Is that an actual layout?!

It's been ages since I shared anything other than Project Life so when an actual layout was done I felt I needed to share it.

Just the other day I sat down with my list of layouts that have not been done and decided just to torture myself I updated my list to see just how truly behind I am. Well, it wasn't pretty, like 70 layouts in the family book and that was just up to the end of 2012 and 54 for Simone's book also thru the end of 2012.  Needless to say I went thru that list with a red pen and scratched off all the "I'm pretty sure you covered that well enough in Project Life" as best I could. It's still not pretty and I know I still need to edit out more.  Staring down my super daunting list I realized I have a few options, 1) throw the list away and pretend I never made it and these events never happened or 2) do them quick and dirty style, digitally or 3) continue to edit down the unnecessary and get busy making some pages.  I have a feeling I will end up doing a combination of 2 and 3, I just don't have the heart to do number 1.

The good thing is actually making this one has helped motivate me to get some of this work done.

The layout was started at the watercolor class I took at the end of June in Berkeley. I showed some bits of this in my week 26 Project Life spread but not the finished piece.  I used my Peerless Watercolor papers and only used Myrtle Green and Olive Green for the background. Its really amazing the color variations you can get from watercolors, especially these watercolors.  The red painted parts are Scarlet Lake.  There is also a tiny bit of this gold on top of the red strip at the top. These paints are amazing and I also bought this color and wow, the pigmentation is fantastic.

Initially I loved the watercolor background up to the point of me adding the red parts.  I did another background at home and while I liked it, I liked the first more so I ended up using it and just embracing the parts I didn't like and made it work.

For the title I printed out the text on a piece of vellum and then did an offset cut and had my Cameo cut it out. It worked pretty well once I figured out my blade settings to really get a clean cut all the way through (my blade was set on 3). I added a few splatters of Heidi Swapp's Color Shine, I used Gold Lamé and Sweet Cherry and called it done.

I'll let you know how I do on the list whittling and getting somewhat caught up.  I am headed to a crop in a few weeks so my plan is to actually get some paper layouts done.

Have a great week!

How to use QR codes in your Project Life pages

One thing that I love to do in my project life pages is add little video's using QR codes. It's a fun way to tell more of a story other than just a static photo and words. I've done it quite a few times and every time I show it on Instagram I get asked how its done so here is a quick tutorial of my process. I'm sure there are tons of other ways to do it but this is what I have found to be the quickest for me.

Since I tend to shoot all my videos on my phone it makes the process that much easier to do. If I decide to use a video I took in my pages I just head to my camera roll and within minutes I have a QR code ready to go.

1. find your video on your camera roll, in the bottom left corner you'll see a little arrow button, select that.

2. It will bring up a menu, select YouTube

3. If you don't have a YouTube account, you'll need to create one. Once that's done and you've logged in you'll see this screen. Here is where you want to name your video, just so you can find it later.

As you scroll down thru the initial upload screen you'll see the area where you'll select the privacy for your video. The default for your video's privacy is always set at Public. If you have no issues with that by all means leave it alone but if your like me and don't want randoms looking at your videos then by all means change it. There are two options, Unlisted allows others to watch if they have been given the URL, Private can only be viewed by the account holder.

4. I tend to always change mine to private, again personal preference. This however will mean that the only way to view this video with a QR code reader is with the device of the account holder, meaning from my phone only. This may seem excessive but in case I ever have my album on display when I'm not there to monitor who's looking at it, they won't be able to click on my videos.

When you're done selecting your privacy you'll want to hit Publish in the upper right hand corner.

5. Once the video is uploaded you'll want to head over to YouTube and log in to your account. In the upper right hand corner you'll see your account name, using the pull down you'll want to select Video Manager.

6. There you will see a list of all of your videos you have uploaded.

7. Select the video you want and find the share button.

 

8. Click on share and you'll see the URL area populate. Right click and say copy. 

 

9. Open another window and go to this website to generate the QR code.  In the very first box select the pull down and choose URL. 

 

10. Delete everything showing in the URL slot and paste in what you copied from YouTube and then select the Generate button.

Note: I typically leave the Barcode size as Large because I like to have the largest possible one to then modify as needed in Photoshop Elements. When you select Large size barcode you will get a code that is 5 inches square, Medium generates a 3.25 inch square and Small generates one a bit smaller than 1.75 inches square.

11. Once you hit generate, over on the right hand side you will see your QR code. I then hover over the code, right click my mouse and hit "Save Picture As" and save it to my desktop.

 

12. The file type will be generated as a .png file but you can open the file and print it or drag into Photoshop Elements to create your own insert card.

 

Here is an example of one that I made most recently of my first Instagram video.

 I hope this tutorial helps, if you have any questions please let me know.

Project Life 2013 - week 26

We did it! Half way baby! This year is flying by, I really cannot believe were here already.  My volume one is now officially donzo and I really don't think I could fit another week in it.  So here is my last spread;

The left side again pulling out what I wanted to highlight the most. An awesome family movie night on the last day of preschool. A fun watercolor class in Berkeley taught by my friend Shanna Noel and a fantastic dinner after with my friend Kari. If you live in the Bay Area and love mac and cheese, you seriously need to try this place. So yummy!

On the right for my title card I used this new template designed by Catherine Davis for Studio Calico, they photos are transparent and the affect is super cool. The pictures aren't all from this past week but since its the end of volume one and the end of June I decided to pull some from the whole month to close out the book. We had our usual rain day(s) in June and we got new phones! Us girls hit the mall for a little fun, some fresh hair for me and some sun for her. My favorite show is back for the summer, yippee! Simone for some ungodly reason likes these gross things, I have no words. We've been having a heat wave and its pretty gross. On Sunday I let her play with my class kit and she had a blast painting a whole bunch of masterpieces.

I also did a really simple insert this week to hold the photos from her last day of preschool and the promotion ceremony. It needs its own page but I wanted to highlight some special ones. I slipped the program into the backside of this.

I do still need to come up with a final page so I'm trying to decide what I want to do with that. I also need to come up with something for the first page of volume two so lots to keep me busy.

Have a great rest of the week, its July! Crazy!

Studio Calico's August class, Toolbox

Earlier today Studio Calico announced their August class, Toolbox. You can read all about it here and see some sneak peaks below.

 

Here is a list of the teachers and the contributors, one in particular may look familiar.

I'm so excited to be part of this amazing group and I would love to see you in class on August 1st!  I'll be sharing more details and possibly some sneaks as we get a bit closer.