happy monday morning people.

Lots of newbies popping in here on my blog now that Project Life is shipping, so for those folks (hello to you!) and anyone else who hasn't been around here in a while, I've been doing a LOT of Project Life updating ... so scroll down and have a look even further below this post.

Alright girls and boys ... so for today ... some Project Life business matters ... answering your questions, addressing your concerns, and all that good stuff.

1. QUESTIONS ABOUT YOUR ORDER. If you have a question about your specific order and you post a comment here on my blog, I will not be able to help you. I want to help you. The appropriate place to ask questions about your order is to send an email to customerservice@beckyhiggins.com

NOTE: When emailing, please be sure to include the name, address, and Project Life order #. The more information we have, the quicker we are able to help you.

And by the way, we do appreciate your comments here on my blog. Thanks so much for letting us know when you get your kits, and what you're loving, and how you're feeling motivated, and concerns you have, and ideas for future kits, etc. Excellent feedback. While I can't respond to everyone's questions & comments, I do read every one.

2. PLEASE KEEP READING. As much as I'd like to be your email buddy, I really like spending time with my family too (and getting more than a few hours of sleep at night). So in the spirit of trying to address as many "general" questions as possible, please keep reading today's post. I just may answer your question. : )

3. WHEN IS MY ORDER SHIPPING? Before you email customer service to track your package, please look at your order confirmation number. If your Becky Higgins LLC order number is 3338 or higher and if you placed your order on November 28th or later, your orders are scheduled to leave the warehouse tomorrow, Tuesday. You will receive a confirmation email from FedEx when your package ships.

4. I GOT THE WRONG CONFIRMATION EMAIL. Please read this post from last week.

5. I ONLY GOT PART OF MY ORDER. This order "split" happened to just some of the orders with multiple kits, but rest assured you are still receiving your full order. Once you receive part of your order the rest should follow shortly after.

6. MY STATE HAS A RED DOT BUT I HAVEN'T RECEIVED MY ORDER. Just because your state has a red dot on the map (see the post just before this one) does not mean that every single kit has made it to every household that ordered. It means that folks in that state have begun to receive Project Life shipments.

7. I'M IN CANADA. WHERE'S MY ORDER? I will spare you all the details, but let's just say that we now understand why companies decide not to ship international. Know why we chose to do it? We're just nice. : ) Seriously though, we know there is a strong interest and we didn't want to deny anyone the opportunity to get Project Life. But I'll be honest. International shipping is so complicated. And expensive. In fact, there have been extra "surprise" fees for the Canadian orders that we're now forking out (yippee.) The bottom line for our Canadian customers is this: There have been delays with your orders getting out last week and I'm really sorry about that. The kits will be arriving to Vancouver on Tuesday and then distributing to your homes shortly thereafter. They will be coming via Canada Post, so unfortunately no tracking numbers. Thank you for your patience.

8. I WANT TO ORDER PROJECT LIFE BUT IS IT NOT AVAILABLE NOW? They'll be available again shortly. We're just having a little inventory transition party at the moment. Please read this post.

9. HOW DO I START PROJECT LIFE WITHOUT MY KIT? You just take pictures. Please read this post.

10. IS THERE GOING TO BE SOME SORT OF ONLINE COMMUNITY FOR PROJECT LIFE SO WE CAN SHARE IDEAS? I love this idea! Please post your suggestions of how & where you'd like to see some online sharing of ideas and we'll see what we can arrange. I just learned that Jessica Turner is going to be doing a regular feature on her blog called "Project Life Tuesdays" where she's going to share on a weekly basis. Cool, Jessica! Check it out here.

11. WHEN DO WE DIGI GIRLS GET TO PLAY? Love the way this was asked (Debbie). : ) We are wrapping up details on the digital version of Project Life now and are working hard & fast to get this launched very soon. If you click on one of the buttons to the right (eBlast, Twitter, or Facebook), you will be notified the minute it becomes available. In the meantime, just be sure to take your picture-a-day ... every day.

12. UNRELATED TO PROJECT LIFE BUT A BURNING QUESTION: Some of you are asking how we hang all the Christmas cards on our wall so that the paint doesn't peel off. Clear Scotch tape. That's it. We've never had paint chip off or peel off with all the tape we've used over the years (kids art, mostly, and Christmas cards once a year). We've used Behr and Dunn-Edwards brand paint.

13. Hope I covered everything. I'll be in touch again soon with an updated map ... covered with even MORE red dots! : )

Project Life: Current FAQs & page examples

Oh my stars, this is long. But it's worth the read. I bet you're wondering about a couple of these same things regarding Project Life. Plus, example layouts at the end. Woo-hoo!

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Q: When will I get my Project Life?

