Cathy Zielske's Blog

Why I wish I had done this sooner (a short essay on my personal view of the value of Project Life)

I am 47 years old and I don't remember things the way I used to.

Or at least that's what I keep telling myself.

I probably didn't remember things all that well in my 30s either. Or maybe even in my 20s.

In fact, if it weren't for the diaries I kept from ages 11–14, I probably wouldn't remember anything from those awkward tween and early teen years. And if it weren't for the journals I kept in my late teens through my early college years, same deal.

Sure, I can remember sweeping events. But it's the little things. The details. That is the stuff that is pretty much gone from the old noggin'.

A few weeks ago, Aidan and I were talking about doing a college campus tour to one of my two alma maters, the University of Washington. I was trying to recall stories of dorm life but the only one I could really remember was the night I downed an entire six pack of Olde English 800, passed out at 7 p.m. and woke up in the middle of the night on the bathroom floor. After throwing up a few times, I noticed that someone had drawn giant black bats (thank you, Billy Kincaid) all over my body with Sharpie.

Sure, that's some detail. (It's also the last time in my life I ever got quite that schnockered.) But that's what I call a sweeping event. What I don't remember was daily life as a freshman at UW. I don't remember how I made my way through campus and found my classes for the first time. I don't remember if I was ever stressed out at the work load. I simply don't remember the little things. My daily routine. What I ate for lunch. What I thought of the weather. Hell, I even had coffee with one of the guys from a band that would later become Pearl Jam, but I can't even remember what he looked like, or what we talked about, though I know that his name was Stone Gossard and I sort of remember thinking: not my type.

I don't even have many photos from that era. But such were the times in olden days, pre iPhone and Instagram. 

It's the same with my life as a newlywed.

It's the same with my life as a young mother.

I don't remember the every day aspects of those times in my life. It's all going to sweeping now. The specifics are so much harder to hold onto.

Just last week I was telling a friend, who used to scrapbook but no longer does, "I wish I had done Project Life since Aidan was born at the very least." I went on to tell her that this past year-and-a-half contains more detail of the stuff I want to remember than anything I've ever done before.

And it is so not about being some crazy Scrapbook Mom. You know, the Moms who are so busy documenting that they miss out on the actual living part of the memories they're making. I've been there and done that a few times over the years.

Project Life is really about the little stuff… the minutiae… the specifics… the glorious mundane trappings of every day that I wouldn't trade for all the L-Series lenses in the Canon arsenal.

I think many of us agree that this is the stuff we want to remember. Not the fence posts of life, but the slats that make up what contains our everyday existence.

My therapist and I have talked a lot about the facts of a human life. We are born, we have a life span, we have emotions and we eventually die. It's not overstating to point out that this span of time is utterly and completely precious.

Some of us get more of it than others.

Some of us have an easier time in the process.

But all of us can connect to the gratitude for the opportunity.

Project Life is helping me to savor this time span. It's letting me report on my life in a simple way. It doesn't stress me out. It doesn't take up all of my time.

It simply lets me acknowledge this life I'm so grateful to have.

It's just something I felt compelled to share with you today.

To learn more about Project Life, click here. 

 

Join me Saturday at Designer Digitals (and snag some free downloads throughout the day!)

On Saturday, at Noon Eastern, I'm hosting a chat at Designer Digitals on the message boards as part of our 2nd Quarter Sale hoopla. Members of our team will be hosting chats and giving away freebies all day long.

My free download will be this two-stamp set. I'll be giving it away on the thread of my chat. Just log in, and you can look for the freebie on the chat thread!

It's the inverse version of two stamps from my new Life Stamps No. 01 set.

Join me at Noon Eastern here. We'll be talking about design, type, story ideas… whatever floats your scrap boat, plus I'll be posting a challenge, and the winner will get a $10 gift certificate for the store.

See you there!

Project Life, Week Eighteen (fully digital and kind of loving it!)

OBSERVATIONS: Last week was an experiment in digital scrapbooking. No, it wasn't the first time I've done fully digital pages, in fact, as I looked through my files, I found tons of stuff that needs to be printed, but it was the first time I did a fully digital Project Life spread.

And I freaking LOVED doing it.

I found myself working on Week 18 throughout the week. Dropping in stories and photos as they happened, not just waiting until the week was over. I found myself changing my mind, moving stuff around, adding, subtracting—in short: playing and having fun with what I was doing.

Not that Project Life hasn't been fun. I adore this project. Becky Higgins is a veritable genius.

I just didn't think I'd get the same kick out of doing something fully digitally.

I was mistaken.

