4 Ways to Use a Scrapbook Paper for Easy Party Decorations

Hello! Today I thought I would follow up my post from last week where I shared photos from R's birthday party and talk about some easy and cheap ways to use scrapbook paper for decoration. I don't consider myself an expert in party decor, but maybe this will spark your imagination and give you a couple of simple ideas.

I bought the above pack of paper at Hobby Lobby, but I'm sure you can find something similar at any craft store. These giant packs of quality paper are great because there are so many options for nearly any color scheme or party theme! The pack is marked at $20, but often they run 50%-off sales, or you can use the 40% Hobby Lobby coupon and get this for $12. Here are a couple of ways you can use this paper:

1. Banners

Use scrapbook paper to make paper banners of all shapes and sizes! Cut out pendants or circles, squares... whatever you want that fits your vision. Last year for R's birthday party, I cut out circles and made a vertical wall backdrop.

2. Table Centerpiece

This is so easy! Just tear out a piece of paper from the pack and use it on the table as part of the centerpiece. You can also use full sheets of paper under serving plates on the food table. The best part is that if they don't get wrinkled or spilled on, they are ready to use again for something else!

3. Guest Book Page or Place Setting Cards

I made a "guest book" page for R's party this year. I had her paint on a white sheet of paper, and then I cut an R out of it and taped it to a piece of scrapbook paper. I left pens and a note so guests could sign the paper, which I will put in her baby book! She can have a record of who was at her party with a handwritten note from everyone, and using the scrapbook paper makes it easy to match the party colors.

If you were having a party where you had place settings, you could make cards or labels out of the scrapbook paper. And speaking of labels...

4. Use as Labels around Jars and Drink Pitchers

I used the scraps of paper leftover from cutting the wall banner for wrapping around mason jars and the drink pitchers. I left a jar of "kisses" next to the party favor photos and wrapped the pink paper around it. This is a super easy way to carry the party theme around the room without having to buy anything extra!

Like I said, this isn't anything too fancy or expensive, but hopefully this gives you some ideas for easy ways to decorate without spending a ton of money or time. I love using scrapbook paper in create ways, and the best part is that you can often reuse it for lots of other things too!

What's your favorite thing to decorate with?

Have you ever considered using scrapbook paper like this?

Around the House: Fall Decor

I shared an updated house tour earlier this year, and in the past few months I've made some changes as far as decor goes, so I thought it would be fun to share some pictures! The photo above is our mantel that I decorated for fall. Not to toot my own horn, but I love how it turned out! I'm still not sure what I'm going to do with the "gather" wood cutout. I am pretty sure I'm going to stain it, but for now I still think it looks perfectly fine unfinished as is.

The paper banner I made myself using old pieces of scrapbook paper, and I think it adds a lot. The "happy harvest" sign is from Hobby Lobby, and the pumpkins I bought for $3 at Walmart. The wood cutout is from here. (I got the 35x17 size in case you're interested.)

I shared the gallery wall above my desk in my last house post, but since then I've switched some frames out and added a few pictures. Gallery walls have always freaked me out because I am too scared to commit to a design and am worried about hanging everything perfectly. What I did for this is hang up frames one at a time when I get them. I started with my diploma on the far left and added the hospital photo and photo of R. Then I've just kept adding and I think it looks great! I love that I'm not committed to a design but have the freedom to swap things out as I want to.

Of course many of you know about my new purse rack. If you missed that post, see a before/after here. It's been a few weeks now and it's really so handy to have somewhere to hang all of our bags at the end of the day instead of all over the floor.

This is what I've got going on in our guest bathroom. The print is from Minted, and it was hanging there already but I was considering moving it somewhere else (maybe my gallery wall) because I wasn't loving the abstract print in the bathroom. But then I put some (fake) leaves in the vase and added the mason jar with pinecones and mini pumpkins, and the colors of the print matched so I kept it!

So those are a few of the updates I've made lately! One of the things I feel so thankful for is owning a house, because it's something I prayed for (and saved up for) for a really long time. I love being able to decorate it!

What update have you made to your space recently?

I went to Lowe's and bought lumber and everything

^^^ Staining!

Over the past week, I completed a project! I'm typically not very handy with DIY-type stuff for our house, so I am really proud of myself right now. I actually went to Lowe's by myself and bought wood and stain and sandpaper and everything.

I repeat: I did this all by myself.

One of the selling points of our house for me was the laundry room. It's a good size with built-in cabinets and storage space in the back, and I'd never seen anything quite like it before. I knew the back wall would be a good place to put some kind of coat/purse rack, but I couldn't figure out exactly what I wanted to do. (Related: See our house tour here!)

