January 11, 2009

We want to help you do Project 365!

The KOTM team has been working with Becky Higgins to create a solution for those who want to participate in Project 365. Our solution? We're providing a handful of the Project 365 components in downloadable files! Now you, your friend, your mom, your daughter...whoever... can join the 365 fun right now.

Here's what Becky has to say:

Click here for the downloadable file.

When you click on that link, you'll notice that a file is immediately downloading onto your computer. When you open the folder (called "Project 365"), you will notice a folder of JPGs and a folder with a PDF in it. There are some title page (and ending page) cards, some "week of" cards, some journaling cards, and a couple designer cards (to use as a background when you have smaller memorabilia on some days, instead of a photo). This certainly isn't everything from the kit, but it is definitely enough to help you do Project 365. You'll need to get some 4" x 6" divided page protectors, a 12" x 12" binder, and you're good to go. See the post just below this one for resources.

I realize that everyone has different levels of being tech-saavy, so I'll explain this as clearly as possible so as to not scare anyone away. : )

[ PDF ]

When you open the PDF, you'll notice 7 pages for you to print. For best results, print on a color laser jet printer. Don't have one? Try your local copy shop. When you go to print, the most important thing is to notice that you have the option to change the scale of what you're printing. It's probably set on some default setting right now, like "fit to page" or "shrink to printable area" or something along those lines. You don't want any of these. CLICK ON "NONE". Then print, cut, and use! Of course you'll only need one print-out of the title blocks. Since you'll want several of the "week of" cards and the journaling blocks, just print those specific pages however many times you want. Once you cut everything to the appropriate size (4" x 6"), these will slip right into any 4" x 6" photo album or page protectors (see previous post for people's recommendations on where to find these).

[ JPG ]

For those of you who are a little bit more digital-saavy, and you have some photo-editing software (such as Adobe Photoshop), you're going to love these JPGs. First of all you can print the title cards just as they are. You'll have photo-quality cards and you'll be saving your own ink (printer ink is expensive!). As for the "week of" and journaling cards, simply open the file you want to use in Photoshop, add your text (whatever font & size you want), save it as a JPG, and print it just as you would print any other picture that's a JPG!

Where to print? Most photo-printing services (such as Shutterfly, Snapfish, Scrapbook Pictures, and Costco) will mail your prints right to you. Here's one of the journaling cards, so you can see what to expect, and then a sample of journaling that I did on one of the JPGs:



So you would print this out and then stick it in one of the 4" x 6" slots on the same page as those 2 days' worth of photos. Make sense? Plus -- you could also just print out the JPG journaling blocks as photos, and use a photo-safe pen to handwrite your journaling (instead of typing it in Photoshop).

If you have questions about these downloads, please leave a comment here. If you have alternative suggestions for Project 365, please leave them in the Comments of the LAST post [on Becky's blog here] so that those looking for ideas will see yours there.

If you want to read Becky's complete post on this, you can do so here.

One other note. Because this KOTM blog is new and Becky had done so much preparatory work before Project 365 was even released, we wanted the KOTM blog to be a supplement to all the wonderful things Becky had to say and contribute--she truly is an inspiration! While the KOTM team will continue to share ideas on all the kits here, we thought it best to keep the bulk of the Project 365 information in one place--Becky's blog.

Please note: This is not a "digital" version. You can use it digitally or you can print them directly onto cardstock and use them that way.

38 comments:

  1. Well I guess that's it. I'm not a digital scrapper and have absolutely zero interest in going that route and it would cost me a small fortune to print these up so I guess I just wasted over a week taking pictures for Project 365. I was really excited about this too.

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  2. Thank you so much for making these available. I have been creating my own but this will make it easy to add some variety. I just finished my first complete week and and quite excited about how it's going.

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  3. The nail in the coffin, folks, for the hundreds of us out here who have no interest in going "digi" and really, REALLY, wanted Project 365. Ms. Higgins and the "team" might have well said in plain English that they have no intention of offering this kit again. I still feel duped and stuck. I suppose I'll "move on" (as Ms. Higgins requested) soon enough, but unless KOTM offers this kit again I'll not even consider purchasing anything further from CK.

    What a terrible waste of time and effort (for us, the consumers and them, the providers)from a company that I have been so loyal to for so long.

    I will not allow their empty hype to ever get to me again. I will continue checking in from time to time to see if they offer Project 365 again, but pretty much, I'm gone.

