Thanks to everyone who is supporting me on this new venture! I am working on some new photo book designs that I hope will be done in January. I also have some exciting new ideas brewing in my head that I want to get started on, so please check back in the New Year for updates.
I saw this great idea on dailydigi.com to do a scrapbook page every day for the month of December to highlight all the wonderful things you do for the Christmas season. Thankfully I came across this Nov. 28 so I had time to think about this project before December arrived. I looked at some ideas on Pinterest: http://pinterest.com/dailydigi/daily-digi-december-daily/ and decided to to keep it simple since I have to find time to do a page every day. Here is the page for today, December 9:
I wanted to post this picture of the wreath I made because I have had a few people ask how to make it. I saw the idea for this yarn wreath with felt flowers in the Better Homes and Gardens Holiday Crafts issue. Here is a link to the instructions on how to make it: http://www.bhg.com/christmas/crafts/white-yarn-christmas-wreath/. I also made one out of burlap for fall and it is much faster to cover the wreath in burlap than white yarn!! I do love the look of the white yarn, so I am glad I invested the time to try it!
Leah
Earlier this year one of my scrapbook pages was accepted for publishing in Canadian Scrapbooker. This was the first time I have ever submitted my work to a magazine and I was thrilled when it was accepted. The magazine just hit the shelves yesterday and I am super excited! It is a winter themed page that features the photography of my sister-in-law, Amber, when she and her husband were visiting a few years ago.
Featured in Canadian Scrapbooker Winter 2011 Issue, all elements from Stampin'up
A few weeks ago we went to Arizona for our first family vacation. Our Dads are snowbirds and we wanted to know what Phoenix was like and why so many Canadians spend the winter down there. After two days we were trying to figure out how we could become snowbirds!! I think we would definitely consider a second home in Arizona when we are closer to retirement age.
Of course, I had to scrapbook our holiday pictures. A full 26-page photobook template just came out from Stampin’ Up (part of my winnings with MDS contest) and it was perfect for this trip. Here are a few sample pages:
This template is called “Delight in the Day” and had all the perfect colours and embellishments for a vacation photobook. I like creating my own photobooks, but sometimes it is nice to have most of the work done for me!
Leah
My latest photobook project was for a birthday gift. They just wanted a few pages (14 pages is the smallest I can do) with pictures of the birthday girl and her friends and then everyone can sign the book. It is like a really nice, personal birthday card and such a great gift idea. I wish I could say this was my idea, but it was my client’s and I may be borrowing it in the future! Here are a few sample pages from the book:
I bought this kit just to do this project and I love the colours in it. It is another digital scrapbook kit from Micheline Martin called Petit Leon.
Leah
I was selected as a finalist in the Stampin’ Up My Digital Studio contest. I had to create a card and a scrapbook page and was 1 of 10 finalists chosen from thousands of entries in Canada and U.S. I would love to show you the entries, but they are now property of Stampin’ Up and I am not allowed to post them. I was very proud of my entry and was honoured to be chosen as a finalist. Unfortunately the winners were decided by voting on mydigitalstudio.net, and I was out by just 8 votes! Thank you to everyone who voted for me and I still get to walk away with $125.00 in downloads.
Leah
When I first thought about what kind of photobook people would like to have made I thought of babies, weddings, year in reviews, vacations. I never thought about making a retirement book until someone at my work was retiring and I was asked to put together a photobook for her. What a great idea!
I had so many photos to work with and her graduation documents were even scanned so I could include them. It ended up being an 8″x10″, 26 page photobook using the designs of Micheline Martin’s “The Classic First Year” kit. I was also asked to leave empty pages for people to sign, but I just couldn’t leave the pages empty. I took some random photos of the place she worked at, reduced the opacity of the photos to make them lighter for the background and it worked beautifully for writing on.
The book was presented at her retirement party last week and there were so many great comments from everyone about it. A retirement photobook is such a great way to keep all the memories of your career and coworkers.
(I removed all of the photos from this project, but I think you still get the idea!)
Leah
When I decided to start this custom photobook company, I knew I wanted the books to be of great quality and to have an end product that I could be really proud of. Finding the right printer was quite a challenge and I have spent the last 3 months reading reviews about photobook companies and testing out some of the favorites. The photobook printng companies that I tried were: Inkubook, Photobook Canada, Shutterfly, Stampin’ Up, and Adoramapix. I attempted to print with Mpix but didn’t find their software very friendly. I won’t go into a detailed comparison but will give the links to the two reviews that helped me out: http://thedailydigi.com/12-different-photobook-printer-reviews/ and http://www.digitalhomethoughts.com/news/show/97676/0/1/15.
Once I received all the photobooks, there was one book that stood out from all the rest and also had the great feature of lay flat pages. The winner of my photobook review was Adoramapix.
The cover is beautiful and thick, the title can be printed on the spine, the pages are like a thin board book, the software was easy to use, and their delivery time was only about 2 weeks. (I had one company that took 5 weeks to deliver!) The best feature was the lay flat pages. This is especially important for scrapbooking because this means I can create a 2 page layout and not lose anything in the gutter of the book.
Now that I have seen how nice the lay flat pages are, I don’t think I could ever print a photobook without it!
All photobooks that I create will be printed through Adoramapix and if you order a custom photobook I know you will love it too!
Leah
Birdwing Paper Designs 