Love for Picasa

I started Project Life last year and loved doing it.  After a few weeks the picture editing and printing got to be too much.  I bought a Canon Selphy but the quality was less than what I hoped for even for the project.

I gave up after 19 weeks because it was so difficult to get a true 3x4 photo printed without jumping through hoops for the programs that did offer it.  I gave up.  It just wasn't worth the hassle.  I researched different programs and options but nothing worked easily.  Or it wasn't compatible with a Mac.

I decided to do PL again this year but instead of a weekly 2 page spread, I focused more on the monthly type layouts.  I will not take 30 pictures each week and try to fit as many as I can in.  And with Picasa, I can get the true 3x4 printed 2-up on a 4x6 sheet of photo paper.  I read on a message board that Picasa has a template.  They sure do!

Took me 10 minutes to select the photos, upload them to Picasa and then print them.  I'm actually excited to work on my PL again and I love my monthly spread so much better!

A quick tutorial:

STEP 1:  Once you've downloaded Picasa, the program will import all of the photos on your computer.  (I have a Mac so my screen might look different than yours.)  I already have all of my photos sorted in folders the way *I* like them so I just ignore the folders in Picasa.  I have a Project Life folder for each month.  As I take photos with my camera or phone, I upload them here for end of the month editing.

STEP 2: Select two photos that you want to import to the 4x6 canvas.  To make things easier, I use the flip tool at the bottom to flip my pictures to the same orientation.  Hold your shift key down and click on each photo with your mouse.

STEP 3: Click the 'Create Collage' button.  You'll get the preview below.  This is where you can edit the photos as well.

STEP 4: Click the 'export' button to save the photo to a folder on your computer.

STEP 5: Save the photo and print!  I use my Canon Pixma to print once I've got all of the collages saved.

Final product looks like this:

 You can upload these to any online processor if you don't have print at home capabilities.

January PL Pages

And since there are virtually NO purple products out there I had to make my own.  Luckily, I didn't have to look too far.  Studio Calico just released a limited edition set of mini Mister Hueys which included this cool purple.  Now, the Kings don't have purple in their jersey/logo anymore but they will always in my mind.  Plus, these pages needed a pop of color.  I stuck with black/silver and white throughout and added the purple.  The hearts and stars are from Pink Paislee and the sticker letters are from Basic Grey.  I used some black and white ones (tinted purple).

To get the purple letters I used a small paint brush and dipped it into an open Mister Huey.  I used several coats to make sure I got the color I wanted.  I also have about 10 sheets of this font because I like to keep white on hand for projects like this.  If you use mists or any other water based color agent, you'll want to let the letters dry for a few hours.  Using them while they're went will cause them to rip.  Avoid using a heat tool to dry them quicker.  This seems to melt the adhesive.  I've attempted this several times and figured out the best way to do this.  Not all sticker letters will be the same but with these BG ones, this is the best method.  Air dry works best.  For this project, I laid everything out, planned my page and then colored the letters I needed.  While they were drying, I was washi taping, gluing and decorating the 4x6 cards.  The last step was adhering the dry mini letters.

More layouts

A couple more of the layouts I finished at the crop.

 I did some major hand stitching on this one.  One of the women at the crop was a quilter and she asked why I didn't use a machine.  Well, I like a thicker stitch and its theraputic for me to hand stitch.  Plus, a lot of my designs are designs and not just straight stitches.  You can also add me to the sewing machine fail list.  No matter how badly I want to pull that sewing machine out, every time I have I can't load it!

 Some detail shots of the stitching.

Items were from a Studio Calico kit from last year.  (I know, I know, I'm bad.)  I'm happy to say I killed this kit.  I didn't get any add-ons for this one so it was easy.  A couple of layouts and a handful of cards did this one in.

The second one features more of the October Afternoon fair line.  I adore this line and made 4 layouts with it at the crop.  I bought so much of it when it was released.  I love just about every line they come out with but every once in a while they come out with a line that I must possess multiples of.  The most recent would be Travel Girl - which *just* hit stores.

Workspace Wednesday - 5/15

I'm ashamed to post this mess.  I've kept the room relatively clean since getting the new desk but since coming back from my retreat, this is the state its been in.  I need to spend some time in here this weekend getting it back to where it needs to be.

To play along see Julia's post every Wednesday.

