Andrea's blog
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!
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Submitted by Andrea on Thu, 08/26/2010 - 16:55.
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!
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Submitted by Andrea on Wed, 08/25/2010 - 09:23.
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!
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Submitted by Andrea on Tue, 08/24/2010 - 14:53.
Thinking about scrapbooking? I highly recommend it. But it's not for everyone, either. And certainly there are SO many variations, styles and ways to scrapbook. For those who might be interested, here are a few tips I like to live by in my scrapbooking endeavors:
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I love to take pictures, I love to write and I love to create works-of-art. So, it was a no-brainer when I took up scrapbooking as my hobby of choice. Not everyone falls into it so easily. But it doesn't have to be an overwhelming feat either.
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:
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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
- 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.
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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
- 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.
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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.
Most of all, stay true to your reasons for scrapbooking and make it fun--for you. Don't worry about how other people do it - just do what you like and what works for you!
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Submitted by Andrea on Sun, 08/22/2010 - 19:49.
Inspired by this:
and this:
I put up these in our not-quite-finished-yet den/playroom:
As you can see, these nine 12 x 12 frames are located above the play area section of the room. So, now we're trying to decide what to put IN them. That's where you come in. I'm looking for suggestions! Got any brilliant ideas for me?
Here's what we've come up with so far:
- family pictures (rather predictable)
- family pictures of us enjoying sports/recreation/play activities (running, sandbox, disc golf, volleyball, bike riding, football, playground, hiking, etc.)
- board game boards (Sorry, Monopoly, Scrabble, Trivial Pursuit, etc)
- photos of iconic places we love (old houses we lived in, city skylines, parks, etc.)
- a favorite line of scrapbook papers (I like that idea...but I doubt Ben will be interested in that...)
The trick is...I need nine! It doesn't *have* to be kid-themed or play-themed, or even themed really. It doesn't have to be photographs, it can be artwork or newspaper or wrapping paper, or anything. We just want some great ideas!
So there you go...you've been commissioned to help brainstorm. Let's hear what you've got!
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Submitted by Andrea on Fri, 08/20/2010 - 09:17.
A few weeks ago I got to work on a very cool sign project. My customer wanted something unique to use as a backsplash for an outdoor kitchen he was building. They tried the store-bought vinyl letters with the quote "may all who enter as guests, leave as friends", but weren't happy with the quality, so they commissioned me to paint it for them. It was a tricky project, with several layers of color and different fonts, but it was so fun to see the finished project come together:
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Submitted by Andrea on Thu, 08/12/2010 - 11:13.
I spent this past weekend at our MOPS Weekend Crop fundraiser. Even though I spent plenty of my time setting up tables, collecting money, answering questions, and cleaning up, I still managed to get a full vacation album completed! That's only possible when you schedule a full 15 hours of uninterupped cropping time. Since my scrapbooking time is limited more now than ever, it was very nice to surround myself with papers, stickers, photos and glue and not have to keep up and away from little hands. I decided to concentrate on my cruise album instead of individual layouts. I figured since I was enjoying an "away" weekend, I could relive our cruise vacation. It *almost* worked...but the gym lights and crop meals weren't quite the same as sunshine and cruise food!
notes:
- The album is made from chipboard, cut with the AccuCut machine (a mix-n-match album set), and held together with silver rings (which I need to replace with larger ones).
- The front cover has a transparency overlay with the title.
- I added paper strips with holes punched to the itinerary from each day, so that they could be included and unfolded to see what all the activities were for each day.
- One page is missing...but since it includes a photo of me in a bikini, I decided to spare the internet as a whole...
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Submitted by Andrea on Mon, 08/02/2010 - 07:05.
While we were in Minnesota, I got to see a few of my signs in action!
Which made it that much more fun to come back home and fill more orders!
Order one today!
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Submitted by Andrea on Fri, 07/09/2010 - 15:12.
