Project Life | Week Twenty-Three

Project Life | Week Twenty-Three Close Up

Welcome to Project Life | Week Twenty-Three.

IProject Life | Week Twenty-Three | Spread

Twenty-three weeks of documentation: photos and words and the stuff of life.

I'm into my second album for 2011 now (have been for the last few weeks). Back in the beginning of the year I decided to use We Are Memory Keeper's albums for this project - mainly because I'm not huge fan of patterned album covers. Besides the fact that there's really no way I could fit a year into one album with all the additional inserts I've been including, I like that the pages have room to breathe by splitting it up into two albums.

IProject Life | Week Twenty-Three | Right

The bottom journaling card is from my Awakening 4x6 Overlay set. Most of the journaling about Anna's new bed came from the Around Here post last week and I added a bit more telling what happened the rest of the week.

IProject Life | Week Twenty-Three | Insert Front

The first insert this week is an American Crafts 6x12 divided page protector. I cut off the top to make it fit just four photos vs. six - I like that it adds another height level to the mix.

IProject Life | Week Twenty-Three | Insert Back

I also included one 8.5x11 We Are Memory Keepers page protector to hold a map and a handout from the school about the field trip. Simon had that map in his hands the whole drive over to the coast.

IProject Life | Week Twenty-Three | Left

Summer seems to finally be just about here. We had our first sunny day, bought our first round of strawberries from a local farm, went swimming outside on both Saturday and Sunday, and ate outside on Saturday evening and Sunday morning.

On Sunday night while we were having dinner I went around the table and asked everyone to tell me their favorite memory from the weekend - I jotted down their responses on one of the journaling cards.


Project Life is a product created by Becky Higgins. It can be anything you want it to be. The pieces of the album kit (similar to the one I’m using) are available here. If you live outside the US check Becky’s site for more information on sources. View all my posts about Project Life here.

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22 thoughts

  1. audra says…
    06/14/2011

    Looks like a great weekend. Love how you asked everyone what their favorite weekend memory was at the dinner table. As a child, we went around the dinner table & were asked what our best & worst thing of the day was. We now continue that with our children & ourselves. It's a GREAT way to share pieces of everyone's day! Also, makes for wonderful conversation! The kids love it!

    Reply 0 Replies
  2. Lori says…
    06/14/2011

    Hi, Ali! I love your PL Album and am on my 3rd year of documenting our daily life in one form or another. Each year I've become less rigid with myself (this is a very good thing :)), but the one hurdle I can't seem to get over is NOT having the words and photos correspond.
    I know this isn't something that bothers you (and you're so good at incorporating the little bits of life), but do you ever worry that years from now either the photo OR the ephemera won't make sense without them being tethered together?
    Thanks in advance for your insight!

    Reply 1 Reply
    1. Ali says…
      06/14/2011

      I don't worry :). My perspective is that it's all part of a larger story - some pieces will be clear and concrete and others will be more vague (either by intent or by accidental omission). I have found while working on Project Life that I'm wanting to identify the photos - that's why you can often see me using little tags. The journaling I'm doing often relates to one or more photos from the week.

  3. Damiane Lucas says…
    06/14/2011

    I love your PL album, Ali! I like how you switch your journaling from thin to thick lines. What kind of journaling pens do you use?

    What type of marker/pen are you using for the thick "bold" words?

    Blessings to you and yours always.

    Reply 1 Reply
    1. Ali says…
      06/14/2011

      Hi Damiane - I'm just using a Sharpie.

  4. Anya says…
    06/14/2011

    This is so amazing that you were able to stay with PL for this long on scedule! Love this whole idea so much, but I didn't want to start it without having the right lens for shooting indoors with low light. I really want to do it sometimes though. Maybe starting at the beginning of school year... Thanks for continuous inspiration!!!

    Reply 0 Replies
  5. Sonya Glaze says…
    06/14/2011

    I love your book! I think I'm going to try this! What program do you use to do your journaling cards? I know you have overlays but are those for a certain program?

    Reply 1 Reply
    1. Ali says…
      06/14/2011

      Hi Sonya – I use Photoshop. You can use the overlays in Photoshop and even in Word. Here’s a couple tutorials: http://aliedwards.com/2011/02/adding-text-to-overlays-long-journalers-in-elements-and-word-video-tutorials.html in both Word and Photoshop Elements.

  6. ShellyJ says…
    06/14/2011

    Thanks for sharing again! ... always enjoy these posts the most!

