Ali Edwards's Blog, page 16

Project Life® 2024 | Week 38

Here's a look at Week 38 in my Project Life album for 2024! 

My design formula for this week was to add the days of the week banners from the September 2024 Stories By The Month Kit, along with a phrase sticker, to each of my 4x6 photos. I also added a sentiment 3x4 card cut into a tag (from my stash) and a September Memories card for some basic details about the week. 

Here's the process video (in this one I talk a lot about not judging myself while I'm making these spreads): 

And here's a closer look at each side of the spread: 

SUPPLIES 
9x12 Album 9x12 Page Protectors September 2024 Stories By The Month Kit Phrase Stickers 
Basics via my Amazon Storefront 

December Daily® 2024 | Using QR Codes With Lisa

Hello, friends! Over the past three or four years I have been incorporating video into my documenting projects and I love what they add to my albums. Videos are just another fun option in our storytelling arsenal. I think December Daily® in particular offers an opportunity to capture some special memories via video, but I've included them in travel albums, December Daily®, my project life albums, and Week in The Life.  Here's an example from my 2022 Week In The Life album.

Another from an older December Daily Album. 

While creating a few foundation pages for my 2024 December Daily® album, I decided I would make a page with the numbered paper flags from the 2024 Main Kit with the intention of capturing one video per day this December. Here's how that page turned out.

Some of you may know I'm also simultaneously working to complete my 2023 album (you can find my most recent progress here on the blog or on instagram). After making this page for 2024, I immediately knew I'd like to do the same for 2023. My first step was to take inventory of how many videos I actually had, and the answer was 20. So I adjusted the design accordingly. Obviously I can't add any December 2023 videos at this point. Now that I've completed the page below for my 2023 album I know that using sticker paper to adhere the codes to each flag take quite a bit of time. For me I don't enjoy spending a lot of time on an individual page. In hindsight, I would probably make this page all digital and print all the codes at once. That being said, I save my Photoshop template for the stickers and all the other resources so it may go more smoothly for the album. 

This page is a carbon copy of the page I created for my 2024 album. In my opinion there is absolutely no need to reinvent the wheel. I purposely adhere these in a wonky layout because as soon as I decide I want something to be straight and evenly spaced, that's when it gets dicey. Someone in the Facebook group asked what types of things I'm capturing on video. Just like your photos and words, this will vary wildly given your own family situation and traditions. But here's a list of the things I captured in 2023: 

Our family at Walt Disney World for the filming of the Christmas Day parade. This trip happened in November when they film the parade, but the kids made it into the TV broadcast, so I wanted to include it in this album. My husband hitting the ball drop jackpot at Dave & Busters. He hits it every time we go and it is Ben's favorite thing. The kids horsing around on the couch.Clips from his field trip to see Rudolph at the Center for Puppetry Arts.Her band concert.Highlights from his basketball game. The kids arguing on the train ride after visiting Santa. Ben in the cages prepping for spring evals (which happen in January.)His school holiday sing-along.His holiday solo.A very random competition we set up at home and spent hours playing. Essentially a red solo cup hung by yarn from the second floor catwalk. Yep, this sounds absolutely ridiculous to type...but it got so competitive and we laughed hysterically, These are the moments I want to remember. A trip to the Georgia Aquarium where we got to feed penguins and went behind the scenes with the whale shark and beluga care team. A video that Ava secretly recorded of Ben playing Just Dance. She was so proud of his moves. A random song they made up and performed for my parents and me. A "breaking news" video that Ben recorded on my phone. A play date at a trampoline park.Highlights from our trip the the Atlanta Botanical Garden Holiday Lights. One of our very favorite traditions. A big group countdown before the ball drop at the new years party we went to.

This is what I captured without being intentional. Just the moments that inspired me to pick up the phone and record. A few other things I've recorded in the past that I'd like to document this year:

Both of them reading their lists for Santa. I did this for Ben a year or two ago and his list was five pages long and had hilariously extravagant items (a baby sister), and he went from standing to sitting to doing a headstand, all while reading his list. Opening special presents on Christmas morning.Interviews. I love interviews!! The interview from the Story Prompt pack came from an interview I filmed with each kid and included in an album a few years ago. 

