I stopped Scrapping

Somewhere between collage art, visual journals, altered art and card making, my scrapbooks fell by the wayside. Scrapbooks, my legacy art, one of my favorite hobbies, just didn't seem as interesting to me and I stopped. I didn't stop meeting my creative friends for day long (occasionally weekend) retreats, I just stopped making scrapbooks.

one of my Project Life layouts from 2014, the year I began Project Life

My devotion to legacy art, my term for scrap-booking, hasn't ended. My commitment to cherishing memories remains strong. I continue to love collecting  actual scraps of paper from notebooks, tickets, lists, event programs and the bottom of desk drawers. Every person who knows me will confirm that I still adore taking photos.

Enter Project Life(tm). Project Life products are designed by Becky Higgins, a celebrity in the world of scrap-booking, to provide an easy and creative way to document your life. Her initial premise was to use "pocket pages" and create one page every week filled with photos and notes and souvenirs. 

I LOVED this idea. It felt like visual journaling and scrap-booking combined forces to be my new super hero. 

When I first tried Project Life I thought I'd do a page every week just like Becky suggested. Sadly, I didn't have the strength to meet the weekly goals. However, I quickly decided that this was the best way to preserve my memories and document my wonderful life. It moved my photos from the camera to the page with speed and creative freedom.

Naturally, I have found a way to make page creation last longer by writing loads of notes and by creating miniature works of art to go in at least one of the many available pockets. All in all, it's been a fun experience. I've been doing it since 2014 and I love it. 

Finally I can print photos from my phone--quick, easy, and great quality

I have searched and searched and tried--oh how I've tried, to find a way to print the photos from my phone. I've finally found the best:



Here's what I love about Cannon SELPHY:
1. High Quality photos--if you've taken a decent photo with your phone then you will get a great print.

Thanks to the Cannon SELPHY I made a last minute anniversary
gift for my sweethusband by putting the 6" by 4" photo in a 5" by
7" magnetic photo frame with a print paper back-ground and a
paper butterfly attached on top.

Tip: Most phones now include a photo editor to improve your pictures or you can get an app
2. Printer price--The printer with refill paper is only $149.00, it is under $100.00 with a small sample amount of paper.
3. Photo price--the price of each print is about .31 each. Yes, it's more than taking your pictures to a retail outlet, but the advantage of not traveling to a store or having prints mailed is worth it for me.
Note: these prints are the standard 4" by 6" no crazy size tiny prints with this baby.
4. I only print the photos I need and want for a particular project. If I want to print a photo to mail in a card to my Mom I can do it in 3 minutes. That 3 minutes includes plugging in the printer, connecting to WiFi, loading paper and pressing the print button. If I'm working on a project life (scrapbook) page or a collage frame photo gift, I can print those as I need them.
5. It's light weight, less than 4 lbs. That's HUGE for me and my lifting capabilities. Especially if I want to take it to a party or crop or just to visit family.

I took this photo while my friend Bridget

was visiting and gave it to her in a "going-away"

card when she left the next day.--It's so easy 

and fun to do "instant" photos to give away

with the Cannon SELPHY.

6. Every package of paper comes with the exact about of ink needed to print that number of photos. I don't have to order paper and then order ink and then check to see if I have enough ink.
7. I can print ANY photo on my phone. That means if I get an email or text photo from family or friends, I can have a print right away.
8. It's very easy to use.

Biggest issue for me was doing the initial set-up. When you get yours, pay close attention to selecting the WiFi connection. If you want to take the printer outside of your home then you will want to set up your phone itself as the WiFi connection. The instructions explain how to do this, but make sure you follow them, and have an ink pen handy to write notes and the WiFi password. I keep my instruction book with the printer at all times. If I go over a month without using it I will forget the things I forget everywhere such as how to load paper, which side is up, etc.

If you click the link above to get your printer from Amazon I may get a tiny percentage of the sale. I only recommend products I absolutely love and 99% of time actually own. Thanks!