{FREE Photography Giveaway - 1 Week Left}

Well, we are down to the FINAL DAYS of our contest! We have been having so much fun reading your comments and we are getting excited to announce the winner of the FREE mini session next week!

How beautiful are those images???

You can win a FREE mini session from Speak Now Photography by entering our contest. If you missed the official announcements about the giveaway, click here to read the details!

Only a week left to get your entries in! GOOD LUCK!!!

- The Pin Junkies

{FREE Photography Session Giveaway!!!}

It's time for a giveaway!!!!
If you live in the St. George/Washington Utah area, then it's your lucky day. Starting today and continuing through the month of February, we are giving you a chance to win a FREE photography session with Cher Houston of Speak Now Photography! Just in time for Easter pictures, how perfect is that?

Read the details below ...

Speak Now Photography Giveaway
{sponsored by The Pin Junkies}

Prize:
A fabulous “mini session” with Cher Houston of Speak Now Photography. The session will be 30 minutes long and you will receive 5 edited images of your choice on a disc. No more than 6 people being photographed at your session please. Location can be either St. George or Washington area. Prize is valued at $75.

Rules:
In order to qualify for the giveaway, each of the following steps are required and will count as one entry each:

1. Have to "like" the Pin Junkies on FaceBook (1 entry)
2. Have to "like" Speak Now Photography on FaceBook (1 entry)
3. Have to subscribe and follow the Pin Junkies blog (1 entry)
4. Have to share the link about the giveaway on your FaceBook wall (1 entry)

Once you have completed ALL 4 of these requirements, leave us a comment under our blog post about the giveaway and tell us that you did. 

In addition to the required entries above, you can earn up to 2 additional bonus entries which are:

1. Follow Sheri and Tawni on Pinterest (1 entry)
2. Leave a comment on any of the posts on our blog other than the post about this giveaway (1 entry)

As mentioned above, if you decide to use the bonus entries, please leave a comment on our blog under the giveaway post letting us know that you did.

Contest ends on February 29th and the winner will be announced on Friday March 2nd!

So everyone has a chance to get up to 6 entries for this awesome giveaway!

Good luck!


- The Pin Junkies

GUEST POST from {Speak Now Photography}

Hi! I'm Cher, owner and photographer of Speak Now Photography. I am so excited to guest blogging at Pin Junkies today! Tawni and Sheri are awesome and I, like everyone else, adore Pinterest! I'm not much of a writer, so today's post will be short on words but long on pictures.

I started my photography business almost one year ago and I have LOVED it! After being a stay at home mom for almost 3 years I was ready to start working again, but not ready to go back to the "daily grind." I still wanted to be at home with my kids, but I needed a creative outlet. I have always loved photography, and became passionate about it while selecting a photographer for my wedding. I got my first DSLR four years ago, and after investing a lot of time trying to teach myself I decided to invest some money into a workshop. Best money I've spent so far for my business. I learned so much in 2 days, with hands-on experience, coaching, and critiquing. If I can offer any advice to you if you are interested in a career in photography, invest in education first, shoot with what you have, but invest in education!

As a photographer I get a TON of inspiration from Pinterest. Ideas for posing, styling, wardrobe...you name it I've found inspiration on Pinterest. If I ever feel like I'm in a creative slump I just hit up Pinterest for a boost! There have been a few times where my client had absolutely NO preference on location, setting, styling . . . NOTHING and that is hard. Once again Pinterest came to the rescue with ideas for me to draw from.

{Inspiration Photo}

original post from ontobaby.com

{My Version}

{Inspiration Photo}

original post from katemacpherson.com

{My Version}

{Inspiration Photo}

original post from divasanddreams.blogspot.com

{My Version}

{Inspiration Photo}

original post from http://www.flickr.com/photos/32159721@N08/4812372192/

{My Version}

I haven't copied any of the pinned images, but definitely have been inspired to try poses and put my own spin on it. Isn't that beauty of Pinterest? Get an idea and make it your own!!!

Happy Pinning!

- Cher Houston
Speak Now Photography

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{So Many Photos - So Little Space}

I am the girl with the camera.

I take it everywhere. Vacations, parties, GNOs, holidays, movie theaters, dates with the hubby, a trip to the park, preschool, family night, and even at church. Basically nothing is off limits.

I guess the reason behind it being attached to my hip (well, technically hanging around my neck) is because you never know when you are going to have an awesome photo opportunity arise. There have been so many times when I almost left the camera at home and then grabbed it last minute only to be so thankful that I did because of the fabulous pictures I managed to grab of our family/kids.

Because of this "habit" I have quite a bit of pictures. In fact, I have 29,762 pictures to be exact. All taken within the past 4 years. Which averages out to be about 620 pictures a month. Yes, you read that right.

So what does one do with all their pictures?

After I got Christmas taken down and put away, my house was clean, my walls were all bare, and I was ready for something new.

I have always struggled with what to do above my couch. The problem is the three little windows on that wall. In the past, I've had two big frames centered over the couch with family pictures in them. It looked ok but I wasn't in love with the overall look.

I was looking through all my boards on Pinterest when I came across this picture of a FABULOUS photo gallery from Belle Maison (click here to see the original post)

It occurred to me that I could basically do this exact same thing in my empty space. Mine would just have to be a bit wider and not so tall but it would definitely solve my problem.

I also remembered seeing a tip on Pinterest about making sure you had the layout you were looking for BEFORE you actually put the frames on the wall. This is what I'm talking about:

(Click Here to see the original post from Censational Girl)

Pretty genius right?

Armed with inspiration from Pinterest, I was ready to tackle "Operation Photo Gallery"

Here's how I did it ...

#1. Went around my house and collected random frames in all different sizes and styles. I had frames with outdated pictures that needed new photos and I had spare frames that had been empty for awhile and needed to get used. Out of all the frames I ended up using in my gallery, I only had to buy one!

#2. Decided on what pictures I wanted to use, ordered them online at Costco, and then picked them up the next day.

#3. Put the pictures in the frames and then laid them out on my floor to see all of the frames together.

#4. Wrote out numbers on a mini post it notes and stuck them on each frame.

#5. Traced each frame onto scrap paper to use as my templates and then wrote corresponding numbers on each template to match the mini post it notes.

#6. Arranged the templates on the wall and taped them in place. I decided to place the big square template on the wall first and then work off that. It was a great starting point.

#7. Once I was happy with my layout, it was time to start hanging the actual pictures on my wall!

#8.We didn't want to put a bunch of nail holes in my newly painted walls so I bought these picture hanging strips from Home Depot. Depending on the size of strip you want, they ranged from $2-$4 per pack.

#9. Place the strips on the back of the frame (for the bigger and heavier frames we used 4 strips and we used 2-3 strips for the smaller frames.

#10. My fantastic dad came up to help me put the gallery up and he decided to staple the strips to the the heaviest frame we were using just to reinforce it. Here he is hard at work!

Once the pictures were all hung, I grabbed my cute pillows that I had been stashing in my closet, threw them on the couch, and stood back to enjoy the new look.




Drumroll ..........

I LOVE IT!!!!!!! It ended up being so much easier than I expected. I loved the idea of taping the paper templates to my wall. It helped make everything so much easier. I would absolutely recommend doing that step if you plan on doing a gallery.

Here's how it looks with the all the overhead lights on.

I am so glad it's done and I love the way it turned out. Thank you Pinterest for the inspiration and help. I am not really sure how I survived before you came along!

- Junkie Tawni

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