Using this as my guide, I just completed orders for four baby albums - three girls and one boy. I had to improvise a little with a new album style, but I actually like the results even better!
I used a color scheme inspired by the Fancy Pants Dancing Girl paper line to alter my templates to make a more girly album, and instead of using circle punches for milestone & holiday labels, I used 6" x 1/2" strips that can lay right over a photograph, since the albums I used didn't have a margin for journaling. I love the albums, which have a faux leather cover and black inner pages.
I also bought a circle tab punch so that I could create monthly tabs for the album and use coordinating fonts and colors on the labels:
The inside of each album starts with a title card, with the baby's initials, name and birthdate:
Then, it jumps right into monthly stats, slots for photos and journaling cards, starting with birth and finishing up at 12 months. Each month features a different patterned paper embellishment in the same color scheme.
Each month has photo sleeves for at least ten 4" x 6" photos, and ends with a journaling card. It also includes "milestone" labels that are 6" x 1/2" strips that slide right over the bottom of a photograph.
The last section of the album includes photo sleeves for baby's first holidays: New Year's, Valentine's Day, Easter, 4th of July, Halloween, Thanksgiving and Christmas, ending with the First Birthday celebration and plenty of room for party pictures and first year portraits.
The boy version is very similar, with a brighter color scheme:
I love how these turned out and hope the girls who ordered them love them too! It's such an easy fill-it-in album that any new mom can keep up with (or fill in later!)
I'm taking orders! $50 per album plus shipping. E-mail me at mrs@bensteed.com if you'd like me to make one for you. Allow about 4-6 weeks for delivery. I currently have a blue, pink and black album on hand for quicker turn-around.
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Submitted by Andrea on Tue, 07/06/2010 - 15:21.
On recommendation from Jenny, a friend of Jake's on Facebook we went to Firehouse Grill & Diner in Carbondale tonight - 5 adults with 3 kids. There were all of 2 other people in the restaurant at dinnertime on Saturday night. Sorry, but I recommend NOT going there:
PROS:
- we were seated right away, plenty of open tables & high chairs
- after selling out every piece of furniture and kitchenware in Mom's house this weekend, we were happy to have a table, chairs & silverware for all of us!
- all of our meal orders were correct
- hungry babies screaming for food didn't bother anyone -- no one was there
- we had lots to talk about during dinner (and after) as we joked about the (lack of) service
- the food was good - not thrilling, but good.
CONS:
- open since June 10th, and already they were out of regular tea, shrimp, MGD and bleu cheese dressing -- on a Saturday night.
- it's attached to one of the sketchiest hotels in Carbondale - was once called the Knights Inn
- the waitress was obviously VERY new to waitressing - like since June 10th.
- she only brought out one plate at a time, and forgot whose meal was for which person. There were 10 people in the restaurant - 8 were at our table -- and she was carrying one plate at a time -- couldn't she check at the counter?
- our meals came slowly, and we had to ask for kids meals early when Paxton was screaming and throwing his head down on the table crying for food
- Mom's margarita sat on the counter for at least 5 minutes before she started to get up to pick it up herself & the waitress finally brought it over - warm.
- the rib-eye steak was super-thin and was the same price as a HUGE t-bone steak
- Jake was served expired Miller Lite beer (and they JUST opened the restaurant June 10th)
- had to ask for a spoon for screaming hungry baby's applesauce
- ordered a loaded potato, which came with no butter or sour cream
- had to ask for sour cream, butter & steak sauce
- there was no changing table in the bathroom
- and to top it all off...when the waitress delivered the check, she stood directly behind Grandpa, watching over his shoulder while he calculated her tip!
We would have had better service if we walked into an ACTUAL firehouse and ate with the firemen.
Thanks Grandpa, for an entertaining dinner -- glad your steak was the biggest.
And, thanks Jenny. What other restaurants do you recommend that I can avoid? :)
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Submitted by Andrea on Sat, 06/26/2010 - 20:50.