Ali Edwards's Blog, page 46
June 2, 2023
In Case You Missed It | June 2
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. So, let's get to it:
STORY PLAY PHOTOGRAPHY WEEK
All this week Ali and community members have been playing along with our Story Play Photography Week. Head to the blog for each daily post packed with inspiration from Ali, free downloads, and tips from community members. On Friday, we hosted a community Zoom call chatting all about phtogrpohay's role in telling our stories. Stay tuned for a recording of that conversation coming soon on the blog.
TRAVEL RELEASE UPDATES
NEW GUEST STORYTELLERS
Did you know on the first of every month we share two Guest Storyteller lessons in our Story Class? This month in the HAPPY classroom we are delighted to welcome Kim Chaffin and Erika Breslin as Guest Storytellers. You will not want to miss their beautiful and inspiring projects.This bonus content is just one of the benefits of being a subscriber. Click here to learn more about the HAPPY Story Class subscription and become part of our vibrant, supportive community of memory keepers!
NEW CLASS FROM ALI: STORYTELLING WITH WEEK IN THE LIFE™
Be sure to check out Ali's newest class: Storytelling With Week In The Life™, available now. Storytelling with Week In The Life™ is designed to get you in the mood for documenting a seven day period in your life. This workshop is modeled after the popular Storytelling With December Daily® and Storytelling With Project Life® workshops and is designed to walk you through all the facets of the project in an way that encourages and empowers you to be the boss of your own storytelling experience. We've recently addded bonus lessons from community members. You don't want to miss the great inspiration they are sharing. Register here.
IMPORTANT SUBSCRIPTION UPDATES
Since January, we’ve seen incredible growth in our subscriptions! As always, we are extremely grateful for your support and thrilled by your enthusiastic response to the changes we’ve implemented. As a result, we are currently on a waitlist for new Stories By The Month™ subscribers. Now is the time to subscribe or jump on the waitlist if you’ve been considering a subscription to either of these products. If you are interested in receiving one of these subscriptions when they become available, it’s important to sign-up for our waitlist now as it helps our team anticipate future quantities.
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!
Story Play | Photography | Community Zoom Call
Thanks to those of you who were able to join us for the live community zoom call today! We recorded the conversation and it's available for you now.
Also, big thanks to everyone who shared their own stories related to photography as we celebrated their role in our memory keeping adventures this week!
Have a great weekend!
June 1, 2023
Story Play | Photography | Right Now Page + Use Those Cards
Welcome back to our Story Play Photography week!
Today we are sharing examples of projects using the Right Now paper and 3x4 cards from the Story Play Photo Mini Kit. Joining Ali we have Kelly Watson, Morgan Beal, and Kristin Tweedale. Ali has three projects and a process video included below.
We'd love to see how you are using this paper + cards! If you share on social media please tag #aephotorightnow.
Don't forget that we have a live zoom call happening tomorrow at 10am Pacific (it will be recorded + added to a blog post after completion):
Topic: Community Photography Zoom
Meeting Time: Jun 2, 2023 10:00 AM Pacific Time (US and Canada)
Join Zoom Meeting https://us06web.zoom.us/j/86076148393?pwd=Z1BGbFpV...
ID: 860 7614 8393 Passcode: 266329
Find your local number: https://us06web.zoom.us/u/kbQIOYxoUp
Let's dive into today's examples!
Connect with Kelly here: Kelly Watson
Hi friends, Kelly here. I’m excited to share the beginnings of how I’m documenting Photography week in my Story Play album, using the ‘Right Now’ 6x8 paper and a few of the 3x4 journal cards. Since flowers & progress in the yard are what’s happening around here right now I decided to document that.
I mostly used the physical kit with the exception being the 3x4 ‘Photo Love’ card. Using the digital card, I enlarged it a bit then cut out the heart and adhered it to the vellum paper as the intro page for this section of the album, adding one of the chipboard phrases below. On the back of the vellum page, I cut a photo to mirror the heart shape. From the background portion of the enlarged card I printed I cut a strip to back the chipboard & hold the date.
On the 6x8 phone paper, I printed six photos to fit inside the phone shapes, rounding the bottom corners. To finish the layout I used a 3x8 divided page protector to include two more photos and two journal cards as well as my journaling.
As always, I’m so looking forward to connecting with you all as we share our love of photos!
Connect with Morgan here: Morgan Beal
For Story Play Photography week, I created a 6x8 layout using some of Ali’s previous photography tips to document my right nows. The previous Story Play centered on Day in the Life and
Ali shared a blog post with some photography inspiration. These photography challenges included: looking up, looking down, setting up a shot, showing scale, creating contrast, and incorporating yourself in a shot. I used these tips when taking photos to create this layout. Sometimes it’s easy to get into a photo rut, where I find myself taking the same photo over and over (which isn’t necessarily a bad thing – it certainly tells a story!) But it’s always nice to challenge your creativity and find new ways to see and capture the world around you.
