Ali Edwards's Blog, page 73

In Case You Missed It | February 4

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:

DIGITAL DETAILS + REMINDERS

We’ve seen a few questions regarding digitals come up recently and thought it might be helpful to post a quick reminder/clarification about purchasing digital products.

Digital Story Kit™ & Digital Story Stamp™ options:

Subscribing to our Story Class gives you access to the Digital version of the Story Kit™ each month. This is a month-to-month subscription and you can cancel without penalty each month if you prefer as long as you contact us prior to 10th of the month.   If you subscribe to BOTH the physical Story Kit™ and the physical Story Stamp™, we add the Digital Story Kit™ to your account for free automatically each month. These kits can be found in your account drop down menu under “My Digitals”.
As a benefit of being a subscriber to ANY of our physical kits (Story Kit™, Story Stamp™ or Stories By The Month™) you can purchase the Digital Story Kit™ as an add-on for $10 each month during our Add-On Period (the 13th & 14th of each month).  If you are a subscriber to the physical Story Stamp™, you receive the digital version of the Story Stamp for free each month. We automatically put this on your account and these digital stamps can be found in your account drop down menu under “My Digitals”.

Digital Stories By the Month™ Kit options:

We offer our Digital Stories By The Month™ kit as a month to month subscription. This means you may cancel each month without penalty if you prefer as long as you contact us prior to 10th of the month. 
As a benefit of being a subscriber to ANY of our physical kits (Story Kit™, Story Stamp™ or Stories By The Month™) you can purchase the Digital Stories By The Month™ kit as an add-on for $5 each month during our Add-On Period (the 13th & 14th of each month).Non-subscribers can purchase digital subscription products (classes, kits, stamps, and add ons) on a one-off basis at elevated pricing during the Digital Stories Revisited Event. This happens twice a year usually during February & August. This is a great opportunity to pick up a kit or add on product you may have missed out on.

Our next Digital Stories Revisited Event is coming up later this month— be on the lookout for dates for that!

2022 DAY IN THE LIFE DIGITAL RELEASEOur 2022 Day in the Life™ digitals are here! Find the collection here.ALI’S CRAFT THE STORY YOUTUBE SERIESAli is back on Youtube sharing a blog post and video most Fridays. Check out her latest video and blog post here.DIGITAL STORIES BY THE MONTH KITS™ ARE BACKThe Stories By The Month™ kits  are back. They cover many of the time-specific events that naturally happen in a calendar year. Order by February 13th at 11:59 AM ET to receive this month's Digital Stories By The Month™. These kits are now a $9.99 month-to-month commitment. Learn more here. ONE LITTLE WORD 2022The 2022 One Little Word® collection is now available in the shop. Please visit this blog post for all of the relevant product information regarding delays and shipping. Find the collection here.One Little Word® 2022 Workshop // The OLW classroom is available for registration and the classroom is open now. Find all of the information here.

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

December Daily® 2021 | Special Guest Emily Stebbins

Hi Friends! Emily here, and I am so beyond excited to be here on the blog sharing my December Daily® album with you. It was the opportunity of a lifetime to be on this creative team! Being in the presence of so much talent was truly humbling and inspiring. It also made me reflect on why this project is so important to me. Traditions, family time, holidays, joy—it all matters so very much. And documenting it matters. But you all know that! That’s what brings us all together, and that was my favorite part of this year’s journey. 

December is a crazy time for all of us, so success with this project for me is about fitting it into my life and not the other way around. For me that means streamlining: leaving my craft supplies out and accessible to me to sit down at a moment’s notice and start creating. I also have to make peace with the fact that my craft space will be a little bit messy all month.

The most crucial part of my success is putting away all of my non-holiday products in preparation for December Daily®. I’m talking journaling cards, stamps, chipboard, even ink pads in colors like oranges and purples. It all goes up on the shelf during this project. Yes, some of these supplies COULD theoretically work in my album, but the fewer supplies I have out, the more creative my mind becomes. And if my universe of options is smaller, it keeps me moving faster. Plus I always want to use the December Daily® supplies from the current year!

