Blessed 2013!

Blessed New Year! May this year be all you hope it will be. May we love more, laugh more, feel more, smile more, engage more, forgive more, praise more, thank more, make more memories, record them more, notice more, live more!

Here's a verse from Isaiah 43: 18-19 that really touched and spoke to me for the new year:

I'm quite sure this verse is not saying we should forget and not record everyday memories like we scrapbookers eagerly do (smile), but in the Lord we can leave any regrets behind and confidently look forward to where He will lead us, where we will know and experience His purpose and love even more than before. What a promise! May you and yours be richly blessed as we go into 2013.

Project Life 2013 Title Page
I couldn't wait to do up the title page of my Project Life 2013! This is the digital version which I did up in photoshop, to see how everything would match up, before printing them individually as 4x6 photos at our local photo store. I don't do this all the time, but since my title page was all digital and I wan't planning to add any physical embellishment, it made sense to work on it digitally as a whole first.

Project Life Title Page 2013

These were photos from our recent trip, the boys had been very unwillingly to get into photos, so I tried to sneak up on them and take 'self-mode' photos by holding my phone up high and pointing back down at us. They were still trying to avoid it, so we ended up with these fun candid shots. Love them! They make the cut for the title page! This is how they looked like in the album.

Chalk board look is all the rage and I'm crazy about it too. I downloaded a few new chalk fonts to create the top left card. The fonts used here were: Tiza, Schalk, HVD Bodedo. I also really like chalk-hand-lettering-shaded font - all free! You can also download free chalkboard backgrounds here. And even customise any other font or swirls to look like chalk by following this tutorial here.

Scrapbooking 2012 and 2013
I'm so pleased and really enjoyed how I scrapbooked our 2012, I'm continuing into 2013 without changing a thing!

My Process
As everyone has said, there is no right or wrong way, not even a better or worse way, just whatever works for you. Thought I'll just share my process, it might give someone some ideas :)

A) I rely heavily on my iPhone app - Project 365 (there are other similar apps too, I do not use the upload to internet or export or sharing functions, preferring to download the photos to my computer, so I can't testify about the other functionalities) to help me remember to take at least a photo a day on my phone. After a while, it becomes a habit and even if I missed, I fill in with something related and on we go again. It really worked for me! These are the iPhone screenshots of 2012 photos captured in my app. Cool!

B) Then at the end of every month or mid month, I open up photoshop and 'slot' the photos into one of my Half Monthly 12x12 templates, then print them with Persnickety (when they have a sale) and physically slot them into my Project Life album 12x12 pockets. To simplify, I stick to a template of graph/note paper backgrounds and embellish with word arts plus only a few touches. This is how they look printed out

And how they look in the PL album:

Easy!

I get the best of both worlds: digital scrapping which is faster for me and allows me to capture a photo a day painlessly AND get to use my digital stash, PLUS the physical part which has the great touch and feel, gets in my hand-written journaling, and allows adding physical memorabilia.

And best of all, right now my entire 2012 album is completed!!

Here are my 365 pages for November, and 2nd half of Dec (Did not do one for first 1st half of Dec since I had covered that in the physical PL pages I did on our Hawaii trip)

(Credits: Yin template 317E, background paper from Ladybug Hugs by Chelle's Creations, word arts from Bee You by Sabee's Creative World, alpha by Karah Fredricks)

(Credits: Yin template 317B, background paper by CD mukovsky in The Lily Pad Gratitude collab, word art by Gretchen Tripp, wooden words by Gina Cabrera,alpha by Karah Fredricks )

(Credits: Yin template 317F, background paper by Weeds & Wildflowers, elements from Coming Home by JustJaimee, alpha by Karah Fredricks )

All of the above are made using my Half Monthly 12x12 templates, available in the store. If you have been using them, do leave a link in the comments!

C) At the end of each month, I'd look for any photo, story that I want to highlight or record more about, and only print those out for my physical PL along with any physical momentoes, art work, tickets, etc to be included. So sometimes I have a lot, sometimes less, it's all good and so much fun to work on.

Now this is the last page of my 2012 PL. On the top right is a story of the picture (of some korean star probably, I've no idea who that is, lol) I showed to the hairdresser when I brought the boys for a hair cut, of course it had to be adapted to suit school guidelines (no hair touching the ears, eyebrows or collar), and the resultant haircuts, respectively, haha! Also included the boys' notes/prayers from camp (folded and tucked in the pocket) and our thoughts for the much loved Les Miserables! (Used cards from Becky Higgins' Turquoise Kit)

What a year, lovingly cultivated, and lovingly recorded (to quote Becky Higgins and thanks to her inspiration)!