I used the 2x2 square page protector to include journaling with the corresponding photos and resized some of the journaling cards. The digital kit gives you the freedom to resize and recolor journal cards to fit your project needs. And I love to create journal cards with the digital stamps, as I did with the ‘photologue’ stamp.
Connect with Kristin here: Kristin Tweedale
I thoroughly enjoyed putting together this layout; it was such a delightful experience.As soon as I laid eyes on the 'Right Now' paper, I immediately knew I wanted to incorporate those phone images by cutting them out and placing them in a homemade pocket.
I carefully selected six of my most loved springtime photos and glued them onto the front of each cut-out phone. This arrangement left me with more than enough space to add two to three sentences of heartfelt journaling on each phone. I love being able to capture the heart of those special moments.
For the reverse side of the cut-out phones, I resized the 'photos photos photos' journaling card and printed it out, ensuring it fit perfectly. One of the aspects of scrapbooking that I absolutely love is incorporating interactive elements. It's so satisfying to play around with the things you created, even after you put them in your album.
To create the background page itself, I used the camera paper from the Story Play kit as the foundational base for my pocket page. To make the pocket itself, I found coordinating cardstock and cut it to the appropriate height for my desired pocket size. I glued three of the edges, and stuck it down on the camera paper.
I embellished the pocket with a lovely pink sheet of cardstock and grabbed one of my all-time favorite classic Ali alpha stamps, which I believe were released as part of a December Daily collection. Next, I carefully cut out the title, glued down the letters, and then added in some decorative washi tape, I completed the layout by placing a cut tag on top, allowing me to journal about the page as a whole and provide additional context.
Participating in this Story Play theme has brought me tremendous satisfaction. It helped me think about the roots of how I even got started as a scrapbooker, over 20 years ago. Photography has always been my gateway into this art form. When I was little, my grandmother would take me on various trips, and I would never leave home without a disposable camera tucked away in my bag, eager to capture every moment.
Over the years, I have embraced my passion for photography, experimenting with weekly selfie challenges, incorporating full-page photos, and, as demonstrated in this layout, creating pages that allow the photos themselves to be the primary storytellers. It's a beautiful way to let the memories shine through and deliver the emotions and experiences captured within each image.
I put together three projects for today's post using pieces from the Story Play Photography kit.
Let's dive into the video:
Full page photos are still one of my most favorite ways to design a scrapbook layout. For this one I paired a full page photo with the right now pattern paper from the kit. On top of my full page photo I added word art from the digital kit and one of the extra photos from the flowers that I'd printed out. Love adding a photo on top of a photo. For the second page I printed my photos 1.5 inches x 2.5 inches so that there was white around the edges. A date stamp finished off my project.
Story Play Photography Kit
Epson XP15000 Printer
Corner Rounder
Fiskars Trimmer
Rolling Date Stamp
My second project today was sparked by a photo Aaron took of himself outside his office door (that goes into our backyard). As soon as he texted it to me I walked downstairs to take my own photo in the same spot. I love having these two photos together! To tell the story of these images I used one of the 3x4 cards (digital) to create a 3x8 journal card (you can simply make it longer on the bottom of the card in Photoshop). Rather than use a 3x8 inch page protector I decided to use a page attacher instead. Along the outside edge I added an Avery Index Tab with a sentiment from the 3x4 stamp set.
On the back of the 3x8 I added pattern paper from the Labels Scrapbook Kit. On top of that I added three of the circle stickers from the kit and stamped numbers and a camera on each one before writing a couple sentiments on each one. I paired those with a chipboard circle from the January 2023 Stories By The Month kit.
Such fun photos!
Story Play Photography Kit
Page Attacher
Story Play Photography Stamp
Chipboard Circle from past kit
Avery Index Tab
AED Inks: Willamette, Columbia
Labels Quarterly Scrapbook KitALI'S PROJECT #3
For my third project I enlarged another full page photo and paired it with one of the transparencies from this set. I love building pages on top of transparencies and in this project I decided to add a 3x4 journal card from the kit to one side and a 3x4 photo on the other side. This is such a fun way to do a little something different with a journal card and supplementary photo.
Love the invitation to write directly onto the journal card.
On the back side of the transparency I added that second photo (and rounded the corners like I did with the journal card) and added one of the chipboard pieces from the kit on top. I also added a chipboard piece on top of the full page photo along with a couple clear word/phrase stickers.
Story Play Photography Kit
Story Play Transparency Set
Tab Sticker from May 2022 Stories By The Month Kit
6 Hole Punch
May 31, 2023
Story Play | Photography | Imperfect Photos Still Tell Stories
This week we are celebrating photos as an integral piece in our memory keeping adventures. We've designated today as a day to celebrate imperfect photos!
Do you have a layout that uses an imperfect photo as a "hero" photo or another example of a layout that uses "imperfect" photos to support your story? We'd love to see it! Share on social using #aeimperfectphotos.
What makes a photo "imperfect"?
It might be a technical issue. Too light or too dark. Too close or too far away. Strange color casting. Blurry or out of focus.
