Week In The Life : Bringing It All Together • The Completed Album
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It's amazing the number of emotions I go through when working this project to completion.
Anticipation. Excitement. Frustration. Glee. Love. Pride. Distress. Impatience. Happiness.
It's done. Another week in another year of my life/our lives is done. I can close it up and put it away and take it out again down the road and marvel at how simple & easy things were, or how crazy & stressful & complex - all depending on what my life is like at that moment in time.
This is definitely a labor of love. It takes time to write things down as you go about a day. It takes time to take the photos. It takes time to sort and upload and wait for printing. It takes time to organize the words and add more if needed. It takes time to add the elements to the page protectors.
It is a commitment of time and energy.
It is worth every single minute.
Below I am going to take you through my entire album from beginning to end. Along the way I 'll tell you a bit about changes or adjustments I made. I have also included tutorials or links to additional information when it's applicable.
WEEK IN THE LIFE 2010
Here's a shot looking down at my 8.5x11 We Are Memory Keepers album. You might be able to fit two years in here - it really depends on how many bulky things you add or how many additional page protectors you add. As you will see below I added at least one more page protector per day for journaling.
This was my first time using a We Are Memory Keepers album & page protectors. I loved it. The page protectors seem thicker and sturdier than my favorites from American Crafts.
Included with the We Are Memory Keepers album is a black plastic page which could definitely be removed. I ended up keeping it because I added this little black paper with white type that I collected during my week. It says, "experience life to the nines."
Also, somehow I missed that We Are Memory Keepers makes 8.5x11 divided page protectors. The slot sizes are 3.5 x 2.625. I would love to have all the page protectors be the same along the rings (yes, that's a little on the type-A side). Looks like they actually offer a bunch of different options for both 12x12 and 8.5x11 divided page protectors. Be still my divided page-protector loving heart.
COVER PAGE
Included in the digital layered template packages is an intro page. The digital page includes the spot for the photo, the title, a spot for an initial, and the twill strip with the days of the week.
For my album, which is a combination of digital and paper, I printed out the intro page with just the title on cardstock. I used the School House chipboard alphabet from Cosmo Cricket for the initial ("A" is for my first name rather than "A Week In The Life"). I used these chipboard letter stickers in other locations throughout the album.
In Elements I re-sized the twill strip, printed it on photo paper (see the how-to process below), cropped it and added it on top of my photo. The photo size on the intro page is 8.5 x 6inches.
RESIZING & PRINTING A DIGITAL TWILL STRIP
Twill strips are one of my favorite digital products to use on paper pages. My packages of twill at Designer Digitals are sized 12 inches wide but can easily be sized down for use on a smaller project. Here's a look at that process for my intro page:
Open the PNG file. For my intro page I choose the "no bold" option for the Days of the Week because I didn't want any of the specific dates highlighted on the cover.
Image/Resize/Image Size and change to 9 inches wide. Make sure "constrain proportions" is selected or you will get a warped image. If you want to save paper you can print more than one strip at a time by creating a new canvas and adding multiple strips to that canvas.
Go to File/Page Set Up to adjust your page orientation to landscape (11x8.5).
Print on cardstock or photo paper, trim, adhrere.
MONDAY
One of the interesting things I discovered this time around, with my slower pace, is that I thought of other things I wanted to include. Mostly I thought about more words to include about where we all are in life right now. I feel that by taking a bit more time than usual I was able to round out our story and include things I may have missed during the whirlwind week of documentation.
Because of that, I ended up creating some Long Journalers that allowed me to write more or to simply copy and paste the text I used to describe my photos/days here on my blog. On the backs of these journal blocks I did different things on different days including an enlarged photo, more journaling, pattern paper, etc.
For each of these long journal blocks (the blocks fit on a 4.25 x 11 inch piece of paper) I stitched on page protectors to create custom sizes. For more on creating custom sized page protectors, including a short video of my stitching on a page protector, see this post. I really like having the different width included in this album.
This opening long journaler is titled "Life Right Now" and it documents in general what's happening for each of the people in my immediate family. I thought this was a nice way to begin the album - an overview of sorts.
On the back of the long journaler I inputted the content I had documented including time of day.
When working on my long journaling blocks I added in either blue or red type as emphasis. It's a nice little something extra. 
Some of my journaling cards, like the one above, are very simple sentiments. Simple is good.
