The PaperLife

Tomorrow We Give the Store Away........

We just got it but, because you guys are so awesome and supportive we decided to give the store away 3 ways tomorrow.  Go here to find the details on how to get in on the contest!

I wanted to show you a close-up of Papergirl Megan Klauer's layout using Country Estate today.  Megan is an amazing photographer in her other life, so I always love seeing the photos from her designs, not to mention the actual design itself, she rocks.

Gorgeous huh?  I love how Megan brings my designs to life on a page.  And all of you, for that matter.  I have to say seeing what everyone does with a vision you have is so heartwarming and fulfilling.

On that note, be sure to tag me in anything you make and put up on facebook, or send it in we would love to put it up ourselves.

So on the top of the list for today, PACK FOR CHA AMY!!!  I have to get it together and get started on this!  I leave Sunday morning early for Chicago and I have to get the Coonkids all packed for grandma's as well.

Packing......is there an app for that?

Scooter Riding in the Rain

Jaycie Claire learned to ride a 2 wheel scooter a few weeks back!  She was so proud of herself she rode in the pouring rain.  I got some great raindrop pics of it from inside the garage.  

I did this fun little memory layout with the new paperlife printables line, Petit Four.  Such a sweet, soft line I really love how it turned out.

I tried to hint at the feel of rain in the layout, to match the photo with the circles cut from Petit Four coming down.

also added drops of glimmer mist to help do the same.

Love the little dessert cut-outs in the petit-four line!  So sweet to add special touches here and there.  I also love the bingo cards in Petit Four I have been cutting those and adding them to everything.  Look for more of those in future lines for sure.  And how cute are those ears!!!  Jaycie loves her helmet and of course all the attention it gets.

You can find Petit Four over at the Paperlife Printables store.

We are hitting the pool later this afternoon because, well, IT IS FLIPPING HOT OUTSIDE!!

See you tomorrow, with more beautiful messes from my printable paperlife!!! Oh, and whatever your doing, enjoy your day.

Hugs, Amy

Sunset on the Farm

 

Wanted to share this.  I got a little digi with the printables from Country Estate and embellished the photo I took from my mom and dad's back porch at sunset last weekend.

ahhhhhhhhhhh......

 

Hmmmmm....Printables....So Tell Me a Bit More About Those.......

YoU Got It!!

Here is kind of a bullet point list as to why we went, printable, what we love about them, tips, tricks, and useful information.  Also, this is a bit of hand holding if you are interested but, feel completely unsure of the whole hybrid printable thing.

So here it goes:

1. Get what you want and need in an instant no matter where you are, all you need is the world wide web and a printer.  You are kind of like the CHA buyer with us YOU decide what comes in to your Paperlife store not what someone else has went to show and decided to carry for you in their store.

2. No special software needed.  Just go to www.adobe.com and download the free reader, if you don't have it on your computer already, which you probably do, and you can open and print any of our pdf files.  Which are the majority of what we offer at Paperlife printables.

3.  I see you have brushes???  hmmm whats that?  Those do need the photoshop elements 6 or above program to be able to use and they just load right in.  You will see a lot of our products are offered in digital format as well.  That was just a no brainer.  I mean we were designing them for the web anyway, might as well just save them in that format for you too.   So all of you techy digi scrappers can purchase in this format and customize any of our designs to your liking.

4. What do I print on/with?  I have the cheapest HP printer from walmart and love the prints I get with it.  You can also save the file to a jump drive and take it in to your local printers and they will get them made for you slick as a whistle.  We recommend printing everything on heavy weight white cardstock.  You can purchase a bulk ream of that at most discount stores for under $10.

5. Sizes???  You will see the 3 debut collections that are out now are available only in standard letter size 8.5x11.  That means you can print from any regular home printer.  Starting with our next collection, and yes we are working on that now, all of our background papers will be available in 12x12 format as well.  This is great if you own a large format printer or just want to have them made at a local printer or online.

6.  Organize!!!  Ok this is what I do and how I recommend storing your purchased paperlife files.  Create a new folder on your hard drive or external hard drive called The Paperlife, and simply make a folder for each collection inside of that, then download your purchases right into them.  The fabulous thing about this is, those files are yours forever for personal use.  Get attached to a certain paper, and you have it forever never having to worry about running out, just print more!

7. Economical.  No shipping costs because downloads are delivered free, no man in brown needed.  Purchase an item one time and print it 20 times for all we care.  Just follow our personal use only policy. Also get it all, for future use but, only print what you need at one time.  This is so great when you are doing, lets say a baby album, and you are not sure how much of a coordinating line you are going to need to finish it.

