Prepping for a Week-Long Documenting Project

How a little bit of planning and foresight make everything easier + fun.

What is this Project?

Week in the Life is an annual documenting project, put together by my friend

Ali Edwards

. I’ve been putting this project together every year for more than a decade now. It’s one of my favorite albums each year, and I’m excited to document this last week in April.

I’ve talked a lot about this project in the past, on the podcast, on my blog, and throughout social media. If you’d like to know more about albums, planning, embellishments, journaling, or basically anything having to do with this project, I’ve got you covered.

Here are my favorite podcast episodes:

Episode 185: Week in the Life: Tips & Tricks for Newbies and Veterans Alike

Episode 186: Week in the Life: Chat with Ali Edwards

Episode 188: Week in the Life: Album Formats & Formulas

and a few blog posts with past year’s albums

What I’m Excited About this Year

What I’m most excited about this year is a single color for each day. I love how it looks in the album, and I think it’s going to help me take some extra cool photos each day. And I know that it’s going to help me take more detail photos that I might otherwise have missed in years past.

How I’m Setting Up the Album for Each Day

Here’s how I’ve got my Week in the Life album set up for 2024. I’m not really planning on scrapbooking in the album during the week, but I definitely will be putting post-it notes all over the book with the photos and notes I’m jotting down throughout each day.

Daily cover page — transparency with Day of the Week plastic stapled on top.

The first page is a little “Hello” tabbed card. I’ll add a photo/text on the back.

Next I’ve got this page protector with two 4x6 pockets — I’ve got this ‘High’/’Low’ journaling card in there. This might wind up going more towards the back of the day when I finalize everything, but for now, this is a good place.

Semi-Circle — No idea what I’m doing with this yet.

Next up I’ve got these half-page page protectors. They’re all 2x2” squares, and I’ve got these three little journaling cards. I’ll have Jeff give me something each day — probably words? Maybe a picture from each of us. We’ll see?

After the little boxes, I’ve got this long 3x8 journaling card with morning, afternoon, and evening prompts. I’m definitely going to be using sticker paper on these for my journaling, and maybe a long photo on the back.

Next up — these cute little pockets. I absolutely love how all the colors match throughout the day. I don’t think I’m going to put anything on the front of these, so the full color comes through on the vellum. I’ll add some photos/journaling on the back.

My second-to-last page is another pocket protector page. This one has four 3x4” pockets. I’ve filled two of them with journaling cards — one is a vellum polaroid, the other is a regular journaling card. I’ll fill the rest of these spaces with photos I think.

The final page is this colored vellum sheet with these white circles. I’ll use this page for extra photos, ephemera, and other little bits I’ve got.

My Supply Set Up

Most of my stuff for this project is in this clear tray. These stack in my kallax, and it’s where I keep stuff for my big projects. So I’ve got one set up for my Week in the Life project. I’ll use this throughout the week to corral anything else I come across that I think might work well in this project.

I put the tiny embellishments in this smaller box, so they don’t get lost in the larger tray. I’ve got some chipboard, stickers, and gel print labels.

I’ve got an ink pad for each day of the week. I labeled the top of them to make it as easy as possible to internalize the colors for the week lol.

I’m excited to get this project started, and I’ll keep you updated on my progress!

Are you playing along with this project? I’d love to hear how you’ve planned out your 2024 Week in the Life! Are you doing anything cool or exciting, or just a normal week?