Episode 74: Bits of My Life

We are joined by Traci Reed and The Daily Digi team member Heddy to discuss digital Project Life! Everything from totally digitally, to printables, and pockets. Have you thought about jumping in? Will it work for you?

Joining the Discussion:

Traci Reed
Heddy
Peppermint Granberg
Katie Nelson
Steph

From the Mail:

  • Layout printing reviews

From the Show:

Picks:
Traci: A Beautiful Mess
Heddy: Over App for iPhone
Peppermint: 6×8 Snap Albums by Simple Stories
Katie: Layered journaling cards from Cindy Schneider and Peppermint Creative
Steph: Creative Chaos Snapshot Frame

Sponsors:

image

For the best deal in digital scrapbooking, become a member at TheDailyDigi.com.

 

 

This entry was posted in Heddy, Katie, Peppermint, Show Post, Steph, Traci Reed. Bookmark the permalink.

26 Responses to Episode 74: Bits of My Life

  1. LeeAndra says:

    Katie, I had the same concerns abt doing PL and ‘losing’ my regular layouts. I also did not want to do two separate albums — a PL album and then a regular album — but didn’t know if I would like the look of PL pages and regular pages next to each other.

    I decided to create one PL page per week rather than a two page spread. This has really worked well for me, so I feel like all the cool PL kids & get to use all the PL pretties on the market, but am not overwhelmed by trying to fill up 2 pages per week or sad that I don’t have time to create other layouts.

    I have decided to live on the edge and simply drop my PL pages into place chronologically alongside my regular pages and print one big book at the end of the year. Hopefully, the pages will become BFFs and live happily ever after in their slumber party-esque scrapbook album. At least that’s what I like to imagine will happen…

    P.S. Speaking of slumber parties, please let Peppermint know that the day she invites me to her house for a slumber party will be one of the greatest days of my life. I will even buy new jammies and bring my famous Rice Krispie-butterscotch-chocolate chip-marshmallow fluff brownies. #yesihaveagurlcrushonpeppermint #whodoesnt? #butitsnotcreepy #right?

    • Katie says:

      You made me giggle! I want to come to that slumber party too! And I’m so impressed with your “living on the edge” mixture of pages. That’s actually really cool!

  2. Linda says:

    listening now…and at the 23 minute mark…Steph print then slap that on your silhoutte cameo…DONE. :>

  3. AnnieB says:

    I was wondering, since Persnickety Prints is now your sponser, if maybe, hopefully you would have enough pull with them to get them to print the ‘date taken’ along with the other info that is printed on the back of the photos. I’d love to use them but I it’s really, REALLY important to me that my photos be dated. Thanks, and I really enjoy your show even though I am a (oh, no!) paper scrapper!

  4. Steph:

    Love your pick this week. It would work so well with this frame …

    http://www.silhouetteamerica.com/?page=shop&cat=17

    Makes me want to get crafty :)

  5. Rhadonda says:

    Katie, I have a lot of Cindy Schneider’s PL templates too. Is there somewhere i can see how you used them? I struggle a little with all the layers and how to make them look great and i am sure you make them look great. Just looking for inspiration. Thanks!

  6. AngiefromVT says:

    Okay! Okay! I get it, Project Life can work great for the digital scrapbooker. I have been resisting trying it after my colossal fail at Project 365, then Project 52, then Ella Publishing’s Take Twelve (I have all the photos but only two months of layouts and journaling_LOL). I have been jokingly calling it “Project Strife” because that’s the best way to describe the anxiety I feel over trying something else that requires a commitment. But . . . if Peppermint can find a way to make it work for her I am willing to try. I am going to scrap it on my iPad using my phone pics mostly and adding in my dSLR pics when I want/need to. I just picked up Valerie W’s Pockets and Traci R’s Slip Ins and the Olive kit at ACDigitals and am busy getting them ready for my iPad(resizing them). I am finding that I agree with you guys wholeheartedly about the journaling cards . . . they’re so many fabulous designs out there! Thanks for the great show and I’ll keep you posted on how this goes…..eeeekkkk!! ;)

    • Katie says:

      I’m really curious to find out how the iPad works for you with this process. That’s such a cool idea!

