Andrea's blog

I love when people order signs and have great new ideas for me!  It makes creating peronalized signs so much fun!  Then each sign really is one-of-a-kind.

I'm in love with this design in particular:  What a fun way to personalize! Just think of the possibilities!

And finally, finally, it looks as though the fall is making an appearance here in Birmingham, AL.  About time!

Order your personalized sign today!

Sometimes when random events of the day converge, you end up with an art project.  For instance, today I sorted through my printed pictures to give Ayla a good stack of extras to scrapbook with.  Then, we got a sheet of happy face stickers in the mail with a Highlights flyer.  Makes perfect sense that they should go together, right?  Ayla and I thought so. 

I think this would make a great "Nokes" Christmas card this year....

Not that I have a huge excess of time on my hands (at least *I* don't think so), and I'm far from the most efficient person you'll meet (especially if you've met my sister-in-law Janel), but I practice a few time-saving activities that I think are worth sharing:

• I use my travel bathroom bag at home.  Then it's packed and ready to go at any moment - anywhere, even if it's just the gym.  It's also a handy hang-on-a-hook design, so it doesn't take up much space and keeps all my stuff off the counter (usually). -

  estimated time savings: 10 minutes per trip
   

• Just 'cause my 17-month old doesn't go to school doesn't mean he can't still have his lunch packed with his sister's each night.  One less lunch to make the next day. I'd make my own & Ben's too, but I prefer heating up leftovers to the sack-lunch options the kids eat most days.

  estimated time savings: 10 minutes per day

• Limit Facebook checks to 1 time a day.

  estimated time savings: 10 hours per day

  -- oh wait! I don't do that.  That must be why I have no extra time on my hands.  jazz...

What are your best time-saving tips?

Today's article at Scrapjazz.com is all about the P-man!  Well, really it's about a layout about the P-man...but you get the idea! :)

Step-by-Step: One Party

You can see more scrapbooking articles by me here...

• Kimberly Geswein Fonts
• Download the "Sekona" Font

I've been without a scanner since I got my new computer, so please excuse the digital photos of these layouts. I'm still perfecting the art of photographing a piece of paper.  Shouldn't be so hard, right?  It is.  Anyhow, it hasn't kept me from scrapbooking and trying to catch back up a little bit -- I'm not used to being behind!  Here are a few of my recent favorites:

Celebrating my birthday:

My lovely sister-in-law and her children (oh yeah, and my brother w/his children too!)

Easter will never pass again without me thinking about the day Paxton was born:

You can just see the pudge in his prints, huh?

My most favorite photo of 2010 (so far):

Some photos from my newborn twin shoot with my new niece & nephew:

And this one goes in Ayla's "Through the Years" album...gotta get started on Paxton's soon!

That only brings me to May 2010 though! Still lots to do....

Some of the products featured in these pages:

• Fancy Pants Designs - Little Sprout Collection - 12 x 12 Paper Kit
• Doodlebug Design - Loopy Lou Alphabet Cardstock Stickers - Lily White

 I made one for Ayla, so in the name of everything fair and equal I had to make one for Paxton too -- a "fancied" Flipbook from Snapfish.com.  They're only $4.99 so when I got a coupon code for 50 free prints when you spend at least $5 on a "photo gift", it was a no-brainer.  Either I got 50 free prints, or a free Flipbook -- good both ways!  

I followed almost the exact same pattern for Paxton's First Year Flipbook as I did for Ayla's: his monthly gorilla pictures, followed by another favorite picture from that month.  I also love that I got to use this fun tab punch that I bought for my Baby's First Year photo albums again!

Such an easy project, and cheap too.  It's a great way to use up scraps of papers you love and have a cute little album to share when you're finished!

Welcome to all the KevinandAmanda.com blog readers!  Good luck on this week's sign giveaway!

