Holiday Cards with Minted

You know I love holiday cards, and it's never to early to start thinking about your holiday cards right?! This year I've been so impressed with Minted, I recently ordered business cards from them and I was really impressed with their customer service and fast shipping. 

My favorite card that I got from friends last Christmas was from Minted, so I wanted to check them out this year for my own holiday cards. Let me tell you, they do not disapoint! They have some new foil pressed cards this year that are just gorgeous, and perfect for a glitter loving gal like myself! 

What! You don't have your pictures taken yet for your holiday cards?! Me neither, but Minted has a solution for that too! You can choose your cards now, pay for them and upload a picture later and have them printed! How genius is that! Seriously it is! 

Plus, it's the perfect way to take advantage of their Early Bird Sale and get 15% off your order.

Use code: EARLY2013 

at check out till 10/14

Here's a few holiday cards that I'm loving from their holiday card collection, I kinda like this one since we live out of state and many people we'll be sending cards to do not live where we live. It's fun & whimsical. 

Remember me telling you about their new foil pressed cards? Below is one of my faves from that collection. It's simple, but I like simple too.

If you love the chalkboard look they have some options for that too.

And I really love that you can personalize your cards with different shapes like the one below. You can also do a different background on the back option of the card as well. You can also import your addresses in and they will address them for FREE. Minted makes it easy for you.

Shop Minted's Holiday cards here and take advantage of their 15% off till Monday.

for all my Phoenix locals info about my holiday mini sessions can be found here.

*contains affiliate link.

Life via Instagram

Happy Wednesday friends!

How's your week been? Only a couple more days till the weekend,
and that makes me happy! 

Here's a bit of real life via Instagram.


fell asleep on the way home from a mini staycation.


dinner is served.


lunch time is easily becoming one of my fave times of the day.


decorations for a baby shower I'm throwing with friends.


hubby had a pregnancy craving one night while i was at the store,
i picked this up for him while i was there.


reading one of our favorite books.


yay, for a baby shower with a dear friend!

Life via Instagram

I'm probably never, never going to get sick of Instagram. It's my most fave ever app. I think I kinda like it more than Twitter, because pictures tell more of the story that words ever could. Right?! Some scenes from our life via my Insta gram feed.

Wednesday I made a pan of these yummy Scotcharoos for my co-workers retirement party. They went fast, but I had to snag a few to take home for the hubby. {reciepe to come.} Thursday we baby sat for some friends so they could enjoy a date night! We love having their two boys over, and Ava loves them too. Waiting in the pick up line for Daddy is tiring work! Right Ava?! Snoozin' while we wait for hubby. She's so cute, and I just love her so. My fave apps in addition with Instagram are: PicFrame & Phonto. Check them out, if you're an Instagram user you'll probably love them as much as I do!
Linking here. 

Scenes from the Weekend

Weekends sure fly by, don't they! We had a great weekend, it was low key but productive. This weekend I was busily preparing to go out of town this next week. So that meant grocery shopping for my family, lots of laundry to be done, and the start of packing.

Here's some scenes from the weekend brought to you by Instagram.


I bought these adorable shoes for Ava from Zulily, only they don't fit. They are a size 5/6 but are more like a 5. If you're interested in them they are still in the package with the original tags. $10 shipped. Email me andreaworley@live.com if you'd like them.


For much of Friday this was Ava's outfit of choice! She loves her tutus, and shirts are optional around these parts until we actually have to get dressed to meet friends for dinner that evening.


Saturday I ran out and started doing a little shopping for my trip this weekend to the SNAP Conference. I had to pick up a few travel essentials. My friend Destiny and I are headed to Salt Lake City Thursday bright and early.


Sunday morning at church, my little "reader." She love, loves books. Doesn't she look adorable, by the way. Totally biased, and I know it. But, really isn't every Mother when it comes to their kid?! I think so.

I'm looking forward to this week. I'm looking forward to my trip this weekend to a city I've never been, having fun with friends and meeting up with other creative minds.

I won't be blogging at the conference this weekend but, If you'd like to follow along with me and join my for conference updates you can find me here:

Twitter

Instagram: photosbyandrea

What are you looking forward to this week? Tell me in the comments below, HAPPY MONDAY! 

