Ali Edwards's Blog, page 175
July 12, 2016
Project Life® 2016 | Week Sixteen
Getting stories told.
Boom.
Still loving it. Still not trying to tell every single story. Still not including every single photo. Still loving repetition. Still loving white.
Here's a look at my Week Sixteen:
For this week I made a set of journal cards using this silkscreen (we have a couple new sets of silkscreens coming soon that I'm super excited to tell you about) + this foam alphabet sticker set + a rolling date stamp. I made all those cards first and then filled in the stories after the week had passed.
I had a bit of an issue with the white paper I used this time - not sure exactly where it came from, but it was not friendly with my pens (which work great on other papers that I regularly use).
The "hard week" is a 3x8 page protector insert - more about that below. Love that they fit right into a 12x12 album.
The thick black pen is my favorite Faber-Castell PITT Artist Pen Big Brush. So great.
The "now" card is from a past Studio Calico kit. Love that yellow.
For my photo accents this week I used stickers from this set.
I love the idea of including a small insert. This is a 3x8 page protector that you can get from my shop. I include lots of inserts with additional photos or stories that are bigger but this is a great size if you have something specific you want to include that might be smaller - love the idea of including an over-arching theme or story for the week (this was a hard week and acknowledging that tells more of my story). I used the same elements that I added to my other journal cards for the week + a stamp from the Believe Story Stamp™.
As usual I added an index tab along the outside edge of my insert.
On the back I used a photo of the allium in my backyard.
Charcoal Foam ThickersMe & My Big Ideas Clear Stickers BlackBelieve Story Stamp™Rolling Date StampAED PaintsFaber-Castell PITT Artist PenAED 4x6 Silkscreen3x8 Page Protector"Now" card from a past Studio Calico kit
July 11, 2016
AE Digital Creative Team | Believe Digital Story Kit™
Happy Monday!
Today I'm sharing awesome layouts made by my
Digital Creative Team using the Believe Digital Story Kit™.
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. We'll be updating it a couple times a month.
This month the team is sharing stories they crafted using the Believe Digital Story Kit™ which is available for a few more days (last day to start a subscription is the 14th). Remember that all subscriptions, including the digital subscription, includes a classroom with specific ideas for working with each theme.
Just a heads up again that most of my team uses the digital kit to create paper projects - meaning they print out the digital pieces and add them to paper layouts/pockets (vs. completely digital projects).
Jen Schow (see more photos and a process video here)
Hope you all have a great weekend!
Check out the Creative Team Gallery for more detailed photos of each members projects.
Interested in learning more about working with digtal scrapbooking products? Check out my free series on Getting Started With Digital Scrapbooking here.
Check out all my digital/printable scrapbooking supplies here
July 7, 2016
A Weekend At Floret
For my 40th birthday (last November) I decided to gift myself an adventure.
I thought about a big trip - maybe Tokyo or somewhere else far away - probably with Aaron in tow. As I started to explore my options something about Floret's flower workshops popped up (either via email or on Instagram or something) and I decided that would be my gift to myself if I was able to get in (registration sells out almost immediately). I started following Floret after seeing their farm and flowers in a magazine in the last few years - maybe Country Living or Living - and seeing their awesome photography and their love of many of my favorite flowers (dahlias, peonies, sweet peas, etc). Sign me up.
After reading the workshop descriptions and checking my calendar the June Seasonal Floral Intensive: Peonies worked best. These workshops - both the flower intensives and the flower farming intensives - are really designed for people who work with flowers either as designers or farmers but people who just love flowers are also welcome (that's me). During the workshop weekend Erin and her team share their creativity, their business knowledge (social media and web stuff), and their knowledge of flowers and farming.
I have a deep love for flowers. There are long flower-cultivating traditions on both sides of my family - my Dad's parents who spent many of their years on the Oregon coast and my Mom's parents who spent most of their years on the Eastern side of the mountains in Oregon (wheat farming) and some of their later years on the Oregon coast. Both sets of grandparents and my parents loved being outside and loved cultivating flowers.
I also have zero experience with professional floral design. Around here I love bringing the outside in - cutting flowers from my yard and putting them into vases and spreading them around the house. That's the extent of my experience. For many of you memory keeping is your hobby - for me it's my job and what keeps a roof over our heads (and as you know I love it and it's simply a part of me). Embracing a hobby like flowers that I can sink into seems like a pretty darn good healthy idea.
Bottom line, I'm working on getting a life and this was an awesome way to kick it off.
