Comments and questions are gathered from facebook, twitter, emails, and right here on the blog. It’s time for another edition of Feedback Friday!
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I noticed that a couple of your Photo Pocket Page designs have pocket openings on the side sometimes, instead of at the top where I expected. They’re wonderful and completely useable but I’m just wondering … is this on purpose?
Yes. Sort of. We originally designed everything to have openings at the top – always. But it’s not that simple. On a couple of the designs, because of the pocket configuration and the manufacturing machinery and the way things have to work logistically, a few openings are on the side instead. Like you said – it doesn’t change the usability and the function of the Photo Pocket Page.
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Do you do any other scrapbooking besides Project Life now? What about your childhood, your story, your ancestors, etc.?
Great question. (Gulp.) As much as my natural instincts are to feel guilty about what I’m not doing, I am far too realistic for that and guilt gets pushed to the side big-time. I am a documenter of life, an amateur photographer, a family historian. But that doesn’t mean I’m good at all of that, all of the time. It certainly doesn’t mean I have everything pulled together the way I’d like. Right now I’m focused on documenting the here + now of our family life with Project Life. I have also embarked on a journey called catching-up-with-my-kids’-books. And trust me, you’ll be hearing a lot about that soon since the journey has been documented with video. Other than that, no. Nothing else right now. Yes, I have childhood scrapbook pages and family history pages but it’s definitely not where I want it all to be. Yet.
Bottom line: There is a time and a season for everything. I totally have a vision for what I want to do with our family history stuff, and David’s and my childhood stuff. Another topic for another day. The vision is there. I’m just looking for some spare time.
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I am sure you have been asked this but have you ever considered catalog sales? I feel you have the most amazing products that could transform so many peoples lives as it has mine. I just think it would be so cool to see reps out there demonstrating how to use your products and inspiring others!
Yes, once upon a time it was a thought. But no – it’s not what we’re doing. Our business model keeps everything so simple. Our product is made and shipped to Amazon and anyone (in the U.S.) can purchase our products there and have it shipped directly to them. That is the simplest thing that we can do that is also very beneficial to the customer – you. Many of you are practically Project Life “consultants” because of the way you share it with friends and family. You have to know how much we appreciate that. Very, very cool.
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When is the Shutterfly version of Project Life going to be available?
Barely in time for Christmas.
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Will the Shutterfly/Project Life photo book be available in more than one size?
You bet. The “default” photo book sizes are 12×12 and 8×11 but you can convert your project to 8×8, 7×9, and even an itty bitty 5×7 gift size. I can’t wait for you to see these Project Life photo books!
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I wish I didn’t have to wait for other items to come in while some items are available now. It would be nice to get everything at the same time.
I hear ya. And I promise you that we’re not trying to stagger the availability of different products. Please keep in mind that there are so many behind-the-scenes logistics in manufacturing physical product that most people wouldn’t even think about, that affect the timing of products becoming available. Please also remember that this is our transitional year as far as product offering. When we started our company just over two years ago, we offered one SKU – one item. That’s it. Last year we offered 2 items. We now have 30 products and more in the making. So yeah – it’s a little tricky to keep everything on a predictable schedule. The beautiful thing about the way we’re offering product now is that we’re getting on track to keeping plenty of inventory in stock all the time – all year long. The few items that are currently sold out were re-ordered weeks ago and will be available again in January. As we move forward, we’ll be able to close that gap even more so that “sell outs” are very rare.
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I notice that the Photo Pocket Pages are not all the exact same total width. It’s subtle, but I’m just wondering why.
It’s all about the math. For the 4×6 and 3×4 cards to fit perfectly in every single pocket (which we really fine-tuned with all the new products) … each Photo Pocket Page is going to have to be a slightly different width. When you factor horizontal and vertical and different configurations … it is what it is. And those size variations are very, very subtle. The alternative is to have them all the exact same size, which would mean the cards and photos would not fit well in the pockets. They would be too tight or not have too much room, etc. Hope I’m making sense. It’s all about the math. This is the “fun” part of product design. ; )
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Where did you get the white chairs that I always see in your pictures and videos?
Stanley is the brand. Coastal Living is the line of furniture. The name of the chair is the Wayfarer Side Dining Chair. We had the seat cushions recovered with a faux shiny wipeable leather that I found at a local fabric store.
