Ali Edwards's Blog, page 32

A Look Back At All Ali's Projects In 2023

I'm working on getting my office cleaned up and ready for 2024. While I was doing that I thought it would be fun to put together a video where I flip through all the projects I've worked on in 2023. 

As you watch this video I don't want you to have any thoughts of competition or that you didn't do enough (check out this post about finding your own "enough"). People in our community participate in these projects when it works for them. Please remember that this is my job and part of my job is to share ideas and ways of documenting - you get to be the boss of your own experience and find the projects that fit your own season of life. Don't let your hobby cause stress or make you feel less than. You are awesome just as you are right now. 

While filming this video I was so filled with gratitude for memory keeping. I am so thankful that this is such a big part of my life and that we get to come together to encourage and inspire each other to tell the stories of our lives. Thank you for being a part of this community and thank you for sharing your own stories along the way. 

Let's dive in! 

Also, right now classes are 40% off using code SPRINGDEAL (not valid on 2023 December Daily® or 2024 One Little Word®)! 

Classes mentioned in the video above: 

Start Here | Design Formulas For Memory Keeping Storytelling With Week In The Life Start To Finish Travel #3 (where I share my process for the Dave Matthews album along with other contributors) One Little Word® - new class is now available for 2024

Here's where you can see posts on the other projects: 

Halloween Through The Years (not a class but a series of blog posts on how I built the album), Part Two, Part There One Little Word® 2023 Album Walk-Through Week In The Life™ 2023 December Daily® 2023 Completed Album Story Play Archives  // four themes - including Day In The Life™ - that we use to get more of our stories told with a week of free content/ideas to go along with each one Story Kit Subscription // includes a classroom where I share my projects each month Just Write // storytelling inspiration that just focuses on the words Daily Pages // check out Kristin Tweedale on Instagram for more details on this project

One Little Word® 2024 | On Choosing Our New Words

Our 2024 One Little Word® workshop officially starts tomorrow! Don't forget that you can get $5 off when you sign up before January 1st (it will move to $50 on January 1). 

Last year our team shared a conversation about choosing our words (both in the classroom + publicly) and we decided to do that again as a way to kick off the new year. 

We wish you all the best in 2024 and hope to have you adventure with us in the One Little Word® workshop this year. 

Here's our conversation: 

December Daily® 2023 | Clean Up

I took some time over the last few days to clean up my table after a couple months of December Daily® fun. I love getting it all out at the beginning of the season and then I love putting it all away! In this post and video I'm sharing a look at my clean up and organization process as I ready my space for 2024. 

Here's the video: 

3 QUESTIONS I ASK MYSELF AS I CLEAN UP

1. Do I really love this + think I could use it in the future? We are to the point now where there's no way I can use all the items we produce for December Daily® each year. Our goal is to offer a collection of items that can work for a variety of different memory keeping styles so there's always some pieces that find their way to the bottom of my pile. When I'm going through all the items leftover at the end of the season the main question I ask myself is do I see myself using this item in the future. Sometimes it's a strong yes (I'm looking at you Kraft pockets from the Main Kit this year) and other times it's an easy no. The things I want to keep get stored and the things I want to share go into my "to share" box. 

2. Would someone else love having this more? Just nice to think about and then act on when I feel this way. 

3. Can this item work in a different project? Some of the items we offer for December Daily® can be used in other projects throughout the year. As I'm organizing items I keep this in mind and flow those items into my regular organization system (most often by shape). 

I love, love, love reaching this point in the year where I feel ready + excited to move on! 

Thanks again for being part of this community!

SUPPLIES

Photo Organization Boxes (for bigger embellishment pieces, story cards, etc)
Embroidery Thread Boxes (for smaller embellishments) 
Large Storage Bags
Scrapbook.com Storage Envelopes
Brother Labeling Machine
December Daily® Envelope Bundle

December Daily® 2023 | Completed Album WalkThrough (Just Music)

When I finished up my December Daily® album yesterday I recorded a walk-through of the project so I could share the entire thing today. I decided to just add music for this one and I'll do another walk-through with general project reflections soon. 

