LisaLynn Posted December 5, 2014 Share Posted December 5, 2014 I'm intrigued by Jacqui Smith's new 365 Planner 2015 digital layout templates and wondering if they might provide a good basis for a Project Life 2015 photo book project. I haven't done such a project before. In the description it says: "combine with my Pocket pageGrids for a complete solution." I'm not sure what this means. A complete solution to what? Does it mean that the writing parts of the planner are included in the product, but there are no template pages for photos included? And thus she is recommending the page grids to provide photo templates so you can complete the day planner? Or does "complete solution" imply that the pocket page grids would expand the kit so that it could better be used for photobooks? Or something else? And a second question for those of you who have done a Year-in-the-life-of-type photo book project: Is this type of layout template a good fit for that, or is another type more suited? Your thoughts are much appreciated, as always, I find the collective wisdom in this community to be always so helpful to me! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mbc72 Posted December 5, 2014 Share Posted December 5, 2014 I just bought this, let me unzip it and I will get back with you. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mbc72 Posted December 5, 2014 Share Posted December 5, 2014 Okay, I unzipped and looked at what is included. First of all, everything is 12 x 12 and both .png and .psd files are included, so technically it could be customized however you would like. With photos, or strictly for journaling. Most boxes have journaling lines included, but you could just turn off that layer if you don't want to use them. One of the sample layouts on her page uses one of the calendar templates in this set for journaling and the photos are on a separate page using her Page Grids templates. Another sample replaces one of the journaling boxes with photos. Yes, you could do a complete Project Life year with just this set of templates. Or, it will combine beautifully with a grid type of template, as well. It really depends on how you plan to do your Project Life. Hope that helps. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LisaLynn Posted December 5, 2014 Author Share Posted December 5, 2014 Thanks Melanie. After reading your reply I decided that this would make a good over-arching format for a 2015 project life photobook so I went ahead and got it. After looking through the files I see that my first guess was close, the templates included are the journaling/writing portions while the Pocket Page Grids are used for the photo pages, although as you said you can place photos instead of text in many places on the writing/planner pages and she shows some examples of this. It looks like a good framework for creating a whole photobook. I am not sure how I'm going to do organize my project, but I love the pocket life projects posted by others on the forum, so I'm looking forward to trying this in 2015. Thanks for your reply :-). I will try to post my pages as I complete them next year! And thanks to Jacqui for such a nice kit. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Florida granny Posted December 5, 2014 Share Posted December 5, 2014 There's lots of inspiration for you, too, in the Project Life Gallery. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LisaLynn Posted December 5, 2014 Author Share Posted December 5, 2014 Thanks Diane, I've been watching as new project life layouts get posted, and that gallery is one of the reasons that I'm inspired, and confident enough, to try such a project myself. It is reassuring to have that gallery to look through for ideas and inspiration, I am thankful that so many artistic people share their pages! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mbc72 Posted December 5, 2014 Share Posted December 5, 2014 We'll be starting a new thread for Project Life 2015 later in December, with a kick off in January. Keep an eye on the forum for more information. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Becster Posted December 5, 2014 Share Posted December 5, 2014 Here's a tip based on what I do. At the beginning of the year I open a new Notepad document. I add the following: Week 1 (January x - x) Week 2 (January x - x) etc. until I have the entire year written down. I save is as "Project Life 2014" in the folder where I keep my LOs as I create them. Then each week I jot down things that happened, things that I want to remember, because I always get behind! When it comes time to make my page, I consult this document, my calendar, and the photos I have which are easy to sort by date taken. This jogs my memory and I have a much better chance of keeping up. Hope this helps! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mbc72 Posted December 5, 2014 Share Posted December 5, 2014 Here's a tip based on what I do. At the beginning of the year I open a new Notepad document. I add the following: Week 1 (January x - x) Week 2 (January x - x) etc. until I have the entire year written down. I save is as "Project Life 2014" in the folder where I keep my LOs as I create them. Then each week I jot down things that happened, things that I want to remember, because I always get behind! When it comes time to make my page, I consult this document, my calendar, and the photos I have which are easy to sort by date taken. This jogs my memory and I have a much better chance of keeping up. Hope this helps! Great tips, Becky, thanks. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LisaLynn Posted December 5, 2014 Author Share Posted December 5, 2014 Becky, thank you, this is a great idea, the hardest part of big projects is the organization and I have found (too many times!) that just trying to remember what happened does not work! I'm setting this up today, thanks! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
