CAUTION....Page conversion ahead!

Ok, who's ready for another page transformation? Well, I don't think you are here reading this for your health, so let's jump right in.

Here's the old paper page. I thought it was a cute, original idea, and a nice play on words. It was fairly easy to create, just some big pieces of scrapbook paper trimmed to squares and rectangles, some rubber stamped letters, and a little magic marker action to frame the sign. Oh, and adding the picture of that cute curly-haired kid in the corner. 

But what's missing, folks? Say it with me: THE JOURNALING!  And I'm kind of wishing that my picture was the focus and not the (albeit super creative if-I-do-say-so-myself) road sign.

So, let's walk through the process of how I transformed this page. First of all, let me just say this now, so that you Android users don't have to read on if you don't want to. I used the Free Form Text feature for most of this. Plus I used another app...kind of.  I added a new keyboard to my phone. First I downloaded the UniChar app. It is an app that let's you add a new keyboard to your phone (duh). It has a LOT of different kinds of characters (money symbols from other countries, shapes, arrows, etc.) Some of the shapes sets available in the app cost an extra fee, but the app itself is free and so are a bunch on useful shapes. I haven't paid for the extras......yet. I'm trying to make due with what's free.

Once you add the app and keyboard to your phone, when you click the little grid circle button on your phone keyboard (like you do to get to the emojis), it will cycle through your added keyboards and UniChar will be one of them.

So I started off with a card pocket that I pulled the road-looking card from the Textures Themed Kit into. Then I used the FFT feature to add the road sign "pole" using an enlarged capital "I" using the Raleway font (because in that font, the "I" is just a straight line), changed it a grey color, and positioned it on the bottom of my card.

Then, I used the UniChar keyboard to add in my "sign" shapes. First I pulled in a solid diamond shape, enlarged it, positioned it on my "pole" and changed it yellow. 

Then I added the diamond outline, changed it black, and enlarged it just smaller than the yellow background I was placing it on. Now, You'll notice in the image below, that the black line is rather thick for the sign. I wanted just a thin black border on the sign, so I had to add another, slightly smaller yellow diamond on top, and enlarge it little by little (and boy was that tricky with my fat fingers and my small phone screen) so that I covered up that thick black border until it was thin. (You'll see what I mean when we get to the end and the final product image below).

Then, I added my curly-haired boy pic. I wanted that to be the focus, so I chose to use the Big Shot 14 Template.  I also then added a plain yellow card (from the Textures Themed Kit, also) into the bottom slot, and added my text. I wanted to kind of mimic the black border on my homemade road sign, so I looked through the different Overlays kits in the PL app, for ones that had a black option, and finally found one I liked in the Little Picasso Overlays kit......with one little hiccup.

The overlay that I really liked, had the text "this is my favorite weather" on the bottom of the card (see above).  But I just used another FFT trick, which I've called "the masking technique" and pulled in another capital "I", rotated it horizontally, changed it yellow to match the card, and just covered up that unwanted overlay text!

Then I used FFT to add text to my road sign (I used two different font sizes, bigger for CAUTION and smaller for the rest), then added 2001 to the bottom of my journaling card, and whamm-o! Done.

Hope you found some little tid-bits you can use in your future PL pages. Tell me what you think in the comments. Seriously, lots of lookers and readers, but hardly ever any comments!

Documenting the Stories...

So here's another two-page spread that was done about 15 years ago. It's got the nice photos, a couple of embellishments from some scrapbook store, but again (it's like it's my theme song) NO JOURNALING!

What year was this? Who are the people in the pictures, what was the occasion (other than Christmas)?

I decided that I wanted the focus of these pages to be the grandparents. This was the last Christmas they were both alive (Grandma passed in April of the following year) and I wanted to write a little bit about them on the pages.

So, like the original pages, I wanted one "grandma" and one "grandpa" page. First I pulled in the photos I wanted, chose a template that would showcase the pictures in the largest possible card slot, and went from there.

I own just about every single Christmas card kit there is, but like the plaid patterns that are available in the Comfort & Joy kit. Especially the red plaid.

