September Blue

Project Life Week 7 + 2 Freebies!

Once again it was one of those weeks that I didn't take a lot of pictures, but instead I have several "things" I wanted to showcase. It was a love-ly week for me-Valentine's Day, dinners out, socializing with friends and the start of Jessica Sprague's The Art of Poster Design Class. Here is my layout for week 7. Keep on reading for an AWESOME freebie at the end of the post!

For this week's layout, I used the page protectors in Design B and Design G and used product from the Clementine collection. Click the link below to download the Word Art Titles for Week 7 (this is the first of two freebies in this week's post).

Download SeptBlue_Week7Titles

Last week I shared photos of the Subway Art I created for Chris as his Valentine's Day gift. I appreciate the AWESOME response to this piece of art here on September Blue as well as other message boards I am active on. I wanted to put a smaller version of it in this layout and did so on the left hand side of the layout. 

I included strings with arrows at the end of them pointing to the various addresses we have lived at throughout our marriage. On the white circles I wrote the years we lived at those addresses. Also on this page I included a photo of the flowers Chris gave me for Valentine's Day. The colors in the original photo were very saturated. I lowered the saturation in Photoshop to fade the color a bit, cropped it and placed it in the bottom corner.

On the right hand side of the layout I included the card I made for Chris and the one he gave to me. The cards were a little bulky and weren't staying in their pockets very well. I ended up using paperclips from SMASH to keep them secure. I used the flags that come with the paperclips to label the cards.

A few weeks ago the Public Affairs Office at the Embassy asked if I would create a sticker for them that promoted the Embassy's Facebook page and Twitter accounts. The intended audience is the young adult population of Latvia and the stickers were to also include the QR codes that can be scanned with smart phones. It was a fun, quick project and the end result is pictured above. 

For Week 8 I really want to focus on taking more photos. I have my camera with me all of the time, I just need to get it out and use it! A new class called "iShot That!" began this week over at ReneePearson.com. It is a class about shooting with your iPhone camera. It's going to be great and can't wait to learn some creative photo techniques using my iPhone's camera!

I mentioned earlier in the post that Week 7 also marked the beginning Jessica Sprague's Art of Poster Design class. I love taking classes from her. Yes, I already have a degree in graphic design, but taking these classes keeps me on top of new techniques and gets my creative juices flowing! I also love the online community within the classes. Being able to communicate on a daily basis with others that share the same passion for memory keeping, digital design and Photoshop is wonderful! 

One of the posters we created this week was an exploration in using only one font along with some clip art to communicate goals, thoughts, a set of rules, etc. Jessica always provides the necessary elements to complete the poster in her example, but she encourages to use our own creativity and make something that suites our needs or tastes. And that is what exactly I did. Below is the poster that Jessica created for class:

Isn't that great? I love how creative you can get just by varying the size one font! I took some creative control and created something different:

I used the same font and banners Jessica included in the class materials, but I went with a totally different topic, color scheme and clip art. The words come from a pin on Pinterest. They are quoted from Audrey Hepburn (LOVE HER). When I first saw the wording I thought to myself how cool it would be to recreate a typographical piece of my own from these words. When this poster project came along, I knew it was the perfect time to do so and I created "All-American Girl."

I posted the picture of my poster on a my personal Facebook page and several other message boards that I take part in. The response was great and I thought I would give share my poster with you as a free download. Please note that this is not a typical size. It's 13x24. If you wanted to download and have it printed/framed at full size, it will have to be a custom job. You can always change the image size in Photoshop to make it smaller and print it at home if you'd like. I will leave this up as a free download for a limited time (through this Friday) Click the link below to download while you can. Enjoy!

BTW! I want to give a BIG shout out to The MomCreative! Every Tuesday, Jessica Turner, the founder, provides a place for all Project Lifer's to upload a link to their Project Life pages on their blogs! I just found out about this and I look forward to being able to share a link to my blog posts there! Thanks Jessica!

Download SeptBlue_AllAmericanGirl.jpg

Have a great Week 8!

 

Valentine's Day Gift: "Love Lived {Lives} Here"

Happy Valentine's Day everyone!

About a week and a half ago I had a great idea for a Valentine gift for Chris: A piece of subway art with all of the addresses of the places we've lived over the past twenty-three years. I think the title "Love Lived {Lives} Here" is appropriate on a number of levels!

Finding the addresses didn't pose that much of a problem. The challenge was finding a place to print it on canvas in time for Valentine's Day! I ended up using 24 Print here in Riga (they spoke English-BONUS!). The original file was 18x36 inches, but I had to make adjustments at the last minute because the printer only printed on canvas in 10cm increments. So in the end, the final size turned out to be 50x110 centimeters or a little over 19x43 inches. 

I LOVE the results and want to make more of them! These are perfect gifts for anniversaries, retirements, birth announcments, graduations, etc. They are so customizable! 

I hope everyone has a love-ly day!

