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Becky's Story & How Project Life Began

I'm confused a little bit of samples from my experience, but let me tell you a little bit more about my story and how it relates, tio modern scrapbooking how it fits into this because I honestly feel like I don't love the attention on me, but I really feel like if I explain where I've been in this picture, you'll understand how project life came to be and it will just I think click a little bit more so I was seventeen I already showed you a little bit of this scrapbook I was seventeen when I first started really scrapbooking thiss little black book I showed you was pre that okay, that was before seventeen here's all this when I was able to take the paper in the plastic in the album put it together I had a major connection with hobby with the hobby of scott booking because it was organizing and it was personal family history and it was creative it was all these things that I love case that was my initial personal connection to it. I also should mention that I am blessed with parents who...

did a great job documenting my childhood I don't have thousands and thousands of pictures of probably none of us dio, but my dad in particular he had to get up the camera he even had a dark room in the basement where he could use the bathroom it is our little bathroom that he could block out all the light and put in his little, you know, special colored light bulbs and develop these black my pictures, and I would spend hours in there with him developing these pictures and so pictures for me are, you know, they're just oh, there's something really special about having these prints and he really infused without doing it intentionally, that love of pictures and me early on, so I'm in high school, I start scrapbooking, I go to college and my freshman year of college was really challenging for a lot of reasons, but one of them was I was really struggling with thiss I hate to use the word sounds so strong, but I had an obsession with this new hobby of mine. I was so excited about what I was doing, and I was developing a passion for what I was doing, and so I continue doing scrapbooks in college, and I did them so much that I was not studying quite as much as I should have. And now, many years later, I can say, well, then that's ok, that worked out just fine for me, but at the time it was it had me in tears because I'm like, I love. I love what I'm doing here, and it wasn't just for myself I couldn't help a share it with other people I wanted I had my roommate melanie melanie, you have to to this, I'm telling you, look at the five like this is my dorm room with melanie, actually, and I would spend hours sitting at my teeny tiny little desk smaller than this one for sure and I would do scrapbooks, but not only that I would go two stores or local and and I would say, I want to teach I want to teach scrapbooking I want other people to get the joy that I am getting out of doing something with my pictures can I teach some of them said no, some of them said, ok, fine, let this waiting to her things so that they'll shall leave us alone and I would charge twelve dollars and three people would come and I was chest like guys, we got to do this so I really develop that passion early on and really was excited to share it so that's what was happening in college and then and then who knows what this says creating keepsakes magazine? Uh, such a special place in my heart for this magazine is now ending it's an indie manera because scrapbooking for this magazine they the economy has affected publishing and right now the november december issue of creating keepsakes is is that this is the end of this magazine, but let me tell you about the beginning this magazine started while I was in college and I remember getting that little flyer in the mail and it was saying new magazine about scrapbooking and I might go oh you're saying that there's a whole publication from my hobby and so this was such a huge thing from because I'm like I can't believe that there's going to be this inspiration on a on a monthly basis coming in my mailbox. So so that was my start with creating keepsakes is I got that mailer and I got that first issue and I just I mean, I was soaking in and some of you watching have also received that first issue are those first few issues and so I got this magazine and then e I won't go into the details, but I I stumbled remember him teaching right? I'm teaching at this time and I'm in college and I'm working and I'm teaching and I and I'm married now at this point too, and I happen to meet the editor's mother so the editor the one who started co founded this magazine lisa bernsen oh, I am not going to cry she started something really special because she took with this hobby is this industry and really was one of those pioneers in this industry to make it means something to people because it brought inspiration into people's homes this publication oh, ugo, this is not an emotional topic you can tell it means something to me because I not only love the magazines, but then I got I had this opportunity to just meet her mother clearing downs one day randomly in church, away from my home, I was with some other kids took them the church, and then we got chatting found out who she was, and I'm like, well, I love that like a scene I didn't cry, I didn't cry at that point. I love this magazine, I actually teach classes at local stores and she's like, well, let me let me show my daughter your stuff and so to make a long story short couple weeks later, at least a calls me and I was sitting on a store like this in my in my kitchen and my little newlywed apartment and just about fell off. I could not believe I was getting this phone call from somebody tio I'm not a star struck type of person, I just I I loved lisa for what she did and so long story short, I promised I would make this short, I I found myself writing for this magazine, and I published my very first article that was on creative lettering and this was my entry point to this industry do you have to remember that creative lottery we haven't talked about yet? We're not going talk about it more but you have to know that this was my thing I loved and when I have time time doodling I still have a little bit I love creative lettering and so this was my place to start in the magazine is as this is this one article