Another key to success for me is keeping pages simple. Getting crafty and making interactive pages is really fun, but if every page was like that, I would never finish! My most complicated pages are usually foundation pages that I start sometime in November. 

I have shared some of my pages on my Instagram account, which is @peacock.pigments.

There are so many fun storytelling options in December that it can be overwhelming, and then other times it can seem like nothing happened during the day, so what do I document? To solve this, I try to think ahead about some story prompts to have as a backup (e.g. a favorite holiday memory from the past, last year vs. this year, event calendar, gratitude). I pull from that list if there’s nothing specific from the day that stands out to document.

I also really like to sketch out my layouts ahead of time, and I highly recommend this! It makes it so when I sit down to my craft table, I have a plan and a direction, and can get right to creating! I kept this journal with me in my work bag all month, and when an idea struck, I sketched it out.

I would love for you to check out my completed album! Here is a flip-through video on my YouTube Channel.

A Closer Look At My 2020 + 2021 6x8 Scrapbook Albums

For this week's 
Craft The Story video I'm sharing a look at the status of my 6x8 albums for 2020 and 2021. 

When I was cleaning up in the office last week I decided to take some time to dive into my 2020 and 2021 6x8 albums and revisit what the stories I told and added to those homes. For the last couple years any scrapbook pages I've made in that size have gone into those albums (
or one of the 6x8 albums I have for each kid). I've never taken the time to adhere many of those pages back to back so I did that and filmed myself working on that task. I also included full walk-throughs of each of those albums so you could see what the stories look like all together in these albums. 

Most of the stories you'll see were created using 
Story Kit subscription themes along with a bunch of pages I made for the Hybrid Product Play workshop. 

Let's dive in to today's video: 

MORE 6x8 INSPIRATION + IDEAS
Why I Love 6x8 Albums Make Your Own Story Card AlbumCURRENT 6x8 ALBUMS AVAILABLE
Red Pleather 6x8 Neutral Stripe 6x8 Chipboard  Green 6x8 Chipboard Greige Pleather 6x8 Black Pleather 6x8 Charcoal Linen 6x8 Inky Black Linen 6x8 Cream With Black Dots 6x8 Chipboard (includes 7 daily dividers)

December Daily® 2021 | Special Guest Virginie Goujon

Hi Friends! This is Virginie. 

This was my 9th year doing December Daily and this is still one of my favorite projects every year. I had the wonderful opportunity to be on the December Daily Creative Team this year and to work with a crew of talented ladies. I chose the 10x8 quote album, which was completely out of my comfort zone, as I am someone used to 6x8 albums and vertical orientation. I have to admit that I’ve been a bit confused at the beginning. But then, I enjoyed the variety of possibilities : this album allows you to use so many different page sizes!!  How cool is that?!

Like in past years, I created a few foundation pages. I used some, modified a few and have one or two that didn’t get into my album this year. I’m okay with that. Making time in November for creating foundation pages is something I’ve learned over the years as being the key in finishing my album by the new year. There is no hurry in finishing the album but I’m done with Christmas things when January comes. Generally, I do not fix the numbers and I do not drill the holes on my foundation pages because I don’t know yet for which day they will be used nor which side of the album they will be.

Here are some of my foundation pages in my album: 

I created this foundation page for one of the DD Creative team’s Instagram hops and here’s how it ended into my album. 

This project has been created for my lesson in the Product Play class. As I didn’t use it for a specific day, I fixed it on the inside cover (after removing the stripe with the 6 holes) 

In December, I work on my album on Wednesdays, Saturdays and/or Sundays, keeping in mind all the creative ideas shared in the Product Play class, the DD prep day or on Instagram, in case I need some inspiration. 

