Hello everyone! I'm sure you thought that I fell off the face of the earth! Let me assure you that I am still here, still kickin'! Sorry it has been so long since my last blog post, things have been a little busy here lately and I will tell you why. Actually, this may get a little wordy so you may want to grab a cup of coffee *wink*
This past October my nephew, Patrick, was tragically killed in a car accident. It was one of the most terrible things that one could ever imagine. Patrick was only 20 years old and the his death devastated everyone but especially his mother Jen. Anyone that new Pat loved his laugh and beautiful smile! We were privileged to see Pat grow up into a fine young man with a huge heart.
Shortly after the accident Pat's mom, Jen, asked me if I would make a scrapbook for her of Patrick's life. I was extremely touched and at the same time a little nervous since I have never really scrapped anything! Basically, I make cards and little things but never a scrapbook. I of course said yes and right away thought of
Project Life.
Since November was spent planning my daughter's birthday parties and then Thanksgiving and then with Christmas on the horizon I told Jen it would be sometime after the first of the year. She was totally fine with that and dropped off all of the pictures she could find. I tucked them safely away until I could get time to focus on this immense project.
I was almost paralyzed with fear just thinking about starting this project! I know that the whole Project Life system is supposed to be super easy only that wasn't the problem. The thing that was really weighing on me was I didn't want to screw up her precious pictures and ruin her memories. To go through over 20 years of photos and put some kind of order to them was also a little scary. The weekly format was not going to work in this case so I decided to just go from birth to the very end. One of the most difficult things while scrapping this book was knowing it was going to end before we even got started. Very bittersweet.
So February comes along and I thought "Okay, this is the moment, now is as good of time as any to start!" So I asked Jen to come over to help me sort through the pictures and get some date ranges to work with. Once we had made some piles of photos things started to take shape. The next day I worked on it I started putting the photos in the protectors and quickly realized that if I didn't start cutting some photos up to fit in the 3x4 slots, I was going to go through a ton of page protectors!! So my next fear, ruining the photos, was quickly replaced with excitement as I realized that it didn't ruin them since the most important part, Pat, was in it! I am not going to lie, going through 20 years of photos and putting them in the album was time consuming, especially with trimming them. I kept saying to myself "The whole point of this album is to have as many photos and memorabilia of Pat in one place!" My goal of this project was to get the pictures out of the envelopes and into the books. They weren't doing anybody any good being tucked away. I wanted Jen to have ONE PLACE that she could go to have all of her memories tucked neatly away. She could look at it anytime.
Once all of the photos and Project Life cards were added I had Jen come over a few more times to help with the journaling and embellishing. I wanted to make sure she was okay with me adding things to the photos like staples, washi tape, etc. She was more than fine! In fact, she was really having fun using the die cutting machine. We also used various stamps and also my Silhouette Cameo. When it was all said and done, we ended up with two books because there was just so much! We added his football and baseball team photos, school photos, awards, etc. I even scanned some of his drawings and awards from grade school into the computer and printed them out to add to the page protectors.
I only have a few pictures to share and I apologize for the quality of the photos, but I was in a bit of a hurry. I was trying to get it ready for the "Celebration of Life" birthday party that Jen was having on his birthday which was St. Patrick's Day. That would have been Pat's 21st Birthday.
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| We used the Cobalt Edition |
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| Sweet little label from Becky Higgins! |
Now these are only a few of the many pages, but you get the idea. It was really neat to see the growth and progression from year to year all in one place.
Below is a 3x4 card that I made to fit perfectly in the page protector.
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| One of my favorite pics of Jen & Pat. |
THE UPSIDE: Now I know you are probably wondering what the upside to something like this is, well I'll tell ya. During this process which was a very difficult one at times, I became closer to Pat's mom and although we have always been friends I feel we are even closer now. The other great benefit is that now she wants to make a scrapbook for her two year old, Conner. She has never, at least to my knowledge, made a card or scrapbook. She learned how to use several crafting tools and is really excited about the prospect of documenting and memory keeping thanks to Project Life. I am even excited to start my daughter's album. I bought the Clementine kit a while back but felt overwhelmed to start at the beginning. She is seven now! I also bought the Childhood Mini-Mayfield Edition and Core Kit-Baby Edition for Her in hopes of incorporating them all into an album from birth to seven. Once I get that caught up, I will try to start on the weekly if not monthly spreads. It is actually pretty nice to have someone to scrap with so this will be a lot of fun for us. Many more memories!
On Monday, March 25th, Becky will be on HSN for the First Time!! There will be special bundle pricing which has not been announced yet but you can read all about it
here. Jen and I are both excited about the Jade Edition.
Thank you for stopping by!
