Ali Edwards's Blog, page 216

For The Love Of Learning | Alt Summit 2014

Last week Katie and I flew to Salt Lake City to attend the Altitude Summit – a blogging business/inspiration conference.

This was my first time attending Alt. I’ve been following along each year from the sidelines, reading about other people’s experiences after the event online and wondering if it would be a good fit for me.

As usual it was quite an adventure and today I’m going to share some of my personal observations and things I loved most about the event.

Our first order of business was to attend a dinner on Tuesday night. We selected the Bing dinner hosted by Alison Faulkner Robertson of The Alison Show.

I recently started following Alison (first via Instagram I think) and loved her crazy dance moves and her blog series: How To Be Awesome. As you might have heard me mention before, I’m working on not taking things so darn seriously on a regular basis and I think she’s an awesome example of someone who’s really great at being silly and fun.

I like people who are bringing that vibe to the world.

It was awesome to meet her in person and the dinner itself was spot on with music and decor and desserts. Yes, those are glitter macarons.

Another reason we were excited to attend this event was to connect with some of the people we work with already – many of which have become friends over the years. We shared a room with Elise which meant late night conversations about life and business. We connected with April and Sam from Studio Calico and loved seeing Celine Navarro from France. I also loved running into Candace Stringham and her sister Stephanie Ford. And I know I will forget to mention someone here.

Elise has a great review post here – she captured many of the same feelings I had about the event. She’s wonderfully articulate about her brand and her business. We both have blogs that support our brands vs. blogs that are our sole income generators which led to lots of healthy discussions about why we do the things we do and where we want to be moving forward.

This event came along at the right time for me both personally and professionally. For the last year I’ve been working through some major business changes behind the scenes and sometimes I feel lost in the middle of it all even though I’m super excited about what’s to come. It’s been a crisis of confidence on many levels – the cans, the shoulds, the maybes, the fears, the comparisons, the uncertainties. I think this confidence crisis inevitably also has to do with the major life change of divorce and how there’s simply no way around that but to move through it one day at a time.

What I loved about the opportunity to go to Alt is that it made me continue to hone in on who I am and what I do and what I’m really good at and what I want to be doing with my life.

I loved being a student. Doing what I do can be pretty isolating at times and I really value the chance to go to something like this and connect with other creative business people. Alt gave me the opportunity to learn from creative people like designer and illustrator Emily McDowell and videographers Jesse & Kimberly Moore from Modern Atelier.

It was also a reminder to me that I like the lane I’m in. I love memory keeping and photos and words and living authentically – it is the heart of what I do whether I’m writing or designing products or taking photos or developing classes.

I loved getting to meet Gabrielle Blair of Design Mom who I’ve admired for many years.

I also loved the chance to have a sit-down conversation about business and empowerment and confidence with Rachel Faucett of Handmade Charlotte. To say she is motivating is an understatement.

I loved listening to Gabrielle interview Martha Stewart. She’s a cultural icon and a woman that has persevered through all kinds of things in her life and her work. I know not everyone loves Martha and of course that’s okay but for me this was a meaningful part of the event and I’m so glad I had an opportunity to hear her speak.

The other inspiring main-stage presenter was Joy Cho from Oh Joy. She’s another person I’ve followed for many years and it was so cool to hear her tell her own story of how she’s gotten to where she is today.

I loved the invitation to dress up a bit more than usual. I also loved that the only new thing I bought to wear were a couple Classic Cardigan sweaters from Forever 21 that are around $8 each. I now want them in every color.

The bottom line for me, and my biggest take-away, is that I still love memory keeping and I want to keep delving deeper into the heart of it and I want to bring you content that is in alignment with what is most meaningful.

I’m all about figuring out ways to tell my own story and helping you figure out ways to tell yours.

We’re in this thing together. Onward!

PHOTO CREDIT | Any photos I didn’t take with my phone were taken by either Justin Hackworth or Brooke Dennis.

And The Giveaways Go To…

GIVEAWAY | One person will receive all three new Distress Mini Ink sets from Ranger & Tim Holtz.