Today I want to share a bit about my workshop experience at Floret:
On Instagram I shared this photo with these words as I began my adventure:
For my 40th birthday last November I decided to celebrate by signing myself up for a totally new experience. Today I'm making the 7 hour drive up north past Seattle to Mt. Vernon to attend a @floretflower workshop. I was accompanied on the first half of my drive by my friend of over 25 years @paololiloc - hard to beat a friend who will fly down to drive back up to where he came from with you just to hang out. The second half of the drive I'm making on my own - blasting music as loud as I can stand it. Tomorrow starts a 3-day #floretworkshop where I'm going to learn something new about some of my favorite flowers (peonies, sweet peas, etc) and hopefully discover a few more things about myself along the way.
After arriving in Mt. Vernon I met three brand new friends (met via a Facebook group for the event) and we headed to dinner. It was an awesome start to this adventure - especially when one of the first people I met is also someone who just loves flowers and isn't a floral designer or a flower farmer (at least not yet).
I loved going there knowing no one. The girls I met on my first night were such a great part of the whole of my experience.
Walking into the barn on Day One we were greeted with buckets and buckets and buckets of blooms and greens.
We probably spent at least 30 minutes or more just walking around and smelling the blooms and taking photos.
Everything was organized by color - I loved this purple corner.
After our morning session where we shared introductions and intentions (you know I loved that) we headed over to Erin's home farm (the barn where we were based in a friend's farm) to walk the fields, cut flowers for the arrangements we would be making over the next few days, and see the operation.
I can't tell you how cool it was to just walk around and see her set up - the rows, the greenhouses, etc.
This is a small-farming operation that is optimized for production.
Yes, I couldn't stop smiling. Especially in the rows of sweet peas that are taller than me (and I'm 5'9).
Erin gave a tutorial about cutting and things to put in the water after you harvest.
Poppies.
Our task after the initial instruction was to fill the truck with blooms for our arrangements.
I love learning. Love, love, love it.
Even the discard piles were held beauty for me. Actually what I loved most about this shot was the red barn along the horizon line.
And then we started harvesting. It was so fun to see what people carried back to the truck.
I had just as much fun taking pictures as harvesting flowers.
The truck beginning to fill up.
The lovely Erika of @junesblooms on Instagram taking photos of anyone who wanted one holding this awesome collection of pink Stock.
There's even beauty on the ground.
A view of the truck from the side as we got ready to head back to the barn.
Bulging out of the back of the truck.
We received an extensive workbook that included personal development exercises, goal setting, floral pricing information, resources, etc.
We also all got a copy of the book Now, Discover Your Strengths and our homework for the first night was to take the Strengths Finder test. My top five strengths results shouldn't be too much of a surprise (ha):
Dinner with my new friends as we recapped our first full day. So much laughing and talking and story sharing.
Day Two started with a demo from Erin about creating an arrangement in an urn.
Seriously, I was jumping out of my skin excited because this was all new to me and I was so ready to just dive in and play.
Our working spaces in the barn. Mine was right there in the front.
My first official arrangement in an urn!!! I don't use very many exclamation points but this one really deserves it because it was totally how I felt in the moment.
One of my biggest takeaways from this workshop experience was the use of greenery. It gave me a whole new perspective of both things I might want to grow in my yard and use when I bring the outside in.
Our next task was to create a hand bouquet. Again, a first for me.
Pink, pink, pink.
During the event there was a professional photographer shooting our activities and they had a model there to hold each of our bouquets (awesome for people who need professional shots to advertise their design work). She's holding my bouquet.
After a full day of making stuff with flowers we headed to dinner. More laughing and sharing.
We started Day Three creating arrangements in compotes.
These were made to line our dinner table later in the day. I loved doing this.
This is my friend Marianne's bouquet. Check out her Instagram account @poseypop - she also does really awesome chalk art - she's in the Orange County area if you are around there and looking for a floral designer or chalk artist.
Marianne took this shot of me on the cement in the barn shooting away.
We also got to make a bracelet or flower crown. This is the bracelet I created. So cool.
As a group we worked to design and installation and set a table for our farewell dinner. Obviously it included tons of flowers down the table and all around.
A view from above in the barn down at the table and the space we worked in earlier in the day.
Our amazing farm to table feast was catered by Ashley Rodriguez of Not Without Salt.
I think one of the things I really loved about this event was that everything was new to me: people, places, things. I was a complete beginner and it was fantastic.
Huge thank you to Erin and all her team for such an awesome, inspiring, life-affirming experience. Thank you so much for sharing your wisdom and creativity and experience.
