A Million Little Things

Use 'white space' on photos

Hi there, Elizabeth here! I am really excited to bring you some projects this week, focusing on your photos.

Lately I have been having fun using the 'white space' in focal photos, as a place to put my title or embellishments. Let me give you an example...

 
I made this simple grid design a little more interesting by adding a circle element in the blank space of the photos. This BoBunny paper worked perfectly with these Fall pictures.

Check back often this week for some more ideas of how to use the blank space on your photos. And on Friday we will be showcasing another Round Robin challenge with three guest designers! Be sure to check it out!

Happy Friday!

Katie again with my last two pager of the week. I have been dying to play with this Echo Park line especially since we have been slammed with a ton of snow in the past couple weeks here in NH! I love this winter line...makes me *almost* love snow:)

Here is what I came up with:

I just love that white swirly sticker! Everything is Echo Park except for the brown letter stickers at the bottom which are Jillybean Soup. I also used a Fiskars border punch.

An interesting little note about these three layouts that I shared this week...When I thought I was done with them I looked at them all and just thought that they didn't look like me.  I couldn't figure out what it was but I knew something was missing. I felt like I should be able to make a two page layout and still have it look like my style. I looked through some of my single page layouts and realized that I almost always use border strips of some kind. So I added some to all 3 layouts and instantly felt like they looked more like me. It was just a minor detail but that was really eye opening to me!

I hope I was able to inspire you with these two pagers this week!

Post Sale Wrap Up/ CHA Buzz HELP!

Hello Everyone!

Hope you are doing well! 

All orders from our 50% off sale are now out of our doors and either with your or on their way there.  Thank you so much for your support!! I was overwhelmed, I know the % off was phenomenal, but I also want you to know how much I appreciate the comments of cheering support received.  The next few months will be our test to survival as we now transition into the new product approach mingled with the continuing efforts to shed old stock.  I hope you feel you scored some deals. 

You helped us clear quite a bit of inventory and we have a small amount of cash flow to purchase a few new products.  I thank you for your patience with the what seemed like to my eternal shipping time.  If you are a new customer please know that is not the norm for A Million Little Things, the shipping time killed me (nearly literally sometimes it felt).

I also appreciate the feedback I've gotten from quite a few of you.  Most of you said the same things I was already thinking, but it's nice to hear confirmation on them.  I will be spending the next few months cleaning out some old dead categories/ consolidating and making shopping a bit easier especially in the sale and clearance sections which by the way will still be growing.  We got rid of a lot of items, but not nearly as many as I needed to.  Eventually we hope things will pick up enough to warrant a brand new shopping cart and website look.  In the process of working towards this we will be doing some major organizing cleaning and purging just like when you put your old house up for sale. There were also many other wonderful suggestions for me with the store, and for the team as your source of inspiration that I'm taking to heart, so again thank you!

In the process of pulling orders last week email after email kept coming from the manufacturers with new product plugs.  I haven't had too much extra time to look most of them over as I've been highly focused on getting orders out.  I also somewhat feel that I want to take a look at nearly everything out there and compare before making spending committments because we will be on a tighter budget than ever before.  I've always been a cash buyer, and it's hard when the cash is not flowing as I have the mentallity of wanting to carry it all, that worked for several years, but doesn't quite work now.   

This is where you all could be a very big help to me.  I'd like to have an open discussion about things you will be guaranteed to want to purchase and those that you might like.  I am very interested in bringing in what YOU want, but I can't afford product to sit idle as it did from CHA summer.  I want to make good choices, and I want you to help me do that.  Please leave me a comment and help me address some of the bulleted questions below, don't be shy even if you never comment please try to force yourself to comment today.   I know I'll be getting a bunch of free handouts at the show, and I'll be giving those away to those that help me out by leaving comments.  Usually those are brand new goodies so it may be worth your while :)  I'll take what I get and pick some random #'s from comments, so this is your chance to help me and get the chance at scoring new product! Here are some things I'd like you to answer for me:

•  What should I be ooing and awing over? 

• We have toyed with the idea of doing a few preorders, are you interested in that and why?  What companies would you like to preorder from? What makes you decide that you would rather pay in advance for it by preordering rather than wait until a company has it in hand and ready to ship? 

• How important is the price point (MSRP) in something when you decide you have to have it? Is there a certain threshold that something becomes too expensive?  (Example.. anything over $5, etc?)

• When something is released how important is the get it right now mentallity?  This was a big thing years ago, but I'm not sure how important it still is to my customers.  I do feel though that last show I lost a few sales because I didn't have things first.  That could also be because I wasn't very good at commincating what I was getting.  I want to know if that makes a difference to you if I have it a week or so after the first site of it even if you know I will be getting it.

