SYW216 – Perfecting Your Project Process

[00:00:26] Jennifer Wilson: Welcome to Scrapbook Your Way, the show that explores the breadth of ways to be a memory keeper today. I’m your host, Jennifer Wilson, owner of Simple Scrapper and author of The New Rules of Scrapbooking. This is episode 216. In this episode I'm joined by Lyn Battaglino to chat about choices and strategies that guide her scrapbook projects. Our conversation is full of insights and observations on documenting stories from the present and the past.

[00:00:57] Jennifer Wilson: Hey Lyn, welcome to Scrapbook Your Way.

[00:00:59] Lyn Battaglino: Hey Jennifer. Thanks for having me.

[00:01:02] Jennifer Wilson: I am looking forward to our conversation today, but can you kick things off by sharing a little bit about yourself?

[00:01:08] Lyn Battaglino: Sure. Um, my name is Lyn Battaglino and I live in a small town in Massachusetts, Millis. My, um, career is, I'm a project manager and I think maybe we'll get into how that plays into my scrapbooking a bit. I have two children. They're really not children anymore. They're, um, adults now. My son is in college and my daughter is in the work field and about to get married. So that's a big, uh, big , big, um, a big thing in our lives right now with her planning the wedding, so.

[00:01:47] Jennifer Wilson: Oh, I bet. I bet. Congratulations.

[00:01:49] Lyn Battaglino: Thank you.

[00:01:50] Jennifer Wilson: Yeah, and I did not know that about you being a project manager, so I think that's definitely gonna fit into our conversation really well today. But before we get there, can you share, a scrapbooking thing and as well as a non scrapbooking thing that's exciting you right now?

[00:02:06] Lyn Battaglino: So, yeah, so for a scrapbooking thing, I think I haven't really delved too much into the digital world, and I think, um, part of that is because I, you know, I work full-time and, a lot of, you know, I, I've thought about Photoshop. I've seen so many great things in Photoshop, but I think what happened last year for me is, um, kind of with the introduction of Canva and it, it's probably been around a lot longer. But with Canva, I felt not as intimidated. And took the Ali Edward's December Daily Canva class that she had, and it just really opened up a whole new world of digital scrapbooking for me. So that's really exciting being able to, you know, take some of these kits and, you know, manipulate the kits and be able to create cards like three by four cards and you can, you know, match colors and just like a really, a whole new world. I would say for digital, for the, in the digital world.

[00:03:12] Jennifer Wilson: Yes. Yes.

[00:03:13] Lyn Battaglino: Like Canva. Um, I'm, I'm still learning a lot. I'm not a Canva expert by any stretch of the imagination, but I really have found like this new opening of a world there and I.

[00:03:26] Jennifer Wilson: Yeah, it's really exciting.

[00:03:28] Lyn Battaglino: It is, and I actually use it now, like to size all of my pictures and it's just, I do everything. I do just about everything in Canva. But I'll still never, I know I'll never get away from the physical product and I like combining. So really a hybrid approach, um, I would say. And then for something non scrapbooking related, my daughter is in the process of getting married. So that's really exciting and I think, um, that will be, scrapbooking to come.

[00:03:59] Lyn Battaglino: And my son also is graduating from college. So, two big milestones in our lives. So that's probably, you know, my big exciting things for this year.

[00:04:11] Jennifer Wilson: Yeah, you know, you're a scrapbooker when you're thinking about like the milestones in life and the vacations and your advanced planning for how you've will scrapbook them.

[00:04:20] Lyn Battaglino: Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely.

[00:04:24] Lyn Battaglino: It's funny that you said that because I remember, um, being at, you know, a scrapbooking event and someone saying that, you know, they had to go apple picking this year because they had to, you know, they had all this product that they wanted to use related to scrapbooking. I'm like, wait a minute. It's supposed to be the other way around.

[00:04:45] Jennifer Wilson: Yeah, but sometimes that is the way things go. So we also like to ask our guests about stories that they have not yet told, but feel compelled to. That feel important to tell. We call these bucket list stories. So, Lyn, do you have one important story that you still really want to tell?

