ormolu

Summer 2012 Flair & Giveaway Day 3

Who's looking forward to summer? 

For some of you it might have already kinda started. For me I think it will officially start when my daughter gets out of school next Friday and we begin our 'summer schedule' (so looking forward to that!)

I've been tucking these little 'Summer | 2012' flair buttons  into orders that were placed since the new items came out on Friday but I wanted to share so you know to look for it in your order. This is an exclusive flair button that I will include in orders throughout the summer (well, until I end up on maternity leave in August!) I am planning on making a little mini-book to document our summer adventures, which are mostly close to home because of the whole pregnancy thing. 

 
Today's giveaway is a set of Bungalow Clock Flair (either digital or analog style) because I am just loving how these can be used for so many different types of things. Not only to document the everyday but for projects like schedules, chore charts, calendars... 

AND of course I will throw in a 'Summer | 2012' Flair Button ( you have to have one of those!)

Leave a comment on today's post by 8 p.m. PST today and a winner will be announced on tomorrow's blog post. 

Don't forget to check back on tomorrow's post to see if you won...and to enter into another giveaway!

-Kaitlin 

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And the winner of yesterday's giveaway for the tag sale |sale tags is: 

Suzanna, contact Kaitlin at ormoludesign(at)gmail(dot)com so we can get those out to you! 

Thanks everyone for the comments!

Merry Christmas!

A little early, but the Creative Team and I are taking a break for the Holidays to spend time with our family and friends. We want to head out on our break with a thank you to our readers and for all of the support we have received throughout the year. So, in the spirit of Christmas, each of us made a card... our version of sending cards to our readers.

We hope you have a Merry Christmas, Happy Holiday and safe travels. We will be back in the new year! 

Christa Paustenbaugh

Emily Spahn

Marti Cobb

Stephanie Wheeler

Melanie Louette

Pam Brown

Amanda Probst

Kaitlin Sheaffer

December Daily | Kaitlin

This will be my fifth year doing a December album of sorts. I started doing Shimelle's class and gradually moved into more of a December Daily mode. I love both ways of doing it and sometimes combine both in my album now. What I noticed while taking out and looking over my past lbums this year is...I don't love all of them. In fact, the last few years my albums have gradually gotten thicker but I don't feel as they are as good as the first few years I did this type of album. This year I decided to streamline my entire approach and make it much simpler for me. So far, I love how it is coming out. I hope I keep up with it. 

For my album I used this one in the shop. I painted it white and then using my silhouette I cut out some fabric I ironed to a piece of heat bond. I know silhouette carries a fabric interfacing, but I could not find it in stock anywhere at the time I was doing this (and I kinda didn't want to wait for it to arrive either). It is holding up well and I am love how it turned out.

For the design I took measurements of the spine and drew a rectangle the size. 

I chose some doily shapes from the silhouette store and placed them overlapping my spine piece. I was originally going to use snowflake designs but I ended up liking these doily designs best. 

To combine the shapes I selected all of them and clicked on the weld button. Easy as that. 

I ran the fabric through my sewing machine to give it a little interest along the spine, then I ironed on the fabric to the chipboard binder (after painting it and removing the spine). After putting the album back together I added the December 2011 button I am putting in all orders. The only thing I would have changed is made the spine piece a little wider to overlap the front more. Other than that I really love it. 

My set up for my album is a baseball protector (cut down to 4 squares) and a full size page protector for each day. Because I started with the baseball protector, I was able to use the first side for an introduction page. The bottom right corner is empty still because I want to add a photo sometime during the month of our family. 

This is how the album lays out for one day. You will see the next day is just reversed (baseball page protector on the right, full size on the left). Doing it this way drastically reduced the amount of pages I will have- so that reduced the need for as much content and the thickness it will be in the end. Just what I wanted. For the template I wanted to use Ali's December Daily templates but because the page protectors I bought are 5.5 x 8.5 it would not work. Instead I drew out a skeleton of a template and am stamping in the number and day. 

Here is a closer look at the left side. 

For day two I typed onto my template: Do you see what I see, Do you hear what I hear, (and) Do you know what I know. Then I wrote in different things I have been seeing, hearing or 'knowing' lately. I love how it turned out. I got the idea listening to Christmas music in the car...probably will keep my ears open for more of these types of 'journaling prompts'.

It's really hard to see in photos, but for the 'Do you' part I printed it in an dotted outline and then filled it in with a glue pen and sprinkled a white glitter on it. This is my favorite page so far :) 

For day three I focused on photos I took of Jude playing with toys. Lately I have noticed him playing quietly with himself more and because of this I am very excited for him to open his gifts.

I don't have day four done yet, but I thought I would use this page to show how my album is set up for each day. I have each template printed and then I go in and stamp the number and day in (both stamps are from 7 Gypsies). Then the baseball card protector has a transparency with a number tag sewn to it. The number tag for on day is sewn on one side and for the next day on the other side (so on this page you see day 4 but on the other side is day 5). Then I fill in the remaining spots with journaling, photos, embellishments or emphemera. Easy. I made a few filler pieces (as seen above with the story tag- which I trimmed down from the original size). These pieces are thrown throughout the album and I can move them if I want to but this way I have some pieces done in case I need to fill in anything. 