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I don’t know if anyone has ever mentioned it but I think it would be awesome to have a set of page protectors that fit the 4×4 Instagram photos.
Oh, trust me. That’s in the line-up. : )
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Can you please use month concepts when saying, for example, that the School Kits might be out by Summer 2012? Living in Australia, we are in summer now and I started getting overly excited!!
I’m so sorry that I wasn’t thinking of our friends in the Southern Hemisphere when I said that. We just aren’t close to having a date for the release of those products yet so I needed to keep it vague. I guess I could say we’re hoping for sometime between June – August 2012.
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What about the date stamp? Is it in the core kit?
Nope. We no longer have a date stamp as part of our products. This is easy to find online or at your local office supply store.
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Does anyone have any cute ideas/pictures for the very first page of their album? I love the cards with the kit but I want to make mine a little more personal, and I wast it to represent the whole year, anyone?
Excellent topic. I have a whole blog post about this in the works. If anyone wants to share their Project Life title page, please email a really good photograph to submissions@beckyhiggins.com for us to consider sharing with our other content.
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{ a favorite comment }
Can I just say that I know it is not by chance that I happened upon your website several months ago? I was a huge fan of your work with CK, but lost touch with everything scrapbook-related for a while as my family went through some tough changes and I was running in “survival mode”. I believe that I have an actual part in my body that is connected to my current level of memory preservation, and most of the time this body part weighs a ton and is twisted in several knots due to my “guilt” and inability to keep up with all of the photos I take and memories we make. It literally weighs on me daily. Several months ago your name popped into my mind as I was on the computer and I was curious as to what you were up to. I got chills and tears in my eyes as I watched your Project Life video (“Project Life by Becky Higgins”) and thought, “Wow, this is going to be the thing that saves me!” I was giddy and excited as I showed everyone the video, and have been following every development of your products ever since. I’m hoping Santa has a few white boxes for me under the tree this Christmas!
Tags: chairs, date stamp, photo pocket pages, Project Life, shutterfly
I love that you answer questions every week. Your customer service is outstanding and I can hardly wait for Christmas to start opening up all of the new pretty kits! Thank you Becky. You rock!
Becky, thank you for taking the time to answer all our questions. I just got my first PL kit to do my (now almost 6 year old) daughter’s baby book. I left a comment about it on your FB page so I won’t repeat it here. I am looking forward to doing a digital book for her first year of school. Can you tell me if the prices will be comparable to what they were at your old digital publisher?
5×7 vertical page protectors please
^^^ YES. Can’t find these anywhere!
Office supplies carry an 8.5 X 5.5 size with lots of holes. You can cut them down if you want to. Brand name – Avery
My husband and I decided to not have kids and finances are quite tight.. I often wonder if I do project life who will want or care about my interests and legacy since we dont have kids? We dont live close to family. Our immediate family is slightly estranged due to position my MIL has put us in by pinning her 2 kids against each other which is sad. So this leaves us not as close as hoped to our nephews.
And normally I wouldn’t think about this but with my mom’s death last year and on my husbands side 8 other deaths in the last 12 months of aunts, uncles and cousins it has gotten us thinking. Not to mention I had an accident and had to have 2 surgeries. Going under anesthesia makes you think if something could go wrong.
Anyone have their thoughts/ideas since I am starting to feel like the buck stops here?
I did finally buy the pages as a friend had told me that I still have time to enjoy for myself..but my moms untimely death left me with a HUGE mess to clean up…
I clearly do not know any more than what you shared here, but I’m thinking this could be a great way for your nephews to get to know you. You could use this to document not only daily life, but your childhood and yor husband’s. Not sure how old your nephews are, but when they’re the right age they will want to know about their family, especially if circumstances have kept this from happening much.
Another thought…do you enjoy taking pictures, journaling, and being creative? If so, this is a great way to do this, regardless of whether you have children to share it with. If the process itself is enjoyable to you, it is worthwhile.
Last…and I hope this doesn’t come across rude as I definitely don’t mean it that way. It seems like you’ve had a lot of stress in your life lately. I have found scrapbooking (specifically the journaling part) is very therapeutic when I’m working through something. This could be beneficial for you also.
Hope this reply helps you!