    • RitaQ says:

      I too am very curious to find out how you scrap on the iPad?!

      • AngiefromVT says:

        I have some tutorials at my site, touchscraps.com, that will give a basic idea and you can see what is possible. With just a little preparation on the front end, like resizing and uploading to an online storage site (i.e. DropBox and Flickr), I am finding that I really love it. It’s not quite the same as scrapping on my laptop, but since my laptop is tethered to a few EHD’s, it is not as portable as my iPad. I have an iPad 4, but what I am doing works on all iPads. I would be happy to answer any other questions if you want to email me directly!

  7. Liz Moss says:

    Thank you thank you! Did I say thank you? This is the show I needed about Project Life. I love Becky Higgins PL but I was really not ready to commit to a paper 12×12 format. With two active and creative girls, I always fear that my PL would end up with crayon doodles of butterflies all over it. But I wasn’t sure how to go about it. Hearing real life honest to goodness digiscrappers talk about their take on the project was very reassuring that I can make it work for me. I decided that this week would be the first week I start my digi PL. I am working hard on getting past the non-January 1st start date (which my little non-diagnosed OCD brain is struggling with). I already made a cover page and I am in love with compartments. It is like individual layouts in each pocket.

  8. This episode really inspired me to get caught up on my PL album! Even though I am a paper scrapper, I still listen to The Digi Show and I find I really do get a lot out of it.

    I have a question – can you please explain what Rad Lab is and how it works? And does it work with PSE?

    Thanks!

  9. Carolyn K says:

    I have been listening to your show since day 1 and have been a paper scrapper. I FINALLY took the plunge and am dipping my toe into digital with Project Life. I have done paper Project Life since 2009. I took Jessica Sprague’s Digital Project Life and am hooked! I feel like I know so little, but I am having one problem with digital. And that is the finality of it. I am monthly printing as I go. And when I get my pages in the mail, there has been some things I forgot to add or one of the kids will tell me my story is a little off. I know I can fix it and have it reprinted, but that is the part I’m struggling with. In paper, it’s so easy to fix.

  10. RitaQ says:

    Heddy… I’m wondering how readable your PL pages/journaling is when you print 8×8?
    I just started, using BH digi pgs, loved how they looked on the screen, printed them out 8×8 just to see how the pgs look printed (trying to decide if I wanted to go hybrid), but 8×8 is way too small to read journaling. Another great reason for 10×10!!!!
    So, just wondering about readability….

    • Heddy says:

      I type in font size 14+ for all my journaling so when I print in 8×8, it is still quite readable. (I do this for all my pages, even the non-PL ones.)

      • Rita Q says:

        Thanks – that makes sense… although it does limit the amt of journaling on the card.

        ps – loved to hear the ‘canadian’ come out in your speech…. am a fellow Canuck :)

  11. Ann says:

    First of all, this was a great show. I can’t believe there were no comments related to Tracy’s comment about “not much going on this week but last week we did . . . and got new Tattoos. I almost spit my drink on that one. It was funny to hear that was just part of her everyday life.

    I did Project Life for 2012 and not really sure that I love it. I like gathering the information but when I sit down and put together the pages, it felt like more work than I really wanted to do. I am hoping to do the digital route and see what transpires from that.

    Katie: Can you explain how you create your pages in 12 x 12 but then print them 8×8? Is there a specific way that you have to save them for the sizing? If you have post or article written on this I would love to know. I do use PSE11 sometimes but mostly CM Storybook. In Storybook you do not have the option of doing a 12 x 12 book but printing in 8×8 but if there is a work around I would probably do it. I also don’t like how 12 x 12 photobooks print.
    Thanks for everything – Awesome show. ~Ann

  12. Annette says:

    Hi guys!

