Project Life Week 16...and a quick video tutorial

Hi everyone!  I realize this is Thursday, and Project Life is supposed to be posted on a Wednesday, but with yesterday's Clique Kits blog share I rescheduled it.  I didn't think you would mind.  Anyhow, as promised here is Week 16.  I apologize for the photos, but it started raining as soon as I was going to take them.  That was some good news for us.  Also, the 4x6 photos were printed from my Canon Selphy. I'll talk more about that later.  The other photos are from Persnickity Prints.

This week, I used my June Studio Calico Kit rather than the Becky Higgins Project Life Kit.  It was a nice change up.  I liked cutting all the cards and adding some regular scrapbooking elements to the layout.

As you remember yesterday, I posted a tutorial for using PNG files.  Well, I found a way to record my screen so I made a short tutorial showing you from my screen how I did it.  So, here that is...

Don't forget, I created a group on Facebook called Scrappy Girls.  You can find our group and join, or message me and I can add you.  Enjoy your day!

Honor Society...Clique Kits Blog Share

I am so excited to join Clique Kits with their Pep Rally.  I haven't received my kits yet, they should arrive soon.  I am anxiously awaiting their arrival.  I can't wait to show you what goodies I got and the creations I make.  I just want to show you that Clique Kits offer such a great variety with their monthly kits.  As a subscriber, I was able to download their digital downloads (designed by Lacey!).  The downloads are formatted as .pngs, some are jpegs, and some are formatted for your Silhouette cutting machine.  I know not everyone has a Silhouette, but that should not stop you from being able to take advantage of the digital downloads.  The .png files can be used in Photoshop Elements, Photoshop, or Microsoft Office.  I'm going to show you that today.  First, let's start with Photoshop.  The same tools should be available in Elements.

Here is the final product.

So, I started in Photoshop by opening my photo, and the .png "love"  The "love" .png looked like this to start.

I dragged and dropped the "love" .png onto my photo.  I resized it (holding down the shift key on the Mac to keep it proportional).

I repositioned the "love" file to the bottom of my photo.  I wanted the color to be white, so I went to my paint bucket tool.

Made sure the color was white....

Then because I didn't want it totally white, I adjusted the opacity to my liking.  Next saved it and it's ready to be printed. 

Here is another one I made using this .png

I did a screen shot of this image so that's why you see the dotted lines (wanted you to see the outline of the shape).  After changing the color of the .png, I added text using the text tool to the bottom of the photo.  

Now, I will show you the pictures with .pngs from the June kit I made in Microsoft Word.  

First, create a document for the photo size you want to print.  I didn't do that for this post because I wanted to show you the background of Word.  The next thing I did was to open the .pngs I wanted to use.  You do that by going to Insert>Image>Picture from File.  After adding the .pngs, I opened the pictures.

So, this is what my document looked like...

 Next, you will need to text wrap your images.  It's the little dog icon.  You can also access it by right clicking on the photo.  I always choose "In Front of Text" that way I can drag the photo  where ever I want to.  You can then reposition the photos.

Next, I wanted to change the opacity and effect of the image.

 This would be incase you wanted to change the color.

This is how I dissolved the edges and changed transparency.

 At the bottom of the photo, I just inserted a text box to add text to the photo.  I then right clicked to bring up the formatting options and changed the opacity...In word it was the transparency.

I really hope this all made sense.  If it didn't please feel free to ask questions in the comment section.  

If you are here, make sure you have checked out all of the other blogs before:

Clique Kits

Gia

Jody

Erica

Lacey

Stephanie

Madge

Charity

Rosann

Shayne

Alisha

Danielle

Tyra

Tess

Cassandra

Mariah

Scrappy Sunday 12x12 Layout

I wrote the words with different color Copic Markers.  The rest of the supplies are from my Studio Calico kit.

Happy Sunday!!

Friday Photos...Colorado pics

Here are some pics...in no particular order of our Colorado trip.

 Our Garden when we got home.  Nothing died!!

In Wally's yard

 Our fridge when we got home.  I had to empty it of expired food.

