How many of you smile or laugh when you think about what you wore, ate, watched, or read years ago? Some of the most interesting things that we do are the things that make up our ordinary everyday lives. In the moment, these types of things might seem unimportant, but these stories about everyday life are really fun to look at later on. Documenting those types of things is just as enjoyable and interesting as holidays, vacations, or special occasions.
Today we are breaking down one way to document these extraordinary everyday moments. To make this project even easier, we are using the Story by Stacy™ Short Story workshop kit, and looking at life through the lens of just one week. We asked one of our Home Office staff to take on our process so we could have a real life example to share. She started by taking photos throughout a regular week, documenting what life looks like for her, using the prompts below as a guide.
With this type of project, it’s much easier to start out by taking your photos first. Once you have your photos, all that’s left to do is to follow the steps from the Short Story workbook. At the end of the process, you’ll have a complete mini album full of photos and details with a story summary, just like the one you’ll see at the end of this post.
To get you started on this process, use the following photo prompts list as a guide. There are several different types photos you’ll want to take to document what life looks like for you.
#1 Currently…
These are thing things I am currently…
- Watching
- Reading
- Eating
- Making
- Listening to
- Wearing
- Doing
#2 Daily Highlights
Take one or two photos each day to represent the daily highlights or important moments. This gives you a glimpse of what might happen during a week that makes it unique or unusual.
#3 The Usual “Stuff”
You should also document your routines, habits, and home life for yourself and for your family. This is the usual stuff that doesn’t necessarily change from one day to the next, but it will still be fun to look at years later when life looks a little different.
- Morning routines
- Evening routines
- Weather
- Meals
- Bedtime
- Home
- Car/commute
- Work/school
Download photo prompts list, here.
Download this checklist to help you remember what pictures you want and need for your album. Put it up where you can see it to have a quick reminder of the types of things you’re documenting over the week.
Once you have your photos, choose 35-45 to print and use in your album. Then, follow the steps in the Short Story workbook. You’ll begin by reflecting on your photos and jotting down answers to a few questions. This helps you think about the story before creating and gives you a place to start when you write your summary later on.
Before you start creating pages, look through your photos and pick one to set aside for your title page. Then you’re ready for the next step. To make sure you can include all the photos you’ve printed, you can begin to trim the rest into smaller sizes to focus on the most important parts and the details you want to highlight. Once your photos are trimmed down, it’s time to get creative and make your pages! Some projects that focus on a week at time organize the album by day of the week. We chose to follow the Short Story process, and let the entire album illustrate what a week looks like overall, rather than spend time trying to divide it into specific days. This lets you follow the workbook and trust your creative intuition, plus it comes together a little bit faster. You don’t have to spend any time pairing photos from the same day together.
As you’re creating, feel free to make this project your own! Add other elements that reflect the look and feel of your own story (a week in the life of you!). We included some bright colors, Lemon and Raspberry, using the mix-in paper packet and combined them with other patterned paper that already comes in the Short Story workshop kit. We also used the My Favorite Things stamp set. This set has words, phrases, and shapes that are perfect for this type of project.
You can see even things that seem insignificant are important to the storyteller. If you love the smell of freshly laundered clothes, your usual cup of coffee from a local shop, or even making a home cooked meal for your husband, just like our storyteller here does, then it’s part of your story! These are the little things that will make you laugh and smile down the road when you pick up this album and reflect on what your life looked like in 2019.
After you’ve put all your pages together and added patterned paper and embellishments for visual balance, you’re ready to write that story summary for the end of your album. Just follow the instructions in the workbook, and then you’re done!
Whether you choose to document a week in your daily life with Short Story, or any other scrapbooking format, you can use the ideas here to help you get started. We love how quickly and easily it comes together in a Short Story album, but the important thing is, just like Stacy often reminds us, that you do what no one else can do—tell your story!
Recipe:
Love This Life Short Story Album
D1818 My Acrylix® My Favorite Things Stamp Set, Z4217 Story by Stacy™ Short Story Workshop Kit—Black & White, X9003 Mix-in Paper Packet, X9004 Mix-in Coordinating Cardstock, Z2805 Black Exclusive Inks™ Stamp Pad, Z2895 Lagoon Exclusive Inks™ Stamp Pad, Z1979 Marvey® Uchida® LePen™ Journaling Pen, Z3500 Cricut® Artistry Digital Collection, Z3502 Cricut® You Are Here Digital Collection
Cricut® Shapes:
Artistry
1″ <font>
You Are Here
4½” Icon-4 <CTMH> (p. 45, #M282CD24)
2½” Shift+Icon-4 <CTMH> (p. 45, #M282CD24)