8. Storage.  Again, only print what you need when you need it.  No more boxes and drawers full of papers, they are all inside your computer waiting for you when you are ready to use them.

9. Customization.  This can happen, you will soon discover, on many levels.  Need a smaller size for a card?  Just print it smaller.  Is there an adorable embellishment we designed but, you want it for a frame?  Print it bigger.  And with photoshop products you have the ability to customize color schemes and shapes and more from what the Paperlife offers.  The possibility of hybrid scrabooking and papercrafting is limitless!

10. Boutique Style.  We are bringing you the high end style scrapbook selections in our printables.  What you are used to seeing in specialty scrapbook stores will now be available to you online and instantly. We promise our printables will give you beautiful keepsakes for years to come.

11.  Projects.  We will be using these printables and customizing projects with them for you to download and easily use.  For those quick cute no-brainer projects that you don't have to re-invent the wheel to create.

Ok there is more, and you will be hearing about them all the time from us but, these 11 are a great start!

Have we convinced you to try?  Tons of Paperlifers are doing it already and loving it!  Join them!

Head on over to www.thepaperlife.com and purchase a couple of things just to see what we mean, you will be impressed and a warning this is Paperlife Changing stuff!!!

And don't forget we are giving away the store on Tuesday!!

 What better way to introduce printables into your Paperlife.  For more information on that read here!

Hugs, Amy

 

Ok So We Are Giving a Chance to Win the Store!!!!!

 

Thats right!  In honor of the huge success we have had in our first full week of business we are going to give away, to 3 people, an entire collection from one of our debut lines.  So, someone will win all of Country Estate, another someone all of Petit Four, and yet another lucky someone is getting all of Just Beachy!!

CRAZY!!!

Well a little but, mostly we at The Paperlife just like to have fun!!!

So here is the deal:

to be entered you have 3 separate options or do all 3 and up your chances:

1. sign up for our newsletter on the stores main page:

www.thepaperlife.com

2. Like us on Facebook at the Paperlife's facebook page

3. let us know on our facebook page or my amycoon11 fb page that you tweeted, blogged, or facebooked a link about the contest!!

We will be choosing a winner next Tuesday July 12, so don't wait!  Get entered.

Good Luck, We can't wait to see what you do with the debut printables collections!!!

hugs Amy

What Do You Get When..........

you take file folders, adorable baby pictures by the ocean, and

The Paperlife Printables line, Just Beachy?

Well if you are the talented Jennifer Haggerty, you get this incredible mini memory album:

When Jen sent this to me I flipped!!!  There is some major cuteness and creativity going on with this.  And guess what, Jen sent every page for us to drool over!  So sit back and lets take a peak through an entire mini album done with Just Beachy!

Love how Jen used the printable elements from the line, like the flip flops to maker page medallions.

Inspired?

Well, go get yourself some Just Beachy printables and put together your own summer file folder album!

Also wanted to let everyone know that Teresa Collins will be on HSN with the stampmaker and a fabulous deal again Friday.  So, if you are dying to have some of our amazing coordinating stamp designs from the paperlife lines but, don't have a machine yet, you should tune in!!!

Ok must get to work on CHA projects today!  And seriously do some cleaning up around here before I loose the Coonkids!  And sadly, that is no joke!

Hugs, Amy

 

Quick Pinterest Cruise and then Back Home

Hi!  Hope you had an amazing weekend like us, the Coonkids are still crashed and I am letting them sleep it off this morning.  Wow did we have a fun time on the farm!  I hope you enjoyed the tour yesterday.

So, while I was enjoying the peace of the sleeping Coonkids, I did what I always do when I have time all to myself, I cruised through Pinterest and here are a few fun finds this morning:

these are so cute, I have an old baking sheet from Jason's grandma and one from mine that I just wanted to keep but, they are pretty narly, and aren't really usable.  So I am going to paint them in a fun color and use them as magnet boards in the laundry room!!  So fun!

and speaking of color, want to see what color I am in love with and seeing everywhere and will probably be the color of those baking sheets:

on the walls, I call it peacock, and I am in love with it mustard yellow, and a cranberry red all together right now.  Hmmmm wonder if it will be coming to a paperlife printable collection anytime soon.......

Ok next up 2 things at the top of my wish list:

I lover this!!!!!

enough said!

and really, really, don't need this but want it so bad!  It gives you tiny little polaroid prints and it is so stinking cute!

And last, because is makes me laugh every stinkin' time:

You did it didn't you!

Bwahahahhaahhhaa!

Hope you can find time to make a beautiful mess of your paperlife.  I am so excited to get home to the studio and mess mine up real good tonight!!!!

