How To'sDay from www.scrapbooksteals.com

Tuesday, I was featured on the ScrapbookSteal's blog for my take on printing cool photos like those from my Hipstamatic (the COOLEST app!!). Here is the blog post:

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With the advent of smartphones and those neat apps like Hipstamatic, Retro Camera and Instagram, there is a square photo revolution. For those of us who upload our prints and get our photographs from other sources than a personal printer, it can be difficult to take an awesome square photo, with all of its quirks, and cut it to fit a standard size 4×6 or 5×7.

By some happy chance, I figured out how to use Picasa3 to keep the square aspects of the photo, but make it so that I can upload to my favorite photo printer (Costco, Shutterfly, Snapfish, Walgreens, etc.) All I have to do when I get my photos is cut off the edges into the perfect square!

Step 1: Take your cool square photo and upload it to your computer. Open Picasa3.

Step 2: On the bottom of Picasa is a “collage” button. Click it!

Step three: On the left hand side of the collage section, you can choose your photo paper size (4×6, 5×7, 8×10, etc.) Remember, you want to choose a size that reflects the size of the photo you want. 4×6 would make a 4×4 square, 5×7 = 5×5 square, etc.

Step four: Once you have chosen the size of the photo that will be printed (small area), click on the photo itself. When you do this, a circle with a pull arrow will pop up. Pull this and play around with it until it is the size you want.

Step five: Here the photo fills up white space, except for the edges. This means that the photo will print 4×4. Remember about your neat photo app edges. If you want to keep them, make them fit within the white space.

Step six: Click the box “create collage.”

Step seven: The now “collage” photo should save in Picasa3, but double check. I always save to the desktop, and then delete it once I have uploaded to my printer’s server.

That’s it! Now you can print your cool app photos at your normal printing spots. It’s a little odd that you just made a collage out of one photo, but it works!

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Hope you enjoyed that! Check out www.ScrapbookSteals.com daily at 9 PST both AM and PM for some sweet deals!!!

Congratulations Kendra!!

I wanted to announce the winner of the Basic Grey Card set!!! Kendra K.!! I will get your mailing information and send off your prize this week :)

Congratulations!
I may find some more items in my scrap area that will be given away later on. Be sure to look back!

Topaz #2: Up, Up & Away

While in Idaho, our families visited Silverwood. It's a pretty fun place to go. There are a lot of rides, food, and a great waterpark. We didn't stay too long though, as our visit happened around naptime, on an extremely hot day. This of course created cranky toddlers. I did however get to snap a few photos of Miss I going on her first ever ride.

For this, I used Kristy's Topaz #2 sketch from www.scrapbooksteals.com:
I chose some fantastic Echo Park papers in Little Boy, simply because they had amazing planes on them. Miss I's favorite thing are airplanes... And I'm glad that her first ride could be in one.
The title was in green Thickers. I also used Sassafras Lass In-a-Stitch Blooms in the red/blue combination to play off the colors of the planes in the photo.
Instead of Miss Kristy's scalloped edge, I chose to create a stamp of sorts that bordered the journaling box.
Last, but not least... Cosmo Cricket Tiny Type spelling out Silverwood.

I think we realized fairly quickly... That we may wait a few years for a Disneyland trip. Just too much excitement!

Campy Trails and My Version of Camping...

This past August, my family went "camping" with a fantastic family. My version of camping is not what most hardcore campers really call camping. I'm okay with that. My camping, is a house or cabin with no cable. I like being secure in a place with walls, plumbing, and other basic conveniences.

We did however do some of the normal camping activities: watch the stars, go swimming in the watering hole/lake, have s'mores, and build a campfire.

When I used American Crafts Campy Trails for a scrapbook, I loved the masculine feel to it. Most papers are feminine, and this was just too perfect for the vintage photos that I was using. After camping, I really wanted to revisit this paper set, and use all that I had for my camping photographs.