[00:05:05] Lyn Battaglino: Yeah. I think for me it's definitely, you know, the birth of my children. I've never done like the baby albums. I've had every intention to do that. Over the years I've purchased so much product, and, you know, I have albums ready. But I think like some of the product probably now is out of date. But I think part of my, part of it for me is when my kids were born, this was before the digital cameras were out. So it's a lot, it's a big process to scan the pictures and I know I have perfectionist tendencies, so I'm gonna wanna edit those pictures and, you know, make them look really great in the scrapbook. So that's something that, it just, it's overwhelming to me to, to go back and try to do that. But it's something that I definitely want to do.

[00:05:59] Jennifer Wilson: You know, and it, it is overwhelming and I think it's important that we kind of, uh, not celebrate that, but highlight that as, as a barrier to documenting some of these stories. I feel the same way about some of the ones that are really big, because particularly if you know, , you wanna edit the photos and if you're not, you know, a trained photographer whose job that is. Sometimes it can be frustrating cuz you're, you wanna get it just right and there's lots of creative directions you can go and Yeah, I totally get you there.

[00:06:29] Lyn Battaglino: Yeah, exactly. And, and the pictures, the quality of the pictures back then, you know, weren't anything like they are now. So there's that. And, you know, I just, uh, I just need to get over that and, and, uh, set up a plan, a project plan to get that done.

[00:06:48] Jennifer Wilson: Yes, yes. I think sometimes it could even be helpful to say, but particularly with those older photos, like, I'm just not going to edit them at all. Because I, I don't want that to be a barrier, so I'm going to eliminate the option of, of that being a barrier. So.

[00:07:05] Lyn Battaglino: Yeah, that's a, that's a really good point.

[00:07:08] Jennifer Wilson: So today I'd really love to focus our conversation around the decisions we make at all scales. Big picture, small details, that keep us feeling happy and productive in our projects. Cuz I noticed you're a very project oriented scrapbooker and I really, maybe we could start by hearing more about your, your history as a memory keeper. How you got started, the formats you've worked with, um, just to give us some context for the place that you've reached today.

[00:07:40] Lyn Battaglino: Sure. So I think like a, a lot of us in the community, um, I st it started for me going to that Creative Memories party and um, literally I was not going to, for scrapbooking reasons. I was going for social reasons and just to have fun with friends and have a couple of glasses of wine. But honestly, I never thought, I'm like, I'll go to this.

[00:08:05] Lyn Battaglino: You were getting all kinds of invites in the mail. It was like Tupperware back in the day. And I was like, you know what? I'll go, I could use a Friday night out you know, some friends and it'll, it'll be fun. And then I became completely hooked. Um, that night, I think I bought everything that that Creative Memories consultant had to sell. And literally the next day went to AC Moore, which is probably no longer, but it's similar to, uh, Michael's the next day and bought everything I could , um, at, at Michael's or AC Moore.

[00:08:42] Lyn Battaglino: So I just, I just fell in love with the fact that you could actually do something with your photos and, you know, have that, you have all these photos on your camera phones now and you're actually doing something with them. And, you know, people could get enjoyment from that and, you know, hopefully someday leave a legacy with, with, in pictures and stories. Which has really been, you know, my focus is really, you know, the journaling part is a big piece for me, so definitely, I just, you know, I never looked back. That was 20 years ago and I've been, you know, actually my scrapbooking style has changed over the years. Um, I, you know, it wasn't until probably 2021, pretty recently that I went to pocket pages in Project Life style scrapbooking.

[00:09:36] Lyn Battaglino: But I think, you know, I think for me, 12 by 12. You know, I was doing the standard 12 by 12 Creative Memories albums. And I think starting to do December Daily opened the world of pocket pages for me and I thought, wow, this is, this is a little bit quicker. Um, sometimes it is, sometimes it isn't. And then, um, I tried to do Project Life back in 2015, but I really just couldn't, I felt like I couldn't keep up with it, with what was going on. You know, my kids were younger, but, um, in 2021, you know, we had a little bit more time with the pandemic not commuting, and I just thought, oh my God, I can, I can Scrapbook everyday life, which I think is really important and I can do it somewhat quickly in, in these pocket page layouts. So, and I really, when I look back, I wish I had been doing Project Life longer. And, um, the other thing I will say about Project Life is I think people view it as, okay, so you're, you're documenting maybe if you do it weekly or monthly, you're documenting what you did that week or what you did that month. But for me, it brings in, you can, it's not restrictive. So, what I mean by that is, you know, with, if you're doing a travel album, say a trip to London, or you're doing, um, events like birthday parties, you're not gonna bring, or holidays, you're not gonna bring those past stories into those albums. But with Project Life, you could come across something that triggers a memory, and then you can still bring those, you can bring whatever you want into Project Life, it's not restrictive. So, um, that's what I think really has made me, you know, just really on the, on the Project Life bandwagon. I think people think that, you know, oh, you know, so every week it's not that different. So what are you scrapbooking? But you can bring anything you want into Project Life, and that's what I like.

