Document it:


Another fun tidbit – this layout was created while I was waiting for my car at Jiffy Lube. Sometimes documenting life means doing it on the go… I’m thankful for the technology that allows me to do that.

It’s been busy here as I’ve had installers at my house all week. So grateful this house project is wrapping up – really looking forward to this weekend.

Hope your weekend is fabulous!

Products Used: Biograffiti’s Around One Album Template, Cathy Zielske’s Weekly Wrap Ups (slightly modified).

To set Auto Advance you will want to make sure you are in the Library Mode (just press “G” on your keyboard to get there). Next choose Photo and then Auto Advance. It’s seriously like finding the rocket booster in your car’s engine you never knew you had…

So what makes it so special? Basically every time you reject a photo (X on your keyboard), star a photo, pick a photo, etc. it auto advances to the next frame. So x, next, x next and you only have to press X or star or whatever. Seriously saves so much time and energy you won’t know how you ever lived without it!

A HUGE thank you to my friend Sharon Maughan for showing this to me years ago…I seriously don’t know how I ever lived without it!

In tonight’s Power of 20 session I was able to fully process (edit, keyword and caption) about 50 images. I also discovered some favorite photos I have been so busy I forgot I had (as you can see in the photo above I have a 16 yr. old who LOVES Play-Doh). Can’t wait to document it.

How’s the Power of 20 working for you?

Then the photo is imported to BigLens where I:
* draw on the screen to focus on the subject and blur the background (blur strength is based on the aperture I choose)
* choose a lens (for this photo I chose the heart shaped lens so the lights reflecting off the background basket were turned into heart bokeh)
*choose filters if wanted
* finish it up and then save it to my iPhone camera roll

Then I pull it into Notica add journaling and location, filters and voila – it’s ready for Project Life/Project 365.

 

I love that some of my favorite photos of late are created with my iPhone camera. Think the photos from your phone aren’t scrapworthy? Check out with this guy does with his iPhone.

Suffice it to say that today I am especially grateful for a resilient daughter, good medical care and things moving in a healing direction. I’m also grateful for the amazing progress we made. With all the hurdles in our path this week, it didn’t seem possible and yet we did it!

Life still seriously amazes me with its goodness.

Products Used: Project Life by Becky Higgins, Ali Edwards Words and Photos 6×12 Layered Templates (modified), Heart Overlay by Paislee Press from this kit, Notica.

Hope you all have a great week!

That is over 7,000 less items than I purchased in 2010. It is interesting to me because now when I see a new kit by a designer, I really take time to look at my stash to see if I have anything similar. 70% of the time I do, so I don’t buy it.

That’s not to say I don’t buy anything – there are some kits by my favorite designers that I still splurge on no matter if I have something similar.

As for the speed of my catalog, I haven’t noticed much of a difference having smaller groups of items in folders under the large folder. However, I also have done much scrapbooking with all the remodeling and other things going on around here. Time will tell and you can be sure I’ll be back to share.

Hope you all have a wonderful weekend!

I used to spend hours masking off trim and doors to protect them from paint when I painted walls.  I never paid much attention to the paint brush I used to paint corners and edges, I paid more attention to my masking job. Yet when I’d pull up the tape after painting, I’d inevitably see tiny pieces of paint bleeding through. Over time I thought that was normal.

Fast forward a few years and I had a conversation with my brother-in-law who had once painted professionally. I asked him which tape was best for masking and was surprised to learn he never used tape. He explained,

“It’s all in the brush.”

I learned that day that it wasn’t my technique or masking process, the secret to less stress and a better paint job was all in the tools I used. So now I have a Purdy Cub. It’s allowed me to paint close to 3000 linear feet of trim with perfect lines and no tape.

I love this brush because although it is a bit on the expensive side, it saves me so much time and money (that blue masking tape is pricey). No more masking trim to paint walls and then masking walls to paint trim. I just paint. It allows me to quickly and efficiently get the job done. It’s the right tool for the job.

Which brings me back to digital organization (you know I have to go there).

Sometimes we hang on to a tool or software or process because it’s all we’ve known. 

Sometimes we hang on because we don’t want to spend the money to make a change.

Sometimes we hang on because it’s what everyone else is doing and doing something different is scary.

Sometimes we hang on because we subconsciously sabotage our efforts for success, making things more complicated than they really need to be.

I’ve done all of the above and more.

