5 Faves For Friday || 01

POSTED ON April 3, 2015 IN 5 Faves for Friday

Woohoo, it’s Friday, my favorite day of the week! And to celebrate I thought it’d be fun to share a few of my current favorite things…

1) Stroller Strides | Ryan and I first started going to this mom & baby workout back in January and my only regret is we didn’t start sooner! It’s been so fun meeting other mamas and babies all while getting a great workout outdoors. They have them all over the U.S. so if you’ve got a little one and are struggling to fit in time to workout (I most definitely was!) check them out.

2) Being Boss podcast | If you’re a fellow creative entrepreneur or creative business owner, you need to check out the Being Boss podcast. Not only are Kathleen & Emily kicking-ass in their respective fields but their no-nonsense with a touch of woo-woo approach to business is refreshing.

3) Sunny spring days | Even though the winters here in Texas are fairly mild, I’m so excited for spring to finally be here! The trees are blooming and everything is turning green. Now to take advantage of it before it gets freakishly hot again!

4) The return of the Texas bluebonnets | If you’ve never seen a field of bluebonnets, you are missing out. I totally thought it was just a weird Texas thing when I first moved here but after our first bluebonnet season, I totally got it. Not only are these flowers gorgeous and unique but the fact that they’re only around for a short period of time makes them that much more special. I love keeping an eye out for them popping up around town and if you want to get hardcore about it, there’s even websites that post bluebonnet sightings. It’s hardcore y’all.

5) Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt | I started watching this original Netflix series on a whim and by episode one I was hooked. In a few days I’d binged watched the entire first season (isn’t binge watching the best?) and I can’t wait for season two. This show totally fills that quirk meets charm void left behind when 30 Rock went off the air. Thank you Tina Fey.

And that’s a peek at five of my current faves! What’s one of your faves right now? Let me know in the comments below.

And…if you’re looking for a fun & easy way to kickstart your creative and get more of your story into your digital scrapbooking albums, join me in The 2015 Monthly Faves Project, a year-long scrapbooking project designed to celebrate your top ten favorite things every month.

For just $29 for the year, you’ll receive 12 exclusive digital scrapbooking templates, a monthly email with tips from yours truly and a private Facebook group where you can connect and share your work.

Join the creative adventure here.

The January Faves In Action

POSTED ON February 18, 2015 IN the Faves, The Faves Project

As I mentioned last week, the Faves are back which means The 2015 Monthly Faves Project is well underway here at NettioDesigns HQ. Let me tell you, the ladies who’ve joined me so far are ROCKIN’ the January Faves! Since I shared my Jan Faves layout last week, today I wanted to share some of their amazing layouts with you.

First up is Angie with this amazing rainbow themed take on the January Faves:

Next is Mystie who’s a girl after my own heart with this woodgrain background:

And then there’s Jenn with these bright & colorful layout that caught my eye right away. I especially love how she clipped a paper to the “FAVES” title so it has an extra punch of pizazz to it.

And finally we have the neutral crew: I had to laugh when I saw all these layouts together because I’ve been on a total cream/neutral background kick with my layouts lately and I love to see that I’m not alone!

What I think is so awesome about these layouts is that even though they’ve all used the same template, each layout feels unique to them and I love how the colors, patterns and embellishments they’ve each chosen fit their Faves.

Join Us in The Faves Project

The 2015 Monthly Faves Project is your creative roadmap for getting more of YOU in your scrapbook albums this year. Every month on the 25th, you’ll receive a brand-new exclusive Faves-themed digital scrapbooking template designed by me, as well as a monthly email with tips and access to a private Facebook group where you can get to know all those happy, smiling faces above.

Here’s a peek at the January Faves template you’ll receive when you sign up. The February template will be released on the 25th which means if you sign up now you’ll receive two templates in the same month. Bonus!

What do you say, want to join us in The 2015 Monthly Faves Project? Sign up here.

The Return of the Faves

POSTED ON February 10, 2015 IN the Faves, The Faves Project

If you know me, you know that my Monthly Faves project has kind of become an odd-numbered year thing around here. And since this is 2015, you know what that means: the Monthly Faves are back!

This year instead of going it alone, I’m inviting you to join me as part of the 2015 Monthly Faves Project: a year-long digital scrapbooking workshop designed to help you get more of YOU in your albums.

When you sign up for the 2015 Monthly Faves Project, in addition to an exclusive digital scrapbooking Monthly Faves-themed template designed by me, you’ll also receive a monthly email from me with tips & inspiration and access to a private Facebook group where you can share your work and connect with me and other Faves Project scrapbookers.

Here’s why you should join me in The 2015 Monthly Faves Project:

Because a top ten list is one of the easiest forms of journaling you can do.
Because a list of your personal faves will say more about you than a travel/event/birthday layout ever will.
Because you don’t remember nearly as much stuff as you think you will. Seriously, I look back at the layouts and am constantly reminded in an “oh YEAH!” kind of way.
Because scrapbooking with friends is always more fun.
Because it’s an awesome way to make sure YOU are featured in your scrapbooks too.

