Well it's my first week into Project Life and I'm LOVIN' it! But before I get into my layout(s) for Week 1, I have already learned a two lessons in this journey and wanted to share them with you. If you are still contemplating taking on Project Life, I hope the following will help you get started.
Lesson One: If printing your photos at home (like me) decide which divided page protectors you will use for your layouts before printing them! I had friends coming over Thursday to scrapbook and to get ready I printed the photos the night before, without choosing which protectors I was going to place them in. Yes, the left hand side of the double-page spread was already determined, as it is the back side of the title page, but I didn't even think to refer to it before printing photos. Once I sat down to scrap, I found that I had to reprint some of them in order make it fit into the protector I chose to use (i.e. reprint a 4x6 to fit in a 3x4-I'll mention an example further down the post). I hope that makes sense!
Lesson Two: I am so glad I bought the digital versions of the Core Collections! If you like digital scrapbooking, or a hybrid scrapper, and are creating your album in the traditional way, you will find that the digital versions of the collections will come in handy! For example, although I LOVE the bi-fold journaling cards, I didn't want to use one "opened" in a 4x6 section of a protector where I had a lot of journaling to do. By having the digital versions of the cards I was able to print the card, cut it out and journal on that instead! I love the way it printed, but I need to experiment with my printer setting as far as the final print is concerned. After I place the card in the pocket, I noticed it was slightly smaller than 4x6. I believe it was due to me having the "shrink to fit" button checked on my print settings. If I uncheck the box and set the paper to "borderless" I believe the size would be perfect!
Another reason why I'm happy I purchased the digital version is that it comes with extra elements that the paper version does not. Remember in my Project Life 2012 post I punched the little word art circle from one of the 4x6 filler cards? Well, as I mentioned in that post, those word art circles (or stamps) are in the extra elements folder in the digital version (png files). I created a new 8.5x11 file in Photoshop, placed all 22 of them in the document, resized them to 1.5" and printed the whole sheet. Then, I used a 1.75" circle punch to cut one out to place on one of the photos in my layout. Keep reading and I will point it out to you!
Now onto Week One:
Note: I wanted to write down some personal goals and resolutions I made for myself and include them in the album. I designed and placed this list on the back side of the 6x12 page title page. So technically it's part of the title/introduction page, but I still felt the need to share it with you here! I wanted the colors of this list to coordinate with the colors of the Clementine kit. I opened one of the digital title cards that had all of the Clementine colors and used the color picker in Photoshop to select the colors for my text. I also used the circle numbers from the digital version to number my goals/resolutions. Finally, I placed one of the word art circle stamps in the upper left hand corner and lowered the opacity.
Below is the left-hand side of the spread. Dustin, Ryley & Becca were still here and the week was busy doing some last minute site-seeing and shopping before they had to fly back to the States. :(
The photo of the palm tree is one that I had to reprint. I originally printed it as a 4x6 photo, but realized that it wasn't going to work on this page at that particular size, so I had to reprint it at a 3x4 (the palm tree is something we put up when the Christmas tree comes down. It helps to brighten a cold, gray, winter day! ).
I want some consistency on my title cards for this album, so I created this word art tag! And guess what? I am giving it to you for free! For the next 52 weeks I will have a png file of the weekly tag for you to download and use in your albums. The colors will change weekly and will coordinate with the Clementine kit. Be sure to subscribe to my blog so you don't miss out! The tag was printed on an Epson R1900 Photo Printer on Staples Brand Double-Sided Matte Paper. It is approximately 1.625" round. I cut it out using a 1.75" circle punch and attached it using pop-dots. Click the link below to download!
I used one of the filler cards in the kit to make the little flag tag above.
The right-hand side of the double-page layout is created using the Design G page protectors. I LOVE THEM! I really like how they add a different level of "dimension," "scrappiness" and suprise to the traditional 12x12 pages. Same with the 6x12 pages. I see me using a lot of both sizes in this album.
I used part of the filler card from the flag tag in the previous photo to make the larger you see on the picture of the soup. In the 4x6 section in the bottom right hand corner I made my own journal block. Did you know that Becky Higgins also offers patterned paper that coordinates with the Project Life Clementine + Cobalt Collections? I thought that the green patterned paper from the Cobalt Collection worked well with the photos on this page. I cut a 4x6 rectangle from it and rounded the corners. Then I trimmed about .25" from two of the Grid journaling cards and mounted them to the green patterned paper as seen above. I'm super happy with the way it turned out. The photos above (except for the soup) are of Ryley's last night here. If you click on the picture, a larger one should pop up and you can read the journaling, if interested.
So week one spilled onto another page (which is the back side of the Design G protector in the previous photo). The large journal card is the one that I printed from the digital version. The word art "sticker" on the photo of Grace & I is one that I printed and punched from the sheet of word art circles that I made and printed from the Clementine digital kit. I attached it to the photo with pop-dots. Again, you can read the journaling by clicking to enlarge the photo above.
I am almost done with Week 2 and should post that no later than Monday. Now that I'm caught up with Project Life and getting a feel for how my workflow is going to be and hope to get into a routine of my Project Life posts where I will have the previous week posted by the Monday of the new week! This is going to be fun!