This foundation page has been inspired by Sabrina Poole ’s bookshelf page. I decided to turn one of the die-cut page into a house.  

Using Barbara Picinich’s idea from the PP class: 

Scraplifting Ali: 

Inspired by Jenny Rey and Ali: 

From time to time, I create hybrid pages using digital elements and PSE. I love that digitals allow you to reduce or enlarge cards, embellishments… Also, digital templates are a great way to create a page quickly. 

Once I’m done with my album, I always check all my pages and make changes if necessary. It’s mostly about adding or removing embellishments.

This page is a great example of this process.

The poinsettia was probably the very first thing I cut, back in October when I received my box. I didn’t know how I would use it but I wanted it to be cut.

The 10x8 pocket page has been created for one of the DD creative team’s Instagram hops but I didn’t use it as I planned. 

I created the folio after Christmas when I was working on this story.

When I shared my story for this day on Instagram, the embellishments cluster wasn’t like this. I added a few things after checking my album.

Thank you so much for taking a look at my album!

If you are interested in seeing how I documented December in my 9x12 Project Life album, it’s here:

Instagram or on my Youtube channel. 

Virginie

December Daily® 2021 | Special Guest Yin Goh

Hi everyone, it’s Yin, here to share my completed December Daily album! I’m so happy to be holding it in my hands, full of December memories, but also a tad sad not to get to play in it anymore! Being on the DD creative team has been such a huge privilege, opportunity, and also responsibility (I felt!). I wanted to use all the products, try all the ideas, I went outside my comfort zone, and enjoyed every bit! 

I must say that my finished album surprised me in several ways:

I ended up needing two albums 
I didn’t get to include much pocket pages 
I did almost all full sized double pages for each day 
A lot of my initial grand plans and ideas didn’t get to the page (lol)

But it ended up all good, an album I love, in my own style, with all my stories, in coordinating products and pages, and completed before the end of January! Here are some of what I think worked for me.

Foundation Pages

I was very excited when the products arrived and was so inspired I made more than 10 foundation pages! These worked in both expected and unexpected ways:

There were foundation pages I pre-made with complete stories in mind, important stories I wanted to tell in my album. These filled in on days when not much was happening and were just perfect.

Story of how our Christmases changed over the years, following Jennie Rey’s Back to Basics Product Class.

For our 28th Anniversary on 4th Dec. I made this template with 28 photo spots and you can download it here. https://yindesigns.blogspot.com/

Then there were pages I made just playing creatively with the products. When the actual photos and stories came, I admit there was lots of problem-solving to make them work. But they did give my pages the creative direction, so that I simply focused on how to fit the story in. One thing though, I had to do mostly double pages for each day because - Note to self: do not pre-punch holes so foundation pages can be adapted to either side of the album!

Foundation page on the right side

Foundation page on the right side (again!)

New 10x8 size

It was fun to jump into the new size but initially it was hard to get the hang of it. A large page required larger photos and embellishments! I didn’t think I’d get good enough photos to be blown up for. But by planning for it I did get a few and got bolder to include more as the month went along. Then there are the full page flat-lays (inspired by Pam Baldwin), and I always love collages of multiple photos. 

Flat-lay inspired by Pam Baldin from Prep Day

Blown up iphone photo

Using December Daily 2021 layered templates

Following inspiration 

Many of my pages were lifting and adapting ideas from Ali and the amazing creative teams and community, and the Back to Basic Product Play and Prep Day classes. These have got to be my quickest and best looking pages!

Enlarged speech bubble printed on vellum and stitched with sequins inside following Jennie Rey’s idea from Prep Day

So much inspiration with the wreaths page

Following Ali Edwards’ page journaling on the vellum speech bubbles

Style Guides

Along with all the products, I decided early on the look I’m hoping for and narrowed down to this list (below). They are what I reached for first and helped me not to overthink a page!

