Desktop Photo Calendar- Tutorial and Giveaway!

Today I am going to show you how to make a simple photo calendar to keep at your desk.  THEN I have a giveaway for you.  Am I going to give you a calendar featuring photos of my baby?  No.  That would be weird.  However, I will give you the chance to win your very own copy of the digital scrap-booking software I used to make it.  Get excited.

I created my calendar using My Memories Suite.  I started with a blank album and added a floral background and then added photos of my baby and monthly calendars for 2014.  I kept it simple, but the software has lots of options for customizing with text, images, and borders.

Once I was finished, I printed the calendar out on thick card stock.  You may notice that the printed copy does not look as bright as the screenshot.  Turns out my printer was running out of ink.  I was happy with the vintage feel of it, but probably should replace my print cartridge.

I finished by cutting out the pages and clipping them on a clipboard.  This can then be hung on a wall or even propped on your desk.

Exciting, huh?  I had a lot of fun using My Memories Suite software.  I was given a free copy of the software to review and giveaway, so let me give you my thoughts on it.

Pros:

• I liked the variety of decorative elements.  Since the pages mimic real scrap-booking materials, there were lots of options for mimicking real paper. 
• Lots of project options.  I have made a card and a calendar, as well as a basic album.  There are options to create slideshows complete with music. 
• Relatively easy to use.  I opened the program and just started to play around.  I was quickly able to figure out basic commands.

Cons:

• While making the calendar, I couldn't figure out how to automatically fill in a complete 12 month calendar.  I had to add in 12 pages and then manually change each page to the correct month.
• I also couldn't figure out how to print two pages on one sheet of paper.  I'm not sure if this is a con or not.  It could be the software but it could also be me.

Overall Impression: Versatile software that is perfect for creating projects at home.  

Now that you made it through all that, want to win your own copy?  C'mon, you know you want to (peer pressure in action folks).  Enter in the rafflecopter below.  I'll announce a winner in two weeks.
a Rafflecopter giveaway I was given a free copy of this software to review.  All opinions expressed in this post are my own.

DIY Baby Photo Album Soft Book

Hello friends!  I have a project to share today that I am really excited about.  I've been planning it for months and finally got around to making it.  It's a photo album for my daughter!  All of our family lives far away and I wanted to help her learn who everyone is (eventually).  She also really loves the soft fabric books.  Family+Fabric Book= Family photo album soft book!

I used Spoonflower to create my fabric.  If you don't know Spoonflower, you should check out their site.  You can get custom-printed fabric.  I wanted to go this route rather than printable iron-ons because I was worried about bits flaking off as she chewed on it.

I created the fabric design in photoshop and scaled it to fit a fat quarter (18"x 21").  If you need more info on how to do this, see this post.  You can also just look at the picture below to see how everything was laid out.  I planned it so the pages going across could fold in half (you'll see what I mean further down.)

I smudged out the cousins names in case their parents don't want that on the internet.  They actually have names in the book :)  And in case you are wondering, Halmoni and Haraboji are grandma and grandpa in Korean.

Once I ordered my fabric, I checked the mail excitedly for awhile until it came.  Yay!  Then I got to work.

I started by cutting my images into three strips.  I trimmed right to the edge along the top and bottom but left the side edges as they were.

Next, I folded each page in half with the right-sides together.  I ironed the fold to hold it in place and then serged the other edge.  NOTE: Be careful about this.  I wasn't thinking about where my stitches were going to end up and I sewed too far in.  It didn't really hurt the project, but when I turned it inside out, the pages on that side were slightly smaller than the other side.

Next, I cut out pieces of fusible fleece that were slightly smaller than the pages.  By leaving a gap in the middle of each page spread, I was hoping to reduce bulk at the spine and make the pages easier to turn.  I ironed these onto the wrong sides of the pages.

I then sewed the top and bottom of the pages using my normal sewing machine and leaving a small gap along one side.  I then turned the pages inside out and sewed along the entire outer edge.

Finally, I stacked the pages and sewed several times through the middle to hold it all in place.

It's done!  I was really excited to make this so I worked through it really quickly.  If I make another, I think it might be fun to add little ribbon "tabs" to each page.

I'm pretty sure my girl is a fan.  She started screeching really loudly when she looked at it.  Excitement?

Photo Book for Father's Day

Really, the best gifts are given a month late, right?  I finally finished my Father's Day gift for my husband and am now able to share it here.  I chose to make him a photo book full of funny, altered pictures of our daughter.

I was inspired by this artist.  I had seen some of her fun baby photos and wanted to do something similar.  It took a long time but with some simple photo-shopping, I ending up with a book full of unique photos. 

Once done, I loaded them all onto Shutterfly and created an album.  I went with a simple black background and white text to narrate. 

I've shared some of my favorites here.  I hope they help inspire you.  [and yes, we do make our baby pretend to ride the cat]

IC#12- A Photo Pendant

I completely forgot about Iron Craft this week.  As in, I saw a blog post on Tuesday revealing a completed project and I thought, "oh yeah, it's iron craft day."  So here's my photo project, only a few days late.

