I remembered seeing Angry Julie make these Valentine’s Day cards last year with her son and thought to myself everyone should make these at least once in their lifetime. Not to mention there is a “contest” in our Kindergarten class to see who can come up with the most creative Valentine. sidenote: I’m not sure I am on board with introducing competitiveness as this early age, are you?

Competitiveness aside I do however love a good  creative (and easy) project. Here is a simple one to make custom 3D Valentine’s Day Cards using your own materials.

You’ll need:

• Hole punch -or- Exacto knife
• Lollipops
• Photo of your child holding pretend lollipop

Pose your child in front of a non busy background, doesn’t have to be white. Have them hold their arm up towards the camera pretending to hold the lollipop. Place the camera focal point on the face (advance photogs, dial your f-stop down so that you can shorten the focal distance between the face and hand, you want the hand to be blurry to add dimension.)

Open your photo in PhotoShop or Picnik (hurry they are closing 4/19/12) and add whatever you like, I did a tag and Happy Valentine’s Day. TIP: Make sure you crop your photo to 4×6 size to make sure nothing gets cut off when printing to 4×6 paper.

Next you can take an exacto knife and cut openings and the top and bottom of the hand. I prefer to use a hole punch when using a larger stick lollipop like Tootsie Pops, I found the slits ripped easily.

Insert lollipop and viola! Done.

Next up we are making Martha Stewart Crayon Hearts we are BIG fans of melting things after my daughter got a melt your own Crayon Maker for Christmas. Isn’t it great being 5?

Oh and don’t forget if you are planning on making that Caramelized Shallot and Blue Cheese Dip for Superbowl tomorrow you need to make it today I promise it’s 100% better made ahead. I’m making the gourmet version of Chex Mix Chef’s Mix I even found Marcona almonds for it at COSTCO yesterday, S-C-O-R-E!

So what are your Superbowl Weekend plans?

How To Make 3D Lollipop Valentine’s Day Cards

Ok so I now realize I am late to the party on this one but HOLY CROW people this is like emancipation for my junk drawer! Have you heard about SMASH books? If you don’t know me I tend to surround myself with lots of inspiration in the form of tear sheets, paint swatches, polaroids just to name a few. I shove these little tidbits lovingly into my desk, my bathroom drawers, pretty recycled paper boxes and laundry baskets until I end up having to rent a dumpster to purge myself of most of it.

I’m on board with the uber popular Pinterest but what about the tactile people like me who still buy magazines and rip every other page out for their inspiration binder? Enter  Smash Book from EKSuccess. Its just a spiral bound blank journal begging to be filled with your scraps and ticket stubs!

I'm giving this SMASH set away! (click any photo to enlarge)

I immediately high tailed it to Michael’s and bought ONE OF EVERYTHING and then I decided I need to put together a set to giveaway on the blog (see end of the post for details) and of course my daughter who’s almost 6 said she wanted one too. A few sheckles later we were home smashing all our “stuff” into cute books.

Of course I bought the MOD style book.

I decided to start my book with my ALT Summit trip so I gathered all the fun things and got gluing.

Things I collected in Salt Lake City.

Mini Instax photos are perfect for these books. Washi tape let’s remove them without damaging them, BONUS!

My daughters book

PROS:

• Low Price point, books start at 12.99 and come with a pen and glue, accessories range from 1.99 to 5.99.
• No creative constraints, you don’t have to be perfect.
• Pocket in the back with the ability to add on additional ones for clippings or photos you don’t want to be able to remove.

CONS:

• Tape and sticky items do not stay put.
• Books are very noisy/squeaky (you can even hear it in the demo video)

I have a few suggestions, get a better glue I have found that a lot of their sticky products including the post its and paper washi tape DO NOT STICK. I hope EK will improve this. In the meantime get a tacky paper glue , make sure you don’t use one that is too wet or you will cause wrinkling in your book (I did). Also find some good washi tape. ETSY is a great place to start. I ordered more tape from Pretty Tape today, they have an EXCELLENT collection of tape and other lovely accoutrements (I love that word). I will update you on my experience, I’m sure this is a lovely shop but until I get my order please shop at your own risk. You can find the books online at EK SUCESS, Micheals as well as places like AMAZON, and eBay. You know what I will be doing while I watch the SuperBowl this weekend!

