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august 8, 2007 volume one | issue twenty-two This week I am introducing you to a project that aims to help us all become better at telling the stories of our lives (and cultivate a little daily creative practice at the same time). Peace, Ali daily something "There is no such thing in anyone's life as an unimportant day." (Alexander Woollcott) I have recently gone through a period where I wasn't feeling very creative. Anything other than scrapbooking attracted my attention. I have been here before and I will be there again - it is all part of my personal creative cycle. And man did I get a lot of books read. Highs and lows. Ins and outs. We all experience them to some degree in our lives. Last week I seemed to come out of it as I put together a small album about our summer. Using products from a Cocoa Daisy kit, I created a very simple book that documented what "summer is" to me. This put me in action again. It brought me back to the basics and what I love about scrapbooking in the first place: words + photos that tell everyday stories. I got excited again. I am ready to make stuff. And my goal is to do at least a little bit everyday. Which brings me to a new project I am starting called simply: daily something. The basics: every single day of our lives presents us with a story to tell. Wonderful little (and sometimes big) gifts that are available for us to capture if we make it a priority and pay attention. The goal is not necessarily to scrapbook a page a day. You could do that if you wanted, but for some reason that seems like way to much work. I want this to be easy and quick and uncomplicated. I want to work towards developing a daily habit of creativity - a little daily something that gets my mind, my hands, and my heart in alignment. Maybe you will want to play along? Stop reading right now and think of a story you could tell from today. Maybe you have a really long one, maybe something really important happened today, or fantastic, or traumatic, or maybe your highlight was getting your mail, or having a glass of wine with dinner, or a gentle kiss from your partner, or finally putting your kids to bed and finding a bit of peace and quiet. What is your story today? THE PLAN The idea behind the daily something project is to create a little something every day that tells a story from that particular day in your life. Here are the basics I am keeping in mind as I go: 1. Develop a daily practice. Paper Source's motto is "do something creative everyday." AMEN to that. That is one of the main goals for this project. I know for me that my biggest challenge will simply be to just BEGIN each day. Go for longevity vs. trying to create the coolest thing possible each time you tell a story. 2. Just one story. Limit yourself. Over the course of any day there are hundreds of stories to be told. Tell just one. And don't spend a lot of time deciding - choose and go. I have found over working on this project the last couple of days that it is always in the back of my mind...this could me a good story today or this or this...jot them down as you go along. 3. Keep it quick. Even just 10-minutes of creative time can do wonders. Consider setting a timer. Some days you will have more time and other days less. Embrace what you have for that day. 4. Incorporate junk from your daily life. When I say junk I mean packaging, papers from the mail, receipts, etc. Let's reuse some of the paper that comes into our lives. One of my favorite things is looking through my mail to see what bits can be added to my projects. Maybe your one of your stories can be told on the back of an envelope (or tucked inside). 5. Photos or no-photos. Either one. A combination. Don't make this a huge issue. 6. Focus on the story. Some stories need only one word. Others need paragraphs. Consider tailoring the size of your canvas (12x12 vs. 6x12 vs. 8x8 vs. 4x6, etc...open your mind about the issue of size) to fit the story you are telling. Don't feel locked in to a 12x12 or an 8.5x11 sheet of paper. My plan is to really just go with what feels good and what fits my story. Is it long? Short? What do I need to tell this story today? 7. Capture the big and the small. We all have boring days. We all have days we love and days we completely wish never happened. My goal for myself with this project is to continue working on identifying everyday stories that don't always get told. At the same time I am also going for variety. Today's story may be about me. Tomorrow's about Chris. And on and on. Pick a single story and tell it. 8. Storage. Right now I am just keeping my creations in a manila folder as I figure out what is the best solution. My first thought is something non-traditional, but it may be just easy and practical to store them in a 12x12 album (then I can have anything smaller than that fit in there one way or another). As you get going I would love to hear about your choice of storage. SHARING I started a new Flickr group called daily something that will be available for you to share your work. And remember, this is not meant to bog you down or give you another thing you need to cross off your to-do list. One story at a time, one day at a time. TIMELINE I considered having specific timeline for this project - such as one month - but then I decided to just make it ongoing. Join in at anytime. We all have lives filled with stuff that needs our attention. Let's give just a bit of time to telling your personal stories each day and I am bet the rewards will be interesting and wonderful. If you want to read a bit more about cultivating daily creative practices check out this article from Eric Maisel, Ph. D.: Creativity for Life. Here are my first three days:    blog updates I recently made some changes to my blog and now include a bunch of links to my favorite creative, life, green, autism, and product websites. inspired by | decoupage inspired by this guy: decoupage (love the idea of just grabbing everything on my desk and going for it with mod podge). I would love to try something along these lines for the holidays - fill it with magazine images, patterned papers, etc. Copyright 2007 Ali Edwards/AE Design/Life Art Media. Please do not reproduce any content without permission. Ali Edwards, author of A Designer's Eye for Scrapbooking and A Designer's Eye for Scrapbooking with Patterned Paper, is Lifestyle Editor of Creating Keepsakes magazine where she writes a monthly inspiration column called Studio A . She is a wife, mother, artist, writer, and seeker of balance. Owner of AE Design and Life Art Media, she conducts life art workshops around the globe. You can find her online on her blog or contact her through email at ali@aliedwardsdesign.com
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