ormolu

Scrapping with Instagram shots

Since finally getting an iPhone last Spring, I've been bitten by the Instagram bug, and I'm thoroughly hooked on it. I was an avid Flickr user before I discovered IG, and even went so far as to try and complete a 365 by posting there everyday. However, that fell by the wayside sometime around mid-May,  and I decided to give it up, as I just didn't have time to sit and edit photos on a daily basis. Enter IG- it was a perfect alternative to my big DSLR, and so easy to snap a quick photo and edit it  in camera using the various overlays. Also, since my kids are at an age where they are strongly *ahem* opposed to me taking their photo, this seems to be a more subtle approach, as they sometimes don't even realize they're having their photo taken. ;)  I'm enjoying the 'everyday' type shots I get, and the absolute practicality of not having to drag the big camera everywhere I go. The print quality is obviously not as good as my Nikon, but I don't mind sacrificing that as a trade off. Here's a layout I did last week, using a favourite shot of my son and his BFF ( I like to call him my 3rd son, as he's here pretty much 24/7) hanging out on a summer afternoon. This is such a typical scene in my home, and I'm happy I had my phone handy. ( Although, if you're anything like me, your iphone rarely leaves your side, LOL).

Post your link to a page you've done using your IG shots ( or any phone shot, if you don't happen to have an iPhone) and I'll draw a name for a chance to win a package of these sweet '2-Day Hooray' buttons that I have doubles of:

These  are perfect for everyday shots like mine, or for those of you who have embarked on PL, n'est pas? :)

 Good luck, I can't wait to see your layouts! I'll post the ( random) winner on Wednesday, February 1st.

 -Melanie

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Pam | Project Life

Are you, like many many others, doing Project Life?

I have jumped on the bandwagon and wanted to share my cover page since it uses so many Ormolu goodies! I have a feeling I will be using lots of them throughout my book, particularly the Fact or Fiction line. It is perfect for this type of documentation:)

I used some of my favorite photos from 2011 to open the book. I wanted to keep the cover page bright and fairly clean, so I just added a few little embellishments with the flappers and bits of flair:) I made the year with the negative numbers from the Negative Number Package Tags.

Here are a few close up shots:

Are you using Ormolu products in your Project Life album? If so, please link us up, we would love to see!!

 

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Dreaming of Warmer Days

I don't know about you, but I think I've enough of winter already. Living in Wyoming is difficult this time of year: cold temperatures, strong winds (70+ mph gusts this past week), and snow are often present. Being a California Girl by birth, I don't think I was built for this type of climate. I have tried to convince my husband that I am allergic to winter, but he won't buy it. In order to give myself the recommended dose of Vitamin D on these cold, dark days, I decided I'd re-live our vacation last spring by scrapping some photos taken during our trip to Florida.  

This particular picture was one of my favorites. My son, Brendan, loves the ocean and always manages to find the neatest shells and coral when he is at the beach. During this particular trip, there were jellyfish all over the beach so we were a bit nervous, but Brendan wanted to do a bit of exploring anyway (albeit carefully). I snapped this photo of him picking up shells and just fell in love with it. It shows his personality so well: quiet, contemplative, and inquisitive. 

For this layout, I made a banner out of the fabric swatches by sewing them together and alternating the direction of the pinked edges. I always say this, but I really love how all of Ormolu's products mix and match between collections. I used items from the Go! collection mixed with the Fact or Fiction collection. 

I have hundreds of photos from this vacation, which is a good thing because summer is still several months away. I plan on spending some of these snowy, windy days hiding in my little studio and enjoying the sun.

-Marti 

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_______________________________________________________________________

Also, Write. Click. Scrapbook. is having a giveaway on their blog today for a gift certificate to the shop! 

Stop by, check it out and leave a comment for a chance to win. 

And..the shop is looking a bit bare lately. In fact, I have a lot on order- so much it is taking longer than usual to get it all in. As soon as it is in I will let you all know. The best place to stay updated is on Facebook or check out the News tab on the shop site. 

Thank you all for your patience as I wait to restock :)

-Kaitlin  

Reader Spotlights

I've been noticing more and more Ormolu products showing up on pages around the web and in galleries recently.  Now that Ormolu is sold not only directly from the site, but also places such as Two Peas In A Bucket, Stop and Scrap and in various kits it is showing up on some fabulous projects!

So today the creative team is taking a break and we're sharing reader and fan projects that have been shared with us and that have been found in galleries!

First up, Allison Waken shared this beautiful layout with us on our Facebook fan page:

Love how the negative tag is part of the embellishment and part of the title!  It really pops!

 

Next up, Michelle Hernandez knocked it out of the park using several different tags and a flair button for her layout, This is Me:

I love the clustering of she did around her photo!  The textures and colors go so well together!

 

 Amy Coose used her Ormolu goodies with a subtle touch on this sweet layout about her familys' brand new baby:

Vivian Masket created a photo-less layout using not only a cool Silhouette image, but added some great Ormolu embellishments too!

I'm definitely scraplifting this one!!  Great use of the Go Line with this layout subject!

 

Keep those gorgeous Ormolu projects coming!  Feel free to share on the Ormolu fan page.  We love to see them!

-Christa

Revisit the Past

Today we're going to revisit our past.  No, not the glorious 70's or even the rockin' 80's, but just one short month ago. 

Put your lights back up, get some presents wrapped and start rolling out some cookies because we are walking down the December Daily/December Journal road again!  I know you may have turned your focus to Project Life, Project 365 or just getting your supplies organized, but we're going to go back and tie up some loose ends.

