Ali Edwards's Blog, page 191

Week In The Life™ 2015 | Wednesday In Album

I think we might need to consider a bigger spine for next year's album - this one is going to be a tight fit. 

Even though I'm pretty good at editing things out, I want all this in there (mainly what I included in my blog posts for each day). Right now I'm just going with it and we'll see how it shakes out, knowing that I do usually have less photos as the week progresses. 

Here's a look at Wednesday: 

I love the juxtaposition of this image of Anna with the one I took of myself last year (ended up trimming that one to 3x8 - you can see it in this post here). 

I'm pretty much following along with the formula I set up on Monday that includes words on photos, the perforated word strips, and index tabs. 

I was thinking that I'd have less 4x6 photo inserts for this day but it didn't work out that way. I considered leaving out a few photos and then just added them in anyway. 

I actually love looking at this and seeing all those words. They aren't profound or perfect - they are just real observations about who and what and why and where and when of our lives right now. 

I did end up making some word art for those of you who were asking for something along the lines of what I've been handwriting onto these day of the week cards: 

New digital word art now available:
I, We, You

One thing I noticed on this day in particular is that I got a lot of self-portraits. I think they seem to be sticking out more to me because of the green Ireland t-shirt. 

The photos, man, I love them. 

They actually made me a little teary as I looked through them and worked them into the album today - something about back to school and the passage of time and simply how much I'm enjoying my kids right now. 

Following my initial formula I added a pattern card again before the last full page image. 

The ampersand is from my silver chipboard set available here. 

That last photo must be blown up. Those faces are priceless. 

SUPPLIES

Week In The Life™ Album Kit (includes album, page protectors, stamp set, pattern papers, cards and embellishments)
Avery 2-Inch Plastic Index Tabs
Black Staz On
Epson R2000 Printer (for anything larger than 4x6)
Epson PictureMate Show Printer (for 4x6 and smaller)
Tiny Attacher
Faber-Castell PITT Artist Big Brush Pen
Font is a free font called Remington Noiseless
6x8 Week In The Life™ Layered Templates No.2
Crop A DileSilver Chipboard Mixed ShapesMORE INFORMATION

Other posts from the album creation portion of 
Week In The Life™ 2015 so far can be found here:  

First Steps In Creating An Album
Monday In Album (with a video overview)Tuesday In Album

Labor Dave Weekend

When my parents dropped off my kids today my Dad said, "You didn't post enough photos to Instagram this weekend." 

I laughed out loud. My parents love Instagram. They love seeing what we are all up to via that platform. 

But yes, he was right, I didn't post very many photos from our adventure this past weekend to see Dave Matthews again at The Gorge. 

No reason other than it was just nice to be there without looking through the lens of my camera. All my photos here are from my iPhone and most are from the road. The drive over there is awesome and an event in and of itself. 

With views like these I think you probably get what I mean. 

We stayed in Terrace camping again. Gotta love that green grass. This was taken late Thursday afternoon as it was starting to fill up. 

We keep trying to get our food packing and planning "just right." We like a mix of eating at our campsite and eating from vendors both in the venue itself and in general camping. We still ended up with too much food returning home in the cooler but we were closer than last year. 

Those almonds are insane in case you have never had them before. And olives, yes, always for me. 

It really is a simply breathtaking view. 

We went with reserved seats again this year - section 203 on Friday night and then Saturday and Sunday in section 103. Those 103 seats ended up being fantastic - right behind the pit. 

Last year I bought a trucker hat. This year I bought this one - which proved to be perfect as the temperatures were significantly cooler than in past years. 

When we go to The Gorge we go to see three nights of Dave Matthews (he sings different songs every night). This year his openers were Gregory Alan Isakov (loved him - similar to Ray LaMontagne) and Edward Sharpe And The Magnetic Zeros. We saw Edward Sharpe here a few years ago for Sasquatch so it was cool to watch him again as his band has evolved - they did a lot more "jamming" and a lot less of playing straight off their albums. Aaron loved it and I loved just watching Alex (the lead guy) basically orchestrate the whole thing. 

