Week In The Life 2011 | The Photos

week in the life | bringing it together : the photos

Working through my photos from Week In The Life I'm reminded once again that this is a really big project.

Actually, it's really only as big as you want to make it. There are so many options:


  • Some of you did Week In The Life on your blog this year - documenting with words and photos. You are most likely done with the project and have moved on to new things. Not printing anything definitely simplifies the process.

  • Some of you are doing your album all digitally and are likely going through the process of working with some templates (or creating your own) and are getting all the photos and words together. Some of you might even already be done with that process and have uploaded a photobook to a printer or printed at home.

  • Some of you have uploaded all your photos from the week to a photo developer and are patiently waiting for them to arrive home. When they get to your house you will do any number of things to create your album in a more traditional scrapbook style.

  • Some of you might be doing a combination of things (like me) - I just finished printing out all my pages and photos here at home and will start the process of cutting out the ones I want to use in the divided baseball card page protector later tonight.


I've said all along that there's no right or wrong way to participate in this project. There's also no right or wrong way to bring all your content together.

Here's a look at where I'm at right now:

week in the life | bringing it together : the photos

Today I finished printing all the photos I'll be using.

In my case that means I printed out the digital layered template pages - technically the first and the last page for each day - and the photos that will be added to the divided page protectors.

Sometimes people have a hard time choosing which photos to use (especially if you took a ton). My suggestion to you, and what I do, is pick the ones you feel tell the most complete story of your week. You can always create other layouts with the photos you don't use if you really have a desire to work with everything. I never have an intention of using all the photos I take and I'm pretty quick at picking which ones to use. Make a decision and move on so you can get this project done.

week in the life | bringing it together : the photos

I used these templates this year for the spreads + this template for the photos that will go in the middle page protector.

I laid them all out on the floor so I could take a couple photos of the whole group and see it all come together before placing the individual pages in the album. I'm using a Vanilla 8.5x11 album from We Are Memory Keepers.

week in the life | bringing it together : the photos

Here's a look at what the pages look like after placing them in the album (with only a receipt inside the page protector at this point).

You might be able to see a bit of my Daily Sheet on the first page of my spread. I scanned in the first page of the Daily Sheet and placed it behind my photo on the template and scaled back the opacity to 45%. You'll be able to see it better on the examples at the bottom of this post.

week in the life | bringing it together : the photos

These pages (made using this template) will be cut up and the photos will be added inside my divided page protectors along with some embellishments and other things collected over the course of the week.

Here's a look at that template in Photoshop before I printed it out:

I simply "turned off" the layers that included the tabs and the words and just used the rectangle shapes for all the photos.

And now I'm cutting them out.

And placing them inside the front and back of the page protectors for each day.

PRINTING DETAILS


This year I'm printing here at home testing out an Epson Photo Stylus R2000 printer and Epson Ultra Premium Photo Paper in Luster. Love this printer. Super happy with the quality of the prints after I messed around a bit with what I was seeing on the screen and what was coming out of the printer. I've always found that each printer I use takes a bit of getting used to as I find that sweet spot between what I see on the screen and the actual photo.

It did take me a bit to figure out the page set-up settings to get the correct margins around the page. You could simplify this by having the photos/content go to the edge of the page but I was determined to keep those margins. What I've found to work for me (printing the 8.5x11) on my Epson Stylus Photo R2000 is to select (1) Center (2) No fit to media - scale set at 100%  and (3) select US Letter Sheet Feeder Borderless (retain size). PLEASE NOTE | Your settings may be totally different depending on your printer and it's likely you'll want to do some test printing before embarking on this project at home.

Last year I uploaded all these pages and photos to Scrapbookpictures.com for printing. They do a great job.

THE SPREADS


Here's a look at my spreads, without the divided page protector inserts, that I printed here at home (click to view larger):

You might notice that I filled in the white space on the second page of the spread (compared to the original template). As I was working with my text and images I found that there were lots of times where I had very little to say and maybe just wanted to include the time. For that reason, and because I just liked how it looked, I decided to adjust the sizes of the photo spots (on the template) and have the time and journaling be on top of the photos.

