My 2008 Week in the Life Album: Album Creation Part Two

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[ American Crafts Chestnut 8.5x11 D-Ring Corduroy Album; American Crafts Mumbo Jumbos Letter Stickers; vintage "E" ]

Super happy with how this week in the life project finally turned out, especially in the arena of keeping it simple. I ended up embellishing the patterned paper rectangles that fit into the baseball card page protectors and machine stitching on the second page of each day.

After placing all my photos into the page protectors I was able to take a look at how many rectangles needed embellishing. Go here for a look at what I had already done so far.

Here's a look at the second half of my creative process:

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1. Gather up a bunch of things I think are pretty likely I will use for embellishing the patterned paper rectangles. Some of the things worked out and others I decided not to use. I really like having it all out on my table so I don't spend a ton of time looking for stuff to add.

2. Decide on how I want to embellish each group and then go for it.

Here's a look at each group and a close-up of an individual rectangle from within the album (and a quick how-to for each group):

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Brownflower

[ Bazzill Swiss Dots Cardstock; Heidi Swapp Brown Felt Flowers; 7gypies Red Photo Turns; 7gypsies Fortunes Family Matters Rub Ons ]

HOW TO: Adhere felt flower with light adhesive. Run through sewing machine using red thread. Use a piercer to create a hole and attach the photo turn using a brad. Rub sentiment onto photo turn.

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[ Basic Grey Elementary 12x12 Recess Paper; Creative Cafe Tickets; American Crafts Large Brads; Hero Arts Basic Uppercase Wood Mounted Stamps; American Crafts Precision Pen; Orange Staz On ]

HOW TO: Attach ticket with stapler. Press large brad through patterned paper and stamp on top using Staz On ink.

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Brownruler

[ Creative Cafe Lucky Chocolate 12x12 Polka Dot Felt
; 7gypsies Keys; Maya Road Word Charms; Vintage Rulers from Random Arts; Papier Valise Bakers Twine (search for red + white twirling twine) ]

HOW TO: Adhere ruler to felt paper. Using the bakers twine, tie a knot and slip on the key and the charm. Tie another knot to hold the key and charm in place. Secure to back of felt paper with tape.

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[ Hambly Brown on Kraft Brocade 12x12 Paper; Jenni Bowlin Studio Gold Felt Stars; Papier Valise Blue Border Labels; Ali Edwards Bits + Pieces for Technique Tuesday ]

HOW TO: Attach label. Stamp sentiment (use tape to mask beginning of sentiment). Lightly adhere felt star and machine stitch to complete.

Reddate

[ Scenic Route Claudia Street 12x12 Sonoma Paper; Savvy Stamps Circle; Vintage Red Bingo Numbers (Papier Valise has some but I don't think you get the whole box so your numbers would not be guaranteed. Search her site for Red Bingo Markers under Misc. A google search will most likely located some as well.) ]

HOW TO: Each spread also includes an old bingo number that matches the date. Stamp on the patterned paper and slip into the pocket. The bingo number is adhered to the outside of the page protector.

Here's a look at the entire album:

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Monday (click the day-of-the-week link to read the journaling):

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Machine stitching was added to the lines between photos on these photo pages (the right side).

Tuesday:

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Wednesday:

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Thursday:

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Thursday also included one pocket that just holds a tea tag. I like the transparency of the rest of the pocket around the outside of the tag (held in place with a staple).

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Friday:

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Saturday:

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These Jenni Bowlin red mini bingo cards came in handy as they are just the right size for fitting into these pockets.

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Sunday:

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I included an additional page protector at the back to hold some newspapers and over-sized stuff from the week:

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This was a project that I was excited to finish up and put on the shelf in the dining room. It is one that I will forget about for awhile and will pull it out in a few months and be so excited to look back at this specific time in our lives.

I want to send you a bunch of encouragement if you are anywhere in the process right now - from taking photos and documenting your days to figuring out how to pull it all together. You can do this. Keep at it, focus on what is most important to you, and get it done. Looking back you will be so happy that you took the time to create this very special look at your life and the lives of those you love.