TUESDAY 
I did end up using the 7gyspies date stamps for each day of the week on my large daily opener photo.
The red wonder woman paper includes notes from our babysitter about Anna's day.
For Tuesday, because I had already hand-written a complete day, I just left my journaling as-is and slipped it inside a page protector.
WEDNESDAY
For Wednesday I turned my journaling from under each photo into a paragraph and went back and forth between brown and black type to show the change in thought from one to the next. The bottom portion is the commentary I included at the end of my post.
On the back of Wednesday's long journaling I chose one of the pattern papers and added a simple "W."
THURSDAY 
On Thursday I had less text to add to the long journal box so I adhered a photo to the cardstock.
On the back I included an enlarged photo (4.25 x 11 inches). Love adding in this big photo and wish I would have done more of these.
On a couple of the days I simply printed out the captions I added below my photos in my blog posts and adhered them to the photos.
FRIDAY
SATURDAY
I had significantly less jouranling for Saturday than I did for other days (and less photos too). To fill in some of the slots I wrote simple things on the journaling cards. I liked including some journaling that was more reflective rather than in the moment - there is definitely room for both in this album.
SUNDAY
Simple sentiments to fill space and tell a bit more about my life.
This. This is it.
CLOSING PAGE
As many of you know it's not often that I create an "ending page" for my albums. I'm not sure what's up with that...I think so many times I am just DONE by that point and want to move on to the next thing. This time I decided to add one in - a very simple one.
I re-printed the intro page from the template package onto cardstock and simply hand-wrote a couple sentiments and signed my name.
YOU CAN DO THIS
If you are still sitting on the fence...one of those people that needs to see the end before beginning...it's time to get down from the fence and get moving. This is one of those projects that I promise you will never regret. You can do this.
As you can see, this album is not about embellishments and do-dads and pretty little things glued down. It's about the words and the photos. And it is oh so amazing to see your life in this way. You can do this.
If you are in the middle of working on your album...keep at it. It's a
process. Give yourself the gift of working on it a bit at a time...but
commit to finishing it. There's nothing like a completed album to boost
your confidence. You can do this.If you are just coming across this concept for the first time, honestly, you can do this.
Finally, I want to humbly and sincerely say thank you for embarking on this journey with me. I hope you have captured a glimpse of how wonderfully precious your life is - whatever stage you are in right now in April/May 2010.
Clickhere for a complete list of Week In The Life posts.
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197 comments
I agree! And having done my first page last night and printed it - I am soo excited I might actually get this project done! Thanks for the simple approach. I love it :)
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Ali - What an incredible project. I had a great time playing along for the first time. I do have to say one thing... even if I practiced for a lifetime, I could never use my own handwriting to include those sentiments in such a creative and personal way. But.... a girl can try right?
What is your pen of choice? I love how not too thick and not too thin it appears on the cardstock.
Your album is just beautiful! I'm amazed as expected!
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Thank you Ali for your love and commitment to this most meaningful project. I greatly appreciate your willingness to share your expertise along with the multitude of information and details to support everyone having their own success.
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Inspired! And I think I could get addicted to those divided page protectors. I recently purchased a new trimmer and was so happy to see you have the same one (so it has to be good)...it's the little things that make me happy! :)
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I love your album. And thank you so much for your encouraging words. I really like the idea of doing something like this but sometimes it just feels a little too intimidating to do all those layouts (I'm still new and learning what my style is) but I can totally do words and pictures - that's usually all I've got to start with anyway :)
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Ali, I have been working on my album right along with you, and it is just about complete. I thank YOU for your inspiration, insight, and encouragement. Because of you, I have a beautiful album that my boys and I will treasure for years. Thank you just doesn't seem enough, but I offer it anyway. Thank you!
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I've read your blog here and there for the past few weeks (after finding you in a random search) and reading this post made me want to cry. Your books are beautiful, as is your family. You, your site and this work you do are all very inspiring. Thank you.
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Just stunning, Ali.
I love the mix of custom page protectors and enlarged photos. And that wonder woman notepaper is so cute!
It's always wonderful to see your style shine through in your projects and I love how you don't need to use a 1000 products and a tonne of glue to get a really coherent and polished look to your album.
Thank you for your generosity in sharing this amazing project. Can't wait for December Daily!
