Custom Photo Valentine's

I love paper and cute cards. I love photography. So anytime I can combine the two, I'm a happy camper. And since Valentine's Day is right around the corner, I created a fun Photoshop template to share with all of you! These cute little enclosure cards fold up to be 4"x4" and because they fold up they don't even require an envelope! You just choose your own photo and drop it into the template. Then print it, cut it out and fold it up.

I chose a piece of scrapbooking paper that had stripes on one side and was white on the other side. Then I printed my finished card onto the white side, cut it out, folded it up and sealed it with a sticker. You can choose any patterned or colored paper as long as it's white on one side and any fun sticker you have lying around.

I hope this template inspires you to spread a little photo love this Valentine's Day! XOXO

CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD TEMPLATE.

Friday's Featured Resource - Aaron Brothers

 

My family and I moved into our house over six years ago and  it wasn't until last week that we hung a photo gallery on our family room wall. Six years. And it was actually my husband's idea!

We have artwork and photos around our house, don't get me wrong. But an actual true photo gallery, we have never had. And I (like many of you) have THOUSANDS of pictures.

Just over a year ago when Oprah came calling, some friends and I hurried to hang a few great shots. Yes, it took a visit from the Oprah show to get me to enlarge, frame and hang my photos. I vowed I would take that lead and run with it. Did I mention that was over a year ago? And in case you're freaking out about my Oprah comment (really long story short) my clip was never on the show and although I made it to the show, I was never on the show either. You can exhale now.

Back to our photo gallery; I LOVE it. And I can't believe how easy it was to put together and hang.

Consider this your gentle nudge, your sisterly reminder that your images were taken not only for YOU but to share. Honor your yourself, your family and your creative talent and pick a few of your favorites to get up on your walls.

What's the rush? The Aaron Brothers Semi-Annual 1 Cent Sale is happening right now (buy one, get one for a penny)! It's one of my favorite stores of all time anyway but when the sale is happening I'm giddy with possibilities! And what perfect timing with all this creating we're doing around here, don't you think?? Even if you're wanting to branch out and dabble in painting (like we're doing around here) the canvasses are also buy one, get one for a penny too. Even my kids are excited. No, I'm not kidding.

In other words, there's nothing stopping you from creating your own gallery!

If you've already got some photos framed and on display then you're ahead of the game and in that case, you've got to share what you've got. What photographic treasures have you surrounded yourself with? Inspire us!

You can keep up with all things Aaron Brothers at their website, their facebook page and on Twitter.

negative space can be so positive and other thoughts

-quote by Goethe, shot with the Lensbaby Super Wide

Yesterday I had the chance to participate on a live web chat panel hosted at The Motherhood.com with some very exceptional ladies! Between myself, Amie Adams, Aimee Giese, Angie Warren and Me Ra Koh we could have shared for hours on end without coming up for air. Alas, time flies and we barely scratched the surface! If nothing else we realized that more than anything sharing photo inspiration can be just as fun as shooting! I guess that's exactly why Shutter Sisters came to be.

Musing on all photo-centric thoughts and ideas I wanted to share today got me thinking about this time of year and how soon after Halloween we will be looking to creating holiday cards. Don't tell me you haven't thought about them already. I so know many of you have.

Last year we started really early (like Oct 7, yikes) and wrote up some posts on the subject and called it Great Greetings. I'm not going to reinvent the wheel here so allow me to lead you to the series, in case you either missed it or need a refresher.

And to add a 2009 post to the series today, let me offer one of my favorite ways to create a great card (holiday, birthday, invitation, or just cute notecards). Let me tell you, it's all about the negative space. The more you leave, the more room you have to drop in the perfect sentiment. See the featured photo above. Don't get me wrong, negative space for the sake of compelling composition alone is awesome. I do it all the time. But if you're mindful about it when you are shooting pix for your cards, you can make room for the words that go with it. And remember, this is not just a motherhood thing. This trick goes for any kind of shot, for any kind of card.

And on that note, what are you thinking about for your cards this year? Or are you thinking about it yet? Share your thoughts and if you're so inclined, you can share your card from last year. I'll break the ice. Mine was a small and simple collection of images. I love simple.

Now, it's your turn. Let's see it!

2010 Photo Calendar Templates

Last year I wrote a post about the many options for creating custom photo calendars. In that post I offered a free download of my own Photoshop designed templates. I got a lot of great feedback on the templates, so of course I updated them for 2010 and will be sharing them here for all my Shutter Sisters. Now you can get started creating your own personalized mini photo calendars for 2010!

Click here to download the zipped psd files.

The files include basic instructions for creating your custom calendar pages in Photoshop. Then just print them on some photo paper or cardstock and cut them out.

These templates are sized to fit in a cd jewel case, but they can also be fastened together with a binder clip and hung on the wall (see above photo). If you choose to use a cd jewel case, you'll just need to carefully take apart the case and put it back together so that it stands up like this:

These calendars make awesome holiday gifts and they are so fun and easy to create. And as an added bonus these are inexpensive to make!

Friday's Featured Resource - Memolio

For the entire weekend in Manzanita I coveted the Polaroid pictures that were affectionately set around the house. As over 700 images from the weekend sat on my computer, I longed to hold them in my hands; to have something tangible that symbolized the trip, the sisterhood, the creative connection we all shared, the magic.

Andrea Jenkin's perfectly composed squares, muted and dreamlike made me swoon. Equally enchanting were Jen Lee's tiny treasures straight from her Diana Polaroid back (see above). Friends, fabrics, food, textures, sand and sky translated from view finder to film to hand, no computer required.

With a lack of any recent printed pictures, I can't help but thing that printing pictures is becoming a lost art which makes me want them even more. It's no wonder then I was smitten by these precious little picture albums from Memolio when I found them.

Love the idea, love the site, love the interface, love the price. I have a feeling I won't only be making myself a few of these little gems to hold close, but that they might be the perfect holiday gift. What do you think?