[00:11:43] Jennifer Wilson: Oh, that's a beautiful point because I, it kind of combines the best of both worlds with, you know, some of the ease of the pocket page format, the, kind of routine and accountability of the weekly project, while still kind of bringing the best of traditional 12 by 12 scrapbooking into it, which is combination of stories that we can put together.

[00:12:09] Jennifer Wilson: Um, and so having that permission to bring past stories, like connected to, you know, sit, I'm not saying that you were a skateboarder. Let's say you went skateboarding just for fun. You can remember that when your kids went skateboarding or when you did as a child. And you know, just random things like that. You can connect those together and tell those stories.

[00:12:27] Lyn Battaglino: Yeah, exactly.

[00:12:28] Jennifer Wilson: All in one album. So,

[00:12:29] Lyn Battaglino: Yeah. Like I was down at my parents' house and I found this old picture of my dad and he had gone, um, diving for gold in the Snake River back in the, you know, fifties or in back in the early sixties. And, and that was such a story that my mom all and dad always used to tell me about. And I was like, oh, you know, I can take this picture, I can put it in my Project Life.

[00:12:54] Lyn Battaglino: And it's just a nice way for my kids to see like my past, my parents past, and you know, just all, anything that triggers a memory you can put into your Project's Life, as well as your kids' stories too. Like, my kids are older, they're out of the house, but you know, they'll send me pictures from different trips they might take, or, and I'm, I'm still incorporating all of that into, into Project life as well.

[00:13:21] Jennifer Wilson: Well, I think it also maybe has, you know, you've mentioned at the very beginning how important the journaling and storytelling is to you. It really, this format seems to put that at the center. Um, I'm sure there, you know, there's, there's a creative joy from it, but it's not about like creating the, the 12 by 12 piece of art. Um, it's about getting as many stories as you can captured.

[00:13:47] Lyn Battaglino: Yeah, and I think like doing 12 by 12, like there's been times when I've done, and I, I still like doing 12 by 12 layouts. But I, there's times I'll create the whole layout and then I'll be like, oh, I don't have any space left to tell this story. And that's really for me, that's, you know, the motivation behind scrapbooking is really telling those stories.

[00:14:10] Jennifer Wilson: So can you tell us a little bit more about, you know, what's on your plate in this season of life? Sounds like maybe you're, you're a half empty nester, or is, or is your son out of the house as well?

[00:14:21] Jennifer Wilson: He's graduating this year, so he's a senior or?

[00:14:23] Lyn Battaglino: Yeah, he's graduating. Um, he, he wants to stay in Cincinnati, that's where he goes to school. So, um, we'll see. You know, I don't like to really define myself as an empty nester because I, I, you know, they tend to come back sometimes, so.

[00:14:41] Jennifer Wilson: Sure.

[00:14:42] Lyn Battaglino: Yeah. So, you know, we'll see. But I, um, you know, I would love it obviously as his mom if he came back, but he, he, I think he's gonna, he's trying to get a job out there and stay out there. But yeah, so I'm kind of in this odd definition season of life. I would say.

[00:15:02] Jennifer Wilson: For sure. So as someone who works full-time, when do you typically scrapbook?

[00:15:07] Lyn Battaglino: So for me, I try to go into my craft room every night if I can. Even if it's you know, just for 15 minutes. I, I've adopted the 100 day project, which I think you might be familiar with, but it, the idea behind the 100 day project is you go in and you try to do 15 minutes towards a project every single day for a hundred days. And that's, that's actually really helped me because once you go into your craft room, 15 minutes, or even if it's 10 minutes, grows to like sometimes a half hour or even longer cuz you get on a roll. So, um, that's, I mean, I won't say that I go in every single day. But I, I try to. Um, I try to get in there. It makes me feel like I, you know, did something other than work that day.

