Guest Blogger Giveaway- Little Lovebirds

Amy requested our Lovebirds line to work with. The layouts turned out beautifully! The feel so summery and fresh. Amy had this to say:

"I had a lot of fun with the Lovebirds line. It’s not hard to be creative when you have such great products to work with! Thanks for letting me be a guest blogger, I enjoyed every minute of it. Cheers!"

By now, you are familiar with our giveaways. Leave a comment telling us which of Amy's posts was your favorite by Monday, July 20th at midnight. The winner will be announced 07.21.09. The giveaway includes the following:

• Lovebirds Assortment Pack - includes:
• 18 treated patterned papers (foil, glitter & shimmer)
• 2 lace papers
• 1 sheet of Lovebirds die-cuts
• Lovebirds cardstock stickers
• Lovebirds epoxy stickers
• Lovebirds rub-on designs
• Lovebirds ribbon

Good luck and have a fabulous weekend!

Smokey Eyes Done Right

I love this tutorial! If you can get this technique down, you'll look fabulous in your photos. The better the photo, the better the layout, right?

Growing up I loved makeup and would paint anyone’s face that would let me (and when I say paint, I mean that literally…sometimes the outcome was a bit scary. I’d like to think I’ve gotten a bit better over the years). About 5 years ago I had a little stint as a makeup artist. I worked in Southern California for a summer selling and doing makeup for all sorts of people. During this time I learned how to create the perfect smoky eye, great for summer nights!


Instructions: (the steps correspond with the above photo)
1. Start by curling your eyelashes (I recommend Covergirl’s lash curler).
2. Then brush your entire lids with a soft neutral shadow (I like Stila’s eye shadow shade: kitten).
3. Now, with a deep silver or gray eyeliner (I use Estee Lauder Artist Eye Liner color: slate with a great smudger on the end) thickly line the upper lash line.
4. Next it is key to smudge the liner to create a softer look rather than a harsh line. With a grey/brown loose eye shadow, softly brush the powder across your eyelids to the crease and lightly brush over your liner and under your bottom lashes (I like L’Oreal’s On-the-Loose shimmering powder, color: orb).
5. Now with a golden brown liner, trace your bottom lash line, I like to do a straight, slightly thick line to give a more dramatic feel (try Rimmel’s Special Eyes pencil in ginger tea).
6. Lastly, use a dramatic black mascara on your lashes - two coats will really give depth to the eye (I strongly recommend Clinique High Impact Mascara in black – it is a very wet and dramatic mascara).

That’s it! Now you are ready to transform into a summer goddess…enjoy.

Guest Blogger- Give to get a response!

When I know a friend or family member’s birthday is approaching I like to come up with a more personal gift than something you just buy in the store. This drives my husband crazy, but I just love creating a gift that will really become a keepsake. Being that I’m in the line of work that I am, I like to create smaller photo albums and give them as gifts. These are usually around 8”x8” and include photos from special events or sometimes even just a bunch of random photos.

In this graduation album I liked the idea of using her school colors, green and white, and then adding black to give it a youthful feel. The black and white photos just seemed to fit perfectly with the overall theme. These are always a big hit and really show that you care.

So, next time you have a gift to give, consider making an album similar to this one. I promise you’ll score some extra points with whoever the lucky recipient is.

Guest Blogger- Photos feeling blue? Add some color!

I have a little motto I stick to when I create pages – the pictures are the focus! I know most of us aren’t professional photographers and our pictures don’t always look perfect, but I believe cropping and some small effects will help your ordinary photos look top notch!

1. Cropping can do wonders to an average photo. First you need to decide what you want in the photo. Most the time you are going to zoom way in – there always seems to be a lot of empty space. Do you want a horizontal or vertical photo? Get creative.

2. Brightness/Contrast Most photos need some brightening and I like to use extra contrast. Do this by going to Image > Adjustments > Brightness/Contrast and then adjust to your liking.

3. Effects Lets look at some basic effects to ensure that your photo tells a story. Here are three different simple effects and the directions for using Photoshop (there are much more complicated ways of adjusting color in Photoshop, but I wanted to just stick with a couple easy ones).
• SEPIA FILTER – this does not necessarily change the color of your photo to shades of brown and tan, it just gives your photo an older, dreamy sort of feel. Go to Image > Adjustments > Photo Filter choose sepia filter and play with the density (I used 49% density on this photo).
• ENHANCE COLOR – this brightens all the colors in the photo and gives a more intense feel. Go to Image > Adjustments > Selective Color, here you should choose the colors in your photo from the drop down list and adjust each line to get a bold effect.
• BLACK & WHITE – I love black and white photos - they have such a timeless look and feel. The key to making B&W photos look amazing is to play with the color contrast. In this case you will change your photo to B&W before you change the brightness and contrast. Go to Image > Adjustments > Black & White, then use your brightness/contrast tool generously.

