Ali Edwards's Blog, page 127

Project Life® 2018 | Week Forty-Four (Halloween)

Last week I got inspired by some new Crate Paper Halloween products I ordered from Scrapbook.com and decided to tell the story of that week in my Project Life® album for 2018. 

I love the opportunity to support other memory keeping companies! The industry has completely changed and evolved from when I first starting scrapbooking back in 2002. Over all those years I've used products from a variety of companies and then in the last few years have moved to using mainly just the ones I create and offer (for probably obvious reasons). That said, I still love seeing what other people are designing and I love supporting my fellow memory keeping companies when I find things that help me tell the stories I want to tell. 

For this particular week I loved mixing the October 2018 Stories By The Month™ kit (digital version available here) with the cut products included in 
Crate Paper's Hey Pumpkin Ephemera Pack. Here's to finding ways to motivate ourselves to get stories told! 

Check out my process video below to see how this all came together. 

My process for this week started the same way I begin most weeks: photos first. 

In addition to those 4x6 and 3x4 photos I also knew that I wanted to enlarge some of the photos I took on Halloween last year and use those as inserts within this spread. I love the mix of photo sizes and the ability to add larger images into this project. 

For this week I decided to add in three inserts: 2, 8.5x11 pages and one 3x8 page to tell the story of our Halloween. I love that these pages could be on their own in a traditional album or they can live here in Project Life®. 

And man, I so love full page photos. 

On top of the photos in the main spread I added chipboard pieces from both the October and November 2018 Stories By The Month™ kits along with sequins + mini brads from the Crate Paper Ephemera Pack. 

For this story I printed 3 full page 8.5x11 photos and paired those with the Boo Pattern Paper and a big journaling oval on top. 

Those awesome banner flags are from the Ephemera Pack. 

Here's a look at the inserts outside the album: 

Tucked between the 8.5x11 page protectors I added a 3x8 page protector with an additional photo and some journaling cards from the Stories By The Month™ 2018 October kit. 

Remember that you can add photos directly onto journal cards vs. feeling like they always have to hold words. 

To tell my main story of Halloween I created an oval shape with a Halloween 2018 title and added my journaling below. I also added a sheet of vellum on top of the pattern paper - just personal preference. 

You can download that graphic to use on your own project below 

You can download the Halloween oval (without my text + date) to use in your own project here.

On the last enlarged photo I aded a super cute tag from the Ephemera kit. 

Here's a look at the spread without the insert: 

Totally loved how this one came together. Makes me excited for the next season to come around again.

HOW TO VIDEO
SUPPLIES

October 2018 Stories By The Month™ (digital version here)
Crate Paper Hey Pumpkin Collection Boo Pattern Paper 
Crate Paper Hey Pumpkin Collection Ephemera Pack 
8.5 x 11 Page Protectors
3 x 8 Page Protector Vellum
Design A Project Life® Page Protectors
Label Stickers
Phrases Rolling Stamp
Avery Index Tabs
Epson PictureMate PM400 Printer
Canon Pixma MG7720 Printer

If you'd like to take a deeper dive into my Project Life® process check out my go-at-your-own-pace 
Storytelling With Project Life® online workshop. 

AE Creative Team | July 2019 Stories By The Month™ Digital Kit

Happy Friday friends! Today we are delighted to share the awesome projects created by our Creative Team using the July 2019 Stories By the Month™ Digital Kit.

Jess Forster

Amy Gretchen 

Laura Wonsik

Jen Schow

Jenny Theriault

Lisa Varshine

Kelly Ishmael

Jen Whittmore 

Morgan Beal

Theresa Doan

Stories of summer, stories of kindness, this kit is perfect for all of your July memories. As always, a huge thanks to our awesome team for sharing their creative inspiration with all of us!

Project Life® 2018 | Week Thirty-Four

Filling in the pockets of
Project Life® 2018 - this is Week Thirty-Four. 