[00:16:02] Jennifer Wilson: Now, what's your kind of, uh, point of focus for the 100 Day Project?

[00:16:08] Lyn Battaglino: So my point of focus for the 100 Day Project is the December Daily. For me, December Daily doesn't really happen in December. Because there's just so many things going on in December between, you know, working full-time, shopping, wrapping, you know, baking, like all those fun things. And so December actually is typically the month that I don't scrapbook at all, or very, very little, just because, you know, there's just a lot going on.

[00:16:37] Lyn Battaglino: So for me, starting December Daily later, while the community's kind of over it. I, I need the 100 Day Project to motivate me to work on it. Cuz you're not seeing like all of the community posting, you know, things about December Daily on Instagram and things like that. So, that's really what I use the 100 Day Project for. And for the past, this will be be the third year that I've been doing the 100 Day Project and it's just helped me to, you know, make a dent in that project.

[00:17:12] Jennifer Wilson: Yes, yes. What a great kind of combination of ideas. I absolutely love that. Um, now kind of, if we look big picture here, so you're doing Project Life, which is, you know, in Lyn's style in the way that, that you combine stories together. You do December Daily, focused around the 100 Day Project, and you also enjoy October Daily.

[00:17:34] Jennifer Wilson: Can you, can you take us back to like, say December or January when you're, when you're determining what projects you're gonna work on for the year.

[00:17:42] Lyn Battaglino: Yeah, so, for me, um, Project Life I think will be always like at the beginning of every year. That's just, it brings me the most joy, I would say, out of all of the projects. So that's always, for me, at least now, that's always on my list at the beginning of the year. Um, December Daily, this will be my eighth year.

[00:18:05] Lyn Battaglino: Doing December Daily. And um, and I always do complete it. It might not be until September of the following year. But, um, I think for me, I, I just think there's so much we do preparing for Christmas, or at least in my family. And the build up to Christmas, and for me years ago in a Creative Memories album I was doing documenting each December, but maybe just documenting only the event like Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. And then you know, a few years ago when I started seeing December Dailies out there, I was like, this is awesome because you can really not only document December and Christmas type related events, but you can also document, you know, what was going on every day in your life during December. And I just like the concept.

[00:19:02] Lyn Battaglino: The daily, daily documenting. So that's been something that, um, and I, you know, I have this addiction to product. So I, Christmas and Halloween are two, you know, I see those kinds of products and those are both my favorite holidays. So I tend to just buy, buy a lot of that product. And it's funny because just doing December Daily, a, a good friend of mine said to me, you know, you do December Daily, but you know, Halloween is your favorite holiday.

[00:19:39] Lyn Battaglino: And like, so why wouldn't you do October Daily? And I thought, what a great idea, because I have all of this Halloween, um, related product. And then the nice thing about doing an October Daily is in October there isn't as much going on. And you can almost do it like some people do their December Daily, where they're documenting almost every day.

[00:20:02] Lyn Battaglino: Sometimes in, in real time. So I was like, oh, this is what everybody's talking about with December Daily, the people that you know, document every day or you know, the day after. Um, so that's really what brought me to do October Daily was, you know, wow, I can use all this great product I have and you know, really celebrate fall and mine mine's more of fall and Halloween combined. So, and fall's my favorite season. So that's how I came to be doing October Daily.

[00:20:39] Jennifer Wilson: Now I'm curious, um, in particular for December Daily and maybe to October Daily as well. Um, how do you keep track of stories if you know you're not going to scrapbook them right away? Like if you're, you know, right now you're still working on December Daily, how do you know, um, some of those details that maybe not be captured in only in the photos?

[00:21:00] Lyn Battaglino: Yeah, so I'm glad you asked me that. Um, so I use the Day One app, and I don't know if you're familiar with it, but it's on, it's a app on your phone and you can journal every single day. And I've literally, I've been using that app since 2021 and I've journaled every single day since October of 2021, on the Day One app. And what I do is I take the, the journal and I create a PDF booklet for the month out of that, from, from my Day One app. Print it out and actually just throw like some pretty card stock on it. And then I have this journal that I can go back to. Uh, you can read it, you can read things on your phone, but it's just easier for me to have that in hand.

