You know the best thing about telling your story? How easy it is.
Most people are put off by it because, well, it just seems too hard. You start to think of all the life experiences you have had, all the photographs either sitting in boxes or on computer hard drives and it all just seems so overwhelming. Don’t you agree?
But I’m here to tell you it isn’t that hard.
The hardest bit is starting. But the best bit is you can start ANYWHERE. It doesn’t have to be the beginning. It is okay, even fun, to mix it up a bit.
Take today for instance. I knew that today was Tell Your Story Tuesday. I knew that I had to do a layout of some description (since that is how I like to tell my story – through the photographs that I have taken). But I had also agreed to go to with a friend to Costco. Costco in Australia is a big deal. They are not plentiful and it requires some planning to get there. You go laden with cash, because, you know, there are bargains to be had. I had been complaining that I needed new glasses, but was hating how damn expensive they are. She told me that Costco offer a fabulous optical service at a very reasonable price and that I should try them. Today was that day.
I figured we would be in and out in no time. Oh, how I can laugh at my naiveté.
We were there all day.
But I made a promise. That for five days of the week I would post something. And today was Tell Your Story Tuesday (I may have mentioned this before). I was under the gun. How could I produce a layout and get it published in time, starting at 4pm when dinner needed to be done as well. I had roast pork planned for dinner (not a normal Tuesday school night dinner, I grant you, but it kind of called to me when I opened the freezer this morning). So I popped in the roast, and got down to business.
And this is what I mean by how easy it can be.
Have you heard of Project Life? If you are a scrapbooker, you will of course heard of them, but if you are new to the “Tell Your Own Story” thing, then let me introduce them for you.
In this day and age of digital photography where it is estimated a billion photos a day are liked on instagram alone, it stands to reason that we are all suffering from photography overwhelm. Where on earth were we ever going to find the time to print these photos and then scrapbook them as well? It just didn’t seem possible. More often than not our photos just remained on our hard drives never to be seen again.
Enter Becky Higgins, the founder of Project Life.
Becky realised that this overwhelm was preventing people from getting their story out of their hard drives (and their heads) and legacies were being lost forever. So she developed a system that made it easy to print off the photos, store them, be creative and get the story told.
Take a look at the video below – it gives a really good and funky explanation of the system.
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6RE-BwTy3I0?list=PLyLqNG84WoSr04ulKELsB7Zjb7p9fyhcw]
And let me tell you, Project Life has exploded. It is so easy to use that people have taken to it in droves. There are Facebook pages dedicated to it, and people meet just so they can Project Life together. It truly is as easy and 1,2,3.
So when I crashed into the house running late, with no dinner on the go, with a promise to create something, Project Life came to my rescue.
I have a box of photos that were taken long before digital photography even existed (yes, I know, I’m old!). I have been slowly working my way through them. I sorted them out a few months ago (and I will do a post on this), but they now need to be put in albums for the family to enjoy (my kids have left home, but you know better late than never – grandkids will enjoy them I am sure!)
I have been thinking of home a lot lately and what it means to me. I have moved a lot in my time as my parents did before me. We always seem to have been pretty nomadic. I have a lot of photos of the houses my parents lived in and so I decided that they needed their own space in my album, since they tell their own story really. Even houses need to have their stories told.
I am pretty happy with how it turned out. It really was so simple and is one more story that my family will enjoy. What can be better than that?
I really do encourage you to give this a try. I know it is scary at first, but honestly, it is so simple. A few photos, a couple of page protectors and your writing and you are done.
I would love to see your photos of your projects. Please do show me in the comments below or head on over to my Facebook page.
Until next time,
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