In case you missed it, you can catch repeats of our Renovation Realities episode throughout the summer! Check out our episode description below:

Lia and Brandon Ballentine have spent the last three years updating their charming hilltop home. Unfortunately, their kitchen is still stuck in the dark ages. Between the dozens of cracked floor tiles, lack of a dishwasher, and exposed electrical wires hanging out the walls, Lia and Brandon are in desperate need of a renovation, but as Lia and Brandon start to tear their old kitchen away, they expose many of their home’s deep-dark secrets. Layer upon layer of subfloors, countertops that refuse to go without a fight, and a sink that absolutely will not budge consume the couple’s valuable time and energy. Even though Brandon and Lia keeping laughing through the pain, this renovation leaves the two wondering if they’ll ever get to cook in their own house again.

The upcoming air dates are listed on our episode page on the DIY Network site. Be sure to watch! And remember, if we can renovate a kitchen, SO CAN YOU.

I need this print from 3LambsGraphics! This awesome quote is from Diane Arbus, one of my favorite photographers.

Less than a week ago I created and ordered my square flip book from Heritage Makers to give as a client gift… and yesterday I received it in the mail. Talk about quick printing and fast delivery. (I even opted for ground shipping!)

Not only am I impressed with how fast I received my product, but it’s great to see that a rapid production job didn’t mean that quality was sacrificed. The flip book looks great! The plastic cover and wire binding are strong, and the pages are heavy and thick. The images are sharp and the color looks great.

I’m looking forward to my next project, which will be a personal photo book about my last trip to Costa Rica!

Want to learn more about Heritage Makers? Click here to check out my Heritage Makers consultant page, or contact me!

What a wonderful surprise! A new friend sent me a box of Havanna Alfajores from Buenos Aires as a Thank You gift! Alfajores are delicious soft cookies filled with dulce de leche and covered with chocolate. I can’t wait to eat one of these yummy Argentinian cookies. Me encantan las galletas!

Hey, my photobook-making friends! MyPublisher has a great promotion going on until July 5, 2010: Sign up to receive a coupon code to use for a BOGO (“Buy One Get One”) on photobooks.

MyPublisher create high-quality photobooks with premium paper and a variety of cover styles, including linen and leather covers. To make your photobook, just download the MyPublisher software and create fantastic layouts in minutes.

I’m thinking about using my coupon code to make a paperback pocketbook of my favorite family photos and printing out multiple books to share. The pocketbooks are 7.75″ by 5.75″ and are printed on 115-pound high gloss paper. (Oh, did I mention that a 20-page pocketbook is only $9.99?)

Don’t wait! Sign up to get your free photobook from MyPublisher today!

I was born with the travel bug, and it’s an awful disease to have. I’m constantly thinking of where I can go today, tomorrow, next week, and I’m always looking for great travel deals.

This week, I’ve been obsessing over Kayak’s new “Explore” function. It’s truly amazing.

Kayak Explore lets you find travel destinations based on your preferences: your departure location, your budget, when you want to travel, and what you want to do when you get to where your going. That’s right… Kayak can help you find vacation spots that provide the types of activities you’re interested in, and Kayak can even help you find a place to visit based on temperature. Plus, you can tell Kayak how many stops you’re willing to deal with, and if you’re happy with your options, you can even share the map with family and friends.

My birthday is in September, so I’ve been using Explore to find places I can visit in the fall. The results have shown me that I can do a nice trip to New York City (my favorite U.S. city!) for around $350, or I can splurge a little bit and head over to Madrid, Spain for less than $750. Oooh!!!

Oh, Kayak. Thank you for creating this awesome web application for me. I love you! Je t’aime!

Here’s a great photo gift idea that’s easy to make using photos that you already have and the (free!) Heritage Makers Studio online. With only a few clicks, you can design a cute square flip photo book to share with family and friends — and if you’re a photographer, it’s a great product to give to your clients! (Amanda and Allen: If you’re reading this post, expect to see this little gift at your doorstep soon!)