Here is another video on YouTube that shows you some examples of what you can do with your SMASH book.

So how do you enter to get your own Smash Book? It’s simple just leave a comment below and tell me WHAT ARE YOU PUTTING IN YOUR SMASH BOOK? 

Extra entry if you tweet, Like Us on facebook or share the love anywhere on the web. We love that. If you do let me know with an additional comment (2 entries per person max).

the fine print: Giveaway ends 2/13/12 at midnight PST. Winner announced 2/14. No compensation was provided via financial or product for this giveaway, EKSuccess has no idea who I am I just wanted to share the love.

Smash Book | Pinterest on Paper {GIVEAWAY}

Its month two for those of you doing a 365 (or 366 in this leap year) we are just hitting a nice little stride. I have to credit my self imposed rule of only using my iPhone it really has made keeping up with the dailies pretty easy. This month I am going to participate in Fatmumslim’s Photo A Day Challenge. Its simple here is a list of the daily prompts.

Play along its easy, read the days prompt so for instance today 1. your view today that’s an easy one from where ever you are standing, sitting, lying take a photo – share it on facebook, instagram, tumbler or your blog (you can link up on fatmumslims’s blog).

Make sure if you are on INSTAGRAM hashtag it #FEBPHOTOADAY, there are over 10,000 photos in the pool TODAY alone!! 

Off to take a photo of my view.

February Photo A Day Challenge

I am going to recap this like I did BlogHer, people/places/sessions except this time I am going to see it through all the way to the swag. People this may get long, there were a lot of great people to gush over!

My Inner Circle

I went to ALT after some serious nudging and encouragement from a certain someone *cough* *cough* Meghan. Meghan (far right below) and I had attended Shutter Sisters Camp in October and instantly bonded over Sx-70 and Spectra cameras. At the time I was 90% sure I was going and then well if you read my blog you know life came to a screeching halt, literally. After that day Meghan would send up the occasional flare keeping the promise of ALT on horizon.

You should know these women, they are pretty spectacular in their own right. My roommate Mae (far left) is a fellow photog and interior design blogger at Here in This House. Mae, Mae, Mae what would I have done without you? I have to tell you that when I travel to conferences I like to float. Don’t look at me for a schedule or a clue as to when and where I am supposed to be I definitely like to go with the flow.I’m pretty sure if Mae had left the hotel AFTER I did I wouldn’t have had to have my winter coat FedEx’d back to Cali. Yeah I forget things too.

Only one missing from this foursome (and the photo, her stand in the lovely Shutter Sisters founder, Tracey Clark) was Aimee aka (Greeblemonkey) a partially repartitioned hard drive nor man with a cast could prevent this girl from landing just in time to enjoy our first meal (courtesy Blurb) at delicious Tin Angel Cafe, and the staff were probably some the nicest people we met in Salt Lake City, nice as in they were taking guests back to the hotel in their own cars when taxis were nowhere to be found, did you know in SLC its illegal to hail a cab?

photo source: BROOKE DENNIS.

Dinner with Blurb making new friends, Aimee in a cab en route. I’m still mystified how I came home without a single photo of the four of us!

New Friends

Remember that sparkly number I bought at JCREW for my ALT trip? Check this out. Mae coined the phrase bloggerganger after Pam and I showed up to the Dinner en Blanc Party like this:

I met Chelsea from Lovely Indeed and her better half Ryan at the Blurb dinner and then literally ran into Ryan at every turn thereafter, seriously fun peeps I would like to know better.

image MOSS + ISAAC,

Conference Speakers

One person I set out to introduce myself to was Nicole of Making It Lovely she spoke on the How To Grow Your Blog Readership panel. MIL was one of the first blogs I read regularly. She inspired my current office set up.When I saw her office rearrange post on her blog a few years ago I literally dialed up West Elm that day and ordered the Bond desk and downloaded the flip clock radio screensaver. I made sure I shared that tidbit with her when I met her at Alt, she was sweet not to walk away at that self exposing stalkerish moment. I love Nicole and her blog, in a I respect your space kinda way.