Alternative 365 templates
Alternatively, you might be interested in my P365 templates which I used in 2009 for an entire year to record a photo a day. The format was 2 weeks (14 days) on every double page. This is what they looked like, and the download links are on the right sidebar. That was a fabulous photobook, I must say!

Finally also completed a themed-page for Christmas. We broke tradition and had a Barbeque party for Christmas - yes, it is hot here year round :) I was inspired by those ultra-simple looking wooden christmas trees from Muji.

(credits: Background paper by Michelle Godin, elements by Chunlin Designs)

I'm sharing this template - Download it here, hope you like it for one of your Christmas layouts!

And do sign up for my Newsletter HERE. If you like this template and download it, please leave a comment, love hearing from you, thank you!

Blessed Christmas!

It is our heartfelt wish that you will know the joy and peace Jesus gives, the reason we celebrate Christmas.
Blessed Christmas to you and your family!

We were back home on the 18th, from our holiday in Hawaii! It was a grand, great, wonderful trip, we had a lot of time, to soak it in, go beach hopping, museum and historical sites visiting, shopping, surfing, hiking, snorkeling, and just hanging out as a family, 24x7, which to me, is the best and most important part of a family holiday. We are so thankful for this opportunity!

And this time, instead of bringing along a notebook for journaling, I brought along my Project Life 3x4 cards, and journaled everyday as we went along. This idea came from the Ali Edwards' Scrapbook on the Road class I took, and this was the most simplified form, just taking along PL cards! I planned to use one card per day, though somedays I spilled over to extra cards. This pic was taken midway on our holiday.

So when we got home, all I had to do was print a 4X6 photo for each day, (some days had 3 or 4 photos in one 4X6 collage), slot them all in, and I have captured the entire 17 days (including a day transiting in Korea) all in my PL! Oh how I love this concept!

Also added some captions/word art on the highlight photo for each day. Decided to make them available for download (see further down the post)

We loved the history of Hawaii, learnt so much that was so interesting and meaningful, including the culture of the people, the history of the Monarchy, Pearl Harbour and so much more. We had a chance to visit Doris Duke's Shangri La too, that was just amazing.

You might have noticed I have now started using the Cobalt edition of PL core kit, am loving the vibrant colors they match my photos so easily and well.

On this trip we were also so blest to have seen Humpback whales (while hiking to Makapu'u Point), turtles, and an octopus while snorkeling at Hanauma Bay!!

Having some space on the last page I added some memorabilia from the trip. Larger brochures and maps will be added to a large envelop insert to PL. This is something I can't do with my digital travel books! Of course I will still do up a digital photobook for the trip, but it is so wonderful to have scrapped highlights of the trip in my PL in record time :)

For those days where my journaling spilled over one 3x4 card, I stuck one card over another using scotch tape, so that the first card can be flipped up and read, and continues to the second card below.

And one more page of PL for the week just before we left for Hawaii: We spent a day hunting down light and fittings for our home renovation, as well as deciding on colors, tiles, and carpentry plans-phew! The next photos were all about the boys' time at our church youth camp. There's J sharing, and R serving in the AV team, they had a great time, and we are so glad and thankful they are growing in their own faith in the Lord!

Just two more weeks and our 2012 PL will be completed. What a year, and what a record of this year, lived!

Just found a great site at The Mommy Creative where lots of Project Life love and inspiration is shared! Linked my post up there too. So nice to share the love for recording everyday life. I find that I can't get tired of seeing everyone's pages and finding out about everyone's every lives! :)

Answers to a few great questions asked recently:

Rhadonda asked if 'double page layouts are printed out separately and put in page protectors and not in a book does it still look okay when a photo is split between two pages'?

Well, I have not done this myself, but would imagine that there will be a gap that takes getting used to, though the eye will likely draw the images together. The only examples I can find are those by Janet Philips in The Daily Digi - go here to take a look  Hers look great! I think as long as you avoid putting shots of faces in  the position that strides across the middle of a double page it should be okay. 

Toni asked: I have just printed an album in Australia with several of your double pages...However a lot of the photos and detail disappear into the spine where yours don't appear to ...My book was 12x12 72 pages so large but not extreme. Do you find that Shutterfly books open and lay flat even with a large number of pages?

