Ali Edwards's Blog, page 179

Week In The Life™ 2016 | Join Me Starting May 9th

Week In The Life™ 2016 is coming soon! 

I'll be documenting my week starting Monday, May 9th and running through Sunday, May 15th. 

So why that week? My reason why for that week was (1) I wanted to have anyone who preordered their kits get them in time for the project and (2) this year I wanted to do  a week when I don't have my kids the whole time and (3) there is never, ever a "perfect" time to do this project. 

All my past Week In The Life™ projects have been weeks when my kids have been here with me (both before and after getting divorced). This year I decided to document what it's like when they aren't here - what do I do, where do I go, etc. I like that it tells another side of my whole story. 

Does it really matter when you decide to do it? Nope. But it's a whole lot more fun, in my opinion, to do it when others are playing along. 

I'll be sharing my words + photos throughout the week here on my blog and then sharing how I bring my week together into an album in the weeks after. You can check out all my past blog posts related to Week In The Life™ here. 

I don't generally do a lot of prep-work in advance (I do for December Daily® but not for this project). My focus is on the words and the photos and then I'll turn my focus to bringing it all together after the documentation period is over. 

Here's some past posts I've written to get you in the mood: 

Week In The Life™ Photo TipsOur Days Are Built With StoriesWhat Stories Will You Tell

We will have new digital products available in the beginning of May. This will include both layered templates and word art. 

For more discussion with others participating in the project you're invited to join my free Week In The Life™ community here on my website and/or our Week In The Life™ community on Facebook. 

Days Of The Week Craft Dies Tutorial

The 
Day Of The Week craft dies are back in stock and today I want to share a short video tutorial I put together on how to use these craft dies. 

A few weeks ago I posted my 
Project Life® Week Eight spread that included the cards I made using this super fun craft die set with an Evolution Die Cutting Machine:

Click here to check out additional images included in that post. 

Here's a short video that shows you how to use these dies with a manual die-cutting machine (I'm using an 
Evolution): 

Looking for more information on using the Evolution? Check out this tutorial from We R Memory Keepers.

After cutting them out I put them into my next week for Project Life® (which ended up being 
Week Eight). it's one of the ways you can set yourself up for success by having a story or design plan in advance for the week ahead: 

All I had to do next was add my photos and stories directly to these cards during the week. 

SUPPLIES USED 

AED Days Of The Week Craft Dies
Evolution Die Cut Machine
Paper Trimmer
SC 12x12 Pad Of Grid Paper

New Story Theme Now Available | Wild

Today I'm excited to introduce you to the next story theme: Wild. 

Because life really is a wild ride. Because sometimes it’s all about saying yes, taking a risk, and not knowing the outcome. Because getting outside, into the wild, can be so very good for your soul. This month let’s tell stories related to wild: places, ways of living, memories, dreams. 

If you are already a subscriber to you can now access the content in the classroom (make sure you are logged in to your account).

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

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

And the Wild Story Stamp™:

We also have a Digital Story Kit™ subscription available that includes access to the classroom content. Here's a look at what's included for Tough (which also shows all the designs for the journal cards included in the printed version of the kit): 

Here's a video overview of the products included in the kits this month: 

And a couple peeks at the layouts I created with the kits this month (
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!

WEEK IN THE LIFE™ PRODUCT RESTOCK

Many of you have already received (or should be receiving soon) your Week In The Life™ preorder. Thank you so much for your purchase! For those of you who might have missed out on some of the stamps and other products (including the Day Of The Week craft dies that were featured in my Project Life® Week Eight spread) we have done a restock of the most popular stamps and the products are now available for purchase. Shop Week In The Life™ here.

I'll be documenting my week starting Monday, May 9th. 

AE Digital Creative Team | Tough Digital Story Kit™

Happy Saturday! Today I'm sharing awesome layouts made by my Digital Creative Team using the Tough Digital Story Kit™.

 Be sure to check out our new 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 Tough Digital Story Kit™ which is available via subscription now through April 14th:

Here's a look at how the team worked with the Tough Digital Story Kit™. 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):

Brandi Kincaid

Carol Chastain

Celine Navarro

Emma Speller

Ginny Hughes

Ingunn Markiewicz

Jen Schow

Jen Carlson

Pam Baldwin

Sarah Zayas

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.