For this spread I wanted to play around with more products from the Foodie Collection along with other pieces from my stash to support my stories. I ended up relying on the Foodie Collection, August Stories By The Month™ from 2018 (digital version here), and a bunch of hearts from past kits and add ons. 

This spread is also a great reminder that longer stories have a home in Project Life®. 

Here's a look at the stories I told in Week 34: 

For my unifying elements this week I ended up diving into my box of heart shaped embellishments (read more about my current method of organization here) and pulled out a couple of recent fabric hearts, a chipboard heart, and plastic hearts. On top of the fabric hearts I added word phrase stickers from this Week In The Life™ Sticker Bundle. I loved having one group of embellishments for the center photos and another one for the 4x6 daily photos. 

This spread also includes two 6x8 inserts that hold a longer story about Simon's Family Life Merit Badge batch cooking project. I took the text I included in this post and copied and pasted it onto canvases in Photoshop and recolored the backgrounds to two different greens. 

I added chipboard from the Foodie Collection as accents. 

Avery Index Tabs were added along the edge of the inserts and I used more stickers from the Week In The Life™ Sticker Bundle inside. 

Here's a look at the right + left sides fo the spread without the longer story insert: 

Cards for this spread were included with the Stories By The Month™ physical kit from 2018. The digital version is available here. 

Loving all those hearts! I'm also loving having them all together and easily accessible in one of my main supply drawers. 

HOW TO VIDEO

Here's a look at how this spread came together: 

SUPPLIES
Foodie Collection Journal Cards Foodie Collection Chipboard Label Stickers August 2017 Stories By The Month™ Digital Kit (was the August 2018 Stories By The Month™ Physical kit) 6x8 Page Protectors Design A Project Life® Page Protectors Plastic + Fabric Hearts (past kit add ons) Week In The Life™ Sticker Bundle Tiny Attacher Epson PictureMate PM400 Canon Pixma MG7720  Rolling Date Stamp Avery Index Tabs

If you'd like to take a deeper dive into my Project Life® process check out my go-at-your-own-pace Storytelling With Project Life® online workshop. 

Use Your Stuff | Around The Table with the Foodie Collection

This whole thing started with a conversation. 

I mentioned something to Katie about how much I loved these little rubber food icons we recently in the last few months with the Foodie Collection. I told her that I thought I was probably hoarding them because I liked them so much. I figured some of you guys might understand this sentiment. She reminded me, like I often remind you, to use your stuff to get the stories told. 

So that's what I'm doing today.

We make products to help you tell your stories - that is our goal. We don't have any plans to stop doing this anytime soon and we want you to actually use the stuff and celebrate your life and pay attention and enjoy the process of documenting and tell stories for yourself and your family. 

With all that in mind I'm starting a new occasional series that I'm calling Use Your Stuff. 

Today's focus is on incorporating those Foodie Collection rubber pieces as a jumping off point or support for my story. 

I decided to create a 2 page 12x12 traditional scrapbook layout to hold an "around the table" story. I gathered photos from the beginning of this year until now and printed them as vertical 4x6 images on my Epson PictureMate PM400. I love using photos as the foundation of my story. 

This isn't the first time I've told an "around the table" story and it won't likely be the last. These stories can be about food, eating, conversation, or something different entirely. It's about using the table as a lens for stories we encounter in our daily lives. 

Here's a story I told way back in the beginning of the Story Kit™ subscription for the theme of Gatherings: 

I so totally love a good yesterday + comparison and these two pages fill that need for me. 

Stories matter. 

Here's a look at the full spread I created: 

As you'll see in the process video below, one of my first steps was to use the Foodie Collection 4x6 Stamp and black Memento ink to create a home for each one of the rubber food pieces. I used red line tape to adhere the rubber pieces onto the handout circles. 

For the title I cut out the large "around the table" circle from the 4x6 journaling card set and added a heart chipboard. 