Here's a look at my completed 2023 project: 

Check out my December Daily® archives for all the individual posts for each of my stories. 

December Daily® 2023 | Story 25

Welcome to Story 25 in my 2023 December Daily® album. 

Okay, this could be my favorite Christmas Day scrapbook page/pages I've ever made. It's got multiple pages, photos, and just the right amount of words for me this year. 

I'll be back again soon with a full video walkthrough of my completed project. 

Let's dive right in to the video: 

I'm still in the one-album camp for this project. I know some of you out there love giving yourself the flexibility and freedom of to make your pages as thick as you want with as many stories you want and if that's you - awesome! My album is definitely full and I love it!

Here's what it looks like on my table: 

Now let's take a look at the individual pages in this story: 

For this story I knew I wanted to use the vellum 25 as an entry into my Christmas Day storytelling. Because I had the back of Story 24 blank I covered that with pattern paper and one of the felt pennants from last year's collection. 

If you are reading this in "real time" these pennants are on a super sale. 

I cut out a rectangle from the middle of this red pattern paper (and had the Gather pattern paper back to back at the same time) in order to create a peek-through window with the vellum 25 card from the Specialty Journal Card pack. I used from washi tape from Tim Hotlz to frame it. 

On the back side I used a fun pink + red striped washi (also from Tim Holtz) to frame the vellum from this side. 

After turning the intro/frame page you'll find three, 5x7 pages that feature photos with word art (Christmas morning memories) and journaling and a full page of memories without photos. I used plastic page attachers to add these to the album but you could also simply punch holes in your photos. 

Along the outside edge I used circles from the circle pattern paper I punched at the beginning of the season. These are adhered back to back to create page turners on the photos/stories. 

Download the "Christmas morning memories" word art here.

This was a fun solution for me this year! Some years I do one photo or a collage of photos - this year it feels like a little booklet and I love it. 

If you don't have the circle pattern paper you could easily just punch circles from pattern paper and add numbers and sentiments. You could also use the circle stamp we offered this year. 

As I was printing out my photos I had a few other things I wanted to record from our Christmas Day. I used the word art at the top and made a simple list to hold the rest of the stories without photos. 

The last page for Story 25 is a full page photo of what it looked like before the kids came down on Christmas morning. We had hung five playground balls from the ceiling that held a collection of gift cards for each year. We wanted something different and fun to do when giving the cards. It went over well! Festive fun!

On my desk I had a few more of the vellum stars from the December Stories By The Month kit so I decided to "hang" those in the same area of the photo as the balls. I loved mimicking the hanging ornaments with some embellishments on top of the photo. 

On top of the vellum stars I cut sentiments from the banner pattern paper and adhered them using foam dots. These stars were attached to the page using a Tiny Attacher and twine. 

To finish off my album I added the "more twinkle lights" pattern paper to the back. On top I added a little message and a chipboard star. 

And I know I will totally laugh seeing this in the future: I brought this up to my office from the kitchen as a memory of what I cooked on Christmas morning. 

SUPPLIES

December Daily® 10x8 Album
December Daily® Main Kit (digital available)December Daily® Specialty Journal Card Set (digital available)
Vellum Stars from December Stories By The Month Kit (here's something similar)
Twine
Plastic Page Attachers
Felt Pennant Flag
Gold Brads
Tim Holtz Washi TapeMore basics can be found in my Amazon Storefront

December Daily® 2023 | Story 24

Welcome to Story 24 in my 2023 December Daily® album. 

I'm so excited to be close to wrapping up this project for another year! For today's story of our Christmas Eve I ended up creating a custom digital layered template and some word art to support my story (download available for you below). Love the focus on words + photos and also love being able to add in items I'd crafted earlier in the season. 

If you need a refresher on how to use digital layered templates in Photoshop or Photoshop Elements I've got an older post for you here. 

Here's my short video for Story 24: 

Here's the Table Of Contents: 

Earlier this season I played around with these large plastic hearts to create more shakers (because it's been that kind of year). I took three of the large plastic hearts and some patterned transparencies from my stash and started stitching. Before reaching the end (using the outlines as a stitching guide) I added a bunch of sequins and then stitched each one closed. They have been sitting on my table throughout the month just waiting for their turn. 