And get this: pretty much all of the Project Life kit stuff is available digitally. Get out!

Then, on the advice from many of you, I placed my first order with Persnickety Prints, and I'll be a monkey's uncle if it didn't turn out just fabulously. I opened the box, and my pages were right there. The color looked spot on and I was really happy with the results.

Now onto the Week 18 pages…

Here's what they look like side-by-side.

One cool story from this week: Aidan was asked by five different seniors at her school to take their photos this year. No, she doesn't consider herself a pro. Yes, she would rather grow up to be a mathmetician than a photographer, but she really did a fantastic job, in my not-so-objective opinion. 

One cool product: GeoTag Alphas. I love the look of those little geo tag pins, so I designed a set of alphas+numbers & symbols. I think they'll be fun to layer into photos and on tags. 

Shooting with a Canon 5D and a sweet L Series lens didn't suck either. Go, Aidan! 

Me and digital Project Life? I think we're going to be fast friends. 

The templates I am using are now for sale at Designer Digitals. They are very similar to the Project Life templates, but with wider margins, narrower spaces between the photos, smaller corner rounds and a softer shadow on all the layer masks. If I was going to be digi, I needed to make it work for my design aesthetic. You can place any element into the templates, but keep in mind: as you size down, the proportions do change slightly. If you prefer to have your stuff closer to being 6x4 and 3x4, Becky Higgins' digital templates will be a better choice for you as her layer masks are closer to the original sizes.

I created two sets, both feature six templates each. One of the things I think I'm going to love about the digital process is not being married to one particular page pocket. You can really mix it up however you like.

And speaking of Designer Digitals…

Now through next week, it's the quarterly sale at Designer Digitals. Save 30% on my entire collection. All collection supplies linked below are on sale now.

NEW TO DIGITAL SCRAPBOOKING? I have an intro to the basics video + free template to help you learn. Click here for more information.

SUPPLIES:

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Project Life, Week Seventeen—Dipping my toe into the digital pool?

OBSERVATIONS: It was bound to happen eventually. At least that's the rumor that's been floating around the Internet.

Earlier this week, I asked you, my blog readers, to weigh in on doing Project Life digitally. And weigh in, you did. 

And one comment from Ayesha got me thinking:

Why AM I having doubts?

It's true. I love hybrid scrapbooking. I started scrapbooking partly to tell stories, partly to play with photos and partly to make stuff with my hands.

But as I look at my giant Project Life albums (and don't get me wrong, I love the contents of them) I can't help but think: where am I going to put all of them?

Maybe being able to fit it all into one album is better (printing out my pages digitally).

Maybe making printed books at year's end is better (making photo books).

I guess my point is, I really have nothing to lose by trying a few pages out, right?

So I did. 

Oh. My. Photoshop.

I'm not sure why I never thought I would enjoy the process as much by going on full-on digital. I always operated under the guise of "Never go full digital!" 

So this week, I gave it a try and now I share it with you. Ready? OK!

I designed a template based on the classic Project Life digital design. But, I increased the outer margins, I put the photos/cards closer together, created a slightly less rounded corner and put a very soft shadow on the layer masks.

I chose to leave the background totally white (no digital cardstock) and just approach it as I would my usual Project Life pages.

And I kind of love 'em.

Part of me felt behind this week from the get go, and as I read through the comments I just thought: I'm just going to try this.

I'm really glad that I did. I'm going to send these out to an online printer (recommendations anyone? I've heard Persnickity is good for this kind of thing), and then see how they look.

So that is my story for Week Seventeen of Project Life.

Digital? Kind of cool.

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Project Life, Week Sixteen

OBSERVATIONS: I didn't get around to posting my pages last week. Work and life got in the way of printing my photos, writing my journal cards and putting it all together.

In fact, as I write this, I don't know if I'll have enough photos to document Week 17 (hopefully coming on my usual Thursday post day.) We'll have to see, as they say. I've been wondering what it would look like to just do one week per page on those weeks when I don't have enough content. I know there are people out there doing just that, and honestly, the idea appeals to me greatly. 

Another idea that appeals to me is going all digital for Project Life in 2014. As I try to figure out where albums are going to go in this house, it appeals to me even more. I don't have endless storage and the thought doing it all digitally then getting an actual printed book at year's end… that seems kind of cool. Just letting that simmer around my brain. I'd love to hear from those of you who do your Project Life in the all digital format. Tell me what you love about it.

Here are my pages for Week Sixteen:

I used one of the folded 3 x 4 cards to journal something personal, something I don't necessarily want everyone to read unless my family members are so inclined to pull it out years from now and do just that. Which is fine by me, actually. I like the idea that you can tuck something very personal into this album format. I may do more of that this year.