For my square flip book, I used a vintage paper background which is part of the Heritage Makers Studio program. I added a frame embellishment to the photo on the front cover and a patterned paper frame to the back cover photograph. The interior pages follow a simple, clean grid layout; and all I had to do (after importing my photos into the Studio program) was drag and drop the photos into place. In less than an hour, I published and placed my order for a 20-page wire-bound square swatch book that will have an archival cover and premium velvet paper interiors. I opted for ground shipping, so I’m looking forward to getting my photo book within the next couple of weeks!

To learn more about how to create square flip photo books or how to design other types of Heritage Makers storybooks, contact me for a quick demo! Or create a free Heritage Makers account today and browse the site for more photo book and gift ideas!

I recently created a custom wedding guest book using Shutterfly’s online bookmaking program. The program is easy to use: simply upload your photos to an album (either a new one or an existing one), and “get” your pictures from your online Shutterfly album. You can click here for more details on creating photo books through Shutterfly.

In the past, I’ve used Blurb for making sign-in books because BookSmart (Blurb’s free bookmaking software) gives you an option to insert lined pages — which is great for a busy wedding photographer! See the example below and click on “Full Screen” to see the lined pages:

This time, I wanted to use Shutterfly because I needed the book turned around rather quickly — and I knew I wouldn’t get the Blurb book in on time (due to ordering/shipping deadlines). Shutterfly ships within a day of placing your order, plus they offer great products, so I was confident that the guest book would arrive early and look great.

However, one thing I quickly realized was that Shutterfly’s photo book layouts don’t include lined pages. Shutterfly has a great selection of ready-made book themes and page backgrounds — but if you just need a simple lined page that guests can use to sign, you need to create your own lined page (using Photoshop or other software) and upload it as an image to your Shutterfly album. Although my photos were uploaded and ready for layout in the book, I had to hop into Photoshop and create a lined page JPG file.

Creating the lined page didn’t take long at all, but I decided to go ahead and share my lined page JPG with anyone that might need it for a Shutterfly photo book. It’s sized for the 8×11 photo book, but you’re free to use it however you’d like.

To download the free image file, just click on the arrow at the bottom right of the file preview below:

And just so you can see how the lined page looks, here are a couple of examples of custom wedding guest book page spreads:

Hopefully this free download is helpful! Happy bookmaking!

I love the beauty and power of a minimalist page layout — so my heart jumped when I discovered Paislee Press today, the website of designer Liz Tamanaha. Liz’s layouts and photographs remind me of one of my favorite stores… Anthropologie! Her digital kits and layouts are styled just like the gorgeous Anthropologie catalog spreads that always make me drool. Check out this sample from her site, which came from one of her Photoshop tutorials. (Yes, she even offer tutorials! So nice!)

Simple and beautiful, isn’t it?

Paisless Press offers amazing looking digital kits, which I need to purchase and use for some upcoming personal photo books that are on my list to publish and print. Plus, her own photo book project has inspired me to get ALL of those random photos off of my computer and into a book that I can pass around and share with family and friends. (You MUST read her “off to press” posts!)

Liz and her creative team are absolutely inspiring and motivating! Now off to work on my own books!

Be sure to check out Paislee Press today!

I’m always on the lookout for design inspiration, and the Write.Click.Scrapbook gallery is a great source for awesome layout ideas! In addition to the layout gallery, their blog provides designers, scrappers, and photogs with creative ideas and products to check out.

What is Write.Click.Scrapbook.?

Here you’ll find some of the scrapbook designers, writers and photographers who have inspired you over the years, together in one place. Our collective mission is to inspire and inform our readers so that creating beautiful, meaningful scrapbooks and memory projects is, once again, something we can do together.

We all have unique approaches to scrapbooking, but we share some very important beliefs:

1. We believe in telling stories.

2. We believe that understanding photography and design make scrapbooking a little more fun.

3. We believe in the power of color. We also believe in the power of kraft, black, and white.

4. We believe that scrapbooking should be fun and guilt-free.

5. We believe that there is no one right way to scrapbook.

So have a look around. Be inspired. Go make something, and be sure to share it with us.