Despite the calendar in the picture, it is May.  I really am bad about changing it.  There is a stack of unfinished cards, flowers from my anniversary and random other bits hanging out looking for a home.  In fact, a lot of spaces in my room have been getting a good cleaning out.

I recently cleaned out my Project Life bin for a fresh start.  That means I have two boxes of cards and random bits for sale.  Check out the Flickr page and see if you'd like to give anything a good home.

Back from the crop

So I am officially back on the crafting wagon!  Work has been wearing me down lately but I finally got a weekend to just do my thing.  The last time I got a weekend?  January.  I know people.  These little snippets of craft time just aren't enough for me.

I thoroughly enjoyed my three days without responsibilities or being 'mom'.  No dishes.  I stayed up late.  Slept in.  Wore my pajama pants around the hotel.  Laughed so hard my ribs hurt.  Watched a hockey game in the hotel bar with friends.

I grabbed a few pictures with my phone but totally forgot to take out the good camera all weekend.

Thanks to my friend Rachel and her awesome retreat group for a great weekend.  Looking forward to doing it all again in the fall.

A must have.  It was 2 doors down from the hotel so I walked there every afternoon for 'Happy Hour'.

I'm pretty proud of all the cards I finished, the two Studio Calico kits I killed (from 2011!!) and the many layouts I completed.

Here is just one:

A little Glossy Accents on the lollipop makes it 'pop'.

I'm in love with these sticker letters and I might just want to buy 5 more sheets to keep around.

Blog Hop winner

So I promised a winner from last weekends blog hop.  And here it is:

Comment #9 is:

orange gearle said...

Love the layouts!

Orange - please send me an email with your mailing address and I will mail out a little something for playing along!  ohmy17(at)yahoo.com.

Thank you EVERYONE for stopping by the blogs during the Hop.  I enjoyed using the stamps from Give a Girl.....  Of course, I LOVE my {flair}!  

I also have a couple of quick layouts I wanted to share.  I had to turn these into my LSS for display so I only got quick iPhone photos of them.  If you're in the Huntington Beach, CA area, you must stop by and see Rachel.

Another layout using the Uncharted Waters line from Glitz.  I really do love this line and plan on using up as much of it as I can.  In fact, I bought a second round of the papers because I love them so much.

This one uses the new Elle's Studio Serendipity papers.  Letters are from American Crafts and the wood veneer geo-tag is from Studio Calico.

Dog Frame

We recently went on vacation to San Diego (more on that later).  I wanted to take a small project to work on since we'd have some time in the hotel room at the end of the day.  We're only a 45 minute drive from San Diego so I felt we could pack up the car with as much junk from home as we wanted.

Each night, I worked on this:

I apologize for the glare.  With the hours I've been working and the overcast skies, sunlight has been a stranger.

I used the Good Dog set from the flair shop, a Tim Holtz frame and papers from an Echo Park Dog mini collection.

Blog Hop!

Welcome to the {flair} for Buttons and Give a Girl A.... Blog Hop!

I've been waiting to show these layouts since Shelley contacted me about this.  I love my dog.  I have tons of pictures of him and somehow I never pull from that pile to scrap.  So it was a challenge for me to pick a few and scrap them.

Here they are!

I used the dog tag stamp with a tiny red heart punch covered with a thick layer of Glossy Accents to make it stand out.  All tied up with some solid Bakers Twine.

A couple of the stamps in the set.

This is one of my most favorite layouts.  I happened to catch this top photo when my son was barely 5 months old.  He loved watching the train at Christmas so we propped him up in his Bumbo seat.  Rascal wandered over and sat next to him.  A couple of years later while we were putting up the tree and train, Rascal wandered over and Nick put his arm around him again.  I saved my journaling for the envelope I made.  I wrote a little note to my son about his relationship with Rascal and what it will mean when he's older.

More Glossy Accents on the hearts.

Both use flair from Shelley's shop and stamps from Give a Girl A.....


You'll want to leave a comment for a chance to win a little something.  You have a chance to win on each blog you leave a comment.

{a flair for buttons}

Jennifer Chapin

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In case you want to pick up any of the flair or stamp sets, there are a couple of coupon codes.

Comments will be open until Monday 5/6 at midnight PST.  You have a chance to win some stamps or flair!