I just finished my first Week In The Life album - actually my first ever album - and wanted to share a little about my process & what the project meant to me. I have a video at the end of my post that goes through every page in my book & some of the stories of our week. I've started mini albums in the past, but I've never completed them, so I felt like I needed to give myself a big round of applause when I finished my last page.
If you're not familiar with the Week In The Life project, it's a concept originated by Ali Edwards with the purpose of capturing a week of time of your life in photos & words. I like to think of it as a time capsule of my life right now.
I've been thinking about memory keeping in a new light lately. Story centered memory keeping just makes sense to me & it's like a light bulb finally went off in my head & I understand why people scrapbook and how meaningful it can be. For me, it's not about adding another creative outlet to my day or playing with pretty paper or artful techniques. It's about telling the stories of your life and allowing the paper & products to come alongside & tell a visual story that sometimes words alone can't express. Don't get me wrong - I love the scrapbooking *stuff* just as much as the next person, but because my focus has changed, the purpose for using those products has changed & my thirst for storytelling is in full force.
I purchased the Week in the Life kit off of Ali's site & I'm so glad I did. Not only did it come with the perfect sized album, but the prompts & products included were a great jumping off point. I also purchased these Memory Keeping Doodle Prompt Printables from Brandi Kinkade's shop & they really helped me to get things organized and documented... and to top it off, they're super cute! Another great resource are the Daily Sheets which are free on Ali's website. I talk about all of these resources in my video, but wanted to give you links just in case you wanted to check them out for yourself.
I found that Post-it notes were my best friends. I worked on a day or two at a time & jotted down stories that I wanted to tell & photos (with sizes listed) that I wanted to print out.
Throughout the week, I collected as much ephemera as I could. It's just another visual reminder of what life was like this week for me. Some people's albums are very sleek, clean, & modern & I think they look amazing... but I really wanted to let my personality shine through in this album, so it's full of mismatched pages, lots of color, texture, & what I like to call "fresh vintage" details.
The great thing about this project is - there are no rules! Capture what's meaningful to you in a way that speaks to your heart. Make it as simple or complex as you like it. I am a person who likes to add a lot of details. It just makes me happy & being happy motivates me to keep going. I smile every time I flip through my album & see this shop tag. It immediately reminds me of the happy mail that I received that day & gives me such a clear visual of that moment. (I mentioned Christine Herrin's shop a few times in my video & this Happy Mail printable was a free download that she sent to her newsletter recipients.)
I'm not a great photographer by any stretch of the imagination, but I didn't allow that to be a road block for me. All of my photos were taken with my iPhone & to me, they're good enough. They serve the purpose & I love them even if the lighting was bad or the composition wasn't perfect. I printed out all of my photos at Walgreens because I could upload them from home & by the time I reached the store, they were ready for me to pick up. Again, not the highest quality prints, but it worked, it was very inexpensive, & it allowed me to get my album finished... and that's what my top priority was.
So... without further ado, here is my completed Week In The Life album: