PL 2019

[abm234]

So the new year is 2 days away and I still don't have my PL 2019 plan! Help! Tell me what you're doing and what templates you are using!

 

[lingovise]

i haven't done PL in nearly 3 years... i miss it. i've had hit or miss track record of completing years, because i've always gotten too bogged down with the "scrapping" end of things and end up quickly getting dreadfully behind.

i think my plan for 2019 is going to be incredibly simple - with minimal to zero decoration, and am considering forgoing shadows as well. i want to focus on my photos and their stories, relying solely on patterned paper for accents.

i have several friends who've actually used the Project Life App on their phones for the past year or two and really love it. i might have to look into that as well, to mix things up.

these are the templates i'm considering:

 

[ChristineF]

I am working as hard as I can to finish off 2018, before starting fresh on 2019.
I know I'll stick to square corners vs rounded corners. I used to do rounded, but changed last year and much prefer square. I use the EZ Albums by Erica Zane as I have for the last 4 years (all years I've donePL), she has both rounded and square corners.
I tried to do simple and less embellishment this year and it looks cleaner and I love it, but sometimes I just need a little bit of pretty clusters or bling.
As of 2019 I'm going back to journaling as I go, this year I've journaled in my journal, but not on my pages and I now have a whole year to fill in.

 

[kristalund]

Oh man! I don't have a plan either. I don't think I have a complete PL album since 2014! But I do journal daily and take lots of photos. I just need a 4month vacation to complete some years!

 

[karlimarie]

I don't have a solid plan... but I think I want to COMMIT this year!!

I'm really good about taking photos, so I'll just keep on keeping on. I've been terrible about journaling though. So now, I have a little notebook that I'm going to use to write my weekly notes down in, and I have time on Sunday nights carved out to write/scrap.

Not sure what templates I'm going to use. I do have a good collection of Cindy's templates and Liz's as well, but I might just make my own. Not sure how I'm going to handle kits.

 

[Sherri Tierney]

I have never once stuck to doing PL for more than a couple of months. This year I actually stuck with doing the One Second a Day videos all year. However, making myself to remember to take a video each day meant I didn't end up taking very many photos. When I was doing my calendar (thanks Cindy and KCB for the awesome calendars each year) for my MIL I realized there were months I had no photos from (but plenty of videos). I need to be more diligent this year about taking photos.

 

[abm234]

Thanks ladies! Stick with it! My family treasures my PL albums (6 years completed) more than my "traditional" pages. Therefore, I hate to give up now. It's hard to keep it fresh and interesting after 6 years though!

 

[rdjrneace]

I can't seem to get into the PL -- I do plan on taking more photos though this year.

 

[MamaBee]

I have been doing PL for like 10 years, I'm so ingrained to take photos daily or almost daily... but I haven't finished an album since like 2013. So, I'll keep going - eventually I will finish albums, right? I just don't know what style I want - I'm getting sick of the "PL" look...

 

[rdjrneace]

My problem is with being an empty nester and working full time I just don't seem to have much to take photos of.

I am planning on trying to take more photos in 2019 so maybe this will be a year to take more photos.

 

[rach3975]

I hate to give up now. It's hard to keep it fresh and interesting after 6 years though!

That's where I am right now, too. I've got 5 years completed (2013-17). I love this project and don't want to give up. Early on it took me so long to finish a year that I I started running behind. I'm faster now and can finish a year in a year, maybe less. I should have finished 2017 over the summer and started on 2018. But I haven't had the motivation to work on PL much for the last 6 months or so; it took me until December to get the last few 2017 pages done. I spent some time last week organizing all of my 2018 photos by week, so I'm ready to go now. I wish I could have a week with no family/work/house responsibilities so I could get a bunch done quickly and not feel so overwhelmed!

As for an actual plan, I'm still working on it. Here's what I'm thinking so far. To make PL fast, I tend to do it on the PL App (often with SSD cards) and then pull the pages into PS to add a few embellishments. For 2018 I may try to use more decorative/filler cards and fewer photos so that I can skip adding elements. I'll go back to using them for 2019, once I'm not so far behind. I've been doing square corners for a while, so I'm going to go back to rounded for 2018 to change things up a bit. Not sure which I'll use for 2019, but probably square again. (I like the idea of rounded, but inevitably I get frustrated when I lose some of the cards' design/photo details/journaling room.) I'm going to keep using my own black and white weekly cards and all white backgrounds for both years. Good luck with your project, everyone!

 

[lingovise]

i've decided to embrace a clean look of no shadows or elements in an effort to keep things incredibly simple!! i've started several years in the past, but always fall behind trying to "scrap" everything and then never end up with a complete year. which is so frustrating. i'm really hoping this style will propel me forward!!

i've chosen these beauties from Janet Phillips. i love how all the hard work of design and placement is done for you and can solely focus on photos and journaling.
i'm stoked to already have 1/2 my spread for week one done!!