I'm so enjoying reading your comments and hearing about which signs you'd love to have!  Remember, each sign is custom made, so the sky is the limit!  It can say anything you wish and if you're looking for something even more custom (not on the general order form), just let me know and we'll design something perfect together!

Don't forget to "Like" Signs by Andrea on Facebook to receive updates of new sign designs, sales & coupons!

Thanks for stopping by!

Thanks for all your great ideas about my wall collage.  In order to fill those frames and take advantage of a $1.99 flat rate shipping sale at Scrapbookpictures.com (that ends Aug 31st), I decided to go ahead and order some prints! Including that $1.99 shipping sale and a 15 prints free promo code (which saved me $3.75), I got all nine 12 x 12 prints for only $12.10 -- shipped.  Can't beat that.

I went with photographs of the kids playing outside.  No special, fantastic, clever theme, just pictures of them having fun outside. And I'm *sure* I'll want to change them at some point in the future.  But for now, I think this will do just fine.

That den/playroom project is *slowly* taking form...we finally got our toy cabinet fiasco taken care of (which involved re-cutting shelves, reordering doors, and lots of un-needed stress.)  They are now assembed, with shelves and doors. Yay!  The toys can finally be put away! Only took a month...  Oh, but there are still a few more things to take care of before the "after" photos... coming soon...I hope!

First, you need to decide why you're scrapbooking. Is it to record stories? To have a place to put your photographs? To be crafty?  All of the above?  Any reason is fine, but whatever your reason is, it will be the strongest factor in how you create albums and layouts and it will define your approach to scrapbooking.

For instance, if want to remember specific dates, stories, and reflections, your albums and layouts will be very journaling-focused. If you're looking for a method of displaying and viewing photographs, you may lean more towards photo-album-style books. And then there are those who like the crafty element of creating a work of art, who will spend more time thinking about which products to use on a page, than the photos and words that go with it. 

Whatever your reasons, here are a few tips for making it fun and do-able:

1. Set reasonable goals and expectations. Break your scrapbooking projects (which can feel overwhelming and impossible to "finish") into smaller tasks.

   Choose photos for an album one day and write your journaling another. On a different day, pick a group of coordinating products to match your theme. In just a few days, you'll have created your own album kit ready to go whenever you are ready to scrapbook those memories.  

   Instead of scrapbooking *everything*, you can tackle years of back-logged photos with subject-themed albums such as sports, birthdays, school, holidays, etc. Or, divide a year into months, making monthly collages and dedicating only 2-4 pages to each month. 

   Here are several examples of album organization that I use:

   Through the Years Album
   Baby's First Year Photo Album (These make great baby shower gifts!)
   Basic Baby Album
   Elegant Wedding Album

2. Buy product kits. Kits are fabulous. Everything coordinates, you have all the elements you need on hand (paper, stickers, die cuts, embellishments, ribbon, etc.) and you can store it all together with your project, which makes it easy to get started anytime you have an opportunity to work on it.
    

3. Keep organized. I can't stress this enough. Keep your photos filed and dated, your supplies organized and easy-to-access, and you'll always be able to jump right into a project. There's nothing worse than feeling the urge to scrapbook and having to spend all your time getting organized instead.

   See how my room is organized: Scrap Room Video Tour
    

4. Write what you won't remember.   My memory is terrible, so I write everything  down - names, dates, locations, and most importantly, the story. What happened? Who was there? What did they say? How did you feel? Keep a journal, a calendar, or a blog to help you write it all down immediately so it isn't forgotten by the time you scrapbook it.
    

5. Photograph your world. Sometimes the perfect smiling-at-the-camera portraits aren't what become the most treasured photographs. Don't forget to take pictures of everyday activities, the house you live in, the places you go, and the people you love. No matter how blurry, how dimly lit, or how messy the background, you'll treasure the memories of those simple everyday things.

   Week in the Life Album - This is one of my favorite albums, full of photos of mundane, boring, everyday tasks. But two years later, it's a great record of our everyday life. I might do this one again in a few more years.