I ended up using gold brads to add them directly to one of the full page pattern transparencies. This worked as a really nice overlay for my words and photos focused print. 

I started off with one of the layered templates we offered this year and adjusted it to fit the story I wanted to tell. I enlarged the template to 11 inches x 8.25 inches and then created the "Christmas Eve Memories" word art as a title for each of my journaling sections. You can download my adjusted template and the stand-alone word art below. 

I didn't take a lot of photos on Christmas Eve (which is pretty normal for me) but the ones I did take were a nice representation of our day. I used those images as jumping off points for my journaling and then added in a few other memories that didn't have photos to go along with them. 

If you aren't into digital layered templates you could make something similar using the grid paper from the kit this year. 

Grids for the win!

Download the PSD Layered Template + word art here. 

SUPPLIES
December Daily® 10x8 Album December Daily® Main Kit (digital available) December Daily® Specialty Paper Pack (digital available) Large Plastic Hearts Basic supplies via my Amazon Storefront

December Daily® 2023 | Story 23

Welcome to Story 23 in my 2023 December Daily® album. 

When I looked back through my photos to identify a story from the 23rd the one main photo I took that day was of Anna + friends hanging around the table. I love that the photo is very representative of the season of life we are in right now. Your current season might be full of little kids and toys or the expectation of kids or the missing of kids or not have anything to do with kids at all. 

Let's dive in: 

Here's the Table Of Contents: 

For today's story I'm continuing to echo some of the design elements I've used earlier in this album: wreaths + circle photos + circle text + velvet ribbon. 

I started with a base of the fun x + o pattern paper and initially planned to simply have the wreath/vellum/tree be an interactive element to reveal my journaling and photo. As I was constructing the page I ended up deciding to add another wreath cut in half and bring in the red velvet ribbon for that awesome pop of red. 

Inside the wreaths that are framing the center wreath I added some pattern vellum + story numbers + a gold chipboard star. 

The wreath with the "so much joy" vellum is stitched to the piece of velvet and attached under the washi tape from my stash. It lifts up to reveal journaling printed on vellum that is attached to a circle photo. 

My photo and journaling circle were punched using a 3.5 Inch punch. I also used a 4 inch circle punch to create the white border around the photo/journaling. 

Around the outside of the page I created a border using old washi tape from my stash. 

I'm also adding in our Christmas card and the "I see you" journaling project I put together for Prep Day this year using the Starbucks bag + pattern vellum on the back. 

SUPPLIES

December Daily® Main Kit (digital available)
December Daily® 10x8 Album
December Daily® Clear Sticker Sheet
Red Velvet Ribbon 
3.5 Inch Circle Punch
4 Inch Circle Punch 
Washi Tape from stash
Plastic page attacher
Ink jet printable vellum 
More basics in my Amazon Storefront 

December Daily® 2023 | Story 21 + 22

Welcome back to December Daily® 2023 and my 21st and 22nd stories! 

I hope you had a lovely Christmas and I'm excited to dive back in to my storytelling as I wrap up my album this week. 

I'm combining story 21 and 22 together as a home for an overnight adventure I took with some of our kids up to Seattle to see Macklemore in concert. I'd been looking forward to this event for months and had the best time with all the teenagers. 

Here's the process video: 

Here's what I did on my Table Of Contents: 

This is a good example of how sometimes I'm looking at the numbers as dates and sometimes I'm thinking about them as stories. Don't get caught up in that (numbers vs. dates) - just tell the stories you want to tell! 

For this entry in my album I started with a photo from Seattle Center: 

On top of the photo (measures about 8 inches x 8.25 inches and is adhered to a photo from Story 20) I added black chipboard numbers, a plastic ampersand embellishment from my stash, and chipboard phrase from the Main Kit. 

I used the Bold Foil Quill Freestyle Pen to add the gold foil dots onto the chipboard numbers before adhering them to the photo.

The next page in the spread is part of a large, flip-open that will reveal a big collage of photos along with two 3 inch x 4 inch page protectors. This photo measures 10 inches x 8.25 inches. On top of the photo I added the die cut word "awesome" from a previous Story Kit. 

