I did it. I just completed my first month of my new approach to Project Life for 2015 and I have zero regrets. If you recall, I decided to try something new this year, especially after seeing how friggin’ amazing my printed book from 2014 turned out. Last weekend I gathered my photos and made the following pages.
Each month will begin with a title page featuring all black and white photos and one card* dropped in for a pop of color.
*The Hello Life card will be part of my new Project Life Value Kit, both physically and digitally. I have been told the physical kit should be available by March, with the digital files coming shortly after. I realize I have an unfair advantage as the designer of the kit… I mean, I can use the digital files because I designed them. I was going to hold off until the kit was released, but I want to use them this year from the get go. You will be the first to know when the kit is available both physically and digitally. Well, actually Becky Higgins will be the first, I’ll be second, so that makes you third, possibly fourth after I tell Dan.
One thing I’m toying with is working in some digital stamps as you see above. (Here I used the Hipster Selfie digital stamp set.) I love the idea of repeating an element from the core design on the edge as you see here. Most of my digital stamps are 2500 pixels wide (give or take) so you can use them large on any design. I’m going to try to do this each month as a way to introduce some variety into the white space of the generous page margins.
And to close my documentation for the month, the stories of January.
This template set is designed to give you options for telling a summary story of the month. I keep track of daily stories using the Day One app and just compiled it into one big chunk of text.
I took 296 photos in January but about 150 of them were for blog related posts. (I take a ton of shots to try and get something usable for this space!) I used 24 to tell my family’s story for January. Honestly? I don’t need more than that. I really don’t.
I could have made one more page of stories. I tried to decide if it was worth it but I really did take a bunch of pretty crappy photos last month so I decided to say, “We’re good.”
As a memory keeper, my goal is to save some of our story, not every little detail. It keeps me loving this process.
Here’s one thing I know: My final book at AdoramaPix.com can only be 76 pages. This gives me limits if I want to keep my content to one volume. This means I can do 6 pages per month, give or take, and that is a perfectly acceptable number for me.
So far, so good. I think I’m going to love this monthly process.
SUPPLIES:
Minimal Basics Template Set (12 x 12)
Minimal Monthly Journal Set (12 x 12)
Hipster Selfie digital stamp set
Twelve Month Sans 6 x 4 Cards
Minimal Year Card Starters
Minimal Basics sets are also available in 8.5 x 11 as well. Find them here.
NOTE: The Designer Digitals Quarterly sale starts on February 12. You can save 40% throughout the store. Just wanted to let you know in case you think, “Hey, I’d like to buy your template!” If so, wait until the 12th and shop away.
Yolanda says
I freaking love how these pages look. Love the way the images stand on their own without a lot of embellishment. Love all the black & white. Love the over scale stamp on the white space. Love the long journaling. Love. Just love.
Jacquie says
Really, this couldn’t be more perfect, especially the black and white title page. So looking forward to the digital PL kit so I can get started on 2015.
And the Zielske inspiration continues….
Amanda M. says
I don’t do weekly layouts. I prefer the monthly approach. I love this!
diana says
Like the idea of subtle white space enhancements. So off to finish my Jan pages using your smashing, but simple format. Thanks for the inspiration.
Carol says
If I could quote Marshawn Lynch: Awesomer! Love the design.
Molly says
Love it! I ordered my 2013 book through Adoramapix and it turned out so amazing! I got a little carried away tracking how many pages I’d used vs how many I had left. Most of my weeks were single pages which left me more room for multiple page weeks in the summer when we go on adventures. I was burned out though in 2014 and didn’t do an album. I still took tons of photos and made a bunch of Home Movie Slideshows. I missed my book though so last week I quickly threw together a Project Life style album but I didn’t include ANY journaling. It arrives this Friday. I’m kind of excited to see if I totally miss the journaling or not. I tend to get carried away with over-journaling and then when I look back through my books I don’t even read much of the journaling so who knows… The monthly re-cap might be a solution 🙂
Musings, Rants & Scribbles says
I love these. I’m so impressed you can write, scrapbook and run a business. I also love your son’s face in the top picture. So funny.
Abby P says
January looks great — and I love the off-the-page Hipster stamp. Nice.
Amy says
So um, yea, I LOVE it … just like everyone else said 😉 You may have inspired me to do the very same thing. Now just to actually get started. What size are you printing again? I’ve printed my December Daily albums with Adoramapix for the past five years and love, love, love them. Just haven’t had the balls to splurge on a much larger yearly album… but no time like the present!
Can’t wait for your Value Kit!!
Cathy Zielske says
12 x 12. It’s a big book though. But what the heck. I’m going to do this size for one more year at least.
