Project Life: Filler Cards

I'm finally ready to share a few months of my 2021 Project Life album. But before I do, I thought I would do a few short blog posts sharing a bit about the three main things that go into my albums - filler cards, photos, and journaling cards.  

First up, filler cards. They're very important in my album, since they're the only additional thing I add into my album, other then the photos and journaling cards. I keep my PL albums very simple. Photos, journaling cards, and filler cards. No extra embellishing, no stickers, no chipboard - basically, no extras at all. Unless you count the random piece of washi that I will add to the bottom of a journaling card, here and there, that ends up with some blank space on it.

Back in 2018, I ended up using filler cards from the Project Life app for about 90% of my album (I started using them exclusively about 4-5 weeks into the year). It somehow just worked for me, and simplified the process. While I have a collection of older Project Life cards (from kits by Becky Higgins, when they all had rounded corners), and random cards from different manufacturers, I found that sticking with the cards that I had printed from the app was really easy to do. 

I set them up using the PL app, adding two 3x4" filler cards to a 4x6" print. And then I upload them to my photo order, and have them printed as photos, and then simply trim them in half when I get my order. I print the majority of my photos using the Freeprints app, so they are printed on a thinner photo paper than when I print photos at home. But I don't mind these being on thinner paper, and I love the matte finish on these. 

I've been using a lot of these same Project Life app cards for years. I've used them in my albums the past 3 years, and I'm still using them in this year's album. A lot of them are basic patterns, tone-on-tone patterns, and lots of black and white patterns. I have no problem using some of the same cards year after year, or even using the same card a few times within the same year.

I know not everyone would be ok with doing it that way, and once they use something once or twice, they wouldn't want to use it again. But for me, I'm totally fine with it ;)

I just added another huge batch of these filler cards to my last photo order, which you see in the photo above. They just need to be trimmed in half. A lot of these are Project Life app cards that I've already used at some point in last year's album, but I like them enough to use them again. I just look for designs/colors that I know I will use. I also save these 4x6" prints (with two 3x4" cards on each) in folders on my laptop, so it's really easy to pull out the ones I want to re-print and add them to photo orders again. 

I have also been working in digital filler cards from other designers as well - I did this a little bit in my 2020 album, and am using more of them in my 2021 album. I use the same process as I do for the app cards, printing two 3x4" cards on a 4x6" print - I just use Photoshop to do this when it comes to using digital cards from my stash on my laptop. My main go-to sources are Ali Edwards, In A Creative Bubble, and Studio Calico, with others mixed in from other manufacturers.

I'll take the time to put together a ton of these every few months. I copy all of the cards that I want to print into a folder on my laptop, so that I can work from that one folder when it comes to putting them on the 4x6" prints in Photoshop. Once I have them all ready to go, I plop everything into my “to print” folder in Dropbox, along with any actual photos I need printed, and then I simply order the entire folder of photos in the Freeprints app (I've been printing my photos monthly with them for years). Super easy.

Once my order comes, I trim them all up, sort them by color, and add them in with my current cards. For any of the cards that aren't really one specific color, I keep those all together. I do find that there are certain colors that I don't have a ton of choices for - red and green specifically. Not sure why that is, but I just don't seem to find as many cards in those colors, yet I'm always wanting them. But overall, I always make it work using the filler cards that I have printed using the Project Life app and using my large collection of digital products. 

Comments

[Debra]

Wow! I love your process...thanks for sharing it. I would have never thought to do that and I love the idea. I often use the same cards again too. I like that you have everything all prepped and ready to go, makes documenting so much easier.