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The Deets on Project Life In One Place

March 20, 2015 by Lindsay Teague Moreno 7 Comments

I get asked a lot about what Project Life is, how I do it digitally, what programs I use, how I bind the books, etc. So I’m going to answer all of those questions here because this process is really important to me and what I want my girls to value as they grow up and have families of their own.

I was passionate about this project since the day I started and being on the creative team gave me the ability to infect others with the same passion. I thought I’d post a little intro and a recap of what I’m doing with Project Life in case you’re new to the LTM Blog!

What is Project Life?

Here’s a 1-minute easy as pie explanation:

Why do I think you should do it?

Because your story is your legacy and it’s important. Someday, your kids and your family is going to want to know this stuff about you and themselves. I promise. Kids have a way of wondering how you did it when they start families of their own. This is the way to show them. One thing I would love more than anything is to ask my mom, “what did you do when we were this age?” or “how did you handle this situation?” or “how much did you drink every night?” If she had done scrapbooking for us, I would have known even though she’s not around anymore for me to ask her. Someday my kids are going to want to know what our everyday looked like as an adult. They will. This will show them.

How am I doing it?

I am doing my pages digitally. It saves me the counter space (which is limited with 3 little ones) and the hassle of cleaning up. I just put everything together on my computer and then I print the book out at the end of the year. Also, the majority of project life users do the project weekly (2 pages to recap your week, every week). I, however, am taking a different approach this year. I’m just putting our major events into the book. There’s too much stuff going on in my life to have the pressure of keeping up and we just don’t do all that much stuff yet because my girls are so little. I’ll probably start the weekly layout format next year. You can read more about what I’m doing and the pages I’ve completed by CLICKING HERE.

What are the options for you?

There are two options for you if you want to give Project Life a try:
Traditional Paper Version
Digital Version

I LOVE traditional paper scrapbooking but I don’t like having the stuff all around my house. Digital is the right option for me but there is a learning curve to doing it since I am using photoshop. Without some desire to learn clipping masks and photoshop, it may be best for you to just go paper kits and keep it in a little caddy that you can move around to keep out of the way. If I was able to have the space and time for traditional, I would absolutely have those cards in my house.

With the traditional version you only need 4 things (there are FAR more than 4 things you can purchase, of course but you only require 4):

1. Core Kit

Core Kits are loaded with enough beautifully-designed cards to fill an entire album.

2. Album

The Project Life snazzy Albums, designed to coordinate with our Core Kits, will safely house your Pocket Pages filled with your photos and journaling.

3. Pocket Pages

Pick up a pack of Photo Pocket Pages to slip in your treasured photos and the cards from your Core Kit.

4. Journaling Pens

My favorite pens in the world are the Zig Millennium Pens. They come in a pack with 5 sizes. Amazeballs.

With the digital version you need 4 things (there are FAR more than 4 things you can purchase, of course but you only require 4):

1. Computer

I use my Mac Pro and my laptop for Project Life. Either will work as long as you have enough space to run photoshop and save your work.

2. Photoshop

I use Photoshop Creative Cloud for mine but I know a lot of people that use Photoshop Elements and it works great for them (plus it’s less expensive and a bit easier).

3. Digital Kits

Someone I know has a real problem with buying digital items for her Project Life album. I won’t say who, but she can’t stop. They’re so pretty!

4. Printer to bind your book or Album with 12×12 Page Protectors

You can choose to bind your book and have it printed with a photo printer like i did at MPIX or you can have the pages printed individually and you can simply stick them into some 12×12 page protectors and a binder. Your call. I like the digital books because I can make copies of the book for the girls to take when they leave home.

Here’s a recent page I finished to give you an example of what your pages can look like:

This was a super simple and fast layout. Used our pictures that Melissa Koehler took of our family and threw a couple of cards and brushes over them. Boom! Done.

I hope you’ll consider giving Project Life a try this year. There’s not commitment, there are no requirements. I know your people sure would love you for it one day.

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Remembring Every Moment

March 19, 2015 by Lindsay Teague Moreno 1 Comment

I was telling Michael last night how much more of our life I remember when I put it in a Project Life page. I remember the little details because I took the picture, I wrote it down, I used creativity to put it together and I look at it again. It is sealed into my memory. Little things that I would likely have forgotten.