Michelle t says
Great layouts. Really awesome and beautiful. Stellar pictures. Thanks for letting us know Designer Digitals is having their big sale soon. I like your PL kit too. Michelle t
Caroline says
Is Aiden wearing a t-shirt that says “A woman’s place is in the house…and the senate”? If so: holy cow! My older sister had the same t-shirt (although, different design) in the early 80’s. She also had a t-shirt that said “A woman needs a man like a fish needs a bicycle.” Both shirts were bought by my mom, in totally miss-the-mark attempt to make her less boy crazy.
If she’s not: Disregard. 😛
Cathy Zielske says
Yes she is! She LOVES that sweatshirt.
heidig says
I love the ease of doing a monthly recap rather than daily pictures for PL. 12×12 just doesn’t fit the mark for me. I’m trying your 6×8 templates and will use your PL Value Kit when it comes out. Just printing everything right now and hope to put it together once the kit is available. Thanks for the inspiration! I’ve been waiting for this post.
Cathy Zielske says
Heidi, there’s a very big part of me that doesn’t love 12 x 12 either. I mean, what I like about this presently is all the white space surrounding my images, so I think that’s what’s keeping me going. But… a 6 x 8 size is just so manageable. Are you going to get a printed book in that size? If so, where?
KerryF says
I wish I was more digital savvy as this approach really calls out to me. I might have to get my Photoshop Elements out and give it another try.
Cathy Zielske says
Kerry, I’ve got a video tutorial and free template that walk you through the basics of using templates. True, it’s not THIS PL template, but it gives you a refresher. Find it here: https://www.cathyzielske.com/2013/05/national-scrapbook-day-celebration-a-free-template-3×4-card-file-a-video-tutorial.html
Ana says
Thank you for posting that video. I have a bunch of paper supplies but it’s just too much and half the time I get overwhelmed or don’t want to deal with cleaning up afterwards. I bought PhotoShop Elements 11 but have never used it and didn’t know how to create beautiful clean pages like yours. I am going to try this tutorial. Thanks Cathy!
Linda says
Cathy, love your style and willing to give it a try this year. Buying your 12X12 templates but can they be printed at 10X10? I do my PL in a 10X10 book.
Cathy Zielske says
Absolutely! But here’s what I would do. Change the template size and rename each one as whatever the name is and add _10x10. Then, go into each template and if there is any text, change the size back to 9 or 10 point with an appropriate leading (12 to 14). That way, your little journal blocks don’t get WAY too small. Make sense? 🙂
Leora says
I LOVE your monthly approach. I fee so…I could DO this! Beautiful!!!!
Natalie Turetsky says
Hi Cathy,
Definitely going with monthly as well. It’s just too much to do the weekly approach. And I absolutely love your templates. How did you create the JANUARY text box on the first page?
Cathy Zielske says
Hey Natalie, i used this set: http://www.designerdigitals.com/digital-scrapbooking/supplies/product_info.php/products_id/19049
And held down my Shift key to select the JANUARY and the Outline Box layers, then dragged them up to the tab of my template until the template comes to the foreground, the dragged down into my template so they would copy in. Then I sized them down a little bit and centered them.
Marilyn says
Cathy, I love your pages. I’ve been ordering books in the 10×10 size for several years now…I like how that size fits a bookcase or coffee table. (I reduce all your 12×12 templates down to 10×10.) For my 2014 books I used the Minimal Basic template set—that extra white margin space is so attractive.
Reducing to 10×10 gives me less space for text, but so far that has been okay. I was afraid the reduction would make photos too small so I enlarged some of the photo spaces within set parameters. This means I have four to five photos per page instead of seven to eight photos. It’s hard to judge the results by viewing books on my laptop screen, so I’m anxious to see how they turn out once printed.
Veronica Zwiers says
I am assuming, since you are from the graphic design world, that you are using photoshop for all of your pages and not the ProjectLife App.
Cathy Zielske says
Veronica, yes! But I have heard a rumor that my new PL value kit will also be available in the Project Life app.
But yes, I use PS because I want my big wide margin pages. 🙂
Natalie Turetsky says
Thanks Cathy. Got the set from Designer Digitals and followed your instruction. Thanks for your quick reply and help. I love your work and your blog and just everything you do!
Cathy Zielske says
Enjoy! And if you get stuck on something, you can always email me!
Aggie says
Hi Cathy,
I am doing a digital book like you and unlike before where I printed 8×8, I decided to do 12×12 like the one you shared. What font size would be readable for a 12×12 that would not look freakishly large? Thanks for the tip 🙂
Kimberly says
Hi Cathy,
I’m doing my 2015 digital book (yeah I’m a little behind) and I’m trying to find the 2015 title page cards that you are using here but when I click on the link, the 2015 cards are not the same. Is there any place that I can purchase the same ones that you used? Thanks
Cathy Zielske says
Hey Kimberly! It’s the same set! The set comes with layered PSD files so you can change the colors, which is what I did for my album. I added the circle date card separately. : ) Does that help?
Cathy Zielske says
And I should add, I added a few other cards in from my digital Project Life set. 🙂