 

[craftytam]

I absolutely love doing clustery pages, but usually only get 1-3 photos on those pages. So, I want my facing page to have more photos and journaling and (slightly) less clusters.
One of my scrapping goals has been to create a pocket page to go with my clustery pages for events that have several photos. I haven't done it yet, but this year, I'm going to start.
I don't want to go completely simple (although I love the templates that Loni chose) because I don't think it would match well with my (very) elaborate, clustery page.
I'm thinking something like this:

 

[kendallt]

I have never once stuck to doing PL for more than a couple of months. This year I actually stuck with doing the One Second a Day videos all year. However, making myself to remember to take a video each day meant I didn't end up taking very many photos. When I was doing my calendar (thanks Cindy and KCB for the awesome calendars each year) for my MIL I realized there were months I had no photos from (but plenty of videos). I need to be more diligent this year about taking photos.

Sherri, have you looked into one of the apps that takes still frames from your videos and turns them into photos? I'm thinking of purchasing an app for this purpose. I just need to decide which one!

 

[craftytam]

Sherri, have you looked into one of the apps that takes still frames from your videos and turns them into photos? I'm thinking of purchasing an app for this purpose. I just need to decide which one!

My youngest did the one second a day this year. He didn't use the app, but has done his own editing, etc and put it together. It was a fantastic project for him and he's continuing it this year.

If you have a Samsung phone, you can easily get screenshots from videos.

If not, you can pause the video and take a screenshot.

On your computer, you can use VLC Media Player to get screenshots. You can also use it to view videos.

 

[lingovise]

okay... so here's another PL question...

how do you create your weekly spreads across the weeks/dates?
sunday to sunday
monday to monday
monday to sunday

???
i think i'm going with monday to sundays, because that's how i always think about our weeks

 

[kendallt]

okay... so here's another PL question...

how do you create your weekly spreads across the weeks/dates?
sunday to sunday
monday to monday
monday to sunday

???
i think i'm going with monday to sundays, because that's how i always think about our weeks

I do Monday to Sunday. To me, that just makes sense because I feel like my week starts on Monday, not Sunday regardless of what the calendar says.

 

[knittingbec]

Monday-Sunday. I like to keep the weekend together, it just seems "right" to me, haha. (I also order my day planners in Mon-Sun format)

I just finished 2018 (first time finishing a year! Never got past a month or 2 before!) and will likely use the same or at least similar template in 2019. I made my own super simple template with a 4X12 journaling "spot" and filled the rest with 3X4, then added layers so I could easily swap out 2 portrait for a landscape, 4 portrait for a big portrait, smaller journaling & extra photo/s for the larger journaling depending on photos/stories/kit for that week.

My plan for 2019 is to work on PL pages one week out of each month. In 2018, I had finished 10 pages and started 7 more between January and October. Then got crazy and did the other 35 pages (+ added papers & embellishments to the unfinished 7) between October 25 and Jan 2. I'd prefer not to do it that way again

 

[rach3975]

I also do Monday to Sunday. I don't like breaking up the weekends. Especially on weeks when we're away or have family visiting, it makes more sense to me to keep them together.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G890A using Tapatalk

 

[Nixenkind]

I just ordered my 2018 photobook for about a 100 bucks... I'm really scared. This is the first time I didn't do monthly prints but opted for one book at the end of the year- I hope it turns out well.
My plan for 2019 is basically the same as for 2018...
My templates:

I'm using the middle one in the upper row.
I have prepared masks for different spot sizes- a large card mask and a small card mask. So if I use a big picture, I use the mask for the large card and fit my photo to it... then it's the right size for a double spot. I do all the decoration ON these cards itself... so I just need to drop them in the right place, and am done.

 

[abm234]

okay... so here's another PL question...

how do you create your weekly spreads across the weeks/dates?
sunday to sunday
monday to monday
monday to sunday

???
i think i'm going with monday to sundays, because that's how i always think about our weeks

Definitely Mon-Sun.
I did Sun-Sat the first year and hated it! Breaking up the weekends made it really hard.

 

[abm234]

I struggle with the title cards. The first year I did "Week 1" and looking back at it, neither I nor my family "think" in week numbers. We want to know the dates. Most of the templates out there use "week 1" so I think that has me a little stumped. That is why I have used my old Nettio title cards for many years! They have the dates listed instead.

 

[Ponytails]

Monday to Sunday... most big events happen over the course of a weekend so I don't like to break up those pages.

 

[rach3975]

I struggle with the title cards. The first year I did "Week 1" and looking back at it, neither I nor my family "think" in week numbers. We want to know the dates. Most of the templates out there use "week 1" so I think that has me a little stumped. That is why I have used my old Nettio title cards for many years! They have the dates listed instead.

There are also calendar style cards where you circle the dates. I want both a week number and a date on my cards, so I've made my own the last few years. I'll post a picture once I'm back at my computer. Or you can use a week card and just add your dates as you go, but I prefer to have a complete set of dated cards before I start.

Sent from my SM-G965U using Tapatalk

 

[abm234]

I just made the decision today to use a calendar card with the date "highlighted"! Funny timing! I'm going to stay with the same templates I've been using for the last few years for the main templates.