Ali Edwards's Blog, page 214
July 14, 2014
The Weekend Lens
Summer is for adventuring.
As soon as I wrote that I thought, life is for adventuring.
While Simon and Anna spent time with Chris this weekend, Aaron and I took his three kids over to the coast for a couple of days (outside Newport, Oregon). It's been really hot (90's) in Eugene but it was significantly cooler over on the coast.
It was one of those weekends filled with walks on the beach, multiple trips to the swimming pool, special candy, and a couple movies.
Just right.
Here's a look at the weekend in photos. Most of these were taken with my iPhone + a few with my Canon 5D.
A few specific things I want to remember:
The awesomeness and ease of peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. One of Aaron's kids asking me to make a "craft" of our adventures this weekend. The gift of being open - to little hearts and all of it. Swimming in an outdoor heated pool in the evening mist. The flowers around the Inn At Otter Crest were awesome. Starting a puzzle with my morning coffee and Aaron helping me finish it up after the kids went to sleep.
AE | The Weekend Lens
Summer is for adventuring.
As soon as I wrote that I thought, life is for adventuring.
While Simon and Anna spent time with Chris this weekend, Aaron and I took his three kids over to the coast for a couple of days (outside Newport, Oregon). It’s been really hot (90′s) in Eugene but it was significantly cooler over on the coast.
It was one of those weekends filled with walks on the beach, multiple trips to the swimming pool, special candy, and a couple movies.
Just right.
Here’s a look at the weekend in photos. Most of these were taken with my iPhone + a few with my Canon 5D.
A few specific things I want to remember:
The awesomeness and ease of peanut butter and jelly sandwiches.
One of Aaron’s kids asking me to make a “craft” of our adventures this weekend.
The gift of being open – to little hearts and all of it.
Swimming in an outdoor heated pool in the evening mist.
The flowers around the Inn At Otter Crest were awesome.
Starting a puzzle with my morning coffee and Aaron helping me finish it up after the kids went to sleep.
July 12, 2014
Sponsored Giveaway | Cocoa Daisy
GIVEAWAY | One (1) person will win a July Day In The Life Pocket Scrapbooking Kit from Cocoa Daisy.
SPECIAL OFFER | Ali readers will receive $10.00 off their first month’s kit of a New 6 month Day in the Life or Main kit subscription with promo code “NEWCDSUB”
We are so excited about Cocoa Daisy’s new site and new look and we will be hosting an open house crop the weekend of July 19th. Make sure to follow us on Facebook, Twitter or Instagram so you can keep up on the complete schedule of crop happenings.
ABOUT | Cocoa Daisy is a monthly kit club, known for their attention to customer service and curating unique combinations of products to meet your scrapbooking needs every month. They offer scrapbooking, Project Life, art journaling, and stamp kits gathered from a variety of manufacturers, as well as their own exclusive designs and send them your way every month. Subscriptions are available.
CONNECT | Facebook | Twitter | Instagram | Blog | Pinterest
TO BE ENTERED into this giveaway please leave a comment below (if you are reading this post on Facebook please come to my blog to leave a comment). Comments will be closed at 8pm Pacific on Sunday, July 13th. The winners will be announced shortly after. Please be sure to check back or subscribe (click here to get posts delivered to your email box) to see if you are receiving one of the items.
July 10, 2014
A Story About Two People
I want to tell you a story about two people.
Two people who fit together, as he says, like a jigsaw puzzle.
I tell him I like him more and more everyday.
There are moments we cling to each other, moments we push away, moments we fall back and moments we fall forward – both alone and together.
We are a complicated pair. In our own heads often. Intense. Independent. Damaged (and I mean that in the best possible way). Passionate. We are so very different and so very much the same.
We have tangled schedules. We tip toe. We ask forgiveness. I soften as I remember these are new pathways and I can choose something different this time.
We inhabit a new territory. Our families broke open. We know that sadness. We know the questions and the fear and the desire to create and build and protect. We know what it’s like to know someone forever and ever and then have that person disappear (even though both are still integral pieces of our lives). We know the reality of stories that have an ending.
We also know new joy and we’ve felt that rush of a beginning.
We are learning as we grow. Alone and together about who we are as individuals and who we are together and what it means to have our families expand.
I don’t know how this story will end. It’s happening right now and we’re living it. Sometimes these sorts of stories are really hard to tell because you’re living in the middle of it.
If we always waited for the end to tell a story we’d miss so much.
When I feel most afraid I remind myself that there are things to say, and things to celebrate, and pieces to document without fear of how the story will end. Do stories ever really end? Or do they just change and curve and zig zag and evolve into the next one?
Our family stories are different now, but they are still our families.
What I know is this, he has a huge giant heart of gold even when he tries to hide it with jokes and sarcasm. And the cure for everything just might be pie. Pumpkin for him, fruit for me.
We are in it people. One day at a time.
To be continued.
After receiving multiple requests recently I’ve put my popular self-paced Scrapbook On The Road workshop up for sale again for a limited time. This is a well-liked workshop that includes how-to videos, full-color PDF handout, etc. Full details and registration information here.
July 9, 2014
Project Life® 2014 | Week Fourteen
I love repetition.
Loved it yesterday, love it today and will likely love it tomorrow.
Today I’m sharing Week Fourteen of Project Life® which was a part of my recent article in Scrapbook & Cards Today magazine.
Something I love to do every once in awhile with Project Life is to use all those 3×4 card sposts to record something each day of the week. This is made super easy with all the day of the week products available (stamps, stickers, etc). You can see another example of this technique here: PL 2013 | Week 22.
