I’m going to try to keep this short and sweet because you have a video to watch + some shopping to do!
……….
Item of business #1: You thought I was just announcing that products arrived on Amazon but nooooo. Oh no. We can top our own excitement because we’re finally able to share this other bit of super news.
Project Life designs are coming to you … in DIGITAL pieces! As in, what many of you have been begging us to do for the past couple of years! As in, all of the designs, title cards, filler cards, journling cards, stickers … everything in digital format so that you can create your own stuff with the Project Life flair. As in, all 5 editions that we have done so far! The Original Edition, Amber Edition, Turquoise Edition, Cobalt Edition, and Clementine Edition. Everything! DIGITAL. Go ahead. Jump out of your chair and do the happy dance. I am beyond thrilled to announce this partnership with JessicaSprague.com. More to come on that in the near future.
Oh – and yes, we’ll continue to offer digital Project Life in the form of photo books as well. We’ve been working on exciting improvements and I will fill you in more on that soon as well. We just want to make sure that you’re generally aware of the digital options, in time for you to shop for the physical products .
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Item of business #2: The plastics have arrived to Amazon.com just today. The wait is over; let the shopping begin! If you have 9 minutes to spare, here’s a little video to review everything that just showed up along with related, anecdotal information that may be useful to you. Eeeeep! Another happy dance. Let’s do this!
Ready to shop? Go right ahead.
NOTE: As of late Friday night (when I am posting this), the Scrapbook Dividers were the only item not showing up in the system yet. It’s there now!
We’re in a recession. I priced out the amount of page protectors needed (Stlye A)for a year of PL and it was about $28 (4 packs needed). Then I added in the basic kit which was about $25. I’m over $53 and don’t have the album yet. Dividing everything up and offering variety is wonderful for some people, but it just got a whole lot more expensive for me. Probably will have to bow out this year–it’s getting too expensive. I’ve loved doing it and was looking forward to my fourth year….
Sandi: What about buying your album from somewhere else? Michaels, Joanns and Hobby Lobby all have awesome deals. You could also try buying one thing at a time…there is still plenty of time before the new year to stock up slowly
I’ve got 2 extra Amber binders that I got for $8 when Becky put them on clearance…I’m not going to use them. Head to my website: http://www.almondplace.com , send me an email and they’re all yours if you want them.
Mandy
Mandy, You are so sweet. What a beautiful heart you have!
Sandi, I have the Amber core kit and have not used a lot of it. I bought the Amber kit, because I LOVED it, but I have one child (a boy) and the Amber kit was “too pretty” so I stopped. I am going to purchase the turquoise kit and/or the cobalt instead. Because I realized (as I was doing the project), that I will eventually give this to my son, I decided that it was too “feminine” to give to my son so I stopped. If you are interested in purchasing what’s left (which is quite a lot), I can sell the core kit to you for a very low price to complement Mandy’s binder. Times ARE tough and I would be more than happy to help you. I don’t have a website, but you can contact me at gremielong@aol.com and please leave me a contact phone number and we can discuss.
Nicole
We offer the Big Pack of Design A to give our customers the best value – 60 Photo Pocket Pages for $24.99 – instead of 5 packages, which would be closer to $35.
If you missed that post about the prices, please check it out so you can understand how much is out of our control: http://www.beckyhiggins.com/blog/2011/10/a-sale-prices-youre-looking-for/
I’m sorry that you feel like you can’t do it this year. We really have tried hard to keep prices down and really – for what you’re getting, you will spend much less than most other traditional scrapbooking supplies. Perhaps you would consider getting the Big Pack of Design A + a Core Kit. That’s under $50. Then find another album that is way less expensive. You may want to take Mandy up on her offer! Wishing you all the best, and hoping you’re able to work something out.
Hi Sandi,
I totally understand about budgets being tight, I live in Canada, and find that we are always working with a tight budget. I have been buying my binder albums at Micheals they work perfect with project life pages, they are the American Crafts albums, and once you use a 40% off coupon it is under $20 bucks. For my own self I would be happy with either the AC albums from Micheals or the fab albums that Becky is now selling (those were my first choice, from Memory Makers, but couldn’t get them at a decent price in CA). I really like the suggestions that all three ladies have provided, I can see that those would be great ways for you to get started.
Mandy and Nicole, you are both so sweet to offer up stuff from your stash that you know you won’t use to help out someone else in need of a boost. How many of us have so much excess and we forget about it, and yet if we look around we can help other scrappers in need. Way to go ladies!!!
Sincerely,
Marcia
Sandi, I hear ya. I had the same heartbreaking realization that these new prices now make the basics much more expensive than before…and getting less:( It’s a real bummer.
I was expressing my disappointment to my husband, and he said “But you love these albums! Just go ahead and get the stuff, because you’re going to regret it if you don’t.” And he’s right. I got just the basics for sure, and I’m still really disappointed in the price jump — I just ordered my page protectors (after sitting down all excited to work on an album the other night and remembering “oh yeah, there are no page protectors in this kit now!”:) and had to take a big gulp before hitting “purchase.”
I think the variety is great but the price jump that accompanied it is frustrating…but in the end, I knew that this is worth it to me. But I totally get that not everyone can just make that decision, financially. We are on a very strict budget, so this choice for me means making some very real cuts elsewhere which isn’t easy.
Hi Sandi,
I have 2 packs of Divided Photo Pocket Pages (Design A & Design B, 12 pages each) that you can have. These are the original ones, not the improved pocket pages that just came out. Please email if you would like them and we’ll go from there. Thanks!
Leslie
Hi again Sandi,
My email address is lesliestrunge@verizon.net.
Oh this all looks wonderful and great news about the digital partnership! I’m very happy for my fellow PLers in US who can order this now, and can’t wait till those of us in the UK can order again too!
Thanks again for bringing the fun and simplicity back to documenting our lives, Becky.
Becky, I just want to tell you that I think your concept of scrapping life this way just is so filled with “HOPE”. I didn’t start scrapping until my Ami moved away to NY. My life became so filled with more photos but not with more time as I thought it would. I am very proud of my 12 X 12 layouts, but they do take up time. So my stack of photos is considerably larger than my stack of finished pages.
Ami went on to have a full life in NY with a career, marriage (Jed) , and a beautiful baby girl, Avery.
Your inspirational product has given us both a way to record history in our lives as we make it and a light at the end of the tunnel of those many photos. I still 12 x 12 layouts cuz I LOVE pretty paper but Project life lets me fill in the details. So much can be missed without the details.
Thanks for moving ahead with your dream. Odessa, Ami, & Avery
Me too!! That would be just perfect!!
I am thrilled with the new page protectors and other products. I’ve been buying the standard styles from other vendors, but I will happily switch to yours now. I am especially excited about the D and G styles.
I love the “ala carte” options, and I am amazed at the combination of outstanding quality and reasonable prices. Bravo!
Hi Becky!
Just totally awesome!! Just ordered all my “plastics” for next year…even though I got a little “behind” on this year…I’m really excited to continue next year, loving Project Life and how much easier it is to quickly get down the little everyday details of life!!
Am thrilled for you and your JS partnership too…LOVE her classes and products! Good for you!
Best!
Sue
Just a quick question – how does the orange in the clementine binder compare with the orange in the cobalt core kit? I’m debating on using those, but I don’t want the inside to clash with the binder. I think it would bug me.
Also, I love the necklace you’re wearing in the video! It’s very cute!
The shades of orange between the 2 kits are not the same and weren’t designed to coordinate, but they don’t look bad together either! You can certainly give that a try. I think lots of people are going to mix + match because they can’t decide on just one edition. : )
Thanks for the necklace compliment! It was a gift from my sweet friend Karolyn. I’ll give her the credit for having great taste.
SO pleased to hear about the digital version and so very pleased that this anouncement came before the Uk sets went on sale. First time today I have been glad the UK release is so much behind the US oe. I would have been sick to have bought the paper version when I much prefer digi.
So excited to see all the new products!!!
I asked quite awhile on Facebook if you would consider making plain white journaling cards in a 4 X 6 size. You said yes they were coming, but I haven’t heard anything else about it. Are they in the game plan?
yep – still in the game plan.
Oooh! This is the first I have heard this!
I’m glad I am not the only one
I would love to see the journaling cards in 4×6 size
I would actually love to see all the journaling cards in 4×6
Just another idea
You can make your own journaling cards, any size and paper. I got the amber and turquoise binders and some A-style page protectors in August, but the other supplies were not available. So I used American Crafts Margarita line and made my own title and filler cards, and made journaling cards by printing lines on 12 by 12 cardstock and cutting them into 3 by 4 pieces. I rounded all the corners and filled up the album with pictures, a year and a half’s worth! If you get a coordinated line, it’s easy to make it look together. I will get the new Cobalt and Tangerine albums and supplies, just ’cause they are so neat, but I will also use my own papers and albums to make more PL binders. And the page protectors are a must!
Oops, I mean Clementine album.
Ok, I feel like I have a dumb Project Life question! I can’t find the answer anywhere – when the new project life stuff comes out, will it be a kit? Or do you HAVE to buy everything separately?
Karalyn, I hope this helps…
You purchase one of the core kits and that gives you the title, journal, filler, etc. cards all that coordinates and gives you what you need to put the album together… you will also need to purchase and album and whichever of the “plastics” (page protectors, dividers, envelopes etc.) that you want. I suggest purchasing a big pack of the design A esp. if this is your first time that is most true to what the kits have been in the past, all the new options are very exciting and will give you a chance to change things up a bit. For this next round you have to purchase it separately.
Becky will probably answer that better, but I hope it helped a little!
No question is dumb. Everything is a la cart now. No full-enchilada kit. You can see what you need at the top of our Products page: http://www.beckyhiggins.com/products/
Ok..thanks! Will get to ordering now! lol
Hi Becky,
Everything in relation to Project Life is FANTASTIC! I am so excited with all the options and possiblities. I am though feeling a bit overwhelmed with everyhing and trying to figure out what exactly to buy – and wether I will do the digital or actual book for the year 2012. For the past two years I have done the actual hands on book, but was thinking of maybe going digital for 2012 (love the option of printing several books so each of my kids have one when they leave our home). Can you help? Will you be doing a video on the new digital option (as you mentioned in the text from today’s post). Help! I want to order, but not sure if I should wait for the new digital. Can you help simply this for me so that I’m not feeling so overwhelmed? Thanks Becky!!!!
Denise, I wish I could answer your question but without knowing your specific needs, and your personal style … it’s not really my place to tell you what to do. We offer options so that people can choose what best fits their needs. Most people do the physical kit. I’m doing both. I do a digital photo book that is a FAMILY YEARBOOK each year and I make a copy for each of the kids. I also do physical scrapbooks for each child so that I can implement all the “stuff” (memorabilia) in those books. I’ll be doing a video about this sometime this month.
Hi Becky,
I would like to see one more size in the page protectors. How about an 8 1/2″X 11″ for letters, etc.?
Thanks again for Project Life!
Nicole
Nicole…I am assuming she doesn’t make this size since you can get them at office supply stores.
We are going to continue expanding our line of Photo Pocket Pages and Page Protectors for sure! As for that size, it’s the most common page protector size available on the market and you can find it just about anywhere, including WalMart and office supply stores and craft stores.
How about 8,5×11 horizontal/landscape? American Crafts used to have some but then they were discontinued. I would LOVE to include my children’s original art work, certificates and awards in my PL albums just slipping them into a page protector instead of having to cut up a 12×12 and machine stitch it …
Love the variety of page protectors you came up with! Keep it up – it is so inspiring and motivating
Thanks so much for your digital plans! I love your elements in several themes, but would prefer digi. So glad you’ll be catering to that other scrapping world!
Ordered plastics yesterday (big variety pack plus several others), this morning there’s an e-mail that they have shipped. Can’t wait!!