Project Life® 2016 | Week Eleven

My goal this year with Project Life® is to fill in the pockets.

I'm doing just that and it's making me happy and I'm pretty much up to date. Am I telling every single story of my life? Nope. No worries. I'm loving that I'm getting some stories told - the sum of all these stories being greater than any one part. I'm definitely keeping it simple and I'm really liking that part too. 

It's a looser approach vs. past years and it feels right for me right now.

Here's a look at Project Life® 2016 | Week Eleven: 

Lots of writing on photos - it's such a simple way to add story. I'm using a AED Slickwriter and white Gelly Roll pens. 

"Evening" is a digital file from the AM/PM Digital set and was traced and cut using the Silhouette. This set would also be great for telling stories during Week In The Life™. The "she stood in the storm" card is from this month's Tough Story Kit™. 

I've got a video tutorial that shows you how to trace PNG files using the Silhouette software here. 

The text pattern card is include in this month's Tough Story Kit™. 

The end of this week was the beginning of our Spring Break adventure. I'm going to include some photos next week and then do something else in addition with all the photos that both Aaron and I took over the course of the week. 

I often intentionally take photos that include space for journaling right on the photo. Stamping and writing directly onto the photos is such a simple and easy way to include the story. 

I'm still loving including things Anna has drawn - both words and pictures. This wee she was super excited about being able to walk on her hands. She came back from dance so pumped up that she wrote this up for me immediately because I was on the phone when she first got home. Cutting up something this size to fit in three pockets is also a fun way to break-up and play around with the overall design of the spread. 

The "Heart Eyes" card is from the Nes Verk kit from Studio Calico (available without a subscription). 

SUPPLIESDesign A Page ProtectorsTough Story Kit™AM/PM Digital White Gelly Roll PenAED Slickwriter PenPast Story Kits™Rolling Date StampStudio Calico Nes Verk Kit

LENS OF JOY WORKSHOP

There are a few more days to join my Lens Of Joy workshop that started on Tuesday. Registration will close at 11:59PM on Tuesday, April 12th. The workshop includes 11 different lessons and over 8 hours of presentation/video content focusing on topics such a developing your own photo vision and voice, composition & design, photo workflow (uploading, choosing, editing, and printing), and storytelling with photos. f you previously took this workshop in 2014 we are offering an alumni-option for those of you who might want to participate again with the live re-run for $24. Enter promo code LOJalumni at checkout to receive this special offer.

April Digital Release

Happy April!  

In February we announced that we were changing up the way we release digital products from weekly to monthly. This month we are releasing 8 brand new products and over 30 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
April 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 two months. 

NEW PRODUCT BREAKDOWN FOR APRIL

New digital products this month focus on:

Week In The Life™:  Digital version of the journal cards (3x4 and 4x6) and stamp included in this year's kit. Family: Word art and Journal Cards Friends:  Journal cards Outdoors: Word Art and Journal Cards Digital Story Stamp™ set : Tough

If you are looking for more information on Getting Started With Digital Scrapbooking check out my free series of posts
here. 

CLASSIC AE

We have over 30 new
Classic AE products in the shop this month focusing on family, friends, outdoors and everyday memory keeping products.

Thanks for your support and here's to telling more stories together!

Day In The Life™ | March 2016 ( + Project Life® 2016 | Week 13)

Today I'm sharing how I brought my photos and words together to document my 
Day In The Life™ within Week 13 of my Project Life® album.

Yesterday I posted a video tutorial on how to work with the Day In The Life™ 6x12 layered template set. You can check out that post here. You can also check out my post where I share just my photos and journaling here.

You might notice that I skipped Weeks Eleven & Twelve of 
Project Life®. They are in the works and I'll be sharing them soon - I wanted to get this one done at the same time that I completed the insert so you could see how it all worked together. 

If you missed out on the physical 
Day In The Life™ kit you can pick up the digital version that includes the cards and chipboard circles here. We will be offering a new kit for the next round of Day In The Life™ in a couple of months. 

