{DIGITAL PROJECT LIFE - TIPS AND TRICKS}

Digital Project Life. What are my thoughts? Well I think it's fabulous!! That being said, I'm a digi-girl through and through. For me, it's the ONLY way to go. So I'm here to share with you some of my thoughts and pointers for your Digital Project Life.

First off, you need to have access to some sort of Photoshop Program. I recommend Adobe Photoshop Elements. Once you've got that, or something similar, you're ready to get started.

DISCLAIMER: This is not meant to be a beginner Digital Scrapbooking Tutorial, if you need help learning your program, go HERE.

The first thing you need is a template. This seriously takes the majority of the hassle out of it for me. Especially if you're going to be keeping the same overall layout through your whole album, a template will be a HUGE time saver. And it's your lucky day, I've got one for you! (Click HERE to learn how to use a template in Photoshop or Photoshop Elements)

::CLICK IMAGE TO DOWNLOAD::

This is the basic template that I use. So that's step one, choose your layout.

Next, you need to decide what theme you'd like your album to have. Do you want to stick with the same colors throughout? Would you like your holiday weeks to be different? Are you going to switch it up according to the season? Do you like the clean line/graphic look? Or do you want it to be more "bulky" with lots of elements? Personally I decided to stick with the same graphic theme throughout, just switching it up for each holiday week. So the week of Valentines Day my pages will be mostly pink and red with lots of hearts. ;) Then the next week I'll go back to my regular green, blue, gray, and pink.

When I was trying to decide what look to go for, I SCOURED Pinterest and pinned anything that caught my eye. That was the best way for me to recognize the theme I wanted to go with. It was easy for me to identify my style, because most of my pins ended up having the same feel.

Just to give you an idea what the difference is, here is one of my pages:

And here is a page I found on Pinterest that's a little more "cutesy-scrappy":

{click here for page credits}

Now that you've decided what theme/feel you'd like to go with, you can start collecting! The fun part, right? There are all sorts of fun elements to spruce up your pages, from cutesy ribbons, buttons, & flowers, to graphic brushes and custom shapes, etc. 

Here's a list of what "I" think the basics are:

1. Template(s)

2. Digital Papers

3. Journaling Cards

4. Calendar Cards

5. Elements/Graphics

6. Filler Cards/WordArt

7. Fonts

I've got lots of fun papers, templates, and word art options in my shop, click HERE to go look around.

As far as fonts are concerned, in my opinion they can either make or break the entire page, so choose wisely. :) Here are some of my favorite Project Life fonts:

Ostrich Sans

Courier New

Century Gothic

KG Eyes Wide Open

Lobster2

Chunk 5

Now you're ready to start scrapping! Inserting pictures and papers into the template is SO fun and SO easy. And the best part about creating digitally is that you can go back and re-arrange things. There have been a couple of my pages that I thought were complete, but when I went back and looked at it the next week, I realized there was something I wanted to change. That's the beauty of digital, my friends. I {heart} Project Life. I already love going back and looking at my pages!

So just a little recap:

1. Choose your layout

2. Choose your "theme"

3. Collect your supplies

4. SCRAP!

Have you gone to a concert or sporting event? Take a picture of your ticket! With Digital Project Life we don't have the option to insert the real thing, but you can make it look real! You can even take it to the next level and staple or paper-clip it onto the picture of you at the event! 

I'll try to post more tips and tricks as the year goes on and I become a more "experienced" Project Lifer, but for now, I hope this at least helps some of you get started.

CLICK HERE TO SHOP GG DIGITAL DESIGNS PROJECT LIFE!