Project Life Week 49 | Project Life App Love (continued)

It has been awesome to see some others using the Project Life app and finding it is working for them.

Like I mentioned, my actual December Daily album is taking a backseat right now. Just too much going on for me. It's out on my desk and when I need to see some pretties I take a look, but I'm giving myself permission to do what is working for me.

So I thought I would share some of my December pages so far. This is my week 49 from the first week of December.

Again, created in the Project Life App, along with a variety of other apps including Collect Photo App for the photos with the text under them, Letterglow, and Rhonna Designs.

I have basically two left and right spreads plus and insert for this week. (and one more I still want to make!)

Here is the left hand side with the title card. Created that in the Rhonna Designs App. The hello December card I created in Letterglow with the gold background from Oh Snap! Boutique and added the text and overlays in the app. The joy card is from Oh Snap! Boutique. You can import png files and jpegs directly into the Project Life app if they are sized correctly for the app. That's what I did there.

This is Design F in the app. To change the corners to square there is a little icon at the top right when you are choosing the layouts. This will change the layout from round to squared corners. Love that!

This next one below was originally going to be an "insert" but I may just make it the right hand side. I used some big camera photos here along with a Collect photo. Cards from Oh Snap! Boutique and a little Ali Edwards word art as well from her digital set "You are Loved"

I did all of this page with the combination of Letterglow and PL app (plus Dropbox!)

Totally fun page and it makes me happy! love her Christmas joy!

Page below: this is the original right hand page. I wanted to play with exporting the photos from Collect at landscape 4x6 so I used some of my favorites from the prior page along with a big camera photo.

I love it! The photos are bigger which is a plus! I foresee myself doing this quite a bit more this year!

Again, cards are from Oh Snap! Boutique. I added the text in the red striped card in PSE after the fact. So, I exported it from the app and then added the text in PSE on the computer. Not my first choice, but am finding that getting the borders on the text boxes the way I like to be a challenge on the phone. So, while I'm waiting for updates I may just take the easy way out and instead of being frustrated, just add text after the fact. While I was in PSE I added the overlays from Oh Snap! as well.

It worked fine, but I think I would rather have the finished typed up cards added to the app versus after the fact. That way I have essentially a psd file in the app that can be changed easier.

But still, it's done and that's my main goal here!

I will be back later this week to share a few more layouts for this week.

Still loving this process. I even ordered a bunch (19) that I have finished and can't wait to get them. I sent them to Persnickety Prints and am eagerly awaiting these! I need to have finished layouts that I can touch and see.

Also sometimes I like to add physical embellishments to these digital pages. Previously when I did a digital page I would print at 10x10 and then mount it on a 12x12 piece of white cardstock. That way I could feel like I could add physical products easier as well. I may experiment with this for Project Life pages. For now I just asked them to add a white border and hoping this will give a little more white space too.

Anyways, can't wait to hear and see how it is going for you! Let me know if you have any questions!

Hello Project Life App!

Hello again! Back again sharing a few more things I've been playing around with. 

You may have heard of it. 

It's the Project Life App from Becky Higgins and team. And it's pretty awesome. 

I had a chance to be a part of the beta testing and was able to use it to get a month of 2013 layouts and more done with it for the class. One of the things I tried to do was to use it to "keep up while catching up" and it worked pretty well. I think for most normal weeks it works well for me.

In fact, during class one of the students and I made a challenge to work on that week with the app and see how it went. So I did that and thought it was pretty awesome. And so I did the following week as well. I'll share the other one soon. 

So here is week 47. I've never been one to try to number my weeks because I wanted the flexibility to change things up. But…if this works for me, I might try it! It's kind of fun! 

Have no idea what week it is? I usually google it. I've found a site here that tells you what week of the year it is. Kinda cool. 

Here is the full two page spread. I created a 24x12 canvas in PSE to put the two together after they were created. I just really like seeing the full two page spread together. It helps me to see the layout as a whole and creates more cohesion for me. Plus, I like to share it this way too.

I did the creation of this all on my iPhone.

To begin with, I used my favorite Collect Photo App to collect the photos and stories. Then I exported and saved them to my camera roll at the 3x4 size. I chose not to add the print bleed since I was just dropping them into the app and I think they worked well.

For a video tutorial on how to export, click here. Note, the latest version is slightly different, but still similar enough. I plan to do a new tutorial this coming year on my process (once I get it worked out.)

Here is the left side. I used the Midnight edition in the app for the title and week in review card. 

