How to Create Perfect Family Photos

Oh the New Year. I love setting goals and planning out what I'm going to accomplish, but sometimes I think I might overdo it a little and slightly overwhelm myself. Either that or I distract myself with other projects! I always have half-finished projects that I plan on finishing...someday. Do you? Or am I the only one? I still have our family scrapbook from 2014 waiting for me to finish, as well as TONS of photos from our recent trip I need to get in a book! I know that's not too bad, but I want to stay on top of it all! I need to make it a priority and SCHEDULE time everyday to work on it until it's done. How do you keep on top of it all?

Speaking of that 2014 family scrapbook... I made a tutorial a couple years ago for a trick to get a perfect family portrait. Even though MDS has been phased out, it will still work with other programs. I totally forgot about it & it could have saved me a little stress over the holidays! ALL I wanted for Christmas this year was a family photo with EVERYONE looking. (I mean, we WERE in PARIS! My wildest dreams came true anyway!!!) Luckily, I did get one photo...

Not too shabby right? I should have taken my hat off, but at least we're all smiling. Anyway, when I got home from our trip and talked with my AWESOME business coach Brenda, she asked me about this tutorial. Honestly, I had completely forgotten about it!!! Or it was just in the back of my mind since MDS doesn't exist anymore. Well, DUH!!! It will still work with other programs! Oh happy day!!! I'm going to go back through our pictures and work my magic! So if I end up looking like Amy Adams or Emma Stone in my scrapbooks...you'll know why! *wink wink*

So here's the tutorial, and an apology for being MIA for a few days. I'm putting the finishing touches on this month's newsletter and you will NOT want to miss it!!! Make sure you are signed up for the "Red Hot Release" by entering your email in the box on the top right of this blog! Thanks again for stopping by!

Guess what I finished today!

So I finished Sophie's baby book! It helped that Shutterfly had a free book offer. Nothing like free for a little motivation! So here it is. You'll notice several pages are pulled right from the 2012 family book. Or those pages were pulled from her book for the family book. Who knows. Anyway... there were a few personal pages I didn't add here. Pretty sure no one wants to read about how she was born. Ew.

Seriously though...Project Life? SO.IN.LOVE.

So my loads of Project Life stuff I ordered (40% off PLUS another 15% off...I couldn't resist!) FINALLY came today!!! Yes, right in time to go pick Dylan up from the airport. So I had to wait a bit to play with it, but I busted it open when we got home and OOH LA LA!!! I'm not kidding, this is FAAAABULOUS! (I hope you heard me singing that.) It's the perfect blend of scrapbooking and plain old albums. Here are a few pages I busted out in about an hour WHILE playing with kids. See? EASY!

Here's what I LOVE about the "traditional" Project Life:
1. SUPER EASY. Just choose your photos and cards, and slide 'em in!
2. There are SOOO many fun cards and designs!
3. Seriously easy to stay up to date. (***TIP***I've always heard you should record where you're at NOW and move backwards. That way you don't forget the little details.) Which leads me to my next point...
4. You can journal on the cards now, and save them to add to the page when you get your photos.

Here's where I think I'll have a problem:
1. Waiting for my photos to be printed, supplies to arrive etc.
2. The layouts are mostly one direction of photo, but it didn't cause too much of a problem, I just did a 2-page spread. Also, I saw a Pin about making pocket page protectors in any layout. Pretty cool, but time consuming.

So here's how to solve my issues:
DIGITAL Project Life. I love love LOVE Stampin' Up's program called My Digital Studio. It's VERY user friendly. Also, you can use cards, papers, embellishments etc. from ANYWHERE. You can print from home, or wherever you prefer, AND it's only $19.95! Seriously can't be beat! (Plus, you can download a free trial for a month. You don't get ALL the papers, stamps, embellishments etc. in the free trial, there are a TON included with the software. It would probably overwhelm you.)

One benefit of digital scrapbooking is that the finished albums take up a LOT less space, and look so nice and uniform on the shelf. Another benefit of going digital is that it's completely portable (especially if you have a laptop). I've decided to do our 2013 album all digital, and our 2014 album with the albums, page protectors, printed photos, and cards. One thing I thought of is that while I'm traveling, I could even create a digital layout with the photos I take so I know which prints to order, and I can have them waiting for me at home. Best of both worlds? Yes, I do believe so! Anyway, here are a few digital pages I created while waiting (im)patiently for my goodies:

I've been playing around with this cover for awhile.
It started out as 8 1/2 x 11, another benefit to digital,
you can change the size of project without starting over.

So what do you think? Digital? Traditional? Hybrid?

My Latest Love

The past few months I have been reminded of my annual theme "small & simple", and have been planning & working on a lot to simplify my life by taking small steps. One of the areas of my life needing the most simplifying is my craft room. I'll admit it. I collect craft stuff. It's hard not to! It's all so much fun! Using it is fun too, but I haven't gotten around to that part of it very much. Anyway, Stampin' Up! and Project Life have just joined forces and OH.MY.GOSH. I am so in love.

Here's the thing: I will always prefer my digital albums. They take up SO much less space, and they cost less too. (There's no printing photos, and all the scrapbooking "stuff" is so much cheaper digitally.) It's also much much quicker in a way. I don't have to wait for my photos to be printed or for my supplies to be shipped. But here's the thing: I am not a scrapbooker. I never have been. I used to be pretty "anti" scrapbooking. I've always been into journaling and photo albums, and I have fun making cards every once in awhile, but all that time & energy & planning just for one cute page? It's really not me. AND I would never get anything done. In fact, I still haven't finished Sophie's 1st year/baby book. She'll be 2 in July. Not bad, but seriously, I should have it done by now.

The other thing is I'm kinda sentimental about some of the little details. Like handwriting. I love LOVE all the fun fonts available, but I also think there's nothing as personal as handwriting. I know you can make a font of your own handwriting, but it's really not the same. Similar, but not the same. And then there's the question of what to do with all the little mementos like hospital bracelets, cards etc.?

So...for this years album I'm going to be experimenting with Project Life, and MDS (Stampin' Up's digital software) and I'll see where that takes me. I imagine I'll figure things out along the way. For example, I've already thought I might continue the digital annual 8x8 books using mostly Project Life, maybe scanning some journaling cards in, but for the kids special things I'll have a "hybrid" album for them. Anyway. That's my latest love and newest obsession. Stay tuned for projects and updates. :)

I'm also curious. What are your thoughts on scrapbooking? If you don't scrapbook, what do you do with your photos? And what about documenting life? Do you keep a journal?

First Year Calendar & Free Printables

When Evan was born, I knew I wanted to record not only the major milestones, but the cute day to day things as well. The best (and quickest) solution I came up with was to write it down on a calendar.  So I printed out a couple plain month calendars, and (almost) everyday, I wrote a few words down. Fast forward a couple years (he just turned 3) and I'm finally ready to make a nice, final version with pictures.

I love the idea of using the faux chalkboard technique that is so trendy right now. But I literally had A DAY to get this done. So I didn't add all the cute doodles and stuff. (Guess what I'll be doing with our 2013 Family book?) Thanks to my super organized photo filing system, I got this baby done in just a couple hours. Now all that's left is to transfer what I wrote on the old rough draft version and that, my friends, is going to be the most time-consuming part of this whole project, but it will be nice for him to have it in my handwriting.

As far as I know you can print/use the blank calendar for your own purposes, but don't sell them. The images are copyrighted by Stampin' Up! This calendar was made by me with Stampin' Up! My Digital Studio software. If you want me to email you the blank calendar, just leave me a note in the comments or email me.