Project Life Blog Hop - March Edition

Welcome to the Project Life Blog Hop for March (my first blog hop, but this is actually the second one for the year), I'm so excited to be joining in!!

Huge thanks to Jill for organising this blog hop!!

I think like most of the ladies (and if there are any guys) that do Project Life, I LOVE it! For me, it's like  I found a part of me that was missing (only I actually, never realised it was missing). I LOVE that I now that somewhere to keep all the little things that my daughter brings home from school (the certificates, drawings etc). I LOVE having somewhere to put all the flyers/posters from the events that we go to. And most importantly, I LOVE actually having photos printed and in an album, instead of just in folders on the computer!!


I just want to apologize in case this blog post doesn't go live at the right time, I'm hoping that I have worked out the time difference correctly!


I don't know about you, but I LOVE reading posts about how everyone else puts together their weekly (sometimes monthly or fortnightly spreads - that's the AWESOME thing about Project Life, it can be whatever you want it to be!) So that's what I have decided to share today, how I go about getting everything ready to put into my album (up to the photo printing stage).


The Basics:

• I'm not taking a photo a day - instead just a weekly overview. Some weeks I have photos from everyday, and then some other weeks it's actually only a couple of days that are represented by photos. It's more about the stories, that I want to preserve.
• My weeks run from Monday - Sunday. I know that a lot of other Project Lifer's do weekly spreads from Sunday - Saturday, but I have always thought of a week beginning on a Monday, and so it made sense for me to have my album this way.
• I usually set aside some time on Monday or Tuesday when my daughter is at school, and go and print my photos ( I don't like the quality of photos that I get from printing at home, and a new printers isn't on the cards any time soon).

Camera's I Use:
I have a few of different cameras that I use:

• Most photos are taken with my little point and shoot; OLYMPUS VG-140. For it's price it's not a bad little camera, and it's small enough that I am able to take it everywhere with me.
• I also often use my DSLR - OLYMPUS E520. I would love to use this camera more, but with two littlies, one of whom thinks it's funny to run away all the time, it's just not practical lugging it around everywhere with me.
• I also use my iPhone (well more often, my husband's iPhone, as I only have a 3G, and he has a 4S).
• The last of the cameras that I usually regularly is my Fujifilm INSTAX mini 7s - LOVE, LOVE, LOVE this camera! My parents were nice enough to buy it for me, while they were on an overseas holiday, as at the time they were very difficult (and expensive) to get in Australia. I didn't use it very much at first, as the film is also very expensive in Australia (about $20 for a box of 10 film), but I found a cheap store on eBay that sells the film, and at only about $7 a box, it was a bargain!

Photo Storage and Editing:
I download photos from my camera(s) every couple of days, or if I know if there is a photo that I *have* to use, I will do it straight away.
Any photos that I think (or know) I want to include in my layouts, I keep in a separate folder on desktop, which contains only Project Life weekly photos  - these photos are also located in another folder on my computer, according to month, in my 'family photos' folder. I know it might seem silly to keep some photos on my computer in two different places, but it's usually only around 10 photos a week, and it makes it so much easier to organise my albums, and deciding what photos to print. At the end of the year, I will probably just make sure that the PL folders are backed up on my external hard drive,and delete them off my desktop.

I edit my photos with Picasa (and occasionally with Picnik, if there's something that Picasa can't do). I have tried Photo Shop many times, and unfortunately I just haven't been able to master it. So, for now Picasa does everything that I need, and it's so easy to use, so I will just keep using that for now.


Some of my favourite functions/edits in Picasa include:

• MAKING COLLAGES - any size, and with any number of photos you want to include.

I always make my collages in Picasa, and then print them with the rest of my photos, this way I only pay for the standard sized print, instead of having to pay extra for having made, a collage on the photo printing machines.

• BOOST - I use this edit on almost every single one of my photos, it really helps to make the colours 'pop'. Occasionally a photo will look better without it, but that's usally only photos of my kids (who are both naturally fair), taken in direct sunlight. I only ever use a small amount, the default is the halfway marker on the slider, but that's often too much and will throw the colour balance out.