#555 | Strapkitty said…The distress inks have so much dimension and the colors you chose just exude summer. Thanks to both you and Tim for the opportunity to try to get some of these to try on my own!

 

GIVEAWAY | One (1) person will win the June Main Scrapbook kit from Paper Camellia Kits. US & Canada Addresses only.

#154 | Caitlin said…Looks like there’s some great stuff in this kit! Loving the colors!

 

Congratulations! Please email Katie with your contact information.

Sposored Giveaways | Paper Camellia Kits

GIVEAWAY | One (1) person will win the June Main Scrapbook kit from Paper Camellia Kits.  US & Canada Addresses only.

Our June kits are filled with a mix of  soft watercolor tones accented with touches of gold. Fun embellishments include metallic shapes, lovely ephemera packs, flair, wood sequins, arrow paperclips, chipboard hearts, stars, and sparkle infused enamel dots. This kit will keep you creating through the month and beyond!

SPECIAL OFFER | Receive 20% off any purchase from Papercamellia.com Use promo code

ALI20 at checkout. Offer good through 6/30/14. Subscriptions excluded.

ABOUT | Paper Camellia Kit Club is your destination where beautifully coordinated scrapbook kits come together with inspiration, creativity and exceptional customer care. Delivered right to your door every month.  We design our kits with an eye for the latest products, a clean and simple style, as well as quality and value.

Join us as a subscriber to be assured to receive the Main Scrapbook or “Everyday Life”  pocket page kit each month. We are a no-commitment kit club and you may cancel at any time without  fees. We invite you to visit us at Papercamellia.com for a look at our kits, and wonderful creative inspiration from our  talented design team!

CONNECT | Shop | Website | Blog | Facebook | Pinterest | 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, June 22nd. 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.

Rad Lab Summer Sale + Scrapbook & Cards Today Summer Issue

Hey guys! I’m coming to you this morning from Salt Lake City where Katie and I have been attending Alt Summit which has been an awesome experience for us to connect with other bloggers and learn stuff. We like to learn stuff.

Today I wanted to give you a heads up about two things.

#1 | Rad Lab – the awesome plug-in I use in Photoshop to edit most of my photos – is one sale for 30% off this weekend. These guys don’t have sales very often so now is a great time to buy if you have an interest.

Use the code TRSUMMER when you check out.

Sale ends Monday, June 23rd at Midnight.

Rad Lab is so easy because all I have to do is open the photo in Photoshop, click a button to launch it and then click once more to select an adjustment/filter for the photo. My consistent personal favorite is “lights on” which seems to lighten and brighten just enough.

#2 | I wanted to let you know that the summer issue of Scrapbook & Cards Today magazine is now available. You can choose between the free digital version or subscribe to their print magazine and get it delivered to your mailbox old-school style.

I’ve teamed up with Scrapbook & Cards Today to do a series with them called Stories With Heart. Each issue you can find an article by me that includes a couple layouts around a particular topic. This issue the topic I focused on was “recording the everyday things  because they matter” and it includes two new layouts and a Project Life® spread.

Download your own copy or subscribe to the print edition here.

IN-PERSON WORKSHOP NEWS | Also, I wanted to let you know (especially those of you in the Markham/Toronto, Canada area) that Katie and I will be coming to the Scrapbook & Cards Today Crop & Create event in Markham on February 28 – March 1, 2015. I’ll be teaching a couple classes there – more details to come soon regarding registration.

Have a great weekend!

Favorite Memory Keeping Office Supplies

When I was working on Project Life® 2014 | Week Nine and added in those 4 inch x 6 inch lined cards I was thinking about how much I love incorporating office supplies into my memory keeping projects.

Here’s some of my favorites:

Copic Markers | Probably not technically an office supply, but I just got this set of these and am loving playing with them – especially the brush tip (and using the black for some of my digital word art that I write and then scan before saving as PNG files).
Avery Index Tabs | I use these all the time on inserts in Project Life®. They are a favorite.
Staedtler Fine Tip Pens | Wilna recommended these and I really like them as a thicker tip permanent pen. A nice alternative to the Precision Pens.
Avery Metal Rimmed Tags | Another product I’ve used for years on layouts and in Project Life®. Here’s how I used them in Week 23 (2013).
Rolling Date Stamp | This is my preferred way to get a date on my layouts. Simple and easy.
4×6 Ruled Index Cards | These are something I’ve had in my stash for a long time for Project Life® and just used one for a title card for the first time in Week 9. A nice alternative to cardstock or other pattern journaling cards.