For this week I used die cuts that were a part of Amy Tan’s Plus One collection and stitched them onto white 3×4 cards.
Those day of the week die cuts seem to be sold out everywhere now so we don’t have an active link to them. Instead you could use something like this Day Of The Week stamp set I designed for Technique Tuesday.
The words people. It’s so much a part of this whole experience.
REMEMBER | You don’t have to be a “writer,” you just have to be willing to write.
I also used a bunch of embellishments from Me And My Big Ideas but overall kept it pretty simple.
Green puffy hello sticker? Awesome.
That “YAY” sticker can be found in this set: Time To Celebrate.
ACTION ITEMS/IDEAS
Set yourself up to get some more words by creating a series of seven journal cards – one for each day of the week. Use stamps or die cuts or letter stickers and simply add the day of the week to the top of each card.
Remember that you don’t have to try to squeeze in every single photo you take. Be selective. Look for shots that give a glimpse at your day.
SUPPLIES | 2014 | WEEK FOURTEEN
Click on the images to link to the products.
InLinkz.com
Project Life® is a product and a system and a lifestyle created by Becky Higgins. It can be anything you want it to be. The core pieces used in my album are available here. If you live outside the US check Becky’s site for more information on sources. View all my posts about Project Life® here.
July 7, 2014
AE | The Weekend Lens
Aaron and I adventured up to Tacoma, Washington this past weekend to celebrate the 4th of July with my brother and his family and friends.
It rocked.
Here’s a look at our getaway via photos.
All photos taken with an iPhone 5. Text word art from my Glorious Moments and Glorious Moments Travel sets.
Like the look of adding word art to photos? It’s totally easy. Check out my tutorial here.
And The Giveaway Goes To…
GIVEAWAY | Three (3) people will win Return to the Collection, a self-paced online video workshop about scrapbooking with a collection of patterned papers from Shimelle.
#48 | orange gearle said…Thanks for the chance to win! I love Shimelle!
#212 | Cindy Wick said…Love the new line! I’m so glad she’s found a manufacturer that recognizes her talent. Would love to take another class from her.
#370 | Paris Anderson said…Sounds like a great class!!! I would love to take it.
Congratulations! Please email Katie with your contact information.
July 5, 2014
Sponsored Giveaways | Shimelle
GIVEAWAY | Three (3) people will win Return to the Collection, a self-paced online video workshop about scrapbooking with a collection of patterned papers from Shimelle.
Return to the Collection showcases six layouts in start to finish videos, using one collection pack of patterned papers. The concepts are presented so you can make the ideas work with any paper collection you need to use, so you don’t have to work with the same supplies as shown on screen. Through a mix of single and double pages and pages with single and multiple photos, we walk through a variety of tricks and techniques that will help you use those papers beautifully then dress it all up with embellishment too. Everything is shown step by step via streaming videos, which you can work through at your own pace and return to at any time.
If you have a stack of patterned paper you just had to have but you’re yet to cut into it, it’s time to try something new. Return to that collection with this workshop taught by Shimelle Laine.
If you win and you’ve already signed up, no problem – you can have your choice to give it to a friend or take a full refund on the class price.
ABOUT | Shimelle has been teaching online scrapbooking classes since 2003, and things have come a long way from the plain text emails of those days to the video content of today that lets you scrap along in real time. In addition to her own workshops, she was a Garden Girl at Two Peas in a Bucket, creating the popular Adventures of Glitter Girl video series, and just debuted her signature collection for American Crafts.
CONNECT | Blog | Twitter | Facebook | Youtube | Instagram
TO BE ENTERED into this giveaway please leave a comment below (if you are reading this post on Facebook please come to my blog to leave a comment). Comments will be closed at 8pm Pacific on Sunday, July 6th. The winners will be announced shortly after. Please be sure to check back or subscribe (click here to get posts delivered to your email box) to see if you are receiving one of the items.
Round Up Of New Product Releases
Happy Weekend!
It’s been a while since we’ve shared some of the new product releases over at Designer Digitals so we’ve gathered them all up to share with you today.
First up are a really fun set of new 3×4 journal cards: To The Sea (also shown above in the image above).
The product includes the individual PNG files + a PDF for easy printing at home.
I use Epson Matte Presentation Paper for printing these journal cards.
Glorious Travel Moments | Great for adding directly to a photo.
Time For | This set includes 10 sentiments in both the banner and parentheses word art.
Memory 6×8 Album | This is a personal favorite of mine and I can’t wait to use it for an album (I’m thinking of creating some pages and printing them out to make a hybrid 6×8 album that includes traditional products as embellishments). I’m thinking one of my recent trips or a Top 10 favorite memories album.
The product includes 20 “number” pages (numbers 1 through 20), seven single word/phrase pages and a couple extra to mix and match to document your story. Great for documenting a vacation, a loved one or family member, or even simply 20 favorite memories from your own life.
Loved seeing this example of how lizziet5 is using the template set:
Numbers | These are the 20 number files that were used in the Memories 6×8 Layered Template album.
God Bless Your | This one came about after I shared a photo of Anna where I added the words “God bless your mighty heart” in Project Life.
Make A Choice | I love the idea of using these on a journal card or on a layout. Any one of them could be a title or a jumping off point for a specific story from your life.
July 4, 2014
Celebrate America | Word Art Freebie
To those of you celebrating around the USA this weekend: Happy 4th of July!
I put together a freebie package of four word art files to help you document your stories from today.
Download the Celebrate America freebie here.
If you’d like to learn more about digital memory keeping or working with these products check out my Getting Started series here.
Hope you have an awesome, safe weekend!
