Monthly Moments Matter Scrapbooking - A Simple, New Way to Scrapbook

I started scrapbooking around 1996 or 1997 and I have a ton of finished albums. I loved this awesome craft where I got to play with cute paper and embellishments to create layouts of my family and favorite memories. That was until my kids left home, got married and now have families of their own. I found myself not knowing how to scrapbook my new life. I did a few layouts of my grandkids, but that was about it. I was an empty nester with depression and a very boring life and didn't feel like I had anything to scrapbook any more. I got inspired a few times, first with a book I got from the library and I tried doing what I was calling Dot Journaling which was basically doing a bullet point list of what I did in my day and then would add photos if I had any and add a few embellishments. But then I saw how boring my life was and I gave up. I saw a few other ways people were scrapbooking and found them interesting but again, I had a dull and depressed life and I didn't want to scrapbook that. Then I came across Heidi Swapp's "Stop The Blur" and memory planners which gave me new ideas. I started writing down 4 things each day as she suggests, but I wasn't doing anything beyond that.  

For months I had ideas running through my head, but none of them felt right for me. Then one day I was listening to a Podcast about a woman who had been in a horrible accident and was in the hospital for many months. At one point she talked about all the mundane things she missed while being in the hospital. She describes really simple things like the kids' toothbrushes in the bathroom, items in the laundry, the menu on the fridge, her children’s little hands, what was in their closets and more that she missed. Later in the podcast she said she believes that no matter your stage of life, you need to enjoy it. She said how she likes to take pictures of simple things like the tops of her kids’ dressers, what is on the front of the refrigerator, clothes in the closet, shoes at the front door, etc. Then the podcast host said something about there being magic in every day. I felt so moved and inspired and I thought how the guest had truly made the mundane feel magical. I knew this was something I really wanted to make happen so I kept journaling daily but I didn't stick to any number of items, just what came to my mind about my day. I started really brainstorming how I wanted the layouts to look. I started thinking more about taking pictures of the mundane things in my life and one thing I was doing was a lot of digital puzzles on my iPad and I thought how I could screenshot my puzzle. This idea led to my thinking that I wanted to pay attention to my daily images whether it was a picture I took or one my kids texted to me or any screenshot of things I was doing digitally. 

That's what let me to creating a journal where I not only write down a few things for each day (you can write just a few notes then expand your journaling when you create your layout) but that I wanted to reference photos or screenshots I want to use for that day as well when I create my layout. So I designed a journal just for this, you can get the current Monthly Moments Matter Journal 2025 on Amazon with this link. Now that I had a plan for making the mundane things magical in journaling and images I needed to come up with how to put them in a book of some kind. 

I had a lot of inspiration from other people of different styles, page sizes and books, but I have always been a 12 x 12 scrapbooker so I decided to stick with what I prefer. Also, I knew I wanted to be able to use 3x3 Flip Flaps from Stampin' Up!  so that gave me a starting point of measurements I wanted to use. I started brainstorming with ChatGPT and having it do a lot of math as I figured out how I could do a 2 page layout for a single month. That's when I came up with the "Basic 12 x 12 Monthly Moments Matter Grid." If you find that you need to expand on a particular day use the 3 x 3 Flip Flaps or add a 1, 2 or more page layout behind the basic monthly grid layout. 

I use Canva to prepare and print my 3 x 3 squares whether they are pictures, journaling or a combination starting with a template. Once I have the Images and/or Moments in their 3 x 3 squares with any added dates and/or embellishments, I'm ready to print (I fill an 8 1/2 x 11 page with as much as I can before adding another page to the file). I print out my pages on photo paper and trim so I’m ready to do my layout in a cinch. Once I have all my 3 x 3 squares ready for my layout the possibilities are endless. I mat each square on a 3x3 mat of cardstock and use my Cricut to cut them so they are all the exact same size using this template. For dates that I didn’t have any Images or Moments (it happens and that's okay!) I will just fill that square with embellishments. This is my January 2025 Monthly Moments Matter Layout where I have some days with just journaling, some with photos and screenshots along with my moments journaling.

I'm so excited to see the mundane become magical in my layouts and to know that every moment in my life matters just as every moment in your life matters. I hope you will join me in my Monthly Moments Matter journey and create your own.