• CROP - I always crop my photos in Picasa, before printing them. It takes literally two seconds to do, but saves so much time when printing (those photo printing machines are slow, hey!!) Sometimes when I get my photo back, the printers have cropped them a tiny bit more than I said (I guess it's due to a slight variation in paper sizes), but it's never enough to worry me, unless it's cropped some words off, in which case I will just move the words over, and reprint next week.
• TEXT - I love adding text to my photos, means that I free up more space for extra photos (and with two small kids, I am always looking for ways to fit in extra photos).

Obviously a lot of these edits can also be done in other photo editing programs, just become familiar with the one that you use.

Photo Printing:

In general I don't print my photos at home, unless it's something small for the little 3x4 pockets (a movie poster/dvd cover).

I print most of my photos in-store at Officeworks, unless I have to go to the local shopping centre and then I will print at Kmart. If you're in Australia check out the Kmart online printing webpgae, as many stores have the option for you to upload your photos from home, and then pick them up from a nominated store, later that same day.

It really is just a case of trial and error in finding a who you like to print your photos. I always used to print at a major department store (in Australia), but was finding that my photos were always coming out dark, yet, I know people who print at this same department store, but in different suburbs, and they have no problems.

Sorry, it was such a long post.

Hopefully next month, I will be able to share how I go about putting my layouts together.

Your next stop in the blog hop is: Natalie @  http://dalys2012.wordpress.com

If you get lost along the way, you can see the entire list below:

Jill http://jillconyers.com/

Margie http://xnomads.typepad.com

Donna www.joyfullydonna.blogspot.com

>>>Tamara http://tamarasscrapping.blogspot.com.au/<<<

Natalie http://dalys2012.wordpress.com

Devon http://www.youhadmeatneurotic.com

Alissa http://lifeonlakeland.wordpress.com/
April http://capturethememories.blogspot.com

Noelia  www.noeliaevangelista.typepad.com

Sharon  http://projectsofmylife.wordpress.com/

Jennifer http://vogtstories.blogspot.com

Sarah http://documentingchaos.wordpress.com/

Arlene http://craftymomma-ph.blogspot.com/2012/02/project-life-2012.html

Leap Day Twenty Twleve

Kinda like 'A Day in the Life', but with an Australian twist.

The girls on Project Life Australia, decided that we would tackle ADITL on February 29, 2012. And I have to say that even though I had a lot of fun documenting our day (not just in photographs, but on paper too), I must be the laziest Leap Day-er out there! My plan was to take a photo each hour (not necessarily on the hour), and at that task I did pretty well, I only missed one hour, and that was because Benji and I had a nap in the middle of the day. However, some hours, I literally only took one photo!

There was a reason to my madness though! Having completed Take Twelve 2012, for the past 2 months, I knew how hard it can be at the end of the day to try and cull the hundreds of photos I take down to the 12 needed to tell the story, so I decided to try and simplify the process for myself.

So, without further ado - Leap Day 2012 in photos (some of the photos are crappy iPhone [3G] photos, but they are part of the story, and I'm more than happy to include them):

Rise and Shine, Sleeping Beauty

Lunch order day at school for Lily

Facebooking, and checking emails

Benji having fun at the playground with Rachel and William

Saying goodbye to Rachel and William

Asleep in Mummy's arms (although, this didn't last long and we were soon napping in my bed)

School pickup time

Visiting Aunty Vanessa at work

Trying on a new dress (which I bought) to wear to the Jessie J concert

Benji having a melt-down in the car (while in the McDonald's drive through!)

Lily reading with Daddy

Lily watching her favourite tv show - Home & Away

Kids are in bed - time to relax with my book (Moloka'i)

Ian relaxing on the iPad.

And that's the last photo I took - pretty much 10 minutes after I took that photo of Ian I fell asleep on the couch.

My aim with the photos is to print them and put them in a baseball card page protector, and slip into my Project Life album for this week.

Hopefully I will get that done today while Benji is asleep - and will be able to share the finished product with my Project Life share next Tuesday.

Project Life 2012 - Week Eight

Wow, I can't believe that I have successfully managed to document 8 weeks of our family life - hopefully I will be able to keep it up for the remaining 46 weeks!

