Cleaning, Decluttering, Decorating—Oh my!

I’ve been a little MIA this summer. I’ll be back on a more regular blogging schedule once fall comes. I’ve been taking the kids to the pool, planning next year’s school, and decluttering my house (though you can’t tell yet—lol!)

I was excited to get this canvas in the mail. I’ve been organizing Lil Pumpkin’s room and created this for her room. Except for the crayon on the walls—it’s looking nice!

I picked up the green lamp at a garage sale and am thrilled at how great it matches the room. I also added the canvas print of the only scrapbook layout I’ve done of Lil Pumpkin so far (poor 6th child!)

This is an 8x10 canvas print from Easy Canvas prints. All I did was convert my 12x12 digital layout into 8x10 format, save as a jpeg and upload. I went with the deeper sides (1.5” gallery wrap) and carried over the pink from the stamp. The site was super easy to navigate. The canvas is wrapped around a wooden frame ready to hang. The colors were just as I originally designed and I appreciate that it is printed on archival quality canvas material. I love how it turned out! Doesn’t it look like real folded paper?  That’s due to the awesome digital products by Anna Aspnes at Designer Digitals. Next time I want to go even bigger –and I have a couple pictures in mind!

So far Lil Pumpkin’s room is the only room that looks pretty good. One off my to-do list--- too many more still to do! :) I’m so thankful for my friend Nony the Slob--- she’s making me appreciate decluttering! I smile every time I read her posts :)

If you are interested in turning your photo into wall-art, like Easy Canvas on Facebook for a 50% off of next order AND free shipping!

Disclosure: I was given a free 8x10 canvas for review purposes only. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own.

Merry Christmas

It is the week of Christmas and I have my Christmas cards ready! Well, ok they aren’t all the way ready, but I do have them in my possession ready to address….

I am so pleased with my cards and I have Tiny Prints to thank for them. Doesn’t it look like I spent a lot of time designing them? In the past that’s what I did---spent lots of time creating my own Christmas cards. Well this year I spent less than 5 minutes once I decided on which template to use. I had a hard time choosing because there were so many cool choices! All I had to do was upload my photos and drop them in the right spaces on the card. Easy peasy!  Tiny Prints actually has someone check each card submission to make sure everything is ok. That was good news for this sleep-deprived momma who wasn’t sure if she spelled everyone’s names right on the card before submitting. The next day I received a card-review email and was able to double-check before finalizing my order.

I was able to turn a bunch not-so-perfect photos (but they still make me smile) into a wonderfully looking card.  Great quality, color, and service. Thanks Tiny Prints!
(Prices on holiday cards and party invitations have been reduced by up to 10%, and when you enter the code 15HOL at checkout, you'll save an additional 15% off your entire holiday order. until 12/22)

And thank you—all of you who stop by my blog. It’s just more fun knowing I’m not writing to myself :)  I’m so thankful for the new friendships that have occurred because of this blog, and just feel blessed to be a part of the homeschool blogging community.

May the Peace of God surround you like swaddling cloths did baby Jesus. May the Joy of the Lord be your strength, and may 2011 be a year of drawing nearer to the God who calls the stars by name and knows yours too...

Merry Christmas!

 

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Disclosure: I received a set of 25 cards from Tiny Prints for review purposes only. I was not required to write a positive review. Opinions are mine.

Simplecard: Custom Cards

I am so proud of myself for actually getting Lil Pumpkin's birth announcement done before she is even 2 weeks old! Of course, it wouldn't have been possible if Simplecard didn't ask me to do a review of their custom greeting cards and postcards.

What's Simplecard?

Simplecard is a custom greeting card site that makes creating or personalizing postcards/greeting cards easy. Simplecard is a division of Modern Postcard.

Card sizes include:

    * Flat postcard, 4.25’ x 5.7”
    * Greeting card that folds to 4.25” x 5.7”
    * Flat Deluxe postcard, 8.5” x 5.7”
    * Deluxe greeting card that folds to 8.5” x 5.7”

What kind of paper and print quality do they offer?

