Ali Edwards's Blog, page 150

February 2018 Digital Release

Happy Saturday! New digital products for February are now available. 

This month's releases include a new Digital Stories By The Month™ Digital Kit (this will become a physical kit for next year's Stories By The Month™ Physical Subscription), and the For The Love Digital Story Stamp™, 

UPDATE: Moving forward we will be referring to our "Monthly Digital Kits" kits (this is what we called them as they were released each month in 2017) as our Digital Stories By The Month™ Kits. These digital kits will be released monthly and these designs will turn into the physical products for the subscription program and will be released in 2019. 

At this time we are not offering Digital Stories By The Month™ Kits as a subscription option. 

In case you missed the announcement about our new physical Stories By The Month™ Subscription you can read about that here. That subscription is currently on a Waiting List - please sign up if you are interested and we will active you at the first available opportunity. 

NEW PRODUCT BREAKDOWN FOR FEBRUARYStories By The Month™ Digital Kit: February 2018For The Love Digital Story Stamp

For The Love Of Books | What I Read In January 2018

January was a good reading month for me. I was super satisfied with the variety of stories I read last month - they all kept me interested and hungry for more. 

One of my reading goals for 2018 is to read one non-fiction book per month and I started the year off by reading The Year Of Less. It was a quick, interesting read that was so much more than just a story of stopping shopping. 

WHAT I READ IN JANUARY 2018

The Heart's Invisible Furies (BOTM) // I super, super loved this book. Just go read it. Now.  The Woman In The Window (BOTM) // Perfect suspense book. Great beach read.
Everyone Brave Is Forgiven // It’s been quite awhile since I underlined passages in a non-fiction book but I did a few times in this one because the language and imagery used was just so beautiful. It’s a story that will stick with me.
The Year Of Less: How I Stopped Shopping, Gave Away My Belongings, and Discovered Life Is Worth More Than Anything You Can Buy in a Store // Super quick read on a topic I’m interested in - how less can mean more. This book is more memoir than how-to and I was interested in her story and all the ways in which she cake to having and wanting less. Glad I read it. It’s so much more than just a story of not shopping for a year.
Turtles All The Way Down (BOTM) // This one was a like but not love for me. I did really like some of the writing, especially towards the end, that related to the forward movement of life with mental illness. I think these kinds of stories are important and the pieces where he was writing about her self-talk/voices really resonated with me personally.

It's also time to select new books from Book Of The Month Club. 

As part of their Ambassador Program I get to order from their monthly selections a bit early in order to share with you and celebrate their new releases each month. 

This month I picked two books (my goal is to read whatever books I receive from BOTM in the month I receive them): 

The Great Alone by Kristin HannahThe Broken Girls by Simone St. James

READING/PLANNING TO READ IN FEBRUARY 2018

I finished Bel Canto late last night (review here on Goodreads) and am excited to most likely start The Great Alone next. For non-fiction this month I think I'll be reading Advice Not Given: A Guide To Getting Over Yourself (read about that in the paper last weekend) but I might pick another from the list I shared here last month. 

Happy reading!

You can see everything I read in 2017 here.

AE Creative Team | January 2018

Happy Wednesday! 

Today we are sharing the very first projects made by our 2018 Creative Team using the new January 2018 Digital Stories By The Month™ kit and the January Physical Stories By The Month™ kit.   You can read more about how we will be releasing the digital and physical Stories By The Month™ kits here. The physical Stories By The Month™ list is currently sold out. Click here to join the waitlist. 

Be sure to check out our Creative Team Gallery where you can go to see how the team is crafting their stories using my products - including additional images from the projects we are sharing below.

Amy Gretchen 

Brandi Kincaid 

Ingunn Markiewicz

Jen Carlson

Jen Schow

Jenny Theriault 

Jess Forster 

Kelly Ishmael 

Laura Wonsik 

Laureen Wagener 

Lisa Varshine

Loredana Bucaria

Melanie Blackburn 

Pam Baldwin

Theresa Doan 

2018 Event Updates

I posted about this in the Craft The Story™ Facebook Group (open to anyone - come join our active community of memory keepers) last week and wanted to make sure to share it here as well. 

We have two event date announcements for 2018 that we are excited to share with you. We are announcing these earlier than usual because we've got the spaces booked and planning is underway. Full details on both events will be provided in the coming weeks but, per your requests, we wanted to give you a heads up on date information so you can mark your calendars and consider joining us in Eugene, Oregon. 

