It’s not called Project Kids or Project Mama or Project I’m-a-Parent or Project These-are-my-Offspring.
It’s called Project LIFE because it’s about YOUR LIFE. Whatever your life is. Whatever your stage of life. Whatever your family circumstances. Whatever your lifestyle. Project Life is designed to help anyone + everyone get their pictures into a book.
There are many of you without kids. Maybe you’re a single adult, or married without kids, or empty-nesters, or maybe you’re still a kid yourself!
Project Life is for you too.
Here is a little inspiration to get your wheels turning.
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Amanda + her husband Landen live in Ohio, have been married for 4 years, and are expecting their first child. Amanda made a video of her Project Life album here. Amanda said, When I decided to take the plunge in November of last year and order your kit I had no idea what changes my life would bring about to document. In June we sold our house, in July we found out we are expecting our first child, and in August I lost my grandma and my cousin within two weeks of each other. It is all documented in my album and I am so grateful that I took the time and the energy to start and continue this album. Some parts of it has been challenging, and some parts have been hysterical, but is is ALL our life and I love it. I love that we started the album as just a normal couple without kids, and now the album is becoming a “family” album as I include ultrasound pictures, belly pics, etc.
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Wendy Copley of Northern California is a wife + mother and does plenty of family documentation. But this year she is embarking on a new project that isn’t about the kids. It’s about … (gasp!) … HER! That’s right. Wendy is turning 40 next year and has decided to devote an entire album to who she is and what she’s about. You can see more about her project here.
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Taunia in Estevan, SK Canada said, I started Project Life the first year you released it and have been doing it ever since I got engaged and married in my first Project Life, which makes for a very special book. This year I have focused on taking pictures of everyday things:
What we made for supper
Books I was reading
Crafts and seasonal decor I did around the house
Online clothing purchases
My desk at work
Oprah’s Finale Show!
I did a whole layout about the TV shows we watch from week to week. It will be nice for our kids to look back on and see what we watched back in 2011! I also did a layout on blogs I read.
Project Life has changed the way I take pictures. I have hooked several of my friends on Project Life and we never miss taking a POTD. Thank you Becky for this wonderful way to document life.
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Janet White + her husband live in the Pikes Peak Region, Colorado. She says, I might write, blog or sketch. I may wander outside and record the life I find in my field journal. I might spend time documenting this amazing life I lead. I might wander back through the geysers of Yellowstone through research and the photos I’ve taken – they are ever on my mind and in my heart. I might cook or bake or nurture our home life. I believe life is savored more deeply when creating. Creating leaves little room for drama, whining or complaining, but opens the door to deep gratitude for a life lived fully.
Check out Janet’s Snow Moon Photography blog for stunning photography inspiration.
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Molly Doolan in Smithville, Missouri says, I am single in the sense that I’m not married and don’t have any children, but I do have a boyfriend of 5 years who lives 4 hours away and a pretty cute dog that is featured heavily in my album. Also, my mom has been battling melanoma for awhile now, so without meaning to, I’ve been tracking her progress via my album for the past 10 months. It’s amazing to see the difference in her appearance in January (when she was just beginning to regrow her hair) and now (she looks perfectly healthy, and is on her way to being completely in remission)! I’m so glad I decided to buy an album to record what I thought were mundane things in life, because I’m beginning to realize it’s the little things that matter the most.
A typical week for me includes photographing something for school (I started a 1 year accelerated nursing program in May), a picture of my dog Bella, something that captures the season, a craft project I’m working on, a picture of someone in my family, some sort of meal we’ve made, and then pictures of whatever my boyfriend and I find to do together on the weekends. I also stick in current events within the week. The invitation I received to an Oscar Party and my ballot for the night, an article from CNN about some big event – Prince William & Catherine’s wedding, the death of Osama bin Laden, the Casey Anthony trial, etc. That’s one of my favorite aspects of Project Life!
Thank you so much for creating a product that is so easy to use! With my hectic school schedule I thought for sure I wouldn’t be able to keep it up, but just a few minutes a day means that I’ll be able to remember those “little” details for years to come!
