SYW320 – What If I Stopped Doing Projects?

Jennifer Wilson: [00:00:00] I'm gonna keep reminding myself throughout the year. You are doing this because. Because you find joy in the individual layouts, you find joy in not having to kind of maintain that intense focus over time. And you find just as much joy in doing something that others might do as a project on a one or two page layout.

Welcome to Scrapbook Your Way, the show that explores the breadth of ways to be a memory keeper today. I'm your host, Jennifer Wilson, owner of Simple Scrapper and author of the New Roles of Scrapbooking. This is episode 320. In this episode recorded from my car with very imperfect audio. I share how I am rethinking my approach to scrapbooking and how I am planning to navigate this transition in 2026.

Hey friends, I've recorded some amazing episodes with memory keepers just [00:01:00] this year, and of course in previous years. Of those who love projects, they are so into it. Like that is how they scrapbook, they think in terms of projects. What is the project I'm working on now? What is the one I'm going do next?

That is how they frame their hobby. And then there are so many other scrapbookers who focus on creating layouts. Whether they organize them in chronological order with Library of Memories, they don't organize them at all. They just make one layout at a time, a few layouts at a time, and that's how they scrapbook.

And of course there's a lot that do a bit of both, but there's been this ongoing conversation about leaning more towards one or the other. And, and kind of choosing an identity, um, in your hobby. And I've been thinking a lot about this. And thinking about my [00:02:00] own successes, my own failures, and where I want to go in the future.

Particularly as my season of life shifts. I'm kind of in a weird, I guess the weird middle stages of a child in high school who is both off doing her own things. Prefers to be photographed less. And at the same time requires a lot of transportation and attention for her year round volleyball.

And so that's also made me think about more portability, but also just the fact that I'm dealing with kind of so many interruptions. Uh, this season is almost more similar to when she was very young versus how it has been the past few years. Um, so projects for me have felt a little more challenging. Because I'm not able to kind of [00:03:00] maintain that focus and that consistency over time as well to see something through. So I've got some points here and let's dive in. I look forward to having a conversation with you both in the comments of this episode as well as inside of the community, inside of our podcast space. Uh, of course we have a post for every single episode and great conversations are always happening, but I think this one in particular is going to offer a lot of food for thought. And I'm interested in your perspectives on how you're approaching projects versus layouts, as well as any advice or perspectives that you have for me. Alright. This is gonna require a lot of beverage here. Talking just to myself is a little bit different than talking to someone else.

So just to back up here, my scrapbooking journey has been a little bit different than many others. I have not met very many folks [00:04:00] who started as a purely digital scrapbooker and slowly transitioned to being, oh my almost exclusively paper. I still use a lot of hybrid techniques, but I am a paper scrapbooker and I really, I need that tactile outlet as part of my hobby.

I have so much appreciation for being all digital and part of me like, knows that would be a little bit more mobile. But it's not where my, my passion lies. But it was projects that sent me on this path. And of course it was December Daily. I had started scrapbooking at the end of 2008 when I moved here, Illinois.

Um, I've shared this story many times. But you know, I was a brand new wife in a blended family with two teenage stepsons and we had a big dog, and my cat did not like the dog. And so the cat and [00:05:00] I, would go sit in the bedroom and this little armchair with my laptop. We would watch Lost, I think that was on every Thursday night.

And we would scrapbook. Because that's of course when all the new releases came out. Um, particularly for creative teams, things that were gonna be released on Fridays. And so that was, that was really my thing for some time. But it was December Daily that started getting me into buying the things and really enjoying the, the love of scissors and glue and, and all the, all the trappings of being a paper scrapbooker.

But when you start to undertake more of those things, those become more things that you need to finish. And a couple years ago. I kind of made a big to-do of, I need to finish all of my December Dailys that weren't finished. I had some that I had [00:06:00] technically finished and didn't, but didn't like that there was no journaling attached to it.

There was, I think, one in particular, so I transitioned those photos to a different album and added some journaling. I had a couple years that were partially done and combined them into one album. And of course I had some years that were completely done or almost done and just needed a few things. And so that felt amazing.

I really felt like I found my groove. I figured out what styles I really enjoyed in that particular project. And I will link the blog post that has all the details, walkthrough videos of everyone. I will link that in the show notes for this episode. But I really have to admit that my success kind of fell off after that.