[00:21:53] Lyn Battaglino: And then like for this past, last weekend, like I was going to a crop and I'm trying to catch up on 2021, Project Life. And I just grabbed like those journals that I printed out and just brought them with me and I could go back. Because you forget, you forget the details of, of life. And I think, you know, the older you get, the quicker you forget the details.

[00:22:18] Lyn Battaglino: So I'll be like, oh, what did, what did we do last week? And yet the cool thing about the Day One app too is you can add pictures to it. So, um, those things that you really wanna focus on, in your Project Life, you can put those pictures, uh, or your December Daily, right in. And that's been really helpful for me cuz I can just go back to my December journal for December Daily and say, oh, okay, I remember now that this is a story I really wanted to tell and really wanted to focus on.

[00:22:49] Lyn Battaglino: So that's really been a great process for me. I, I know a lot of people keep journals and they write in their journals every night. But the thing for me with the Day One app, the fact that it's online, I can do it on my phone. So I can be like getting ready, get in bed at night, and I can actually journal, you know, the day. And be, you know, resting at the same time, so you don't have to like, sit somewhere and write in your journal.

[00:23:17] Lyn Battaglino: Like, it just, ma it's just made it easier for me.

[00:23:21] Jennifer Wilson: Yes, for sure. Particularly like if, to me, it seems like it eliminates a little bit of that pressure to, to do, keep up with a daily project, or to be making sure you're, you're current on Project Life because you know that the thoughts and the feelings and the, the happenings, the quotes are, are captured for you to scrapbook them later. I think that's kind of, maybe you're, if you're, you're either gonna be one person, one, how do I say this? You're either gonna be one type of person or the other, like somebody who can do it live and you have those memories or you know, you're not going to, so you need some sort of solution like Day One.

[00:23:57] Lyn Battaglino: Exactly. Exactly. It's been a lifesaver for me.

[00:24:03] Jennifer Wilson: Now, you know, there's so many projects out there right now. Um, I'm curious if there's anything you've intentionally kind of left off your plate this year because you know, you know you have enough to do with these three projects.

[00:24:19] Lyn Battaglino: Yeah. So there, there's a couple. I know a lot of people, um, in the community do One Little Word. Um, I've never, I, I love the concept of One Little Word where you, you know, pick a word and that's like your focal point for the year, and then you, you know, it's an Ali Edwards her, you know, she has a whole series of do how you document your One Little Word. Um, but that's, it's something that I've. maybe thought is great and you know, you become very intentional about your word. But that's just something that I, I just feel like with the ongoing Project Life, while I'm doing that all the time, like One Little Word would just be something that I couldn't really fit in.

[00:25:02] Lyn Battaglino: And also, um, you know, I've done Week in the Life documenting. I've put that into my Project Life, incorporating that, and, um, Day in the Life, those projects I've incorporated into my Project Life. But if I have to let them go, um, those would be probably like maybe three things that, and then there's, you know, travel. Travel albums.

[00:25:28] Lyn Battaglino: So, you know, I did, I've done, you know, a lot of different travel albums and I still have, um, one travel album, London. We went to London in 2019 and I did London. We did London three years in a row, and there's kind of a story behind that. But, so I did my 2017 London album digitally and then 2018 I did a physical and that took a really long time.

[00:25:55] Lyn Battaglino: And then 2019, I haven't gotten to yet, but there were different people on each of those trips and we, you know, one year we went to Ireland and London and so the, it's not like documenting the same thing, but I, I just, I haven't been able to figure out how to fit that in.

[00:26:14] Jennifer Wilson: So I'd like to kind of go a little bit deeper into your Project Life process. So we know that Day One goes a lot into that, and I noticed that you have a desire to do one page per week, but you often end up with a spread. It seems like you feel a tension about it. You, comment on it multiple times in your Instagram. So can you kind of talk a little bit about that, um, just to get started?

[00:26:42] Lyn Battaglino: Sure. So, so my idea was for this year, um, at the beginning you were talking about at the beginning of the year, how do you decide, and I thought, you know, I should try to do one page per week because I think it will make the process go faster, for me. So and I, I, you know, I watch Leilani, Leilani Scraps and she, um, she's been like an inspiration for me.

[00:27:12] Lyn Battaglino: Um, not really style wise, cuz her style's really different than mine. But just seeing like how productive she is. And I'm like, oh, and she does weekly, but she does one, one spread, one side. 12 by 12 per week. So a single side. And I thought, oh, that's the way to go. And like, I have to try to do that. And that'll make you know it, it'll make the process go faster.