I know that there are a few great-aunts and uncles on both sides of my family (and I am sure in my in-laws’ side as well) who did not have children, and it would’ve been so wonderful to have an account of who they were, what things they did, maybe the causes they dedicated their lives to, the pets they loved, the travel adventures they took—all of those things that make you special and unique. I think PL would be a great way to capture those things, even recording your feelings and thoughts about your mom’s passing. (I am sorry for your loss.) Maybe set aside just a few minutes during your own golden hour – early morning? late evening? – and write or journal and just save it. It could be priceless for your relatives in the future, should things mend between you and your nephews.
I do project life to document our (hubby and mine) life together. And if we are blessed to grow old together and can’t quite remember what the heck we did with our life, we can always go through our books and remember.
Your story made me think of photographer Vivian Maier http://www.vivianmaier.com/ her photographs are beautiful and she is now thought to be among the street photography greats, however her film (undeveloped) wasn’t even discovered until the year she died by someone who didn’t even know her. My point, photography, scrapbooking and capturing your memories and story don’t have be for anyone. Capture your story for YOU, enjoy it now. why not?!
Hey April. I love to use PL to document my life with my hubby. I actually think it helps me have gratitude for our marriage. The tough times, the fun times, etc. It’s an exercise in appreciating your life…whatever that may be at the time. Also, I started scrapbooking because when I asked my now late grandfather about his childhood, he could only recall one memory. (He died at 92). Was it just old age that he couldn’t remember, I don’t know, but he’s not here now and I wish there was something like a scrapbook of old photos or stories that could help me piece together parts of his life. I didn’t see him much growing up so now what I know or wish to know about him is in my imagination. good luck to you and enjoy the journey!
That last comment (a favorite comment) sums up my life experiences with you and your website for the last six months! I have downloaded several of the digital PL components and am extremely excited to begin using them. I am also looking forward to seeing the shutterfly projects! Thanks for helping to ease our collective scrapping guilt by providing a simple outlet to produce lasting memories for our families!
Becky – had to share my lightbulb Project Life moment (and I may be late to the party….but maybe someone could use this idea) – I was looking back over the last year, noticing some “holes and gaps”. I think it was May or June when I finally figured out I should be kinder and gentler on myself and not force the *picture a day* concept, which has worked wonders. But. I was planning to go back and take some pictures of simple stuff around the house to fill in those old, empty spots. When my lightbulb went on. I seldom, if ever, use my phone to take pictures….but my kids!!!! Wow. I pulled 40+ pictures off of my 12 year old’s phone. Almost lost memories of a basketball game she went to with a bunch of friends, a UW Husky clinic she attended, silly stuff all over the place where I wasn’t close with a camera. And I have a 21 year old at college. When he’s home on weekends, I’ve been trying to get pictures of him, but this year he hasn’t been around that much. Again, I asked him to send me some pics from his phone – jackpot! So happy I thought of this – and found some real gems
Thanks so much for answering my question about the chairs! Appreciate it!
Thanks for these Q&As, I enjoy reading them… I wanted to pipe up with an idea on the “your own childhood” question. I imagine you’ve probably heard of Cathy Zielske’s Me: the Abridged Version/Encyclopedia of an Ordinary Life albums. My take on it is to take that basic idea – of alphabetical, almost random entries – and use it specifically with childhood memories. I find it particularly useful when it comes to stories and memories that don’t have a lot of photos to accompany them – or maybe don’t have any! I’m sure you could use this alphabetical concept in conjunction with Project Life supplies as well, with photos as well as 4×6 cards to write on and just slip into the slots… anyway, just a thought, it may jive well with some people out there.
Your subject is sort of the reason I just bought the PL core kit. I have a ton of photos from my husband”s childhood and many of my own, yet I also want to incorporate my daughter’s childhood photos. I’m use trying to figure out how to do this with PL …
I LOVE this idea! PL would be great for Cathy’s MTAV concept. I think I’m gonna have to steal this idea !
Really hoping that someone makes a punch for the journaling squares in PL.
It would be so much easier than hand cutting photos and ephemera. Aloha.
Becky, I wanted to share a tip that I have found to be useful. I am totally new to this and only have the plastic pages—no binder or cards yet—and I am pretty busy looking after my almost five month old. I take lots of pictures during the day but didn’t have a good way of dating them and recording the thoughts that went with them. So what I did is create an account with Evernote online, which I can then access from my phone from a (I think) free app. I mark down today’s date, the description of the photo, where the photo is (which camera, or my phone) whether it’s been printed yet, and my thoughts about the day.
