Baby Milestone Photo Cards

Today I wanted to share this awesome gift that we were given for our baby shower.  It is so unique and just perfect for the photo-lover in me...

My Maternity Journal

I was given this Maternity Journal at the start of my second trimester by a very sweet cousin of mine, but I was very slack and it sat empty for all of this time!

iPhoto - Digital Photo Books & DVDs

I have been using iPhoto to make digital photo albums for the past 3 years.  I could talk all day about this awesome program, but I just thought that I would pick out the features that I love the most and share them with you, as I often get asked lots of questions about it.

Firstly, iPhoto is a Mac program.  It is not online, it is a program that is installed on your hard drive.  There is apparently a version of it for the iPad, however I have been told that you can't make the photo books using the app (it is more just for storing your photos).

A Mini-Album

I wanted to share with you this great little album that I found at K-Mart recently for only $4!

Photo Printing Tips

It is obvious one of my major goals this year is to get on top of my photos.  I have been thrilled with my progress so far, and I just wanted to share some things that are really helping me to get the photos off the computer and into the albums in a logical, sequential order.

Firstly, last year I organised my photos digitally, which you can read about here.  This has saved me SO much time recently, as I know where everything is and it is in chronological order.  This is the first step to success.

I must admit however, that since having given back my work computer at the end of last year and now being solely a 'Mac' family, I am still adjusting to organising my new 2013 photos on the Mac, and this is something that I am refining and will share with you once I have a good system in place.

Secondly, I went through all of the digital folders of photos and did a big cull.  Anything that was blurry, had someone's eyes closed, etc has all been trashed!  I know it is hard with digital to let them go, but often I can have 3 or more of the same photo, each with something a little different or wrong with them.  I was very strong, picked the best one and trashed the rest.  This helped immensely when it came to decision time for the albums.

Next it was time to print my photos.  At the moment, I am using Big W.  It is nearby, it is quick (I usually only have to wait 30 minutes from the time I place my order), it is fairly cheap at 15c a print and I am happy with the quality.  I also like that I can print 3x4 photos that fit perfectly in the little journalling holes in my Project Life page protectors - this means I can fit lots more photos on a page than just the standard four 4x6 photos.

Project Real Life - Online Class (Week 1)

Who is joining in with Becky Higgins online class - Project Real Life?

Organising Sprapbooking Paper and Photo Pockets

My next instalment of my series on my 'in progress' Creative Studio is my storage solution for scrapbooking paper, cardstock and plastic photo pocket pages.

Over the past tweleve months, I have decided that vertical paper storage really works for me.  Last year I organised my Recipes using a suspension file system, and I haven't looked back!  At work, I have my Black and White folders on a vertical stand, which has helped me to avoid a piled high in-tray.

Organising Scrapbooking Embellishments

As I continue on my quest for a delightful 'Creative Studio' for my crafting and home office work, I will be sharing little snippets of what I am doing - as it is going to be a little while yet before I have a big reveal to show off!

Today I thought I would share with you how I have begun to organise my embellishments.  Previously, I had things sorted into boxes and tubs, according to the type of item it was - such as all the stickers together, all the rub ons together, etcetera.

I recently came across the ScrapRack organisation system during my online travels.  If you haven't heard of this system, there is a great video on their website that you can check out.  I loved the concept of organising supplies in colour blocks, as opposed to in categories like flowers, stickers, rub ons, etc.  This notion really struck a cord with me, as usually when I am scrapbooking or crafting, I always have a particular colour theme in mind and then I spend ages sifting through my different boxes of goodies to see what I can find that might match.

And although I loved this idea of categorising by colour, I didn't think that the actual ScrapRack itself would be for me.  Having that huge binder out on display is not something that appeals to me.  So, I decided to modify the idea to suit me, and I pulled out some of my Project Life divided photo pockets (in Design B) and a spare 3 ring binder, and off I went...

A Quick and Easy Travel Journal

I have always been one to keep a journal when I travel.  I have done this lots of different ways over the years, such as a diary, a scrapbook, a digital photo book, and last year I even published part of my Cook Islands travel journal on my blog!  This week we are going to Exmouth in Western Australia to spend some time with my beautiful sister-in-law and her hubby and our gorgeous nephew. 

Project Life Organisation - My Little Nook

As I discussed yesterday in my post here, Step 1 in my road to scrapbooking success in 2012 has been to create myself a dedicated space for my scrapbooking.  I have not spent a cent to create this area, I just got a little creative with what I already had!

Project Life - 2012

I started doing Project Life last year.  I was so excited when my kit arrived in the mail (from Canada, as NZ was all sold out!) and immediately set up my album for 2011.  As I haven't really done much scrapbooking before, it was a great place to get started, as everything was included, along with plenty of online inspiration from all of the bloggers who do Project Life!