I started Project Life Tuesday in 2010 because:
- I needed to keep myself accountable and on top of my photos each week.
- My family loved being able to count on a weekly post with pics of the kids.
- I thought others might want to keep themselves accountable too.
It was a huge blessing and so I am excited to be kicking off my third year of this series.
Each Tuesday, I will share my spread from the previous week, as well as host a linky for readers to link up their pictures/layouts. This year, Epson is sponsoring Project Life Tuesday, and they provided me with their Epson Stylus R2880 Large Format Photo Printer (C11CA16201)
If you link up, please be sure to include the Project Life Tuesday button or a link to The Mom Creative in your post.
Notes about my album: Before showing my layouts, I want to share a few details about my album:
- I am using the colbalt kit this year.
- I stamped all my weekly 6×4 cards and have placed them in my album. It just seemed easiest to get this done all at once. I used a date stamp from a past Project Life kit. If you don't have on, Amazon has date stamps
for less than $5. You can also find them at office supply stores. - I printed my photos at home using my new Epson printer. I loved how convenient it was. I plan to print most of my pictures at home this year, especially large format images, using the Epson Stylus R2880 Large Format Photo Printer (C11CA16201)
- For a complete list of the products I am using, and more about my approach this year, click here.
Now, on to my completed pages (click on the images to make them bigger).
This week I took A LOT of photos with my new iphone and was impressed with how everything printed (all the photos on the left page were from an iphone). I used one of these free printable templates to plan out my pages, which helped make things go a lot faster and prevented me from printing photos that wouldn't get used.
I use photoshop to set up my 3×4 photos. If you don't know how to do this, check out this tutorial from Ali Edwards.
My extra life bit is the ticket from our date to see The Civil Wars. If you haven't checked out/printed my free printable list of 100 Extra Life Bits to add to your Project Life album, you should!
In addition to my regular spread, I added a 6×12 page protector
I cropped the photos to 6×12 in photoshop, then set them up on a 13×19 sheet so they would print together on my Epson Premium Luster Photo Paper 13×19
I let the ink set overnight, then trimmed the photos and embellished them with some thickers and journaling blocks. I used my Xyron Create-a-Sticker 
If you don't have an oversized printer, you could:
- Print on 8×10 photo paper, then attach cardstock to the bottom two inches of the photo
- Print on 11×14 photo paper and trim the excess
- Print on a 12×12 sheet and order from a photo website
Lastly, I changed my mind and have decided to keep all my Project Life stuff in a small organizer, instead of just going through my stash as necessary (like I thought I would). I pulled some extra supplies and put everything in the one bin (mostly extra journaling stickers from K & Company, Jenni Bowlin, 7 Gypsies and October Afternoon). I think the approach is going to work a lot better for me. I am just keeping it tucked away in a corner of our bedroom during the week.
Now it's your turn to share your Project Life posts!
That printer sounds awesome. We took lots of pictures this week as well and 90% of the pictures were on the iPhone too. What ever works! Thanks for hosting the link up!
Love the 6×12 pictures. I’ve done that a time or two and love how they jump out at you and really draw your eye to the subject. I’m loving the PL process this year – probably more than in the past three years that I’ve done it! Love your pages, too!
I love the bigger pictures of the kids, great idea. How cute they are!!
I’m very jealous of your printer – the photos look fab.
A great post with plenty of good info.
Thanks.
Hi Jessica, your pages look great and I love the large size photos. I’m gonna have to give that a try. I am currently using the Epson R2400.
I started off with my journaling cards together on our kitchen counter for easy access but thought I would just pull tidbits of embellishments as I compiled my pages. Well, this week I have decided to put all my journaling tags, stickers, and note cards in one container on my scrap desk where I am assembling and that seems to work much better time wise.
Have a great week.
I love the 6×12 pictures! Your kids are adorable! I don’t have wide-format printer but I do order large prints from Persnickety all the time and they are wonderful! I’ve never had a bad order!
Have a great week!
Jessica,
I love the 6×12 pages! they add that extra something special! Thanks for all your helpful tips! I will have to try printing my pics at home sometime!
Jenn
I super love all the pictures. My 1st week was full of pictures as it was my little girl’s bday so I really love it. For my larger pictures I print on 8 1/2 x 11. This year I’m going to see if I order larger printers its just I get inpatient waiting on them ha.
oh my joy, heart, jazz…this is love love love! you rocked it sista this week. my challenge for next week is to get one of those big photos in there 🙂
I’ve been plugging away at little photos….big photos will challenge me! oh yes they will.
okay my favorite thing besides seeing your beautiful photos, pictures and life in a week, is seeing how so many of your followers went from showing us their weekly photos to now the finished weekly pages! <3! love that!
xoxo
Thanks for sharing how you organize all of your project life supplies. I like seeing how other people do it, it inspires me to get organized. Love your pictures, especially that pirate of yours. Very cute.
I’m a newbie PLer but so far I’ve been successful and super pleased with how it’s turing out. I love your blog for inspiration! I do have a tip for those of us who have to craft from carts or bags – create a journaling card cheat sheet. I’ve written about it on my blog – http://noodlebee.blogspot.com/2012/01/pl-cheat-sheet.html Maybe it will help others work more effectively!
I love all the variety of sizes (especially that 6×12 -wow!) and how sharp your iphone photos look! Love your extra tidbit, too.
Thanks for hosting, Jessica! I’m excited to pull up some blogs with a cup of hot tea tonight!
Wonderful. I love the 6×12 pictures, they look fantastic!
LOVE your 6×12 photos…I have a regular printer not a large-format but I’m contemplating trying one of the idea for doing this anyhow. They look fantastic. Thanks once again for giving us all a place to share our layouts with each other 🙂
Really craving that printer ;} I’m also a newbie PLer and I’m really excited about starting and finishing this album this year. Thanks so much for hosting and I hope that it is all right to link up when I’m always about a week behind? I print a lot of my photos but I also order them when I have a ton and this week I had hundreds because of the holidays. Thanks for hosting, fondly, Roberta
Would just like to say this is my first visit to your blog and I have signed up as a subscriber! All this inspiration for a newbie starting project life is wonderful. Thanks and have a great weekend!
Tip – at first, I was going my pictures, picking the ones I wanted to edit in photoshop and print them. Takes a while. But I figured out a easier way using the software that came with my printer. It is fast and easy. I blogged about it today…
http://whiteconvertible.blogspot.com/2012/01/printing-project-life-2×3-pictures.html
That’s so great. Wish I had that software.