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!