People always ask why I'd want to go see Dave three nights in a row. Because it's rad, that's why. I'm sure for me it has a lot to do with Aaron and his passion for the music, but one of the big things I've learned over the last couple years of coming to these shows is an appreciation for the musicality of the performance. I love watching how all the members of the band communicate with each other and I love it when they play my favorites (Stay Or Leave, Loving Wings, Crush). There's always a pretty fun guessing game going on trying to anticipate what the next song will be and the next one after that. It's just fun. 

PHOTOS I DIDN'T TAKE

Sitting under a sun shade reading Rising Strong on Sunday while Aaron played his guitar. I interrupted him multiple times to read parts and passages out loud.
The craziness of the wind on Saturday afternoon and evening - tents so close to falling down, etc. I was so glad I brought my big coat. It was definitely fall vs. summer over there this past weekend. 
Stopping at Burgerville on the way there and the way back. If you've ever been there you know why.  
More of Dave/the concert. You can't take DSLR cameras into the venue so it's all iPhone which are okay, but not awesome. And also I was just having fun dancing and singing. But I do have a fantasy of being a music photographer. 

Check out past posts about seeing Dave here: 2014

Give Sunday | 35

This year, in honor of my 2015
One Little Word® "give," I'm sharing a hand-drawn quote each Sunday here on my blog.

Click here to read my initial post and download the #givesunday word art title and checklist for helping you to give a little something today. You can also view all the past #givesunday quotes via the archives. 

Click here to download the #givesunday 35 quote. Please note: If you are reading this post via email you need to click through to the actual blog post to download the file. 

You're invited to join me. What will you
give today?

Have a wonderful Sunday. 

December Daily® 2015 | Pre-Order Now Available

Yeah, I know, it's still summer here too (at least for another week before my kids head back to school). And I'm still working my way through my 
Week In The Life™ album. 

But I'm super excited to share with you that the 
pre-order is now available for December Daily® 2015. 

As some of you already know from clicking above on 
December Daily® 2015, I'm mixing things up this year and invited five other designers to create mini kits. We are also mixing things up by giving you a la carte options so you can choose the things you most want to work with to document your December: album, stamps, etc. 

Here's a run down of how it works with images of the products below:

HOW ORDERING WORKS

Add products to your December Daily® box.
Click "Pre-Order Box" to start the checkout process. 
Review your order and click "Confirm Pre-Order." At that time your credit card will be charged for the items you added to your box. 
Throughout the month of September you can add more products to your December Daily® box (your card will be charged each time you click "Confirm Pre-Order"). For example if on 9/3 you pre-order my kit + Jasmine's kit, you will be charged for those two kits at that time. If you return on 9/10 and add an album and a stamp set to your box you will be charged for those items at that time. Once shipping begins in October, we'll pack everything up and send it to you. Please note that due to a shipping delay from the manufacturer your album will ship separately in November.
The pre-order box process includes a "Your Shipping" section which will allow you to see how much your current shipping charges are at any time. 
Shipping charges, if they apply to your order, will be charged upon shipment. 

Shipping rates for all items are as follows:

Mini Kits: $2 US / $3 CAN / $4 Int'l per kit
Main Kit: FREE US / $4 CAN / $7 Int'l per kit
Pre-Order Shop Items (dies, stamps, and tab stickers): Free shipping to everyone
Albums: $3 US / $4 CAN / $7 Int'l per album
Domestic customers who spend $99 on items will receive free shipping. 
MAIN KIT 2015 / $49.99

Here's a look at my December Daily® kit for 2015: 

You can see more images, including the other sides of the papers, by clicking on the main kit image on the December Daily® pre-order page. 

We also have a cool 3x8 log book available (while supplies last) for those that pre-order the main kit. The log book was designed to help you keep track of the stories you want to tell over the course of the month which is especially helpful if you aren't working on your album every day throughout the month. There's a blank area for the story, for your photo idea (or remind yourself of the photo you want to use), and a place for the date so you know what day you are writing about. 

MINI KITS / $19.99

Designed by Kelly Purkey.

Designed by Ashley Goldberg.

Designed by One Little Bird / Peppermint Granberg.

