A Mixture of Methods Makes for a Marvelous Memory-filled Page

If you've been reading this blog, you know that I share different methods on how to create scrapbook pages that capture specific moments in time.

Here's a page that I worked on this afternoon from an old photograph I found while moving my mom into her new house over Thanksgiving weekend. The photograph was one from the mid 70s, old, brittle, and yellowed with age. I took that photo to my father-in-law, who worked some PhotoShop magic on it to get it to shine like the day it was first developed!

Before

After

So the first thing I did was to pull the photo into template that would feature the photo prominently. I chose Big Shot 14 Template for that.

Next I used a Disney Emoji of Captain Hook's Hook in the lower journaling pocket. You can read about how I go about using Disney Emojis on my scrapbook pages HERE.

Then I exported the whole page (even with  the empty card slot). When you have empty card slots, during the exporting process, the blank spot is filled in with whichever background color you have selected for the page, which in this case, is white. I saved the page as a photo, and then brought it back into the app and placed it in the center slot of the Squared Away 16 template.

I chose a purple-pink color plain card from the Bloom Edition card set and put those plain cards in the slots surrounding the picture. Then I exported that whole page as a photo, because I wanted to create a layered edge effect on the page. You can read about that process HERE and HERE.

Once I had the purple around my page I exported that whole page and brought it back into the PL app via the orange collage section as a 12 x 12.

Collage section of the app

12x12 card slot

I  brought the photo into this 12 x 12 card slot and pinch and zoomed so that the purple border is a narrow edge all the way around.

Then, using FFT I wanted to add text to all of the white area of the page.

It took a little manual work to get the text to flow around the hook shape. I had to add extra spaces in between words, add in manual returns and realign things every time the line wrapped, but in the end, I really like how it turned out!

I had a little extra white space at the top, so I added a pirate flag emoji (just from the Apple emojis) using FFT........and DONE!

Creating Your Own Journaling and Title Cards

While there are literally thousands of different Project Life cards you can use in an infinite combination for your pages, sometimes there just isn't that "perfect" card you were envisioning for your page.

This has become a little less of a problem with the addition to the app of amazing features like Free Form Text (FFT) and the ability to upload and use your own fonts. And being able to manipulate the text on your cards with these two features has been a total game changer.

But the tip I'm going to share today is more about creating your own title or journaling cards, that feature a background photo that makes up the "edges" of the card. You'll see what I mean if you keep reading. :)

Recently I've been taking photos on my phone of cool textures. Things like a painted concrete wall, bricks on a cobblestone road, piles of leaves, that sort of thing. I wanted to use this as journaling cards on my pages, but didn't like how when I added FFT to them, depending on the font color and size, some of the letters got lost in the dark and light spaces of the background image I was putting them on.

I tried a couple of different font colors, and all of them seem to get lost within the image.
That's the thing I want to try and avoid--the getting lost part.

So, what I'd like to try and do (and I actually did and really liked how it turned out--hence this blog post!) is to put a white text box over this background photo, that I could then type on for my journaling, but still be able to see the cool texture of the photo at the same time.

Well, I don't know how to use Photoshop or any other design software, and I just have my little phone with the Project Life app on it, so I want to make due with that.

I'm going to demo making a journaling card, and then a title card.

So here's how I did it:

First, I pulled in a texture photo into a card slot in the Project Life app. For this demonstration, I'm going to use a picture of Legos from the storage bin we have at our house. And I put it in the largest card slot of the Big Shot 8 template, just so that my screenshots would be nice and big.

Then I tapped the photo and selected the text tool icon so I could add FFT to the image. (This is an add-on feature in the Project Life app, if you haven't purchased it, it's well worth the couple of bucks it costs for this versatility!)

Tap the pen icon to access the FFT ability to add text to your photos.

Once you tap the text tool icon, a small text box appears in the middle of your photo.

Now here is where I'm going to get a little creative. Instead of typing out my journaling, I want to create a "box" for my journaling to go onto. So I type a capital letter "I" using one of the default Project Life app fonts, Raleway. I choose this font because the letter "I" is just a tall, skinny rectangle shape in this font. That's key for making a box. :)

The next step is to rotate that letter "I" horizontally. Tap on the little circle button on the bottom right corner of the text box and rotate it around with your finger until the "I" is on its side. Inevitably when you rotate it, you are also going to be dragging it, making a larger font size. That's totally okay. We're going to need it plenty big! 