and what happened was the response this article because I broke it down and explain hey guys, you can do this letter and it's just that that step by step and this is a fun way to add to your scrapbooks and people are like, oh, I can't do this and so it happened that I did another one and then I did another one and then I became an employee and then I became their creative editor and then and then it just kind of grew and exploded and then and I evolved in my hobby and in my career and just things just kind of happened it was never my plan it was never what I was aiming to do because scrapbooking didn't really exist before this so I was just kind of there going oh ok and ok, I'll do that sure and I'll go teach sure this is I mean great so all of this happened and in my evolution I became known for sketches aa lot more nodding continuing to happen because you guys remember, for those of you who have been around that after lettering, it became more sketches and what does that mean? It means that I was able to help people break down like when you're looking at this blank canvas of twelve by twelve paper, for example well, where do you put pictures? How do how do you even play stuff on the page? And I'm no graphic designer I don't have any design background as faras formal training it was just it's something that I like to draw lines I like to draw lives and I like to draw boxes and I like to lay things out and so I stumbled into that and so I was kind of known for sketches. So then there so there was the lottery there was the sketches and then before you know it I had written and published nine bucks on this hobby. So I was working for the magazine who was the publisher and they published nine of my book. So these air kind of my babies when it comes to my career you guys have some of these you have all so you remember what's really funded you, khun see my hairstyle change for years and I am always changing it up I still deal and so yeah there's a lot of nostalgia and seeing some of this this old stuff but I was so sorry e I look down here now the books were written between nineteen, ninety nine in two thousand seven so there's a very small span of time that I was just crank and stuff out. Why was I doing this? Why why was I doing this? I can tell you is never for paycheck. It was never for that I did this because not only that I love it for what it was doing for me but I loved that there was his opportunity to help other people figure out how to enjoy this hobby a little bit more. So that's what happened? Okay, I not only did this is a career and it just sort of happened and it was accidental, but I also did it for myself personally, I related to everyone that I was writing teo and sharing with I got it. I was a very true blue scrapbook er and every since the word and there's, a lot of people watching and some of us sitting here who know that feeling like you just you do it all, you do it all and you become obsessed with it again that word super strong and it's probably use a little too much, but we do get really excited about her hobby and then and then guess what happened in my life? I had babies on, and this is something that I as a young girl, it's all I ever wanted to do was be a mother it's all that ever mattered to me. And so I was finding that, um, immense amount of joy being able to take the things that were special to me, these babies in my life wanted a time three years apart, take their pictures, their memories and put them into a scrapbook. So that was joyful that blend of can love people people. I love my family and I love my life and I want to put them in the book and that's the way a lot of people started stop looking is because they have a baby. Ok, now the sole person this accused the on the earth and I have to do everything with these pictures. The other thing that comes with that is reality it's hard work to be a mother and it is the most joyful work ever ever. Um, and to balance at all and to try to do it all to ease that term a lot is not possible. It's, not there's ways to do it this way is toe scrapbook that could be simpler but it's still this like, okay, baby sleeping now's my chance on camera I only got you know, three pictures on the page and I have a holy out to do and you guys know what I'm talking about like there's this whole okay, I don't have time but I love to do this and so not only did I get scrapbooking but I have to really got motherhood I got what it was like to be a mother and to be a working mother again wasn't working for the paycheck but I felt a very important role that I had to teach to do something to help people do something with their pictures what happened in this process of me becoming a mother because I I I was scrapbooking not to throw out dates and ages and stuff, but it was a long time before we were able to have a first child and so there were many years of me just like la la la I got all the time in the world I have this career and this hobby and and then like I said when the kids came reality set in okay, so what happened was as the kids came along I started now to relate to everybody of my friends, family, people who whatever who would say to me good for you, good for you that scrap booking to think good for you that you're doing something with your pictures in getting them organized and nobody got time for that I promised myself I wouldn't say that way just dated this material really fast two thousand thirteen you remember that you teo? I really did resonate with everyone who had said that I really did understand ok, they're right, this is hard to keep up. I love this so I love being a mother and I love working and I love scrap booking and it can't all work together, so I really did learn to to shift my mentality, tio this idea of who can blame them, who could blame them? People who aren't scrapbooking people who struggle with it, I'm right there with you. I understand so did get harder and harder and I did simplify, but it was still scott booking it was still cutting and pasting, so let me bring it to a point of evolution and evolution is a process it is we're always always moving right along and this is what happened in my path. As I tried a little experiment, I decided on remember I'm still working for creating keepsakes at the time I'm still I'm working and I'm doing my hobby and still like, you know, going through the motions, but I'm it's stressful it's hard