Hello friends. Thanks for joining me for this week's Albums Made Easy Monday. I love taking photos with my iPhone and sharing them on Instagram. Yep I am that lady you see photographing her food, my kids, park play, the beach...you name it! I love photographing our life and sharing it with family and friends we don't see everyday. I love that I don't have to lug around my Nikon everywhere we go.

So I wanted to start compiling those photos weekly. Sort of like Project Life but in my own way...

Let's call it Insta-Life:

 A week in my life thru Instagram photos.

We R Memory Keepers has 4x4 photo sleeves that make it a snap to get my photos off my phone and into my albums. 

Here's a look at the sleeve I am talking about.

12x12 Ring (9-4x4 Photo Sleeves)

I have my phone set to transfer my images to my laptop so I can easily find and edit them in Picasa. I am a home photo printer. I'm an impatient person, maybe it's the Aries in me but I am a NOW person so I use Picmonkey.com and Picasa.com to edit my photos so that I can print them right away

I own a Cannon Selphy and a HP All in One. Both do a great job printing my photos and both cost around $100.00.

In Picasa there is not a 4x4 option to print so I chose the 4x5 option and pick 4 photos to print. Then I click the "shrink to fit" tab and the photos turn to a little less than 4x4 in size like this.

I print them on 8 1/2 X 11 Kirkland photo paper from Costco. It's 19.99 for a 150 sheets. A great deal. Once they are printed, I cut them into the 4x4 Instagram size but just slightly smaller so that they slide easily into the sleeves like this.

I like to have the white boarder around my photos. You can also cheat and achieve this look by cutting white cardstock at slightly smaller than 4x4 and then cutting your photos down to mat.

I didn't have any of the 9 4x4 sleeves to start with So I used the 6 4x4 and 4 3x4 sleeve.

 I decided for my Insta Life pages I would go from Monday to Sunday and I used the We R Memory Keepers/Lifestyle Crafts die Oh Happy Day for the Month and some Basic Grey stickers for the dates.

The dies were easy to adhere using my Xyron 1'5 inch Sticker maker.

To add my own style I added some of my Unity SMAK kit images and some simple embellies.

 

I affixed this flower on the outside of the photo sleeve. I also stamped the best friends image directly on my photo with Staz-On ink.

So there you have it. My Insta-Life March 3-9

I hope you found some helpful tips here today. Please feel free to leave me any questions you have and I will do my best to respond as promptly as possible.

Have a creative day!

{S} 

Albums Made Easy Monday

Hello friends! It's hard to believe that Halloween came and went so fast this year. I hope you had fun with your littles. I had so much fun with my daughter but Friday I was totally beat from Trick or Treating. Those kids can go and go right?

So in today's post I am wrapping up using the Bewitched collection from We R Memory Keepers. next week I'll be featuring our Fall collection, Harvest.

 I thought it would be fun to make a shaker insert from one of the die cuts in the Bewitched Albums Made Easy collection.

 First choose what you want in your shaker

Next I cut a cellophane bag at the corner a little smaller than 3"x 4" so that the bottom and side were sealed. Then add the goodies inside that you want to use and use adhesive to seal the open side and top.

Then I used foam dots and place the shaker in the center and cover the top with the same die cut.

Here's the finished card. I added some washi tape and a fussy cut a snippet from another journal card with my Tiny attacher. (If you don't own this handy little tool from Tim Holtz, I highly suggest you use a coupon and purchase from Micahels, I love this tool!)

And here's how it looks in the Albums Made Easy page protector with some of the 4x6 and 3x4 inserts.

I hope you'll give today's technique a try and link up your posts if you share what you created on your personal blog or forum. I'd love to stop by and see them!

I love creating with the Albums Made Easy collection and hope you are gaining some useful tips and ideas from these weekly posts.

Please tell me what you think about today's tip. I'll be choosing one lucky commenter to win a mix of these Albums Made Easy inserts from the Bewitched collection.

 If you have any questions about the Albums Made Easy system, feel free to leave a comment and I'll be happy to answer them.

Have a creative day!

{S}

We R Memory Keepers featured collection for October

Hello friends! Can you believe it's October already? I love October for two reasons...

 The MLB Playoffs

 Halloween! 

So being that October has kicked off, it's time to reveal this month's featured collection from We R Memory Keepers...

Bewitched

I loved the colors and designs in the Bewitched collection. It was really fun to create with. That cute layout above with the little girl is one I created for Summer CHA Trade show booth but that little cutie is not my darling Lily. 

Here's the version I submitted.

I love my spooky little cuties, This photo is from Halloween circa 2010. I used some My Favorite Things and Spellbinder dies along with some fun Recollection Halloween embellies.

Next I wanted to share an Albums Made Easy page I created also using the Bewitched Albums Made Easy Journaling card set.

 Bewitched Albums Made Easy Card Set

Here's a 12x12 Photo Sleeve layout

Every year my friend Monica has an awesome pumpkin carving party at her home in Redondo Beach. These are some of the photos from last year's party. We had such a great time. We really look forward to it every year but this year I won't be able to attend since I'll be teaching in North Carolina at Stitch Craft and Create.

That's all I have for you today. Make sure you check out the We R Memory Keepers Facebook page for more inspiration with this month's featured collection.

Thanks for stopping by!

{S}

Albums Made Easy winner!

Hello friends. Thanks for stopping by last Monday and leaving all those great comments. I am so excited to be starting this weekly feature. I just know you are really going to enjoy the process of scrapbooking your memories with the Albums Made Easy pages by We R Memory Keepers.

