A Dose of Charm

Today I'm super excited to announce an event that Amy and I are collaborating on for the holidays! We will be revealing more information soon and if you are a shop or a blogger that wants to contribute, click the image below the video to fill out the google doc and we will be contacting you shortly!

Weekend Reads #16

Helloooo my loves! I'm so excited for this week of weekend reads. I'm not sure why, but I have a feeling it's going to be a good one! Be sure to spread the word and get your friends to link up too!

If you have zero idea what is going on today, well where the heck have ya been?! Just kidding, I'll give you the scoop.

Basically, one weekend, I was sitting at home bored out of my mind because for some reason, bloggers take weekends off. I spend a lot of my weekends scheduling and getting ready for the week ahead, so I guess that's what other bloggers do.
Anyway, I went through my blog post feed and ran out of interesting posts to read, so I decided it'd be great to have a link up for people to link up their top blog posts of the week for everyone to relax and read over the weekend! Cool idea, right? I thought so.
Here's the details:1. The link up will go live every Friday at midnight CST.2. You can link up to two posts.3. Only link up posts that you've posted in the past 14 days.4. Do not link up any giveaways unless they are attached to actual content. Anything not actual content will be deleted.5. Spend some time, click on some posts and leave a few comments if you loved what you read!6. Be kind and follow your hosts on your favorite reader.
Also, if you love twitter and want to get your post out there, use the hashtag #weekendreads to shout your post out! 
Next week, the most clicked on links will get featured so tell your friends and get to clicking!
**Do me a favor and title your link up with the blog post title or a catchy description, NOT YOUR BLOG NAME!**

10 DIY Jewelry and Makeup Organizers

If you've been reading my blog for awhile, you know I love DIY and organization. I mean, I even have a section of my sidebar for it!

I thought it'd be fun to share with you 10 of my favorite DIY organization ideas for jewelry and makeup. If you have one, leave it in my comments! I'd love to check it out!

This Chevron Necklace Holder is so cute and perfect for a bright, colorful room in your house! 
This Necklace Holder from Scrap Wood is a great way to upcycle something laying around your garage/shed and make it a statement piece in your home!
This is another necklace holder that uses the same style.
I haven't gotten around to making one yet, but this earring holder made from a picture frame is an idea I've seen floating around that I'd love to recreate!
This one incorporates that idea but adds in a necklace holder for a ton of jewelry storage! 
This helix jewelry holder may just be one of my favorites! It would look great sitting on top of my dresser!
And, of course the jewelry organizer I created over a year ago! This one hangs in my hallway outside my bathroom. The three beauty organization tricks I wanted to share are ones that I definitely want to use in my own bathroom. Right now, I just use a makeup bag and an old candle container to organize my bathroom counter.
I love the idea of using magnets on makeup to organize your actual products. Using products from the dollar store to make adorable brush holders is also an amazing idea. And this idea uses the empty candle holders to organize everything on a little tray which is one of my favorite ways to organize! Which project is your favorite?

How to Make a Gif in Photoshop

One of the coolest things I learned when I first got photoshop was how to make a gif image. You may have seen the one on my advertise page on this blog.

If you haven't, here it is:

Cool right? Today I thought I'd share with you how I made it.

First, make a new image in photoshop and then go up to the top toolbar and click "window" and then click "animation." This brings up the menu that you see in the picture below.

Next, draw what you want to appear first. For this example, we're going to draw and arrow going across the image.

You should see the image that you just drew in frame 1 in your animation menu.

Next draw another arrow. Then click the little "new frame" button in your animation frame. It's the same button that you would click to make a new layer in your layer menu. The best way I can describe it is that it looks like peeling off a little post it note.

Now obviously, your arrow isn't jumping across the page yet. Click on frame one and then click on your second arrow in the layer menu and make it invisible (click the little eye next to the layer) and then click on your second frame and make your first arrow invisible. If that's confusing, I hope it will make sense when you are actually making your image.

Essentially, for each new frame, you're going to make a different layer invisible so you get the animation you want. For my testimonial image for my advertise page, I gathered my testimonials and made a new layer for each of them. When they flash through, I simply made a different one visible each time until I cycled through all of them.

In your animation window, you can select how long you want each frame to show. For our example, I did 5 seconds for each. You can also add effects and make them fade from one to the other.

Now you're ready to save your image. Go to file and then "Save for web and devices"

This menu will pop up. Make sure that it says "GIF" where I put a red box.

Then you can name it whatever you want and click save.

And here we are! I know it's a bit confusing at first but I really think if you follow my pictures while you make your own, you shouldn't have any problems! It also takes practice. The first GIF I made took me at least an hour while I played with all the animation options!

What photoshop tutorial would you like to see next?