for me to keep up, and so I thought, you know what there's this concept that I have seen out there with photographers project three sixty five that's the term that's been coined a long time ago I did not make that up. Let me point that out I decided that I was just going tio shake things up in my own world and I'm going to take a picture a day for a year and that will be my scrapbooking I'll still do the sample pei designed to do to accompany my articles in the magazine and and I'll still teach and you know and I'll do it and I still love it but I think I'm my own I didn't tell anyone on my own I decided I was gonna take a picture a day and so that's what I did starting on january first and I took a picture or captured something receipts or something every day ok, this is you see these pages falling apart that's not on purpose hey san francisco that's what this trip is, what happened was I was finding an immense amount of joy from taking pictures of the day to day but choosing one one picture was going to represent my life and my family's life every day that's it one picture day was going to tell her story and so that's what happened and then this happened I'm taking a picture a day and then I get pregnant now that doesn't mean anything to most people, but to me I get really sick really sick down and out flat on my back sick and it is it's really hard to keep up so so what these daily pictures let me tell you about my experience I knew that taking a picture every day was telling my story and then what's the next step I got to do something with them how do I get my pictures into a format that aiken joint were on that scrap booking them right now that's my whole experience are my my experiment is to not scrapbook them but just to put them into a book so that I can see them so they could tell story they could be in order and so I went looking for an album that's what I found pick this up in a store you know, photo album and so I was struggling because I'm like well this not pretty and the pages air falling out and I don't really wanna write my journaling here and so I would spend time and photoshopped adding captions you know, to the pictures okay? That's fine, but it wasn't it wasn't really simplifying like my whole effort was too try an experiment with the simplifying so this is where I was and this is what my experiment wass and then guess what happened guess what happened right right about there by the end of february I was so sick and could not keep up with this but the couple of months that I was able to keep up with daily documenting was the most rewarding experience I was having as a scrap occur, I was finding out that this is my story. This is my family's history and it's being told and I could be selective and she was just one picture day and get into a book and we can be done and that's our story and was feeling good about it and then I couldn't keep up so oh, I saw it for away, which I found this I sought for a way to put them into a book, and I was not satisfied with this and so all of this to say and sharing my experience of where I've been and why I did what I did and how I tried what I tried is to say that this all of this is the reason why I created something that was a solution for myself because it did not exist. I really wanted to get pictures into an album it wasn't about the project three, sixty five idea, but I wanted to just slip things in and just be done with that photo albums have existed for years, but it was different because slipping photos into an album is fine and good and great for anybody who's doing that, his organizing their pictures and then where's the journaling where is the journal and go well, you saw what I was doing I was photoshopping and taking time and adding text and moving it around and photoshopping printing the pictures and I don't want to right here it's an option but it just isn't pretty to me and so I went looking for that solution couldn't find it and I found myself at this crossroads and I with all of my heart said to creating keepsakes well when I skipped something I took this concept of project three sixty five to creating keepsakes we've produced as a product we produce the product so that people could actually get their pictures their everyday pictures project three sixty five into an album this is what it looked like and this was the turning point this is what it wass is that at a glance you could see one week at a time there's a title card that said week of and then you have your seven pictures and then you have your journaling cards that was a solution to what I couldn't find before is this idea of taking pictures and journaling cards together slipping them into pockets? I didn't decorate anything I wasn't using embellishments I slept a little sticker on each you know it just says a day but I didn't have to do that that was just something kind of fun extra adding the kit but we produces a product and it went like crazy. Did anybody get project three? Sixty five? Lisa lisa, anyone. So you did michelle, right? You got project to sixty five, and it was a crazy experience. It was a crazy and a lot of ways I will go into all of that. But it was like we couldn't I mean, it's sold out within hours. And so why? You know, why were people so excited about project three? Sixty five? Well, scott walker's get excited. First of all, we get excited about things that are new and exciting, but also people saw wait. So I'm slipping things into pockets and telling my story, and I'm not decorating anything, okay? So I developed project three sixty five without having a clue what it was really going to become project life. So the idea was daily pictures slip it into an album at the journaling and what evolved to be is yeah, all of that. Except forget about the daily pictures. It doesn't matter what pictures you have, they could be everyday pictures. It could be a trip. It could be a wedding. It could be a new baby. You're just sticking stuff in pockets. Well, that's, what photo albums are you stick stuff in pockets. But the journalist was missing and that is the other part of the story that we want to tell with our scrapbooks. And so this beautiful, exciting thing was happening where people were going oh, my goodness! I can slip stuff into album simply it's quick it's done and so that's what happened? And that's where I was getting to this point of saying I was at a crossroads