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O’Dell has partnered with venerable scrapbooking company Creative Memories to release the Hummingbird Collection, a pretty, jewel-toned line of papers, embellishments, and tools, as well as Full of Love, a book of advice for scrapbooking moms.


So when we heard O’Dell scraps, we wondered how she finds time to do it. She gave us these tips she says help her do10 pages in 10 minutes!

1. Get organized!  Sort your photos by theme, date or event and put them in the rough order they will appear in your album.
2. Remove blurry images or bad photos—and don’t feel guilty about it.  Sometimes a bad picture captures a moment in time that you DO want to save.  But with digital picture taking, most of us take way more than we will ever need.
3. Crop your photos the way you want them—use a trimmer to center your subjects or remove distractions.
4. Use sketches and idea books—this makes my layouts go super fast. I have a great set of easy-to-use templates being launched with my Hummingbird line.
5. Now—get going! Here’s where the 10 minutes come in—really! Take those photos—now nicely organized, cropped and planned … and lay them on an album page or paper.  Have those 10 pages laid out in front of you so you can easily and quickly place all your photos on the pages.
6. Like what you see?  Great—adhere them to the page!
7. Most important step: write something!  I take just a few minutes to write what is most important about the photos on the page.  Sometimes, it’s a who, what, where, when approach; other times, it’s how I feel about the photos or the event.  Either way…over time, it’s the words that you say that will mean the most.
8. Add a little bling!  Take something simple—a small flower or easy embellishment—to add just a touch of color and interest to the page.
9. Get happy! Share these pages with the people you love.  There’s something wonderful about looking back at album pages filled with what matters most in life.  It helps you appreciate it even more!

 

8 Tips for Great Party Pictures

You look forward to the party, just follow these 8 simple steps and you will have some great photos of the party.

1. Break the camera out early

Depending on the type of party you may need to start taking pictures early. Arrive early to take pictures of the decorations, food, the cake, etc before any people show up.

2. Get the group

Typically people don’t stay in a large group at parties; they are all spread out in smaller groups. While having everyone in the same room at the same time, get that group shot so you can treasure it afterwards.

3. Capture the emotion

Keep your camera handy and turned on so you’ll be ready for those spontaneous expressions.

4. Be Candid

You can get some great shots of your family and friends when they don’t even know they are getting their picture taken. This is great for capturing emotion at the party

5. Don’t be afraid to zoom in or out

Don’t be afraid of zooming in so your subject fits into your camera frame. This way you can capture the expression of the subject. Also make sure you get pictures of the party as a whole, don’t be afraid to zoom out to capture the entire room.

6. Avoid Red Eye

One of the most common occurrences when taking pictures of people at parties is red eye.  To make sure your friends and family don’t look evil eyed have them look just over your shoulder rather than directly at camera. This should help reduce the chances of red eye in your pictures therefore saving you time having to take it out before printing them.

7. Know the schedule of events

Make sure you get a copy of the time of the events so you can have your camera ready and specific shots are not missed.

8. Try different perspectives

Don’t be afraid to try different perspectives throughout the party: get at eye level with the kids to get their perspective of the party or take pictures standing on a chair or staircase to get a shot of everyone at the party.

photo solutions by Wendy

photo solutions by Wendy

Welcome to my first Blog. I hope to pass along useful tips that I receive from the home office of Creative Memories, Pixels2Pages and information that I pick up along the way. Let me start by sharing with you some tips that I have received from Nick Kelsh. The top 3 tips are:

1. Get closer. Get closer to your subject. By doing that you will eliminate all the the background 'clutter' in your picture. Sure you can crop/trim it later but you can save a step later and possibly end up with a better picture in the long run.

2. Turn off the flash. I don't know how to do this you say. Well read the owner's manual now and familiarize yourself with your camera. By turning off the flash, you can eliminate the harsh light in the front of your pictures and the dark shadows in the background. The end result is a sharper picture.

3. Print your pictures. You have taken them, now don't they deserve to be shared? You've captured the memories, print them and share the stories with them. Your family with thank you.

That's the first installment. I hope you learned something. Stay tuned and see new nugget I share with you next.