Sharing Project Life® | Becky Higgins

I’m popping in to say hi from my home office in Arizona …through the Studio Calico blog …which is based out of Kentucky …and coming through to you …all over the world. How fun is that?!

First of all, THANK YOU for being a part of what we do! Seriously. I know many of you subscribe to the Project Life® by Studio Calico program and I love seeing glimpses of what magic you’re making with the products when paired with your memories! I am blown away by what I see sometimes, and think it’s pretty amazing to see so many people share in their love of memory-keeping. Such a beautiful thing.

Aside from feeling just plain grateful, the other thing that is mucho on my mind as I share a few thoughts with you today, is how beautiful it is when we can share this whole scrapbooking thing with those we love most. And I don’t just mean in a “look at what I made”sort of way (although that’s awesome too). I mean - if people in your life are old enough and capable, let’s get them more involved in the memory-keeping! Let’s make this more of a family affair.

Here are a few ways I like to involve my kids in my ongoing efforts to document our family’s memories with Project Life.

1. Give them supplies & set them free. Each of our 3 children have a Project Life® Mini Album, access to lots of Project Life cards, and they are encouraged to add to it anytime. My role is to help them get a handful of photos printed upon request, and the rest is up to them. They choose which photos they want, which cards to use, and what they’re going to write. These little scrapbooks are very, very “them”.

2. Include their handwriting. I do this as much as I possibly can. My kids are relatively young, so their handwriting ranges from just starting out to pretty well established, but all are growing and their handwriting will continue to evolve for years to come. There’s nothing like capturing that right now - just as it is. And …directly on Project Life cards that can easily be slipped into their albums.

3. Capture their “here & now”. What I mean is, jotting things down immediately after they happen. Sometimes it means right at that moment, writing down exactly what they said because it should be recorded word for word. Sometimes it means at the end of the day, making a note or two about something that you recall about your child from the day.

I recently blogged about how I keep these “We Noticed”Journals for our kids. This is my best resource for pulling things into the kids’12x12 albums that I put together for them (different than their little albums they do for themselves). There’s no way I can remember next month, let alone tomorrow, what Crew said today that was so funny. But I can pull from my notes and add it to his album anytime I’m working on it.

Just a few examples of things from the kids’journals that were recorded immediately:

Porter (11 years old): I found a note with money that was left for me. He wrote, “THANK YOU for the donuts and sorry me and Claire ate most of them. PS I gave you $5 because that’s how much the donuts cost. My money - not yours.”

Claire (8 years old): I was hanging out with Claire and our dog Oreo at bedtime and she very matter-of-factly said, “I’m the reason we got a dog. You’re the one that didn’t want a dog. And now look at you. The lesson you learned is …Get another dog, Mom!”

Crew (5 years old): In our home we have a saying - You get what you get, and you don’t throw a fit. Crew turned that into something different one day when he wanted to do something other than what I was asking him to do. “I’ll do what I do you’re not going to throw a fit!”

Involve your children. Your spouse. Your boyfriend. Your parents. Your best friend. Whoever you love that is near and dear would probably be delighted to share the experience with you. Invite them. Have them write something on a card or share a few of their own pictures to include on the next layout.

At the end of the day - and if we choose to make it this way - scrapbooking not only keeps our treasured memories very much alive, but it builds connections and strengthens relationships, too. And that right there is precisely what makes this hobby of ours so remarkable.