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Free Preview: Getting Started

Take it away, becky way wantto get started way do want to get started. This's exactly what this segment is about is we're going to talk about getting started. We established in the last segment just in case anyone wasn't able to catch that who's watching through the internet, we really established what project life really is and kind of the meaning of it in the history of it. And so this segment, we're going to get, like, really involved, and I'm going toe the really involved with you guys here in the live studio audience on. Do you have some conversation about how to do this and to do it effectively? So two main things when I think about getting started with scrap booking in general or project life specifically, I think of two main aspects of getting started, we're going to get started in terms of our photos. Where on earth do we begin with that? And we're also going to get started in terms of products and that's, because project life is a system and it's super simple, but there are o...

ptions available within the system, and this is a great time to just review what's out there because even there's a lot of people who have heard of project life and, you know, they're getting started with it as well, but they maybe have just seen a portion of it, and I want to be able to review what it entails, and so we were going to dig in, we're going to talk about everything about, you know, with photos and with products, and I want to emphasize to you guys who were here with me that I invite you to interrupt me, ask your questions, there's probably going to be some comments and questions that our field it through the internet, and I want this to be a lot more interactive in the last segment because it just is we're digging in, so you're going to feel at some points, like, ok, he lost me a little bit. I'm happy to clarify, happy to clarify any point that I might be not meaning to skip over. So the first thing that we're going to dio when we get started, as we're going to assess, we have to ask assess what's happening before we dig in, we're going to assess our photos, and we're going to do this for the sake of becoming more aware. And so we could all honestly say you got a lot of photos, thousands of them okay, that's fine and good, and we already know that that doesn't take a research. But to dig in a little bit more and do a more full assessment on really like what do you have? How far back do you go with your pictures whether their digital or physical prince is going to be really important? And and I'm I guess the question be why why is it so important? Why do you think it matters that we do this assessment? And I I believe that it might surprise you why this is important and it could be for good or for bad, but awareness is really the key to knowing where to get started being aware of not I have thousands of pictures, but ok, I've got this I got this and this and that that's going to help us go ok, now I could get a grip on where we're going to begin, so that's my point so I haven't assignment that I would like to share for those who are tuning in you guys here in the audience had I sent out a little note to everybody before the show and ask you guys to kind of get on board with me on this whether you did it or not don't stress, but at least a few of you, I'm sure dead as we're talking about assessment, the assignment is to literally walk around your house and make a list of everything that's kind of hanging out in terms of pictures, memorabilia, memory keeping and it's stuff that you it could be hidden endorse it could be in cabinets on shelves, and it could be completed scrapbooks beautifully done on a shelf that looks so nice. Or it could be that, you know, red full bottom drawer coated with dust that, you know, pictures are in there and you haven't cracked it open in many years. Ok? It doesn't matter what it is. Anything that has to do with memory keeping. I want you to walk around, and I want you to assess now for those who are watching live, we don't have time to wait for everybody to go walk around the house. So if you're watching this rebroadcast, this is a great opportunity to pause the show and go walk around. It could probably take you all of fire attendant is it doesn't have to be a huge project, the next step and walking around, and I shouldn't say the next up while you're walking around might, uh, my encouragement would be that you walk around with paper and pen. I did this myself, and the idea would be that you walk around and you are ready to take notes because, like I said, we all know that we have lots of you know, thousands of pictures and those of us who are scrap pickers we know we have scrapbooks I want you to write down what you have and I don't need a list of every single album, but I need a general idea of what's already been done and what's hanging out waiting to be done in order to help you get to that starting point and I have to also say that this would be so much more fun if I could just go to your house with you and I can't and it would be great if we could just hang out together and make that list together and I could be better at personalise ing this for you even more but that's not an option in this context and so I'm gonna do my very best to help you really personalize it yourself based on what we're