Let It Go

I think one of the challenges that a scrapbooker faces is narrowing down the pictures one wants to use.  Ideally, of course, I would scrap them all, but that would mean I would be years behind and my album load would be insane. 

My solution, well more like lack of solution, was to be brutal and scrap just a few from each photo set.  That was until this past January, when my whole perspective on scrapping changed....

I officially retired from Project Life last December.  I say retired, because for me, Project Life was like a job.  A job I did not like.  I liked the concept and the finished pages, but for me is was too time consuming and the creativity, for me, just disappeared.  I always felt so much pressure and it was not fun.  And most importantly, it took time away from traditional scrapping, which is what I LOVE to do. 

Yet, even though I released myself from the bondage of Project Life, I still loved all of the PL products.

My solution then was to incorporate the "pocket style" into my traditional scrapping.  Simple, but game changing.

My scrapping went from exclusively 12x12 to a mix of 8.5x11 and pocket pages. My albums are now an eclectic, but organized, mix of pages.  And amazingly, I am now able to include pictures that before 2014 would not have made the cut.  I am now in my happy scrappy place.

Here is an example of two co-ordinating pages that sit side by side in my son's album:

 

 

     

By using pocket pages to fit in more photos, I feel that my stories are more complete and I am able to share a bigger picture....I also get to use all of those awesome PL cards! 

 

 

 

 

Project Life is absolutely a fantastic project.  Like I said earlier, I like looking at other's PL work. I am amazed by some of the PL spreads that I see, but I found that the project wasn't entirely my cup of tea and I am okay with that.  By taking what I did like about it and letting go of the rest, I found my way back to feeling incredibly happy and content with the hobby that I love.

Michelle