Beautiful Farm girl *Prince Albert SK Photographer*

I love photography and over the years it's become on of my favorite things in the world. The butterflies I feel before every shoot. The high I get around half through a shoot and then all over again when I do the editing. This girl was so incredibly easy to photograph. She is a farm girl though and though and seldom wears make up or get all dressed up... she is funny and bright and was the perfect medicine for me to get out of my winter photography slump.

I will be blogging my photo sessions more this year. In the past I didn't becuase I wanted to separate my art and photo businesses but in the end this blog is all about what I do and what I love and I guess I just want to share it all.

You can see more of the session here.

Wilna Furstenberg
iheartblog

Butterflies everywhere.

This did not happen intentionally. I was watching Veronica Mars on Netflix and drew some butterflies to cut out. Once they were cut out of lovely thick watercolor paper, I wanted to paint them. And after I painted them with watercolors, I wanted to make them into printables. Six Veronica Mars episodes later, they were done!
You can find them on http://iheartstudio.ca/shop and this is all included in the download:
1. Printables *pdf,png and jpg* in 8.5x11 and 12x12 so you can print them with a wide format printer or a normal printer.
2. Cut Files: *png, svg and dxf* in 8x5 and 12x12 sizes.

In this video, I will show you how to make the page and the print and cut feature of the silhouette.

The video:

Related products:

Have an awesome week. I will see you on the inter webs!
Wilna Furstenberg
iheartblog

LOVE mini workshop!

So, if you were wondering why I was so quiet on my blog this month, it was because I was working on this adorable mini class for 2peas.  Here are the stats for the class:
5 Mini Albums
2 Contributors: Jen Kinkade and Stephanie Bryan
2 card tutorials
Six videos
2.5 hours of video
43 free downloads (some is the same but in 2 different file formats)
Lots of free cut files for the Silhouette...
This little class is jam packed with LOVE goodness!

but the BEST PART?

If you sign up for this class in the month of February, you will be entered to WIN a Silhouette Portrait!!

And more BEST PARTS?

If you sign up through my blog affiliate link, I will send you a link to a video + downloads for the cutest little mini album... just in time for Valentines day!

All you need to do is CLICK HERE to buy the class, email me your receipt (wilna71 at yahoo dot ca) (not com!) and I will email you back asap with the link to this mini album.

I am so excited about this class. I think it's perfect for Valentines day. But it will be perfect for every day of the year... LOVE is such a part of our lives. I hope you sign up this month to get your name entered to win the Silhouette Portrait!

And the LAST piece of good news is this: Leave me a comment and you can win a spot in this class. But If you are eager to sign up (and get the link to the bonus video) you can do it now and win your money back. Or gift it to a friend. This is awesome. LOVE.
Give away closes Friday!

So much LOVE! yay!

Wilna Furstenberg
iheartblog



ETA: Winner is Roelien van den Berg 

New year... already?

I am always a slow starter to the new year. And this year it's worse than usual. I am cold and lethargic and in general just pathetic. So I phoned my friend and complained at length of my unmotivated sense of being. All I want to do is... nothing. And her response was: It's January Blues. I am sure I have a healthy dose of January blues. Until this morning. I got out of bed and just decided this nonsense stops now. I did a family photo shoot for the sweetest family... and I was just reminded again how much I enjoy photographing families. The kids were adorable and busy and angelic. We did a recycling run...and now the garage is decluttered of holiday cardboard and wine bottles. :)

I have tidied my scrapbook room/ studio/ office and I want to give the dogs a bath as well. Oh and paint a painting. Right now it's snowing and only -6 outside. All the kids are with friends. The house is quiet. I am listening to Afrikaans music. I think officially that my new year just started. Happy new year to me.

My word for 2014 is HEART. I want to make art like never before. I want this creativity that's bundled up in my soul to spill out like never before. I want to paint and scrapbook and take photos and make beautiful things. I will fill my heart with good things. I will fill my soul with God's goodness and Word. I am happy that my workload for January is light and I have time to plan some important things for this year. One thing that I want to do is take more photos of my girls. They are teenagers now and it's becoming more difficult to get them in front of the camera. Becuase they are so picky about their hair and make up and general appearance, it's a pain. But i think i will just force them to take more photos and be ok with it. HA!

This picture makes my heart up fill with joy and makes my soul sing a song. 

