12.08.2014

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.

17 comments:

  1. I love this! Seriously, I am going to have to try it again. I need to try to let go of how I think I should do it, and just get it done! Thank you for sharing this here, and I really hope you will continue to share your process as you work it out. - JenRay

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    1. Thanks Jen! It's definitely still a work in progress. I'm having issues with getting the text on photos to work out in other apps. If I want it done fast, it works fine. But I'm finding I'm liking how you were doing it--bringing it into PSE / PS to do the text. Am doing that for my first two weeks of December and am really liking it! A lot more precision and then I can play around and add other elements. Just quite a bit easier on the big computer. Interested to hear how it is going for you!!

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  2. Whoa!!!! DUDE! This is amazing. I immediately went and bought the app. This might actually mean I get some pages done!! Question; how do you do the small pictures with typing under them? I just love that! I'm sure it says how somewhere here but I'm lost.

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    1. Thanks Heather!! They are from a separate app called Collect. It's free but you need to upgrade to be able to export the sizes properly for printing and using in the app well. I think it's $1.99 for the upgrade in the app. Worth it for me.

      https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/collect-photo-journal-everyday/id580393108?mt=8

      I have a video tutorial on how to export photos using the older version here: http://annetteharing.blogspot.com/2014/01/just-like-magic-video-tutorial-on.html

      Hope that helps!!! When you are busy and only have time here and there to work on things, it can really help!! I find if I add a photo or two daily it really helps me stay on top of things better.

      Excited you are hopefully finding something that will work for you!!

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    2. Just checked and the "Creative Pack" is $2.99. It allows you to export your photos at print/user ready sizes though, so for me it is worth it! Hope that helps!

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  3. Great! So you edit/add typing to photos in collect, save those to your camera roll and then import the premade photo w typing into the PL app? Did I get that right? Off to check out the app.

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    1. Pretty much! Here's my process: 1. Edit in PicTapGo. 2. Add photo and caption to Collect. 3. Export the photo from Collect and save to my camera roll. 4. Add pre made photo card (with photo / date / caption) to Project Life App.

      So you are right! There are more little details but that will get you started! Hope that helps!

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  4. I might be missing something but in the Project Life app, what layout do you use for your Collect photos? How do you get them squared corners instead of round? Thank you :)

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    1. Figured out the corner business - thanks :)

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    2. yay! happy you found it! I was thrilled when they added that feature! :) I usually use Design F or U for the 3x4 openings. Am playing around with others but those are my go-to designs when using Collect. Have fun with it!!

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  6. Thanks for your continued inspiration Annette :) I am trying to import Ali's PNG files into Letterglow but a white boarder appears :( Any quick tips ? Thanks heaps xx

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    1. not sure why that's happening. but also haven't figured out why some work to be recolored and some don't in Letterglow. I had heard they need to be a true black. So maybe that's it? I think you can change it to a true black in PSE, although for me personally, if it's that much work I'll just use there instead! For those I've just left them as is.

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  7. Whaaaaaa! LOL when I'm exporting the typing isn't there. It only shows the date. So I exported again and chose "show card back" but hat does exactly that. How do I get he typing to show under the pic on the 3x4?

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    1. I finally got it to work by doing my journaling under title. Nt many words though. Is that how you do it?

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    2. Hang in there!! It takes a little playing around with these apps to figure out what will work for you.

      Yes, that's how I do it--I add a caption in the title section. The notes section shows up on the back. You can print that out separately but I've found for the most part the small caption works well for me.

      If you want to take more notes or tell a longer story the back would work though! I also usually write up longer stories on other 3x4 or 4x6 Project Life cards/ week in review type cards. These are for mainly getting something captured. Some bits of photos and stories that when you add them up tell a great story.

      Happy to hear you got it working!!

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  8. Thanks for sharing your info about the PL app. I too am experimenting with using the app and I am going to try using it next year to create all my PL layouts. I like to use the PL app on my iPad. My process I'm experimenting with is : create my Collect app cards on my phone, import those monthly into Lightroom, import weekly photos from phone into Lightroom (I only use my phone for taking photos), select photos for PL and create a mobile sync collection and sync these photos to my iPad, edit if necessary in Lightroom Mobile - I found I had to change the crop in Lightroom to get photos to fit right in the PL app. I have been using Phonto to add text and overlays but I'm going going to give Letterglow - I already own it, I like that you can save templates and overlays.

    There is definitely a bit of flicking around between apps but once I figure out which ones will work the best I think the process will go a little smoother.

    My problem I'm having is with the text size in the PL app and wondered if you had any experience with this. It is difficult to tell what size the font is set at and what it is going to look like printed. I'm referring to journalling text as opposed to headings.

    If you have any thoughts on this I would greatly appreciate it.

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