Project Life App Sneak Peek

I'm a lucky beta tester of the upcoming Project Life App, and let me tell you... it is awesome! Seriously... each of these pages probably took me 10 minutes. I know there are collage apps out there, but this is not the same thing. First of all it's everything Project Life, so if you already do traditional or digital Project Life this can be done right alongside it with the same templates/kits. The other things is you can export the pages as 12"x12", 10"x10", or 8"x8", so it's easy to add them to your regular albums.

This app is very intuitive and user-friendly. You're creating full size layouts in minutes, no complicated programs to learn. I take soooo many photos with my phone, and this is a game-changer. I can take the photos and literally create a page right then to document our memories.

You can check out Becky's blog post here for more information on this amazing app.

Here are the pages I've done so far, and I'll post more as I make them:

Thanks for looking!

New AWESOME Templates + Save 50%

This poor little blog of mine has been neglected lately. Life is just happening around here... too fast sometimes! I wanted to pop in for a minute to share these really fun templates I've had the chance to play around with this week. Crystal Wilkerson has 8 new template packs out... each pack has 4 templates, so that's 32 brand new templates!! She is also generously offering my readers a 50% discount on whatever templates you buy this week! (Scroll down for coupon code.)

I love Crystal's style, and these templates couldn't have been any easier to work with. One of the things I love is that she includes templates with styles (pre-set drop-shadows, stitches, etc.) and ones without in case you'd rather do your own shadowing. I worked with the styled ones, and it made it soooo easy, which is totally what I need these days. I loved having the shadow work already done for me, and the stitching is a really cute extra.

These are the pages I've made so far using her templates:

Credits: Template - Crystal's Template Pack #1; Background paper - Digital Project Life Midnight;
Card - Digital Project Life Playground

Credits: Crystal's Template Pack #8; Digital Project Life Midnight

Credits: Crystal's Template Pack #5; Digital Project Life Olive

I especially love her templates that have white space. I love the clean look of them, and they really put the emphasis of the page on the photos. You can see some of Crystal's own pages using her templates on her blog here.

Crystal's templates can be purchased at SnapClickSupply.com, and until Sunday, June 22, 2014 you can use code CWTEMP50 to save 50% on any of the templates! If your life seems to be moving at the same pace as mine, you'll love how simple these templates are to use!

Thanks for stopping by... hope you're having a great summer!

Pinned + True | Banana Crumb Cake

I love making banana muffins with too-ripe-to-eat bananas, but I saw this recipe on Pinterest and decided to try it for a change. So yummy. The original recipe was pinned from Cookies and Cups here. I didn't change anything from her recipe and instructions, except I used the whisk attachment on my mixer to mash the bananas. Next time you have really ripe bananas, try this. You won't regret it.

Birthday Money Balloons

Here's another gift idea when you don't know what to get (especially great for kids and teenagers) ... a box of money-filled balloons! This particular one was for my nephew who was turning 14 at the time. The box was filled with 14 balloons and each balloon had $1 in it. My oldest son helped me put this gift together... here's a quick, little tutorial:

1. Roll dollars up tight. Secure with washi tape (or some other tape that won't be difficult to take off... you don't want it to rip when the tape comes off).

2. Stick the money in a small balloon (I used water balloons). These balloons were small and this part got tricky. I don't have a picture, but it helped us to put the opening of the balloon onto a funnel and stick the rolled up dollar in through the funnel, kind of stretching the balloon as we did to make the dollar fit.

3. Inflate balloon and tie closed. We have an inexpensive little balloon pumper that we used. It made it a lot easier to blow the balloons up. The one we are using came from Bed, Bath and Beyond a few years ago.

4. Decorate or write on the balloons if you wish, stick them in a box, wrap it up and you're good to go!

Have a great week!