I missed seeing Dooce speak, kicking myself there. I did however see her in person, she is one tall drink of water. She makes me want to go buy tall boots, she has to be 6 feet without them and ask for the 6 month post Pixie haircut cut. Somehow she makes tweeting about snowmen and glitter farts look cool, now that’s swagger.

I totally rushed Summer and Brooke from The Girls With Glasses Show on Friday night after their Paris Party, they were exhausted I’m sure but were more than happy to cheese it up with me.

I met the darling Erin Loechner from DesignForMankind. An admitted latecomer to the DFM bandwagon doesn’t mean I am any less enchanted with her style and her blog. She is so kind, I emailed her a few times before the conference just to tell her how much I loved her site and name dropped some mutual friends, why? I don’t know I just assume that we are all connected anyway. I really love how easy going and friendly she is, after reading her blog I didn’t expect anything less. She talked about how she handled ALT in a completely different way this year focusing on her time pulling away when she needed to and investing time in herself and her business instead of spending four days in an all out push of self promotion.  I can see how you would get to a certain point with your blog and see the value in the separating herself and taking the role of observer versus a returning participant. I think that is awesome that she can recognize the difference and share that honestly with her readers. A blogger after my own heart.

erin's connection circle

I jumped in to her impromptu circle, I’m not sure what it was officially called but the just of it was people took turns telling others what they wanted to accomplish in the new year and others who thought they could help approached them and offered help in the form of a business card. IT WAS AWESOME to witness these connections. Each person had one minute to ask for something, two if it induced tears.

I also sat in on panels with a few of my blog favorites Holly Burns Nothing But Bonfires, Grace Bonny Design*Sponge but one thing is unavoidable at conferences you can’t sit in on everyone so you have to miss a few good ones including Bri Emery from DesginLoveFest, Liz Stanley Say Yes To Hoboken and  HGTV’s Emily Henderson.

I took a session on table top food photography with the wonderful House of Brinson team Susan and William Brinson. The session had long filled up but they were kind enough to let me crash. It was a very good exercise in stretching myself photographically speaking. I could immediately see how I have gotten very comfortable and frankly lazy in my skills especially in the kitchen which usually requires a tripod set up for which I am completely guilty of not using. I now know thanks to William that I need to start at f16 and dust that tripod off. I will come back to this soon on the blog if you are interested in what I learned.

Keynotes

A memorable part of my conference weekend. Listening to Pilar Guzmán, Martha Stewart Living, Maxwell Gillingham-Ryan, Apartment Therapy and Deborah Needleman, Wall Street Journal talk about the transition from print to digital content was fascinating. I am torn on this one, my tactile loving ways have me still renewing my paper subscriptions but this weekend I had the chance to scroll through an e-zine on an iPad and let’s just say that I may be squirreling away a few shillings for the next iPad release.

Ben Silverman, creator of Pinterest is the most unassuming thoughtful person with a HUGE following. I kept running into him all over the hotel and his eyes would look up for a second and say I’m really uncomfortable in this space. When he took the stage for the lunch keynote on Friday he had the attention of everyone. He shared slides and personal stories about how a medical student coming from a family of all doctors one day up and left the East Coast to pursue a dream to create a community on the web where we connected in a very visual way. If you would like an invite to become a part of this  wonderfulness (warning pinning is addictive) drop me an email at info (at)themodchik.com.

We wrapped up the conference on Friday with the final keynote from Gretchen Rubin, author of The Happiness Project. I have read her book and follow others as they share their stories of what happens when they commit to making others happy, one of her Four Splendid Truths. . You know what happens right? Happiness breeds happiness. Gretchen went over the basics of what needs to happen on a regular basis and I admit my ears perked up when she got to clutter and sleep. You need lots of one and none of the other. Amen to that. Every Wednesday she posts quick lists of SIMPLE changes you can make on a daily basis to shift and align yourself towards happiness. One thing I remember her saying, if it takes less than a minute to do it – DO IT. That and make your bed. I can’t get behind that one yet, baby steps. I’m looking forward to her new book Happiness in the Home maybe by then I’ll be closer to becoming a regular bed maker.

