Over the weekend, I wrapped up my year-long scrapbooking project which I call Scrapbook Your Year.
I have been documenting my life via this method (and yes, my class teaches you how to do it!) for four years now. I was three months behind as of last Friday and I knocked out my October, November and December pages on Saturday morning. It took me about an hour and a half.
Part of why I love this system is that it encourages you to save enough. Not all of it. Just enough.
I uploaded all of my final pages to Printque.com (they had a 15% off sale, which may still be running!), and now I await my printed book of 42 pages. I will share the finished book in a video as soon as I get it back and then I’ll tuck it up onto the shelf with the others. Done and done and surprisingly meaningful to me, even though I most definitely do not save every last memory in my life.
Today, just for fun, I’m putting the Scrapbook Your Year class on sale for 40% off. This class launched in 2016. I have not updated the video instruction, because other than having newer versions of Photoshop, the basics of this approach do not change. It’s not fancy. But it really is a simple way to get your photos and a few stories out of your head, off your computer and into a tangible end result. And the approach works for traditional scrapbooking as well. It’s really just about letting go of the need to save it all and realizing, whatever you save is exactly the right amount.
The sale runs through Valetines’s Day at the end of the week!
Now onto the final pages…
October for me is full of crisp weather and Halloween.
And apparently nail polish. What can I say? I’m super into manicures right now.
One thing that I do with this project is that if I only feel like doing a few pages, then that’s what I do. Such was the case for November and December because let’s be real: I already document the shit out of those months via 30 Days of Thankful and December Daily.
Two pages felt like enough.
And same for December:
And that, my friends, is how I ended a year of telling some stories from my life.
I love the end result each year (you can see last year’s album here) and it feels like a good fit for my storytelling life.
If you want to learn the system, it’s never been priced as low as it will be this week.
I’m 95% sure I’ll do this approach for 2020, as well. I haven’t done January yet, so I should be sharing that soon!
carlajinAR says
love it! I love your approach and how it all comes together.
Sunny Milleson says
Your SYY class changed my scrapbooking life! It made the scrapbooking process so simple and took the emphasis of how much stuff I could get on a page (paper scrapbooking elements) and placed the emphasis on what is important – the stories and the pictures. Thank you!
Megan says
Just Love it!
Simple, relate-able, do-able, love-able!
Miriam Lim says
I’ve shied away from scrapbooking because I get overwhelmed at all the design options, the stamping, the layouts, etc., and seeing yours, so simple and clean makes me feel like I could’ve scrapbooked a long time ago. Thank you for sharing and showing that sometimes less is more.
Cathy Zielske says
This is the only approach I have sustained year in and year out!
amanda says
You changed my life – I now have books going back 5 years, along with my wedding album (2017) and two travel albums (trips 2011-2018 and another for my 2019 trip). My husband has surprisingly embraced the concept as he has seen the results. Thank you so much for helping me capture these precious memories.
Mary says
I Love SYY. I am on November 2019 right now. Did I miss something are you using a new printer???
Cathy Zielske says
Well… AdoramaPix changed its name to Printique. Same printer but I think they had some staff turnover or something. My contact there is no longer there!
Lori says
I just signed up. I’m looking forward to moving away from large, bulky traditional paper scrapbooking and into something more digital. As my family has grown and my children have moved on to independence I take less pictures and attend less events. I’ve become overwhelmed with traditional and look forward to this new adventure. I can’t decide on 8.5×11 or 12×12. I will have to see how the program works. Thanks Cathy!!