I added a plaid filler card into the open space on the "grandma" page, and then used the new-in-the-last-PL-update Free Form Text feature, to add journaling to it.

I usually stick to the Amatic font in the PL app, but with the slightly "busy" plaid background, and the fact that the Amatic font is kind of skinny, it just got lost in the pattern of the card. So I opted to use a thicker font: Mouse Memoirs. It did the trick!

Now for the "grandpa" page...

I had more pictures I wanted to include on this one, so I picked a different template. Some people, when it comes to two-page spreads, like to keep the templates the same, but I let the number of pictures I want on the page dictate my template choice.

I repeated what I had done on the "grandma" page with the plaid filler card and added my "title". This time I used the FFT feature and actually added two different text boxes because I wanted the word Christmas to be bigger, and in a slightly more cursive-y font. I used the Kaushan font for that, because it was the only other thick font that (in my opinion) looked good with the other font I was using.

Finally, I added the "story" I wanted to a journaling card, and a matching card to include the date.

In all, this "analog to digital" conversion took me about 10 minutes, and most of that was messing around with fonts and arranging pictures in templates. But now I have another couple of pages to add to my growing digital collection, that all match, and more importantly TELL THE STORIES!

Combining 3 (Horrible) Pages into 1 (Much Better) Project Life App Page...

For this round of paper to PL, I scanned in three different paper scrapbook pages, all having to do with my first married apartment. And by the looks of these pages, boy did I love those Mrs. Grossman stickers!

And those cardstock triangles to accent with? What were those all about?

And this last one, apparently I wanted some "in the kitchen" photos documented...and trimmed with some decorative scissors. Gag.

So, I figured I could probably get the content of these three pages to fit within a single PL app page. So that's what I set out to do.

First I scanned the pages and saved all the individual photos from the scanned pages on Google Photos, and then downloaded them to my phone's camera roll.

Then I pulled them into my chosen template within the PL app. I made the decision to not necessarily use all the photos (I opted not to reuse the unmade bed photo, or one of the kitchen photos), and that was OK with me.

Then I searched through my PL card sets to find one that had "house" type designs. I finally found a couple that I really liked in the Currently set. So I first added a card with picture frames that I could journal in, to the open top slot.

Interestingly, this particular journaling card is only set to have a single journaling space that starts out within the larger frame, and then, as you type out your journaling, spans horizontally until it covers all the frames.

But I wanted to put a little journaling in each frame. So, I added the "Our 1st Apartment" text first, and manually put in some hard returns, to get the spacing just right.

Then, for the two smaller frames, I added additional text boxes (which is a NEW feature available as an in-app purchase in the latest PL app update--go download it if you haven't already!) using the little plus button on the toolbar (where you change fonts, colors, etc.).

SIDENOTE: It's so slick to be able to add multiple journaling areas to cards. BTW, you can add journaling now to your photos and to filler cards! Read THIS POST all about how to do that!

I positioned the new text box over the smaller frame on the card and added my "Orem, Utah" text, and repeated that process for the frame with the dates.

Then, I added another journaling card to the bottom slot and finally put the stories and information that was missing from (all three) original paper scrapbook pages.

And, now I had a complete scrapbook page, made up of elements from three paper pages that I liked a whole lot better than their originals!

Project Life App Update--It's a GOOD ONE!

You guys!  If you haven’t updated your PL app recently, GO. DO. IT.

Because besides there being a couple of new card kits available for purchase, you are now able to…….wait for it….

ADD TEXT TO PHOTOS!

(I’ll wait while you pick yourself up off the floor!)

It’s here people! One of the most requested features people for YEARS have wanted available in the PL app.

It IS an in-app purchase, though, but I promise you it's worth it.  Skip getting a Diet Coke and a donut at the 7Eleven, or that morning trip to Starbucks, and spend that money to purchase Free Form Text in the Project Life app! It's only $2.99!

 I’ve been playing with it for a week or so now and it is a total game changer!

I’ll explain below how to use it, and three things I’ve experimented with and tried out that may be helpful for you to know.