You'll notice that a lot of these moments are "nothing special." Some not even holiday related. You may wonder why I would record them arguing...well, I didn't know they would. We were on a train after visiting Santa and I thought it would be a nice moment. But it still makes me laugh and captures what life is like with siblings. 

Something to think about is whether you'd like to include videos individually, with the corresponding story or if you'd like to make a page that aggregates them. For me, a lot of the videos I captured in 2023 were not necessarily worthy of a story unto themselves. So that page made sense. If you have a video that really should be its own story or perhaps you don't take enough videos to justify a full page, including them in the individual story is a great option.

A few quick notes about videos before we talk about how I create and incorporate my QR codes:

Don't forget that LIVE photos take on an iPhone can be exported as a video. It will be short, but you can combine a few LIVE photos to make a longer video, too. For an event where I may be taking several videos, I use an app to combine them into one video. For instance, during our trip to the Atlanta Botanical Gardens Holiday Lights I took five or six little videos. For me, I don't want to have five separate videos for that story, nor do I want to deal with five QR codes. I use the app called Filmm to edit my video clips. It's free and user friendly. Beyond combining the files, I don't typically edit my videos. You can also export most social media posts as QR codes. That could be any easy way to include something you've already taken the time to create. How I Create + Incorporate QR Codes

Like many processes that involve technology, there are a variety of ways to do this. I am sharing mine. I do all of this from my phone via apps. I haven't ever used my desktop for this process. It's extremely intuitive and takes less than a minute. Here are my steps along with a few quick notes:

I take all of my video with my iPhone. It's a 16ProMax. If I'm exporting a LIVE photo as a video, I open my photos app, tap on the tree dots in the upper right corner, and select save as video. With a few constraints (which I believe are file size), you can select multiple LIVE photos to be combined into one video at this step. Don't forget to have the LIVE photo option selected for taking your photos in December. Also, you can access all of you LIVE photos at once under Media Types in your photos app.Once I have recorded a video, I upload it into a designated folder in DropBox. I have a 2023 December Daily videos folder. I use dropbox for work, so it's my cloud storage provider/host of choice. I select the three dots next to the file, select share, and select copy link. At this point, different folks are using different cloud storage options. You can upload your videos to a YouTube account while keeping them private. I can't elaborate more on that option because that's not what I do. Other options include Google Drive and One Drive. Next, I open my QR code app. I use QRbot. I've used it for four years and it's free and easy to use. Please note several people have shared that they have used QR code apps that will transition from free to paid and basically hold your codes hostage if you stop paying. Some apps have gone out of business. I am by no means the definitive expert on this piece. If that were to happen to me, I could essentially combine all of my videos from that year into a single file and create a new code and basically have just one video that encapsulated December. That would mean that the codes you've included previously are no longer linked to your videos, but it doesn't impact your videos themselves. Now that I have the QR code app open, I select the my codes option across the bottom. Next I select the plus sign at the top (+) and I paste the link I copied from dropbox into the link field and select create. In the next screen you are taken to your newly-created QR code. I then select share image and it is exported as a jpg file to my photos. At this point I can treat the jpg of the QR code as I would any digital element I incorporate into my hybrid scrapbooking. You can change the color and size. Quick note about that: be careful changing colors, your camera needs a certain level of contrast to read the code. Also be aware of making the codes too small. I've added the codes directly to photos I print at home, to journaling cards, or via sticker paper. Lots of options here. 

I also created a step-by-step video of this process in my 2022 December Daily Prep Day lesson. You can grab that class for $5 here. 

You can find more December Daily® inspiration from me on the blog here. 

Hopefully this post has helped to inspire some ideas for your own storytelling. I'll be sharing my 2023 and 2024 pages on instagram, if you'd like to follow along. You can find me here.

Project Life® 2024 | Week 37

One of my favorite things to do when I'm working on filling the pockets of multiple weeks in Project Life is to create a design formula. I generally pick an embellishment or a group of embellishments and then repeat that "formula" on each of my photos. 

For this week I dove into my stash and pulled out some puffy heart stickers and perforated phrase strips from the Wander Story Kit. Journaling was added, along with number stamps, to tags from the September Stories By The Month kit. Filling in the pockets + getting some stories told! 