PS // I knew, as I was living through this weekend on my own, that it would likely be a life-marker. A life-marker is one of those experiences with a before and an after - an experience that changes you or an experience that really quite literally marks the beginning of a new phase of life. At the time I couldn't have told you just what it was marking, but now after being home for a month I know that it was my own personal entrance into the next chapter of my life as Aaron and I intentionally begin to merge our lives together. More on that in another post to come.
July 5, 2016
July Digital Release
Happy July!
In February we announced that we were changing up the way we release digital products from weekly to monthly. This month we are releasing 7 brand new products including the digital version of the new Day In The Life™ Mini Kit No. 2. We've also brought back over 25 Classic AE products from my past collection previously offered at Designer Digitals (Classic AE products are designated with a grey box around the product preview and have their own category here).
Click here to see all new products added as part of the
July Digital Release. We also created a new category in the digital section of our shop that includes all the new (excluding the Classic AE) products for the last couple months, as well a category where you can find all of the previous Digital Story Stamps™.
Travel Messy Circles Filled 31 Days Messy Circles 31 Days Messy Circles Filled Adventure Journal CardsBelieve Digital Story Stamp™ Day In The Life™ MIni Kit No. 24x6 Layered Template Labels
If you are looking for more information on Getting Started With Digital Scrapbooking check out my free series of posts
here.
We have over 25 new
Classic AE products in the shop this month focusing on layered templates, travel, journal cards and everyday memory keeping products.
Thanks for your support and here's to telling more stories together!
June 29, 2016
Project Life® 2016 | Week Eighteen
I'm jumping around with 2016 Project Life® weeks right now - starting the process of getting up to date by printing photos first and then adding journaling cards with stories and few embellishments here and there.
The products I used in this spread are my Highlighted Products Of The Month and are available for domestic free shipping/$2 international when purchased before 7/5/16 at 11:59PM EST (see below for the product list). Check out my recent newsletter for all the details.
This month's featured shop products include:
Remnant Rubs // a super fun set of black rub ons that are great on photos This and That Journal Cards (also available digitally here ) // a personal favorite, very-versatile 4x6 and 3x4 card set Simple Stories Photo Flips (3x4 and 4x4) // perfect for adding more photos or journaling to your spreads
Here's a look at my Week Eighteen:
Sometimes it's really super fun to just be told what products to use (in this case we decided which products are going to be featured and I focus on using those in my spread). I like the creative challenge of making specific intentional products work for any given week. In this case making the products work for this spread was easy because the products are generic in the best possible ways. Journal cards + photo flips (always a favorite to be able to add more photos or journaling) + black rub ons.
I used two 3x4 photo flips across the spread - one for the first half of the week and one for the second half of the week. Inside the first one I included a photo on the front and a journal card on the underside. Along the edge I added an Index Tab.
I used phrases from the sheet of Remnant Rubs onto the inside paper of the Index Tabs.
The cards in the This And That set are super versatile, including phrases such as "the story of today," "currently," "life," and "around here."
One of my favorite ways to use the Remnant Rubs is right onto a photo. It's an easy way to get text onto your photos if you're not into adding them in Photoshop or another editing program before printing.
My second Photo Flip pocket includes a couple movie tickets.
I repeated the idea of adding an Index Tab along the outside edge to designate that something was able to be flipped up.
I love that these pockets can hold any number of things including photos, journal cards, and other ephemera.
Design A Page ProtectorsRemnant Rubs This and That Journal Cards (also available digitally here )Simple Stories Photo Flips (3x4 and 4x4) Past Story Kit™ chipboard piecesEpson PictureMate PM400 PrinterAE Precision PenAE Slickwriter Pen
Also a heads up that my June stamp shipping special is ending tomorrow June 30th. See all my available stamp sets here.
June 24, 2016
AE Digital Creative Team | June Inspiration
Today I'm sharing Creative Team projects using the June release of digital products. You can read more about how I've changed up how I release my digital products here.
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. We'll be updating it a couple times a month.
Click the links below to visit the designer's blog and/or check out the product links. Most of these projects are hybrid - meaning that the designers are printing out the digital products to use in their projects.
Brandi Kincaid | Brandi used Summer Messy CIrcles Filled & Read Messy Circles Filled
Carol Chastain | Carol used Book Journal Cards & Summer Memories Journal Cards
Emma Speller | Emma used Wild Digital Story Stamp™, Summer Memories Journal Cards, and Book Journal Cards
Ginny Hughes | Ginny used Summer Memories Journal Cards, Book Journal Cards and Summer Messy Circles Filled
Ingunn Markiewicz | Ingunn used Summer Messy Circles Filled and Summer Memories Journal Cards.
