Fifteen minutes tops and you’ve got yourself a keepsake!

Have a great day!

tammy

I turned it in to a box of assorted homemade gift tags.  There are tags with ribbons, regular tags and some little cards with envelopes.  Also included are a date stamp (i think it’s fun to date cards so that if you save them you can remember when you received it) a small ink pad and a nice black pen.  What do you think???  Wouldn’t that make a great gift for a neighbor or friend??  All the tags they need for their gift wrapping this season?? 

I LOVE to wrap gifts and so a little handmade touch like this would really  jazz them up.  It was SO EASY!!!  What really made it so easy was the   “tis the season” line from  Teresa Collins that was in my stash at the time.  It is so cute.  The pre-made tags are all on ONE sheet of paper, you just cut them out.  The ribbon tags I made by just tracing a tag shape onto her cute papers (8×8 and 12×12 find them here) , the cards I just used her pre-made and already die-cut cards, and her cute stamp is on the front of the green card.    I LOVE it when it is so easy to make something so cute and fun looking.  I seriously just cut some stuff up and that was IT!!  There are so many cute christmas lines on the market right now, just head to your local scrapbook store and you can find something you love!  These cards measure about 3×2…I found the envelopes at a floral supply store 

 the contents minus the pen, ink pad and stamp……

Once everything was neatly tucked inside I slid the lid on, tied it up with some ribbon and added a handmade tag on the outside.

Now who wouldn’t want that???   So search the clearance aisles of your local stores and see what you can create!

Have a great day!!

-tammy

No, actually I’m looking forward to it.  It is a little daunting to feel like you are solely responsible for their education…but then I think I would feel like that even if they were in school.  I also think of all the hours worth of homework that I would have to be doing with them each afternoon and evening and realize that I’m pretty much spending that same amount of time with them in “school” and we’re getting everything done.  That makes me feel better!!

I’m getting the house decorated for back to school so I thought it was time for some new subway art.   Hope you enjoy!

like usual you can print it at home in 8×10 size at your home computer, or send it off to costco to print as a 16×20 for $5.99.  Just remember that if you are printing it at costco you want to TURN OFF THE AUTO CORRECT before you submit your order.  They ask you about it before you check out.  If you don’t turn that off their machines will try and change the colors.

Here’s the link to download:

BACK TO SCHOOL SUBWAY ART

Have a great day!

tammy

Here’s what you’ll need to recreate this layout:

12×12 green sheet of paper

8×8 mustard sheet of cardstock

7.5×7.5 Karen Foster bowling sheet of paper

3.5 x 12 sheet of red and white striped paper

1 4.5x 6.5 red cardstock photo mat

3 4×6 photos

Karen Foster Bowling Cardstock Stickers

Crate Paper Admit One Layered Chipboard sticker

3 yellow felt Stars

and here are the steps…

layer your papers…

add your pictures as shown…

embellish with stickers and felt…

and you’re done!

Have a great day!

-t

Here’s what you’ll need…

Tools:

Paper Trimmer, Scissors, and a Corner Rounder Punch (not a necessity)

If you want to ruffle your ribbon you will need a sewing machine and white thread, or a needle and thread.  You can also just lay it flat on the layout if you don’t want the trouble of ruffling it.

Papers and Embellishments:

October Afternoon: The Thrift Shop Near Mint Paper, Seaside Beach Chair Paper, Seaside Swim Trunks Paper, Thrift Shop Journal Cards

Crate Paper: School Spirit Layered Chipboard Stickers

1.5 yards of Tuqouise Ribbon

1 4×6 picture

Cuts to make:

Cut your Thrift Shop Near Mint Paper into an 8.5 x 11″ sheet

Cut your October afternoon Seaside Beach Chair Paper:  7.5 x 2.75″ piece of paper (round the corners on the left side if you like)  From the remaining 2.75 x 4.5 inch piece cut a 2.75 x 3.25″ piece to mimic a journaling card.  You’re going to use the red striped side on that piece.  Round all the corners if you like.

Cut two banners from the October Afternoon Seaside Seashells Paper

Punch out two journaling cards…the blue polka dot, and the take note card

To Assemble:

place all papers/journaling card on the background as shown in the picture:

Add your picture (if you are rounding the corners of your papers, round the corners of your picture as well) and then your banners.  To add the banners simply lay them on  your layout in a manner that you like then cut them to size to fit your paper.