going to go through with these with these processes so get a write down everything that you have you're going to write down everything that you've done we're going to have a list of everything that still needs to be done that's the longest part probably of the list for most people and we are going to discuss more specifically why this is helpful but way need to understand like I said that this is going to get us to that starting point so we're going toe I'm going to share my own assessment again, this is not something that I have ever done before I've shared a lot over the years. I've shown you already a few things I've never shared before, and I'm going to continue sharing things I haven't shared before. I just don't want this to be about me, that's, why I'm pretty like I scale back how much actually put out there, but this is a great opportunity to really open up. I want people to see how behind I am. I want you guys to see this on, I don't don't get excited for pictures, I actually have pictures of the stashes, but you you'll feel you'll feel that there's still a ways to go, you'll see that I've done a lot and that's that's, fine and good, but this is not becky show and tell time. I want to talk about what I still need to d'oh and what's important to me, and we're going to talk about what other people might feel like they they need to do so we're going to open up to you guys in a few minutes to get ready if you're if you're prepared with that kind of thing, but let me give you an example of what before even share my personal assessment, what I imagine some people are probably going to find I that we have some people watching who have never considered scrapbooking before. There are definitely people who take lots of pictures who've done nothing with them, so they're going to go well, this was easy because I've got nothing in my house, I have no albums, I have no printed pictures, you know, maybe this is our younger crowd and they've got everything right there in the palm of their hands. Fine, okay? And we're going to have people who are going to be probably, you know, even older who have all those printed, treasured heritage pictures and maybe technologies just like, whoa can't even go there don't even don't even take pictures these days, but I do have all these pictures from from the sixties and the fifties, and I even have some from the twenties, and I have, you know, they might have older pictures hanging out waiting. We're going to have a lot of people who have the mix probably most of us have a mix where we have some things printed. We have a lot of stuff hanging out on our computers a lot, I'm waiting to be printed and let's talk about our scrap bookers you guys are all at least you've experienced some scrapbooking, those of you here with me, we have a lot of people watching who have done scrapbooking, and I want you to assess what scrapbooks you've done again I don't need a specific list but just tell me do you have this chunk of your life scrapped? Is it somehow in the form of a book do you have did you do this yet again not for yells trips we're not going there assessing is important just to get us to the starting line okay that's why we're doing this no one's feeling guilty k pinky promise me right now nobody's going guilty pinky promise okay so I'll share my assessment I am asking you to walk around and write something down on a piece of paper that's what I did hey, I wrote specifically down my personal assessment this is my assessment I had my first scrapbook from high school I showed you that's a little black book that I shared in segment one it's not it's not a binder with the page protectors and it's just a scrap book you know I have that I did that and then starting with my my first real scrapbook with the binder and the page protectors and the pages that are decorated and astra bright and stickers I have those that's that I started I didn't know it was going to be what it became but that's what I would consider my, um life family ongoing chronological story all that I started when before he became a family before I got married in high kids when I was in college and as I was finishing high school actually and I have those chronological books from nineteen ninety four, which is when I graduated from high school until about two thousand nine is about when I was you know, and and there are a few gaffes, but really I that's a lot of scrap booking, and I get that I did not expect that people are as die hard as I am because this just is running through my veins and I can't help it, and that also results in aa lot of real estate in my house, I glanced over my husband he knows we know there's a lie. I there are many, many volumes of our family albums that are albums, binders ok like this that are big and started it in half by eleven went into twelve by twelve I've got a lot of them okay, so that's my chronological family albums, I'll call them and then what I did ever since starting project life. I started this in two thousand nine and I showed you my like, experimental book where I got sick that year and I was like, done, you know, I have through february that year I ended up cleaning up that mess later, I'll come back to that, but I have two current I have what I call a family yearbook that is in a skinny we're going to show this later but it's a skinny photo book okay instead of the big scrapbook