A: The kits have been in transit and are expected to arrive to the warehouse on Monday, December 28th. They will begin shipping some of the orders that day and the next day. So most of you will be receiving your Project Life kits next week (yay!).

NOTE: We have been notified that our bulk shipment was broken into two containers. The first will arrive on Monday, as I just mentioned. The second container will arrive Jan. 4th and will ship out immediately.

If you ordered on Nov. 28th or later AND your order number is #3338 or higher, you are in that second batch of shipments and your product is scheduled to ship that first week of January.

Clarification added: In reference to the Google Checkout numbers, which are really long numbers ... and to clear up any confusion ... if you ordered before Nov. 28th, you are in that first batch no matter what your number is. Note: The shorter 4-digit numbers are the Becky Higgins LLC order numbers. (The first few hundred orders don't have a BH LLC number, but don't need to worry. They are for sure in the first batch.)

We are sorry about this, as it was our understanding that all the kits were coming in one container. HOWEVER ... do not despair! If you wanted to begin your Project Life on January 1st, you can still totally get started on it without having the physical kit in front of you. I promise.

I'll be posting about that before the New Year.

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Q: Project Life was supposed to be a Christmas gift. Now what?

A: We knew all along that the kits would probably arrive the very end of December, and we were upfront about the timing from the beginning (you had to go through a disclaimer window before placing your order). We tried to be very clear about this. In any case, here's a solution that I posted earlier, in case you missed it: Click HERE and you'll see a JPG all ready for you to print and put under the Christmas tree, notifying the recipient that they're getting Project Life & it is on its way soon!

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Q: What if I need to make a change to my order?

A: All orders in the first batch are currently being processed. Should you need to change your quantity or cancel your order for any reason, you'll have to just ship it back when it arrives (or you may just want to sell it or give it as a gift so you don't have to pay the shipping).

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Q: How will I know when my order ships?

A: You will receive a confirmation email when your order ships. Remember to check your junk/spam box in case the email goes there.

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Q: More information on the digital Project Life please?

A: A digital version of Project Life has been in the works, as you likely already know. We're so close to being able to show you the digital product and this should be ready in time for the New Year. In the meantime, this is what you should know: The way the digital product will work is that you will be able to sign in to your account whenever you want and add your photos & journaling to your project-in-process. It's just like the physical product, except the digital template is already laid out for you.

Whenever your book is complete you can request that your book be printed & bound & shipped to you. For example, if you're doing a picture-a-day concept for a calendar year and starting January 1st, your book would be complete on December 31, 2010. Or perhaps you are doing your baby's first year and choose a handful or pictures per month. However you choose to use Project Life, it's ready to print when you're done adding your photos and journaling.

Just to clarify, the digital version of Project Life is not a digital "kit" where you download pieces & parts and put them together and print as you go. It's more like an online book that you'd put together through Shutterfly or iPhoto. The design will be the same look & feel as the physical Project Life kit. The printed book size will be a horizontal format, 11" wide and 8.5" tall.

More information coming soon.

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Q: I noticed there are arrow stickers in the kit. How are they supposed to be used?

A: Those simple, classic arrow stickers are meant to direct your eye from the journaling block to the photo that it goes with. See below for how I used them on a layout.

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Q: Does this kit only work for horizontal pictures?

A: The page protectors in Project Life are designed for 4" x 6" horizontal pictures and 3" x 4" vertical journaling blocks (which are included in the kit). However, this kit is yours and however you choose to use it is entirely up to you! So if you wanted to put a couple vertical images on one 4" x 6" horizontal print, then go for it. If you want to print small vertical pictures to go in the 3" x 4" pockets, great! Research shows that most people take the majority (or all) of their pictures horizontally, so that's why we made the page protectors the way we did.

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Q: Will I be able to fit all of my Project Life pages in the one album, even with an entire year's worth of pictures from every single day?

A: Absolutely.

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Q: One thing I've heard from other scrapbooking celebrities over the past several years is that scrapping your photos chronologically makes it more difficult to make connections and tell the stories behind the photos. What do you think about this? Will Project Life still get my stories told and show connections?

A: This is an excellent question. I can see why scrapbooking enthusiasts may have this concern. Here's my personal philosophy: Think about your friends, neighbors and family members who would like to scrapbook but they're not. Why aren't they? Lack of time, scrapbooking is too expensive, lack of interest in trying to "figure it all out"?

Valid excuses. Very valid.

This is exactly why I love Project Life. This is the solution to help people actually DO something with their pictures. With Project Life, you simply print your pictures and jot down a note or two about the pictures. That's it. No cutting & pasting & cropping & attaching brads & ribbon & measuring anything. None of that. Only the simplicity of slipping pictures into page protector pockets and writing short journaling blurbs on cards that are already designed & cut to size.

