All of those cool scrapbook projects that float around our wonderful community? I haven't done any of them this year. I’m documenting the little everyday pieces and the big shiny photos in my yearly projects but I’m worried I’m not documenting the deeper story of the here and now.
I’m feeling a bit sentimental lately, with a desire to hang on tight to time as my kids get older and our family life is on the cusp of a shift as Zara finishes high school - longing for a little project to capture how life is right now in some detail. Something that encompasses all of us rather than just me (which is often the focus of my scrapbooking).
I thought I could at least tackle a layout a week and build an album of pages that represent the ‘right now(ish)’ for our family. I plan to mostly use photos I already have but will add new ones as needed for the stories I'm putting together. I'm not trying to capture a specific period of time, just a general snapshot of this season of life.
I've made a set of digital layered PSD templates (available in the shannanpages shop) in 8x10, Letter, 9x12, 12x2 and 6x8 size. There are ten templates with prompts to help guide the documenting plus five photo-only insert templates to add when needed.
I've chosen topics that I think tell a good, rounded story, but of course you can switch the headings out for ones that mean more to you or add additional pages by duplicating the templates and adding additional titles (the font I've used is Market Deco). I will probably do that too.
Of course you don't need the templates to play along - I've listed the prompts I'm using at the end of this post if this sounds like something you would like to do too.
Here is my first page using the FUN + GAMES prompt. I've used black and white photos - not sure if I'll do that throughout but I like it. I'm not going super-deep of over thinking it, I just want some of this stuff saved.
Here are some thoughts and suggestions if you want to play along. I'm making my project very family oriented but this would also work well as an 'about me' album:
1 HOUSE + HOME
Who's living at home right now?
What is home like?
Any recent changes or renovations?
Are you happy where you are living?
Are you planning a move or staying put?
What's your favourite thing about your home?
What's your favourite space?
2 HEALTH + WELLBEING
How are you (no really)?
How is the family?
How are you taking care of yourself?
3 ROUTINES + SCHEDULES
How does your daily routine look?
What about other people in the family?
How have your routines and rhythms changed?
What things are difficult to manage right now?
4 FUN + GAMES
How are you all blowing off steam?
What makes you laugh?
What activities do you all look forward to?
How important is having fun in your home?
5 COOKING + EATING
Are you enjoying time in the kitchen right now?
Or not? Why?
What is everyone enjoying for meals and snacks?
Who is in charge of dinner at your place?
What is the family's favourite meal?
What is on high rotation?
6 WATCH LISTEN + READ
What are you loving together and individually?
7 OUT + ABOUT
What activities are you doing outside of the house?
Where are you going?
What do you want to do more of?
Are you 'stay in' or 'get out' kind of people?
Has that changed over the last few years?
8 WORK + SCHOOL
How is your job?
Are you happy at work?
Who is working in your family?
Are you WFH or outside the home or both?
How is everyone doing in school?
What subjects are you/they taking?
Are you thinking about a career or job change?
9 GARDEN + OUTSIDE
Are you tending a garden?
How has that been going this year?
What are you growing?
What are your favourite outside spaces to spend time in?
Are they at home out outside of the home?
10 FAMILY SNAPSHOT (OR SELFIE - I've included both in the template)
Introduce your family like they are Jeopardy contestants
What's a fun fact about each person? (Or just you).
Thanks for reading - tag me on instagram if you start a Life, Now project of your own.
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