the light in their eyes

This Sunday I got a special treat -- at church I got to hang out with the Young Women (ages 12-18) for part of the meeting. Their spirits are so refreshing and beautiful. There is so much light in their eyes.

We shared in the total joy of one of my favorite very messages to women, and now it's time to pass it on. 

Print it up, pass it out, hang it up!

{They're the perfect size to stick in your scriptures. Just sayin.}

{click on either image for a bigger, better, more printable version.}

Happy Monday + happy new week -- it's gonna be a good one, I can feel it.

my word for 2012: praise

Part of me wants to hold back on this post --

wait, can I really do this?

what if I mess it up? and everyone knows it?

So let me take a deep breath and tell you that my word for 2012 is praise.

Other contenders? present. grateful. joy.

But really -- what good thing is there that is not encompassed in the act of praise?

If I can find reason to praise God in every moment of every day,

will that not increase my gratitude and joy? will that not keep me in the present moment?

Anticipating a year of praise gives me a wonderful feeling, like 

toes at the edge of the ocean, like bike-ride hair flying on a warm summer day,

like the sun on my face and joy in my heart.

{download the printable}

I hope you will join me in choosing your own word, if you feel like it.

Don't worry about reinventing the wheel. 

{Danielle, who is already such a beautiful woman of praise, chose praise for her word last year...} 

Just choose the word that tastes good. 

So without any particular plan, I hope you will let me share with you what I learn this year along my bumbling, meandering way on the path of praise. My faith throughout my life has mostly been a quiet sort of conviction. internal. While praise is something I've always equated with voice. exuberance. outwardness. And I think that praise can be those things -- but I also think that praise can be very much a combination of the two -- inward exuberance and delicious, soul-filling zeal, sometimes spoken, sometimes sung, but perhaps most often felt. 

I'm excited to find out.

digital freebie: four chalkboard backgrounds

I love chalkboards.

They are huge right now, and they are an easy way to add vintage sass to whatever you're working on.

And guess what! I just learned how to make chalkboard-ish digital papers.

CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD

Have at it, my friends. 

4 low-res 1000x1000 chalkboards.

Terms of use are the usual: personal and small business use ok, not to be used in any icky material.

{I'm telling you, I shoulda been a lawyer.}

Is anyone interested in a tutorial for this? Lemme know.

Have fun chalking it up {hee hee},

and may your Halloween weekend be cavity-inducing.

gimp girl tutorial: make + share simple wall art

I am loving your comments + emails about the last tutorial + ideas about what you'd like to learn, so keep it coming, ok?

Today's tutorial was inspired by Rachel of Maybe Matilda, who wanted to know how to add a background design to words.

I love art that has good words.

For this project, I've chosen a refrain from the beloved hymn, Count Your Blessings.
{I've been loving this bluegrass version -- it's at the bottom of the page.}

In this Gimp tutorial, you will learn how to:

Create a hi-res image suitable for printing

Add a background design as a new layer

Add text
Download + use special fonts 

Change text font, size, and color

Upload to a file sharing site

Create a "click to download" link for your blog

{Just joining us? Start here!}

Let's roll. 

Since we plan to print the image, we need to start with a high resolution.

Open Gimp and go to File > New.

Because we'll be printing the artwork, we'll set the resolution to 360 ppi (pixels per inch).

That way, the image will be nice and crisp when you print it.

When you're making an image for web display only, 72 ppi is all you need.

If you were to print out a 72 ppi image, it would look blurry.

Now you're ready to open your background pattern. 
Go to File > Open as Layers
and choose a pattern from your clip art stash.
I'm using some tasty chevron wallpaper from Erin Bradley Designs.

Opening the wallpaper as a layer accomplishes 2 things:

1) It opens a copy of the wallpaper directly into your image-in-process so that you don't have to mess with copying + pasting.

2) Since it's a copy, the original file remains unaltered.

Once your wallpaper is open, go to Image > Fit Canvas to Layers.

This makes your workspace and your wallpaper the same size.