    Reply 0 Replies
  7. Erin B says…
    06/14/2011

    Hi Ali and thanks for the new PL update! It helps me keep mine on track and I love the ideas. For the picture of Simon in the water, are you just shooting down from above or are you in the water too? (hope this doesn't sound like a crazy question...I just can't tell). If you're under the water, what type of camera are you using? Thanks so much!

    Reply 1 Reply
    1. Ali says…
      06/14/2011

      Hi Erin - just shooting from above.

  8. Laura Griffin says…
    06/14/2011

    you can still order separate pieces to Project Life on Amazon i ordered the page protectors and journaling cards separately

    Reply 1 Reply
    1. Ali says…
      06/14/2011

      You're right Laura - I'll adjust the end of my post :).

  9. Christine N says…
    06/14/2011

    Thanks for the weekly PL inspiration! I love that all your initials spell "CASA" together, how cool is that?!

    Reply 0 Replies
  10. Debbie says…
    06/15/2011

    Woohoo! Project Life is now available in the UK. After months of soaking up every detail from Ali's inspiring photos and words and drooling over Becky's videos I am only a couple of days away from mine arriving in the post.

    Reply 0 Replies
  11. Liz says…
    06/15/2011

    wow that looks great...i have actually kept up with inserting my photos and just caught up on the journaling the other day...i love this album so much!! i love all the little things you add to yours..very inspirational!!

    Reply 0 Replies
  12. Sharon in California says…
    06/15/2011

    so inspiring!! I have many layouts done in my head, I may have to get them into the page protectors and journalled ala CZ. Kudos to you for your keeping up with this project. Its wonderful.

    Reply 0 Replies
  13. brenda wilson says…
    06/15/2011

    Thanks for sharing all your Project Life layouts - continued inspiration. I'm a bi tbehind on mine since I'm working on a 4-year school photobook album for my grade 8 daughter and 11 of her firends as they graduate. The junior kindergarden - grade 4 album we did paper and shared the work; this one we're doing digitally and it's falling mostly to me - but I love it. The example that I've been showing everyone is my first (and only) photobook so-far which happened to be from April 2010 when I followed your 'Week in the Life' 2010 project. I remember reading that you had picked a July week this year, but can't seem to recall (or easily find reference to it on your website). Are you still planning that for this year? Will you be creating a button for that soon to help us remember? I hope I haven't missed a recent post on it because I've been so busy and my laptop is dead I've only had a chance to quickly look at your posts. Looking forward to finishing my project so I'll have more time to get caught up on my Project Life album (I do have the daily photos) and read your blog entries in more detail. Thanks again for sharing so many of your creative ideas and so much of your daily life with us. Brenda.

    Reply 1 Reply
    1. Ali says…
      06/16/2011

      Hi Brenda - July 25 through July 31 is the week I'm doing this year. Look for a banner coming soon :).

  14. dawn says…
    06/17/2011

    love all your summertime pictures this week, really shows the fun all of you had.

    Reply 0 Replies
  15. Shilla says…
    06/18/2011

    Hi Alie, I really love your photo results and layout. Can you pls share with me what type of camera and lense d u use to take all of these pics in the 365 project life?

    I also want to ask you what brand is the page protector that you use (the one with the 2 pics on top, 4 small pics in the middle, and 2 pics below) ? I think you mainly use that page protector. I have been looking at American craft website but could not find it. Pls advice. Thanks

    Reply 0 Replies
  16. Roberta says…
    06/19/2011

    Reading your Project Life posts has inspired me to purchase one of these albums/pages to put together some of my mother's old photos that I aquired...a big ole box of mixed photos from over 30 years now. This album style will work wonders because I don't have the energy to load this into a traditional paper/page album and the journaling will be very simple with the date/names/places and that's about it. It loads of photos from family weddings and get-togethers, etc. with lots of duplicates. My mom would hate it if we destroyed any of the photos so I'm going to load them into the pockets and tuck the duplicates behind the originals so she will always have them at her disposal...lol ALSO wanted to let you know that I've been working on my Summer Journal using your eworkshop "scrapbook on the road" and have blogged about it here. Thanks as always for the inspiration. Fondly, Roberta
    http://con-tain-it.typepad.com/love_shack_studio/2011/06/im-lovin-it-my-summer-travel-album-in-my-studio-this-friday.html

    Reply 0 Replies

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