We were so excited today to get our Wedding Video Trailer from Storymix Media.
There are so many reasons why we loved using this application for our wedding video.  First, we were able to get so many different points of view from so many guests.  Second,  we were able to check out our clips the next day.  It was so much fun to check out the clips the next day as we lounged around!

More than anything, we loved how easy, affordable and fun using the WeddingMix application made capturing our special day and the moments leading up to it.  You can learn how it works by clicking here. Basically, you can use the app, have your friends and guest download it and/or rent an HD flip mini camera, hit record and upload those clips for editing.  It is THAT simple.

We made sure we had two dedicated friends who recorded a majority of our clips on the mini camera and the iPad.  It turned out amazing.  We also made cards with a QR code for our tables that encouraged guests to scan and install the WeddingMix app to record videos!  I reached out to a few additional friends and some members of our bridal party to assure we had plenty of clips to make our video.

If you know me, you are aware how important service excellence is when I’m working with vendors and organizations.  Storymix is one of the best vendors I’ve EVER worked with.  They are responsive and caring.  Their own story of how the company was born is super inspiring.

We can’t say enough great things about Storymix.  But no matter what event it is, Wedding or anniversary party, shower or graduation, make Storymix your go-to video memory keeping tool!  I know I will!

Thank you to Ariane and Mike for this gorgeous wedding trailer!  Our full video will be coming soon!

With gratitude,

Megan

Click here to view the embedded video.

First – I’m BACK! And heck, it feels AMAZING.

From the end of September through last week, I took a semi-accidental sabbatical from blogging.  While planning a wedding, I got caught up in making everything and just being in those moments.  And as my blog sat here idly waiting for my tending too, I just never made it here.  I felt horrible about it.  There were so many great things I was creating for my wedding that I wanted to share with you.  But logging off and just simply being was the best thing I could have done.

There is something to be said about going with the flow, leaning into the moment and just letting go.  I’m returning to my sacred corner of the web here with a renewed sense of inspiration and creativity.  To be honest, I’ve been in my studio almost every day of the last two weeks.  Mostly playing catch up to some projects that had taken the back burner once the wedding planning kicked into high gear.

We are going to do some extra blogging about our wedding over on our wedding turned married-life blog, over here. I am going to fill in with some posts in the next month on some of the projects we did that I thought really made our wedding extra special.  Since we had a Seinfeld themed wedding we had to be extra creative with our approach.  We certainly didn’t want our presentation to look cheesy.  So an elegant Seinfeld inspired affair it became.
All-in-all we handmade:
150 Save-The-Date cards
150 6-piece invitations
230 decorated favor boxes
23 table numbers
2 seating charts
1 guest book quilt
1 thank you banner
2 bird-cage banners
6 bouquet charms
120 ceremony programs
2 decorated baskets for ceremony
2 8″ tiered display tables at the reception
…and I’m sure there are a few things I’m missing!!!

Want more info on a specific project listed?  Just contact me and I’ll send you all the details!

THANK YOU for being here, supporting me, and watching this crafty adventure unfold.  There are so many great things ahead.
I’ve put together this slide show to share with you some of the creative journey:

This week we did so much work on the computer.  We are close to finishing our ceremony programs.  We also rechecked every single guests name against their RSVP card as we prepare to make some final decisions on our seating chart.

And I have a confession to make; we might hire someone to make the chart for us.  It’s been the hardest part of the whole DIY thing, and honestly, I just have so many other projects that I’m excited about, that if I spend anymore serious amounts of time trying to work out the formatting, I’ll have to pass on the projects I want to complete.  I think it is important to embrace when a project is just entirely out of my range of skills and becomes no fun at all. I don’t want to remember the last 16 days leading up to our wedding filled with horrific feelings of dread over something that I could hire someone much more qualified to deal with. And honestly, haven’t we saved enough money by DIY-ing ev-er-y-thing.  Yes. Yes we have.

I’m going to try and enlist some help from friends before we go ahead with placing an order. But I realized tonight that admitting I am just not good at something is my version of being gentle with myself.  I’ve opened much more room for happiness and ease by just thinking about letting this one project go to someone else.

Speaking of letting go, it has been an ongoing theme throughout this entire journey.  Expectations are the demon child of wedding planning.  Expecting people to act a certain way, expecting your groom to read your mind, expecting money to not be an issue, expecting that things will go wrong, and on and on and on.
I never really thought about our wedding video. I mean I thought about it, but I didn’t spend endless hours worrying about how it was going to happen.  I literally just let it go. I asked my wonderful friend Ryan months ago if he could help us get some video, he kindly agreed to help and that was that.  Then 22 days to the wedding came and I realized we had NO PLAN IN PLACE!  Nothing.