Need some eye candy? Here’s a look at the first 2015 Monthly Faves Project template, the January Faves:

And here’s a peek at my 2015 January Faves layout:

I can tell you I’m excited about the return of the Faves but really you should just picture me over here doing a happy dance to Pharrell’s Happy because that’s how excited to be doing this project once more.

Want to join me on this fave-tastic scrapbooking adventure?

How The Faves Capture A Snapshot of Your Everyday Life

POSTED ON February 5, 2015 IN the Faves, The Faves Project

2015 will be my fourth time doing my Monthly Faves project, after doing it in 2009, 2011 & 2013. So what is it about this project that keeps me coming back for more?

Well, one of my favorite things about The Faves Project is how my faves layouts capture a snapshot of my life. So today I wanted to show you how they do exactly that.

To start, I give you exhibit A: my first ever monthly Faves layout from January 2009:

On my January Faves list at the time:

Top Chef
American Eagle Jeans
Crafty/decor blogs
Hybrid scrapping
Lady Gaga CD (which I was actually listening to when I made the page)
Quesadillas
Phone calls from Adam
Hitting the gym
New episodes of Psych
Driving my car

Now let’s fast forward to January 2011:

A couple of notables on my list: driving the Murano again (aka my car referenced in the first layout) and reading Young House Love, which I’m pretty sure was my newest crafty/decor blog obsession at the time.

Now let’s time hop again, this time to January 2013:

Well, look at that, Number 8 on my list is Meeting Young House Love. In the two years since I discovered their blog I went from new fan to actually meeting them at a book signing. How cool is that?

I’m not ready to share my January 2015 layout just yet but, spoiler alert, my Faves list includes Top Chef, which oh yes, appears on my very first January Faves layout from 2006.

Seeing these layouts – ten faves, two, four and eventually six years apart – reminds why I LOVE these Faves layouts so very much.

(And not just because my drop shadowing has clearly improved, haha.)

In the six years from when I scrapbooked that very first January Faves layout I’ve:

been through a year-long deployment
sold a car & bought another car
sold our first house
lived in three cities and two states
made three trips to Disneyworld, trips to Chicago, Hawaii, New Orleans, New York and Seattle and numerous trips to California
said goodbye to two grandmothers and hello to one adorable baby of my own

To say my life is different today from how it was in January 2009 would be an understatement.

And yet when I look at these layouts, I’m reminded again that, while my world around me may have changed , so much about me has remained the same.

Like my love for driving my Nissan Murano, home decor blogs and reality TV.

This is why I love the Faves.

If I were to ask you today what your top-ten favorite things were back in January 2009, would you be able to tell me?

Lord knows I wouldn’t be able to remember. But the beauty of these Faves layouts is I don’t have to.

Because my Faves? They are right there on these layouts capturing a mini snapshot of what my life is like right then and documenting all those little bits and pieces that would otherwise be forgotten. Those little bits that truly make up who we are.

And that right there, my friend, is what scrapbooking is all about.

The Faves express is on it’s way! On Monday February 9th, The Faves Project: 2015 Monthly Faves will be going live! Want to get it in the ground floor?

Get yourself on the exclusive Faves Project list.

You’ll be the first to hear when it opens and may even get a special bonus when you sign up.

Why You (Yes You!) Should Scrap Your Very Own Faves Layout

POSTED ON February 3, 2015 IN the Faves, The Faves Project

Let’s chat about your scrapbooking albums for a second. When you look at them, what do you see?

Your family? Your travels? Your everyday life?

Now take a closer look. If you had to take a guess, what percentage of your layouts would you say capture YOUR personal story? As in, how many pages are actually about you?

Me? I’d say 75%. But I’ve also had the luxury of being a child-free scrapbooker for the last eight and half years before my son was born last June.

Odds are if you’re like 99% of scrapbookers out there, your albums are full of adorable kid photos, family adventures and not a whole lot of you.

Why is that?

Well I have a couple of theories:

1) You think your story is boring.

As a new mom, I totally get it. When so much of your life is wrapped up in taking care of someone else, it can be tough to step back and think about yourself. We get caught up in the monotony of day-to-day life and assume that routine=boring.

But I’d argue that your life isn’t boring, it’s normal. And despite what you might think, normal doesn’t mean you don’t have a story worth sharing.

2) You don’t like having your photo taken.

Ah, the irony that is the scrapbooker who takes photos of everyone but themselves. What’s that they say about the cobbler having no shoes?

If you’re a camera-shy scrapbooker, know this: you aren’t alone. In fact, I’d say not being in photos is one of the most common reasons scrapbookers give for not scrapbooking themselves.

What you need is a reason to get yourself out from behind the camera. Because I promise you, it’s nowhere near as scary as you make it out to be in your head.

3) You don’t have time to scrapbook yourself.

Ah, time. In a world that glorifies busy as a badge of honor, taking time for yourself can feel like a luxury. Even with something like scrapbooking, you might feel pressure to focus on the stories of everyone else around you and let your own story fall by the wayside.