teecee Posted December 5, 2014 Share Posted December 5, 2014 Here's a tip based on what I do. At the beginning of the year I open a new Notepad document. I add the following: Week 1 (January x - x) Week 2 (January x - x) etc. until I have the entire year written down. I save is as "Project Life 2014" in the folder where I keep my LOs as I create them. Then each week I jot down things that happened, things that I want to remember, because I always get behind! When it comes time to make my page, I consult this document, my calendar, and the photos I have which are easy to sort by date taken. This jogs my memory and I have a much better chance of keeping up. Hope this helps! Great idea, Becky! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MariJ Posted December 6, 2014 Share Posted December 6, 2014 So happy to see this thread, thanks for asking Lisa. I didn't do Project Life this year after doing it for the past two. But I have been inspired by Becky and Laraine's this year so have been considering doing a photo-a-day for the upcoming year. Very good tips everyone, ScrapGirls are the best! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CRS Posted December 6, 2014 Share Posted December 6, 2014 Although I don't post mine, I have done this project for 6 years! I had to go look and see how many I have, lol! The first year I did a photo a day, but that quickly became to much for me. So the next year, I did a double layout for each month and just posted the photos I wanted to and journaled about what happened. I used one template set ( a larger one that I could mix and match the pages) per year, and changed each year. My advice is to make a plan that's not too difficult to stick with and enjoy the process! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LisaLynn Posted December 6, 2014 Author Share Posted December 6, 2014 That's what I want to do, have something organized that's simple and doesn't make it so big a project that I can't do it. I've already set up copies of all the templates I plan to use into a folder just for the project, with subfolders by month, and am now adding some of the customization that can be done ahead of time. The hope is that then I can just fill in the journaling based on my diary style text file and choose the photos by date, as Becky suggested. I'm thinking of using background papers and embells from the ScrapGirls club each month to round out the pages...or maybe I'll choose them based on the photo content. I'm inspired by all of you who've done this before! Thank you all! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mbc72 Posted December 7, 2014 Share Posted December 7, 2014 Sounds like you are off to a good start, LisaLynn! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
teecee Posted December 7, 2014 Share Posted December 7, 2014 I do soooo want to do this for 2015! I tried Project Life once a few years ago and managed to get through the month of January - that was it lol. I don't think I even posted the page. Maybe Becky's tips will help me along this time. Thanks Becky! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
healthyscraps Posted December 7, 2014 Share Posted December 7, 2014 Hello LisaLynn, I just wanted to pop in and answer some of the questions you mentions in your first post. Sorry I wasn't here earlier. It was the first weekend of our holidays with school finishing for the year. When designing these templates I had a few things in mind. I wanted them to be versatile and customizable for a variety of projects. Firstly, you can do what I call the "Quick and Go", which is simply choosing your preferred Mon-Sun or Sun-Sat week in the templates and print pages to create your own planner or calendar. The templates are colored so you don't have to customize. Right now I am using the action plan and monthly spreads for planning and projects. Alternatively, you can "Make it Your Own” and design and bind. Use the Pocket pageGrids to expand the planner set and add pages of photos, quotes etc to your planner or calendar. You could also customize the planner templates with the pageGrid templates and create your own albums, as you suggested for your Project Life memory keeping. Year long projects like Project Life can be overwhelming to get started. There are some great tips here on planning your approach and it looks like you are off to a great start. I like your approach of setting up your templates in advance. Becky your tips are fantastic. Keeping it simple is the way to success. I look forward to seeing your layouts in the gallery throughout 2015. I am happy to answer any other questions you may have. Enjoy Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Archived
This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.