Ali Edwards's Blog, page 50

In Case You Missed It | April 21

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:

NEW STAMPS + FREE SHIPPING WORLDWIDE 

Our newest stamps are currently available in the shop and from now until April 26th 11:59 ET enjoy free shipping on stamps worldwide. No promo code required. In addition to the new stamps, we’re so excited to introduce a brand new sweatshirt and tee, both centered around our core focus: words + photos. Shop these new releases now.

YOU HAVEN'T MISSED IT YET | WEEK IN THE LIFE™ HAPPENING NEXT WEEK

Next Monday starts the community documenting week for Week In The Life™. Consider yourself invited! All this week (and continuing this weekend, we've been sharing incredible inspiration from the community. Be sure to check it out here. 

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. ⁠Register here.

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! ⁠

WEEK IN THE LIFE™ DIGITALS

Our collection digitals for Week In The Life™ are available now!  Layered templates are headed to the shop ASAP. ⁠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.

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!

Week In The Life™ 2023 | Special Guest Linda Jordan

Hi everyone! It’s Linda and I’m so excited to be here today to share some of my favorite tips as we get ready for Week in the Life next week. This is going to be my ninth year embarking on this project and I have definitely found a rhythm that works for me in this project. Hopefully some of these tips help you feel ready to dive in on Monday (or whenever you decide to play along)!

Tip 01: Create a “scavenger hunt” list of items to seek out during the week.

After doing this project for a few years, I found that it doesn’t make sense (nor is it super interesting, to me) to document every single detail of everyday. That is a lot to collect! I also struggle with the concern that my daily life might be “boring” to document. I am a single mom of a teenager and I spend a lot of time working, crafting, or just doing ordinary life activities. 

What keeps this project exciting and interesting for me is instead focusing on a “scavenger hunt” list of items that I want to seek out each day during the week. Sometimes these are product driven—this year the main kit has 7 fun “-ing” words—sometimes these are photo focused—last year I took a daily photo of my outfit and something that was circular—or sometimes these are story based—I’ve sought out a daily gratitude or quote.

Before the week begins, I like to create a checklist of the items I am seeking out during the week and print it out so I can refer back to it each day as I collect my photos. In the picture above you can see my used list from last year and my new prepped list for this year.

Tip 02: Come up with an album plan before the documenting week, but then put it all away during the week.

I like to look at my products & album before the week begins and give myself a basic set up for the album. This allows me to get excited about the project and start thinking about the types of photos & stories I want to collect. I typically do this while assembling my scavenger hunt list so that I know I have a plan to include all of the things I collect.

Setting up the album in advance also allows me to be realistic about what I want to capture. I want to make sure my entire week fits in one album, which means at the most 8 pages per day. That’s a lot! But it also fills up quickly when you have multiple things you want to collect everyday. Laying out my album plan in advance helps me get a realistic idea of how many photos and stories I should collect to prevent me from ending up with too much or too little.

Then, I put the products away. I will look over my album plan one last time this weekend and then put everything away, minus my checklist, during the documenting week. That way I can focus on living & collecting stories. When I’m ready to put my album together, having it set up is going to help me get it completed. That said, if you don’t have your album set up yet, don’t worry! Do what you can this weekend, and then put it away. Enjoy collecting the photos + stories and then come back to your album afterwards.

Tip 03: Get yourself in the photo.

This is a project about YOUR week in the life. Not your children’s, not your spouse’s, not your friend’s or your cat’s, this is your week. You are the main character in your story, so you should be the main character in your album! Yes, the other people (and animals) in your life might play prominent roles in your life and album, but this is your story. Your album should reflect that!

If you struggle to get yourself in the photo, I would suggest creating scavenger hunt list items that include photos of yourself. One thing I did last year was take a daily photo looking downward—it usually included my hands & feet—each day and used that as my opening photo for the day. I loved how these turned out and it took the pressure off getting a “perfect” opening photo each day.

Another tip I suggest is use a camera timer. If you have an apple watch, the remote shutter on the watch is amazing for this project because you can see a preview of the photo on your watch and then have a 3 second timer once you hit the shutter. But, even without an apple watch, you can get great photos of yourself! The camera app on most phones has a built in timer, set up your phone and take some shots. Have fun with it, it’s totally okay to get 20 mistimed/misframed photos before you get one good one. That’s part of the fun of this project!

Tip 04: Select & edit your photos daily on your phone.

I take a TON of photos during this project. For me, selecting and editing the photos takes the most time and is often a barrier to me getting this project done quickly. The past few years I have avoided this issue by working through this daily during the week on my phone.

