Week In The Life : Bringing It All Together • The Completed Album
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.
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.
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."
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.
Click here for a complete list of Week In The Life posts.
I have so enjoyed watching your project come together Ali, it truly is so worthwhile. I am very glad I joined in and have no doubt this will become a family favourite in years to come! And it goes without saying that yours totally rocks!!!!!!!!!!!
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Hi Ali, I purchased your Memory Lifelines but as I am new-ish to photoshop I am having trouble converting the png's to abr's is there an easy way to lay them over the photo? Thanks
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How I love this! Thanks for saying that I too can do it. I will. For sure. :-)
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I'm still in the process of wading through my photos. So far, I have all the opening pages and Monday to Thursday worth of photo gatherings completed, now to the rest!
I feel a bit ashamed about "having to see" what others are doing first until I do it myself (even though it's different in some aspects), but alas, if this means I will actually hold a completed album in my hands afterwards, I'll go with it. (And I do find it easier to decide on what I want to order at a restaurant after knowing what everyone else is having, too. So maybe I just have to accept it or GET OVER IT.)
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It's awesome!! I would love to try this!!! Thanks for the inspiration!!
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This blows my mind! What a gorgeous and heart felt album!!! Thanks so much for sharing this with all of us :)
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Amazing album Ali. You always make it look so simple.
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Thanks for sharing and leading us all along with this one week journey. I throughly enjoyed myself in the process and think it's a fabulous idea. Thank YOU! I also love your closing page...your handwriting is lovely :)
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It really is wonderful Ali, your album is so simple yet so detailed. Thank you so much for sharing this wonderful journey with us. I am up to putting everything into my album and was a little bit lost for how to approach this part, now i have so many ideas after seeing yours... thank you family me and my family
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So ever inspiring - always love to see your finished product - all inspiring. I will be starting my week in the life - during June. Timing wasn't great for me this year but looking forward to this again - love seeing the finished product.
Can't wait!!
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I love that you are so willing to share what you do Ali. You give us all a chance to scrapbook the things that really matter and lead by example both in what you say and in what you do. You make things simple, give examples, and offer such encourgament. Thank you so very very much!!!!!!
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WOW! I'm so exciting about my album Ali- thanks to you. I've been using We R Memory Keepers Albums for a year or two now and LOVE them! Perfect for this project. I too have enlarged a photo of myself holding my camera in a mirror for my opening/title page- never done that before, but I realise the importance of having myself in the images of my album. Can't wait to finish it, almost there. I think out of all of my scrapbooking albums (and yes there are a few) this will be one of my most treasured. To see how blessed I am to 'Live' right here, right now. I will do this project every year (just change the seasons). Thank you so much Ali.
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I love this project! I will admit, I still have last year's sitting on my scrapbook table waiting for me to add the final touches. I think I will do a simple into and ending page too! Thanks for the great idea Ali!!
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Ali! this is AMAZING! you are so inspiring! I have to say I have done this project both in 2008 and 2009 and LOVE both those albums so very MUCH! I did one in a tablet from target with hand written journaling, filled the whole thing up. THen 2009, I did one in a regular photo album with journaling slots, next year, I am going to try this memory keepers album (well later this year actually) cause I never did finish the week that you just did, started it, but just was not into it for some reason! I think I will try it this summer when my girls are home with me all day so I have someone to take pictures of LOL!
Love your stuff so much Ali!
tara
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I like the simplicity of your album very much:) Greetings from Poland
And this is my album: http://saudada.blogspot.com/2010/05/niecay-week-in-life-piec-dni-w-albumie.html
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Well done Ali, Well Done. I loved looking thru your album this morning. I kept checking last night then gave up and turned off the computer, so what a nice surprise for me this morning. I love how simple it is, so pretty and clean. I've enjoyed this project so much, the words you used in the beginning are so true, happy, frustrated, excited, worried, but it is made out of LOVE. I wish I had waited longer to see your finished album then started but now I know how to do it next time. I love how your journaling was different thru the album and the enlarged photos you chose are great. After doing this I think next December I am ready to do your December daily, always wanted to but didn't think I could. This has been a long, hard process but so worth every minute and loss of sleep.I've learned a lot doing this project that will make me a better history keeper for my family. Thanks so much Ali for this journey with you.
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This is AMAZING!
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Awesome final result! Not that I would expect anything less! I have to know where the Wonder Woman notebook paper came from, I NEED :)
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I love this so very much ~ Thank you, Ali ...
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this is fabulous! tfs.
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Such a worthwhile project. I love how yours turned out. I love how mine turned out! Thank you so much for your insight, encouragement, creativity and validation. This is the project my family most enjoys and that is what makes it so wonderful :)
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This turned out amazing! So simple and wonderful. What a treasure for your family to have. Thanks so much for the inspiration!!
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Thanks for sharing Ali, love to see the completed piece! For the first time ever, I decided that I was going to do this project. I'm not a scrapbooker...I'm a card maker...so the task seemed a bit daunting. However, I had such a good time taking the photos and jotting things down about each day (even though it was one crazy week for us!) I have yet to start putting together the photos but I do have my supplies (and funny enough, purchased the exact same album that you did!) and I can't wait to get working! I purchased a few of your page layouts and am looking forward to learning how to use them. Overall, it's been a great experience! I'll share photos when I finally get done!! :-)
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Nice work Ali! Need to get mine done.. Finishing a couple of other projects first :)
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Nice work Ali! Need to get mine done.. Finishing a couple of other projects first :)
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