it happened

Some of you must cringe at the sight of Avery on my desk because it's crazy to have kiddos playing in my scrapbook sanctuary. ;) The truth is, it's definitely something I've learned to embrace otherwise I would never check any projects off my to-do list.
Well, it was all fun & games until a few days ago when it happened...

I was changing Quincey and Avery was being much-too-quiet!
I called her name and we met in the hallway... her face was full of achievement & excitement- when I saw the pen in her hand I knew what she was so proud of! :) Thank goodness she only colored on the pictures and not the actual page. (Sorry Beth gonna need a bit more time with this one :) I can't wait until I have my own creative space--but until then we will enjoy playing & making schtuff together.

Silly girl!! I guess she was just trying to be like Mommy... same reason why she took Quincey's bow off & put it on her head just like Mommy wears it, or when she cries really easily over little things, or when she puts my purse on her shoulder & says, "let's go."
This also reminds me why I adopted the phrase "Whoopsie daisy" when I drop something--her version of that makes me laugh! :)

A great solution for Miss Picasso's artistic expression would be a chalkboard wall. I picked up some paint yesterday and I want to frame a huge chalkboard & hang it in our family room. If you have any suggestions with working with chalkboard paint... please tell. :) Happy Friday!

image credit: Domino

pack your bags Nancy Holley...

...cuz you're going to Scrap Etc. Event in Georgia!!

Email me your info and I'll send you the golden ticket!!

baby blue eyes

Anonymous said...
Just wondering about your lil cuties eyes they are wonderful and I have been shooting my 3 month old a lot and just can't get her eyes to look that good. Oh, and what kind of photoshop do you use? Thanks, Danielle

-Hi Danielle,

Thanks for your question. (I use Photoshop CS3) First, open your photo. Click on the magnetic lasso tool. Lasso around the blue of her eye & click on 'Filter' tab then 'Sharpen' then 'Unsharp mask' & mess around with the settings until it's to your liking. :) I know I am not the greatest at instructions so I found an online tutorial here.

Sharpening those baby blues sure makes them pop. :)

A couple of exciting things:

-There's a new link on my sidebar to Baby Cakes & the owner, Sara, would like to give my blog readers a 15% discount at her adorable online store. Simply enter "Justus" as a promotion code when you are checking out. I'm going to have to order these Baby Legs for sure now.

-Also I am so excited to giveaway free admission to the Scrap Etc event!! It's held in Atlanta, Georgia on April 30th - May 2nd.

I love this year's theme-Wishful Thinking: The art of creating memories. Join us as we embark on our newest adventure. The Event 2009. 6 teachers, 6 projects, 3 days of inspiration. Let go of what you already know, and let this weekend be a weekend of new ideas, fresh inspiration, and creative overload! Incorporating art & creativity into your busy, every day routine... discovering that you DO have an artistic side... giving yourself the confidence and freedom to pursue this, in an approachable way...

Sounds awesome, right?! :) If you would like to be entered to win a free spot-Leave a comment saying your must-have scrap supplies & I'll randomly choose a winner soon.

I love surprises!

Apparently Dove chocolates are not the only ones that have a magical power! One of my darling blog readers, that is just as fabulous as they come, sent me this painting in the mail! I had been gushing over a blog post she did of her first painting and asked if she could paint one of Q&A. Well, life was crazy-busy & I was being picky as I tried to pick out the perfect picture for her to replicate. Then she surprised me with this beauty & I absolutely LOVE it!

It's sitting in a bookcase in our family room. I love it so much that I wasted quite a bit of time just staring at it. :) She illustrated Avery's eyes so perfectly & I will treasure it forever. Thanks Jana! You should check out her blog & get a painting of your own little sprouts!

Today is a special one for me as you can see here. Just going to reminisce.

a new look

How do you like the blog facelift? Thanks to the fabulous Mandi!! :)

mind reader

Dove chocolates are not only extremely delicious & addicting they apparently had some
magical power to know exactly what I needed to hear as I unwrapped the delectable treat!
"Laugh uncontrollably... it clears the mind."

True. Very true. So I hung it on my inspiration board above my desk. Now I am realizing that

this isn't the greatest idea-because I just want more chocolate! :)

you tried

Dear Collin,

I know your plan was to do the Master Cleanse diet for 10 days,

you had it all mapped out, pumped yourself up & even mentally prepared for it!

