Project Life: Monitor & Adjust

So, I'm still REALLY loving Project Life.  If you've ever thought about digital scrapbooking, I highly recommend Project Life. Jessica Sprague is teaching a new class all about how to do Project Life with Photoshop software (click HERE or the image below to learn more).


I am not affiliated with Jessica Sprague or Becky Higgins.  I just love Project Life!  :)

I use Photoshop Elements, which is a lighter (much less expensive) version of Photoshop. You can buy Elements (version 11 is the newest) for around $80 or download a free trial from Adobe.

When I first started Project Life, my plan was to do all my weekly layouts, and then get them printed in a photo book.  I love photo books.  They are so lovely, and it's just exciting to hold in your hands a hardback book of your own creation.  BUT.  You have to have all the layouts finished before you can print the book (obviously), and I am nowhere near finished with 2012.

So... I am switching gears.  I want my family to be able to hold and enjoy the pages I have finished, so I've decided to get them printed as individual scrapbook pages, and put them in a 3-ring album.  They come in lots of PRETTY colors (from We R Memory Keepers), and I might just have to buy them all so I can have a RAINBOW bookshelf.



Seriously, if you have me on your Christmas list, I would love one of these.  I have them all on my Amazon wish list (I've already bought the light yellow and green ones - butter and key lime).  Or cash.  Cash is always good too.  ;)

Also... Since I am switching gears, and won't be printing a bound book, I'm changing the look of my pages a bit.  I started adding a margin around the edges so that the pictures wouldn't get cut off or be hidden in the gutter, but now that I'll be printing them as individual pages, I don't have to worry about that.  I played around with using a smaller margin so that the background papers would still be a feature, but I decided that I really want the pictures to be as big as possible.  The layouts I've done so far with the wider margin look like this:



The new ones (and the old ones when I go back and change them) will look like this:



And here's an idea of how the album will look:


(This photo is from a Daily Digi post by Janet about two-page layouts)

I started a Shutterfly photo book for 2011 also, but I'm abandoning that project, and will do it in a binder too (so, I'll actually have three binders going at once: 2011, 2012, and 2013).  I'll have to recreate some of the 2011 pages since I used Shutterfly's software, and I can't print those pages individually.  That's OK, though.  I'm excited about it, and I'm pretty sure partially-filled albums are better than empty albums (or non-existent photo books).

I'll still be doing some photo books.  I just did one of a camping trip this fall, and I love it.  I think I'll stick to special events or vacations for photo books, though, and not try to do a whole year book.

Anyway... that's what I've been focused on lately!  Anyone thinking about getting started with digital scrapbooking in 2013?  I love it!  :)