Author: alissachristensen

5 Minute Renovations

On mornings where I don’t have a lot planned for the day I try to make a little goal list of one little project I want to do. Today I got up and planned to take down all the xmas stuff. Always sad to see it go. But I also got to put out some new stuff I got for Christmas. I find it so energizing to redecorate. Even if its just tiny touches at a time. Today’s project was even better because it was only 5 min!

My mom gave me the fabulous key holders which I have been wanting forever now. I think I lose my keys at least once a day still. So this should help. And my aunt gave me the cute wall quote when I first moved away from home. We have a tiny little hallway from the main room of our house to the garage and laundry room. It was always so blah looking, so today’s project was to spice it up! I hung the key holder and centered the quote above it, found a similar frame (but I think I’m going to actually replace it with a larger simple black frame, and of course change out the picture for one of both of us and the puppies as a big family.) And five minutes later voila!

It feels good to do a five minute makeover. You accomplish something and beautify your house and it takes less time than turning the tv on! I’ve got a couple more five minute make overs to do this week, if I can find the supplies I need. But definitely stay tuned for some crafty tips! Hope your all having a good weekend!

Published Album!

Six months ago I submitted some work I did to Scrapbook Trends. I went for the mini albums create submissions. It was not my first but it was close to my first pieces I submitted. I had thought it might take a little longer to get in. But a couple weeks later I got an email asking me to send my stuff in and that it would be published. Well I think I was bouncing off the walls for the next month. And when I got home from Christmas holidays this little book of joy was here to greet me!

I wanted to create an album that was unique so that I had a better chance of being published. When I was in Texas earlier this year scouring the antique shops for amazing finds I stumbled upon a shelves of old spools. The inspiration was instant. I knew what I wanted to do. So I got home and got to business. The album was 100% made from scratch to wrap around the spool, thus the title wrapped up in you. It documents our first year together starting with the proposal and going through the wedding and other big events. It ends with our one year anniversary.

Here is my full two page spread and title/credit. I still cant tell you enough how exciting it is to see my name in there. What has also been amazing is the support and love from all my friends. A couple have even asked where they can get copies (online at scrapbooktrendsmag.com) Its the most amazing feeling. It really started 20eleven off with a bang. I am already thinking of other projects to submit!

This was my original pictures I had to submit and then I had to send my actual album. I will be getting it back soon in a box of goodies and two copies of the magazine. One which will be torn apart and framed (I did tell you how excited I was) and one for my mom. The one who inspired me originally to scrapbook and craft. And still inspires me today. Thanks mom, this ones for you.

Top Tens of Twenty Ten

As I was not blogging most of last year I wanted to share my top tens of the full year. But being me I Couldn’t make one top ten group for everything so you get a mish mash of everything I do. I decided I could Break it down into my top three loves. Projects, Photo’s and of course baking.

Be prepared this is going to be as photo heavy as you can get in one post!

This is my collage of favorite pictures and memories this year. 2010 Brought babies and new puppies, weddings and lots of Disney trips (thanks mom again for the most amazing ever giving birthday gift, I truly and getting as much use as possible out of my Disney pass)  A crazy Christmas, a few more family get together’s and just everyday moments. Really the little ones that are not pictured are the most important, but these fav’s come at a close second!

The biggest growth I had this year was in my baking. How could you not enjoy making delicious smelling addicting sweets. The many flavors of cupcakes ranging from cookies and cream, death by chocolate, the original chocolate and vanilla to crazy seared s’mores, and edible monogram toppers. Cupcakes have endless possibilities, I hope to create many more this coming year again! Then there was the wedding cakes. It was one of my few resolutions last year to sell a wedding cake. And that one has now booked more! I cant wait! And my all time favorite was my fourth of july cake. An original design, I remember my mom being confused by how plain the tall white cake was and how excited I was. But to see everyone’s reaction when I cut into that surprise beauty was every reason I bake in the first place. My american flag cake will hopefully be a tradition and maybe with practice I can cut out half that prep time!

