Adding a Custom Page to Facebook w/ Tina Stevens

So my new friend Tina of Tina Stevens Photography is not only an incredible photographer BUT she does some great custom design work AND is sharing this easy peasy tutorial for adding a custom page to Facebook! I used her tutorial to add a Promotions page to Jacquilyn Avery Photography on Facebook and just love it! 

Here is a screen shot of my new page!

Click HERE check it out and "Like" me on Facebook!

Now click the link below to view the tutorial!

Tina Stephens Photography and Design: How to add a custom landing page to your Facebook Page

and don't forget to "Like" Tina Stevens Photography and Design on Facebook for future updates & tips!

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No comments | Posted in: Jacquilyn Avery Photography,Tutorials

Tutorial: Drab to Fab Vintage Silk Flowers

It may be a miracle folks, but I thought I'd squeeze in one last tutorial for the year! Maybe you'll even have time to throw one of these together to coordinate with your New Year's outfit! Unless your outfit resembles mine this new years...the hub's p.j. pants and a cozy sweater! I hope your new years plans are much more exciting!

So as you know my marketing director and I have been working hard to get the new website up for my photography business www.jacquilynavery.com (Which is now live so check it out!!) Well January also means the opening of my very own studio! I have some incredible sponsors decking it out with handmade props and I wanted to add to the action! Since I don't have girls to dress up I love making headbands for when I get the chance to photograph sweet little princesses! So today was a headband making day!

I wanted something using silk flowers but didn't just want to stick a drab silk flower on a headband I wanted something with a little more oomph!  Then I found these gorgeous brown/tan flowers and I knew I wanted to go vintage...with a little bling! This is what I came up with:

Tutorial:

Drab to Fab Vintage Silk Flowers

Step One:

Pick up an assortment of silk flowers & detach from stem. They should just pop right off. 
(I found mine at Joann's)

Step Two:

Pull  green backing & center cluster off so you can separate the petals.

Step Three:
Separate the back petal from the group and hot glue a small felt circle to the back. Careful not to apply glue over the hole in the center. Thread your needle and loop thread at double thickness with a knot at the end. Feed through the felt/hole in petal. (The felt acts as an anchor.)

Step Four:
Thread up through the center hole in your cluster of loose petals reattaching bottom petal to group.

Step Five:

Thread through a button for bling then back down through hole. Repeat this step a few times for strength. Tie off at back when done.

Step Six:
Attach to clip, elastic or headband of your choice and voila! A gorgeous vintage silk flower! I played around with cutting lace petals and adding in randomly. I haven't glued them in yet as I'm still on the fence about it!

Here is another one I made using petals from two different silk flowers some brown feathers and of course a little button bling! (Buttons also from Joann's)

 -Jax

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16 comments | Posted in: Girls,Headbands,Jacquilyn Avery Photography,Tutorials

INSPIRED!

I feel like i haven't made anything craft wise in FOREVER! After summer travels, morning sickness and now the fact that we are moving I really have zero time. I even had grand ideas of making all my Christmas cards by hand this year...yeah...doubt that will be happening!

But I did find some inspiration today for other projects. Wrapped in a heated blanket drinking some spiced cider this morning I opened my google reader and started browsing. Here are a few tutorials I think are simply amazing and I really hope I can find time to make these!

#1. One Time Use Soap Leaves 

by Greenbean's Crafterole

These are so adorable and what a great gift idea! I have so many of these leaves lying around I could make them today! Ohh and I can't wait to see what I can find for a Christmas version...maybe snowflakes?  So fun!

Click {HERE} to view the complete tutorial!

#2. Homemade Christmas Crackers

by This and That

Christmas crackers have always been a big tradition in my family and I quickly emailed this tutorial to my mom, step mom and sister! I don't think I'll ever buy these again!

Click {HERE} to see the complete tutorial.

#3. DIY Big Box Advent Calendar

by Mod Podge Rocks

Holy freaken awesomness! (really there are no other words!) This may be a bigger project than I can handle this Christmas but eventually I would love to make one for each boy! Hmm....if I made Asher's next year and baby boy #2's the year after then I'd have a good variety of matching paper sets...ok now I'm just rambling! Eek, I'm so excited I just love it!
Click {HERE} to see the complete tutorial!

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2 comments | Posted in: Crafts,Features,Mod Podge,Tutorials

Tutorial Tuesday: Interchangeable Fabric Headband Tutorial

 

Grab your hammers ladies! I originally bought these snaps for use on vinyl bibs but then had a light bulb moment when wanting to make another fabric headband and not having a sewing machine to use. Why not use a snap...then it could even be interchangeable!!!
Here is what I did:

Step One: Order some headband elastic from this awesome Etsy shop:
Deepwater Trading Co.

Step Two: Make some pretty fabric flowers etc to use on your headband.

Step Three: Measure your elastic to your head size. You want it to fig snug however, if making a flapper style headband watch to make sure it doesn't indent your forehead! Not a cute look if you end up taking it off or in my case when Asher rips it off my head and claims it his new teething toy...bad baby!

