Jennifer Woodbury

Project Life: Making the Most of your Space

One of the things I am liking most about my approach to Project Life this year as opposed to last is that by pre-planning my pages, I am able to fit a lot more into my layouts. Last year I just printed out all my photos as 4x6s and found a way to fit them all in. Oftentimes that meant adding in a lot of extra inserts. There was nothing wrong with that - it was what I had time to do last year and I'm just happy to have those photos in an album - but because of this my albums from last year are probably bulkier than they need to be, and I also don't feel like my stories were necessarily told in the most cohesive or organized way.

This year I am taking a few extra minutes to plan out my layouts ahead of time using a template similar to this one that I created for myself, and I am really loving using multiple photos in one 4x6 slot, or even fitting a picture + some journaling in a smaller 3x4 slot.

Here is my Project Life for Week 11. This was the week we had Claire's little birthday parry at home. Since I did end up with so many pictures from that event, I included an extra insert for this week using an American Crafts page protector.

Here you can see how I used one of Cathy Zielske's Tiny Templates (I absolutely love these) to fit two photos + journaling in one 4x6 slot in my insert:

The back of the insert + the right side of my layout:

In the bottom right slot, I fit four photos in a series (Claire blowing out candles and eating cake) onto one 4x6 print using a free(!) photo template from Paislee Press.

I also used three of my 3x4 slots to include both photos and journaling. Sometimes (as seen on the left and right), I just print out small photos and attach them right onto a journaling card. Other times (as seen in the middle), I use a Tiny Template.

Here is my Project Life for Week 12. This was the week of Claire's actual birthday. I included a 6x12 insert (I talk more about those here) to incorporate this blog post I wrote about Claire turning 4.

The back of the insert + the right side of my layout:

You can see in the top left that I used another Paislee Press 4x6 photo template. I especially love this one... something about the white space on the top and bottom really appeals to me.

The latest product I'm excited to try out in my Project Life album to fit more photos in a small space? These new Layered Photo Sets. Do you have any great tips for making the most of your space in Project Life? I'd love to hear them!

Products used:

InLinkz.com

Project Life: Giveaway Winner

I wish I was Oprah so I could surprise all 1,034 of you with a Project Life kit, but unfortunately I'm not. The randomly selected winner of the giveaway is:

Congratulations Sandra! I'll be in touch to let you know how to claim your prize. Thanks to Becky Higgins for sponsoring this giveaway!

Project Life: Giveaway!

I have a few Project Life layouts to share, but first something fun. Becky Higgins has generously offered to give away all of the following to one of my blog readers:

This is basically everything you need to start a Project Life album. I think this would be especially perfect for somebody who has been wanting to give Project Life a try. Almost every member of Becky's creative team is hosting a giveaway this week, so there are many chances to win. Check Becky's blog later today for a full list of all the giveaways. Here are the details if you want to enter:

1. First of all, since these products will be shipped directly from Amazon, the winner must be a U.S. resident.

2. To enter, leave a comment on this post.

3. I will close the comments at 3pm Eastern time on Thursday, April 12th and select a winner then.

And now, a few Project Life layouts. First up is the week of Valentine's Day (Week #7). As you can see, I devoted the entire left side of my layout to Valentine's Day. I really like the flexibility of my approach this year (week-at-a-glance instead of photo-a-day) to be able to focus on certain events like this without always having to add an extra insert. I won't do this every week because I really don't want to lose focus on recording everyday life, but in certain instances I'm finding it works really well.

Here's a closer view of the left side...

... and the right side.

The next week (Week #8) was the week of our February break. As I mentioned in my weekly photos post for this week, I didn't really take a whole lot of photos but I still felt like I had plenty of material to use.

I really liked using this Instagram-style layout (which I created in Photoshop) in one of my 4x6 pockets to fit several photos in a small space:

Finally, here is Week #9 (Feb 26 - Mar 3). I did include one 8.5x11 insert for this week. The front side of the insert is just an enlargement of a photo from the week that I loved.

Here you can see the back side of the insert and a more complete view of the right side of my layout. The back of the insert includes the final draft of the persuasive letter Ella wrote at school asking for a fish. As you can see by the date on the letter, she actually wrote this a couple of weeks earlier but it didn't come home until this particular week and since it coincided nicely with the fact that she actually did get a fish that week, I felt like it made the most sense to include it in Week #9.

