ormolu

Perfect complements.

Hi there. Just here to share a quick layout with you, using some of the lovely Bungalow and Tag Sale goodies.

For this layout, I opted to go with just one photo and to make it the main element. I added the journaling and embellishments to complement that.

I just love the sentiments on the Bungalow pieces…”Shut the Front Door” and “This is BIG”…so very appropriate and utterly perfect for this layout. I also ordered a custom flair button with “13.1” on it for this occasion and love how it adds to the page and serves as my title.

And I’ve been holding onto that “Legendary” swatch for awhile now…I think completing my first half marathon is worthy of it, don’t you? ;) 

So. What Ormolu embellishments have been the perfect complements to your projects lately?

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Summer Activity Jar Teacher Gifts

Tis the season for teacher appreciation (and more sneaks of the new lines)! ;) Though I homeschool, my boys actually have a number of teachers, primarily from the one-day-a-week school that they attend. They each have six different classes, though some of the teachers overlap. Faced with so many gifts, I’m always on the lookout for something unique, useful and (ahem) not too expensive. Having many friends who are public school teachers, themselves, I also know that the “typical” teacher mugs and tote bags and such aren’t really necessary (as they already have plenty, lol). So. I try to think in terms of things that will actually get used. I’ve done miniature terrariums, sets of personalized magnets, Amazon gift cards, shadow box décor with an educational quote, ninja-bread cookies and cutters (for the karate teachers), games, books, and more.

This year, I went for Summer Activity Jars. I’ve seen this online in a number of places but added my own little twist to make it a gift, rather than something just for yourself. Here’s what I came up with:

INSIDE THE JAR

-          Print, cut and fold summer activity ideas. Because I love you, here’s the list I used, tweaked slightly to remove specific local outings that probably won’t work for you. ;) Feel free to add more!

Download Summeractivityjarlist

-          Include a giftcard or two…with the accompanying activity idea stapled to it. I got small giftcards for ice cream (“Go out for ice cream.”) and to a local book store (“Read a good book.”). (I made my own little giftcard holder envelopes because the ones provided wouldn’t fit through the mouth of the jar…and because this way they color coordinated better, lol. I also liked that this way I could inconspicuously gift some teachers more than others.)

-          Have your child write a personal thank you note to the teacher. I printed out some Ormolu digital tags for each boy, had them write a little note and dropped those tags into the appropriate jars. I also printed tags for myself and wrote a personal note to each teacher.

THE JAR, ITSELF

-          Add letter stickers to one of the awesome new Bungalow little labels and attach everything to the jar. (I considered using the smooth mason jars to make this step easier, but found the openings to be too small for hands to easily reach into. Terrifically Tacky Tape works well, though, for attaching labels to regular mason jars.)

-          Wrap twine around the top and tie.

-          Make a little to/from label to hang from the twine. I used the fabulous Tag Sale "to/from" flair button attached to a fun little Tag Sale sale tag. (I mounted both on a slightly larger circle of cardstock so that I could punch a hole in that to string the twine through.)

And there you have it! So. What are you doing for teacher thank you's this year? (Seriously. I could use more ideas! I still have swim team coaches, karate instructors and archery coaches here, folks, lol!) 

(New items should be up in the shop in the next couple days...watch for it! You're gonna want it ALL!)

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Password keeper.

Raise your hand if, like me, you're floundering in website usernames and passwords. And, just when I start to remember them, the site asks me to change them for security. I'm not alone, right? So. I finally decided to do something about it. Rather than trying to keep all the little scraps of paper I scratch my passwords on in a neat tidy pile, I made a little password keeper. 

I grabbed my GO Ticket Book and pulled out the lovely tickets (to use on other projects). I thought the GO line was appropriate since I can't "go" without my proper passwords, lol. I also love the reminder that often the packaging is as useful as the product.

I added a flair piece (taken off its charm setting), punched a hole and used a binder ring to hold my inside tags together:

My inside tags (which fit so perfectly!) actually have my passwords and such scrawled on them (about five altogether, broken out by category...shopping sites, services, bills, social media, etc) but obviously I'm not going to share those here. ;) I like that by using the binder ring I can change the tags out as they need correction and/or as I add more sites. I can also use the binder ring to hang my handy password keeper in my office, inconspicuously. 

Ta da! So, how do you keep track of your many passwords? (Really. I'd love to know!)

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Don't forget Ormolu's Creative Team call- check out this post here for more information! 

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A new twist on the gold star

 

Remember those charts where you'd earn a gold star when you did something good? And usually you'd get a prize when you got to the end of the row or to a certain number of stars, right? Well, my project today is a bit of a twist on that...making a paper chain to reach a fitness goal. 

