Hello!
I have been struggling with my memory keeping. I love memory keeping and everything about it: the paper, the embellishments, the creating, the finished project.
And I have tried it all:
~12×12 pages
~mini books (lots)
~birthday albums
~Project Life
~Travel albums
~8×6 Albums
~4×4 Albums
~Week in the Life with Alli Edwards
~December Daily
If I have tried so many different ways to capture our memories, then why do I still have boxes after boxes of pictures that aren’t in albums??? I start out strong…all excited about a new project…“I will complete this album this time until the bloody end!” And I get about 7 days in and…well…that’s it. Hence the numerous boxes!
I am an Instagram junkie and a trend that I am seeing in the planner community (love) and the scrapbooking community (love) is memory keeping in your planner (love). While scrolling through instagram, I have noticed several planner gals posting pictures of using their planner as memory keepers. I have been playing with this idea (with absolutely no real road to follow) but, needless to say, it intrigued me, so I started digging for information, which wasn’t hard to find…there’s a lot out there!
I found a gal, Amanda Rose Zamp, who actually offers a class focusing on memory keeping in a Happy Planner. Go to find out, she is the gal that has inspired the other planner gals to memory keep in their planners! (Small world!) I signed up for the class and I am super excited (imagine that) about the process! I really think it will be doable for me! (fingers and toes crossed)
So I am going to share with you the process I have been doing to memory keep and journal in my happy planner, for the month of January. New year, new memory keeping plan. Keep in mind, you could do this with any planner.
After loading the pictures (there are plenty to load) onto my computer, I cut and paste them onto a word document. Next, I size each picture to fit in the weekly or monthly box of my planer and print them off on photo paper. It actually creates a composite sheet.
After cutting out the pictures, I arrange them onto the weekly page. These are the pictures I have done for this week so far.
I then go in and add stickers and embellishments to empty square and the photos. In doing so, I am using my planner information (more on that to come) to help me fill in the blanks, so to say. This is last weeks COMPLETED layout or spread! (Did you see that I used the word COMPLETED!)
Here is a closer look at my days. I love quotes and take screen shots of many on Instagram, but never go them off of my phone. Now, each week I print them off and have been adding them to the left margin. For the daily layout, I place information that happens in the morning in the first square, afternoon happenings in the middle square and evening things in the last square. Does that always work…no. 
I am still playing around with the monthly layout. At this time, I have used pictures of events as more of an overview. But, I find myself wanting to use the same pictures for my weekly spreads So, I will continue to work with this concept.
How do I keep track of what is happening through the week? I happened across this blank calendar pack at The Container Store and couldn’t pass it up…paper pack and calendar?! Yes, please!
You will think I am crazy, but I fill this out for the week (and can’t help myself) but I decorate it too. This calendar goes on the fridge for the entire family to see and add to when needed~though that has yet to happen~anyone else putting something on the calendar. Some weeks I go all out with decorating, such as the week of Christmas.
Other weeks, there’s not much going on or I have no decorating mojo.
As you can see, I add information/happenings to the calendar since it is right there handy on the fridge. In doing so, I can use this calendar to help plan out my Happy Planner pages. I also keep this calendar pages (imagine that) I think it would be fun to look back on them someday…
Overall, I really enjoy this process and look forward to a little “scrapbooking” every week. Also, it doesn’t take too long, which I need at this time of my life. I think it will be even quicker once I get a routine set. And amazingly, I two of the three weeks in January done. In my book that is considered caught up! The planner piece and calendar piece may seem redundant to some, but so far it works for me and I really think that is what it is all about. Finding something that works for you! looking forward to sharing more COMPLETED weeks with all of you!