#1 – Adding text to photos!

In an empty PL app page pocket, pull in a photo like you normally do. Tap the pocket again, like you would to get the editing options, and you’ll notice a new journaling icon!

When you click that journaling symbol, you'll get a window asking if you want to purchase the feature. Do think about it, just DO IT! ;)

Once you've purchased the Free Form functionality, when you add a photo to a card slot and click that journaling icon you get a text box. Start typing your text in that box. The text box defaults to white text (when used on a photo) and pulls in your default font and font size from your PL app preferences!

You also still have the options to change the font, size, color, etc. like you do with normal journaling, and…..you can RESIZE and ROTATE the text box!  If you want the text box to be tall and skinny, and/or slightly diagonal--you can do that! Just grab the little "dot" button on the lower right corner of the text box and go to town!

There are a couple of limitations that I've found, though:

• Text does not “wrap”. If you type a lot of words, the text box just expands horizontally. You have to put in hard returns manually.
• There isn’t an integrated spell-check/auto-correct feature, so watch what you are typing.

You can even move the text box around within the photo pocket. But I’ve found on my phone (and maybe it’s my fat fingers, too) that this is a little hard to do. Sometimes the box moves when I tap and drag, but sometimes it thinks I want to move the cursor within the text box.

There is also the option to delete the whole text box altogether using the little "x" in the corner.

You can also add more than one text box within the same photo pocket! On the toolbar where you can change the font, size, and color, there’s a plus sign. (I’ve noticed that depending on the color of the pocket you are working in -teal or orange- that the little plus sign button changes to match that.)

And you know what this means, right? YOU CAN MIX AND MATCH FONTS AND SIZES! (I’m not excited or anything.)

I switched templates in this screenshot here, because I wanted a little more real estate for my on-picture journaling!

But wait, there’s more!

#2 - Adding text to filler cards!

Wait, what? MIND BLOWN!

Add a filler card to a PL page card slot, and you have the same journaling options I mentioned above.

Here’s a filler card I added three separate text boxes to:

·         “Pleasant Grove” in Amatic font, size 20, white

·         “VS” in Amatic font, size 40, black

·         “Skyridge” in Amatic font, size 20, white

#3 - Adding additional text boxes to journaling cards and title cards!

Basically every type of card within PL now has the option of adding text to it. You can use the title cards in card sets to type a title in the provided space, but then, if needed, you can add more text! I think this can come in handy when you really have a lot of journaling and want to use some of the space on that title card that is just sitting there.

When you add an additional text box to title card, the font defaults to black, like it does for journaling cards normally.

I can’t even tell you the possibilities this opens up. I’ll probably use this new feature on 70+ percent of the pages I make in the future.

Here’s a few that I’ve made while experimenting with this BEYOND AWESOME new feature:

The far left and far right middle cards are filler cards from the Wander Edition that I've added text to. The "family" card is an overlay in the new Project 12 April Overlays set.

The top left white card was just a plain "january" card from the Project 52 RAD Edition, but I added the rest of the text and fortune cookie emoji.

Same thing here with this white "march" card. Added text and emoji to it, too. I'm gonna keep doing this for my monthly dinner group pages (that's what these last two pages are from!)

The white arrow cards are filler cards from the Everyday Adventure Edition set. The one on the right I just rotated 180 degrees. Then I added the text to them.

The "grass" and "gravel" cards I added two different fonts using three different text boxes each.

Added text to the top right and top left photos on the diagonal!

Are you beginning to see where this can take your future pages? Tell me how this might just change your life in the comments!

My Name in Lights...Kinda

For the few people who follow this blog, I know it's been a while since I've posted something. but believe me, I've got a couple posts "in the pipeline" that I can't post quite yet because they deal with some products and features in the PL app that aren't available publicly yet. But you're gonna want to read those posts when they are posted for sure!

But until then, here's a link to an interview I did with craftyjulie.com.  It's kinda fun seeing your name in big bold letters on a website!  Let me know what you think about it in the comments. And feel free to like and share the article using the links on Julie's site!