because I was going this works for me this works for me and oh my gosh, it works for a lot of other people apparently there's something here and meanwhile I was losing my passion for the decorative stuff I love to be creative. I'll say it again I enjoy being creative. I still infuse creativity and different things in my life, but when it comes to scrap booking I was fighting this thing was working for me and it was working for other people. So I resigned from creating keepsakes lots of love both ways all good, but I knew that I needed to take this concept and do something with it. And so my husband and I created the company. Um becky hands was the best we could come up with on that's ok, I guess martha stewart ended up doing the same thing this's born in two thousand nine and project three sixty five became project life and we change things up a little bit to make a little bit more versatile the cards don't say week of you know doesn't marry you into this idea of daily documentation it's just the concept it's this idea of being able to no matter what your pictures are slipped them into pockets okay, so that's how project life was born and this is what it looks like this is just a sample of what project life looks like and I have this layout here with me in person so I could just show you what you're seeing also on the slide is this this looks like what scrapbook layout scrapbook page layout right here looks just like any other scrapbook page layout except it's compartmentalized everything's in pockets and so every picture and every card and everything that you see on here slips into pockets I slipped everything into pockets on the sleigh out and you would think I would now go and then I did this not so much none of that I slipped things into pockets period that's it that's all I did and what do I have? Ah beautiful scrapbook page layout. So for those who are who think thes thought they knew what scrapbooking was supposed to be, I really want eyes to be open to this idea that it does not have to be all the things that we were talking about complicated and time consuming and expensive, and it takes up all the space and I have to be creative because I can tell you that putting this I'm showing you one layout example, putting this together is none of the above solution. Ok, let me tell you something that jessica shared. Jessica turner is a blogger who and a friend who started scrapbooking, that you're going to hear more from her actually there's a couple things I'm sharing from her, but she says it's, a scrapbooking has freebie from the stress of trying to document it all through layouts that took hours to make and always being behind it is simple, affordable and beautiful it's like that word behind? Does that make you feel good and warm and fuzzy? Because I don't think so. I don't think so. You guys really toward jessica saying, yeah, um, it doesn't have to be all of these things. Scrapbooking can be complicated. Project life is scrapbooking project like the scrapbooking? Okay, but there's no more fest. We are back to the basics of photos and stories. This is what we love most about scott looking anyway, isn't it? The other thing with project life is that there's no more guilt that were behind that use? We get behind like a like a swear word. But that's horrible that we feel behind on everything, and we will come back to that topic because we all do feel behind. And lisa, you said you've done a lot, I remember, but you feel very behind stuck to him a lot prior to that. Um, what else about project life? It's, super fast and easy and raise your hand if you're a little busy in your life because that would be all of us that we are busy, we are busy. I don't care what your life situation is because we're not all cut from the same cloth a ce faras our jobs, families and life situations. But we are all busy there's, no question about it, we want and need fast and easy, and it is affordable. Scrapbooking can be extremely expensive, which is another really big reason that people stay away, but it can be simplified tremendously by sticking with just a few products. And most of all, most importantly, we have more time to do and to be what matters most because this matters a whole lot more to me than thiss on actual scrapbook that's great, it means a lot to me, but that being a mother and a wife and a friend and being a person. That is capable of a lot that we all are capable of doing a lot in our life and being a good force in the world whatever our talents are that where we need to spend our time and I'm not saying that it's not ok to spend hours and hours and hours doing memory keeping his that's important but we have to balance it out and the hobby should not overtake the experience once upon a time after feeling overwhelming getting nearly ten years behind on my scrapbooks I kind of gave up I packed the pictures away although I continued paper crafting I put photo albums on hold because I was just too far what's the word behind thank you cheryl for sharing that she gave up and cheryl goes on to explain that she uh because a project like this let me let me explain this this sadly she continues I lost a big part of myself by doing this I love to create to document to remember project life it's hell three kendall my life a tangible memory keeping I can do it simply or embellished I can combine digital elements and simple photography I can document a week at a time or expand for major events right now I am completely caught up on the past three years of my family's lives the best part is that it's told from my perspective as a mom, wife and friend I know this will be an invaluable treasure for my family for generations to come. In addition to yearly photo albums, I also have many themed albums, and my seven year old daughter still started her own album this summer. It has really changed my perspective on how I document memories. I now add lists and status updates, letters, mementos, excerpts from flog post drawings. Possibilities are endless, don't get overwhelmed by that part, just hold on. We're going to talk about that. This is a clean and easy way to show what life is like for my family every day, and the best part, they're out in my home and being read and being looked at hearing my kids is they flip through the pages insane, remember when it makes it all worth it, sy, I'm happy just thinking about it. I love stuff like that.