Also, you can see that I used one of the 4x6 slots for journaling. I love doing this when I have too much journaling for one of the regular journaling slots, but not enough to warrant its own 6x12 insert.

(Note: Yes, I am still also creating digital layouts for each week, but I decided to just share physical layouts this time around.)

Products used:

InLinkz.com

Project Life: Extra Photos & Adding Inserts

2012 Project Life, Week 3

Like many who use Project Life, I love adding insert pages to my layouts when I have extra photos to share. Although I am actually trying to be a little more selective this year when adding extra pages so that my albums aren't quite as bulky (I ended up with 3 albums for 2011!), there are some events that just call for a page of their own. Above, you can see the front of an insert I created using photos from our one and only snowstorm this winter (a far cry from last winter). Below you can see the back of the insert:

I have had a few people ask how I plan to incorporate extra photos into my digital version of Project Life. The answer is: exactly the same way! In this case, I took the digital Design G template (the same as the Design G photo pocket page I used above) and created this:

Then I took the same template, flipped it horizontally (in Photoshop you do this by going to Image -> Image Rotation -> Flip Canvas Horizontal), and created the back side of the insert:

Put together, they look like this:

When I eventually print these digital layouts into a photo book, I plan to put these insert pages directly after the main Project Life layout for the week.

Before I go, here's one more layout from Week 5 that I haven't had a chance to share yet (as always, click to enlarge):

This week included a snapshot of our crazy warm winter weather, a rundown of Ella's favorite school lunches, and a discussion of my Downton Abbey obsession, among other things.

Project Life: Printing on Journaling Cards

2012 Project Life, Week 4 (Digital Version)

Ever since I posted about my approach to Project Life in 2012, the question I have been asked most often is how I print on my journaling cards. Do I use the cards that come in the Project Life kit or just print out the digital version of the journaling cards? How do I get the text lined up on the cards?

First of all, I do use the physical cards that come with the Clementine Core Kit to print my journaling, although you definitely could just print out the digital journaling cards on white cardstock and trim them to fit if you wanted to. What I do use the digital journaling cards for is to line up my text and get it ready to print, and I'm going to attempt to show you exactly how I do that.

A quick disclaimer: there are other similar tutorials out there that explain how to print on a Project Life journaling card. Here are a couple you might want to check out:

Paislee Press: How To Print on Journaling Cards

Listgirl: Printing Onto Project Life Journaling Cards

The only thing really unique about what I am going to show you is how I get my journaling to line up with the lined journaling cards that come with Project Life.

Step 1: Create an 8.5x11 document in Photoshop or other similar photo editing software. Within that document, create an outline the same size and shape of a Project Life journaling card. If you zoom in on the photo below, you can see that the actual dimensions I used are 2.875 inches x 3.938 inches. Instead of doing this yourself, you can save time and energy by just downloading the free template from Paislee Press.

Step 2: Print out this document with the outline showing and set it aside. You will use this later when you are ready to print out your card(s).

Step 3: Open up the digital copy of the journaling card you are planning to use and drag it onto your 8.5x11 document. Move it so it is lined up right inside the outline.

Step 4: Create a text box and type in your journaling, obviously making sure it fits within the borders of the card. Since I already completed the journaling in my digital version of Project Life (shown at the top of this post), I just dragged the text from the digital Project Life file into my 8.5x11 document.

Now, the key to getting the text to line up perfectly on the lines is to adjust your line height. To do this you need to go to your Character Menu in Photoshop (to display this menu, go to Window -> Character), shown in the photo below.  The place where you will adjust your line height is illustrated by the two letter "A"s on top of one another. I have found that if you set this to 19.4, it will match up with the spacing on *most* of the Project Life journaling cards found in the Clementine kit regardless of your text size. I imagine the spacing is similar for other Project Life editions as well, but if the spacing is different it is easy to figure this out and make adjustments on your own.

Step 5: Now that you have everything lined up and formatted the way you want, you are almost ready to print. But first, make sure you hide the layers that contain your digital journaling card and the outline you created in step 1. All that should be visible is your text, like in the photo below.

Step 6: Attach your journaling card to the 8.5x11 piece of paper you printed out in step 2, fitting the card within the outline. Double sided tape would probably work best for this, but I just use a couple of rolled up pieces of regular tape and it has always worked fine.

Step 7: Print!