Once you've got the letter "I" on its side, tap the little circle button again and drag it to the right to enlarge the font size. You'll have to manually move the whole text box to the left a few times to be able to continue to drag the box even bigger.

Tap, hold and drag that dot button as big as you can within the card slot. Then move the whole text box to the left of the card slot and then tap, hold and drag the box again to continue to increase the size of the "I".

You'll get to a point where your text box is so big, you won't even be able to see the letter "I" anymore, just the little dot button to drag it even bigger. That's okay! You can always slide your finger to the right within the box to see how big the "I" is getting, and then slide it back to get the dot button again.

What you're aiming for, is to create a big enough letter "I", so that you have a nice white area over your photo that you can use to journal on. Using this method, you create white space in the middle of the card slot, with your texture photo showing along the top and bottom edges.

Once you get your white box in place, then you can journal over the top with another FFT box. On your toolbar, tap the plus (+) sign button to create an additional FFT box.

When that new FFT box appears, it will have white selected as the text color by default. So you'll have to manually change the text color to something else to be able to see it.

Now that you have a custom made journal card, add your journaling as you normally would. One thing to remember, is that when you journal using a FFT box, you have to manually put in your hard returns, or else your journaling will just go on in one continual line off the side of the card.

To create more of a "title" type card. I repeated a lot of the same steps as above, but instead of using a capital "I" for the white space, I used an equal sign (=), and even then, just the bottom half of the equal sign.

I created a FFT box and typed in the equal sign, then enlarged it until it was the size I wanted for a title card. Then I positioned the equal sign on the top portion of my card slot, so that only the bottom line of the equal sign was visible, giving me a white box to work with, with lots of the background Legos image still showing.

You might have to experiment with different fonts for your equal sign. Some are really long and skinny, and some are more short and squat. Just depends on what you like. This one is more short and squat, which I liked.

When it's all said and done, you can have a custom made journaling and/or title card that you can use to create a truly one of a kind look to your pages, and that matches your pictures better than an "official" Project Life card could.

Here's a finished page with a Perler Bead custom title and journaling card made using these steps.

Try it out and let me know what you think!

Overlays - Getting Around the Little White Lines

I've you've been creating Project Life pages in the last year or so, you've seen that some of the card kits have corresponding overlays--clear cards that go over a pocket and have either a black or white design that is meant to show over the top of a photo or a filler card.

They are super fun to use, and you can get a whole new look to your page when you use them.

But, if you try and use them over a blank color card, and combine that with the same color of a background for your page, you can see a thin white line around the edge of your pocket.

For example, I made this page today using the Big Shot 10 template....

...and added my photo in the big pocket. Then I added plain yellow cards from the new Gratitude Edition, and then added Gratitude Edition Photo Overlays over the top of them. Those confetti looking cards on the left and right, and even the "Count Your Blessings" artwork are overlays--colored and white designs placed over a plain yellow card.

Pretty nifty finished product, right? Well, it didn't start out that way. There was a little monkeying around with it first.

Here's what it actually looked like at first, after adding the overlays to the yellow cards:

(You may have to actually click on the above photo, so that it enlarges on your screen to see the little, thin white lines that are part of the overlay--all around the edge of that card slot.)

Normally this isn't an issue if you are just using an overlay over a photo or a filler card---unless, you also are using the same color background as you are for your plain cards.

It's a fairly easy fix, just takes a little extra work.
Here's how I fixed it.

First, I went into the Collage section of the app (the orange segment on the opening screen when you start the app). And I pulled up a blank card that matched the orientation of the card I wanted to use.
In this case, I chose the verticle 4x6 card option and put my plain yellow card from the Gratitude Edition in, and then added the Overlay over the top.

Then I exported that "page" and saved it to my phone camera roll. I did the same thing with the "Count Your Blessings" overlay over another blank yellow card, using the collage that had two, 3x4 card slots. I just made both card slots the same.

I exported this "page" to my camera roll as well. Then I went back to my full scrapbook page and in the large left and right pockets, I imported my collage as a photo from my camera roll. For the right-side card slot, I just rotated the confetti card so that I had a balanced look to the left card. And then I brought in the "Count Your Blessings" card as well.

At this point, all three of these cards I brought it still had that little, thin line. But since these cards were now "photos", I could slightly pinch and zoom on each of them just a teeny bit, so that they enlarged enough for the thin, white line to be cropped off. Now all three cards, with their yellow backgrounds, flowed seamlessly with the yellow background of the page.