Then the "This is Daily Life" word art is from Ali Edwards. From the "Wash Your Hands" set. 

To create that, I used the another app from the creator of Collect called Letterglow. It works great and lets you import .png files (for word art.) Hello awesome! I also plan to do a tutorial for this sometime too. (note that you can use .png files in the PL app if they are already sized correctly -- for instance Ali's fall cards worked great. I will share that in another post.)

Basically, in the Project Life app,  I created a collage with the 2 on a  4x6 and added the kraft paper card and the heart card and then exported and saved to my camera roll.

Then brought them into Letterglow to play around with adding word art and type on the cards.

And for the right side:

For this page I added IKEA RUN and the Everyday Love in Letterglow (to the cards I had exported from the app. I also had to crop each to 3x4 in PicTapGo to make it work like I wanted. See--still working out my process.)

Then I just saved them and then added them back to the app. Yes, it would be awesome if we didn't have to toggle back and forth. But seriously, this is just such a huge step forward for mobile memory keeping! I hope it will come with later versions. But for now, this works pretty well for me.

Also note there are lots of other apps that let you add text to photos and use .png files. This is just one I'm familiar with and the easiest for me to use at this time.

And here's a close up of my week in review and the Ali Edwards word art. And if you look closely at the photo on the bottom right above: the Thanksgiving preparation one: see if you can find the giant balloon that was in our house for over a month. My niece and nephew got a kick out of it too.

The result? I pretty much love it. I can tinker around a bit on my lunch break or before bed. I'm still in tinker mode. Meaning, I'm just playing around with it to see how to make it work best for me. (note I may have nothing done in my December Daily but I pretty much have four pages done already in the app for December! More on that to come.)

My plan for Project Life in 2015 is going to be to use this for my base spreads. I will use a D-ring 12x12 binder. I just picked up two of these from Becky's site during the cyber Monday sale. That way I can still add in physical pocket pages as well. At least for the first part of 2015 that is the plan. The idea is that I will use the extra time I save (hopefully) to catch up on some old projects and maybe, just maybe finish up my Week in the Life and December Daily projects.

So here is a look at how I'm beginning to use the Project Life App. I'll be back to share more. And it includes more Design A and other styles. The fun thing about the app: no worries about what goes on the backside! You can just create for the photos you have! Pretty cool.

I think I like it.

Hooray and Thank You!

Hooray! Hooray! Just wanted to say thank you to everyone who took our recent class Catch Up with Project Life at Big Picture Classes.

It was really fun to see so many people get inspired and actually GET PAGES DONE!! 

So awesome. 

One of the cool things we did for the class was have a Big Party at the end, where we had 12 wonderful and amazing guests share their take on the challenges, and we also took on the other teachers' challenges. It was fun and so awesome to get inspiration from so many different styles and approaches. 

A few things I've learned: 

This community of Project Lifer's and scrapbookers and photographers and memory keepers is awesome.

Behind the scenes preparation is more than most people think. More than I thought. 

It takes time to learn to be a better online teacher.

It takes better equipment. I hope to get some better equipment to make it easier. 

It takes time and it takes heart.

It's not easy. I am thankful to those online teachers who put their heart into their work. I try to be one of those.

As Austin Kleon says, "write the story you want to read." I took that to mean, "teach the class you want to take" and so I went that route. I put my heart and time into it. I tried. I really tried. I was vulnerable and put myself out there. 

And I'm so thankful. So incredibly thankful to those who have taken the time to let me know how much they learned, how much they were inspired and how much they created! 

I know there are many online options now. It seems everywhere you look, there is this class or this sub or this thing. So I just wanted to say thank you for your time, your support and your feedback. It really helps.

So thank you. 

And where to go from here? I'll be working on my own Project Life and other projects as well as pages for Ali Edwards Digital Creative team. I plan to take some time off teaching online. It was a good learning experience, but my family needs me right now. I may be back, who knows? I plan to continue practicing with making videos, etc when I can and hope I can find time to share them. So who knows? When things settle down I may be back! :)

And definitely if you are looking for more classes with inspiration and encouragement for Project Life, I highly recommend checking out Megan Anderson. She is an amazing person and an amazing online teacher. I am so thankful for her guidance and inspiration and it was the most fun coming up with the class with her.

And keep an eye on my friend Trisha Harrison! Her work is beautiful and inspiring as is she! I'm so thankful she was a part of the class as well! And so thankful for her beautiful brush script which she let me use for this post. Definitely keep an eye out for her and hoping she will start selling her beautiful art!

