ormolu

Instagram mini

I've been wanting to do something with the gazillion Instagram shots I have on my stream, and decided on doing simple mini album. I should say that I'm not usually the mini album type, but seeing as how IG lends itself to a smaller sized print, I knew I had to go that route.  This is something I put together super quick in the past 2 evenings, and I'm really stoked with how it's coming along. I highly recommend printing out your IG pics- I'm loving the progression of seeing my year so far as I flip through this book, and if you're like me and can't commit to starting Project Life,  this is a fast way to do a very simplified take on that. 

I'm chooing to use 4 photos/month, so this book, once it's done, will have 52 pages, give or take.  The book I'm using  here is a 3x4  holiday mini from Jamaica that I've been hoarding since last year- I'm happy to have put it to good use. :) I'm resizing all my photos to 3x3, and adding a few bits of journaling under each one. 

I used my favourite tag sale tags along with one of the custom flair buttons to make my cover title. The Instagram stamp is from Studio Calico, I knew I needed that as soon as I saw it. 

 

 

 

 The inside page is covered with this perfectly worded journaling block from the new Bungalow collection. I added a stamped camera image, and layered another custom flair on top. 

 

Here's what the pages look like, grouped by month.

January:

February:

March:

April:

Once it's all finished at the end of December, I'll punch a hole at the top corner of each page, and just add a simple ring to hold it all together. I'm feeling like this is one project I won't have any problem finishing- I've loved putting it together so far and can't wait to see it all done at year's end. :)

 

 

 

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On finding the perfect embellishment

 

 

 

As a clean & simple scrapper, I have some 'issues' about adding a lot of stuff to my layouts. ;)  I wish I could, but it just doesn't work for me. I'm pretty content to make a page that focuses on my journaling and photo(s), and adding one or 2 embellishments that mesh well with the theme of my layout.  I went looking through my Ormolu stash, searching for something to go with this layout, and to my great joy, I found this 'Legendary' fabric tag from the 'Fact or Fiction' line that I'd totally forgotten about. Seriously?!  It's perfect.  I remember loving it when I first saw it, but thinking it would have to be something pretty specific for me to be able to use it. I think this photo of my son photographing the Empire State building ( which is iconic and legendary, right?)  works perfectly.  I layered the tag on top of the map strip, glued on a camera image that I hand cut from a piece of patterned paper, and then sewed it on.  Instant title, and my layout was done.  Love when that happens! I'd love to hear your thoughts on embellishing your layouts... do you embellish a lot, a little, or not at all? 

 

 

 

 

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Travel Mini Albums

 

 

I love mini albums. I like the idea of keeping record of an event, trip or subject in a small, maneagable format.

A few years ago, I found an idea via the internet to make mini travel albums with Moleskine journals. I made a journal of a trip to Chicago and New York City, and loved how much information I could pack into such a small book.

Since my husband and I are planning a trip to Seattle and Portland this fall, I thought it might be a good time to get started on my albums!

 

Working on the covers is probably my favorite part. I like to use airport codes (PDX and SEA) for the city, so I can know at a quick glance which album I want to flip through.

On my Portland album, I layered fabric, different patterned papers, stamps, Thickers and the cute little car button from the Go Flair set. On my Seattle set, I used the cute grey and yellow arrow from the Go Dots n' Spots set. I tried to keep the same color theme, and the Ormolu products coordinated perfectly.

In my Portland and Seattle albums, I also lined my pages with cardstock. This gives the otherwise thin pages some heft, and will allow me to journal on the lined pages during and after my trip. I am also leaving room to include memorabilia as well as a few embellishments.
 

I can't wait to go on my trip, print out some tiny photos and drop them into my pre-made album. Hope this inspires you to make a little album yourself!

xoxo,

Stephanie

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sneak peek

 

Good morning! 

I know a lot of you have been anxiously awaiting some new Ormolu products, and I have a little sneak peek for you today of what's coming up soon- you will not be disappointed, believe me!

 

The frame I used on my layout here is from an upcoming line called 'Bungalow'. These print & cut frames are to be used in conjunction with your Cameo or Silhouette, but not to worry if you don't have one, as they can be easily printed out on your home printer, and cut out with an exacto.  And I'm not sure yet, but I think Kaitlin may also offer these  for sale in the shop as a printed & laser cut physical card. The inside of the frame comes with two tickets, which you can use as an added bonus to journal on. I love how Kaitlin has designed these, a really brilliant touch to use up that wasted space inside the frame. 

On my layout here, I backed the cut out letters on the frame with some striped patterned paper, and tucked the 2 journaling tickets underneath. I've been buying a ton of great stamps lately, so I put those to good use by using them as part of my journaling/title ( a French quote that I LOVE) and as a subtle background for my photo frame. Sorry for the shadow-y scan, I would have prefered a photo, but we're in the midst of a  mini- hurricane here this morning (!) and it's just too dark & dingy to get a better shot.

Stay tuned for shop updates & new goodies in the next few weeks!

 

~ Melanie

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simple memory keeping

Good morning!

Since I haven’t yet jumped on the Project life bandwagon, (even though I’m terribly tempted) one of my favourite ways to document the little things about my children is to make a short recap of things they love, and put it on a layout. I usually just make a quick list in bullet form,  simple reminders of what they are ‘into’ at this moment. I absolutely LOVE re-visiting these pages a few years down the road.   I can’t tell you how happy I am to have done them, as we all know how fast it flies by, and how our memory gets a tad foggier every passing year. ;) I’ve done this type of layout for both of my boys a few times a year since I started scrapbooking, and they are really the most rewarding for me.