Here's a short process video: 

Here are images of the spread: 

SUPPLIES 

9x12 Album
9x12 Page Protectors
Honeyman InkNumbers Are Awesome #9 Stamp Set
September 2024 Stories By The Month Kit
Puffy Heart Stickers
Wander Story Kit Perforated Phrase Strips
Gold Dot Ribbon
Clear Phrase Stickers 
Tiny AttacherBasics via my Amazon Storefront 

In Case You Missed It | November 22

Happy Friday, friends! Welcome to the latest
In Case You Missed It. Just a reminder that this is a quick post that will happen every Friday afternoon with all the updates and links that have happened throughout the week. So, let's get to it:

DECEMBER IS ALMOST HERE | JOIN US LIVE

Starting next week, we will be hosting two live December Daily®-themed conversations right here on our Instagram account. Our first chat will focus on preparation and planning and our second chat will focus on documenting. We'll chat about workflow, photos, stories, inspiration, and more. Join us at @decemberdaily live Tuesday, November 26th at 6pm ET. If you can't join us live, don't worry! All of our conversations will be recorded and available in our videos. Stay tuned for our full schedule of live conversations and head to the link in our bio to learn more about this project. Do you have some questions related to documenting you'd like the ladies to discuss? Share them in the comments and we'll cover as many as we can.

MARK YOUR CALENDARS | STORY PLAY READ

Mark your calendars for our next Story Play documenting week: READ! We'll be sharing daily content beginning Monday, December 9th. Shop the mini kit here. 

EARLY BLACK FRIDAY PROMOTION

Black Friday has come early! Now is the time to tackle your wish list with our buy more save more promotion. From now until 11/21 save 25% off of orders up to $75 and 30% off of orders of $75+ using code EARLYBLACKFRIDAY. Some exclusions apply, please see below. Shop now via the link in our bio. ⁠Terms: Offer valid through 11:59pm ET on 11/21/24. Promo code must be entered at checkout. Some exclusions may apply, including gift cards. Not valid on any 2024 December Daily® products, digitals, and classes. Also not valid on Mix and Match Story Sparks Class and Mix and Match Kit. Excludes Alphas are Awesome Stamp Set #20 and the December 2024 3x4 Stamp Set. Cannot be combined with other codes. Not valid on previous purchase. Not responsible for forgotten or misused promo codes. Offer subject to change.

NEW CLASS | MIX + MATCH STORY SPARKS

We are excited to offer this new self-paced class that celebrates fun, creativity and playfulness in our memory keeping projects. The Mix + Match Story Sparks Class will feature a combination of story ideas and creative techniques in a variety of formats with the goal of providing you with product inspiration using the Mix + Match Kit as "story sparks" or jumping off points for their personal storytelling. Join contributors Ali Edwards, Sabrina Poole, Laura Wonsik, Jill White, Pam Baldwin and Jamie Leija as they share how they were inspired or prompted by the products (i.e., story spark) and then how they implemented those products in their final designs. Learn more and register here. 

2024 DECEMBER DAILY® DIGITALS ARE HERE

The 2024 December Daily® Digitals are here! Kits, Stamps, Paper, and Embellishments...the same fun & festive designs as the physical @decemberdaily products, only in digital format.⁠ We love to see how this incredibly creative community plays with digitals! Resizing elements and cards, adding journaling to papers, creating cut files, transforming files into transparencies, the sky is the limit with digital files. ⁠
⁠
Want to learn more about creating with digital files? Our newest class December Daily® 2024 Hybrid Product Play is live. 
 Shop digitals here. 

NEW DECEMBER DAILY® COMMUNITY SPACE

We invite you to join us in this free December Daily® community classroom. We know that many in the community don't care to share their December Daily® projects on social media. And for those that do, constant algorithm updates and unreliable hashtag searches make it challenging to connect with others or to find inspiration and encouragement. So with this in mind, we are excited to offer this space as a place to share your work with other memory keepers and storytellers who are participating in this special project. Register for free here.

2024 DECEMBER DAILY CLASSES

December Daily® Product Play | This + This + This workshop registration is open. More details on this year's workshop can be found at the bottom of this post (workshop begins November 5th).  
December Daily® Hybrid Product Play workshop registration is available now. 
December Daily® Prep Day is available for those who missed it. All content is recorded and available. 

