school. I created an 8x10 grid template in Photoshop Elements (PSE) then expanded it to 16x10 so I can work on the full week at once (and when I'm making the Blurb book, I can set the pages to be one spread going across the two pages so I just need to drag in one week at a time rather than a left and a right page each week #lazy). I always find it much easier to make a plan and work on templates once the year has started and I have real life photos and stories. For the first week I've used some Paislee Press digital elements and will be carrying that through the book (this is the set I used this week and this for journaling). I just love Liz's products so much - they really speak to my minimalist heart. My goal with this project is to be clean, simple and easy to keep up with. Same sized spots to fill every week but the digital flexibility to fit with what I have. I am planning to work on it weekly when I can but I know that won't always happen. Here's a short video about setting everything up. Thanks! #ProjectLife

After making my December 26 pages I decided I was done with this year's December Daily. We don't have much on the schedule for the next few days besides relaxing by the pool at home. I'm so happy with how it all came out. I switched to 3x8 on a whim and I'm glad I did. The smaller size really simplified the process. The only challenge was the full page 3x8 photo I used every day. It's not always an easy size and I had to be conscious when taking photos that I had enough space above and below. A few days in and that got easier. Using only a few digital kits (HERE) meant I didn't have to make many decisions for each spread. I made my two pages most evenings and it probably took me 10-15 minutes each day. I printed in bulk later because I ordered my album and page protectors very late. It might seem a bit over-achieving to have my album done and packed away a day after Christmas, but I am one of those people who love the festive season but feel totally done once it's over. No more Christmas music or movies now and I'll be packing the decorations away before New Year's Eve. I also like to journal in the moment and have just never been as good at working on projects months later. December Daily has also become one of my Christmas traditions so I really look forward to a bit of daily crafting. Plus, this year's project was super simple. #DecemberDaily #DigitalScrapbooking #AliEdwards

Further to my last post, I've made a few pages to start off my new 5x8 commonplace book project for 2019. I'm planning for this book to be a mix of 'scrabook-ey' pages (where I can use my digital kits and include photos+journaling+embellishments) and very simple photos, lists, words, song lyrics, movie posters etc. The left is a page about Zara's bedroom makeover (using More Or Less digital elements from Paislee Press). I have recently bought a bunch of my older digital scrapbooking kits into Lightroom and I'm enjoying using them again. This kit is from 2015 but isn't dated at all (which is why I love Paislee Press so much). The other side also uses Paislee Press elements on top of a photo. This spread about the burger truck we like to visit uses elements from the One Little Bird Hangry kit. I love elements that have a place to journal and add the date. I've used the new Joy Story Kit from Ali Edwards on the left. The right is just a photo I took at a concert last week with a few word strips. When I have an idea for a new project, it really helps me just to get in, make a few layouts and see how it looks together and how I enjoy the process. These simple types of pages are really my favourite - to look at and to work on. So far, so good. Note: These are digital pages (made in Photoshop Elements) which I will save up over the year and have printed at Blurb as a 5x8 tradebook/photobook (rather than print at home and put in a binder). #Commonplace #DigitalScrapbooking

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?

