Today Big Picture Classes is giving away a spot in Hello Story to one lucky reader of the Nerd Nest! Hello Story workshop, taught by Ali Edwards, is a twelve week 4Expert course full of creative storytelling techniques never before seen from Ali.

Here’s a bit more about the workshop, which runs July 8 to September 29 and costs $99:

What’s your story? This summer, say hello to a dozen fun strategies for sharing more of your words, and more of yourself, on your scrapbook pages.

In her new 12-week workshop, Hello Story, Ali Edwards will introduce you to 12 storytelling techniques—never-before-seen in her prior journaling workshops—that will bring creativity and clarity to both your writing and your page designs. Every week, you get to sit over Ali’s shoulder and watch her transform her story ideas into timeless, authentic, story-rich scrapbook pages.

Through dozens of in-depth videos that cover storytelling and design ideas as well as 36+ exclusive layout examples from Ali (12″ x 12″ and 8 1/2″ x 11″ layouts, plus Project Life inserts), Hello Story will inspire you to take action and give you the tools you need to tell your own stories with confidence.

Are you ready to discover (or rediscover) the fun that comes from the interplay of design and words? By the end of class, you may even enjoy the writing process just as much as you love taking photos and playing with paint and paper!

Watch the video above to see a sneak peek of Ali’s class! I was already over the moon excited about the class before watching this video, but now I can honestly say that I’ve never ever been more excited about a class.

Workshop includes:

• Inspiring weekly videos from Ali
• Colorful instructional handouts with step-by-step instructions for each lesson/project
• Printable digital elements in PNG and PDF formats that relate to the weekly storytelling technique
• Supply list with live links to product resources—each weekly handout will include a list of supplies used on the example pages
• Welcome notes from Ali in the classroom
• Class syllabus and pre-class welcome video
• Reminder emails when the classroom is updated with new materials
• Message board to share your thoughts with your classmates
• Private posting gallery to share your work and view the work of your classmates
• An interactive video chat with Ali
• Email access to Ali

Read more about Hello Story here!

New to Big Picture Classes? Learn How it works.

Enter to win a spot in this amazing workshop from Big Picture Classes using the widget below:

a Rafflecopter giveaway

If you can’t wait and decide to purchase the class before the giveaway is over, Big Picture Classes will reimburse you if you are selected as the winner!

We’ll announce the winner sometime after midngiht CST June 25. Watch the countdown on the widget to see how long you have left to enter! The winner will have to contact us with their e-mail address before registration closes July 17, 2013.

Consider following the Nerd Nest so you don’t miss the winner announcement! New to the Nest? You’re gonna love our memory keeping posts.

Good luck!

We are Big Picture Classes affiliates. Purchases made through these links support the Nerd Nest.

This week’s challenge on Document Life Workshop is to celebrate a dad.

Yesterday, we made a point to get family photos with Jake’s dad and my grandpa to celebrate their relationships with their families. I love candid photos that show relationships the most, but it is truly special to get photos where everyone is together! Can’t wait to do the same with my dad later this week (there was a family emergency, so we couldn’t hang out with him on Father’s Day).

Check out the team takes on the challenge!

P.S. Aspects of our photos were inspired by Maggie Holmes. Her photos are so happy and amazing, you HAVE to check her out!

We are on a food adventure, trying to use local meat and produce the majority of the time. Or at least start with what we find at our farmer’s market. Here’s the new stuff we added in the mix last week: Zucchini, red potatoes, onions, ground bison, honey, carrots, lettuce, tomatoes, strawberries, cucumbers, eggs, basil plant, and non-stop begonias (which are not food, but are pretty on our front porch).

Sunday the kids hung out with their grandparents for a bit so Jake and I could work. We went to Tea Drops so we could focus. Sometimes you need to go somewhere were you can’t do laundry to really get things done. Jake had bubble tea and I had a pot of mango black (my very favorite).

Sunday night we went to my grandpa’s for a family dinner celebrating his birthday.

Monday the kids and Jake had leftovers and I had an awesome salad: cucumber, tomato, black olive, feta, and Italian dressing. It’s a delicious combination.

Dessert was apples and Nutella.

