When I sat down last weekend to scrapbook, I *thought* it was just to work on Project Life. Finally. Other than a week I skipped ahead to in June, my Project Life layouts are only done through mid-February.
By the way, it’s July. In case you were wondering.
Please don’t report me to the Project Life Police! If they ask, you have the right to remain silent and if you talk to the po-po, I’ll crop you. For reals.
I’ve been taking photos almost every day, keeping notes, and collecting memorabilia. I’m not worried about being “behind” with my Project Life. It’ll all get into an album eventually. I’m busy. What’s new? Not gonna’ beat myself up about it.
Needless to say, I was excited to finally have a few hours to devote to scrapping. But I got sidetracked. Of course.
I put the photos I was going to use into their slots. For the days I didn’t have photos, I figured I’d see if I had any memorabilia – ticket stubs, business cards, receipts, invitations, etc. Maybe a flyer to jog my memory or a Post-It with a cute quote from the kids.
And that’s where the train went off the rails.
My version of “organizing memorabilia” this year has consisted of tossing everything into a basket on my desk. It’s a very bad thing, Martha.
It was all in one place {an improvement over years past, I must say} but certainly not in order. I could’ve just plucked out the things from February but what fun would that be!?!?
I felt the call to ORGANIZE. Right then and there.
Hmmm . . . what to use? My first thought was file folders by month so I grabbed 12 from my office supply stash and started to label them. Then I remembered that I had 8.5 x 11 clear page protectors with a monthly calendar in each one that I printed for free from MISS TIINA. {Super cute, right?}
Originally I had planned to put them in my PL album as kind of dividers between the months. But when I tried it, I didn’t like it. So they were sitting in a basket on my desk just hangin’ out, loitering, cutting class, smoking, generally just being future felons. I decided to put them to work.
I filled each of the page protector/calendars up with all the loose bits of memorabilia from each month. It worked out really nicely and I feel so much better now. Phew. I can find stuff.
I was able to get that week of PL from February done, including a coffee cozy from my favorite latte’, a sticker from a dental appointment reminder card, and a funny quote from one of the kids.
I’ve tried many different methods of sorting memorabilia over the years – accordion files, manila envelopes, and stacking trays to name but a few – and never been happy. They were hard to access and see what’s inside, little bits fall to the bottom, things get dusty, etc.
But this one may be a winner. I’m thinking once I’m done pulling stuff out for the current month’s Project Life spreads, I’ll store the page protectors in 8.5 x 11 albums by year. I can access them again later for everyday, sports, school, or special events layouts. For all the bits that never get scrapped, just having those little memories of daily life could be fun to flip through in the future.
And now when I get another chance to work on my Project Life, say in May of 2014-ha, it’ll be a piece of cake. Mmmm, c-a-a-a-k-e.
Oh, um … yeah, I’m back!
How do you tame the memorabilia monster? I would love to hear about it!
