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1/31/14

1/30/14

two peas in a bucket: capture video series




i hope you will check it out and leave me some love.  totally stressing over this one for some reason!

here are a few detail shots just to make you curious enough to check out the video...ha!  :)




happy thursday everyone!  
xoxo

1/29/14

crate paper: i love you gift boxes





nothing says "i love you" like a sweet little gift wrapped in a pretty box.  for valentine's day this year, i am surprising my two kids with these beautiful gift boxes filled with fun treats! i've wanted to start the tradition of using the same boxes each year, and as soon as i saw the "love notes" collection, i knew i could use the papers and embellishments to create gorgeous little boxes.



1/27/14

glitz design: gift bag mini book tutorial


this is a little tutorial that i'm sharing on the glitz blog today!!  it's so fun that i wanted to share it here too!!  do you have any gift bags sitting around your house that are too pretty to throw away?  i'm a little bit of a hoarder when it comes to pretty things....like the bag below!!

enjoy!


Hi Glitz fans!  I'm here with you today to share a quick tutorial of how to turn a gift bag into a mini album!!  I love mini albums and I'm always looking for fun and unique ways to use the products I have.  


I've been saving this bag since Christmas for something fun.  I wasn't sure how I was going to use it, but I just love the color and pattern and I couldn't bring myself to throw it away.

When I was thinking about our "gold week" here at Glitz, I knew I wanted to use this bag.  I thought about using it on a layout to hold my pictures and journaling, but then, as I was looking at the bag, I realized it would make the perfect mini book.



I started by cutting the sides off of the bag and then laying it flat.  This bag has a wide base at the bottom, so I used adhesive to glue the back of the bag together.  I used the natural fold of the bag as my guide.



I measured the bag and trimmed a few pieces of white card stock to use as the base of my pages.  To continue with the gold theme, I painted and misted some of the pages.



I also embossed the triangle stamp from the Raven Stamp Tin and the tiny stars stamp from the Wild & Free Stamp Tin onto my background papers to create a fun shimmery effect.



After my pages were dry, I sew the middle pages directly into my "bag" book.  You could easily staple the middle, add a ribbon, or hand sew your pages together if you don't have a sewing machine!  

Then it was time for my favorite part: adding pretty pictures, gorgeous Glitz papers and fun embellishments!!

Here's a look at my finished "bag" mini book!


















1/23/14

glitz design: it's the little things



i'm on the glitz design today sharing a layout using the finnley collection "bits & pieces".  i challenged myself to use mostly the bits and only a little patterned paper on this layout.  i hope you will check it out!!  :)

xoxo


1/22/14

an impromptu family photo shoot....

when my daughter asked me to take a picture of us this past weekend, i was giddy with excitement.  i love photos (obviously), but i'm not always the best at "getting in them".  i'm sure i'm not alone.  so with the tripod set up, we got silly and had some fun.  before long, the whole family wanted in on the fun.  even my third child (i mean, my husband).  

i want to be better about getting in photos.  about being present and a part of our "everyday".  i want my kids to see "me" throughout their life when they look back on their albums.  i want them to know that they were loved and that i was always there.

so with that, i've set yet another goal for this year!!  monthly photo shoots.  nothing fancy.  just a tripod and some willing bodies.  i challenge you to do the same.  and you don't have to have a tripod either, so don't back out that easily!!  set your camera, iPhone or whatever on a stack of books and get that timer app all ready to go.  play around and be silly and i guarantee you will have some willing participants sooner than you think.  

i set my tripod up in my craft room facing a wall that has a dresser on one side.  there's a good bit of blank wall space that catches the perfect amount of indirect sunlight at the right time of the day.  then i turned on the timer and just took picture after picture.  and i'm so glad i did.  i love every single photo.  a true memory.



so go grab your camera and get snapping!!  if you happen to post your photos onto your blog, i'd love for you to link up in the comments!  i'll be doing this every month this year, and i'd love love love for someone else to keep me accountable!!  :)

happy monday!
xoxo




1/20/14

happy news: crate paper




i am so excited to finally share this awesome news!  i am thrilled to announce that i am a part of the 2014 crate paper design team.  i have been a long time fan of everything crate makes.  and when they partnered with maggie holmes to create a collection, well, i was in heaven.  i love the soft and vintage feel of some crate's lines.  when i have time to create "just because" i often find myself gravitating towards the crate paper collections.  being on their design team is like a dream and i am so grateful for this opportunity.

i recently got to play around with a few of their new collections for CHA.  here's a quick look at my projects using the boys rule collection and the oh darling collection.


thanks again to crate for allowing me to be a part of their team.  i'm looking forward to an awesome year.  i told you 2014 was going to be amazing!  

happy monday!
xoxo

1/16/14

project life 2013: december and my end page


it feels so awesome to have a completed project life album.  my very favorite part is looking back to the beginning of my book and remembering all of the things that had already slipped my mind.  it's a reminder of shoes that were worn, tears that were shed, joy that was had.  it's just awesome.

these few spreads cover december.  i didn't really go week by week (although it looks like since my calendar's are in there), but i did kind of group things together (before christmas, after christmas, etc.).  it made it much easier than worrying about having to fill each spot with "something" from that week, you know.  which is why i really want to try monthly project life this year.  i'm still have various spreads each month, but i like being able to move and mix around a little more.

and sorry in advance for the glare on a few of the pages.  i add a lot of stitching, flair, tags and stickers to the outside of my pages so there's no slipping things out to photograph.  this batch of page protectors were super wrinkly right out of the box, which picks up a lot of glare.

as for products, i used a variety of kits and my stash.  if you have a question about anything, just ask and i'll try to figure it out!  :)















and end pages.  i love and hate them at the same time.  it's just an extra step that i think i would ignore if i didn't HAVE a random blank page at the end.  i struggled for a long time trying to figure out how i wanted to do my page.  i knew i wanted it to be "different" than the rest of my weeks, but i didn't want to put too much time or effort into it.  

enter photo collages (my new fave).
i created each 4x6 collage in picmonkey, which is my go-to for making collages these days.  it's as easy as importing your pictures.  seriously. if you've never made a collage, try out picmonkey.  pretty soon your whole life will be a collage.  promise!

for the middle 3x4 pockets, i just trimmed a 4x6 photo in half.  easy peasy.

here's my end page in all of it's glory...


and that wraps up my 2013 album.  done!






1/15/14

workspace wednesday...


ah....my desk and some pretty morning sunlight....

playing along with marcy penner this week and workspace wednesday.  i've got a zillion projects in the works as you can tell.  and yep....your eyes don't deceive you.  i switched back to 12x12 for project life....sigh.  more on that later.  

happy wednesday!

1/14/14

two peas in a bucket: hello family, hello loves...


i love the concept behind the series "storytellers".  this week, the "storytellers" theme had an info-graphic twist to it.  there are so many awesome ways to add info-graphics to your projects.  pictures +  words = amazing. 

i wanted my project to be a "glimpse" of our story.  as you can see, it's not over-the-top heavy in journaling, but it has our "story".  it's us, from the beginning, and i love that.  


p.s. i'll be doing a quick tutorial later next week about how i masked my photos into hexagons in case you were interested! stay tuned!  :)



xoxo