NOVEMBER REVEAL

This month we are revealing a new Story Kit™ theme: FAN! This month we are focusing on stories related to the theme of Fan. Every single one of us is a fan of something. We might be fans of a sports team or a movie franchise or a way of cooking. This month we are coming together to tell stories about what it's like to be a fan in this season (or any season) of life. ⁠In addition to our new Story Kit™ theme, we also have a brand new Stories By The Month™ kit and the next edition in our Alphas Are Awesome series.
⁠Head to Ali’s blog post for all the details about this month’s release.⁠

NOVEMBER DIGITALS 

The first Friday of every month we have a new digital release available in the shop. Play with scale, recolor objects, add journaling, print multiples…the sky is the limit when playing with digitals. Shop digitals here. 

2024 PROJECTS + PRODUCTS SCHEDULE

As we continuing easing into 2024 we put together an overview of our schedule of projects + product releases for the upcoming year. We are sharing this as a way for you to plan, think about what you might want to participate in this year, and simply share some of the things we have coming up to help support + inspire storytelling. For the last few years we've followed a fairly similar cadence for our releases and our major projects will follow that release schedule again this year. Please note that, as you might imagine, this schedule is subject to change throughout the year based on a variety of variables. Find the post here.

As always, we’re so grateful to have you all as members of this community! Thanks for joining me today and have a great weekend!

Project Life® 2024 | Week 35

Happy to be jumping back into my Project Life project for 2024! My hope is to at least have all my photos printed out and added to pockets before December begins! 

Today's spread doesn't have a video because it was one I worked on awhile back and I can't locate the inital parts of the video. 

Here's a look at the spread for Week 35 (end of August/beginning of September): 

As I've done all year when a new month begins, I've added an insert in order to add in the monthly card from the Stories By The Month kit. 

In this spread I'm using pieces from the August and September Stories By The Month kits. I also pulled a card from my Stories By The Month stash (I organize past cards from those kits by month so I can easily find ones that relate to the particular month). 

As I was looking at this spread on my table I knew that it needed something else (after I'd added some of those paper embellishments to photos). I decided to grab a white POSCA Paint Pen and write directly on three of my photos. 

SUPPLIESAugust + September Stories By The Month Kit9x12 Album9x12 Page ProtectorsWhite POSCA Paint Pen Basics via my Amazon Storefront 

December Daily® 2024 | Foundation Page Idea From Ali

One of the ideas I've had on a sticky note for December Daily® 2024 is to do a "page full of words." I had specifically set aside this collection of chipboard words from the Main Kit and stacked them on top of one of the 10x8 transparencies a few weeks back and I've looked at it multiple times since then as I decided if I wanted to commit to this idea. 

I'm so glad I did! 

I ended up adhering them to the "tis the season" transparency and creating a shaker pocket with vellum on the back. I'll be using this page towards the end of the month, most likely alongside content (words + photos) for Christmas Eve or Christmas Day.

IDEAS TO NOTE
Use the concept of a "page of words" as a jumping off point for a page in your project. Your words might be stamped or you might use letter stickers or plastic words or a combination of things.  Part of what's fun about using all these words together is that they are all the same width and their heights are varied depending on the number of letters in the word.  Consider stitching chipboard words to the transparency. In the video I also talk a bit about how using a bunch of the same item (repetition) can be a fun way to approach the design of a project. You can use any of these chipboard words on their own or play around with a more "maximalist" approach. If you don't want the bulk of the chipboard you could also create something similar by using a die cut machine to cut out the words. 

Let's take a look at the simple process video: 

Here's a few images: 

Here's a look at what the back looks like right now: 

I'll be adding content here during December. 

SUPPLIES
December Daily® Red Star Album December Daily® Main Kit (chipboard words) December Daily® 10x8 Transparency Pack White Dot Vellum Rolling Adhesive  Basics via Amazon Storefront 

December Daily® 2024 | Foundation Page Flip Through

Today I'm sharing a look at where I'm at with my Foundation Pages for December Daily® 2024! 

I'm super excited for the storytelling to get underway! 