This past week saw, in my opinion, another monumental milestone in the development of a child: when they no longer have to shop in the boys' department. Sigh.

Speaking of Cole, he was rocking a very Kurt Cobain-inspired vintage look for his 7th grade dance last week. So grateful he let me take a few photos.

Week Sixteen also was when the Boston Marathon bombing happened. While I didn't cover it extensively, I did want to include it in my weekly recap. 

The question of covering tragedies in our albums has come up from time to time here in the comments of my blog. What do you do? Do you include them in your documentation?

Onto the week ahead.

SUPPLIES:

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Project Life, Week Fifteen

OBSERVATIONS: Other than realizing I have the wrong week written on my main weekly recap journal card, this week's Project Life is just peachy.

Another week dominated by the iPhone photo. And some of them are not great quality, like this one of Rufus Wainwright in concert. 

And yet, it's my favorite shot of the week. Taking a crappy shot and yet still making kind of a cool visual? Well, that just makes me happy. 

Here's a look at the rest of the stuff for Week Fifteen.

Yep, every shot, save for the small shot of Rufus (that came from the concert program) was taken with my phone. Dang! That little phone is the bomb. Seriously.

And now, the most boring PL card story I have done to date:

Oh, Grandma!

Week Fifteen… Week Fourteen… who's keeping track, really? Oh that's right. I am. 

And that's all I wrote for Week Fourteen Fifteen.

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Project Life, Week Fourteen

OBSERVATIONS: Another week that relied heavily on the iPhone photo. When Monday rolled a round, I seriously doubted I had taken enough photos to fill even a single page for the week. Then I realized, "Oh, you… always so dramatic!" and found plenty of shots to choose from for the spread.

Because we are in a new quarter of the year, I decided to swap out the paper I'm using for my Week in Review card. Still going with stripes, but now in gray for the next 12 weeks.

Onto this week's pages.

All but two photos came from my phone. I debated blurring out the Sullen Teen, but maybe he'll be okay with this. Or not.

No, that's not my cat. But he's sure cute, isn't he?

Doesn't the gray look nice? Maybe a little more subdued than my album is used to, but I think it'll grow on us. 

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Clean & Simple: The Workshop is still open for registration through April 17. Remember, once you sign up for any Big Picture class, you have permanent access to the classroom and materials. So, if you're not sure you can keep up, you can work through the material at your own pace. We are just launching into Week 2 today with another in-depth digital/hybrid page project. Another cool thing is that my students get to watch a new documentary by Yale film student Tory Jeffay called "Scrapbookers." It's generated quite the discussion so far.  I'm hosting a private viewing of this hour-long movie and yes, I happen to be in the movie, as does Stacy Julian as well as the founder of Creative Memories. Plus, there's a villain. And that's all I'm going to say about that. 

For more information or to register, click here.

Project Life, Week Thirteen a.k.a. Winning!

OBSERVATIONS: This morning, I was showing Cole a photo of him and his friends that I was planning to put into the Project Life album. He approved, and then said, "Have you been doing this all year?" (meaning, making this album), to which I replied an enthusiastic, "Um hello? Yes! And all 52 weeks of last year too."

And he paused, and said, "I might have to look through that album."

WINNING!

Thank you.

Onto the pages.

I'm sorry, but do you totally love the shot of Cole and two of the members of the Tickle Bros? They had just returned from thrifting, which is where the got two of the crazy colored jackets you seem them wearing. So fun and so fun that they all asked me to do a photoshoot with them. That is a tender little mercy, don't you think? Teens who want their photos taken? And boys, no less!

I'll admit it: we totally phoned in our Easter eggs this year. Sometimes, you just have to say, "Good enough!"

Yes, there's a typo in my journaling. No big whoop. 

This shot below? My favorite iPhone shot of the week.

And that is all I wrote for Week Thirteen.

SUPPLIES:

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Clean & Simple: The Workshop starts begins today! We've already got a few layouts completed and in the gallery (those overachievers!) Registration closes on April 10. Remember, once you sign up for any Big Picture class, you have permanent access to the classroom and materials. So, if you're not sure you can keep up, honestly, you can work through the material at your own pace. Another cool thing is that my students get to watch a new documentary by Yale film student Tory Jeffay called "Scrapbookers." I'm hosting a private viewing of this hour-long movie and yes, I happen to be in the movie, as does Stacy Julian as well as the founder of Creative Memories. Plus, there's a villain. And that's all I'm going to say about that. 

Plenty of time to register. I'd love to have you! To register, click here.