Stamped Titles (actual or digital)

Vellum / Transparency

White or Kraft backgrounds

Wood veneer numbers

Mixed media 

Stamping with DD 20221 alpha stamp set

Digital stamping!

Mixed Media page to tell the story of our zoom party with friends in different parts of the world.

Calendar/Planner pages

Probably no one else has this problem, but I recorded my entire December in these pages so I wouldn’t feel a need to put every photo/story in the actual DD pages! 

Letting Go 

Like everyone I had watched so many videos and inspiration, and had all these ideas how my album should look like. But really I couldn’t pull off all of them and fell back into my own usual hybrid, collaging style. Once I had the photos and story for each day, the page took its own shape. I think I ended up with quite an eclectic album, and that is totally okay! I also loved that while using the same products, each of the creative team members’ albums are so different and uniquely us. Isn’t that why we love December Daily!

Finally here is a sped-up flipthrough of my album.

Insert MOV Video

If you’d like to see a more detailed walkthrough video you can find it here (https://www.instagram.com/yin_dgs/cha...) on my Instagram videos or here (https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCRK4...) on my youtube channel. 

All my DD pages are posted on my Insta under the hashtag #yindecemberdaily. 

You can also find my template site here. 

Thank you so much everyone for letting me share my album, stories and thoughts on this beloved project!

What Can A Completed 4x6 Day In The Life™ Album Look Like?

Interested in seeing what two documenting days in a 4x6 album can look like for Day In The Life™? I put together this video to share a walk-through of my 2021 project as we get ready to document a couple days in 2022. 

Don't forget to mark your calendar for Thursday, March 10th, 2022 for our first documenting day! 

If you are looking for supplies to support your stories check out our 2022 Day In The Life™ collection available now. Don't forget to use code DITL2022SHIP to enjoy FREE* domestic shipping ($20 international flat rate) when you spend $75+ in the Day In The Life™ category. *Code valid through January 31st at 11:59 p.m. EST. Free shipping for domestic orders only, international shipping orders are subject to a $20 flat rate charge for shipping. Subtotal must be $75 or greater within the Day In The Life category. Must enter code to receive shipping offer. Refunds will not be issued for forgotten or misused promo codes. Offer subject to change. 

In this video I also talk about why I like this format for this particular project and how, as always, there is no right or wrong way to participate in + document your stories for this project. 

Let's dive in: 

I hope you'll consider joining the community in telling the story of your day on Thursday, March 10th. 

In Case You Missed It | January 28

Happy Friday and Happy New Year, 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:

2022 DAY IN THE LIFE™ RELEASE

Our all-new Day in the Life™ product release for 2022 is here! We've got a brand new kit, an awesome new 4x6 album bundle, colorful embellishments, and some incredibly fun stamps. Plus use code DITL2022SHIP to enjoy FREE* domestic shipping ($20 international flat rate) when you spend $75+ in the Day In The Life™ category! Find the collection here.

STORY CHAT | BEHIND THE SCENES 

Earlier this week Ali, Katie, and Lisa jumped on our Instagram account for a quick live discussion addressing your questions about our deign and planning process. It was so fun to share these little details with you all. If you missed it, find the recording here.

ALI’S CRAFT THE STORY YOUTUBE SERIES

Ali is back on Youtube sharing a blog post and video most Fridays. Check out her latest video and blog post here.

DIGITAL STORIES BY THE MONTH KITS™ ARE BACK

The Stories By The Month™ kits  are back. They cover many of the time-specific events that naturally happen in a calendar year. Order by February 13th at 11:59 AM ET to receive this month's Digital Stories By The Month™. These kits are now a $9.99 month-to-month commitment. Learn more here.

ONE LITTLE WORD 2022

The 2022 One Little Word® collection is now available in the shop. Please visit this blog post for all of the relevant product information regarding delays and shipping. Find the collection here. One Little Word® 2022 Workshop // The OLW classroom is available for registration and the classroom is open now. Find all of the information here.