Okay, not sure why I felt compelled to share all of this. I just wanted to say thank you for your support. And a reminder that as Ali says, "you are right where you are supposed to be."

Hooray!

Hooray brush script is from Trisha Harrison, used with permission. 

a few layouts to share | Ali Edwards Digital Creative Team

I'm excited to share with you a few layouts I have recently created for the Ali Edwards Digital Creative Team. I know, I know. Still pinching myself! I just love her products and they work so great with the stories I want to tell.

First up: Everyday Love

This is a two page layout in my 2014 Week in the Life. The pages are 6x8 in size each. The beautiful words from Ali's Stories of Life set just jumped out at me so I created a background patterned paper from two of the words and then repeated that "everyday love" at the bottom of the right hand side. I also just used the one "story" at the top of the second page which created a nice visual triangle there. I can't tell you how much I love script + type + photos. I added a simple chipboard circle that I had painted gold and a silver glitter letter sticker. Love this layout.

Next up: Jingle All the Way

This is a two page (6x8 size) layout from my 2012 December Daily / Bucket List album. I posted this one on Instagram and commented about the upside of taking a long time to finish projects is that new fun products come out that can spark you to finish a page. It's another way of looking at being content with where you are in your process. 

The set I used here is the Merry and Bright Text Overlays. Oh, how I adore overlays! These are so fun because they add a softness at the edge that is so cool. I just added the .png file right over the photo and turned it white. 

For the title I cut out the original words, enlarged them and added them to their own layers to make "Jingle All the Way" stand out a little more as the title.

And it's hard to see, but I also used "holiday delights" on the grey card with white handwriting to list all the delights of the night. Also, at the bottom of Ali's "remember this moment" card, I printed just the "merry & bright" words from that file. 

To print onto regular journaling cards, I created a new 3x4 file in PSE and added the overlay, printed it on white copy paper, then taped the card onto the paper and ran it through the printer again. It worked great! Only I had taped along the bottom of that grey one, so there was empty space when I removed the tape. No worries! I just started adding silver washi and then it just kept going! So I ended up lining both cards with silver washi tape. Fun way to make mistakes work in your favor! Just cover them up! 

Anyways, I adore this page as I've been wanting to use jingle bells for quite some time and finally made it happen! I picked these up at my local craft store and had to use metallic thread instead of twine because the bell is quite tiny (I didn't want to add too much bulk.) I added some gold chipboard to play off the sequins I added to the confetti / star pocket. It's attached with a glue dot and redline tape on the outside of the page protector. I may stitch it down too once I have the backside finished. 

Was hoping to add more detail shots, but I figured something is better than nothing! And again, I just loved working with these products and really love being able to finish up some pages in my projects.

Currently

hello December | currently edition

avoiding blogging and cleaning up the giant mess that is my desk.

playing with the Project Life App and seeing if it will help me for my Project Life in 2015. 90% sure that's how I'm going…at least for the first half of the year.

planning to finish decorating and cleaning up the boxes as well as my scrap space this weekend.

hoping to find time to work on December Daily. In the meantime, I'm taking photos and a few notes here and there. Mainly trying to capture at least a story each day.

learning to be okay with not keeping up / comparing myself to others. I'm right where I need to be.

embracing the fun that comes with having a four year old at Christmastime. Love her Christmas cheer.

wishing I had time and energy to make more things happen. Things like a cute advent calendar and other things on Pinterest. Ahh. Pinterest. 

celebrating all the little things we have been able to do and are planning to do this season.

cherishing my daughter at this age. Tonight she asked, "mom, do you never want me to grow up?" Of course the right answer is that I will love her at all her ages. And I have and I will. But man, I just adore this age. I just hugged her and said, "I will love you for forever and a day." To which she replied, "I just want to stay a kid so I can wear cute pajamas." Oh girl, you have my heart.

thankful for each day I have with her and thankful for the sweet girl she is.

feeling the need to journal more. Thus, this blog post. Looking to get a notebook to start journaling again. 

hoping to blog more about my recent layouts for Ali's creative team. For now, I'll just share the pics I submitted for my assignments. I also have some video in the works for my foundation pages and December Daily prep I wanted to share. sigh. 

adoring being able to be on this team and being able to work with Ali's beautiful products. So thankful to be a part of it.

wondering what 2015 will bring. 

remembering the good and the challenging times this year. 

looking forward to changing my One Little Word. It's been a good year with magic but I'm ready to get on with some things in my life. 

listening to my December playlist on repeat and loving it. Also listening for my word and excited about this coming year.

currently I should really try to finish up this list and will probably grab another frozen Peppermint Patty. It's the only way I can eat them but I love them this time of year.