I will definitely be doing this again next year (once a year is good enough for me).

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

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91 thoughts

  1. mary says…
    10/20/2008

    this is such a great project. i have too many little projects going on right now with some deadlines but i have decided to do this the first week of the new year~~~~a new project and a new year.
    thanks so much for sharing and sharing so much detail!

    Reply 0 Replies
  2. Hillary Chybinski says…
    10/20/2008

    Ali that looks great!! I'm still working on mine - most of my daily logs sheets are pronted out and I have all my pictures printed - I need to crop, adhere and embellish. . .hopefully during the evenings this week I can get it done.
    Hillary

    Reply 0 Replies
  3. alex says…
    10/20/2008

    This is spectacular! Love love it! Love the use of these page protectors and the repetition of the rectangles of paper with different embellishments. Very cool! Thanks for sharing with us and for the huge inspiration!

    Reply 0 Replies
  4. Cheryl says…
    10/20/2008

    I finished my picture taking yesterday (did it a week late) and just LOVED doing it. I posted my pictures and journaled about them on my blog, and now this week I'm going to print my pics and get to work on my book. Your ideas are so great!! I'm so inspired now! Thanks!!

    Reply 0 Replies
  5. Tiffany says…
    10/20/2008

    Thanks so much for this post! I had decided to start my week today (wasn't possible to do it before), and I have already been snapping pictures all morning. Then I pull up your blog, and I was so encouraged! I can't wait to have my own finished product!

    Reply 0 Replies
  6. kristi says…
    10/20/2008

    wow, ali. you made me want to scrap. that's kinda awesome. you still rule.

    Reply 0 Replies
  7. Briana says…
    10/20/2008

    Nice work, Ali! Thanks again for inspiring me to do this project, too. I love that you show your own album as well as some albums from participants. Wonderful!

    Reply 0 Replies
  8. Annette says…
    10/20/2008

    Ali,
    your album came out great. I finisjhed mine this weekend. What a sense of accomplishment to finish a whole album so quickly. I loved the format. Love the idea of stitching on the
    photo's may add that to mine. Thanks again.

    Reply 0 Replies
  9. Rene says…
    10/20/2008

    Ali,
    I loved this project and finished mine this weekend as well. I, too, will be excited to look at it over the years as it was a busy week for me and holds good memories. I also thought a lot about how I wish I had a book like this from my great-grandmother, grandmother, and mother. Although my grandmother and mother are alive now I don't think they would do a book such as this for me. Makes me sad.
    May I suggest that this be an annual event as you alluded to in your post for today? Having it as an annual event would be fun, especially if we did it during different months so that every yearly book we complete does not have pumpkins in it, for example.
    I love your creativity. You constantly amaze and inspire me. You make me want to be more and do more, and for that I say thank you!!

    Reply 0 Replies
  10. Ingunn says…
    10/20/2008

    So great and inspiring! I was sick when you did this, so I didn't join in (all my photos would have been of Nyquil and Kleenex), but I'm tempted to do it now. It will be so cool to look back on this album in the future.

    Reply 0 Replies
  11. Carrie says…
    10/20/2008

    Gorgeous, A! Love it album itself. Great texture.
    Well, you'll be proud of me -- I have a plan. :) Plan in my head, album ordered, and in the process of editing photos here and there when I have time.

    Reply 0 Replies
  12. Emily says…
    10/20/2008

    As always, your album is terrific. I struggled with "keeping up" silly I know but there it is. I made mine this weekend still need to add more journalling and maybe some embellies. Mine's not as cool as yours but I like it, and I like looking back on similar projects to see how much our life stays the same and changes.