[00:27:37] Lyn Battaglino: And so each week what's been happening for me is I just have like maybe too many stories that I wanna tell. Or if I have a week that maybe I could fit into a single side, what ends up happening is I know the next week, like I have a bunch of photos that I want to do. So I'm like, I can't do one side. And then, cuz I want everything to coordinate. I know that sounds crazy, but I want everything to be like um, symmetrical in my album. So that's part of it too. But, um, I've just never gotten to the point where, at least this year so far, where, you know, I could do one side, one side, one side because of the follow whatever's happening the following week, if that makes sense. I don't know if that makes sense.

[00:28:29] Lyn Battaglino: But yeah.

[00:28:30] Jennifer Wilson: I'm wondering, it does. And I'm wondering if you could like intentionally do two weeks at a time. You're looking at a spread to, to think of it as I'm capturing these two weeks a spread and it maybe changes some of your decisions of what's most important and, and what you wanna capture.

[00:28:48] Lyn Battaglino: Yeah, no, that's a good idea. I should, yeah, I should consider that for sure. And it's like I've said earlier in the podcast, like definitely. You know, it's your album, so it doesn't have to be, it doesn't have to be so restrictive. It can be, you know, I could do two weeks, I could, a lot of people do monthly. Um, I, I don't think I ever get to monthly just because I seem to just have a lot, at least in this. I know most people, I think in my stage of life are, you know, cutting down sizes and doing less. But for me, I think I've, I'm just finding more that I wanna document, as odd as that might sound.

[00:29:32] Jennifer Wilson: No, not at all. I think, I think the older we get, the little more introspective we get, the more we think about things from the past and, and, and connect all those together. Um, and I, you know, I think there's a lot of us that appreciate, you know, aesthetic coordination and want things to like flow together. I think if you just said, I'm gonna do a spread, whether it's one week or two weeks, to do it all at once so that you can kind of feel that visual harmony across the two pages. So.

[00:30:01] Lyn Battaglino: That's a great idea. I'm gonna try that, Jennifer. Thank you.

[00:30:07] Jennifer Wilson: So can you walk us through how you would make those decisions? Let's say you are gonna do a spread for one week, you know, how do you make the choices about you know, what goes where, what products you're using, selecting photos and all that.

[00:30:22] Lyn Battaglino: Yeah, so for me, I, I first start with, I just look in, in my camera roll, and then I look, you know, for themes in my camera roll of what I wanna document that week. And then I typically try to start with the photos. So print the photos and then, and then see like where, you know, what colors I might wanna use. I tend to use a lot of Ali Edwards product and I do, I am a subscriber to Stories by the Month, her Stories by the Month. So I'll kind of look at that first and say, okay, do these products fit in with kind of the color scheme or design I want for that week? And if they do, then that works out great. If not, then I'll go to, you know, some other things in my stash. I think I'm like most scrapbookers and I think I have more patterned paper and than I'll ever actually use in my lifetime, so. But I tend to look, um, It's funny cuz probably the three companies that I probably purchased the most from are Ali Edwards, Elle's Studio, and um, unfortunately, Felicity Jane is no longer. And if you think about those three companies, their styles are completely different. But it all depends. Like if you think about Ali Edwards, it's more maybe neutral, and you know, muted tones. And then Elle's Studio has the bright, bold colors. And then Felicity Jane is very feminine oriented and delicate style.

[00:31:58] Lyn Battaglino: So, but for some reason, I, I also am feel like I'm able to combine a lot of that together. Either, you know, maybe a base of, you know, the neutral tones, but embellishing with Felicity Jane or stamp, stamping with Elle's Studio. Elle's Studio has amazing stamps, so, um, I tend to use a lot of, a lot of Elle's Studio stamps.

[00:32:24] Jennifer Wilson: Well, I think all three of those have kind of a very clean design. Um, a lot of, a lot of white as a coordinating color versus maybe something more, um, creamy or grungy, which, you know, is often the case in some other products. So there's certainly, yeah, there's certainly some connections between them despite the color palettes being a little bit different, um, and maybe some of the typography. But yeah, you can definitely see like there, there, there's some overlapping in in style there.

[00:32:58] Lyn Battaglino: Yeah.