Whew that was a lot I know. Imagine BEING there and taking all of this in four short days. I was lamenting to someone that these conferences leave me feeling simultaneously  drained and stimulated. You put a lot of yourself out there but you get it back two-fold. The connections you make should you choose are pretty fantastic and usually develop into relationships that last for more than four days. At least that’s what I’m hoping for.

I’m working on my photos so come back and I’ll take you on a tour of Salt Lake City!

Altitude Summit Recap | My People

I have sat down to bang this post out several times over the past few days, each time unsuccessfully. I have come to the same conclusion, conferences, especially creative ones leave me in a state of paradoxical limbo. Do you know what 4 days and 6 hours of surrounding yourself with people who have the same obsession you do for good design will do to a girl?

This…

When my friend Nicole saw this she immediately inquired “why so easy breezy?” I laughed, I told her this is what I look like after a.) sleeping alone in bed b) hanging out with creative souls and of course c) ROOM SERVICE.

I think somewhere along this journey of discovering who I am I lost myself. I lost my smile.  I forgot what it felt like to truly feel like I belong somewhere.

I didn’t really know what to expect attending ALT Summit. Some people told me that this was the conference where the ‘cool kids’ hung out. I won’t lie hearing that might have made me want to attend even more. Who doesn’t want to know what the cool kids are up to am I right? I will tell you that there wasn’t a soul there who wasn’t somewhat nervous or unsure of themselves, OK maybe an exception or two on one of the panelists but for the most part everyone was unassuming and eager to get to know you. Going to these conferences is kind of like the first day of school, you dress a certain way, in my case head to toe J.Crew from the cashmere twin set to the sparkly sequence top.  You get your supplies ready (business cards) you brush your hair and your teeth and you extend and arm and a smile at every stranger that you meet. Its energizing and draining all at the same time. I can tell you I didn’t utter a word the entire trip home. My brain had officially reached its creative max. I just needed to digest a bit before I could handle any more inspiration.

Instead of thinking about what I wanted to blog about first I sat and stared out the window and contemplated the physics that allow a 100,000 pound flying bus to stay aloft. Acknowledging that is wasn’t always this easy for me to be happy at 24,000 feet.

I can hardly believe I was there a week ago, my monolithic suitcase remains packed and taking up most of the family room at this point. I’m not even sure how it ended up there, somewhere between long hugs and digging for presents I simply forgot all about it. Time to pull myself up by the boot straps and embrace this life of mine. Laundry and cleaning may not be as stimulating as sitting in a room with 500 designers but getting it done is the first step I need to take in order to ditch anxiety and cultivate creativity.

Acknowledging the resistance and making that required split second decision to stop whatever it is I am doing ie: blogging, pinning or instagram and RE-ENGAGE has been a hard but crucial lesson. You can see my dilemma, as soon as I step foot in my home I want to drop everything and hide in my office. I want to read every blog I discovered over the past weekend and fill my online shopping cart with books, crafting supplies and more Polaroid film. I can’t think of doing much of anything else.  So my answer to this is to revisit the conference in digestible chunks. I can’t wait to share with you about all the wonderful people I met and the things they are doing to leave this world a better (and prettier) place.

The Creative Hangover

I should be packing right now but I have this incredible urge to find anything ELSE to do but that. It may be that whenever I go to a conference there is shopping involved. The idea of walking through those doors at Nordstrom without a “sponsor” makes me weak in the knees. Why do I find the need to completely overhaul my perfectly fine, yet aging wardrobe  whenever I am going to one of these conferences? To make matters worse its snowing and this California girl doesn’t have much int he way of warm clothes. I however have one thing a black felted wool coat I purchased off season at JCREW, hands down one of my better investments and I believe it’s on the 100.