So back to your question. If Project Life is used for chronological purposes (that's how I personally choose to use it), then that means that I'm actually doing something with my pictures. If I have good intentions to create lovely "connections" type of layouts in a traditional scrapbook ... but I'm just not able to get to it because I'm so busy ... well then, nothing is being done at all.

I choose to do something with my pictures.

Additionally, I want to remind and reassure anyone reading this that Project Life is what you make of it. It doesn't have to be a chronological picture-a-day type of project. In fact, it can be all about connections! The title cards that you place in each layout are completely flexible for you to label however you want. As I have done this project in 2009, I have included several days' worth of "connection" type of photos, so while my album is a chronological sequence of daily pictures, it's a total mix of everything from events, mundane happenings, things sitting around the house, people that we love, and ... well ... even connections.

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Q: Could you please show us some pages using Project Life? Please, I need some ideas!!!

A: You bet! Here are a few ways that one could use the Project Life kit to preserve & display photos:

1. Picture-a-day. I know this is something that many of you have done in 2009 and many of you aspire to do in 2010. Our family has been doing this. We're only 9 days away from completing an entire year's worth of memories in daily pictures and I am being completely honest with you ... this has been the most fun, most liberating, most complete way of telling our family's story. And we're doing it again in 2010 with Project Life. Of course.



2. Month-at-time. If taking a picture every single day seems daunting or just plain impossible in your world, Project Life is still a solution for you. Simply choose a handful of your favorite pictures from the month, do a little journaling to explain those highlights, and you're done "scrapbooking" for the month.



NOTE: You could even try taking daily pictures and when it gets too hectic and you fall behind, just do a monthly layout here & there so that you can keep going and keep preserving your photos. You can always get back on track with daily pictures when you're ready. It's all one, on-going story in the same scrapbook.

Isn't that cool? Okay, moving on.

3. Event-based layouts. Let's say you go on a trip for a couple days and you want the entire layout to be about that vacation. Or you have a birthday or wedding or some other event. Simple. You label your title card accordingly and do your pictures and journaling. Want to include more pictures? Then it goes on to the next layout and the next and however many layouts you want to do.



NOTE: Don't forget to get your kids involved. The journaling on the Disneyland layout was written by 13-year-old Kayla and 8-year-old brother Cameron. Maybe you know a youngster that would enjoy doing Project Life all on their own!

4. Baby's First Year. Expecting a baby soon? Have a friend who is expecting? I smell a great gift idea. Consider Project Life to hold baby's photos & highlights & milestones & memories. In this example, it's Avery's 6th month (isn't she gorgeous!?) so the layout highlights favorite photos and notes from just that month. And so it goes for every other month in baby's first year.



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Whew! Okay, that was a lot. But hopefully it answered a lot of your questions.

FAQs for Project Life #3

Q: Is there any way to get close-ups/better views of kit contents?

A: Done. Check it out now, and you'll see how you can click & enlarge each individual image for a closer view.

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Q: I thought I would get an email confirmation when I placed my order, but haven't received anything? Maybe my order didn't go through?

A: Check your SPAM or junk box and make sure it didn't go there. If you don't see a confirmation email there, email customerservice@beckyhiggins.com with the name on your order and an order # if you have it.

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Q: How come there are only 360 daily cards to write on? I know there are the bi-fold cards too, but I really like writing on the smaller cards for P365. I'm afraid I'm going to run out.

A: In an entire year, I am positive that you will have at least a small handful of days that you'll need more room than a small journaling block. Take it as a challenge, on occasion, to write down more than a couple of sentences. You'll appreciate having the bi-fold cards (which allow for 4 times as much space for journaling). Trust me.

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Q: Did I miss when the kit is shipping?

A: The products are being shipped from overseas and we never can tell if there will be delays in customs. That said, we are on track to get these shipped out around the end of December, but are not able to pinpoint an exact date at this time. As always, I will share any and all updates here on my blog.

Hoping to give this as a gift for Christmas? No problem. I'll be sharing a JPG that you can print and put under the tree. Stay tuned. That's coming up.

FAQs for Project Life #2

Q: Can you tell us more about the timing of when Project Life will actually ship?

A: It will realistically be around the first of the New Year, which means our chances of seeing those kits show up on our doorsteps before Christmas are slim to none. If you are giving Project Life as a gift this holiday season, I would suggest you print a picture of the product and make a card. Or ... even cuter ... roll the picture into a scroll, tie a pretty ribbon around it and put that in someone's stocking.

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Q: Any way to save on the shipping costs?

A: I'm not a fan of the shipping costs either. Pretty reasonable for some areas and pretty crazy for other (international) areas. Unfortunately it is what it is. We will continue to look into our options. In the meantime, I highly recommending you finding out which of your local friends might want to combine their order with yours so that you can save on shipping that way.

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Q: Are all of the page protectors in the Project Life kit divided?

A: Yes.

