Design | 365 Days of Crazy

Archive: ‘Design’

Gallery Wrap Canvas- Your questions answered

Sunday, August 29th, 2010

I did a post a couple weeks back about the Gallery Wrap Canvas I had printed of my son on the beach. Since that post I received a few questions I would like to address today. I would also like to provide a closer view of the whole product plus another canvas I purchased from a different vendor.

The first canvas is a 16×20 Gallery Wrap (1.5″) LUXE canvas from Pixel 2 Canvas.

My canvas turned out perfect. I love how the back is finished out, too.

The second canvas is an 11″ x 14″ Thin (3/4″) Gallery Wrap by Canvas On Demand.

This one I purchased with a great coupon code and my daughter was over the moon with it.

TIP: When having a Gallery Wrap canvas printed, you have to make sure there is enough open space around your image so that don’t lose anything important on the sides. This was pretty tricky for me. Just make sure to choose the correct photograph. Have fun!

Posted in Babies, Children, Children, Decorating, Design, Photographer Tools, Photography, canvas | 1 Comment »

Memory Keeping- More Joy Less Chore

Wednesday, August 25th, 2010

Is this the current state of your photographs?

Are you overwhelmed with the number of photographs you have stacked on your desk or thrown in your drawer? Or worse yet, do you have a ton of unprinted pictures sitting on your computer.

I received a comment in Monday’s post about “memory keeping” becoming more of a chore. This really got me thinking. There was a time when I really enjoyed “scrapping” my photographs. My daughter has some gorgeous pages in her scrapbook album.

I love these layouts, but let me tell you, they took forever to plan and implement. Now that I am on child number 3 in four years, I have very little free time (if any). I still want each of my children to have a written and illustrated record of their childhood. I am so thankful that my mother wrote down information about all of my milestones as a young child. I now have this list and reference it with my children.

So, What do you do to get started? Every Wednesday we will take a step towards better organizing our photos/ memories and getting them in an album or scrapbook. As we get busier, the photographs pile up and organizing them becomes more of a chore and less fun. Let’s get things under control so we can enjoy our photographs once more.

For today, let’s start really simple.

1. Start an album from today on. Right now forget about all of those unorganized photos. Let’s make sure we document everything from this point on. I love the albums they have at Exposures. They are a bit pricey. Your local Michaels has a great selection of albums- make sure you use a 40% off coupon to make the deal that much sweeter

(An album I purchased from Michael’s .)

So, this week decide on what type of album you would like to use for your current photographs. Let me stress again, for this week, Forget about your piles of pictures- only think about today forward!!

Photo Album Links:

Information on the Recollections Collection available at Michaels

Albums I currently use from Exposures

Posted in Children, Design, Organizing, Photo organization, Photographer Tools, Photography, Photoshop, Scrapbooking | No Comments »

Displaying Your Photography

Friday, August 13th, 2010

I got my first DSLR when my second child was 6 months old (1st child was almost 2 years old.) Since then I have taken tens of thousands of pictures. I also began scrapbooking at this time. I must admit that I really didn’t have time for both of these new hobbies. However, I was totally hooked on preserving every possible memory for my children.

I have since upgraded my camera body and added another kid to the mix. This has added another 10,000 or so pictures. The question is, what do you do with all of these photographs? At a later time, I will dig deeper in to my photo organization techniques, as well as how I am able to keep a scrapbook for each kid and a photo album for each kid. But today I want to talk about displaying some of your AWESOME photographs. What is the best way to do this? The answer is: there is no best way. I used to think that 8×10’s were the way to go. Get a nice frame and throw an 8×10 in the armoire. This is the OLD way of thinking.

I have since decided that bigger is better. I think I may be obsessed with gallery wrapped canvases. When done correctly, they are gorgeous. And guess what? You don’t need a frame. For me this is a huge plus. As I mature, I am learning that I like things that are simple. Without the frame and mat you can easily move your canvases to different rooms in your home. You aren’t stuck because the color of the mat looks great in your family room but horrid in your living room. They are so versatile. This feeds right into my obsession for redecorating.

This is a 16×20 canvas currently displayed in my breakfast nook. Last week it was in the game room.

So, how do you like to display your photographs?

Posted in Babies, Children, Decorating, Design, canvas | 21 Comments »

What makes me happy?

Monday, August 9th, 2010

I’m noticing a theme in forum and blog posts lately. Us moms are “trying” to focus on what makes us happy. I think it’s great and about time. If mom is happy, the whole family is happy, right? There is even a workshop being offered by Kelly Willette about “Finding Your Joy.” Check it our here:

I think this is a great idea. I would love to be in a few more pictures. Sometimes I’m afraid the kids will look back at their albums and think, “Where the heck was my mom?”

I’ve been trying to figure out what makes me happy. I asked myself, “If I had a whole day to myself, what would I do with that day?” Here’s what I came up with:
1. Sleep in
2. Go for a run without having to push a stroller
3. Take a nice long, quiet shower (with no interruptions)
4. Read a book

Ok, so now it’s 11:00 in the morning and I’m lonely and bored. Let’s face it, I’m used to the chaos and I really think I like it. So now I’d grab my camera and my kids and start taking pictures of my favorite subjects.

CHAOS!!!