Simplecard uses:

    * Environmentally responsible card stock, 100% SFI certified
    * State-of-the-art printing press for unrivaled color accuracy
    * UV coating protects color images and adds a sheen

What I Thought:

As a digital scrapbooker, I knew that I would be designing my own baby announcement. If you aren't a digital scrapbooker, there are many template options available that you can upload a photo and insert into the template. In fact, you don't even have to make a photo card---there are pre-made cards for the holidays, moving, save the date, etc. that you can personalize.

I thought that the process of creating the card on the website was easy to do. Once I picked my template, I uploaded my jpeg image and could see right away what the card looked like. I had the option of changing fonts and adding addition photo(s) to the inside of my greeting card and the back. After ordering, I was pleased at how quickly the order arrived. My set of 25 cards came with envelopes in great condition. The color on the cards matched pretty well to what I saw on my monitor when creating the card. Each card is printed on cardstock and has a glossy coating.

For the most part I was very pleased with Simplecard. It lives up to its name--the site makes creating cards simple. I think that by adding a few more non-clipartish options (my preference are templates that look more like real scrapbook pages) and having spec. templates geared toward digital scrapbookers not just graphic designers, would be a welcome improvement  (spec. templates for creating your own designs in PSE would be nice). Overall, I am very happy with my cards and can't wait to mail them out to family and friends.

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Disclosure: I received a set of cards from Simplecard for review purposes only. All opinions expressed in this post are my own.

Strawberries, Sweetness and Scrapbooking

We have done several memorable things this summer and lots of ordinary things but I have not been motivated to document them. Yes, I am committed to doing one monthly page, but I made myself make that commitment--lol! I have been having scrapper's block and burnout. Since I've been a scrapper for years now, I know that this is a common cycle. The funny thing is, I never know what is going to help get me out of the funk. Well recently I was given a self-paced scrapbooking class to review called Building Pages.  I wasn't sure what to expect but was looking forward to checking it out.

This class is designed by Debbie Hodge. She knows her stuff.  She was a contributing editor to Memory Makers Magazine, and her scrapbook pages and articles have appeared in many scrapbook magazines. She's written Get It Scrapped, published by F+W Media and has a couple of scrapbooking e-books published at Designer Digitals. So yeah, Debbie knows how to scrap! I have long admired how she captures the story of each event on her pages. She also does multi-photo, double-page spreads so well.

I, on the other hand, am not usually a multi-photo layout nor a double-page-spread type of scrapper, After reading the "blocked" section of the class, I was inspired to finally get the story down of our Strawberry Picking festival experience. This was a memorable day not only for the fun and food, but because it was a first for my oldest daughter---the first time she had to go to the ER to get stitches in her leg! All is fine now, but on that day it was quite a big deal.

I used a template included in the class to be the basis, or building block for my page. This is the first page.

As you can see all I basically did was change the photos for the second side of the layout. Using the principles of a "blocked" layout I was finally able to get my Strawberry Festival layout done!

After going through the "shelved" section I was ready to do some more scrapping! I created this layout using that design approach. (You'll have to read the lesson to find out more :) )

I have loved going through this class! I wasn't expecting it to inspire me so much, but this class has jumped-started my scrapbooking again! It is very well laid out and very professional. I'm hooked.

What I like:

* Debbie gives 12 strategies to create a layout, giving starting point ideas which help eliminate that "What am I going to do now?" feeling I often get when staring at a blank layout. Then she show you multiple directions in which you could  go with each approach.

* Lots of page examples are included with each lesson. I'm visual so I need to see what is being taught.

* All the lessons are in  PDF format so that you can print it out as a reference book.

* All lessons also have a video segment to watch if you don't want to read the PDF :)

* Debbie explains things so well that scrappers of all levels can gain a lot of useful design information.

* This class is for paper scrappers and digital scrappers.

* Included are PSD templates which digital scrappers can use as layout templates or paper scrappers can use a page sketches. Lots of resources!


Through July 2nd, the entire “Building Pages” class is $42. On July 3rd, the class price goes up to $54.  For the information, handouts, videos and extras you get, I believe the class is totally worth it.

Disclosure:
I was given this class for review purposes. The opinions are my own. Because I think so highly of this class I have joined as an affiliate, so if you do purchase this class you will be helping to fund our new baby's cover the booty fund (aka cloth diaper fund) We thank you in advance!