Its been almost six months since BlogHer and three since Camp and probably would have been another six months before I traveled again had I not purchased my tickets early last year. You know November just about killed me right? Well thanks to a prepaid trip and a very understanding husband I am off to Salt Lake City in the morning to attend Alt Design Summit. Whats Alt? I’ll let them explain since this is my first time going.

Design. Lifestyle. Photography. Fashion. Events. Styling. Art Direction. Food. Interior Design.

If you’re obsessed with lifestyle, food and fashion blogs, fantastic images, smart ideas and great design inside and outside — all wrapped up with a social media bow — Altitude Design Summit is the place to be. Because we feed those obsessions.  

I think that pretty much sums up all the reasons I am even on the internet. I can’t wait. I really really REALLY want to narrow down a focus on my blog. I’m not sure what that is maybe a redesign to better fit my posting habits, better navigation I want a better shelf life for my posts. Here today buried tomorrow is a very short life cycle and I’m thinking there has got to be a better way to organize and that’s what I am hoping to get out of Alt, that and some good food and lots of laughing with my roommates, God knows I need to laugh more.

Keep an eye on my instagram feed and I will try to get in a post or two in between the speakers and the food and photos.

PS. always pack something sparkly, you know just in case. 

-Linz

The Trip That Almost Didn’t Happen

I’m settling in for some big football games this weekend, I know what you’re thinking does Tebow even have a prayer? Well either way the games should be good as we head the Superbowl. Speaking of this dip would be a good tailgate item. I made this fancy version of good ol’ sour cream and onion dip over the holidays and (because I was knee deep in reverb 11 last month) I feel like I owe it to ya to catch up on some recipes.

This recipes bumps it up a notch with crispy caramelized shallots and a hint of biting blue cheese. If you can find pumpernickel pretzels then you’re golden! If not any sturdy potato chip will shovel this in just fine. Oh and PLEASE MAKE THIS A DAY AHEAD, if you can, its infinitely better if you let the flavors develop.

Caramelized Shallot & Blue Cheese Dip

I have a confession to make. Its’ been 2 years since I have seen a dentist and had my teeth examined. What makes this even worse is the fact that my husband is in the profession. He is a root canal specialist so it’s not like he can do a bedside cleaning, in fact I’m not entire sure he even knows how to clean teeth. Can I tell you another secret? The man rarely brushes his teeth. Sounds like dirty laundry right? Well it’s not as juicy as its sounds. What he lacks in brushing he makes up in spades with flossing and I found out given the choice my hygienist would hands down have me floss over brushing. Who knew?

Last month I spent thirty one days answering questions (reverb 11) I talked about what I was going to do this year to become healthier on Day 26 and I mentioned in a hushed voiced that I was going to finally get some dental attention. There was also another motivating factor, pain. I was finally beginning to experience a level of discomfort that can only be likened to what it must feel like if you tried to wedge a butter knife in between your front teeth.

Today was the first step. I had my teeth examined, cleaned which included a much welcomed injection of Novocaine right above my front teeth. One half of a deep cleaning done. I go back in two weeks and then we begin the restorative process. I’m in for a lot of chair time. Playing catch up and praying I haven’t caused any permanent bone damage because then I’ll have even bigger problems which could result in some time in my husband’s chair.  Having a root canal done by your husband isn’t what I would describe as marriage enhancing. So do yourself a favor avoid root canals (just kidding hubby) and when you can go hug your hygienist!

An Important PSA

As soon as I took the inaugural 1 of 365 photo I was instructed that I had it wrong, it’s actually a 366 project this year due to the Leap Year. I’ll just take that as a sign of the surprises to come in 2012.

Last year I started a 365. I took a photo a day but after the 60th upload I got my iPhone and fell deep into that app rabbit hole. This year I intend to complete 365+1 with or without my mobile phone, I can’t imagine a day goes by when I don’t use that phone at least once.

This morning was no different.

The sun was just above the brick fence high enough to shine through the paneled window and onto Weebee’s face. Her almond eyes narrowed not from light but my close proximity with a camera. She is not a fan. I fired off a round of photos on both my phone and my Canon.

The best camera is the one you always have with you.