It might be that you don't like the way you look in the photo.
It might be that you snapped the photos a second or two too late and you missed a particular moment you wanted to capture. Maybe what you got was either right before or right after a "moment" you were trying to document.
It might be an old photo that is simply a product of its time (color off, blurred, pixelated, etc).
It might be those photos you snap to show someone something in your house - those quick ones you never think you'd use to tell a story.
It might be that you are way too critical of your own photos (and potentially spending time comparing yourself with others).
Imperfect photos will always be in the eye of the beholder. What you might think is imperfect I might see as totally creative and vice versa. Do you use "imperfect" photos? What do they look like in your memory keeping?
When I think about using photos in memory keeping I'm often thinking about two things:
Sometimes the photo is the hero of the story. It might be the jumping off point for the project/layout (a story spark) or it might be that it best supports a story I want to tell. Your hero photo may be your "favorite" of a series of photos or it might simply be an "imperfect" one you've chosen to go big with to emphasize your story. The beauty is that as the narrators of our own stories we get to choose which photos we use!
Sometimes the photo(s) is simply supporting the story/words. In the case of what I'm sharing today the "imperfect" photos are all pieces of the overall story of my right now.
As with so many parts of scrapbooking, there isn't a right or a wrong. What I hope to communicate today is that imperfect photos are something we all have and honestly, they are something to be celebrated because they are often so representative of our real lives. We don't live perfect lives. There are a million things that are imperfect about our existence and using imperfect photos simply helps to honor that part of our story.
STORYTELLING CHALLENGE
Go through some of your recent photo archives + deliberately pick photos that feel "imperfect" to you for whatever the reason. Use those - whether it's one photo or many - to tell a story about your life right now. I love being deliberate and intentional with photos like this and I let my desire to tell my stories win over any need/desire for "perfect" photos.
Here's what I created using some recent "imperfect" photos. I love this idea of simply gathering a bunch of them together and going all in on them as a piece of your memory keeping adventures.
Here's a quick process video with info on how to use the layered template in Photoshop that I've included for you below:
Here's a look at my project via photos:
For this project I used the digital version of one of the cards included in the Story Play Photography kit to create a layered template (download available for you below). I love using one card as a repeated element across my spread and detailing a bit about what each photo represents below the photo. This is totally something you could do a couple times a year - collect a series of recent imperfect shots and celebrate them by featuring them all together.
You can download this layered template for use in Photoshop here.
When I was doing Project Life I feel like I included more photos like this in my weekly spreads. Some are snapshots, some are over-exposed, most are simply showing something about my everyday life right now. Each one tells a little micro story about this season.
Epson XP15000 Printer
Remember This 6x8 Album
Secretary Typewriter Font
Fiskars Rotary TrimmerStory Play Photography KitTOMORROW: MORE PROJECT IDEAS USING THE KIT
Tomorrow Ali and community members will be sharing additional ideas for documenting stories of photography using supplies from the Story Play Photography kit.
May 30, 2023
Story Play | Photography | Sharing Our Why
Welcome to a week of celebrating photography as one of the core pieces of memory keeping!
We chose to focus less on the technical and more on the emotional this week because we don't feel like you need to be a photo expert to authentically share your story via photos. Today we invited a handful of community members to share with us why they love photography. You are also invited to share your own why either in the comments or on your own social media. If you share on social please tag
#aephotolovewhy so we can see and read your reason!
This week on Friday we will have a live Zoom Community call at 10am Pacific to chat about photos + memory keeping. Bring questions about photos and/or memory keeping
All you need to do to join the call is click this link on Friday:
Topic: Community Photography Zoom Meeting
Time: Jun 2, 2023 10:00 AM Pacific Time (US and Canada)
Join Zoom Meeting
https://us06web.zoom.us/j/86076148393?pwd=Z1BGbFpV...
Meeting ID: 860 7614 8393
Passcode: 266329
Find your local number: https://us06web.zoom.us/u/kbQIOYxoUp
The call will be recorded + shared here on the blog after it's ended and uploaded.
If you'd like a deeper dive into looking through your lens from a storytellers perspective you can check out the classes we offer about photography including:
Lens Of Joy with Ali Edwards
The Magic Of Moments with Lisa Varshine
Both classes are 50% off this week (no promo code needed)!
To get you thinking about your own reason why we invited community members to share here using the Story Play Photography Kit (using either the
physical version or the digital version).
Let's dive in!
Connect with Azzari here:
Azzari Jarrett
I fell in love with photography at a time when my life drastically changed - when I became a mother. My world now revolved around this tiny human being I had brought into the world, and my outlook on everything shifted. I grabbed my camera to document my new life, my new normal, my new world. I haven't looked back in 16 years. My journey with photography has led me down many paths - through digital and film, experimenting with different techniques and mediums. But one thing always remains the same - my love for the art of capturing my emotions and feelings through that lens. Photography continues to be the most special way for me to make sense of my world. When I happy or content, I love to capture that feeling. When I am inspired and in awe, I reach for my camera. If my day didn't go as planned, I still document it all. Photography has the ability to see me through different stages of my life so that I can revisit and make note of how much I have changed and grown.
