September Blue

Project Life: Week 15 + Freebie

Before I get into Week 15, have you seen Becky's video for new Project Life plastics that are coming in July? Check it out on the YouTube video below! I am soooo excited about all of it! Three cheers for 4x4 pockets!

 

Update on my 2012 New Year's Resolution(s): I am taking Kayla Lamoreaux's "Finding Your Photo Flow" Class over at JessicaSprague.com. I am so excited about this class. I really need to get a grasp on the number of photos I take and come up with a system of downloading, tagging, organizing & storing them on my computer. I'll post periodic updates to let you know how it is all going!

Okay onto Week 15. The layout is small, but I like it! Quick and simple!

I know I posted the Word Art Titles for Week 15 in a quick post last week, but you can download them again by clicking the link below. I used Design A and the 6x12 divided page protectors and a combination of papers from both the Clementine and Cobalt Core Collections.

Download SeptBlue_Week15Titles

My "Better late than never" photo is of a box that was delivered through our mail system. Nice isn't it? Back in the beginning of March I ordered decorations for our Beach Party we were having at the end of the month. Given that I ordered the stuff 3 weeks before the party, I figured that was plenty of time for it to get here. Boy was I wrong! For several weeks our mail was being routed through Istanbul which brought delivery of bulky packages down to a trickle.  There is only one or two flights a week to Riga from Istanbul, but by the looks of my box, you would think it traveled by rickshaw! But there is good news! Our mail is now going through Stockholm and there are daily flights from there to Riga which means our mail will get here much faster. And that has already proved to be true. I received a box in the mail yesterday that was shipped from the States on April 10! Six days-I think that is a record!

Although the temperatures need to warm up just a little bit more, spring has sprung here in Riga. We know this because all of the restaurants, cafes, bars and pubs are constructing their outdoor patios and opening them for business! On Saturday Chris and I strolled through Old Town and stopped for lunch at one of our favorites-No Problem. It felt so good to get out into the fresh air! (I got a new "do" this week as well. Totally happy with it. It's now my new FB profile pic!)

Saturday was also the 20th Anniversary of the Latvian Navy. There were several navy ships from Latvia and other countries in port for the celebration. After lunch, Chris and I walked off our food and drink and went to the port to tour some of the ships. Good day!

 This post is linked with The Mom Creative and One Happy Mama

Changes are coming + Project Life Organization Tip No. 2 with Freebie

For the past week or two not only have I been obsessed with Project Life, but I've been in the process of redesigning my blog. And I am having a blast doing it! It is something that I have been wanting to do for over a year now and I am finally taking the time to do so. Between online tutorials and the book Typepad for Dummies (that's me!), I've learned so much and can't wait for it to be done! There are a few things on the current blog that have already been tweaked. One being the "Add My September Blue Button To Your Blog." Click on it and you should be taken to a page where you can copy and paste the code into the area of your blog where you would like the button to appear. The other is the Pinterest button. Click on that and you will be taken to my Pinterest Boards...come and follow me! And then there is my latest change of how to set up threaded comments! I just figured this one out today! It was driving me crazy that someone would leave me a comment and then when I would reply, I had to do it as if I were a visitor on the blog. It was so frustrating because I really want to have a conversation with readers and I didn't feel as though I was! I know some of you that have Typepad blogs may have already figured this out, but it's news to me! It's such a personal victory! My goal is to have the new blog done by the end of February-complete with a shopping cart with my digital designs, a section for our favorite recipes, links to a Facebook Fan page and more! Busy, busy, busy! On to Project Life stuff...

Project Life Organization Tip No. 2

You may recall from a previous post that one of the organization issues I was working out with my Project Life was figuring out what photos to print, what sizes to print them, where to place journal cards, filler cards, etc. Last week when I was planning Week 3, I sketched out the page protectors onto my sketchpad and just labeled where thing were going to go. After thinking about it, I realized it would be nice to have small, digital versions of the protectors so I can print them out when I needed them. So I made them and I want to share them with you. Here is a before pic:

This is my sketch of what I did last week. Pretty rough, huh? It may not look pretty, but I really found that it helped to get my thoughts down on paper before I started printing photos, journaling, etc.

The freebie I am giving to you is a .psd file with the nine "page planners" you see in the first photo of this post. The sizes are approximately 4x4, 3x4, 2x4 (remember, there are 3 different sizes of page protectors for Project Life that Becky Higgins offers). Here are rough directions on how to use them (this is done in Photoshop):

1) Open up the SeptBlue_PagePlans_SetA.psd file. You will notice several layers. Turn off the layers you do not wish to see.

2) Open up a NEW document to measure 11x8.5.

3) Duplicate or drag the layers from the PagePlan file to your new document, arrange as you wish and print!

I know those are very rough directions. But I have faith in my readers that they can figure it out! If not, drop me a line and I will be more than happy to help you (I have threaded comments now remember? :))

I have already decided that my week four layout will be using Design D & Design A. This is what my printout looks like:

Now you can go ahead and scale the plans to make them smaller if you'd like. You can fit more on a page that way. This would be especially helpful if your are only using the same protectors throughout your album. But I like my plans a little larger just in case I change my mind about something, write a few notes, etc. 

I hope these help you out as you continue on your journey with Project Life! Click the link below to download!

Download SeptBlue_PagePlans_SetA