I've written about some of my recently printed photobooks so I just wanted to share my little collection. Photobooks are a great way to document, particularly if you are a digital scrapbooker. I love how compact they are on my shelf and easy to flip through when compared to scrapbook binders with page protectors (which I also have and still use). Being in Australia, I don't have as many options so I have always used Blurb and have been very happy with the results and the process. Once I upload and order my books, I am always surprised at how quickly my finished books arrive - usually within days. I choose the best quality paper I can (Premium Lustre is my favourite), however the number of pages is a factor in paper choice and my most recent USA Travel Book (HERE) could only be printed on the standard paper due to its size. I choose the hardcover image wrap option which allows me to put a photo and title on the front and it keeps the look consistent on my shelf. I make my pages in Photoshop Elements, basically as scrapbook layouts, rather than use the templates available with the book printing service so I have full control. I set up my page to match the book size then save each completed layout as a JPG (I name my layouts by number so when I bring them into Blurb they will show up in the correct order eg PL001). There is always the risk of the edges being cut off when your layout becomes a book page (see below - the pink area is the warning area) so I am careful to keep important details away from the edges and include a lot of white space in the design. When uploading to Blurb, I then set my book's layout to a borderless full-page photo on every page so I can add my pages as I have made them. Once a book is uploaded to Blurb, you can always go back and order more copies. This is a great feature - one day my kids might want to take a copy with them. I have always found the price acceptable and my most recent book had a half-off Black Friday coupon. In digital scrapbooking, my main costs are ink, photopaper, page protectors and albums so I find the cost comparable. 2014 USA TRAVEL BOOK 8x10 My first Blurb photobook. I kept it simple and used some templates from Cathy Zielske (HERE) and Paislee Press (HERE). This is mostly photos and captions. 2015 PROJECT LIFE 12x12 I had made previous Digital Project Life projects before, where I used a Design A type template and sent my 12x12 pages to Persnickety Prints every few months and put them in an album with protectors (I have a post about my Project Life journey HERE). This was the first time I printed it as a 12x12 book and I loved the result. I used a simple template from Cathy Zielske (HERE) and made a weekly two-page spread. I fell very behind and was able to catch up quickly the following January because of the simplicity of the process. 2016 PROJECT LIFE 8x10 I needed a change from the Becky Higgins-style page protector Project Life after doing it for many years, so in 2016 I switched to an 8x10 size and made some very simple templates. I separated the book by month and included a monthly recap and well as a 'currently' type list of things we were watching etc. 2017 LIFE STORIES 6x9 TRADE BOOK This was my first Trade Book. It was a fun, me-centred project (instead of a family Project Life) and I loved making it. This is my first Commonplace Book although I didn't know that term at the time. It's filled with a hodge-podge of quotes, song lyrics, inside jokes, photos, stories, movies, TV shows and recipes. I really missed working on this book this year so I started up another one (see below). 2017 USA TRAVEL BOOK 8x10 My huge book from our last trip (HERE). This is a simple, photo-centric book with some journal notes in the back. 2018 COMMONPLACE BOOK 5x8 TRADE BOOK As I wrote in yesterday's post about this book (HERE), this started as a 4x6 minibook with binder rings but I soon revamped it to a 5x8 photobook instead. Loved working on this one and know that I will make something similar this year (and hopefully every year). It's a great place for the little stories that don't fit in with my other projects. I can make a page for this in minutes. The 5x8 size is very close to a Traveler's Notebook size and that's how I'm going to view this project for 2019 - a digital TN. So that's my collection. Looking through these projects has helped me to clarify my 2019 scrapbooking goals and where I want to take this hobby moving forward. More on that soon. I am also about to finish up and send off my 2018 Project Life book so that will be my third and final one for this year (HERE). Thanks for reading and as always, comment or email any questions. #Photobooks

Spurred on by finally finishing my USA Travel Book, I decided to finish up another photobook project and send it off for printing too. I wrote about this project HERE and HERE. It started as a physical 4x6 mini book with rings then became 5x8 photoshop pages (for a Blurb Trade Book that size). I did enjoy the process of working with real supplies in the beginning but digital and minimalism is my thing so I swapped the project to a photobook. I love photobooks. I love that there is a beginning and an end. I love that they fit nicely on my shelf and are easy to flip through. I love that they come in so many different sizes. I love that they are lasting. The tricky bit about making photobooks is that you have to work on them for weeks/months/years before getting to see the finished product. You can't print half way through - it needs to be finished. That can be hard for motivation. One thing I like to do is print a few pages out as I'm going to see what it might look like once printed, especially the size of the journaling font. I really enjoyed working on this book and hope to start another one soon for 2019. I've struggled with what to call it. It's not my Project Life - that is a whole other project HERE (and my third and final photobook project for this year that I need to have printed). I've gone back and forth about calling it a commonplace book but that's what it is - a digital, minimal version. A collection of my lists, TV shows, song lyrics, recipes, movies, photos, quotes, random ridiculous thoughts and silly stories that don't really fit the aesthetic of my family photobook project/Project Life for 2018 or don't necessarily need a whole scrapbook layout. Brandi Kincaid has so perfectly written about commonplace books HERE and this is from Wikipedia: Commonplace books (or commonplaces) are a way to compile knowledge, usually by writing information into books. Such books are essentially scrapbooks filled with items of every kind: recipes, quotes, letters, poems, tables of weights and measures, proverbs, prayers, legal formulas. Commonplaces are used by readers, writers, students, and scholars as an aid for remembering useful concepts or facts they have learned. Each commonplace book is unique to its creator's particular interests. What I do know for sure is that I love having this kind of project on the go. It was something I worked on here and there but was always fun and not stressful. The size is really fun - 5x8, which is very close to the size of a Traveler's Notebook. Specs: Blurb Trade Book (5x8, hardcover image wrap, standard colour paper) approx 105 pages. The paper quality of Blurb's Trade Books is not as high as their Photobooks but I find it perfectly fine for a project like this. The photos and text are crisp and clear. I also like the size options for the Trade Books which are not available as Photo Books. These books are also less expensive than photobooks. This Trade Book cost around $50 AUD. #Photobooks #Commonplace