• Will your shopping lists consist of mostly papers, stickers, alphas, etc.. what types of products will you be guaranteed to want and purchase?  On the reverse what keeps popping up out there that you wish they would stop making?  You KNOW there are things like that, LOL.  I keep thinking about several manufactures why don' they just let that one go? :)

• Anything else you want me to know!

 I have to tell you I've opened a few emails and there are a few things I really like (*CRATE*!), but as of yet I'm still cautious.  So ladies give me your wishlists, tell me your thoughts, be specific as there are good items within lines, like I said, I can't justify the buy it all approach if it sits here and no one wants it within lines.  Although I will promise you I will NEVER cherry pick paper lines.  If I decide to carry a paper line I will carry the entire set and I will continue to give you a discount on that entire set!

Now off to clean my much neglected house and pack our bags for the show.

Lots of love and grattitude, please comment away, I will read them all!!  :)

Jill

 

Another Two Pager!

Hi Guys...its Katie again! I am sharing another two pager today. Another great advantage of doing these two pagers with 4x6 photos is it makes it easier to scrap older photos without having to track them down on the computer and resize them. For this layout I pulled out a few older photos of my daughter (she just turned five) that all had the same theme. It was a nice way to capture a layout of  photos over a period of time rather than one day like I normally do.

I have wanted to a layout about this for years...being able to use these 4x6 photos made it so easy.

patterned paper: Echo Park and October Afternoon; Letter stickers: Basic Grey and Sassafrass Lass; Big Flower: Bella Blvd.; Little Flower: Basic Grey; Yellow Butterflies: Jenni Bowlin; Punches: Martha Stewart and Fiskars.

Two Page Layouts

Hi everyone...Katie here. This week I am going to share some two page layouts all using 4x6 photos. I love the look of layouts with smaller photos but sometimes it is much easier to grab some 4x6 photos from stash. I always get all my photos printed so I have a ton of 4x6 photos on hand.

However this is totally out of my comfort zone right now! I am so used to doing single page layouts that I have forgotten how to do these:) But like Linda said last week...its good to try something new. To jump start ideas I went to Inspired Blueprints for a sketch. They have so many great sketches. For this layout I used this sketch:

Here is my layout:

Patterned paper and stickers are October Afternoon and My Minds Eye; Red letters are Jillybean Soup; and the rubon is Lilybee. I used my Slice to make the sun.

I'll be back Wednesday to share another 2 pager!

 

Sale Shipment Update

Hi everyone!
This post is for anyone that may have placed an order during the sale last weekend. I have gotten a email or two about orders that haven't shipped, as we are approaching a week now. I do apologize the shipment time has increased drastically. I indicated this might happen on the blog and in the email, but if you didn't see that you may be wondering where your order is. 

My goal was to have most of the orders completed but now, but as you may imagine a sale with this large of % off generated quite a few orders.  I am working on them as quickly as humanly possible. Paul will be able to help me catch up more this weekend and we will be shipping each day (including Saturday) until we have them all shipped. We are currently working on Sunday the 16th's orders still, that was by far the largest day.  We are shipping them in the order they came in to insure fairness to everyone.  I hope to have everything shipped by Tuesday at the latest.

Once again thank you so very much for your business and patience. I hope the savings will be worth a few of extra days wait. If you have questions please email me.

Thanks!!
Jill

10 Ways to Shake Up Your Scrapbooking (Part 3)

We've come to the end of the week, and my last installment of easy tips to help shake you out of a scrapbooking rut.  Here goes:

Idea # 7 - Scraplift a Friend

There is an unending source of inspiration right at your fingertips.  Online communities of scrappers provide not only a social connection with other scrapbookers, but tons of inspiration as well.  Blogs & social networking keep me connected with friends around the world.

Idea #8 - Use Your Stash

Most of us have a more goodies than we could use if we scrapped for the rest of the decade!  (not that there's anything wrong with that!  lol!)  Put your stash to work for you and use what you have.  Sometimes I catch myself hanging onto a special paper or embellishment for just the "perfect" page.  It's a easy trap to fall into.  I worry about "wasting" a supply if I try something and it doesn't turn out the way I expect.  It's all good - and in the words of one of my scrapping friends, "Remember, it's only paper!"

Idea #9 - Try a New Technique

The possibilities are wide open for scrapbookers these days, and there are so many products available to help you achieve the look you want for your pages:  mists, inks, stains and paints of all sorts.  Stitching by hand or by machine has never been more popular.  Diecutting machines have become standard equipment for a lot of scrapbookers, and offer the potential for so many different shapes that can be adapted to any scrapbooker's style.

Idea #10 - Think Beyond the Page

Half the fun of scrapbooking for me isn't traditional scrapbooking at all.  I love creating decorative items for my home - seasonal or otherwise.   A small framed piece can be as satisfying as scrapping a standard page. 

