A Blog Questionnaire

Getting your feedback is something I've been wanting to do for a while. One of the things on my goals list this year is really devoting myself to this blog (as in actually writing posts every day!), but I can't grow and expand without your help. I want to make your experience here better times 100. Would you please take 60 seconds and fill out the form below? I will love you forever if you do.

Thanks, love bugs!

DIY Dog Treats

These dog treats are so easy to whip up for your pooch. Even for me, because I take forever when I bake/cook something. I picked up a bone cookie cutter and a recipe from the dollar section at Target, but you can use any kind of cutter for this.

Ingredients:
1/2 cups water
1/2 cup oil
2 eggs
4 tablespoons peanut butter
2 tsp. vanilla
2 cups flour
1/2 cup cornmeal
1/2 oats

Blend water, oil, eggs, and vanilla together. In a separate bowl, whisk flour, cornmeal, and oats together and then pour into wet mixture. Now add the peanut butter and mix all ingredients until you form a ball of dough. Roll out and shape. Put onto a non-stick lightly greased cookie tray. Cook 20 minutes at 400 F. Turn off oven and allow the biscuits to cool in oven until crisp and hard. Store in airtight container.

I made about 3 1/2 dozen treats with a 3-inch cookie cutter.

And... she loves them!

How to Make Product Collages on Photoshop

1 / 2 / 3 / 4 / 5 / 6 I love making product collages. If you were over here yesterday you saw my Chevron Love collage featuring the items above. Today I'm going to show you how to make your very own! I use Photoshop Elements 8 but you can use any version of Photoshop. This technique is very simple but can be time consuming. I think the finished product is worth it!

 Step 1. Open a new file. You can do this by hitting ctrl+n. I made my image 710x600 pixels, which is about the width of my post area.

 Step 2. Find a product you'd like to feature in your collage. The first product I chose was from this shop. Be sure when you choose a photo, it should be a simple shape and easy to cut out. It works best if it's on a plain white background, too. Once you have your product, copy a photo of it and paste it into Photoshop.

 Step 3. Zoom in a bit (magnifying glass icon) and take the eraser tool (pink eraser icon) and erase most of the background surrounding the item. Leave space for the smaller and detailed erasing.

 Step 4. For more careful and precise erasing, I use the paintbrush tool. Set your main color to white then click on the little paintbrush icon near the top of the screen. This will pull up an options bar. Set the hardness to around 40% and then you can paint over the background slowly and carefully.

Step 5. Zoom back out and check your work. If it's still rough around the edges, you can zoom back in and clean it up.

 Step 6. Once you've repeated steps 2-5, place your different images evenly. You can add a title to it, too.

Step 7. Add numbers with the text tool and place them next to the images. Pretty easy,  huh? ;) Here are a few tips: -Always give credit and link to the stores you're featuring items from -Try sharing products with a theme (like my chevron theme) or with a color scheme that all the items match

Chevron Love

I love chevron, period. I may be a bit behind on the times (we're all up in herringbone now), but I will always fall for some chevron sweaters or earrings. I mean, how adorable are those?!
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(psst... tutorial on how to make your own product collages coming soon!)