Tuesday I grilled all by myself, which is a big deal. I grilled zucchini with this method (SO GOOD). I plank grilled tilapia, which I rubbed with our Caribbean Jerk Dry Rub and marinated in the rest of the lemon olive oil leftover from the zucchini. I added bow tie pasta to the cucumber salad, which was perfect. Also, Jake is anti-fish, so he got a brat.

We ate most of the strawberries as soon as we bought them, but froze the rest. We made smoothies with the rest of the strawberries, frozen blueberries, a bit of white grape juice, and some honey. The kids loved making them as much as they loved eating them.

Wednesday we grilled bison burgers and ate them on homemade buns, using the dinner roll recipe from The Everything Cookbook. We also made homemade french fries, which we baked with olive oil, seasoning, and rosemary.

Thursday morning Jonas and I had breakfast at The Filling Station. He’s obsessed with muffins.

Thursday night we had Chipotle.

Friday night Jake and the kids were at his parents, so I went for a salad for dinner because it was the quickest thing I could make. Lettuce + carrots + cucumber + tomatoes + pepperoni + cheddar + Italian dressing.

I miscalculated, though, because I had a salad for lunch Friday too. And two salads in a day does not cut it. So around midnight I walked to grab some mozzarella sticks at Joe’s Pizza, but they didn’t have any. So I got stuffers instead, which ended up being like huge calzones. I could only eat one, so I’ll have a ton of leftovers to eat for lunches next week. And they’re packed with veggies, so I won’t have to share.

Saturday morning Jake and I went to City Market Coffeehouse before getting stuff at the farmer’s market.

I had an iced lattee and Jake and I shared a bacon and egg burrito. Which is delicious.

You can tell I was working a lot last week (and it was hot), because there wasn’t a lot of cooking going on.

Here’s what we’re rolling with for this week: A ton of blueberries, peaches, red potatoes, ground bison, and bison summer sausage. We still have a lot of stuff from last week, so I didn’t load up too much. That’s also way too much fruit, but we’re freezing a bunch of it for smoothies.

What have you been eating lately? Do you have any yummy recipes to share?

Check out all of the Savory Sunday posts here.

I’m a little obsessed with nighttime photography right now. I recently shared my nighttime photo of the Kit Bond Bridge with you and I wanted to share a few more of the nighttime photos I’ve been taking. Our new camera has helped me to fall back in love with photography that’s just for fun, because I don’t have the limitations that I did with our other camera.

Click on the photos for a larger view.

I like the challenge of night photography, and during the week nighttime is the only free time that I have. Win win. I took this one in front of the Kauffman Center for Performing Arts with one of our friends as the subject. I’ve been wanting to do light painting in photography for a long time, but I’ve only done really simple things with the techniques. I didn’t have a flashlight to “draw” the light, so I used my phone. The camera was on our tripod (a good tripod is essental for nighttime photography because the camera can’t move at all to prevent blurring) and the shutter was open for 30 seconds for a long exposure (I used the aperture to control the amount of light that was let in instead of the shutter speed). I used the light to trace my friend Matt in front of the building. It’s not a perfect photo, but it was so fun and is a great start.

The same night, I took a Kansas City skyline photo. I’ve been scouting out amazing spots to take one and I finally found one! I had to hike a bit to get it. I was going for the city skyline and motion: I love that the cars are swirling lights. You’ve already seen this photo in Megan’s awesome scrapbook page.

My proudest nighttime photos lately have been of the moon. It’s A LOT harder than it sounds. Because the moon is so far away, even the slightest movement causes a blur in the photo. Even the shutter vibrations move the camera too much. I had to go for a near lock up, when the mirror in the camera opens before it takes the photo, to get it. This isn’t my final moon photo (I’ll go to a rural area to get a better one), but I’m progressing! We’re going to print the perfect one HUGE. I’m excited.

I’m loving the challenge and the rewards of doing nighttime photography! Have you ever tried to take photos at night?

This week our favorite apparel company, Sevenly, offered to give away an awesome shirt to one lucky Nerd Nest reader!

And the winner is…

Congratulations Trina! Contact us with your shipping info asap to claim your prize.

