Second New Obsession: Smashbook!

So...as I was saying yesterday, I have two new obsesssions. Project Life was the first obsession, so what's the second one?

Obsession #2: Smashbook!

I'm sure a lot of you have seen Smashbook's in the stores and around the internet. There's so many different things you can do with them!

What is a Smashbook? "Smashbook" is a brand of paper products. The base is a notebook or small binder with two sided paper. A lot of the paper in the Smashbooks have themes. The Smashbook I have above is the Eco-themed one -- it has lots of nature-y themed papers.

What do you do? You go crazy! There really isn't a rule, you just kind of put whatever you want in there. "Smash it in!" as they like to say. I love the idea of putting whatever you want in there. Of course I like to Google and see what other people are up to. Here's what I've seen: lots of elaborate, specialized pages. (Like this, this, and this.) Yea...I'm not going to do that. I would, but I have that whole Project Life thing for organization. (But there are lots of really neat random ones that are more my style like this, this, and this.)

Smashbooks sells a lot of extra stuff that you can put in there: tabs, stickers, dividers, random embellishments, quotes, pretty much everything. This, to me, misses the point. In my mind, you're supposed to put random things in it. It's not very random if you buy their kits of "random stuff." Sure, some is fine, but I don't think the whole book should include this stuff. (Just my opinion! If you like to use only their products, go ahead! To each her own.) I'm not going to lie, I did buy some of the stuff (like tabs and pockets) that I found on clearance. I'm not going to miss a good sale!

How am I using my Smashbook? Random little things I'd like to keep...I just pop in there. Extra pictures? They go in! Buuuuut....

Here's what I mostly do: I have about 5 different magazine subscriptions and that adds up to a lot of magazines laying around. (Because I'm a girl and we keep them for no reason.) I started finding my favorite parts and snippets from magazines and clipping them out and gluing them in there. Let me tell you -- this is sooo therapeutic. It's such a small thing but it instantly brings me back to my 11 year old self....cutting out things to make magazine collages, messing with tiny scraps of pretty things, collecting. The first night I did it it was like the heavens opened up. I felt so relaxed. It was like for a little while I was really transported to another land for a while. So nice.

Okay, okay...show and tell time! (Obviously, it's all a work in progress. It's the type of progress that's always kind of a work in progress...)

Here's July's main page. It was Luna's birthday so I have some of her wrapping paper. It has an extra picture from the reunion taped in with some washi tape. The calender is a one of the Smashbook pockets. It has a card, some extra pictures, and a postcard. I'm sure there'll be more too. (The little pictures are all from the little cards they give you when you get pictures printed at Costco. It's a 4x6 with tiny thumbnails of all your pictures. I cut them up and taped them all in there.)

Here's my "Reading Room" page (mostly from Oprah magazines...) I put an envelope in there so if I come across a book I might want to read, I cut it out and put it in there, or write it on a piece of paper and put it in there.

Here's what I call my "Inspiration" page...mostly a lot of quotes, an article I cut out and stapled in there, some pictures (not pictured) of places I'd like to go (India!).

Part of a "random" page. Has a lot of craft things on it.

Here's my "Home and Garden" type page...

So, that's about it! For me, other than memory stuff it's like a real life Pinterest for anything you find in your day. I love this! And like I said before...it's so therapeutic.

Whew...now that I've officially "shared" I'll try to post new pictures from time to time! Does any else keep a journal like this or a Smashbook? If so I wanna see!

Oh yea...4 more days til the wedding! Goodnight!

- The soon-to-be Mrs. 246!