Enter Storymix Media – a sincere godsend of wedding services and vendors.  Owned and operated by, what may be, the cutest, most helpful couple of all-time, Mike and Ariane, Storymix Media is committed to to helping couples everywhere capture and enjoy their wedding for a lifetime. You can read more about them over on Storymix Media Website.  When I learned about their video services, I knew I needed to work them into our big day. Basically, they support you in crowd sourcing your wedding video through rented HD Flip Cameras, short videos uploaded through an iPhone application, or video collected later and uploaded directly via a website link.  When you’ve got all your videos loaded up into the Weddingmix website, you can begin to storyboard your video and share them instantly to youtube, or download for future use. I’ve been playing with the storyboard feature with video I shot of this past weekend’s bachelorette + favor making extravaganza.  While I’d love to share the vids I shot with you today, I’m still adding the finishing touches.  So hang in there and I’ll be back later this week with a whole run down of last weekend and some video that I made through Storymix Media’s Online Storyboard!

So get your cameras and iPhones ready friends, cause later this week I’m going to be enlisting YOUR help in documenting our big day. Yes, you read it right. You. And you. And yes, Gina, you too.

While you are waiting for more info from me, here is a look at Ariane + Mike’s video that took over 12 years to recover + share. The whole experience inspired the work they are doing today.  They had thought they lost their video footage in a flood.  Turns out they recovered some of it and cut it together  (the full *must read* story over here).

Their video made me cry all 4 times I’ve watched it.  I swear I’m not a stalker, it’s just so clear how in love they are.  I hope you love it and them. Now go hire them, and let me film your wedding. Seriously.

Until I get back, stay sane, loving, fun and keep counting down the minutes until you can call me Mrs. DiFeo (2.0).

You are all the greatest and I love you dearly. So does Todd.

Love + Thanks,

Megan

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This post originally appeared on our wedding blog over here but I wanted to share it with all of you as well, right here.  xoxo

Tonight was the first night I’ve found myself in my studio in well over a week. It felt so great to be back. I’ve moved from the sun room to the front room off the living room.  I like it better up here. I have more storage, better organizational systems (thanks Kari!), and a much more inspiring space.  I am still putting the finishing touches on the room, so I should have a video tour soon.  I just can’t wait to show it to you!

When the new Autumn/Winter Idea Book came out, I just couldn’t wait to get my hands on it.  I made an immediate list of all of the things I needed to have and a secondary list of things I wanted.  I’ve always loved the how-to books that Jeanette Lynton published.  Now, CTMH is offering a cool pattern book that is magazine style filled with 30 patterns of scrapbook and card layouts.  It really helps me overcome that creative stuckness I can feel after a super long day at work or entirely too much time on the computer.

Today’s card is a sympathy card.  that I used with pattern number 29 on page 47 of the Make It from Your Heart Volume 1 book. It’s simple and warm and lovely and I can’t wait to send it off to my dear friend.  I used the Artiste Cartridge to cut the frame and the 3-D flowers.  I love this cart and it hasn’t left my Cricut since I got it.  Below you’ll find all the supplies you need to create this  card.

Stay Crafty,

Megan

Do you keep a journal?  Journals have always been an important part of my journey.  In the past few years, I’ve used my journals to make lists of gratitude.  I find that writing about things that I am grateful for makes me realize and embrace all of the wonderful things in my life.

I think keeping a journal and a document of your journey is an important way to track the things, big or small that you experience along the way.  This journal was a cool project I started to get a feel for the the new (blank) My Creations® Canvas Journal.

This book is a blank slate ready for ink, paper, embossing or anything else you can imagine doing to it. I made this as a gratitude journal for my friend. I ended up covering mine with Paper from the Stella paper pack, but before that I tried stamping  directly onto the book.  I did think using the regular dye-based ink pads (Slate) and I didn’t enjoy the results.  It might have been better if I used Staz-On.  I decided that I liked the paper element so I used bonding memories to cover the front and the back with this B&T duo paper from the Stella paper pack.

I added the Silver Shimmer Trim and wanted to make a timeline.  So I used the It’s Your Day double stamp set (which you can get for $5 right now) to add in the days like a timeline.  I used the Stella Canvas Compliments to connect the design across the front of the book without cluttering up the whole thing.  I added some liquid glass to the back of the the canvas stickers and I used a paint brush to apply it.  It seems to add that extra bond needed for a 3D item that will get some regular use.  I added a few buttons from the Bohemian Assortment and finished them off with some twine. I filed down the edges of the book to give it a more distressed look.  I then came back over with the Gold Pigment Ink and covered the edges and spine until I felt it looked complete. You’ll want to use pigment ink on your exposed projects as the color will hold up better over time.  Here is a closer look at the journal.  I’ve also made a list with of all the supplies I used for this project.

