Archive for November, 2011

say hello to our first-ever creative team.

Monday, November 14th, 2011

We have put together our first-ever Project Life Creative Team – hooray! In the Products section you will now see a new tab for the Creative Team. This is where you can learn more about each team member and find links to their respective blogs, etc.

Why a Creative Team? Our products are designed to simplify the process of memory-keeping. They are quite self-explanatory and solution-based. However, most of us are “visual”. Once we see something in action, it all clicks. When we see someone else putting their pictures in the Photo Pocket Pages and writing on the Journaling Cards and adding their flair, we naturally become more motivated and inspired to do it our own way.

How did we go about choosing our team members? Since the beginning of Project Life, we have been aware of and very grateful for so many who have shared Project Life with their friends, on their blogs, in galleries and online forums, etc. For the past several months, we have been “watching” online activity to find a handful of Project Lifers whose work inspires us and others. We have a very strong belief that no one’s style is better than the next person’s. When it comes to preserving memories, there is no right or wrong.

Our goal with this Creative Team is to share a variety of styles that will inspire in different ways. A couple of our Creative Team members are very, very minimalist – using just the basics. A couple of them are quite creative with the use of product and often add lots of other products and embellishments and ephemera. And everyone else is somewhere in between. What they have in common is not only a love for using Project Life in their personal life, but they also have a knack for documenting life. They each have their own style of taking pictures and writing memories and this is the core of how we hope they inspire you.

How and when will we get to see their work? In the next month or two you will begin seeing layouts and projects from our Creative Team on a regular basis. We’ll share here on the blog and elsewhere on the website. Stay tuned.

Are we all set with our 2012 team? We feel really good about this group of Project Life artists, and we are so very pleased that they each accepted the invitation with enthusiasm. While we are quite comfortable with this team size, we are certainly open-minded about possibly adding another member or two. We realize that there is amazing inspiration out there, not necessarily shared all over the Internet. Should you feel strongly that you should share your layouts with us (or turn in your friend) … you are welcome to email a few pictures to submissions@beckyhiggins.com. I repeat: We’re not necessarily looking to make the Creative Team larger, but we just don’t want to shut that door and lock it when we know there could be someone else that would be a good fit to add balance + inspiration.

Moving forward. Speaking of being open-minded … as a young company, we’re constantly learning and growing and experimenting. This is our first time trying a Creative Team. We have no idea how this will go but we certainly are grateful for each of these ladies being so willing to share their personal layouts and projects. We sincerely hope that what they/we share will be nothing short of inspirational for you. We anticipate that they’ll carry on with this for 2012. We plan to revise + update the team members toward the end of each year, and keep this up year after year.

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{ PS }

Thank you again and again to so many of you who love sharing Project Life with others. We are grateful that it is a solution for you – an easy + enjoyable way to get pictures off the computer and out of drawers and into books that can be enjoyed. We have updated our Project Life button/graphic. Should you be interested in having this on your own blog, you are welcome to use it. You can snag it here. We are very grateful for the Project Life community, and for you.

veterans day + winners

Friday, November 11th, 2011

Happy Veterans Day. I am so very grateful to all of you who have served and are serving our country, as well as those of you who are supporting your loved ones in doing so.

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{ winners }

Congratulations to the following 5 winners who were randomly selected to receive a copy of the Autumn issue of Somerset Memories! And what sweet, sweet sentiments and messages you left on that post. That means a lot to Ali – and to me. Thank you.

1. Ziska in Johannesburg, South Africa

2. Judi in White Bear Lake, Minnesota

3. Carolin R. in Martheidenfeld, Germany

4. Lynn in Old Lyme, Connecticut

5. Lisa Johnson in Allen, Texas

Ladies, please email brandi@beckyhiggins.com with your shipping address + phone number and we’ll be sure to have Stampington send you a copy of the magazine.

behind the scenes.

Thursday, November 10th, 2011

I’m always fascinated to see/hear/learn about what happens behind the scenes of just about anything. With regards to what we do and the products we make, I thought I’d share a little behind-the-scenes look at what happens before the product shows up at your door.