How We Document Life

Creating memories and capturing them are a huge part of The Worley House! A camera is never to far away from my hand, and I'm always looking for the best ways to preserve those memories for my family. One of the ways that we document life here is through photo books each year.

I used to be an avid scrap booker and always printed off my pictures. But, in an effort to save time and money I've gone digital in the last 5 years and now make photo books for my family.



These are great to look back on every year, we keep them on a shelf under our coffee table. They are a great conversational piece for when guests come over. They are a great way for my to show off my sweet little family.

I made an album for Ava of her first year, and now I'm finishing up my second book for her. I hope to one day give them to her when she's 18 or married so she can take her memories with her.



I use Shutterfly to make and print my books. I've used other sites as well in the years but I've found {in my opinion} that I prefer Shutterfly to some of the others. They have great layouts, pre made designs, lots of embellishments that you can use, and anyone can make a book with their site tools. I also really love Shutterfly for their prices and discounts. I always let my book sit in my "cart" until a 40% or half off code arrives in my email. Then I purchase my books for a cheaper price.

Here's a preview of some of the layouts I've created in Shutterfly;



I also use Picnik & FotoFlexer sometimes to create collages and upload them into my books. They add a little something extra to my books.



I always keep and extra copy of the year's Christmas card, Another thing that I do is add the years Christmas card to the inside of our book, you can see this on the right. I just tape them to the inside of the book so that we can remember that year's card.

There are some really great options for documenting life, this is just one option that really works great for me and my family. I hope that it inspires you to dust off those pictures and put them in an album for your family to remember.

For a great article I found on creating layouts for your family albums, I recommend this one. Another great source for creating albums & documenting life is from Becky Higgins using her Project Life, Check it out here.

How do you document life? I'd love to hear them in the comments.

{I also want to mention I am in no way affiliated with the links & sites mentioned above, I truly love their products that's all.}

Instagram:: Changing the Way I capture Life!

I got an Iphone for Christmas! It was actually an early Christmas gift from the Hubs, I'd been hinting that I wanted one for a while now, and when my upgrade came up I made the switch and I'm excited that I was able to get it.

Love it! One of my fave apps has been Instagram. I've been using it for a while on the Hubby's Itouch but since now I have it on my phone I've been able to capture those every day moments and share them instantly with everyone.

Friends and family really love me for it, I am sure! :)

See what I mean......

A little shopping at Homegoods.



Dance party captured.

Birthday party crafting is happening.

Mommy and baby TOMS.

Sunday walk into church.

New bedroom decor in process.

Reading. Yup, check!

Little orange box arrived.

Party Planning in progress.

Capturing life one Instagram at a time.

I also really love the PicFrame app too, it allows me to make these super fun collages and add the labels! So fun!

I'm really excited to make some Sticky Grams, that turn your Instagrams into magnets. I can't wait to cover the fridge.

What about you? Do you have any fave apps for picture taking?

Do you Instagram? You can find me here (photosbyandrea)



Shutterfly Give & Get Joy House Party + A Giveaway!

This weekend, I got to host a Shutterfly party sponsored by House Party! The awesome people at Shutterfly & House Party sent me some great goodies to share with my friends! I was able to share with everyone why I love Shutterfly and their products so much, and help them make photo books of their own.

It's a great way to preserve and share memories! Shutterfly is already my fave place to get photo books, and holiday cards. It's a lot of fun getting to share with someone who's never used Shutterfly before, and show them all the amazing things you can do with Shutterfly products.

We all know I love pictures, and taking them is like breathing almost! This was a really fun party to host!

I set up a yummy coffee/ cocoa bar for guests.

Made some yummy desserts! {recipe to come}

Shutterfly set me some great photo cards to use as examples. I also displayed some of my own photo books I've made through Shutterfly. 

Each guest received a free 8x8 Photo book, 10 free holiday card + free shipping! They also received $10 gift card to Plum District and decoders to see if they won a chance for prizes at the House Party website!

