Welcome And The Idea Behind Craft the Story™

I am beyond excited to welcome you to phase one of the new aliedwards.com.

For the last 12 years, scrapbooking has been a daily part of my life. That doesn't mean that I'm actively creating projects every single day, but it does mean that memory keeping has become my lifestyle. Photographing, documenting, reflecting and bringing it all together via the craft of scrapbooking continues to be one of the main ways I make sense of my life.

It's also one of the main ways I celebrate and give thanks.

As my own personal story evolves, so should my brand.

My vision for my brand is to continue to emphasize the heart of the matter - that stories really do matter. From the blog posts I write to the products I create, I want to always be asking myself if it's aligning with my mission to inspire, educate and empower others to tell their stories. Because I know, without a doubt, that it's mattered to me to tell my own.

On the new aliedwards.com you will find a continuation of my intentional memory keeping focus, an opportunity to participate in a community of people who are telling stories around the same theme each month, and a place to share your own stories regardless of what system you use.

CRAFT THE STORY™

When we originally started talking about future plans for my business and rebranding the thing that came up again and again for me was that I wanted to keep the focus on the stories. That said, what I do with my stories is different than a writer who only writes or a photographer who only takes photos. There's magic in bringing the two together with design principles and intentional embellishments.

Craft the story™ has multiple meanings.

1. Craft the story™ is first and foremost about memory keeping. I literally cut and paste the stories of my life with words and photos and intentional embellishments.

2. Craft the story™ means that the words of the story are very important to me and that there is a rhyme and a reason for the ways in which I write my stories. My words are crafted, not in a negative way, but in an intentional way that helps me make sense of my life.

3. Craft the story™ means that we each get to create the stories of our own lives as we are living them out in the world. This doesn't mean we make things up or paint a different picture than what's real - it means we have a choice in how we live our lives, how we respond to and treat others, in how we create our day to day existence.

NOW WHAT?

Over the next few weeks this site will continue to evolve as we add information about the Story Kits™, the classes page, and the shop. The shop will be home to my digital products, my new paper crafting products, art prints, project kits, as well as a variety of my personal favorite products from other manufacturers. I'll be launching registration for a new class in the next few weeks as well.

Here's what I invite you to do today:

1. Take a video tour of the new site. You can access that on the New Here page.

2. Sign up to be a registered user. I am super excited to welcome you to this growing community of people who are interested in and passionate about crafting their story.

3. Check out each of the Project Pages under the Project heading and watch the videos filmed by Collin Kartchner. He expertly captured the essence behind each of those projects and made me laugh over and over again. Also on each Project Page is a gallery of images. I love this new gallery format and hope you do too. Please note that we are in the process of linking up previous blog posts that correspond with specific projects to make it easier to get more information on specific projects.

4. You are already here on the blog but I hope you'll spend a bit of time checking out how we've organized the content. You can do a search or use the categories to find or rediscover some of the posts I've written over the last ten years. I personally loved looking back through The Weekend Lens, Simon and Anna categories. I love that there's a visual archive when you click to view a category.

5. I've got a new 4x6" stamp subscription program called Story Stamps™. There is a limited quantity now available for pre-order here. One of the big things that sets this program apart (and what I'm really excited about) is that subscribers receive access to a private area of the site that will include additional educational content each month in the form of video(s), a PDF handout, and a message board and gallery for connecting with other subscribers who are part of this community. It's basically like taking a mini-workshop from me each month.

PLEASE NOTE

We are aware of some wonky things, like videos appearing really small, in older blog posts. We are working on updating those video files to the correct size. In the mean-time if you come across a video you can always still click to view it on Vimeo or You Tube depending on where it was originally uploaded (I've done both in the past).

THANK YOU

I'm so ready to get down to the regular business of telling stories. I'm looking forward to a bunch of new things to share with you in the coming months - classes, project kits, products. We've been working hard behind the scenes for so long and to see it all finally come to fruition has been awesome. Thank you for being here. Thank you for being excited.