it's a skinny photo book that I did using our product through shutterfly again we'll come back to that but just know that these big albums did transition remember evolutions good allow it invite it embrace it let yourself evolved and I realized that all those catholics were taking up a lot of space to move my family albums skinny books are where it's at for me as of recent okay well cooled again we'll come back to because I'm sure a lot of core like wait what what skinny photo books my husband's going to kill me with all these big out was I could go for the skinny bucks and we'll come back um all right then I have kids we have three children and I have a series of albums for each of them which some people are probably like she's lady calm down on I know it seems like a lot and I realized it's a lot but it is important to me and is a priority for me to create physical albums for each of our children that they can enjoy now and later we'll come back to that as well but I have them I'm still sharing my assessment are they caught up? Heck no no they're not caught up please no one think that my children's albums were caught up excuse me. All right, so I also have tapping in the childhood. I have a lot of stuff from my childhood and from my husband's childhood and it's all gathered when we first got married and remember I was in college. Remember what college was for me? Scrapbooking on the brain it was new and exciting. So you better believe I was going to my mother in law going hand him over and over the pictures give me all the members. Will you give me everything for my husband's life? And so I have everything that I have time to pick the right word because I was gonna say dolan was not really stealing my parents and my in laws are probably happy to say fine. Do something with it now they're really happy but I have taken all of my childhood stuff. All of david's child has stuff and I have it. I have it so it's on my assessment I have it. Have I done anything with it? I have a little bit and that's part of the assessment is that I have done some scattered scrapbooking, not project life not this easy. Slip it in pockets. But I have done some traditional scrapbooking where I lay out the pages and decorate the pages and all of that and I have ran dumbness, randomness and why is that? For most people who are scrap bookers who do randomly out it's because they're doing what feels good at the time, you know what? I feel motivated, I'm going to work on this great you worked on it for me, I'm in a very unique situation where I'm a professional in a scrap booking industry, so I I I am done many things over the years because of that task it hand thie assignment that I was given or the book that I was writing or the class that I was teaching or the whatever I was publishing, and so that's where my scattered nous comes from, and so I did a lot of stuff based on what project I was working on. So when I tapped into, for example, my childhood or david's childhood, I was don't going, oh, great, I have all david's little merit badges from scouts that's perfect, I'm going to lay out on that so I would do that, but you're not going to see a whole lot before after you're going to see that one darling picture of him in a scout shirt and all those merit badges, but you know that that's it for a while, and then you see something from high school, and then you see something over here is me over there. That's what I mean by scattered I have that for both of our childhoods I also have a heritage I have some heritage stuff I don't have all of the heritage stuff but I do have a bunch that I have I honestly remember how even came across a lot of it but my parents they know me well have given me a bunch of stuff knowing that I'm probably going to do something with it and more importantly where have evolved in that process will talk about this later and more death but scanners, scanners guys means that nobody has toe have the family heirloom pictures and everyone else is, you know, disappointed by that scanners means haven't done it yet I'm telling you I am behind in lot of ways my goal is to scan all of those used drop box or you know something to share them all everyone has these images problem solved, okay? But I do have some and I have some scattered layouts for heritage as well. One of the books that I wrote years ago was on heritage family history scrapbooking and so I was on fire about it I couldn't wait to put aside all of my current colorful, bright, vibrant pictures and go toe work with the family history stuff that I had and I mean talk about a rewarding experience really getting to know some of my own ancestors and my parents so I can't really call on ancestor my grand parents even that seems a little too close to call an ancestor but my ancestry, my family history and what I got to know about some of these individuals I was on the phone a lot with my mom in particular a little bit with my dad going, oh my gosh, did you know I came across this did you know? You know? And so we had a lot of fun together and it's such a new experience for me, but I have I have some of those scrapbook and they're scattered I have our wedding album done and I don't love it those pictures are really special to me obviously and it's really like dated we're going, we're going to come back to this topic because I don't want anyone thinking that I'm going