Hello cute happy stack of photo cards! So happy to have been better about printing photos this past year.
Have been wanting to share this for quite a while. If you've been following my Project Life® in 2013, you will know that I've used photo cards printed from an iPhone app called Collect Photo App for the majority of my layouts.
First, a little history. I started printing these cards for Project Life® by saving each photo card (which includes the date and the journaling) to my camera roll, then cropping to 3x4 in Photoshop Elements, and then printing at home. It worked great at first because I was keeping up each week. As life got busier, I continued to use Collect to add photos and journaling, but cropping and printing out a month or more at a time felt very daunting.
So I tried uploading and printing from Pernickety Prints. I've used them before and really love their quality and customer service. Plus, they already print the 3x4 photos specifically to fit the Becky Higgins Project Life® page protectors. (I use Design F)
It was a trial and error, mainly due to complex things like photo ratio and print bleed. Thankfully, Chari at Persnickety Prints understands all of that and I was able to contact Stuart at Collect and both of them worked some magic.
Now, with the upgraded Pro version of Collect, you can easily export the photo cards, upload to Pernickety Prints, order them and then enjoy putting your layouts together when you they arrive. I usually do a month or more at a time to get a discounted rate on the 3x4 cards, plus that's usually when I finally get around to doing it!
**PLEASE NOTE: Be sure to select the Project Life 3x4 size if you are using Becky Higgins pocket pages. These are just slightly smaller than 3x4 and Persnickety will trim to 2.88x4 inches versus the full 3x4.
Here's a sample of the cards I ordered in October. This stack was June - Sept 2013. I'm still working on getting them finished up but most all of these are in pocket pages and in my albums. I'll try to share the finished versions eventually.
Here's a sample of how I use these in my Project Life®.
In this video I show you through how to export from Collect and upload to Persnickety Prints. I use their LifePics app on my phone to upload, and then when I log into their site, those photos are there waiting for me. I love it. The first part of the video shows exporting from Collect and the second part shows uploading to Persnickety Prints.
And there it is! Hope that helps! I'm thinking about sharing another video on how to put two of the card s on a 6x4 (landscape canvas), and then you could use that to either print at home or send to your favorite photo developer. I use either an app called PicFrame or Photoshop Elements. Here's a link to a tutorial from Ali Edwards to get you started.
The steps to export: (in Collect)
1. Go to your calendar view. Tap on the bottom left rectangular box with the arrow on it.
2. Tap Export Photos.
3. Pick your dates. (leave it as it if you want to print the month you are in)
4. Tap Export Style.
5. Choose your photo size. (I choose 3x4 for my Project Life® pages)
6. Be sure add print bleed for best results.
7. Tap on the Back arrow at the top left.
8. Tap the bottom grey bar titled Export to Camera Roll
9. Photo cards will be found on your camera roll.
Steps to upload and print:
1. Download Life Pics app and connect with your Persnickety Prints account (skip this step and just upload from your computer if you choose after transferring your photos to your computer.)
2. Open Life Pics
3. Find the photos you want to upload on your camera roll (I make a separate folder to make this easier sometimes)
4. Tap the photo to select them.
5. Tap Upload.
6. Log into Persnickety Prints, find your photos under the date you uploaded.
7. Select what you want to order and select "Project Life 3x4**" size. (scroll down past the first 3x4 option)
8. Order and then enjoy them when you get them! Persnickety Prints has great customer service and will help you with any problems.
**Be sure to select the Project Life 3x4 size if you are using Becky Higgins pocket pages. These are just slightly smaller than 3x4 and Persnickety will trim to 2.88x4 inches versus the full 3x4.
For more information on Project Life® by Becky Higgins, click here.
For more information on Persnickety Prints click here for info on their site about their mobile app and here for information on printing for your Project Life® For the link to the iPhone Life Pics app, click here.
note: I did receive some print credits while figuring out the printing process, but I'm sharing this tutorial because I wanted to share something that has helped me tremendously with my memory keeping this year.
Thanks so much for taking the time to share this!
ReplyDeleteI'm doing this RIGHT NOW! I'm going to follow your exact directions and try printing at home and at someplace cheap and funky like Walgreens (LOL!). I'll let you know how it goes! xoxo
ReplyDeleteyay!! Let me know how it goes!!!