I finally have this book in my hands and I love it so much. We travelled to the USA in September/October 2017 for a month. Las Vegas, New York, Orlando, New Orleans and Honolulu. For some of the time we were with friends and family, other places it was just the four of us. We had an amazing time and loved every minute. Of course we took thousands of photos (almost 5,000!) On our first day home, I dowloaded all of our photos to my computer because I had a fear of losing my iPhone (even though I had backed some of them up to Dropbox while traveling). Photos from my phone, my husband's phone and our DSLR. The next day, I started a photobook. I finally finished it one year and one month later. A marathon not a sprint. Travel books are wonderful but they are time consuming. Because we visited so many cities/states, I tried to work on each in a block then have a break for a few weeks/months before moving on to the next. Facing all those photos is daunting. I had made a similar book back in 2014 when my husband and I visited New York, Las Vegas and LA so I already had a design plan and templates ready to go. My idea of a travel book is very different to my everyday scrapbooking - very photo-heavy, a few captions/titles and not much journaling. I am all for telling the longer, more in-depth stories of our adventures, so I have also made (and will continue to make) regular scrapbook pages for our everyday 6x8 album about our trip. If I end up with enough of those, they will will go into their own binder. I made a title page for each day which listed the date and where we went or what we did and used a map of that city as the background. The photo pages are very minimal with just a few different templates that I made mixed up throughout the book. Choosing photos is the thing that takes the most time. I made my pages in Photoshop Elements at 8x10 size - knowing that I wanted to print a Blurb book that size (as I have done previously). That way, I could just set my Blurb book's template as full page photos and easily drag my fully-finished pages in. I also named the layouts by number as I worked so they would come into Blurb in the correct order. While working, I used the Harry Potter moleskine that I took on the trip and wrote in every night just to remind me of dates and activities. As I reached the end of the book, I thought it was a waste not to use my notes somewhere so I decided to make a journaling page for every day and transcribed my nightly notes. These would have messed up my photobook design so I put them at the end with their own title page and I'm glad they are in there now. As I built the book in Blurb, I realised that I had way too many pages for the premium paper I had used previously so I made peace with a cheaper paper to have just one book rather than split it up. I am OK with that. I can tell the paper is lower quality than my last book but it is fine and I am glad I kept it to one book. On the last week of November I promised myself that I would get this book finished and uploaded to Blurb by the end of the weekend. There was even a Black Friday coupon code for half off that weekend by coincidence. I did have trouble uploading (I think my computer's energy saving and sleep settings were interrupting such a long upload (almost 400 pages) but it finally worked and now we have this book to look through. Planning to wrap it up and put it under the tree for Christmas day. #USATrip #Photobooks

Day 6 documents the wrapping paper I will be using this year, so no need for any lengthy, insightful journaling. Just a photo on one side (again using Ali's overlays) and a lovely piece of patterned paper from the Paislee Press 3x8 album kit on the other with a sticker from the kit, a label and a heart added. Super simple and quick. Today I thought I would record making my two digital pages from start to finish just to give you an idea of how digital pages work in real time (a video for each page). NOTE: If you did watch the videos, I went back afterwards and removed that extra, duplicated little wood swirl at the top right using the content-aware trick because it started to annoy me:) I also added a gold heart to the journaling page just because. Thanks for being here! Happy to answer questions via email as always. #DecemberDaily #Video