Right now I have my lunch bag, R's lunch bag, R's diaper bag, and my purse that I just pile on the floor, which obviously looks cluttered, not to mention we keep tripping on things, and R wants to dump out the contents of all the bags and put anything she finds into her mouth and draw with pens all over her face.

I pinned this forever ago and finally decided to try and make something like it.

It was a Saturday afternoon and R was sleeping, and I really wanted to get started on this project, so I asked Jordan what I needed and drove over to Lowe's. I found a worker and said, "I need to buy a one by four." And he said, "You just need lumber?" "Yes I do! I need lumber." And then I proudly marched around the store with my 1x4 over my shoulder like I was a member of Swiss Family Robinson going to build my tree house.

You think I'm kidding.

I need to get out more.

So I bought a 1x4, a small can of "Dark Walnut" stain, and some fine-grade sandpaper. I already had a paintbrush and a can of Polyurethane for our outdoor bench, so in total everything cost me about $10! I painted two coats of stain (letting the board dry in between), then painted polyurethane, let it dry, sanded it down, painted another polyurethane coat, and sanded it one final time.

*I normally do not condone apologizing for pictures I post on my blog, but I feel like I should tell you that the lighting in our laundry room is terrible and I wish there weren't such a yellow tint to these to really show off my project! Alas.

We added hooks I found at Hobby Lobby (they were half off and only $1.50 each!), and Jordan helped me find studs and hang it on the wall. (Side note: What is it with guys and stud finders? They all seem to like to say stuff like, "You don't need a stud finder. I'm right here." Good grief.)

The laundry room still needs some organization, maybe a cubby kind of thing like this? But for now I am in love with my new coat and purse rack! And it's even better because I made it all by myself for a total cost of less than $20! I don't know whether or not this is true, but I'm telling myself that something like this would cost double that at the actual store. It makes me love it even more.

What do you think? Have you ever made something like this before? 

R's Pink & Gold First Birthday Party

On August 6th we celebrated Miss R turning one! As I mentioned in a previous post, I did not originally have a theme planned. I walked around Hobby Lobby grabbing things I thought were cute, and when I came home I realized it was mainly pink and gold stuff. I searched Pinterest for "pink and gold first birthday" and realized that is a theme! I did Pinterest before Pinterest was cool, y'all.

My mom, brother, and sister-in-law came up a day early and helped me set up for the party, and I absolutely love how it turned out! I borrowed some decorations from a friend, made some stuff myself, and used things I already had around the house, so in total I spent maybe $40 on party decorations, which is pretty good!

First, I will share my inspiration from my one-year birthday Pinterest board, and then I'll share some pictures of how my inspiration came to life at the party!

1 / 2 / 3 / 4 / 5

I love how it all turned out. I feel like everything came to life just how I envisioned it, and it was cute and fun but not involved enough that I felt like there were a crazy amount of decorations to set up. I'm excited to share more about R's party, including cake eating pictures and maybe a video soon! If you have any questions about how I put anything together, feel free to let me know in the comments or shoot me an email. 

How to Make Homemade Movie Collages Using iMovie

Over the past year or so, I’ve started taking more videos. I will always love taking pictures, but videos are really fun because they capture things in a different way than a still photo. I’ve put together videos of our last few family trips to the Bahamas, Virginia, and Chicago, and I’ve made some videos of R as she’s grown over the past 12 months. 

Lately I have received some questions about what equipment I use to put together the videos, so I want to briefly explain my process to you! I am purely self-taught, and there are a lot of things I don’t know about making videos, but hopefully this is helpful to you and maybe inspires you to start making videos of your own!

Taking Videos: Equipment

You can absolutely use the video function on your smart phone, and I do for a lot of my videos. This would be the easiest route if you didn’t want to buy new equipment. If possible, I prefer taking videos with my DSLR (I have a Canon Rebel t2ii), because it’s a higher quality, and I can use manual focus to get artsy about it if I want.

Most recently, Jordan and I decided to invest in a handheld camcorder. We used our Discover card points and bought it as a joint birthday gift. (Note: this is not a sponsored post! Panasonic has no idea who I am.) I used it for the first time in Chicago and thought it was great. It’s not as high quality as my DSLR, but it’s higher quality than my iPhone. We hope to be able to use it to take more home videos of R and future babies throughout the years.