The initial stages naturally include lots of brainstorming. David and I figure out what products we want to create – based on where we feel there is a need, listening to your feedback, definitely our “gut feeling”, and a million other factors that we also have to consider.

Then come the scribbles and the sketches and the notes. We share all of this with our graphic designers – particularly Lori, who is our main go-to designer – and she works her magic. Then she shares those files with us and we go back + forth and back + forth and tweak and edit and adjust until everything is just right. Then we send all the files to the factory and they work their magic. It’s such a neat process!

Let’s have a look at the factory side of things. As you may know, our newest manufacturing partnership is with We R Memory Keepers who is making our spectacular binders. Here are some self-explanatory photos that our friends there at We R snapped for us. It’s probably not very often that their customers ask for behind-the-scenes pictures. Leave it to me to ask.  : )

Once everything is produced, packaged, labeled, boxed, palletized, and ready to ship – the products go straight to Amazon here in the U.S. as well as to our international distributors. It just so happens that with all the Amazon locations in the U.S., our products happen to be located at the facility here in Arizona where we live. One day we would love to tour the inside and watch our products be fulfilled. Talk about fascinating! Amazon is a machine.

Anyway – let’s take you to a couple of those international locations I mentioned. Our two biggest international partners are Craft House in New Zealand and Scrapbooker’s Inner Circle in Canada. We love our international partners! This is what it looks like when David + Mary Roberts (Craft House) receive the shipment at their location in New Zealand:

Their team spends countless hours fulfilling orders. We find a similar scene and similar dedicated work happening in Canada …

Finally – after you have placed your order the product then shows up at your front door and … we can all scrapbook happily ever after.

Obviously this is a very condensed version of a behind-the-scenes look, but you get the idea. David and I are deeply grateful for everyone that we have partnered with to make our mere ideas become something real and tangible. Everyone from the graphic designers to those that work in the factories to our international distributors. And of course you. Without you, obviously we wouldn’t be doing this at all.

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{ notes }

1. If you live outside the U.S. please contact your international distributor directly for questions about product availability and timing, etc.

2. If you are in the U.S., here is the latest update on timing. We hope to see all the Binders (all 4 editions) show up by Nov. 21. We hope to see the brand-new Core Kits (Cobalt Edition + Clementine Edition) and brand-new Cardstock (Cobalt Collection + Clementine Collection) show up by mid-December. We had a few little set-backs on the timing but it’s on the way! (And yes, we’ll get the dates updated on our Products page ASAP.)

3. All other products are in the house and available for purchase. You can see everything here. For more detailed images of the Project Life Core Kits, this post + this post have loads of pictures.

4. Anyone + everyone who would like to submit their own “glamour shot” (you with your Project Life products) is more than welcome to email those pictures to projectlife@beckyhiggins.com. We would love to update our little “page of fame” with your pictures!

5. Just a little side note about the new + improved binders: Along with the other improvements outlined here, they are also a little bit wider so that the page protectors/Photo Pocket Pages don’t come quite so close to the outside.

I’m talking specifically about the cover width which now measures 15″.

The spine width is 2 5/8″.

The binder height is 13 1/16″ tall.

(In case you were wondering.)

giveaway: somerset memories

Wednesday, November 9th, 2011

Somerset Memories is a publication devoted to the artistic display of memories. I’m kind of blown away by the artistic talent that is featured in the pages of this magazine. I never thought I’d see Project Life in such a publication, only because Project Life is so simple. Sure enough, the editors at Somerset Memories saw what Ali Edwards was doing with her own personal Project Life and they invited her to write a feature story on the project.

I know I’ve said it before but I want to take this opportunity to express my gratitude to Ali. I am so thankful that she has – without solicitation – adopted Project Life as one of the key ways she collects, organizes, displays, and celebrates the everyday in her own family’s life. She willingly shares her weekly layouts on her blog. She is a huge supporter and I love her for that. If you are new to Project Life or are seeking inspiration on how you want to preserve your pictures + memories, I would definitely suggest this: Curl up with your laptop and your favorite blanket and check out Ali’s series of Project Life blog posts.

Far more importantly, I love Ali for the woman that she is. Like most of us, she works hard to maintain a healthy balance in life. She struggles through difficult times like everyone else. And yet – she carves out time to offer inspiration. She shares so much of herself which in turn has been a huge blessing to so many people in so many ways – including myself and many of you.