Connect with Ingunn here:
Ingunn Markiewicz
My husband and I bought our first DSLR in 2006, right after I started scrapbooking. I instantly fell in love, and for years I would take thousands (yup) of photos of our hikes and backpacking trips, spending hours meticulously editing them in Lightroom.
When we had kids, my focus changed to capturing more of our home life and all the changes that were happening there – suddenly I understood what Ali had been talking about all these years, the joy of documenting the seemingly mundane details of our everyday life! (We are moving to Norway in July, and now those photos of our life at home here in Washington feel even more important! I’m so glad we have lots of photos of the kids growing up in this house, and I wish we had even more.)
These days, I am too lazy to lug around a big SLR, so I take photos with my phone and edit them quickly in the Photoshop app. My favorite photos these days are a combination of my old and my new life: pictures of my kids out hiking! I’ve always said that my scrapbooking is mainly for me – a therapeutic way to look at my life as I live it, and as a way to help me remember all the good times when I am old and grey and no longer going on grand adventures. It feels like we are living through our golden years right now, and I am so thankful that I have a memory-capturer that fits in my pocket!
Connect with Jill here:
Jill Drangsholt
I decided to use this paper as an opportunity to include a few of my Week in the Life photos in my Project Life album. I ended up cutting down a 12x12 page protector to create an 8.25 x 12 layout with the "photos matter" paper and one of the Story Play transparencies stitched together.
PHOTOS MATTER TO ME BECAUSE:
I love taking photos of myself in order to see myself in ways that I haven't seen before. So often I only see myself head on in mirrors, but miss out on the me that others see. These selfies help me to remember my own beauty and be more confident in who I am.
I love the way photos can often tell a story better than I could describe it in words. I love how quickly I can capture a moment (however imperfectly) before it disappears. Or how I can deliberately craft an image to tell the story I want it to tell.
I love to document the changing seasons in my life. The moments that feel like they will never change but do inevitably morph over time, and the ones that persist over and over. I love to record today's ordinary moments knowing that tomorrow they will look completely different.
Connect with Amy here:
Amy Mallory
The Story Play Photography Digital Mini Kit provided the perfect pieces to create a layout that had a dual celebration. It celebrates my son’s proposal and my love for being the one who was honored to photograph it. As photographers, we are the ones looking through the lens, but sometimes it’s fun to take a step back and have a bird’s eye view of what we look like while we’re doing what we love. This layout is about the feelings I have as a photographer and how serving others through this outlet brings me joy! I chose to use photos from this special occasion as an example of how I love being able to photograph the people in my life. The majority of the photos from this spread are of the proposal, but on the insert I used a repeating photo of myself to support the story.
Photography is a passion of mine that ebbs and flows in intensity. Lately I have had a renewed energy toward my favorite hobby and Ali’s Week in the Life photos inspired me to pick up my camera again on a regular basis. I am going to have a celebration album of the photographs that are meaningful to me along with some reflective thoughts about the experience of being the photographer. It will also include words and snippets from others such as the "thank you" message I received from my son on Instagram.
I am continuing my memory keeping in a 10 x 8 album. This spread was all created digitally in PSE and I will print the pages at 11 x 8.25 to live outside the page protectors. This spread includes 2 pages plus a 6 x 8 insert (front & back).
Connect with Traci here:
Traci Brooks
I didn’t always value photography, mostly because I didn’t consider myself good at taking photos. It wasn’t until I started this memory keeping journey all those years ago, I discovered photos were the avenue for me to tell my stories. At that time photos were for historical or who/ what/ where/ when types of story (and still often can be those types of stories). However, I have been learning how capturing perspective in my photo also gives perspective in my storytelling. The photos started becoming a way for me to process what was happening in my life, in real time. They became as important as my journaling. I have grown to understand I don’t need to have all the technical knowledge of using my DSLR to capture my perspective/my view/my voice/my story. I just need a camera.
Connect with Kelly here:
Kelly Ishmael
Hi friends! I'm delighted to be here to celebrate my love of photography with you today. I have been taking a photo everyday (more or less) for the past 10 years, and it is a practice that still brings me so much joy. Seeing life through the lens is my way of seeking out and celebrating the good things in my life which is especially welcome when life feels hard or heavy. Photography also is a practice in mindfulness - like pressing a daily pause button that helps me to feel grounded and present. And finally, I love how photography gives me a tangible connection to my cherished memories with loved ones and then being able to relive those moments through my photos.
I loved the invitation to document why photos matter to me using this paper from the Story Play Collection Photography Mini Kit. I started by typing out my words and printing them on the "Photos Matter" paper. (
Full disclosure: My printer ruined my physical copy of this paper, so I ended up using the digital version for this layout.) Then I printed out three photos sized 1.75" x 1.75" to place in the squares and one 7" x 8.25" photo to accompany the layout. As a final touch, I added a simple chipboard piece from the kit and a felt flower from my stash.