No, Toni, Shutterfly books do not open and lay flat either. Have you read this 2009 post I did to share how I adjust my layouts to give extra margin in the middle of the double page before uploading to Shutterfly to print? (the link to that post is on the left side bar of my Store Blog). It is not a fool-proof method, but I have been using it consistently for my Shutterfly and even my one Blurb book, and it has helped to make sure not too much detail disappear into the spine. In that post I suggested 3/8ths of an inch of overlap though lately if my book is more than 70 pages, I have used 1/2 an inch of overlap and find that it helps a lot. 

Do let me know if you have any questions and I will try to answer in my next post, or if you would like to, you can email me at yindgs at yahoo dot com dot sg . Always glad to hear from you!

If you are interested, you can download these wordart HERE. They are in png files and should be in the right size for 4X6 PL cards. The fonts used were Aquiline, Bosshole, wm2_kamikaze. Thank you for stopping by!

This Week

This week we enjoy having Jared back home! Missed him last week when he spent 5 days at a school trip to Bali. He had a lot of fun! They did lots of stuff, visited museums, palace, temple, orphanage, a Green School, Organic chocolate factory, a padi plantation, climbed a volcano, and white-water rafted! I did up his beautiful pictures in 8.5*11 collages which I will print and insert into Project Life :)

This week I brought Ryan to make his identity card. At fifteen you get to make your official ID card and it feels kinda like you're all grown up (no need to bring your birth certificate to prove who you are anymore!) Unfortunately the photo we brought along was rejected, and thus began a hilarious time trying to get him an instant photo taken. His hair was so messy as it was a while since his last haircut, then his fringe was too long as it is not allowed to touch his eyebrows in the photo, we sprayed so much water on his hair to coax it off his eyebrows, then he had to put on a shirt (checked!) because white shirt is not okay against white background, then he had to remove his spectacles due to reflection, but he looked stoned without it and the lady handed him a pair of spectacles without 'glass'. He was quite transformed! This is the photo that made it to his ID! I think the real him is way cooler, don't you? Sigh...

This week I've been taking Jared to a Japanese language class he requested to take. Isn't he an interesting kid? It's tough going but he is sticking to it, he will complete 30 hours in two weeks! He will be the only one in our family who will speak and read some Japanese, WTG!

This week dh and I spent a lot of time considering and discussing the look and feel we want for our home - remodeling and renovation coming up! It is so much fun and so exhausting at the same time, we looked at tonnes of pictures online, even read design books and so on, we came up with ideas and words like: Nordic, intimate, informal, natural, practical, functional, not fancy nor ornamental, maybe some quirkiness or whimsy... we'll see where this goes! I pulled the below images from the internet - lovely mood board don't you agree? Only problem is our space is much, much smaller!

This week I completed the first half month of my Nov PL, way to go, if I may say so myself! :P

I printed out words included in my birthday card to dh:

  Also decided to add in screenshots of Whats App messages dh and I sent each other that were especially hilarious and fun one day, made an insert for it for some privacy!

Some of the stories from my blog posts like the one on watching videos with Jared to be considered 'cooler' gets included.

And the day spent at the Anime Festival and the latest game craze to hit our home gets top feature space!

Oh yes, Jenny you asked if I will be able to complete my 2012 PL all in one album? The answer is YES!! This is how it looks so far with October pages in! It is very important that I have only one album each year because we just don't have the space to store many albums. Of course our overseas holiday photos gets recorded separately in digital layout photobook, and I keep my PL for everyday stories and photos, perfect!

This week my Vietnam Photobook arrived! Other than once when I tried Blurb, I've used Shutterfly to print my books and have always been pleased with the results. Some pics:

In one of the recent post comments, Susan asked how to upload full 12x12 scrapbook page to Shutterfly for printing. I was at Shutterfly this morning and found that they now have a Print Your Digital Scrapbook solution. It looks a lot easier than I had been doing it, so do check it out. I'll try it the next time I have a book to print :)

In case you still want to know how I had been doing it, here are the steps:
1. Upload pictures (12x12 layouts) to Album
2. Choose and open Custom Photobook
3. Load pictures to Photobook
4. On the left, you will see on the Layouts tab, various layout templates. At the bottom of that tab, click on 'Get more layouts', choose '1 photo' option, and find the one where the one photo covers the entire page.
5. Once loaded, choose that template for every page .
Looks rather tedious to me too, haha!

This week, you can download this template to play with!

Download Here

This weekend, we will be leaving for a two week holiday and adventure! I'll post when we get back.

What has been up with you this week? Please share, and do get it recorded!