For my first layout, I used Kristy's Topaz #5 sketch from www.scrapbooksteals.com:
Topaz #5 was a great sketch to play off of the existing themes in the paper. I mirrored the diamond and circle shapes in the blue, white and brown paper, in the yellow and green large "moon". I also used a mix of Thickers to play with the color combination.
I really enjoyed using up some of the stars that I had purchased years ago in the Christmas aisle of JoAnn's for this layout! The colors matched perfectly.
Even the smallest of details just made this layout great.
For my second Campy Trails layout, I used Kristy's Topaz #4 layout. I felt that I could really capture quite a few photos, and use lots of layers with this sketch. It also allowed for me to really use some journaling space.
I used photographs from our visit to the swimming hole at Lake Pend Orielle. The lake was gorgeous, and while we were not looking our very best... Temperatures were in the 90's. And this was about 7:30 in the evening!
I liked using some of the dimensional stickers along with the regular stickers, as well as using kraft paper to add more ruggedness. I also used a great Peas font to tell our story!
See... Isn't the lake just AMAZING?!?!?!??!
I have a few more photographs. I might still work on a few more layouts using up the rest of what I have!

100th Blog Post!

I am celebrating YOU! This my 100th blog post, and I would LOVE to share my joy with you!

I am gifting this Basic Grey Card Set to one lovely poster. I bought two sets awhile ago, in hopes that I would be making one a prize!
Just post me a lovely comment before 11:59 PM Sunday, and I will choose a winner via Random.org on Monday!

Good luck all.

YEAH!! Authentique Design Team!!

Just to let you know... I'm on the Authentique Design Team!! I'm super excited, and really hope that I can do them justice!!
Here is the original blog post! There are twelve fantastic girls who are going to head up the Design Team, and an additional twelve girls who will be creating as Design Specialists.

This is going to be a really great adventure, I'm looking forward to the challenge!

Honeycomb Authentique Card

One of my lovely friends ended up on bedrest... I wanted to make her a cute card, and included some of the MoxieFab ideas about hexagons. I used my Cricut to cut out cute little hexagons and placed them all together in a honeycomb pattern.I then added some Glossy Accents to alternating hexagons, and stuck a piece of bling while one of the hexagons was sort of dry. I added just one word to remind my friend to take some time for herself.

This Week's Mid-Week Mojo and some more Authentique!!

I'm continuing on my 100 project journey!! I'm up to 28 total projects, but I think I'm going to increase the cards to 2 cards per 'project'. I'm so for easy mathematics!! 3 just got too confusing, and I feel it's still fair as it would include 200 cards for a total of 100 projects. That's a lot of cards!

Here is Kristy M's Mid-Week Mojo over at ScrapbookSteals.com. Kristy M. was the guest sketcher this week, and I love the sketch! It just came together so easily. I tried to use a lot of the items that were in my Swap Box from last month from my friend Brittany.
I used Echo Park's Country Drive, KI Scribbles for the subtitle, and AC Thickers for the main title. I also used some of the fantastic Cosmo Cricket Tiny Type for the date, and Twinery twine!! OH! and a Doodlebug button to finish off the twine!

I'm sure this is not the last of my lovely Authentique layouts either. I am continuing to use my fantastic Blissful papers. It's really amazing how versatile these papers are! I also used some pearl American Crafts cardstock, and that paper raffia that my lovely MIL found for me! A little bit of bling (courtesy of my swap box again) and some Glossy Accents give it a little more sparkle!
I really love this photograph. We went to Silverwood theme park in Idaho last week... And this photograph was right before a HUGE meltdown on Miss I's part. As in, people thought I was abducting her because she was fighting me so much. Or, at least until she called me "Mommy". I love her, the little wee beastie!

How To: Yarn Wreath (Part 3: Decorating!!!)

Here is the final version of my yarn wreath! I love this, and am planning on gifting it next month! For this project, I wanted to use some of the papers from Authentique.
Here are the rest of the directions on how to complete this project.

Side note... I dropped the wrapped wreath this morning and the seam busted open. So, I had to glue it, fix the yarn, then wrap this wide ribbon around the wreath's seam to cover up my accident. No one will ever know!!

