All about keeping things simple for the holidays. I can hardly believe Thanksgiving is next week. Where does the time go?! I'm always looking for easy projects that are cute yet don't take too much time to make. Shared a video on my YouTube channel with easy crafty holiday DIY's. Hope you enjoy! What holiday craft projects are you up to?
Workshop at Baum-Kuchen
Basically walked into Traveler's Notebook and stationery heaven when I taught at Baum- Kuchen. I pronounced the name wrong in the video below - the "c" is actually silent. Please excuse my little mistake! I didn't take enough photos, but I did LOVE the energy that the sold out class brought into the wonderful workshop hosted by Wakako and Eunice. So grateful to this awesome and inspiring creative community.
You can check out Baum-Kuchen's blog post as well as the video of the fun. If you're in downtown Los Angeles, be sure to check their schedule and hopefully you can get inside their amazing space! Of course thankfully you can shop online and get your hands on all the goods. Are you obsessed with stationery and paper goods as much as I am?
Field Trip to the Circus!
Photo of Jack, me, Harper and Rachel from the circus a couple months ago. I also invited Chloé to come along on our trip to the circus and to write a guest blog post about it as well. The video of our outing and part of documenting it in my traveler's notebook is at the bottom of this post. Take it away, Chloé!
You know you’re an English major when an internship opportunity requires you to see a circus! But not just any old circus. Old? Yes, but only with historical and successful credibility—The Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey Circus!
My initial thought about going to a circus was, I’m excited to see how my experience will change as a young adult. Needless to say, I was equally, if not more impressed. However, for different reasons than five year old me.
First, and most obvious, I was impressed with the skill. Being your average no-yoga-barely-touch-my-toes-self, it doesn’t take much to out-stretch me. As I was walking to my seat, pretzel in one hand, and my ticket in the other, I felt like an A-class juggler. Conquering the leg stretch over the row of seats and (not so) graceful landing, I felt pretty accomplished. “Sign me up Ringling Bros., I’m ready!” But I quickly revoked my offer, because above me were women doing the splits in glass spheres, looking like the pretzel I had stopped eating long enough to pick my jaws up from the ground.
The talent was not only spectacular; it was genuine! The circus reminds me of a body. All the parts moving and working together was an art itself! There were moments where the audience was a little scared and uncomfortable, but that’s what made the circus so beautiful: this was real. The acts were exactly what they should be—intense. There was success and there was failure. But every single time an error happened, the performer never skipped a beat—continuing what they set out to do—combining the ordinary with the extraordinary. Just the attitude of hard work and unity was impressive.
In addition to the spectacular show, I was equally impressed with the family-friendly atmosphere. Being an aunt and older sister to four toddlers/kids, I know a thing or two about the art of shh-ing. Any parent, aunt, uncle, nanny, baby-sitter, etc. can agree there is nothing more stressful than having to quiet a kid who just wants to express their emotion. And let me tell you, seeing kids verbally and emotionally engaged in the show was refreshing! The ambience was energetic and playful. Never once did I hear a parent quieting or trying to accommodate to the environment. Babies, toddlers, kids, and adults were welcomed to enjoy the show as loudly or as quietly as they pleased, without hindering the experience for those around them.
Whether you’re an adrenaline junkie, sports fanatic, entertainment seeker, animal lover, or laughing advocate, The Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey Circus was truly an “Out Of This World” experience.
Scrapbook layouts using customizable stickers
It's been a while since I have shown you some scrapbook pages. Funny thing because it's definitely still a passion and we make them on a regular basis for clients, I just haven't done a 12x12 page for myself lately. I've partnered with Avery once again to show you how simple it is to create stickers. Personalized stickers are fun and easy to make! I used their easy-to-use design software, Avery Design & Print Online and I've created free downloads so you can print at home. I decided to combine my brush lettering with a simple font for a couple of the designs. You can also add a name easily and there's a video walking you through the process step by step. The easiest way to get started at Avery Design & Print Online is to enter your product number. In this case it was 41570 - White Adhesive Flags. Creating a free account allows you to save your projects and access it from any computer.
Here's a peek at how we created the stickers that you can customize with any name you'd like:
After downloading the free .avery files at the bottom of this post, you'll be able to open them and customize. To open them in avery.com/print, go to "Open a Saved Projects from My Computer" and choose the downloaded file. The designs will already be there with the names, but you can simply change the text to whatever you'd like. Unless you happen to have a need for all of these names - that would be some kind of coincidence! I printed them out on my HP Envy 7645 by putting the sheet into the 4x6 photo tray. So easy. Then I used them, along with the other Avery stickers (all linked below) for a client's scrapbook page featuring artwork as well as a layout for Jack with his first time using scissors.
Love that we can document our children's creativity and showcase it in a colorful and fun way. You can also see how this scrapbook layout came together in this video.
These would be great to put on all kinds of paper projects, not just scrapbook layouts. Thanks to Avery for sponsoring this post. You can find the free downloads below. If you happen to use these, please use #fangerine and #amytangerine - would love to see the projects on social media.
FREE DOWNLOADS: You Are My Sunshine | Hello Beautiful | Squares - Pink | Squares - Yellow
(Remember to open them in avery.com/print, go to "Open a Saved Projects from My Computer" and choose the downloaded file.)
Hero Arts Blog Hop!
It seems way too early to be working on December and holiday crafts, but with the way summer has flown by, the holidays will be here before we know it. Hero Arts launched their Winter release and I'm part of a blog hop with lots of creatives and three prizes up for grabs to celebrate. I wanted to catch up on my December Daily albums and make some new cards to get somewhat of a head start on this year's.
Are all of you going to do Ali Edwards' December Daily project? My plan is to not buy too many new holiday supplies and just use what I have, but we shall see how that goes. I do plan on keeping it simple and using my Canon Selphy CP900 for most of the printing of the photos again. All supplies are linked below. As you probably already know, I am working on making more videos, so I shot the whole process of making these on my Canon G7X and posted it here. Would love if you subscribed to my YouTube channel and also be sure to check out all the other awesome crafters who are part of this blog hop! There's a chance to win one of three $25 shopping sprees - if you visit and comment on all of the blog posts. The winners will be drawn from comments left across all blogs in the hop. Please comment by Sunday, August 28 at 11:59pm PT and we'll announce the winner the following week.
The Hero Arts Blog |
Jennifer McGuire |
Kathy Racoosin |
Wanda Guess |
Lydia Fiedler |
Alice Wertz |
Amy Tan (you are here) |
Cheiron Brandon |
Debbie Olson |
Laura Bassen |
Debby Hughes |
Heather Ruwe |
Ilina Crouse |
Isha Gupta |
Jenn Shurkus |
Jessica Frost-Ballas |
Joan Bardee |
Karin Akesdotter |
Yana Smakula |
Kelly Rasmussen |
Amy Tsuruta |
Clare Prezzia |
Mariana Grigsby |
May Sukyong Park |
Libby Hickson