Um, I had purchased products for December Daily every year since. 22, 23. No, sorry. [00:07:00] 22. Yes, 22 was when I did that blog post and I had gotten started. And then 23 and 24. Then this year is 2025, and that's a whole different story. We'll get there. And so those projects are have, you know, a third to a half pages, probably mostly a third done.

Uh, there seemed to be a lot of like excitement in November and then a burst of energy at the beginning of December, and then the holiday season caught up with me and I wasn't able to maintain it. Um, similarly, I have two Week In The Life projects from this year and the year before. Um, those are actually way far more along than anything else.

Um, and the photo and journaling aspects has been a little bit easier for me, particularly the photos on both of those. And so I, I'm feeling this, I don't know, uncomfortableness of wanting to get these things done and also knowing [00:08:00] I don't think I want to start more projects in the future. And then of course, the complicating layer of, oh, but everything is so pretty.

And of course I wanna start a new project because I wanna be part of the community. And I, I get wrapped up in the excitement of it. And so there's all these different like, competing thoughts and feelings. Um, and so I, as I've been thinking about this, this idea of being a person who says I don't do projects, uh, there will of course need to be like a transition into doing that because I, I do wanna finish the things I have started. But I really do feel like that

is my future. With one caveat of if I wanna do a travel album while I am traveling, I can do that and I can order it the moment I get home and be done with it. Otherwise, I know that I won't finish it. And I did have really amazing success with that, [00:09:00] um, just a couple years ago with a trip we did, it was a road trip to Boston.

Um, it was full New England during the fall. Took amazing photos. I was able to order that book literally from our driveway when we pulled in, uh, because it was so important to me to say, I, I need to get this done. Anyway, I digress. I've been thinking about what would it look like to say I don't do projects. And I thought about some of the things that I've done in the past where I'm taking a concept that could be a project and turning that into a layout. So for example, I did a layout, that's one of my absolute favorites. Actually, the only time I've ever been featured in a magazine was a Halloween through the years layout. It's not super complicated. It's actually more on the clean and simple style. But it includes, I think it was 10 years of Halloween costumes for my daughter. With little descriptions of each. And it felt so [00:10:00] incredibly satisfying to have that page. I actually think I really probably should frame that page and and make it as part of our decor. Because, yes, that could have been a whole album, but did it need to be?

No. I was able to make this amazing grid on the page and have it done. And then a couple years ago, I think it was 2023, I purchased one product from the Week In The Life collection. It was these stitched pocket hearts and one for each day of the week. And I made a layout with those. I'm actually not even sure if that was part of Week In, the Life collection, but I bought them for that, even if it wasn't. And it was a two big two-page layout.

I stuck some journaling in the pockets, added a photo, and really just captured the stories of that week, on a two page spread. And again, that was incredibly satisfying. I felt like I could participate as part of the community, yet customize the endeavor to be something that was ultimately doable. [00:11:00] And then of course, this two subsequent years, I decided, oh, well, it's time for me to finally do some Week In The Life albums.

Which are not done. They're, they're closer to done. And then this year I decided I wanted to do an experiment, and here's how I set it up. That I wanted to do a two page, possibly four if I needed extra space or some flip flops or, or an insert or something. But really a big layout, for December Daily. And I wanted to do it with 25 little pockets, envelopes, little flaps.

Uh, think of it as kind of an advent calendar for my December stories with little photos and journaling. So even, you know, if you're familiar with. Heidi Swapp's Stop The Blur format, you know, that type of thing. But put all on a layout. And [00:12:00] here was this kind of compromise I made to myself. If you do this and you love it.

Great. Maybe you'll want to do it again in the future. If you do it and whether or not you don't enjoy it or you didn't feel ultimately satisfied by it, you didn't feel like the story of December was told. I would then go to being a retrospective December Daily scrapbooker. So what that means is that next year in 2026, I would purchase the new kit, the new collection, a new album.