Do you know when in Nov. clementine will be available on Amazon. I want to get it before the end of the year so I can havw it ready when we enter 2012!
Cobalt + Clementine stuff is due to arrive LATE November – probably the very, very end.
Very excited for you that products are now in stock at Amazon. I’ve preordered mine from Tammy in Canada and hope to receive them soon. I’m very excited about the digital products that will be available through Jessica Sprague; I was so happy to hear that you’ve established a partnership to make that happen. I really like Jessica’s sites/products; you’ve made a great choice.
Very excited to get started on this again for next year…love this!
I have an unrelated question: The chairs you have around your kitchen table and maybe your office? The white ones. Who is the manufacturer? My parents have the Swaim ones and they are a bit pricey for me. I love them and have always wanted them. Here’s hoping you have another source for them.
Thanks
We bought ours through Direct Buy (we have a membership), which saved us a bundle of money because they’re not cheap chairs. I am totally drawing a blank on the manufacturer now, I’m sorry!
I just wanted to let you know that I’m so excited to finally get my hands on some more Big Project Pages. My kids’ school scrapbooks have been patiently waiting for me to include their “stuff” for each year. Thanks so much and I’m looking forward to Clementine coming out later this year and the school albums coming next year. Great job, Becky!
Just purchased all my “plastics” and journaling cards for PL 2012! I’ve been waiting for the 2012 versions since I stumbled across your website back in March, and luckily I’ve been holding onto some Amazon gift cards from my birthday. Thanks to the earlier poster who suggested starting out w/the traditional design A for us newbies. I was getting a little overwhelmed looking at all the new page layout designs. Can’t wait to order all my “papers”!
Yay for digital!!! I’m still usig the freebies you gave out athe end of 2008 or the beginning of 2009. Love ‘em.
I am so excited to be a first-time Project Lifer this year. I’m gearing up for 2012. I especially love all the new page protectors. I have one additional size request – 8×10! I have a ton of school portrait and family photos in 8×10 that I’d love to be able to include. It would be so neat, clean and QUICK to have a page protector in a dedicated size. Thanks!
I totally agree!!
Me too. : )
[...] know that we just released a slew of new products on Amazon.com over the weekend. Hooray! I posted this video to review all the products that we have available now, and mentioned that if you had questions, go [...]
Hi Becky,
Becky thanks so much for such great products and offering so many versatile choices and prices to suit different budgets. Even just starting out with pocket page design A, some journaling cards is also a great way to start with the basics. Love that we can just add on other products as our budgets allow.
I have recently just bought a used bookshelf for 20 bucks (have been looking for months), this has created a dominoes effect in my house, now enabling me to move furniture around to organize my scrap room and pull all my stuff out of boxes. This project of moving stuff around the house stared in Jan 2011, due to tight budgets and illness for both my hubby (strep throat) and I this past spring (bronchitis), and as well as our kids colds/flus etc). My mom had to come and take care of all of us!!! Yeah for MOMS!!!! We also lost our whole hard drive on a new computer, which meant that we had to pay gobs of $$$$ to a company to retrieve all our pics (not all we rescued but ¾ were, and lots of pics are partials, but I am thankful for the ones we could rescue, and also that it was just the hard drive, we didn’t lose our jobs or our home or anything major like that….so thankful, this helps me keep it in perspective about losing so many pics.
So I am now so excited to have things organized (will fine tune as I go along), now I can start working on the next stuff – getting photos printed, organized after printing, and getting them into my 2011 PL album. My goal is to get 2011 caught up, then stay current while slowly working backwards to the beginning of time, and also work on finishing my kids baby albums/school albums (which includes their day to day stuff). Baby albums will have a special 12 x 12 2 page spread for the beginning of each month of the first year of life, then using PL pocket pages for the rest of the month – this will help me to get’er done!!!! Yeah!!!
Thanks Becky and Dave (the man behind the woman!) for having the vision and all that other good stuff to get your business running to help so many others out there who have been overwhelmed with scrapping, thinking that we have to create a work of art for each and every pic and page!!! This simplifies it so much for me. Now, I just wish I would have thought of it. ; ) But that is not what I have been called to do with my life. So glad you answered your call in life!!!
