Woohoo, the 2012 edition of Week In the Life is finally here and I couldn’t be more excited! As I’ve mentioned before, this project is definitely high on my faves list and my 2011 WITL photo book I created last year is one of my favorite scrapbooking projects ever. So I suspect it goes without saying that I’m totally on board with this project for this year.
But my biggest concern has been how can I make sure this album is different from last year? I mean, it hasn’t even been a year since I finished my album and as a family of two adults with no kids, it’s not like our lives are that different from last July. Well other than we aren’t melting quite as much here in Texas just yet, haha.
But I’ve come up with something I’m pretty excited about so here’s a little peek into my plan for Week In the Life 2012.
1) 7×7 Blurb Photo Book
I had such a great experience with Blurb for my photo book last year that I’ve decided to go with them again for this year. Only this time I’ve chosen to use their 7×7-inch Small Square book instead just to keep it interesting. But I’m still going to design it in Adobe InDesign like I did last year so it will also be a clean and modern design with the focus on photos and words since I loved how that look turned out so much last year.
2) A Mix of Instagram and Regular Photos
One of my concerns about doing WITL this year has been how can I push myself to make sure the photos this time are different from last time – that I’m not just taking photos of the same things from the same angle.
So while I’m not normally a huge Instagram user, I thought this would be a fun time to play around with it and see what kind of photos I can get. Plus it’ll cut down on the amount of photo editing I have to do when I’m putting the album together. I’ll still be taking some photos with my DSLR but I think the mix of photos will be a fun change from last year.
3) Focus on Topics rather than Days
One of the things I loved about my WITL album last year was the highlights pages I included in the end. So I’ve decided for this year to take those pages to the next level and really focus this week on capturing a more broad view of our life rather than a day to day play by play of what we’re doing. I think it’ll be a nice twist on my album from last year.
4) Capture Quotes
One thing I wished I’d done more of last year was capture more of our conversations so I’m going to be using my handy dandy notebook to try and capture some awesome quotables, hehe.
And that’s pretty much my plan at the moment! As with anything I’m sure it’ll evolve as the week goes on but I’m really excited to see how it turns out!
How about you? Anyone playing along with Week In the Life this week? I’d love to hear your plan!
And of course if you’re still in need of some Week In the Life templates, be sure to check out my Photo Book Frenzy templates in my shoppe here or at Sweet Shoppe Designs.
Want to know what this whole crazy Week In the Life thing is about? Learn more about Week In the Life here. You can also find my 2011 WITL posts here.
Hi Lynnette – your 2011 book inspired me last night to stop thinking about AWITL and to do it. So I downloaded your template last night and with that as my guide…so far so good. While I am not going to do any of the assemble till a week or so from now, I have a question…Do I need to use InDesign and the InDesign Plug-in to print the book using blurb? I am not proficient at digital scrapbooking (played around in a trial version of elements that is it) Just want to know what to do when I get that far.
Ack, so sorry Melissa – totally thought I’d already replied to your comment!
The answer is nope, you don’t need InDesign to print using Blurb. You will need a program that handles layers (like Photoshop Elements or Photoshop) to use the templates but otherwise, you’ll just crop and upload your pages to the Blurb book making tool.
I actually have a 2-part video tutorial in this post that shows how to do it. Part 1 focuses on resizing the templates for Blurb and part 2 talks about cropping and uploading to Blurb’s online Bookify tool: http://modern-school.flywheelsites.com/2012/02/24/how-to-use-the-photo-book-frenzy-templates-to-create-your-own-photo-book/
Hope that helps and if you have any other questions, just let me know!
I lucked into finding your WITL 2011 project last night… and, while I wasn’t planning on participating this time around, you have me totally inspired! As another childless couple, it’ll be a challenge not to take the exact same pictures every day, but I’m going to try.
Can’t wait to see what you come up with this year!
Woohoo, child-free unite! haha I found the thing that helped a lot last year was breaking my days up into chunks (morning, lunch, afternoon, evening, night, etc) and just focusing on capturing 2-3 chunks of my day each day. That way I wasn’t constantly feeling pressure to take photos when it was just me around a lot of the time. You’ll still get the full picture of your week once you put everything together.
I am also intending to do a 7×7 blurb book for Week in the Life. I had planned to make my own templates, but given I ADORED your 2011 book, I think I could be convinced to buy some templates. 🙂
Are you intending to release your 2012 pages as templates? Are you aiming to share photos of your pages this week, or is a few months more realistic?
Thanks.
I’m only focusing on capturing this week so I won’t be sharing any photos of my finished pages until at least next week, more likely in stages throughout May as things come together.
If you were wanting to purchase templates, I’d actually recommend the Photo Book Frenzy 12×12-inch templates that are already in my shoppe. They can easily be resized to fit a 7×7 inch book since the square proportions are the same. I haven’t decided if I’ll be releasing templates based off this year’s album yet (have to see how it turns out! haha) but if I do end up doing that eventually, they’d most likely be 12×12 as well so you’d be resizing them either way. Plus the Photo Book Frenzy ones are already ready to go!
Let me know if you have any other questions about them!
I’m going to try to do it this year. I’ve kept notes today and even managed a few pictures. But photos aren’t allowed at my job (in a jail) and it’s hard to document my day (talked to a guy for murder. watched guy get tazed doesn’t make for a good layout lol). But I’m trying.
I hear ya – I think everyone struggles with moments like that! My advice is to not worry about the photos you can’t capture. The photos you do take will still tell the story when all put together. This project is very definition of the sum being greater than the parts!
I am so looking forward to your WITL posts. 🙂
Thanks Vera!
I have only just discovered your blog and am looking forward to seeing what you create 🙂
Woohoo, welcome Diane! So glad you found my little slice of the web!
I too have only just discovered your blog. Love your creativity. Looking at getting the WITL templates but wondering if the ones on your website are different that the ones in the Sweet Shoppe. The one here seems not to include the cover pages but seems to have a more generic highlights template. Is that right? Just trying to sort out which would work better… Thanks again for making the world of digital scrapbooking a little more accessible to people like me.
Hi Jorie! So glad you found my little digi home!
To answer your question about the WITL templates, the only real difference between the WITL templates at SSD and the templates here is the packaging. At SSD I offer the Highlight templates and Photo Book Frenzy templates separately, where as here at Nettio Designs they’re sold together. The Highlights Templates at SSD got the biggest overhaul as I added color to the templates to make the preview pretty and also added two additional copies of the topic highlights template with the title switched out on each one: Fashion, Food and Tech for people who didn’t want to add in their own.
But the pricing is the same and the templates themselves are the same. Both versions also include the cover templates in the download as well (just haven’t had a chance to update the preview here yet!). So it’s really up to you! I think it’s easiest to get them here since it’s a single product but if you’re more comfortable shopping at Sweet Shoppe Designs, that works too!
Hope that helps and if you have any other questions, just let me know!