I'm going to start by just showing you how the inserts turned out and then below I'll show you how it looks inside Project Life® Week 13. You can think of this as
a story within a story -  a deep-dive into one day of the week sandwiched between other stories. 

Scroll down for an 18-minute video overview of this project:

For my story I ended up using three page protectors: 

6x12, 3-pocket page protector
6x12, 1-pocket page protector
6x8, 3-pocket page protector (I just cut this one from a Design A page protector - the one I use every week for Project Life®). 

I printed 4 photos to 4x6 using my
Epson PM400 printer. I decided on these 4 as I was working with the 6x12 layered template. On top of each photo I added a chipboard circle (or two on the front) + the time and a little phrase.

The bulk of my journaling came directly from what I wrote when I posted my photos and times to 
Instagram. It made it so easy to do it right then and then be able to copy and paste into both my blog post and then onto these two 4x6 cards. As you can see, I created some space within my journaling to hold the #1 and #2 chipboard circles. I used Helvetica Condensed Bold for the times and Remington Noiseless for my journaling. 

I used Avery Index tabs and stamps - one on each insert. The stamps I used come from the following sets: These Days Are For, Gratitude, Love, Stories, One Little Word 2015

The bulk of my photos were used on a 
6x12 layered template that I used for two pages. 

On the time card I decided to write something I was thankful for. I could have had this out during the actual day, but instead I just looked back through my photos and generated thoughts while looking at my photos based on what was happening at that time. 

I ended up with two pages of the 
6x12 layered template. Such a great home for all these photos + times. 

And here's how it looks within Week 13 of my
Project Life® album: 

I decided to keep my spread super simple this week - just words + photos. I incorporated additional cards from the 
Day In The Life™ kit + cards from a couple recent Documenter kits from Studio Calico. I also printed all my photos with a white border to keep it consistent between the day and the week. I love how that turned out. 

"Love hard" is from the 
Homespun Documenter Kit. 

I love seeing all that typed-up story. 

Love those two. 

The trees, man they are so awesome right now. The "reasons to be happy" card and the "definition of joy" card are from the
Savannah Documenter Kit. 

One of my favorite photos from last week is this shot of Sam sitting on the porch. I took it from inside my house - my front door has two long windows, one on each side of the door. This shot was taken with my phone and I simply tapped on the screen on the sky portion to make the inside super dark and the outside light (vs. what it initially wanted to do which was to light everything so it was all washed out). 

DAY IN THE LIFE™ | MARCH 2016 VIDEO OVERVIEW


SUPPLIES

Page Protectors: Project Life® 6x12 (one pocket) // Design A (cut one down to create the 6x8 size) // 6x12 with three pockets
Day In The Life™ Kit #1
Day In The Life™ 6x12 Layered Templates
AE Stamp Sets | These Days Are For, Gratitude, Love, Stories, One Little Word 2015
AED Slickwriter Pen
Black StazOn
Studio Calico Homespun Documenter Kit
Studio Calico Savannah Documenter Kit
Epson SureColor P400 Printer (oversized)
Epson PictureMate PM400
Avery 2-Inch Index Tabs
Rolling Date Stamp

If you enjoyed 
Day In The Life™ I hope you'll consider joining me for Week In The Life™ starting Monday, May 9th. 

Day In The Life™ 2016 | Working With The Layered Template Set

Happy Monday! This week I'm going to be sharing how I collected all my Day In The Life™ content together to tell the story of my day. 

Today I'm sharing a layered template tutorial to walk you through the steps of working with my new Day In The Life™ layered template sets and tomorrow I'll share my completed project + my Week 13 of Project Life® (home for my Day In The Life™ inserts) along with a video overview. 

For my own project this time I used one of the 6x12 templates + supplies from the Day In The Life™ kit to record my story. These layered templates - for use with Photoshop or Photoshop Elements and offered in both 4x6 and 6x12 sizes - were designed specifically to work with the rolling time stamp that was part of the now sold out Day In The Life™ kit. 