Add your journaling card and arrow sticker and apple sticker as shown…

Finally, the ribbon.  Whether you’re using a machine or doing this by hand, simply run a straight long loose stitch through the center of the ribbon all the way down.  Don’t tie or back stitch anywhere.  Once you get to the end, leave yourself plenty of extra thread before you cut.  You will need to pull on this thread to gather the stitch.  Once you have cut the thread, gently pull or hold one end of the thread while you scrunch the ribbon down along the stitch. You will just have to work at it to get the look you want.  Make sure that you are keeping it at least 8.5″ long since it will run the length of your layout.  Once you gather it as much as you want, attach it to your layout and cut off any excess.

I hope you enjoy this layout!  I’d love to see your version of it!

Also, don’t forget I would love to feature you and any great scrapbooking or crafting tutorials that you may have created.  Check out the submissions page to see what to do so we can share your ideas!!

Have a great day!
-t

Here’s what you’ll need:

12×12 Papers:

TC Celebrate: Pendants

TC Celebrate: Birthday Party

TC Celebrate: Happy Birthday

TC Celebrate: Celebrate Tags

Embellishments:

6 inches Cream and Red Striped Ribbon

2 TC Blingage Ty’s Stars

12″ of white embroidery floss, or 4ft. of white thread

1 bazzill blue modern metallic button

2 4×6 photos

Cut an 8×12 piece from your TC Celebrate Birthday Party paper.  From the 8×12 piece, cut a 4×8 piece.  You will use the ledger side on the 8×8 piece and the blue  happy birthday side on the 4×8 piece.

Place your 12×12 Red TC Happy Birthday paper down and arrange your ledger piece and happy birthday pieces of paper down on the red background as shown in the picture.  DO NOT glue them yet.

Now, punch the orange star “WISH” tag and the orange birthday cake circle tag from your celebrate tags sheet.  Grab your red and cream striped ribbon and your WISH tag.  Fold your ribbon in half and push the folded end through the hole in your tag. 

Pull the two ends of the ribbon through the loop you have on the other side of the tag.  Pull on the ends gently to tighten around the tag and create a nice knot at the top.

Slip your tag with the ribbon under the ledger paper as shown in the picture:

Now you can glue those pieces down.  Add your pictures as shown in this picture and glue them on:

Now time for the banner!   For the banner, cut 8 1.25 x 1.25 x 1″ triangles from the pendants sheet of paper.  If you are using embroidery floss, lay it across your page and add your banner flags as you like and adhere them to your page.  If you are using thread, cut the 4ft. of thread into 4 12″ sections.  Twist them together to create the look of embroidery floss.  Add your banner flags and adhere.   Add your “party” and “cake” tags to the layout as well.

Finally, add your “bling” as shown in the image and you’re done!!

hope you’re feeling inspired!

Do you have a scrapbooking tutorial you would like to share on TMP?  Check out our submissions page to find out how to be published and featured on TMP!

have a great weekend!
-t

have a great day!

tammy

Remember my quest to be more organized this summer??  I think I may have just managed to do it!!  And, it’s not too late for you either!  I have come up with something that I’m hoping will give the kids something fun to look forward to every day and keep the summer a little exciting and fresh…all while still being easy for me to accomplish!!  Whew!  A tall order, I know.

So, here it is…the Summer Fun Advent Calendar

The idea behind it is simple.  Give the kids something fun to look forward to everyday…it can be something little that takes 5 minutes, or an all day activity.  The key is to mix it up.  But, the biggest excitement of all is that it’s kept a secret until the day of.  They are left wondering each day what the next day’s activity will be.  So far, so good in our house!   The beauty of it for us moms is that it’s totally changeable if something comes up…because it’s a SECRET and a WHITE BOARD you can change activities to fit your schedule as unexpected things come up without the kids knowing anything about it!   I’ve also devised a system to prevent arguments between kids as far as who gets to reveal the day’s activity.  By making the squares with numbers you can assign odd/even days if you have two kids, and by making them different colors you can assign colors for more than two kids! 