I used a 1 inch circle punch to punch a partial circle along the inside edge to designate a spot for your finger when you fold open the page. 

When you open up the photo enlargement you find a big collage of photos and the two page protectors. 

I saved the photo collage layered template I created for this page for you to download. I did it twice for the number of photos I wanted to include. The full width of what I created here after you put it all together is 20 inches wide.  

Download the layered template here.

Here's what it looks like on my desk: 

I created a hinge to bring these pages together using a full sheet of basic printer paper (see the details in the video). 

I liked pairing the big collage of photos with the 3 inch x 4 inch page protectors. I was able to add a few more photos and have space for all the -ing journaling cards from the Main Kit. 

Handwritten journaling is so fun especially when mixing in that bright red POSCA paint pen. 

Those 3 inch x 4 inch pockets are great for things like hotel room keys, screenshots of funny text messages, and embellishments. I used a couple of the die cut labels to add a few more details from this adventure. 

Here's a look at the full photo collage spread. I love that a collage like this can incorporate photos from throughout our adventure. 

SUPPLIES

December Daily® 10x8 Album
December Daily® Tab Stickers
December Daily® Main Kit (digital available)
December Daily® Specialty Journal Card Pack (digital available)
December Daily® Die Cut Labels (digital available)
Freestyle Foil Quill Pen Bold
December Daily® Canvas Circles 
Red POSCA Paint Pen
Brush Pen
Slick Writer
Bakers Twine

In Case You Missed It | December 22

Happy Friday, friends! Welcome to the latest
In Case You Missed It. Just a reminder that this is a quick post that will happen every Friday afternoon with all the updates and links that have happened throughout the week. Please note: In Case You Missed It will not be published next Friday, December 29th as our team takes time to celebrate the holidays with family. Thank you for your understanding. So, let's get to it:

END OF YEAR SALE IS HAPPENING NOW
Have you shopped our epic End of Year Sale? For a limited time, shop available kits, components, stamps, and add-ons at up to 80% off! We hope this end of year celebration inspires you to tell more stories and excites you for 2024. The sale includes $10 Story Kit™, $10 stamps, $10 Stories By The Month™ kits, $25 Scrapbook Kits, as well as up to 80% off of subscription components and add-ons. Subscribers save an extra 10% off these sale prices using code SUBSCRIBER10. Shop the sale here.

ONE LITTLE WORD® 2024 IS HERE

Workshop registration opened this week and we have a new collection of carefully curated products available to help make your word visible throughout the year. ⁠Shop the collection here.
Visit our "Classes" page to see all of the details for this year's workshop. Register before 1/1 and receive the early bird pricing of $45 (registration after 1/1 will be $50) for 12 months of content related to making your word visible in your life.⁠ Register + learn more here.

DECEMBER DAILY® IS HAPPENING NOW

December Daily® is a December mini-album project that documents the 25 days leading up to Christmas. The simple goal is to capture the spirit of December via one story per day. Ali is sharing her stories in the same way she has in years past, almost-daily blog posts and videos. Find all of those on the blog, as well. Thank you all for making this project so incredibly special.

DECEMBER DAILY® DIGITALS

The 2023 December Daily® Digitals are here! Kits, Stamps, Paper, and Embellishments...the same fun & festive designs as the physical @decemberdaily products, only in digital format.⁠ We love to see how this incredibly creative community plays with digitals! Resizing elements and cards, adding journaling to papers, creating cut files, transforming files into transparencies, the sky is the limit with digital files. ⁠Want to learn more about creating with digital files? Our newest class December Daily® Hybrid Product Play is live and available to watch at your convenience.We have incredible content from six amazing contributors ready to explore at your convenience. Shop digitals here.

