Where has the year gone? seems to be the global refrain this month, as we sail past the Summer Solstice and settle into July. With six months of the year behind, I've been flicking through my own version of The Documented Life Project started in January for simple memory-keeping. (You'll find the official project here at Art to the 5th.) Should you be toying with the idea of something similar, or wondering about an alternative to Project Life, I have some information and reflections for you today on this kind of memory-keeping ...
The structure
- I loved the concept of the tip-in pages: these are additonal sheets of card or paper fastened along the outside edge of a diary page with washi tap to create a flap.
- Choosing a cheap shop-bought diary and taking it apart to make a six-month diary with a spiral binding (using the Bind-It-All) was a good decision - otherwise I'd have ended up with an unwieldy Moleskin which was thin on the left at the spine and hugely thick on the right at the outside edges.
The contents
- The two-days-to-a-page format was just enough space for helpful memory-keeping: recording the events and the flavour of a day. Yep, there are blanks, but I'm OK with that - it takes time to make diary-keeping a habit!
- In the original project, the tip-in pages were added in advance. As I didn't follow all the mixed media prompts, a number of mine were unused; in future I'll add them as needed. What else did they get used them for? Oh, all sorts of things!
- freebies from magazines were turned into pockets and more flaps, with additional stories inside
- little drawings by my daughter or samples of pen-and-paper games with the grand-children
- hand-painted booklets holding thoughts and observations
- journalling for Ali Edwards' One Little Word project
- snap-shots that probably wouldn't make it onto a scrapbook page but were redolent of the moment
- dollops of mixed media experiments from a variety of on-line classes
- postcards and special cards from family and scrapbooking friends
- memorable quotes and pieces of poetry which took my fancy
- any other fragments of my life I wanted to collect and hold together in one place
- It was perfect for more substantial booklets too - this recent holiday journal is the first I have ever managed to complete en route and in the field, so as to speak. It will be invaluable when I come to scrap the hundreds of photos, and contains receipts, leaflets, tickets ...
In the light of experience ...
- I'm trying a few modifications. This next one for July to December is spiral bound at the top, like a Reporter's Notebook, to make writing from left to right easier and smoother: that spiral can get in the way!
- the Leuchtturm elasticated pen-holder, bought in a stationery shop, was perfect and stayed stuck to the back inside cover like, well, glue - I am sure they could hold shelves up with whatever they used. This time, I've moved the pen-holder to the foot of the pages, rather than at the side, and it's hidden by the front cover.
- I'll be experimenting with mini-scrapbook pages: watch this space!
- More drawing/sketching would be good. The next series of Sketchbook Skool is about to start :).
What's it good for?
- It holds memories. I like capturing at least some of the details of the day. When I look back, it brings what has happened freshly and vividly into view again. And, of course, as Gwendolen remarks in The Importance of Being Earnest: “I never travel without my diary. One should always have something sensational to read in the train.”
- It nourishes creativity. When days are full, a small page does not seem so very daunting. Even just making a quick pocket or flap from a bag of marshamallows keeps creativity flowing.
- It lets you try things out without lots of fuss. A quick dab of a new ink on a letter stamp to begin a paragraph; a five-minute play with a stencil and a bit of paint and you have a pretty flap to add; a technique you've read about on a blog and are not sure where to use - well, there'll be somewhere in your diary for it, and it'll be there to refer to for the future.
- It acts as preparation for other forms of scrapbooking, or digital photobooks. Stories and bits of realia are already safely stashed away and even if you never do anything more with them, you have captured and documented life as it happened, through your own eyes.
As you can probably sense, I have become an enthusiast. This diary-with-a-difference, in the midst of busyness, fractured days and unpredictability, is proving a lifeline - in more ways than one!
Hoping there's been something to grab your attention or to interest you today, and that you have a lovely weekend wherever you are ...