Quick Page Conversion...

Sometimes you run into an old paper scrapbook page that is really pretty easy to convert to a Project Life page. But I daresay that this will most likely not always be the case!

Nice and simple page---but with no JOURNALING! Good thing the photo has a date printed right on there or I'd have to pull out my "okay, based on my clothes and haircut, and the size of the kid, and where the picture was taken" algorithm out to try and determine an approximate date!

Since there is just the one photo, I of course want it to be the main focus of the page. And I don't really have a whole lot to say journaling wise, but at least I want the journaling ON THE PAGE!

So I look through the PL app templates that have a large photo slot....those labeled "Big Shot", and decide on the Big Shot 14 template as the one I'm going to use.

I had my original scrapbook page scanned and stored in Google Photos, but had downloaded it to my phone's camera roll for easier access. I then pulled the whole page into the largest slot and zoomed in until I had filled the space with the photo, but didn't include any of the old cardstock matte.

I wasn't really super pleased with the quality of my scanned photo. It looked a little gray to me, so I used the built in Pic-Tap-Go tool in the PL app to fix the coloring as best I could. (This tool is only available in the iOS version of the app--sorry Android users!)

I tapped the button in the top left corner of my photo which brings up the filtering settings screen. Then I tapped the Pic-Tap-Go icon.

That opens the Pic-Tap-Go app, which is a super nifty tool to use if you like to mess around with the filters that apply to your photos. My "go to" filters that I use for just about every photo I scrapbook are the Auto Color and/or Lights On filters. 

First I scroll down the list of filters and tap on the Auto Color filter, that reloads my photo with the applied filter. There's a little slide bar that you can use to adjust the effect of the filter based on what your original was. Slide it towards the Undo side, and it lessens the effect of the filter. You just have to kind of play with it to see for yourself how it works. Once I like how that filter looks applied to my picture, I scroll down the page again and apply the Lights On filter and then use the slide bar again to get the right look I'm going for. You can always just tap the Undo or Redo buttons if I don't like what you just did, and start over.

Once I'm satisfied with the look, I tap Done in the top right corner and the filters I selected are applied to the photo in my slot in the PL app.

Now it's time to tackle the journaling card slots on the page. I like the rust and forest green colors of my original page, so I select the Explore Edition cards.

There's a perfect filler card that says "Enjoy the View" which totally fits the page, so I drop that into the top slot. Then I find a journaling card with some pine trees along the bottom, which again, totally fits my page, so I add that to the bottom card slot.

The reason these two cards look like they are just one big, long card is because I have turned off Drop Shadows in my Preferences. With Drop Shadows off, there is no "edge" to the cards because the card edges are actually white and my page background is also white. If I had Drop Shadows turned on, there would be a slight gray edge at the bottom/top of the cards and you could see where one stopped and the other started. But you have to either turn your Drop Shadows on or off BEFORE you start your page, and can't switch mid-page.

When it comes to journaling, I know there are a lot of opinions about how big or how small or how consistent from page to page you should set the font size. Here's my philosophy: I type what I have to say, in the font style I like, and then I enlarge (or reduce) the size until it all fits on the card. Period. I've never had the journaling be too small to read when the page is printed and I've journaled a mini-novel on a card before.

So I add my journaling (this is another thing you can set up in Preferences--the style of font, and size that the card starts off with--which you can totally change at will.) I don't have a whole lot to say, so it doesn't fill much space on the card:

I almost always choose to center align my journaling, so I make that change, and then I increase the font size until it fills the available space on the card.

So now that my journaling is added, the page is pretty much done, except for the decision of the background color.... 

Ok, here's your change to participate as the audience! :) Here's the page with a couple of different options. Vote for your favorite in the comments!

A: White background, with Drop Shadows turned off

B: Green background

C: White, with Drop Shadows turned on

That's it! Save and backup the page and I'm done!