Any of these sound familiar?

This is why so many scrapbookers are convinced that telling their own personal story is hard. Because it feels like it’s going to take extra effort and time they don’t have for an end result they can’t picture.

But it doesn’t have to be that way.

Because when you have a plan in place that makes it easy for you to capture your story, scrapbooking yourself no longer feels hard.

Instead you know exactly what you’re going to say, look forward to getting in front of the camera and are free to focus on the creative side of scrapbooking because you already know the end result is going to be awesome.

This is why I believe every scrapbooker (including you!) should scrap a Faves page.

Because a top ten list is one of the easiest forms of journaling you can do. For real.
Because a list of your personal faves will say more about you than a travel/event/birthday layout ever will
Because it’s an awesome way to make sure YOU are featured in your scrapbooks too

It’s why I keep coming back to this project because I know the Faves make capturing a snapshot of my own life ridiculously easy. And who couldn’t use a bit more ease in their life?

Later this week, I’ll be opening doors to the 2015 edition of The Faves Project: the Monthly Faves. If you want to get more of YOU in your scrapbooking this year, sign up for the exclusive Faves Project list. You’ll be among the first to hear what’s in store and may even get a special bonus when the time comes.

Scrapbook Saturday 03 | How I Use the History Snapshot Tool In My Creative Process

POSTED ON January 31, 2015 IN Memory Keeping, Scrapbook Saturday

As part of my word OPEN this year, I’m focusing on being more of an open book about why I do what I do when it comes to my creative adventures and design process. So to kick things off, I’ve started a new semi-regular feature called Scrapbook Saturday where each week I’ll share my most recent scrapbooking layouts as well as a little bit of my thought process behind those pages.

This week’s layout is a layout I created for the Sweet Shoppe Designs Bingo challenge. If you haven’t checked out the new Bingo challenge format yet, you totally should! It’s so fun and easy and to be honest, it’s my favorite format we’ve done…ever.

For my layout, I chose the challenge “Make 1/3 of your page a really big title.” I love bold type and typography but it’s not something I often do on my layouts so I thought it would be fun to give it a shot. Not gonna lie, I feel like my design style has been a bit all over the place so far this year but I’m so in love with how this layout turned out that I don’t even care!

Credits: To the Moon and Back by Kristin Cronin-Barrow; Every day: Cherish Hearts by Lauren Grier. Font is Lulo Outline. Photo by Captured Simplicity.

The idea for this layout was heavily inspired by Kristin’s new To the Moon & Back kit. As soon as I saw this kit I just had to use it. I mean, blues, greens and golds? Oh yeah, sign me up.

The design for this layout all started with the title which I took literally from the title of the kit. The large background photo was actually a happy accident. I dragged my black & white photo onto my canvas with the intention of scaling it down to fit within the smaller frame but as soon as I saw it behind the type, I knew I wanted to figure out a way to make it work.

Since I feel like the design process for a layout can sometimes feel a bit magical, like “Poof! Blank page to amazing layout!”, I thought it’d be fun to break down for you how this layout came together courtesy of one of my most used Photoshop tools, the History Snapshot.

If you’ve never used the History Snapshot tool, you can find it in the History panel (Window>History) – it’s the little icon at the bottom of the panel that looks like a camera. When you click on it, it saves a snapshot of your document at that point in time, layers and all.

As I am the type of scrapbooker who likes to tweak and make changes until things are just right, I use the snapshot tool a lot to change things up and then toggle back and forth between snapshots to decide what option I like best.

For this layout I took 19 snapshots, 16 of which are shown here because in the others, the changes were too subtle to show up in the scaled down format.

As you can see I started by playing around with the type and the hearts, adding them on, off and then back on again. There’s a big jump in the second row because I don’t tend to take snapshots when things are flowing and I’m happy with where the layout is headed. I started taking snapshots again when I started playing around with what I wanted to do with the large photo – trying out different blend modes and papers until I had a look I was happy with. Then I added papers and embellishments until I had a design I liked.

If it looks like the bottom row is mostly the same, that’s because the only thing I was changing at that point was the placement of the blue flower and leaf. That’s not unusual for me – often the changes I debate over the most are the small details. On more than one occasion I’ve switched between two snapshots and asked Adam which one he likes better and he’ll ask “What changed?” haha.

After nine years, I’ve accepted this as part of my creative process but if you pride yourself on speed, it’d probably drive you nuts! I think it helps that I’m more focused on the creative side of scrapbooking than I am on scrapbooking all my photos or creating 30+ layouts every month. For me the design process is my favorite part so I’m happy to take the time to get it right.

What about you: are you a fan of the History Snapshot? Do you have any of your own scrapbooking quirks?

Disclaimer: All Sweet Shoppe Designs products were given to me free of charge as part of my Sweet Shoppe Creative Team responsibilities. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

Want more scrapbooking inspiration? Check out all my Scrapbook Saturday posts here.

Nettio Designs

Design + Creativity + Adventure = LOVE