Sahin Designs Creative Team

Hi friends!

Since I last checked in a lot has changed! Notably, I've joined the Sahin Designs Creative Team! I've admired Elif's designs for years and I was ready to hop back on the creative team wagon when her team call came! I want to share with you some recent layouts I've done with her products! Let me know if you have any questions!

LIMITED EDITION KIT

ALL DRESSED UP KIT

FALL IS FOR KIT

GENERATIONS KIT

TRADITIONS KIT

UPS AND DOWNS KIT

when you run out of creativity and motivation...

Well, if you follow me on Instagram, the cat is out of the bag. I'm pregnant. I try to muster up enthusiasm when I say that, but the truth is, I've been feeling unlike myself for much of my pregnancy. I feel unmotivated, un-creative, uninterested in things I usually love (reading, scrapbooking, picture taking, Diet Dr. Pepper, etc.) and if you don't love the things you normally love and don't do the things you normally do, you can have an identity crisis. Too dramatic? Maybe. But the truth is, the fetus has sucked the life out of me physically and mentally and it came as a surprise. I don't believe this happened with my other pregnancies, though it's possible I just can't remember (it's been a while- my girls are 6.5 and 4!).

But the moral of the story is, it's ok to take breaks from things and just hold on to the hope that things will get better and things will change and you will feel like yourself again. If motherhood has taught me anything, it's the mantra that "THIS IS JUST A PHASE." It's true with kids, it's true with your postpartum hormones and extra jiggle. This is just a phase and it'll pass. And soon enough (May) they'll be a little baby in our house and I'll wonder what I was ever complaining about.

blog-tember day 4, 5, 6

Day 4 - CURRENTLY

Reading The Secrets of Happy Families. Bought it on a kindle deal- I get kindle deals sent to my email daily! My favorite blogger compiles these deals - CHECK IT OUT.
Watching Bachelor in Paradise, My Crazy Ex-Girlfriend, Mr. Robot
Playing Words with Friends - I know, what is this, 2012!?
Drinking Crystal light in every form and flavor. I know the artificial sugars are killing me.
Loving the 10 hours a week both kids are in school and I can do WHATEVER I want. I've had my first facial, vacuumed the couch and spent time in Target. DUH.
Going to start on some graphic design online courses I bought MONTHS (maybe a year?) ago.

Day 5 - Most Memorable Birthday

The details are a bit fuzzy, but I remember it was my 16th birthday and I was in the high school musical which was either Oklahoma! or Once Upon a Mattress. After we performed our show, my girlfriends from the show brought me to my house to pick up my wallet or something so we could go out and there was a ton of people at my house! I remember thinking it was weird how my worlds were colliding- my theater friends, my church friends, my school friends all in the same room. And I had my scary stage makeup on with my red lipstick and too much eyeliner. But I was so surprised! It was a fun night. Definitely memorable. I think that was my one and only surprise party! Though I do turn thirty in March, so another one may be in the works. Ha!

Day 6 - Create a Playlist

Tell me you guys know about Spotify? If you love music, you need Spotify. It's like Pandora but way better because you can listen to any album of any artist ever without waiting for a song you like to pop up. If you use it for free, there are ads, but I got a 3 month for $10 deal for premium and for me, it's worth it. So I have over 50 playlists I've compiled over the last 3 years. These are songs I'm digging now:

You Matter to Me - Sara Bareilles, Jason Mraz
Everyone's Waiting - Missy Higgins
3 Things - Jason Mraz
Evangeline - Tyson Motsenbocker
Jacked Up - Weezer (the whole White album is great)
Heartbeat - Mat Kearney
Wait for It - Hamilton Soundtrack
I'm A Mess - Ed Sheeran

blog-tember - day 2 and 3

Getting off to a rocky start by thinking I was starting on day one, but I was actually already a day behind! Time for catchup!

DAY 2 - My Current Goals 

spend less time on Instagram and Snapchat - as someone who suffers from FOMO, I think all this social media is slowly killing my soul (a bit dramatic, I know)

be positive with my interactions with others. They'll remember how I made them feel more than anything I say. Keep it positive. Be a light.

keep working on the playroom/art room redecoration - get some curtains, rug and art up on those blank walls!

say no to things (somehow I'm the clay mom, yearbook mom and room mom for my first grader. UGH)

Consume more meaningful entertainment. Things that make me a better person/mom/wife/friend.

DAY 3 - My Summer Favorites

This summer looked a lot like last summer in our activities and even our vacation, but there were so many advances as the girls were a year older. They both learned to swim! This was huge as they were both pretty terrified of water and getting their faces wet. Good goggles and some swim lessons turned that around! They were fish all summer!