Designed by Jasmine Jones.

Designed by Emily Ley.

ALBUMS & EXTRAS

There are eight different albums to choose from - each design is available in either 6 inch x 8 inch OR 4 inch x 6 inch. They all include 31 page protectors. I'll be using the 6 inch x 8 inch album designed by Jasmine Jones with "merry" written on the cover. 

In addition we are offering two different dies, a set of tab stickers, and six different stamp sets. The dies include a set of three tags with a star where the hole usually goes on a tag and a heart December die. As for the 4 inch x 6 inch stamp sets each one includes unique elements designed either by me, Kelly Purkey or Jasmine Jones. These items - the dies, the tab stickers, and the stamps - all ship for free anywhere. 

Digital products, for those of you who are interested, will be available on October 3rd. 

If you have any questions about the process or issues with the pre-order process please start a conversation with our Customer Service team.  

Thank you, as always, for your support and excitement about this project. 

Week In The Life™ 2015 | Tuesday In Album

Bringing it together one day at a time. 

I actually like breaking it down into chunks and spreading it out and working on the album one day at a time (vs. attempting to tackle it all at once in one sitting which can be super overwhelming). 

Tuesday follows pretty much the same design flow that I shared for Monday, with a couple different things added in that I'll share below. All my Tuesday journaling can be found in my previous post here. 

Here's a look at my Tuesday in the album: 

Again, the pattern divider is going right in between my main full page photo and the 3 inch x 8 inch page protector. I don't have food photos for every day so it's likely some of these spots will just be filled with additional photos from the day during those time periods. 

I'm totally into the layers - loving the mix of things both inside and outside the page protectors. 

Yeah, the artichokes were from dinner but I still wanted that photo cropped to 3 inch x 8 inch. It's all a part of my Tuesday. 

One difference you might notice is that I added my back to back 4x6 photos to the middle two holes vs. using the three top or the three bottom. It made sense to me to add them right to the middle when it was only one back to back set. 

As you can tell I'm still overusing the Avery Index Tabs. The stamps from the kit continue to provide me with sentiments that fit within the tab.  

The "squeeze you tight" black and white sticker is from my Gatherings Story Kit™.

The "tuesday" wood veneer got added to the upper right 3x4 pocket. 

In my journaling for Tuesday I had added in a paragraph about our general schedule in the summer. I wanted to include that whole thing so I created a flip-up card that consists of 2, 3 inch x 4 inch journal cards with a washi tape added at the seam to create the flip. That gold star washi from the kit is awesome. 

When you flip-up the card you see the rest of the journaling and a photo that I attached to the underside of the card that lives outside the page protector. Super simple and easy way to add more words. 

I switched the wood veneer day of the week and the 3x4 day card this time - the card is on the backside. 

Again I used the Faber-Castell PITT Artist Big Brush Pen to write "we go" on the card and then ran it through the printer to add the extra bit of journaling. 

I did receive a request to make some "we are" (the sentiment I used for the Monday card) word art available and that should be showing up in my shop later today or tomorrow. 

The "loving" label was added onto a photo using foam squares. 

When I look back through my photos at this stage of the process I often look for patterns - like sleeping people and pets. Remember that it's not all about chronology - it's also about letting the stories that want to emerge come forward in your project. 

The last portion of Tuesday includes a couple inserts. I really liked the pattern card insert I added on Monday so I followed that lead and did the same for today, this time adding one of the geotags above the sentiment. 

Yes. Layers. Yum. 

The back uses the ampersand pattern paper + a perforated sentiment "things that matter."

I included most of the journaling that related to Simon's horse lesson and Chris picking him up on the photo of the horse so I added this one in without any words. 

Full page photo again to wind up the day. 

SUPPLIES
Week In The Life™ Album Kit (includes album, page protectors, stamp set, pattern papers, cards and embellishments) Avery 2-Inch Plastic Index Tabs Black Staz On Epson R2000 Printer (for anything larger than 4x6) Epson PictureMate Show Printer (for 4x6 and smaller) Tiny Attacher Faber-Castell PITT Artist Big Brush Pen Font is a free font called Remington Noiseless 6x8 Week In The Life™ Layered Templates No.2 Crop A DileMORE INFORMATION

Other posts from the album creation portion of Week In The Life™ 2015 so far can be found here:  

First Steps In Creating An Album Monday In Album (with a video overview)

31 More Things Begins Today

Happy September! Just a quick heads up my 31 More Things workshop begins today. 

