Travel Scrapbooking with the Project Life App

 

Today I'd like to share my secret for handing all of my 100s of travel photos.  I love having them in scrapbooks, but my regular, paper/ribbon/sticker-style scrapbooking just won't work. It takes too long! 

 

 After a trip I like to get my pictures in an album as quickly as I can - for me to enjoy more easily and because OTHER people want to see them, too!

 

So, this year, after taking 2, rather large, international trips, I have chosen a new way to handle my travel photos - The Project Life App.

 

 

Back in March, after we came home from the UK, I downloaded the app onto my smart phone and my ipad. (It's cheap and easy to do!)   I also signed up for a Dropbox.com account so that I could store my photos online and access them while I worked on the app.

 

Uploading my pictures on dropbox.com was very easy  - I just created folders for each place we visited and  dropped in the photos. 

 



Once my photos were online, I opened the app on my iPhone or iPad and got to work.  For each layout, you begin with a large square that has been divided into smaller boxed frames.  These boxes are where you add your photos from Dropbox.   When you buy the app you get a beginner selection of frames, but you can choose to buy more for a few dollars extra.   As you can see, some layouts have only small photo boxes, some have large and some have a real mix of both.    If I had a photo I really wanted to feature, like the pictures below of the Amalfi Coast and the hills of Positano, I picked a page layout with a big photo box. 

 



 

 

Once you've added your pictures, you have a basic mix of title cards, journaling cards and filler cards you can add to your layouts. (You can buy more of these for a few $$, too!)

On the layout below, I used  journal cards to add my title  and my journaling. 

 

Once my photos are uploaded onto Dropbox, I find I can create a  1-page layout in about 10 minutes. Isn't that great??  Even though I love working with paper and glue while I do my traditional scrapbooking, it just takes too long.  When I need to make 53 layouts, like I did for my Italy scrapbook, I simply don't have time and thought of it simply stresses me out!

 



How do I get my layouts from my computer screen and into a scrapbook? I send my layout files to a company in the US called Persnickety Prints.  They will print my pages, 12x12, for about $3.00 a sheet (including shipping and the conversion to Canadian $$)  This is the cheapest I have been able to find and I think it is more than reasonable!

 



Once I place an order for prints, they arrive within 5 days.  Then I slide them into 12x12 page protectors just as would traditionally made scrapbook pages.

 



 

Sometimes I feel the need to "gussy-up" my digital scrapbook pages, so I add flowers, ribbons and raised elements, right onto my 12x12 printed pages.  For example, if you were to see the layout below in my scrapbook, you would see a large camera sticker stuck right above the title.  I also added some small jewels to the centre of the flowers in the "So Happy" box in the middle.  It adds some texture and some extra interest.

 



 

This morning I finished the 53rd layout for my Italy 2015 scrapbook.  I uploaded all my pages to Persnickety and I expect to have them in my hot little hands by the end of the  week!

So, in less than 3 weeks, I was able to put together a gigantic scrapbook made up of 100s of pictures. I've already made coffee dates with several of my friends just to share my photo book .  They can't wait to see it either!

 

(I have no affiliation with the Project Life App or beckyhiggins, com, I just really like the app and wanted to share it with you!)

 

 

Til next time,

 

XOXOX

 

Bronwyn