For example I would have remembered going to AZ last summer, but probably not that it was 118 degrees out one day when we took the girls to the little waterpark. I would have remembered going to see James Taylor, but probably not that we were the youngest people there by at least 20 years. You’ve gotta save the memories.

My kids are going to love this one day! I’d give just about anything to have something like this from my mom as we were growing up.

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Get Your Frame On: a DIY gallery wall project

March 18, 2015 by Lindsay Teague Moreno 5 Comments

I wrote this post a couple of years back but I still get a lot of questions about it so I decided to repost it here on my new blog for you DIY’ers.

I have been dreaming of this project for a very long time, but because M and I are renting a home here in Reno, I have put virtually $0 into home decor. It’s just not my house and I haven’t felt like putting too much effort into the house that we could potentially move out of at any moment. I love decorating, though, so I have really been wanting to frame some new photos. I think personal photos are the best way to make a house a unique home (outside of paint color). I love looking at other people’s photos in their homes when I visit. I want to make sure (especially as a photographer) that I have enough up of our lives to tell our story a bit.

So, I just decided that it was time to put together a gallery wall with some of our favorite family photos. I also decided I was going to go big. This is exactly what I had in mind when I set this project in motion:

The wall leading up the stairs in this house is big, it’s high, and it’s bare. It’s also painted the grossest color of not-quite-white-and-not-quite-cream. The dude that owns this house was clearly not on the swiss coffee train when he picked out this color (he also doesn’t understand that different rooms require different sheens as evident by the touch-ups he did around the house, but that’s a different post). I decided that colored frames was where I was going to start. This foyer and staircase need some color in a bad way.

I love the look of scalloped frames. Going big on framing can equal big money, though, so I was sure I’d have to settle for only one shaped frame and just go square for the rest. I did a lot, i mean, a lot of hunting around. We’re talking months and months worth.

I started with Organic Bloom, Poppy Tree, and Zin Frames. All amazing frame companies. They make an amazing product. I would have snapped up the frames from these companies in a heart beat except one thing…it’s out of my budget for a home decor project right now. Like, way out. I wanted my center frame to be 20×30 (yea, big, see?). I’m looking at $100+ on that single frame alone and that’s not including prints.

So, it’s DIY time.

Enter Cut It Out Frames. $35.99 for the largest frame? Now that, I can handle.

STEP 1:

I ordered 8 frames from Cut It Out. All of them were unfinished so I knew I had some work ahead of me.

Instagram: This is what they looked like out of the shipping materials. They were in perfect condition. Well done, Cut It Out!

I got the following frames:

Balboa 20×30
Chandler 16×20
Brooklyn 11×14
Newport 8×10
Brooklyn 8×10
Newport 5×7
Grafton 5×7
Newport 4×6

The total cost? $128.92. Yea, that’s right, people. What I was going to buy 1 frame for, I got 8. I am so drinking the Cut It Out kool-aid.

Problem: I won’t lie, because this place is so rad, they’re busy and it took my frames a long time to arrive. Like, a month and a half. Worth. The. Wait.

STEP 2:

As soon as they came in, I took inventory of what I was working with and I took the quilt I made for the living room to Michael’s Craft Store to grab some paint colors. I am trying to keep these colors consistent throughout the entire downstairs. I ended up with these colors:

I should have gotten 2 bottles of each color (especially the orange because that seemed to take 17 coats), but I like to make projects harder than they should be by getting only one and taking a second trip to the craft store. It’s just how I roll. At $1 a bottle (coupon) I spent $7 on paint and $2 on foam brushes.

Problem: There’s no glass in these frames (just a cardboard backing). So I had to go on a little hunt for glass.

STEP 3:

I started at the dollar store for glass. Here I got my 4×6, 2 5×7’s and 2 8×10’s for $5 total. I then went to Wal-Mart for the 11×14 piece of glass for $5. I just threw out all the cheap frames and kept the glass. For the larger pieces (16×20 and 20×30), I found THIS PLACE. If I had found it before running around looking for large glass pieces, I would have just ordered it all from Glass4PictureFrames.com to save myself the trip to Wal-Mart (I hate this store). The 16×20 is $7.28 and the 20×30 is $13.65.

STEP 4:

Next, I picked the photos that I wanted to add to the wall and edited them. I converted them all to black & white to make the frame colors pop. I also created a little sketch showing the frame size, the photo in the frame and the color of the frame for future reference.