DeleteLove love love your project life album!
ReplyDeleteIve got some catching up to do on past years and have started using the collect app to do this but do can I print 4x6 or is it only the 3x4 size? I have looked ... or have i missed something? Thanks.
^ sorry 4x6 probably should be 6x4 (landscape)
ReplyDeleteHi Samone! Thank you! And it just prints 3x4 or 4x6 (not the landscape orientation). So you would need page protectors that will work for those. Becky has some that would work. You could also put two of the 3x4 cards on a 6x4, print that out and use it in one of the landscape spots. Refer to Ali's tutorial on how to do that and I think I'll share how to do that on the phone in an upcoming tutorial. I use primarily Design F page protectors because I use a lot of these photo cards. Another idea is to cut down Design F (or upcoming Design U) and use it as an insert within your regular Design A spread. Hope that helps!
DeleteIf you print 4x6, does the print include your journaling and date like it does on the 3x4 cards?
ReplyDeleteIt should! I've only done one 4x6 test print and it did just that. If you would like to just print photos without the journaling and date, you can select that too.
DeleteI'm having trouble locating the life pics app you mention in your video. There's no information about it on the Persnickity Prints page. Is it this one? https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/lifepics/id323705153?mt=8
ReplyDeleteThat's the one! I'll update the post to include it. Thanks!
DeleteYAY! Thank you so much for this! It's a perfect step-by-step!!!! YOU.ARE.AWESOME!
ReplyDeleteThank you Kim!!! So happy I could help!
ReplyDeleteSo if I just downloaded Collect, can I import my Instagram or Camera roll photos there to print this way? Or can I export to PP with Instagram? I hope this makes sense. Thanks for this tutorial, I am excited to use it.
ReplyDeleteHappy to hear it helped! I think I'm following you but not sure. It sounds like the answer is yes--just add a photo from your camera roll to the app, then add your title for the caption. Then export to print. I think PP does have a function of being able to import a bunch of Instagram photos using Instaport, if I remember correctly. Could be totally off on that. Check out their site on Instagram printing if you are interested in those. These will print as 3x4 if you choose that size. Email me at annetteharing@yahoo.com and I'll see if I can help you better!
DeleteThanks so much for the tutorial,Annette! Sooo helpful! One question: when you load your photos into the Collect App, do you use the Collect 'crop' or just load them in as 3x4's? I notice it gives you both options. Just wondering how they appear on the cards if you leave the photo size as a 3x4 vs cropping it to a square. Thanks for your help!
ReplyDeleteYou are most welcome!! Happy to share! I usually use the crop to square feature, but I'm finding I use the uncropped version when I want a bit more of the scene in the photo and I'm really liking it. I used those quite a bit in my December Daily and really liked it. I'll be getting my January photo cards in hopefully tomorrow and will see how it goes with putting my spreads together for this month. Will keep you posted!
DeleteHi Annette, Thanks so much for the tutorial. I've been using the Collect app since the start of the year and love it. I was so excited to export my January pics. One question though, do you print the back of the card too where the notes are added? I exported both and am now wondering if on persnickety, you just order it as a card as well so that you would put the picture card and the notes card side by side in an album or do they print the notes on the back of the card?
ReplyDeleteThanks!
Mel
Mel, thanks so much!! Really wish that was a possibility, but so far they say it's not an option. You can print them as two separate photos but not as a front and back card. At least that's what I've been told so far. But…maybe if you ordered it as a card instead of a photo?? That might work--let me know if it does!! Would love that. I've neglected adding much to the notes section anymore b/c I don't want to have to print out the back separately. But looking back, I'm really happy with the ones I've done like that. Keep me posted! Would love if that were an option!
DeleteThanks for all the helpful info about the Collect app! I've been using it all year so far thanks to your info. I'm just about to export January and upload to Persnickety. I would love to hear any tips you have for printing at home. I have a Selphy and would love to print 2 3x4s on a 4x6. I tried to do it myself and the bleed/cropping didn't seem quite right.
