January 23rd, 2012
I totally missed the whole sharing of holiday cards this past year so I was determined to make up for it in the form of a sweet Valentine. Most of the cards I received were from family and close friends so I decided that a photo card of my boys would be just the trick. Jen has some lovely digital collections available from Design House Digital and I grabbed the Vanity Fair: Persimmon and Aubergine and Nostalgia collections and decided upon a few images that would work with my photo. I like to go with the standard 4×6 photograph size so each Valentine will only cost pennies to produce.
In my digital editing program, (I use Photoshop) I cropped my image but still making sure I kept the dimension to the original size of the photo from my camera, 3000×4000 pixels. This way I know when I upload the flattened image to a digital photo processing site there won’t be any unusual cropping surprises. (At the ages my boys are now, it was difficult to get a great picture so I had to count my blessing that I got an almost decent image of both of them!) I then layered the two tape accessories from Vanity Fair Aubergine in the bottom right corner and then the Love button from Nostalgia on top of that for a quick message. I felt that I needed to bring the brown from the background down as well, so I recolored the border stamp from the Persimmon Vanity Fair and brought that in as a layer behind the button. Just be sure to leave enough “border” around your main images and design to allow for any cropping during the photo process. I flattened the file and after a bunch have been printed I will have my boys write their names and we’ll send them out before Valentine’s Day!
With just a few beautiful digital elements available at Design House Digital and simple skills in photo editing, you can create put a smile on someone’s face when you send them a special hand designed photo card! The most difficult part is getting a good photo!
January 17th, 2012
This isn’t really household organization, but many of you need to record mileage on your vehicles. We record mileage on a really ratty piece of paper, so I’m looking forward to using this cute form. l made it so that it could be folded in half or cut in half so that it takes up less space in your car.
Click on the image below to begin download of PDF file
Click on the images above to download a PDF version of my printable Be a Healthier You Checklist. The downloadable PDFs in this article (and across my entire site) are free for personal use only. If you would like to blog about this free download, please accompany any images from my site with a credit and link back to this article. As a courtesy please do not link directly to a downloadable file but rather to this page. At this time, no customizations of this or any of my forms are available. Forms are a free download AS IS. Also since you’ve made it this far, please subscribe to my RSS feed and facebook page so you can find me again! And don’t forget to tell your friends 
January 13th, 2012
Playing with fabrics is possibly my newest addiction. Collecting pretty fabric is first…then sewing! I made this quilt for my daughter using most all the red + pink fabric from the Lost & Found collection. My favorite part of quilting is selecting fabric patterns and colors! I may not be a good quilter…but I’d say I’m a pro at colors, no fakin’ it here!
If you’ve never sewn anything, or quilted, the first step would usually be to decide what you are making. In my opinion…I go off color first. Find your inspiration, what stands out and then think of what you could make with it. I couldn’t have found a more perfect collection to start with! I’ve been looking for a couple years too. I knew I wanted pink, red, and brown to match my other daughter’s quilt. But I just couldn’t find anything until recently…thanks to Jen! Sometimes you just have to wait for something that perfect! Next decide on your pattern. I used Camille’s Shortcake pattern, super cute, and reminds me of a scrapbook page. The most time consuming part for me is arranging the fabrics. This is where I’m super picky and indecisive…because I’m a perfectionist that way, I can’t help it! Here’s where I couldn’t decide to use the red floral fabric or not. They sent me the wrong one…however it was very similiar to what I did want.
Okay…made up my mind!
Start cutting and piecing fabric together. I had to be extra careful and make sure all the script in the polka.dot and the damask fabric were all the same direction. That may not matter to some…but to me it would drive me crazy! Depends on the quilter.
This red and pink stripe fabric is my favorite!
I layed it out on her bed to get the full effect…I can already see where I would have switched a few fabrics around…so hard for me to embrace imperfection!
And that’s it! You can either quilt it yourself, or send it off to a professional! I simply don’t have patience for that. If you do, wow I’m impressed! Once I get it back, I just have to add the ric rack and then bind the quilt. I can’t wait to see it all done and quilted! If you’ve never sewn something before…but would like to…I encourage you to just start. Most would say to start on something small…I say go big! It’s much easier to sew a quilt, even if it’s a baby quilt than say…a hot pad! {or maybe that’s just me still having nightmares from sewing stuff in Teen Living back in high school.} You can always take it apart…a seam ripper can be your best friend!
January 11th, 2012
January is one of my favourite months of the year. Yes it’s a long winter month and one where we really tighten our belts to compensate for the excesses of the Holiday period. Yet I love looking forward, to the New Year to come – to making plans and declaring goals.
This is one of the reasons I ADORE this site! Jen is just a planning genius, isn’t she? I share her love of list-making and this year I’ve given myself a head start by creating a hybrid year planner. I call mine ‘My Creative Life Book’, in the hopes that these plans and goals that I commit to pen and paper will inspire me throughout the year.
For my planner I’ve used Jen’s Weekly Planner 2012 digital kit, a few of her fab organising freebies as well as a few supplies (I like to keep my hybrid projects quick an easy and ultimately STRESS FREE!).
Here’s what I used:
- Jen’s Weekly Planner 2012 Kit, available at Design House Digital. These files are editable pdfs that you can alter to suit your own needs (as I’ve done).
- Free files available here at TPG Blog: Perpetual Birthday Calendar & 2 Week Schedule
- One sheet of Jen’s Stella & Rose Patterned Cardstock (for my cover).
- My Binding machine (I bought a super cheap one from my local stationery store).
- A piece of recylced card for my back cover.
- Paper for printing (I used that best quality I could find).
- Some lined paper to add for my journaling and random lists (you can never have too many lists!).
This is an easy-peasy project. Simply decide what forms will work for you, print them out and bind using the binding of your choice. Alternatively, simply use a ring binder!
And there you have it – a creative start to what is certain to be a creative year!
Happy New Year Hugs to you all!
January 9th, 2012
I made this nice little checklist to keep me on track daily with my health goals. I included mind and soul options as well since it’s not just about eating right. This sheet you can keep in your binder whole, or cut each of the individual boxes out and keep them with your “to-do” list or planner for that day.
Click on the image below to begin download of PDF file
Click on the images above to download a PDF version of my printable Be a Healthier You Checklist. The downloadable PDFs in this article (and across my entire site) are free for personal use only. If you would like to blog about this free download, please accompany any images from my site with a credit and link back to this article. As a courtesy please do not link directly to a downloadable file but rather to this page. At this time, no customizations of this or any of my forms are available. Forms are a free download AS IS. Also since you’ve made it this far, please subscribe to my RSS feed and facebook page so you can find me again! And don’t forget to tell your friends