Stay Crafty,

Megan

If you love Close To My Heart’s stamps, right now is a time to celebrate.  Until the end of September, you can get a double D-sized It’s Your Day stamp set for just $5 when you place a qualifying order of just $35.  The stamp set includes over 50 stamps that will help you honor your everyday moments.  If you are doing Project Life this year, this is a wonderful stamp set to help compliment your layouts! This stamp set has a retail value of $35.90, so it will drastically increase the value of your qualifying purchase. Have twice the fun stamping during National Stamping Month with our new It’s Your Day double stamp set!

I want to show you how you can use this stamp set to create a bunch of various projects so I’ve done some up and I’ll be sharing them with you over the next few weeks.  For today, here is a card I made!

Here are links to the supplies you need to make this card

- Card Base

-Honey Paper

-Slate Paper

-Cricut Artiste Cartridge ( P button for the yo-yo and M button for bow ends)

-Silver Shimmer Trim (adhesive backed and prefect for everything!)

-Best Day Ever + Chevron stamp from It’s Your Day promo stamp set

-Ruby Ink Pad

-Slate Ink Pad

-Sponge for inking edges

Still want to know + see more?  Check out this video from Monica at Close To My Heart as she shares more inspiration on the awesomeness of this double stamp set!

Got questions?  Need help making this card? Just send me a message!

Click here to view the embedded video.

Stay Crafty,

Megan

Have you ever been overwhelmed with trying to juggle life and work and what seems like a never ending to-do list?  This is about the story of my life as of late and I’m sure it will settle down for me after the wedding in October.  It’s so easy, when the going gets hectic, to drop the hobbies or crafts that mean the most to you or even considering picking up a new one.  I find creating art or laying out a card or a scrapbook page to be important in my life journey.  It makes me happy to make stuff. Often, I am asked why I scrapbook or how I find the time and the simple answer is that I just love making stuff and telling stories.  I’ve compiled a list below of five reasons why I think you should considering scrapbooking or participating in memory keeping projects.

 Your Story Matters

When I started my job at the radio station, a manager asked me, “What are you famous for?” The young and naive 23-year-old me replied, “I’m a reliable and passionate juggler.”  In 2008, this was about right.  Four years later, my story has changed.  The point I’m making here is that your story is constantly unfolding and evolving.  Your journey is the the delicate fiber that builds the fabric of your experience.  It’s important to tell the story in bits and pieces and in any way that feels right to you.  Stacy Julian talks about simply documenting the people and moments in your life and leaving the events to be as they are, the backdrop of the amazing people we share our lives with.  Your story is yours – and when you tell + share  it, you are showing up and doing work that builds your legacy.  It doesn’t have to be in chronological order.  There are no rules.  Your story matters, more than you know, and when you start putting it down, you’ll feel an immense amount of gratitude.

Nurturing Creative Spirit Yields Magic

I’ve met a lot of people that tell me that are creatively challenged and they just can’t craft.  Everyone is creative. And just like learning to ride a bike or tie a knot, learn a craft is a learning process.  No matter how,  nurturing your creativity is integral to drumming up some serious magic in your life.  I find that when I am nurturing my creative spirit, I am happier and more focused.  And honestly, I’ve only been scrapbooking for about three and  a half years. I’m no expert.  But showing up is half the battle.  I want people to know the things in my head and when I put them down, I feel more and more creative.  I create a special energy around my experience and I can then share that with my friends and family.  Nurturing our creative spirit helps us tap into a wonderful outlet and then begin to share the magic of fun in our lives.  Scrapbooking is a way to engage in this nurturing while simultaneously documenting your most precious moments with the people you love.

“The palest ink is better than the best memory” – Chinese Proverb

Emily once wrote this down when we were drumming up the name for the biz we were endeavoring to build.  When I found the paper this week it hit me like a ton of bricks.  We can’t remember everything.  Like a game of whisper down the lane, over time, our moments are adjusted and maybe even clouded or sometimes, altogether lost.  When we document our moments and share our stories, we are placing them in a time capsule of awesomeness. And even is the ink fades over time, it will potentially outlive us and inspire or entertain future generations.

 Pretty Stuff = Fun + Easy

Do you like pretty stuff?  Your mind might have automatically gone to lace and frills or some other insanely effeminate image.  But I want to suggest that “pretty” can be anything that just makes you feel incredible.  It might be the awesome organization system you found.  It could be the beautiful living room layout you checked out at Ikea.  Or it could just be a board on Pinterest that you’ve curated that makes you just feel easy and lovely when you look at it.  I love helping people make pretty stuff.  With layouts or cards, making pretty stuff can automatically become easy and fun!  Our house is decorated with found items and scrapbook pages – all things that I consider pretty.  Your moments are pretty – and through scrapbooking you can share them in a fun and easy way!