Step Four: Cut a felt circle to fit the back of your flower and follow snap instructions to attach the top snap side.
(This is where your hammer comes in!)

Step Five: Use hot glue to attach felt circle/snap to the underside of your flower.

Step Six: Follow snap instructions to attach the under side of the snap to your elastic.
(I folded the top side over once to add some weight for the snap.)

Voila! Snap your elastic to your flower and you're in business! Now you can make various flowers and use various colored elastic to mix it up. You can also try gluing the snap to a metal hair clip!

 Cool right!?! I'm super excited about this, and can't wait to snap out all my flowers!

Linking up with These Great Blogs including The Boardwalk Bragfest!

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35 comments | Posted in: Chic Mommy,Girls,Headbands,Tutorials

Tutorial Tuesday: Handmade Birthday Gifts

So technically not a tutorial today but I wanted to share the beautiful handmade birthday gifts I received Sunday and hopefully give you some inspiration for future gift giving! I know I'm inspired!

Mason Jar Potted Flowers & Matching Card

My friend Breanne is my Goodwill partner in crime and knows I always head strait to the glass section in search for Mason & other old fashioned jars! I just loved how she incorporated my love of jars into this beautiful gift and I love the simple matching card, it's beautiful!

Gorgeous Paper Keepsake Box

My friend Alyeska & family came for a photoshoot Saturday and surprised me with this gorgeous paper box. I simply must learn how to make this, it's absolutely stunning! The quote made me tear up, it's so special!

Engraved Burlap Wall Hanging

Ashley from {Cute as a Fox} gave me this amazing wall hanging! She actually engraved the burlap with her laser! Incredible! I can't wait to hang it up! Check out {her post} for more info on how she made it!

Sister's Cross Stitch Magnet

My little sis made me this beautiful cross stitch and mounted it in a magnet frame! It looks so good on my fridge and I love seeing it multiple times throughout the day. I forgot to ask about this one but she does most of her cross stitch with out a pattern it's amazing! She even made custom labels for our Christmas stockings this last year!

Beautiful Embossed Card

My bestie Claire gave me the most beautiful earrings this year along with a beautiful handmade card of course! She seriously is incredible with card making and is totally my inspiration!

Adorable Crochet Flowers

I had used one of Claire's crochet flowers while card making on our Montana trip and when my mom saw it she said, "I could totally make those!" Well since my birthday was right around the corner I asked her to do just that! For my 27th birthday I received (among a ton of other craft supplies!) 27 crocheted flowers! All different sizes and colors all equip with brads ready to be attached to cards!  Check out {this post} to see a few cards I've already made with them!

Thank you to all my friends and family for the wonderful and generous gifts, handmade and otherwise! I was thoroughly spoiled and had a wonderful birthday! 

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8 comments | Posted in: Cards,Crafts,Features,Girls,Random Fun Stuff,Tutorials

Field Trip Friday with Ant Knit

I'm so excited to welcome Marcia from Ant Knit today! You HAVE to check out her kids toys! They are so adorable! I'm posting there today to, so come join the field trip and head over to see what I'm crafting up!

It is super nice of Jax to let me steal her blog for the day, isn't it? I'm absolutely honored.

I guess maybe I should say a little something about my self. I'm Marcia, sometimes antknit. Most often I crochet, but I used to knit exclusively (hence the blog name). I now rarely knit and have even branched out into other crafts. My favorite things to crochet are toys for all of my favorite young people, and I have many! I'm mom to four girls (ages 6 to 13), aunt to more than 30 kids and spoiler of many more. My two favorite toys I've ever made are a giraffe and an octopus.

I don't suppose I'm like most of the other crafters out there in blogland. I mostly fake it and steal er ... borrow ideas from other people. A lot of the time I have no clue what I'm doing. But that's ok with me (maybe not as ok with my husband though!). I want to show you how I fixed up a magnet board for my new craft room. The idea came from my friend Michelle. I don't know where she got it.

I started with an unfinished magnet board I purchased from a local craft store at 50% off. (yay!)

Because my decorating theme of this room seems to be leaning in the direction of "a dumped out box of crayons" I chose a nice, bright purple (in honor of the friend from whom I got the idea for the tissue paper part that is coming up, it's her favorite color). Supplies needed (in addition to the board): mod podge, spray paint & plain ol' tissue paper for gift wrapping (I got mine at the dollar store).

One of my daughters and I tore a couple of sheets of tissue into rectangles, I'm guessing 8x5 or so. It is not exact. Nothing I do ever is. The next step was to paint the mod podge, a little at a time, and covering with the paper, wrinkling as you go.

like this:

and you end up with it looking something like this:

I removed the paper hanging off of the edges, tearing the bigger parts and using a razor blade for finish and covered the entire center with pages torn from one of the million phone books that we keep getting (who uses them anymore anyway?). I then took it outside and leaned it against the girls' tricky bar. I figured the grass underneath can get cut so it didn't matter if it got painted a little.

And I sprayed. Everywhere.

