Why I am a Current Scrapbooker

I am a Current Scrapbooker

Yep, that's what I'm calling myself. Recently I was prompted to ask myself if the fuss and worry about being 'caught up' affects me. The answer is no.(Yay!) So please don't let my being 'caught up' affect you too. Because fact is, everyone is different, and we must know our own objectives in Scrapbooking. 

Though I scrapbook chronologically, that's not really my objective. The fact that I have completed scrapbooks from 2007 when I started to now (2008 to 2011 were digital books, 2012 to 2015 are PL format) - SUPER YAY!!  - is just the outcome of being a Current Scrapbooker.

My scrapbooks are my Journals of life. Through them I reflect and savor life so I scrapbook currently. I capture my life as it happens, fill in my thoughts, record daily as well as bigger moments. As I scrapbook I plan and think about our lives, pray and give thanks. So I Scrapbook Currently. 

I don't bother much about going back if I missed something. I just keep going on with whatever captures me, that I feel like talking about in my books. There isn't any fixed format, or must-have no of pages, sometimes a month came up to only 1 page in the PL, sometimes 8. I also don't bother too much about how it looks, if I have more time to play, then I can be more creative. Mostly, it goes by how much a memory or thought or worry or prayer gets me, By capturing the 'Currently' currently, I capture what I want to remember in my books. And it brings me joy! 

Gifts for our Future Selves

Having said all that, I constantly reevaluate my objective and process, to make sure that even as I enjoy and capture our lives I also keep an eye on the memories and books I'm gifting to myself and my family in the future. 

My life and priorities and stories are changing, so the objectives of my scrapbooking must evolve too. When I have clear objectives I am motivated and can scrapbook clearly and swiftly, without wasting time on unimportant 'details'.

Our family travel books get special place in our home. These are our amazing shared memories and very precious to us! But I do think travel memories are mainly of value to those of us on the trip together, so I'm glad my travel albums are digital books that take up little place :)

Actually much of my scrapbooking is for myself, memories I want to keep so in my own older years, they will be a joy to look back and to be shared with my husband, children, and maybe grandchildren(!). But I am wary of ending up with books and books that will be an information overload for future generations. So I am getting selective, bearing in mind to capture the glimpses of us and our lives now that will be interesting and memory-rich for ourselves and future people. Anyone out there having thoughts like this?

For 2016, I have decided to continue with the Physical PL format, because I have one more previously bought album, But I'm running out of space for them in our small apartment (and I'm a minilist-wannabe) so in 2017 I will have a chance to re-think a reduced format if I want! At the moment KsharonK's and Cathy Zielske's  super sleek and simple photobook formats are calling me. We'll see!

A New Year of Memories

Is it already February? Are we already 1/12th into our new year?!

I'm glad I took time in early January to reflect, pray and think about this new year, as I created my 2016 Project Life cover page. 

This is the verse we chose (along with our church) for our family for 2016. We want to commit to seek and submit to the Lord, and can't wait to see what He will unfold for us this year. It may not be what we have expected, but by faith we know it will be a great and marvelous year!

We are facing a lot of changes mainly on the education front for our kids. A lot of options and choices also mean opportunities and uncertainty.

That's how I scrapbook 'currently', currently. :)

January Project Life

Here are the stories I captured of January. Jared is at a crossroad - choosing between staying in a more academic course in junior college or pursuing his love of game art & design in polytechnic. On this page his graduation party photos, our visits to the polytechnic open houses, and also a record of his allergies and the Doctors' orders on restricted foods. What have you chosen to capture in your scrapbooks?

January is also the boys' seventeenth and nineteenth birthdays! Two day's of friends over at our home for their birthdays are compiled into one PL spread.

And that's it for January! Not over-thinking it. The rest of the month are captured in my half monthly in reviews, with a summary review of the month, so January has been scrapbooked as we lived it!

January in Review

Birthdays, spring-cleaning, family game-times, visiting Open Houses made up most of the first half of January...

And the second half was filled with School Orientations, another birthday, two new grand nephews, 3 of us taking turns to fall sick, and old friend get-togethers. All good!

Love Themed Templates

Happy Valentine's! My hubby and I had a wonderful date night last night visiting our new National Gallery - it was so special and I will scrapbook it in February album maybe using one of these Love-Themed templates. The XOXO template was included as part of January's Digi Files. The other three are original new templates and they can be found in the store here

My Mom's birthday is on the 11th February and I adapted this layout and printed it into a card for her. Can you spot the photo of me when I was young? 

She really loved it!

Project Life Album Labels

Back to my album labels. Because I bought the albums at various times during half price and other sales, they are all colors, haha! So I made the 'numerical' years in black, and added colored wording below. The numericals are from the free font : Return to Sender. If you like them, you an download my photoshop file here. Change the color or font, or add backgrounds to customize your own! The file is 4x6 and I print them out on 4x6 photo paper at home before cutting them out.

Download here!