Get a Free Chatbook!

Hi there blogland, I am here to let you know about one of my favorite things, Chatbooks! I started getting Chatbooks in July of 2015. I LOVE THEM! An automatic, painless and inexpensive way for me to receive a photo book of my Instagram feed, family vacay, or art projects. It really is quite brilliant. I can also make a book with photos from my phone or lab top without creating a separate Instagram account, quick & easy. The app is very user friendly. 

These are my soft covered 6x6 Chatbooks so far. You can choose a hard cover, different sizes & other options. Here's how it works. Every time my Instagram feed hits 60 photos I am ready to get sent a book. Brilliant! I get an email saying I have 3 days to change, delete, rearrange photos, change titles, cover etc... & my book ships. $8 that's it!!! I can edit my book at anytime if I want. If there are photos I know I don't want or titles I want to change etc. I can do that so when I hit 60 pics I just have to do a quick flip through and bam. Book done. My account is scheduled so I get my books mailed as soon as they are done but there are other options as well. If you already know you want to sign up for one, click on my link here or on the right side of my blog and get your first book free. There is a video on their site that explains more. I get an affiliate fee which I will talk about down below, and you can take advantage of this too!

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 Here is a wee video showing a flip through and chatting about the books. Sorry about the quality but it is my FIRST online video, basically straight from my Instagram account. 

 Theses are my books so far. I am almost done with Volume 5 so wohoo! There are options to name your book & edit the spine.

You can choose what picture to put on the cover either from your Instagram feed or your phone photos.

Here is a peek inside one of my books. I can edit the caption if I want or just leave it.  What now? You can get more information straight from Chatbooks but basically just download the app which is free to get started. 

 

When I open my app this is what I see. My Family Vacation book which I am designing from photos on my phone is on top. My ongoing Instagram series books are on the bottom. All I do is select which one I want to work on.

 

The app opens to this screen. It shows my ongoing book, how many photos are in it, the date range... to edit I simply click on the "Edit Book" button.

Which takes me here loads all the photos that are already in my book. Simply scroll down to see more on your phone. If you notice, the bottom left photo, the tag, you will also see that the caption is on the next page. There is a maximum of 350 characters included on the photo page. If you have a larger caption it simply goes on the next page. I can go in & edit the caption, deleting some of the hashtags, or changing my verb-age & move the title to the page with the photo by using copy/paste or leave it as is.

I am creating another Instagram account just for my family & we can all add pictures that will go into another series of books.With 2 boys away at College this is a great way to continue documenting our family even when they live far away. If I want I can order extra copies so we all have one (makes a great gift). 

I can capture my everyday life! The best part is when you create your account Chatbooks will send you the same offer they sent me so you will be able to get credit for passing on the good news & your friends can get their first book free too! If you aren't interested in the affiliate account send them back here & they can use my link to get their free book. I  hope you give it a try!!!

Playing with Puppy Art Journal Page

Hello my inky friends, today I have an art journal page with a quick & easy tutorial. I have a new, very part time gig as puppy snuggler to this sweet little guy. I wanted to document this in my art journal so I made this page. Life is crazy, hectic, worrisome and overwhelming at the moment so I chose happy bright colors which tie in perfectly to the Frilly & Funky challenge. Their challenge link here, is to create using colors that are warm & sunny to combat the winter blues. Get it cause winter is very blue & also depressing sometimes which is also having a case of the blues, haha get it? I on the other hand live in VA and we have had almost no winter this year, in fact we have had a quite a few 72 degree days which is crazy and no where near the cold/snow we are used to.

However my blue is more result of my life right now. Best way to combat whichever type of blue you are dealing with is COLOR! Design a page, join in the challenge and bonus, display your piece prominently to bring some sun into your life! To see how I made this page hop over to the Southern Ridge Trading Co. blog and check it out. I am over there using their awesome chipboard & Eileen Hull Designs Color Blends. Together we can chase away the blues!

 

Playing with Love Dylusions Tag

Hi Blogland, today I am playing with love on a Dylusions tag with Dylusions paints and sprays. I have a full tutorial up on the Southern Ridge Trading co. blog. These products work great with the beautiful chippies. With Valentine's Day right around the corner it is the perfect time to make your lovies a tag, card, art journal or scrapbook page and these techniques work on all 4!