    Reply 0 Replies
  13. jonipossin says…
    10/20/2008

    You are amazing... as are your creations. I've learned so much from you the past few weeks. This has been a fantastic project with so many wonderful supporting photos from you. I feel so ready to make changes in my approach to scrapping. I need to "make it simple" and "plan/work ahead" with albums. Just finished my Thanksgiving album... as far as I can go. That's a first for me!
    Thanks and hugs!
    Joni

    Reply 0 Replies
  14. Melanie says…
    10/20/2008

    I love it! I think about the fact that if I had done this last year, same week ... baby number 3 (who is almost 4 months old now) wasn't even a blip on our radar ... we were too busy packing for our first trip without our other two ... to Cancun. Ahhh.... I will definitely be doing this every year. So much happens to us in just 52 weeks!

    Reply 0 Replies
  15. Raewyn A says…
    10/20/2008

    thank you for sharing this week in a life project with us Ali, now that I have seen your completed album I know exactly what I am going to do.
    btw - what was that ALDRIDGE article in the newspaper about? That is our surname so it caught my eye.

    Reply 0 Replies
  16. Nichole says…
    10/20/2008

    Thanks for posting your finished product. I picked up my photos yesterday, and will put the album together at a retreat this weekend. This is so helpful as I work to gather up materials this week. I'll probably combine some of this with my 2006 CKU instructions.

    Reply 0 Replies
  17. Teresa says…
    10/20/2008

    yours is gorgeous...as always!!!!

    Reply 0 Replies
  18. Yolanda says…
    10/20/2008

    Love how it turned out! I have a ton of baseball card sheets and have been saying 'I'll do something with those soon' for TOO long now. Thanks for the inspiration to get off my behind and get something made! :)

    Reply 0 Replies
  19. Bree says…
    10/20/2008

    Encouragement to keep rolling is much needed!!! Thanks. Your album is so beautiful. I feel like I'll be doing this project for another month at the rate I'm able to find "free time"...
    I'm getting hung up on how to choose which pics to print -- I am on a tight budget which is making things more complicated. Trying to pick my favorite 10-12 from a day (out of about 30 I took each day) is harder than I anticipated! I don't have photoshop so I can't "group" them before getting them printed and my home printer doesn't print great looking photos.
    Seventy-eighty pictures, with several enlarged, seems to be expensive for just ONE project. Any tips for this kind of struggle?

    Reply 0 Replies
  20. vdalton says…
    10/20/2008

    Really like your idea of using the page protector in the back--I'll be doing that for school (art projects/school work I want to keep) and Christmas (cards) albums.
    Thanks!!!!
    {vicki}

    Reply 0 Replies
  21. Tania says…
    10/20/2008

    Totally love it Ali. Esp. love the stars and sewing for the pockets. :) Oh, and that tea bag tag is so cool!
    Bree- I went to Wal-Mart and used their machine to group 4 photos onto one. This is something fairly new for around here, maybe you could go check that out?

    Reply 0 Replies
  22. Bree says…
    10/20/2008

    Tania -- Thanks :-) I will check that out!

    Reply 0 Replies
  23. Angi Smith says…
    10/20/2008

    *Personal*
    Ali,
    If we didn't already know you were having a girl, Thursday's profile of you would immediately give it away to those of us who subscribe to the theory that girls are carried high while boys are low! Old wives' tales do sometimes seem to have some merit to them.
    Angi

    Reply 0 Replies
  24. Susi from Germany says…
    10/20/2008

    @Bree: Check out this one: http://bighugelabs.com/flickr/
    There's a "Mosaic Maker" for your pictures. Just save it on your computer and upload it to get it developped. Oh, it's free btw, you just need to register I think.
    @Ali: Gorgeous album! I finished mine a week ago and I'm so happy I did so! Loved the whole project and I will do it again (although in a "light" version, since I won't have that much time again like I had this time ...)

    Reply 0 Replies
  25. Elizabeth says…
    10/20/2008

    Love the color of your album. YOu did a fantastic job! It turned out awesome...I think this will give me that final inspirational boost to finish mine up. EVerything else is done on mine...I just have to go back and put in my journaling. I made a chipboard 8x8 album and I'm very happy with it so far. Thank you so much for this idea and all that you've done to inspire us! Throwing you a super big HUG!!! :)

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