Planning For Week In The Life 2013

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Week In The Life is coming soon!

Monday, September 9th through Sunday, September 15th to be exact and you are invited to document your week right along with me.

This will be year 7 of this project for me.

I do Week In The Life for a variety of reasons. One of the main reasons is to answer the question: what in the heck do I do really do in my daily life (and maybe even what in the heck am I doing with my life)? How am I spending these precious hours here on earth?

Here's something I know to be true: every single time I do this project I am inspired to make changes to the way in which I'm living my life. I do it not only for the awesome documentation opportunity and the supportive community, but I also do it as a way to examine the life I'm living right now.

There's something very powerful in reflecting the life we are living back to ourselves via photos and words.

SPONSOR THANK YOU

Before I get into more details I want to say a big, huge thanks to our title sponsors this year who will be appearing at the end of each of my posts during the week of documentation: 

We'll also have giveaways all week long. Big thanks to the following companies who are sponsoring giveaways this year: 

There are a couple spaces left if your company is interested in partnering as a sponsor. Send Katie an email for more information

DESIGN PLAN  | LOOKING BACK

When I first started this project back in 2006 (originally it was a class I taught at Creating Keepsakes University) I used a 12 x 12 album with divided pockets (originally a Scrapworks product if I remember right). Each spread represented one day and each pocket documented a particular topic: food, gratitude, work, observations and then stuff (collect bits of paper pieces from your life to add to collages that were then slipped into the pockets).

Here's a look at that first Week In The Life album:

tuesday2006_web

The idea was to document all these specific topics (with photos and words using Daily Sheets) over the course of seven days and then come together in class to create the album.

We worked in what I call "production-style" where we created all the cards for food, then all the cards for work and so on.

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It was a lot of work but it was such an awesome project.

saturday2006web

And man is it fun to look back on today.

Over the last few years I've changed things up and simplified things - especially as digital and hybrid (printing out digital elements to use in paper scrapbooking) have gained momentum.

AE_2007_spread

2007 | Created for Creating Keepsakes University event. This one also had two inserts that included gratitude images + a collage of "stuff" on the opposite side.

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2008 | See completed album here.

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2010 | See completed album here.

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2011 | View completed album here.

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2012 | View completed album here.

DESIGN PLAN 2013

For the last few years I've been using a Vanilla 8.5 inch x 11 inch 3-ring album from We R Memory Keepers. Inside you'll usually find 9-pocket divided page protectors sandwiched in-between regular sized page protectors. For this project you also need an extra set of 8.5x11 page protectors to have enough pages for a spread each day of the week.

witl2013_albumsupplies

I'll be sticking with this same basic plan this year and got my album and page protectors in the mail from Scrapbook.com this week.

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I'll also be using the same set of Daily Pages to document my words for the seven days. You can download those for free here: Daily Pages.

For the last few years I have designed layered templates to use as the foundation of my album (these are available as either 8.5x11 or 12x12). The new set can be seen below and is available at Designer Digitals now. 

AEdwards_WeekInTheLifeAlbum8x11vol5_PREV

One thing to note is that I did include both "my" and "our" life options in these layered template sets (simply turn off either layer in Photoshop/Elements to remove the one you don't want). I'll have more details on just how to do that with a video tutorial coming soon.

These layered template sets include 15 layered templates: one title page, seven daily intro pages, and seven photo collage pages for mixing & matching. Here's a peek at the additional preview images (all are included with the one package):

AEdwards_WeekInTheLifeAlbum8x11vol5_PREV2 AEdwards_WeekInTheLifeAlbum8x11vol5_PREV3

In addition to these digital pages I usually include more traditional products inside the 9-pocket divided page protectors. I don't have a specific plan for exactly how I'm going to use those just yet, but I'm pretty sure it will include some journaling, some see-through elements, and some other embellishments. I'll share more about that as I create my own plan.

INCORPORATING WEEK IN THE LIFE INTO PROJECT LIFE®

I know many of you out there are loving the process of Project Life® and might have an interest in simply playing along in that album during this same week. I've designed two sets of 4x6 cards - one that includes "my life" and one that includes "our life." These sets include PSD (for editing), PNG, and a printable PDF for easy printing.

These will be available at Designer Digitals on Friday:

AEdwards_ThisIsOurLife_4x6_PREV

I'm starting to get really excited about this project once again. These albums are some of my favorites because they really do detail our daily lives during each of the specific weeks. Such an amazing thing to look back on over the years.

For even more information and specific links to all my previous posts go here: Week In The Life.

I hope you'll consider joining me!

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73 thoughts

  1. Patti L says…
    08/29/2013

    I like seeing your old layouts. It's cool to see how things have grown and morphed into other ideas. While I am not really up for week in the life myself, I will enjoy seeing the ideas I can incorporate into project life.