When I am all finished, I will probably tie a ribbon around the entire album. I might also add something in the front or back of the interior- not quite sure yet. 

How are your December Daily's going? 

I would love to see some of them so please share in the comments any links you might have!

-Kaitlin 

InLinkz.com

 

New Releases

 Oh my gosh. I've been working so long and hard on this last release that this last week I took a break. A break that consisted of me catching up on wholesale orders and organizing to get ready to put new items in the shop. Not so much of a break I suppose. But, never the less I am excited to show everyone what I have been working on these last several months. This is probably the largest release I have done and I had a few failures in terms of some new items but ultimately everything worked out and I am so happy to share these with you. 

Releasing new items in the shop is a very anxious time for me. I absolutely love coming up with new designs for items. The brainstorming of themes, titles, colors and then the trials and errors of seeing it all come together. Then receiving proofs for items usually puts my stomach in knots- but 90% of the time it is just a few quick things I need to fix before putting them up in the shop. Putting them up in the shop is a whole other story though- because I know I like the items. And now that I have these awesome girls working with me and can show them peeks of things I am working on I know what they like too. But then it's the revealing of the items and whether other people will like them that leaves me so anxious. And it shouldn't- I think. Because at the least I have made something I love and I know (when I get the time) I will use. But anyone who has ever made anything- even as a child and you lift it up to show your parents. There's that moment when you just are not sure if they will love it and you put yourself out there for other's approval. 

Occasionally I get emails from people who have purchased items from the shop, showing me things they have created with the products and telling me they really love everything- and that just makes my day. I love getting those emails. I appreciate every email, tweet, facebook post, message board post- everything. I appreciate hearing feedback- and knowing what types of things you are looking for. 
...and I guess that is what is on my mind lately. 

For this release I knew Christmas was a given. Christmas is my favorite time of year- although, I told my daughter that really it is this time right now- the time leading up to Christmas. The anticipation and seeing Christmas things go up in stores. Knowing it is coming. I love that part. 

I know you guys really want to see pictures- and if you have made it this far in the post I applaud you! Because I  am the type of person who would have already clicked over and then I go back to read :) But I wanted to give a bit of background on what I was thinking as I came up with colors and themes for products I guess. I really think things over and each year when I put together Christmas items for myself I have an issue with using the bright reds versus dark reds and the true greens versus the lighter greens. I love all of the colors- but many times in products I see one or the other. And I kinda want my color scheme to be flexible so I can buy products I love and want to use and not have to worry about color ( I know- kinda crazy probably). So, for the Christmas lines I decided to go with that. I wanted bright reds, deep reds, a true Christmas green and a mint green- and I wanted them to work together. 

I wanted some blue- I think I am not the only one in love with that turquoise blue color right now. A nice neutral taupe that works well with metallics and there is even a hint of a birch back pattern in some of the designs. 

I love using the little flappers I have in the shop. They are probably my most used item. It's so easy to use them with project life and mini-books. But I wanted more areas to write little notes on them so I left lots of ledger type spaces for stamping and writing. 

Two different flair button designs for Christmas- plus...

some new advent number flair. I think this would be awesome for an advent calendar. 

New number tags. It was time. I have had the same ones for several years now and even though they still sell quite well and people are still asking for them...I kinda wanted something different. The other ones are still up in the shop as a digital file if you are looking for those. 

New shape for package tags. I wanted more room to write and length to tuck these into photo pockets and use them as a big title all on their own. I love these. 

New flair charms. I debated on these for a while- they have some thickness to them...probably double the height of a regular flair. I love how they turned out though. I think they will look perfect tying off a mini album, dangling from the spine of an album or even on a page tied on some ribbon or string. 

And...that is most of the Christmas items. There are more but I want to get to the bright colorful stuff too and this post is already long! 

This new line is titled Fact or Fiction. It came about (as a title) because of my daughter who goes back and forth between fiction and non-fiction books (which is awesome!). It came about as a theme because I was thinking about the way we tell stories as scrapbookers, memory keepers and the like. I wanted it to work with project life (because I love my project life album) so there is lots of ledger for writing. I absolutely love this line and how it came out. Seeing these items out on my table right now makes me want to create- and I hope that is exactly what they do for you too. 

Because I wanted it to work with project life, I thought it was important to have the ability to print off journaling cards on demand- so I went with a digital kit for the journaling cards on this one rather than having them be a physical product. These are SO fun. I love being able to print these off as I need them. 

There's a lot more- including a new color of cardstock that I just love so much, bakers twine by the color, some new days of the week flair buttons (that coordinate with the fact or fiction line) and some new negative tags (in the new horizontal packaging tag shape!) but I really want to get to this...

Custom flair buttons. Why? Because I have been making these for my daughter for labeling things that need a bit more durability and I am switching out all of the labels on my album spines to a piece of monogrammed flair. I want to give everyone an option to do this and have been thinking about this for a while but wasn't sure the best way. I've tried to streamline this as much as possible to make it an easy process. I tried to think up of the most popular things someone would want- monograms, years, symbols...I thought some family names would be good and a few other things. These are SO cool and I am totally excited about these. The colors are lovely and I hope to add more options in the future. If you have some suggestions of things you would like to see let me know- either commenting or in an email. 