I debated about doing an all iPhone 365. Somehow that just seemed like cheating. I know it certainly won’t feel like that when I’m deep into my hundredth photo. If what I want is to grow in my photography then I am going to have to sit down and do the work. That means practicing. Daily. I promise if you complete a 365 you will become a better photographer.

Take a look at my first instagram and my last. In 10 months the growth is phenomenal. All it took was daily shooting and hours of editing in the sandbox.

There has been lots of discussion and hemming and hawing going around on Facebook and Instagram about starting another project like a 365.  I know it’s quite a commitment but if you want to become better at your craft you have to do the work, that means practice as in daily so why not put them all into a nice neat collection? I have to say seeing a few people’s final shot #365 on New Year’s Eve was inspiring.

Here’s an iPhone app that was shared with me called Photo 365. For .99 you get a place to organize and keep track of your 365 project including reminders. I also found one for Android. This would make an mobile 365 way too easy, no excuses now.

Are you doing a 366 this year? Are you doing one on instagram? flickr? your blog? facebook?

disclosure: modchik is not affiliated nor endorsed by either Project 365 mobile app.

Starting a 365 Project | Become a Better Photographer

Whoa I really did it. Amazingly enough I didn’t fall too behind either (who’s counting eh?).  Here we are faced with the final question.

Where do you want to be in 2013?

A year from now I will sit down and I will repost this answer along with a comparison between what was wished for and what was received. Be careful what I wish for right?

1) I would like to be gainfully self employed. Working at my own hours, any time of the day, fuzzy slippers or not. I don’t know if this will involve my photography, my blog or falling back on plan C returning back to my Operations/Accounting skills. I do know that figuring it out will require some stripping down of my photography business. There is no money to be had in “figuring out” what it is you want to shoot.  I will likely start with another website redesign (third times a charm) to one that I can afford as in zero web hosting costs.

2) I would like to have 50% of my debt paid off. 50% by 12/12 and 100% paid off by 12/13. Now this is a biggie and ranks really high in not only importance but probable list. Like my husband loves to say about dieting and spending “it’s not like you don’t have to DO something, you have to NOT DO something.” In my case NOT buy stuff. Number 4 will be instrumental in this achievement.

3) I want to see my ‘unique’ page hits on my site reach 41,600 a month. Page hits for the website developers and non-bloggers among us are counted each time a page on a website is loaded. There is a difference between someone coming on my blog and reading through multiple pages, only the entry page is counted as “unique” as I understand it. Why that number? That means I will have reached half a million pairs of eyes in one year. And what if I do reach that level of readership what will that bring besides opportunity, most likely more pressure and need for creative ideas. More traffic = more problems? Let’s hope not.

4) I would like to see my creative endeavors earn money. This includes writing and photography although if I got paid to cook that would be the icing on the cake. I have a stack of books I swiped from Gwen Bell and I have vowed to get through them in 30 days, I am almost finished with the War of Art, which I am pretty sure every single person can relate to the message in this book about resistance. I’m happy to have discovered even at this late stage of the game, that I can tap into that stream of unconsciousness, the place where enlightenment, realization and inspiration all gather at will and on a regular basis.  I can say at 44 I am finally ready to be a professional.

I’m going to leave it at that since it is a nice bite-sized amount I can chew.  Remember my battle with clutter and my mantra, you eat an elephant one bite at a time. Same applies for my goals. Try not get to overwhelmed and to rigid with your resolutions. After all we are all creatures if habit, its a matter of deciding which habits are healthy and which need to be released. I wish you the clarity to be able to recognize the difference and let go of what is not needed anymore.

So I guess the only thing left now is to choose my One Word for 2013. I’m even motivated a little more by this custom ‘one word’ necklace designed by Lisa Leonard Designs. Have you thought of a word to focus on for yourself? Last year my word was reciprocity.

Christmas Eve Sunset

Happy New Years Everyone - thank you taking this journey with me, my blog is just a lonely group of words and photos without you. -Linz

PS – don’t forget to burn your 2011 good-byes tonight.

Reverb 11 | Day 31 :: The End or Just the Beginning?