I recently created this page, using October Afternoon's "Modern Homemaker" collection and know that it will find its way into a frame for my kitchen!

I hope you've enjoyed my posts this week, and hope that some of my tips help you if you ever find yourself in a slump. 

Here's to a great year of scrapping and papercrafting in 2011!

10 Ways to Shake Up Your Scrapbooks (Pt 2)

Good morning!  We enjoyed a snow day on top of our Monday holiday from school, so it is hard to believe that it is Wednesday already!  Here are a few more easy tips to shake you out of your scrapbooking rut!

Idea #4 - Try a new color scheme

Take a look through your scrapbooks.  Do you notice that you have a "go-to" color scheme that always works for you?  Most people have a real comfort zone when it comes to color, so a really easy way to shake things up is to choose a color that you don't scrap with very often and make a conscious effort to use that color on your page!  For me it is purple.  I love purple with a great passion, but don't often use it on my pages for some reason.  I decided to mix it up with some cool blues from Echo Park's "Wintertime" collection for this cold and frosty page.  I even changed Mr. Snowman's red scarf to purple with some Stickles glitter glue!

Idea #5 - Change Your Style

If you're normally a clean and simple kind of scrapper - change it up.  Go for an ecclectic mix of embellishments and papers and love the texture you can achieve with some of the great goodies you've got hanging out in your stash.  If you're a shabby chic kind of scrapper, go simple.  Clean lines, limited embellishments, with a real focus on the photos.

Idea #6 - Use a Sketch

I love sketches!  Having a "blueprint" to help my page along makes me happy - especially on days when time is at a premium!  Here's one to try.  

I used it on a sweet little 8 x 8 page using Echo Park's brand new collection "Little Girl".

Hope you've enjoyed these suggestions today.  Please link us up in the comments should you choose to use the sketch.  I'd love to see what you come up with!

Have a great day!

10 Ways to Shake Up Your Scrapbooks (Part 1)

Scrapbooking ruts.  We've all been in them, and know that sometimes they are hard to shake.  But it's January, and time to make a fresh start.  This week I'll be looking at 10 easy ways to help jump-start your scrapbooking mojo for the new year.  None of my suggestions are earth-shattering in nature - just some simple ways to revitalize your interest in the hobby, and have some fun while you do. 

Idea #1:  Challenge Yourself

There are literally hundreds of scrapbooking challenges out there to choose from.  If you follow the AMLT blog this week, you won't even have to go far to find one!  I challenge you to choose one (or more!) of my simple suggestions to try, and link up your resulting page in the comments.  We'd love to see how you've chosen to shake up your scrapbooking!

Idea #2:  New Dimensions

Do you usually scrap 12x12?  Generally speaking, I do too, but every once in a while I like to change it up and try a different size.  I'll go 8.5 x 11 or 6 x 6, or my favorite - 8 x 8.  My albums are 3 ring binder style, so I just pop my "off-sized" page into a regular page protector and I'm good to go.  I find that the smaller pages are quick and easy because there is less space to be concerned about and they really put the emphasis on the photos. 

This page using Echo Park's "Wintertime" collection was literally a 15 minute page. (and most of that was spent printing the photos - lol!)  I chose 8 x8 for my page size, just for something different - and it went together in a snap.    

Idea #3 - Go Shopping!

Sometimes there is nothing like a little retail therapy to shake up my scrapbooking.  Jill has made it really painless to indulge this weekend by running the biggest sale in AMLT's history!  Use the discount code "GOBIG" at checkout for 50% off everything in the store!  The sale ends on January 18, so hurry!

Come back on Wednesday for more tips to shake up your scrapbooking!

a million little pictures.

Happy Friday, folks!!  To wind up my week of hosting the AMLT blog, I thought I'd share from layouts from my albums where I have packed in lots of photos!

First up...

Using the awesome Shape Collage program I mentioned early this week, I created this cool heart shaped collage with tons of tiny images!

In this layout, I just created a collage in photoshop using layer masks and then printed 'em out and stuck them on in two separate sections rather than lots of little photos. 

I love the idea of index prints but sometimes they're just a little too small.  So in the next layout, I created my own version in Photoshop.


And lastly, I love squares!  There's something so clean & simple about squares!  So here I printed images straight onto cardstock.  Love the muted look for this layout!

Thanks for joining me this week on the AMLT blog!  Next week's host will be Linda!  You'll love what she has in store for you guys!

In the meantime, don't forget to check out the GO BIG or GO HOME sale!  Jill has gone crazy and marked the ENTIRE store off by 50%!!  See the blog post right below this one to read all the details and to grab the discount code!!

Happy weekend, friends!

xo.
Rebekah