Every week buying from Sevenly supports a different cause, this week Sevenly is partnering with Liberty in North Korea, an organization dedicated to redefining North Korea by focusing on the people while rescuing and providing resettlement support to the North Korean refugees and pursuing an end to the North Korean crisis. There’s still time to help with this week’s cause! If you’re sad you didn’t win, go buy something awesome. We’ve chosen our favorites for this week above. (Try to guess which two things we bought this week!)

Don’t have the funds to support this weeks cause? You can still help! Go to Sevenly and share this week’s cause to help them unlock the $10,000 sharing bonus from their sponsor SG Foundation.

This little dude invaded our bed last night, and it turns out it’s because he’s sick. So I’m spending the day snuggling, watching cartoons, feeding him dry cereal, and reading lots of books.

Week 19: May 6-12

Click on the photos for a larger view.

It was a full week, and that means INSERTS!

This week I used mostly the Project Life Jade Core Kit, which is now available on Amazon!

Left Side: I really love Jake’s photo of Kit Bond Bridge, so I wanted to make a big layout to highlight it. I made sure to keep the layout simple, so that the focus really was on the photo. I usually just sort of grab the first papers or embellishments that will work for layouts, but I was much more careful with this one, going through a ton of patterned papers and selecting the one that did the most to enhance the photo.

It’s an old paper, but you can still buy the full Basic Grey OBSCURE Collection Pack. It’s one of my favorite lines ever.

I love the look of this title directly on the photo, but I’ll admit that doing it this way was a liiiiittle scary. I still could have saved it if I messed up, but I was still a little nervous. I always get that way with photo enlargements.

To get this weird sized photo (it’s something like 8×12), I put it on a 12×12 canvas and added other photos in the leftover space by creating a collage. I had it printed, along with all of the other photos this week, at Persnickety Prints.

The title is a combo of Studio Calico vellum, which I got from the Fold It In kit by rukristin, Kelly Purkey White Letter Stickers, a few old K & Company jewels, and triangles stamped directly on the photo with a stamp from the Studio Calico Summer Stamp set by Elise Blaha Cripe and cool metallic ink from this Tsukineko Planetarium pack.

The journaling is Jake’s words and my handwriting. I love pulling journaling from blog posts.

Insert 1, Front: Everyday stuff! I watched baby Ava for the day (this was before I started watching her most weekdays and was the first time I got to babysit her), cooked, went out to eat, met with friends, went to a birthday party, played outside, and painted flower pots.

I’ve been doing a lot of cutting down Project Life Design A page protectors for inserts lately, and I mostly close up the open parts with washi tape or my sewing machine. For this one, I used staples, and that is a winner. Going to be doing that so much more.

I just randomly listed out the stuff we did on a bi-fold card. That’s becoming a go-to for me.

Insert 1, Back: My nephew Nathan’s birthday party. He and Jonas had a blast.

A couple of random things to note for this spread: A lot of the journaling cards have room for noting the date on them. I didn’t need the date, so I covered it up with a little word sticker that says “buddies.” Covering up parts to make something work is one of the best ways to get the most out of your supplies.

I accidentally cut that picture of Eliza too small for the pocket, so I cropped it down a little more and used a PL card as a mat for the photo.

Insert 2, Front: My Project Real Life REDO Week 6.

Insert 2, Back: The rest of PRL Week 6.

Insert 3, Front: A soccer game and hanging out with Jake’s sister.

This insert was cut down from Project Life Design D. The badge in the middle is from the Kelly Purkey Project Life Kit, which I’m excited to use more heavily once I have my first June pictures.

I’m loving punching circles from PL journaling cards in order to get more journaling in the negative space of photos.

Insert 3, Back: Celebrating mother’s day with Jake’s step-mom (we celebrated with my step-mom the week after). And Eliza is gorgeous.

Right Side: All of our fun Mother’s Day photos with our moms and siblings. Funny family action photos are my favorite. We should do it more.

P.S. I skipped week 18 for now, because I accidentally missed ordering a few photos for it. Ooops.