I love putting photos in my work and this is a great shot of my kids from years gone past. Love those little critters!! I hope you go check out the tutorial and let me know what you think! Have an inky fun day.

5 Ways to Play with Color Blends!

Hello Blogland, I am so excited to play with Eileen Hull's Color Blends today. I am also very thrilled to announce I am on the Eileen Hull Design Team! You may have seen me at the last 3 CHA (now AFCI) shows as a crew/roadie/Minion with Eileen and her trailer Scotty. I have been a big fan of Eileens products for years & regularly teach & demo using her Scoreboards Sizzix dies. It certainly makes sense for me to be blogging more about her products cause I LOVE EM!  

On to my first post! This month the design team are playing with Eileens Color Blends from ColorBox. This is rather appropriate as I met Eileen for the first time while demoing this product at a local scrapbook store years ago. We hit it off immediately as we have similar backgrounds being military spouses, love to chat and her granddaughter and my daughter even share the same name!

On to the fun! I love making art journal pages. It is a great way to play with product, figure out how it works, experiment & just play. I started with the backside of an art journal page, made with a piece of patterned card stock, great way to use up your stash. The paper was very busy so I knocked it back a little using gesso, and created a bit of texture as I put it down with a spatula. 

I decided to use the Hummingbirds stamp set from Darkroom Door as my theme. I love, love these little flitty birds & have a feeder right outside my studio window so I get to see them in the summer months. Putting photos on art journal pages in a great way to include your personal life to your art and it helped me choose my color palette.

If you are not familiar with how to use these unique inks there is a video tutorial by Eileen here. The highlights are:

• permanent when heat set
• 10x the amount of ink than a regular stamp pad
• hands stay clean
• extremely versatile
•  comes in 16 colors

 Technique 1- watercolor background- I started by putting some color directly on my page & blending it using water and a paint brush. They blend really well using this technique and I was able to get some nice vibrancy.

Technique 2- make some pools of color on your craft sheet or palette paper and use as a paint to watercolor in a stamped image. Stamp with an archival waterproof ink. Here I liked how controlling the color is easy, more water = translucent, less water = darker but still translucent.

Technique 3-ink with a background stamp. OK this is cool. I used the Color Blends by swiping the color Ebony on my script stamp. The images are crisp and permanent when heat set!

Further example with this technique. I added gesso to a book page to push the type to the background. Using the same technique add Color Blends to the script stamp. If I add a spritz of water the image is looser and has a watercolor feel to it. You can see by my book paper that in spots where no water was used the image is crisp, in others a spritz of water changes the look of my stamp. Yet after drying with a heat gun the ink did set permanent. I was able to add a wash of water color to the top and the script stayed put! Very cool. 

Technique 4- use multiple colors on a stamp. This was my favorite, super quick and simple to do as you have really good control of where your color goes unlike using an ink pad. The built in foam allows for easy application. More ink gives a darker image, give a light spritz of water and total watercolor look. Above you can see I got 4 stamped images without re-inking. 

Technique 5- Embossing. This ink has a slower dry time when used at full strength so I was easily able to use it with a stamp and heat emboss "Fly High". I have not had good results using ink pads to heat emboss so this was a bonus. That way if a spot of your image is missing the emboss powder the image is still visible. YAY! 

For the flowers the above book paper technique was used and die cut with Eileen's Flower Layer's with Heart Petals. I doodled a bit and layered the flowers alternating the colors and adhering with a brad. Tip: put a spot of glue on each piece as you layer to keep them in place. I added some thread underneath for a bit of flair.

To give the page a bit of that grungy look & to help the pieces pop, simply hit the high points with heavy body copper paint. I also used the Ebony Color Blend to distress the edges of my scrap of paper and art journal page. So easy to just swipe away. 

All that was left was assembly. Pulling stuff like the red net from my junk stash (clementine fruit bag) and journaling on a tag. The page is done! Thanks so much for joining me, leave me any questions or comments & have a wonderful inky day.

Supplies:
Eileen Hull Color Blends by ColorBox
Eileen Hull Flower Layers with Heart Petals by Sizzix
Stamps by Darkroom Door
Emboss Powder & charm by Emerald Creeks
Photos by me!
Copper paint by Golden