I created a new folder in my photos app (I use an iPhone) and then added 7 albums to it, one for each day. Each night during WITL I will spend 10 minutes or so scrolling through my photos for the day and favoriting the ones I will probably want to use. Then I will use the Color Story App to edit the favorited photos, last year I used the Hollywood filter so they all had a similar feel. Then I will save the edited photos to the correct day’s album.

When it’s time to put together my album after the week, I have my photos narrowed down and edited. I will only have to select which photo gets printed in which size and print them out. Plus, reviewing the photos each night helps me see what things are under represented. For example, I might realize by Friday that I don’t have any great photos of the front of my house, so I will make it a point to take one on Saturday.

Tip 05: Have realistic expectations & keep it fun!

This is a HUGE project. Documenting seven days in a row is a lot to collect, and then putting the album together takes a long time. Plus, you’re living life while doing all of these things! You can’t expect to capture every single thing, it’s just not possible. 

Even though I create a scavenger hunt list of things I want to collect each day, it’s totally expected that I will miss some of them. Maybe I won’t find time to take the photo, maybe I don’t have any great ideas, or maybe I just completely forget! All are totally feasible. You should go into this project with the expectation that you won’t capture everything that you want to get, and that’s totally okay. You can have a back up plan in place for when you don’t get everything!

You can always use photos taken on the “wrong” day to fill in gaps. Last year, I included a flat lay each day. I loved that idea, but I knew going into the week I wouldn’t have the time or lighting to take a flat lay photo each day, especially when I was in the office. Instead, I think I took four of them on Saturday and just spread them out throughout the week, that’s totally okay!

You can also take photos after the week. If you are going through to put your album together next month and you realize you’re missing a key photo you wanted to capture, just go take it! It’s still from the same general time period, that totally works. Last year I wanted to capture a photo each day of a specific “space” in my life, but after the week I realized I never got a good photo of my daughter’s room. I went and took one a couple of weeks later and it is still very representative of her room at that point in time (but looks very different from now!). 

Finally, you can just let it go. If you want to capture a daily outfit photo and you get 6 out of 7, great! Include those 6 photos in your album and on that missed day (if you’re anything like me, it’s going to be Friday), just put a different photo or a filler card in that spot in your design formula. It’s totally okay! Six outfit photos from a week is still a great representation of what you’re wearing right now.

I hope these tips help you get ready for this project. Above all else, though, keep it fun! We’re doing this because we enjoy the process… don’t forget that, so make sure you’re enjoying it. And, if you’re not, change it up.

I am sharing my set up and plan for this year over on youtube, you can find my video here.  

You can find walk-throughs of some of my completed WITL albums here. 

You can also find me over on instagram: @lindalovescreating.

Week In The Life™ 2023 | Special Guest Laura Wonsik

Hello! My name is Laura Wonsik (@laura_wonsik on Instagram) and I'm excited to be here as a guest on the blog today to share with you my completed 2023 Week in the Life Album. 

This is my 7th year doing Week in the Life and I looked through my very first album with my husband in the middle of my documenting week. It was interesting to notice the things that have changed, and not changed, about my approach to this project. Here are five tips for completing this project, based on my reflections in looking back at how my process has evolved. 

*As always, please know that this is just the way I approach this project. My tips might not resonate with you or your style. Take what works, and leave the rest.

Use this opportunity to stash bust!

I have always found Week in the Life to be a great stash busting project. There are so many cards, embellishments and stamps that work perfectly with the themes of the week. You will see throughout my album that I use products from past story kits and stories by the month kits.

It's OK not to plan.

Some people are planners. Some people aren't. I'm in the "aren't" category. I started this week with absolutely no plan other than taking photos. Other than taking "stock photos," which I'll get to in a minute, I never plan. Personally, I want to spend all of the time I have memory keeping, not planning how to memory keep. Again, lots of people find planning helpful and that's wonderful. But it's OK if you're like me and you just want to get right to it.

Find a flow that works for you.

I am a finisher. I always finish my projects. I don't say that with a hair flip, I say it as a fact. It's just my personality. As a finisher, I like to stay on top of my projects, documenting them as I go. For me, Week in the Life is a sprint. The album is usually done a couple of days after the week ends. I choose weeks where I know I will have time each evening to pull everything together.  Part of my flow is journaling on my phone or computer throughout the day. That way, when I sit down to print photos, format journaling, etc, my work is minimal.

Embrace what's real.