But let's face it, the fact that you only drank a concoction of lemon juice, maple syrup & cayenne pepper

(+ sea salt shots) for 24 hours was a victory in my eyes!! Tonight I'll use the syrup

& make you some yummy pancakes! :)

Love,

Lizzy

party animals

Thanks Collin for the sweet & funny Valentine! I may need to change my password before I really regret it! ;)Yaya stayed home with our girlies and we went out for a night on the town. My mom told us to stay out to 2 am and have fun.

6:00 Dinner at Thai Ruby (Our fave!!)
6:50 Done with dinner (We've learned to become fast eaters with 2 little kiddos.)
7:00 Run into family at dinner (I guess I shouldn't be surprised since it's a family favorite! :)
7:10 Hit up the local shiny bowling lanes. (When the clerk hands you shoes that are still steaming from the last gal you know you're in for fun!)
7:15 Pick out my 10 lb ball
8:30 Together we bowled a whopping 240 score... I contributed double digits to that! :)
8:45 Figure out if we should go to a movie or go home
9:00 Picked up some ice cream and movie
9:17 We are home
We are real party animals huh? ;) We did have a blast-hope you did too!

I'm still working through your questions:
mj said...
this is my burning questions...where do you learn about all the fun Photoshop stuff you do? did you take a class or did you just play around until you figured it out?
-Hi mj!
I learned some Photoshop tricks from a couple sites. This one has some great free tutorials. I didn't take a class, just messed around like you said. :)

Dave and Mindy said...
I love the look of your photos and was wondering if you used a specific action to create the aged/muted color look? It's great.
-Hi Mindy (or Dave) ;)
When I don't manually mess around with my photos in Photoshop there are some actions I like to use. My friend Maggie Holmes is a scrapbooker slash photographer & now a Photoshop Action genius!! She sells her secret to great photos here on her Photography blog. I love them!!


Here I used the one called 'urban' from her Color MIX Action set. Turn down the opacity to about 50%.

Before & After: Here I used her 'color pop' from the Color action set & 'urban' from the Color MIX action set.

This is my cute sis-in-law Bethany! Or at least most of her. :)
I used one of Maggie's funky actions 'urban cross' from Color MIX set. "I think it works best with Blues and Reds.

The best part about Maggie's actions is that recently she made them compatible with Adobe Photoshop Elements! Like I said-genius! :)
They are super easy to use, my only tip is to turn the opacity way down maybe 50-60% depends on the photo & if you want to mix actions just flatten the image after running each one.
Let me know if you have any questions.
Happy Monday! :)

Shades of Summer

I am so excited this will be alot of fun, just like last year!

Rules for Shades of Summer 2009:


1 Open Box (Take out sunglasses and don't loose paper with other addresses on it.)

2 Take photo with sunglasses on

3 Print out 4x6 photo and include in box with sunglasses
optional =>scrapbook a 6x6 single or 6x6 double layout

4 Email me a photo of you wearing shades to ShadesOfSummer(at)gmail.com

5 Send out glasses within 3 days

6 Each person will pay for their own postage to ship glasses and photos. It shouldn't be more than a few dollars.

7 If you are going to be on vacation for longer than 14 days, sorry, please don't enter. And if you will be on vacation please include the dates in the email and I will work around it. :) thanks.

8 Please do not enter if you are moving this summer

9 Please only enter if you live in the US. But email me if you would like to host a SOS in your country at ShadesofSummer (at) gmail.com and I will give you the details.

10 If you are in Western Europe Kristin Reinhard is hosting a Shades of Summer for me email her at everydaycreativeness (at)gmail.com


11 If you would like to host a Shades of Summer in your country please email me at ShadesofSummer@gmail.com with "Host SOS" in the subject line.



If you can live up to the above requirements email me in the following format:

Line 1 Name
Line 2 Street Address
Line 3 City, State
Line 4 Zip
Line 5 Email address


to ShadesOfSummer(at)gmail.com







There is limited space so email me asap if you are interested!! :)

make out time.

Feliz Valentino's

(scroll down to turn off music...time for some Collin seranading)

Dear Liz,

You are the Lisa Turtle to my Screech.

You are the mint in my Double-stuffed Oreo.