That was a lot. One more thing though- 

If you place an order this weekend I am attaching a little 'December | 2011 button to your packing slip. So check the packing slip out cause you don't want to miss that! This will look great on the side of a December Daily albums- I know I will be adding one to mine :) 

*Just to clarify only orders with physical product will receive a December 2011 button. Orders that consist of all digital items won't be included in this offer since I won't be mailing anything. 

Thank you again and again for keeping up with my little shop and any support you have given- whether it be just dropping by to see what is going on, sending an email,  sharing the site with others, liking us on Facebook or purchasing some items for yourself. I truly, truly appreciate it! 

-Kaitlin 

 

 

 

 

Tip & Technique Tuesday | Planning Layouts & Titles using Tags

He Goes by Kaitlin Sheaffer

Ormolu supplies used: Go Dots n Spots, Excellence of Love Flapper, Line & Letter Scallop Tags in kraft, white flecked cardstock

Welcome to our very first Tip & Technique Tuesday! 

I have a few little tips and techniques to share that I used while creating this layout.

This layout came about while I was in the car (husband driving) on a mini trip this weekend. I managed to sketch out the basics of how I wanted the layout to form, the journaling and nailed down what type of photo I would be looking for when creating the layout. All in all- it took me less than thirty minutes to make the layout when I got home. Perfect! I always keep a pen and paper on hand with me while I am out and I even tend to carry it around with me at home.

 My favorite notebook as of recently is this wire bound notebook by Whitelines. It has a light grey background and white grid lines so it works great when I want to sketch out layouts or product design ideas. Looking at their website I see they have a new organizational notebook which I think will be the next one I pick up. Love these notebooks- I also see they have hardbound versions and different sizes...definitely will be picking more of these up. 

 

To make the layout I started a new document in InDesign (but this could also be done in Photoshop or even Microsoft Word). I knew I wanted an opening beside the photo for journaling and I also wanted to use a circle tag in place of the letter 'O'. In my document I drew a circle that was the same size of the tag I wanted to use and used that to judge the size of the title. Then I changed the coloring of the 'O' to white so that i would not print out or effect the spacing of the other letters. 

I also knew I where I wanted the photo so I drew a 4x6 rectangle to see how it would look on the page. I quickly realized I would not be able to use the remaining space how I wanted so I resized the rectangle to a 4x4 square to see how that would look. 

Once I saw the 4x4 photo space would leave enough room for journaling and allow me to place a 2x4 piece of patterned paper I started typing up my journaling. 

I also added a yellow rectangle at the top to see how the Line & Letter 'He' tag would fit.

Since it all looked like it would fit just great I went ahead and deleted everything but the journaling and title (making sure I deleted the placeholder for the 'o' which I would use a circle tag in place of). 

 After adhering everything to the layout as planned I decided I needed a bit of texture. I headed to my sewing machine to stitch over the Line & Letter Negative Scallop Tag. Instead of squeezing in the stitch above the word 'He' I decided to stitch over the word to give a bit more interest. 

Then I decided to add the date in the bottom corner of the photo. I cut a piece of a flapper from the Excellence of Love Flappers that complemented Jude's shirt  and stitched it on leaving a bit of an overhang on the photo, which I later used my fingernail to curl the edge a bit. 

Whenever I do stitching I like to use a liquid glue to seal it. I use this little glue pen and just dab the ends before I cut. I love this glue pen and use it on little things all the time! I also use some acid free tape on the back of the layout to tape down extra thread and to 'seal' the stitch. This way the thread doesn't creep into the hole and come undone or get messed up when I slip the page into a protector. 

Another thing I payed attention to while creating the layout were the visual lines. I used the pointy end of the Line & Letter scallop tag to draw a line down to the journaling. Originally I had planned to make the journaling directly below the 'letter o' (aka tag) but when I lined it up that way it lacked interest and threw off the sizing of the photo. Shifting it just a bit and using the scallop tag created more impact and allowed me to make the photo square so I went that route. 

I also chose to use hollow lettering in place of solid lettering for the title since the tag was going to 'fill' the letter 'o'. 

All in all this is one of my favorite layouts I have done lately. It seems to me my favorite ideas come to me when I don't necessarily have time to sit down and scrapbook- but rather I plan it while I am going about day to day tasks and create it when I have that time. My time seems less wasted and I have time to worry about the fun parts of creating a layout like what types of embellishments I will use :) 

- Kaitlin 

Creative Team | Week in the Life: kickoff

Remember back in this post when we did a giveaway for Week in the Life? Well, a few of the Creative Team members wanted to do Week in the Life and I sent them some items to give them a jumpstart on their projects. This week everyone is done (or almost there) and each day a different team member will be sharing their end results. 

Here is a peek: 

Check back tomorrow for Pam's Week in the Life, followed by Christa, Stephanie and Marti! 

-Kaitlin