Ali Edwards's Blog, page 50
April 10, 2023
Now Story Kit + May 2023 Stories By The Month™ Kit
Today's the 10th of the month and that means a new
Story Kit, Story Stamp, and Stories By The Month kit.
This month we are focusing on stories related to the theme of Now.
Documenting what's happening in real time is one of my favorite ways to tell the story of my life. Themes like currently, around here, and right now invite us to look around and capture the lives we are living in the moment vs. waiting for a future time when we try to remember (we all now how hard that can be). This month we are coming together to tell some stories of own personal now.
Initial story ideas for this theme include:
Make a list of what's happening in your life right now. A simple list is a great way to capture little bits of what's real for you in this season. Right now what are you loving/listening/watching/eating/reading/going? Using those -ing words is a great entry point into capturing life right now. Tell the story of now by contrasting what's easy and what's hard. STORY KIT
The
Story Kit™ includes:
Here's a video overview of the
Story Kit™ and Add-On options this month:
The Stamp Set:
Here's a video overview of the Story Stamp:
Here's a look at what's included in the Digital Story Kit™:
Your digital kit and the classroom and any Add-Ons purchased will be available to you on the 12th once your card has been charged for the month.
This kit is also available to physical kit subscribers as an Add On each month.
Here are a few sneak peeks at projects you'll find in the classroom this month from Ali:
Again, thanks so much for subscribing and/or considering our
Story Subscription program! If you have any questions about this program please let us know below in the comments.
First and foremost we are excited to begin offering a classroom included with this subscription (called
Inspiration By The Month™). Each month Lisa Varshine, Krystal Iduante, and Jen Wong will share inspiration in a classroom using pieces from the Stories By The Month™ kit.
Here is a full look at the kit this month:
The kit now includes a sheet of vellum or transparency (sized outside the page protector in a 6 inch x 8 inch album), a pattern paper, a 3 inch x 8 inch (outside the page protector) journal card with the month at the top which will be repeated each month, a 3 inch x 4 inch stamp set, chipboard, 4, 3 inch x 4 inch journal cards, 3, 4 inch x 6 inch journal cards and an embellishment.
And a video overview:
This subscription is a great option for those who are looking to tell more calendar/everyday life sorts of stories.
Our Digital Stories By The Month™ kit is now called Inspiration By The Month™. With this subscription you receive access to the Inspiration By The Month™ classroom and the digital kit.
This kit is also available to physical Stories By The Month™ kit subscribers as an Add On each month.
Add On options are available to all Story Kit™, Story Stamp™, and Stories By The Month™ physical subscribers (this excludes Digital Story Kit/Story Class subscribers since you don't have any part of your subscription shipped already). Current and new subscribers can select + purchase Add-On's via your new drop-down menu access under your user name in the top right corner of the site: you need to do this before the 11th of the month in order for them to ship with your kit.
Depending on product availability subscribers may be able to purchase the Add-On's after the Add-On period has ended and regular shop shipping rates will apply because they will ship separately from the kit.
This stamp set is available to subscribers to add to their box during the Add On period and also offered in the shop for anyone else!
I'm super excited about these as alphas are my favorite kind of stamps!
April 4, 2023
Story Play | Day In The Life™ | Show + Tell From Ali
Welcome to Show + Tell day for Day In The Life™ 2023!
It was so fun to see all the photos shared last Saturday on the documenting day. If you missed our community documenting day you can embark on this project any time.
Here's a video overview of how I bought my words + photos together:
And here are still images of my project in my Story Play album:
I added journaling directly to the "today" prompt paper using both a thick and a thin pen. Love the contrast between the two.
My journaling is prompted by the notes I took on the documenting day combined with any other thoughts and memories as I reflected on the day.
I used one of the chipboard tags as a template to cut out three photos. I added small silver brads to each one and then adhered with rolling adhesives.
I love those little close ups when it becomes more about shape vs. the actual thing itself.
I used the brush pen to highlight one color color within each observation.
On the back of the prompt page I added a full page photo (a favorite of mine from our morning walk).
On top of the photo I used the 3x4 stamp set and inks to identify the colors I used as me lens for documenting. These are adhered with foam adhesive.
After looking at my photos from the documenting day I decided to have one 4x6 photo and one 3x4 photo for each color. If you have more photos you can totally create a grid of photos of add in more page protectors if needed. I love the simplicity of this formula keeping the focus on the words + photos.