First up, we will be offering a second Story Camp event for 2018 from October 4th-6th. You can read more about what happens at Story Camp here. 

Second, we are super excited to announce a brand new event we will be offering this year which will be a December Daily® Prep Party. This will be held November 8th & 9th, 2018 here in Eugene (two full cropping days). This will be a fun crop/social opportunity to get together and prep December Daily® foundation pages, finish up past December Daily® projects or simply work on any other projects you might have on your list. This event will be open to 200 attendees.  

Full details including registration dates, what's included, schedule, locations, etc. for both of these events will be released in the coming weeks.
As always, thank you for being a part of this community and for your interest in these events!

Project Life® 2018 | Week Two

Welcome to 
Project Life® 2018 | Week Two. 

Repetition for the win again this week! My repetitive element this week are the Story Cards that are an Add On option for Story Kit™ Subscribers. I love cutting them up and using pieces of them on my photos to tell the stories from this week. 

Here's a closer look at Week Two: 

This week is half home stuff and half vacation time for me and Aaron. We were able to go down to see Dave Matthews again and it was so great - a little bit of a honeymoon for us. 

White borders on my photos this week for fun - I do this some weeks but not every week. I use my Epson PictureMate PM400 printer - when printing through Aperture and printing with the border is an option (the program I'm using for managing my photos - someday I will switch when it actually stops working - ha).

The "Thankful" word is from the Fall Rubber Words set. In addition to the Story Cards I used the gold asterisk chipboard pieces from the Changes Story Kit™. The "today's goals" card is also included in that kit as a paper pad. 

This year I'm planning to incorporate the 
One Little Word® Inspirational Journal Card Set as title cards into my album. This time I added a portion of one of the Story Cards (these are an Add-On for the Changes Story Stamp™) to hold the date. 

It's such a simple and easy way to add pieces of the story to my photos. 

One of the questions people often ask me is about how to include "all" the photos from a trip or other event. My personal choice is to just pick and choose - I have zero desire to include every single photo I take and don't feel the need to create a separate album for some trips (some trips I do - just depends on how I'm feeling). In this case I picked a couple photos of the two of us together, a couple concert photos, and a couple beach photos. For me that was enough to tell the story of this adventure. 

Keep it simple my friends. 

Here's a process video for Week Two: 

SUPPLIES

Project Life® Design A Page Protectors
Stories By The Month™ January (digital version available  here )
Changes Story Stamp™ Digital Add On: Story Cards
Changes Story Kit™ Add On: Circle Stickers + 3x4 Journal Cards
Changes Story Kit™ (Today's Goals paper pad + Gold Chipboard Asterisks)
Fall Rubber Words
Tiny Attacher Stapler
One Little Word® Inspirational Journal Card Set
SlickWriter Pen
Rolling Date Stamp
StazOn Ink

You can see all my past Project Life® blog posts here. For more information about my overall process make sure to check out my self-paced Storytelling With Project Life® workshop. 

My 2018 Memory Keeping Plans

Here's to welcoming a new year with open arms and a fresh perspective. 

I'm totally a fan of pretty much everything about going into a new year. There is a shift and a release that I swear I feel in my bones as the calendar moves from December to January. I love this time of year and totally try to ride that "fresh start" wave as long as I can. 

Since November of 2002 I've been telling stories using photos and words and paper and printers and embellishments and I have no plans to stop anytime soon. Over the years I've used a variety of different vehicles to get my stories told: 12x12 albums, 8.5x11 albums, 8x8 albums, 6x8 albums, handmade mini books, digital photo books, etc. I've had seasons where I was totally into one method or another and dry spells where it was tough to get any stories told. 

For me now, memory keeping is a lifestyle as well as a way that I support my family. It's a part of who I am and what I do and how I live. It informs choices I make and it gives me the awesome opportunity to continually be looking through the lens of story as I experience my life. 

I fee like I take a lot less photos than I did early on but I haven't gone back and actually counted anything up to know if that's true. It might just be that my attitude towards it is more relaxed as I've come to learn that I have no intention or interest in documenting everything (little or even big) in our lives. 

When I first started memory keeping digital photography was just starting it's rise and I still took rolls of film to be developed. These days I use my phone for most of my photos and find myself pretty darn satisfied with that set up for everyday life documentation. 

All this to say, as with so many things in life, there are seasons in memory keeping. I am so, so thankful that it is still such a big part of my life. The stories I've told have helped me make sense of so many different experiences and they have helped me both celebrate and heal. 

