Campfire Chic — The Tale of a Crafty Camper. Campfire Chic is about accepting challenges, setting achievable goals, and documenting the journey toward the finish line.

Star Trek Blog Hop – Captain’s Tea Bag Tags

What is the Star Trek blog hop? May 18th, 7 crafty bloggers will be participating in a Star Trek themed craft blog hop, Boldly Crafting Where No Crafts Have Gone Before. We will be posting paper crafts, sewing, recycled projects, and other fun crafty things! Be inspired and Make It So!

So what’s my connection to Star Trek? I grew up watching The Next Generation on TV and continue to enjoy watching reruns (which is much easier thanks to Netflix!). And tea? Well, since the last time we talked about it, I’ve become much more inclined to order both hot and iced tea! So…

We are going to celebrate this week with some super simple (because that’s how I roll, and I have a feeling you do, too) Captain’s Tea Bag Tags…because Captain Picard liked his tea.

Simply download this PDF file and print out your 9 simple tags! Cut along the lines, fold each one “hamburger-style” and attach to a tea bag string (probably Earl Grey, but I won’t tell if you’re not a fan).

Katie posted a few other posts this week already, and you’re not going to want to miss out: Star Trek laptop sleeve, Star Trek photo coasters, Star Trek shirt mug cozy, Borg-themed scrapbook page, DIY galaxy shirt (which is AMAZING), and inspiration for more projects.

Bloggers Participating in the blog hop:

May 18, 2013 { 13 comments }

in Blog Party, DIY, Freebie, Geekery

Essential Reading

Each week on Campfire Chic, I share a little bit about what is going on behind the scenes on my side of the screen and a few links to what I think may interest Campfire Chic readers. This is called Essential Reading. Many of the links are from what I see online, quite a few are emailed to me by Alex, and a handful are submitted by readers, like you. Feel free to contact me if you have a link to something you think Campfire Chic readers would enjoy.

As for this week? I’m working on regaining balance in my life…I need more yoga, less junk food, more hours to get laundry done, and less guilt for not doing everything I think I can do. My deadlines aren’t working in my favor, I have too many ideas and too few non-cubicle hours to work on them, and yet I find myself sitting by a window and reading. So yeah, balance was the theme of this week.

This weekend is for stepping away from my phone, learning some new skills, soaking up some sun, and maybe even finishing another book. Or maybe I’ll just hide under the couch so I can’t see the pile of dirty dishes or the mound of laundry to be sorted. Who knows.

Here’s to you and your weekend. May your weekend be full of interesting news, bloggable moments, and new opportunities.

Apparently there is a proper way to care for your sleeping bag
I’m backing this amazing Kickstarter mainly because I’m a fan of the artist (via all the Cons we go to) and because I’ve agreed to have a comic/hero themed Kitchen/Dining area…and I’m not in the mood for kitsch
Interested in podcasts about comic books?
Elise’s use of slide protector sheets for her Day in the Life insert for Project Life has me re-thinking how I use my sheets
Amy’s FOUND post from last week is FANTASTIC. I clicked, bookmarked, emailed, and re-read each one, she also shared a post with ideas for memory keeping
10 ways to spread blog love
Could you step away from your routine for the day?
Worried that going vegetarian may impact your protein intake? Check out these high-protein vegetarian foods and these non-soy vegan choices
Have you been knocked down by a favorite hobby/pastime? Watch as elite climber Beth Rodden tackles the road to recovery
How to immediately become a more productive (and better) writer

What are your plans for the weekend?

May 17, 2013 { 4 comments }

in Essential Reading

From the Archives

How about a little blast from the past? Here are some popular posts from the Campfire Chic archives:

Pinterest is still driving a TON of traffic to websites, shops, and blogs. Are you being pinned?
Summer is the perfect time to take up a new-to-you hobby: Geocaching!
And all those photos you’re taking this summer? You’ll need a way to keep them organized and adorable…make your own daybook with some of the scraps you have around the house
Maybe you’d rather work on an Instagram project this weekend? Make an easy Instagram grid or even make an Instagram collage for your phone
I haven’t forgotten about Project Life, I promise. The last pages I shared were from Weeks 38 – 40 of the album documenting my 26th year…more to come!