What's on your currently list? Would love to hear.

"Amazing and Adorable!" Excited about the Ali Edwards December Daily kit!

And just like that it is prep time for December Daily! We got our kit today and my daughter was so excited to open it! She says it perfectly: "Amazing and Adorable!"

We love it Ali!

"Amazing and Adorable!" December Daily kit from Ali Edwards from Annette Haring on Vimeo.

You can still purchase a kit on Ali's site here.

(no affiliate link, just sharing what we love!)

And the winner of the Ali Edwards Week in the Life Stamp is...

And the winner of the Ali Edwards Week in the Life Stamp is…

Croppinak "Loved your video! and am impressed with your prep for WITL. I started on it today, but don't have the kit. I would love to win the stamp set. Thanks for the giveaway!"

Please email me: annetteharing@yahoo.com and I will get it in the mail!

Hope you all had a wonderful Week in the Life! I've been slowly working on mine. My class at Big Picture Classes started this week and other things have made it a very busy week. Hope to find time to get more done. Have been sharing a few of my images on Ali's Week in the Life™ community as well which has been helpful.

Thanks again for the great feedback! I got a lot of practice doing videos for my class and am excited to keep learning more.

Thanks again!

Week in the Life™ 2014 | my preparations + video

Hello! This past week I spent time photographing and documenting a regular week in our lives. I've captured things like how our bed looks unmade, the giant stack of stuffed animals in my daughter's room, places we went, things we did. The regular and the new. It was a good week. Busy week. But a good week.

During the week I don't have much time to put things together. My focus is on living life and capturing it as I can in words and photos.

But I did get a chance to prepare some things before the week and it really helped me get in the mindset and get excited about it.

So I thought I would share a few of my preparations for Week in the Life™with you here.

A little backstory: Week in the Life™ is a project created by Ali Edwards to capture a regular week in our lives. You can watch a video from Ali and read more about that here.

I have tackled the project once a year since 2011. Have completed a full project once. My 2012 and 2013 albums are still in progress. You can find my 2011 album here.

The great thing this year is that Ali has created a kit that can make the project easier. You can find that here. If it is sold out, you can absolutely create your own kit. I have for the past three years and have loved it. You can read about my 2012 plan here.

Also be sure to check out Ali's post about getting ready here. Lots of good information and inspiration. Basically all you need!

Please note even though I am on Ali's digital creative team, I would be using her digital templates anyways, as you can tell from my past projects. I'm just super thankful I can use the digital supplies and show inspiration on these products this year. Otherwise, I have no affiliation with Ali for this kit. Just sharing things I love and hoping to inspire you too!

When I was getting ready for the week, I was inspired by Kristin to share a bit more about the kit. Check out her awesome post of preparation here.

Here is a video about my preparations + photos below. Let me know if you have any questions and if you like this type of video. I can do shorter but often I get carried away in details. Let me know as I am considering sharing more video here similar to what I do in classes.

2014 Week in the LIfe™ Preparations from Annette Haring on Vimeo.
Sharing my preparations for Week in the Life™ 2014 using the Ali Edwards kit + supplies from my stash.

And here are some photos of my preparations. Album with title page on the left, supplies from the kit + my stash on the right. I use paper trays from Target for my organization and as well as trays, baskets, etc. The little white bowls you see in the box are from Ikea and the round ones are from Target. The really small one is an antique butter pat dish. Love those and things like Jello molds for organizing the little things. But that's for another post.

Adore these kraft bags. Link at the end of the post. I even bought a set to use in last year's too!

A look at my title page so far. I painted the chipboard numbers to white and used the 2x2 pocket page for them. They fit perfect with the added paint and may not even need stitching! I think I will add a 2x2 page at the very end for consistency too.

Will be using the 3x8 daily sheets for documenting each day. On the back I can use photos, more journaling cards / more stories. A collage of receipts would be cool too but I think that's what I will be using in the daily bags.

And just a final note about my camera gear. Like I mentioned in the video, I was feeling a bit down because I didn't have an awesome lifestyle / documentary type lens. My kit lens has died so I don't have a wide angle anymore and then there is the wish that I had a better camera body, etc. This older rebel is five years old now. I happened upon this post at Clickin Moms and it hit me: love the camera you have. So I embraced the cameras and used what I had this week. And you know? It was awesome. I loved trying to play with my Olloclip more. I backed way up and tried lots of angles with my 50mm. I think I did a good job. At least for where I am now. It was good. 

