NZ progress

So I can definitely see the light at the end of the tunnel for my 2011 New Zealand album. I think there are only three pages left to do - one of which I haven't started, but the other two already have the photos selected and a sketch picked out (I am currently using sketches as part of my work flow to speed things up - I'm finding it's helping).

Here's the most recent pages, including the last of our Rugby World Cup events. (Side note - we've just bought tickets for one of next year's RWC games in Cardiff - so excited already!)

Credits to follow - sorry!

The plan is to print this as a phonebook when done, and as it will be more pages than Photobox can do in their lay-flat books, I'm thinking of using Bob Books. I can't wait to have an actual physical book in my hands - definitely the disadvantage of digital is waiting until all the layouts are done to be able to flick through them in book form.

A new way to get things done faster

This post could also be titled, "I bought the Project Life App" and it's so fast! I honestly made 4 pages in under 30 minutes - and that was my first time using the app so that included time spent figuring things out.

There isn't much to figure out, having said that. There's no way to embellish using the app, and there's a limited choice of PL kits to pick cards from. But that isn't a negative thing - it meant I just got on with it and got the pages done. I imported two into PS elements afterwards, to see what happened if I tinkered with them a bit more.

Left - original pages from the app
Right - the finished pages after 5 minutes with PhotoShop Elements

All pages created with the PL iPhone app using Strawberry Edition kit

I then sat and watched the TV and created two more pages. That's a whole weeks vacation turned into 6 pages in under an hour total (including choosing photos, using the app and then using PSE). This is definitely going to help me in my mission to get things finished! Next I'm hoping to do our trip to Venice last year, for which I have bought one of the extra in-app purchases of the Summer Themed Cards. I've also created a file of all my existing freebie PL cards that I can sync to the photo album on my phone (hopefully) so I can use some of those too. 

Back in sunny Blighty; it's time for tea

I'm joining in with Abi again this month with her lovely meme. So come in and I'll put the kettle on - something we missed whilst we were away. They're not big on tea in the US!

I'm afraid you can't see our holiday photos yet - although we've put them on the computer it will take another couple of weeks before we've reduced them down to a manageable amount! I'll just have to tell you that we had a lovely time, relaxing in the Florida Keys then being crazy in Walt Disney World. I can show you a couple of my instagram pics from the trip instead.

Surprisingly, we came home from holiday to discover the remnants of summer are still here. Isn't it lovely? It was definitely a pleasant surprise, even though it meant the Big Garden Makeover has had to be delayed - they couldn't put the turf down while we were away as it will need watering.

Do you do Project Life? Are you 'caught up', or doesn't it matter to you? I am now officially behind, for the first time since I started. Somehow October has crept up on me - and I still haven't scrapped August. Never mind, to get six months into the project and only be one month behind is pretty good I think. I'll get to it soon. I'm thinking of getting the new PL app - have you got it? It look super easy - and would mean I could scrapbook at work!

While we were away I bought a new album for my India/Nepal trip. Originally I had a post bound album, but it just isn't big enough. I had to decide between one large album or two smaller ones, and decided on one large one.

Becky Higgins @ Michaels 

I wanted the album to fit with the colours of the trip, so got one that's much more patterned than I would normally choose. Now comes the less fun task of transferring all the layouts that are in the old album into this new album! How do you deal with tasks that are not so fun - any tips?

Anyway I had better go and get on with other not-so-fun tasks - we're having our nieces to stay this weekend, so I've got lots to organise! Keep your fingers crossed that the weather stays nice for us!

How not to get things done

So the reason for the lack of posts recently is simple - I haven't made any layouts. I got over tired and over stressed and couldn't find any creative spark. I sat down in front of both my craft desk and the computer alternately, but no luck.  Oh well, everything goes in fits and starts I suppose.

Meanwhile I have been creating more photos to go in the scrapbook. We're currently on holiday (hooray! Thanks for the sunshine Florida), and whilst we're away The Big Garden Makeover is taking place. So hopefully in two weeks there will be a stack of Disney pictures and a much improved garden to inspire some pages.

Meanwhile it is my husbands birthday today so I'm looking forward to a nice meal on the Key West waterfront, and I plan to listen to this episode of the Paperclipping Roundtable again to fuel my scrapbooking drive.

New Zealand 2011

We moved to New Zealand in March 2001 and lived there for almost two years. Needless to say, we took a LOT of photos! I discovered digital scrapbooking whilst we were there, and so a large proportion of the photos were already scrapped when we got back. I've got the early part of 2011 to finish, and the very end of 2012 (after we left our flat and were just travelling).

