I've been enjoying putting my Project Life Layouts together so much, that I have done them weekly this month. Today, I downloaded the last of my photos and finished up the month of February!!! When I posted my first post about this project, I got a lot of questions etc. so I'll try to answer some of them here:
What program do you use? I use Adobe Photoshop Elements
How do you do it? I created a couple of simple templates that I use over and over again. If you know the basics of Photoshop, you can easily drag and merge your photos onto the template (I will post a free link to my templates below if you want to give it a try). I don't really have the time to give a complete tutorial, but here is a really simple tutorial that gives the basic idea of how to use the template in Photoshop Elements. It takes a little time to get it all figured out, but it'll be worth it!
What do you do with the pages when you're done? I am using blurb.com's free Booksmart program to create a photo book. I simply make a photo book without using any of their templates and drag and drop my photos onto their blank 12x12 pages as I complete them (make sure that when you save your completed page, you save as a jpeg). At the end of the year, I plan to print the book in a hard bound 12x12 format. You don't need to worry about leaving room for the pages to be bound...blurb takes care of that for you.
What Digi products & Fonts did you use? As for the template, I made it, and I'll share it below :) I am using a lot of old digi stuff I have on hand. I used to work for Designer Digitals, so I had access to all of their goodies. I would suggest only purchasing or downloading simple things...like journaling cards, fun little word stickers etc. I don't want to use a whole lotta junk on my layouts...I just want to accent a little. There are also a lot of free downloads out there if you start looking for project life free downloadables. You can also do a lot of it yourself by adding cute fonts and colors to your photos. When it comes to fonts, I really have used too many to list. Maybe next time I post my PL layouts, I will add a list of my favorite fonts :)
Someone also asked about my page formats...I know it looks confusing, but each photo you see below is simply 2, 12x12 layouts. They will go side by side in my album, but here on the blog, they are just posted one above another.
If you would like to use the templates that I made for my layouts, you can download them here: PAGE 1 and PAGE 2. Please keep in mind that they are just something really simple I put together.
Here are my February layouts (yeah...I know...I take too many photos):
hey busy girl! long time no blog! miss your posts...just thinkin' of ya!
Posted by: alicia king | March 26, 2012 at 06:00 PM
Great photos! I love LOTS of photos, to me that is what an album is about. And you manage to put in some great journaling, so you have the best of both worlds!
Posted by: Lee Cockrum | March 11, 2012 at 12:40 PM
Love your pages! thanks so much for the templates!!
Posted by: MaryRuth | March 10, 2012 at 06:37 PM
I love the idea!
I have a blog in which I post about our lives in the USA for my family that lives in Brasil to look at. They just LOVE reading about/looking at what we've been doing and all that. And I love to share it all with them but it seems to be somewhat time consuming for me.
And on top of everything else, I cannot find time to sit and organize a scrapbook or even a photo album. So, I have been considering, ever since I saw what you've done with this "Project Life" you've created, taking the time to invest in doing something similar instead of blogging. And then I could send them copies of the pages, maybe monthly. I hope this works out!
Thanks for sharing the idea. And I wanted to mention too that I would really love it if you shared with us a bit more about homeschooling, the projects you guys work on, your schoolroom, and some of all that good stuff. I started homeschooling my oldest this year and have been looking for inspiration and ideas and whatnot but cannot find anything! Even though we have everything we need and then some, I'd still like to peak around.
Anyway, Gorgeous pics! Great job.
Posted by: G.C. | March 10, 2012 at 11:38 AM
thank you soooo much! I LOVE the idea of Project Life, but HATED the idea of doing it by hand again! I am so in love with digital so this is perfect! And I already use Blurb for all my photo books....really, I can't tell you how excited I am to have some awesome templates and to get going on this project! Thanks a million!!!!
Posted by: Jen | March 07, 2012 at 04:23 PM
I so love this idea. I'm going to be 58 years old and I am overwhelmed at the thought of doing either traditional or digital scrapbooking with all the bells and whistles! I was going to invest in the Project Life stuff to and then decided to look at all my paper scrapping goodies I still have that have not been used. I think I can manage putting together some 12 x 12 books using templates. I work with PSE 10 and CS5 so I think I can create some that I can use over and over again! Thanks so much for the inspiration!
Posted by: Geri | March 05, 2012 at 08:55 PM
Thank you so much for sharing your "how to" with us. I have been trying to figure out just how to keep up with pictures and this is perfect. I was wondering if you keep memorabilia and how you plan to incorporate that into the book or what you do with it at all? Thanks for sharing parts of your life through this blog with us
Posted by: Brenda Walker | March 03, 2012 at 05:46 PM
great layouts sherelle!
Posted by: alicia king | March 03, 2012 at 01:45 PM
I am working on my Project Life, love you layouts!
Posted by: Christi Williams | March 02, 2012 at 09:24 PM
First you are so incredibly sweet to post a how to and offer the template! Thanks so much! Second, your life & family are so precious I just want to climb right through the computer and spend a day with you on the farm! I dont know how you do it all. Really you must be SuperMom!
Posted by: Melinda~ | March 02, 2012 at 06:01 PM
Thanks Sherelle - I am going to try this - Its not working for me to print and add photos to a huge album! I'm not even taking photos much lately because the amount of photos I have on my computer is overwhelming!!!
Posted by: lori jolley | March 01, 2012 at 09:36 AM
I love your project life!! I too decided to try it my own version of PL this year, but I haven't even completed Janurary. I love your look a lot more, is beautifully simple. I am going to give your templates a try for February. Thank you so much for sharing them!! You are amazing & I love that you take so many pictures, most of us don't take enough. Thanks again.
Posted by: Tiffany | March 01, 2012 at 07:42 AM
love your layouts!! thank you for the templates :)
Posted by: Gretchen C | March 01, 2012 at 07:30 AM
I am absolutely LOVING your PL. Thank you for answering 1 of my questions and for the tutorial!
BTW I didnt remember about the *egg in a hole* recipe. I used to make those! Making them again this weekend for my family.
Thank you!!!!
hugs,
Dayami :)
Posted by: Dayami Lauzurique | March 01, 2012 at 07:19 AM
Looks great! I love this idea so much and think it is much more do-able than scrapbooking would be for me!
Posted by: Kathy | March 01, 2012 at 04:47 AM
Thank you so much for sharing your downloadable pages. I am going to give this a try.
Posted by: Brenda Walker | February 29, 2012 at 07:52 PM
This book will be quite awesome when you complete all the pages. I love all your photos. THANK YOU for sharing those templates. I am going to try it out...you are so very talented and thank you for sharing. It's so simple...the pictures make the pages!!
Posted by: Heather | February 29, 2012 at 07:15 PM
What fun Sherelle! Love the music too :) Have loved your pics, and I still look at them often, although I don't comment a whole lot.
Posted by: Kari | February 29, 2012 at 06:20 PM
Those are so great! What a fun keepsake at the end of the year :) Great picture as usual. What a great group picture of the boy at the blue and gold. Could you send me a copy?
Posted by: tammy d | February 29, 2012 at 05:15 PM