As I enter into my memory keeping adventures for 2018 I don't have any plans to shake anything up too much. I find comfort in repetition and in finding new grooves/small adjustments to the projects I've enjoyed for a number of years now. 

Here's a look at my memory keeping plans for 2018: 

Weekly Project Life® in the same size (12x12) and format as I've been doing - using products from my shop along with past Story Kits™ and Stories By The Month™ products. I still adore this project. For me it's the most open-ended of all the projects I do and I enjoy the time I spend working on it. I still have some weeks from the last few months of 2017 to finish up and you can see more about that here.  Week In The Life™ in the spring - most likely either April or May (this depends on when the supplies are in the warehouse and we are able to start shipping them to you). This is a deep dive project into seven days in your regular life.  Three Day In The Life™ projects that will end up in my Project Life® album (that worked really well for me this last year). The first one of these will likely be happening in February or March if I remember right. I really enjoyed the different angles we used in 2017 for each of those documentation days so we will be coming up with some similar ideas for 2018.  3-4 layouts per month using my Story Kit™/Story Stamp™ themes/products. These layouts have ended up being a combination of stories that either end up in my annual 12x12 album or in the kids 6x8 albums. I have really enjoyed just letting the story themes dictate the traditional scrapbook layouts I've been creating the last few years. It's manageable and I feel like I'm getting to tell the kinds of stories I want to tell with greater focus. In 2017 I started 6x8 albums for each of the kids and have been adding stories to them using the Story Themes. I plan to post more about those albums sometime soon outside of the Story Classroom.  Monthly One Little Word® reflections in my One Little Word® 6x8 album. This is a project that doesn't take a lot of time to complete each month but has definitely been super meaningful for me as I go through the phases of my life.  December Daily® in December. I can't imagine my December without working on this project. 

Am I forgetting anything? Ha. It's a lot. 

Please remember that this is my job along with something I truly enjoy and am passionate about. As always I encourage you to find your own enough (read more about that here: Establishing Your Own Enough In Memory Keeping) and figure out what makes the most sense for you. In order to figure that out you have to try some stuff. 

As I work through my own projects and share them here this year my goal continues to be to document what's real - the ups and the downs - and inspire you to get the stories of your own life told in a way that is meaningful to you. 

Thank you for being part of this community whether you simply watch from the sidelines or actively engage in all these crazy memory keeping projects. I hope that 2018 is a year where you find a storytelling groove for yourself that makes sense for you in this season of your life. 

I'd love to invite you to share your own memory keeping plans in the comments below (or link to a blog post if you are writing them out and sharing them that way). Are you trying something new this year by switching sizes or embarking on a new project? What's your current  favorite way to document your memories? Are you letting go of something this year to make room for something else? 

Let's tell stories together. 

Project Life® 2017 | Week Thirty-Six

I'm working my way through the last few months of Project Life® 2017 and today I'm sharing my spread for Week 36. You can see my first week for 2018 here. 

As I work through the remaining weeks in 2017 I'm using it as an opportunity to dig into my stash of products and use what I have - all kinds of fun things from the last few years of Story Kits™ and shop products. Keep it simple and get the pockets filled continues to be my mantra most of the time. 

Here's a look at Week 36 in my album: 

One of the things I did for this week was look back to Instagram and simply copy and paste a couple stories from the week. I used a light brown/beige background color with white type on top. Super easy to just copy and paste those stories and use white type on a color that goes with the spread overall. 

The title card I used here and there in 2017 is from the Project 52 Fresh Core Kit. The "a new season" card is from my Season Of Fall Journal Card Kit. 

The plastic hearts, some chipboard, and the "A story of why I love you" I used in this spread were Add On options for the For The Love Story Kit™. 

I used some of the black chipboard numbers that we offered for December Daily® to designate what grades Simon and Anna were starting. I trimmed both of them so they are going off the edge. 

The "follow your heart" transparent 3x4 card was an Add On option for the For The Love Story Kit™.

SUPPLIES USED REGULARLY IN PROJECT LIFE® 2017
Project Life Design A Page Protectors Project 52 Fresh Core Kit (anything with rounded corners - often title cards) Past Story Kits™ Rolling Date Stamp 12x12 Project Life® / Heidi Swapp / Black & White Album Week By Week Word Art Gratitude 3x4 Notepad AED Precision Pen

You can see all my past Project Life® blog posts here. For more information about my overall process make sure to check out my self-paced Storytelling With Project Life® workshop. 