And lastly are the projects/scrapbooking. My first love. This is my top ten projects of the year. Im really looking forward to making more of a commitment to devoting some time to this hobby this year. I broke these all up into their own part, most have more than one picture as it is and I knew I could never squish them all into one!  So here goes nothing, and remember I did warn you at the beginning!

Loved this craft and it wasn’t even my idea at all. Sometimes you find inspiration when someone ask’s you for a favor. My sister in law was having a new baby and asked each of the three girls to finish matching frames in whatever way we wanted for his room. What an awesome idea right! I got to help Jess with her’s on the right with the vellum quote over a picture, simple and cute just like her. And I went a little more complex with a framed mini pull album and giant monogram. Both so different and both so beautiful, I cant wait to see them all together!

This was a fast layout of me and my sister. I fell in love with it making it so fast with my mom’s selphy printer. Need one asap. And with the pages I ripped out of a paper back to add to the layout. Simple, fresh, perfect!

Another Layout. I knew one day I wanted to do a special layout of our relationship when it wasn’t so easy. And after we watched the movie “Going The Distance” and whispering I know exactly what they mean every five minutes, I finally felt inspired to document it. I dont know how many plane tickets we have from that year but it is kind of fun to see the distance we’ve covered to get to each other.

And speaking of travelling, if you ever want to do a travel mini album I highly suggest Teresa Collins “Travel Log” kit. It came with so much and went together so easily. I felt like it was made for my trip. I had been meaning to make an album of my month abroad for a long time and I couldnt imagine it any better than this!

I LOVE this layout! I had decided to stitch my title into the paper. Not knowing how long that would take! Haha but still so worth it! Hand stitched love with love I like to think. And those pictures just make me feel warm and fuzzy every time I look at them.

Another mini album. Can you tell thats my favorite type? So many different ways to make one thing. This is another Teresa Collins kit. A recipe book. Could it get any better for me? Now I just need to fill it in with all my secret recipes!

Last layout for the countdown. Save the best for last? It swirly,blinged out and emotional. It has every ingredient for a perfect layout. Just a timeless moment with my dad. Like I said, perfect.

Another mini album. This one teeny tiny mini. Its an album for our wedding day and it fits inside the compact I was carrying with me that same special day. I wanted to create something out of a physical item from the wedding. I love the way it turned out!

You may remember this one. Another idea that wasn’t mine but inspired me none the less. Rachelle shared the awesome tutorial with us a couple weeks ago on how to make Ornament Wreaths. I was lucky enough to see some readers experiments with the same craft! The top two are theirs and then you can recognize the two she inspired me to create as well. I am still loving them and it was a little sad taking them down today.

Best for last again. My last top ten project was by far my favorite but it has its only story and many more pictures to follow it in tomorrow’s post, but I still wanted to share it in my top ten’s!

I hope you enjoyed this crazy long and heavy post. I enjoyed the trip down memory lane , sharing all these moments of creativity with you. I cant wait for what I can collect to post next January. Good luck with all your new years resolutions! Go create!

My word of 2011

Being new to blogging doesn’t mean I’m new to the blogging world. A couple of the ones I frequent make a post every January about their word of the year. A word to live by for one year with all your heart. As you also may have noticed I’ve been a tad absent since the last weeks of December. Holidays get out of control fast, especially when you are sick and travelling to other countries to see many extended families. So honestly my word of twenty eleven should be procrastinate, Ive been meaning to write this post for the last week but just keep putting it off. But I am back! I am starting off the year healthy and inspired. I’m really looking forward to a full year of blogging and inspiration thus my little word for this year will be create.

Create: it has so many definitions.

From the dictionary: to evolve from one’s own thought or imagination, as a workof art or an invention. To cause to come into being, as something unique that would not naturally evolve or that is not made by ordinary processes.

