DIY: Color Block Clipboards

Hello out there, friends! What's shakin'? Here's a nifty little project I did in less than an hour one night last week that's really brightened up my little studio! I got the inspiration from this tutorial and I decided to make it a little more neon! ha.

I already had one clipboard, so I bought another at Hobby Lobby for $1.20 with a 40% off coupon. The one I had at home... well... I wish I would have taken a "before" pic because it was atrocious. It was Ian's from when he was a kid and it had 80s black and gold reflective tape on it and an alien sticker-- TRUE! The one I bought was just plain kraft brown.

The one I bought from HL: all I did was tape it off with painter's tape, paint it, and let dry. It was already the kraft brown I wanted, so I didn't have to do anything else!

The 80s atrocity I already had: I knew that because of the material, paint wouldn't stick and peeling the reflective tape off wasn't an option because it was making the surface layers of the clipboard come off. So I decided to cover it with paper. I cut the kraft paper with an Exacto knife to fit it around the metal clip at the top and adhered it with some industrial double-sided tape I had. Then I cut the bottom teal portion to fit, taped it down, and then adhered the triangle.

I mounted them on the inside of my studio door with 3M picture hanging strips (the quasi-velcro kind), that way they can be removed and put back up!

So that's my quick (totally unoriginal but equally awesome) project that I made. I have another inspiration board too, but it's nice to have another space to clip pending project pieces or items waiting to go into my inspiration binders.

I just love a good neon color block!
<3 E *Note: I know these photos aren't great, but bloggers-- you know what it's like to be forced to photograph at night because you're at work in the day! First world problems...

The Gifting Guru

Ian and I had a wedding to go to a few weekends ago and, long story short, I was unable to procure my standard wedding gift. So we were I was forced to get creative! I was trying to figure out what I was going to do for a gift because we were slightly low on cash. I knew I wanted to do something graphic since I'm a photographer and all. So I'm thinking and thinking and then I saw THIS by Elise and I was inspired!

source

Elise created this very chic decor piece using an 8 x 10 simple black frame, white cardstock, and a single photostrip! I've seen things similar to this before on Pinterest, but this one really struck me as special.

 I don't argue with inspiration and a good idea, so I channeled my inner Elise and ran with it. Now, I actually photographed this couple's engagement session, so I took images from their session and created my own homemade photostrip in Adobe Photoshop, then printed it on photo paper. Then I got a black frame on sale at Hobby Lobby and voila!

These photos are not fantastic because I actually forgot to take pictures of the gift until I got to the reception. So these are good 'ole iPod Touch pics. lol

But you can see how chic, modern, and personal it turned out. I wrote in Sharpie pen down the side of the strip their names and wedding date. Plus I added satin ribbon in their wedding colors and some houndstooth ribbon for good measure. ;) I'm obsessed with how it turned out.

I just thought someone might benefit from this gift idea because it's quick, inexpensive, handmade, and SO personal. This will hopefully be a keepsake that the couple will display in their newlywed nest and cherish for a long time! 

If you would like to see a digital tutorial on how I created the photostrip, just let me know in the comments!

<3

E

A to Z of moi

A. Age: 23
B. Bed size: QUEEN!
C. Chore that you hate: I really LOVE cleaning, but probably cleaning out the shower drain... or changing the litter box.
D. Dogs: yes yes YES! We plan on getting a Boston Terrier when we move. :)
E. Essential start to your day: cereal and Google Reader
F. Favorite color: I decided awhile back not to choose a FAVORITE color, so I live in the moment. Right now its probably Citron.
G. Gold or Silver: Silver or white gold
I. Instruments you play: I've been playing the flute for 13 years.
J. Job title: Customer Sales Lead at Bath & Body works, freelance photographer, designer, artist
K. Kids: coming soon!
L. Live: Indiana! Born and raised.
M. Mother’s name: Shelley Vance
N. Nicknames: Laney. It started in 7th grade with my history teacher, and then EVERYBODY started calling me it. I didn't start going by Elaine again until college! My good friends and sister still call me Laney though.
O. Overnight hospital stays: oh boy. LOTS: asthma attacks, hip surgery, mono, Colon disease...
P. Pet peeves: people that never smile, incorrect useage of words or when someone uses a word even though they don't know what it means. Also when Spanish people talk about me in Spanish like I can't understand them! HELLO! I majored in it in college!!!
Q. Quote from a movie: "Do you promise to let our daughter be fat or skinny or any weight at all? Because we want her to be happy, no matter what. Being obsessed with weight is just too cliché for our daughter. " -Away we Go
R. Right or left handed: righty!
S. Siblings: the best Younger sister in the world named Anna! Love you Ann!
U. Underwear: anything but white
V. Vegetable you hate: ALL of them.
W. What makes you run late: Ian not waking me up when the alarm goes off or changing my outfit too many times.
X. X-Rays you’ve had: hip, back, wrist, ankle, teeth, abdominal area... I think that's it.
Y. Yummy food that you make: I'm a terrible cook! Ian does all the cooking and he's AMAZING at it.
Z. Zoo animal: Sea turtles! or the manatees... or the sharks... anything under water really.

