My Latest Love

The past few months I have been reminded of my annual theme "small & simple", and have been planning & working on a lot to simplify my life by taking small steps. One of the areas of my life needing the most simplifying is my craft room. I'll admit it. I collect craft stuff. It's hard not to! It's all so much fun! Using it is fun too, but I haven't gotten around to that part of it very much. Anyway, Stampin' Up! and Project Life have just joined forces and OH.MY.GOSH. I am so in love.

Here's the thing: I will always prefer my digital albums. They take up SO much less space, and they cost less too. (There's no printing photos, and all the scrapbooking "stuff" is so much cheaper digitally.) It's also much much quicker in a way. I don't have to wait for my photos to be printed or for my supplies to be shipped. But here's the thing: I am not a scrapbooker. I never have been. I used to be pretty "anti" scrapbooking. I've always been into journaling and photo albums, and I have fun making cards every once in awhile, but all that time & energy & planning just for one cute page? It's really not me. AND I would never get anything done. In fact, I still haven't finished Sophie's 1st year/baby book. She'll be 2 in July. Not bad, but seriously, I should have it done by now.

The other thing is I'm kinda sentimental about some of the little details. Like handwriting. I love LOVE all the fun fonts available, but I also think there's nothing as personal as handwriting. I know you can make a font of your own handwriting, but it's really not the same. Similar, but not the same. And then there's the question of what to do with all the little mementos like hospital bracelets, cards etc.?

So...for this years album I'm going to be experimenting with Project Life, and MDS (Stampin' Up's digital software) and I'll see where that takes me. I imagine I'll figure things out along the way. For example, I've already thought I might continue the digital annual 8x8 books using mostly Project Life, maybe scanning some journaling cards in, but for the kids special things I'll have a "hybrid" album for them. Anyway. That's my latest love and newest obsession. Stay tuned for projects and updates. :)

I'm also curious. What are your thoughts on scrapbooking? If you don't scrapbook, what do you do with your photos? And what about documenting life? Do you keep a journal?