My Life in Pieces
I love scrapbooking. I enjoy telling my stories through words and pictures and combining them in a creative way. I have several ongoing memory keeping projects but one that I particularly enjoy is called Pieces of Life created by Ali Edwards. This project is a series of small notebooks that center around a theme. Ali typically releases 1-2 themed notebooks each year. Each theme has seven prompts for self exploration. The prompts are very simple and I love that because they are very universal and open to creative interpretation.
The notebooks contain a couple of blank pages for each prompt and Ali gives a little bit of a starting point for thought exploration at the beginning of each notebook. I love the Pieces of Life series because I really enjoy being introspective and thinking about different aspects of me or smaller stories in my life that might not typically find their way into my weekly or special event scrapbooking. These projects are also self limiting, with a clear start and endpoint. Sometimes projects can seem so large and ongoing that they can produce creative anxiety. When telling very large or important stories, sometimes I get held back creatively by trying so hard to capture them perfectly or to make my words profound. These small notebook projects really inspire me to take chances and to try new techniques. Also sometimes with larger projects, I can become precious about the supplies and hoard things for just the right layout, but with these notebooks I like to take a chance on using up patterned papers or creating small embellishments. They are a no pressure way to get some stories told and think about my life for a little bit.
These notebooks also have a community associated with them. When the current one is released, many people will complete them along with Ali. One prompt a day over a week is a nice, low stress way to get these projects done. Each notebook also has an associated hashtag so you can share your work in real time or whenever you do it. It is also a great way to get inspiration and see the amazing ways other people interpret the same starting point.
These notebooks are a low cost way to get into or experience memory keeping or art journalling. The notebooks are less than $10 each and require no other supplies or classes to purchase. You can even purchase a digital copy for less than $5 if you want to print it yourself or use digitally. They can be done with anything you have on hand or honestly just a pen or marker to capture your art or writing. These projects are so fluid and open to creative expression.
Today I am sharing a peek into my first two Pieces of Life projects. I completed the Pieces of the Past and the Pieces of Play notebooks. I am currently working on Pieces of Me and Pieces of Home to share in the future. The most recent project on Ali’s site is Pieces of Joy. I am waiting until I get into a slightly better headspace to document my joy because I want it to be real and feel great. I can’t wait to get there and be genuine.