Until it looked like this (I had forgotten to remember to cover the bar support. It's now purple):

We removed the paper and that's it! Unfortunately for me, the girls have been making their own youtube videos (yikes!) and were using my fancy, new board for something-or-other so when I went to take it's final picture I could not find either the cute magnets I had made to go on it (hot glue, flat marble-like colored glass & round magnets) or my camera. So I had to use my cell phone. Not the best but oh well.

Well, that's it. Easy, no? Thanks for reading my post here on Aly&Ash! I had fun!

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4 comments | Posted in: Field Trip Fridays,Tutorials

Tutorial Tuesday: Masculine Father's Day Card

Tutorial Tuesday:

Masculine Father's Day Card

Thanks to my bestie Claire I've just recently caught the card making addiction! But seem struggle with making masculine cards. I mean c'mon you can't use ribbon, flowers, anything that glitters...umm hello...what are you left with? But I needed to make a Father's Day card and thought, "Ok I CAN do this!" So as I sat there staring at my craft desk I noticed a piece of sand paper and had an "aha" moment!

Luckily I had made my Dad {This} Custom Tile/Vinyl Checkerboard this year which resulted in me buying some "boy" scrapbook paper! (I used the same paper from the checker pieces to tie it all together.) I just decided on a basic layout, trimmed with my paper cutter and stamped the top sheet over and over with a word stamp. Then I grabbed my sand paper! I rounded the paper over so I could sand two sides at once and went nuts! No rhyme or reason, just random sanding. Then I stuck it all together and embellished with my most masculine matching embellishment! I just love how it turned out! 

-

Have you created an awesome masculine card?

Leave a comment with a link so we can check it out and be inspired!

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3 comments | Posted in: Boys,Cards,Father's Day,Tutorials

Wordless Wednesday & Father's Day DIY Gift Three

In the mornings after breakfast I sit Ash with the boppy to watch his favorite show: Yo Gabba Gabba! I left the room and came back to find this...

Lazy much?

-

Now onto Father's Day Week Day Three:

Not Your Average Chocolate Packaging

1. Find a Mug! Any mug will do! I used a mason jar mug because A) I love them and B) It's clear! But a good ol' #1 Dad Mug would be great too!

2. Stick in the picture holder and put on some pictures! (I've had this picture holder for a long time but they are selling a similar one right now at Joann's in the "cheap" section 2 for $3.00)

3. Attach some "masuline" ribbon! (To attach the ribbon I used Glue Dots found at either Michael's or Joann's)

4. Fill with favorite treat!

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6 comments | Posted in: Father's Day,Tutorials,Wordless Wednesdays

Tutorial Tuesday: Father's Day Key Chain

Tutorial Tuesday

Father's Day Key Chain

Alright, it's day two of my great  crazy idea to do Father's Day Week and post a new DIY Father's Day gift idea each day! The good news though....I LOVE how this turned out and can't wait to give it to the hubs!

Here's what you need:

Wooden Tag

Picture

Scrapbook Paper

Mod Podge & Foam Brush

Key Ring

Ink Distress Pad & Sand Paper

 Leather Lace & Thread (Optional)

Step One:

Print your desired text onto your scrapbook paper. I used The Proclamation of the Family and formatted my text to print over my desired paragraph. (This took a few attempts to get it perfect, I'm not gonna lie!)

Step Two:

Trace and cut out the tag shape& hole from your photo and paper

Step Three & Four:

Ink distress and sand the edges of your paper. I choose not to ink distress my picture and only sanded the very edges so I would not scratch the photo. Apply a thin layer of Mod Podge to your paper and then place onto wooden tag.

 Crap...Oh Wait I Like That Moment:

While lightly rubbing the paper to make sure there were no bubbles a bit of the ink from my words rubbed off. I had a momentary freak out then realized I really like how it was "roughing up" the words...so I rubbed a little more! Seal top with a think layer of Mod Podge when dry.

-

Step Five:

Once completely dry flip your wooden tag over and Mod Podge on your picture. Seal as mentioned above and allow to dry. I did a second coat just around the edges of the wooden tag to prevent images from lifting.

Step Six:

Once everything is totally and completely dry attach key ring. You can end here if you'd like but I wanted to add some leather lace.
(I think that is as embellished as the hubs would allow!)

Adding Leather Lace:

I just cut my lace to the size I wanted and used a needle to thread through one side. Tie a knot at the end of your thread, leaving a long tail past the knot and pull through.
Wrap your thread around and around and around! Tie a knot with the thread you're holding and the tail left behind the 1st knot buried under the wrapped thread.
Trim the tails and wipe a little bit of Mod Podge over the knot are to help secure

You're Done and now have a super cute Father's Day Key Chain!

If you make one please send me a picture to add to the Aly&Ash Facebook group!
alyashcreations@gmail.com

Make sure to check out Yesterday's Father's Day Gift Idea and come back tomorrow for another one! Whew! Who's idea was this anyway...

And I'll be linking up as always with {These Great Blogs} including The Boardwalk Bragfest!

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40 comments | Posted in: Crafts,Father's Day,Mod Podge,Tutorials