Did you see the mini album I created for 2peas this past week? I am so happy and surprised with the amount of praise for this project. THANK YOU! It does inspire me again to take my pages and projects to the next level. And for me personally, that's all it takes... the moment I am inspired, I know the creativity will come and the result will be good. The photos I used in this mini album was taken by one of my best friends and an amazing photographer Dani van Steelandt. Love you miss Dani. 

A few thing I would love to ask... Artclass 2 is selling so well. I am getting emails and comments of how much the class is enjoyed and appreciated. If this is you, please write a review of the class on 2peas. The same goes for Art class 1. There is nothing I appreciate more as a thoughtful review on the classes. It really matters to me. Thank you for taking time to do this. 

Also, I want to keep on inspiring. I want to make things that makes you happy. I am aware enough to know that I don't know everything, but I want to ask you. What would you want to see more of? If I were to do another class, what would YOU like to see? I think the classes with the videos is a wonderful tool and the students love the videos. I want to start planning a new class but I want to know what you want... your words and thoughts on this subject is super important to me. Please let me know. I will even make up a RAK and give it away to a random commenter if you are so kind to take time and talk to me. Just leave a comment. :)

Lastly, just a reminder that if you BUY Art Class 1 or 2 through my blog, just email me the receipt to wilna71 at yahoo dot ca (not com) and I will send you a link to a mini album workshop that I taught in Europe this past October. Here are the links to use to purchase the classes:

Art class 1

Art class 2

PS... did you listen to this episode of the Paperclipping roundtable? I was on the panel gushing about the Silhouette die cut machine. It's a great episode!

I really hope to blog more this year. May this be the start of good things.

Much love
Wilna Furstenberg
iheartblog

A new year, A new series and a new project!

Today is such a happy day for me. I created this mini album over the weekend to celebrate the brand new series called INSPIRED on 2peas that kicked off yesterday. I am so happy and excited to share it here. The project has 2 videos: the first one to explain how to make the covers out of wood frames and how to make the spine of the book. The second video is how to make the pages and how to put the book together.

Here's a look at the mini album:

Here's the videos:

Part 1: Cover and spine:

Part 2: Pages and binding: 

Here's a few of the products that I used:

Talk soon!
Wilna Furstenberg

iheartblog

Last in the Mood to Scrap video for 2013...

Today is the last in the Mood to Scrap video for the year... and as you will see in the week to come, the last one period. There's some new things happening on 2peas and it's going to be new and awesome! :)

This page is all about my word for 2014: HEART. It's been my word for the longest time but I decided to make it a prominent one again... to remind myself what I am all about: my Spiritual heart and my art. I long to be just making lots and lots of painting this year. I want to make my scrapbook commitments less (yes, I am staying on at 2Peas) - and focus more on other art forms and creativity. This coming year I want to read more and connect more and be a bit less busy.
Here's the page that I made about my word:

You can see the video here:

And I want to remind you about the very first video I made for 2peas (Jan 1st 2013) that was also the word for 2013: STRONG. See the video and page here.

Here the list of some of the products I used on this page: (There's a great sale going on right now!)

WINNER!
Carla from Utah won the give away from the last post. Please email me!

Happy New Year!

Wilna Furstenberg
iheartblog

Last Garden Digest for 2013.

Can you believe a whole year is almost done in 8 days? I am surprised that time past so quickly! Welcome to another edition of the Gardeners Digest. Every month the designers from 2peasinabucket.com create this wonderful and creative blog hop where we share our favorite products and inspiration and other lovely things. The list for this month's hop is as follows:

2Peas 
Paige Jill 
Celine 
Lisa D. 
Jen G. 
Shimelle 
Wilna (me!)
Lilith 

This month I will be looking back at what stood out for me this year personally!

The first thing is the "In the Mood to Scrap" series I was part of.  I will upload my last video end of the month which brings the total of videos I created for in the Mood to 15. I am so in love with these pages and I can honestly say that the idea of a mood board changed my approach to scrapbooking a whole bunch. I am so thankful to 2peas for making me a part of this.

Here is a playlist of of all those videos that I complied:



Secondly, my first artclass. This class has sold well over a 1000 spots and it's still selling good. I cannot be more happy and proud of this mammoth project that I tackled last December and January. The class went on sale in February and as the reviews came in, it started to sell more and more. What surprised me was how many spots sold with the second class last month. I am thankful beyond words for the gift of art that God gave me.