So like I said, it takes a couple of extra steps, but can really make a visual difference to your pages, if you are going for that seamless look.

Try it out, see what you think, and let me know how it went in the comments!

Adding a little extra Disney to your pages!

There has been a lot of buzz lately with people wanting to know which kits work best with Disney trip-themed pages in the Project Life app.

Because of copyright issues, there aren't any "official" Disney themed card kits available from Becky Higgins, but there are some still-generic-but-close-enough kits that work great.

Click on these links to be taken to the Card Reference pages on Becky Higgin's website, where you can see card examples from each of these kits:

• Character Magic Edition - lots of purples, greens, reds, and oranges, perfect for mermaid, pirate, dragon, princess type pages.
• Character Magic Edition Overlays - black and white overlays that coordinate with the above kit.
• Magic Memories Themed Cards - lots of reds, yellows, greens, light blues, classic Disney castle, dole whips, balloons type cards
• Magical Cruise Edition - this one is probably the least Disney-ish (in my opinion), but is still intended for a Disney Cruise-themed page. Reds, yellows, blue and nautical themed cards.

I've used cards from these different kits for various Disney themed pages that I've made over the years, mostly the Magic Memories themed cards:

One additional thing that I've done on my PL app pages, is to incorporate emojis into my journaling or titles of my pages......with a twist.

There is a Bejeweled-like game app out there called Disney Emoji Blitz. But instead of jewels in the game, there are Disney character emojis! As you play the game, you earn different sets of not only character emojis, but other emojis as well--things like Disney food (churros, dole whips, mint juleps) ride vehicles (teacups, pirate ships, race cars), character costumes (Cinderella's glass slipper, Donald Duck's hat, mouse ear hats, Aladdin's lamp, etc.)

The thing about them is that you have to play the game to earn new sets of emoji. Finish a game task, and you'll earn 5-10 themed emojis at a time. Save coins and you can earn new character emojis. Usually about once a month there's a couple of themed challenges where you can earn a villain emoji (Ursula, Captain Hook, The Queen of Hearts, etc.)

These emojis are saved to an additional keyboard on your phone that you can access like you can emojis. But there's a catch. To use the emojis, they can't be added in with text like regular iPhone emoji's can. You have to copy and paste them as images into a text message and then send them like photos. And they can't be copied and pasted into the Project Life app directly, via a text box either.

They are so fun to use, but take a little work around to use them. So I thought I'd walk through the steps of how to use them on a Project Life page.

1. Download the Disney Emoji Blitz App on your phone or tablet and play games to earn characters and emojis.
2. Open your text messaging program and address a text message to yourself (or someone you want to send an emoji to). 
3. Switch to the Disney Emoji Blitz keyboard. I have an iPhone, so I just tap the gridded circle button like I do to get to my normal emojis, and then tap it again to access this additional keyboard.





4. You'll see all of the Disney emoji's you've earned so far in the game, listed with characters first, and as you swipe right, other themed emoji (costumes, props, animals, scenery, etc.)





5. Find the emoji you want to use on your page and tap it. (In this example I want to use a Captain Hook emoji). When you pick a character faces emojis, you'll actually get a little sub-menu of various "faces" you can choose from (mad, sad, heart eyes, sleeping, etc.).
   
   
   
   
   Tap the variation you want to use and it get's placed in the "to be texted" box. This area probably has a proper name, but I don't know what that is!
   
   
   



6. Then you'll tap the Copy button...
   
   
   
   
   ...and you'll see this message.
   
   
   


7. Then you'll tap into your text message box and get the option to Paste your emoji there.





8. Then you can send this emoji to yourself by tapping the blue send arrow.





9. Once you've sent the emoji to yourself, tap the image and then choose the Upload button.
   
   
   


10. Then you can either use the Save Image option to save the emoji to your camera roll, or the Copy to Project Life button to pull up your PL app, where you'll need to pic the pocket for the image!
    
    
    

The Copy to Project Life option is actually something I haven't seen before until I was writing this blog post! It's kind of a neat feature!!

You might get a low resolution warning when you put these emojis in your PL page pockets. Since they are meant to be used as small images, it's probably best to only use them in small pockets and not try to pinch and zoom on them too much. The pages I've printed using them haven't been overly pixelated, but if that is a concern, maybe only use them in true 2x2 pockets, like the ones in the example below!

