Catching My Eye [links + love]

Hellooooo! Happy Wednesday! In case you haven't gathered, I'm on a much-needed vacation in Florida with my family these days. So while I'm enjoying the sun (although it's supposed to rain soon....boo), I thought I'd share some reading for you in case you're stuck inside. 

For the record, a lot of these links are from blogs that I follow, but I also find a lot of great links through Pinterest or Stumbleupon. So if you're looking for hours worth of procrastination, I suggest you start there!

+ DIY Pots for Small Plants // How About Orange. I've been dyingggg to get myself some succulents lately because they're just so cute and from what I've heard, I probably can't even kill them. Plus, I'm super into the geometric home decor trend and these fit right in!

+ Sarah of Smitten Studio shares a bunch of unique but really gorgeous wallpapers. My favorite is the black and white malachite print! I'd lurvvv to have a small wall of that.

+ Growing up, I've always been called things like feisty or bossy or bold. I love this post on why we should Ban Bossy as an insult.

+ This awesome round-up from Sarah Von Bargen will give you 10 awesome reasons to use your printer, including stationery, blog organization worksheets and origami business card holders! Yes!

+ This Global Brights color palette from Design-Seeds is beautiful. I think it'd look especially great on a health + wellness website!

+ Holy helpful! The Introvert's Guide to Getting in Shape (from my forever love, Lifehack).

That's all for today! Have a great rest of the week, friends!

easy peasy photoshop: personalized notecards

First off--the winners of the design giveaway are Cara H. and Aimee W. You'll be receiving an email soon! If you did not win, don't cry! Premade templates are on sale for $15 until midnight tonight so don't miss your chance! Or if you're just too unique, how about something custom? I'd love to make some pretty for you!

This post was originally shared on the Whale and Wasp.

Today, I'm going to be sharing an installment in my series: "Easy Peasy Photoshop". I think lots of people get intimidated by Photoshop--but there's lots of fun things you can make with just a few basic skills! So even if you've never touched (/clicked) Photoshop before, I gotchu covered.

Specifically, I'm going to show you how to make personalized stationary. Super, right? I loooove writing letters and notes to people, and I think personalizing it adds a special little touch.

#1. Decide on a size. To keep things simple, I'm gonna make a plain 3x5 notecard. Open up Photoshop, click File>>New. When it gives you size options, it probably says pixels. Change that to inches and put in your desired size. Change your resolution to 111 pixels/inch. This will make 3x5 look pretty true to size on your screen.

EXPERT TIP: If you wanted to make really high quality note cards, you should put your resolution on at least 300 pixels/inch. But that gets a little tricky so don't try that if this is your first project.



#2: Go to View>>Rulers, and check it. Then, press 'T', just the letter on your keyboard. That'll get your text editor going. Line up your cursor just under 275 pixels on your top ruler (i.e. in the middle) and click.

#3: Choose a font + size up on the top leftish. I've recommended some fun free fonts down at the bottom.

#4: On the top of the screen, you'll see a little square that is probably black. If you want to change the color, click the top one and choose a color--this will be your text color. Right to the left of the color chooser, make sure your text is centered.



#5: Type away! You can choose to do your full name, initials, monogram or just a little message! If you need, you can highlight the text and change the size. Or if you need to move the text, hover below the text (your cursor will become and arrow) and drag it around.

#6: If you want, you can make lines by using the type tool again and holding underscore (Shift + -).



#7: Go to your layers manager and click the little arrow on the top right (under the 'x'). Click Merge Visible. Then, click Select>>All and copy the selection. (This is the layers manager.)



#8: Open up a Word document and paste. If you made a 3x5 notecard, you can fit 3 on a page if you make your margins smaller.

#9: Print! That's all there is to it! Well, and cut them out. But you can handle that. For best results, print on cardstock or a slightly heavier paper.

Now admire your pretty skills.

Will you make these personalized notecards? What would you like to learn how to make in photoshop?

I used Contribute font in this tutorial.

Catching My Eye.

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iVc-Z8yFYW8]

This week: I finished school (for the year)!♥celebrated the boy's sister's birthday with dinner & cheesecake♥started my half marathon training plan♥started my summer reading for European History♥went on many Roo runs!

Now, for the best of the interwebs.

♥Do cabins make you nostalgic and warm and fuzzy inside? If so, Cabin Porn has pages and pages of beautiful cozy cabins around the world.



♥Slightly profane, this gallery shows pretty much every hilarious post on tumblr.

♥This list of 100 best American movies needs to be somehow incorporated into my summer to-do list. I have to say, I'm quite proud that I have seen 13 of these movies--even if most of them were in my Film Studies class.

♥Carrie at Dream Green DIY make these awesome gold and neon DIY bookends out of rocks. Definitely a project I'd love to do! Only problem--bookends take up room that I need for more books. Tragic. #litworldproblems



♥Fun and semi-useful, this chart for better understanding your haters is both simple and resoundingly true.

♥As a girl who doesn't plan on having kids, this article about the life of childless adults showed me two sides of the issue I thought I knew well.

♥You May Have Missed: moving out: a tribute to a childhood home♥Cover it Up//An Anthropologie Playlist♥3 Awesome Tumblrs You Should Follow♥DIY Patterned Envelopes♥

 

Love, A.