I think it's good to remember that templates are great as a guide - make them work for you and the way you want to tell your stories.

Next I'll be working on adding some of the words to journaling cards and putting together a few embellishments to go inside those pocket pages.

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76 thoughts

  1. Lisa W. says…
    08/05/2011

    Gosh you do GOOD work!!!

    Reply 0 Replies
  2. AbbyS says…
    08/05/2011

    I think is your best WITL album yet!! Love the simplicity, the organization of it...yet is still very creative. Man, you ROCK!!!

    Reply 0 Replies
  3. anneberit says…
    08/05/2011

    Really love the changes you did to the template; adding the words to the photos

    Reply 0 Replies
  4. Karen S. says…
    08/05/2011

    Thanks for posting this right as we head into the weekend. You've inspired me to get to work!! Love the way your album is coming together!!

    Reply 0 Replies
  5. Sheila says…
    08/05/2011

    I'm 49 years old but I still wanna be YOU when I grow up. lol I love your work and the way you look at your life and document it. I really enjoy your website. Thanks.

    Reply 1 Reply
    1. Damiane Lucas says…
      08/06/2011

      Hey Sheila,

      I'm 49, and I LOVE Ali's work, too! She's "soooo" amazing. As for me, I'm really struggling with technology. We didn't grow up with these digital toys, right?

      Let me know if you have a blog, so I can visit it.

  6. Susie Leggett says…
    08/05/2011

    WOW. Ali this looks incredible. Can't wait to see it all together. You are definitely right about this being a big project. I just got my photos back from the lab this week and am work on journaling and putting it all together in my album. This is my first year doing witl and am loving it. Super excited to get it all finished up and share.

    I love how you scanned and added your daily sheets in the background. Very cool.

    Reply 0 Replies
  7. Christina says…
    08/05/2011

    I am so glad I waited to put my album together. I love the idea of writing on the photos instead of in the columns. Sometimes just by changing a little thing like that make the template look completely different. Thanks for your simplicity (my word for the year). I am so glad you shared this with us. You have inspired me once again.

    Reply 0 Replies
  8. Babz510 says…
    08/05/2011

    Stunning! I love it! I enlarged the photos spaces too on the templates and added the text right on top, loving how its looking.

    Reply 1 Reply
    1. Babz510 says…
      08/05/2011

      P.S. I now have total printer envy too! ;-)

  9. dawn says…
    08/05/2011

    This looks great Ali, love seeing which pictures you choose and seeing my favorites in there. My favorite though for the whole week is the large one of Simon on his bike, he looks so happy and proud. What a great week you picked for this time and he will always remember the happy moments of riding his bike.

    I have printed out Mon/Tues pictures so far and am looking them over and writing. So far I'm leaning towards a more artsy journal to put them in.

    Have a great weekend and thanks so much for sharing this with us so fast, love seeing it come together.

    Reply 0 Replies
  10. Erika Beckwith says…
    08/05/2011

    Ali - I love what you have done so far and your approach for putting the album together. I am still playing around with the templates trying to get them right before sending them to the lab to get printed. I can't wait to see your finished project.

    Reply 0 Replies
  11. Stacy says…
    08/05/2011

    Heh. I am in the category of "have uploaded the pictures to the developer and are patiently awaiting their arrival." I got that checked off my to-do list on Tuesday and felt pretty good about the project. But now - having seen the deal in it's ENTIRETY - I'm in an OMG-what-have-I-gotten-myself-into mode right now. I will be fine once I sit down and get a plan in place, but seeing all your photos printed out like that....ALL those photos (not just little icons in my "WITL" folder)....that is one heck of a project, isn't it?

    Reply 0 Replies
  12. Mrs. V says…
    08/05/2011

    Your album is coming together so nicely. I am having fun exploring with Elements for the first time and using your Layered Templates Grid 1 and 2 w/ daily tabs and sentiment tabs. Originally, I chose to not use this template because I did not necessarily like the two times and journal spots together. Now that I have seen how the template does not have to be exactly as it was, I can see how it would have been really nice.