to go back and redo all my stuff, ok? I also have several fame albums like little many albums and I see some nodding because a lot of scrap pickers do like to dabble in this idea of not necessarily the big albums but these little cute theme albums and I have I didn't write down which ones because I have some that are from trips I have some that were gifts to people from people when when david had a birthday it was like his thirtieth or twenty seven maybe is random I had everybody send in notes of what they love about david or whatever and I put that all together and a little album and we still have that he looks at it all the time he does not way we're talking about honesty, guys, but it was it really was actually one of my one of my favorite scrapbooking moments was actually giving him that album and him actually like looking through and reading all these messages from people is really who would not love that he loves it, he loved it. I got a bus that went out again. All right, on down I have tens of thousands of digital images, tens of thousands on my computer, some of which have been printed in scott booked and lots that have not and no, I do not think I need to scott took them off no way, no don't need toe so that's my personal assessment that's where I am, I have a lot that I've done and that is unusual to have that much so I'm not trying to pretend like we're all the same in terms of what we done because I just happen to be it's my work and my hobby and I love it and so I have a lot, but I have a lot I still want to do and I want to turn to you guys who are here with me and I would love to hear some of you share what your assessment has been you have your physical list look at it like I was looking at mine and let's hear the run down and hear what you have in terms of photos scrapbooks stuff is done stuff it's not done and who would like to share first? Okay great thank you doing this made me realize what I do and what I don't d'oh when I started the scrapbooking stuff yeah that's been done for the last ten years very good but traditional scott tio scrapbooking but all remember that well, that he's of albums were you studying okay, you know what they call those magnetic album magnet right? You guys know what I'm talking about? Yeah just in case anyone doesn't know I just want to explain its that it if the pages had like in a cohesive embedded in the page and then there's this plastic kind of lining that goes over it and so you can peel it back and stick your photos on what a solution right? That was a good idea stick your photos I'm they stick their you didn't have to would hear them with any product and then close it and then that's what it is and the main problem with that again just for anyone say could doesn't understand what the magnetic albums are is when they were first made probably improved now if they still exist but there was a lot of not archival material used particularly in that glue which means acid which means acid migrating to your photos which means deteriorating your photos which means save a bye to your photos okay so that's that's what the magnetic albums are carrying and well I started they came out in the seventies so all my seventies and eighties were in those albums and then I moved on my boat and I couldn't put my albums on my boat because you have salt water and this that he's so fortunately my mother god bless her took all my photos out of those albums nice so we're talking twenty years that wasn't an album yeah now in a five by seven by three four of those boxes and one of those fold up file boxes so that's just those twenty years in that he's is in all these shoebox three shoeboxes and one of the file folder boxes at least they're out of those I was going to say how do you feel about that issue that's either like han you know it's your mom she did it yeah right or it's thank you because that acid was getting into my picture you have only mixed feeling I thank her a lot and she was very nice and put everything that was in the let's say the beige album in a little packet so I know the years and that that came in that album so it's all neatly categories with ribbons in these boxes but there's twenty years bottom line here is absolutely okay is safe safer than it was in the magnetic. So okay, but I'm looking to get all of those out of the boxes and because I like looking at him or I wouldn't put him in the album's first you know, thank you for sharing that that's that's a great portion I bet a lot of people relate to is is that you know, many years whether they used to be in an album and were taken out or the artist in boxes who else would like to share part of your assessment of what you have? Yes ok, my sounds a lot like yours I have five kids I've done dedicated albums for each child I have between seven and ten volumes for each kid also done at least one annual album every year since nineteen eighty seven manual album like family our year in an album and it's for the family and the intentions probably that mom keeps it at home yes, because that is everyone else has their album, right? Okay and so an event like christmas comes up I'm doing six layouts of the same event when one priest child one ok you know so this is what I do sister I stayed being there's a lot of scrap bookers watching I have done the same thing because they're trying to get that same layout lay out and