From my little corner of the world it means to be sparked with a an ever growing love of making something with your own hands or thoughts. And inspiring others to do the same.

Would anyone care to share their little word of 2011?

A very Late Merry Christmas

For those of you who do not know me personally I was very sick over Christmas. Turns out when you have bronchitis and do not know and have a whole bottle of cough syrup you can give yourself a pneumonia. It didn’t get quite that far but it might as well have. I was basically dead over the holidays which was sad but I have such wonderful family that took good care of me. I wanted to share some of the home made gifts of our Christmas with you.

The first was a gift for my sister in law. She had asked me to make her a simple recipe box. But I rarely go the simple route. So I found one online that couldn’t be ordered and I had my dad design a whole new one for me. I was so amazed by it when he showed me the finished project I put on a good pout and a couple hours later I had one too! The lower right hand picture is the only thing I gave my dad to go off of, and he created the beautiful box on the left and top. I used rub on letters to create the cute knobs I couldn’t find anywhere. Mine is still in progress as I want to paint it red and beat it up a bit more. So I will share pictures when its finished and full! Thanks again Dad for such an amazing gift.

Another beautiful gift my dad made this year was a set of metal signs. I had found them in an antique shop in texas while I was visiting a friend. I had neither room or excess money to bring them home with me but I managed to take a picture. I had no idea when I tagged him in the picture on facebook that a month later a package would arrive from my dad, with my own handmade set from him. But then he had gotten himself in trouble because my mom saw and loved them too. So for Christmas she got her own set. What Im getting at is that my dad needs to open his own shop of amazing handmade gifts! In clockwise from the top left is the original letters I found, my moms new ones for Christmas and mine hung up.

And todays last homemade gift was a beautiful apron made for me from my sister in law. (the one who got the recipe box) I was not expecting anything since she was also kind enough to get me a subscription to my favorite magazine, scrapbook trends and simply homemade. So I pulled this out and was deeply touched she took the time to make me something. Especially since its covered in cupcakes! Thanks again Deanna!

There will be more homemade gifts to share with you tomorrow but for now we’ve got to get ready for yet another family dinner. We definitely dont diet around the holidays! So I will leave you with some highlights from the holidays. A mish mash of memories if you please.

O and we caught someone spying on lissables on all the new Ipads given out by santa! Were famous!

I hope you all had amazing days with friends and family. And wishing you a happy news years as well!

Guest blogger Gary Blake with photo tips!

So you got a nice camera for Christmas and you want to start taking nicer looking photos. Pouring through photography books and chasing good advice down the endless hallways of the internet can be time-consuming and can frustrate even the most patient people. I say there’s time for all of that later. I’m a self-taught professional photographer I think the best thing you can do is take a little advice and from a trusted source (ME!) and get out there and start gaining experience.

Step 1: Throw away your lens!
Well, don’t throw it away, but if your camera came with a zoom lens you should try selling it. With the money you make invest in a 50mm lens in the $100 range. The problem with those zoom lenses that come with your camera is that they will produce photos that will look similar to the point and shoot you got for Christmas last year. The whole point of upgrading your camera is to take better photos. The 50mm lens you get will allow you to actually see the difference.

If you have a Canon try this lens:
http://goo.gl/4jALF

If you have a Nikon try this lens:
http://goo.gl/AnhVt

Step 2: Drop that F Number!
There should be a little dial on the top of your camera with different letters. Switch it to ‘A’ for Aperture Priority and use your scroll wheel to drop that aperture as low as it will go. With your new 50mm lens it will be 1.8. With other lenses it could be 2.8, 3.5, or higher. The lower that number is the more blurry the background will be.

Here is an example of a photo shot with my aperture at 1.8

Step 3: Are your photos a little blurry?
So you’re shooting in aperture priority and you’ve set your aperture to 1.8… but you’ve gone from shooting in bright light to shooting in dim light and now your photos are blurry? Don’t panic!