Our Tahoe trip and Utah trip were both highlights as well. Spending time with my family in Tahoe and Jeremy's family in Utah is always a fun time.

Other smaller summer favorites were spending Friday evenings by the lake, going to a concert w/ Jeremy, learning the ukulele, smoking meats, catching lizards, visiting my sister and her new baby, and of course, marathon tv shows. Summer, you were good to us.

blog-tember day 1 - it's me, Emily!

Hello! Have you guys heard of blog-tember? It's a blogging challenge to blog every day in the month of September with different prompts to help you out. I'm going for it! I have been blogging personally since 2006 and clearly my blogging has waned thanks to Instagram and snapchat. BUT, I still love the idea, so here we go!

ALL ABOUT ME

I'm Emily- 29 years old, living just a short 12 minutes from the house where I grew up. As someone who wanted to get away from home and start a new life, I sometimes find it hard to believe I'm here where I grew up raising my own kids! I still get the itch quite often to move to another state- even across the country, but the logistics always get in the way. Jobs? Selling our house? Moving? Bleh.

I LOVE television, but generally don't care for movies. I can watch series on Netflix at an alarming rate. At night I pair my Netflix series with some stove-popped popcorn (olive oil and ground sea salt). Favorite series ever: The West Wing, The Walking Dead, and The Good Wife. Honorable mention: Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip.

I graduated from college in 2009 with a comms/PR degree and was a copywriter in advertising for a long 9 months before having my first kid. Since then I've been volunteering as a public affairs member of my church and organizing service projects like our citywide food drive.

I love baking, cooking, sweeping, vacuuming, laundry and cleaning in general. I love being a stay at home mom, but I have the hardest time with the mom part. I love home decor, rearranging rooms, finding solutions to everyday problems and vacuuming out my car. I KNOW. I'm weird.

I started crafting at a young age- I learned cross stitch, knitting, collaging, pastels, acrylics, etc. before I was a teenager. My mom kept a fully stocked craft bin within reach and my sister and I would always be puff painting something! Once we tried to sell painted rocks on the corner of our court like a lemonade stand! Sold tons. ;-)

OTHER LOVES:

sushi

diet dr pepper

nachos w/ extra jalapenos

staying up late

weight lifting

reading all the books

organizing things

podcasts

Watching Reading Listening - A Free Download

Hey friends! Long time, no talk! ;-)

Every now and then in my weekly pocket album I like to include what media I've been consuming- movies, tv, podcasts, albums, books, magazines, etc.

I created this simple little icon card to help me capture my media consumption without too much text.

I first used it nearly a year ago to remember I was listening to the Hamilton soundtrack on repeat, watching The Newsroom and reading Edenbrook, 10% Happier and The One.

And just last week, I used it to document my Homeland addiction, three books I just read and my latest favorite musician, Tyson Motsenbocker.

I thought you might want to use it too, so CLICK HERE for the PDF download of the 3''x4'' card. You can open it up in Photoshop and add images like I did, or print it on cardstock and write what you've been watching, reading and listening. Tag me on IG if you end up using it! I'd love to see it!

Happy scrapping!

a weekend at lake tahoe

My family got together for a mini family reunion in June and it was a lovely stay in a cabin on the North Shore. I grew up vacationing at Lake Tahoe but it'd been so long since we'd all been back together that it was nice.

I used a Paislee Press kit that was basically made for a mountain family reunion with the colors and word art- My Tribe papers, journaling cards and elements.

Left Side

Right Side

a family reunion recorded

My sister was living in Italy for 18 months as a missionary for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and she finally returned to us last weekend! My family traveled to be together at the airport to welcome her home and of course many photos and videos were taken to record these moments. There's something so right about having your family geographically in the same location.

For interNational Scrapbooking Day (weekend!) I put this two-page layout together of the weekend:

Products used: Welcome Photo Templates and Word Art and My Tribe Journal Cards

Products used: My Tribe Elements and Welcome Photo Templates and Word Art and Rave Reviews word art (I wish I could remember where that airplane card came from! I have so many files I can't find it again!)

My 2016 goals include taking more videos so I compiled a quick highlight video of the airport reunion you can watch (warning: you may need tissues!).

My Interview on Pocket Talk

Hi Scrapping friends!