How to be a Cool Mom to Teenagers

If you have been reading this blog, you know I'm in the season of mothering teenage sons. It is a joy and a roller-coaster ride too! You are so proud of everything they are becoming and achieving, but it is hard when your advice and opinions are now viewed as nagging. lol! They have so much to talk to each other about, but so little to to talk to me about :( This year has been the pursuit of How to be a Cool Mom (or parent) to our boys, to do things with them that they might enjoy, of accepting them and appreciating their interests, of knowing and enjoying them. I may not be very cool yet, but I'm making strides, really. 

Watch their Videos

So in this spirit recently I have been asking Jared to share with me some of the videos he is constantly watching. He was happy that I thought they are quite cool! Now he will share new ones he finds with me much more readily, yay!  Let me share some with you:

This is my favorite. We thoroughly enjoyed the haunting and beautiful art of Van Gogh together. So thrilled we share the love of art!!

Then there are the Ryan Nigahiga videos that he is able to reproduce verbatim. He loves them and they are wacky and funny. But this one actually speaks volumes about our way of life. I kept saying this Nigahiga is a grounded young man!! 

And then there is this Japanese computer game called Touhou that the boys play. Jared has this as his screensaver that is very impressive indeed.

Not bad eh? Now you know what I've been up to, hehe. Definitely stories for my November PL :)

Project Life ( October)

My PL is on a great routine. I will snap pictures everyday, add them to my Project 365 iphone app daily, then at the end of the month,choose those stories that I feel like telling more, and select them to print for my physical PL. The P365 photos get captured into digital half-monthly (fortnightly) pages that I then print out and include in my PL binder. It's so rewarding and satisfying to be on-time with my scrapbooking this year! 

For October, three pages of PL fitted my photos and stories perfectly. 

We received tickets to go to the Universal Studios Singapore's Halloween event, sure it was a bit gory but good fun and great family time. Jared kept saying 'Hello!' to the mummies, monsters, etc while they try to scare us, it was hilarious!

(Credits: Project Life Cobalt kit, love the journal cards by Kate Hadfield!)

We went downtown one day with them, did fun things together and went up to this rooftop garden for amazing views. I used Paislee Press' templates to put 3 photos on these 4X6 photo before printing.

Then there was this afternoon I went with my oldest, best friend to visit the Victoria and Albert Museum Wedding Dress collection at our local museum - a girl's dream!

At the bottom right is a photo of the boys' desk missing their laptops - where have they gone? They were 'kept' with their agreement during the exam period. A very rare and lovely sight indeed. :)

I like doing up the photos on photoshop before printing, like adding a title or journaling, but I also love adding handwritten journaling - makes it more authentic and homespun :)

Digital P365 Pages

Ordered my second batch of 12X12 pages from Persnickety during their recent sale - whoopee! They look awesome! 

Here's how they look in the PL binder:

October P365 Pages

You might notice I've done up a new set of Half-Monthly (Fortnightly) layouts for my October pages! 

There was the day we were out on date night and the kids went to use our bathroom and accidentally locked us out of our bedroom. We got home at midnight and spent a night sleeping in the living room in our work clothes, haha, felt like a sleepover of sorts!

(Credits: Paper by Angie Young, Word arts from Sabee's Creative World's Be You kit, Alpha by Karah Frendricks, elements from Brittish Designs' tweet hearts kit, yin template 317E)

More everyday goodness including Dh's birthday!

(Credits: Alpha by Karah Fredricks, elements from Sausan Designs' note it kit in The Digi Files 47, flower by Mommyish for scrapflower, word art by Suddenly Artistic, word art and strip from Michelle Godin's Blustery Day in The Digi Files 47, Paper by Digital Design Essentials, using Yin Template 317G))

And here's the All New Half-Monthly Template set - available in the Store

 Inspiration

I have more inspiration to share, in the form of completed Shutterfly Albums. 

This is Carol Johnston's Egypt Album, totally awesome trip and pages, check it out!

                             
                               

             Click here to view this photo book larger

And here's Lauren Boxx's Italy trip photobook. Another dream trip, fantastic photos and layouts!

                                

                   Click here to view this photo book larger

  Of course I'm so honored and proud that my templates look so good in Carol's and Lauren's albums. (blush) Thank you so much for sharing with us, ladies!

And here's my own completed Vietnam album, I haven't received it yet, but it sure looks good on-screen, can't wait!
                                

                   Click here to view this photo book larger

Have saved the Album Cover as a template for you to download. Also included it adjusted as a 12x12 template, so you can use it as a regular layout as well. Enjoy!

Download here