So if you are feeling similarly, I give you this challenge: use the camera you have. At least we can get some photos. At least we can capture life. Isn't that what it's all about?

Ali Edwards Stamp Set Giveaway!!

And as a reward for making it through this post, I have a small give away! I am crazy in love with the AE kit and so I bought two. Yes, I am crazy! The only thing I don't need is two stamp sets. 

So if you would like to be entered to win this awesome stamp set, leave a comment below sharing a comment about Week in the Life. It could be your approach for week in the life. Any tips, when you are doing it. If it your first time. What you love about it. What supplies you are using. If you found this post and video helpful. Any of the above would work. 

I'll pick a random winner next Sunday, Nov 2nd. Good luck!!

Other supplies:

• Cozy Card set by Life Love Paper at Studio Calico
• Kraft Daily Envelope Set by Life Love Paper and Erica Hernandez at Studio Calico
• The Underground Project Life® kit by Studio Calico
• Handstitched tag from Handmade Modern by Elizabeth Rosemond

If you have any questions about supplies or help with Week in the Life, let me know!

And one last thing: be sure to check out Ali's free Week in the Life community on her site here. It will be a great source of inspiration and motivation. Also, I printed her daily sheets and used them this week as well. Some days I was better than others. Hoping to fill some more in today.

Have a great week!

Exciting News about Ali Edwards Digital Creative Team!

I'm so excited to share I am part of the new digital creative team for Ali Edwards! If you haven't heard about Ali, please RUN and check out her new site here!

I have been using Ali's products for a long time and basically learned how to use digital products from her and Cathy Zielske. I am a huge fan of both of them. 

When Ali launched her new site this August, to say I was excited was an understatement. I was working hard on all my own new class content and yet a part of me just wanted to delete the blog, delete everything and just be inspired by her and go tell stories with photos and words. Seriously! I was like, this is it! I could just quit everything I am doing and go tell stories and be happy. 

And I'm really glad I didn't quit. Thankful I pushed through and am really happy with the opportunity to continue to learn and grow and also to help others. And I'm so so excited to be able to use Ali's products to help me tell my stories. 

If you are interested in learning more about Ali's digital products, click here. There is a good mix of products including word art, templates and printable cards. Lots of options for telling stories regardless of whether you are paper based or fully digital or a mix of both. I also subscribe to her Story Stamp club because I use traditional stamps as well. 

Things you will likely see from me: a mix of it all! I love it all and can't help it! I use Ali's word art directly on photos before printing. I use her templates in my Week in the Life and December Daily. I also like making my own filler cards and journaling cards for Project Life with her supplies. I will have Project Life layouts as well as some more traditional ones and enlarged photos. I may even get the Sihouette working again! The cool thing is there are so many options and many ways to learn and grow as well. Can you tell I'm excited?!

Here are a few samples from me. Here I used one of her overlays from Designer Digitals to create a title card in my January 2014 Project Life. Her set is called Hello Life 12x12 Text Overlays. You can find that here.

Currently I have finishing up my December Daily on the brain since Ali introduced the preorder for this year's kit. 

Here is a look at how I use her templates as an overlay over the photos as well as printed the smaller 3x4 card out and just printed and used it in the album. You can find those at Designer Digitals here and here.

You can also see in my sneaks for  Catch Up with Project Life  how I used her December Daily 3x4 Journal Cards in my 2012 December Daily in Project Life. (available at Designer Digitals.) To find out more about that class and see those sneaks click here.

And seriously, the list could go on. I am thankful for all I have learned from Ali over the years and all I will continue to learn! I'm very thankful also for a good friend who encouraged me to apply. thank you!

And lastly, I will share a story that's still kind of raw and near to my heart. Putting together class content isn't easy for me. I always try to do too much and making it work + balancing family, work, etc almost got the better of me this round. Found myself on the floor for a few hours one day wondering how I would do it all. Wondering if I should just call it quits, etc. Somehow I found the strength to be brave and found the peace that it would all work out. Am very thankful for that moment. So when I saw Ali's Be Brave word art, I knew I wanted to capture that moment in a layout. Here is the digital version. I think I may print this out and add something, or I may not. We'll see.

Again, I'm so excited to be a part of this and very thankful for your encouragement and support as well!

So let's do this! #craftthestory