I love you more than that white lady standing next to the lady they gave a home to on the CNN clip loves Obama.

A card? uh...sorry, it's the 21st century.

easy peasy

Just a quickie layout to share since it's that time of year... the gushy love holiday :) which despite its insane commercialism, is actually one of my favorites.

It's funny that the scrapbook pages I like the most are the ones that I finish during an episode of The Office. Not sure why... you'd think I'd love the ones that take me days to finish. Ha! I despise those ones. ;)
This one's easy peasy...
hand cut hearts, paint the "love" raw chipboard white, spray with Glimmer Mist, add finishing touches, sew around page. done.

(Click on smaller pic to view larger if you wish.)
I love those Making Memories new metal charms and I filled the word in with chalk then used one of their cute pins to keep it in place.
Making Memories: love notes line
Love script chipboard: Kit of the month
American Crafts: dot paper, ribbon
Basic Grey: Urban Prairie-my favorite.
Spray Ink: Glimmer Mist
font: fling

Now to answer a couple more questions:
Carol said...
ok...how do you get your pictures so big on blogger? mine are not near as big and they are set to large.

-A popular question is how to get larger sized photos on Blogger. This is how I do it:
Download to Photobucket (or any online photo site that has a "direct link" to your photo). Resize to 640 wide or for vertical 640 high. Highlight the direct link to your photo then click copy. Now open Blogger and instead of browsing your computer to download your photos you will copy the direct link into the right where it says URL... Makes sense? I didn't think so :) just kidding, it's easy once you try it.
Well, I guess I just had time for one, but it's a good one, right?
Let me know how that works. :)

she is presh

Quincey is following in her big sister's footsteps & is going to be another helper in my office, which is basically a nice way of saying that she already likes to get into everything. But are you kidding me, how sweet are her little piggies?! Oh, I can't get enough of her & apparently the feelings are mutual since she didn't want momma to put her down today. Ever. I didn't mind. :)

Thanks for the fun questions. I am excited to answer them over the next week. Here are a couple quick ones.

Monica said...
Okay, so how and on what did you print the photos for the fabric project? Looks super cute...will we have to wait to see it in CK? Thanks! Monica
-Hi Monica, I will be sharing that project asap with more details. I know you are sitting on the edge of your seat ;) it will be coming soon to this blog near you!

happymomma said...
I LOVE the color of your scrapbooking room! Could you please share that color with us? :)
-Yes, I would love to. It is by Ralph Lauren called "Sun Washed Blue." It makes me happy!

This is one of my recent desk decor items that doesn't have much use but I thought it was cute so it is holding a mini calendar for now. I also bought a larger one that I am painting white. I got them at a local shop in Utah called Rod Works.

Anonymous said...
I've got a couple of questions, where did you get the cute little 3or4 tier stand with bowls and your magnetic board with the blue frame around it?Thanks!!Michelle F
-Hi Michelle, I got this 4 tier stand at my local Roberts (they have a cute boutique section so I am not sure if all Roberts carry them.) The bowls are from Anthropologie except the top one is from Target. The magnetic board I also got at Roberts then I painted it blue. :)

Jennifer said...
Well since you answered the camera question already....what lenses do you use? Do you use actions on your photos? I just love how bright and colorful they are!

-I shoot with Canon 50mm 1.8 lens. This is great for shooting portraits & close up shots since it's already zoomed in & I also use Tamron 17-55mm 2.8 as an everyday lens. (Will answer the many photoshop/actions questions next. :)

Jamie said...
I just got a Canon Rebel Xs for Christmas and I'm wondering what kind of camera bag you have? Also, do you take your "big" cameras out with you or do you take a smaller more compact one out and about? =)

-I use a bag by Lower Pro. Yes, I lug my big camera around... which is probably not the smartest thing.
christybridwell said...
Will you be teaching any classes at CKC-Mesa in April? I took one of your classes last year and hoped to take another.

-Yes! I will be teaching again in Mesa this year! Which class were you in? I took pics of all my classes so I bet I could remember. :)

Q and A

Don't you love when people give peeks of projects they are in the process of working on... sometimes it's fun, but most of the time it is complete & utter torture. This morning I saw this pile of fabric & thought I would share a peek of pieces from my current fabric+photo project...