 For this page, I started with my text, placed my photo, and used the flair button ‘15’ layered on one of the dots & spots to highlight my son’s age. I stapled the fabric tag on top to add in some of that beautiful blue, ( which irl is really the same colour!)   and also as a spot to add in the heart button.

Hope this inspires you to jot down a few things you’ve wanted to document about your children, yourself, or your spouse- it’s a fast way to get a meaningful page done that you will cherish years from now. 

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The Classic Grid

Vacation photos are my favourite thing to scrapbook, because when I look back on those layouts, they evoke such fantastic memories.  I usually take many hundreds of photos when I travel, and sadly, not a lot of them make it onto a scrapbook page.  One way I like to use several photos on one page is to make a simple hybrid grid layout that still incorporates the white space I love. 

I began the layout by choosing and editing my photos, ( which took forever, as I had MANY)  and cropping them to 2in. x 2in  in my Photoshop program. Then I simply dragged them onto a 81/2 x 11” canvas (making sure it was the same dpi as my pics at 300 dpi ) and arranged the photos until I was happy with how they looked.  I knew I wanted to use some patterned paper as a place to add my Ormolu embellishments, so I just printed everything in a grid, trimmed  my woodgrain paper , and adhered it right over 2 of the photos.  I trimmed the woodgrain heart from the TreeHugger flapper,  added some pop dots, and adhered it to one of the dots & spots to create my own embellishment. The TreeHugger line is so great for scrapping camping/outdoor photos, it's adorable.

 

 Et voila.. I’ve used this grid design over and over for years, and it remains one of my favourites... I think it’s a staple that will never go out of style!

 

  

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Love Letters

Happy Valentine's Day! I hope you've had a little bit of chocolate with your morning coffee and are feeling an extra bit of love today. :)

For my post this morning,  I decided to make a layout that included a love letter to my firstborn son. I am SO proud of him- he's a great student, active in Scouting &  fundraising, and is an accomplished clarinetist at the age of 14. It hasn't always been an easy road, as he was a very strongwilled child growing up!  I used a favourite photo of him from that time, and in my letter, I wrote about how far we've come, how proud we are of him, and some words of encouragement for his future. I mounted my photo onto a 4x6 card that I stamped and embossed with Ali Edwards/Technique Tuesday stamps, ( unused from another project)  and then used the inside of the card to write my letter, as I chose to keep the journaling hidden. For my title, I used the left over punch out letters from the 'Fact or Fiction' Negative Package Tags, and substitued the 'love' button  for the 'o' to complete my word.  I'll add in a photo of the inside of the card a little later, since my husband stole my camera this morning for a work related project. ;)

I hope this will inspire you to write a letter to someone you love, whether it's today on Valentine's Day, or any day. 

Enjoy!

~ Melanie

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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 8th.

* It is not necessary to use Ormolu products to participate in the challenge :) 

 

**** Updated with my random.org pick... Kristy G, you're the lucky recipient of those cute buttons! Please email me at melaniedotlouetteatgmaildotcom with your mailing info. Thanks to all who played along!

 -Melanie

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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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December Daily

Out of all the scrap related things I do throughout the year, the December Daily is my favourite project. I adore Christmas, and it’s so great to be able to see how each year progresses, and how some traditions never change. This will be my third time around doing one, and hopefully, as the saying goes, the third time’s a charm, since I have yet to complete the last two. I have both previous albums neatly tucked away with journaling and photos, and one day I’ll find the time to finish- maybe when my boys are married and moved out. ;)

 This year, in order to make things easier on myself, I decided to use the Ali Edwards templates, and I can tell you that it has been a HUGE factor in actually getting my pages done and up to date on a daily basis. I pre-printed everything a week before December began, and (also huge) I’ve decided to simplify the process even more by only doing one page per day.  I’m using the Ormolu binder as my album; it’s a 7x9 size that is nice and compact, yet large enough to accommodate my needs. One thing I have in mind that I haven’t shown here is the baseball protectors I’m using in between my pages, much like Kaitlin posted yesterday. I cut them down to a 4 photo grid, and will add extra photos and details in them throughout the month. I didn’t include them here, since I haven’t received the Studio Calico page protectors I’m planning on using, and want to wait to see how everything fits in the binder before I actually commit to that. I’d like to keep this pretty streamlined, and not too bulky.

 For the album itself, I wanted a natural feel, and chose this small flower print paper from Studio Calico that echoes the poinsettia on the Ormolu tag I used for my title block- a lucky find. I typed my title on theMerryMaker Storyteller tag, and added the December 2011 button. (LOVE that). I used brown bookcloth to cover the spine- in retrospect, I should probably have taken the binder apart and reattached it on top of the bookcloth, but it doesn’t really bother me. I added a grommet to the linen star tag, stamped it with some Distress ink, and just tied it to the inside of binder with the twine that comes with the MerryMaker charms.

 

 Here are my pages to date- I won’t always be using only one photo, but up to this point, it’s what has worked well for me. I’m using little bits and pieces from pretty much  all of the Ormolu lines for my embellishments, and I love how these are working for me to add just a little punch.

I’m working on Days 5 & 6 today, and feeling good that I can do this all the way through the end of December. If you’re interested in seeing how the rest of my album unfolds through the month, I’ll be posting it on my blog as I go. And if you're working on your own DD with any Ormolu products, I'd love it if you linked it up here for us to check out!

 

-Melanie

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