Ali Edwards is embarking on her Week in the Life project again next week and I'm torn about how I want to approach this project. I've participated in her project two of the last three years, and took some time yesterday to look back through my albums. This project, although tedious and time consuming, is so worth it. Just flipping through my books from 2011 and 2013 made me want to jump right in and get started. I took two very different approaches the two years I completed this project. I don't think I could pick a favorite. One is jam-packed with photos, words, quotes, recipes, ephemera....and one is much more minimal and clean. I think my "style" has evolved over the years and both albums represent my personality at that particular time.
This is a look at my 2011 album. I used an 8.5x11 We R Memory Keepers album and Ali's WITL digital templates. Each day includes on large photo, small baseball card photos and one photo collage. This book is very photo heavy with little embellishments or "fillers". I did include a lot of words about our "daily life", and while I didn't think much about this when I did it, it might be my favorite part of the book. I loved looking through the receipts, recipes, tags, etc. They brought back so many memories! I also loved all of the words, quotes and lists I included in this album. Those memories definitely fade with time and having them recorded is the best! As you will see at the end, I used Ali's Daily Sheets, which I highly recommend. Looking back through our timeline and daily events vs. today's happenings is crazy!
I skipped over 2012 because I felt like our days were pretty similar to that of 2011 and wasn't sure I had it in me to document a whole week. I picked back up this project in 2013 and took a very different approach this time around.
For 2013, I decided to create ONE Project Life spread and a digital album through Artifact Uprising. I really wanted my album to be photo-heavy and really didn't want to bother with adding in embellishments or extras in my book. Having it printed and bound was the best decision for me last year. And I love our little book. It's very different from my 2011 album and I love that! So much has changed, but so much is still the same.
I printed all of my photos in an 8.5x8.5 soft covered book from Artifact Uprising. I love their books so much (and have printed several more since this one)!
For this book, I started with a recap of our day and one large photo, followed by a few more photos or photo collages (depending on the photos I had for that particular day). After I had edited my photos, uploading and building this book was a piece of cake. It took me about 30 minutes from start to finish (which is waaaaaaaay different than the amount of time it took me to do my 2011 WITL album).
I wanted to have something a little more tangible about our week, so I put together a very simple Project Life spread. I picked one photo from each day of the week and filled the pockets with a title card and then seven daily photos. I used Ali's Days of the Week script brushes to add the day to my photos. The middle row of 3x4 cards were filled with some journaling and other filler cards....basically just to make it pretty!
This spread is one of my favorites! I just love the photos and a quick glimpse of our week!!
I'm still a little undecided on this year. I think I'll definitely incorporate something into either my Project Life album or maybe a mini book, but I'm not quite sure yet. I did purchase Ali's awesome WITL kit, so I do have that available. What about you?? Are you participating this year? Are you following Ali's lead and creating an album, or are you taking your own twist on the project?? I'd love to hear your ideas!!