Is there anything you guys love picking up from the office supply store to use in your memory keeping projects?

Things I’m Working On

I’m working on going through all the kids clothes – it’s that time of year when I assess what, if anything, they need for summer. Anna and I tackled her closet last weekend and bagged up anything that was too small or too worn (which ended up being quite a few things). She wore a uniform for school this year which was awesome and she definitely needs a few updates for summer (a couple dresses, a couple pairs of shorts and t-shirts). Limited choices have been working well for the uniform so I’m thinking of approaching her summer clothes in the same way.

I’m working on getting to 10,000 steps each day and using a FitBit to track it. And let me tell you, as someone who works on a computer a lot of the day, it IS work. For me it means I have to go for a walk – which was really the whole point for me.

I’m working on not taking things so seriously. Ha. Always.

I’m working on loving my home for what it is right now. This book The Nesting Place: It Doesn’t Have to Be Perfect to Be Beautiful is helping.

I’m working on letting things happen in their own sweet time. My timeline is not the only timeline.

I’m working on some cool behind the scenes stuff for my business. Stuff that I think you guys will be excited about. Stuff that I’m feeling pretty darn excited about.

I’m working on keeping the kitchen counters clear of stuff. Do something with the stuff rather than let it pile up. Put it where it goes. “One touch” is my mantra – recycle, garbage, or put it away where it goes.

I’m working on not working on so many things. Ha. I listened to a podcast from The Art Of Simple recently that talked about ennegrams. I don’t know much about those at all but I did one of the tests and based on those results I think I’m a #1 – The Reformer. There’s a whole lot of me, even the parts of me I dislike, in that description. (The next closest for me was #3 – The Achiever.)

What are you guys working on these days?

And The Giveaway Goes To…

GIVEAWAY | Two (2) people will win a spot in The Phone Photography Project from Big Picture Classes.

#148 | Debra said…I use my phone for pictures and this class would help me make them so much better. Thanks for the opportunity!
#298 | Kelly Sill said…Would love to have a spot in the class! Thanks for the chance to win!

Congratulations! Please email Katie with your contact information.

Project Life® 2014 | Week 9 + New Tim Holtz Distress Mini Ink Giveaway

A couple weeks ago Tim Holtz emailed me to see if I’d be interested in playing with some new colors of his Distress Mini Inks and doing a giveaway of the new color sets.

Sounded like a good plan to me.

GIVEAWAY | One person will receive all three new Distress Mini Ink sets from Ranger & Tim Holtz.

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 Thursday, June 19th. 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.

I decided to put them to good use to finish up Week Nine (February 24th through March 2nd).

Here’s a look:

This spread had most of the photos in place and a bunch of sticky notes when I started the process of finishing it up (you can see a recent Project Life® in progress post here).

I gathered up some 3×4 cards – mainly from the Midnight kit and one of my own and started stamping using these great Amy Tan letter stamps and my Good Day set.

“Around Here” card is a printable found here: Story Prompt Cards Vol. 1.

For the title card I used a regular old 4×6 lined index card (go office supplies) + Tim’s inks + Amy’s letter stamps and just repeated the dates.

Seriously it can be this simple.

Eat at Chipotle? They have fun packaging which make for great Project Life® content. I need to remember to include more stuff like this – I tend to go through phases where I remember to save stuff and other times I’m more focused on getting rid of the clutter.

The clear 3×4 card with the circles is the back of a card I made for Week Eight. I simply repeated the same shapes with some pattern paper circles (2 inch punch) + label tape stickers + DIY clear stickers.

A little stitching to connect two 3×4 journal cards using my Brother sewing machine. You’ll notice that I used other pieces of those cards (the cut off portion) on other elements of this spread (one piece on a 4×6 photo for journaling and one piece on a 3×4 photo for the single word “yes”).

