Week in the Life : Formula + Supplies
Tags:DESIGN BASICS (and how that relates to supplies)
One of my biggest tips for putting together an album is to develop a formula and stick with it for each day. Formulas are key to making this a manageable project. By formula I mean setting up a basic design and repeating it for each day of the album. Don't reinvent the wheel from one spread to the next. Keep it simple. One of the goals of this project, along with celebrating everyday life, is to actually finish an album.
So what are you going to use to hold all this stuff together? First decide what size you want to do: 12x12, 8.5x11, mixed up sizes, 8x8, etc. Will it be paper or digital or a combination? Album or photobook?
There are tons of different ways this can come together.
1. Use a photo album. Maybe something like this. This is a great option if you are sticking with just words + photos. Slide the photos in, add a couple journaling cards (4x6) and call it good. You could print out these Days + Months journaling cards to use in this project. You can take this idea one step further and add in a bit more craftiness by embellishing/decorating those printed journaling cards. Consider paint, patterned paper, etc.
2. The square-punch/collage route. This is one of my go-to techniques when I am working with large quantities of photos. You could choose to simply create a collage of square punched photos for each day. This is a great way to showcase an overall sense of pieces of the whole. One side of your two-page spread could have a favorite shot (or two) and the other page could have a bunch of square-punched photos. The end result of this project does not need to be complicated.
3. The mixed-up, 3-ring album.I am going to go with an 8.5x11 Amercian Crafts Courdory album and potentially use a variety of different page sizes (depending on the amount of content). For page protectors I will be using a combination of Avery Trading Card pocket pages sandwiched between the page protectors that come with the American Crafts album (I will have one of the trading card pocket pages for each day as well as the 2-page spread). I may add in some others as well.
I am considering doing an enlargement of my favorite photo from the day for the second page of the spread. I think it would be cool to contrast that with the smaller photos. That first page of the spread will likely include a collage of photos - some square punched and others cropped.
One of the reasons I like going with a 3-ring album is that if you end up with tons of content (words + photos + stuff) you can always add in more page protectors or pages in different sizes. So much of this will depend on how much you have to work with at the end of the week. Additional divided page protector resources: Fancy Pants, We Are Memory Keepers (2-up, 4x6, 8.5x11), We Are Memory Keepers (6-up, 4x6, 12x12), see other We Are Memory Keeper options here, or you could go with an album + page protector system from Scrapworks (this is the album I used in the beginning when teaching this project).
PRODUCTS TO CONSIDER
Story of Today Overlays: these can be used digitally (created to work with these layered templates - you can buy them together here) or printed out and worked on/added to with other traditional embellishments. This is going to be the first page of each of my spreads. I released a new set of these in 8.5x11 format at Designer Digitals this past weekend (much easier to print if you don't have an oversized printer). The layered templates would be great for use in a photobook.
Days + Months Title + Journal Photo Overlays (see image above under #1): one of the cool things about these overlays is that they can be used on top of photos or as journaling blocks. You could download these and use them for your journaling for each day of the week (a cool way to use a digital product in a traditional album).
For this sort of project, and for much of my work, I look for products that are universal which can be used on more than just this creative adventure. The ones below all have to do with "everyday" themes, three of which are stamps that can be used again and again.
Technique Tuesday A Day To Remember Clear Stamps
Heidi Swapp Days of the Week Journaling Spots (adhesive backed weekday labels)
Rhonna Farrer Messy Date Stamps
7gypsies Life Creme Patterned Paper (could be my favorite paper)
Scenic Route Days of the Week Stamps
Hoping the above ideas will give you a jumping off point for creating with photos + words + stuff. Remember, this is a project that has many, many different solutions. Trust your own instincts and allow your content to guide you as you begin thinking about how you want to put this together.
Keep it simple. Let the content be the star.
A complete list of posts related to the week in the life project can be found here.
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64 comments
Okay...once again you have set my mind at ease. Like someone else said, why is SIMPLE so hard to keep straight?! I love the thought of actually holding a finished album in my hands in the not so distant future...can't say I've gotten there yet in all honesty but I'm a damn good collector of photos and supplies!
I love the idea of the trading card pockets and the square punch.
Ali - you amaze me...how do you balance life, a home, a family, AND have time to get this done? I seem to have trouble dedicating "x" amount of time to work on this in between doing all the bazillion other things that have to be done around here.
Balancing my "wants" with my "have-to's" compounded by three kids and a side of autism - balance seems to be a word that's not in my thesaurus!
Maybe I can develop some of your balance strictly by osmosis through the computer!
Can hardly wait to see how this ends up...FINISHED I hope!
