Down on Paper Project

This year I am taking a new approach to documenting the year. Last year I did the 365 project, which means I took a photo of Clark and I everyday. It was a cool way to document the year and where we were going and what we did. But I used to scrapbook more back when I was in high school. See, my mom had ALL the scrapbooking supplies. You know the stickers/paper/glue dots/ribbon/washi tape etc so it was easy and fun to scrapbook. Since I don’t have all those supplies I wanted to make a different approach. 

I wanted to get more back into physical scrapbooking instead of just having all my photos and memories on my computer or shared on social media. Not that I don’t love those things. I love sharing on social media and I love that we can store millions of photos on the computer but I also like the physical presences of having photo books or scrapbooks. So this year I am starting a project I created called Down on Paper Project. You know the “write it down on paper” saying. My inspiration for this project is Project Life. I love how you can chronicle your year in weeks or months. The thing I don’t like about Project Life is how some of it seems like fluff. You have to by the kits and the special plastic sheets and sometime you have to cut your photos into weird shapes and it seems like a lot of work.

I don’t feel like buying a lot of extra stuff that’s why I don’t want to do traditional scrapbooking anyway. I don’t want to buy all the paper and stickers and stuff. Seems like a lot of money. And I am pretty thriftly when it comes to money. So when I can find a way to save and make something more efficient for me it’s a win win win. And who says we have to follow certain rules, so I am making my own rules and my own scrapbooking project for this year.

I am also using what I already have. One would be Photoshop Elements. This is the photoshop that I use for almost everything and it works perfect for me. So this is what I am using for this project. I have made 5 pre-made templates. Which just means I put boxes evenly spaces on a piece of paper that way it is easy for me to drop my photos into the templates each week. Once I made the templates for each page my work was going to be a lot less. I also made some custom brushes in photoshop like a 2015, quote bubbles, etc. I actually don’t see myself using these too much as I like photo heavy pages.

Another thing I am using that I already have is the Avery plastic sheet covers. I decided this would be the best way to display my pages because this way I could actually add things like movie stubs, airplane tickets, letters, film photos into there right pages (when the event happened) and they would fall out or be hanging on a page loose. Also 8.5 x 11” paper is the most common and since I have a ton of this laying around it made the most sense for me. This project is about effectiveness, using things I already have (saving money), and getting a scrapbook like feel that doesn’t take tons of time.

I am going to be documenting by the week. So I would have about 52 plastic sleeves filled as I will be doing 2 pages per week but each page will also be front to back. I might include more if I go on a trip or something extra exciting happens but I want to keep it pretty neat. But also there really are no restriction.

I have already done 4 pages I started with a couple of New Year pages from when we were back in Washington and New Years Eve I thought it would be nice to show how we started the year off. And I also finished January week 1, this week wasn’t very eventful but I liked it because I got to include photos / events that might not necessarily be scrapbook/frame photo worthy most of the time. Like one photo of my falling when we were doing slo-mo on my iphone 6 or when Clark was on staff study. These are just regular events but with this project I feel like I get to document and remember the regular stuff too. I also included 2 will drawings I did when Clark was on staff duty and I brought him dinner.

On most of the pages I have written little notes about the photos like “Jr gets a new puppy, MTV the Challenge starts back up, Seahawks beat Carolina 31-17, Corey 7th grade photo, Christmas Eve at moms house.” etc. 

My goal for this year is to get the photos I take and the memories I make Down on Paper. I think this project will do just that and I also feel like I have set myself up pretty well for success. I have pre made the templates (which didn’t take very long in PSE) and also all the supplies I need. Which isnt very much. Plastic sheet covers, photos, paper, printer, (I do need a binder, it’s on my list to get this week.)

I will be sharing my Down on Paper project each week to show those who are interested but mostly just to keep myself accountable. I will mostly be sharing midday sunday when I am finished with the week. I know it’s already Friday on week two but you might be seeing a DoPP (Down on Paper Project) post on Sunday as well, we will see. Anyways that’s about it. If you have made it this far let me know if you have any questions. I also hoped I explained myself well enough.

love, Carlee