Sincerely,
Marcia
BC Canada
P.S. Sorry it is so long, I am not a person of few words, I take a lot of words to say what most can say in a sentence or two…and yet I struggle with what to write on my journaling – go figure!!!
I am so excited to get my plastics this week! My one complaint is that I didn’t have project life in 2008 when my first daughter was born! Better late than never, right?
Will the plastics continue to be in stock now or only available for a limited time? I read that it was sold out last year. Thanks for all that you do Becky & David!
This question may have already been asked and answered….but, can anyone tell me if the page protectors fit/work well in We R Memory Keepers 3-ring albums? I LOVE all the protectors but want to continue using these albums. Thanks!!!
They fit perfectly and other scrapbookers like Ali Edwards have been using them. I love the classic look, too. And have used two We R Memory Keeper albums to hold my 2010 PL pages and three to hold all the pages for this year’s PL pages.
YEAH!!! Thanks so much Birgit!
I am currently in my third year of paper based PL. I would love to be able to give a copy to each of my boys when they are older so I was considering also doing a digiTal PL for them – but I would like to keep the 12×12 format. Love that the digital elements will be available. Will you also be making digital templates available to match the various plastic pages? That would make the task a lot easier.
Thanks
Kelly
Hi Kelly – I am in a similar situation: I have one paper PL album completed and I have been thinking about going digital so I could make other copies for my daughter and any future children for when they are older. My only hangup on that is what to do about all the memorabilia that’s not a photo? In other words, I save all kinds of little paper-based memorabilia that I include in my PL album, but don’t know what to do with all that if I go digital? Do you have a similar challenge? I’m having a difficult time thinking of other ways to include the tangible memorabilia in a digital format. Thanks!!
One way to include the memorabilia in digital format would be to scan it in and print a photo of it. If it isn’t too big, you could print actual size, otherwise whatever “page protector” you are using in the digital format. Is this right, Becky? It seems to make sense. I have scanned bracelets, stories and pictures, among other things for albums.
Hi Jean – thanks much for your reply! Scanning did cross my mind as an option…..plus, much more streamlined this way. I’m curious about your sentence here: “otherwise whatever “page protector” you are using in the digital format” I haven’t really played around with the digital capabilites yet, but there is something called a page protector? I’ll have to learn more about this so I can use all the features!! Thanks again Kathy
Digital doesn’t necessarily mean a printed/bound hardcover book. Digital can be whatever you make of it. Can’t or don’t want to scan a piece of memorabilia? How would you put it in your PL album? That is what you can do with a digitally produced album. Just create your digital layouts with the templates at Jessica Sprague, have them printed commercially. The company I use charges only $1.99 per 12 x 12 page printout (think giant 12 x 12 photo!), then you put it in the 12 x 12 page protector and you are one page done and on your way! You can go 100% digital like I described or be ‘hybrid’ and using the digital kits at JS to print your own journaling and date cards to be printed at home or professionally, and trimmed to fit. Either type your journaling before printing or write in your handwriting after printing.
Digital is totally AWESOME! Here is the coolest aspect of digital scrapbooking: barring a meltdown of your computer files, once you buy a digital kit, you have it FOREVER! Yes, there will be no waiting for the items to come back into stock at Amazon, not for you digital mavens. Once you have a set of journaling cards, for instance, you have an UNLIMITED quantity FOREVER! Is that not awesome? Thank you Becky for generously sharing your products with the digital community. We love yah!
Hi Kathy, I haven’t included a lot of memorbilia, mainly because I wanted to keep PL to one album. I have kept some items in an envelope in the back though and I guess they will just stay with the paper album. Jean is right, scanning is a great option and I will scan my boys artwork that I have included in the album. As for movie ticket stubs etc, you could always take a photo of it and include that in your digital album. This year, I have preferred to take a photo of these items and use it as my POTD rather than keep the actual ticket etc.