Instagram: my photo order and gallery wall sketch

Let’s talk about photos. This is the place where I did not cut corners on cost. I ordered all of my prints through a professional lab, with the linen texture, mounted on board and coated with the non-glare coating. These pictures may well be in my house and on my walls when I’m old and grey. They will last this long. The board keeps them from warping in the frame, the coating keeps them looking beautiful. My mom had a mounted and textured photo of my brothers and I on her walls with no glass covering it for 25 years and it still looks as good as the day she hung it up.

You can see the linen print texture in this photo. Also notice how it’s not reflecting too much light because of the coating.

Photo quality is not the place to skimp, in my opinion. If you had your photos taken by a professional photographer, order your wall prints through them. The professional labs make a HUGE difference (even in black and white photos). I promise you won’t be disappointed by the color and quality you get over non-pro labs. I would recommend Mpix to you guys if you’re not printing at a pro lab. Please, please, please don’t do Target, Wal-Mart, Costco or Walgreens. Please. The colors are just so different. Get your photos (at least the large ones) mounted. They’ll last forever. If you are interested in having your photos printed at a pro lab and are not a photographer, please let me know and I can give you my pricing list so you can have that option. I’ll even edit your photos a bit for you. It’s important.

STEP 5:

Finally, I had a selection of my instagram photos printed in a collage from Paper Coterie. This print is the center 20×30 frame and the only one that is in color. It’s HUGE. I am in love with this part of the project. The collage is printed onto self-adhesive (and removable) fabric, so it matches the linen texture of all my other photos. It is amazing quality is very, very reasonably priced ($29.00 for 20×30). I simply peeled the backing off and stuck it down to the cardboard frame backing. Easy. Super cute.

Tip: I used the website www.instaport.me to download all of my instagram photos, pick the photos I wanted to use, and then upload to the Paper Coterie website.

STEP 6:

Then, I painted all the frames with at least 2 coats of paint (some more than others). Once the painting was done, I went over the edges of the frame with some dark brown ink from an ink pad to add some contrast. I put the photos in the frames and voila, done!

I love how it came out. It really brightens up the foyer and brings some great memories to our walls.

What do you think? Are you going to do it too? I feel like I got more than enough “bang for my buck” with this project. It makes a big statement and the price was not as much as a piece of furniture…by far. I’m really happy.

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In the Home with the Moreno Family

March 14, 2015 by Lindsay Teague Moreno 6 Comments

I was recently referred to Duston Todd by my friend Megahn for some family lifestyle portraits. I’ve wanted to capture us just being together for a while and immediately jumped on the opportunity when I saw Duston’s In the Home sessions he was doing. He is a true artist and what he created will remain on my walls for a lifetime.

Take a look…

I love these 4 people so much.

I am in love with these images. I hope we can recreate them throughout the years as we all grow. Thank you Duston for your eye and sharing your gift with our family.

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Project Life Book Reveal

May 8, 2013 by Lindsay Teague Moreno 3 Comments

Well, kids, I have my Project Life book printed and in my hand. Because I do this digitally, I have to delay the gratification of having the book out to look at and see come together. Everything’s tucked into a file on my computer (and my hard drive, and the cloud back-up system…I don’t take chances, folks), but I can’t actually touch it…until now.

I got my book back from my printer and I’m so happy with the way it came out. You ready to take a little look at it?

The cover. This book is hard backed and has think board pages. The pages are a bit thinner than a child’s board book, but still thicker than paper.

The back cover. I took a little month by month look at the year and put down the major “events” that happened. Like a snapshot of what people might see in the book.

Okay, I’m not going to lie, the book is heavy. 12×12 thick pages. It’s so heavy I think it might just stand up to the beating that my 3 little girls are likely to give it throughout the years.

This is a lay-flat style of page. You can see how it’s not floppy like paper so my kids can’t rip the pages out. It also lays so nicely when it’s open so that the entire 12×24 layout can be seen together without a dip in the middle.

Really high quality photo printing on these pages. I’m very happy. They are darker than on the computer so this year I’ll be sure to lighten everything before I send it in.

I put the dedication on the back cover for my family.

The girls love looking at it. They ask if its them in every single picture, “is that me? is that me? is that me?” haha.