The opening photo in my album is me holding my daughter while she's crying because she doesn't want me to leave for work. You can see us through our bathroom mirror, covered in spots and dirt. My bathroom has hideous 1990s blue wallpaper that I hate. This is what's real for me right now, and someday I will miss it.

Take "stock" photos to fill in the gaps.

Most years I have a list of things I want to include in the album that aren't specific to a day. This could be projects I'm working on at work, photos of my office or my house, the medications I'm currently taking, etc. These photos can be taken before or after the documenting week. They are helpful to include on days where you need an extra photo or where the flow of the album has a gap.

If you're a planner who wants to use only the WITL '23 kit and finish the album next year with only professional photos taken of you in full makeup- that's fine! This is just what works for me. 

Here's a recap of my 5 tips!
1. Use this opportunity to stash bust!
2. It's OK not to plan.
3. Find a flow that works for you.
4. Embrace what's real.
5. Take stock photos to fill in the gaps.

I hope you have a fun and meaningful Week in the Life experience. Remember, in 10 years when you and your loved ones look back at the album, no one will be judging how finished it is, what the design choices were or whether your bathroom mirror is covered in toothpaste spit.

All that matters is that you took time to document and celebrate your life.

Video

Week In The Life™ 2023 | Special Guest Heba Alsibai

Hi everyone! This is Heba Alsibai (aka My Little Journal on YouTube) or @hebaalsibai on Instagram. I’m excited to share my 2023 Week In The Life journal with you and hopefully inspire you. 

If you’ve been following me on social media you know I love simple and fast projects. Projects that can tell my everyday stories but not be overwhelming. I’m not gonna lie, Week In The Life looked like a big project to take on. I was worried that I wouldn’t be able to keep up with it or with the community. It simply felt overwhelming. But in 2022 when Ali Edwards released the new kits and she was offering a journal, I got so excited. 

The journal was already set up with prompts, days of the week and even space for photos. This was a dream come true. All I had to do is capture my life in photos and fill in the blanks.

I knew I wanted to bring my own unique style to this project by doing what I do best and that’s stamping. For a few years now, I’ve been using my stamps to create fun Mind Maps in my projects. These mind maps are a great way to tell your story through icons and words. So I used that same concept and highlighted the top stories of my day with a mind map. I love that my mind maps captured everything important from the day without having to use photos.

Photos are an important part of this project but this task can get overwhelming. So I recommend to keep it simple and only take photos of what you want to remember from your day. Don’t feel like you have to capture every moment, that’s just not feasible and nobody has time for that. Remember quality over quantity. 

For more of my completed 2022 Week In The Life journal, here's my YouTube playlist. I'm planning to do additional videos for 2023. 

This year for Week In The Life I’ll be working in the AE journal just like last year. But I did make a few changes. Last year my journal got pretty bulky and it got harder and harder to stamp in. So I decided to take the journal apart and put it on discs. This allowed me to add acetates and vellum through out my journal and it will allow me to add interactive elements as well. My favorite part of putting my journal on discs is I can pull the page out of the discs and stamp comfortably. I’m pretty excited for these new changes and hope to share my process on my YouTube channel soon. 

Thank you for joining me and I hope I was able to inspire you today.

New Stamps Coming To The Shop

Our newest collection of stamps + a new sweatshirt/t-shirt design will be coming to the shop this Thursday 4/20 at 12pm ET. 

SHIPPING DETAILS

Stamps ship free domestically + internationally. No promo code required, ends on Wednesday 4/26 at 11:59pm ET. Clear stamps only. Domestic + International! Please note: if items other than clear stamps are added to the cart, shipping will be calculated and added for those items.  

Here's a walkthrough video of the new stamps: 

Here's a video with Ali playing with the new sets: 

4x6 Hearts Stamp Set  // $19.99

4x6 Ali's Phrases Stamp Set // $19.99

4x6 Summer Phrases Stamp Set // $19.99

4x6 Phrases Stamp Set // $19.99

4x6 Alpha Stamp Set // $19.99

Here's a little video featuring the lower + upper case alpha: 

6x8 Frames Stamp Set // $28.99

6x8 Alpha Stamp Set // $28.99

6x8 Floral Stamp Set // $28.99

Project & photos by Kelly Ishmael

6x8 Shapes Stamp Set // $28.99

Unisex Words + Photos Sweatshirt (runs large)  // $52.00

Ali is wearing a Medium sweatshirt. She generally wears a size 10 and orders a Large. 

Unisex Words + Photos T-shirt (fits true to size) // $32.00

Kelly is wearing a size Medium.