On each journal card I used a brush pen to write "color #01" and "color #02" and then added my story of each photo.
Simple journaling + reflections on the day.
I loved this lens! It was such a fun way to switch things up.
After each of the color pages I finished up this project with some additional photos and words added to the "everyday colors" prompt page. I used additional photos from the day showcasing a few things I wanted to include/capture from our day (regardless of the colors shown).
Thank you so much for joining me for this Story Play adventure! We have three more adventures to embark on this year: photography, facts + feelings, and little moments. We'll share an updated schedule for that soon.
SUPPLIESDay In The Life™ Story Play Kit (digital available)
Day In The Life™ 3x4 Stamp
Remember This Album
Inks: Redwoods, Tillamook, Honeyman, Willamette, Deschutes, Rose Garden
Epson PictureMate PM400
Epson XP15000
1 Inch Circle Punch
We R Memory Keepers Hole Punch
Silver Mini Brads
Corner Rounder
Foam Adhesive Squares
Micron 03 Pen
Pentel Brush Pen6 Hole Punch
April 3, 2023
Ali's March Documenting | Embracing The Season You Are In
This past month I decided I wanted to simply fill some pockets in my 6x8 2023 album with some March stories.
I'm finding myself in a re-newed creative season that's encompassing a variety of things in my life right now including art journaling/mark making, getting outside in my yard (I sometimes forget in the winter months how much this fills me up), working on content for my Week In The Life™ workshop, etc. I'm so thankful to be riding this wave + I never take these seasons for granted.
Early in the month I found myself inspired that I had some stories to tell - little stories about life around here - and I shared a few on Instagram. I've long loved using Instagram as a holding place for stories I might scrapbook at another time but I've gotten away from that some as I've struggled with my own issues with social media. I decided to take action on those stories and printed them out during the month (sometimes on the day I created the IG post) either as 3x4 or 4x6 images with corresponding journaling cards and just slipped them into pockets in my album.
As the month went on I was so excited that I'd filled a few pockets and knew that I wanted to come back to that album and add more. At the end of the month I went through my photos and printed out about 12 more (sized 3x4) along with some typed journaling on journaling cards and had the best time with this simple approach.
I am embracing the season I'm in by giving myself permission to keep it really simple with these kinds of stories: words + photos.
A couple things I know after memory keeping for over 20 years that feel relevant to share today:
Embracing the season we are in helps in maintaining a lifestyle that values storytelling. Currently I don't want to do any structured weekly documenting but I like the idea of capturing everyday life stories over the course of the month + then simply adding them to a 6x8 album. No embellishments required unless I really want to add them.
This doesn't have to take a lot of time. I spent an hour or so selecting + printing my photos (printing done here at home on my Epson PictureMate PM400), typing up some journaling using digital journal cards (and printing them with that same printer), and then simply slipping them into the pockets.
I always have the option to make it more designed + more crafty + can add more embellishments if I want! Options are awesome.
Albums are just holding places for stories. Check out a video I did on that here.
I can change my mind from month to month how I'm telling stories based on what makes sense for me and my own life right now.
Ride the wave. Ride the wave. Ride the wave.
Here's a video where I'm filling the pockets + wrapping up my March stories:
Here's what March looks like in my 6x8 album:
The basic stuff is the stuff of life.
Sometimes I'm typing and sometimes I'm handwriting.
I loved adding in a 3x8 image of daffodils at the beginning of the month.
From the Make Story Kit classroom.
Love these kids and love having a photo like this of them in here.
A perfect example of a micro story is that one at the top where I paired the "this made my day" card with a photo of my drink at book club.
Often times when I'm printing these I put both the photo + the digital journal card on the same 6x4 canvas for easy printing (and then cut with my trimmer before .
Here's a tutorial on putting two 3x4's on a 4x6.
Simple + more simple. Grab a journaling card + write the story or type up your story and print it on a 3x4 background.
I loved pairing a couple 3x4 photos of our team with one big full page photo of the awesome Graduate Hotel in Nashville.
From the Make Story Kit classroom.
From the Make Story Kit classroom.
Simple scenes of stuff I'm into here at home (and the work I love to do outside).
I also loved being able to grab this 6x8 prompt page from the March Stories By The Month kit to include a few more reflections/stories related to the photos I was simply slipping in the pocket.
Be in the season you are in.