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  4. I think these downloads are wonderful. Thanks so much. I've been taking my pictures everyday and this weekend will scrap my pictures so far. This is not as time consuming as I first anticipated. These new beautiful downloads will allow even more flexibility.

    Those of you who are still so upset, need to re-read the information. This is not just for digital scrapbooking. I don't do digital. Try to get past your disappointment and be thankful that KOTM is offering you a beautiful alternative...FREE! I don't think any of us thought that would happen. I believe we all have a stash of paper we can be thankful to use this year. You just saved $40! YEAH!

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  5. Wow! I can't believe this has all been offered for FREE! What a wonderful alternative for those who weren't able to to get the kit. Just print, cut, and use them--nice!

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  6. Thank you for this offer. I still want to get my hands on the official kit, but this is a big help to keep me on track and not give up what I've started

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  7. Susan-
    It is digital to me. It has to be printed which is going to cost a small fortune over the course of a year. Anything that I have to print out I consider digital and I prefer the look of NICE PROFESSIONAL papers in my scrapbooks. If I wanted something that I could print up from my own computer I would have never bothered with getting into scrapbooking in the first place. This is nothing more than an attempt to get a whole bunch of angry customers to shut up. And since I just recently renewed all of my CK magazine subscriptions and also bought two books for classes that I'm in over at Big Picture Scrapbooking you can bet that I'm not about to shut up yet. No I didn't save $40 because if I use this digital kit then it's going to cost me probably $100 in ink at the very least to print it from my own computer. That's not to mention the cost of white cardstock to print on. AND my husband just printed one out and showed me the quality...FAR WORSE than what I would have gotten from the kit and I have a brand new HP printer. I don't have the money for a professional quality printer for just one project and I don't want it printed on photo paper at snapfish, costco or other printing places. If CK would just step up to the plate and ADMIT that they messed up and order more kits than many of us would be satisfied. Instead we're being told to be happy with what we've got. All I've wanted in this was for CK to step up to the plate and tell us if there would be more kits or not, I didn't want a digi kit.

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  9. agree with Susan, this is a great alternative and it is not digital, if you don't want or need it to be. These templates are basically photographs that you need to have printed. If you order prints at Walgreens or other photoprocessors, look for their deals. They just had, this past week, 50 prints for $5. So basically 10 cents each, You could print 52 "week of" cards for $5.20. You could even request "matte" finish so it won't look like a glossy photo. I wouldn't think of trying to print these on my printer, as it would cost a fortune. Even if CK said they would have more available, it would be at least April or May before we could get them. I am still disappointed at not getting an actual kit, but I applaud them for making this available. At least it's something to work with.

    I don't understand why people are taking this so personally, like CK orchestrated this plan to make our lives miserable. As Becky stated, they based the order on past sales. They are stuck with other kits that people didn't order. The economy is bad, gas prices were tremendous at the time the planned this back in the fall. They had no way of knowing that we would all go bonkers trying to get this kit. Yes, mistakes were made and some poor decisions, but I will not allow this to frustrate me any longer.Life is too precious.

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  10. There are 14 files. So to print up the journaling cards and all the other stuff it will come to somewhere around $80 just for the printing. That's not to mention that this doesn't give us the neat stickers that were in the kit, the album, the ribbon embellishments, the date stamp, transparencies or page protectors that were in the kit. If you're going to try to pacify the masses with a digital kit then it should have more than a few journaling cards.

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  11. wow - lots of sour grapes. I think it was very nice of them to offer this as an alternative. I like the fact I can use paper that suits my style to use with the project. I was on the fence of ordering or not since the colors in the kit weren't my style. So I think this is great. Of course on the other hand, I still think you guys should go to a pre-order system on these kits to avoid this type of debacle again

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  12. does anyone know where i can get some photo pockets that i could use please

    michelle uk

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  13. While I thank you for the download, I am still having some challenges.

    First of all, if you don't even know if you're ordering more, what is happening for all of us who were placed on pre-order? We were told that we would have a kit in 4-6 weeks, but it sounds like you haven't even ordered them again!

    Really, what's going on? I am not getting any answers from CK or from the email address they told us to contact! I just want to know what's going on!

    No, I don't want to print these out until I get my kit. I want to know if I'm getting my kit! If the answer is no - just tell me! I can handle it. I'll make other arrangements. Just tell me! Right now I'm waiting because I was told I'd get a kit in 4-6 weeks. I'd rather know sooner than later if I'm not so I can do something else. And thank you, but if I have to do it all myself, I'd pick different paper and different colors.

