My fresh start to archiving our family memories.... Plus a giveaway!

THIS GIVEAWAY IS NOW CLOSED

I have had a few people ask if there has ever been any regrets since starting this lovely little space that I like to call "home" in Blogland and I my answer has always been a big, fat, huge "YES!" 

I stopped posting on our family blog when I started this blog.

Up until starting my Mommy by day- Crafter by night, I was so diligent at posting a few times per week on our family blog, with big plans to have my blog printed into books to have for our family. 
To be honest, with all of the time that I put into this blog and time spent of the computer, the last thing I wanna do with any spare time is spend more time on the computer loading pictures and writing up more posts... so I just quit worrying about it. I know that I could have been doing other things to record memories like writing in my journal or scrapbooking, but once I got a little behind, it seemed too overwhelming to try and catch up. One thing led to another and I found myself over a year and a half behind and feeling guilty as heck that my "craft blog" had taken precedence over my duty as "Family Archivist". ;)

The guilt has eaten away at me little by little until I finally decided to do something about it. 

A few months ago I was telling my friend about my current situation and guilt at failing in the "recording my kids life" category. She listened to everything I had to say- excuses and all- and said "Hang on... I think I have the solution for you!" She left the room and came back a minute later holding a book/binder. She spent the next 30 minutes showing and telling me about her method of recording memories and storing family photos: PROJECT LIFE. I was amazed at how easy it seemed and started feeling an inkling of HOPE at somehow being able to get back on top of everything.

I came home and started doing some of my own research on Project Life. I was so excited to find out that the woman behind the genius, was none other than THE Becky Higgins- someone who I have been a huge fan of ever since I started scrapbooking years ago. The more I read about Project Life, the more I was convinced that it was the perfect system for me and my needs. 

As you guys know, I try to keep my blog free of product reviews unless it is a product that I really feel passionate about. I had a feeling that Project Life was something that was manageable enough for me and that would also take away the guilt that I was feeling over memory keeping. So I contacted the Project Life team and begged them to let me review Project Life to see how I liked it. To my excitement they agreed and kindly sent me the three things I needed to get started on my own project life journey:

A binder, a core kit, and page protectors.

No more spending hundreds of dollars on paper, stickers, glue, etc... All you need to do this is are a few things.

And even better- these few things are what make up an entire year worth of memory keeping!

If you have never heard of Project Life or are not sure how it works- here is a little video that explains the system...

What is Project Life? from Becky Higgins LLC on Vimeo.

I ended up choosing the Amber Edition. Since getting the Amber edition, my mom in law gave me the Clementine Edition for my birthday- so now I have two albums. One to work of for the current year and one to start making up for last year.

Once I received my album and supplies, I headed over and checked out the "Getting Started" page on Becky's website... It was perfect and explained exactly what I needed to do to start my album...

Last weekend, I sat down for the very first time doing Project Life... I had 200 photos and whipped out over 4 months worth of memories in just a handful of hours. I can not tell you how awesome it felt to be able to get that much done in so little time. I used to spend countless hours perfecting one page at a time, and although it is fun looking back at all of the details and work I put into my scrapbooking, I no longer have that much spare time. So for me and my busy life, this is the perfect way for me to record memories quickly and even as memories are happening. 

I read a post by Becky on her blog a while ago, and she mentioned that she carries around a box of 3x4 inch cards in her purse and she pulls them out and writes on them while she was out and about and then later adds them to her album... Such a great idea! I ordered some cards and plan to do the same. So many times, my kids say things and I think to myself "I will write that down when I get home" and then I get home and can not remember what in the world it was that they had said! No more excuses now! 

Here are the things that I like to use in addition when putting together my book:

A Crop-A-Dile 3/8 corner punch (which is the same radius as the project life cards) and American Crafts Precision Pens.

I just crop the corners of the pictures, put them into the book, and then write on the cards and stick them in and I am done! So easy and so fast. And although my handwriting isn't always perfect, I kinda like that extra personal touch that it is my handwriting on the cards.

Recently, Becky announced some new editions editions of project life that are going to be coming out at the end of the year... There are baby editions, childhood editions, the Seafoam Edition, and brace yourselves fellow fabric lovers... Heather Bailey designed a core kit and it is called the Olive Edition... Oh my goodness! I love it! It will be released in late December... I think I may just have to buy myself a Christmas present! I can not wait to get my hands on that edition! So cute!!

So for anyone out there that is passionate about keeping track of pictures and family memories- check out Project Life... It is the perfect place to start if you are wanting to start recording life's happenings, need to get caught up on past life happenings, or whatever your circumstance may be. It is so user friendly- there is no wrong or right way to Project Life. 

Now for the exciting part....

 Becky Higgins is going to be giving away a Project Life Binder, the coordinating Core Kit, and a Big Pack of Design A Photo Pocket Pages to one lucky Mommy by day- Crafter by night reader!!!

The winner will get to choose which edition they receive- either the Turquoise, Clementine, Cherry, Amber, or Cobalt Edition.

All you have to do to enter is:

1. Be a follower of Mommy by day... Crafter by night. (via GFC, RSS, or by email)

2. Leave one comment with your name and email so I can contact you if you win.

This giveaway is open to US residents only. Winner will be selected at random via random.org & notified by email. Winner will be announced on Oct. 23, 2012. You must be 18 years or older to enter this giveaway. The chances of winning depend on the number of entries. Good luck! 

(Full Disclosure: I was provided with one binder, one core kit, and one big pack of page protectors from Project Life to review. I was not compensated with any money to write this post. All opinions are my own.)