Hey everyone! I'm back to share a project that has been on my mental to-do list for well over a year. About two years ago, I created a travelers notebook projects, documenting my favorite TV shows from the 2016 / 2017 season (seen HERE). And about four years ago, I created a 6x8" pocket page spread documenting a handful of my favorite TV shows from the 2014 / 2015 season (seen HERE).
Being a self-proclaimed TV junkie, I love the idea of documenting my favorite shows every year. While I loved the two previous projects that I've made, I really wanted to settle on a format that I could easily add to each year going forward. I tossed several ideas around. Did I want to keep going with the travelers notebook, knowing that I would be able to fit two years into each notebook? And just have a stack of notebooks that I could keep together in a basket or box? Or did I want to go with a 6x8" album, or maybe a 6x12" album?
After much back and forth with myself (tell me I'm not the only one that talks things out with herself?), I finally settled on a 6x8" album. I knew that I wanted to create my pages digitally, so the first thing I had to decide on was what templates I would be using. I have a pretty big collection of digital templates, in a variety of sizes. I narrowed down my search to the 6x8" kits I had, and finally settled on a few template kits from Cathy Zielske - specifically her Six By Eight kits.
Her Six By Eights No. 06 kit was what really made up my mind, since the templates had the days of the week, which fit this project perfectly. I loved the format I used when I broke down my shows by what days they were on. So my plan was to use the template with the day of the week on the left side of the spread, and then to use a second template for the right side of the spread. Between all of the Six By Eight kits that I have, there were plenty of options, depending on how many photos I needed to include.
I started this project the same way I started it the last time. By making a list of my shows, and which day they usually air. Now, this is documenting my 2017 / 2018 shows. Luckily, I made my list last year, as I knew this was a project I would get to at some point. But I will say it is SO much easier to make this list during the year, while your shows are on - as opposed to waiting and trying to go back and figure out what shows you watched (as we all know shows have a way of disappearing).
I even went into my DVR at one point, to check out my massive list of shows I record, to make sure I didn't miss any. When I did this project the last time, using the travelers notebook, I was limited in how many images/shows I could include for each day. So I had actually left out quite a few of my regular shows. This time around, I managed to include every single show that was on my regular "must see tv" schedule.
On a few of the collages, I actually combined a few spaces in the templates to fit my photo needs. Like on the right page of my Tuesday spread. It had 12 squares, but I only needed 10 spaces. So I combined two squares to make a longer photo and then repeated it on another row as well.
Once I had my list in front of me, I went looking for my images. Just as I did two years ago, I found all of my images using Google photos. For the most part, I just searched the name of the show, along with "cast", "logo", or "poster". I actually still had all of the images that I had used two years ago, so I added those into my folders as well. But I made an effort to find updated images, and at some point, I realized that adding in the year (for this, I added 2017) would often give me options that actually fit the show's season better.
I downloaded several images for every show on my list, knowing that some images might be too small to use or may not be the right orientation once I started creating my collages. While I knew that the majority of my images would be squares, I also had some horizontal and vertical spots within the templates. It was easier to just download a ton of options while I was doing my search, than to have to go back and do a second search if the choices I had didn't work.
I created a folder on my computer for each day of the week. Excluding Saturday, because that's the one day of the week when I don't have any set shows on. Once I had images for every show on my list, I counted how many shows I had to work with for each day, and then picked the templates to fit the number of shows. Then I would open up my two templates for the day I wanted to work on, and start plugging images in, moving them around as needed until I liked the way they were laid out.
Thursday is a BIG night for shows. I feel like it always has been. Lol. I have a TON of shows on Thursdays. Since I didn't want to leave any shows out, I decided to add two 3x8" collages as well, adding a 3x8" page protector in between the two sides of the spread.
To create these smaller collages, I used the 3x8 Everyday Layered Photo Templates kit by In A Creative Bubble. I was able to include 3 additional photos on each collage, which meant I included 6 additional shows by adding in the 3x8" insert.
The final step was to add some digital patterned papers to the leftover spaces within the templates. The larger area on the left page, under the day of the week, was meant for journaling. I could have easily used that space for an additional photo/show, but I didn't even think about that until I was done adding in all of my images. But I loved the idea of adding in a touch of patterned paper. I also had a few days where I had an empty space on the right page of the spread (like on the Friday page above), so I added some digital patterned paper there as well.
I printed all of my collages on my photo printer, trimmed them, and slipped them into a 6x8" album. And I love the end result! I'm actually going to be adding my 2016 / 2017 collages to this album as well. I had already re-printed my collages last year, as I was going to switch them into a new travelers notebook (the one that I originally used was a cheap one I got off Amazon). I realized that I could easily work them onto 6x8" pages, and fit them into this same album. Since I really want to keep these all together and add to it each year.
And I already have my list of shows written out for the 2018 / 2019 season. I'm not quite ready to start that just yet, as there are still some of my regular shows that haven't even started yet this season (why do some start so late now?), and there are new ones just coming on that I know I'm going to love as well. But having the list handy, and being able to add to it as needed, gives me a great head start for when I am ready to complete my pages for this awesome TV season ;)
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