I hope you enjoy the photography-themed content this week and I can't wait to see all of your projects. As always, thank you for letting me share my stories and my projects with you.
Photos are life! I'm a point in my own life journey that I can't imagine photos not being a part of my life in one way or another. My parents took lots of photos (and I've been able to go back through many of them over the years) because they simply loved both looking through the lens and developing the photos. It was simply something you did. I never imagined that photography would become a piece of my work life. I love both documenting the basics of everyday life (I'm looking at your messes - you are so very normal) and creatively looking through the lens to either capture or create something magical and meaningful.
My kids are older now and a lot of my photos in this season of life are of flowers or Betty (our white lab) or of myself. I'm here for that transition and walking into new chapters with open arms for capturing what's beautiful to me in this phase of my life. There are different stories to tell now.
For today's project I knew I wanted to pair my Reason Why page with a collage of photos. I scrolled back through some of my photo archives and picked some from my childhood, from when our kids were little, and some that are more recent.
In between my photo collage and my "here's my why" page I added in the vellum photo pattern and cut out the heart from one of the 3x4 cards for the front. On the back of the patterned vellum I added a couple chipboard pieces and a clear sticker from a past word/phrase sticker sheet.
I chose to handwrite my reflections (and paired them with small photos) directly onto the paper (and yeah, I know the date stamp is wrong - it's all good).
Here's my why (at least my why right now - there's probably always more I could write):
I simply love looking through the lens of my cameras to witness and document the chapters of my life. They are moments and memories frozen in time - the big pieces and the small little experiences. I love seeing both myself and my people.
Photos ground me in what is real - right now in a given season of life. I especially love photos of the natural world and things growing (the cycles) in my yard. Photos invite me to pay attention and tell stories of this season.
They link the past and the present. They show the passage of time and remind me that people make it through things. I love putting past and present photos together to tell stories that honor the chapters of life and all the ebbs and flows.
Here's a short video of this one coming together:
Tomorrow we are celebrating our imperfect photos! We all have them and they can be used to support a wide variety of stories from our lives. We'd love to invite you to share your imperfect + awesome photos on social tomorrow (5/31/23) and use #aeimperfectphotos to share with our community what you love about a particular imperfect photo. Let's celebrate!
May 26, 2023
In Case You Missed It | May 26
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. So, let's get to it:
20% OFF + $10 FLAT RATE SHIPPING WORLDWIDE
20% off site-wide AND $10 Flat Rate Shipping happening now. This includes US, Canada, and International orders! We know shipping is expensive, especially for our international friends, and we are so thrilled to offer this very rare shipping special. Just use promo code 10SHIPPING at checkout and enjoy. The promotion starts now and ends Monday, May 29th at 11:59pm EST. Use code TAKE20 for 20% off your entire purchase (excluding gift cards). These two codes can be stacked to take advantage of both offers! Albums are the only category excluded from the shipping offer. Each album will have a $5 flat rate shipping in the US and CA and an $8 flat rate for international shipping. This will be in effect through Monday at 11:59pm EST.
STORY PLAY PHOTOGRAPHY WEEK
Mark your calendars! Our Story Play Photography week is happening next week, beginning on Tuesday. Head over to the blog for all of the details. https://aliedwards.com/2023/05/story-...
WEEK IN THE LIFE™ INSPIRATION
This week on the blog Ali and several other community members have been sharing their completed Week In The Life™ albums. Head over now for an incredible dose of inspiration featuring walkthrough videos, photos, and tips.
TRAVEL RELEASE UPDATES
Last week we shared a first look at our brand new 2023 Travel Collection coming Wednesday, June 14th! Stay tuned for more sneaks and details as we get closer to the launch. A preview post, including product videos, pricing, shipping and more will be shared on the blog in advance of the release. Digitals for this collection will be available as part of our July digital release, happening the first Friday of July. We're also excited to share that we have a brand new travel class with completed albums from Ali and other community members in progress. We can’t wait to share this collection with you!
NEW CLASS FROM ALI: STORYTELLING WITH WEEK IN THE LIFE™
Be sure to check out Ali's newest class: Storytelling With Week In The Life™, available now. Storytelling with Week In The Life™ is designed to get you in the mood for documenting a seven day period in your life. This workshop is modeled after the popular Storytelling With December Daily® and Storytelling With Project Life® workshops and is designed to walk you through all the facets of the project in an way that encourages and empowers you to be the boss of your own storytelling experience. We've recently addded bonus lessons from community members. You don't want to miss the great inspiration they are sharing. Register here.
IMPORTANT SUBSCRIPTION UPDATES
Since January, we’ve seen incredible growth in our subscriptions! As always, we are extremely grateful for your support and thrilled by your enthusiastic response to the changes we’ve implemented. As a result, we are currently on a waitlist for new Stories By The Month™ subscribers. Now is the time to subscribe or jump on the waitlist if you’ve been considering a subscription to either of these products. If you are interested in receiving one of these subscriptions when they become available, it’s important to sign-up for our waitlist now as it helps our team anticipate future quantities.
