Project 365

I am contemplating doing Project 365 for 2009 and would start this project on New Year’s Day.

You may be wondering what Project 365 is. In a nutshell, you take a photo every single day of the year for the entire year. Of course, there will be photos of the special events in life like birthdays and holidays but even if you don’t have anything exciting going on that day, you still snap a photo of something in your life. I've seen other bloggers mention it before or do it before but recently read about it on a digital scrapbooking blog I frequent as Creating Keepsakes (a scrapbooking magazine) is offering a new Project 365 scrapbooking kit. When explaining this to my BFF one of her initial questions was would I be taking photos of myself or Noah or what? Well, that’s just it – since it would be my project and my interpretation of my year then it could be photos of anything in my life; anything that has importance or matters to me at the time. It doesn’t necessarily have to be people. For example, one day I could take a photo of my favorite pair of shoes or maybe something extravagant I made for dinner.

But what’s the point of taking a photo every single day you ask? Well to each person it probably means something a little different but in the years to come it will be a great way to reflect back at this age and stage of my life. One suggestion I read was to photograph things such as a gas station displaying the current price of gas. I think something like that will be interesting to look back on from years from now to not only look back on my own small world but the world at large.

So, what do you do with these 365 photos? Some people post them on Flickr or on their personal blogs and while I may do that (if that part becomes more work or too much of a hassle then I won’t do it) My ultimate goal is to scrapbook these photos. After reading some of the ideas from other digi scrapbooking addicts like myself, I think that I will scrapbook the photos in a two page layout that will feature two weeks worth of (so that’s 14) photos. I’ll make the layouts very simple as this is more about the photos than the embellishments of the layouts. Once I do my first layout, I’ll have a template and can just use the same template over and over and just plug in different photos and journaling.

And you're probably thinking that it seems a little overwhelming, eh? Well, yes, it seems big and overwhelming which is probably why I have never even considered it before but looking at it broken down into increments makes it seem much more do-able. After all it’s only one photo a day and I take a ton of photos anyways! I can manage this. From the testimonies of others it will be a very neat way to record a year and something I won’t forget.

Have you participated in Project 365 before? If so, did ya love it or hate it? Or if you have never participated, does it sound interesting to you? Does it sound like something you might get into? Here’s a few links that I have found helpful in case you want more information…. How to Take a Photo a Day and See Your Life in a Whole New Way - Great explanation and breakdown of Project 365. Taylor McKnight’s Recap – This guy did Project 365 in 2004 and 2007 and recaps his experiences. A Free Template - There’s a free template to digital scrapbook some of the photos from Project 365 and this designer is promising more. List of Ideas - This is a great list of 365 ideas to get you started and keep you going.

If you're doing Project 365 and you are blogging about it, leave me a link to your blog so I can come cheer you on! Updated to Add: 3/9/09 - Thus far Project 365 is going well and making me appreciate the "little things" of my everyday life. Check out all my Project 365 pictures and posts here. I've made (freebie!) templates from a few of my layouts. You can download them here. There's some great P365 templates here.