My dear friend Tamar talked me into doing Project Life this year. I didn't really understand the concept of it and I'm a very lazy reader with details, so we had a skype session a couple of months ago and Tamar talked me through all the bits that I'd need and where to start. Pop over to Tamar's Project Life blog post HERE - there's some great information if you're thinking of getting started.
I'm using my own paper and embellishments for the project, but I ordered a box of mixed page protectors and some cute journaling cards from Craft House in New Zealand. Their shipping was really fast to Australia and the prices are very reasonable.
My plan is to document a week's worth of happenings in a double page spread. I was going to begin my pages last year, but time got away from me and I just wasn't organised enough to start. So, I began January 1st and plan to do a double page per week for all of 2012.
I'm going to keep it simple - fast and simple mean that I'll stay on track with this. 52 weeks is a big commitment, but if it happens that I miss a week or two throughout the year, then so be it. I'm not going to worry too much.
That's my cover page above - I used photos from Christmas eve in 2011. I might exchange these for some 2012 photos later on, we'll see.
Below is a snapshot of the two pages that I was working on for week one. I find it useful to pop some journaling cards in there, ready to go. I basically did some of the sections mid week and then on Monday (this week) I sat down for 30 minutes and finished off the remaining sections, journaling and photos.
I'll share the finished pages later on today next Monday with my week 2 layouts.
To make my commitment easier to this project, I purchased a Canon Selphy CP800 printer. It means that I can easily and quickly print my photos at home for those weeks that I don't want to hot foot it into Big W. Tamar also put me onto this little gem, she bought one to use with Project Life too.
It's super tiny - see the photo of it sitting on my lounge arm rest - and I'm really impressed with the printing quality. You won't be able to see it in my photos below, but the photographs are SUPER clear when printed.
You just plug it into a power point, insert your camera memory card and print! There are options to print with or without a white border too, which I quite like. You can buy a separate battery pack of some description (perfect for camping!) but I believe they're almost the price of the printer, so I'm not going to bother with one.
It also prints different sized photos, which is perfect for the Project Life page protectors. You can adjust the brightness & colour tone, change the date format and also print from your computer, which is handy if you want to photoshop a photo before printing. I just print raw from my camera.
I bought my Selphy for $99, which was on special at Camera House - I think they're usually around the $175 mark. The paper and ink comes together in a box and works out at around 70 cents per print.
I think that's everything. A few people had asked me on twitter and instagram to blog about the printer, so I hope this answers your questions. If there are more, just pop them in the comments section and I'll answer :)