ReplyDeleteYou are most welcome!! I won't go into last year's process, but with the current app it is pretty similar. I've played some with printing at home with the new version and what worked for me was using the exported cards with bleed, just like for sending out to print. In Photoshop or Photoshop Elements you can create a 4x6 canvas, then drag the two photos you want on it. Then print. I don't have a Selphy, so I can't help much there. But with my HP Envy, when I print 4x6 borderless it enlarges it just a bit. So adding the print bleed helped me there b/c it only cut off excess parts of the white.
DeleteAnother tip is to try PicFrame or a similar app and put two cards on a 4x6 on your phone.
I'm hoping to get another video done soon to help with this. Keep me posted on how it goes and let me know if I can help!! Take care!
Do you or does anyone know if you can upload your photos to Groovebook to print your Collect app prints so they print out with the journaling on them?
DeleteI have not heard of anyone trying it, but would be interested to find out. The 4x6 ones might work with them, or if you put two on a 4x6 before uploading. I have heard the dimensions are more like 5.75"x4.25" so not sure how they would turn out. Maybe if you use Groove Book, add a few in different ways on your next order to see if it works. Let me know if it does!
DeleteYou're a lifesaver! I am just getting started with the collect photo app and was getting very frustrated on how to get the exported pictures to persnickety prints. Your tutorial is wonderful! So excited to add these to my scrapbooks! Thanks for sharing!
ReplyDeleteThank you!! It's just thrilling to find something that works for you!! So happy I could help!!
DeleteI found your blog on a google search, awesome info! I just uploaded my prints to persnickety and ordered my January 2014 for project life prints:) Thanks for making it so easy
ReplyDeleteSo wonderful to hear!! So excited it is making it easy!! That's the goal--easier ways to get the photos + stories in your hands, then an easy system to put it together = awesome!!
DeleteThank you for doing this. How do you upload and save the entire calendar view? You mentioned that you made a 12x12 photo of the whole calendar. Thanks! - Shelly
ReplyDeleteThanks Shelly! When you are looking at your month, bottom left and choose Create Collage, then pick Cardinal. (That's the high resolution version of the calendar.) It saves it to your camera roll. Then I just uploaded and ordered it like I do for the 3x4 cards but I choose their 12x12 size.
DeleteI've also printed out one of the rectangular views at home on 8.5x11 photo paper but that took a bit of cropping.
It's fun to see the calendar big like that! I'll have to remember to share that sometime!
That's pretty darn sweet that you were able to get Stuart and Chari to work together! You've made life much easier for the rest of us!! Thanks!! PS - I've emailed Stuart requesting a 4x6 landscape print. If enough of us request, then it might get done! Then, I might actually have a chance at completing my first album this year! Thanks again!
ReplyDeleteThanks!! It was really cool--after I started using the cards I cropped and printed at home, I remember one day my mind was just filled with one of those "ah-ha!" moments--I couldn't stop thinking about it and wanted to make it easier for everyone. I thought about changing careers and becoming an app builder to create one specific for Project Life--then I thought--duh-just get in contact with the app builders and see if they can help make it easier. I was thrilled that Stuart and Chari could work together. So so awesome. And yes, keep asking! It never hurts!! It's been neat to see how the app has grown in the past year. So thrilled for Collect and thrilled for us to find easier ways to document our photos and stories! :)
DeleteThis is so awesome, Annette! Do you usually delete the cards from your camera roll once you've ordered them?
ReplyDeleteThank you Meghann! Yes, I delete the cards (that I exported and sent to print) after I've ordered them and transferred them to my computer too. Hope that helps!
DeleteOk weird question...I don't see the albums or my photos in the Lifepics app. It says, "No Local Albums" and "No Web Albums"
ReplyDeleteI think you have to log in using your Persnickety Prints account first, maybe that's it? If not, I would try contacting Persnickety. Their customer service is great. I've even had them call me when there is an issue with my printing. Hope that helps!!
DeleteAnnette, when and how did you add the journaling to your photos? Did you do that in a PS app or something similar? Shelley
ReplyDeleteHey Shelley! It's all done in the app! Collect your photos + stories, then print and slip into the pockets. It works really well for my everyday stories type of documentation. Let me know if you need help!