Hugs, Amy

 

Happy Fourth of July!! And Still Blogging from the Farm

Well, first, Happy Fourth of July!!!  I love America, despite all her hiccups, and I love today because we, in the US, get to have one big country wide birthday party followed by FIREWORKS!!!

We are still on the farm, Tucker and I have a photo tour below but, I have to tell you tonight is going to be extra fun because for the first time I get to take the kids to see the fireworks where I saw them every single year growing up.  I can't wait to do that with them!

Ok Tucker and I did a photo tour of the farm yesterday so hop on the dirt road above that goes all through the farm with us and let us show you why we love it here so much.

and there's our driver and host for the tour, Tucker himself, so come on your chariot, errrrr gator awaits.

Ok, so we have 4 ponds on this farm. Yep, 4.  Three are dirt and one is cement, like I said yesterday.  When you leave the cement one this is the first dirt pond you come to.  You can see it has a bridge that crosses it and we have a pedal boat we ride on this one.  Fun Fact: That bridge is the sight of my brother's wedding.

Ok next,

You come to pond number 2.  Good fishing in this one people come from all over and fish in it.  Those are steps that lead down to some benches you can sit and enjoy the evening on.

Another (not so) fun fact:  This is where Grandpa Charlie hit the gas instead of the breaks and went swimming with the mower.  Thankfully everyone was ok in that incident, the mower even earned a life jacket that it now sports confidently around the farm.

and moving on:

you have to take a little ride to get to the back pond #3.  And when you turn the corner you get your first glimpse of it above.

Our fabulous drive/tour guide will take us on around the corn fields here and give you a look at the back side of pond #3.

Isn't it pretty.  If you look close you can see the bridge out to "tractor island"  Here let us give you a better look at that:

There it is, our very own redneck get away, tractor island.  You can see the boat dock over to the right.

Moving on down the pond you come to:

Cooner Peninsula.

This is where Jason and I will eventually build our dream seaside cottage getaway.  In the sadly, very very far far future!  LOL!  But, hey a girl can dream can't she?

Jason and I just love this little spot, it is surrounded by water on 3 sides and just perfect for a little cottage getaway one day.

Well, that about does it for the water end of our farm tour.  Lets get back on the gator with driver Tucker and head back up to the house for a cool off in the concrete pond!

Here is a picture of Grandma and Grandpa's house.

And a little better view of the front pond bridge.  Lots of fish feeding happens off of here.

So, still from the farm, Have a Happy and safe Fourth of July where you are!!

 

Blogging From the Farm Part Deux

Ok one really unique and fun thing about the farm is that the train line runs right through it.  And not only that, it is a double track where trains have to wait for other trains and pass each other right on our farm.  Because of that, my family knows most of the engineers and because the farm is always busy and people are always out and around doing something the engineers, when waiting for the next train to pass, get off and come hang out with us on the farm and share a cold drink.  

Another, really cool thing about this is Tucker has been allowed to get in the engine and drive the actual train a few times!  Can you get any cooler than that at 7?!?!?!

Well, on the weekend we get a train about twice a day and as I was sitting at the pool one just came by and I got a couple pics for you from the iphone:

There it is coming down the track between our cornfields.  You can see our little doggy gus running for cover on grandma and grandpa's back porch. (not a fan of the trains)

And if you are a fan of the trains this is what you do:

drop everything, jump out of the pool, and stare and wave in amazement as they go by and honk at you.

TRAINS

Reason # 723 why we love the farm!

Blogging From The Farm

Some of you may not know but, both Jason and I are from farm families and they all actually live in the same farming county in central IL.  My kids love the farm!  To them there is no place better.  They have spent so much time here they really are two country farm kids at heart.  It is about a 2 hour drive for us to get here but, we make the trip all the time for weekends and holidays.  Jason and I were even married right here on this farm (some of you reading may or may not want to ever forget that celebration!)

Anyway, I am sitting here under my mom's gazebo, in the middle of a cornfield, on my laptop, by our "cement pond" (my how times have changed)  You see we have 3 other real dirt ponds on the farm right here but, I tend to gravitate to the cement one.  I realized I have my iphone with me so I am going to blog some picture today off and on so you can get to know this rural piece of my paperlife.

First, the Coonkids, this is how Tucker spend a majority of his day at the pool:

(ugg I think most of these might be sideways I apologize)

There he is in time out for the 486th time for either squirting someone with the water gun or taking Pinky the noodle from his sister.

Here is said sister and noodle:

So yes, that is the cement pond.  I will hop on the gator with Tucker after while and get some pics of the dirt ponds for you.  But, right now, I have got to get in the cement one because man it is one HOT 4th of July weekend!

Hugs, Amy