Step 8: Carefully remove the journaling card(s) from the paper (you can reuse the 8.5x11 piece of paper again as many times as you want).

And here is my physical version of Week 4, complete with printed journaling cards:

I hope this helps! Now go forth and print...

My Project Life Identity Crisis

You have probably heard this story before. Way back when, I started out as a paper scrapbooker. Then when Ella was born in 2005, I discovered digital scrapbooking and swore I would never touch paper again. And then life got too busy and I stopped scrapbooking altogether.

Last year, I quietly tiptoed back into the scrapbooking world using Project Life. There was no digital option available at the time so I used the physical product and even went so far as to use my own handwriting (something I had never done before even in my paper days).

This year I thought I might type my journaling cards, but other than that I didn't expect much else to change when it came to Project Life. But then I decided to try the new digital products and was reminded of all the things I loved about digital scrapbooking.

Thus began my minor identity crisis. Was I a paper or a digital girl at heart? I spent the first few weeks of the year creating both digital and physical pages trying to figure things out and settle on one or the other. But the answer to my question, I realized, was that I am both. And so I decided to create my pages both digitally and with the paper product in 2012. This may seem like a lot of extra time and duplicate work, but surprisingly it really isn't. By the time I get the digital version for the week done, the majority of the work for the physical pages is already done. I mostly just have to print and slide everything into the page protectors. Project Life is all about simplicity for me, so I would never attempt this if I thought it was taking too much extra time.

I have been designing my pages in Photoshop using the Design A page template and the Clementine kit. I love doing it this way first because it allows me to see exactly which photos I need to print and what sizes I need them to be. Here is my Week 1 digital spread (click the photo to view larger):

Then I send my photos off to be printed and print out my journaling cards on my home printer and that digital spread turns into these physical pages:

As another example, here is the digital version of Week 2:

And the physical version of the same week:

My vision is to have the physical album be our family book, which I will still be able to fill with the "extras" of life (cards, school work, etc.), and then use the digital pages to create smaller photo books for each of my girls at the end of the year.

I am not sharing this with you because I think this is the best way to do things. In fact, I don't expect this approach to work for most people. Realistically, I know that the majority of you will prefer one method over another. The last thing I want to do is make things seem more complicated since that goes against the whole spirit of Project Life in the first place. What I am hoping is that seeing Project Life used in different ways gives you a good sense of the options available and hopefully helps you figure out the best way to document your own story.

Products used:

InLinkz.com

Project Life: Thoughts on Staying "Caught Up" & Incorporating Blog Posts into Your Album

It's been a while since I shared anything Project Life related. I have been a bit preoccupied watching Downton Abbey the past couple of weeks, but I'm almost all caught up now so here I am!

Speaking of being caught up, have I mentioned that I am completely up to date on my 2012 Project Life album? It is such a great feeling, and I can't wait to share some of my thoughts on tackling this project for a second year. Look for a post about that next week.

But for now I want to talk about my 2011 Project Life albums. Last year I most decidedly did not stay caught up. By last October, I had only finished journaling through April... that's a good six months behind. However, by the end of the year (so in just a couple of months) I managed to get myself almost completely up to date. My saving grace was the fact that I had a place to record all my journaling and I kept pretty current with it. Without this, I would have been in big trouble.

I tell you this for two reasons:

1) If for some reason you are feeling behind and already want to throw in the proverbial Project Life towel, DON'T. Because I promise I was much more "behind" than you are right now. But that's the beauty of this project. It's simple and easy, so it is possible to catch up on a lot in a short amount of time. And the end result is so worth it.

2) If you do nothing else, make sure you have a place to write things down. Whether it's on a blog or in a notebook or by using an app on your phone, just make sure you are writing. Your journaling is one thing that's going to be really hard to recreate at a later date.

I am now almost completely done with 2011. I am in the process now of adding a few finishing touches to my albums when I have the time. One thing that I want to share with you is the way I incorporated my blog posts into Project Life. It was so fast and easy, and I absolutely love the way they turned out.

All I did was take the Words and Photos 6x12 Layered Templates by Ali Edwards, dropped in my photo(s), copied and pasted the text of my blog posts, and did a little bit of formatting. Then I flattened the files and put two of them side by side on a 12x12 canvas like this:

Then I had them printed, cut the prints in half using my paper trimmer, and slipped them into a 6x12 page protector. I probably only spent about five minutes per blog post doing this. Here's what they looked like once I had them printed, trimmed, and put into page protectors:

And here is what one looks like when it is put into an album:

This is such a fast & easy way to add some longer stories to your albums.