Change Story Kit™ + January Stories By The Month™

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

To celebrate the theme of "Change" I'm excited to let you know that the Story Kit™ now includes all the 4x6 and 3x4 card designs - the front has a design and the back is blank so you can now use all the designs on the cards.
Enjoy!

Here are a few thoughts about this particular theme: 

Change is a constant piece in all our of lives. We encounter awesome changes and really hard ones - some arrive unexpectedly and others we know are coming (whether we like it or not). This month we are telling stories of change and how those moments have impacted our lives along the way.

Initial story ideas for the Change theme include: 

Tell the story of a really hard change you have had to face in your life. Tell the story of an unexpected awesome change and the impact that made on your life.  Make a list of the things you want to change about your own personal "right now."

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 Change:

Here's a close up look at the "today's goals" because it's actually a paper pad:

ADD ON OPTIONS | 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.

Here are the optional Add-Ons for subscribers of the Change 
Story Kit™ theme. All three of these products are exclusive to subscribers at this time (but may be added to the shop in the future). 

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

STORY STAMP™

The 
Changes Stamp Set:

The 
Story Stamp™ also has Add-On options available to subscribers:

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

DIGITAL STORY KIT™

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 Change:

Digital Story Kit™ subscribers also have five Add-On options available (if you subscribe to both the Story Kit™ and the Story Stamp™ these should also be available to you for purchase): 

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™

Last month I introduced a brand new subscription called Stories By The Month™. Each 
Stories By The Month™ kit includes chipboard, 3x4 and 4x6 cards, and a 3x4 stamp. These are all based on the designs we've been offering digitally each month throughout 2017. We have a new set of digital designs available for 2018 as well - you can see the new January Digital Kit here (this will end up being the physical kit for January 2019). 

Stories By The Month™ is currently on a Waiting List. Sign up on the Waiting List to be able to receive the first available kit. 

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

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

AE Creative Team | For The Love Digital Story Kit™

Happy Friday!

We're so happy to share the projects created by our awesome Creative Team using the For The Love Digital Story Kit™. Today is the last day left to start a subscription to receive this current theme.

A big thank you to our awesome team for sharing the stories of their lives and crafting it so beautifully! 

Ingunn Markiewicz

Jess Forster

Kelly Ishmael

Laura Wonsik

Melanie Blackburn

Jenny Theriault

Casie Gutierrez

Brandi Kincaid

Jen Carlson 

Jen Schow

Hope you all have a great weekend! 

One Little Word® 2018 | The Reading Of The Words

Today I bring you the annual reading of the words (collected from this post) by my friend Liz Lamoreux. 

If you are still thinking about a word for yourself in 2018 I definitely recommend closing your eyes and listening to this list of words. There's magic in hearing them read aloud. 

Listen to Liz read a list of the words here.

There's also still time to jump into my One Little Word® workshop for 2018. Get all the details about this year-long class to help you make your word visible here. 

Also, the word I'm holding in the image above is from my friend Colleen Attara. She's been supporting this project for a number of years and she is simply a light in the world. I continue to love sharing her work with this community. If you are interested in something in my handwriting we do also offer custom acrylic words here, as well as a new necklace offering here. 

If you don't see your word listed below feel free to add your word to the comment section of this post: 

abundance

accept

Action

actualize

Actually

authentic

Aware

balance

Be

better

beYOUtiful

blue

Bold

Braving

breathe

broken

Build

calm

care

celebrate

change

Choose

clarify

clarity

clean

Clear

climb

commit

connect

constancy

Content

create

cultivate

Deep

design

discipline

Do

drive

Embody

Embrace

enjoy

enough

enthusiasm

Explore

fear-less

fearless

find

finish

flourish

flow

focus

forward

free

fruition

Gather

GELASSENHEIT - German for serenity

Gratitude

grey

grit

Grow

heal

Health

heart

home

hope

hygge

Intentional

invest

Journey

joy

Jump

Kind

Kindness

Less

Light

listen

live

Look

Love

Magic

make

manage

me

mindful

mountain

move

new

nourish

now

Nuture

observe

Open

Pause

peace

Plant

Pleasure

poetic

Pose

Practice

present

purpose

radiate

reach

Redefine

Refine

refresh

Release

Rise

Roots

Seek

Self

Self-care

shalom

shine

Simplify

slow

Spark

step

still

Stories

story

Strengthen

stretch

strong

time

together

transform

transformation

trust

Try

Us

venture

walk

Well

Whole

wholehearted

Wild

wonder