Project Life | Snowy January

Credits: Digital Project Life Maggie Holmes Mini Kit, Template W, Template C, Just Add Color Overlays

Cupid's Arrow Valentine + Free Printable

I know I'm too late in posting this for anybody to get any use out of it this year, but feel free to pin it or file it away to use some other time. These are the Valentines my daughter is giving her class. She LOVES gum and wanted to include gum with her valentine, and I got the idea from this pin. I adapted my version to work better for me. First of all, I can't find packs of gum like that... maybe they don't make them anymore? We ended up just using two sticks of gum for the middle (cheaper anyway!) and wrapped them with custom wrappers (download for free below). I also didn't want to put unwrapped candy on then end because I wasn't going to put each arrow in its own bag. I had this awesome glitter paper by American Crafts in my stash that has been waiting to see the light of day, so we pulled it out and used it for the main part of our arrows. Here's my process:

1. Gather supplies
• Glitter paper (or whatever stiff paper you have on hand, it doesn't have to be glitter... normal card stock will work great)
• Skewers (I took the picture first, but I actually cut the points off using my garden shears... figured it'd be safer that way for 2nd graders)
• Gum sticks
• 1/8" hole punch
• Baker's twine or other small string
• Printable gum wrapper (download below).





2. Cut rectangles/arrows and hearts out of paper.
• My rectangles were 1-1/8" x 2-1/4". I used scissors to notch the bottom (nothing too precise... just eyeball it), then use that triangle piece as a pattern to angle the top. This gives you the arrow shape.
• I used my Sizzix to punch out the hearts, but you could just trace a cookie cutter your own heart shape and cut them out that way.





3. Punch two holes in each shape.





4. Thread the shapes onto each end of the stick. Once the shapes are on, cut fringe in the arrow (make sure not to cut all the way to where the hole is punched).





5. Wrap the wrappers around the sticks of gum and secure with a piece of tape. One of the wrappers says "from", so you can write the giver's name on it.





6. Put two pieces of gum back to back on the middle of the stick and tie the ends together with Baker's twine (to make it a little easier, you can dab a little glue to keep the gum on the sticks before tying the string... I used a low-temp glue gun). There you go. A super cute Valentine to give away! 

Click here or on the image below to download these free, printable gum wrappers.

Happy Valentine's Day!

Free Valentine Heart Printable Update + Pencil Instructions

I made these Valentine pencils about four years ago for my kids to give their teachers and the office staff at their school. They were a big hit with the receivers, and ever since I blogged about them, they have garnered a lot of interest. They are my most pinned photo on Pinterest, and my most visited blog posts are about the pencils. I wish I could claim credit for the original idea, but this was just my take on a similar idea I'd seen from someone else, who had also gotten the idea from someone else, and so on. Once I posted them, I started getting a lot of e-mails, comments, etc. asking for more details. I was also lucky enough to have a back-to-school version of the pencils I made featured in the September 2010 issue of Creating Keepsakes and through CK on a local TV show, Studio 5. These are the ones that were published:

Back-to-School Rolo Pencils originally published in September 2010 in Creating Keepsakes Magazine.

After my original blog post about the Valentine pencils, I had so many people ask for instructions that I created a follow-up post with the instructions. After I posted the follow-up, I had several people ask about the heart I attached. The actual heart I used is no longer available, so I created my own that people could download and use. Having the original post, instructions, and free download spread across three different posts is confusing, so I decided to consolidate and put everything in one place.

Valentine Rolo Pencil Instructions

1. Cut a 3.5”x4.5” piece of yellow cardstock. Make score lines every 1/4 inch (the score lines should be parallel with the long side of the cardstock). Using pinking shears or decorative pinking scissors, cut a small strip off the short side of the cardstock. Wrap this piece around the Rolo’s, and use adhesive to hold together.

2. Cut a 3.5”x3/8” piece of pink cardstock. Wrap this around the top of the Rolo’s for the edge of the pink eraser. Trace the top of the Rolo’s on pink cardstock and cut out to get the top of your eraser. Stick this on top with adhesive.

3. Cut a 3.5”x3/8” piece of aluminum foil and adhere this around the seam where the yellow and pink cardstock meet. Use Glue Dots to adhere a Hershey’s Kiss to the bottom of the Rolo’s. This is the pencil point.

4. Tie a cute ribbon around the top and add a tag (free heart printable below). Give to someone you love!

Valentine Heart Printable

Click here or on the image below to download this printable sheet.

Other posts about these pencils can be found here, here, and here.

Feel free to e-mail me or leave a comment if you have any questions, and I'll try to answer them!