I can't believe it's been a year since I became a part of the very first Project Life Creative Team, but alas, my time is up and it's time to pass the torch on to the 2013 team, which will be announced on Becky's blog next week. I have had a lot of fun this year working with Becky and her team, and I will really miss interacting with them on a regular basis. In my last "official" act as a creative team member, here are a couple of recent layouts from the end of September/early October.
Week 39 (September 23 - September 29):
Week 40 (September 30 - October 6):
Although I have a little bit of catching up to do for 2012, I am already thinking about my plans for 2013. I am considering doing an all digital Project Life album next year and finally tackling baby books for all three of my girls with the new Project Life Baby Editions that should be available on Amazon THIS WEEK. I may not post my layouts quite as often, but rest assured I will still be busy over here documenting life. And in all sincerity, thank you for letting me share my Project Life pages with you during this past year.
Before the holidays hit in full force (I can't believe Thanksgiving is already next week... missing a whole week of school/life because of Hurricane Sandy has thrown me completely off!), how about a couple of Project Life layouts leftover from the summer? I thought I would use these pictures to point out a few products and techniques I have found myself using a lot lately in addition to the core Project Life products.
First up, Week 30 from the end of July:
I really love the banners that Ali Edwards creates for various seasons and holidays. The "Hello Beach" banner above comes from her Beach Outline set. You can also find sets for Halloween, Thanksgiving and Christmas.
On the photo above, I used Cathy Zielske's technique of screening back text over a photo (see video tutorial here). Ever since she posted this tutorial back at the beginning of the summer, I have been using this technique a lot.
Here is Week 33 from the middle of August:
I used these State Love journaling cards for the second half of our trip to Oregon, and I really love how they stand out on the page. My only complaint is that when you open the files in Photoshop, the heart isn't on a separate layer so it takes a few extra steps if you want to move it so that it's over a specific city. It is doable without too much effort though, and there is actually a tutorial here that shows you how.
And of course, one of my all time favorite products... Cathy Zielske's Tiny Templates. I mention them a lot, but I'm pretty sure I use them at least once in every Project Life layout I do!
Congratulations Samantha! I'll be in touch to let you know how to claim
your prize.
For the rest of you, I have a small something to share. If you watched my webinar last week, you heard about how I use a template to sketch out my weekly Project Life layouts. I know there are a few other great templates out there, but I thought I'd also offer up my personal template for anybody who'd like to use it. It has room to sketch out two full Project Life layouts (I usually just fold it in half and work on one week at a time). If you'd like to download it, just click the link below!
Project Life is turning three this week, and today I'm thrilled to have the chance to participate in the festivities along with the rest of the Project Life Creative Team.
I talk about Project Life a lot, but that's because it's been truly revolutionary for me. As I have said before, I finally feel like I have a way to record my story in a way that is both manageable (read: simple) and also meaningful.
On Tuesday, I participated in a webinar that included a presentation detailing my Project Life process from start to finish, as well as a live Q&A session. If you missed it, you can still sign up and watch a replay through October 9th by going here:
1. First of all, since these products will be shipped directly from Amazon, the winner must be a U.S. resident. I'm really sorry, I know this is a bummer to all the international readers out there.
2. To enter, leave a comment on this post.
3. I will close the comments at 9pm Eastern time on Sunday, October 7th and select a winner.
Once you've entered, hop on over to all of the other creative team member blogs. Everyone is giving away a few of their own favorite Project Life products:
The randomly selected winner of a seat in Becky Higgins' Project Real Life class is:
Congratulations Brianne! I'll be in touch to let you know how to claim your prize. Thanks to Becky Higgins and Big Picture Classes for sponsoring this giveaway!
If you didn't win, you can still register for Project Real Life through October 10th. Class starts on October 4th. I hope to see you all there!
There has been so much exciting Project Life news over the past month or so. Becky introduced the new Project Life designs for 2013 (Seafoam & Olive) and debuted the amazing new Childhood Editions. But what I was personally most excited about was the announcement of the new Baby Editions.
Did you know none of my girls has a baby book? Ella does have an album with a collection of various digital scrapbook pages I completed when she was little, but it is not a full picture of her babyhood by any means. Still, Claire sees it and asks why she doesn't have one too. Needless to say, I plan to order the Project Life Baby Edition x 3 and knock those baby books out!
As if all that wasn't enough, Becky Higgins herself will be teaching a comprehensive 12-week workshop over at Big Picture Classes called Project Real Life.