everybody's album and so there's a lot of head nodding around the world right now because that repeat layout is a very common thing to do and not a bad thing and not even a time waster it's something that you wanted to make sure that you got into each this is just what it looks like when somebody who's a little obsessive s oh yeah, I've got probably ninety maybe a hundred albums like that okay, so when we complain about the real estate taken up in our house and then I found some little theme albums like I've got one that's halloween I've just got one or two pages it's an eight by eight album one or two pages for each year of halloween just kids started pictures it's really kids spend look at who went to the tor connie's house right now think anybody else want to share thank you honey yeah I have one completely finished album no that was project life twenty ten no, I got the very first planets the on ly completed one I went around and took pictures because I don't have time to make a list I have fifteen unfinished albums in the top of my closet so I have a baby album started I mean everything's kind of started and dabbled in and then it's such from a and a half to eleven to twelve by twelve I thought, oh, I'm going to switch, you know? I mean, everything just kind of kept going. I even have a couple of digital book started online haven't you know, having completed those, I do have a couple of of many albums, but I mean pretty much when my son wants to see his baby book I sitting on my lap and we turned the slide show on the computer and there again it's so sad it's really sad, but I'm proud of that one album that I have way completely, completely that thank you, michelle, I'm a couple things about what you shared number one aa lot of people are relating to that I do too I actually have a lot of unfinished projects scrapbooking either I'm I have a lot of things that I started a case in point the one I showed you that was my, you know, experiment of taking a picture a day I started it's a great idea I still love those handful of pictures and it's not finished. I ended up finishing it in another way that I'll show you later, but but lots of unfinished projects is something that happens a lot and scrapbooking with scrap bookers who get excited and they start doing at me fizzle out if it's all out for one reason another the other thing I want to point out about what you share that is the sad part that you said it's sad teo you for you and I've experienced something really similar that sad for me is that she mentioned that she has albums the unfinished ones our where from the top of my top of her closet it's not finished I dio bringing this up because you're a little perfectionist aren't you? I get it a lot of you get a lot of people watching get that if I don't have something that's complete it's not ready to show yet, right? Well we so have to get over that we have to get over that if there is a work in progress if there's an album that's not complete it still has pictures in it so I want you michelle when you get home just pick one or two of those unfinished projects and just bring them down. I'm not even asking you to finish him I'm just saying let's, bring those down let your family you said you have four hits five kiss vikas who would love to pour through those pages and they don't belong in the top of the closet but this is the other reason I bring it up not only because I relate to and fish projects but I have in the past in my in my scrapbook room slash office slash becky higgins, elsie headquarters at the moment still, we have our own space. I have all over our albums have always been appear because that's my eye level, it makes perfect sense to me, why not have them all? You know, at the top of my shelf where they're pretty and you can see them and everyone can see them all lined up and they look nice and and then I would have more of scott looking supplies up there as well. And then I have some cubes much like this in my office, where below would be everything that the kids need their their papers, that I'm not using their supplies and their things. It makes perfect sense. That was my top of the closet. I had an epiphany only a year or two ago, my deal not a long time ago that my kids were not really looking in their albums a whole lot I wasn't bothered by that, it was just more of a noticing thing, and I think the reason I noticed because they were asking about something I'm like, well, let me show you in this scott book I went over, I went over to get the scrapbook and realized in that moment I was doing this. My kids, this tall, why on earth would I think that they can actually get a scrap up from the top shelf and enjoy it? If it's not at their reach? That was such a big moment for me, because I'm like, ok, rearrange, all of this is going well, flip it up here, he's, come down, these go up and I did a whole rearrangement of my shelves so that project's finished or not. We're at my kid's level, the albums that they should be enjoying our right there at their level. So note to self that I learned a big lesson that way. I can't believe it took me that long to realize it. There's, more than you guys want to share, were to come back around to this because I do want to hear more of the assessments, but we'll we'll go ahead and move on. I think we have enough of that leased an idea to know the next steps, okay?