    Love the show and just wanted to share another iPhone app (sorry Peppermint–hope they will get an Android version soon!) So here’s the story: I have a really hard time keeping up with PL. My 2011 and 2012 “need some work” you could say. Like, a lot of work! But nevertheless for 2013 I decided to change my “monthly overview/add to it when I feel like it” approach because honestly I didn’t feel like adding to it much of the time. Still, I wanted to try it again and so this year I decided to change it up. So I decided on “weekly” in a “monthly overview” and yes, I know Katie might pass out if she sees my pages with weeks that may have 10 or more days in them! But so far it’s working and really because of an app I found!

    I decided to do my “weekly” spreads with iPhone photos and so I was looking for a way to organize them and found Collect. It’s a photo a day app, but you can have multiple photos each day, you can have multiple albums, you can tag/keyword them, you can add a longer story on the back, etc. I’m loving it and have been exporting the little cards they make, cropping them and printing them for my spreads (would probably be a lot easier if I was fully digital, but I’m a hybrid chick for the most part). Currently working with Chari to see if we can simplify it and hoping they can come out with an export to 3×4 function to make it even easier. And yes, Steph I even suggested they make the info add to the metadata! (just look how much I learn from you gals!)

    Anyways, just wanted to share a listener pick! I’m off to check out their other app Memory Jar which is focused on capturing the photos + stories of our kids. Pretty cool stuff. Oh, and Collect is currently free and I think Memory Jar is 99 cents.

    Take care and keep up the great work! Congrats on number 75!!

  13. Kris says:

    OMG! Peppermint! the Oh Life email idea! GENIUS!!!

  14. Katie (sakura-panda) says:

    I’m with Katie where my normal scrapping is everyday. I can’t do Project Life digitally because if I’m going to sit down and put my photos on a page, I probably just end up scrapping it as a regular layout. I have several layouts where I started with a Project Life template but then moved the “pockets” around so much that it only marginally resembles a Project Life page (uniformly sized prints and papers with rounded corners. LOL)

    I go back and forth between whether or not I want to do a sort of paper version of Project Life. Not so much to do Project Life week by week, but with the idea that I can print out my photos, jot down some comments, and stuff them in an album for my family to look at immediately, instead of having to wait for me to eventually scrap and print them. It would also be a fun way to use up some of my paper stash.

    Lately, I spend a lot of my free time waiting (such as for the duration of dance lessons and swimming classes) and I have decided to take a break from knitting and try to work on scrapbooking during these waits. This sort of scrapbooking — where I’m mostly shuffling around 4×6 prints and 3×4 cards — would be more portable and easier to do “on the go” than “normal” layouts.

    On the other hand, I have been considering limiting myself to the page protectors with six 4×6 pockets and fill it with 4×6 mini-layouts that could eventually be reprinted in bulk, stuffed into “one-up” 4×6 albums, and distributed as brag books to all the grandparents with minimal extra work on my end. I should check out the iPad scrapbooking mentioned above and see if those could be done that way.

    I’m still on the fence but this show is making the PL side very attractive. My original idea was to use cheap 4×6 index cards to fill pockets while I waited for my photos to be printed but I think that Peppermint’s Post-It Plan is so much better! That thought is almost enough to make me click the “place order” button on my shopping cart.

    Loved the show — it is exactly what I needed right now since I’m currently working on making scrapbooking something I can do even when I’m away from my tools and supplies. I suddenly realized that even though it was limited to when I was away from home, I was doing more knitting than scrapbooking and right now that isn’t how I want to spend my free time.

    I’m going to tweak my cart and order those page protectors. Now is the right time!

    • That is the reason I started digital scrapbooking. I scrap on my laptop so I can do it in the car while waiting at soccer practices or in the waiting area at dance. Or sitting on the sofa with my husband watching a sports show. Totally portable. I love it so much easier than doing it in paper and I get way more done now as I can use this time productively.

      • Katie (sakura-panda) says:

        That’s what I’m hoping to do. Some of the kids’ activities are an hour or longer and I’m going to bring my laptop and try scrapbooking during those; others are about a half hour and I’m going to bring my netbook to organize photos for printing and journal cards to fill in for the pockets.

        I can also use the netbook to pick out photos and supplies for future layouts. I haven’t used the it much since getting an iPad and I’m ridiculously happy to have a purpose for it again!