Tuesday, January 12, 2010

Project 365, Weeks 1 and 2

Now that I have a camera that I'm friends with, I decided to join in the Project 365 craze that's been going around the interwebs for a whole bunch of years now. The basic idea is to take a photo every day for 365 days, and at the end of the year you'll have an interesting portrait of your life, in 365 individual moments.

Some people put these into Flickr streams, or have blogs dedicated to their 365 Projects. But because I'm a scrapbooker, of course I decided to do weekly layouts with the photos! Since I'm also becoming friends with Photoshop, I decided to make these digital pages for now; I can do everything on the computer so I can get them done no matter how much of a giant mess my scrap area is. :) I bought a few templates and as the year goes on and I learn more, I may make things fancier with other elements, or make my own templates. Or I may switch and do some physical paper layouts. Or a hybrid of both. Or I might miss a few days or a week and then just give up on the whole thing altogether. :) But for now, it's digital. I want to keep it simple-simple so that it's easy and I keep doing it! :)

I decided to do my weeks from Monday-Sunday. Every Monday I'll work on the previous weeks' layout and then post it here on Tuesdays. That's the goal, anyway! Click on either of the photos to see them BIG (and then use the back button on your browser to come back here).

I wasn't sure what I was going to do for the first week since it was only three days, plus I wanted a title page... but the template set I bought came with a fifth template that isn't listed, and that worked perfectly! I just flipped it on its side and voilĂ , title page + three days.


I actually did this page after doing the page(s) below. Since it's also the title page for the whole album I didn't want to use just blues for cold January, so I just pulled the colors from the photos. The top teal was picked from the peppermint tea wrappers, the yellow journaling spot from the other tea wrapper, the blue from the speakerphone bar on the phone, and the green from part of the Brussels sprouts. I like this so I'll probably do it more throughout the year.

On the layout for the first full week of January I decided to change all the colors to blues because it's been coooold here. I just randomly chose blues in the color picker in Photoshop; if I did it over again I would choose differently, but hey, it's done! :)


I chose a messy typewriter font because... well, because I like it, basically, and I can imagine using it throughout the entire year. It's called Traveling Typewriter and you can find it here for free.

I also decided to not try to journal about each day in its entirety and just to do a sentence or so about the photo; again, keeping it easy! That way if I get to the end of a crazy week there's no pressure to remember every detail, just something about the photo and its significance (if there is any!).

I'm having these printed at Costco because they print 12x12 for $2.99 and it's very convenient for me (again, EASY), then I'll slide them into a 12x12 album. It's also convenient because I don't have to digitally split the pages on the above 12 x 24" spread... I just upload the original jpg and then order one print cropped all the way to the left, and one print cropped all the way to the right. My first order is actually waiting for me so I'll let you know how they turn out when I pick them up!

8 comments:

claudine hellmuth said...

yay! can"t wait to see how it goes for you!

Cynthia said...

Ok I am excited about three things here. One that I have a friend that is doing the 365 pictures project. That maybe next year I will be inspired to do myself:) The second one is I have a friend doing digi too and a fabulous job at it of course:) Love it!!!!!!!!!!!! Thirdly that you Rule :) * I wish we have a costco here:( Love ya girl!!!!

paula :: plays with mud said...

I'm anxious to follow you on this ... seeing as how I couldn't even get my December Daily finished (barely started). Quitting my day job would free up so much time for me ... :)

kellie said...

This looks fantastic! Wish I had more time to play with PS. I only have PS Elements and haven't even mastered that! I also wish that I had more time to scrap, fuse, and take pictures. Basically I covet your job as a stay at home artist!! :)

Michelle said...

Cam,
This is SO COOL! Loving your new camera..it even managed to make brussel sprouts look appetizing! hehe...
This is a great project. I just got Becky Higgin's Project Life and SO excited to get started. I'm not necessarily doing 365 (too much pressure) but a hybrid of some weeks, some event layouts, some stories as they arise, etc. It is a GREAT kit, and I'm excited to not need to get out any supplies at all to get it completed. Now I REALLY don't have any excuse at all not to get it done. Of course, I'll already be weeks behind once I get off of bedrest, but I'm trying to take some photos and get the album already set up.

Katie @ makingthishome.com said...

I'm with Michelle - nice work on capturing those brussel sprouts!

This project always sounds so intriguing. I love that you are learning PS and other bits along the way. $2.99 a photo? AWESOME.
Katie

Wisconsin Girl said...

I heard about this from someone on New Year's Day and said I was going to do it...now it's Jan 19th and I haven't started. Maybe I could start in Feb...it doesn't have to be Jan 1st:) Just thought it would be bun because it's going to be a very eventful year for us. Love the look of your project and it's so fun seeing the everyday things in our lives in this format!

Sooz said...

HOLY HECK I LOVE THIS! you are rockin the digi pages. go you!