Here's a look at the 4x6 set: 

And the 6x12 set: 

Both sets are super versatile and can be used for a variety of projects, including just weekly in Project Life®. Here's a look at how to work with the Day In The Life™ layered template sets: 

DAY IN THE LIFE™ LAYERED TEMPLATE TUTORIAL

And here's a look at how my 2, 6x12 pages turned out (I'll share the additional inserts that made up my day in my post tomorrow): 

Also, in addition to the two new sets we've also re-released my Day In The Life™ 6x12 Layered Template set and Day In The Life™ 6x12 Photo Collage Layered Template as Classic AE products in my shop (this means it was originally available at Designer Digitals). 

If you are interested in learning more about getting started with digital scrapbooking check out my free series of posts here: Getting Started With Digital Scrapbooking. 

Here's a look at the first 
6x12 layered template set in use in my Project Life® album back in 2013: 

On the back I used a 
Day In The Life™ 6x12 Photo Collages Layered Template set:

You can check out a tutorial on working with that particular layered template set 
here. 

See all my past posts about 
Day In The Life™ here. 

Day In The Life™ Photos + Words | March 2016

Today I want to share with you my photos and words to tell you the story of a day in my life yesterday. 

Thank you to those of you who played along - the #aedayinthelife hashtag was a trending topic on Instagram much of the day - which was fun but also ends up having all kinds of crazy images included in the hashtag feed from people who are just tagging whatever the trending topics of the day are (such is life in our technological age). I loved browsing through your photos and I especially loved being given the specific opportunity to remember once again that we are all just living our own lives day to day - we are in different seasons and moments and I love the reminder to embrace the whole of it for what it is right now. 

I planned, as I usually do, to take photos with both my iPhone 6+ and my DSLR but I ended up with mostly iPhone shots. I usually like the opportunity to use my bigger camera for these projects, but today felt more like a phone day and it just simplified things for me overall. I took all the photos below myself - using the timer on my iPhone or DSLR for any shots that include me. For Week In The Life™ in May I'll definitely be using my DSLR in combo with my iPhone. Quick reminder that the Week In The Life™ pre-order period ends on March 31st. 

I shared more photos on Instagram today than I have in the past for my Day In The Life™ projects and I really liked that format for both the photos and the words. Tonight as I put this post together I simply had to copy and paste what I'd already written on Instagram for my journaling. As you'll see below I've included a few other photos that I didn't post on Instagram - I decided to not add any additional words to those images and just let them tell their own story within the flow of the photos from my day. What you see below includes most of the images I took today (a little over 40 images) and definitely enough to tell the story of this day.

PS | If you are looking for inspiration on ways to see through the lens of your own camera (phone, DSLR, etc) please make sure to check out my Lens Of Joy workshop that starts next week. It's a deep dive into my thoughts and processes for how I personally see through the lens (vision & voice: composition, design, etc) along with a closer look at my uploading, editing, choosing and printing processes. 

Here's a look at my day: 

5:52am | Up and at 'em (or something like that). The story of my morning so far includes both kids waking up way too early and me telling them to go back to bed // allergies (ugh) // feeding animals // moving laundry around // making coffee // and now sitting at my desk to do some editing before the kids get up for real to start the "get-ready-for-school-routine."

6:54am | A Tuesday that feels like a Monday for this one.

7:42am | Kid-to-school-drive #01 underway.

7:56am | Drop off in the gym for morning assembly. Chat with teacher about allergies and give her an @oliverjeffers alphabet book for the classroom (accidentally bought two). Love his illustrations and books.

8:14am | Pull back up to the house to find George & Sam hanging out on the front porch waiting for me.

8:23am | Next up is this guy. He totally lamented that I didn't let him stay up when he woke up at 5:30am. He would have liked some time for video games before school. Bagel & cream cheese & strawberries for breakfast for him.

8:49am | A conversation about being respectful and kind as he climbs out of the car to begin his school day.

9:13am | Back at home and at my desk to work. I'm usually in my office most days from now until about 3pm when I start kid pick-up/afternoon activity facilitation. On my work to-do list today: One Little Word April content, handouts for @sctmagazine event, and new digital products for April. Ready, go.

10:23am | Yep, pretty much the same spot as early this morning.

12:15pm | A benefit of working from home is that when you really need a nap after a bad night of sleep, that can be a possibility. Aaron's been in his bed with the flu since we got back from our toad trip and I'm really hoping I don't get it and I'm really trying to take care of myself. So a short mid-day nap it is. And yes, I still have my coat and vest on because it's cozy.