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

December Daily® 2021 | Special Guest Kasha Gage

Hey all, it’s Kasha Gage and I’m excited to be back on the blog today sharing a closer look at my December Daily 2021 album.

This year, I mixed things up and went with the 10x8 album size. I wanted a challenge and ending up loving the new size, especially because of the big photos.

Going into this project, I didn’t do any foundation pages. I had some ideas sketched out, but I find I do better without the limitation as a lot of my pages/design are photo driven. I did have though a list of photo ideas and story ideas/prompts that I worked off, which helps keep me organized throughout the season.

Initially I thought that I would capture and document my December, then work on this project later. But I found pockets of time to work on this daily and really enjoyed the process. And I surprised myself by finishing in January (rather than in July). A huge win for me.

This year, I (unintentionally) went less crafty/interactive and instead, really focused on the photos/words. As you’ll see below, many of my pages are hybrid (digital layout + physical product). It’s what felt right and good for me.

You can see additional layouts on my Instagram @kashakgage. And for a full walkthrough of my album, you can find it here on my YouTube channel. 

Here’s a look at 4 different ways I approached capturing + documenting the stories in my album.

#1 GO BIG WITH PHOTOS

Ah, for the love of photos. Especially full-page photos (sized to the outside of the page protector). I love opening my album with a photo that represents the season (or the beforehand in this case). I also love double-page photo spreads and using the negative space to hold my journaling.

#2 GET YOURSELF IN THE FRAME

Maybe you’re like me and can relate to always being the person behind the lens. Or maybe you feel uncomfortable having your picture taken. But what I’ve learned is the value/importance of seeing myself reflected in my story. For these two stories, I set my camera up on my tripod to take the action shot.

#3 ITEMS/SHAPES AROUND THE HOUSE SPARK STORIES + DESIGN

I’m someone who loves capturing + documenting the details. And I’m also a big fan of shapes - especially circles. At this time of year, they’re everywhere. From the ornaments to the wreaths, and I used these as a jumping off point in designing my page. I also have collections that come out this time of year. Love using them for inspiration in design and getting these stories told.

#4 BRING IN OTHER VOICES

I love any opportunity to bring in other voices in my album. For this story, I invited my husband to write about working (from home). I’m so thankful he’s a willing participant and I enjoy reading his words.

Thank you for allowing me to share my stories with you. I hope you find inspiration among these pages.

Love The Way You Shine Scrapbook Spread

In this week's Craft The Story video I'm sharing a layout using that uses the prompt "love the way you shine" to tell a story about Anna + Audrey. 

As I was cleaning up my office this week I came across this photo I'd printed late last year and knew I wanted to pair it with something from one of the Quarterly Scrapbook Kits from last year. I ended up using two pattern papers from the Star Scrapbook Kit and using a 3 inch circle punch to create journaling circles from one of those patterns. 

Let's dive into the video: 

And here's a few images of the finished story: 

For today's story I paired a 7 inch x 8.25 inch photo with a piece of pattern paper from the Star Scrapbook Kit cut to the same size. On top of that fun star pattern I used a 3 inch Circle Punch to punch out all the circles from another 12 inch x 12 inch sheet of pattern paper (you can see it in the image below). 

I love designing papers and patterns that give you a home for your stories. 

On top of each of the circles I added a number chipboard circle from the Begin Story Kit and added my handwritten words. On one of the circles I used the new Day In The Life™ Half Circle Stamp Set to add the word "loving" using Columbia Ink. 

Along the bottom of the photo I added a half circle and a plastic heart. I also used a rolling date stamp to add both the day the photo was taken and the day I wrote the journaling (in case I wanted to put it in my 2022 vs. 2021 album: either would totally work). 