Accomplishment

Have you ever reached a destination that you thought you couldn’t make?  There is a sweetness waiting there at the end; the metaphorical gold at the end of the rainbow.  It’s a wonderful taste of accomplishment and satisfaction knowing that you created or made something happen that, in the beginning, might have seemed nearly impossible. Memory Keeping can seem like a daunting task.  You’ve got boxes of printed photographs. You’ve got disks and folders of digital photos.  You are inundated with frozen moments. It could seem so easy to just say that is enough – and maybe it is. But what happens when those pictures get handed down? Who will know what that smile on your child’s face meant to you?  Who will know how it felt to receive that diploma?  And most of all, who will know who all those people are in your snapshots?  Setting up a plan to start sifting through your photos and picking out your favorite shots is a simple way to get started.  When you start telling your story and creating, you soon see the end of your layout in sight.  When you put the last piece of that page together or hit the last sentence of a specific story, a sweeping sweet sense of “I did it” will come over you. And in that moment, it is so worth the time.

Want to learn more about scrapbooking?  Just interested in trying it out?  Check out my events or send me a message. I’d love to help you document your moments and honor your relationships through the art of scrapbooking.

Stay crafty,

Megan

When Todd and I got engaged it was clear to both of us that there was no one more qualified to make our invitations, then, well, us!  Starting in January, I began to scour the internet for pictures of wedding invitations and handmade invitations.  I tried every combination of search terms for handmade crafty invitations.  I turned up some nice samples.

It was really my friend Francesca who inspired this invitation.  She had done 60 of her own handmade pocket fold invitations.  So I modeled my layout after her’s.  I had never really designed something of this magnitude in Photoshop before, but I took a chance at it, and ,with Francesca’s help, I was able to work through  the element of laying out the text of the invites.

The most challenging part was printing.  Now, I was planning to  hand make 150 of these invites, so I wanted to layout numerous pieces on a single page. Due to inexperience coupled with lack of patience, I ended up putting each printed element (total of 4) on separate pieces of paper and printed them at home.  If I had done it over, I would have laid it out, taken it to a printer to cut and print.  But after cutting 750 pieces of paper, with blisters on my fingers, I felt accomplished and proud. The other difficult part was planning the exact size of the staggered pieces to fit the proper amount of information.

The assemly was interesting.  Todd was quality control and he helped make the yellow tags.  He cut them from the Cricut Art Philosophy Cartridge and the stamped them with this Close To My Heart stamp.  This stamp was a limited edition stamp – but I’ll be selling these tag in my Etsy Store that I’ll be opening soon!  If you are interested in them in the mean time, please contact me!  Below are the supplies I used with links and some additional pictures.

I would love to hear what you think of them.  If you need templates for the layout, check back soon.  I am going to make files and post them on here.  Alternately, you can email me and I can send them out to you!

In the end, with strategic planning and a little help, we took one month to assemble 150 of these paper gems.  with care, precision and of course oodles of patience, we saved over $1,000 making these ourselves.  And in the end, for this I am grateful.

To make these invitations you are going to need

Pre-made pocket fold invitation ( I used brown linen)
Response envelope
Mailing Envelopes
White/Cream cardstock
Color card stock for mat + tag
Twine

Stay crafty (and in love),

Megan

Do you love color?  If so, the six new colors from Close To My Heart are going to be the highlight of this 3 part video series.  The six new colors are Whisper, Slate, Cashmere, Champagne, Saddle and Ruby.  They are going to coordinate so perfectly with so many of the paper packs you already have as well as all of the new designs in the Autumn/Winter 2012 Idea Book.

Also, Close To My Heart has now reintroduced BULK PAPER PACKS!  Get any one of the 60 exclusive colors in 24-count (12″x 12″ size) starting this Wednesday!  I’m so excited about this because there are countless projects you may want to make with the Cricut Artiste Collection and I’m am sure bulk cardstock is going to make any project so much more simple and affordable for you!

In today’s video I’ll review with you the six new colors, some cool stamp sets and just share my overwhelming excitement for all of this new product!
Please share with me what your favorite color is of the new fab-six!!

AND….you are invited to my Crafty Cupcake Birthday Party on August 10th!  Just hop on over here and RSVP to let me know you’ll be there?  Can’t make it?  Just send me an electronic telegram and I’ll send you  a party favor!!!

Check back this week as I start crafting with all this new product! Want to stay in the know?  Add your email over in the sidebar!

Click here to view the embedded video.

Stay Crafty,

Megan

What do you feel like when you see some paper that you know you must have on hand?  Each Idea Book the CTMH puts out is packed full of awesome new patterned paper.  It’s hard not to find at least one that must be added to the collection!

I went thought this paper pack with you and some of the coordinating products that you could use it with in this latest video.

This afternoon I am off to the mountains!  Hopefully I’ll get a few crafty moments in up there!  Here is part 2 of my 3 part new product video series!  And don’t worry, I’ll make sure part 3 is up tomorrow!

Enjoy!