    Reply 0 Replies
  2. Mary R says…
    08/29/2013

    from the first time I did this with you at CKU (Cicago and Detroit) I have been hooked. My favorite "everday life" project.

    Can't wait!!

    Reply 1 Reply
    1. Mary R says…
      08/29/2013

      **Chicago

  3. J3SS1C4 says…
    08/29/2013

    I'm excited about this as well! It's my goal for this weekend to have last years printed and get it in the album once and for all! I'm hoping to get it done before starting this years album. And I'm loving your templates this year :)

    Reply 0 Replies
  4. Amanda S. says…
    08/29/2013

    I'm so excited to participate again. Hoping to incorporate into my PL album this time around and I love the PL template I see above!! :D

    Reply 0 Replies
  5. Robyn :) says…
    08/29/2013

    I am going to participate, but haven't decided yet how I am going to do it. I want to put it in my PL, but it might take up too much room. I will probably do 8x11 pages and move them to their own album if need be

    Reply 0 Replies
  6. ARC says…
    08/29/2013

    I'm in, for the first time ever. It reminds me of the 168 hours time logging exercise that Laura Vanderkam suggests doing in her book, only this is visual. Very cool.

    Reply 1 Reply
    1. Maggie says…
      08/30/2013

      I had to look up the 168 hrs exercise after you mentioned it. Thanks for sharing!

  7. Kathy says…
    08/30/2013

    I am so excited....I so look forward to this project and it is a lot of work to be photographing everything in your life for 7 days but I know how much it's worth documenting it. In saying that it's up to each person as to how much or how little time is spent doing this.

    I just sent in my WITL to my 7 year old daughters teacher last week to have a look at our project and she thought it was wonderful. I always include a picture of my kids with their teacher in WITL because the last day of school at the end of the year when most mothers decide to take a photo of their child with the teacher it's just so busy and crazy so I take my photo of my child with their teacher during WITL when I have the teacher to myself for a few minutes to take a really nice shot.

    Here's a link to my 2012 WITL book.

    http://oureverydaylifeinpictures.blogspot.com.au/2013/04/week-in-life-2012-witl.html

    And some pages from my 2010 book below.

    http://oureverydaylifeinpictures.blogspot.com.au/2013/08/week-in-life-2013.html

    I just love looking back on these precious moments.

    Regards, Kathy A, Brisbane, Australia

    Reply 0 Replies
  8. Missus Wookie says…
    08/30/2013

    This is one of my favourite projects - was just talking to someone and pulling out my 2006 albums - did Cathy's "Did you Know" over at BPC and your Week in the Life when it was available after the CKC. Amazing to see how life has changed in those years (as has my style and the stuff/techniques we use too!)

    Reply 0 Replies
  9. Debra Lois says…
    08/30/2013

    Ali, thanks so much for including products that work for single people, i.e. This is MY Life. It's frustrating sometimes that most scrapbooking products are about "us" and "our." I bought a bunch of your new products for my week in the life and will be documenting right along with you next week!

    Reply 0 Replies
  10. hannahk says…
    08/30/2013

    oh my gosh ~ thank you for posting all the previous editions ~ it brought back memories of what I did for each year. I love this project so much ~ a wonderful snapshot of life, and so cute to see your kids growing up.
    Loving the new title too ~ 'This is our life' resonates well this year. excited to be getting going soon.

    Reply 0 Replies
  11. wendy says…
    08/30/2013

    I got so excited when I read this post yesterday that last night I finally sat down and finished my shutterfly book from last year's WITL project. I didn't have that much more to do - upload a couple of pictures and finish some journaling. It's neat to see how life is already different for us. Maybe today I'll get the last two pages finished from the year before that done. Queen of unfinished projects here ;)

    Reply 0 Replies
  12. Maggie says…
    08/30/2013

    I just downloaded the templates and wanted to thank you, once again, for your incredible attention to detail. I SO appreciate you mentioning the font right within the layer!

    I also got an older set of your WITL journaling cards (http://www.designerdigitals.com/digital-scrapbooking/supplies/product_info.php/products_id/12312), and loved that you had that font listed in the layer, too.

    Seriously, thank you for making it so easy for us to record our memories beautifully.

    Reply 1 Reply
    1. Ali says…
      09/02/2013

      Awesome! Thanks for that great feedback!

  13. Melinda says…
    08/30/2013

    Hi Ali - I took your WITL class at CKU way back when. LOVED that class! While it's been a while since I've actually scrapbooked, your post has inspired me to do this again. My question is this: I think I want to go digital, as traditional scrapbooking is just too much in my life with work & kids. Would it be difficult to try the digital templates if I have limited experience doing digital scrapbooking. I have Elements 8. Also, would I print out pages individually or can I make a photo book out of it? Also, are there galleries to check out past years' completed digital pages? Sorry to bombard you with all these questions, I'm just eager to do this project!

