Andrea's blog

Every year, I'm so inspired by the artists at the Bluff Park Art Show.  This year was no exception.  Two that caught my eye were Julie Schwarz and Michael Cole.

Julie Schwarz makes these great watercolor-looking photograph prints.  Turns out, they're made from "smushing" Polaroid prints before they dry.  Very cool technique.  And this picture caught my eye right away...because I have that beach chair! 

Then of course, my favorite every year is Michael Cole's typeset collages.  So cool...

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!