The Subtle Tilt - 14 Easy Steps to Create Lively Pages

One quick and easy thing you can do to your pages that will give them a totally different look, is to do what Meagan Johnson (find her @thepracticalscrapper on Instagram) calls, "The Subtle Tilt."

"The Subtle Tilt" requires using PicTapGo, which is an in-app purchase in the Project Life app, but well worth it for this technique.

To do it, first create a page like you would normally do. It can be any template, and contain any mixture photos, journal cards, and filler cards. The only thing you'll want to be aware of, is that when we get to the "tilting" part, you'll lose a little bit of your page's edges. So if you have journaling cards or FFT writing close to the edges of your page, you'll want to move those to pockets more in the middle of page. Don't worry, I've planned an "oh no, it's cutting off" example into my demonstration pictures below! :)

Step 1: Create your page

After you have created your page, export it and save it to your camera roll. Then go into the collage section of the app, select the 12x12 square template, and bring your page back in as a photo.

Step 2: Export your page

Step 3: Save the page to your camera roll

Step 4: Open the Collage section of the PL app

Step 5: Select the 12x12 square template

Step 6: Bring your page back in as a photo

Once you have your page back in as a photo, tap the Photo Editing Options button and select Edit In PicTapGo.

Step 7: Tap the Photo Editing Options button

Step 8: Edit in PicTapGo

When PicTapGo launches, up at the top of the screen, next to the logo there is a Crop button. Tap that.

Step 9: Access the Crop tool

You'll have two tab options at the bottom of the screen. Tap on the Rotate tab.

Step 10: Access the Rotate options

You have some preset rotation options and a slider bar. I like to tap and hold on the slider bar, move left and right and watch how the whole image tilts.

Step 11: Tilt 'til your happy with it! :)

For this page, I've tilted it about 5 degrees or so--the "subtle tilt."

Ok. Notice how my bottom left corner slot (the one with the heart) is now cut off according to the yellow crop marks (yellow meaning anything outside of this line will be cut off). That's what I was saying earlier about making sure your journaling or FFT boxes aren't on the edges of your page, because depending on how much you tilt them, they'll get cut off.

Step 12: Look for anything that may be cutting off

If what's getting cut off really matters to you, you'll have to go back to your original page (before you exported it as a 12x12) and move pockets around--then re-export, bring it back in again as a 12x12 collage, and reopen PicTapGo.

For this example, that's what I did. I moved the heart square (I counted, it only took me 34 seconds to go back, move the square, re-export--the whole nine yards). Not too difficult to get something that won't be cut off!

Step 12: Readjust your page if you need to

Once your satisfied with the "subtle tilt", tap the Apply button at the top right of the screen, and then Done (again, top right).

Step 13: Finish it off in PicTapGo and return to the PL app

Now you're back in the PL app, your page is tilted within the 12x12 square, and you can now add FFT (if you choose to) to this nearly finished page.

Step 14:  Sit back and admire your creative genius!

I decided to add my son's name to the page before saving it and calling it complete!

Give the "subtle tilt" a try! I think you'll like it!

I Made My Own Filler Cards!

Happy New Year Everyone!

You guys will never guess what I did! But if you know me, it's most likely something that takes the Project Life App to a whole different level--but it isn't anything that is very hard. Even YOU can do it!

For the longest time, I've wanted a specific kind of card kit to be included in the app. I wanted a kit that could be used to document those photos I have from vacations and/or travel that I've done within the United States.

Sure, there's the Road Trip Themed Cards and the Travel Themed Cards, but those are both kind of GENERIC and boring. I want a card set that I could use to document a road trip through Utah, Colorado, Kansas and Missouri!

So..... I decided to make my own---and it really wasn't that hard, just took some time.

First things first. A little disclaimer, that what I'm about to show you requires the in-app purchases of both Free Form Text (FFT) and the ability to upload your own fonts to the PL app.

If you're still with me, here we go!

To begin with, I needed a font that contained the shapes of the different states. I did a quick Google search and found one on a site called Font Squirrel.  It's a font called StateFace. It's a dingbat font where each letter you type corresponds to a state shape. A = Alaska, a = North Carolina, B = Alabama, b = North Dakota, etc.

I downloaded that font and saved it to my Project Life app. If you haven't ever uploaded your own fonts to the PL app, here's a helpful group of steps written by Jenna from the Simply Project Life Facebook group:

Once I had that states font, I was ready to create!

I wanted the cards I created to be some sort of red, white, and blue combinations (because hello, USA!), so I started off in the Collage section of the app...

...and selected the 4x6 A template. 

Using this template allows you to pull in Project Life cards into the space. Other templates in the collage section only allow you to pull in photos. Then I pulled in a plain red card from the PL app's Americana Themed Cards, to use as my backdrop.

My vision for these cards is to have a large state shape that I can either journal on, or add FFT to (like a star or a dot to indicate different cities), to help tell the story of the scrapbook page I will create.

First I added a FFT box to the card by tapping the plus sign (+) button.

Then, I selected the StateFace font I uploaded in my list of fonts, and typed the corresponding letter for the state I wanted to appear (in this case, A for Alaska!)

I knew that I wanted the state to appear as big as possible on the card, so I tapped and dragged the "dot" button on the lower right corner of my FFT box, and enlarged the box so the state filled the card. Then I added another FFT box (tapping the same plus sign button as when I originally added my first FFT box) that I could use to write the name of the state with.

There are a lot of different things you can do at this point with that second text box. One option is to change the font color to something other than white, so your writing stands out against the white of the state shape. Since I am using a red card from the Americana kit, I have those text color options available to me, so I chose the dark blue.

Now, you have even more things to decide! How big do you want that text? Big enough to cover the state shape?

I guess if the goal is to create a title card for use on your page, this is definitely one way to go. Another idea could be to only enlarge the text a little bit, and maneuver it to a location on the card where it doesn't cover up any part of the state. That way you can add cities you traveled to, or cities that have to do with the pictures on your page.  And of course the fonts you use to do that are completely up to you!

Then it's just a matter of exporting and saving the cards to your camera roll, and then plugging them into your pages! Here's a couple of examples of how I've used these cards on my pages:

Once you get the hang of how to create you own cards, you can either make up cards as you need them, or, if you are like me, spent a couple of hours every day for a week and make yourself a whole set!

Yep, I made a USA kit of my own. It has 257 different cards (one for each state, including the District of Columbia) in a 4x6 horizontal, 4x6 vertical, 6x8 vertical, and 6x8 horizontal size with the state as big as it would go on the card, with the name of the state written out--all in varying assortments of red, white, and blue!

Then I made another set of each state in a 12x12 square size, with the state shape and the state abbreviation overlayed on top of the shape.

Now I'm set for any and all vacation/road trip scrapbook pages I'll make in the future. And if for some reason the red, white, and blue doesn't go with the color scheme on my page, I know I can easily swap them out for matching colors if needed!

Hope this has inspired you to try creating some filler cards of your own when you find that the Project Life cards just don't have what you need!