Love Is In The Air + A Valentine Freebie Revisted

I am feeling so much better this week! My Week 6 for Project Life is going great! I can't wait to share my layout with you on Monday! Not only has Project Life been keeping me busy during my free time, Valentine's Day has been keeping me on my toes as well! I made the most awesome-fantastic-super-fabulous gift for Chris. I wish I could post it now, but with my blog posts linked to my Facebook account, I can't risk him finding out what it is! So I will post it on Tuesday! Don't you just love the feeling of excitement when you have found (or created) the perfect gift for someone and you can't wait to give it to them?

I do, however, have a few Valentine-y things that I can share with you! The first is my Valentine tree (seen below). I made the decorations for this tree a few years ago and I could swear that I shared photos of it on my blog before, but I couldn't find it anywhere. So I am sharing (or re-sharing) now! The white miniature tree is from Doodlebug Designs. The base of the tree is a solid, white cube. I made a "sleeve" for the base out of foam core that it slides into. That way the base of the tree can be decorated to match the theme of the tree. I just love this little tree! You can use it for so many occasions-birthdays, 4th of July, Baby Showers. You name it, you can make decorations for it! 

I used the "Lovestruck" paper line from Making Memories that was available a few years back. I covered pieces of chipboard with cardstock on one side and patterned paper on the other and added various greetings that were on the different papers from the line. I then punched holes in the ornaments with my Crop-A-Dile and used ribbon from American Crafts to tie them to the tree. Very sweet!

So after I set up my tree, I got to thinking how much I love Making Memories products, especially some of their older lines. "Animal Crackers," "Noel," and "Toil & Trouble" are some of my favorite lines ever. But sadly you really can't find them anywhere. Wouldn't it be great if they offered a digital version???? I did write them and unfortunately they didn't have plans to release digital versions. Bummer. I'm thinking if there was a demand, maybe they would. If any of you are on board with me, write them and see if they would reconsider! :)

Below are a few close up pictures of some of the ornaments.

Ever hear of Pinterest? I'm sure you have! I spend a lot of time on that site! I found this piece of subway art (see below) there. I printed it, mounted it to a piece of cardstock and placed it in a black frame. The seasonal subway art printables you can find on Pinterest are GREAT! Keep a frame near your entryway that is just for subway art! It is an easy piece of decor to change to reflect the season, holiday or special celebration!

The black and white photo next to the subway art is probably one of my most favorite pictures of us. It was taken back in 1999 (I think) on the day when Chris was coming home from his 6-month deployment. I asked my neighbor, Stacy, to come to the base with is for their arrival. I wanted her to take candid shots of me and the boys when Chris returned. She snapped this one and I think it is perfect. Even the angle of the Peanuts balloon was great-the text reads "I love you" and is fitting as I was giving Chris a kiss on the cheek!

Handmade cards. For the second week in a row, I found myself making a card. Last week it was for my friend Anna (it was her birthday) and this week it was a Valentine card. I bought the digital version of Echo Park's "Yours Truly" line and used the paper and elements from the collection to create this fun card! I think it's great that EP releases both a traditional and digital version of their products. I wish more companies would do that!

I have one more Valentine idea to share with you. It is a little revisit from a post had on my previous blog (Don't Blink) two or three years ago. Actually I shared the idea here on September Blue last fall for Halloween. Here is the original version:

I wish I could take credit for the idea behind this little project, but I can't. Barb Carrico-a fabulous consultant for Close To My Heart, came up with this idea for a make & take at a crop I attended. I made a bunch of them for some of my co-workers when I worked at Wegmans. It is a great little project to use up some of your scraps you may have laying around. These little treats are perfect to make with kids for their Valentine Parties at school! Enjoy!

Instructions:

Cut a strip of cardstock that measures 6" x 1.75"

Score at 2.5" from each end. Fold along score lines.

Cut two rectangles from patterned paper that measure 2.25" x 1.75". Mount on either side of the scored lines.

Using a 1.5" circle punch, punch out one of the tags from the file you can download from this post and attach it to one side of the patterned papers with a pop dot.

Using your favorite adhesive, attach a Hershey Nugget or Kiss in the area between the score lines.

Fold ends up at score lines, punch two holes near the top edges. 

Tie a piece of ribbon through the holes.

The cardstock I used for my treats is from Bazzill Basics and the patterned paper is from the Making Memories line "Lovestruck". The tags are my own design.

Download ValentineTreatTags.jpg

Enjoy the rest of your week!

Valentine Freebie: Subway Art

I know I said last Monday I was going to have a few other posts this week with some Valentine decor and photo collages for your walls. Unfortunately I have been under the weather all week long! Yuck! I haven't done a whole lot of anything. So to make up for it, I do have a cute freebie for you! Subway art is all the rage right now and I am more than happy to jump on that wagon. I love the graphic look of it! Below is a 5x7 printable for you to download and print. Make a card out of it, place it in a frame or shrink it to fit in a Project Life Page Protector. Have fun with it! I should have a post on Monday for week 5. Until then, enjoy your freebie!

Download SeptBlue_ValentineSubwayArt