Project Life 2013: Someday We'll Find It

Since starting the Phone Photography class last week and exploring different apps for photo taking and editing, I realized my workflow to process photos went all crazypants. Now the photos are in multiple directories *and* there are different-sized duplicates, thanks to Instagram resizing photos when uploading.

I sat down to sort it out this weekend and realized I need to pick a path and stick to it.  So for now, I'm taking photos with Vignette and editing them in Pixlr Express, which allows me to save large files.  I may or may not share them on Instagram, but I'm no longer using it for images I want to print, since I haven't yet figured out how to save those photos at a good resolution for printing larger than 4x4.

After I got all the photos on my computer, I used my usual workflow within Adobe Lightroom to select and print images for this Project Life layout.  And as usual, I had more photos than would reasonably fit, but I got creative and combined some in a single pocket.  I got all but one to fit on the spread, but that meant I didn't have as much room for journaling as I would like.  (As you know, I'm long-winded.)

Click on a photo to enlarge it.

June 17-30: T's dance recital, zoo trip, park GPS roulette

Jun 17-30: Preschool picnic, swimming lesson, outings with sisters

Old & new together

Studio Calico PL kit card + Elle's Studio frame, artistically askew

I didn't use a specific kit this week.  I had one precious sheet of gorgeous rainbow polka-dot paper I was hoarding from the We R Memory Keepers 2010 line called "72 and Sunny". I used every one of those 144 square inches on this layout. Ever since I rediscovered it while moving everything out of my leaky craftroom, I've wanted to use it for Project Life, and it's perfect for summer.

The spread came together fairly quickly. After selecting and printing photos like I always do, I grabbed the special paper and pulled out a small set of coordinating stickers, cards, letters and embellishments from what I had nearby on my desk. I only chose things that were cream-based because I have a real issue mixing white and cream, which someday I'll overcome. Maybe.

The paper coordinated nicely with the cream-background hexagon journaling stickers from Jillibean Soup that I've also been hoarding since last year.  I found a couple of chevron cards in my recent Studio Calico kits and threw those into the mix.  The random die-cuts came from the mystery bowl on my desk. I love flipping through it to find perfect little surprises.  For a bit of shine, I grabbed two packs of the tiny round Heidi Grace adhesive metal accents which I keep buying at Jo-Ann when they go on sale.  I love those little things and they fit nicely with the polka dot paper.

And now the year is half-over and I'm still on track, so yay for that. I'm trying to figure out how to incorporate all the photos I'm taking for my photography class.  Maybe just a couple of extra pages for those, or I'll make a 12x12 grid and get it printed professionally for the album. I can't tell you how happy I am my photos are actually printed and physically available to look through, rather than trapped on our server, languishing in the digital abyss.

Here's a slide show of all my 2013 pages, including close-ups.  If you can't see it, click here to view my entire 2013 Project Life gallery.