Connie Hanks Photography // ClickyChickCreates.com //Easter scrapbook layout, easy layers, Easter, no more, Heidi Swapp, color magic, layered eggs, chevrons

Easter Eggs No More?

March 30, 2015March 30, 201512 Comments

Welcome to another Make It Monday! I’m back with another Easter inspired creation this week. Can you believe we’re just a few days away from celebrating such a special and holy day? So excited!

Of course my girls get excited with all the Easter bunny hoopla, egg hunts and candy. What kid wouldn’t?!

One of my favorite pictures EVER is of my baby girl when she was just under 2 years old. It was the first Easter that she “got” from the standpoint of finding Easter eggs! She kept looking outside… I love her curious expression… all I can imagine her thinking was “no more? Really, there’s no more out there for me to find?”

This layout was quite easy to create. One of my favorite layout recipes actually…

large photo
DIY background paper {used Heidi Swapp color magic paper and Dylusions spray mists}
die cuts from various patterned papers {oval / egg shaped die cuts}
bling {there’s always a reason to use bling!}
thickers

I love journaling straight onto a layout, but sometimes get a little nervous at the thought of ruining my pretty paper! An easy way around that? Use a layer of vellum to journal on around the photo! Crisis averted and it still looks pretty!

Thanks so much for joining the Make It Monday blog circle. You’re in for another treat with Karen from Photos Kept Alive jumping into the planner craze! See her DIY planner and she’s also sharing her custom page as a free download! Be sure to hop on over and leave her some comment love!

As always, thanks for stopping by. Have a joyful, creative, blessing filled day! Make sure not to miss any future posts by signing up for the Clicky Chick Creates email list here! You’ll get a great little freebie download as my thank you. What’s the freebie? My go-to shot list: 7-must get photos for kid birthdays!

Live creatively!
xoxo,
/c

PS. Simon Says Stamp has an “Anything Goes” challenge going on, and this definitely works for the theme!

Connie Hanks Photography // ClickyChickCreates.com //Easter shaker card, blessed Easter, DIY, video, tutorial, easy, shaker, card, Easter

Make It Monday // Easter Cards

March 23, 2015March 23, 201515 Comments

Welcome to the Make It Monday, Easter edition! I hope you’re ready to be inspired to get Easter in full swing! I know, we just got done with St. Patrick’s day last week and here we are ready to hop into Easter {see what I did there? uh-huh! 😉 } Let’s get hopping!

You won’t believe where I found the inspiration for these cards… emptied out egg shells we filled with confetti and smashed on each other when I was a kid! I’m not sure if that was a 1970’s thing or a Mexican thing, but we did it every Easter! Thinking of those Easter’s spent with my family, particularly my cousins, at a park not far from our grandparents homes, filled me with nostalgia and fun memories! The memory of the confetti filled eggs made me want to recreate a modern version in a card!

I ended up making 4 of the cards, and even share how I made them in the video below. I hope you enjoy the video and learn a few tips and tricks!

Thanks so much for joining the Make It Monday blog circle. You’re in for another treat with cards from Beth at Scrapping Wonders! Beth shares how to make fun and glittery Easter and Project Life cards, so be sure to hop on over and leave her some comment love! And if you haven’t been to her blog before, be sure you poke around at some of her app reviews, tips and tricks. She’s done some great reviews, like on the Collect App, as well as other photography and crafting apps!

And of course I must mention True Stamp, yet again! It’s just a few days away…we’ll be having the time of our lives on March 28! If you like crafting, if you like taking classes from the best teachers out there, if you like mind blowing inspiration, if you like meeting friends who have the same crafty interests, and if you like staying comfy cozy at home, then True Stamp is for you! I really can’t say enough good stuff about True Stamp. If you’re at all into stamping, even a teeny tiny bit, then you should certainly join us for this phenomenal event! This will be my 3rd year and it is so totally worth it!

If you’re ready to roll up your sleeves and get stamping, then check out True Stamp here!

Live creatively!
xoxo,
/c

PS. The Pinterest Inspiration challenge over at Simon Says Stamp provided great inspiration for this post, too! The chocolate confetti cake reminds me so much of those confetti eggs from my childhood!

Connie Hanks Photography // ClickyChickCreates.com // Blessed Easter card and VIDEO with Heidi Swapp chevron stencil, Distress Inks and heat embossing

Blessed Easter Card & Video {Feeling Crafty}

April 19, 2014July 19, 20144 Comments

I love making cards for loved ones, and decided I’d use inspiration from the Happy Spring tags I made here to create Easter cards for our family.

This card can definitely be considered clean and simple, but I love how colorful and elegant this turned out! And would you believe it took less than 15 minutes to create? Perfect as I was trying to beat the clock at the post office!

After I made the Happy Spring tag video I posted here, I came across this gorgeous color inspiration from ColourQ and knew I had to make a second tag using these colors. So it was a perfect jumping off point for me to create these quick cards today, too!