Good luck and have fun with it!

Guest Blogger- Inspiration Anyone?

I love the show Project Runway. Every season they do an inspiration challenge where the contestants must take pictures of places (i.e. famous buildings, museums, parks, gardens, etc.) & then create an outfit designed in the spirit of whatever it was that inspired them. It is so fun to see what they get inspired by and how they translate that into their designs. One designer that stood out to me chose the Chrysler Building as his inspiration and designed a unique art deco dress to showcase. As you see from the pictures…he did a pretty good job.

As creative people, I think we can all agree on one thing – inspiration is the key to reaching our full creative potential. A lot of times we find ourselves feeling a little less than creative at all, let alone inspired. What are we to do!? Well, I’m a real believer in the thought that inspiration can come anytime anywhere, but that also doesn’t mean that it comes every time and everywhere. My husband has some notebooks that he orders online and their tagline is “I’m not writing this down to remember it later, I’m writing it down to remember it now!” I think this really can apply to the creative process. We all need a great place to display the things we find that serve as our inspiration…hence, the ribbon board.


I saw this ribbon board on Martha Stewart and thought it was perfect to hang in your creative space and load with anything that “moves” you.

MATERIALS
Homoste board (a tackable surface available at home-supply stores and lumber yards)
Tight-weave linen (available at art-supply stores and fabric stores)
Ribbon
Upholstery tacks
Picture hanger

click to enlarge

DIRECTIONS
• Cut the board, or have it cut at a lumberyard, to the desired size.
• Pull the linen taut over the front and around the sides, and staple the four edges to the back.
• Fold the corners neatly, and staple flush to the board (A). Let your creativity loose in weaving a pattern with ribbons (B & C).
• Use upholstery tacks (look for ones with intriguing designs) to secure the ribbons (D).
• Screw a picture hanger to the back of the board, and hang on the wall.
• Tuck your snapshots, cards or anything you wish behind the ribbons; you’ll need few, if any pushpins.

Amy Balmforth- Me in a Nutshell

I grew up in St. George, Utah surrounded by the gorgeous red cliffs and sweltering desert heat. I’d have to say that I learned to love the arts from my amazing mother. She always encouraged our creativity and made sure we had every opportunity to explore our interests. From piano and sewing classes to simple trips to the craft store where we’d get to pick out any project we wanted, my siblings and I spent countless hours at home practicing, painting, designing…you name it, we did it.

I heard once that every teenage girl goes through a photography stage and while I didn’t necessarily mean to make a career out of it, it kind of fell upon me. I should add here that I’m not a photographer by any means, but I surely have developed a deep admiration for photos – both old and new. So how did I end up creating custom photo albums for a living? Well, about 3 or 4 years ago I had an epiphany of sorts (or at least I like to call it that). I realized that so many people have all of their priceless photos hidden away under a bed or stored in a filing cabinet (yes, even here in Utah - the scrapbooking capital of the world). This is just a shame. So many wonderful memories and beautiful photos and no one gets to see them.

I really believe that most people, given the time to do it themselves or the know-where to have it done for them, would absolutely love to have their pictures organized and put in an album. Memoir has really been a great experience for me and I just love seeing my clients’ faces when they rediscover their treasured photos.

I currently live in Salt Lake City with my wonderful husband Casey and mostly work from home except for the occasional client meeting. I love to play tennis, hike, be outdoors….and shop. I hope you enjoy what I’ve put together this week – I feel like it represents a little of who I am. Cheers.

Guest Blogger- Amy Balmforth

I've had the pleasure of knowing Amy for over three years. She is one of the most down to earth people you'll ever meet. When I was trying to find some guest bloggers, I couldn't believe that I hadn't thought of her sooner. Amy has a job that we all would be jealous of... she scrapbooks for a living! This next week she'll be giving a peek into what she does. If you want to see more, visit her website Memoir or her blog. Here's a little bit about Amy:


Random Tibits about Amy Balmforth:
• I’m a warm weather girl yet I live in the best ski/snowboard city in the country (at least according to my husband).
• I like my hot dogs with mustard and pickles.
• I started my company, Memoir, two years ago. We make custom photo albums and other novelties for all sorts of people and events. It’s been both a joy and a challenge at the same time – I’m really looking forward to the future of Memoir.
• No one can pronounce my last name; hence, I answer to Balmfy, Balmford, Balmsworthy, Blamforth, and so on.
• I don’t have a MySpace, Facebook or Twitter account and I’m proud of it!
• I enjoy a good book, my all time favorite is Pride & Prejudice by Jane Austen
• AND…I have the greatest husband in the world – I’m so lucky!