Now we're ready to add text.

First, select the text tool.

Second, double-click-hold-drag on your image to create a text box 

(you can change its size and location later if you need to).

Third, type text into the Text Editor window.

You'll probably see right away that the text is teeeeeny tiny! 

Before we make it bigger, let's change the font.

In the Toolbox, click on Font and select a font from the drop-down menu.

I'm using Vive la Rivoluzione, one of my faves.

That font doesn't come with Gimp; you'll need to download and install it separately. 

After downloading the font of your choice, add it to your computer's font library.

You'll need to save your work + restart Gimp in order to use your new font.

Let's change the text size.

Click the up or down arrows next to Size in the Toolbox.

You can also play with the justification; I'm going to make my text right-justified.

The text is now larger than the size of the text box. 

To fix that, hover your cursor over the edge of the text box. 

Drag the edge down until all of the text is visible.

Now for my favorite part. Time to change the text color!

Double-click the rectangular box underneath the Text menu in the Toolbox. 

A separate Text Color window will pop up.

I'm feelin' a minty aqua for my text color today.

First, click on a spot on the vertical color spectrum bar that you like the look of.

Don't be shy! You're not painting the Taj Mahal.

Next, drag the crosshairs in the square color box on the left. Watch the color in the Current box (bottom left) until you see a color you like. Click OK.

Now we'll reposition the text.

Select the move tool.

Double-click and drag the text until you've got it where you want it.

All done! Save your work (I like to save one as an .xcf file and another copy as a .jpg).

Now we'll upload your new work of art to a file sharing site.

I've been using Sendspace. It's simple. No frills.

Upload the file. When it's done, you'll see this screen giving you a few different links to choose from.

Click on the second link ("Download Link").

Next screen. 

See the blue box towards the bottom that says "Click here to start download"?

Right-click that box and select Copy Link.

Now head over to Blogger (or your blog host of choice).

Just one step left: time to make the download link.

In my blog post, I've entered the text "Click here to download the print."

Highlight the word "here" and make a link. 

When it asks for the link URL, right-click and hit Paste.

When your readers click on the word "here," your print will automatically download to 

their computer -- without sending them away to a 3rd-party site. Win!

All done! You've got a kick-trash print, and you can share it, too!

{Click here to download the print!}

Sources:
Chevron wallpaper via Erin Bradley Designs
Chalkboard via Kitschy Digitals
Fonts: Cursive Standard, Impact Label, Vive la Rivoluzione

best snazzy pattern source + printable knot-tying cheat sheet

Just a short post today -- in case you're in the mood to venture beyond chevrons, friendship-bracelets.net is totally rad. There's tons of free patterns, but figuring out how to read them can be tricky. Here's a really useful tutorial on how to do just that.

You'll need to know a few basic knots before you can tackle most of the patterns. 

I've bumbled my way through a few of them so far, but I still need a little cheat sheet! 

Here's a little one just for you; you can scale it down to make it whatever size you prefer.

{download the cheat sheet}

Now go get snazzy -- and don't forget to visit Jenn to see what she's got for today! 

guest blogger: jenn from ruffled sunshine + friendship bracelet packaging printable

Happy Tuesday! Today Jenn is visiting from Ruffled Sunshine, aka the brains behind this operation! 

Jenn and I are pretty new friends, but we clicked right away + I was totally thrilled when she brought up the idea of doing a friendship bracelet swap together. If you haven't already subscribed to her darling + totally inspiring blog, you need to! Anyway, enough from me. Here's Jenn with a great post on packaging your friendship bracelets (and a free printable, to boot)!

Hello Friends!  I'm so excited to be here!  Amanda and I have been on pins and needles waiting to share the friendship bracelet swap with you guys and I'm so happy that you all are so excited about it too! My name is Jenn and I blog over at Ruffled Sunshine.  I share a little bit of what I've been up to from time to time.  I have a spunky little girl, Ivy that keeps me on my toes, but she is my biggest source of inspiration. 