Thanks Ali-
Jayne
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Ali, thanks for all the ideas for the album! Thanks to my enormous stash, I have a lot of those items already. :)
I have was having the same problem as Peggy taking pictures in my cubicle all week would prove to get very boring. But shockingly, my co-workers were very interested in the project. They thought it was a neat idea (And these are civil engineers, so certainly not artsy types at all!) And not only have I been finding plenty of things to take pictures of, but I have been noticing a lot more of my surroundings at work. Details that I see everyday but don't really SEE. That is the gift of this project for me. Thanks Ali!
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This is just fun! This morning I grabbed my camera first thing and took a photo of my hubby watching the Markets and enjoying his breakfast. Wouldn't have done that before. This has me thinking differently and it's just Day 2. Thanks for this, Ali. Just what I needed. Also love your ideas on the layout of the album. I am so going to make this simple and cool.
Les
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Ali - this is such a great project. I'm working on day 2 and the thing that I'm learning or realizing the most is the fact that I am now very aware of my surroundings, what I'm doing and the little things - like the clouds yesterday in a very stormy St. Louis or the clear sky today after the storm - the rain hitting the puddles yesterday. I am really enjoying the picture-taking part of this - the rest will be more difficult for me, but I'm determined to try to do an entire book for me for a change.
Thanks, as always, for your inspiration.
Jenell
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I'm going to set up my book like your mixed-up mini to start and work from there. My week is usually pretty messy, so I figured my book should be too. Thanks for the tips on consistency today -- that should help tie the whole mixed-up mess together!
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I took this CKU class in 2006, so I have the big Scrapworks box album. There was a lot of room left, so I think I'm going to make some kinda cool title/divider page and put my new week right behind the first one. May have to order some more page protectors, but that's ok...
Thanks for all the info, Ali! This new week is going to be completely different, look and feel. I'm just loving the whole process already!
Tina J.
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Question:
Can I combine 12x12 layouts and 9x11 in the same album? I apologize for asking a question which you might have answered on another post.
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Karen - you can if the holes are in the same place on the page protectors. You can also make your own holes - and cut up 12x12 page protectors to fit 9x11.
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I am having so much fun with this. And I am finding that I am taking the time to enjoy the process which has really made it a kick. Thank you for sharing so much of yourself and your fabulous ideas.
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I am really getting into taking the photos..this is cool! I do have a question? If i go with the shutterfly book for this project, how would I incorporate the "stuff", like pieces of mail, etc?? And does the shutterfly prigram have piece of pattren paper for me to choose from if I want to fill in some extra squares on a page??
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Thanks so much for providing a catalyst to do this project - I love it!
QUESTION - What kind of everyday stuff are you collecting? I'm having a hard time figuring out what stuff to collect.
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Hi Ali!
I have a question about your digital elements. I'm looking into buying them. If I buy the 12x12 overlays, can they be formatted to an 8 1/2 x 11? I want to use them for both 12x12 and other sizes for future projects. Thanks, Jenny
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Love this project - does anyone else seem to get more done and eat healthier now that we are documenting it and taking pictures:)LOL
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Kim - I think I would scan in some of your stuff to add it to a Shutterfly book. I don't think they have patterned paper designs to add - you would want to use some digital patterned paper (from a site like Designer Digitals) for that portion.
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Niccole - receipts, tags, newspaper clippings, stuff from the mail, handwritten notes, papers that Simon brings home, printed out emails, bits of papers from my creative work, etc.
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Jenny - you could adjust them to 8x8 (or anything else square such as 9x9) to maintain the proportions. If you are doing 8.5x11 you would want to use those overlays for this project.
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Question:
I love your overlays & templates and thinking of making hybrid layouts. Do I need Photoshop in order to work with your designer digital products?
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I'm liking this project much more than I thought I would. I'm one of those people who think my life is dreadfully boring.
I've found the easiest way for me to journal is in a "draft" e-mail. I have Gmail, so I can save the draft and open it on my work computer, my home computer, etc. I just keep typing and saving as I have a free moment. I figure at the week's end, I can just cut and paste what I need into the appropriate shape, etc.
Hope that helps someone...
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thanks Ali, I was struggling with the idea of doing an 8.5 X 11 or another size. The digital overlays swayed me!!!!!! I have already bought most of them and was debating on the onew you showed guess you made up my mind. I will however be doing hybrid, I still love to play with the stuff!!!! :)
your the best.
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Still hesitate between photobook and photo album...
An idea for those who want to insert their e-mails in the project : the print screen key. I use it for my own e-mails and blogs I visit daily.
Thanks Ali for so much creativity !
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