For the 4x6 vertical journaling card I used one of the Foodie Collection Digital Journal Card files and adjusted it to a vertical 4x6 and added my story. I added the "feed me please" chipboard to the top. 

THE STORY

Family and food and tables and breakfasts and lunches and snacks and dinner and homework and conversations and reading and sometimes screens. This is where we show up when it’s time to eat. Sometimes we are all there at the same time, but many times these days it’s a random combination of one or two or three or more. It’s what is real in our lives right now. Sometimes I cook, sometimes Aaron cooks, and sometimes we get something delivered. The constant here right now is that it’s never the same and we all just embrace it. There’s laughter, there’s lectures, there’s reminders to wash hands and put your plate in the dishwasher and grab a napkin, there’s sharing about school, there’s planning for the day, there’s vacation dreaming, there’s reading the paper, there’s looking outside and seeing squirrels and birds and cats tails swishing back and forth. It’s our own around the table right now in 2019. Loving us as we are right now.

PROCESS VIDEO

Let me know in the comments below if you have any questions and I hope this encourages you to dive into the stuff you have to start/continue getting your stories told. 

SUPPLIES
Foodie Collection Rubber Shapes Foodie Collection Journal Card Set Foodie Collection 4x6 Stamp Set Foodie Collection Chipboard Bundle Foodie Collection Digital Journal Cards Foodie Collection Bundle (option if you are interested in all the things) Epson PictureMate PM400 Memento Tuxedo Black Ink Pad White Cardstock Redline Adhesive Tape

Introducing My Story : A Collection For Kids + Kids At Heart

I'm excited to announce that tomorrow we will be launching a brand new collection for kids + kids at heart called My Story. 

My Story is created with kids between the ages of 8 + 12 in mind, with the goal of creating products to encourage storytelling and documentation through the process of play. 

The idea of this collection is something we've been talking about behind the scenes for a long time. With five kids between the ages of 10 and 17 I'm always looking for creative, fun, and meaningful projects that don't involve a phone or other screen. 

All products will be available here on my site on Thursday, July 18th at 9am Pacific.
Links will be active when products go live. 

Here's a video overview by Anna + Audrey that walks you through what will be available tomorrow: 

Here are still images of the new My Story collection: 

Starter Kit : $39.99 | Includes 3x8 navy cloth album with page protectors, adhesive backed wood veneer people, storage pouch, circle puffy stickers, paper stickers, chipboard stickers, 3x8 prompt pages, 2x3 cards, 3x6 journal cards. 

Along with the Starter Kit we've got some additional fun things to play with: 

My Stories 4x6 Stamp Set : $15.99

My Story Rubber Shapes : $9.99

My Story Clickable Pen : $2.99

My Story Washi Tape Bundle

My Story Pocket Bundle : $12.99 | Plastic pocket, transparent "Stay Magical," and paper pocket

My Story Patch Pack : $9.99 | Adhesive backed

My Story "Yes You Can" Charm : $5.99 | This is awesome hooked onto the outside of the album. 

My Story Pie Chart Charm : $5.99 | This is awesome hooked onto the outside of the album.

My Story Transparent Dividers + Labels : $11.99 

PLAYING WITH MY STORY

Audrey + Anna had an awesome time testing out the products and starting their own My Story projects. 

A couple things I learned (or was reminded about) while watching and filming these two last week: 

I love how kids just play. They aren't worried how it's all going to turn out, they are just enjoying the process. This project is an awesome opportunity to continue to encourage that kind of play. 
I love seeing what they chose to write in response to the prompts. I love the discussion between the two that happened while they worked side by side. This is an awesome project to work on with a friend or a group of friends or to work on alongside an adult (it would be super cool for a kid + a grandparent to play with this togheter). Conversation seems to come naturally while working on responding to the prompts. I love seeing how they decided to add their family structures to the front of their album. I didn't give them any direction - just gave them the products and let them start playing. You'll hear Anna talk about it in the video below - which is totally funny and an awesome way to own this piece of her story. I love the opportunity to simply start talking about how their own stories matter. 