Here’s what you’ll need to make your very own:

Dry erase generic calendar (I got mine at walmart for $7.88)

A dry erase marker

alphabet stickers

number stickers

8 sheets of cardstock (any colors you want)

I think the instructions are pretty clear just by looking at the picture.  Just make a fun header and title for it…you can definitely customize the whole thing…it does NOT need to look just like mine that’s for sure!    Add your activites under each day, stick your paper on with a piece of tape and wa-la! 

Now…the impotant part…coming up with the activities.  Like I said, some activities may take all day, some may take 5 minutes.  The important part is just to give the kids something to look forward to and something that they know they are doing that day to hopefully prevent them from asking you all day!!

I divided my activities up into categories:  in the kitchen, crafts, outings, and fun around the neighborhood.  I also tried to keep things very inexpensive or free to help keep costs down.  Here are some suggesstions to get you started:

make popsicles

get a slurpee

have a waterballoon toss

run through the sprinklers

tissue paper art

corn syrup painting

make ice cream

go to the pool

go to the library

make tin can phones

have a lemonade stand

beach

free movies at the park

dollar tuesdays at Baskin Robbins

silly string fight

bonfire and smores

bowling

sprinkler park

make a fort

have a picnic

movie night

play a game

water guns

make iron on shirts

that’s enough to get you through a whole month!! (I only did M-F since we often have other things going on on the weekends)  The best part is you can repeat many of these things!  Who doesn’t want to have a waterballoon toss  or go to the pool more than once during the summer???   Hopefully this will help make your summer fun and easy and minimize the curse of summertime boredom!!

I would love to hear fun ideas for things that you find in your community.  Leave a comment with any suggestions you have here on this post so we can help each other come up with stuff!!

Have a great day!

-t

I can’t even believe how much fun I am having with these classes.  It is SO fun to see how everyone is learning through their pictures and the questions and emails that I get.  I feel like I am making great new friends from all over the world!! It is so fun to share a common interest like photography and have a place to chat about it!

I have had several people ask and several register already, so I thought I’d let you know that if you are interested in signing up for session #3 enrollment is now open. Class will begin May 1, 2010 and run for 6 weeks. The cost is $200. I do keep class size limited so that I can answer questions in a timely manner and give the individual attention to each student.

If you’d like to join us for session #3 you can register securely through Paypal here:

This class is structured so that it is VERY flexible. The only time we have anything scheduled is Tuesday nights at 7PM PST for our weekly chat(I know, that’s right during American Idol for some of you!!! ) but if you’re not available at that time I am on the board daily to answer your questions that come up! We will cover getting to know your camera, focusing techniques, aperture, shutter speed, ISO, white balance, metering, lighting and composition. We WILL have you shooting manual and loving it by the end of this course!

I will be posting the lectures on Saturdays this session so that you have extra time on the weekends to watch and practice before the chats on Tuesdays.  

A few things people are saying about the class:

“Tammy rocks!  I definitely learned a lot and things I haven’t learned in other photography classes.”

“Thanks so much for doing this class. I have taken a few at the local community college and came away feeling like I should just sell this camera and pay for a good photographer every few months. Now I am actually excited to take my camera places and I’m not afraid of it anymore!! THANK YOU!!”

“I just wanted to extend another thank you for helping me to understand my camera.  It felt so good to leave class knowing so much more about my camera then before I took the class.”

“You just really teach this very well…you are addicting..you are easy to learn from .”

“I just wanted to thank you for all the effort you put into making this such a great class.  It was really easy to follow..leaving not too many question to be asked each week on the MB.”

have a great day!
-t

I am NOT a huge editor.  I prefer to know my camera and do my best to nail the shot without the aid of photoshop.  That being said, I do adjust ALL of my photos…just minorly.  There is something to be said (in my opinion) for making the image shine just a little bit more with two simple and quick tricks. 

The two most used combinations on my computer are control M and control U.  If you’re a Mac user they would be apple M and apple U for you.  Control M will adjust your curves (or the brighness of your image) and control U controls the hue/saturation of your image.  By nudging these measurements ever so slightly you can make a HUGE difference in your images. 

See what I mean???

The image on the left is my sooc image (straight out of camera) and the on on the right has a teeny bit of tweaking with those two measurements.  Pretty big difference, huh?  Give it a try and let me know what you think!

Have a great weekend!
-t