crafts

time after time by jen geigley


My pal Kara has just released a new product called Time Books and I wanted to share them with you. Because they are way cool. Time Books are a printable zine-inspired method of time-based art journaling. They are easy to print at home or send out to a print center. Time Books can be whatever you want them to be — quick, bulky, cheap, elegant, long, or short.

 

What Time Books are is easy: throw one in your suitcase before a trip, spend a month adding to
one, or make a Time Book all about a day, long ago.

The traditional Time Book is a stapled saddle-stitched book (which will require a long-arm stapler), but there’s nothing that says you can’t mix it up. Try different binding methods like hand-stitching,
machine sewing, hole punching. If you want to bulk up your Time Book, add pages with your own
patterned papers before binding. Anything goes.

You can purchase Time Books here for only $10. I have already started working on mine and let me tell you ... freedom! And fun. So easy. Give it a try (and let me know if you make something cool!)

Share your Time Books on Instagram with #timebooking. @classeskaramade #classeskaramade

Project Life + In the Spotlight by jen geigley


I have a pretty simple, laid-back approach to documenting my family's photos and memories. I don't care if photos and elements match perfectly, but I want to tell the stories and make photo books that look cool. A crazy hodge-podge of memorabilia and drawings and photos is a-okay with me. And while I'm nowhere close to being caught up, Project Life keeps things doable and realistic for me.


If you want to read a little bit more about how I do Project Life, check out my 'In the Spotlight' feature today on Becky Higgins' blog. Project Life has changed the way I scrapbook and has given me a new outlook on what I can realistically document for my children, my family, and myself. My love for scrapbooking is back.

The coolest Father's Day craft idea ever. (Really.) by jen geigley


Are you trying to come up with a special made-by-the-hands-of-children gift idea for Father's Day? Because I have found just the thing. My creative and talented friend from high school, Bergen, has sewn up these neat white 100% cotton neckties, ready for decorating. Dad's Day just got way cooler. Just hand the kids some fabric markers and/or permanent markers and let them do their thing.


 


Bowie drew circles and scribbles and Lo drew stripes and happy skateboards. So good. You can pick up your own nifty white necktie at Bergen's shop, Lilla Barn. (She also makes super cool clothing for babies and kids.) You should definitely follow her on Facebook, too. 

Happy Dad's Day to you!

kool-eggs 2014 by jen geigley


It's that time of year again! We dyed our Kool-Eggs yesterday and had some serious fun. Lo experimented more this year with making some lighter pastels; a quick dip in Berry Blue and then Lemon Lime made an awesome mint green. Mixing Strawberry with a little Orange ended up with a lovely shade of coral. And Strawberry Limeade makes a sweet pink. So much fun. If you haven't checked out my original Kool-Eggs post, look here and see how fun and easy it is to dye your Easter eggs with Kool-Aid. (No vinegar necessary - the citric acid does the trick!)

Happy weekend to you and your family.

I am a scrapbooker. by jen geigley


I am a scrapbooker. 

There, I said it. It's kind of embarrassing sometimes when people say 'you ... what?' But I am. A scrapbooker. It's something I have to do. I care. A little bit too much. About taking all of the pictures. I care about beautiful papers and prints and patterns and color schemes. I save things. I write down the stories, even if I'm not the best writer. I really like that kind of stuff and I don't care if some people think it's dorky. I'm back, I'm doing it. Here we go.

My parents took a lot of photos when I was growing up and looking at them now absolutely has an effect on me. They bring back memories and they make me feel. We all want to see things the way they were, remember times long gone and see the people we love in their younger years. We want to know the stories and where we came from. I'm pretty sure it's human nature.

In recent years, I took a hiatus from scrapbooking. On my break, I explored other crafts and hobbies. There's nothing wrong with that. But while I was gone, I missed scrapbooking.

I used to be into it pretty deep. If you've read this blog since, well ... the beginning, you'll know that I was very much into scrapbooking in years past. I would scour Two Peas for days. I became pretty involved at SIStv. And Red Velvet Kit Club. And all kinds of challenge blogs, collaborations and art journaling projects. (Remember Work Your Soul?) I finally I found my tribe with my girls at The Dares. If I'm losing you, I am so sorry. I'm getting deep down into the denizens of paper crafting people here.


But eventually I felt burned out by the 'old way' of scrapbooking, fun as it was. I would spend entirely way too much time on one page that would hold one or two photos. Convincing myself that I could realistically keep up with documenting life in that painstakingly slow way started to feel overwhelming. So I stopped completely. I didn't know how to carry on so I didn't. I still love most of those old pages I made – don't get me wrong. But with all the work I was doing, I wasn't keeping up with life. What made me feel worse was the fact that during my scrapbooking hiatus, a few more years had come and gone and I didn't feel like it was possible to go back where I had left off and start again.

I realized that my children didn't have baby books. And that bothered me. Their best and most eventful years existed in the photos on my hard drive. I had scrapbooked random moments about Lotus when she was a baby but the story I wanted to tell was not there. My favorite photos were not there. I wanted to share it all and I needed a better way to do it. I thought about this for a long time. I saw a lot of my online friends doing Project Life. I thought about it some more.


Then, last fall I hung out with my good friends Jamaica and Kristi. And we talked about scrapbooking. Like only true scrapbooking nerds can. I shared my frustrations about wanting to document my kids' lives. In a doable, realistic way. I needed a photo book and it had to tell the stories, use my favorite photos and still look cool. And my pal Jamaica looked at me and said, 'You should really just try Project Life, Jen.' She told me all about it. And so I went home, went through my hoard of scrap, printed some photos and and jumped back in.

So there you have it. Here I am. I'm a scrapbooker. And I'm on the Project Life Creative Team. I am stoked to be actually working on those baby books right now. And I look forward to sharing my progress/strategy here and on the Project Life blog very soon.

Maybe you've taken a break from scrapbooking too ... maybe we can do this together. xo.


Rainbow Loom Valentines (with free printable cards!) by jen geigley


I haven't done a D.I.Y. here in awhile, but today I have a super fun one to share. Lotus has been a Rainbow Loom bracelet machine lately. And if your kids are as obsessed as she is, I have the perfect Valentine project for you. To make V-Day a piece of cake this year, I've designed some colorful printable Valentine cards and you can download them for free!



Everyone loves getting a friendship bracelet, and Valentine's Day is the perfect time to share the love. Get your kids to whip up a Rainbow Loom bracelet for each of their friends. Then download and print these Valentines onto letter-sized card stock. Trim them to size and you're practically done! I used a paper punch to make half-circle notches on the sides of the card to help hold the bracelets in place, but you can skip this step if you want. I'm pretty confident the rubber bands would stay in place without the notches.


Easy and fun. Your kids will think these Valentines are cool and you won't have to buy a whole bag of candy. (Win!)


Download the cards here:

You're Cool - set of 4 printable Valentines

Friends Forever - set of 4 printable Valentines

These Valentines are for private use only. Please don't re-distribute. When showing them on your blog or website, please credit HeyJenRenee and link back to this post (not directly to the file downloads).

Enjoy!

A few more of my favorite things. by jen geigley


We're down to the wire, folks – there are only nine days until Christmas! But I love taking in all of the holiday fun and celebrating the season with the people around me. I think the kids and I will be baking cookies tonight and I can't wait. I also can't wait to show you some of my favorite holiday-related things. Like the cool customizable holiday prints from my friend Chrissy at Domestica, shown above. (They're on sale for only $10!) Read on to see more of my faves.



Adorn your tree with these geometric ornaments from SketchInc



I love Purl Soho's beautiful Learn to Knit kit.



Who can resist these bold black and white gift tags and gift wrap (that you can download for free) from Hey Look?



These bright and lovely felt ornaments from Purl Bee are a treat.



And after running into Oliver Jeffers at a book signing in NYC a few months ago, I have become obsessed with his books. I'm giving a copy of The New Sweater to the kids for Christmas. If you want to see how cool and talented this guy is, watch this video.



If you have a skater in your life like I do, check out the re-issue skate decks, the documentary and skate gear featuring everyone's favorite skateboarding legends at Bones Brigade. You can even download a free copy of Animal Chin. Which is completely awesome.


Everyone loves Field Notes. And Field Notes pens. And Field Notes pencils.



And last but not least, more free printable gift tags from Hey Look. I found these a couple of years ago and they've been my favorite ever since.

Hope you're taking a minute to embrace and enjoy all of the holiday-ness these last few days before Christmas brings. It's a busy time but always so much fun! Enjoy.

hello, Stitch. by jen geigley


Have you stopped by Stitch yet, Des Moines friends? It's a brand new fabric, yarns, and needlecrafts shop in the East Village. You need to go because it's amazing. Last week, a couple of friends and I stopped by to check everything out and we were pretty excited about every single thing we saw. Take a little tour with me.

 
Tonight at 6 p.m. is Stitch's official grand opening party, which makes it the perfect time to go and see everything for yourself. The shop owners are so incredibly nice, so be sure to say hello. And go ahead and check out their website, Facebook page and Instagram feed while you're at it, because you'll want to see what they're up to in the months ahead. Brand new fun and exciting crafty things in our city – thanks ladies! I know a lot of people are pretty excited about this.

summer love by jen geigley


Hello paper, nice to see you again.


Remember me mentioning Kara Haupt's Summer of Love e-course awhile back? Here's what happened after I sat down and looked through a stack of papers, trimmed them up and then reverted to a 7th grader and made friendship bracelets to tie everything together. (What are you up to these last days of summer?)