    On another note, it is not cheaper or even close to do this. Printing out 4x6 photos - even if they're journaling cards - is at least $.10. So, I'll need five printouts per week - that's $.50. So, for 52 weeks, plus $.60 for the cover and $.60 for the back, it's $27.20.
    Ok. Not too bad.
    However, I still need page protectors. I can't get the nifty ones like you have, but normal six-slot divided page protectors. So, depending on what brand you use and where you get them, you get about 10 for $5. That's $.50 each. So, I need 54. That's another $27. No, I don't live within three states of a Hobby Lobby for 50% off.
    On top of that, I need an album to put it all in. Sure, I can get a 3-ring binder from Staples for only $7, but not 12x12. The cheapest one I've been able to find is $25 plus shipping.
    That's already close to $80 for just the basics and doesn't include any of the overlays, stickers, dividers, etc.
    Now if I went to Staples, or a document printing service, it's at least $1 per page for color copies onto heavy weight paper ... still too expensive.

    So, I'd like to know if us 'backordered' people have been lied to. I want to know if you've ordered more kits for us. I want to know when you expect us to get ours.

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  14. i would be willing to pay for a full kit done digitally. Keep that in mind. We could just print out what we need and go from there.

    Thanks.

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  15. Wow - get over it! They are doing all they can! This is scrapbooking for goodness sakes! It's not the end of the world. If you don't want to go digital - don't. Use your existing scrapbook supplies and make your own. Get a 12x12 piece of paper and block out your images the same way Becky was doing with the page protectors - using your own colors and your own supplies. I'm sure you have ribbon and paper and everything - get your photos printed the way you usually do and block it out on a 12x12 page with your own supplies and stick it in your 12x12 page protector - DONE!It's not that hard people. Becky had a fabulous idea and she did a great job on the kit - she's sorry - everyone's sorry. It was something that just happened and scrapbooking is about the memories and moments. Don't let this stupid thing distract you from the main goal of 365. It's not about how you do it - it's about capturing your life and your families' life.

    I myself AM a digital scrapbooker and I personally prefer that way. I created my own digital kit for this and it is based off of Becky's kit and it will work wonderfully - but as a paper scrapbooker you can do it too. Take some time and make your own pages - cut out week cards - journaling cards out of your own supply stack and put together the book in not very long - using Becky's kit as a template. Just block out all your pages - then when you get your photos printed - just stick them on the page - along with your journaling and you're done! This doesn't have to be exact or cost a lot - it's about the photos.

    Okay, I'm sorry - I'm done. I hate it when people get mad about stupid things - that is life - get over it and be happy. This was never supposed to be about the kit - it's about the idea. Scrapbooking is about capturing memories - sharing in the lives of your family. It shouldn't be about paper supplies.

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  16. I would also be willing to pay for digital elements of the kit. I printed out pages three through seven of the files onto Bazzill cardstock, and they turned out great. Of course I would have liked to have the kit, but this is a great alternative. I just wish they would offer more of it- love the designs!!!!

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  17. Wow - thanks for giving us the digital files for this kit. It's really helpful for someone like me who wasn't able to get the kit. I love Photoshop and want to get better at it, so I now have a good excuse to learn some more.

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  18. Thanks for the free files! I will use them from time to time to add variety to my own project. I so totally loved this idea and wasn't going to let 'no kit' keep me from documenting a year in my family's lives so I started my own project 365- took pics each day, scribbled daily thoughts in a notebook, cut from cardstock about a months worth of jounal cards, made 12X12 pages with my papers (goodness I have so much anyway), used stamps and ink distressed, blah, blah. Tonight I printed the photos of days 1-10 of Jan., rewrote my notes onto the journal cards using colors that coordinated with my papers and now I have four gorgeous pages, in my humble opinion. Maybe a little more work than the kit, but it is still WAY easy. Thanks CK and Becky for the idea and CK for giving me the files for free.

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  19. This is a wonderful gesture on the part of ck and Becky. Thanks for the
    free alternative.

    They really are trying to make us happy! I don't understand all the angry comments. Yes, it will cost more to try and produce the same kit ourselves-that's the point of the great value the KOTMs are!!!

    I will still order a kit if they come in again, but this will keep me busy
    in the meantime.

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  20. Thanks , love the downloads! Can we please have more of the patterns though of the journaling cards and headers ??...i printed out 5 pages and they all look the same because well, they are!!!!!!!!!!!
    there are 19 journal card patterns and we got 4 for the download... please please please??

