Hello everyone, it’s Carly here today! I don’t know about you, but I am always interested in hearing about how other people approach project life, so today I thought it would be fun to share a little bit about my approach to it.
I’ve mentioned before that I do project life monthly vs weekly which really fits well with my style of stress-free documenting. Each month I document what I can, when I can and from there I build my pages.
This year I have also added more purpose and intent behind my photos. Each day I take a photo of something that I’m grateful for and by the end of the month I have at least 30+ meaningful pictures to pick from.
So what’s my plan of action for when it comes to creating and building my pages? First, I always carry a small notebook in my purse and use it to jot down things I want to remember. Maybe it’s something my girls said or maybe it’s just something that happened and I want to be sure I’ll remember it for later. Most of my notes throughout the month either end up in my month in review cards or are added directly to a photo.
When it comes to creating my project life pages I like to keep the process pretty simple. Everyday I download any iPhone photos while my phone charges in the evening. I’ve also got into the habit of deleting any pictures I don’t want to keep right after I’ve taken the shot so when it comes time for my photos to be downloaded, they are all keepers. With my SLR pictures I typically download them once a week and only when I have time to go through them, delete any non-keepers and edit the ones I want. I then put my project life pics in a folder on my desktop for printing at a later time.
Once I have all my photos collected, edited and ready to go in a folder on my computer’s desktop and all my notes in my notebook for the month, I then set aside some time for printing my pics and pulling my pages together. This entire process is usually pretty quick because all the groundwork is done and all I need to do is add my journaling to my photos and/or journal cards, and print. I then pop everything into my page pockets, add a journal card filler, or two, if needed and I’m done!
Breaking my project life process down into bite size chunks makes it so much more manageable for me to stick with. Typically by the time I’ve selected and edited my photos and combined them with my journalling, I have already a layout in mind for my pages so all that’s left to do is the printing and placing.
How about you, what’s your approach to project life documenting? And as always, if you have any questions about my post today please don’t hesitate to leave me a comment and I’ll be sure to answer you back.
-Carly
To see my other Paislee Press projects you can visit here, and you can always visit me at my blog, on Instagram or over at Pinterest.
*Products used in today’s pages include: loved + other sentiments, week in review cards, pictures + words no.4, and happy as a lark element pack.
WOW Carly, this looks so beautiful. Can i ask where did you get the Hello Love card background? Would love to purchase it.
Hi Sherlyn, the Hello Love words came from the Loved + Other Sentiments kit (http://the-lilypad.com/store/loved-other-sentiments.html) and the graphic I bought from Etsy, but can’t remember the store right now. We are in the middle of moving across the country right now but once we are settled I will try to get that store name for you. Thanks! Carly
These are such lovely layouts. I’ve always been curious about the templates that I’ve seen around that include a picture / paragraph of text in them (like in the last layout, bottom left). I really love all the white borders you’ve used – do you have templates for these, or do you just add text and standard picture size to a 4×6 PS template? Thank you!! 🙂 Beautiful images.
Hi Amanda, I use a number of different templates for printing my pictures and text including many of Paislee Press’s found here: http://the-lilypad.com/store/Paislee-Press/?catid=4 and particularly these two made specially for 4×6 prints: http://the-lilypad.com/store/4×6-Photo-Templates.html and http://the-lilypad.com/store/4×6-Photo-Templates-Vol.-2.html. I also use Tracy Larsen’s photo templates which is what I used in that bottom left picture you were asking about. Hope this helps! Carly
I am just sitting here in awe. Your pages are crisp and clean and everything I want mine to be, while still having your creative touches added in. The photos stand out, and tell a story all on their own. Love it, absolutely love it.
awe thank you so much Kellie for your lovely words!
Truly beautiful pages! Your pages always have a calm softness that really appeals to me.
Thank you Donna!
I am in love…
Ronnie xo
Thank you Ronnie! xo
I always love how soft and beautiful your pages are. I liked reading your process. Mine is very similar, right down to the folder for the photos to be printed. I love that you capture what you’re grateful for. I write it down, but would love to be that intentional about that.
Hi Carly. I, too, love the softness of all of your photos. I am just wondering if you edit them in your iPhone, or after you have downloaded them? Can I ask what editing software you use? Hope your move is going well.
Thank you! I edit my iphone photos directly in my phone using mostly PicTapGo and for my SLR photos I always edit them in Lightroom. Hope that helps!
Love your spreads! I’m wanting to go hybrid with Project Life, and I’m interested in your printing process, do you use a digital template, and then print? Also how to do you get the white borders? Thank you!
Thanks for your lovely comment! I often use photo templates like Paislee Press’s 4×6 Photo Template and all the Picture and Words layered templates which will give you the white borders as well, but you can also just play around in Photoshop with a 4×6 page size and add your photos and text to it to create any print layout you’d like. Both methods are really easy. Hope that helped answer your question and have fun with your hybrid PL pages! 🙂