Memory Keeping - Anniversary Minibook - 1YR Batch 1

So far, I've only shared my title page for my Project Life album.  This is the dominant craft in my life right now, so I'll be sharing about it the most. The reason why it dominates my craft life is its purpose: memory keeping. In order to be caught up, I have to spend some time on it every week.  Otherwise, I forget the little details that prompted this project.  Even at this point, while January is 90% documented, February, March, and April are mainly empty.  It seems daunting at times because I feel like we make more memories than I have time to document.  I still have quite a bit of 2015 to catch up on and I also have to document our trip to Scotland and an Anniversary minibook.  As more time passes, the more I forget...I need to come up with a note taking method to make sure I capture the little things that I originally set out to capture.

A bit into my PL process: I do this in batches.  I never finish a spread in one session.  Some amazing people out there, like Kelly Purkey, Ali Edwards, and Candace Perkins, are able to complete their page in one sit down session, then move onto another.  I've tried this method, and it's never really worked for me.  I like to do a lot of the same thing in one session, hence, batches.

I first learned about this method in an A Beautiful Mess class, taught by Rachel Denbow: Scrapbook in a Week.  I didn't know before the class that there are other people who do Project Life in the same way and that there is an actual name for it!  I'm sure that everyone's batching process is different and my batching is definitely different from Rachel's.  I'm also taking a class at Studio Calico taught by Stephanie Bryan, Day by Day: Mix it Up.  She too works in batches.  I was surprised to learn that working in batches encourages her creativity.  She is another giant in the scrapbooking world, known especially for her minibooks.  I thought that someone like her could pull creativity out from under the dust!

In the class, Stephanie asked us to think about what we wanted to work on in this class, and in what size.  I originally set out to document my fiancé's brother's wedding.  While the day was for the bride and groom, Ahra and Jesse, the focus of my memory keeping is on Andy and Me.  I decided to make a 6x8 minibook to capture little bits and pieces of the wedding, but mainly to record the fun time Andy and I had.

Originally....meaning, I'm not doing that.  I decided instead to work on my Anniversary minibook.  Here, I record any major and momentous day.  So far I only have my 6months completed.  So I decided to tackle my 1year date that we celebrated on December 7th.  Then the engagement.  Then the engagement celebration.  I love that it never ends ❤

So back to my project life process.  My first step is choosing photos, editing, then laying them out in photoshop.  This first step is done completely digitally.  By the end, I know exactly where all the photos are going to be.  I don't have to ponder the placement or decide which photos should be included.  I also don't print excess photos.  Everything is decided before printing.  Here are some pictures of my digital spreads after my first batch of the 1year date.

This page is my opener for our 1year.  It's actually scraplifted off a project that I saw on the Studio Calico gallery.  I'll be writing a separate post on it later :)  Usually for opening pages, I pick a nice picture of the two of us and make a scrapbook layout.  This time, it was a picture of us holding hands after eating dinner.  The day was just so great and holding hands was such a sweet way to end it.  I guess I'm a backwards sort of person...using an ending picture to open.

Our day started out with Andy picking me up from school and then driving over to Ihop, where we ate on our first date.  I added a digital stamp from Ali Edwards' Messy Daily Circles and some text through photoshop onto a 6in x 8in photo of the restaurant.  The black vertical rectangle is a page protector separator where the actual gap and album rings would be.  The white block next to the eggs is a blank 3in x 4in spot.  In the physical album, I'll be adding a card to write more (a journaling card) or a card to just look pretty (filler card).

Second stop of the day: Target.  We had a White Elephant gift exchange coming up and we had to buy gifts.  The best place to shop is always Target!  We spent over an hour in this place.  Like actually.  We started out by having a lot of fun.  As you can see in the above picture, I'm a kid trapped a...well a kid's body.  But by the end I was dragging my feet because I was so tired.  Even getting coffee from the Starbucks in the store took forever.

Andy knows that I love nature (he does too, but not as much as I do).  So he took me to Alley Pond Park where everything was just so beautiful.  There were ducks, geese, and swans!  Because it was a warm winter, the foliage was still present and colorful.  Plus, THERE WAS AN ADORABLE LITTLE PUPPY!

We took so many pictures of everything.  But we got A LOT of pictures of duck butts.  Once in a while, the ducks would look underwater for food.  So they just flipped 90 degrees down.  There would be crowds of just butts.  Yes, I'm still just a kid :)  The wide blank on the upper left is a 4in x 6in slot and the squares on the right are 2in x 2in.

We stayed at the pond for a long time to see the sunset.  I know that some of the colors can be attributed to the chemical pollution we have dumped into our atmosphere, but the sky is still so beautiful.

I absolutely love this 3in x 8in silhouette picture, but the better picture is the one of Andy and me because together is better.

Onto the photo on the lower left, I added an Ali Edwards freebie stamp and more text.  We had some time before dinner so we took a break in the car to play games :)  Then we went to The Barn.  If you live in NYC, please please visit this place.  It's super rustic inside and when I ordered the mulled wine, I felt like I was in the Mediaeval Times.  Amazing.

Here is a spread of our food.  So on the left side, 3/4's of the page looks blank.  There is a thin horizontal black line though.  That line is to separate the page into two 3in x 4 in boxes and one 4in x 6in box.  But oh my gosh the food.  So gooodddddd.  We demolished the food by mindlessly cramming it down our throats.  But the one thing that needs special mention is the fingerling potatoes that came with my fiancé's steak.  So crispy and good and amazing.  Please, just go and experience it for yourself!

Here is the last page of our 1year section of this minibook.  We had an amazing flourless chocolate cake.  It was so good!  A glass of milk would have been perfect with this cake.  But these two pictures wrap up our celebration and a thoughtfully planned date.

Putting all of the spreads together on the computer took a few hours.  Now the photos are all printed and placed into the correct pockets.  Batch 2 is filling in the remaining spots with either journaling or filler cards.  To completely honest, Batch 2 is more difficult for me than Batch 1.  There's an artistic element to Batch 2 that I struggle with, and I also feel the pressure to find the perfect card for each spot.  BUT NO MORE!  I know that all of the pressure is in my head and that it's unnecessary.  Hopefully this time, I'll focus more on the story telling aspect and a little less on the aesthetic aspect.

So here is our 1year anniversary celebration and the beginning of my Project Life process.  To anyone not familiar with the batch process or unhappy with their current Project Life process, I hope that this provides some insight into a new method.  For those who do do the batch process, yay! Batchers!  However I do have to mention one more thing.  While I, Jenn Han, start digitally, no one else needs to.  A computer and Photoshop are not necessary at all.  Project Life can be catered to YOUR at home supplies at YOUR convenience.  It really is what you make it to be.

Ok, bye :)