    I love the option, but thing the same pages are going to look BLAH! you can only mix them up so many ways.

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  21. I'm so happy right now! I called CK customer service because this blasted 'back-ordered' thing was driving me nuts and nobody was answering my emails to CK CS and Mr. Worner. So, Monday comes and I can call!

    John from CS told me that the original 4,000 kits had not all been received from the manufacturer. If you were placed on back-order, you would be getting one of the original 4,000 when CK got their second shipment in to the warehouse.

    Therefore, if you are on back-order, you WILL get a kit.

    I know it doesn't help all the people who didn't get any kit at all, but for those of us who have been disappointed and confused about 'back-order' status, I thought I'd share. We're getting a kit!

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  22. I just want to be another voice that says a huge THANK YOU for the downloads. They'll be a GREAT way to keep on track with P365. I'm still taking pictures and love this concept... AND - I am still holding out hope that the kit will come available!! I think you'll find that you'll have the demand for ANOTHER huge order! Well worth your time! Let us know soon, please if that is a possibility!!!

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  23. Jessica: did John have any kind of a timeframe for the rest of the 4000 arriving? I'm in the pre/back-order status also

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  24. It would be really nice if more kits were produced. I'm one of the international costumers who didn't even have a chance to get through... Could someone in the KOTM team tell us when you will know about producing more kits? Please?

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  25. Thank you so much for the downloads. That is so awesome Becky and her designer were able to put them together and post them for all of us to use:) Thank you, thank you, thank you:)

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  26. Thank you for the digital files. I've been taking digital photos every day to document everyday of our lives this year. However, I'm still hoping for the kit to become available again - perhaps offering it as a preorder like the School Days kit by Becky Higgins in the past. I agree with everyone that the kit is a great deal for the price and trying to duplicate that on our own would cost a fortune. Currently, I'm using shuttercal.com to document our daily photos and am inserting bits of journalling there as well.

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  27. Okay.....got over it, went to Ebay, bought what Pebbles Inc. calls "Share and Tell". Cool, cool 12x12 brown leather album, page protectors, even journaling cards and papers cut 4x6 size. Creating Keepsakes and Becky Higgens are not the only people in the scrapbook world that can develop something nice for us.

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  28. check out the prices on ebay... up to $200. i'm upset for those like me who weren't able to get on.

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  29. scrappymomof3.

    I hear what you're saying. Though I would chime in to support you.

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  30. Thanks so much for the wonderful download.

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  31. Thank you so much for sharing! No one has to give anything away for free, but you did it anyway =) What sweethearts you are!

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  32. Michelle --- Archivers has some 3 ring binder albums and 6 pocket refills in the store that you could use to make your own kit (they had Archivers brand and American Crafts brand). With a coupon they aren't overly expensive. I also found a cute album and refills online from Fancy Pants designs. It's not exactly the same, and will overall cost more than the kit, but it's a decent alternative and offers more options for personal style. It's better than paying > $100 on e-bay for the kit. I think it's more about capturing the memories from the year, than the kit itself.

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  34. Just printed all the p365 downloads on my old HP that I use for journaling, not even my good photo printer and they look fantastic! I really can't believe all the grief that is being spread because people couldn't get this kit. I hope that not being able to get this kit is the worst thing that happens to me this year! Let's remember this is scrapbooking, not life or death. I appreciate the free downloads that have been provided so I can easily begin this great project. This will probably be my father's last year of life, all the more reason to have a daily keepsake of this year. CCK & Becky thanks for the great idea and maybe many of us need to keep a gratitude scrapbook. : )

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  35. Thank you CK for offering this download. I am extremely grateful to use whatever you have provided and I am doing some creative things with it, and having a blast! Some people take things too seriously it's unbelievable, but it's not stopping me!

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  36. Please someone help. I can not open the files. I am not sure if I have unzipped them or not. I am not a digital scrapper and I am not sure what to do. I am very familiar with CS3 and Elements. I can use them if I can open them.

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  37. Oh my word people--chill out! This is really ticking me off. We are offered something for FREE and you all freak out. It's too bad for those of us who didn't get a kit...but it's not the end of the world. I promise, there are bigger tragedies out there! I think the idea is awesome and it sounds like if you are on a back order status--you'll get your kit. Do you REALLY think a company as huge and successful as CK would LIE to you? Please. This is a great gesture and with some creativity on our part we can do our project 365 without every last detail that the kit offered.

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