NEW CLASSES

2023 DECEMBER DAILY® PREP DAY. Join the December Daily® community for a fun online December Daily® prep day on Saturday, November 18th, 2023. Use this opportunity to finish past December Daily® projects or start working on your project for 2023. The first live video will start on Saturday, November 18th at 10:00 am Eastern. Cost is $5.
DECEMBER DAILY® PRODUCT PLAY | TRY THIS. December Daily® Product Play is all about ideas and inspiration for working with physical products from the December Daily® Collection. For 30 days in November, you'll receive one idea per day from the contributors to this class (includes Ali). Ideas in this workshop will focus on physical products from our 2023 December Daily® collection. Whether you are preparing to document 2023 or finishing up telling stories from past years, we hope these fun, creative ideas help you use your products to get your stories told.
2023 DECEMBER DAILY® HYBRID PRODUCT PLAY. Hybrid scrapbooking combines digital products with physical supplies to create paper (or printed) memory-keeping projects. For this class, our contributors will share with fun, creative ideas and inspiration for working with these digital products from the 2023 December Daily® Collection.

As always, we’re so grateful to have you all as members of this community! Thanks for joining me today and have a great weekend!

December Daily® 2023 | Story 20

Welcome to Story 20 in my 2023 December Daily® album!

Just a quick note that I will be out of town for a few days on a family adventure. I'll jump back into the project when I get home and continuing sharing on + off both leading up to and after Christmas. 

I woke up this morning with a page idea and I started down that path and decided it just wasn't what I wanted/needed for today so I did a full pivot to tell the story of these gummy bear ornaments that finally arrived after being backordered for a couple of months (ordered from Terrain + no longer available). They are definitely fitting in with my colorful, festive fun vibe this year. 

Let's dive in: 

Here's my Table Of Contents for today: 

When the collection first released back in late August I made some stamp samples and this circle was one that I made using the Wreath Stamp Set. I've had it in my album since then and my original idea for today included using it on the green floral pattern paper. My pivot included still using this circle and adhering it to the pattern vellum from the specialty paper pack. 

I've had these gold rimmed vellum stars on my table (they are from the December Stories By The Month 2023 kit) just waiting to support a story and today was the day. 

To attach the vellum stars I used embroidery floss to create French knots. Here's the French knot tutorial I followed for my imperfect knots. 

When you turn the page open you'll find a second stamped wreath, more stars, my journaling, and a large photo of one of the gummy bear ornaments. 

Journaling in a circle again for this one and decided to make my journaling a hunter green. I arranged my text in a 2.5 inch circle and printed it on Maco Sticker Paper. 

As you'll see if you watch the video, I made up an embossing powder mix for this one - literally mixing a variety of colors together: it started as an accident + turned into something fun. Have you ever done that? I've never done it before but it was really so fun. I've got the colors listed below that I ended up mixing together. I saved my mix in one of those little plastic cups with a lid (they are also great for custom paint mixing + saving). 

I used a star punch to punch out a couple more vellum stars from some plain vellum sheets. On top of those I added Tim Holtz rub ons and then attached them with French knots before adhering the whole thing to the back of the pattern vellum. 

I printed my full page photo 8 inches wide x 8.25 inches tall. On top I added "joy" using the large gold puffy letters. On the inside of the "O" I added a chipboard circle from my stash and I also added a main kit chipboard phrase below. I added a couple more vellum stars using French knots on top of the large ornament balls. 

Along the outside edge I used red line tape to adhere a strip of pom pom trim. 

This one definitely took some time but it was so fun. 

Also, as I was finishing this one up I was looking at the back of the envelope I used for Story 19. I ended up adding one of the large clear stickers from this sheet. 

SUPPLIES
December Daily® 10x8 Album December Daily® Main Kit (digital available) December Daily® Specialty Paper Pack (digital available) December Daily® Wreath Stamp December Daily® Holiday Phrases Clear Sticker Sheet December Daily® Gold Foil Alpha Puffy Stickers  Stories By The Month Vellum Stars December 2023 Tim Holtz Rub Ons (similar) Colorful Vellum Star Punch  Embroidery Thread Red Line Tape Maco Sticker Paper Stamping Platform Versamark Embossing Ink  Ranger Embossing Powders: Buttercup, Vintage Pearl, Blush Pearl, Pink Neon, Snowflake Tinsel Snappy Tray  Pom Pom Trim Little Plastic Pot for custom embossing mix Additional basic supplies via my Amazon storefront