DeleteHi, I'm very new to both collect & persnickety prints. I am doing a 365 day of my little girl. I want to now print them. Can you tell me if persnickety ship to austraila or do you know anyone is austraila who prints the 3by4 collect pics? Thanks heap
ReplyDeleteKristy
Hi Kristy! So excited to hear about your project! That will be such a wonderful treasure. I'm pretty sure Persnickety ships to Australia! Check out their site for more info. Not sure of the shipping rate. I think Origrami is an Australian based printer that does 3x4, but I think it is only of the instagram itself. Or, you could always put two on a 4x6 and print that way. Let me know if you need help! Excited to hear about your project!
DeleteDo you have to have the $1.99 upgrade to get your cards to show the notes/journaling? It is just saving the title in my camera roll now. Also, there is a drop shadow, so I would have to crop that out. I am just wondering if these are things the upgrade takes care of, or if I would still see that drop shadow and not see my notes/journaling? It keeps saying the upgrade makes 'print-ready" cards,but I am going to print at home, so if there is no difference, it seems silly to get the upgrade! Thanks so much!!
ReplyDeleteHi Jude! Great question! Yes, you can print from home. I started out that way last year. If you save it to your camera roll as is, you will see the drop shadow/border as that's how the cards were originally designed. You can print at 4x6 and it looks great with minimal drop shadow/grey border. At 3x4, you will have to crop because it's a different ratio. If you have PSE you can do this on your own. I did this last year but had so many questions and people wanted an easier way; thus the upgrade was born. But you can still save each card individually and crop on your own. Just set your crop to 3x4 and 300 dpi. I would just eyeball it to get the white borders. Printing might be trickier. I created a new 6x4 canvas and put two on a it to print. It might take some playing around, but if you aren't printing out that many or if you can keep up with it, it might work great for you. Hope that helps!
DeleteAnd if you are using Becky Higgins page protectors, you might want to crop at 2.9 x4 or 2.88 x 4.
DeleteTHANK YOU! I have been using the Collect app and I am so glad your shared this because it has made it so easy to take a pic a day. I think this will be the first year I can actually complete this project. I just sent my first order in to Persnickety and am really looking forward to putting them in my album. I can't thank you enough!
ReplyDeleteSo happy to hear!! Hope it is working for you!!
DeleteHello Annette,
ReplyDeleteThank you for all that you share with you. My name is Sylvie and I am from Belgium. Sorry, my English is not perfect.
I am very interested in your article on the Collect Photo application. In your video tutorial, I noticed that you also have the app Day one. Day one I already use long but not Collect Photo. These 2 app' seem to be very similar. What differences do you see between these two applications? Do you think it would also be possible to print cards from Day One? Thank you very much for your response. Sylvie
Hi Sylvie! So sorry it's taken me so long. I love Day One, but I primarily use it for little journaling entries and to jot down quotes my daughter says. I rarely add a photo to it. I primarily use Collect for the photos and a title/caption for each.
DeleteDay One makes it easy for me to look back and see if there are additional stories that I want to add. Momento is similar as well, but I primarily use that one to gather Instagram entries. I'm always working on past weeks or months it seems, so using apps like that in addition to my paper calendar works fairly well for me. Hope that helps!
Hi Annette:
ReplyDeleteI ordered the 3x4 pocket pages from Becky Higgins because of your article above and the fact that I use the collect app. The last pocket in each row of the page protectors does not fit my printed pictures from Persnickety Prints therefore the picture warps and looks awful! Did you find this also? Any advice?
Hi there! thanks for reaching out. It really shouldn't be doing that. I've never had a problem with it. But, it is important to note that Becky's "3x4" pockets are really about 2.9x4. So when you order them from Persnickety, be sure to select "Project Life 3x4" and then will know to trim them small enough to fit. I'm thinking that might be the problem. When I scroll down to order my photos, I have to scroll past one option for "3x4" and keep going until I see "Project Life 3x4." Either that or the page protectors you have might not be sized correctly.
DeleteTry measuring your photos across at their width. The ones I order are a little less than 2.9 inches. Who knew a tenth of an inch would be such a problem?! I know.