While they were working on their albums I turned on my camera and asked them a few questions about writing their story:

So fun. 

As with all my projects, there's no right or wrong here. 

I'm so excited to see what they end up adding to their albums over time. We've got additional products planned for future releases that continue to encourage this kind of storytelling. 

Thank you so much for checking out this new My Story collection. 

Let me know if you have any questions below!

AE Creative Team | August 2019 Stories By The Month™ Physical Kit

Hi everyone! We are delighted to bring you another round of creative inspiration from our awesome Creative Team! This week we are sharing the projects they created using the August 2019 Stories By The Month™ Physical Kit.

Jess Forster

Amy Gretchen 

Laura Wonsik

Jenny Theriault

Lisa Varshine

Brandi Kincaid

Kelly Ishmael

Jen Whittemore

Jen Schow

Morgan Beal

As always we are so grateful to our Creative Team for sharing their projects and the stories of their lives.

Project Life® 2019 | June

Today I'm sharing how I brought together my words and photos in my
Project Life® 2019 album for June. 

This month I decided to incorporate a few 6x8 page protectors as inserts and play around with some transparent embellishments in a few of the pockets. I also knew I wanted to end this month with a sheet of pattern paper I love from 
Crate Paper that celebrates summer. 

I started the process by simply viewing what photos I took in June and printed out a bunch sized to 3 inch x 3 inch to fit into the back of the page protector I used 
last month. 

I'm loving the process of revisiting my photos at the end of the month for the specific purpose of deciding which ones to incorporate into this project. This time I printed out 17, 3x3 photos and figured I would make them work. 

You can download the "From My Camera Roll" freebie word art here. 

As I mentioned above, the other thing I wanted to play around with this month was incorporating 6x8 inserts to hold journaling, photos and embellishments (mainly from the 
June Stories By The Month™ kit). I also recently purchased this pack of plastic hearts + stars and was excited to incorporate them as well. Check your stash because you might already have a fun collection of plastic hearts and stars that you could use if you like this concept. 

For the pockets with the stars I ended up adding a few other smaller star embellishments from my stash and then stitched across the top of the pockets to keep those in place. 

Avery Index tabswere added along the outside edge of all the inserts. On the front of them I used stickers from the June Stories By The Month™ kit and on the back I used phrases from this roller stamp. 

I love how it feels like I've included a little summer story booklet in between the two larger 9x12 page protectors. 

Journaling was added to the "things I love about June" card and on the "June Details" card below. 

I also added fun circle puffy stickers that were a recent kit add on option on the outside and inside of the page protectors in a couple places. 

You can also see above that I cut down one of the 9x12 page protectors (this one) to hold the remaining photos I wanted to include and cut up some of the journal cards from the kit as well. 

Totally love the see-through and layering happening this month with the page protectors. 

Here's an overview video of my process of putting this together: 

SUPPLIES
June 2019 Stories By The Month™ (digital version available here) Crate Paper Sunny Days Pattern Paper 9x12 Page Protectors 2B (3x3 pockets) 9x12 Page Protector 1B (one 9x12 pocket) 6x8 Page Protector 4A (three pockets) 6x8 Page Protector 2A (4, 3x4 pockets) Studio Calico Plastic Heart + Star Pack Tiny Attacher Phrases Roller Stamp Avery Index Tabs Epson PictureMate PM400 Printer Past Story Kit™ Add Ons 

Journey Story Kit™ + August Stories By The Month™

In the
Story Classroom this month we are focusing on stories related to the theme of Journey.  

Here are a few thoughts about this particular theme: 

We are all currently on our own life journey, taking it one day at a time. There are ups and downs and boring parts and exciting side roads. This month we are taking a closer look at our own personal journey to excavate stories. You might also use these prompts as jumping off points for travel documentation.

