Get your Craft On – Project 365

You might have heard of this little endeavour by a different name, maybe ‘Photo a Day’ or ‘Project Life’.  Essentially, you do a little journalling and include a photo for every day of the year, and there are many different ways to do this.  It could be as simple as a photo a day on Instagram, a digital hybrid project, full on scrapbooking, or using a Project Life kit by Becky Higgins.  I have done a hybrid Project 365 album for 3 years now, and my templates for 2013 are all set and ready to go!  However you choose to do it, my biggest tip is to be consistent, make sure you do this every day!  If you leave it for a week you may have trouble remembering what you did on that particular day.  That said, sometimes it can’t be helped, so you may want to jot down some notes or refer to your Facebook status to jog your memory.  If you didn’t take a photo, then Google is your new best friend!

I switched to digital scrapbooking a few years ago, and I use Photoshop every day … so it seemed like the best way for me to actually follow through on my P365 commitment was to create my daily entries using Photoshop and a gorgeous digital kit.  Here’s a bit of a look at my 2012 album …

Every year for this album I print one 6×8, one 5×7 and about 424 6×4 photos.  I created a template that I use every year, and I choose a different digital scrapbooking kit each year to use with those templates.  I take the lovely lazy week between Christmas and New Year to set up my new templates and files for the year ahead, and I can have all 53 week titles, 365 day templates, fillers and title pages done in just a few hours.  I also grab a 12×12 postbound album and add extra page protectors, and use the white cardstock inside as my base (one year I splurged on black refills and it looked awesome in my red album!)

Cost for this album depends a bit on how you shop.  I have a pile of 12×12 albums that I stockpiled when I scrapbooked regularly.  I think this one was a special at Lincraft about 8 years ago, for around $7.  A pack of 25 refills is around $11-$15, depending where you shop and if you wait for them to go on sale (watch your Spotlight catalogues!).  Having the photos printed will vary, depending how much you pay per print.  I print my photos at my local Domayne store (because I can always get a park, and often don’t have to wait more than 15 minutes for my prints!).  To really do this as cheap as possible I wait for 9c print week!  I always get a voucher in my print envelope for 2 free 6×8 prints if printing more than 24 photos … I always keep these and always use them!  I print the 2 title pages for free, and at 9c each, my 424 photos for the year costs $38.16.  Not bad!

My template is smaller than 6×4 (so I can fit a whole week on a page), so I trim down my weekly titles and daily entries, apply adhesive and stick into the album.  Until recently I used double sided tape, but that is soooooo time consuming, cutting 4 pieces for the corners, peeling off the backing … I got over it.  Now I use the $2 tape runners from KMart, and while they’re disposable, and probably not the most ecologically friendly things, they do save me a heck of a lot of time & trouble, so I do use them for my P365 album and when I am making cards in bulk.

I would love to know if anyone would be interested in an online class (including templates and full instructions about how to add digital elements, text, photos and prepare to print, please let me know.  I know we’re already a couple of days into the year, but I can have this ready to roll in a few days.  In the meantime, just jot down your days musings in a notebook and start an album file in ‘my photos’ called Project 365 2013 and pop a pic in there for each day.  All you need is Photoshop (and not even a full suite, PS Elements is very affordable and will do the job), and I can point you in the direction of some beautiful digital kits (even some for free!).  If you’re interested, just leave a comment below, or over at the Cake & Enemy FB Page.