I had a really great time hosting this party. It was a blessing to bring friends together and share my love for an amazing product and laugh a lot! Thank you ladies for attending, I hope you're able to preserve some of your memories this way! 

Lucky for you readers, I have a few free swag bags left to giveaway! Each will contain the amazing products handed out to my guests! 

Wanna know how you can win?{mandatory to enter}

I wanna know what you're most looking forward to this holiday season?! Tell me in the comments below and be entered to win!

Want more entries? {1 entry for each thing you do}

Like Shutterfly on Facebook

Like House Party on Facebook

Tweet about this giveaway and link to @andreaworley so I can see that you did

Blog about this and leave me the link

Follow Shutterfly on Twitter

Follow House Party on Twitter

This contest starts now until Wednesday! I will announce the winner Thursday morning on my Facebook page If you aren't already "liking" my page sign up & hear if you're a winner! 

Have a great Sunday friends! 

This part was sponsored by Shutterfly & House Party. I received free product in exchange for hosting this event. All opinions are 100% mine. 

{Photography Inspiration} Ava's 18 Month Photoshoot

I've had this idea for Ava's 18 month photos in my mind. I love styling shoots, coming up with creative ideas and inspiration. Sometimes, I think I have more ideas than clients. For Ava's shoot I saw this picture of a hot air balloon on Pinterest. I was inspired by the colors, and the idea of using balloons.

Here's the inspiration:

Source: bippityboppityboo.tumblr.com via Andrea on Pinterest

I hunted down a great outfit and put all the styling together. Wanna see more of how her shoot turned out? Go here to see more of my little one. 

Happy Friday! 

Picture Taking.....

I've been taking lots of pictures the last couple weekends, which is good! It's what I love. I love giving families and couples beautiful photography to remember these moments in their lives.

I've been gone the last two weekends out of town, picture taking. It's been wonderful, but I am also looking forward to this weekend being home with my family.



Aren't they gorgeous?! They are having a baby, I couldn't be more excited for them! See more of this lovely couple, go here and visit my photography site!

Questions About Digital Scrapbooking

I got a question about the digital scrap booking stuff on a post last Friday, so I thought I'd answer that question here on the blog and maybe it'll answer some other questions anyone else has.

First off, digital scrap booking is just simply using a software program to create your pages and then importing them into books and having them printed. You're not buying paper, glue, stickers or anything you're making everything on the computer using what they call "digital kits" with images you can use to make your pages.

Everything I know about going digital I learned from Andrea on her blog, you can read her full post here. She did a really great job at explaining it, and it's helped me a lot when trying to navigate what I am doing and where to do! She makes some really awesome pages, Thanks Andrea. ;)

I would say this can be just as time consuming as regular scrap booking. I feel that it is a lot cheaper than regular scrap booking for me since I try and stick with everything that is free. There are digital kits that you can buy, and a lot you can get for free.

Other than what Andrea already talks about I'm going to talk about the free options that I use and continue to use to help make these pages.

Let's talk first about where to print them; I use Shutterfly and Snapfish. Andrea uses blurb.com I started out using Snapfish to print my books, but I have since found that Shutterfly has better books, and I like their designs better more my style. Either site is fine, just take a look around and find what options they have to offer and go with what fits you best. Shutterfly and Snapfish both offer photo books at a base rate of 20 pages for $24.99 and go up depending on how many more pages you add. I usually always wait for a sale or for coupons and then buy my books. I usually save about 30% doing this.

Let's talk about; If you do not wish to buy software like Photoshop or digital kits like Andrea talks about, I want to share with you how you can still go about making these books without buying this stuff.

Both companies I talked about above have software built into their sites where you just drag and drop photos into books and you can make an album super easy. Shutterfly has what they call "Simple Path" where you just choose the photos you want and they will design it for you automatically with a click of a button for free. Snapfish does this as well theirs is called "Custom Path" I believe. Either way one of these options is great for someone who doesn't have an eye for design, the patience, or just wants to create something nice but doesn't know where to start. Both of these companies have tons of themed and pre designed layouts to you, just choose which one you want and start adding photos either manually or via the Simple Path option. It does it all for you, and then you just buy your book.