Again, I will apologise in advance for the glare on some of the photos - I find it really difficult to photograph the layouts in their page protectors.

Main Spread, without extra inserts:

Just an ordinary week around here, both kids were sick for the first few days (Lily missed a few days of school), and then the second half of the week we were back into the normal swing of things.

Collected: a business card from the local doctors surgery, a business card from the dancewear shop were I bought Lily some jazz shoes (for ACRODANZ), and a paint sample colour card (we have finally decided on a new colour to paint the walls).

I also added in a McDonald's picture, because we booked Lily's 5th birthday party there, for next month, and I stumbled across an awesome quote about redheads (I know many of you will now look at the photos of me and think 'what's she on about - her hair isn't red! hahaha. But in my old age, it had turned more of an orangey-brown (auburn brown) colour, but since I was born a red-head, I still identify as one).

Close up of left hand side:

Close up of the right hand side:

We had another busy weekend; Lily and Benji had a birthday party on Saturday, combined with ACRODANZ in the morning and an event that evening, made for a busy Saturday!!

Main Spread with Extra Inserts:

I included three extra inserts this week; the first can be seen here. Benji and I attended a storytime for 0-5 year olds, and after they read some stories, the kids had the chance to colour in a face mask - that monkey was just too cute not to include! I also kept the name sticker that they wrote for him, and the sticker he got at the end for participating.

Insert 2:

The first insert is a flyer from a local production my sister, mum, Lily and I went to on Saturday night - it was so good, can't wait to go and see another show!

Back of insert 2/3:

On the back of the Grease poster, is a photo of everyone before we went out, I was hoping to make a collage with a few photos from the night, but I didn't take any photos inside the show, and I kept checking Facebook and none have been put up, so maybe later if I can find some other photos I will make a collage.

On Sunday, Lily and I (along with my best friend Emma, and Lily's best friend Hayley [Emma's daughter]), went to a free cooking class, which was sponsored by the local council and a few other groups, who actively work within the community.

The aim of it was to give some healthy lunchbox alternatives to the standard ham and cheese sandwich I send Lily to school with everyday!

Back of insert 3:

I made a collage in Picasa, with a group shot of all of us, and then added some little photos of the girls together, and one of them mixing.

Close up of the cooking collage:

In Picasa I added the text, I thought that it was a nice touch to help remember what we made.

Ans because they are a little hard to see, a couple of the other photos.

Benji at Koorliny Bookworms:

Collage of Lily and Benji at the birthday party on Saturday:

One thing you may have noticed, while looking at my album is that this week I suddenly stopped corner rounding. The first 7 weeks all have photos with rounded corners, and that will probably stay that way, and from now on I will be leaving them square - a little mis-matched, but I'm ok with that.

The main reason I stopped corner rounding was simply because; my photos are printed at Officeworks on Kodak XtraLife II paper (and I don't know if all Kodak paper is like this, or just this one particular type), but there is a thin plastic backing on the paper. My corner rounder just doesn't like going through that plastic.A simple two-second job of corner rounding was taking me around 15-20 minutes a spread, as the corner rounder was jamming up and then I was having to trim the excess off with scissors.

The very notion behind Project Life is to simplify the way you scrapbook, and so, while I LOVE the look of the rounded corners, I have decided to stop.

One last photo, of my little 'helper'

As usual, I am linking up at The Mom Creative.

Project Life 2012 - Week Seven

I'm so excited to have another week recorded using Project Life. I still LOVE this system, and don't see that changing any time soon!!

This week was just a normal week for us, now that we are back into the swing of school, and after school/weekend activities. Benji however, did get really sick towards the end of the week, and by the weekend Lily was also complaining of not feeling well (they are both actually still sick today, and Lily hasn't been to school this week at all - hopefully tomorrow!)

Main spread, with extra inserts:

I managed to only have 2 inserts this week, the first one is a certificate that Lily came home from school with. It was given to her by the science teacher (she also got another during the week, from  the maths teacher - that one is placed in one of the 4x6 slots).

The top right photo of me with the pram, has come out dark in every. single. photo of the layout, it's not that dark in real life. Here it is, just in case someone out there, wants to desperately see what it is:

It's the photo to go with the journalling card second from the left, about me having to push Lily's bike home because I forgot to bring her helmet back to school in the afternoon.