For example:
Friday, Dec 09 – Photo: Liam eating bananas from mesh feeder – My camera – Journal: Liam was sort of indifferent about the mesh feeder today, having never seen it before, but once he figured out that there were BANANAS in it, he sucked it down like it was going out of style! It was so cute.
So whenever I get a moment to get things together, I go through my past entries, sort my photos, do one order at Shutterfly, and then when my cards come in I can easily match photos to captions without having to remember what day it is, etc. I’m sure veteran PL-ers will find this simplistic but it works for this newbie.
Thanks again for a great project. I’m so excited to get things together for my family.
Becky, I have being using Project Life for the last 3 years. I would love it if all my Project Life binders had the same type of spine, label holders and are the same width. I also love the design from the past years, Have you thought about reissuing the previous binders with the new awesome quality of the current binders? I already bought the new Amber binder to replace my old one. LOVE Project Life!!
Thanks for your honesty. I don’t have a question, but wanted to applaud the fact that you just state the facts and explain things. No apologies, no guilt – you tell us what you are thinking and why and I really enjoy that.
I have to confess that I ordered the original project 365 kit on New Year’s day in 2009. I had one heck of a year with a 2 year old and 6 month old, being president of a huge professional association, starting a year long leadership program and loosing my father and grandfather to cancer in 2009. I am SIX weeks away from completing the journaling on that album and I can’t tell you what a treasure it is, even unfinished. I took a picture a day and I have an amazing memory book for my children of their last year and last weeks with both my daddy and my granddaddy. I was so stressed about not finishing it for ages, and now, with only SIX WEEKS to complete (did I say that already?) I am over the moon. I have been working on it at night (the pictures I finished last year) and I already ordered my 60 pack of pages for this year. I hope to stay on track this year and I can’t wait to get started.
I am LOVING Feedback Friday Becky, keep up the fantastic work!!!
I just had to tell you that my Project Life keyring arrived in the mail today. It will serve as SUCH a great reminder every single day to cultivate a good life (and of course record it). I somehow resisted opening even the outer cardboard packaging. I am going to wrap it up and put it under the Christmas tree to me… from me.
WOW! I came to your blog expecting to see a video today, BUT this Feedback Friday is great!!! I love the totally random question (no offense) about the white chairs. I enjoy reading about the little and the big details of Project Life and more
Enjoyed reading all the comments this Friday. Just wanted to stop by and say OMGness!!! I just got my Cobalt core kit and it is even more amazing in person than it appears online. I absolutely love all the stickers, colors, and the graphics. Woo hoo! Thanks for making scrapbooking stress free and fun again.
I love feedback Friday too!
Just another plug for the punch for the journaling cards – that would be amazing.
I love the idea of a 5×7 page protector, but also an 8×10 vertical would be so great for all those formal portraits (school, sports, Christmas, etc. We have a ton!).
Thank you so much for all you are doing!!!!
How about putting them on 12X12 cardstock and putting them in with PL? That would “frame” them and make them even more impressive.c5d5c5d5
I am loving Feedback Friday! Thank you so much for your customer service, I have been a loyal Project Lifer since the beginning and I have always admired your level of customer service and dedication to creating and improving your products.
I do have a question:
Are you going to start sharing your own Project Life layouts?
I don’t have a great photograph of a title page, but have an idea I’m planning on using for my next Project Life title page. Take a photo of the front of your family home in each season….winter with snow on the ground, spring as it greens up and everything is blooming, summer (for us the last couple years, that means sunburned grass!), and fall with leaves turning colors. Take it from the same spot each time and it is a great representation of how different your house loos over the course of a year.
I did this with a local very large tree, surrounding by farm land. AWESOME! Everyone liked the idea and photos enough that we had them enlarged. There are now four 20″ x 20″ Ikea frames with double mats and photos.
wow, i hope “santa” leaves PL under her tree too!
I am sorry if you answered this somewhere else…I looked on the products page that talks about the digital options.
Is there any hope of Shutterfly offering any of the other designs in the future? Would LOVE to have Cobalt available!
Becky:
I will be anxious to hear about your plans for you family history photos an comments. I just purchased the Clementine core kit plus card stock and was going to use Project Life for my family history. I just haven;t figured out how it will work ….
MichelleB
Becky- I can only imagine the monumental task of making the designs and manufacturing capabilities work together! I continue to be impressed that so little of that stress bleeds into your writings.