Products used:

InLinkz.com

Momento

I have always struggled to find a good way to keep track of small moments, like those funny things the girls say or other little memories that I don't want to forget. Sometimes I use Twitter and Facebook for this, but I tend to only share things on social media that I think other people will relate to or also find humorous, so a lot of stuff ends up not getting recorded that way. I have also purchased books which inevitably ended up collecting dust in the back of a closet, and when all else failed I resorted to just keeping an e-mail in my Drafts folder that I accessed when I wanted to write something down. It was better than nothing, but not ideal by any means.

Then at the beginning of the year a few friends told me about the Momento app for iPhone. This app is exactly what I have been searching for. I always have my phone with me so it is easily accessible and I love how it keeps everything so organized. Here is a screen shot of what it looks like when I open the app with all my "moments" nicely arranged by date:

I also love how you can connect the Momento app with your Facebook and Twitter feeds so your status updates and tweets automatically show up in your calendar. I now have easy access to all of those posts going back several years. And if you include an Instagram or other photo when you post to Facebook & Twitter, a little thumbnail of the photo shows up in your entry as well. You can add photos to any of your own private moments too. Here's an example of how Momento displays my New Year's Eve post from Twitter:

Another feature I love is the search option. So for example, I can search for "Claire" and pull up everything that includes her name, thus remembering that at one point in time she was actually a rascally one-year-old:

Momento has been a great resource for recording things to include in my Project Life layouts, but I really think this app would be great for anybody who is interested in journal keeping. I initially balked at the $2.99 price tag (which seems fairly expensive in the app world, but is not a lot of money when you really think about it) but I think it was worth the small investment. Check it out! I'd also love to know: how do you record the small moments in your own life?

Project Life: Getting Started

Happy 2012! Who's ready to get started with Project Life?

Just before Christmas I got my Clementine Core Kit in the mail, which is what I plan to use for my 2012 Project Life album (I absolutely love this design by the way!). Almost immediately, I started putting together my 2012 album. Of course, this is not something you have to do, but I really think that having my album put together and organized ahead of time was key to my success with Project Life in 2011. For those embarking on this project for the first time, I thought it might be helpful to share exactly how I put my album together. The whole thing took me a couple of hours. I basically did it in the space of one evening after the kids went to bed, with everything spread out on the living room floor and half of my attention on the TV in the background. Not a lot of effot, but totally worth it.

I was going to type up my process step by step but then I realized that Becky Higgins has basically already done that for me but in video form, so it's even better. You can watch her video here. Just note that she is using one of the older Project Life designs. Things are set up a little differently now, so you won't have the colorful monthly dividers in your kit, for example (although if you want something similar these Scrapbook Dividers will be back in stock this month). Once all the title and journaling cards are in the album, this is an example of what a layout will look like:

(Just to note, I alternated the Clementine journaling cards with the basic grid journaling cards).

Of course I can always change things later on, but it is so helpful to have the framework set up ahead of time.

One additional step that I take is to add the dates to my title cards in advance. Of course, you'd only want to do this if you're sure you are going to do one layout for each week of the year (or you could always just use sticky notes instead if you're still not sure exactly what your plans are). Having the dates already on the layouts was so helpful this past year as I was adding extra items to my album because I knew exactly where to put them even if I was behind on printing pictures or journaling. It was just one little thing that really helped keep me on track.

(The date stamp I used here was something included in a previous version of Project Life, but you can find something similar in almost any office supply store.)

My biggest piece of advice to anybody starting out on this project in 2012 is to keep it simple. There is a lot of amazing inspiration out there, which is wonderful, but sometimes it's easy to get overwhelmed with ideas (I speak from personal experience here). Just remember that the beauty of this project is its simplicity. Don't overthink it. Just do it.

(See additional Project Life posts here and here.)

Project Life Q&A

I apologize in advance for the wordy post and lack of pictures, but hopefully this answers all the questions I have received.

How do I print my photos to fit into the sleeves? Where/how do you get your photos printed each month with the rounded corners?

All my photos are printed in the standard 4x6 size. I order them from Persnickety Prints, because their color seems to be a lot better than local 1 hour photo places like Costco, but it's cheaper than using a pro lab like WHCC. 