Main spread, without extra inserts:

No matter how many photos I took, I couldn't eliminate that streak-like appearance on the two bottom photos! Doesn't matter if I take the photos inside or outside I always end up with it.

Back of insert 1 & insert 2:

For Valentine's Day Lily drew a beautiful picture for me (I think that Ian may have helped her draw the love heart in the middle), and since I had a space on the back of the certificate, I thought about cutting it down to fit, but I couldn't get all of the main picture in the ~6x8 size that it needed to be. So I scanned it, and resized it that way. I printed it at Officeworks with the rest of my photos, and I couldn't be happier with the way it turned out. I was a little worried because it was mostly crayon and pencil, and I thought that the wax in the crayon would scan or print funny, but it's perfect!

I will definitely be printing Lily's artwork this way again.

On Sunday, Lily and I went to the NAB Cup (it's the pre-season competition of the AFL) with my sister. 

I actually for some strange reason,didn't print one of the photos - I didn't even copy it to the disk! I will have to print it with next weeks photos.

Back of insert 2:

The glare in the middle photo on the back of the insert, is actually in the photo inside the sleeve, and not from being in the sleeve...does that make sense? It's just from the way that the sun was positioned when the photo of the three of us was taken.

Once again, I am linking up with Jessica, at The Mom Creative.

February Family Photo

One of my family resolutions this year, was to take at least one family photo each month.

Two months into 2012, and we're on target!

On February 12, we had a family photo shoot with a local photographer, and the photo I have chosen is actually the same one that made an appearance on my February Take Twelve photo collage.

I have printed it as a 8x12 and was slipped into my Project Life album for appropriate week (week 6).

I'm hoping to be back tomorrow, to share my latest Project Life layouts.

Project Life 2012 - Week Six

Another week done, and more memories recorded!

Still totally LOVING this project!

Once again, I will be linking up with The Mom Creative, once the week 6 blog post goes live, if you haven't already done so, check the Project Life Tuesday blog posts out, so much inspiration!

Main Spread, with extra inserts:

Main Spread, without extra inserts:

Another fairly busy week in our household; Lily started Multisports (an after school sports program at the local sports centre), Benji, Lily and I all had haircuts, then on Saturday Lily had dancing in the morning, we went straight to a birthday party, and then that afternoon Ian and I went to a friends wedding ceremony!

I didn't add a lot of journalling cards this week, instead I chose to put in photos or Facebook screen shots. Ian took a photo of me sitting on the couch with the iPad looking at Project Life Tuesday posts, and I added a screenshot of the Project Life Australia Facebook group.

This week, I also had to speak to Lily's teacher about some bullying that was happening to her - it's not really something that I want on show for everyone to see, but at the same time, I still wanted to have a record of it written down somewhere, so that instax photo of Lily is actually attached to one of the journalling cards that folds in half, and in the middle is the story of what happened.

In the far right journalling card pocket, I kept some of Benji's hair, and sewed it into the pocket. Normally I would feel a little silly asking to keep his hair, but luckily I know the hairdresser!

Sorry for the glare, doesn't matter what time of day I take the photos, I always seem to have at least one photo have glare all over it!

Back Insert 1 & 2

The brochure (including timetable for multisports), and the birthday party invitation.

Back of insert 2 & 3:

On the back of the birthday invitation is  photo of all the girls at the party playing pass-the-parcel, I thought it was a little more interesting to have a shot of the party games, instead of trying to force (ask the girls politely) to pose for a photo.

This is the photo of the girls playing pass-the-parcel, the right way up:

I did trim the photo down slightly, from it's original size of 6x8 - so that it was the exact size of the invitation.

Insert 3, is my 8x10 collage for Take Twelve: February. I really love how the collage turned out, and am so glad that I decided to have a go last month, and join in. Even though I didn't start mine until the 18th January.

Back of insert 3:

I just copied and pasted this blog post into a word document, and printed it out (sans photo)...I'm pretty technically advanced, like that! And yes, I did go back, and re-print this blog post for January's Take Twelve!