This workshop includes a collection of 31 new prompts, presented over the course of the next 31 days, that invite you to tell stories about your life via a single word as a jumping off point. Emphasis in this class is on simply practicing your storytelling skills using some of my favorite techniques and getting over your fears of putting words on the page. Some of the single-word prompts include: home, passion, color, cook, paper, mess, etc. 

Registration will be open until next Monday, September 7th. At that time the bundle option (for both 31 Things and 31 More Things) will go away (students who have purchased either 31 Things or 31 More Things will continue to have access). 

Also, all kinds of fun stuff is happening with  December Daily® . You can check out the initial details, including all the mini-kit designers  here . Pre-orders will begin on Thursday, September 3rd. 

Give Sunday | 34

This year, in honor of my 2015
One Little Word® "give," I'm sharing a hand-drawn quote each Sunday here on my blog.

Click here to read my initial post and download the #givesunday word art title and checklist for helping you to give a little something today. You can also view all the past #givesunday quotes via the archives. 

Click here to download the #givesunday 34 quote. Please note: If you are reading this post via email you need to click through to the actual blog post to download the file. 

You're invited to join me. What will you
give today?

Have a wonderful Sunday. 

Love You Because Mini Class Now Available

Love You Because is part of the series of classes I taught at in-person workshops earlier this year. I've updated it as a self-paced online workshop that includes a presentation video covering the reason why, a 50-minute step by step video where I walk you through the process of creating the album, a PDF handout with step by step instructions and full color images of all my pages, PDF printables, a message board and a gallery for sharing your project. 

I absolutely love doing albums like this - simple, easily repeatable (
great for gift albums) and very meaningful. Taking the time to write out the reasons why you love someone is absolutely worth your time. 

We've also got almost all the supplies you need to complete this project available in my shop, including the 
Heidi Swapp canvas album and the butterfly rub ons from Jenni Bowlin in a variety of colors. See the supplies included below the information on the Class page. 

Full details on this self-paced workshop available 
here. 

You can also purchase the 
Mini Class Bundle for $44 that includes my Day In The Life™, Love Your Because, and I Am Tag Book (available in October) if you are interested in taking all three workshops. 

And in case you missed the announcement last week, I've teamed up with 
Epiphanie to come up with a classic, clean-lined everyday camera bag and it's now available in three colors. 

Here's a short promo video with more details: 

I love how these turned out and have been carrying around the cream bag for the last few weeks (with and without my DSLR).

Hope you have a great weekend!

Week In The Life™ 2015 | Monday In Album & Video Overview

Monday was really all about the photos. 

For any of you just joining in, I'm sharing my completed Week In The Life™ album day by day. 

As usual, let the ideas I share here be a jumping off point for you and inspiration to create your own album any way you want. This isn't a competition or something that is meant to make anyone feel
less than - embrace what you have in front of you right now: your style, your words, your photos. Celebrate them for what they are rather than what you might wish them to be. These are reminders to myself as much as they are to you. Remember, we are in this together because we love the same thing: memory keeping. 

One observation for me as I was working through this first day: this has definitely become a words & photos album vs. originally when I included much more daily memorabilia. I thought about this when I saw an image on Instagram from Julie Campbell (JULIE_STAMPS) where she was including a good amount of "stuff of life" - I loved seeing the mix of type and texture. It's definitely something for me to think about as I approach next year - which will be in the Spring in order to move it away from the Fall. I do tend to include those sorts of things in Project Life®, which might be why it doesn't feel like I'm totally missing capturing those kinds of things. 