Project Life, Week Twelve

OBSERVATIONS: It's been a slow week here on the blog. Kids are on Spring Break. I'm trying to break in some new specs, and that means less time staring at the computer. It's good for me every once in awhile, right?

Last week's Project Life included many shots of Aidan's birthday party, a smaller scale event than in year's past, and exactly what my girl wanted to do. A dinner party and games for teens. Love that. I never did anything like that as a teen, come to think of it. I hope her parties, the ones she has planned and put on over the years, become warm and fuzzy memories for her.

I feel like I'm having trouble focusing on my shots for Project Life. Meaning, they aren't as in focus as I would like them to be. Or is that just this new prescription talking?

Here's the actual file of the clean table photo from above. I love finding ways to drop type onto a photo, and it works well with big, dark expanses like this. I also love when my scraproom/dining room table is clean. It rarely lasts. (And yes, that bit white splotch? Someone watered a plant there and forgot that the pot leaks.)

To watch a video on how to add text to photos, click here.

I'm loving—no pun intended—the Life Lists No. 02 cards—for use in my 3x4 pockets. As you know, I do a lot of adding text to my cards. To learn how I do it, watch this video.

Side note: Cole said he will never allow me to record him doing either his Creed or Eddie Vedder impression. Sigh. Those privacy-lovin' teens!

And that is all I wrote for Week Twelve.

SUPPLIES:

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Clean & Simple: The Workshop starts one week from today! I'm nervous and excited to kick off a whole new type of workshop for me. This is the first class I've ever done that has been heavily video tutorial-based and I can't wait to start connecting with students and helping them learn to use Photoshop Elements to build beautiful, well designed, hybrid layouts. Registration closes on April 10. Remember, once you sign up for any Big Picture class, you have permanent access to the classroom and materials. So, if you're not sure you can keep up, honestly, you can work through the material at your own pace. Hope to see you there!

Designer Digital's 8th birthday celebration is still going on. Save 30% on selected items throughout the store. Find my collections and select items on sale here.

Clean&Simple Q&A

Clean&Simple: The Workshop kicks off two weeks from today. This class has been a long time in the making, and I'm getting excited to get the ball rolling.

I've been fielding a lot of questions and wanted to put together a quick Q&A for anyone who'd like more information on the class.

Do I need Photoshop to take this workshop? Yes. But technically you only need Photoshop Elements. Photoshop users are welcome, but all of the instruction is offered using PSE 10.

I have Photoshop Elements 11. Will this class work for me? Yes! Just know that PSE 11 has been redesigned so the interface looks different but the functions and key processes remain more or less the same. It might take a little extra finagling, but my goal with this workshop is to really build your understanding of using digital processes to create hybrid pages, so a little extra finagling will only help you to really understand the software.

I am a digital scrapbooker. Is this class designed for me as well? Technically, no, but let me explain: we are creating hybrid pages—pages that start in a digital area but move into the printed world. However, those scrapbookers who only do digital will defintely be able to work through each weekly assignment and gain skill as they go, especially in the latter half of the workshop, where it's less template based and you are challenged to do more ground up design work. That said, this is not a purely digital scrapbooker's class.

Can you tell me more about the assignments for this class? You will have 12 assignments, some are 8.5 x 11 pages, some are 12 x 12 pages, and there's a mini album project, too. Every week we'll have a theme focus and the assignment will include the following components: overall guiding principles, design principles, journaling focuses, photography tips and production techniques. In the latter half of class, there will be a strong emphasis on typography as well, working with a host of free fonts to create beautiful type for your layouts. There is room for interpretation on some of the assignments, but some of the challenges are designed to get you thinking and creating around a predetermined theme.

I'm a complete beginner in Photoshop Elements. Will this class be too much for a newbie? If you've never cracked open the software, I would have to say possibly. That said, there are really only a handful of key processes we use in this class and once you master them, you're going to be really solid in your understanding of this program and process. One thing I plan on telling my students is to remember: Command or Control + Z is your new best friend. As with any new process, it will take time to master. Each week, there is a detailed, step-by-step handout with all of the processes typed out, in addition to our weekly video tutorials. I welcome beginners, but if you're the type of person who gets really stressed out because you don't get something the first time out, it might not be the best time for you to take the class.

I can't take your class right now but am wondering if you are teaching again later in the year? This is the only time I'm teaching the workshop in 2013. 

If you want to know more about my instruction style, I have a channel on Vimeo and you can get a sampling of what my teaching style is like.

If you have any further questions, I'm happy to answer. Leave me a comment or email me at czdesign@comcast.net. 

For more detailed information on the class, click the banner below: