DIY: Instagram sticker book

I love the fact that I can easily capture any and all of Ella's little moments on my phone.  I haven't given up on my DSLR but it is large and heavy.  It is a pain to carry in the diaper bag and I often miss the moment trying to whip it out.  The iPhone takes pretty decent photos and with Instagram it is so easy to instantly edit and share them.  My instagram photos are some of my favorites but I never knew what to do with them.  Then I learned how to use clear packing tape to make stickers and I've been addicted to turning my IG photos into stickers ever since.

Here is how I turn these photos into sticker books.

 Print the photos in color.  The photos should be 2in. x 2in. squares so the tape can easily fit over the photos.

Using clear packing tape, tape over the photos.  I made sure each photo was completely covered by one   piece of tape with no seams.

Then cut each photo out.

I bought several of these accordion photo books by Martha Stewart to hold my photos.  You can use anything.  The photos stick well to anything: paper, glass, plastic....get creative with where you display your photos.  I put several on glass votives so when the candles were lit the photos glowed.

We are not done yet though.  You need to get the tape sticky again.  To do that you soak the photos in water and rub of the paper with your fingers. 

The paper comes off easily leaving just the ink from the photo.  There will be a transparency to the photo where the ink was light or white.  You will also start to feel the stickiness of the tape.

Lay them upside down to dry a bit before using them.

 

I love my little photo book.  I plan to fill many of these.  I certainly have enough photos!

Instagram photo dump

I'm giving up the weekly update so every once in awhile I will just do a photo dump.  So here is my first photo dump.

Summer is definitely fading into fall and I couldn't be happier.  Not only does that mean we are closer to meeting our little girl but it means warm days and cool nights.  It means football season and lazy Sundays.  It means pumpkin picking and apple picking with lots of baking.  Oh and apple cider!

We are ending summer on a good note though.  The weather has been nice.  Even the few rainy days I haven't minded.  I took one cool, sunny day to plant all new fall pots and window boxes.  It looks like a different house.  Especially since the old ones had been dead for a long time.

I also had a very large baby shower.  It was so beautiful and nice.  We were so blessed by all our friends and family.  I just have to point out the beautiful and equally yummy cake pops Brandon's cousin Allison made for the shower.  You should check out her blog that showcases all her yummy treats!  I'l be sharing more about the shower soon.

That sums it up!  Now bring on fall....

Instagram week 15

The nesting has begun!  I had another garage sale this past weekend where I got rid of all our clutter and my entire craft room - including my letterpress letters.  I feel like I can breathe again in this house.  And I am another $250 dollars richer.  Add that to the $200 from the first garage sale and I have $450 extra dollars to spend on the nursery!!  

Speaking of the nursery, with the junk from the garage sale gone I pulled out the sewing machine and started working on the roman shades for the nursery.  An update will come soon.  Since the sewing machine had been collecting dust lately I thought I would practice with some fun bibs and burp cloths and well - I couldn't stop.  I also made a pillow for her glider out of the roman shade fabric.  That gives you kind of a peek at one the shades will look like in the room.  I also found some adorable baskets on wheels to use as her hamper  - maybe.  Still deciding.

I tackled the typical pregnancy craving by making homemade pickles.  They are delicious!  

Lola and I also started our new workout regime.  LONG walks.  That is all these big girls can handle.

On the docket for this week - furniture painting.  Not looking forward to it.

Hope your week is more promising!

Instagram week 14

It's been a pretty eventful week but once again my phone remained in my purse for most of it.

I have a baby shower coming up in a few weeks and I was given the task of finding some baby photos for it.  I just had to share them.  The one on the right is Bran and the one in the towel is me.  I've been looking at those lately wondering what our little girl will look like.  Like her daddy?  Like her mommy?  Or will she have her own individual look?  I'm really curious if she will inherit the Keith lips.

The fabric for the nursery curtains finally arrived but I hated it so it was quickly returned in favor of the fabric hanging on the crib in the pic above.  The first print was just too small and too pink.  I'll be sharing all about the nursery, roman shades and all, when we get there.  

We babysat my parents dogs this weekend and had a little party in our backyard.  Jake, their Berner that is the same age as Lola kept escaping on car rides.  He has a lot of energy!

I finished my fabric storage.  More on that soon.  I made some Roasted Red Pepper Pesto - highly recommend trying it.  It is great over warm pasta.  The recipe is from my friend TheFauxMartha - check her out.

We also toured the hospital where we will be welcoming baby girl Keith in just 2 months.  It was great to see everything but it made it so real.  Just two months!

Lastly, I spent a lot of quality time with friends this weekend - even did some fun shopping!

Have a great week!

Instagram week 13

I am an instagram failure.

When I want to be creative and instagrammy my life is so boring and when something worth instagramming happens I totally forget.

I'll keep working on it.

In regards to last week I was super excited to pick up two mini filing cabinets for free.  So excited to DIY these into some serious fabric storage.  Well I did start the process so I'll update everyone soon with the project.  

I also dropped a bunch of items off at my mom's garage sale.  Most of the items were from my craft room that I emptied to make way for baby.  I did well though and made $200 which is going right back into the nursery design.  Speaking of nursery design we put together crib.  I am in love with it.

Leave it up to Ben & Jerry to provide me with my latest pregnancy addiction - raspberry fudge chunk greek frozen yogurt.  I cannot put my spoon down.

Unfortunately though I ended the week with a nasty cold.  I really haven't had a cold this bad in a very long time.  I don't know if it is the pregnancy or just this particular cold but hopefully it leaves my system soon.  The cold did give me some knitting time and I made baby k a pumpkin hat for the fall.

Oh and for you knitters, the pattern for the pumpkin hat will be in my etsy store soon!

Thanks for stopping by!

Instagram week 10-12

So this is a bit delayed but I have really good excuses....an extended trip to Scotland and then a 4 day power/internet outage upon our return so now that life is back to normal I am doing a massive update.

So in the past few weeks we visited Scotland, celebrated the 4th, witnessed a massive storm or microburst that knocked out power for several days, painted the nursery and survived the heat wave of 2012.  Phew....time for things to settle down.  Just in time for my third trimester.

Instagram week 9

It was an extremely uneventful week.  We are leaving for Scotland tomorrow and all of last week was spent prepping the house, the dogs and ourselves for the trip.

Can't wait to get away for a bit.

Be back soon!

Instagram week 8

This week is a little full because it includes two weekends.  I decided it was best to end the week on a Sunday like all normal people instead of right when the fun begins on Friday. 

Our week included another visit to the lake with friends, water and of course s'mores, a visit to the Kane County flea market, enjoying our new mom mobile, time spent playing in the park, watering the plants (aka drinking from the hose), shopping for nursery fabric and a beautiful baby shower.

Oh did a mention the new recipe I finally tried - bitchin' sauce.  It is great just as a dip for chips or over rice, corn, beans, avocados and tomatoes.  Yumm.  Check out the recipe on my friend's blog The Faux Martha.

My cousins and aunts threw me a beautiful and fun baby shower this past weekend.  (By the way, my cousin and I are due two days apart and both are expecting girls.  I just love that.)  The shower though was so sweet.  Everyone had a blast making onesies for Baby K and they turned out great.  There was great food, lots of family and LOTS of gifts.  So spoiled.

It was a great week/weekend and I am still trying to recover.

Instagram week 7

It has been a great week.  A pretty relaxing week.

We started the memorial weekend with a little mulching....a lot of mulching.  We ordered 3 yards this year which is more than enough and were kindly delivered over 4 yards.  Our mulch is so thick we may be able to skip it next year but our yard looks SO much better.  I will have to share some before and after photos.

I also walked around our local french market with my sis eating a croissant...yum.  End of story.

Then we packed the car and headed to the lake for 2 days.  It was so hot and lovely.  The dogs love it out there.  Lots of land to run around on and nice water to cool off in.  We enjoyed a night cruise on the boat too which is always so nice.  The second day a storm blew in so we headed back a little early but it was still the perfect start to lake season.

We had no time to settle in because we immediately set out car shopping and unfortunately had to say goodbye to our truck.  We have discovered that we are not good at saying goodbye to things/people.  However, selling the truck meant gaining a new car and I can say that she has won me over.  I'll share more about her later.

And then the week ended with a fun but sad little farewell party for my dear friend Melissa.  She is an amazing designer by day and an even better baker blogger by night.  We work together and some ladies at the office threw her a party.  We each picked a recipe from her blog to share for lunch.  I picked the mini hand packed pies and learned how to make my first crust.  It was actually pretty easy.  I'll be sharing her amazing recipe, blog and video tut soon.  It deserves its own post.  In the meantime check out her blog http://thefauxmartha.com/.  I recommend also looking up bitchin' sauce.  Yum!

So thanks for stopping by.  We are off stroller shopping - again - on a friday night.

Oh and since I am learning so much about instagram these days I just learned that you can follow people - I'm slow - so feel free to follow along @cherryst.   I have no idea how I could ever link to that so you'll just have to search my name.  Sorry I'm lame.

Instagram week 6

It has been a busy, busy week and I just couldn't pick a few photos so here is the ultimate camera phone dump.

We celebrated the graduation of my sister-in-law from Taylor University in Upland, IN.  It was a great country road trip.  But also a really, really hot one with no air conditioning.....

I received an invitation to my first baby shower.  So excited.  Didn't my cousins do a fabulous job on the invitation design and creation?  I am so in love with that elephant.

Had a nice Sunday summer stroll with my friend Kara which of course ended in Starbucks.

Found our stroller and I cannot wait to use it.  I'm ready for fall walks with the hubby, the puppies and of course Baby Girl Keith.

I also found time to organize my fabrics, make my first spinach and fruit smoothie (may leave the spinach out from now on), go paint shopping for the nursery (we are painting it grey), hang with the pups and go to the Popcorn Shop (only the best, cutest, tiniest candy shop ever).

And now I am ready for Memorial weekend - we are heading to the lake for the weekend.  Summer has begun.

Hope you all have an amazing holiday weekend!!

Instagram week 5

Sorry I am a little behind on blog posts.  It has been a busy week.  Over the weekend we had a gender reveal party for our family and found out that we are having a baby girl!  So surprised.  You can read all about how Bran and I found out and how we then shared the news with our families here.

The rest of the week was spent getting caught up on life and preparing for my sis-in-law's college graduation.  So while it was busy it wasn't particularly exciting.  

Instagram week 4

My life is starting to seem a little boring and a little baby-centric.  But I'm okay with that.  Summer hopefully will up the excitement.

Tonight was exciting though - we now know what Baby K is!!

  We are keeping it a secret a little longer until we can have a gender reveal party for our families (which is tomorrow) and share the news with colleagues and then with all of you.

So this past week I have been busy crafting and baking for the gender reveal.  My sister helped me bake up some blue and pink stuffed cupcakes and cut out some lips and mustaches for our party.

In between we found some time to enjoy the gorgeous weather!  Oh my goodness it has been so lovely here.  I already have a sunburn.

Oh don't forget to vote for the sex of Baby K.  There haven't been many comments at all and it makes me sad. 

Hope you all had a lovely week as well!

Instagram Week 3

This past week was fairly uneventful compared to last.  The weather was warm but rainy and overcast with an occasional storm which had me in the mood for baking.  My sister finished up her sophomore year of college so I decided to make her and her roommates some finals week treats while I ate several of my own with milk in my favorite Bernese Mountain Dog glass.  I took my 18 week photo (which is a little late because I am now 19 weeks) and I went through some of the early gifts that Baby K received like my favorite - the cowboy boots from my dad and sister.  So cute!  Oh and did I mention that I killed a giant, disgusting spider all by myself? - it was at least the size of a quarter.  It took me 15 minutes to work up the nerve to actually go for it, shoe in hand.  Yuck.

How was your week?  If you are doing something similar on your own blogs please link up so I can check it out.

Enjoy your weekend!!

Instagram Week 2

This past week has been full of food treats and baby things (those go hand in hand these days) along with a Bulls game and some brief family time in the chilly sun (Busy season for the hubby is almost over).

This was really my first week documenting a full week in instagrams and let me tell you.  It's hard.  I never remember to pause and take a pic - except when it is food or flowers.  I had a billion pics of pretty spring flowers and my little sweet indulgences that I really need to lay off, except the grapefruit, I'll continue with that obsessive habit.

Oh and notice the pink and blue cupcakes?!  We are getting closer to the day when we find out the sex.   So excited.

my week in instagrams

I'm doing something new, something I've never done before.  A weekly post every Friday featuring my week in instagrams.  It will be a challenge to actually do something with all those totally random instagram photos and a challenge to be dilligent to post every Friday (aka Thursday night).  Plus it will be totally fun to look back and see the uniqueness of each week.  A little journal/scrapbook for myself.

Since I am doing this kind of spur of the moment I don't have an actual week prepared so here is the past month and a half for you to enjoy to get started.  Next week will be for real!