 

Somehow our summer seems to be getting busier and busier.  It is our favorite time of year so we try to spend as many hours of the day outside as possible!  So I know when it comes time to mail my bracelets I'll be scrambling to have some cute packaging.  I took a few minutes this weekend to come up with a simple way to package up your friendship bracelets to your new friends.  Then you won't be scrambling if your summer is anything like ours!

{click here to download}

I got to practice my photoshop skills {cuz they definitely need practicing} and used this letterpress tutorial from Pugly Pixel to make a sheet of cards.  

All you have to do is cut them up.  Easy peasy.

This one is for one of my good friends from college.  I wrote a little note too, to let my friend know I've been thinking of her.  

Then I used some of my Modern Marigold fabric tape to stick my bracelet right to the card.  It fit perfectly  in a card envelope so I sealed it up with a little more fabric tape and mailed it right away.  I got a little excited to send it so I forgot to take pictures.  Oh well!  

Sooo...

Don't forget to sign up for the bracelet swap!  And be sure to stop by some time.  I'd love to have you!

{and thanks Amanda for having me! xoxo}

Thanks for coming over, Jenn! Don't forget to email us to sign up for the swap!

friday finds: vintage girl scout dress + clip art freebies

How cool is this?! I found this vintage Girl Scout dress on sale for $20 at this fabulous little local shop. It fits perfectly, except that I need to do something to make it just a smidge longer (ideas? please??). As far as I can tell, it's from the 1930s(!) and is industrially made with several hand-stitched alterations. I am in love with the inverted box pleats at the sides and (of course!) the merit badges.

I wore this dress the other day when the girls and I went to get the car's oil changed. The Mobil on our little main street is a happenin' place -- it's where the old guys hang out (no really -- this is the awesomeness of living in a village with no stop lights -- they insist on filling your gas for you, remember your name, and notice when there's a chip in your windshield they didn't see last time).

Anyway. An old guy hanging out at the Mobil asked me if I was in Cub Scouts. I told him no, I just like the dress. I think he thought I was crazy.

And lo! I did a little scanny-scanning, et voila! The badge file is in PNG format, and the fabric is a really huge JPG for backgrounds + the like.

Have fun with these!

{download girl scout badges}

{download girl scout dress fabric}

uplifting download: scripture power

Lizzy started going to Sunbeams (Sunday School) this year, and since then it seems like she's been singing non-stop. I LOVE it. She makes up her own songs, too. Most recently I heard her singing in the bathtub:

There was a little rag

She lived at the bottom of the sea

Swim round, swim round, swim round...

*Melt my mommy heart!* Anyway -- Scripture Power is a big favorite around here. Even Maren sings along sometimes. I found an uber cute + clever music video of the song if you haven't heard it before (or even if you have). The chorus goes:

Scripture power(!) keeps me safe from sin

Scripture power is the power to win

Scripture power; every day I need

The power that I get each time I read.

My day always goes so much better when I read my scriptures first thing. Tempers stay down. Voices speak sweeter. Everything is a little bit brighter, a little more saturated, a little more focused.

Feel free to download any (or all!) of the designs below, or you can print a 4-in-1 that's the perfect size for bookmarks. And let's stick to non-commercial use, k? And (ee!) guess what - I whipped up a button for these little freebies (see last week's here). I have so many more ideas that I hope to share with you. Grab the button and link up if you want!

Now get out there with your scripture power!

uplifting download: good, better, best

Happy Tuesday, guys! I'm excited to post this fun little freebie. A while back, Dallin H. Oaks gave an address called Good, Better, Best that's all about priorities.

Because it isn't always a choice between doing something naughty or doing something good.

More often our choices are whether we'll do something good (read a novel?), something better (play with my kids?), or something best (serve my neighbor together with my kids?).

To sum it up simply:

"We have to forego some good things in order to choose others that are better or best because they develop faith in the Lord Jesus Christ and strengthen our families."

That message has been on my mind a lot lately, so I made a little reminder -- stick it on your fridge, pin it in your laundry room, give it to a friend -- I hope you like it!