Let's celebrate and flow with where we are at vs. fighting against it for some version of ourselves we think we should be/how we should document.
SUPPLIES
March 2023 Stories By The Month Physical + Digital Kits
Make Story Kit
6x8 Alpha Stamp Set
Brush Pen
6x8 Linen Album
March 31, 2023
In Case You Missed It | March 31
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:
YOU HAVEN'T MISSED IT YET | DAY IN THE LIFE™
Tomorrow is our first Day In The Life™ project of the year. Every day this week Ali has shared a video on YouTube and the blog with some ideas and inspiration related to Day In The Life™. This year we are using the lens of color as a way to tell the story of our day. Here are her posts from this week:
Monday | Kick Off + Reason Why
2023 WEEK IN THE LIFE™ PRODUCTS AVAILABLE
The all new Week In The Life™ products for 2023 are now available! We have two new albums, our journal, a gorgeous main kit, an incredibly fun themed mini kit, and a collection of coordinating Week in the Life™ products. All of the products are in the warehouse and ready to ship! Shop the collection here.
WEEK IN THE LIFE™ DOCUMENTING WEEK
Ai will be documenting her week beginning Monday, April 24th. Consider yourself invited! Stay tuned for more content around documenting coming soon!
WEEK IN THE LIFE™ PREP DAY
Week In The Life™ Prep Day is also available for registration, happening April 15th. We'll have more details for your soon! Register here.
WEEK IN THE LIFE™ DIGITALS
Our collection digitals for Week In The Life™ will be available on Friday, April 7th. Layered templates will be coming to the shop closer to the documenting day. We will have 10x8 and 6x8 layered templates again this year. Layered templates are .PSD files. Main kit journal cards and papers will be available as separate file. The kraft pages will be available with a white and transparent background and we will also have album art available. SVG files, which can more easily be manipulated in CANVA, will be included when possible, consistent with previous digital releases.
LAST CHANCE FOR 40% OFF SELECT DIGITALS + CLASSES
Use promo code SPRING40 to get 40% off select digitals and classes all month long!
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 both new Stories By The Month™ and Story Kit™ 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 | Day In The LIfe™ | Live Q+A Replay
Big thanks to those who were able to join for our Live Q+A on YouTube!
Here's the replay of that conversation:
Tomorrow (Saturday, April 1) I'll be sharing my images throughout the day on Instagram. I'll have my completed project ready to share here on the blog by the end of next week (that will be the "show + tell" post).
If you are sharing on Instagram on Saturday we invite you to use the following hashtags for each color to inspire our community:
#aeditlred#aeditlorange#aeditlyellow#aeditlgreen#aeditlblue#aeditlpink#aeditlblack#aeditlwhite
Let's have some fun with this one! Color treasure hunt here we come!
March 30, 2023
Story Play | Day In The LIfe™ | Tips For Photos
Welcome back to Story Play | Day In The Life™ 2023!
Today's post features a couple tips/things to think about as you look through the lens of your camera on the documenting day.
Don't forget to join me for a live YouTube Q+A tomorrow (Friday, March 31) at 11am Pacific. Click notify me via this link to be reminded when the live video begins! I'll put up a blog post with the recorded video after the live has concluded.
Let's dive into the video:
Here's an outline of the tips from the above video:
BE DELIBERATE
Simple tips help you stay focused on the project! Try one or more of the above tips when you are documenting your day using color as your story lens.
March 29, 2023
Story Play | Day In The LIfe™ | Tips For Words
Welcome back to Story Play | Day In The Life™ 2023.
Today's video is focused on a few tips + ideas for approaching the words in this documenting project. Remember the community documenting day is coming up this Saturday but this a project you could embark on at any time!
Let's dive into the video:
Here are a few highlights from the video:
Love keeping it simple + focusing on a few ways to get my story of this day told.
March 28, 2023
Story Play | Day In The LIfe™ | Documenting Set Up
Welcome back to Story Play 2023 | Day In The Life™!
Today I'm sharing my simple set up + approach for documenting color on Saturday. I'm going really straightforward with this particular project in order to keep the focus on the color treasure hunt piece. I love how the products invite and directly support the story I'm wanting to tell.
Let's dive right into the simple set up video:
And here's a look at my design formula:
I'm using the striped vellum page + three of the chipboard tags as my title page for this project. I plan to add all of the Story Play adventures into this album over the course of the year.