You see, I'm managing to do okay (miraculously) sticking with my running plan. But. I know I need some strength training mixed in there and just utterly lack the motivation to follow through. So. I figured I'd make myself a pretty little way to track my progress. I made up 15 paper chain strips (numbered so I can count down). Each time I do the strength training, I get to add a link. When my chain is 15 links long, I get a prize. ;) Here are the strips:

I just took bits and pieces of my Ormolu stash and...voila! When I complete a day (and I'm just starting out so I apologize that it's not longer), I'm writing what I did and a brief message (the first one says "oy!" lol). I've got the other strips in a pretty goblet and will end with "hip, hip, hooray!"

What do you think? Suppose this will motivate me like those little gold star charts work for kids? What goal are you working toward right now?

 

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Scrapping with scraps

Happy middle of the week to you all! My layout today is a pretty simple one. What I love about it, though, is the economy of it...I used scraps leftover from other projects in my creating and am happy with how it came out:

Yes. This is another layout taken straight from a blog post. ;) Beyond using words I already had, I also printed out that same picture, used a blank white package tag that hadn't made it onto another layout (hence it was already cut and needed a little something to cover stuff up, lol), used the positive portion of a negative package tag (the arrow), and used leftovers scraps of fabric swatches. I'm lazy and thrifty like that. ;) 

Here's a closer look at the fabric swatch scraps:

These were all just strips of fabric swatches that had been trimmed for other projects. I tend to throw stuff like that into a little bowl on my desk, pulling bits out now and then. The arrow is from the Go Negative Package Tags...I just used some markers and Glossy Accents on it before popping it up on foam squares. And, last but not least, I love how blank package tags plus a corner rounder can make such a nice little addition to the background. ;)

So. Do you save your scraps? What have you made with them lately? 

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Our 20 Year Love Story

Yesterday, my husband and I celebrated 20 years of knowing each other. Yup. Twenty years. :) To commemorate the occasion (in addition to surprising him with a lovely dinner out, without kids), I ordered a canvas print of a black and white picture of the two of us, found a cute little wooden sign that says "Love is all you need" and made this card:

To make it, I took five 3x3" squares of kraft cardstock. On two of them, I added tiny pictures representing the passage of time (pics of the two of us over the past 20 years)...on the other three, I created the title "our 20 year love story." I attached them all to a thick ribbon (with extra sticky double sided tape) so they accordion-ed like a little card...like so:

Because the canvas print and wooden sign were rather monochromatic, I stuck with that scheme in making the card, mixing and matching lovely Ormolu products (right down to the letters punched out of the negative package tags):

So, how many years have you known that special person in your life?

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Journaling with a grid

I'm a very linear sort...in pretty much all aspects of my life. ;) I like clean lines and right angles and everything in its place. It comes as no surprise, then, that when I'm stumped on inspiration, I turn to grids.  In fact, when I initially posted about this field trip on my blog, I used a simple grid to include more photos. Because I dislike reinventing the wheel, I took that blog post and made it directly into a layout (using the exact same photos and journaling). Here's what I ended up with:

Starting from my grid of photos, I turned to Ormolu's awesome digital journaling tags. I mimicked the grid set up and used that for my journaling...coordinating the journaling for each picture on the corresponding tag. I like how it allowed me to include more specifics from my story and also appreciate how it keeps the journaling clear, leaving the viewer without confusion about which journaling goes with which picture. Fun!

(I created this layout, by the way, as a digital one and intend to print it out and include it in my album. I can already see spots, though, where I may actually add a few three-dimensional Ormolu products (like a flair button or fabric swatch) and make this into more of a hybrid layout. You could also just print out these journaling tags and include them directly on a paper layout.) 

So, have you done any journaling with a grid lately? ;)

- Amanda

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Bean Mine

Okay. Don't laugh. I know it's a little cheesy. ;) If you're anything like me, though, you might have a tough time coming up with little ideas for Valentine's gifts. Being surrounded by boys such as I am, I don't have a lot of experience with pink and hearts and flowers, lol. So. This Valentine's Day, here's an idea:

See? I told you it was cheesy. ;) In any case, I just found a cute little mason jar and filled it with jelly beans (I'm realizing that beans in all one color would have been more aesthetically pleasing, lol). I used one of my lovely paper chains, a flair button, a kraft package tag cut in the shape of a heart (and crimped) and some scrap felt I had in my office. Easy peasy. :)

For what it's worth, I'm thinking these awesome paper chains would look great wrapped around a candle also...maybe with a tag saying "you light up my life" or something similarly too sweet, lol. 

So. What do you do for Valentine's Day for the guys in your life? (Seriously. I could use some more ideas!) ;)

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My un-Valentine Valentine.

Inspired by Steph's challenge, the fact that my boys recently took their love of archery to the next level, and, well, Bon Jovi, ;) here's an early un-Valentine Valentine that I just made:

Yup, it's a bit bigger than standard card size, but since I'll be delivering it in person, I figure that's okay. I added the binder clip at the top so that I can hang it. Cool. :)

So. Have you made your un-Valentine Valentine yet? Be sure to post a link to the challenge post by next Tuesday! And. If you happen to have any Instagram photos to add to it (or a completely separate project with Instagram photos), post a link to the Instagram challenge post by next Wednesday, too!

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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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