Lana
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I followed your progress through the last week in life project and thought: I will try that one day. I've been reading along this time and thinking: I'll actually do that after the summer holidays. After reading this post, though, I thought: Why wait. So I'm starting Monday. Can't wait!
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I really enjoy seeing your "hodge podge, collegy" end product -- I love the way it ends up looking so collected -- friendly, approachable and real.
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Darling girl, I've said it before and am saying it again. You are golden. Your inspiration and motivation are limitless. Thank you. Thank you for sharing your beautiful family and your clever creative mind.
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I made it through a few months of the yearly album of a photo a day, but it just got to be mundane to me. I LOVE this idea now that I've seen the completed book! With two girls, 6 and 1 and 10 month old twin boys, I have a small amount of creativity time in my days, and this album will be well worth it and so very rewarding. I have my oldest daughter's albums completed to about age 4, let it slide quite a bit with the second daughter and now, I have only a notebook with the journalling I hope to put into a page or two here and there for the boys. I really feel like my days are the movie groundhog day over and over again. A repetition that today seems so unworthy of preserving because of how insanely busy my life is, but in a year, five, ten, it will be truly priceless. I sit on my couch for the countless hours of my days breastfeeding and fantasize about getting back into my scrapbooks, but I can just never find the time to do a fancy page, with the doodads and such.
This album is a wonderful way to preserve what I'm thinking right now. I didn't see its value as I've been watching your blog since starting this project. I thought it was a great idea, but until seeing this post today, I didn't see how valuable it is. Thank you so very much Ali for sharing this priceless album idea with us.
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Ali, you are truly inspiring! I've watched your blog for quite a while now and love your amazing ideas. Your pages and projects are of such a quality, scrapbooking is truly something more with your inspiration.
I'm an extremely busy mom who last year gave up mid-year on the photo a day album thing. It just became too much and I lost focus.
This album looked pretty amazing as I've watched your process, but today, in its finality, wow, this is something I have to do.
With two girls, 6 and 1, and 10 week old twin boys, lets just say my life is busy. What an understatement. However, in the countless hours I sit on the couch breastfeeding every day, I can't help but feel sad for the memories I am not capturing with these little guys or the girls now for that matter. I was crazy with my first daughter, recording EVERYTHING and have countless albums...with the second daughter, yes, I have a number of albums, but not a record of the memories I'd really like to have captured in time. Now, my thoughts are written in a journal time to time, but I question if I will ever be able to record anything of the boys lives or continue with the girls albums. My life feels like the movie Groundhog Day...a mundane repetition over and over and over again, yet this is something I will treasure next month, year, etc. I can carve out the time to do this and I want to send you a heartfelt thank you for this idea. The completed book is truly priceless and I can't wait to get started...I am starting on Monday no matter what! Thank you Ali again for the push to take the time to do this. It has such a quality, so much more value than working towards an impossible goal of "finishing" so many chronological albums. You are the best!
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Hi Ali, thank you for sharing your beautiful album of your beautiful family. You told me to finish the project I started but now seeing yours I decided to start fresh...TODAY. I wanted to capture my first mothers day and my nieces first communion. I thought that would be nice. I know you say the project is about the daily life and not so much about the big events, but our family is very big and big events are part of our daily life :)I will do 7 days. And I am working on a routine to get all the things done that I need to do this project.
Thank you for all the encouragement and reading that even you (the queen of scrapping) struggles sometimes with projects. lol xoxo
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Oh I struggle all the time :). I just know that the reward is so very worth it.
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Hi Mel - on a layered template you can definitely remove things and move them around. In the template package the day tabs are "fixed" meaning you are not able to adjust them without re-creating them (which you definitely can do). In the separate product packs (the tabs, journal blocks, etc are available separately as well) I included a PSD file so people could customize them easier.
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You can do it Cindy!
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Thanks Jessica - appreciate it :).
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You "get it" Jenny! No one is going to know or care where the basic idea came from. My HOPE is that people will use these things - I am trying to make it as easy as possible to create something that will be a treasure for your family!
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I definitely think you SHOULD :). Usually I use Precision Pens from American Crafts but I also like Staedtler permanent pens and Uniball pens and on and on.
I think the thing about handwriting is that it is so personal. Your kids/family are not going to critique your handwriting years from now (and if they do, who cares). My guess is that they will simply love that they can see something "real" from you.
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