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!
May 24, 2023
Week In The Life™ 2023 | Ali's Album
Welcome to a look at my "almost" complete Week In The Life™ album for 2023. I've got just a couple spaces remaining to fill (you'll see those below) and felt like this is a good time to share the entire thing. This is a big post with a lot of photos and a video so grab your favorite beverage and let's dive in and see how this all came together.
You can see each of my daily word + photos from the documenting week here.
You can see steps I took for repeated embellishments here.
You can see my original design plan for this project this year here.
A few things to share before we go through each day:
I really wanted to celebrate + elevate the everyday by focusing on photo enlargements and letting the photos sing their own songs.I love the mix of typed + handwritten journaling. Remember that all the typed journaling comes directly from my blog posts during the documenting week. I simply copy + paste what I wrote and add that into my album. Handwritten pieces include some that were done during the week itself and others that I wrote as I was putting the actual album together and some of that writing is more reflective vs. in-the-moment. I love that combo of the two. This project is a labor of love from the documenting to the printing to the embellishing. Let it take its time in coming together. Remember that you get to choose the right level of embellishing for you in this season of your life. With this project I tend to do "light" embellishing (compared with a project like December Daily®) and that works for the way I want to tell the story of my week. I am so, so, so happy that I used my DSLR camera for this week. It re-ignited a love for me and I feel grateful to this project for reminding me how much I love looking through that lens. I loved diving in to my stash for some sentiment cards and word phrase stickers. Definitely one of my favorite parts of my project this year was inviting our teens to add their voices via photos texted to me each day. I had set up a page for that during our Prep Day but when it came down to documenting those photos I decided I wanted to do something different and used one of the layered templates from this set. I love how it turned it especially since those were all phone photos.
What's not done yet?
Individual family photos that will be cropped into circles for one of the intro pages at the beginning of the album. Some of my ephemera pages need more pieces added. I'm simply adding things as I find them in the mail, around the house, etc.Feel inspired after checking out this post? This is a project you can do at any time! Pick a week and go for it. It is so worth the time.
Interested in learning more about the entire process of documenting a week in your life? Check out my Storytelling With Week In The Life™ workshop.
Here's the overview video:
Here is a look at my album via photos:
This is where I still need to add circle photos of each family member.
These photo strips are 1.25 inches x 6 inches.
In yesterday's embellishment post I shared about how I added this photo + words to the back of the highlights page and included "reflective" writing as I looked back on the week as a whole.
MONDAY
One of the things I did different this year was cut up some 6x8 page protectors to create 3x4 pockets to hold sentiment cards from my stash. As you'll see below I added those to a number of my full page photo enlargements (ones that are inside a page protector). I loved adding in some cards from my stash - you could easily add more writing to the back or use regular journal cards if you had additional writing you wanted to do.
The page protector pockets are adhered with red line tape.
As you'll see below I struggled to fill these in each day. But not to worry, I'm simply adding more from the weeks after the documenting week. It's all related to this current season of life.
On the back of each of those ephemera pages I added a full page photo with a chipboard label and "loving this life" stamped.
Here's the template I ended up using for the "from the kids" page. I love being able to see their full photos (vs. in pockets like I was thinking originally) and love the nod to the technology that delivered that content to me. I filled in the additional phone spaces with extra photos from my day or screenshots.
I went with another layered template - part of the same package as the phone page - to showcase more photos (love the contrast between the small photos here + all the other enlargements). I adjusted this one each day depending on the number of photos I had for the day and, on most days, I added journaling here as well.
This is the journaling that is all copied + pasted from my blog posts during the documenting week.
Journaling continued from the page before.
I added stickers from the Main Kit to some of my 10x4 photos.
Loved diving in to my stash to add word/phrase stickers to the vellum tags from the kit.
And repeat. Love repetition in this project specifically.
Large chipboard words were a great fit for some of my full page photos. These are from the Mini Kit.
For Wednesday I had just enough photos for one page of a photo grid so I decided to create a custom page for my journaling with a circle in the center for one of the plastic circles.
On Thursday I started the journaling on the 10x4 card and then finished that up on a 4x6 custom journal card (see below).
Here's where the journaling is continued from the 10x4 card. I added this to the album using a page attacher.
Sweet little card from Brandi Kincaid's Extravagant Hope.
For Friday I was able to combine a couple rows of photos on the template with journaling below (and continued onto the 10x4 card).
Yep, still need to add stuff here.
For Saturday and Sunday I had fewer photos and words so I took out the 10x4, 2-pocket page protectors. Make it fit your story.
Ah yeah. I can't wait to look back at this one again in the future. I feel like it's a really decent representation of life around here in this season of teenagers.
Thank you for being a part of this memory keeping community! You've got this!