Jen Schow | Jen used Read Messy Circles Filled and Summer Memories Journal Cards (Click here to see a blog post that includes process videos for both of her layouts)
Jen Carlson | Jen used Summer Memories Journal Cards, Summer Messy Circles Filled and Book Journal Cards
Sarah Zayas | Sarah used Read Messy Circles Filled and Summer Memories Journal Cards
Hope you have a great weekend!
June 23, 2016
New Day In The Life™ Kit Now Available + Mark Your Calendar
Yesterday I launched my second Day In The Life™ mini kit for 2016. This year I'm doing Day In The Life™ - a one-day documentary project to capture your life right now - three times spread out throughout the year. It's a simple fun project that spreads across different seasons.
The next day of documentation (if you'd like to play along at the same time) is scheduled for Saturday, July 30th. Switching it up to a weekend should be fun. There's no class you need to sign up for as I'll be sharing my words and photos and my process for bringing them together using the kit below here on my blog.
Here's a look at what's included in this kit this time (the last kit did sell out earlier this year so I recommend jumping in on this one if you have an interest in playing along):
The simple, fun kit I'll be using includes 24, 3x4 journal cards (one for each hour of the day). This time I'm planning to write down and photograph what I'm doing each hour of the day I'm awake - it's a fun twist on capturing a day with a little more structure. It's simple and easy to set an alarm on my phone to remind and prompt me each hour of the day - simply capturing whatever is happening at that particular point in the day. My initial thought is that I'll carry the cards with me and just use a pen to write down what's happening at the time the alarm goes off. To finish off the project all I'll have to do is print photos and add my embellishments to my photos and slip them into pockets. To keep things simple I'll be adding my day into my current Project Life® album.
In addition to the cards the kit also includes circle epoxy stickers with everyday life icons, word/phrase stickers, and themed speech bubbles to help you tell your story.
Here's a video overview of the new kit:
I hope you'll join me in documenting your own day next month. Kits are available now and ready to ship!
June 22, 2016
Spark Your Story | Scrapbook & Cards Today Summer 2016
The new summer issue of Scrapbook & Cards Today magazine is now available and this year my column in each issue will include a traditional layout and a Project Life® spread and a fun "summer manifesto" download (click here to see all the free downloads from this issue).
Today I'm sharing the full images of my layouts from this article here but invite you to
click over and download your own FREE digital copy of the magazine and read my full article that includes much more about the concept and ideas related to each layout. You can also become a subscriber and have it delivered to your home address (awesome) or pick it up at Barnes & Noble. They have even set it up where you can download just a PDF of my article: Spark Your Story.
Here's a look at the pages I created for this issue with a focus on creating a summer manifesto and documenting the stories of your summer. Those of you who have been reading for awhile might remember my manifesto from last summer - I created a layout to go along with that intention. My hope is to come up with a new manifesto for this summer and share it here soon.
First up, a Project Life® spread for a week during last August (2015):
For this spread I documented a series of summer stories - you could totally do this even if you don't do a regular weekly Project Life® spread. I paired photos with white borders + a series of repeated journal cards created using my 3x4 Numbers Stamp and my Seasons Stamp Set.
I love the idea of looking for summer stories, one per day, over the course of a week.
Project Life® Design A Page ProtectorsAE 3x4 Numbers StampAE Seasons Stamp Set ("summer" + "the story of") Freckled Fawn Shine Embellishment Kit (stars)Freckled Fawn Lovely Embellishment Kit (white metal labels)Studio Calico Homespun Documenter Kit (yes rubber word)Inks: Memento Luxe Pistachio, Grey Flannel, Black StazOnAE Precision PenRolling Date Stamp
Studio Calico Homespun Documenter Kit (today rubber word)AE Deschutes 8x6 Alpha Stickers ("get in the")Large white alpha stickers from Me & My Big IdeasChipboard pieces from past Story Kits™"Good Times" from a past Studio Calico kit + circle punched
June 20, 2016
Celebrating Simon
Last Thursday Simon finished 8th grade.
As I thought of all the different angles and lenses through which I could tell you this story, the one I came back to again and again is about celebrating.