On a personal note, this is HUGE for me!!  I was a Week in the Life fail, a December Daily 2010 fail and there is no way I will attempt Project Life because that would be an epic fail!!

My original December Journal post covered only a few pages so I'm here with the completed album (insert angels singing).

The cover (again):

I had a lot of fun with Jed, our Elf on the Shelf, this season!  Let's just say that when you're on your own in the evenings after the kids go to bed you may or may not have a lot of time on your hands, so I definitely wanted to document our antics together!

Of course there has to be a Santa page!  And we had THE BEST Santa ever at the museum we went to visit.

I had a "filler" page and decided to document their favorites for this year.  I think it'll be fun to look back on it and see how these all change!

We took a local trip to the National Zoo to see the lights they put up each year.

And our big to do for the holiday season was a great vacation to the Bahamas that we LOVED!!

And that's it! 

 

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This fact.

Just catching up a bit now that the holidays are over...finally finished this layout about my first 10K last November. :) (Shhh! We'll just ignore the many other layouts that remain unscrapped, lol!)

I love how smoothly this layout came together by simply tweaking the bits and pieces of Ormolu products that I had sitting on my desk. In particular, I cut the arrow out of a fabric swatch and stapled that on a trimmed package tag...curved the top of a negative number tag (just for fun)...and added a piece of flair to a flapper which sits above a remnant from that trimmed package tag and has a scrap of paper chain.

My favorite parts are the trimmed fabric arrow and the kraft on kraft number package tag (subtle but impactful when popped up on foam dots). What are your favorite ways to tweak Ormolu products?

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Stephanie | 1/17

With Valentine's Day coming up, I took a little time over the weekend to get an early start on a few cards. My husband and I don't really spend money on each other on Valentine's, but I always do my best to make him a card.

For this, I took a few Line & Letter Chevron tags, cut them in half, alternated them on the card, then layered elements from the Fact or Fiction Dots n' Spots, the Fact or Fiction Flappers and Line & Letter Mix Tags.

I misted, added a few staples and a Tim Holtz film transparency. Then I cut the edges along with the Chevron pattern for a little added element.

The card turned out masculine, which is the look I was going for. I had fun putting it together and I think my sweetie will be pleased to receive it!

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getting your groove back

I don't know if any of you have been feeling this way, but I've been in a pretty huge scrapping slump since the holidays. I ended up being super, crazy busy with work & family all throughout Christmas, and it left me feeling pretty burnt out creatively, to the point where I had no inspiration or energy to sit down and scrap.  So, in order to kickstart myself,  I decided to look through my albums, and scraplift a favourite layout of mine, pictured below:

 

 

 

 

 

and today's version:

The end result may not be the most creative layout I've ever done, but it gave me an easy solution to pushing around paper, and feeling like I was wasting my time trying to come up with something new.  And I'm totally fine with that!  I chose a layout that I made a few years ago, took the same basic design and theme, and just updated it. I also added some more personal journaling in the back.  In my case, it was an easy way to find the spark to get me moving again- I'm now feeling motivated to tackle the last half of my December Daily, which is going to be my priority in the next few weeks. 

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A daily reminder...

Happy Sunday everyone!  When I sat down to work on my project for this post, I had originally planned on creating a layout featuring my goals for the new year, as many are doing (or have done already!).    However, the more I thought about it, the more I decided that a layout listing my goals would really get me nowhere. Let's face it, after I finished it, what would I do with it?  Stick in in an album never to be seen again?  Or, in my case, stick it in my giant pile of layouts, never to be seen again? ;)  (Hmmm...maybe I should have added "put layouts in albums" as one of my goals!!)  I decided to scrap (ha!) the layout idea and instead made a very simple wall hanging that lists my goals and reminds me to think about them every day.  I hung it right smack dab in the middle of my inspiration board that sits over my scrap table. This way when I scrap my 15 minutes every day (one of the goals on my list!) I will be sure to notice it. :) 

Scrap Your Goals!

 

Do you scrap your goals and resolutions? How about when you celebrate a major accomplishment? Last year, I made a goal of getting into better shape. I still have a long way to go, but I wanted to celebrate one of the items I crossed off my Bucket List in 2011: I did a Half-Marathon.

My husband has been wanting to run a marathon for quite some time. We did a search of races and found one in my hometown of Santa Barbara, CA. We thought this would be perfect: it is at sea level, it was held in the fall (not too hot), and it was in a beautiful location that we were somewhat familiar with. I decided I'd do the half- while he ran the full-marathon. Well, summer hit and while I was busy training, he was busy golfing. When fall arrived, he decided he wasn't up to doing the full- so we both signed up for the half. My cousin, Mariah, lives there and I decided misery loves company I'd invite her to join in the fun! I was so excited when she agreed to do it that I had matching shirts printed up for the three of us with "13.1 Miles 'Cause I'm Only Half Crazy!". 

My husband ran the race, but Mariah and I walked it. We met a fellow racer who walked with us the entire race and she dubbed us "Team Half-Crazy", so I decided to use that as my title for the layout. The tag on the right records my 3 favorite memories of the day: 1) Finishing, 2) Sharing the experience with Mariah, 3) Hamburger Habit (we went there after the race and I don't think I've ever appreciated, nor enjoyed, a hamburger more than I did that day - best bacon cheeseburger of my life). 

I want to encourage you to scrap your goals this year, or at least the ones you accomplish. ;)  And, if you are thinking of trying to do a half-marathon, I can't encourage you enough. This was one of the best days of my life. Mariah is a mom with four boys, and I am a mom of four and a grandma so if WE can finish, I know YOU can. 

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