So, what's your PL process?

Discussion in 'Project Life/365/52' started by renee82, Dec 5, 2013.

  1. renee82

    renee82 renee82

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    I now this question has been asked many times, but I'm asking it again. I would love to try it this year, but I start to hyperventilate when I think of the planning of what kit to use and so on.... How do you all do it? I will be doing strictly digital since i've never even touched paper products. :)
     
  2. Nixenkind

    Nixenkind Dreaming of boiling in Brisbane.

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    Although I'm totally disciplined when it comes to actually doing the layouts (I do them EVERY Sunday night, no matter what), the process is pretty spontaneous: I sit down on Sunday night and choose the photos, trying to make the pile as small as possible, putting them in my temporary "now"-file so it's all in one place. Then, I choose the templates (I don't use the same ones every week), put them into the "now"-file and decide which photo I want to put into which spot, using Picasa to get my pictures into some kind of order (I use that like a sketch later, when I put everything together in Gimp).
    Afterwards, I'm having a look at the photos I assembled and go through my stash, choosing little things that fit the topics in the pictures (like a football for soccer training or so), copying all of them into my "now"-file.
    Then I choose the kit. That's mostly spontaneous, too: I go through my stash and often have a general idea (like last week, which was very christmassy and made me use a Xmas-kit, or the week before, where we had a storm and I wanted to choose a fitting kit).
    And then I start putting it all together, using Picasa as a sketch when I get lost on the way.
     
  3. Lisa Carroll

    Lisa Carroll Lisa Carroll

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    I start with my Week in Review Card, which I usually setup the first part of the week (create the document, change the dates, type a few things) and then I leave that file open so I can update it as the week goes on. Once I am ready to work on the week's layout, I assess what stories need to be told, how many pictures I have that week, etc...and dive in. I keep things simple, if I didn't, I don't think I could stay caught up. I rarely use kits so I just stick with the photo collages and journaling cards. Everything is done in PSE and then I print it out at home. I tried in the beginning to print them at Target, and it was a pain in the butt. Printing at home is so much easier. I also don't share my pages online, because for me, I would rather use that time for something else.
     
  4. MissKim

    MissKim ichthyophobic

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    1. I have folders in My Pictures for PL and within that, a folder for each week. At some point at the end of the week, I download photos to my computer and then very loosely pick the photos from that week that would work for PL and put them in the corresponding folder.
    2. I look at those photos and the orientation of those photos and choose templates to fit the photos. I take a lot of vertical photos on my phone, so I usually choose templates with lots of 3x4 spots so I can fit in more photos, but if I happen to have a lot of horizontal, I'll change which template I use to fit those photos.
    3. This is how I do it, but is probably not how most people do it -- I put 3-5 journal cards onto my layout. I usually arrange them in a loose triangle shape. One of these is always a card with the number of the week on it.
    4. I fill in the empty spaces with photos. If I still have empty spaces, I add more journal cards. I add word art to photo and embellish once I have all the photos in their spots.
    5. I always leave on horizontal spot blank for my week in review card, and I always do that last so I can remember to tell the stories of the pictures I've used.
    6. Just from trial and error, I've learned that I'll like the way the page looks printed better if I select all the elements on one side of the page and reduce the size to 98%. Then I select everything on the other side of the spread and reduce by 98%.
    7. Shadow as appropriate, save a .tiff, flatten, duplicate twice. One gets cropped to a 12x12 of the left side, one is a 12x12 of the right side. Those two 12x12 pages are saved as .jpg files in my "to be printed" folder. Then I resize the full 24x12 layout and each side for web and they go into a folder where I have my saved for web files... and eventually shared on my blog.

    Edited to add: I have all my Project Life supplies tagged in PSE Organizer (you could also use bridge in photoshop or ACDSee) to make it easy to find what I want among my supplies. It's a huge time saver (although it took me several weeks to get it all tagged in the beginning).
     
    Last edited: Dec 5, 2013
  5. Angie4b1g

    Angie4b1g A hundred jobs but Bob Villa ain't one

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    1. Buy all the things.
    2. Stack them in scrap room.
    3. Repeat steps 1&2.
     
  6. Karen

    Karen Wiggle it, just a little bit!

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    LOL Angie. I love you. :)
     
  7. tkradtke

    tkradtke Professional Brainstormer

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    My process is a mess, but it works for me. This year I use the same template every week and I use the same basic formula... 4x6 week card in the top left (always), generally a week in review journal card on the bottom right of the second page, photos in all of the other 4x6 slots (usually collages using Lili's templates) and the 3x4 slots are filled with photos and journal cards. After opening the templates and renaming them, I then do the most efficient thing (sarcasm)... I open every single photo I had taken during that week (big camera and iPhone) and then start closing ones I don't like, aren't good quality, duplicates, etc. until I've weeded it down to a manageable amount. I mentally group those into "events" and figure out how many slots I need to accommodate them (more weeding occurs at this point usually) and then start placing my photos on my pages. Once that's done, I look through my kits/card collections to figure out which colors/themes fit best with my photos and just fill in the blanks. I used to sit down and do this every Monday. But now that I have a laptop, I usually leave it open and dabble with it as I have time.
     
  8. heathergw

    heathergw Singing in the Neil mobile

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    HA... I totally snorted out loud Angie :giggle

    I realize that my process is hybrid specific... but here's my process... I tend to use new releases which keeps me motivated to get it done by Thursday of the following week...

    x-posting from another thread:
    Monday: edit and prep photos for print... I use Lili's photo collages if my week is photo heavy, otherwise if it's a light week I do all my print prep in Lightroom where I have templates set up for different sizes... then I send them off to Costco to print and pick them up in the evening...

