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.
Next up, photos. In full disclosure, I copied and pasted (and then edited/added as needed) this from a blog post I did about 4 years ago). When it comes to creating layouts, my go-to method of photo printing is to print them myself on my photo printer. It's easier for me to print as needed, when it comes to layouts, since I never know what size/orientation I'll want my photos until I'm ready to create a page. Or I'll decide to use a photo collage, which means individual little photos would be of no use to me.
However, when it comes to working on my Project Life albums, I go the other route and order my photos. I believe it's been about 4 years or so since I learned of the FreePrints app, and have been using them ever since. More on that below. I use 9x12" album for my PL albums - the pocket page protectors hold 3x3", 3x4", and 4x6" photos.
I use my iPhone for 95% of my photo taking these days. I also edit my photos on my phone, using the PicTapGo app. I am pretty good about editing photos as I take them, and I'm also pretty good at deleting any photos I don't need on a daily basis.
So what I've been doing for the last several years (basically since I started back up doing PL) is ordering my photos at the end of each month. I wait till the end of the month, and then do one big photo order. This is also when I ask both my girls to send me any photos they have for the month, so I can add those into my order as well.
I had tried a few different app/sites, as far as ordering photos straight from my phone. I was most happy with the FreePrints app. You can get up to 85 prints a month for free, and all you pay is shipping. The shipping isn't super cheap (it never goes above $9.99, even if you add on more photos - which btw, are only 10 cents each and a great deal!), but it still worked out to less than I would pay for those prints if ordering from a lot of other sites. Plus, it was super easy to use and it's a great way to get those photos off your phone and printed.
You can pick them from your camera roll, or even off your Instagram account, Facebook, and/or Dropbox account. I usually use up my free 85 prints just ordering my photos from the month. But since additional photos are only 10 cents each (and the shipping doesn't increase at all after the $9.99), I like to try and add on some extra pics for other album projects I have going on.
The majority of my photos from each month are set up as 3x4" pics. I use Photoshop to combine two 3x4" photos onto a 4x6" print. I do this for ALL of my photos for the month, even if there are some I don't think I'll use. There are usually a few photos that are in landscape orientation, that can only work as 4x6" photos. But I will usually look for a few photos that can also be printed as 4x6" photos, in addition to being printed as 3x4" photos. I don't have a ton of 4x6" pockets to fill each month, but I do have a few, and I like to have options as far as the photos go.
Each month I pretty much order any photos I took that month. I even order some of the photos I take of scrapping projects, since I have been known to use them here and there. I'd rather have ALL of my photos in front of me for the month, even if it means I pull some out and toss them. I tend to include the majority of our photos in my PL album, since it's my main way of documenting life these days. If I do have photos that I don't end up using, I will either toss them (if they're just not all that important or maybe they're duplicates) or save them in case I want to use them for another project.
Once my order arrives (usually, in less than a week), I cut apart the prints with two photos on them. Back when I did PL in the weekly format, I would sort out the photos by weeks, using my phone as a guide to let me know when they were taken. Since I do a monthly format now, there's no need to sort anything out, since I order a month at a time.
All of those photos above are random photos I've taken of my desk over the last year or so when it's time to work my photos into my PL album. That's how I start. I spread out all of my photos for the month, keeping any of Sarah's and Alyssa's photos next to each other, and my photos together.
In the photo above, you can see some of the 9x12" pocket pages spread out at the top, with a few photos added into them. I pull out a few to start out with, as I know the pocket page protector designs I always use - and then I'll pull out additional ones as needed, which always depends on how many photos I have to work with. I just start slipping my photos into pockets, playing around with placement on each "spread" within the month until it's to my liking. I have a good system for where my photos go, knowing that I'll add "this many" journaling cards to each spread and "this many" filler cards.
Once I have all of my photos added in, I place all of my pages into my PL album. For me, it's always a huge win once the photos are in the album. Then I can pull out the album here and there, whenever I have time, and work on the journaling cards.
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