You know, the things that, that bring me joy. And I would scrapbook the previous December, December, 2025 right now as I'm recording that. So that gives me an opportunity to try this out and with still the possibility of maybe that's not a good fit for me. And also I know how well I do in November that the hype leading up to December often [00:13:00] has a lot more energy for me, and if I can jump in and tell all my stories when those products arrive,

I have a much better chance of having success. Than if I am trying to capture things more live in the moment. It doesn't mean I'm not gonna also like curate photos, say for the next year, regardless of what I'm doing. But I really think that that could work if I don't like this. But here's a spoiler. I'm really, really liking it.

It's been really fun. I see so many possibilities. Uh, by the time this episode goes out, I won't be done because we're still like approaching, you know, a third of two thirds of the way through December. But I have all my stories listed. I have the design completed, uh, and I have some hybrid templates set up for photos and journaling, and I've started filling in kind of those little pieces.

And [00:14:00] so I will definitely share when it's completely done. But this was kind of a I don't know, a case study to see can I do even more project concepts as layouts to feel that satisfaction of participation, while not undertaking a whole new album project uh, that I may or may not be able to finish. And I wanna talk a little bit more about this, this tension.

So of course we always have the tension of, Ooh, but that's so cool. I want to try that. I wanna do that. I want to have the end result. I wanna experience the process. Some of both. But really the biggest tension that's weighing on me right now, the one that is, is hardest to deal with is not the fomo, it's the wanting to skip ahead to being a layout scrapbooker, but knowing I have these projects that I haven't finished. And that just feels like uncomfortable.

It, it doesn't, it doesn't feel [00:15:00] fun. But ultimately I do know that there are some things that are important to me. And so my plan for 2026, it's kind of my compromise, is that I wanna do one project for every two month period. We call that a Creative Journey inside our community. I want to pick the project that I'm most interested in finishing.

I might start with what is the closest to finish and use kind of a, a snowball method. And then use making a bunch of layouts as a reward for finishing the project. Um, I can be planning the layouts in, in tandem. Maybe if I, if I get bored or frustrated, I need to set it aside. I can be planning my layouts.

But then I'll kind of use our Finishing Day experience, which is in the even months of the year. So this will be, the next one will be the end of February. That I can use Finishing Day to then make my layouts. Because I will have already [00:16:00] finished this project that I wanna have done. For that particular period.

So I, I'm seeing this as, as the transition year, because I feel like if I don't do it now, they're just gonna keep hanging over me. I wanna lean on. You know, the processes that we use inside of our community to get things done. And to really break it down into small steps and focus on the end result, where I'm going and why I'm doing this.

So I think I'm gonna have to keep reminding myself throughout the year. You are doing this because. Because you find joy in the individual layouts, you find joy in not having to kind of maintain that intense focus over time. And you find just as much joy in doing something that others might do as a project on a one or two page layout. And so with that, inside of our community, one of the things that we're doing is our, um, [00:17:00] we have a staff designer. We actually have two. One of them is Shannon Manton, and she has been contributing to a streamlined storytelling series. So this is Shannon Pages on Instagram and her shop.

You know her for her very clean, graphic, minimal templates. And she's going to be creating for us this year a series of six different sets of templates that tell bigger stories on one or two pages. So for example, Week In The Life or December, or a vacation, or, um, highlights from a period of time.

Or something that could be a surrogate for doing a more complicated Project Life. So I'm really excited to see how this unfolds. To see how our team and our members use these templates to find a little bit more balance. Because sometimes [00:18:00] we don't need a project to get this maybe more detailed story told.

We can boil it down to the essentials, make some really great choices, and feel just as accomplished with a one or two page layout. And so that's where I'm sitting, that's where what I've been thinking about a lot. I have a lot that I wanna do next year, but perhaps more motivation and energy that I've had in the past. Don't have quite as much time, but it is all about,

if you don't have time when you can find time, having that motivation and energy is really the secret sauce. Because then you can use that time wisely. When you have time, but lacking in motivation and energy, that's when we tend to not make as productive of choices. Maybe we need more rest or other types of fun escapes, but not so much the, uh, creative process, if you will.[00:19:00]

All right. I will keep everyone updated on how this is going. Um, maybe, you know, after the first few months of the year, we'll come back together and I'll join you from the Starbucks parking lot again. And let you know how it's going. Am I, have I finished any projects yet and how I'm feeling about this particular decision and this particular kind of concept in general of being a project scrapbooker versus a layout scrapbooker?

Can't wait to find out what you think as well. Take care, and I'll see you next week.