And last but not least, Artclass 2. This class was a bit harder for me to create mostly becuase I knew the amount of work required. But in the end, what makes it worthwhile is the gratitude of the students and the incredible love and appreciation shown for the content of the class. It really was a labour of love and believe it or not, but I am actually thinking of a third class. It really all depends if the second one does as well as the first one. :)

I am giving away a $20 gift voucher for 2peas. The shop is really awesome!! I am sure there will be something there that makes your heart beat a little faster!!

ETA: Carla from Utah won the give away!

Merry Christmas!

Love
Wilna Furstenberg
iheartblog

Lots of things happening!

Today is a particular chilly day In Saskatchewan Canada AND my dad's birthday... so forgive me if I am a little homesick right now. I also had a very tough workout and my fingers are trembling a little. I love to hate Kelleen... our trainer. HA! But i mostly love her. :) This past week I painted a bunch of canvases and I primed some more yesterday (around 9 of them!) and I am icing to paint. I decided this year to channel my creative energy into painting vs a december daily album. I am saving my foundation pages for next year. I struggled with it for a while and the moment I made the decision, I felt a little better. I think the other reason is that I had a lot of design work due the first week of December and felt exhausted after I completed it all... and now I just want to play with paint. Here's 2 pages I did for 2peas this last week AND the videos that goes with them. If you love these pages, you will LOVE my art classes on 2peas. The review are starting come in for the second one and I am thankful that you think it's as good as the first one! THANK YOU to everyone who took the time to write a review. In the end people believe your words more than mine! I truly appreciate it. *heart*

Here's my last in the mood to scrap video:

I saw this mood board and really wanted to make a page with a deer head and this mood board really leaned itself towards it. I loved working on this page and I must admit it's my favorite page of the year. For sure.

On this page I was a guest designer for the 213 in 2013 series. I loved the grid layout!

If you want to see what my artclass is all about, watch this video!

Off to paint!!
Wilna Furstenberg
iheartblog

A new In the mood to scrap video...

So today I have a new In the mood to scrap video upon 2peas! it was really a great page to make... the mood board I used was so lovely (inspired by this thread). This week is a busy week for me... I am creating two new videos this week for next week's in the mood to scrap and another series. Let's say it's the plan at least. I do appreciate every comment on my 2peas videos. It tells the powers to be on 2peas that they should keep me around a little longer! :) 

Other random news is that I did a session with a personal trainer (who is also a friend) today and I am sure she is the Jillian Michaels of Canada! It was crazy and she almost killed me. I tell her to stop thinking up torture plans for me. But on the other hand, I can almost do two pushups and I love the way I am getting stronger. But I still hate burpees. Ugh. Hate them. Don't laugh at my pushup. I was convinced at one stage that I don't have half the muscles she is training/talking about. Quads? Mine are either non existing or buried too deep. Abdominals? Mine has not worked in years. I am such a loser. But seriously, people of the internet... I can do ONE perfect pushup. now THAT i call progress. At least  I can scrapbook a little. :)

Here's my page:

You can view the page + video + details and the mood board here.

Here's a list of some of the products I used. 


The winner for the 2peas gift card (from this post) is: Monica B. Thank you for all the lovely comments on my video. You sure know how to make a blond smile. :)
Thanks for stopping by.

Wilna Furstenberg
iheartblog

Garden Digest: November 2013!

Every month, the design team from 2peasinabucket does a blog hop (see some of the past ones here)! In this month's garden girl blog hop, we are doing something different! Every one participating did a little video chatting away and answering a few questions! I think it will be so cool to see these little videos!

here's the list of this blog hop!
Two peas blog
Paige
Lisa
Wilna (here)
Lilith
Corrie
Jen Kinkade
Jen Gallacher
Shimelle.

It's quite awkward to make a video while you are technically talking to yourself, so forgive me if I am too silly in this video. ha!

This coming month i will have a bunch of videos coming to two peas! I am currently working on a video that will be up this coming Tuesday for "in the mood to scrap". I also had my second ARTCLASS come out and I am so happy that everyone loves it! The first class is on sale right now (-25%). Here's a sneak peek at my new class. It was so much fun to put this class together and I can honestly say that the one who benefitted the most was me. I am truly energized to create pages right now and I hope the same will happen to you when you take it!