In the December Daily swing now. Today I'm sharing my last three days. Monday 3 December I was at work so I went and took some photos of the decorations on George Street (before the light rail comes next year). I didn't really have much of a story today so I used a list journal card from the Paislee Press 3x8 kit I'm using and noted some of the things on my gift shopping list for the other side. Simple. For 6 December, I had two stories/photos - dinner out at the burger truck (one of our family traditions) and Zara's high school orientation day. I was working Wednesday so I knew I wouldn't have anything special that day so I held the orientation story over a day, noting in my journaling "Yesterday...". I wanted to take a nice photo of Zara but this was the best I could get..ah twelve year olds. I thought about going and finding an older photo to use but decided to just go with it. I'm using a full page photo every day with one of Ali's overlays and then using the Paislee Press 3x8 album kit for the opposing page. I added an extra photo to day 4 and just a quick caption. For Day 5, I used a journaling card from the same kit but added some word art from another kit to the top of the card because this is a story of growing up rather than anything festive-themed. So another three days in the books. (Well not technically - I chose this size only a few days before December so I'm still waiting on my album to arrive).These pages seriously take me about 10-20 minutes to make tops. I'm not stressing over them and just going with what I have. The album kit makes it easy and knowing I need one good photo a day in a portrait orientation (with extra space at the top) gives me a good place to start each day. I'm looking forward to working on them each night and have had each day's spread done by the end of the day. I know a lot of people don't work on their projects daily and even wait until later in the year but after doing this project for ten years, working on these pages every night has become part of my Christmas tradition, as important as decorating the tree or making pudding. I love journaling in the moment and knowing that come January, I can pack this book away and be done for another year. #DecemberDaily

Happy December - we are underway! I'm enjoying the 3x8 size so far. I just have to remember that I need tall + narrow photos if I'm doing a full-page. I never plan out my project or make foundation pages beyond choosing a size and buying a few digital kits. I find that once I make my first day's spread, it sets the tone for my project and I feel much better about where I'm headed. (I have a post with the digital products I'm planning to use here). The first of December is the first day of Summer in Australia so I used a photo of the kids in the pool as my main page (with one of Ali Edwards 3x8 overlays) then a page of journaling about our very normal Saturday using some Paislee Press word art from last year's element set. I had planned for Day One to be a page about decorating but it was just too hot and none of us could be bothered. On Sunday we did decorate, so I used a photograph of some new ornaments we were gifted as my main page, with a small photo of the living room in a Paislee Press template on the other side (from the December You Are My Fave No 7 3x8 Album Kit). I only did some short, basic journaling and that was it. Our living room and tree look the same every year and appear in so many of my December Daily albums so I was OK focusing on the ornaments and just using a peek of our room. I'm sure there will be another day where a larger, fuller picture of our tree will appear. Worth noting that my ornament photo is not date-specific and could have fit in my album on any day. I love those kinds of photos/stories. I also took the photo a few days ago, not Sunday, and that's OK too. There is no shame is having a store of photos that you can go back to on a day when there isn't much happening - it's like your own Stock Photo library. I also added an intentions page to the front of my album using one of Ali's 3x8 journaling cards. I always like to give myself a pep-talk at the start of December and set some intentions and a mood that I can look back on when I'm feeling overwhelmed. Looking back through my old December Daily albums, I noticed that I have a few different tried and true methods of storytelling/journaling for this project and mix them all up throughout: a single, contained story (eg the tradition of being the one to make the Christmas pudding every year, which recipe, steaming it all day) a simple rundown of our day (we went here, did this, ate this) introspective - writing out my feelings (feeling overwhelmed because... feeling happy because...feeling tired because...) reflective (eg a note to Zara and Eli about how they are embracing the season, how their school year was, highlights etc) just the facts, short and sweet (We finally put the tree up today. The End.) I'm also sharing two quick videos from my Day Two process - the first using the overlays, the second using the template. These are just a quick look at how I put my pages together. I'm planning to make a longer, more detailed video and post about layered templates but these little evening snippets are the best I can do on a week night when my house is full (and loud). Thanks for being here - as always, email me any questions. #DecemberDaily #DigitalScrapbooking #DigitalTips

To finish off my recent series of posts (start HERE) about scrapbooking & Lightroom, I've made a video just going through the process. #DigitalTips #Lightroom