Hi Kelly – thanks for the kind reply. What a good idea to take a photo of the memorabilia. Duh. That honestly never occurred to me! LOL.
I’ll probably have to try a combination of scanning documents and then taking photos of other things maybe too large or bulky to scan. Thanks again! Kathy
Becky-
So happy that you are using the new products yourself, and not just digi. I hope to see photos or video of your project(s) when (or if) you get time. I know you said that you are doing your yearly family albums in digi..so does that mean you are doing the paper PL along with us?
Becky I was wondering if you could give the exact dimensions of the new albums. I just recently purchased the expedit shelves from Ikea and found the original Amber albums are too tall to fit the shelf. Just wanting to see what the dimensions on the We R Memory Keepers albums will be.
Thanks
Angela
Very excited to get the new page protectors, got the variety pack and the big envelopes. I can’t wait to get my delivery!!!
I know PL is used to chronicle day to day life. But I have a huge stack of pictures and memorabilia from a trip I took. I am wondering if I can use PL to document the trip. If so, does anyone have any tips to help me get started? Thanks, Alex (I’m new to scrapbooking!)
Hi all : ) So, with all of the wonderful deliveries, any ideas of how to organize it all? I was thinking that putting all of the page protectors in a 3-ring binder and separating them by the scrapbook dividers with their description on top might work out.
Thanks for the kind praise at the end there, very sweet! Sometimes I forget how valuable all this “fun” really is!
[...] We are still super stoked about our recently-announced partnership with JessicaSprague.com to bring you Project Life designs in the form of digital components. Everyone’s working hard [...]
love that this project is going digital!! I would love to see some examples of this works digitally!
when will the digital be available? i have been trying to figure out how i want to document my daughters life whether through a blog, picture book or scrapbook. i think i may have found the answer. where can i get more info on the digit form of pl ? thanks!!
Hello,
I love the new plastics! Especially all the options with the wallet size pockets on the page protectors.
Does anyone have suggestions for how to print 2 different wallet sized pictures on a 4×6 if I don’t have photoshop or my own printer? I would be ordering prints at shutterfly, walgreens, etc.
Thanks,
Katie
Don’t know if all of them have this option, but some of the do-it-yourself kiosks have a “collage” option where you can choose “different photos” and print 2 on a 4×6 print. Haven’t tried it on any of the websites but would assume they can do it as well.
Hi Becky!
I bought the Amber kit last year and between May and June it just fizzled… but I’m not giving up! I looked at Shutterfly and they’re program looks really easy to use and typing is so much easier then writing at least for me, my handwriting is awful. Combined with your designs and the Project Life format I’m really looking forward to doing my 2011 album and starting a 2012 project. I wanted to know if there is a specific release date for when that will be possible. I tried Ziblio and it was really irritating to work with.. everything was so small I couldn’t see. Anyway, Looking forward to finally getting 2011 done.
Another Devoted Fan, Alexis
I’m an excited first-timer; just received my Project Life goodies (Amber and Cobalt collections) and am looking forward to rolling in 2012, getting caught up on all of my boxes of photos. I absolutely LOVE all the colors and designs available, with the exception of something I see as being “glaringly missing” … a Christmas Kit, in its own traditional colors. Am I missing something as a newbie? How do Project Lifers incorporate their Christmas Photos and Memories into their Project Life Albums, using the color themes that are presently available? I would just LOVE to see a “Core Christmas Kit” – and maybe even one for Autumn, to cover the Fall Holidays as well. But a Christmas Kit is something I’d REALLY like to have the option of buying. Guess for now, I’ll have to make do with, what? Blank Journaling Cards and Christmas stickers?
Would love to hear how you experienced Project Lifers handle your Christmas and Autumn photos, within the Project Life system, color-wise. Thanks, and Bring on 2012!
I love the digital version of Project Life. I used the Clementine for my 2011 album and am using Cobalt for 2012. Only one problem, it only allows 101 pages which is not enough for all the weeks of the year if you used a 2 page spread per week. I was very disappointed when I realized that with my 2011 album. I wish they would allow a couple more pages.