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Q: Do you sell just the page protectors?

A: No. I designed these specifically for this product because the page protectors, the photos, the journaling blocks are work together very specifically and with purpose in Project Life. But never say never. If there's a lot of demand for just the page protectors, I'll definitely consider that for down the road.

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Q: Where can I find envelopes for those free holiday cards that I downloaded on the Project Life page?

A: Remember, you can find anything on the Internet. Do a google search for envelopes. In years past, I have had a hard time finding envelopes that fit a 4" x 6" print really well but this year it's easy to find them at our local WalMart, for example. Finding 5" x 7" envelopes has always been easier because that's closer to a classic invitation size so even your local office supply store should carry those. If you have a great online source for 4" x 6" or 5" x 7" envelopes and would like to leave a recommendation in the comments, go right ahead. I'd love to know where everyone gets their envelopes.

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Q: I love the beautiful home in the background of your introduction video with your friends.

A: Okay, so that wasn't really a question ... but I did get several similar comments and just wanted to say that was my friend Karolyn's house where we did that impromptu video (and very impromptu testimonials). We all stayed at her house for last weekend's girlfriends retreat that I mentioned. Since I was showing the kit to my friends for the first time anyway, that's how the idea came up to just film it with the purpose of sharing that on the website.

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Q: Can you tell us more about the digital Project Life?

A: Making this into a digital product is something I have wanted to do for a long time (and you've been asking for it), so I'm really excited that the Project Life digital product is in the works. I can give you nitty-gritty details a little later, but right now we are still ironing out some details. You have to remember that having a product manufactured has a relatively long production time (which is why you can buy it now even though you wait several weeks to actually receive it), whereas a digital product can be turned around and created in a much shorter time frame. We plan on launching the digital Project Life some time in December. Of course you know this is the place to stay tuned for all the updates & information.

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Q: The overall look of Project Life isn't really masculine but that's what I was hoping for. Do I have a choice?

A: Not this time. In a perfect world, I would have several designs to choose from for Project Life. I had a very small window of opportunity from the time that I resigned from CK to getting everything rolling with the manufacturing of this kit, so there was no time for designing multiple options. (Great idea for next time.) The graphic designer and I tried to come up with something that was versatile and pretty broad for how the kit can potentially be used (families, individuals, adults, children, etc.).

Q: Can we see example layouts of Project Life put to use?

A: Absolutely. I'm working on putting some together. We've just been completely focused on getting everything set up and launched properly so that you would have an easy time getting around on the site, learning about the product, and placing an order without problems. So yes, I'll get to the more fun stuff soon I hope.

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Q: When you say "we this" and "we that", who are you referring to? I know you're not with CK anymore, so are you affiliated with another company now?

A: I will soon introduce you to the awesome folks who have made Project Life possible, but since it's getting super late and I super-dooper need some sleep ... I'll just quickly tell you that the Becky Higgins LLC "we" includes this amazing, hard-working husband of mine and me. That's it.



Fun anecdote: This picture was from last night. Project Life was launched and hit the ground running yesterday before I even announced anything. We were working like mad (with my brother, who is our web guy) to get the details refined and the shopping cart functioning smoothly. David and I already had tickets to the traveling tour So You Think You Can Dance so we peeled away from our computer monitors long enough to go enjoy the show & grab a bite to eat. It was a great date. Product launch and all.

FAQs for Project Life #1

Lots of great questions. I only have a minute, but don't want to leave you hanging on the most pressing questions. So I'll answer a few questions now and then come back to more questions later tonight (including further explanation on the digital product).

Q: Are you going to sell out?

A: You never can tell. But this I can tell you: We've done our very best to project realistic sales. Just so you know, I ordered almost twice as many kits as any kit I've done in the past. Having said that, we should be fine. BUT ... if this goes bonkers, I can also tell you that we can re-order IF there is enough interest/demand. If you fall in that category of the 2nd print-run, you'll just get your kit approximately 4 weeks later than those getting kits from the 1st print-run. As of right now, we are not sold out. You should be fine to place an order.

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Q: Is this a one-time thing or will you do this on an annual basis?

A: I am brand-new to this whole on-my-own thing, so who knows how this is all going to go. But as it seems right now, I would absolutely love to bring this concept year after year after year. I believe in Project Life so much. I know that this product is a solution that will help a lot of people so of course I'd love to make it available all the time. Updating the design and colors each time, of course. It all depends on how this all goes. So far - (holy cow!) - so good. Thank you for your orders!

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Q: I signed up for your eBlast (email newsletter), but I haven't seen the first one that you sent this morning.

A: Check your junk mail. You will need to add the address (customerservice@beckyhiggins.com) to your address book so that your email program recognizes me and won't throw me away. Go ahead and do that so that you can be sure to not miss out on my eBlasts.