In addition to these new designs, we’ve brought back and restocked a few of our past favorite stamps: 

4x6 Sentiment Strip Stamp // $19.99

4x6 Encouragement Stamp Set // $19.99

4x6 Photos Stamp Set // $19.99

Week In The Life™ 2023 | Special Guest Jamiee Howard

Hi there! I have been participating in Week in the Life since 2012 and it has always been one of my favorite projects of the year. I have also always been a “project finisher”, until 2022. It was the first year I didn’t finish this project. And while that is absolutely OK, I started to think about how I could participate this year and still finish my album. Like we always say in this community, there are no rules and it is the sum of all the parts that means the most; so not finishing is still OK. But I like to finish.

My photo taking and documenting has taken a hit since the pandemic started. I take far fewer pictures and started putting more and more albums on the shelf unfinished. To take the pressure off a larger album, I decided to build a traveler’s notebook for this year’s Week in the Life. If I use larger photos, I built my album for only 4-5 photos a day.

I like to utilize Ali’s digital files to print and use in different ways. The base of my album has a cardstock cover. I printed the album art from this year’s release on cardstock for the cover to my 5 ½” x 8 ½” album. The inside base is 11 pages of inkjet paper, folded in half. I printed the daily acetate sheets from this year on inkjet vellum to layer into my album. The vellum is more lightweight than adding the plastic sheets into the album.

I used the We R Memory Keepers book binding tool to punch holes in my spine and used a saddle stitch to sew the center of my album.

The 11 pages of inkjet paper allowed for one 5 ½” x 8 ½” opening and closing page in the album. Then each day has 3 two-page spreads available to fill.

On my last page above, you can see 1 ½” of the vellum showing. I cut the vellum sheets a little wider than the pages, so they would cross the center stitching, and then be bound into the book. I plan to cover all these ‘base’ pages with photos or patterned paper, so that little extra piece will be covered.

I wanted to use the Kraft pockets from the main kit in my album, but wanted to make the pockets less bulky before taping into my album. I ripped open the back of the pockets and cut some of the excess Kraft off the back, while still making the pockets functional once attached into my album.

I prepared two additional things to use during the week when I build my final album. First, I purchased the digital version of one of the 2023 WITL stamp sets and created cut files from the –ing words. I cut them all in white and kraft cardstock on my Silhouette Cameo in two different sizes to potentially use in my album.

Lastly, I prepped a couple worksheets to carry with me during our week of documenting. One is to make notes on the photos I want to print. I plan to send out a print order at the end of the week to a print company. Then my photos will be on a lighter-weight higher quality photo paper than what I have at home, again helping with bulk in my album. 

Here’s a tip: when you adhere a photo or patterned paper into a traveler’s notebook base, cut 1/8” off the width of the piece you intend to tape down. This helps cuts down bulk along the spine and pages will turn easier once your album is full.

My second worksheet is to record what I spend money on each day. This could include going into a store to buy something, placing an online order for pick-up, sending a business or a business money through Apple pay etc. All these instances will show snippets of our story throughout the week.

Thanks for checking out my album set up. I plan to share progress and finished pages on my Instagram (@howardfam_storyteller), so check me out there.

Week In The Life™ 2023 | Ali's Albums + Resources

A seven-day documentary project, Week In The Life™ is an annual opportunity to capture the simple everyday details of your life with photos and words. This year Ali will be documenting her week beginning April, 24th, 2023. Consider yourself invited. As we gear up for the community documenting week and plan content to support your journey with this project, we wanted to put together a blog post that could serve as a resource or starting point as we all start to think about the stories we want to tell later this month. 

Below you can find all of the Week In the Life™ posts Ali has shared over the past few years, going back to 2018. These posts include FAQs, pep talks, posts that include her daily words + photos, as well as completed album walkthroughs. 

Is this your first time learning about Week In The Life™?  
Check out more details on this project that Ali started in 2005 here. Looking for products to support your storytelling? Find them here. Stay tuned for more inspiration from our amazing community members happening all this week! And don't forget to check out Ali's newest class: Storytelling With Week In The Life™. Find more information below, or register now,here. 