Step 1: You can cover the seam of the wreath with a wide ribbon (totally by choice, but it does add that extra something!)
Step 2: Pin the ribbon using fabric pins. Don't spend lots of money on these, those gorgeous stick pins are too expensive for something that is not going to be seen.
Step 3: Stick on of your flowers where you want to add it, I used a combination of stick pins, and hot glue to make it stay in place.
See my hot glue. Again... It's in the back. No one will know :)
Step 4: Add more flowers, bling them if you want more sparkle! I attached a Theresa Collins (thanks swap buddy!) gem to the center of a flower.
Step 5: Make smaller flowers!! I just used a couple of strips of paper (about 1/2") to add smaller flowers. Take the strip...
...and crumple it up! The more damage you can do to the paper fibers, the better!! Rips don't really matter either, they will just help to give the flower more detail.
Step 6: Fold the strip of paper in half lengthwise, perfection is NOT your friend in this!
Step 7: Wrap up the "rose", leaving some extra paper to finish the flower. Then use a glue dot at the bottom to stick the extra paper to the bottom! Cut it when you are done.
Here is what the front looks like.
And the back with the extra cut off!
Step 8: Use another stick pin, in a color that matches, or contrasts, the paper flowers. I chose pink, as there are small bits of bright pink color in the Authentique Blissful papers!
Step 9: Make more flowers, use buttons, brads, stick pins, etc. to add more definition, color and interest. Stick pins just stick into the foam. I used glue dots to attach the threaded buttons (the thread just finishes them off). Brads are super simple... Just make sure that the tines of the brad are together... And try to slip them between yarn pieces.
Step 10: I know that the majority of the items are located on one side of the wreath... Create a visual triangle (which makes the eye travel back and forth through your work) by adding a few pieces of interest in a different part of the wreath.
Step 11: To hang the wreath, I hot glued a circle of thinner ribbon on to itself. I used another stick pin to make the ribbon stay in one place. Again... Color doesn't matter since you won't see it!
Final version!!
Closeups of the wreath.
And the visual triangle!
See how the small amount of detail creates a more powerful image...
I hope you enjoyed this three part project! It probably took me about 6 hours to create the entire wreath.

As far as my 100 projects... I'm counting this as three!! Hee hee!!

P.S. I'm still in love with Authentique!!

How To: Yarn Wreath (Part 2: the flowers!)

Before I debut my finished project... I really want to share how I make these cool flowers! The flower is one of what would be many flowers used in order to make a kusudama flower ball. I like them seperate though, especially using them for fantastic patterned papers!! To make this a little easier to see, and so that the pattern wouldn't distract from the folds... I used a piece of dual colored paper.

Step 1: Cut 5 squares of paper. I used 4" paper, but you could go smaller or bigger. My suggestion however, would be use thinner paper for smaller flowers. It's also helpful to have a straight-edge of some kind, and a bone folder. Not necessary, but helpful.
Step 2: Use your bone folder (if you are using one) and score the center of the paper, diagonally.
Step 3: Fold the paper into half, so that it makes a triangle.
Step 4: Fold the 'arms' of the triangle up to the top of the first triangle.
(Step 4 again!)
See the work in process, you end up with a square again.
Step 5: This is a little complicated, so I'm going to try to make it simple. You're going to take the folded 'arms' of the triangle you made in Step 3, and flatten them out. Line up the crease of the edge of the paper with the outside of the square shape. This is a perfect spot for using your bone folder to sharpen those folds!
Step 6: Fold down the pointed area of the arm. Do the same to the other 'arm'.
Step 7: Fold the arm in half onto itself. Do this to both sides.
Step 8: You are going to round the origami shape so that the folds are now touching. This is where the glue dot will go. Whatever you do, just don't make a fold!
Step 9: Use a glue dot, and stick the two arms together!
Like this!! Round the shape as needed.
Step 10: Do this to the other four pieces of paper!!
Step 11: You're ready to 'build' the flower. Use glue dots, or some kind of adhesive to stick all of the petals together.
Here are three petals stuck together!
And the completed flower!!!!
The back of the flower!
Step 12: Getting ready to use for the wreath... I realized that the flowers themselves aren't particularly sturdy... So, I used a low-temp glue gun to add some solidity to the back of the flower. The way that I'm going to show you tomorrow how these are used, doesn't need the back showing.
If you are going to use the flowers in a more visible way, you could pipe glue into the center of the flower if you wanted. Just make sure that you cannot see it from the top of the flower!

I will post the finalized project using my Authentique papers tomorrow!!!