Taking Videos: Tips for Getting the Best Shot

I’ve found that it’s best to try not to move around too much when you are taking videos. If you do scan or pan the scene, do so slowly. Especially for travel collages, when you are only using 2-3 seconds at a time, if those 2-3 seconds are constantly panning, you will make yourself nauseous trying to watch it later. You might feel dumb pointing a video camera at a scene and not moving or panning at all, but you will like it for later when you put your clips together. (At first when I did this Jordan thought I was a nutter, but after watching my videos later he understands the method to my madness.)

Just like it is for pictures, try using different perspectives. For my Chicago video, I took shots pointing up at the sky showing a tall building, I took shots pointing down at R in the stroller. I turned the camera around and took a shot of myself (a video selfie, if you will), I zoomed in close on R crawling on the bed, I zoomed out and showed a full shot of the bean, I bent down and showed just people’s feet in the water of Lake Michigan… you get the idea. This gives a full view of the scene from different angles and keeps it interesting.

Making a Video Collage Using iMovie

I have a Mac laptop at home, and I use iMovie to make my videos. Unfortunately, I can only talk about iMovie because that’s what I have experience with. If you have a Mac and don’t have iMovie, you can buy it as an app for $14.99 and it downloads to your computer. In my opinion it is definitely worth the money! I have found it to be very intuitive, and it’s easy to add music straight from your iTunes library to your video. I’m not sure if you can buy the iMovie app even if you don’t have a Mac, but maybe you can! I believe there is also a version of iMovie for your phone or tablet.

Below is a very brief overview of my process for making my video collages:

Before you do anything else, upload your video clips to your photos by connecting your device to your computer. Then, open iMovie. Any clips that are in your photos should be visible by clicking "photos library."

A second option is to upload video clips directly into iMovie, but I personally think it’s easier to get them from Photos. If the photos don’t load, quit Photos and quit iMovie. When you open it back up, they should be there.

Start a new movie project in iMovie. Now is the fun part! Once you have located your video clips from Photos, simply drag and drop pieces into the movie project. You can easily choose which sections of the clip to include, and it even tells you how many seconds it is. Typically for travel videos I use 2-4 seconds of a clip at a time. This seems to be the optimal length for viewing. Any shorter and it feels choppy; any longer and I start getting bored. Of course, if there is a specific thing that is happening, feel free to use a longer clip or shorter as you want to!

I wait until I have all my clips mostly in place before I start adding text, transitions, music, or messing with any of the other settings. Adding text is easy. Just click on "titles" at the top and drag and drop your chosen text onto the part of the video where you want it. You can change the font and font size based on what you like. 

Transitions are things like fade to black and stuff like that. Again, just click the one you want and drag/drop on the part of the movie where you want it. Easy! You can get crazy with transitions, but I guess I’m a minimalist because I prefer to only use them at the beginning/end of the video.

For audio, it’s easiest to choose a song you have in your iTunes folder. If you are using iMovie, all the songs you have in iTunes are available to drag/drop right onto your movie. If you use a song that is under copyright protection, YouTube will automatically add ads to your video that the copyright holder will monetize. For example, I used a Keith Urban song for my Chicago video, and so there are ads on that video, and I don’t get any money from those. 

However, for my Virginia video and my video of R 0-9 months, I used a copyright-free song that I downloaded (for free) from this YouTube library. You can go there to search those songs. If you use one of these, no ads will appear on your video. It downloaded to my iTunes, and I was able to open it in iMovie and add it to my video.

One trick I like when using music is to “fade in” and “fade out” the song at the beginning and end of the video. It’s easiest to click on this tiny arrow (see below) and drag it out as far as you want the fade to go.

When you are all done with music and text and all your clips are in order, click "File > Share." You can then save it to an external hard drive or upload to YouTube or share on Facebook or wherever you want to! I usually save it first as a "File" and then you can share to YouTube, etc.

So that’s basically it! That was a super quick overview, but hopefully it was helpful to you. Again, I am not an expert, but I have had a lot of fun making videos over the past year, and I hope to continue to make more of them!

Please leave any questions in the comments and I will answer them so others can see.
Happy movie making!

Easy Father's Day Gift for Dad or Grandpa

Now that Father's Day is over, I wanted to share with you the gift R and I worked on to give Jordan and her grandpas for Father's Day! I couldn't share before, because Jordan and my dad read my blog, and I didn't want to ruin to surprise. 

When I was in Illinois a few weekends ago, my friend Justine showed me this idea that she had found on Pinterest, and I thought it was so cute! We made the sign and posed our babies for these pictures, and then we printed out the photos, got some frames, and wrapped up this super cute Father's Day gift.