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Jocelyn in Calgary, Alberta, Canada is a mother but is using Project Life go back and get the “good ol’ days into a book. She says, I originally started Project Life-ing as a way to capture the first year of my son’s life without the hassle of scrapbooking layouts. I enjoyed the ease and simplicity of what I was creating so much that I decided to back-track in our lives to when my husband and I first met. I realised there were so many moments in our lives before our son was born that were sitting on the backup hard drive in our safe in the basement. They weren’t in albums, or my scrapbooks, or even on our current computer. I had to do some serious digging, but now have created our Family Book – straight from the beginning of our family – when my husband and I met!
This is one of my favourite layouts. Our lives pre-baby included a lot of camping and hiking trips in the mountains, engagements, weddings, and buying our first home together. So many memories which would’ve gotten lost if I didn’t back-track with Project Life. I am now into my second album and celebrating our little moments together – not just remembering the big ones. We are due with our second bebe in 12 weeks, and will have many more moments together – all to be documented in our Family’s LifeBook.
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Casey von Stein in Minneapolis, Minnesota has been documenting her life this year and loves every bit of it. She chose the digital version of Project Life (shown above) and kept it very simple – just adding her pictures and journaling to the already-designed photo book. ***As a reminder, this simple digital photobook format will continue, but now we have partnered up with Shutterfly, which will be available by the end of this year. What you see above was created in the Ziblio format, which is no longer available for new projects.
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Shannon Troester in Connecticut is devoted to documenting her life and all the little bits + pieces that come with life. She shares her perspective: I want my kids to be able to look back and see what life was like for mommy and daddy before they even got here. I would love to be able to look into my mom’s life before she had kids!
This, my friends, is a perspective I know many of us have. Think about what you would love to see from your parents’ younger years (or your grandparents, etc.). That’s the kind of stuff you want to be sure you document.
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You can find oodles of inspiration from Christine Newman in San Diego, California. She says, I started Project Life in April this year and I absolutely love it! I’ve been telling all my friends how much I love this process of documenting life. I’ve been married to my super-awesome husband for 17 years and we don’t have children. We live a very full life and I love documenting it in my Project Life album. Thanks for creating this wonderful product for such a reasonable price. Everyone who has seen my album love that the photos are printed out and life is documented. They all love looking through it.
Check out all of Christine’s Project Life layouts on her blog – List Girl.
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Leanne Butler in Canada has such a neat story: My husband and I do not have children. He, like your husband, is very supportive of me and my career. He shows up quite often in the pages of my Project Life and usually is quick to say when we go somewhere “Better get your photo now!”
I always knew growing up that I wanted to be a Royal Canadian Mounted Police Officer and I achieved that goal at 19 and have so far served 23 years as a Police Officer. I use my Project Life to document the various things I have gotten to do in my community. I have an awesome career and what a way to remember it forever. I am one of 4 women on a 80 person riot team so shots of our last training are in my pages. Boy I wish I had Project Life for the last 19 years! I keep my Project Life up to date all the time and share it with all my friends and family who are tickled pink when they find themselves in the pages!
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I so love that my mom is a devoted Project Lifer. My parents are in their sixties and “doing their thing” in this retired stage of life – serving a second mission right now, grandchildren, travels, community service, etc. They are so good about taking pictures and my mom has become an excellent daily journaler. I am super proud of them, and thankful for the stories they are recording. This was taken while they were serving a mission in Finland, where my mom faithfully kept up with their Project Life book. There are remarkable things recorded in this album. And yes, she is still keeping up with it.
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Okay, I’ll stop here for now. I hope this is super inspirational for anyone reading this that may have doubts about the worth of documenting life … or who are unsure about what to document.
On a personal note, I was 17 years old and single when I started scrapbooking. I was young and single and had plenty to document. I went on to college, married David, and continued to scrapbook. A lot. My work, college, our friends, our newlywed life and extended family and travels and cars and bills and everyday life. In fact, we were married for more than 7 years before Porter joined our family. All those years I had a lot to photograph, a lot to write about, a lot to document. I have tons of scrapbooks from those years and I am so grateful.
Documenting life is not for just one group of people or one generation or one lifestyle.
Everyone has a story.






























