OBSERVATIONS: Another week is on the books, and this week was the week that a big whopping order of printed Project Life pages showed up (see this post from yesterday for a lively discussion of digital/hybrid/traditional memory keeping.)
Once again, my iPhone provided all of the photos you see in this week's spread. If it weren't for the fact that my phone bill is ridiculous every month, I'd say the $199 you pay for an iPhone is so, so worth it for the camera—and its convenience—alone. I think my DSLR is feeling sorely neglected right now. (Have you read about the upcoming Phone Photography Workshop at Big Picture Classes? If not and you like your phone and your apps, check it out! Class starts in just a few weeks.)
Here are my pages from last week.
I'm probably going to get in trouble for sharing the photo of Cole Photoshopped onto the body of Jon Snow from Game of Thrones, but I honestly couldn't help myself. With all the sickness that's been floating around our house for the past three weeks, it truly has been a Game of Throats. And besides, if you can't have fun with Photoshop, what's the point?
Last week marked the end of the school year for both kids, and now we are in their first full joint summer vacation. (If you missed my free "School's Out" card download, click here to snag it.)
It also marked getting the yearbooks back from the printer. Aidan and her team did such a great job this year, and we all learned a lot in the process. My role was simply as their production artist, and I absolutely loved doing it. We found that cover art for a buck online. (Their school mascot is a heron.) This summer, she and I are going to do some serious advance planning for the 2013/14 book. It's also a great way for an introvert like me to volunteer my time to help my kids' school. As long as I don't have to be in a large group of people, I'm golden.
And that wraps up my pages from Week Twenty-Three.
SUPPLIES:
Jessica B says
Love it! Thinking I need to go digital more and more each day.
Donna G. says
I love that you’ve gone digital. It gives me more to copy, I mean, it gives me new inspiration. =) Are you having your pages printed at Persnickety Prints on matte or glossy paper? Thanks!
cathy says
Im doing matte paper. : ) Always been a fan of the matte! And thank you, for your comment. : )
Debby Riendeau says
Oh My…At first glance I thought that was Dan’s face you photoshopped onto Games of Thrones. Cole is really looking like Dad as he matures!
Alexandra says
I am swooning over that heron. Did Aidan design that or is that their actual mascot styling? It is really lovely. Congratulations Aidan on such a big accomplishment. Regarding digital PL: I bought most of your templates and am planning on going digital on a go forward basis. I have been using my paper PL to scrap older photos. I would love to have some more of your templates that can emphasize big landscape photos (like 10×4, 10×6, etc) because I want to mix your PL templates with photo-heavy pages that are not PL per se; I want to have all the correct spacing, shading, and rounding to match. Just love your mad Photoshop skillz.
Abby P. says
Thanks for the “School’s Out” reminder! Meant to download it and forgot — it’ll be a great addition, and I thank you most kindly! Great PL week, too, of course!
Becks says
Hi Cathy,
I asked this question a couple of posts back, but can’t find my comment somehow. Apologies if you already answered it.
I’m also doing digital project life, using in design. I use white background and for the most part, the midnight edition which is mostly white journal cards. So some cards blend into the background which requires some sort of border. I can’t, for the life of me, decide if I should do a faint thin border or a subtle drop shadow; and if I should only apply it on the white journaling cards, all nonphotos, or everything?
How do you decide when to apply drop shadow? Any advice for me? Thanks!
SherriS. says
Cole has the funniest expressions and I love that GOT pic. I just did a double take with your introvert comment. I used to feel like I was facing a firing squad going to school (for me and then the kids).
cathy says
Becks, thats the problem I faced to, so I added a light drop shadow in Photoshop. Very light. Like, I think the angle was 135, 50 opacity (you could go lighter), distance of 5 and size of 12. No spread. I think you can set this up in ID too. In PL, I have those drop shadows on everything, and I like how it turns out. Sometimes, though, Ive added a very light background (if you can, of course, on some cards you cannot if theyre predesigned) of like C1/Y1/M1/K1. Something like that, to just create a slight difference from the white. Does this help?
Becks says
Thanks!
I often wonder if drop shadow is on the way out, especially now that apple went completely flat with their iOS design. The future generation won’t feel the need to fake 3d since they grew up in a 2d digital world. Have you wondered about that?
cathy says
Yes. Very interesting. : )
Elsi says
I’ve been a totally digital scrapper *until* I started Project Life. I just love the divided plastic page protectors. So my process is that I design on the computer. I make 3×4 and 4×6 cards, photos, etc. I arrange them into digital templates so i can see the whole page and left vs. right. Then, I print the individual cards & photos — cards onto plain card stock and photos onto photo paper. Cut, trim, punch the corners, and then place into the plastic pages exactly as I laid them out on the computer.
The constraint here is that since I’m using real plastic protectors, the right side of week 19 and the left side of week 20 have to use the same layout.
When I want to use an unconventional layout, I just order a 12×12 print and place it full-sized page protector. This way, I get the tangible pleasure of the divided page protectors, but I get to do all the layout design on the computer.