Currently I'm working on 2011, and am making good progress. I've got a system going that allows me to break each layout into sections, and that's really helping me scrap faster. Today I've been sorting the very last lot of photos from the year, and working out how many layouts I need to tell those stories.  I think the answer is eight, but it might be seven.

That (hopefully) means I'll shortly be ready to get my first book of digital layouts printed! I'm leaning towards using Bob Books at the moment - they're a bit more expensive but they do lay flat pages and large albums. The other option is PhotoBox - their lay flat pages have a maximum size of 70 pages per album, which I think means I'll need a few albums. Anyone got any experience with these?

Here's my two latest NZ layouts, both from the 2011 Rugby World Cup which was held there, and ruled our life for about 6 weeks!

heart ribbon - sweet shoppe designs
paper - sweet shoppe designs
talk bubble - persnickety prints
camera - scrappin cop
word art - becky higgins
layout - scraplifted; sorry to the currently unknown source!

 paper and ribbon - Coreenslike
RWC - puff paint patriot
"Love it" and journalling card - MissTina freebie journalling cards
layout sketch - scrapbook.com

USA - almost there!

The America albums are rapidly approaching completion. Today I've been working on the final layout, but first I want to share the first new layout I've done for these albums.

Both of the 'new' pages are designed to add context and better tell the story of why we went to America. They will go at the beginning of the first album, after the cover page, to form a sort of introduction.

Papers from Amy Tangerine Ready Set Go
Journalling pen Sharpie ultra fine
Everything else old stash

I don't think I've ever done a title this big before, but I think like it! I also used PicFrame to create the two smaller photos - I just dragged them into a 4x6 template and had it printed as one photo. I'm planning to do this with a lot of my photos, which is also new to me - previously I have only printed at 6x4. We'll see how it goes!

Redone pages

I've never redone pages before, but I had 2 pages in my USA album that I hated. I've always hated them, they just looked half hearted and not really done properly. So I decided the time had come to redo those layouts. This is what the first one looked like before:

No idea where this paper is from!

 and after:

PL cards printable freebies from misstina
Paper from Studio Calico Atlantic paper pad
Letters from a very old stash!

The second page I forgot to take a before photo (oops! still getting used to this idea of photographing layouts), so here's the after:

PL cards free printables from lemon and honey
Paper and ribbon old stash

I also finally finished the journalling on this layout - it's been waiting for the score for a decade!

All old!

I'm fairly happy with the first redone layout, and I quite like the baseball one too. I'm not so keen on the second (Gettysburg) layout, but you'll have to trust me when I say that it's a lot better than it was - the background paper was wallpaper before!

My photos have arrived from snapfish, and my mum has arrived with the visas for me to scan, so I can get on with the last two layouts in these albums soon!

Getting things finished - step two

Having made my not-so-small list of unfinished projects, I've then subdivided each project into the various parts needed to complete it. Each project has the same basic steps, although these vary slightly depending on whether the project is paper or digital and how much I've already done.

Here are the steps:
1 - choose (and print) photos
2 - sort memorabilia/ephemera
3 - get album and page protectors together/set up folders on computer if digital
4 - collate any products bought specifically for that project (more on this later)
5 - sort photos and ephemera into topics
6 - get scrapping!
7 - title page, closing page and check the album tells the whole story

And how they apply to my America albums:
1-6 basically done, apart from 2 pages which I really don't like (and never have).
7 - not really. There is no end page, it just suddenly changes to another completely unrelated topic.  There's also no story - nowhere in the album have I explained why we were in America and where my parents lived. I'm not really surprised by this, as they were my first ever scrapbooks and journalling wasn't as big then (certainly not for me anyway, how much was everyone else writing in 2003?).

So that means I need some new pages, and some new photos. I've ordered a couple of prints, and my mum is bringing some with her when she visits next week. They will allow me to add two additional pages to tell the story.

So I end up with a to do list of:

• redo 2 pages
• end page
• 2 story pages
• rearrange abums and take out other layouts

I've already done the last part, and I did the end page yesterday. I used this idea from Kelly Purkey, and made a map of the places I visited during the two years.

Washi tape from Whimsy Designs
Tags from October Afternoon Travel Girl Miscellany Pack
Dymo LetraSet printing
Rest - too old to know!

I'm quite pleased with this page, although I wish I'd made the map bigger as some of the smaller states (like the one we lived in!) were a bit fiddly. Hopefully tomorrow I'll be able to show you the two redone pages, and then the end will be clearly in sight!