Supplies Used: Kit: Fold It In kit by rukristin; Paper: Project Life Jade Core Kit, Project Life Seafoam Core Kit, Project Life Seafoam Designer Paper
Studio Calico vellum, Amy Tangerine 6 x 6-Inch Sketchbook Pad, Basic Grey OBSCURE Collection Pack, Studio Calico Moments Cards, Studio Calico Project Life Card Grab Bag, Becky Higgins Project Real Life cards; Embellishments: Yellow & Gray Decorative Tape Set by My Mind’s Eye, Dear Lizzy Charm Bits Sticker Book, Kelly Purkey Project Life Kit, Amy Tangerine Baxter Pink/Yellow Letter Stickers, Kelly Purkey White Letter Stickers, American Crafts Flower Sticker, K and Company jewels, Love Elise for KI Memories Sticker, Ribbon; Stamps: Studio Calico Summer Stamp by Elise Blaha Cripe; Ink: Tsukineko 4-Pack Brilliance Dew Drop Inkpads, Planetarium; Pen: EK Success Zig Memory System Millennium 0.1-Millimeter Marker, EK Success Zig Memory System Millennium 0.8-mm Marker; Page Protectors: Project Life Design A,Project Life Design D, Project Life 12 x 12, We R Memory Keepers Multi Pack; Adhesive: Scor-Tape, Scotch Dot Roller, EK Success 3-D Dots; Printing Service: Persnickety Prints; Tools: EK Success Paper Shapers 1-1/2-Inch Circle Nesting Punch, We R Memory Keepers Corner Chomper,Neon Omnigrip No Slip Ruler 6 x 12 Inches, EK Success Honey Bee Non-Stick Craft Scissors, Tonic Studios Guillotine Paper Trimmer, Stapler.

Affiliate links used where possible. Purchasing anything, even items other than the linked item, through these links supports the Nerd Nest! Items that are not linked are no longer in production or are not available online.

For all posts tagged Project Life, click here.

Project Life is a memory keeping concept created by Becky Higgins. It can be anything you want it to be.

Check out Project Dig Deep , an ebook in which I and six other avid scrapbookers dive deep into the Project Life system, revealing seven amazing strategies that could revolutionize the way you approach Project Life! Foreword by Becky Higgins. The other awesome contributors are Kam Altar, Melanie Britt, Elise Blaha Cripe, Annette Haring, Amy T. Schubert, and Jessica Turner.

For more Project Life inspiration, join the free Big Picture Classes Project Life Community and Jessica Turner’s Project Life Tuesday link-up.

Welcome to Project Real Life REDO, a project to re-start the (closed and finished) Project Real Life Workshop with some friends. Project Real Life was a 4Expert course by by Becky Higgins I took care of Big Picture Classes. I’m documenting the class prompts and then I’ll include them in my Project Life.

Week 10 was all about Embracing Imperfection. Imperfections I’ve got in spades, and some of them I’m good at embracing… others not so much. I think that embracing imperfections is a difficult line, because it can be hard to know what to keep trying to improve and what to accept. I usually tackle this by planning on improving everything (I have big goals) and accepting that only the things I really prioritize are actually going to improve.

The things that are hardest to embrace are probably my character flaws. One of the major ones: I’m an insatiable know it all. I have to correct people, even if correction isn’t really relevant to the situation or it probably won’t change anyone’s behavior. So really, it’s for my benefit more than anyone else’s. The people closest to me actually like this for the most part (thank goodness), but it can get me into trouble sometimes. I can come off as obnoxious. Or as an awesome truth ninja. It all depends on your perspective. In many situations, my coping skill for this is usually self-depreciating humor, which is another imperfection all in itself. I think the road to embracing this is really focusing on this as a part of who I am: I’m proud of my knowledge and I like to share it. I also stand up for injustice. I’m not afraid to speak up. On the flip side, a thing to embrace is that I’m quick to acknowledge and apologize if I’ve learned I was wrong. So that’s good.

Other character flaws include a quick temper, avoidance of interpersonal conflict, and a fair amount of narcissism (which you pretty much need to be a writer and a blogger). These are things that are difficult to embrace, because I’d like to improve them. And I have improved them over the years. But they will always be there, and I probably need to work on embracing that character flaws are part of being human.

I take on too much and set unrealistic deadlines for myself. Those aren’t good things, but they are coping mechanisms I developed when I was really young: I dealt with severe depression as a teenager and found that keeping extremely busy all of the time helped me sort of put off the darkness. While I don’t battle depression anymore (I still have problems with anxiety, though), I’m so used to packing my schedule full that I sort of don’t know what to do with myself if I’m forced to relax. This may not be entirely healthy, but it keeps me happy and helps me to achieve more.