I made this video sharing how I created the card, in case you need to make a quick and easy Easter card this weekend, or even if you’re just interested in the techniques used on the card! Towards the end, if you listen very closely, you’ll even hear my 4-year old assisting me : )

As always, thanks for stopping by. Have a joyful, creative, blessing filled day!
Live creatively!
xoxo,
/c

P R O D U C T S U S E D (Affiliate Links)

Heidi Swapp Chevron Stencil
Tim Holtz Distress Ink in Tumbled Glass
Tim Holtz Distress Ink in Evergreen Bough
Fiskars SureCut Personal 12″ Paper Trimmer
Slice Faith Design Card (cross)
Slice Elite Digital Cutting Machine
Slice Hands Free 12×12 board
Versamark Watermark Ink Pad
Recollections Embossing Powder in Carnelian
Recollections Embossing Powder in Clear Bark
Martha Stewart Heat Tool
Scotch Quick Dry Glue
EK Success Craft Tweezers

Easter Goodness! {Feeling Crafty}

April 6, 2013March 26, 2015Leave a comment

Crayon on warm eggs
http://ClickyChickCreates.com

As I sit in my office/craft room editing photos from the last two weeks, I realize there were a couple of Easter activities I wanted to share… It might be late for this year, but it’s never to early to plan for next year! Feel free to Pin or share these ideas so you don’t forget : )

My girls and I love crafting. They’re only 6 and almost 4, but whether it’s scrapbooking, painting, beading, coloring, baking – whatever it is, they just love being creative! So when I found this great Pinterest idea to use crayons on warm eggs, I thought it’d be perfect activity to do with my girls when their best friend was coming over for a sleepover. It really was a hit!

The girls had fun coloring on the eggs and I should’ve probably let them cool just a bit more, but the crayons really melted onto the shells! On the egg on the right, my baby took three crayons (blue, brown and purple) and as she was holding them all together, she scribble-scrabbled on the egg, creating a beautiful watercolor effect.

To get a deeper color, I colored a few layers of the crayon onto the egg. I look forward to doing this again next year!

Crayon on warm eggs
http://ClickyChickCreates.com

Another one of our new loves is using Wilton candy molds, particularly the pretzel candy molds and some candy melts. The combination of sweet and salty is delicious!

Wilton Hoppy Easter candy pretzel molds
http://ClickyChickCreates.com

They’re fairly easy to use and the chocolate sets up pretty quickly. I usually find the molds and candy melts at Michaels or Joann’s and they always have sales on them. Now if they only sold the pretzel rods, too, that would save me an extra trip to the grocery store!

Wilton Hoppy Easter candy pretzel molds
http://ClickyChickCreates.com

Thanks for stopping by and have a joyful, creative, blessing filled day!
Live creatively!
xoxo,
/c

Easter Gesture {Photo Fridays}

April 5, 2013July 18, 20142 Comments

ClickyChickCreates.com – Hmmmm, did I get them all?
1/80 sec at f/1.8 ISO 100

The holidays are a wonderful time for us all to bring out our cameras. There are endless photo opportunities. Smiles, decor, food, family, friends, all full of love and excitement. Many times they’re posed, “say cheese”, “just one more”, “hey, so-and-so, get in the photo” and on and on. And these capture wonderful family memories. Hugs, love, smiles.

But occasionally, we’ll capture a moment that is so raw, so real, so authentic… it makes our hearts sing! Those are the captures that I love. The moments I truly treasure. The memories that make me incredibly happy to be a photographer, a scrapbooker, a memory keeper, a treasured memory sharer.

This photo of my baby is one of those rare captures. She was completely enthralled with the concept of collecting eggs. So curious. So contemplative. I had been trying to get her to smile at me for the photo, but she was completely fixated on the yard. Totally in her own world. And even though at the moment I wanted something completely different, I have to say, this is one of my all-time favorites of my baby. I’m happy I kept snapping away, instead of throwing in the towel or worse, getting frustrated.

We’re so completely blessed to live in a digital age and not have the upfront expense of purchasing film. We can take hundreds, heck, thousands of photos without having to pay a small ransom for film and developing! And going from shooting ~250 photos per year 10 years ago, to over 25,000 images last year (including clients, family, and volunteer work), I can tell you my only regret is not being more diligent in keywording and editing (as in deleting those photos I know I’ll never use). But I can honestly say I don’t have too, too many “man, I really missed the shot” moments. Of course I have my share, but I still have lots of photos to work with!

So my tips to you?

Get your camera settings ready before you try to get your subjects attention. Click, click, click as you’re setting up your shot. And once your settings are ready, still keep clicking before you get their attention. Some of the gestures in those shots are pure gold!
Take more shots than you plan to need, you can always delete on the backend
If possible, get unposed shots, along with the smiles you seek : ) These are great to grab “in between” shots
Edit your photos while importing into your photo management software. Add keywords, rate and delete as you go! It’s not impossible, but so much more time consuming to catch up.
Remember to live in those moments. Sometimes we get so caught up trying to “capture” the moment, we forget to “live” in the moment. Along with documenting my favorite photos, I really strive to have authentic memories and moments in our scrapbooks. It might not always be pretty, but it’s real, it’s us, it’s authentic.

Thanks for stopping by and have a joyful, creative, blessing filled day! Happy crafting!
xoxo,
/c

He Is Risen! Happy Easter!

March 31, 2013July 16, 20145 Comments

As today is Easter, I would love to share some of my favorite photos taken earlier this month at Notre Dame cathedral in Paris. It was an amazing trip with girlfriends I’ve had for over 20 years. Inside these breathtaking walls, I was extremely humbled by the great lengths those have gone through before us, so we may practice religion as freely as we can in this day and age.

I hope you have a blessed day and enjoy these photos as much as I have!

Happy Easter!