    Tuesday: insert my photos in their pockets and find and print the journal cards/filler cards or background paper I want to fill the pockets and print them

    Wednesday: journal and print and cut any elements, labels or tags I want to add

    Thursday: add any finishing touchs, date stamps and other stuff... then photograph and edit the spread for uploading to galleries

    Friday: upload to galleries

    I'm not really a planner and fly by the seat of my pants but keeping to this routine helps me stay on track... if my routine gets messed up, I get "behind"... for instance we've been traveling a ton lately which is why I'm several weeks "behind"... but hoping that since we take December off from homeschooling (after this week, lol) and have our internet back, I can get caught up :)
     
  9. Lisa Carroll

    Lisa Carroll Lisa Carroll

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    LOL!
     
  10. RebeccaH

    RebeccaH Life is exciting, yes it is!

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    i don't have a set process, which i think is why i have not been able to keep up.

    BUT...

    what HAS worked for me has been to keep a documentation of our daily activity - i've used a paper journal or ohlife.com for this. then, i can go back and compile a few notes on what happened in a given week. This has let me be able to fill out my PL for a week even if i am doing the week LOOOONG after it actually happened.
     
  11. Heather Prins

    Heather Prins Heather Prins

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    -pick when the week starts for you-mine is Monday.
    -start a folder to gather photos in for the week, or you can upload them all at once, what ever works for you
    -decide when you want to carve out time to work on it. It doesn't all have to be at once, but it does require a bit of time
    -You do not have to take a pic a day or anything like that.
    -you can simplify it by having a date card in the same place each week, the same background paper, etc. each week
    -sketching out sometimes helps to decide where to journal, add filler cards & photos
    -limiting your choices makes it easier.
     
  12. Trista

    Trista I'm Working On It

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    Such great tips in here. My goal for next year is to focus and stay on track.
     
  13. javamonster

    javamonster Rwaarrr!

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    Here's what I do (er, when I sit down and do it!):

    1. Go through my images from that week. Also, I will sometimes take a snapshot of a headline or important news item, TV show, etc that my family is into that week/month, especially if I don't have many pictures.

    2. Choose the templates that best show the photos & other materials. This year I'm mostly using Amy Martin's Project Grid series. They are awesome! I'm using Lynne-Marie's build a template for another project I'm working on.

    3. In an effort to go more No-brainer, I'm trying to stay with either Nissa Fiins' monthly card & paper series and/or Just Jaimee's Story Teller monthly series. Between the two of them, each month is pretty well covered. Emily Merritt's weekly cards are great, too.

    That's pretty much it!
     
  14. pagefrocks

    pagefrocks ♥•:*¨¨*:•♥•:*¨¨*:•.♥

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    You all are inspiring me to give this a go for 2014.
     
  15. jenevang

    jenevang Rocking a two-piece under my scrubs

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    Love. This. Thread. I realize that I need a process if I'm gonna succeed in this project. The "get to it when I can" method has not worked well for me... 5 years running, LOL (started w/ P365 in 2009).

    2014 is my year! Right? Right! :)
     
  16. RebeccaH

    RebeccaH Life is exciting, yes it is!

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    :giggle jen, sounds like you and i have the same method - 'get to it when i can' hasn't worked out so well for me the past 3 years either.
     
  17. bderby

    bderby No, I will not tell you what "merde" means!

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    I don't know that I have a specific process, but having certain things be the same every week gives me a jumping off point and it has given my book a relatively cohesive look.

    I use Amy Martin's Project Grids (almost exclusively the first pack) with a Kraft Paper from Valorie Wibbens and Emily Merritt's Big Numbered Cards and her Week in Review cards. At the beginning of the year, I simply saved the two templates that I use the most often with my b/g paper already on it as well as the little white outline (Jessica Sprague freebie) for all of the photo spots.

    I am not great at staying current, but what has helped me the most is to make myself sit down on Monday or Tuesday evening and in the Notes app on my computer, write my little week in review recap, so when I get to that week, I can just copy and paste--and I actually remember what happened that week.

    I edit in LR and so when I am looking through my photos, I sort according to Metadata, so that I can see what days I have pictures and then go through and choose what I want to use. Sometimes, it is a ton of pictures and I am using Lili's collage templates and have very few journaling cards. Sometimes, it is fewer pictures and I have more filler/decoration. I think what has worked the best for me recently, is to put all of my photos in the spreads and then see how many spaces I have left and what colors and coming out naturally and find a set of journaling cards that kind of matches. I love when I can 'pretty it up' with embellishments and stamps, etc, but what I love most is that I am getting our year documented.

    I do everything digitally and then print 12x12 and slide into a 3 ring binder. Then, as the boys bring home papers or make cards or draw pictures that I want to keep, I just slide them into 8.5x11 sheet protectors and add them to our 2013 book. I have LOVED using this system.
     
  18. renee82

    renee82 renee82

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    Wow! My head is spinning... Still not sure that I have the drive for this but I may give it a whirl. Thank you everyone for your input! :) I'm not sure where to start but hopefully I'll figure it out!
     
  19. jenevang

    jenevang Rocking a two-piece under my scrubs

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    LOVE this idea. I usually print pages individually, but was considering printing PL as a book. I like this idea so much better b/c I can print as I go, and add extra stuff along the way! Simple, yet genius, LOL.

    Also, I think I recognize your font. I always say that my kids are going to think "Ali's Hand" is my actual handwriting as much as I use it in my journaling.
     
  20. bderby

    bderby No, I will not tell you what "merde" means!

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    You can do it, Renee!! You will love it--I promise! :)
     

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