You can read all about it in the class description, and Becky also posted a great Q&A on her blog if you want more details. It sounds like it will be a great class for everyone - new Project Life users, seasoned Project Life users, or even someone who has never even scrapbooked before. I am really excited to take this class and I hope some of you out there will join me too.
In fact, Becky Higgins and Big Picture Classes have given me a spot in Project Real Life to give away to one of you.
If you want to enter to win, leave a comment on this post. I will close the comments at 9pm Eastern time on Wednesday, September 19th and select a winner then.
And now, a couple of Project Life layouts from earlier this summer. I think last time I posted about Project Life I told you I was all caught up? Well don't worry, our end of summer vacation threw me off and now I am way behind. I'm sure I'll catch up again... eventually.
Here is Week #24, the end of the school year and the start of summer vacation:
You can't see it too clearly (I should have taken a close-up), but in the top left photo on this page I scanned in a note that Ella wrote to her first grade teacher and incorporated the scan onto the photo using one of Cathy Zielske's Tiny Templates. I really like how it turned out, and I especially like the fact that I didn't have to include the entire piece of paper she wrote on in the album. I am all about trying to streamline extra inserts this year.
Here is Week #25, the week of Father's Day. I included the drawings Ella & Claire made for Matt as inserts as well as the card Ella brought home from school.
Before I get to the giveaway, I wanted to share a little something for anybody who has ever come here and asked themselves "What in the world is Project Life?!" Take a look at this quick video - it's literally just over a minute long - that explains in really simple terms what Project Life is all about.
And now for the fun part. If you are familiar with Project Life, you will know that a whole bunch of new page protector and photo pocket page designs were just released (If you want more details on any of the new products, check out Becky's detailed post on her blog).
Here's your chance to give all these new products a try for yourself:
If you want to enter to win, here are the details:
1. 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 9pm Eastern time on Tuesday, August 14th and select a winner then.
Before I go, here are a few Project Life pages that I haven't shared before. I am actually surprisingly caught up even though summer is the time I tend to start falling behind. I have my album up to date through the first two weeks of July, but I haven't had a chance to photograph those pages yet.
School's almost out for us (Ella has just 3.5 days of first grade left) and it seems like everybody has summer break on the brain, so I figured this was a good time to share my Project Life pages from our spring break vacation back in April.
Week 15 started with Easter and ended with the first two days of our trip:
The left side focused almost exclusively on Easter. I really didn't want to add an extra insert for my Easter pictures, so as you can see I used these photo templates to fit 8 photos in the space of two 4x6 slots. The grid on the left focused on Easter baskets, and the one on the right focused on the egg hunt:
The right side of my layout focused on travel preparations (the packing photo in the top left) and the first full day of our trip:
I did add a couple of extra inserts this week: a 6x12 page protector that holds six 4x6 photos, and a standard 8.5x11 page protector with a piece of writing that Ella brought home from school about how excited she was for our vacation. You will see that on one of the extra photos below I included a QR code:
If you take your smartphone and scan the code, it will automatically take you to this video, which directly correlates to the photo:
I originally saw this idea here (go to 7:53 in the video to see the part I am talking about) and thought it was a brilliant way to easily include videos into a Project Life album. I am so excited about this concept; my only concern is how long the QR codes I generated (at this website) will last. I'm not sure if QR codes in general were intended for an indefinite life span. But really, I'm just happy to have something to do with the videos that normally just languish in a folder on my hard drive. And if for some reason several years down the road those codes don't work anymore, I'll just cross that bridge when I get there. Better to use a great solution now than to wait for a "perfect" solution that may never exist.
Week 16 contains the remainder of our vacation:
I don't mind the fact that our trip is broken up between two weeks. I actually think it sort of helps to curb photo overload within one particular week, although I did still include three extra inserts in Week 16: (1) a 6x12 insert that includes the text from this blog post, (2) another 6x12 page protector for 4x6 photos, and (3) one of the Project Life Design G photo pocket pages.
On the back of the 6x12 insert is this photo collage I created using a template by Cathy Zielske. This is such a great way to include a bunch of extra shots:
Here is a closer view of the right side of Week 16. Ella's birthday fell on the last day of our trip, so I included a little bit about that as well.
In the photo below I tried out using a ghosted background in order to include text directly onto my picture. I'm always looking for creative ways to incorporate extra text in my Project Life pages and I really like how this turned out.
Now that I've shared these layouts, I'm ready for another vacation. Anyone else?
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!
