As this year comes to a close, I find myself still struggling to catch up for 2018! But that’s okay, I am about to go to bed now an accomplished, happy camper!
In 2017, I re-found my love for digital scrapbooking when a friend told me about the Project Life app by Becky Higgins. The app allows me to make digital scrapbook pages on my cell phone and I love it! So, I chronicled our family’s year in 2017 and created a beautiful 12×12 scrapbook. You can read about it and see it in a video at http://taneya-kalonji.com/blog/2017-family-yearbook-scrapbook-is-done/. I very much appreciate the format of a family annual yearbook, so I started another for 2018. Doing the yearbook has been a perfect platform for me to tell my family’s stories, both past & present as I mix in some family history from time to time.
However, it has taken me a long time to get the 2018 one completed – so, I set a goal for myself to get it done before 2019 is over. Consequently, with about 8 hours put in over the past couple of days, I finished it tonight! I now have 126 pages drafted!
A great feature of the Project Life app is that pages can be exported at 12×12 in size. I’ve exported them and have them saved in my Forever Storage account so that I can go through them more closely and edit captions, make sure my images are all aligned correctly, etc. I scrapbook on my cell phone so it will be easier to edit using my laptop where my screen is much bigger. I have decided that this year, I will have our yearbook printed as a bound volume, rather than individual pages as I did my 2017 yearbook. Therefore, I need to carefully review my work so that I avoid typos or mistakes in the final version. I am so ultra-excited to have this accomplishment done! Now I can go back to work tomorrow (I was off all week), with this under my belt!
Once this is done, I will then set a goal to finish my 2019 family yearbook. I currently have 68 pages for that one drafted. As my books tend to be well over 100 pages, I know I have quite a ways to go still. I’m hoping to get that one done by mid-Spring.
As for our 2020 yearbook, I may change my approach slightly, not yet sure, but I definitely am still going to chronicle our family’s year. I consider the scrapbooks as heritage items that will be passed on through the family for many years so they have become very important to me. Family members that come after me will have such a robust picture of what our lives were like! Not only from the physical bound volumes (I plan to have 2 made), but also digitally as the scrapbook will be saved in my Forever account and the company ensures ongoing access of my digital collection for many years to come, even after my lifetime.
Stay tuned for updates as I get it through the printing process. I plan to record a video to show it off. 🙂
Girl, you have more energy than 20 researchers combined! I LOVE the scrapbook you’ve put together to preserve your family pictures but I’m afraid I don’t have that much energy. But….I do enjoy looking at the work of a master!
ha ha! not a master, but quite enthusiastic about preserving our family photos & stories 🙂