Next, let's talk about free software to help you design pages: I use Picnik a lot. It's a free photo editing website where you can create pages and edit photos as well. The free version has limited but still very nice options for editing and page design. Or you can up grade to the $24 a year membership and have access to all the site has to offer. I used Picnik's collages to help create several pages that I just uploaded and dumped into Shutterfly and made my books, you can see them here and here. Picnik also has pre made layouts for scrap booking that you again can drag and drop your pics into and create pages. You can see a preview of some I've made here.

You'll want to make sure you choose the right sized layouts to then upload your pictures to, but both Shutterfly and Snapfish will tell you if your images are not sized right for printing. It may take a little tweaking for you till you find the right layout size.

12x12 books usually work great. And the 11x8 books too.

Staying organized: I usually do this as we go month by month. Just so that I don't get overwhelmed trying to make them and so I can remember what the dates are better and what happened. Like, I said before this is the only scrap booking I do anymore, I make 1 book for every year. I've been doing this since we got married, and now make them for Ava too.

Hopefully this has answered some questions but if anyone has anymore you can email me at andreaworley[at]live[dot]com and I'll be happy to answer anymore questions you might have.

30 Day Photo Challenge

Source: superbarbs.tumblr.com via Andrea on Pinterest

I decided to go along with my girl Andrea, {girls named Andrea are just plain awesome} and do a 30 day photo challenge. Join me for 30 days won't you!! You don't need to have a fancy camera or anything, this is just a really fun way to maybe grow your photography skills/perspective and have some fun along the way!

Follow along with me on my photography site, I'll be posting these challenges here and talking about them.

Spring Into Shutterfly

{this post is brought to you by Shutterfly, all opinions are 100% mine}

Spring time brings new promise, events to look forward to as we head into Summer. My favorite way to capture all those memories and events is through my lens by photography of coarse! Shutterfly is my favorite site to store photos online, they back everything up online for free and give you some awesome options when it comes to preserving your memories. 

There are so many things you can make using Shutterfly, here's just a few of my favorites: 

Photo Books

They are one of the best ways to preserve memories for your family. I have a photo book made every year for us. To keep it simple and management I edit and add events through the book as they happen. That way I don't feel overwhelmed at the end of the year making my book. Doing a little at a time is really easy. 

Birth Announcements

We made Ava's birth announcements from Shutterfly and I absolutely loved them! They turned out awesome and their quality is really great! All cards come with matching envelopes as well making it super easy for you to mail out to all your friends and family. 

Photo Gifts

Photo gifts are a great way to celebrate your memories and give them to others. Wouldn't these be so adorable for the Grandparents in your life? I like to make photo gifts for our loved ones for holiday gifts and birthdays. They are a great way to personalize your gifts. 

Wouldn't these luggage tags be so cute for each kiddo in your family? Everyone has their own to match their bag, a great way to stay organized through the air port! I love these! 

{photos via Shutterfly}

I use Shutterfly for all my personal and professional needs. The people are great to work with and their customer service is top notch! If you haven't used them before jump on over to their site. They are affordable and always offer great discounts like free shipping and percentages off their products. 

Happy Memory Making! 

Have a blog? Sign up for a chance at 50 free cards from Shutterfly.

Oh Snappy Day- Fave Foto

Kelli over at For This Child I Prayed hosts a photo challenge called Oh Snappy Day! Today she's hosting one entitled 'Fave Foto.' While picking 1 fave photo from millions of photos I've taken poses a very hard task for me. There's just no way I could pick just one.

So I decided to pick a fave photo 'of the moment' or of the last couple weeks I guess you could say.

Here's my pick:

Now that is a smash cake!

Here's why I love this photo so much; I feel like it's the culmination of a very, very sweet {pun intended} first birthday! Isn't this what birthdays are supposed to be?!? I'm pretty sure.

To see her go after that cake was so funny. To see her taste sugar for the first time, and eat up every bite was so cute. This is what birthdays are made of, and my girl didn't disappoint.

It was a mess after this point, but it was worth every bit of frosting everywhere, stuck in places I wish it weren't. Totally. Worth. It.



I'm Linking Up To:



Jump on over to Kelli's blog. It's one of my very faves.