Hi Support Groupies!
Get out your coffee and doughnuts, this is a long post - I PROMISE to be more interesting and concise in the future. Don't quit on us now!
*Opening Clarification* -
Many of us use My Memories software and spend half our lives on the MMS Facebook page. This "P52 Support Group" is **NOT**
officially affiliated with MMS - although we will be using their fabulous SATURDAY P52 series as a big part of our inspiration, it's not the only part! We want you to post your P52 layouts in the group, but if you are following the P52 plan at MMS, PLEASE still post your P52 LOs to the MMS page, I know Lisa and Jess have worked hard putting that together. This group is here to help keep each other on track and to add extra inspiration and encouragement to the mix!! Hopefully we didn't confuse too many of you! You can do this group AND the P52 at MMS, you can do just this group or you can do just P52 stuff on the MMS page - whatever you want! Just know they aren't directly related.
I'd like to reiterate that
if you are a designer, this is not the place to promo your products (aside from crediting the designer of your products in your layouts), you can use the MMS Facebook page or elsewhere to do so. Barb from "
Albums to Remember Designs" has graciously offered to be our official sponsor and she will be doing different prizes and freebies throughout the year to help keep us inspired and motivated. If you would like to do a give-away or coupon for our group, please contact me at jengscraps@gmail.com to discuss where we could fit you in!
Okay. On to the good stuff!
Now that we've all confessed our addictions to one another (and decided
that there is nothing to do but continuing enabling each other), we're
ready to talk Project 52! I thought it would be good to start with some
FAQs (Frequently Asked Questions) in anticipation of what you may (or
already have) asked about this group.
...The FAQs...
Q: What's a "P52" or
"Project 52"?
A: Project 52 is an attempt to record a year in your life by taking at least one photo a week and then making one layout a week (or you could use the weekly photos and do a monthly two-page spread if you are pressed for time or ideas, or you could do a two page weekly spread... the sky's the limit!) which can be assembled at the end of the year as a visual journal of your 2012.
Q: Does my layout really HAVE to be from
THIS week? This week was boring and nothing happened and my camera was broken...
A: That's too bad about your camera. And yes, the layout really does. (Okay, if you can't, you can't - but try!) If you don't have any photos, you can challenge yourself by doing a journalling page. I will do a feature later this year on alternative layout ideas (such as "Last Year This Week" using photos from exactly a year ago, or "Why I Was Thinking About Granny" with a photo and some journalling and why she was on your mind this week, "In the News This Week" where you talk about something you saw that affected you/interested you... etc.) No one promised this would be easy - that's why we have this group!
Q: Are there any
rules for being in this group?
A: Yes. Mind your manners, always credit your designer if you can (it doesn't have to be Barb, you can post using any kit from anywhere) and please
ONLY POST YOUR P52 LAYOUTS. If you have other lovely creations, continue posting them on the MMS Facebook page or other galleries. If you post a non-P52 LO here, I will contact you about it and it will probably be removed (unless it has special meaning to the group). Please try and keep most of your comments and posts related to the purpose of this group - our P52 projects. We don't want the page to get too busy with unrelated content, especially with there being so many of us in the group.
Q: Let's say it's February 12th.
Can I still join?
A: Yes! There's nothing wrong with a P-45 Album. You could always just keep going until next February 12th if you want a full P-52 Album.
That's it for my opening post - not very inspirational was it... But it's important to make sure we are all on the same page so we can have a great year together making LOs! Tomorrow (Saturday), MMS will have their first P52 post which you can use (or not use) as inspiration. I will have another post soon with some ideas for getting started on your P52!
Also, an FYI - I am going to be starting a list of tips/links etc that YOU post in the group so we have a place of reference for them (since they tend to disappear down the wall so quickly). For instance, if you see a cool idea or layout somewhere else, post the link to the group and I will try and catch it and add it to our
"Inspiration List" which will be an on-going, updated post on either my blog or Barb's.
*****
Lastly, a message from our sponsor - hehee : D
Not sure what to do for your first P52 layout? Here's an idea...
We are really excited about these because they are PERFECT for keeping up with your P52 Projects and for any time that you are short on time or short on inspiration. Many of you have asked in the past if templates for PS(E) can be used in MMS - to which the answer is... No. But Barb is one clever gal and spotted a way we could do something very similar in MMSv3. She invented....
PAGE BUILDERS! And because she is so generous, she put a free one in her store so you can try it out before buying the rest of the collection. Here is a
LINK to that freebie.
Here's what it looks like before and after:
(by Jonyce with Albums to Remember's "
Pink Bliss")
More examples...
Questions?
Quick set of instructions (thanks to Jonyce):
Step 1: Add Template page to your project
Step 2: Click on a shape, the shape options will show up on the right.
Step 3: Click the Paper button.
Step 4: Select your paper.
Step 5: Repeat for all the shapes on the page
Step 6: Double-Click on a photo placeholder and add your photo.
Step 7: Repeat for all photos
Step 8: Save, export to JPEG, and share!
Robyn asked...
I downloaded the free template, but I can't find it in my MMS software. Should it be under the layout templates?
Jonyce said... You can do it 2 ways, "Create
album from Designer Template" when you first open the program, or if
you already have an album open you can go to the Insert Menu and select:
"Add Other Template Pages"...then you can scroll down and find it in
the list. (Page Builder 10-(Alb2Rem)
Barb said... When you open the album you
want it in press "insert" on the top bar of your page, then choose "add
other template pages", scroll down the list and you will see Page
Builder Sampler, click on it and then add the pages. They should be in
alphabetical order when looking at the template list. Make sure you
clicked on the file once it was downloaded to instal it in your program.
DOWNLOAD THE PDF of this BLOG POST.