The theme was to use a photo.  I chose to make a pendant with the space needle, in honor of my current home.  I found a photo online, re-sized it, then printed it out.   I used normal Mod Podge to adhere it to a wooden oval and then covered it with Mod Podge dimensional magic.  Finally, I glued a bail to the back.

That's it!  Now, hopefully I will actually remember to make my project for the next time!

Want to see more Iron Craft pieces?  Check out the flickr group here.  Want to join in the fun?  Check out the blog here.

Show Vendor: Holli Dunn Photography

Let's not forget the host of this upcoming show, Holli Dunn Photography. I didn't know it was possible to make babies look cuter, but see for yourself.

Oops!

Sorry!  I forgot to post yesterday.  I have a cold and with getting ready for the show yesterday, my brain forgot my blog.  Forgive me?

I'll write a full show recap later today, but for now here's a pretty picture.  Yay for pictures!

Swan Photo taken in Belfast, Ireland

One Year Anniversary

A year ago today I married my best friend.  Here are some pictures to remember the day.  They are all taken by our AMAZING photographers from Red Box Pictures.

Anniversary Gift

Well as of tomorrow, my hubby and I will have been married for one year!!  Since we are out of town this weekend and I gave him his gift yesterday, I think it's safe to show it off here.

I had seen these photo canvases on display at Ben Franklin Crafts and I thought I would try it.  I took a picture from every month of our marriage and glued it onto a canvas.

At the bottom, I added the phrase "Night and Day, You are the One" because our first dance was to Night and Day.

I'm not sure I "love" the effect, but I think it still captures the message I wanted.

Photo Session Helper

I was taking some product pictures yesterday when my kitty Milo decided to help out.  One minute I'm taking a picture of my necklace and the next thing I know, there's a kitty in my photo.

He's cute and all, but i would rather not sell him on etsy.

Kansas Countdown

Four more days till we're off to Kansas.  I'm planning on doting on my niece, eating lots of food that is bad for me and I can't find here (Chili's, Sonic, BWW), and relaxing in the warm sun. 

Birdie Print

Kansas City Skyline Print

Union Station Print

Wedding Season

After my wedding jewelry project this week, I started to think that there might be lots of couples out there gathering wedding inspiration.  I was doing that very thing last year about this time; my wedding was August of last year so all summer I was busy searching out inspiration.  If only I had pinterest at that time.  sigh...

Anyway, I thought I would share some of the pictures from our wedding to help give inspiration to all of you planning out there.  Our colors were orange and blue and we were not too formal about it all.  Enjoy!

First, the flowers.  I wanted something bright because that's just the kind of girl I am.  Lilies are my favorite flower and the first flowers Eugene ever gave me were orange lilies, so that was the starting point.  Other than that, we told the florist to just make a mix, almost like a fresh picked bouquet.  Our decor was a mix of vintage bottles filled with flowers.

Next is the cake.  I don't have a lot to say about this, but I was really pleased with the results.

Here are some pics of our style.  I chose simple dresses for the bridesmaids.  I won't lie and say they could wear them again (I've been a bridesmaid 7 times-you don't wear them again).  I made the necklaces for my bridesmaids and bought them each a different pair of earrings.  The necklaces had orange and blue glass beads with navy blue ribbon on either end to tie them closed.  Sadly, you can't see the jewelry all that well in this picture and I forgot to take close-ups.

For my hair piece, I got a beautiful feather piece off of etsy.  Loved it!  I debated between flowers and feathers, but feathers won out.  You can mainly see the white feathers in this photo, but there was one little peacock feather stuck in there as well.  I tried to link it to the shop but it looks like the shop is closed :( 

For wedding favors, we went with bubble gum.  I spit gum in Eugene's face on the night he asked me out so it seemed appropriate.  We used orange gum and printed up little story cards telling the tale.

Okay.  That's all for now.  I'm feeling lazy so I didn't look up all of the vendors info, but if you are in Seattle and loved something you saw, just ask and I will hook you up.  We were VERY happy with everyone we chose.


All photos by Red Box Pictures.  Amazing.  Hire these guys.  Totally worth the money.

Product Photography

Now that I'm done with the craft show blitz, I'm working on putting some more products on my etsy site.  Let me tell you, this is a tedious project.  I'm getting it down to a system, but it definitely involves a lot of practice and learning.  If any of you have tried to photograph your work, you probably know what I mean. 

I wanted to share some of my before and after shots to show the learning process.  Here is an example of some of the photos I started with.  These were taken using a homemade photo box made of a cardboard box and some white fabric, as well as a desk lamp.

Pretty gross right? The next step was to update my system with a real photo box and a bit more reliance on natural light.

Definitely getting better, but I needed a prop.  Enter, my ceramic bird (who I named Wanda).  She has been a great model.

A little bit of cropping and brightening later, and it's a shot I'm pretty happy with.

What about you guys?  What photography adventures have you had?  I know that I'm constantly improving my photos and they can always use more work.  Oh the learning process.