 Wally's flowers

 Wally's yard

 Waterfalls outside of Telluride

 Wolfie's impromptu birthday celebration

 JoJo sleeping at the hospital

The squirrel we set free before we left town.

 At lunch in Ouray

At the pool

Clique Kits

I am proud to introduce Clique Kits.  As some of you remember, I was a consultant for Memory Works for many years.  When it shut it's doors this year, a few of the members and designers got together to create a unique monthly kit subscription club. The kits are top notch, filled with beautiful paper, embellishments, and custom designed journaling cards, die cuts, etc.  These designs are exclusive to Clique Kits.  Not only does Clique Kits offer kits, but they have a classes that go along with their kits.

Kits are $29.99 plus shipping for subscribers, and $34.99 plus shipping for non subscribers.  Here are some past kits.

And here is some more information about their website and kits:

*Clique Into Summer: The  summer class runs 12 weeks and has just began. All classes are archived so someone can join at anytime! It is $15 and you will receive exclusive digital diecuts and digital printables once you sign-up. You will be invited to a Facebook group, in which you can participate in discussions and make friends. You will have access to the class page on their website.

 *Subscriber Special: New Subscribers that sign up before June 28th can purchase the June kit at 50% off (while supplies last). It will ship for free if you have it shipped with their July kit or you can have it shipped right away with a shipping cost. Clique Kits accepts international subscribers. 

*Summer Sale: 35% off products in our store (excluding kit subscriptions). Code: SUMMERFLASH -- Sale ends June 30th!

*July Kit - A Midsummer Nights Dream: Sneak peeks of the July kit begin tomorrow June 20th! Full kit reveal on July 25th. Subscriptions are $29.99 plus shipping ($8.00 for US shipping, email us for international shipping rates). 

Visit their website and their blog.

Project Life Week 15...and a few lessons learned

Barring further disaster, which this year can only be called a disaster for us, I'm hoping to start posting Project Life regularly on Wednesdays again.  Here is Week 15.  As I go along on this journey of Project Life, I've learned a few things: 

*I really do like this project.  I've included a lot of things that I wouldn't put into the boy's scrapbook albums.  It reflects our family as a whole, rather than just each boy.  For example, I really never included happenings at school for me.  School is a big part of my life, so it should be in our album.

*You will get behind.  No matter how hard you try, you will get behind.  One thing is life will happen.  You will get busy.  You will get a little burnt out on the project.  I think you can see that with the last few weeks I've posted.  Not too many photos, very little journaling.  I think it's indicative of the turmoil in our life during those weeks.  When you get behind, don't beat yourself up.  Photos taken with digital cameras or phones are dated.  It's easy to go back and order prints for each week.

*Take pictures of everything.  You have a camera in your phone.  Take advantage of that.  You'll never know what will come in handy when you work on your Project Life album. You never know if some regular little thing will represent your life at that moment.

*There are no rules to Project Life.  When I started, I figured would do two page spreads for each week.  That for the most part is true.  However, due to lack of photos for some weeks, or an overabundance for others that isn't always the case.  You can start this at anytime, not just the first day of January.  Today, you could start with Week 1 of 52.  

*Mix it up..I also thought keeping the same kit would be great.  I'm going to start mixing that up as well.  Also, I'm going to start adding some embellishments to the cards to make it more "scrappy."  You can mix up the page protectors.  There are so so many options and sizes to choose from.  It adds variety to your album.  I recently purchased these 4x4 page protectors for my Instagram Photos.

*Becky Higgins isn't the only person who sells Project Life Supplies.  There are so many places to get supplies.  Simple Stories, Studio Calico, WeRMemory Keepers, etc.  Find the supplies you like and go with it.

*Join a community or look online.  There are tons of videos on youtube, and blogs dedicated to Project Life.  They are a great resource for inspiration.  I recently started a crafting group on Facebook called Scrappy Girls.  It has really helped to motivate me with my crafting.  

So there you have it.  My thoughts at a quarter of the way into the year.  Hope you all found this helpful.

Project Life Week 14

It's not the best picture.  There really isn't a lot of journaling or photos.  This was from the week that Maddie was put on homebound, bed rest.