WHEW!

Now that the last few busy weeks are over, I thought it might be fun to post a few of the projects I put on my Studio 5 video, so there is an up-close view of all the projects for all you curious friends.

First Project ... The Advent Calendar

I have actually already displayed the calendar on my blog before. I still have all the templates for the perpetual calendar portion, and would be happy to send them to you. Just drop me an email (skierdouglass@gmail.com)

To see the post about the album click here

2nd Project ... Birthday Block Reminder

I got the idea for the project at a store not too far away from my home called Crafters Corner I picked up the block and the metal sticks, then simply stained the entire block with wood stain, added my own scrap paper and cut out the vinyl with my Silhouette and added it to the front. I curled the wires with some pliers and printed out important birthday's to remember. (I even added the date of the birthday on their picture so I wouldn't forget. SO easy and quick. Anyone could make this without having to go to the store, but it sure was easy to go to one place to get the supplies.

3rd Project ... Birthday Card File

This is a REALLY simple project and probably took me the least about of time to do. I got the pre-cut 4x6 box of Cardstock from American CraftsGREATEST thing ever BTW ... Then I used a simple Quickutz die cut to make the little tab. You could even just use a circle punch. I hand wrote the months and stapled them on. E-A-S-Y ... wouldn't you say?

4th Bit of info:

Here are the websites I was talking about

www.birthday-reminders.com
www.birthdayalarm.com
& Face book - Just type in "BIRTHDAY" in the search area and it will bring up a birthday calendar of all your contacts. SWEET!

5th Invitations:

Now some advice here ... I get WAY too carried away when it comes to invitations, announcements, Christmas cards, etc. Honestly, do whatever is easiest! Here are two that I did that were pretty easy:
1. Digitally. I designed this one myself in Illustrator / Photoshop, however shutterfly and other websites make it really easy on you. Just make sure you give yourself adequate time to get it done. (if anyone is interested, I do freelance design work and can do personalized invitations as well. Just email me if you're interested for pricing) skierdouglass@gmail.com
2. There are so many options when it comes to invitations. This is one of my favorite layouts, because you can do ANYTHING with it. In fact, I went to Pebbles in my Pocket, and Archivers to find die cuts of different invitation shapes. Here is what I found:
I do like occasionally going to archivers, and if you aren't fortunate enough to have a Pebbles in my Pocket near by, then I guess Archivers is an option :) However the invitations die cuts at Archivers were 10 X more expensive than at Pebbles. SO, I would suggest getting on Pebbles in my Pocket's website by clicking here for some great options!!
The handmade invitation I made for the video segmentI did go a little more overboard, seeing that I stamped* and colored the presents :) (I normally wouldn't take the time to do that for a real invite) however, you can get the same effect by either leaving it off, or using a digital scrapbook image. ** Stampin' up stamp.

Hope you enjoyed! Please comment if you would like anything else posted. Always looking for ideas to post on my blog:)
M