So where did I end up printing and how and how much and all that?
Well let me just say first, yea, it was pricey. It could have been done much cheaper on regular paper but I want this to last forever. I don’t want pages torn out. I don’t want dog ears. I just want it to look pretty when I’m old and I’m looking through this book for the 8,347,462nd time.

I ended up printing through Millers Pro Lab.
Miller’s Signature Album.
12×12 Size, 35 spreads (70 pages)
Wrap-around custom image cover
Thin pages (1/32″ thick, you can order up to 50 pages/100 sides)
E-Surface Photographic paper
Price: $450

So there it is. I figure that with what I didn’t spend on scrapbook product and all that this year, I’m probably still saving money doing it this way. No binder, no filler pages, no papers, no embellishments. Plus, it’s nice and compact.

So there you have it. I hope you are loving your Project Life book as much as I am!!

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My Someday Photographer

April 25, 2013 by Lindsay Teague Moreno 1 Comment

We all have the one photographer in our mind that we say to ourselves “someday that person is going to take my family photos.” Right? Or is it just me? I don’t think it’s just me. You should make note of those photographers that you love and set out to have your photos created by them. They’re your “someday” photographer.

Well, I’ve drooled over Melissa Koehler’s photos for YEARS now (one tiny look and you’ll see why). When I was living in Colorado she was actually thinking about making a trip out and I was trying to scramble for ideas on how I might be able to afford to do it then. Melissa lives in California (San Diego to be exact) so getting a session with her would be tricky for sure. When we made plans to be in So Cal for vacation this year, a photo session with Melissa became a reality. I booked like 8 months in advance or something to make sure she had room for us and we drove from LA to San Diego just for this shoot. Look, when you want something, you gotta make it happen, right?!?! You don’t get the opportunity to have your family pictures done by someone you admire and love just every day!

Here she is. How cute is she? She’s good peeps.

Well, folks, we did it and I’m happy to say that I love EVERY. STINKING. ONE. of the photos Melissa took of the family. She’s adorable and funny and sweet and talented and I could go on and on. Money well spent. If you’re in the San Diego area or you ever plan to be. Save your pennies because she’s worth 8 times what she charges. True story.

Who wants to see some photos, huh?

Still can’t believe this is us. We’re like a real, live family and all that. I don’t know why it’s taking me 3 kids and 4.5 years to figure that out. Still feels strange.

Boston (left), Teagan (right). 4-years-old. Identical mirror twins. Can you believe that? What am I doing with twins? That’s one question I’ll be asking God once I get to heaven. Believe that.

Kenendy Elise. My little ninja. She looks so innocent here. Like she’d be the last child on EARTH to stick unknown objects up her nose and sneak candy into other rooms to eat it.

This is one of my faves. Look at those colors all around us. So good, Melissa. So good.

lovin’ on my dude. yep. we still got it goin’ on.

Me and my Addy girl. Still my baby. Don’t want her to EVER grow up!

These girls loved being at the beach with their daddy. It’s the thing they talk about the most about our vacation and considering we went to Disney Land, that means something. They ran away from waves for HOURS. He’s so good at being a girl daddy. That’s one question I never have to ask God about because the answer is so obvious. He’s just meant to be a daddy of girls.

haha. this makes me laugh. look at B & T laughing. Adorable.

Yea, I’d say this pretty much sums it up.

Daddy & Addy. BFF’s. I’m pretty sure she’s his! 😉

Boston Bean. Love this girl. She has decided to take the “give mom a run for her money” crown from Teagan lately. She’s lucky she’s cute!

Teagan. Sigh. Can this possibly be the same tiny baby I held on December 7th at 4 pounds?

Yep, he’s a superstud and yep, he still looks smokin’ hot in pink.

My little girls. This picture makes me so happy. I’m going to hang it on my wall and it will be there until the day I die. I’ll look back on it when I’m old and they’re having their own babies and I’ll remember how much I love them and that all the time and energy is 100% worth it. THIS picture right here is why you hire your favorite photographer and not the one that’s the cheapest. There’s just something different about it and it’s about the artist who creates it. Love you, Melissa, for this photo…well, all of them, but this one especially.

How long until they stop holding my hand? Hopefully never.

So who’s your “someday” photographer? Don’t let these years slip through your fingers, they’ll be gone before you know it.

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