I love how Avery is hugging so tight that Q's cheeks are all smooshed.

Kinda like this very minute, since both girls are sitting on my lap. Avery is squeezing Q a bit too tight while Quincey gets a good grip on a handful of Avery's hair & giggles at every photo that she sees on the computer. Please forgive the grammatical correctness of this post since I am literally typing with one hand. :) Another reason I need a MAC computer with photo booth so I can capture our fun blogging moments. ;)

Speaking of my darling Q&A, I have seen on many blogs where they engage in a little question & answer post. That sounds fun since as evidence of today's post, I don't have much exciting things to share. Ha! So, leave a comment if you have any sort of random question for me (or Collin while we are at it) :) and I will answer some of my favorites in a blog post this week.

I'll start with the most popular question:

"What camera do you use?" I shoot with Canon Rebel XTi, or since Christmas, Canon 50D.

Thanks to Santa!:)

PS I need to dig up some baby photos of Collin because she looks just like Mini Daddy!!

Lace border frames found here.

8 months later

My little Q-bear is 8 months old today! It's hard to comprehend the fact that she's been with us for such a short time, yet, I couldn't picture my life without her now. Well, it would entail lots more sleep but also a big hole in my heart! I love this girl so much!

The amazing Danielle Thompson designed these frames and she shows you how to add a photo to the frame & how to color the frames here. The tutorials are for Photoshop. If you don't have photoshop you can open up Hue/Saturation and slide the hue tab until your liking.

The digital frame is found here.

Winners

The winners of the Peachy Cheap giveaways are:

amyjk February 4, 2009 11:22 AM

Iska G. Wire February 5, 2009 5:40 PM
Congrats! Simply email me your addys. :)

CKU

I'm excited to tell you that I will be teaching at CKU Nashville & CKU Provo this year! Registration for Creating Keepsakes University-Nashville opened yesterday. My class is an album track titled "Seasonal Bliss" where we will fill an album with over 16 12"x12" pages celebrating the seasons of our lives. It's an all day class and will be a blast-especially with my TA, Collin!! :) Check it out here.
Let me know if you have any questions.

PS You can still enter the giveaway below. I will choose a winner soon! :)

How do you say...

I love you!

Je t'aime
Ti amo

wǒ ài nǐ

minä rakastan sinua

Te amo

jeg elsker dig

Do you say it with a heart shaped egg or on a call to a friend?


Do you express it in a card or seal it with a kiss?

card from (little brown pen)

Well, this blog wants to say I love you with a couple giveaways from Peachy Cheap. I love a good deal & Peachy Cheap posts scrapbooking/craft supplies daily from 35-99% off. Check them out so you don't miss a smokin' deal.

Two awesome giveaways for two winners all you have to do is leave a comment with something you love (besides your spouse, children or pets) because we all love them, at least most of the time;) or leave a comment with how you say I love you.

You are going to win this time-I can feel it! :)

peachy cheap

love their deal of the day here!

monthly merriment

Since Domino is coming to an end (RIP) I was checking out another one of my fave pubs from Australia. I was inspired by one of Real Living's articles here. So I gave it my own spin and photographed random stuff that was on my desk and dresser. Thought it would be fun to do this every month.

-Bird earrings from my little brother.

-Polaroid of Collin & Avery at the beach last summer.

-Fabric from a soon-to-be-posted project I'm working on.
-Love digging through bags of old photos from my mom that need to be preserved into better photo albums. I am so grateful that she loved taking photos as much as I do.

-Missing my daddy more than I have words for.

-One of my fave songs on my ipod that I love doing yoga to & singing with at the top of my lungs in my car. (Dancing by Elisa)

-The card "For Like Ever" I found here and am going to use them for Valentine's Day this year but were initially bought for a project I worked on last year where I found something that inspired me for a scrapbook page. I made this scrapbook page with a photo from when Collin & I were engaged. Man, we were so young! Collin always teases me when I have such cheesy journaling.

Page found in CK's Get Creative with Type book- a must have!

Supplies:

Bazzill Bling

Clear Buttons

Clear Flowers

Apparently, as evidence from the photo, other must haves include: fuzzy ear warmers, Great Lash mascara, my notebook that I carry everywhere, yellow cardigan (Forever 21) & of course, sugar cookies.