    I appreciate that you included the video of you using the template. That and one that you included previously have been the most helpful of anything else as I am familiarizing myself with Elements.

    With your grid templates, is it possible to manipulate the grid lines, or are those set?

    Reply 0 Replies
  13. PattiP says…
    08/05/2011

    This is my first year doing Week in the Life. I've felt a bit intimidated by it in the past. A friend prompted me to join her, and I'm so glad I did. We are both moms of grown children so there is not as much going on in our lives right now to document. We decided to keep it super simple, doing 8x8 pages, and just a title page and a photo collage page for each day. We made our own templates, using some of your brushes and overlays, and both of us got our pages done and sent to the printer by the middle of this week.

    It helped having someone else I knew doing it - we would remind each other to take photos, or to document things. I loved using the Momento app to make a quick note.

    This is now on my list of annual projects!

    Reply 0 Replies
  14. Sally says…
    08/05/2011

    Hi Ali, Do you have any links to bloggers who have done "week-in-the-life" on their BLOG? I've thought about doing this, but am still wondering about how to approach it. ~Sally

    Reply 1 Reply
    1. Elsi says…
      08/09/2011

      Sally, I posted photos and some narrative on my blog at http://gee-elsi.livejournal.com/ I'm also going to create an album, but I found that the blog was a good place to hold my thoughts as the week was going on.

  15. Tracey Caudle says…
    08/05/2011

    Love it!!!

    Reply 0 Replies
  16. Stacey K says…
    08/05/2011

    Awesome idea of having the printout time line scanned & in there. I am so going to do that. I love how fast this is coming together for me. I have nearly finished all the main pages / photos & I only started last night. You make this big project so do-able for time poor & digital skills poor people like me.

    Reply 0 Replies
  17. Christine says…
    08/05/2011

    Love how your album is coming together. I have started to work on the larger left-side templates. I like the look of what you did on the right side. I really love using your templates! The video tutorial was very helpful. Plan on finishing this weekend and I can't wait to see how you use the 9 pocket dividers. I have a new wireless printer but I plan on uploading to Scrapbook Pictures for printing. They look like they do a fabulous job with prints.

    Reply 0 Replies
  18. Drinoleto says…
    08/05/2011

    OMG!!!!!!!!
    You're amazing!!

    Reply 0 Replies
  19. Nicole says…
    08/05/2011

    Wow Ali! You never cease to amaze me. :) Your layouts are awesome, as usual, and I especially love how you scanned in your daily sheet for the background of your first page. What a great idea!

    This was the first Week in the Life that I actually followed through with! I used your templates from last year and managed to get them completed and uploaded to Persnickety Prints on Thursday. I should have everything early next week! Can not wait to slip everything into the page protectors and look at it over and over.

    I'm excited to see how the rest of your album comes together! Thank you for being such a wonderful inspiration.

    Reply 0 Replies
  20. kelly says…
    08/05/2011

    this looks awesome, ali!!!

    Reply 0 Replies
  21. Heidi says…
    08/05/2011

    Ali, Ditto to many above -- this looks awesome! Love how this is coming together. So love this. I'm getting inspired to put my content together in the next few weeks, and I think I will try uploading my pictures elsewhere this year. Last year I did them at home but we just recently moved and me & our printer are disagreeing on the color suddenly. And still wondering if you are flashdriving the videos you took of the week??
    Heidi in Ontario

    Reply 0 Replies
  22. La'son says…
    08/06/2011

    Looks wonderful! Can't wait to get mine finished. Thanks for sharing. Love your photos.

    Reply 0 Replies
  23. Christine says…
    08/06/2011

    You do amazing work, Ali! Wish I could be more like you :)

    Reply 0 Replies
  24. diane says…
    08/06/2011

    sigh...wish id done it this way...next year lol

    Reply 0 Replies
  25. char says…
    08/06/2011

    Wow it looks great! I'm thinking of using your template for my travel album too. It's so versatile.

    Reply 0 Replies

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