SUPPLIES
Epson XP15000 Printer Scotch Rolling Adhesive Fiskars Paper Trimmer Foam Adhesive Squares 6 Hole Punch Rolling Date Stamp Columbia Ink Day In The Life™ Half Circle Stamp Set (loving) Stars Scrapbook Kit 3 inch Circle Punch Begin Story Kit™ Chipboard Number Circles Black StazOn Ink Acrylic Blocks

December Daily® 2021 | Special Guest Kelly Ishmael

Hi everyone! It's Kelly Ishmael and I am delighted to be here to share my completed 2021 December Daily® album with you. This year I decided to try the new 10x8 size for a change of pace and I enjoyed the creative challenge of working in this new format. I also used mostly products from the 2021 Main Kit along with some other embellishments from this year's collection.

Although I don't typically do foundation pages per se, I did spend some time before December playing around with the products to see what kinds of stories they might inspire. I also loved trying out some of the amazing techniques and creative ideas in the December Daily® Product play class. Then once December rolled around, I worked on my album in spurts throughout the month because I find that system works best for me and the time I have available (versus working on one page each day). My goal was to have my album finished by the end of January so that I could clean up and move on to other kinds of memory keeping projects.

This leads me to my first piece of advice for completing a December Daily® album, and that is to be realistic about the time and energy you have to devote to a project of this magnitude. We have to be brutally honest with ourselves before taking on a big memory keeping project in a month that is already very full for many of us. I am an empty-nester so in this season of life, I have a little more time for my creative pursuits in the evenings or on the weekends which made my goal to finish by January felt very doable. It's also very much my nature to need to finish one thing before I can start something else. Don't set yourself up for frustration with an impossible goal or unrealistic expectations.

My next piece of advice is to set an intention or know your reason why. For me, I love how this project provides me with a tactile connection to my memories and stories. I also love the daily reminder to slow down and pay attention to the delights and wonders of the season. Having an intention is also something to come back to when I get busy in my head or to-do list starts getting the best of me.

One of my main goals this year (besides the obvious one of documenting the month) was to USE MY STUFF. All too often I tend to hoard or save things I think are "pretty" or "special" for the perfect story/photo/layout and then end up not using them, so kept those times out and I challenged myself to incorporate into my layouts. 

My album is mix of pages sizes, simple pages and more "crafty" type pages, and longer stories and simple lists (aka "brain dumps"). And I think that mix is what makes it 1) fun to work on and 2) fun to look back on.

One of my favorite things about December Daily® is playing with new-to-me craft techniques and this year I had fun using my new Foil Quill. 

Three of my favorite layouts are directly inspired by products from this year's collection - the wood houses and vellum circles from the main kit and the plastic heart embellishments. I also found that this larger format gave me more real estate to play with (so to speak) and so I found myself particularly inspired by traditional layouts on Pinterest.

 

Many of my pages though, were inspired by the Back to Basics Product Play class and our amazing community of talented and creative memory keepers.

If, like me, you often find yourself overthinking things (making things harder than they need to be is my special talent in life lol), I would encourage you to remember that you don't have to reinvent the wheel. If you feel inspired to get out your Silhouette or embossing tools, great! Go for it! But if you find yourself stuck riding the struggle bus (as I did several times during this project), then my encouragement is take a step back, breathe, and go back to your intention. And remember that words and photos are the heart of this project.

I have been memory-keeping for more than 25 years and I know from personal experience that ten years from now I won't care one bit about the products I used or any of the fancy techniques I tried. That's not to say there's no merit in the creative process because I find this project to be extremely gratifying. I guess what I mean is that all those times I agonized over choosing just the right layout or the perfect placement of an embellishment, none of that will matter. What I will remember is the love and gratitude I feel for my loved ones and the special memories I have documented.

I hope I have given you some inspiration and encouragement for completing your December Daily® album. Please let me know if you have any questions about any of the products or techniques I used in my album. And whether you plan to keep at your project it until it's finished or pack up it for another time, just remember that there is no right or wrong way to go about it.

Thank you again for allowing me to share my stories and memories with you. Love, Kelly

PS. You can click here  to see a full gallery of my completed album.