SUPPLIESWeek In The Life™ Main Kit (just a handful of these remaining at the time of this post)Week In The Life™ Mini KitStar Album 10x8Week In The Life™ 10x8 Layered Templates Days Of The Week TransparenciesMulti-colored Plastic CirclesNumber + Journaling InsertsAlpha Sticker BundleDays Of The Week Journal CardsPhrases + Circles Stamp Set
Week In The Life™ 2023 | Special Guest Jill Drangsholt
Hello friends! I documented my Week in the Life project with the rest of the community from April 24th - 30th 2023. And although it was a rough start to the week with a very sick dog and I almost quit before I even started, I'm so glad I persevered. I have shared this before, but I always wake up on the first day of Week in the Life with a sense of overwhelm and wanting to delay the project for another week. However, I find that if I just start taking the photos, I get into the groove of it and I don't look back!
This was my 12th year doing Week in the Life and my first time trying out the 10x8 album size. Over the years, I have documented Week in the Life in bound photo books, in my Project Life albums, in a traveler's notebook folio, and in 6x8 albums. I believe in mixing it up and doing what works best for you in the season you are in. Those years of Project Life versions? Often they only included 3 photos per day, and still they tell a beautiful story. Here you can see all of my albums on a shelf together minus the 4 years that are in my Project Life albums.
The philosophy I've adopted for this project has morphed into a goal of 3 photos per day as my minimum number of photos per day. One morning, afternoon, and evening story. And some years that's all I took. This year my photo average was around 10 - 20 per day. I don't like to leave any photo behind and include almost all of them in my album, so this was a perfect number for me!
For those of you still working on your album, I wanted to share a few tips and product ideas sprinkled throughout a sample of photos from my album. If you'd like to see how the entire album came together, you can see a quick album walk through on my Instagram Profile or my YouTube channel.
I didn't get the transparency dividers but decided last minute that I really wanted to have something like that. So I bought the digital version and printed them on vellum. In the end, I loved how they matched the vellum page that came in this year's kit.
I started my album with the highlights page filled with black & white versions of photos from the week. I love this quick visual look at what the week looked like! I used the digital version of this paper that came with the kit to help me with the sizing and layout of the photos.
On the back of my highlights page, I created a "right now" page using a paper from the Right Now story kit. I had already journaled some of these "ing" words in the album, so I treated this page as an overarching documentation of what right now looked like for the entire week.
Inside of the craft 4x4 pockets I wrote notes to myself, my son, and my dog and labeled them with our names on the colorful pie chart circles. Each of the notes were like pep talks to each one of us about things that were happening in our week or that I was feeling at the time, and I started each of them with our names stamped with the Wooden Block Alphas.
I put screen shots from throughout the week on the number 3x8 inserts. This was not a choice I made before the week, but once Sunday came I realized that I already had enough screen shots for most of the days and just needed a couple of fillers to have one for each day. I especially love the text messages.
On the backs of the inserts I repeatedly stamped the dates in coordinating colors and added the vellum tags from the main kit with "right now" story cards from the Now Story Kit layered on top to tell a bit more of the story behind the screen shots.
This year I tried out Ali's style of journaling that she writes on her daily blog posts during the project, including some of the prompts she often uses. Monday was the only day that I wrote during the week and the rest were written a week or so later. I found that using various prompts like "some days / most days" helped the journaling to flow better than it normally does for me when faced with large chunks of week in the life journaling. And I just love the micro stories I ended up with! The prompts I used this year are: real life looks like, today I / you / we, celebrating, currently, some days / most days, loving, and Sundays are for.
I ended up using 4x6 cards from a past Week in the Life kit as headers for my journaling and put it either in a 6x8 pocket page or in one of the 4x10 pockets.
I decided to stamp the number of the day of the month on the mini day of the week chipboard tags. The numbers I used were from the December Daily 2021 6x8 numbers stamp set.
I used the 4x4 color blocked cards to write down gratitudes similar to what Ali did, except I embellished mine with the starbursts and circle chipboards.
One of my goals for when I put the final project together is to try to keep the album as flat and balanced as possible. So I purposely switch up where each of the thicker embellishments go on each day rather than putting it in the same spot every time. In general, more bulk is always in the middle or near the spine, so whenever it makes sense for the design, I will try to put thick elements on the outer edge.
In this album, you will see that I alternated the pocket placement for the 4x4 kraft pockets and the 4x4 color blocked cards that have a chipboard on them. I even rotated the placement of the chipboard so it was always in a different corner. For all other chipboard pieces, I placed them on a different spot within the day every time. I really was tempted to put those large numbers in the middle of the divider pages, but I resisted and found other spots where they made sense.
I attached the day of the week plastic circles (and quite a few of the sentiment ones) off the edge of photos with a mini staple and added either a star or moon sticker on it. The Friday one was a little light so I added a white card stock circle underneath to help it stand out.
The big numbers ended up going in several places, but quite a few ended up on the 4 x 10 photos and love how that looks!
I added a chipboard label to one photo per day with the time on it. I looked for photos that had room for the chipboard, but also ones where I thought I'd want to know the time when I was looking back at my album.