Weather cut from the local paper.

Again, so simple. It adds another dimension to the story of this week that’s not reflected in my words or photos. Rain. Ah Northwest, I love you so.

“Hello Today” stamp is from one of my favorite sets: Good Day.

I stamped it with Tim’s ink, punched it with the 2-inch circle punch and adhered it to a card from the Midnight kit.

I hand-wrote “I love you Mama” on the photo of Anna and me using Staedtler pen.

Gold label is from Studio Calico’s Hello Hello Scrapbook Kit and I stamped “just awesome” from the stamp set of the same name (another one of my favorite Technique Tuesday stamps).

ACTION ITEMS/IDEAS

One of the things I loved this week was the simplicity of pulling out just a few stamps and using them multiple times throughout the spread. Loved using those Amy Tan letter stamps specifically.
Embrace the mess. I like that these letter stamps are messy and imperfect. They made me particularly happy for some reason today.
If you don’t have a lot to say think about going bigger with your words or using repetition of words. I didn’t have much to say about working on my taxes so just repeating the words and adding in Saturday was a fine way to fill up the card.
I love my Monday card from this week that was a simple list of the things I did that day. Need to remember to do that more often. Love the simple lists.

SUPPLIES | 2014 | WEEK NINE

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.

Sponsored Giveaway | Big Picture Classes

GIVEAWAY | Two (2) people will win a spot in The Phone Photography Project from Big Picture Classes.

28 days of photo tips, app tutorials, and iPhone awesomeness.

Would you like to take better photos with the camera you always have with you—your smartphone?

Get ready to transform your mobile photography in a brand-new interactive workshop, The Phone Photography Project 2, starting July 17. Twenty expert iPhoneographers have collected their best tips, tricks, and tutorials for phone photography, and they’re ready to share it all with you inside a private online classroom—with lots of fun happening on Instagram, too.

No matter what kind of camera or smartphone you use, taking better photos requires a basic understanding of photographic principles and the inspiration to see the amazing photo opportunities all around you. This class will show you that:

Your phone camera is capable of much more than you realize


Composition and lighting are just as important (if not more so) when you use a phone camera vs. a DSLR


You can produce frame-worthy snapshots with nothing more than your smartphone and the right combination of apps

With practical tips for mastering lighting, composition, editing, and more, this workshop will give you the tools you need to create impressive photos you’ll be proud to share online, in your home, or in your scrapbooks.

The Phone Photography Project 2 includes:

Practical tips for mastering lighting, composition, editing, and more


14 before-and-after video tutorials that demonstrate photo-editing techniques


Hands-on photography challenges every Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday from July 17 to August 16


14 image galleries featuring more than 250 inspiring photographs from your workshop instructors


Active, supportive Instagram community to share and view photographs


Resource section featuring app and equipment recommendations


Supply recommendations


Bonus handouts


Message board to share your thoughts with classmates and interact with instructors


Private posting gallery to share and view photographs

The workshop will run July 17-August 16.

Cost is $59. To find out more and to sign up click here.

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, June 15th. 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.

Father’s Day Calendar

The kids celebrated Father’s Day with Chris a last weekend since he was going to be out of town on the actual day.

Chris is really awesome at making sure I get celebrated on Mother’s Day so it’s important for me to do the same for him. Even if we aren’t married any longer we still share awesome kids and he is a great Dad.

He’s my partner in parenting and he does a damn good job at it.

For 2014 I decided to make him a calendar using photos of the kids from the last few years using Artifact Uprising’s Wood Calendar.

It turned out awesome.

The kids loved looking through it and I’m pretty sure he loved it too.

I liked the idea that it was something he could have at his desk or attach somewhere using a magnet (comes on the back of the wood).

The actual process was super easy and quick. Like less than 30 minutes to select and upload photos. These would make great gifts for all kinds of occasions.

DISCLOSURE | Just a note that this is not a sponsored post. I selected and purchased this product on my own. I did recently work with Artifact Uprising and they supplied me with a photobook for my Kauai vacation which you can ready about here. I do use affiliate links so if you click over to Artifact Uprising and end up purchasing something I will receive a small percentage of your purchase.