Last week's winner of the  2 12x12 Albums Made Easy photo sleeves to create your first spread, a sampling of Albums Made Easy Journaling cards and a coordinating sticker sheet from our September featured collection: Chalkboard is...

Commenter # 7

Carol W. said...
Beautiful work, Love the chalk board look you created. Thank you for sharing and for the video!
~Carol W.
workmanscraps at gmail dot com

Congratulations Carol! I will be emailing you for your mailing address so I can send out your prize. 

Thanks to everyone who stopped by and left a comment there will be more chances to win.

I'll be back later today with this week's Albums Made Easy Monday post with a new two page spread featuring the Chalkboard collection.  

I'll also be giving away another prize package with all the items needed to create the same spread I'll be featuring.

{S}

Albums Made Easy Monday

Hello friends! I am so excited to share that I'll be doing a weekly feature on my blog starting today giving you tips and techniques for We R Memory Keepers Albums Made Easy pages. A few months ago I made a video for We R Memory Keepers giving an introduction into what the Albums Made Easy System is all about that was featured on the Joann Fabric and Craft Stores blog. You can have a look at the video by clicking the link below.

I really enjoy creating with the Albums Made Easy system and that's why I wanted to start sharing some tips and ideas here on my blog with you. I really think you will find yourself wanting to try it out as well. Here's a look at the layouts I showcased in the video:

As you can see, I was easily able to incorporate stamped images, the Sew Ribbon tool and so much more into my Albums Made Easy pages that added my own personal style. What I like most about this method of scrapbooking is I am able to tell the whole story by using several of my photos that I have taken instead of the 2-3 I would have used on a 12x12 layout. Before using the AME system I scrapbooked one page of my family events and now I find myself easily completing several pages in a very short amount of time.

So... to kick off my Monday Albums Made Easy feature I am giving away 2 12x12 Albums Made Easy photo sleeves to create your first spread, a sampling of Albums Made Easy Journaling cards and a coordinating sticker sheet from our September featured collection:

Chalkboard

To be entered to win simply leave a comment on today's post and make sure I can reach you via email. I will post the winner next Monday so that gives you plenty of time to share this post with your friends. Thank you in advance if you do.

Edited 9/25: I can't allow Anonymous users to comment any longer, as soon as I allowed this for today's post I got hit with tons of spam. It's takes just a moment to register to leave comments so I hope you'll understand why I had to go back to my regular settings.

**Giveaway is only open to US residents since I am covering the shipping fees myself.**

I hope you'll join me here each Monday as I share some tips, fun products and ideas for making your Albums Made Easy pages easy & fun to create. 

Oh yes, and there will be more giveaways to come! So don't miss out!

Have a creative day!

{S}

Simply Spring and Unity's April SMAK kit

Good morning friends! It's so beautiful here in So Cal this morning. The weather is starting to get warmer and the winds are dying down which makes me want to pack up the kids and get outside.What are your weekend plans?

I shared this layout on the Unity blog last Saturday and wanted to share it here too. I love creating with my Unity SMAK kits and Simply Spring is one of my favorite new releases from We R Memory Keepers. 

Spring

I used several images from the April SMAK kit on my layout. The circle grid image was easy to stamp and cut to create this border under the Good Times image.

This circle image is my favorite in this month's kit.

I thought the Good Times image would be great on a card. I paired it with some Color Shine mists from Heidi Swapp. I absolutely love these mists!

It's easier to create with stamps on your layouts that you think. I find that the images help me tell the story of my photos, are fun to use and easy try different techniques with.You can find out more about Unity SMAK kits here. 

I was on a mini vacation this past week from assignments and babysitting and got to focus 100% of my time with my sweet girl.

We hung out at the park and had play dates after school with her bestie Vivian.

We had a lot of fun this week together this week.

That's it for today...I hope you get to make something fun this weekend...and enjoy some time with your family.

Have a creative day.

S

A bit of creative therapy

Ahh thank goodness for creative therapy. It really does soothe the stresses of motherhood, marriage, friendship and life in general. I think I really let myself get way to worked up over turning 40. We all have our stuff in life you know...my stuff has stayed with me far too long and it's caused me to lose sight of what is beautiful in life like birthdays. I mean how can I be so worked up over getting older when I was fortunate enough to survive cancer? Seems really silly when I put it into perspective.
So I sat down instead and made a list of things I'd like to happen in my 40th year. Some personal goals and some fun goals. I've also started a fun mini album to remember it all. I am really looking forward to filling it with these positive experiences and fun times. I'll be posting the cover soon so stay tuned for that.
I did find inspiration in this month's Page Maps from Becky Fleck and scrapped up a 8 1/2 X 11 layout to start my positive outlook on this year.

I used the Queen Bee line from Pink Paislee and some stamps from Hero Arts. I am working with a local stamp store on teaching some classes about incorporating stamps into scrapbooking layouts and I am really excited about this opportunity. I'll keep you posted on that too!

Next I got out my newest Unity Stamp KOTM and created this card. As soon as I saw this stamp I wanted to put buttons on that tree image. I also love the polka dot ribbon. This card makes me happy.

My friend Heather sent me this stamped image of the daisies forever and a day ago...lol. I finally used it to create a fun card for the Cards blog challenge this week. The other images are Hero Arts.

And finally I got out my Glimmer Mist for this card with Hero Arts stamps. I like the weathered look it produced on the friendship background stamp. I really like using Tim Holtz's distress inks for stamping lately. They really product nice images and colors.
So these are just a couple of the things I've been working on this week. I hope you enjoy them and be sure to leave a comment so I can stop by and see what you've been working on too!
Have a beautiful Friday!

I proudly use Love My Tapes adhesive on all my projects