My husband is a production engineer, usually working with cables and cabinets. I’ve dabbled in production issues when I’ve been required to do so for one of my programs. I *think* I invented a few new swear words along the way…..
I LOVE the way you’ve placed products on sale as soon as they’re available. Another business owner might have decided to hold items until the full complement was ready.
I’m sure you knew this concept was going to fly. I wonder if you and David have dared to think just how big your business may grow.
Love new clementine. Question-why is the packaging different for the 3×4 journaling cards within the box?
There are 6 “packs” of cards.4 packs in the little boxes 2 sets have no box and stand alone in nice little slots where you dont have to open them up in little boxes.?
The 3×4 decorative journaling cards are all in the boxes, so they can be portable. Some people throw them in their bag so they can journal when they get a minute during the day.
The other slots are filled with grid journaling cards, filler cards, and first and last page cards. These type of cards (except maybe the grid cards) really don’t need to be portable or “on the go” so they don’t have a card box.
Hope that helps answer your question.
I don’t have PhotoShop or Elements or any of those types of programs but I love PL and have been doing it for three years. Now I have osteoarthritis and I can’t do a lot of writing but I can use a keyboard! Is there anyway to type on the journal cards w/o having software other than MS Word?
HI! I love your feedback posts! They are great! I also love the inspiration posts. I am just starting PL, Santa is bringing me some fun stuff to get started (so I hear…). Anyway, I’m excited to get started with this for my daily photos, but I have twin boys (they just turned 2!!) and I have yet to do anything for them for a baby book. I have tons of photos and and other fun stuff from their first year that I just have in a file box. I think that PL would be a good way to put their baby books together, but I would really like to see a dedicated “baby” themed PL kit. Is this something you all are thinking about? I would LOVE to see this as an option.
Hi Becky. I have a question/request, maybe to be addressed in another feedback Friday or a different post. I would like to see how people use PL in conjunction with the tough times. (Both outwardly tough, like a family member with an illness, and the inwardly, like struggles in relationships or beliefs.) Sometimes when I’m in the sort of “what did we do today” mode I feel like my stories get a little shallow. It’s not that I don’t WANT to address the tough things, but sometimes I feel like I just don’t know how… like it will be too jarring to just stick it in there with my favorite recipe or my cat doing that cute thing. I know that’s part of the purpose of PL, to show the wide variety of life experiences… I guess I’d just welcome seeing how other people do it, or any input you might have. Thanks.
Falwyn – you can read my mesage earlier when I wrote about loosing my dad and my grandfather while doing project life in 2009. I just added in photos of them and wrote how they were doing that day. The project itself made me take more photos during a time when I really didn’t want to. But now I cherish those memories. I remember taking my three year old daughter’s bear to the hospital with me to “see” my father simply because she mentioned that “Belle” needed to visit him (since I wouldn’t let her go see him) and I knew I could “get away with it” since I needed a picture that day. I love that photo – yes, he is sick and dying of cancer, but he smiled in that picture knowing that she would forever have that memory of him. This is life and it isnt always pretty or happy or unicorns and ponys, but I feel like that picture and the jounraling card balances my layout and makes it very real. That was my life at that moment. And yes, I have a picture of us gathered at the service in the PL book too – it tells the story – and yet again, I would have NEVER taken that picture if I didn’t have this project behind me, urging me on.
I’m hoping you, another reader, or your brother (!) can answer this please
Background… I’ve procrastinated for two years now over PL (set up my first album in 2010, started taking photos and ‘got behind’ and didn’t even get any photos printed, nor journaling actually into my album). But this year, I’ve started! It’s not going to be perfect, how I want it to be (eg, I decided I’d do Sunday thru Sat as a week; however, we’ve just been away this weekend and all the photos tie in together, so Week 1 2012 of my PL will be 8 days, Sun thru Sun. The following weeks will be Monday thru Sunday!).
Question… I’ve started taking my journaling notes on my iPhone 4, in Notes. I thought they wld sync to my Mac and I’d just be able to cut and paste them into a Word doc to print out some of my longer journaling (when I have a story to tell). Notes suits well – I journaled about this past weekend whilst in the car on the way home. But I have NO IDEA how to get my Notes from my iPhone to my computer! I tried to email the Note, but it didn’t seem to go (it didn’t arrive). Ack! Help, please!!!
Is there a ‘better’ way of doing this?
Thanks ever so much for your time.