It’s about life design. We each only get so much time. Do you want to spend it frustrated, endlessly organizing? Or would you rather make memories? I choose to make memories.

In order to have time to make memories, I have to have software, process and workflow that capitalizes on the tools of technology to efficiently get the work of organizing them done. I have software that works with the way I think. I also have a workflow that combined with my software allows me to spend time with the people I love doing the things I love most.

Sometimes finding photo flow comes down to centering your flow around the right tools.

Don’t worry if your tools and process are simple – what matters is that they work for you.

Remember that.

Remember that the most important piece of memory keeping is memories. Center your photo flow on the tools and process that support you and use technology to give you more time to make memories.

To borrow from a favorite saying, the truth is that when it ‘s all said and done, no one is ever going to say, “I wish I spent more time organizing my photos.”

I am excited that I’ve kept this going for 6 weeks! One thing that’s helped is creating the Notical cards with photos from my iPhone during wait times – waiting for the kids at school, at the doc, in line at the store, etc.

One other thing I thought I’d mention is that when you import the Notica cards into Lightroom, they come in with the metadata date set at the date they were created and not the date of the photo used in the card. I fix this by selecting a card and then choosing Metadata > Edit Capture Time and then changing it to the exact time of the photo on the front of the card.

Products Used: Project Life Digital Templates and Turquoise Kit

As you can see, I kept the journaling very simple. So much going on right now and in these next few weeks I felt the journaling on the Notica cards was more than sufficient.

So grateful I am doing this.  How about you? Are you doing Project Life/365? How’s it going? Any tips you can share with the rest of us? Link us up to your layouts – I’d love to see them!

Kate’s basketball season ends next week with State Tournament the last week of February. I was gathering photos last night for Senior night and decided to put together a layout for Kate’s scrapbook.

I decided to run with the new 6×12 inch page trend as I picked up a few 6×12 protectors at the American Crafts Warehouse sale in December. I am really excited to print it out and see it in her album. Here’s the front of the 6×12 page…

And the back of the 6×12 is the journaling…

Journaling:

It always starts with tryouts that usually reveal results on your birthday. It seems like you were born to play. From November to February you have four games a week and practices everyday except Sunday. It isn’t uncommon for you to have bruises on your arms and legs from all the rough play. I sit in the stands and pray most of the time I’m watching you. I’ve seen you take elbows to the throat, chest, stomach, and face. I’ve also watched as girls purposely push and trip, hoping to injure you while refs stand idly by. You’ve come home with bloody scratches on your eyelids & face, twisted ankles, jammed and swollen fingers and still you love to play. You tell me that when you are on the court you are the happiest. It’s the closest thing you know to flying. I guess that’s what I love about watching you and capturing these moments – you can see it in your eyes, the happiness, freedom and LOVE you have for this sport. I LOVE that when you are really focused in a game you have a certain way you stick your tongue out – it’s Michael Jordan-esque. Basketball for you is also about shoes and socks. You have your favorite brands and colors – Nike Dri-Fit Elite socks and Nike 2011 Zoom Hyperdunk Shoes. Thankfully you’ve also been blessed with an awesome grandpa who makes sure you have what you need. I just want you to know that because of you I LOVE Basketball Season. Watching who you play is seriously one of my favorite things in life. I love you Kate.

This is a rough sample of what the page will look like in the album -

Then you turn the page to see this -

Then turn the page to see this two page spread -

I love watching this girl play. I love being a “basketball mom” even though it means I get a lot less sleep and there is so much more to do in a day – basketball is seriously one of my favorite seasons of the year!

Products Used:

Becky Higgins’ Digital Project Life Templates and Turquoise Edition Kit

CZ Weekly Wrap Up Journalers ** I modified the title (Basketball instead of Everyday) with Avenir Font.

CZ 6×12 Photo Templates and CZ Little Labels No. 01

Gina Cabreara Flower Doodle (I’m sorry I don’t have a direct link – this is probably an old freebie so I’ll link you to her present GREAT digital scrapbooking freebies).

Fonts: Avenir, Dancing Script, Arial

This week I used the usual supplies and a new favorite overlay collection. I seriously love the colors for the turquoise kit more and more each week! I pulled the color for the background layer and overlays from the Project Life kit.

Project Life Turquoise Edition

Ali Edwards Evidence Overlays

I’ve had a few emails with questions about how I am modifying the templates each week.  If you would like to see a tutorial, please let me know in the comments.