My house is never ever clean, and sometimes things can get ridiculous. For instance, we didn’t do any dishes last weekend. We used pretty much every dish in the house. That’s embarrassing, but it’s what needed to happen to get everything else done over the weekend.

If you’re doing a Project Real Life REDO too, head over to Document Life Workshop to link-up and to see what Allie and Alissa are doing!

It’s no secret that we’re in love with Sevenly. We keep talking about them. A lot. And then some more. And we keep purchasing from them every week we can as well (if you have a birthday coming up, family member who is reading this, you know where your gift is coming from). We buy from them not only because they have awesome designs that change weekly and super soft apparel. We buy from them as much as we can because they do so much good.

Here’s a little bit about Sevenly. Sevenly is a social good fashion brand that partners with a new charity each week, promoting and selling limited edition graphic tees and other lifestyle products. Seven dollars from each sale goes towards the charity of the week, helping raise funds and awareness. Sevenly’s foundation is that People Matter, and since their launch in June 2011, Sevenly has continued to lead a generation towards generosity, raising over 2.2 million dollars to date.

Sevenly heard about how much we love them, and to help us spread the word about Sevenly and this week’s campaign, Sevenly has donated one of their awesome tee shirts for one lucky reader of the Nerd Nest! This flowy tiger tee is an updated take on a classic tee, this cut is a relaxed fit and easy to wear for summertime. This top features a round neckline and an extra soft fabric. Enter to win a shirt for yourself or for a friend!

Each week Sevenly supports a different cause, and this week Sevenly is partnering with Liberty in North Korea. Watch the cause video above and read below to learn more about this week’s cause.

Charity Info: Liberty in North Korea is dedicated to redefining North Korea by focusing on the people while rescuing and providing resettlement support to the North Korean refugees and pursuing an end to the North Korean crisis.

Problem: Imagine living in a country where you’re denied virtually every human right imaginable. You’re denied freedom of speech, freedom of religion, and forbidden to have a mind of your own. Beyond the denial of rights, you’re living in extreme poverty and experiencing chronic and agonizing hunger. You manage to flee to a neighboring country, hoping for a better life, but here you must live in hiding, or risk being sent back, where you will be tortured in prison camps or sentenced to public execution. Due to your vulnerability, you are a target for horrible mistreatment: you are abused, exploited and enslaved.

Solution: This week, your support funds the undercover rescue mission of North Korean refugees who currently in hiding. We are partnering with Liberty in North Korea to send rescue teams to save refugees who are being abused, tortured, exploited and enslaved, and bring them to safety. Every $2,500 funds another rescue mission.

Amazing, right? Enter to win a flowy tiger tee using the widget below, but please remember that we are sharing this giveaway in order to spread the word about Sevenly and the good they do! We are passionate about helping Sevenly, and we really need your help to make an impact! Please share about Sevenly and this giveaway.

When you are sharing on social media, we suggest you copy and paste the following: “Enter to win an awesome Sevenly tee shirt at The Nerd Nest and help save North Koren refugees from abuse and torture! Giveaway ends 6/14/2013. http://wp.me/p28mK4-3T6 ”

Make sure to check back Friday to see if you’ve won! Consider following the Nerd Nest so you don’t miss a thing.

Don’t forget to visit Sevenly to learn more about this week’s campaign and to see all of the other limited edition designs for this week’s cause.

We are not Sevenly affiliates and they are not paid sponsors. We support their company and want to help spread the word. Purchasing through links on the Nerd Nest helps us measure the impact we’ve helped to make!

The challenge over at Document Life Workshop this week is to document The Soundtrack of My Week. I recorded the music that I was listening to last week, but don’t want to put it in the books yet because it’ll go into my Project Life and I want to wait until my color scheme is decided. So the above is the list I made last year! It’s so fun to see how what I’m listening to changes over time.

This was the soundtrack to my week last week:

• Fun.
• Brand New
• Manchester Orchestra
• Taking Back Sunday
• The Used
• Sunny Day Real Estate
• Mumford and Sons

Go see the DLW team takes on the challenge and document the soundtrack to your week!