My Wall of Happiness
It only took me 10 months to finish this project. I started this gallery wall in my bedroom last June. I waited to finish it until after Kennedy was born because I knew I’d want some pictures of her in it. Kennedy was born in August. Sigh. And as you’ve probably seen in the background of a lot of my pictures it’s been unfinished for a long time! So embarrassing. But, I’m happy to say it’s finally done!
A couple of years ago I bought a ton of frames from Goodwill for this shoot. I bought the frames with the super ugly prints and paintings. I bought the most ornate ones I could find. I love how pretty they are.
The 7 frames on this wall maybe cost $40.
I laid out all the frames I had on the floor and moved them around like puzzle pieces until they lined up the way I wanted. Then I enlisted the husband to spray paint them and hang them for me.
The tricky part about some of these frames is that they aren’t standard print sizes. So I had to order a standard size print and then cut it down. In Photoshop I:
1) Made a new document that was sized to the standard size print from my lab. For instance, one of my frames had an opening of 19.5″ wide and 13.5″ tall. That’s not a standard print size. The next print size up is a 20×20. So, I made a new document in Photoshop that was sized to 20×20:
2) I then opened my print as a separate document and cropped it to 19.5″ wide and 13.5″ tall. Since all images that come out of a DSLR camera are in a 4×6 ratio I knew that there would be a little cropping of my image.
3) When I cropped the image it didn’t resize so I needed to do that next. I went to “image” and then “image size” to resize the image to 19.5″ x 13.5″
4) Lastly, I dragged that image onto the 20×20 document I created at the beginning.
5) Just save that document and order the 20×20 print. When I received it I cut it down to fit in the 19.5″ x 13.5″ frame! Easy!
Here’s the finished product:
It makes me happy to wake up to this every morning!
I Am A Photographer.
*** Background paper is from the Mom*tog by Photo Card Boutique collection.
Team Ashley Auction
I’m sure by now all of you have heard about Ashley from Lil Blue Boo. If you haven’t, you should hop on over to her blog and read it because it’s a really awesome blog and Ashley is a really awesome, creative, funny, and beautiful woman.
Ashley’s amazing friends have put together a huge auction to help pay for her medical bills. When they asked me to participate I knew right away what I wanted to donate. A couple of years ago I offered Mom*tog Pro sessions that were very popular. I had to give them up because they were very time consuming and I wanted to have more time to shoot and spend with my family. I decided to bring it back this one time to help raise money for Ashley. I’m auctioning off a mini Mom*tog pro / mentoring Skype session. It’s a one hour Skype session where you can ask me anything and everything. I’ll have some assignments for you to complete before our session and I’ll critique your work, website, pricing, whatever you’d like. I’m an open book and we can talk about whatever you’d like! In addition to the one hour Skype session, you’ll also receive a copy of my UNmanual and UNposing Guide. You can be a professional photographer or a Mom*tog. This session is tailored to you!
This session is a $540 value. But, you really can’t put a price on it since I don’t even offer these sessions anymore! Hop on over and check it out and while you’re there check out all the other amazing auctions! Bidding ends tonight! Each auction ends at a different time so be sure to check the ending times!
Happy Leap Day!
Brayden’s Birthday Shoot – Behind the Scenes
For Brayden’s birthday shoot this year I really wanted to make it fun for him. No one ever believes me when I say this, but he really doesn’t like getting his picture taken. Or, I suppose I should say, he really doesn’t like it when I take his pictures!
He can be really shy so I thought about doing an indoor shoot where he would be most comofortable. Plus, we were really limited on time so I thought indoors would be best in case we get bad weather.
I saw this idea on Pinterest and thought it was really cool, but too similar to what I did last year. I decided to adapt it and tape the balloons to the wall in my studio instead. Brayden loves rainbows and I knew the color would pop really well. We blew up the balloons with a balloon pump (don’t use helium!) and simply taped them along the wall. I wasn’t sure the tape would hold, but luckily it did. I didn’t want to have to put that many holes in the wall!
I also saw these streamers on Pinterest and loved them. They are really easy to make and took no time at all! I used construction paper that was bigger than your normal 8.5 x 11 (maybe 8.5 x 22?). We hung all the streamers the night before and that ended up working out really well. They stretched out a lot overnight and looked even better!
Lastly, I bought a confetti gun, which was SO much fun. Except, it was really loud and Kennedy did not like it 
When Brayden walked in and saw the set up for the first time he said, “Wow, I love this party mommy! It’s so cool!”. And you know if Brayden says it’s cool, then it must be really cool! I just wanted him to love it and I think it shows in the pictures that he really did. It was simple and fun and no tears on this shoot! Yeah!
Canon 5d Mark II, 50 1.2
F 2.0, 1/200, ISO 320
Happy Birthday, Mom*tog!
3 years ago Mom*tog started as an idea. A fun place to blog pictures of my boy and connect with other moms who had a passion for photography.
567 posts, over 11,000 comments, 1.3 million hits (whoa!), almost 600 of you blogging on Real Mom*togs, and 1 baby later, Mom*tog has become more than just a blog. It has become a place where we can encourage each other as moms and photographers, a place where we can relate to one another, and a place where friendships are made. I so appreciate each and every one of you coming to my little blog, looking at (endless amounts of) pictures of my kids, and reading my words. You all are such a great support system to me and I hope you have learned a little here along the way as well. Thank you from the bottom of my heart. Mom*tog would not be what it is without each and every one of you.
For the birthday of Mom*tog I always like to release a new project. This is one I’ve been wanting to do for a long, long time. But, I’m no graphic designer so I approached the girls over at Photo Card Boutique for their expertise.
Each year when I make my own personal family albums I can never find album templates that work. I end up buying several templates and then piecing them together to get the right look for my family album. It’s very time consuming and also costly. I wanted to come up with a line of templates for moms and by moms.
The first template is the ABC Line, which is inspired by ABC board books. I wanted an ABC album for Kennedy that could be personalized to our family.
The entire album can be customized for your pictures and your text as well. I can’t wait to get this ordered for Kennedy. She will love it (and so will Brayden!).
The second line was inspired by the letters I write to Kennedy each month. People always ask me what I do with them. Well, this is what I’m doing with them. Each month I insert the letter into this template and add pictures. I plan on giving it to her maybe when she’s 18 or she gets married. Or maybe I’ll wait until she has her own kids. I wanted the album to be an heirloom piece and have a timeless design. There are places for letters, stats, memorable moments, and pictures. And of course all the text is totally customizable.
And don’t worry, there will be a boy design coming soon!
There are also corresponding invitations
blog boards (love these)
and much, much more!
You do need Photoshop to use these templates. Intimidated by Photoshop? Don’t worry, the templates are user friendly and we’ll be adding some video tutorials to help you out soon!
As a birthday present to you all templates in the Mom*tog line are 25% off for the next 3 days! Yeah!
I can’t wait to get more designs up. It’s so fun working with Angie and Katie to come up with templates for moms just like us. I hope you love them as much as I do!
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