I round the corners myself using this EK Success Corner Rounder (the small size, in the yellow color). It's very fast and easy, but of course you don't have to round your corners. This corner rounder does mimic the rounded corners of the journaling cards included in the Project Life kits quite nicely though.

How do you put your photos of the day in the format with the script and circle date?

The date overlays are by Ali Edwards and you can purchase them at Designer Digitals. You can buy the entire year or one month at a time (here is January). They are actually on sale right now through November 16th, so it might be worth buying them now if you are interested. I love them, as I do most anything Ali Edwards does, but I probably won't use them every day next year like I did this year.

They are easy to use (after using them over 300 times this year, I pretty much have it down to a science). Just open up the file for the date you are using and rotate if needed (I always rotate 90 degrees clockwise to fit my horizontal photos). If you want the border/date to be white instead of black, just add a color overlay. To do this in Photoshop you just go to Layers -> Layer Style -> Color Overlay. Open up your photo and make sure it is sized to 4x6 inches at 300 pixels/inch resolution. Then just drag the date overlay onto your photo, center it, and flatten the layers.

How do you subscribe or create the calendar for your pictures a day? Is there a website or did you create this on your own?

The calendar format for my photo a day blog is a template offered through my blog provider, Typepad. If you don't have a Typepad blog the only other thing I've come across that is similar is this site:

http://shuttercal.com/

If anybody else knows of something like this out there, please let me know!

How do you organize your photos on your computer to prepare for the project? iPhoto, or something else?

I am a huge Mac devotee, but for some reason I have never embraced iPhoto. I think it's because I prefer to have control over what my files are named and where the originals are located on my hard drive. I save all my original photos in folders by quarter (2011 Quarter 1, 2011 Quarter 2, etc.). When I choose which photo I want to use for my photo of the day, I edit it and save a copy in a folder titled Photo a Day 2011.

What camera(s) do you use for your POTD? Do you do much editing before you print/post your pictures? Are you a manual photo taker or automatic setting kind of gal?

My camera is the Canon 5D (original model). The lens I use 95% of the time is the 24-70mm f/2.8L. I have used my iPhone camera for a few of my daily photos, and while it is much more convenient than using a DSLR camera, I am rarely happy with the quality so my big camera goes pretty much everywhere with me. Maybe that will change when I hopefully upgrade to the iPhone 4S at the end of the year.

I usually keep my camera set to "P" mode, which is basically automatic except I control ISO and white balance. That way, I won't miss a shot if I'm trying to capture something on the spur of the moment. If the lighting is tricky, or if I have more time to get the shot, I will either use aperture priority or full manual mode.

I do edit each photo at least minimally. I do adjustments in Camera RAW (tweak exposure & contrast), and then usually do a curves adjustment in Photoshop. I don't really use any actions. I have followed a method similar to this for a very long time too, and it always gives me great results.

Can you let me know how to get it? Which products did you have to buy separate from the kit to make it work the way you did?

Here are the basics of what you will need to get started:

• A binder: I use the basic black binder from We R Memory Keepers. Becky is coming out with some brand new binders next month from this same company, and you can see the details about those on her blog. 
• Project Life Core Kit: There are two versions available right now: Turquoise and Amber. I used the Amber edition this year. Next month, two new versions will become available: Cobalt and Clementine. You can see close ups of what they will look like here. I plan to use Clementine for 2012. If you really want to stick with the very basics, you can always just buy these simple grid journaling cards to start and go from there. Actually, I'd recommend buying those plain journaling cards anyway; I love them and they are really versatile. 
• Photo Pocket pages: If you buy this big pack, it will get you through an entire year. If you tend to shoot more vertical photos, you may want to check out this new design as well. 

Those are the basics. If you want to add in extra photos + memorabilia throughout the year, these are the products I find myself reaching for most often:

• 12x12 page protectors for horizontal 4x6 photos: I find I use these mostly for vacations or other times when I have a lot of extra photos. 
• 6x12 page protectors: I use these for cards and folded programs. 
• 6x12 page protectors for horizontal 4x6 photos: I use these when I just have a few extra photos to include. 
• Regular 8.5x11 page protectors: I use these for school work or anything else printed on standard-sized paper that I want to include.
• Flip up page protectors: These are great when you just can't pick one photo for a certain day.
• Big envelope pages: These are a new product so I haven't used them yet, but I do have them and I think they are going to be really useful going forward.