Initial story ideas for the Journey theme include: 

Where are you at on your own personal journey at this point in time?

What is your favorite journey that you’ve embarked on with family or friends in the course of your life?

Is there a story you can tell that begins by thanking someone for being a part of your journey?

If you are new to the Story Subscription program, check out all the details 
here. 

If you are already a subscriber the content in the classroom will be available to you on the 15th.

STORY KIT™

Here's a look at
the
Story Kit™ contents for Journey:

Here's a video overview of the 
Story Kit™ and Add-On options this month:

STORY STAMP™

The Journey Stamp Set:

Here's a video overview of the 
Story Stamp™ and Add-On options this month: 

DIGITAL STORY KIT™ (Included with the STORY CLASS)

Your digital kit and the classroom and any Add-Ons purchased will be available to you on the 15th once your card has been charged for the month. 

Here's a look at what's included in the Digital Story Kit™ for Journey: 

And a couple peeks at the layouts I created with the kits this month in addition to the one featured at the top of this post (
full details, including process videos and how-to handout, are included with subscription):

Again, thanks so much for subscribing and/or considering my
Story Subscription program! If you have any questions about this program please let me know below in the comments. 

STORIES BY THE MONTH™

Stories By The Month™ kits include 4x6 chipboard, 3x4 and 4x6 cards, a 3x4 stamp, a sticker sheet, and an embellishment (wood veneer, cork, etc). Stories By The Month™ Kits are all based on the designs we offered digitally each month throughout 2018. 

Here is a full look at the kit for August: 

And a video overview: 

This subscription is a great option for those who are looking to tell more calendar/everyday life sorts of stories. 

ADD ON OPTIONS 

This month the Add On options include a set of 3x8 tags, wood veneer travel icons, puffy geotag stickers (2 sheets), and a set of rubber triangles. 

Add On options are available to all Story Kit™, Story Stamp™, and Stories By The Month™ subscribers 
(this excludes Digital Story Kit/Story Class subscribers since you don't have any part of your subscription shipped already). Please note that the Crafters Ink pad option will only be available to Story Stamp™ subscribers. 

Current and new subscribers can select + purchase Add-On's via your new drop-down menu access under your user name in the top right corner of the site. If you subscribe to more than one you will have a Box for each subscription and the ability to purchase Add-On's for each one. Depending on product availability subscribers may be able to purchase the Add-On's after the Add-On period has ended and regular shop shipping rates will apply because they will ship separately from the kit.

Check out
this post for more information about this new subscription, including differences between the subscription options offered. 

AE Creative Team | MOVE Story Kit™

Hello friends! Today we are delighted to share with you some creative inspiration with projects made by our Creative Team using the MOVE Story Kit™. And just as a reminder, today, Friday, July 12th, is the last day to subscribe to the Story Kit™ and receive the MOVE theme.

Ingunn Markiewicz

Brandi Kincaid

Jen Schow

Amy Gretchen 

Laura Wonsik

Jenny Theriault

Jess Forster

Kelly Ishmael

Morgan Beal

Theresa Doan

As always, we are so grateful to our awesome team for sharing their stories and creative inspiration with all of us! 

Project Life® 2018 | Completed First Half Year Album Overview

Today I wanted to share a quick look at the completed first half of my 2018 Project Life® album. 

One of the things I try to keep in mind related to memory keeping: our stories don't expire. 

In this video I'm sharing a walkthrough of the fist half of my 2018 Project Life® album. In 2018 I was doing weekly documentation as I'd done each year since I started back in 2010 (this is different than my approach for 2019 which is monthly - working on my spread for June right now). Many of the spreads you'll see in this video were created using products from my monthly scrapbook subscription: Story Kits™. Each month of that subscription I include a process video showing how I used the products to complete a Project Life® spread. 

If you'd like to learn more about my approach to Project Life® generally over the years check out my Storytelling With Project Life® workshop.