Even though I feel like I am scrambling to keep up with Project Life, I am still keeping to my commitment behind the scenes anyway. My original plan was to post the past weeks photos on Monday and then on Tuesday post my finished album pages from two weeks previous. I am having a tough posting my photos. But that doesn't mean I'm not rating them, editing them and uploading them to Flickr for back-up. And then finally uploading them to Snapfish and getting the prints delivered to my home. The last part takes a little longer because I live here, in Beijing.
At first that was really throwing a wrench into my plans to keep up with my album. It is hard for me to put everything else in without photos. I could rush things and use photos SOOC (Straight Out of Camera), but that is just not my style. Photography is my first LOVE so drab, dark photos just wouldn't make me happy. Therefore, I need that extra time. And I only edit photos that I am actually going to use.
Have you figured out yet, my solution for still going forward with my album? I mentioned it in my post on Sunday for the Project Life blog hop.
I am printing out my photos in B&W on ordinary paper. This saves on ink and paper. The first time I did this, I made the mistake of printing them in color. Printer ink is expensive as it is, but here in China it is so expensive that it is silly. I don't print my own photos because I am not happy with the quality, I have read that they don't hold up as well over time and as I mentioned before, the ink here is ridiculously expensive and photo paper is unavailable.
I bring it from home, but that takes up lots of space and weight in the luggage and then when it is gone, it is GONE! And I do like to print my own photos every once in a while.
Anyway, now you know! Perhaps this trick may help other people who don't print their own photos or who like to order prints in bulk. If I order more than 100 prints at a time, I don't have to pay for delivery. That makes it worth the wait for me.
I hope you enjoyed my Project Life album layouts for the week of Jan 22. My favorite part of the week (as far as the album goes) is that I added a couple of embellishments to the card behind the apple juice carton (that is what the little yellow-ish card is with the Chinese writing on it). I don't typically do things like that, but it is a fun surprise for anyone who pulls it out. I also added a little tab to it so it would be more noticeable. The folding journal cards in the new kits don't come with tabs. I miss that, so I am adding my own.
What is your favorite thing you did this week in your Project Life album? Tell me in the comments.
PROJECT LIFE BLOG HOP
On March 5, Jill will be hosting another Project Life Blog Hop. If you are interested in joining, send her an email at jillconyers @ gmail (dot) com and tell her MARGIE sent you! I will be sharing my photo work flow that I use for Project Life. I hope you'll stop back by then.
You may want to check out these Project Life posts:
Reason #257 Why I LOVE Project Life (tell me why YOU love Project Life)
OTHER COOL SCRAPBOOK EVENTS AROUND THE WEB
Ali Edwards announced today that she will be doing a Day in the Life (just like Week in the Life but for ONE DAY) on Wednesday this week. Since I can never resist this type of challenge, I will be documenting my WEDNESDAY (that is tomorrow). She has a free download to help track your day.
I know you only use the black and white photos as place holders (a wonderful trick!), but do think you'll ever do an album entirely in black and white photos? I love the way the colors pop around the photos. It looks so classic. :)
Posted by: Christina | February 07, 2012 at 05:12
I love that your pictures are b/w it makes the rest of your cards and things pop with color. This was a good idea considering how much ink is for you. We have a Walgreen's down the road so I just order my 7 photos for the week, sometimes more for special weeks. Then when they run a 9cent sale I order all the other photos that don't make into PL and use those for scrapping and other projects. One new thing I'm doing this year is ordering little 4x6 collage photos for only 29cents that way I can squeeze a few extra pictures into my weeks without adding more page protectors or adding bulk to my album. This has been my favorite thing so far about my album.
Good luck with yours and have fun!!
Posted by: dawn | February 07, 2012 at 05:23
WhenI used to shoot in film, I often shot black white and studied it in a photography class. Film comes out so much better in BW than digital does. But if I ever develop the editing skills to get some good BW prints from my digital photos, I definitely would. Id have to think of a good week in PL to do that for. Hmmm...
Posted by: Nihao, Cupcake! by Margie | February 07, 2012 at 05:51
THANK you for the great tip!! I actually have started printing out at home but the quality is middling, so I have ended up going back and ordering prints for some weeks. But, I can't do that every week easily. What a great solution, just print quickly in black and white! Thanks again and thanks for visiting my blog. xiexie (?)
Posted by: Nirupama | February 07, 2012 at 09:24
I love the look of black and white. My first couple of weeks I mixed black and white with color. The black and white makes the color journal cards pop in a bigger way. Love your pages.
Posted by: Camilla Blue | February 07, 2012 at 14:32
I love your black & white photos! Your pages look great, I love all your extra tidbits. Looks like you all had a fabulous week!
Thanks for sharing!
Posted by: Julie | February 07, 2012 at 19:02
Love the idea of printing them in black and white and then replacing - simply genius! Oh and those ice chairs in the post below look like so much fun - Would love to see them here in the US!
Posted by: Krisi | February 09, 2012 at 10:18