This year I participated in Ali Edwards Week In the Life (WITL) project. For this project you take a deep dive look into your life for one week.

My Reason Why

My main purpose for completing the project this year was to capture the little things about my life in this moment in time. Looking back through my old scrapbooks, I don’t have an overall feel for my day-to-day life, I mostly just documented the big events. I wish I could remember things like my daily routine, what I was listening to or reading, what kinds of products I was using. Those little details slip away over time.

Documenting The Week

Focus on Photography

I love photography, I decided to use the week to get out my big camera to take a lot of the photos, and I also wanted to try to take photos from different angles than normal (a birds eye view, from on the ground, from behind me – I even put my camera inside the fridge and took a picture of me reaching in). I used ladders, various tripods, self-timer shots, remote shots, and also used my Apple Watch as a remote. I really enjoyed the process.

Focus on the Words

To document each day, I used an app called Day One, which is an online journal that syncs across all your devices. It was a rough start at first, but I finally got the hang of it around Wednesday, when I used the prompt Facts & Feelings. I would open up the app throughout the day and write the details of what I was doing, and then I would also write my feelings. Including facts and feelings gave my journaling a more complete picture. When it came time to put my album together, it was easy to do the journaling because it was already written.

Putting the Album Together

I decided to use a 3×8 Album, which was a little daunting since most of the products in Ali’s WITL kit were made to fit in a 6×8 album. I wasn’t sure how I was going to fit it all in. I managed, but it’s a really tight squeeze!

I used the 3×8 album that came out with Ali’s Day In the Life (DIL) Kit 2020. To complete the album, I mostly used products from the DIL kit, as well as the WITL kit.

The first thing I did after the documenting week was over, was to put together a sketch which helped me see which photos I needed to print. Then I printed out all of the photos. I sent off most of the photos to Persnickety Prints.

Each day starts with an acetate divider. I used the ones from the DIL kit. I cut off the day of the week on the top of the divider. I created my own side tabs by using an Avery index tab, and adding the white plastic day of the week words that came with the kit. I had to trim them slightly to fit inside the label tabs.

The divider includes the day of the week, and the date on a circle. I purchased these as a digital element, and printed them out on sticker paper. I put one on the front and one on the back of the divider.

I also included icons from the kit that corresponded to the topic I was going to focus on for that day (e.g. Monday I took a deep dive look into what we’re doing for work right now, so I included a computer and email icon on the divider).

Behind the daily divider, I created a tag by cutting down the day of the week 4×6 cards from the kit to a 3×6 size. I repeat stamped the date in a messy pattern using a large rolling date stamp from Studio Calico.

On the back of the tag, I wanted to include a schedule of my day. I thought it was the perfect place to include a scanned page from my daily planner. After scanning my planner page, I brought it into Photoshop Elements, and sized it down to 3×6 size and printed it out. I adhered it to the back of the date stamped tag.

Since I had to cut off the bottom of the 4×6 card, I lost some of the colored pattern that was on the bottom, and I really wanted to use it. So I used it on the back of the tag, along the top and bottom of the planner page. It added a nice touch of color.

Then I finished off the tag with some black and white bakers twine.

I used a 6×8 divided page that had a 3×8 pocket and a 3×2 pocket. I slipped the tag into the larger pocket. for the smaller pocket, I glued in plastic numbers related to the date (e.g. 11 for May 11th).

After the date tag page, I added photos from the day, and my journaling for the day. I used a day of the week die cut from a Feed Your Craft kit.

Each day I focused on a specific topic of our lives, which I chose based on the “-ing” cards from the DIL kit.

Don’t be afraid to use an album that’s a different size than what’s intended for the kit. Get creative and cut up journaling cards and elements to meet your needs. You can also alter page protectors to meet your needs. For this kit, I took a 6×8 page protector and folded it in half to create a 3×8 page protector that flips out. It’s your album – have fun with it!

~ Tonya