There. I said it.
Last post about this. Swear it. Until 3 days from now.
Kidding.
I hope.
I knew all along this was going to happen. What can I say except that I apparently enjoy torturing myself for a few weeks before making a final decision.
Who knew I was going to eventually say “Project Life, 100% digital!” by week 3? C’mon. I secretly did.
I used to paper scrap. I had every gadget known to man and I lived in a much smaller space than I do now. I was over-the-moon when I stumbled on digital scrapbooking and realized I didn’t have to live amongst scrapbooking tools anymore. Well if I am being honest, those weren’t my initial thoughts at first. At first glance I thought digital scrapbooking would be cold, sterile and lifeless. I was so happy to be so wrong. I have been a digital scrapper since 2005 and I have never once looked back.
Sure I enjoy the occasional hybrid project. Make that very occasional. I thought maybe I would enjoy it for Project Life 2012 but at every turn it looks like I was making this a digital project despite my best efforts for it to be otherwise.
Lets investigate this theory further:
Exhibit A: I was using overlays on my photos. Not that this has to be a sign that you are digital but it’s another Photoshop step. Exhibit B: I was arranging all of my journaling cards in Photoshop and then printing. Exhibit C: I was creating digital mock-ups for the Blog. Why? Because I like making added work for myself as is now apparent. And I like working in Photoshop. Please see Exhibits A & B. I even went so far as to journey back to 2009 and begin to scrap those daily photos in digital format. Finally last night I had an epiphany of sorts. It involved sending my husband out for a mocha frapp with lots of whip because I was craving A- chocolate and B- whip and then sitting at my computer to finally come to terms with what I was trying to push aside for the past 2 weeks:
Project Life 2012 shall be digital. The end.
I really mean it this time…!
And then I decided to throw all caution to the wind, re-do my cover page and the first two weeks and finally, put my fears aside and Blog about it one last time, even though by now you are probably laughing (or eyerolling) at my crazy ways. Hopefully if you are a potential client, you have either just decided that me being all over the creative board makes me artistic and fun or with any hope, not stumbled across this entry all together. *fingerscrossed*
So this is what I am doing in case you are still reading, still interested, still my friend despite my flawed brain and it’s inability to make a darn decision:
I am still creating these layouts 12×12. This is new to me since I am an 8×8 scrapper but I am really enjoying this larger size and since these layouts contain lots of pics and lots of journaling, 12×12 it is.
I am using Valorie Wibbens’ Pocket 3 protector. I did turn down the opacity of the plastic sleeve to 70%. I don’t want to detract from the photos plus these will be printed and slipped into 12×12 sleeves for my album, so the less on top of the photos the better.
Originally I was only using a handful of my designs to journal on each week. But once I made the decision to press on 100% digitally last night, I went back to the Pad and loaded up on all sorts of fun cards. Now I’m excited to not hold back and really use all of the digital tools available. I’ll link up as needed. I even changed some journaling cards on my original pages which you can see below. For some reason my brain wanted to categorize doing a paper album as cleaner and digital as filled with more color and overall “stuff”. I think that’s just because this medium is much more comfortable to me after all of these years.
This isn’t to say I am not still going to pull from my ginormous stash of digital supplies, because I most certainly am, but I decided to start a folder simply labeled PROJECT LIFE. Inside are all of the every day sort of supplies I could see myself pulling from most often. Here’s a little peek inside that folder.
Uh basically, I like collecting journaling cards.
I am going to print my pages through my lab, WHCC. I originally was attempting to save a few bucks by printing my 4x6s through Persnickety Prints because I did like their quality but I can’t stand the wait time. WHCC takes 2 days to reach my door. I’ll splurge weekly and order my two layouts. I am always ordering prints for clients anyway so I know I am constantly getting WHCC orders at my door either way. Might as well have a Project Life page or two in there for me.
I am still going to add ‘real’ stuff here and there. I have scanned in my kids artwork in the past and those have always printed great. I can go that way or create a sleeve since I do have page protectors here, sitting unused as it is (along with an entire Amber core kit). I might want to scan in or actually include real theater or movie tickets. Am I going to miss the ability to add in more paper ephemera weekly? No. I did think that was an interesting selling point originally but I know myself. I am much more apt to pick a cute digital card and include neat type than scribble on a french fry wrapper. I think that’s awesome if you can pull that off but I embrace my wacky, OCD qualities where everything ends up at perfect angles and neat type and stuff like that just never ends up coming to fruition with me.
And just in case you’re still with me, still interested, some of the reasons I just could not get into paper were:
I need instant gratification. Digital scrapbooking has always afforded me this luxury. As of today, I still have not received my print order containing Week 1’s pictures, and we are in the middle of Week 3. This makes me itchy and antsy and I feel like I am falling behind even though I am not. But if I am going to do this and stay on top of it weekly as I have been, I want to get everything into my album in a timely fashion.
I don’t love my printer. I confess that I may have bought it strictly because of it’s color. Who wouldn’t love a cheery cherry red printer? It’s a Canon and it’s not my favorite. So printing at home really isn’t an option because I won’t spend time on photos and journaling cards and not love the prints. And yes, I have tried instant gratification by way of Target and CVS one hour photo and the quality just is not there.
I don’t want to buy paper supplies. Been there. Done that. I don’t have the room. I don’t have the time. I really don’t even have the desire to start embellishing this stuff. So if I am going to only lightly embellish in Photoshop and print, I can’t even call that a hybrid anything. It’s a digital something, printed and that’s where I left off yesterday when I said I was confused and didn’t know what I was (in the Project Life sense. I’ve got a pretty good handle on myself otherwise.) So in that respect, I would rather just embellish in Photoshop, maybe even more so than I have been, and treat it like a mini layout, something I know I am good at and enjoy creating.
So that’s that. From Week 3 forward, I am 100% digital. I figure hey, Week 3 isn’t so bad. At least I didn’t figure this out at Week 50. Because I could see myself doing that too. =P
Here is my digital book so far. And yes, once these arrive by week’s end from my lab and I hopefully get them into some page protectors, I will certainly take a Nikon shot so you can see how these look in real life, not just coming right out of Photoshop.
(p.s. Photoshop, I love you. I wasn’t sure if I told you that today yet).
Cover Page (plus a 6×12 page over this with our last name on it, remember?)
Week 1, left side:
Week 1, right side:
Week 1 side-by-side:
Week 2, left side:
Week 2, right side:
Week 2 side-by-side:
I’m happy now. :) Promise! Times infinity. No takebacksies.
Got a Project Life to share? Link me up!
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