A FEW THINGS TO NOTE
All text I included on the photos came from my Monday words & photos blog post, unless otherwise noted (such as on the photos of each kid in the pool).  All photos printed here at my house either on my Epson R2000 (all 6 inch x 8 inch photos) or my Epson PictureMate Show (4 inch x 6 inch and smaller).  Monday is super photo heavy and includes quite a few 4 inch x 6 inch that are adhered back to back. I probably won't have that many on other days.  I love this project.  It might be a couple days before I'm back to share Tuesday. I've got a couple other projects that need some attention before early next week. 

Here's a look at my Monday in the album: 

I shared this one yesterday in my First Steps post. Just a reminder that I have the divider coming after my daily intro photo. 

First up, the 3 inch x 8 inch page protector (if you want more of this size you can get them here). Rather than using this timeline card for words I added photos which were cropped to 2.5 inches x 1.75 inches. On two of the photos I added words that came from my blog post before printing. 

Throughout the day I added a bunch of 2-inch Avery Index Tabs to the outer edges of the 3 inch x 8 inch page protector and to the photos adhered back to back. They are a staple product around here. Inside the tabs I stamped using the stamp included in the Week In The Life™ kit (digital version of those stamps available here).

The back side of the 3 inch x 8 inch page protector includes a photo. I cropped my photo to that size in Photoshop and then printed it on an 8.5 inch x 11 inch piece of photo paper and cut it out (I printed both the Monday and Tuesday 3 inch x 8 inch photo on the same sheet of paper). 

On the right you can see the first 4 inch x 6 inch photos that are adhered back to back and then holes punched to fit into the album. Along the edge are the Avery Index Tabs with stamped sentiments inside. 

As you might have read in my post yesterday I considered adding more page protectors but decided that the route of adhering back to back would work just fine. 

On my photos I'm adding a few different things: phrases from the perforated strip sheet in the kit, chipboard pieces (often with the initial of the person added using the white letter stickers), or stickers/chipboard from past Story Kits™.

Use the day of the week cards from the Week In The Life™ kit to add a little extra to your overall story. Here I hand-wrote "we are" using a Faber-Castell Pitt Artist Pen Big Brush and then typed up a few fun facts about each of us right now. I also laughed out loud when I reviewed the Monday video from last year and heard myself read what I wrote on a similar card last year - Dave Matthews of course. Tis the season as Aaron and I get ready to go see him at the Gorge again next weekend.

For printing my text on the 3 inch x 4 inch card I measured the open space with a ruler and then created a text box in Photoshop that is 2.5 inch x 1.5 inch. I typed in my journaling and then did a test print on a regular size sheet of paper. Next I held it up to the light and temporarily adhered (with just a bit of adhesive) the card right onto the first print and re-ran it through the printer. Voila. 

On the left is the back side of the 4, 3 inch x 4 inch pockets. I added the "monday" wood veneer + a chipboard geotag to my cookie photo. 

On the right are eighth more 4 inch x 6 inch photos that are adhered back to back to create new pages. 

This next section of back to back photos enabled me to include 8 more 4 inch x 6 inch photos. 

I added the yellow label using foam dots to lift it up a bit off the page. 

Here's an example of where I used chipboard from a past Story Kit™. 

Words & photos. 

I love that I was able to get those photos into the album.

Take advantage of this opportunity to write a bit more about the people you are including in your album. On these two photos I added details about who each of my kids are right now - their interests, their strengths, and their challenges. Might be my favorite page yet. 

The last spread for Monday includes 2, 4 inch x 6 inch photos + a 3 inch x 4 inch decorative card + a full page 6 inch x 8 inch photo. 

I liked the idea of adding another something extra between these two pages - especially after adding so many photos earlier within the day. I wanted a different texture than the page protectors. This is also a great way to add in some patterns to your album. Love the layered look too. 

On the back of the heart card I adhere the yellow stripe pattern with the phrase "a week in the life of us." 

On the last photo for the day I added one of the chipboard stars with an "A" for Anna. 

