I tried out the Project Life app last week and was impressed for the most part. My first thought was that it had the potential to help me catch up with 2014's album very, very quickly. And after working with it, I think it does have that potential with a few small caveats.
What I liked:
I've made two layouts so far and I loved being able to have square corners! Square corners create such a clean look and I love that the app allows you to customize the corners on both the photos and the cards - something I've always struggled with when using the paper project life products. In the app, you can change any of the layouts to rounded or square corners. Love that!
I also liked how quickly I could access my photo albums both on my phone and on Dropbox. That's invaluable because I take way too many photos to keep them all on my phone. Being able to pull from Dropbox is much more likely to make me use the app, honestly.
The app is only $2.99 and comes loaded with quite a few layouts and kits already available. That's a great deal! You have the option to buy other layout packs and product kits but all of the basics are included in the app price.
And really, it is quick! I made each of these layouts in only about 15 minutes! Friends said that they were whipping them up in only 5 minutes so I was surprised that it took me 15 minutes. But let's face it, there's no way I'd do a traditional or digi layout in only 15 minutes so that's still pretty darn speedy! I can't wait to get this concert layout printed. I may still add a bit to the page - it seems to be screaming for a bit of handwriting around the edges and some red embellishments on top of photos - but I don't have to do any of that. It's a finished layout in 15 minutes. Pretty cool!
I love that it saves as a print-ready photo. The app would be fairly worthless without it but I was still a bit surprised that it saved as such a large image.
The caveats:
You still need to edit photos in another app before you use them for Project Life. The app comes with a few editing options but not nearly enough for me to edit my photos in a way that I like. For these two layouts, I opted to use just the app's tools and I definitely think my photos would look much better if they were edited in a photo app first.
Because the photos need to be edited elsewhere, you need to take that time into account when calculating how quickly you can actually put together a page. Just like with regular Project Life scrapbooking, you have to build in time to edit and print photos. You need to build in that time for the app, too.
I would love to see more layout options with fewer pockets. I think many of us like to use larger photos or inserts so it'd be great to see options that allow for a bigger photo on the page. I would happily pay for those add-ons.
Since the pages are designed to be printed directly from the app, I was a bit surprised that there wasn't a drop shadow option. I have a feeling these layouts are going to look much "flatter" than my other digi layouts and that worries me.
Rounded corners:
Same layout but with square corners:
Overall, I think the app is a great one! And it could be a real game changer for the digital industry. I'm interested to see how much this catches on. For only $2.99, I think we're going to see a lot of non-digi scrappers trying it out.
I'm definitely going to use the app but out of all of the issues that might stop me from using it as much as I had hoped is the lack of drop shadows. I'm a digi scrapper all the way and I don't like my layouts to look flat. But I've ordered prints of these layouts from Persnickity Prints and I'll let you know how they turn out. :)
Happy scrapping!
