Scrapbooking is defined as the creative art of taking books with blank pages and adding photos, memorabilia, journaling, and embellishments.1 It's usually done to preserve important memories in a more creative and personal way.
These days, most of us remember scrapbooking as part of a brief phase we went through in high school or early college days – the Stationery Hoarder Phase (SHP). A phase where girls went gaga over cute scented stationery supplies – whether you bought it from Lisa Frank, Sanrio or special purveyors of all things cute like Tickles, the Stationery Hoarder Phase was where a huge chunk of our daily school allowance went to. And part of the SHP was scrapbooking; back then, scrapbooking involved a rectangular brown album (usually made of recycled paper) where we paste photos, memorabilia (tickets, letters), and decorate it with random stickers.
Yes (kids born in the mid 90s), before the advent of social media and smartphones, people used to showcase their fun memories through photo albums and scrapbooks. But as every single one of us turned to Facebook to upload photos and life updates, scrapbooking eventually became a thing of the past.
Thankfully, the girls of Life Documented Manila are here to bring back analog memory keeping in the spotlight. Spearheaded by Christine, Pinky, and Yam, Life Documented Manila was founded out of the girls' love for paper and memory-keeping. “We wanted to put more meaning to our photos instead of just posting it on social media,” shares Pinky. “Instead of taking a bunch of photos and dumping them in one album, we'd like to encourage participants to be more mindful of what shots they want to take. Who wants 10 shots of the same subject, anyway?”, adds Yam.
Life Documented Manila uses Project Life by Becky Higgins – it is a pocket page scrapbooking system pioneered by Becky Higgins which mainly uses 3×4 and 4×6 cards that are slipped into pre-configured plastic pocket page protectors.
Starter KitIf you're the type of person who hoards little memorabilia and knick knacks (movie tickets, restaurant receipt, cards), Life Documented Manila's memory-keeping workshop is perfect for you.
LDM's Beginner Memory-Keeping Workshop involves a short lecture about Project Life and some tips on how to design your scrapbook. After the talk, you'll be given time to work on your scrapbook. LDM has an overwhelmingly wide assortment of tools and other scrapbooking materials you can use. Even if you're not the creative type, you'll still be able to produce beautiful layouts since all the materials are already pretty. Some of the materials you will find are stacks of decorative papers, fun stamps, washi tapes, letter stickers, and sharpies in all shades.
You'll also be taught how to use cool stamps on your cards.Before the workshop, LDM will email you a list of guidelines and things to bring (mostly just printed copies of photos you want to include in your scrapbook). Make sure to print the right size of photos, they usually recommend printing vertical photos in 3×4 size. The workshop fee covers the workshop materials – 1 6×8 album, Project Life edition of your choice (100 3×4 cards and 20 4×6 cards), as well as light snacks/lunch.
The best thing about pocket scrapbooking is that you don't ruin the photos and memorabilia with glue. Instead of the traditional scrapbooking way of gluing things on paper, you just slip items into the pocket. This also makes it more convenient especially if you want to change certain parts of your scrapbook. Went backpacking to Europe with your now ex-boyfriend? No need to tear that page anymore. With pocket scrapbooking, simply replace those couple photos with your solo pictures.
Life Documented Manila aims to help people tell their life stories in more fun and creative ways. Eventually, they want to grow a community of scrapbookers who are passionate about life and pretty things.
In an age where pretty much everyone is sharing every aspect of their lives online, Life Documented Manila's memory-keeping workshop is a perfect way to escape from all the noise and clutter on social media.
Registration for Life Documented Manila's Beginner Memory-Keeping Workshop for September is now open. Workshop fee is P2,000 inclusive of Workshop kit and snacks. To register, visit http://lifedocumentedmanila.com/september-workshop/
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