Looking for more inspiration? 

Check out the December Daily® archives here.
Access our $5 Prep Day content (all recorded + available now) for fun downloads and page ideas.
Participate in our Product Play: This + This + This workshop (all content recorded + available to view at your convenience) for page ideas.
If this is your first year or you want a general project refresher to get your mind + heart in the storytelling mood check out Storytelling With December Daily®.
Hybrid or digital documenter? Check out our 2024 December Daily® Hybrid workshop for tutorials + page ideas using this year's digital collection.  

December Daily® 2024 | Foundation Page Idea From Ali

Welcome back to another foundation page idea for December Daily® 2024! 

Story Three for me will start on the back of one of the pages I put together for our December Daily® Product Play 2024 workshop. You can still join that class for 12 unique ideas using product formulas from this year's collection. Get the details here (everything is recorded + available at your own convenience). 

A couple things to note: 

I knew I wanted to include the "magic is something we make" 10x8 paper in my 6x8 album.  I love having a stash of numbers to pull from! This particular number is from a previous year.  When it comes time to tell a story it will likely be something about how I'm making my own magic this season. Journaling will go on top of the vellum card with the gold foil 1-3. I may end up adding a photo or photos behind the vellum journal card or I might add a full page photo and add that behind the wrapped elements.  Sometimes I love having really colorful pages and other times it's fun to limit myself. This one includes red, white, gold, and the light pink. 

Let's dive in to the process video: 

Here are additional images of this project: 

This foundation page has multiple elements including the home for the number 3, a frame (from the Main Kit) + a vellum journal cards, the "magic is something we make" pattern paper, and a ribbon that ties those last sections together. 

This page includes a combination of one of the 3x8 cards + a 3x8 transparency + vellum number + chipboard phrase. Loved getting that dove pattern paper in here too. 

The second section of this foundation page opens up to reveal a Main Kit frame, the number journal card, and the pattern paper with ribbon adhered behind. 

The scallop frame is added to the album using a page attacher (a 6x8 cut down in order to place it in the middle of the rings). 

The red/cream ribbon is adhered behind the pattern paper and covered with white cardstock. I used the white cardstock as the base to hold the red scallop ribbon (it's one the front and the back). 

Before deciding to use the scallop adhesive ribbon along the top and bottom of the "magic is something we make" I considered using a scallop edge punch. That's another thing you could try too!

Here's a look at the set up in the album: 

SUPPLIES
Red Star 6x8 Album December Daily® Main Kit (digital available) December Daily® Die Cut Pages (digital available - includes Studio file) December Daily® Chipboard Set (digital available) December Daily® 10x8 Paper Pack (digital available) December Daily® 3x8 Transapency + Journal Card Set 6x8 Page Attacher Red Line Tape Red/Cream Ribbon May Arts Red Scallop Adhesive Ribbon (May Arts has some that's not red here) Fiskars Scallop Edge Punch Additional basics via my Amazon Storefront 

In Case You Missed It | November 15

Happy Friday, friends! Welcome to the latest
In Case You Missed It. Just a reminder that this is a quick post that will happen every Friday afternoon with all the updates and links that have happened throughout the week. So, let's get to it:

MARK YOUR CALENDARS | STORY PLAY READ

Mark your calendars for our next Story Play documenting week: READ! We'll be sharing daily content beginning Monday, December 9th. Shop the mini kit here. 

SAVE 20% SITE WIDE WITH CODE GRATEFUL20

Here's to finding those perfect pieces for your next story. Get 20% off sitewide throughout November with code GRATEFUL20 and enjoy. Check back weekly for new deals and promotions.Some exclusions apply. 

NEW CLASS | MIX + MATCH STORY SPARKS

We are excited to offer this new self-paced class that celebrates fun, creativity and playfulness in our memory keeping projects. The Mix + Match Story Sparks Class will feature a combination of story ideas and creative techniques in a variety of formats with the goal of providing you with product inspiration using the Mix + Match Kit as "story sparks" or jumping off points for their personal storytelling. Join contributors Ali Edwards, Sabrina Poole, Laura Wonsik, Jill White, Pam Baldwin and Jamie Leija as they share how they were inspired or prompted by the products (i.e., story spark) and then how they implemented those products in their final designs. Learn more and register here. 