The next setting you need to learn is ‘ISO’. This is displayed as 100, 200, 400, 800, 1600, etc… In Aperture Priority the higher this ISO number is the less blurry your photos will be. The tradeoff is that with the increased ISO you will also have increased noise in your photos. This noise on most new cameras is only really noticeable at ISO1600 or above.

Here is an example of a couple photos where it was important to freeze the subject. My ISO number was high.

Conclusion
Take your time and have fun! Before hitting your shutter button and taking a photo, think about how the photo will look. Move around and experiment with different vantage points. Nobody ever learned the intricacies of photography in a day. Good luck!

-GB

Little Girls Birthday Party Cakes

This morning I got up bright and early to whip up some fun girly cupcakes for two special little girls with birthdays today and tomorrow. They ordered 12 pink and purple for one and 12 green and blue for the other. And  two big ones for the birthday girls, with special monogram toppers.

Then I got them all put away in boxes and ready to go. How cute are they all packaged up. And with the new cupcake business cards too!

Just another beautiful cupcake morning here at lissables. If your thinking these are too yummy to resist you know where to find me ! Have a wonderful day!

Activity Advent Calendar Tutorial

“The 60 min activity advent calendar”

I know as an advent craft this is so very late in the month to bring up. But Hey I saw a piece of paper in Michaels yesterday and knew just what to do with it. You will need two pieces of paper. I used a white sheet and “advent” from the Merry & Bright collection from WeR Memory Keepers. But Ive seen many different Christmas papers in similar styles you could also use!

Take some liquid glue and secure all your sides and in between each window as when you open them they will tend to lift up on the sides. Then write activities you would like to do with your family coordinating with your days. Just like you would eat a new chocolate each morning, you will now have a fun little activity to make some family memories each day! It can be as simple as a phone call to Grandma, a movie or revolve a whole day around ice skating or baking. Plus its less calories than eating 25 chocolates!

How simple and cute is that, 2 pieces of paper, glue, a pen, and sixty minutes later a beautiful keepsake. And if you really love it and want to reuse the same one the next year, cut out the squares with an exacto knife and start with a fresh sheet! You can even use pictures instead of writing in some windows. So keep it in mind for next year, or go get it started now and have a pleasant surprise waiting for next December 1st.

And luckily mine had a giant Christmas door to peak behind for December 25th. Which is good when you have a crazy day of doing 4 houses each Christmas! But that’s another story to share later next week!

Easy Christmas Wreath Cupcakes

Do you have a family dinner coming up? Most people like to cram as many as possible into these couples days around the 25th of December. Well if you do and you offered to bring a dessert here is the answer to your “out of time” prayers. Grab your favorite cupcakes recipe, your favorite butter cream or icing. Ps box cakes and betty crocker icing work just fine for this! Because the wow is all in the presentation.

(all) You will need : A box of mint leaves, White Chocolate and a pan lined in wax paper.

Melt the Chocolate in the microwave in 30 second intervals, (trust me and dont make me post the picture of me forgetting and setting chocolate on fire in the microwave this past summer) Once melted let it cool slightly. Then simply take your finger, dip it in the chocolate and spread it evenly on the mint leaf. Im sure there is a more professional way but this is the easiest way to make it work. Then lay it chocolate side up on the wax paper and refrigerate for 30 min. Repeat the process for a second coat and refrigerate for an hour this time. Make your cupcakes as directed and let cool, ice lightly with your choice of frosting. Peel mint leaves from Chocolate (carefully but fast so it doesn’t melt in your hands) and place on the cupcakes. Arrange it with red jellies or m&m’s to be your berries. Display your cupcakes on a large dish in a circle to resemble a wreath, you can even add a large bow at the top to top it all off! And there you have it an easy but elaborate looking Christmas dessert your families will envy you for making!

TADA!  You too can do this! Because I believe in all of you!