Project Life: My Perspective (Part 1)

I am so very excited about all the chatter I'm seeing on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, blogs and on message boards about Project Life 2012. Most times the paper crafting part of my world exists primarily online but this year I am thrilled to have several close friends, including my very best friend, and even my 7 year old son join in the Project Life movement.

A movement is defined by Webster as an organized effort to promote or attain an end. Organized? Maybe not but there is an effort within this scrapbooking community of ours to find manageable ways to capture and record the beautiful, crazy lives we are all living while still living this crazy, beautiful life. I love that this is an encouraging community, a community that works to inspire one another and willingly shares so much of what is personally working simply for the collective good. What works is different for everyone, we are all in various seasons of life and looking to fulfill different purposes with our craft but it excites me that this year there are so many people trying Project Life to see if its the right fit for them.

What I personally love is that Project Life will look different for everyone. Not only in the stories that we record but also in the way we record them.

In this community we have:

• women at the beginning of their story,
  



• mothers in the center of the tornado that surrounds early childhood,



• families in the midst of the all important teenage years,
  



• seasoned veterans of life writing some of their most exciting chapters,



• and some men that fall within all of these groups.

In this community we have:

• chronological scrapbookers,



• scrapbookers who approach their stories from a Library of Memories perspective,
  



• scrapbookers creating individual children and/or family yearbooks,



• paper scrapbookers,



• hybrid scrapbookers,



• digital scrapbookers,



• industry leaders,



• design team members,



• everyday scrapbookers who have no connection to the industry,



• scrapbookers fully immersed in the online community,



• scrapbookers who do not share their layouts online,



• scrapbookers who fall somewhere in between,



• some taking a picture a day,



• some viewing their layouts through the week viewfinder,



• some using a monthly approach,



• scrapbookers who are using Project Life to supplement their existing system,



• those who are only scrapbooking via Project Life,



• some who are using Project Life as a school album for their children,



• some who are using Project Life to organize pictures from the past,



• scrapbookers who are coming back to this craft after a long break due to whatever,
  



• scrapbookers who are want to get back to telling their stories for them,



• and scrapbookers who just want to try something new.

What we all have in common is that we are leading full lives that are worthy of being honored, we all have stories to tell.

Not only are our stories different but the way we tell them, the voice we use, the pictures, the creative energy and the authenticity of ourselves is different. I love that Becky has brought together so many different creative energies together in her first Project Life creative team. There are so many opportunities for connection and inspiration. I love that Becky welcomes and encourages all kinds of scrapbookers from the simplest to the artistic to those that fall somewhere in between to use Project Life in a way that works for them.

All that you've read up to now has been in draft for over a week but I feel it is important to touch on something that has been on my mind all weekend before I go on with any of my other planned content. I share the following with you in hopes of bringing the focus back to you, your story, your approach and the truth that how that compares to anyone else simply isn't important. What is important that you are telling your story. I take great pleasure that my children, my colleagues, those I admire from afar and my very close friends are so very unique. Their differences are what make my life beautiful.

Last week I read a lot of feedback from those that were overloaded with the inspiration of Project Lifer's that lean towards the artistic end of the spectrum. I read of feelings of inadequacy regarding simple layouts. I read of questioning whether or not Project Life has become too trendy, too complicated, too much.

My confession: Days/weeks before I read any of this, I saw the popularity of Project Life increase and became keenly aware that so.many.designers that I greatly admire were taking on this project. I was absolutely intimidated and questioned being on Becky's creative team.

I asked myself, what do I, a full time working mother of two (soon to be three) who has taken a step back from scrapbooking publicly, possibly bring to the table? All I'm trying to do is tell my family's story. How can I fulfill my role on this team when there will be so much inspiration out there by designers that I simply cannot keep up with?

I recently expressed some of these doubts to Becky and she encouraged me, as she has encouraged you, that there is no pressure to be creative. Do what you want do to. Simple = good.

Remember simple looks different for everyone. Becky's simple, my simple and your simple are all going to look different.

Becky's encouragement propels me to leave behind my insecurities and find the value in my work for me, my family and in sharing with you. I may not bring you the latest techniques, the most creative layouts, or most efficient process. However, I will share with you my journey, my best practices and hopefully some creative inspiration as well. What I will work to bring most is my unique perspective.

I'll be back next week to share more of my originally planned content regarding my perspective, specifically on being "behind" but before I do since so many reading are new to my blog I'm going to share my personal scrapbooking journey to put my 2011 Project Life experience into context. Depending on how long winded I get this may end up being a three part post. :)

See you back on Thursday for a sharing of Week 51, including a behind the scenes on how I put the week together. Thanks for stopping by!

Monica