Here's a video overview of Monday: 

ADDITIONAL SUPPLIES

In addition to the 
Week In The Life™ kit I'm using: 

2-inch Avery Index Tabs Phrase stickers and chipboard pieces from past Story Kits™ Crop-A-Dile for punching holes in the back to back photos Black Staz On Faber-Castell Pitt Artist Pen Big Brush 6x8 Week In The Life™ Layered Templates No.2

Week In The Life™ 2015 | First Steps In Creating An Album

Now that we've collected some photos and words (or at least the photos) for Week In The Life™ it's time to begin bringing them together into a tangible album. 

People approach this process in a hundred different ways. Some people like to give a little space and time between documenting the week and putting their album together. Others like to dive right in and finish it up. My general approach is to work on it very soon after completing my week but sometimes, like last year when December Daily® was so close, it just isn't possible. Know that it's okay whenever you end up putting it together. There is often a real beauty that comes from waiting and separating yourself a bit from the content - different stories emerge when you look back vs. when you are documenting in the moment. There's also a beauty that's very evident in doing it right away - the stories and photos are fresh and top of mind and your enthusiasm for the project may still be moving you forward. 

Whatever you decide to do it will be awesome, because what's really awesome is what you've captured from your life the last week. 

As for me, my album will be photo and word-centric much like my approach in 2014. I guess you could say I'm not ready to let go of that style just yet (and many other projects I do include more product play). I also like seeing similarities in design as well as content from last year. 

Another great resource as you are getting started is my Working On The Album post from last year. Lots of ideas and tips and things to think about. 

I eased into the "making" of this album yesterday by printing out my main photo for each day first. I like having a full-page 6 inch x 8 inch photo as a "start" for each day. I went back through, selected and edited the ones I wanted to use, placed them in the 6 inch x 8 inch templates in Photoshop (I'm just using a full page vs. the collage option) and printed here at home on my Epson R2000 printer. If you are interested in learning more about working with layered templates check out this post from last year.

After printing out each photo I added one of the perforated strip phrases from the kit. 

There are no hard and fast rules for choosing your photos. I rely a lot on my gut - which ones grab my attention, which ones were my favorites from the day, which ones do I want to use full page? I considered having all the start photos for each day be self-portraits but ended up switching that up as I went along. 

TITLE PAGE

Here's a look at my 2015 Title Page: 

I considered using the 2-inch pocket page as my title page, but came back again and again to this photo. I played around with a few different ideas for a title that would be directly on top of the photo and ended up using the black sticker that was part of the kit packaging (I think I first saw Trisha Harrison using it in the 2-inch pocket page) in conjunction with the white plastic numbers. This means I won't use the numbers with each day of the week as I did last year, but I'm rolling with it. Along the bottom I printed the actual dates and then used the phrase "our lives are made of these moments" from the perforated strip sheet. There is also a "week in the life of us" and a "week in the life of me" included on that perforated strip sheet as well if you'd like to use that on your title page. 

To adhere those white plastic numbers I used spray adhesive. 

MONDAY START

I started adding words directly to my photos and printing them out for Monday. My words are coming straight from my blog posts for last week. I've got all of Monday's photos printed and am currently deciding what to do with a bunch of 4 inch x 6 inch photos that I still want to include but don't have enough pockets for if I follow my own set-up. Last year I adhered those extra photos back to back and punched holes along one edge and added them to the album that way. I'm considering doing that again because I liked the look of it and Mondays are usually the day I have the most photos.

I'll share my completed Monday soon, but in the meantime here's another look at the end of my Monday:

I'm going with a full-page 6 inch x 8 inch photo at the end of each day again as well (the templates include a photo collage option if you want to be able to fit even more photos). I like how it really puts the emphasis on the photos to begin and end that way. 

As you can see, I've got my words on the photos and I just need to add some embellishments before calling it good. If you didn't write anything down as you went along last week here's something to consider: Look at the photo and think about what it means to you. What is the story behind the photo? What's important about it? What can you tell me about it that will tell me more about your life or what's important to you or who this person is who was in front of your lens? For the photos of Simon and Anna in the pool on Monday I literally sat here and looked at them and thought about what defines each of them right now and simply wrote that out (you'll see those images and words when I share my full Monday collection). 

I'm using the font Remington Noiseless (same as last year) in 9 pt type or smaller. 

For more Week In The Life™ posts check out my archives  here .