Winning Silver and Gold at the ADDYs

Winning Silver and Gold...and the Olympics haven't even started! Ahni & Zoe just won two gold awards and one silver at the Central Minn. American Advertising Awards competition, affectionately known at the ADDYs. The ADDYs is the industry's largest and most comprehensive creative competition, with more than 40,000 entries competing at three different levels. The Ahni & Zoe website and Fall Catalog both won gold and the 'Beautiful Life' integrated campaign won silver. 

Congratulations Ahni & Zoe!

Are Ahni & Zoe albums photo-safe?

Are Ahni & Zoe Albums photo-safe?  Yes!!

This Tent Card came in my Consultant Kit:

"CAN'T BEAT OUR QUALITY

- Our products are acid-free, lignin-free and buffered
(a dash from Donna Lyn: lignin is a substance found in tree pulp and that's what turns pages brown; buffered is kind of like putting an antacid on the pages - it protects the album from being damaged by acidic memorabilia)

- Unlike most of our competitors, our products are cellulose nitrate and PVC free to keep your photos safer, longer. 
(a dash from Donna Lyn: PVC is a chemical that is great for pipes but not so great for photo albums - it's basically like putting your photos into a chemical sandwich, not good!)

- We've set our products safety standards higher than the law demands. It's something we're proud of - like the fact that we're made in the U.S.A."
(a dash from Donna Lyn:  Made in the U.S.A. with a little Danish on the side - the Tape Runner adhesive is made in Denmark)

My first Fast2Fab Album!

I wanted to share with you my first completed Fast2Fabulous Album! I'm sooo excited!! It was so fast - I completed most of it while watching the movie Elf. Then I added some journaling and Page Protectors. (Page Protectors come with the Album - they are large sheets of photo-safe plastic that slide over your pages to protect from finger prints and photo abrasion).

All of these pages came in the album looking just like this (this is the Sunshine Getaway that was available when F2F won the Most Innovative Product Award in 2013 -- I am just now using it!) -- all I had to do was tape my photos! I can't tell you how liberating this was for me and how satisfying to get our 25th Anniversary trip into an album now so that we can all relive those memories immediately of the amazing trip our family took in November.  This is a game-changer!  Just watch my piles of "albums I want to complete" disappear this year! Yes, yes, yes!!!!

You can completely stick your photos onto the spaces where photos go our you can "color outside the lines" by sticking your photos anywhere you want on the page - it still looks GREAT!!  And by "taping" I mean please, please you want to use photo-safe, permanent tape like Tape Runner.

Notice the 2 similar poses on the page above? My Jelly-in-the-Middle daughter recreated the above photo from when she was 8 years old (our last time in Hawaii in 2006). I found the original and added it to this album so we could see the comparison side-by-side of how much she's grown! Too cute!

Again, you can stick your photos exactly where they are "supposed" to go, or you can do your own thing. Either way your album is going to look FABULOUS!!  

Be sure to add some journaling with a photo-safe pen!

I even included a map which I taped to the back inside cover.  If I want, I can add Slide-in Pocket Pages for extra photos or memorabilia. You can also tape memorabilia directly onto the pages alongside your photos...the Page Protectors will protect them from contacting your photos and the buffered, lignin-free pages won't be damaged by memorabilia.

For all the money we spent on this 25th anniversary trip, it's only the memories that we get to keep. Having this completed photo album will give us tangible memories for years to come! We have passed it all around as everyone enjoys looking at it. Plus it's just our best photos so we don't have to wade through hundreds of pictures on a screen...we can relive all our best shots in a special, simple Fast2Fabulous album!   My Review of Ahni & Zoe: LOVE IT!!!!!!!

Sweet 16 goodie bags

We are getting ready for another Sweet 16 party around here! One of the highlights of the party will be a Candy Bar so yesterday Jelly and I worked on making Treat Bags for the guests to fill from the candy buffet.  First we started with plain bags from the local party store:

I also had some "Thank You" bag tags from Packaging Specialties: 

Next I gathered cut pieces of curling ribbon and my trusty Tape Runner double-sided adhesive:

Tape the tag onto the front of the bag. Loop a piece of curing ribbon through and use the Tape Runner to just tape the curling ribbon down flat onto the front of the bag:

Super simple but the shiny ribbon adds just enough glitz to jazz up the bag!

Next we inserted a Clear Cellane C bag as a liner inside each of the paper bags. You can get the Cellane bags from Packaging Specialties.   

So super cute and now the guests will have the opportunity to fill their own Goodie Bag to take home with them after the party!

BeautifulBrides.com

Instead of "love is sweet" - I will hang a sign "Sweet 16" or just center the two-tiered Cake in the middle of the table. The cake will say "Sweet 16" on the side. We won't have this much candy at our buffet...but we will stick to the turquoise, white, silver theme as much as possible. Can't wait!!

Classic and Complete Scrapbook Style

 The first weekend in January I went on a weekend getaway scrapbooking retreat! It was in an ideal location with the Columbia River as our backdrop.  

I decided to use a Creative Memories Scrapbook with plain Spargo Refill Pages.

My basic style is this:

Cut a 3.5 x 12 inch strip of patterned paper and tape it down on both edges of the 2 page spread.  

Then I typically use about 5 photos per page, placing my photos fairly close together so that I have room for a journaling area:

Here are some of my basic 5-photos-per pay Layouts:

Extremely simple, but DONE! COMPLETE! FINI!

My Ahni & Zoe Kit Arrived!

My Ahni & Zoe Consultant Kit arrived in December!

It is soo beautiful! I love everything and was so super excited that I ordered a few more albums in addition to the ones that came in the Kit!

The company officially launches to the public on January 8 but I've already held two Preview Parties in December and the response was fantastic! My intuition was right....I'm not the only one who is looking for fast, quality solutions to their photo album needs. Big Phew!! 

Along with my new customers, I got inspired myself and printed about 100 photos from our recent trip to Maui. Using the Fast2Fabulous Album Kit, I got almost all of the photos in while watching the movie Elf with my family.   

I gathered photos and memorabilia and then just taped them in with Tape Runner.

I didn't have to do any paper mounting or stickers or any decoration because the pages are already decorated for us!! Brilliant!!  I know many of you who are super creative and love the whole cut 'n paste and create side of things may not be interested, but for a special trip or a quick gift album, you may just be surprised. I know for me, I always kept our albums really simple anyway so it's not a huge switch for me. Now I'm envisioning finally getting more of my albums DONE. I have so many albums projects and piles in my office that need a home! Maybe, just maybe, 2014 is the year to actually get these done and into our hands so we can enjoy them!

Here is a testimonial from Bonnie who completed an album for her teenage son. Isn't this wonderful? He sure thinks so!! (this is the School Rocks album)