I am really inspired by the pages that's being created from my class. I love looking through the class gallery and I do get all warm and fuzzy when I see the beautiful creations. What makes me even more happy is when someone say that they have tried something that they have always wanted to try but was too scared to. I created a pinterest board to keep all those beautiful pages together! Thank you so much for every single person that bought the class!

I recently did a scrapbook room VIDEO tour and those of you who saw it will know that I really don't have that much stuff. This was not always the case... back in the day when I worked for Making memories, I had so much stuff it was overwhelming to say the least. I love buying my own products to scrapbook with! here's a few things that is making their way over to my house as we speak.

Today I doing a give away! leave me a comment (maybe answer one of the questions in the video - I would love to hear your take) and you can win a gift card from 2peas worth $20! This is always a great little gift... maybe you will buy a class or that stamp you've been looking for!
Thanks so much for visiting my blog. I love doing the garden digest and I am looking forward to sharing my videos with you over the coming month. Please make sure you are subscribed to my Youtube channel as I am planning on uploading some other layout tutorials there too!

smiles (and hop over to Lilith's blog now!)

Wilna Furstenberg
iheartblog


ps... the winner of the artclass 2 give away is...Ruth Tacoma! Please email me your two peas name and I will give your name to the powers on there!

My scrapbook room: a tour.

see more pictures of my scrapbook room here.

I just finished working on a big project (Artclass 2 available on 2peas in a bucket) and I cleaned my scrapbook room form top to bottom. It was the purging of the decade for me and for the first time in 3 years, I can say that my scrapbook room is just perfect. I love an uncluttered space and I am always busy decluttering. To the point where my family calls me Mrs Declutter. I love it when everything has a place and a spot - it saves me time looking for things which I love becuase I am inherently lazy and HATE looking for things. This room also hosts my home office and I have a 30 second office - meaning I must be able to find anything I need in 30 seconds. Being organized comes not from being OCD (because I really am not) but from my minimalistic outlook and the lightness that's a part of not living in clutter. These are the same reasons why I seldom procrastinate.  Please note the seldom in this last sentence. (seldom except sometimes).

The video quality is not great. I used a handy cam to record it and it worked fine, but I am not a professional video person... still learning stuff like that. But the reason why I posted it anyway is becuase I love watching scrapbook room tours on youtube. I am fascinated by it. And I hope you are not disappointed by the lack of scrapbooking stash in my scrapbook room... I really don't have that much stuff. I think you will be shocked by my pile of scrapbook paper. Let me know what you think- hehe. The photos in the gallery is way better... thanks to my wonderful Nikon camera (I have a Nikon D7000 that I use for filming projects and a D800 that I use for my photography).  <3 I have an Apple iMac 27" (2009) and a second screen (acer) that I use for iTunes and watching videos/movies while I work. Having a second screen is awesome when you work in Photoshop or do a tutorial where you can watch the video on one screen and work on the other one. Just a note here... You just plug the second screen into the Mac and then you can drag windows across the screens almost like you had one BIG screen. So, I only use one mouse and one key board for both screens. I love technology more then jewelry. Seriously. I am the techie person in the house and I fix the network problems and the wireless devices. I also keep all my technology updated and current. 

My wide format printer is an Epson R1900 Stylus Photo printer.
My wireless home printer is a Brother MFC-J615w. It's a scanner, printer fax. Love it. 

I don't have a lot of tools that I use. I think the tool I use the most is my Silhouette Cameo. It has a special place in my room and I really use it a lot. Most of the furniture is from Ikea and it's a pity they don't make the desk I have any more. The grey and white stripe rug is from a local store (JYSK) and I love finding bargains to make my room pretty.

Here's the video: 




And you can see all the photos of my 2013 scrapbook room  in my twopeasinabucket gallery by clicking this link.


Here's a flash back for you!
My scrapbook room as I photographed it in 2011.
My scrapbook room as it was in 2009.

So, if you have any other questions about anything, leave me a comment  and I will answer you there as well.

click here and hop over to this post where I am giving away one spot to my new class (give away ends this Thursday!) So make sure you leave a comment (You can also win your spot back!)

Smiles...

Wilna Furstenberg
iheartblog