I added the "ing" stickers to one photo per day. I took off the foam tape to make them flatter as suggested by Krystal.
I loved having all of the morning and evening chipboards from the mini kit and made sure to add one each day.
I tried to add as many of the gold foil words as I could. Although I did wrestle with them a bit with different ways of adhering them. I ended up using staples, stitching and tiny pieces of redline tape. In the end, I loved the tape the best.
I sprinkled word phrase strips throughout the album because I just couldn't help myself. It was a great way to fill in some empty spaces in photos.
That's it! I hope you enjoyed this peek into my album! Let me know if you have any questions and as I mentioned before, you can find a flip through of this album on my Instagram account (@jill.drangsholt). Until next year!
Supplies:
Multicolored Stars 10x8 album, Week in the Life 2023 Main Kit, Week in the Life 2023 Mini Kit, Days of the Week (DIGITAL) dividers, Multicolored Plastic Circle Pack, Number + Journaling 3x8 Inserts, Days of the Week 10x4 Journal Cards
May 23, 2023
Week In The Life™ | Ali's Embellishing Adventures
My 2023 Week In The Life™ album is almost complete!
Today I'm sharing a closer look at some of the repeated embellishing I created for each day in my album. Tomorrow I'll share a full walkthrough of my almost-completed album with additional information.
Let's dive in to a video that takes you through my production process for putting together these repeated embellishments:
Here's a look at each of those embellishments via photos:
Each day includes one of these cards that documents something I'm loving right now on the front and on the back you'll find some fun pattern vellum/transparencies + the plastic circles from the Main Kit.
Number + Journaling Inserts Phrases + Circles Stamp Set Slick Writer Precision Pen Staz On Ink
On the back:
I love the pattern pops in the album that is primarily focused on photos + words.
SUPPLIESTransparencies from 2023 Stories By The Month™ Kits Plastic Circles from Week In The Life™ Main Kit 2.5 Inch Circle Punch Tiny Attacher White Cardstock (for behind the plastic circles) Vicki Boutin Color Story Vellum 6 Hole Punch Miscellaneous Vellum from my stashCHIPBOARD NUMBERS + VELLUM PHRASES
I knew I wanted to do a little something with the chipboard numbers in the Main Kit so I decided to pull out an old dotted stamp that I've probably had since I first started memory keeping back in 2002. You could replicate this look with a stencil or another pattern stamp. You could also stamp the days of the week or other sentiments on top. In addition to the stamping I also added the vellum phrase strips from the Mini Kit using red line tape. Each one of these is adhered to the days of the week transparency to start off each day.
Chipboard Numbers from Main Kit Vellum Phrases from Mini Kit Dotted Stamp from Savvy Stamps (super old) - a stencil could also achieve this look StazOn Ink VELLUM TAGS + WORD PHRASE STICKERS FROM MY STASH
I used the seven vellum tags from the kit to hold a fun collection of word/phrase stickers from my stash and used rolling adhesive to add them to some of the photo enlargements in my album.
Vellum Tags from Main Kit Word/Phrase Stickers from my stashDAILY KRAFT POCKETS
I used the small chipboard sentiments from the Main Kit as journaling prompts for my writing on the cards. I left the back side blank but you could easily add a photo or collage of photos if you were needing more homes for photos in your project.
I grabbed some puffy heart stickers from my stash to add to the plastic circles on the back of the craft pockets.
Kraft Pockets + Chipboard Circles from Main Kit Plastic Circles Alpha Stickers Puffy Hearts from stash Pentel Brush Pen for journaling Tiny AttacherHIGHLIGHTS PAGE
For the Highlights Page at the front of my album I decided to add photo strips to each day. These measure 1.25 inches x 6 inches. I love having this to begin the album.
On the back of the Highlights Page I decided to add a full page photo with word art from the 10x8 Layered Template Set along with writing that's looking back at the project as a whole (written once I was almost done with the whole thing).
Thanks for visiting today! Tomorrow I'll share a full walkthrough of my almost-complete album.
May 22, 2023
Story Play | Photography
Mark your calendar for May 30th for our next Story Play series featuring the Photography Story Play Kit.
During the week we'll be sharing thoughts, ideas and examples using the kit to celebrate stories of our experiences with photography. Our goal is to come together and celebrate our shared love of photos as a huge piece of our storytelling + memory keeping adventures.
Here's the schedule:
TUESDAY: Ali + community members will share their "reason why" using the Photos Matter pattern paper from the kit. WEDNESDAY: Today we'll be celebrating + sharing our "bad" photos (these are 100% relative of course - all photos tell a story). Do you have a "bad" photo that supports a story in your life or a "bad" photo that you love for one reason or another? We'll be inviting you to share your photos on social media. THURSDAY: Ali + community members will share their "right now" phone photo page + ideas using the journal cards from the kit. FRIDAY: Join us at 10am for a community zoom call to chat about photos. Zoom link will be shared on the Tuesday post.We do have some of these cute physical kits still available here. Here's a look at what's included:
A digital version is available here.