2024 DECEMBER DAILY® DIGITALS ARE HERE

The 2024 December Daily® Digitals are here! Kits, Stamps, Paper, and Embellishments...the same fun & festive designs as the physical @decemberdaily products, only in digital format.⁠ We love to see how this incredibly creative community plays with digitals! Resizing elements and cards, adding journaling to papers, creating cut files, transforming files into transparencies, the sky is the limit with digital files. ⁠
⁠
Want to learn more about creating with digital files? Our newest class December Daily® 2024 Hybrid Product Play is live.  Shop digitals here. 

NEW DECEMBER DAILY® COMMUNITY SPACE

We invite you to join us in this free December Daily® community classroom. We know that many in the community don't care to share their December Daily® projects on social media. And for those that do, constant algorithm updates and unreliable hashtag searches make it challenging to connect with others or to find inspiration and encouragement. So with this in mind, we are excited to offer this space as a place to share your work with other memory keepers and storytellers who are participating in this special project. Register for free here.

2024 DECEMBER DAILY CLASSES

December Daily® Product Play | This + This + This workshop registration is open. More details on this year's workshop can be found at the bottom of this post (workshop begins November 5th).  
December Daily® Hybrid Product Play workshop registration is available now. 
December Daily® Prep Day is available for those who missed it. All content is recorded and available. 

NOVEMBER REVEAL

This month we are revealing a new Story Kit™ theme: FAN! This month we are focusing on stories related to the theme of Fan. Every single one of us is a fan of something. We might be fans of a sports team or a movie franchise or a way of cooking. This month we are coming together to tell stories about what it's like to be a fan in this season (or any season) of life. ⁠In addition to our new Story Kit™ theme, we also have a brand new Stories By The Month™ kit and the next edition in our Alphas Are Awesome series. ⁠Head to Ali’s blog post for all the details about this month’s release.⁠

NOVEMBER DIGITALS 

The first Friday of every month we have a new digital release available in the shop. Play with scale, recolor objects, add journaling, print multiples…the sky is the limit when playing with digitals. Shop digitals here. 

2024 PROJECTS + PRODUCTS SCHEDULE

As we continuing easing into 2024 we put together an overview of our schedule of projects + product releases for the upcoming year. We are sharing this as a way for you to plan, think about what you might want to participate in this year, and simply share some of the things we have coming up to help support + inspire storytelling. For the last few years we've followed a fairly similar cadence for our releases and our major projects will follow that release schedule again this year. Please note that, as you might imagine, this schedule is subject to change throughout the year based on a variety of variables. Find the post here.

As always, we’re so grateful to have you all as members of this community! Thanks for joining me today and have a great weekend!

December Daily® 2024 | Foundation Page Idea From Ali

Here's another quick set up foundation page for December Daily®! 

One of my favorite parts of the collection this year were the Prompt Papers (digital available here). This page comes together quickly by pairing the "December Details" prompt paper with the green + white star pattern from the add on paper pack. Along the inside edge I added some green pom trim and on the folded piece I added the fun puffy color wheel from the Advent Calendar + a main kit paper circle tag + the letter pressed word "grateful" from  the Specialty Journal Card Pack. 

I'll be using this page in the later portion of the month and it will likely hold a mixture of words + photos in the white spaces. I'm anticipating it will be mostly photos of little things from the month.  

I'm also noticing that I'm having fun folding up the 10x8 papers to fit into my 6x8 album (I've done it for a few of my foundation pages already). 

Let's dive in to the video: 

Here's a look via images: 

I added the row of pom trim in between the two papers using red line tape. I also ran it through the sewing machine to add the red stitching (and I just like the look and texture of the thread). And layered circles for the win! 

I can't wait to fill this with photos and a few words in December! 

SUPPLIES
Stars 6x8 Album December Daily® Prompt Paper Pack (digital available) December Daily® Main Kit (digital available) December Daily® 10x8 Paper Pack (digital available) December Daily® Advent Calendar (puffy color wheel) December Daily® Specialty Journal Card Pack (digital available) Green Pom Trim 2 Inch Circle Punch  Additional Basics from my Amazon Storefront