Ali's Week In The Life™ | 2023

Ali's Design + Story Plan For 2023Ali's Week In The Life™ | 2022

Ali's Album Set-Up
Documenting Basic + Photo Tips
Monday Photos + Words
Tuesday Photos + Words
Wednesday Photos + Words
Thursday Photos + Words
Friday Photos + Words
Saturday Photos + Words
Sunday Photos + Words

Ali's Album Progress Report

Completed AlbumAli's Week In The Life™ | 2021

Ali's Starting Place
Bring On The Stories
Monday Photos + Words
Tuesday Photos + Words
Wednesday Photos + Words
Thursday Photos + Words
Friday Photos + Words
Saturday Photos + Words
Sunday Photos + Words
Starting To Bring It All Together
Completed AlbumAli's Week In The Life™ | 2020

Monday Photos + Words
Tuesday Photos + Words
Wednesday Photos + Words
Thursday Photos + Words
Friday Photos + Words
Saturday Photos + Words
Sunday Photos + Words
Getting Started Bringing It All Together
Tuesday In My Album
Wednesday Through Sunday In My AlbumAli's Week In The Life™ | 2019

5 Reasons To Join Me In Documenting A Week In The Life™
Start Thinking Now About Stories You Might Want To Include
Album Set Up + Approach
Week In The Life 2019™ Starts Monday + A Pep Talk
Bring On The Stories
Monday Photos + Words
Tuesday Photos + Words  
Wednesday Photos + Words  
Thursday Photos + Words  
Friday Photos + Words
Saturday Photos + Words 
Sunday Photos + Words
Bringing It All Together Part 1
Bringing It All Together Part 2Ali's Week In The Life™ | 2018

Q&A
Week In The Life™ 2018 Countdown
Let's Do This
Monday Photos + Words
Tuesday Photos + Words   
Wednesday Photos + Words  
Thursday Photos + Words   
Friday Photos + Words  
Saturday Photos + Words   
Sunday Photos + Words
Getting Started Bringing It All Together
Dealing With The Words
Completed AlbumStorytelling With Week In The Life™

Want to go deeper into the history and thought behind Week In The Life™? Looking to be re-inspired and remember why you started embarking on this project in the first place? Are you brand new to this project and have no idea where to start? 

Ali's been working hard behind the scenes on a brand new workshop Storytelling With Week In The Life™. Modeled after 
Storytelling With December Daily® and Storytelling With Project Life®, this workshop is designed to be a comprehensive look at our Week In The Life™ project. 

The first two lessons will be live in the workshop on Saturday, April 15th .  Lesson Three will be live on Wednesday, April 19th. Lesson Four will be live on Wednesday, April 26th. 

Here's the lesson break down: 

LESSON ONE | Looking Back: Video walk-throughs of all my past Week In The Life™ albums along with thoughts on what I've learned over the years
LESSON TWO | Before Documenting: Establishing your mindset, setting up your Design + Story Plans (based on what's most important to you to document in any given season)
LESSON THREE | During Documenting: Tips and ideas for capturing your words + photos during the actual week
LESSON FOUR | After Documenting: Bringing your words + photos into your album (basically how to tackle completing the project after you've collected all your content)

This workshop isn't specific to any documenting year and is meant to be a more comprehensive and evergreen look at the project as a whole. My hope is that you'll be encouraged, inspired and empowered to approach telling the story of your week based on your own season of life. 

Stay tuned for more fun and inspirational content as we get closer to Week In The Life™ 2023.  As always, thank you for being a part of this community. 

In Case You Missed It | April 14

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 | WEEK IN THE LIFE™ PREP DAY HAPPENING TOMORROW

Tomorrow is Week In The Life™ Prep Day! Join the Week In The Life™ community for a fun online prep day. The classroom will open at 6:30am Pacific with the first live video happening at 7:00am Pacific. The last live video will be posted at Noon Pacific. Register for $5 now. At the top of each hour Ali or a guest will introduce the topic for the hour. Some content will be presented live (and recorded for future viewing) and other content will be recorded + presented during that hour: 7am Pacific: Kick Off + Fresh Perspective Discussion  8am Pacific: Product Play With Ali  9am Pacific: Community Tips Via Zoom (bring your favorite tip to share with the community - this will cover two time slots)  11am Pacific: Including Ephemera
Noon Pacific: Q+A
Each topic will have its own Lesson within the Classroom. Inside each lesson you'll find the video, a free download, and a spot for conversation in the comments section of the lesson. Live chat will be available for anyone who wants to converse back and forth during the live event.