A few weeks ago, the awesome Jess Forster interviewed me for her podcast, "Pocket Talk." She's interviewed some of my favorites scrapbookers already like Caylee, Rachel, Jessica and Trisha to name a few, so it was honor to be asked! She asked me about my process and what equipment I use, and other fun questions. I love the scrapbooking community and since I don't get the opportunity to chat about scrapbooking in my real, daily (non internet) life, it was so fun and exhilarating to chat with Jess about it! It just went up today and you can check it out HERE.

Have a lovely weekend!

Paislee Press Creative Team

Excited to be on another great creative team- Paislee Press! Liz and I share a love of minimalist scrapbooking. Her products are so clean and simple. In the best way. Here's her store if you're not familiar. Creative teams keep my juices flowing and make me design out of the box. 

I've only been designing for a few weeks on the team so here are my first/only two projects: 

This one was used using the Behind the Lens kit and journal cards. I have a feeling that top left card will be used over and over. So versatile and I LOVE stripes!

Does anyone use Design D anymore!? I still have a bunch of them so I try to throw one in every now and then. It usually takes me a bit longer, but this one just came together and I kind of love it! Sometimes lack of color is just as beautiful as lots of color, you know? Mixing black and white with color photos can be tricky to get right, but I think this works. This collection is called Bright Ideas- elements, papers and journal cards.

1 second everyday

My unwritten, unspoken 2016 resolution was to take more videos of our life. When a dear friend of mine's 22 month old son died unexpectedly last year, I was at his funeral watching home videos of his life when I realized that I needed to make sure that we had videos. I get caught up in photographs and scrapbooking, but there's nothing that can capture the essence of a person like videos!

So I first started with trying to take more videos. Then my plan was to sit down once a month and compile the videos together, add music to them, post them on youtube then share them with the family and on my personal blog. We'll see if this ends up happening. 

BUT in the meantime, if you've out of the loop, the thing everyone is doing is this 1 Second Everyday app. Elise Cripe brought it to everyone's attention on her IG and blog and I'm pretty sure the app creator needs to thank her everyday for her free advertising. 

But here's the jist- you take one second of video everyday. And then it compiles them and puts the date at the bottom of each clip and you just watch your days roll into each other. It's quite fun. Here's one of mine:

It's so fun and even though it's just snippets, it encourages me (and the app reminds me) to take more videos everyday.

new year, new layout

The 2015 layout I did last year was one of my FAVORITES of all of 2015. I got inspiration from my one of my favorite pocket scrapbookers, Trisha Harrison. Most of my layouts try to jam pack so much information and pictures that this layout is fun because it's just a layout to separate one year from the next.

 This year I went for something very similar, but used the lovely Thrive kit from One Little Bird. Took headshots again with the white foam board behind us (and yes, Jeremy's headshot is a repeat- no sunlight when he got home from work- plus he looks the same. haha). I just noticed that Riley (the 3 year old) is wearing the same shirt that Sienna (5.5 year old) wore in her photo last year! Nice one, girls!

Happy new year! I'm carrying over last year's motto of "Hop on it!" (aka do things right away instead of waiting and being annoyed by things) Happy scrapping!

fall 2015 layouts

While I love some bright, summery layouts, there's something so visually pleasing about moody, fall colors. These layouts are from the last few months. Love me some fall!

Products used: Woodridge Journaling Cards, Agenda Journaling Cards, Woodridge 

Products used: Better Together 

Products used: Honeycrisp, Honeycrisp Journaling Cards

farewell to summer

You guys, as a serious blog reader for 7+ years, it always bugged me when bloggers wrote about blogging. But now, as a blogger, I understand the urge- you want to explain yourself, maybe apologize and explain the weaknesses of this platform. So I'll just say that consistent blogging is hard and I tip my hat to those that pull it off.

Ok, now that that's out of the way, let's get to the layout...

As a pocket scrapbooker, I mostly just do a weekly layouts, and for the most part, that's fine. But I wanted one page where my kids could look and remember all the fun things we did this past summer. So I used my go-to grid method and made an 8x10'' insert. On the back, I just listed the highlights of what we did.

I used Ali Edwards brush set, "So Long Summer"  

See this cute circle thing at the top? It's a brush set I stumbled upon at Pixels and Co and it's just $1 right now. 

Look at all the possibilities! It's fun, right?

the latest and greatest - one little bird edition

Summer layouts are so fun to make! They're light, airy, bright and colorful! They're also time consuming because we're doing so many fun things and all those things have to be documented! I've done more inserts this summer than ever before- inserts are my new jam (but that's for another post). Here are some full size summer layouts using One Little Bird products:

I love the color scheme for this collection called "Cabana"

This layout only has a few elements from the "Frolic" collection, but that's how I roll- lots of pictures, a few pretty things and call it good.

