Week in the Life : Formula + Supplies

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.

Ov369388

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.

Weekinthelifelayout

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

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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.

Threethingsdates

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

Threethingsdates2

7gypsies Life Creme Patterned Paper (could be my favorite paper)

Heidi Swapp Today Stamp

Scenic Route Days of the Week Stamps

Dottedline_2_2

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.

Dottedline

A complete list of posts related to the week in the life project can be found here.

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64 thoughts

  1. Tina J. says…
    09/30/2008

    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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  2. Karen says…
    09/30/2008

    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.

    Reply 0 Replies
  3. Ali says…
    09/30/2008

    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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  4. Annette says…
    09/30/2008

    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.

    Reply 0 Replies
  5. kim strother says…
    09/30/2008

    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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  6. Niccole Reing-Hurley says…
    09/30/2008

    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.

    Reply 0 Replies
  7. Jenny Alfonso says…
    09/30/2008

    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

    Reply 0 Replies
  8. Jennifer McNeely says…
    09/30/2008

    Love this project - does anyone else seem to get more done and eat healthier now that we are documenting it and taking pictures:)LOL

    Reply 0 Replies
  9. Ali says…
    09/30/2008

    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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  10. Ali says…
    09/30/2008

    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.

    Reply 0 Replies
  11. Ali says…
    09/30/2008

    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.

    Reply 0 Replies
  12. Caryl Hope says…
    09/30/2008

    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?

    Reply 0 Replies
  13. Kimberly L.C. says…
    09/30/2008

    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...

    Reply 0 Replies
  14. Annette says…
    09/30/2008

    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.

    Reply 0 Replies
  15. sev from france says…
    09/30/2008

    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 !

    Reply 0 Replies
  16. jennyg says…
    09/30/2008

    Having so much fun with this project...I'm sure onlookers thought I was crazy as I took pics of my kids in a Target buggy!

    Reply 0 Replies
  17. Ali says…
    09/30/2008

    Caryl - you do not have to use Photoshop for the overlays. I just tried it in Word and they work in there (as well as other photo programs I assume). If you were going to use Word you will definitely need to adjust your margins and adjust the template to fit.

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  18. LauraBean says…
    09/30/2008

    Hm, I was thinking of doing this as a mini-book, but I'm beginning to think there's too much for that. I'm realizing it might make a lot more sense to wait until the end of the week and see just what I have and how it might best be put together, but, wah, I had my heart set on a mini-book! :-) It feels a little narcissistic to do an actual full-size album of one week of my life, even though I know it will be a great document one day down the road. A mini-book felt like the right compromise between self-centered scrapbook and just-something-put-together for posterity!

    Reply 0 Replies
  19. Denise Hubbard says…
    09/30/2008

    Oh my gosh! This project is so much fun!! A million thanks for doing this Ali! I am taking an on-line photography class right now with Karen Russell and posted the info. on this project for all of my classmates to see so they too can participate. Wonderful way to practice our photography, tell stories, and creative skills.

    Reply 0 Replies
  20. Kitty says…
    09/30/2008

    Im so thrilled you are doing tis series. i forgot my camera this morning taking the kiddos to school and had a blowout! needed the camera for that for sure.
    Anyways, I was interested in maybe taking the overlays route with this but I need to know if these work with photoshop elements or do you need the full blown version or another program in order to use the overlays you created??
    Thanks a ton for your wonderful dose of creativity!!!
    Kitty

    Reply 0 Replies
  21. Ali says…
    09/30/2008

    Kitty - they work in Elements just fine :).

    Reply 0 Replies
  22. Nicky Anderson says…
    09/30/2008

    Ali
    These overlays also work great in Microsoft Office Picture Manager - and when printing you can resize, once you select your printer and enter next - you have about 6 print options sizes!! Works great. Still trying to get mine figured out in photoshop - but slowly plugging away at that. Gathering pictures, emails & paraphenalia and having FUN!!!
    Thanks again - truly enjoying this

    Reply 0 Replies
  23. heather (Happy Thoughts) says…
    09/30/2008

    I'm on my 3rd day and going good. The first couple of days I don't have as many pictures, but I am doing good today. It's funny you don't realize how much you do all day until you try to take pictures of it.

    Reply 0 Replies
  24. Linda says…
    09/30/2008

    Took my camera to the hospital today and found a few things to get pictures of that don't violate patient confidentiality!!! Don't want to get fired putting together this book. Since my kids are gone, I sent a text to each and asked them to send me a picture of themselves as a px text. Still waiting to hear from my oldest--she is in Med school and so she is busy but I got pics of the other two girls--fun to include them too. Since I have less pictures than most I am still thinking small. Will have to wait and see what have at the end!! So far no pics of dh he hates to have is picture taken, but I do have some of the cat!!

    Reply 0 Replies
  25. Miriam says…
    09/30/2008

    HI Ali, Will you be putting all this project info/instructions on a PDF, as it would make it so much easier to print out :)
    Thank you

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