2:56pm | Worked after nap and now rounding up stuff for kid pick-up. Noticing how awesome it is that the sun came out after a cloudy and foggy morning.

3:28pm | Pick up kid #01 from school. Question: "How was your day?" Answer: "Same as always." (Which, according to Simon, means it was a good day.)

4:16pm | Soccer Chocolate Kittens begin another season! Anna's totally been looking forward to this. Me too. About 20 minutes after this photo was taken Anna sprained or twisted her ankle which resulted in quite a few tears - I think more tears just over the fact that she was so excited about soccer starting in the first place.

5:53pm | Simon starts horse riding again tonight for a spring session (we stopped for the cold and dark winter months). Tuesday's for the next few months will be busy from after-school until we get home after 7:30pm. Figuring out the logistics for snacks and food and travel times from one place to the next.

6:33pm | Peek in on Simon when I take Anna to the bathroom. He likes to ride without us watching. 

7:29pm | Home again. Unload car. Feed animals. Start dinner (taco Tuesday of course). These two end up on the papasan chair with Anna asking if she can play video games with Simon. I'm listening to him teach her the basics of Lego Dimensions. So far, so good. 

8:05pm | Dinner on the couch + just a little bit of the Lego movie + a little time to edit my photos from today. By this time of the day I'm tired. I'm not a late-nighter - I'd much rather get up at 5am (which is what I do). A bath after getting the kids in bed is calling my name.

8:59pm | Reading about presidents before lights out.

9:20pm | Getting my post ready for tomorrow and Sam telling me it's time for bed. 

So what's next? I'll take the next few days to work on how I'm going to incorporate today's content into my Project Life® album and plan to share that with you here next week. 

Again, thank you for sharing your stories. I can't wait to see how you bring your own photos and words together.

Day In The Life™ // Tomorrow March 29th, 2016

Here's your reminder that you're invited to join me in documenting a Day In The Life™ tomorrow Tuesday, March 29th, 2016.

Don't get too caught up in any one part of this. Seriously. Just grab your camera (your DSLR, your iPhone, a small camera - whatever you have is the best one to use) and start taking photos. Think about your story as you are taking photos. What is your waking-up story? What is your morning story? What is your mid-day story? What is your evening story? What is your bedtime story? And then fill in the gaps along the way. 

There isn't a "right" number of photos for this project or a "right" way to approach it. Some people like to write things down throughout the day and other people just use their photos as memory triggers (this works great if you are working on bringing your content together soon after the fact and less great if you wait a long time between the content collection and the making of your own project). 

I know for me I'll be writing down times (most likely that will happen as I post my images to Instagram throughout the day using the hashtag #aeditl) and little micro stories throughout the day. I'll ask myself questions like: 

>> What's the central theme of our life right now and how can I capture that visually?

>> What is the stuff that seems really small & mundane right now but is actually a really beautiful reflection of who we are today? 

>> What makes us "us" at this point in time? 

>> What are the basic details of our day - times, meals, routines, etc? Numbers are a great way to tell this story - think miles driven, cups of coffee consumed, pages read, etc. 

>> I remind myself over and over again that it's not about what is or isn't perfect, it's about what simply is. 

I'm including my personal documentation as an insert in  Project Life® but it would also work great in a traditional album or as a mini-album as well.

This is a great warm-up for Week in The Life™ coming up in May. Don't forget to take advantage of the shipping specials for Week In The Life™ kit/product preorders which ends March 31st (kits will be shipping first week in April). 

HELPFUL LINKS + ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
Read about how this project got started here.
Download free Daily Sheets for documenting your day. Purchase my new Day In The Life™ Layered Template Set (6x12 or 4x6) or order my Day In The Life™ Mini Kit for a physical kit approach (or combine the two together). Check out other products recommended for Day In The Life™ documentation here. 
Check out my Day In The Life™ stories from 2013: January | February | March | April | May | June | May 2014 | May 2015
You can also check out how I incorporated them into my completed Project Life® spreads in 2013: January (Week 5) | February (Week 9) | March (Week 13) | April (Week 18) | June (Week 26)

Hope you'll consider participating!