COMMUNITY SHOW + SHARE: LABELS SCRAPBOOK KIT

This week, we are doing a follow-up of our Labels Scrapbook Kit Project Planning Week with a Show + Share of our completed projects! Check out Denine, Krystal, Linda, and Shu-Wen's blog posts this week, and come back on Friday to Show + Share your own projects. Head to the blog to see them all now!
This weekend (April 14-16): Upload your projects in the "Quarterly Scrapbook Kit Show + Share | Labels" Album here in our Facebook Group (https://www.facebook.com/media/set/...)
- Share your projects on Instagram, and tag us @aliedwardsdesigninc using the hashtag #AEDLabelsScrapbookKit

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. 

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!

Quarterly Scrapbook Kit Show + Share | Special Guest Denine Zielinski

Hello friends! I’m excited to be here once again on the AED blog to share how one of my page ideas for the Labels Scrapbook Kit came together. If you haven’t had a chance, you can go and check out my other blog post which includes six different ideas for this kit. There are also planning posts from the incredibly talented Shu-Wen Tham and Linda Jordan that you do not want to miss.

For this spread, I used the 12x12 Pastel Labels Patterned Paper to create a home for a title, journaling, and a few photos.

Here is what my original sketch looked like:

I started by deciding what part of the pattern paper that I wanted to keep. I did this with a clear piece of plastic sized to 7x8.25 (you can see this in my video below). Once I placed the plastic piece to where I wanted it, I trimmed the paper down to 7x8.25. 

I then used the digital version of the patterned paper in Photoshop Elements to type up my journaling and add my digital word art. I ran the physical paper through my printer, but you can just as easily print these on sticker paper and then adhere the “stickers” to the patterned paper.

I also used the digital paper to create a clipping mask that allowed me to print my photos in the shape of the labels.  This is also on my video in case you are interested. Once I printed my photos, I fussy cut them out. I adhered the photos with foam squares and then added the hearts with my tiny attacher.

To bring my two pages together, I added a third heart on my full page photo. I finished off by adding puffy letter stickers to that heart with my great neice and nephew’s intitials.

After I finished my spread, I decided to add a clear phrase sticker from past Story Kits to each of my smaller photos. This happens quite often for me as I walk past my spreads displayed on my desk. 

Here’s an image of the finished spread:

And here is a short process video for how I put my spread together:

 INSERT PROCESS VIDEO HERE 

Thank you all for joining me on this fun journey with the Labels Quarterly Scrapbook Kit. I don’t often plan spreads in advance, and I have to say that I loved it. You can see the other pages that I created on my Instagram @Denine2. I definitely got a lot of mileage out of this kit, and I still have so many more kit components left for more pages! Please feel free to let me know if you have any questions about this spread or any of my other sketches. Happy storytelling, my friends!

Quarterly Scrapbook Kit Show + Share | Special Guest Shu-Wen Tham

Hey everyone! This is Shu-Wen (aka ChouxPuffCreations) coming back to share my finished project for one of the pages I had planned out in my Plan With Us blog post featuring the Labels Scrapbook Kit! If you haven’t checked it out already, I shared the process video for how I created the base for this interactive page in a video here.

I decided to use one of my foundation pages to add a layout in my “Make” Story Album, documenting a crochet shawl that I recently finished making. (For more information about my “Make” Story Album, check out my Guest Storyteller lesson in the “Make” Story Kit Classroom. In my last blog post, I had shared how this 6x8 Pastel Labels patterned paper would look with 3 of the 6 labels converted into little flip-ups with photos underneath them. For this layout, I ended up converting 2 more of the labels into flip-ups so that I could document all the process photos I took while I was making my shawl, leaving the label in the top left corner flat so that I could stamp out my title “Carillon Shawl” (I used the “Alpha Varieties” Stamp Set) and add the dates when I started and completed this project. 

All that was left to do after turning the labels into flip-ups was to add photos behind each flip-up! I printed the photos at 2.6” wide by 2.15” tall so that they would fit nicely behind each flip-up, and adhered each photo behind the 6x8 patterned paper with some 1/8” Scor Tape. Once all my photos were adhered into place, I attached the whole page directly into my “Make” Story Album. I love how the colorful labels on this patterned paper contrast with the kraft paper I chose to construct my album, and these labels are just the right size for adding some typed journaling onto them!

I hope this inspires you to get some of your stories told using the Labels Scrapbook Kit! Make sure to check out my YouTube channel and my Instagram page for more crafty inspiration! 

This weekend (April 14-16), we’re hosting a Show + Share so that you can share your projects with us! To participate:

- Upload your projects in the "Quarterly Scrapbook Kit Show + Share | Labels" Album in our community Facebook Group.

- Or share your projects on Instagram, and tag us @aliedwardsdesigninc using the hashtag #AEDLabelsScrapbookKit