    Reply 1 Reply
    1. Ali says…
      09/02/2013

      Hi Melinda - I will be doing a video tutorial (as I have in past years that you can check out in the archives http://aliedwards.com/a-week-in-the-life) that will walk you through the steps of using these templates. The steps are pretty much the same as I've done in years past. I also have a whole free series on Getting Started With Digital Scrapbooking that you might want to check out - includes a free tutorial and layered template to try it out: http://aliedwards.com/2010/01/getting-started-digital-scrapbooking.html. There's definitely a learning curve but it's a set of skills you can use again and again for memory keeping. And yes, you can print these pages individually or make a book out of them - people do a variety of different things (I will be printing the pages individually). I don't have a specific gallery set up but you could check out the gallery at a site like DesignerDigitals.com and search for Week In The Life to see what comes up.

  14. Julia says…
    08/30/2013

    I love your handwriting, but I love mine, too. I would like to use these templates but have NO IDEA how to add my own handwriting digitally for the day names. I'm thinking I could just delete that layer and hand write directly on the print , but I would greatly appreciate a tutorial on how to do the handwriting digitally. I hope this is not too far out of a request - I realize that your handwriting is part of the AE brand and your style.

    Reply 1 Reply
    1. Ali says…
      09/02/2013

      Hi Julia - I used a pen & tablet by Wacom for those words (they are great for adding handwriting). You can also write and then scan in your words with a scanner and trace them with Illustrator (the program I use) before adding them to Photoshop. There are likely other ways to do that - such as just scanning in and then removing the white background in Photoshop to be able to use it on it's own layer.

  15. Erin Taylor says…
    08/30/2013

    Hey Ali,
    I love the 8.5x11 digital templates, but I'm not sure where to have a book printed. Shutterfly offers 8x8, 10x10, 12x12, and 11x8, but not a vertical 8.5x11. Any suggestions?
    Thanks!

    Reply 1 Reply
    1. Ali says…
      09/02/2013

      Try PersnicketyPrints.com!

  16. Marcia says…
    08/30/2013

    I've never done Week in the Life. I'd love to try. Don't know where to start or what to do.

    Reply 0 Replies
  17. Jessica S says…
    08/30/2013

    Ive been using those We R Memory Keepers albums for a couple of years and just noticed that mine are rusting! The rings and the little corner protectors.

    Reply 0 Replies
  18. Digital Product Releases | 8.31.13 (Includes new Week In The Life Layered Templates) | Ali Edwards says…
    08/31/2013

    […] READY | Check out my post here about how I’m getting for Week In The Life + links to my past […]

    Reply 0 Replies
  19. jenn says…
    08/31/2013

    I love seeing your previous albums. I just downloaded the 8.5x11 designer digital templates. I did a hybrid a couple of years ago and I'm itching to try something different this year. Not sure how I'm gonna put it all together, but I loved those templates, and I especially loved that you included the "my" life option... nice for the "single"/"kid-free" people ;)

    Reply 0 Replies
  20. Nicole says…
    09/02/2013

    This is my first time doing WITL. Will you be using all of your new WITL releases (i.e., Handdrawn Days, WITL Circles, WITL Labels & What Life Looks Like)? I would like to follow exactly what you will be doing since this is my first time and I want to learn how to do the digital overlays without having to worry about deciding on the creativity part.

    Reply 1 Reply
    1. Ali says…
      09/02/2013

      Hi Nicole - I'm not sure yet. I know I will be using the 8.5x11 templates. The other products were mainly created for people who might want to use bits and pieces vs. the entire template.

  21. Dawn says…
    09/04/2013

    I wasn't going to do this. Not even sure why I started reading through all of this. But Ali has once again managed to get me all caught up in her excitement. I'm on board - ready to go! Bring it, baby!! LOL

    Reply 0 Replies
  22. Saki Nakama-Jaranilla says…
    09/04/2013

    I am very excited to join this project! It is you g to be my first time this year :) thank you for the tips :)

    Reply 0 Replies
  23. Rhonda O says…
    09/05/2013

    hi Ali - did Scrapbook.com provide any discount codes/free shipping/etc to use if we want the same album and page protectors as you got to use for our WITL?

    Reply 0 Replies
  24. Amy says…
    09/05/2013

    I emailed my son's Kindergarten teacher to see if I could come into his class to snap a few pics of him one day. I wasn't sure since it's still so early in the school year. She said "no" but offered to bring in her DSLR and snap photos of him in action for me. SUPER SWEET! Just wanted to share the idea with other moms who might want to capture their kids during the school day. Ask your teacher!

    Reply 0 Replies
  25. Ali Edwards’ Week In The Life | CaptureYour365 says…
    09/09/2013

    […] has great planning information for you to use to make it a bit […]

    Reply 0 Replies

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