On the back of the intro page I'll cut three small close up photos to the size of the chipboard tags and adhere on this side. This both covers up the backs of the chipboard and is a fun peek into the colorful photos to come.
I'll open my documenting with five observations from the day. These might be color related or they might be about the general life flow right now. Simple observations.
On the back of that full page of prompts I'll be adding one photo from my day or I'll add a collage of photos (this will depend on how many photos I take overall and how I feel when it comes to bringing it all together).
For each color I'm planning to include a 3x4 photo and a 4x6 photo and then keep a running list of "blue" things I see on Saturday.
And then repeat that same formula for each color:
I'll finish off my documenting with the "found delights" prompt page. Currently I think I'll be adding photos to those spaces and then write some final reflections in the bottom "details" section.
Miss out on the physical kit? Grab a digital kit and/or look in your stash for supplies to support your storytelling for Saturday.
Remember This 6x8 Album Day In The Life™ Story Play Kit (digital available) 6 Hole Punch Rolling Date Stamp Staz On Ink INTERNATIONAL SPELLING
If you spell color using a different spelling we've got a download for you here (this is also included in the digital kit).
March 27, 2023
Story Play | Day In The Life™ | Kick Off + Reason Why
Welcome to our first Story Play week of this year!
For our first Story Play adventure we'll be documenting a Day In The Life™ this coming Saturday, April 1st. Each day this week I'll be sharing a video of tips + ideas related to using the lens of color as a way to tell the story of our day.
Here's a look at our schedule this week:
TODAY: Kick Off + Reason WhyTUESDAY: Supplies + Set UpWEDNESDAY : Tips For WordsTHURSDAY: Tips For PhotosFRIDAY: Live Q+A on YouTube at 11am Pacific (you can sign up here to be notified when I go live // this will be recorded + shared on the blog after it's completed)SATURDAY: Documenting DaySUNDAY: Show + Tell THE LENS OF COLORFor Day In The Life™ this year I wanted to do a different lens than we've done in the past to mix things up and bring in a little more creative play to the process.
I'll be using the kit (digital available) we released earlier this year to hold the photos and words from my day. I'll share more about my set up + documenting plan in tomorrow's video and more about the words on Wednesday and the photos on Thursday.
Let's dive in to today's kick off video:
Here's a link to the walkthrough of past Day In The Life™ projects mentioned in the video above.
Check out the archive of all past Day In The Life™ posts here.
March 24, 2023
In Case You Missed It | March 24
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:
On Monday we'll be kicking off our first Story Play Week featuring the Day In The Life™ project (with the actual documenting day happening on Saturday, April 1st). Each day during the week leading up to the documenting day Ali will be sharing a video on YouTube and the blog with some ideas and inspiration related to Day In The Life™. This year we are using the lens of color as a way to tell the story of our day. Here's the plan for the week: Monday | Kick Off + Reason Why Tuesday | Supplies Wednesday | Tips For Words Thursday | Tips For Photos Friday | Live Q+A On YouTube Saturday | Documenting Day Sunday | Show + Tell
2023 WEEK IN THE LIFE™ PRODUCTS AVAILABLE
The all new Week In The Life™ products for 2023 are now available! We have two new albums, our journal, a gorgeous main kit, an incredibly fun themed mini kit, and a collection of coordinating Week in the Life™ products. All of the products are in the warehouse and ready to ship! Shop the collection here.
WEEK IN THE LIFE™ DOCUMENTING WEEK
Ai will be documenting her week beginning Monday, April 24th. Consider yourself invited! Stay tuned for more content around documenting coming soon!
WEEK IN THE LIFE™ PREP DAY
Week In The Life™ Prep Day is also available for registration, happening April 15th. We'll have more details for your soon! Register here.
WEEK IN THE LIFE™ DIGITALS
Our collection digitals for Week In The Life™ will be available on Friday, April 7th. Layered templates will be coming to the shop closer to the documenting day. We will have 10x8 and 6x8 layered templates again this year. Layered templates are .PSD files. Main kit journal cards and papers will be available as separate file. The kraft pages will be available with a white and transparent background and we will also have album art available. SVG files, which can more easily be manipulated in CANVA, will be included when possible, consistent with previous digital releases.
40% OFF SELECT DIGITALS + CLASSES
Use promo code SPRING40 to get 40% off select digitals and classes all month long!
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 both new Stories By The Month™ and Story Kit™ 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!