I LOVE a patriotic color scheme. I used red white and blue with a hint of mint to document our summer vacation in Utah. This kit, "Nosh" was meant to be all about food, but I went a different direction. 

Doesn't this scream summer? Our day at the state fair was a big deal to my little kids, so we had to make a whole layout documenting the fun. The kit, "Ready, Set, Go" is full of oranges and yellows that just really get me in that summer vibe. The journaling cards are some of my favorite, too.

why drop shadows are da bomb

Drop shadows are really big in the digital scrapbooking world. The shadows are the key to making something look 3D- making it look like it's not digital, but like there's a real element on the page. I didn't get into drop shadows until recently and I feel like it's a game changer. Now, I don't use a lot of elements typically like a traditional digital scrapbooker would. My pocket page style is very minimalist and empty of too many doo-dads. BUT, here's where drop shadows come in handy. I like to use a lot of white text or photoshop brushes on top of pictures or patterned paper, but sometimes the white is a bit tricky to see. This is where a subtle drop shadow comes in. This is the title card I am currently working on. I wanted to use this light tan color paper with a slight texture from the One Little Bird Suncatcher paper set with white text, but the text was a little bit lost:

So for each layer (the text and the box around it) I added a drop shadow- used the linear burn mode, and did a 15% opacity with a 3px distance and size. Just eyeball it until it looks right. I try to keep it nice and subtle.

So here you have the finished card. Clean, simple and slightly easier to read than the first version.

As an FYI, this font is called AW Conqueror Carved and I have been using it all the time because I love it so much. I set the tracking to 100 to space the letters out a little more. I like the look it gives. Happy scrapping and shadowing!

If you're looking for a detailed post on shadowing, check out THIS from the OLB blog.

OLB Creative Team Work

Hello! I've been in a creative funk lately. It comes and goes and it's pretty natural, so I don't worry. But I just finished a layout for One Little Bird and thought I'd share the last few I've created.

My style gravitates towards lots of pictures and white space and little patterns/embellishments BUT without those embellishments it wouldn't be scrapbooking, it'd just a be a photo album, right? So I'm trying to embrace the pretty stuff and be ok with not having 8 pictures on each page. The struggle is real, people! ;-)

(my first layout has 8 pictures on it! Oops!!)

One Little Bird's At Week's End Journal Cards

Ali Edwards Messy Daily Circles

Fete Digital Kit

One Little Bird's The Love List Journal Cards

Ali Edward's Story of My Life

One Little Bird's Postscript Journaling Cards

One Little Bird's Postscript Papers

Joining the Birdcage!

I'm delighted to announce that I've joined the digital creative team of One Little Bird Designs!

You may remember I guest blogged for OLB in December, and I am so thrilled to be a full-time member of the creative team for 2015. I KNOW this will get my creative juices flowing! ;-)

Stay tuned for some new layouts in the works with some lovely OLB products. The paper packs are my favorite. I just picked up the Suncatcher papers and the Fete kit to use in my 5 year olds' birthday party layout! Aren't these colors combinations perfect!? Can't wait to start creating with these pretty patterns.

One Little Bird Store

One Little Bird Website & Blog

From the Monitor to the Album - Printing Project Life at Home

I've been printing my Project Life layouts at home since I first started in January 2012. I've learned a LOT about printing photos since then and I'd love to share what I've learned. This should be useful for people who are beginners and maybe some tips for those who have already been doing this a while.

So this is what a layout looks like once I've designed all the "cards" and arranged them into my templates in Photoshop (FYI, I used to not bother laying them out in templates first- I just printed my photos and arranged them later. Either way works!):

Next, I open an 11 x 8.5" document in Photoshop and drag over one of my cards:

Now this is fine, but once I print it out, how will I know where to cut the lines? I USED to do a light gray background behind all the cards so I could see where to cut UNTIL a lovely Instagram friend shared with me a little trick. Select the layer of card you want outlined. Then click EDIT>STROKE and this box will pop up:

I add a 1 px light gray border to all of my cards. It looks like this (look closely, the line is faint!):

Then bring three more "cards" onto the document and do the same thing (you have to select the layer in the layers palette before you choose EDIT>STROKE)

I try to align the edges as much as possible to make paper cutting easier.

If you fit two 6x4 cards and two 3x4 cards onto a page, there's little waste and you just need two 8.5 x 11" pieces of photo paper per 12x12" layout.

I LOVE Costco Kirkland's Photo Paper and here's the post about where I buy printer ink for cheap.

Let me know if you have any questions or other methods of printing cards! I'm curious to hear how you do things!