So thank you Ali. For being you. For being amazing. We all love you.

Dang it. I’m not supposed to get choked up while writing a giveaway blog post. That’s ridiculousness. Onward! Okay, so the wonderful people at Somerset Memories would like to giveaway a copy of this Autumn issue to FIVE of my readers. All you need to do is leave your first name + city + state/country. Should you feel inclined to include a little shout-out to Ali, expressing thanks for perhaps how she has inspired you, go right ahead. I would love for her to read through the comments and feel a big giant hug from us today.

We will select 5 random comments and announce those winners later this week.

i love big news.

Monday, November 7th, 2011

Who says Mondays aren’t cool? I say Monday is the BEST day to announce exciting things!

Announcement #1:

{ what this means }

1. Hello! It’s Shutterfly! How cool is this news?

2. Of course we continue offering our physical product (all the stuff you see here). In fact, we’re re-ordering more soon!

3. 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 to make that available by the end of this month.

4. That’s THREE ways of making Project Life work to fit your personal style. You’re welcome.  : )

5. We express an immense amount of gratitude to Ziblio, who has been the platform for digital Project Life the past couple of years. They are seriously the nicest people and truly a terrific company. With our new Shutterfly partnership we hope to make the user experience (your experience) even better.

6. If you currently have a personal project in the works at Ziblio (I have a few myself!), please know that your project is safe + sound and you can complete it at your leisure. You’re just not able to start any NEW Project Life books there now.

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Announcement #2:

In the form of a video …

NOTE: IF you are sending us a video submission, be sure to email your YouTube link to submissions@beckyhiggins.com. Don’t forget to tell us your name(s) and where you live! This is going to be sooo fun, you guys! Don’t be shy.

The 12 Videos of Christmas from 2010 are in the Videos section.

did i ever tell you what i did on my birthday?

Friday, November 4th, 2011

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This has been on my bucket list for as long as I can remember. To be able to experience a hot air balloon ride with my very favorite people – my little family – was the best part of all. We also spent some time with dear friends. Oh, and we did hit IKEA for a little creative field trip too. Just being there makes the wheels in my head spin. In a good, creative way.

Being back on the ground meant getting back to real life again.

Awesome.

holiday card templates

Wednesday, November 2nd, 2011

Tis the season to start thinking about those holiday cards! I did a little poll on facebook recently and asked “Okay, tell me your vote. Are you content if we re-share the holiday card free templates from last year? Or would you really love new designs? Think this through. Because every time I add something to my plate, that stalls the development of … say, the school + childhood products.”

The response was overwhelmingly – Focus on new products!

So we have brought back the holiday card templates from last year and the year before – ten designs to choose from. And they’re FREE. Gotta love that.

But wait. There’s more!

We did go ahead and create one brand-new design for 2011, thanks to a great suggestion. (See? We’re good listeners!) The idea was to have a card design that allowed for 12 pictures. This is great for highlighting say, one picture to represent each month of the year. Super fun! You can certainly use the 12 spaces in a variety of ways.

Thank you Jessica Turner for the wonderful idea!

Thank you Lori Whitlock for designing the card!

Thank you Deb Duty for creating the sample!

Head on over to the beloved FREE STUFF page and find the design that best suits your style + your pictures this year. Now – if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to start playing Christmas music.

simplify.

Tuesday, November 1st, 2011

NOTE: Right-click on the image to download and save to your computer.

I am tempted to discuss this a little. I am tempted to give examples of how we can simplify. I am tempted to offer suggestions and even share how I need to simplify in my own life. But the thing is – this is personal. How we allocate our time – how we consecrate our time – is a very personal thing, isn’t it?

So I’ll just leave this thought with you in hopes that we can all take this wisdom to heart and sincerely evaluate how we spend our time. Something that you might find interesting, is that Belle S. Spafford said this sometime during her service as a women’s leader for our Church between 1945 – 1974. Long before this time that we’re in now. Women of the world needed that message in her time and I would say that we need this message now, more than ever.

Part of cultivating a good life is putting first things first.