It's too late for this year, obviously, but maybe this is something you want to do next year! Although I will warn you that it is ridiculously hard to get a ten-month-old to pose with a sign while looking at the camera. She kept trying to eat or or throw it or crawl on it!

I am so thankful for Jordan and how well he loves us. He truly is my better half, even though sometimes I forget. And I'm thankful for my dad and father-in-law, who light up when R is around and are such wonderful, godly examples of how to be a good father and husband. We are blessed!

Some outtakes for you!

Pin to Present: Mounted Basket Storage

Left image via / Right image is my guest bathroom

I really don't consider myself that great of a decorator, and I'm definitely not one of those people who can find an old table on Craigslist and refinish it and make it look distressed and cool. I also usually don't end up doing any of the DYI projects I see on Pinterest, so I am really excited to share this easy bathroom storage hack! (Linking up with Anne for Pin to Present.)

Neither of the bathrooms in our house had any kind of cabinet over the toilet. I don't know if that's normal for bathrooms or not when you buy a house, but it caught me off guard. For one thing, the wall looked empty. For another, I didn't have any kind of storage for towels or toilet paper or anything that might need storage except for under the sink.

We were planning on buying and mounting a regular wooden cabinet from somewhere like Lowe's or Home Dept, but depending on what type of cabinet you get, we were looking at $100 easy. Then I saw this fun basket storage idea on Pinterest and instantly knew I wanted to do that in my bathroom.

I've been looking for the right basket for a while now, and I felt like Goldilocks or something. This basket was too big, this basket was too small... I liked the wire baskets in the original pin but was having terrible luck finding anything like that. I even Googled "wire basket" and didn't come up with anything.

Then I was wandering around Hobby Lobby, as one does, and found the perfect baskets AND they were 50% off! At only $10 each, I snatched them up. I also saw this bathroom sign (below) that was 50% off and grabbed it.

For a total of $27, I have this awesome setup on the bathroom wall! It's functional and cheap and (I think) looks fun compared to a regular over-the-toilet mounted cabinet. Granted, it doesn't hold as much stuff, but it will stay clean and won't become just another place to toss random items.

Yay! Shoutout to Jordan, who helped me hang the baskets. And to my mom (because I can't write a blog post and not mention her) who affirmed my design placement and helped me figure out how high to hang them.

Now I just have to figure out what to do in the master bathroom, because we don't have anything over the toilet there either. Maybe something like this?

What do you think? Have you ever considered using baskets for wall storage like this? 
What should I do over the toilet in the other bathroom?

My Favorite Resources for DIY Blog Design

I've been blogging now for over 3 years, and in that time I've taught myself a whole bunch of things. Some of these things are helpful and useful in real life; others were a waste of time and will never be useful to me in real life except in blog-related situations.

Examples:
Useful: How to use Photoshop to edit photos -- Useful for real life and blogging!
Not useful: How to make a blog button -- Pretty much only useful for blogging.

When I first started blogging, I didn't know what I was doing. But one thing I did know: my design did not look anything like the beautiful tapestries of other bloggers. I tried hard, but when you don't have the right equipment or the right knowledge, you aren't going to get very far.

My first few blog headers were ugly. Oh, so ugly. But I thought they looked good because, well, because I didn't know what I was talking about. Three years later, I'm definitely no expert, but I've been around a time or two and know some things I didn't. I'm self-taught all the way, and so far I haven't paid one cent for blog design. Not that paying for blog design is a bad thing (I am very impressed with designers and artistic-type folk who can do things like that), but for me there's a huge sense of pride in the fact that I figured this stuff out all on my own. Well, pride and a sigh of relief that I didn't have to spend any money.

Of course, at the end of the day a professional designer will probably save you huge headaches, hundreds of hours, and make it look better than you could have on your own. But for the blogger/photographer hobbyist like myself who doesn't have the extra cash to spend on blog design, it can be useful to know a thing or two about how to make your blog look prettier and more professional. Because for real, The Lady Okie is all out of $ at the moment, so I needed to find out how to make a (semi)cute blog for no more than zero dollars. 

So anyway. For those of you who want to know the secrets of blog design and pretty pictures, allow me to share what I've learned. Maybe you can learn some things too!

1. Photoshop

I bought Photoshop Elements (version 11) when it was on sale at Amazon for $50. That was no joke the best $50 I've ever spent. Photoshop allows you to make fun editing actions, make photo collages, create a watermark brush (so you can easily add your logo or blog URL to photos), add text to images, and create blog buttons, social media icons, and even your very own blog header! There's way more it can do too; those are just the basics.

With Photoshop, I took my design skills from a -2 to a 3.3 (at least that high, maybe even up to a 3.5!). And I know there's still so much I could learn. So whether it's Elements, Lightroom, or the fancy version for "real" photographers, buying some version of Photoshop is the first step to taking your DIY blog/picture design to the next level.

You can also find free photo collage templates online. There are some good ones here to start with. (Also called a "storyboard")

*I'm interested to know what you guys use to edit photos/make buttons and headers. A lot of bloggers recommend online photo editors like Picmonkey for those who don't have Photoshop. I don't have any experience with that specific site, but it might be worth checking out.

2. Google/Blog Tutorials

Designers of blogs probably don't want you to know this, but you can Google almost anything and find out how to make it yourself. As long as you have nerves of steel, eyes like a hawk, and a few hundred hours to spare, you can make anything happen.

Below are a few helpful articles/posts I've used to make headers, icons, etc. 

kevinandamanda.com-- I've been reading this blog for a while now, and I love it. Amanda posts awesome recipes (she's where I discovered Cheeseburger Macaroni) and lovely photos. I used this tutorial to add a Pinterest button on my blog images. (Tutorial includes Wordpress and Blogger instructions.)

somethingswanky.com -- This is where I hit the jackpot. A few weeks ago I used this tutorial to create my new blog header using image mapping! It was super easy (well, okay maybe just easy, not super easy), and I was so excited to show Jordan my new look. This site also has more blog tutorials here. What do you think of my new header? I love it, so if you don't agree, just go ahead and keep that negativity to yourself. Pleaseandthankyou.

I don't remember the site I used to learn how to make a blog button (it was way back in the day before Pinterest was popular!), but if you Google "how to make a blog button," you will be able to find a site that will help you. Here's a good one to start with. Or you might try this one.

3. Photobucket

In order to make a blog button, header, or any other type of DIY design element, you are going to need an online image hosting site. When I first started trying to figure out design stuff, this sounded terrifying, but it's really not! I've been using Photobucket for a few years now, and I have no complaints. It's easy to use and best of all: it's FREE! 

I've also used tinypic, which I haven't had any issues with either.

4. Free Fonts

Did you know there are a TON of awesome, FREE fonts for the taking? They can make editing pictures and making headers and buttons so much fun! They're easy to download and fun to use. KevinandAmanda.com has a lot of awesome free fonts for download. Go here to get started. I love free fonts!

You can also find lots of free fonts on Pinterest. I've pinned a bunch to my blogging board.

**EDIT: Please keep in mind that free fonts are only free if you're using them for personal design. If you're using them for commercial purposes (ie. creating a blog design for a paying customer), you need to make sure they are licensed for commercial use. You can find free fonts with this license at fontsquirrel.com! Thanks, Allie, for the reminder!

* * *

Those are the main resources that I've found to be helpful lately, and I have more blogging-related tutorials pinned on my blogging board if you want to check those out. 

Do you do your own blog design or photo editing? 
Any handy resources you've used that you want to share with the group?

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I Totally Made This! DIY Crocheted Nursing Necklace

About a month ago, I received an email from a friend of mine who recently had a baby. She asked if I would be interested in seeing if I could make her a nursing necklace. In case you didn't know (because I had no idea before she emailed me), a nursing necklace is a long, chunky necklace made with wood beads and cotton yarn. (It can be made with plastic or other materials too, but the wooden ones are what my friend wanted.) 

The point is for the baby to have something to play with while he or she is nursing. The colors and shapes are good for stimulation, and it's sturdy enough for the baby to suck or pull on without breaking. Also, you can just hand-wash the necklace in warm water if it gets goopy from baby drool.

I did some research via the Googles and am super freaking proud of myself of figuring out how to make one of these necklaces! I used this website as the template to crochet around the wooden beads, and I found the wooden beads at Hobby Lobby for about $2.00 each. (I think for a packet of 5.)

I don't even have a baby, and I kind of want one.
A necklace, not a baby.
Just to clarify.

Although I do want a baby at some point, so forget everything I just said.

You can customize the necklace basically any way you want with different colors, sizes of beads, and even crocheted flowers or leaves, although that's a little too advanced for me right now. I'm not planning on opening up a shop any time soon, but I do think this would make a creative, homemade baby shower gift. 

Too bad I don't have any pregnant friends right now.
HA. That was obviously a joke. I'm pretty sure all my friends are pregnant right now.

So what do you think? Would anyone be interested in me doing a necklace giveaway? Whoever wins could pick the colors and bead arrangement. I just thought of that right now as I was typing, but it might be fun if enough people were interested.

Have you heard of or seen a necklace like this before?