Has anyone else noticed that there's no H or T in this alphabet? Whoever made this tag doesn't know their letters very well...
Hope you enjoyed it! Tag, you're it!
<3
E

Week in the Life // Wednesday

Woke up at 11:00. I know-- seriously! I was tired from staying up until 4 the night before. Checked emails and Google Reader on the couch. Cap'n Crunch for breakfast. Made a cleaning list for the boy and I. Started deep cleaning the house even though it was a million degrees. Ian did dishes and folded some laundry. I swept, dusted, and generally put things away. Talked to my mom on the phone for a bit. Resisted the urge to take a nap even though I had only been awake for a few hours. Got dressed. Ran some errands in town: took back movie rentals, stopped by Ian's parents to feed the pets since we're house-sitting, paid the car insurance. Left for Indianapolis to pick up a wedding gift for Allie. Grabbed some Burger King on the way. While we were in Indy, stopped off at the mall and went into Anthro. About died over all the wonderful things in there. Made a quick stop at Michael's to spend a gift card and grab some supplies for a home decor project. Got home and started a painting while Ian made pasta for dinner. Watched Finding Neverland and The Rocker. (silly) Turned in early at about 1.

<3
E

Week in the Life // Tuesday

I've been doing Ali Edward's Week in the Life 2011 and I've been enjoying it SO much! I had every intention of sharing my photos every day, but life got in the way and that's OK! :) So I'm going to share each day's photos in a different post. I think I"ll do what Elise is doing and put a little description of my day at the bottom. Better late than never, right? Also, I got started a day late because I had some major stuff happen on Monday, so I'm going until Saturday!












Woke up around 10:30. Checked the internet on the couch. Slice of homemade bread and butter for breakfast. Started right in on job applications. Got 2 of them filled out in an hour or so while batting Phoebe away the whole time. Watched LOST with Ian for awhile. Got through about 2 episodes before he had to get ready for work. Hopped in the shower. Said goodbye to him before his 5 hour shift. Got dressed for real this time. Tidied up a bit. Took inventory of the household products and made a grocery list. Took measurements of our hall cabinets to get organization totes for. A friend from work stopped by to give me back my house key since she was our weekend "cat-sitter." Left for town. Dropped off an application at Bath & Body Works. Returned my work keys to Claire's. (That was awkward.) Went to Target for grocery shopping. Came home and put away the groceries. Filed all the random papers laying around the house and tossed junk mail. Caught up on some YouTube video subscriptions. Started dinner (pizza!) while waiting on Ian to get home. Did my daily Bible study. Ate dinner with Ian and continued LOST. Cuddled on the couch. Stayed up until 4 AM finishing the series, then finally went to bed.

<3
E

Smash* Mash-Up

I'm sure by now, everyone has seen the Smash Journal from K&Co! They're seriously the most amazing looking books ever. I have been loving it for awhile, but then when Allie posted about it, I saw it as a sign. haha



The premise of the Smash book is just to basically cut out and paste in anything and everything that you feel inspired by. Treat it as a sort of "catch-all" for all the random clippings that accumulate in drawers, tabletops, etc. Well I've really been wanting to buy the Smash Journal, but I know that's its really nothing more than a big blank book with a glue stick and pen. I probably WILL buy it someday, but being broke as I am right now, I decided to create my own Smash Journal inspired book! So... I created the Summer Book.



Products used on cover: Paper: Paper Studio (kraft) Stickers: American Crafts Thickers (dolce, text), Paper Studio (foil numbers), Basic Grey (chipboard sticker) Embellishments: washi tapes, paint chip

To create the book, I used some mat board that I had laying around to create the covers. I covered the mat board with kraft paper, decorated it, then used my Bind-it-All to create the spiral binding.





I've been having SO much inspiring fun pasting in all my favorite clippings. It's like a real live Pinterest! I love opening the Summer Book because it's like a picture book all about me. :) I have actually been using this idea book process for years. Here's some of the pages from my first idea snippet book I created in 2008:





Just lovely. Oh! And by the way...

I will actually be using a book like this as part of my new upcoming journal class Paper Popsicles!

So stay tuned in the coming weeks for information on the scrappy journal class fun!

<3
E

"Photobooth Files"

So I was over on Holly's blog today and she had a bunch of her Mac photobooth pictures from the past year and I thought it was a really cute idea! So taking a leaf out of Holly's book, here are some of my own photobooth hall of fame photos from the past year or so. <3