2013 marks the second year I will attempt to tackle Project LIfe. I say "attempt" because I only got to Week 18 last year. Bummer. I think I stopped around the time I took a trip back to the States for three weeks and couldn't carry my Project LIfe supplies with me. It was also around the time that Jessica Sprague and Echo Park were having their Designer Discovery Contest and I was super busy putting a kit together to enter into the contest. (I didn't win, but you can purchase the digital kit I created in the the Blueprints Shoppe by clicking on this link). Anyways, I'm not going to dwell on it. I am giving it my all this year because I have a plan (that word should sound familiar after yesterday's post).
Something that I feel held me back last year was I wasn't as organized as I should have been. I was using a wide variety of the divided page protectors instead of just sticking to one layout design. So this year the main design I will be using is Design A from Becky's collection of Project Life Page Protectors. Sure there will probably be weeks that I need more space for photos and stories, and when that time comes, I will go with Design G (I bought a ton of those last year) or cut down some of the other divided protectors from the collection to fit my needs.
I was also using two different Project Life Core Collections-Cobalt and Clementine. This year I will be using Seafoam. I can't wait for it to become available on Amazon! I did download the digital version from AC Digitals to get things started and will probably use elements from both versions for my album. I did that a lot last year and created several hybrid layouts! The one thing that I miss from the Seafoam digital kit are the extra element files. A label here, a peice of word art there, I found them extremely handy and hope Becky and her designers will create add-on element kits for their new digital Core Collections.
On to organization. Tracy Larsen, one of the new Project Life Creative Team Members for 2013, wrote a blog post on how she prepares for a new year with Project Life. I love, love, love the way she has organized her files and photos for Project Life and set I mine up the exact same way as she did. And it is already working for me! So instead of repeating what she has done here on my blog, I am providing a link to her blog post on what she did. The was she has things set up is a real time saver! Click here to read it! I highly recommend doing what she mentions with the Dropbox app on her phone. It's a great idea! Also, I love the DayOne app she uses for journaling~awesome, awesome, awesome! It is a perfect app for daily reminders and to journal your travels when you are on the go!
Ready for a freebie???
If you followed any of my Project LIfe blog posts last year, you should be familiar with the Weekly Word Art Circles I created. They were extremely popular and I had many requests to do them for 2013. I am happy to say that the 2013 circles-all 52 of them-are almost done and will be available for a limited time as a free download beginning next Tuesday! BUT...since I know many of you will be working on your Week One layouts this weekend, I wanted to provide you with the Word Art Circle for this week! Whoop, whoop!
They are a little different this year. They are BIG! 3.5 inches round-but I think they are a great compliment to the Seafoam collection. PLEASE NOTE!!! In the photo above you see the the date "January 1-6" printed on the circle. This line of text is NOT, I repeat, NOT in the file. Why? Because some people begin their weeks on a Sunday and others begin their weeks on a Monday. I wanted you to decide which date to start with. If you would like to add the text as I have done on my circle simply add a text box in Photoshop. The font I used is Helvetica Lt Std, Light Condensed at 18pt.
In addition to the photos above you can use the Weekly Word Art Circles like this:
Since the paper version of the Seafoam kit isn't availabe yet, to create either version of the title cards you will need the Title and Filler Cards and the Papers from the Digital version of the Seafoam kit available now at AC Digitals.
For the first card I opened the dotted 12x12 digital paper, cropped it to 4x6, printed it out on double-sided matte photo paper and used my Creative Memories corner rounder on the corners. The Word Art Circle was printed on a 4x6 piece of double-sided matte photo paper as well and I used my Creative Memories Circle Cutter to cut it out. I then used pop-dots to mount it to the circle to the dotted paper.
For the other option I opened one of the title cards in Photoshop along with the Weekly Word Art Circle. In order to get the placement of the date correct, I dragged and dropped the Word Art Circle onto the Title Card and placed it in the spot where the final printed version was going to go, then I made a text box and typed the date (again the specs for the font I used is: Helvetica Lt Std, Light Condensed at 18pt.
Make sure you delete the layer with the word art title before you print! So when you do print the title card, it will look like this:
Follow the instruction on printing and cutting out the Word Art Circle and mount to the Title Card using pop-dots (and trim the bottom part of the circle.
Like it?
So check back some time Tuesday afternoon for the full set! Again, they will coordinate with the Seafoam edition! This file is no longer available as a free download. You can purchase my latest design of all 52 Weekly Word Art Titles by visiting my Blueprints Shoppe!
Have a great weekend!