What I would try is either trimming them just a bit to see if they fit (if they look ok); or I would contact Persnickety Prints. They have great customer service and hope you can get it straightened out.
Keep me posted! I had updated my post to note this issue, but it's near the bottom. I think I'll add it to the top too, just to help prevent problems.
I just ran across your tutorial on this and while I don't do the "project life" project (I"m doing The Documented Life with Art to the 5th ladies in a journal), I do want to print 3x4 cards to share/give away/sell, etc and want to make sure they fit in the PL sheet protectors. I don't know if I should pick the photo option or the card stock option? I'm doing more of a collage/back ground type 3x4. No photos, these are scans from my own personal art journal that can be used as journaling cards or just "filler" cards. What option would you choose for the paper? matte photo or card stock. I'm trying to do this the most economical way (Of course, LOL). Thanks for any help/info.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteHi Annette,
ReplyDeleteDid the Life Pics app change? I can't seem to find the app you are referring to? I can only find one with a black and white logo with LP on that let's you print directly from CVS, Wahlgreens and some other places...?
Thanks for your help.
Yes, it did update to that new logo. And the interface is a little different too. Here's the link to it. https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/lifepics/id323705153?mt=8
DeleteAnd if you go to Pernickety's website and click on Instagram printing, they have a sidebar that tells how to choose them: you'll log in and choose 84057, and choose Persnickety. Then you can upload and when you log in on the website the photos should be there.
They say this is until they have their new app up and running.
Also, with the new update I've had trouble uploading lots of photos. There were duplicates, etc and I found it easier to save to Dropbox and upload from there, or I transfer it all to my computer and just upload from the computer. Wish it weren't so, but I don't have time to deal with not knowing some of the photos are there or are they not. Know what I mean? The last big batch I did, I just transferred to the computer and uploaded from there. Hoping it was just a glitch from that latest update. It used to work great and hope whatever was causing my problem got fixed!
Wishing you the best! Let me know if I can help!
Hi Annette--
ReplyDeleteI've been using Collect app for a while and love it--haven't printed any photos yet. Very behind on Project Life, but glad I have a start with Collect. Do you add all your iPhone photos into Collect? If I take more than one photo on a day/event, I usually only put 1-2 for the day in Collect. I was thinking I could just print any others that I wanted as just plain 3x4.... Curious what you do?
Thanks for all your help,
Amy
Hi, Annette,
ReplyDeleteDo you know of people who print the front and back of a Collect "trading card"? I've Googled and Googled but haven't found any examples of people printing both the fronts and backs of the photos. Have you? All my photos have the date and caption on one side and additional details on the reverse. If there are no apps/quick ways to get prints of both the front and back of each "trading card," I'm planning to move the additional details to the caption and just print the front. That's going to be a boatload of work as I've got over a year of pictures and text to modify!
Thanks in advance for any guidance you can provide!
Lorene
Cancel my question request! I've decided to just move all my text to the front. Might as well save money! Although the trading card angle was appealing!
ReplyDeleteHey Lorene! Yes, that's what I decided to do as well. I looked into it, as I know Persnickety Prints does do double sided printing. But I think that is mainly for cardstock options. Like for photo cards, invitations, etc. When I asked, they said the logistics of it would be very challenging, how to match up which one which with the other, etc.
DeleteI agree--I wanted to do the same as you!
I have printed the backside out as a separate photo and then slipped it behind a photo, but I'm worried no one will really look at those. So I stopped doing it.
I did just order some Instagram photo cards from Origrami and they were double sided. So maybe we need to hook up Origrami with Collect too!
Thank you so much for the recommendation! I've recently gotten hooked on project life and this will make getting photo prints the right size so much easier! Can't wait to get started!
ReplyDeleteI love this tutorial. I'm curious about trying to print two photos on a 4x6 and cut to 3x4... but if I understood correctly, an exact 3x4 will not fit in the Becky Higgins page protectors? Unless she has changed them since? Which brand fits the an exact 3x4 and 2.88 best? Simple Stories or WRMK pages?
ReplyDeleteBeing new to the blogging world I feel like there is still so much to learn. Your tips helped to clarify a few things for me as well as giving..
ReplyDeletePicture printing online
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