It may seem like a lot of work, but using these little Disney enhancements on your page is kind of fun!

Quilting....On Your Phone!

So my wife has recently gotten the "quilting bug", having started to attend our local church quilting group once a week, and taking a class at the local fabric store as well. She's made some really great pieced quilts with a Valentine theme, and most recently a Halloween themed one.

So seeing her at work in her sewing room cutting and piecing together different patterned fabrics, I thought to myself, "Hmmm. I wonder what I could do with the Project Life app?"  Well let me tell you...PLENTY!

This is based on things I've seen Wendy Cardno, Meagan Johnson, and Jessica Mitchell do on their pages that look like patterned quilt squares, and combined it with what and Pam Dowell did recently with making her own striped cards on pages they shared in the Simple Project Life Facebook group, and I just kicked it up a notch.

Here's how I went about the discovery of getting a quilted look on a PL page!

First, I picked a card kit that had lots of different filler cards with patterns. For this example, I used the Doodle Edition.

I started in the Collage Section of the app, and pulled up the 6 x 8 C Template.

I chose this template because the individual pockets have more options for the ready-made cards within the Doodle kit designed for that size of pocket.

Then I pulled in four color coordinated filler card designs. All the card designs are made to color coordinate within a set, but some just go better together than others, you know? :)  I actually did this process two times, so I had two separate pages of four-card patterns equaling a total of eight different (yet coordinated) patterns.

Four-part Pattern 1

Four-part Pattern 2

Then I exported and saved these pages each as an image onto my phone's camera roll.

Then I brought each one of these images from my camera roll (as photos) back into the PL app via the Collage Section in the 12 x 12 template.

The design actually auto-centered in the 12 x 12 collage making four equal squares of patterns.

Then I exported this page as a 12 x 12 image to my phone camera roll, and repeated that process for the second four-part pattern.

The idea here, is that I would use these four-part pattern squares within my PL page templates in square slots to create a "quilt" look.

For this example, I opened up the PL app to the Page section and picked the Squared Away 16 template that had square all around a bigger square in the middle.

Then, pulled those new four-part pattern designs into the first two slots along the top row of the page as photos.

Then I alternated between the two four-part patterns and brought them into the other squares of the template, but with each new set of two, I would used the rotate option native to the PL app, and rotate each new set I added one tap's rotation (90 degrees).

So for the first two cards I just brought in. Done. The next two patterns get rotated 90 degrees, the next two 180 degrees, the next two 270 degrees. Then, there were still a set left that I just rotated individually 90 degrees and 180 degrees to make sure they weren't the same orientation as the first cards. Make sense?

So pretty far, this hasn't been too mind blowing, and maybe some of you readers had already figured this out. So this next bit it is where it gets a little into the "why didn't I think of that" territory!

For those of you with Apple devices, you know that PicTapGo is awesome for lots of filtering reasons, but there are also some very cool cropping and rotation/flipping tools in it to. Android users, I hear its coming for you within the PL app, but you can purchase the stand alone PicTapGo app in the meantime if you want to "play". :)

Tap on one of the four-part patterns in your template. Then go into the editing options and tap PicTapGo.

Tap the crop icon to the left of the PicTapGo logo on the top of your device.

Then tap the Rotate tab at the bottom right.

Use the slider along the bottom to rotate the image to 45 degrees (or the other direction to 315 degrees) to get a four triangle-pattern.

The pattern will enlarge a little bit, but that's okay.

Then tap Apply and Done. 

The rotated image is now saved to your page, giving a completely different look to the page! 

You can then go back to each set of four-part cards and manually rotate them 90, 180, or 270 degrees using the in-app rotation tool.

Once you finally add your photo to the middle, and maybe some FFT stitching (which I didn't show here) I think it gives the whole page a quilted pattern that looks awesome!

Four-part Pattern

Four-part Pattern, rotated

Like I said at the start of this blog post, there have been a lot of pages I've seen with a single square block with a single pattern in it from other PL app scrappers, but this new effect, creating your own multi-pattern pieces, builds on that (with just a few extra exporting steps) you can really make your pages shine with FOUR DIFFERENT PATTERNS!

Please try it out, and wherever you post your pages, tag me! On Instagram tag @projectlifeappdude or in the Simply Project Life FB group, just add my name!

I'm inspired by the ideas and pages that others post, and sometimes that sparks some extra creativity in me that I'll be sure to pass along as well!

Happy Scrapping!