When Simon was diagnosed with autism (around 2.5 to 3 years old) we had no idea what that meant for the years ahead. The beginning, right after the diagnosis, was so very hard. So many questions with no answers and we are the kind of people who like answers. We worried about everything. We worried he would reach a certain point in his development and not move past it. We worried about how other people and his peers would treat him. We worried about how he would treat his peers. We worried about what his life would look like twenty years down the road and two months from now.
If there was something to worry about we probably worried about it.
And yet, very early on we made an important decision that made a difference for all of us. Rather than hyper-focusing on all our worries and fears and what-if's we focused on one simple thing: helping him find "success" in whatever that was going to mean to him at each step along the way. And with every little success we celebrated. Most of all though, we simply celebrated him, and still do, for who he is vs. trying to make him into someone he is not. Memory keeping has been one of the most visible ways I have celebrated Simon over the years and I can tell you without a doubt it has made a difference.
Because isn't that what we all want in our lives? People to celebrate and love us simply for who we are - for the crazy combination of our quirks and awesomeness.
As we lovingly say around here, go Simon go.
Over the years we've gotten really good at picking battles. Some weeks and months and years have been focused on behavior issues, some on working through transitions, some on academic pieces, some on social supports, some on regulating screen time, some on encouraging a wider range of foods, some on establishing and maintaining routines, some on physical activity, some on managing tics and anxiety, and in other times we've simply rested and just let it all be. There is no way we could ever deal with everything all at the same time. Instead we've focused on what was most needed at any particular time and celebrated the heck out of every little success.
One day at a time. One issue at a time. One month at a time. One year at a time.
This is what we continue to do today as well.
Early on we also learned the importance of a team. The people sitting around the table - either in the classroom or in our homes - have been so very important along the way in all coming together to celebrate Simon for being Simon (and often times to strategize how to best help him find successes in any given situation via pre-teaching, redirection, etc). For us that included family and friends and teachers and supporters and mentors both in and out of the classroom. It's included Katie & Peter. It's included my parents and Chris' parents. Later on it included Tiffany & her family and then Aaron and his children. It includes local friends who have embraced him as a friend especially now that he is starting to desire to communicate with them more and more. It has even included so many of you who have cheered him on over the years as I've shared pieces of his story in this space.
He is ridiculously loved and celebrated and I'm so thankful for that.
We have also learned very acutely that our voices do matter and, as people told me from the very beginning, we are his best advocates. We know the value of clear communication and the value of challenging our own assumptions. We have also learned, as is true in so many things, that there is no right or wrong answers for what is best for each individual kid. We still have fears. We don't want to underestimate him and we don't want to overestimate him. We still don't know how the next chapters will unfold.
What we do know is that we will continue to show up and continue to celebrate every little thing every step of the way.
I want to publicly thank Simon's amazing (and that isn't a word to be thrown around lightly) main teacher for the last three years: Amy Burrows. For the last 20 years she has tirelessly worked at this middle school with kids with a wide range of special needs as their teacher, their advocate, their cheerleader, and their friend. Amy was a big reason we wanted Simon placed at this middle school in the beginning based on her reputation as one of the best. We felt very, very lucky that he was able to learn from her because what he learned was so much more than academics. She is retiring this year after impacting so many lives in the most positive ways. We all cried.
Amy, thank you for sharing you gift with our family.
This kid.
He makes people smile. If you get the pleasure of meeting him these days he will shake your hand and say, "Hi. My name is Simon. Do you have a dog?"
He makes other people better people just by knowing him.
He is loving and kind and wants to connect with others.
Especially by telling you the entire last episode of whatever show it was he just watched.
His teachers and administrators absolutely cared for him and cheered him on in all the best ways, including when it was hard.
He is leaving middle school happy and excited for high school.
Simon, you are a gift.
June 17, 2016
Celebrating Summer | AED Pinterest Passport
To help celebrate the start of summer here in the northern hemisphere I created 14 new digital word art stamps to say thank you for being a part of this community.
Each day for the next 14 days at 11am EST (starting on 6/17) I'll be sharing a new free digital word art download via a Pinterest board called AED Pinterest Passport. Clicking the link each day will bring you over here to download the word art to your My Digital Files. Make sure you have a user account here in order to download the word art.
As an added adventure, we'll be gifting one pinner a 6 month subscription to Ali's Story Kit™. Details on how to enter that can be found here. We'll be using the hashtag #AEDPinterestPassport to celebrate.
Here's a look at the digital word art stamps I'll be sharing:
We sent out an email yesterday with additional details that you can check out here.
Again, thank you for being part of this community!