[00:32:58] Jennifer Wilson: And also there's only a certain number of people creating pocket page cards at this point too.

[00:33:04] Lyn Battaglino: That's true. So my choices are, you know, they're somewhat limited. Um, that's a good point. But yeah, that's typically. Sometimes I will start with just taking like the Ali Edwards Stories by the Month and putting the cards there, and then I'll print my photos and then I'll be like, okay, this isn't gonna work for the photos that I have. It just doesn't coordinate. But, um, I usually start there. That's where I start.

[00:33:30] Jennifer Wilson: And stepping back now, I guess this is our final question. Looking at where you've been and the process that you have now, which choices or changes have you made to your project process? Which ones of those may have really feel like have made a big difference in your ability to kind of just stay connected to the hobby, stay having fun, feel like you're, you know, finishing things and making, making progress.

[00:33:59] Lyn Battaglino: Yeah, so I think, um, definitely Canva. I know I mentioned it earlier, has made a huge difference because, um, I tend to take a lot of photos, which is maybe why I am in this, two, you know, two-sided spread every week, but being able to make collages like within Canva include even more pictures, maybe on, you know, do five pictures on a four by six. Um, you know, make mini collages within, within the, the layouts. Um, that's been a big difference for me. Definitely moving to Project Life and pocket pages has made a huge difference for me as well. Those probably are, are probably the biggest things that have changed along the way to make it easier. The other thing I do, because I'm a project manager, I use, actually I've heard you know a lot about Trello and I do wanna get more into Trello. But I actually use Microsoft Project and I have, um, within Microsoft Project, I have it laid out of my projects for the year and the weeks. And then I can kind of keep track that way to keep me motivated. Like looking at the project plan and seeing okay, you know, what do I, what should I be focused on this week? And really, sound like a geek, but that's something that's helped.

[00:35:27] Jennifer Wilson: No, sounds awesome, I love it. Um, yeah, I particularly, if that's software that you're familiar with, always use what you know first and customize it to you wanna use it for scrapbooking. There's, you know, particularly those who, um, work outside the home presently, or have in the past, we've all picked up certain things and so you should definitely turn to those first before trying to learn something new. Yeah, there's always something, you know, more interesting, more fun and more different, but it's about finding a solution that you know makes your brain happy because you can figure it out sometimes.

[00:36:04] Lyn Battaglino: Absolutely.

[00:36:06] Jennifer Wilson: Yes. Very cool. Lyn, this has been so fun. I am, don't do a lot of pocket pages myself these days, but you've definitely given me some things to think about in terms of process, the importance of Day One.

[00:36:21] Jennifer Wilson: I have not been a great journaler, but I could see even just committing to it during the month of December in order to make my December Daily scrapbooking later on, um, be a little easier. So I really appreciate you spending time with us today.

[00:36:37] Lyn Battaglino: Thank you. Thank you so much. I'm really happy that you, um, you sent me that message on Instagram. It made, it made my day, so thank you for that Jennifer.

[00:36:47] Jennifer Wilson: Ah, awesome.

[00:36:49] Jennifer Wilson: Can you share where our listeners can find you online and maybe anything we can expect to see from you later this year?

[00:36:57] Lyn Battaglino: Sure. So I am mainly only on Instagram, so I'm at lynniebcrafts and that's pretty much, you know, I do post onto Facebook here and there, but mainly Instagram. Um, I did a while back try to start a YouTube, with, yeah, I'm not ready for that yet. But, um, maybe someday in the future when I have more time to really learn how to edit videos. Um, one of the things maybe that's exciting coming up is maybe doing that actually, you know, sitting down and, and figuring out the best way for me to start a YouTube. So that was something that I played with a little bit a couple years ago, and I think I just got overwhelmed and didn't really have the time to you know, get into the editing piece and didn't really realize how time consuming that is. But that's something maybe, you know, down the road when, you know, I may retire someday. So, that might something to, uh, to dive into then. So.

[00:38:02] Jennifer Wilson: Well, we'll keep an eye out for that. In the meantime, we will link your Instagram account in the show notes for this episode. Yes, again, thank you and I hope you have a wonderful weekend.

[00:38:12] Lyn Battaglino: Okay. Thanks so much, Jennifer.

[00:38:15] Jennifer Wilson: And to all of our listeners, please remember that you have permission to Scrapbook Your Way.