If you find a broken link, feel free to let me know via email…let’s consider this crowdsourcing! Not all of the links carried over neatly from Blogger, and I haven’t been able to sit down and go through the 900+ blog posts to double-check them all. Help me out and let me know if you find a broken link.

May 16, 2013 { 0 comments }

in From the Archives

Prepare Your Blog for a Vacation or an Extended Leave of Absence

With summer starting in the Northern Hemisphere, I’m sure many Campfire Chic readers are starting to plan a handful of staycations, long weekends, and maybe even extended vacations away from home. But what about your blog? Will you let your blog sit untouched for a few weeks while you’re off, or do you hope to plan ahead so your readers won’t know you’re out of town until after you return? Today’s post focuses on a few tips on how to prepare your blog for a blog break, vacation, or an extended leave of absence.

Take it from somebody who has a few things on her plate and manages to have posts go up five days a week…planning ahead is essential if you feel like you want your blog to be “live” while you are away from your computer. Today’s tips can be used for a long weekend away from home or even as you prepare to for a hiatus from the blogging world (Think: a long backpacking trip or maternity leave)

Write everything down

Like what? First off, start with writing down when you plan to leave for your trip! At least that way you can actually see your deadline. Next: write down all the “stuff” you need to do before you leave…the guest posts you promised, the affiliate payments that are due, the newsletter you have tentatively planned, the blog posts you want to write…all of it! Get it down and take a step back…does everything need to be done? Can the blog re-design wait? Can you get an extension on that guest blog post? Take inventory and see what you can outsource…like, I’ll sometimes recruit Alex to help me get links for my Essential Reading posts! Don’t be afraid to ask for help, you may find it is exactly what you need.

Stockpile

Even if your trip isn’t for a few months from now, start stockpiling on blog posts now. Scary? Maybe. Starting now on a few drafts (or maybe even a few fully worked out posts!) will make the time leading up to your trick less stressful. Take a look at your current blogging schedule: are you posting three times a week? Aim to have enough posts ready to roll that you can even have a few go up during the days leading up to your departure as well as the few days upon your return. The last thing you want to worry about is whether or not you have a blog post scheduled when you are running through an airport terminal in a desperate attempt to catch your flight home.

Automate things

Another thing to start stockpiling? Social media updates! Now, some purists will scoff at the idea, but I don’t think there is anything wrong with planning a few tweets/updates to go up while you are out of town…what if badguys are watching your Twitter feed and notice that you went from 10 updates a day to 0 over a long weekend? Yeah, BADGUYS. So don’t let the badguys win and schedule some updates! I like to use Hootsuite to schedule updates for Twitter and Facebook since those are my most used social media platforms.

Pro tip: You can schedule updates for blog posts that haven’t gone up yet if you use the permalink to the post. That way, if you don’t have a plugin on your site that automatically sends out updates with new content! Another option? Set up an IFTTT channel to automatically send updates to different platforms. Automatically pushing the new content to your social media accounts will ease your mind and help to continue to drive traffic to your site while you are off enjoying yourself.

This seems a little overwhelming, I know. Especially the part about creating content in advance. For that, I’m going to (not-so-humbly) suggest picking up a copy of Three Sixty-Five: Ideas for Blog Posts, Scrapbook Pages, and Art Journal Entries. For $5, you get 365 blog post ideas, which should hold you over for a while, right? The best part of the eresource is that I set it up to act as a springboard for you to come up with even more ideas! Get started.

Here are some additional resources:

5 Quick Tips for Preparing Your Online Shop for the Holidays
More Tips for Preparing Your Online Shop for the Holidays
My Blogging Calendar — How I plan ahead and get shit done
How to Maintain Your Editorial Calendar
Blog Wise: Become a Productive & Prolific Blogger ebook

How do you prepare your blog/shop for a vacation?

Do you have any other suggestions?

May 15, 2013 { 6 comments }

in Better Blogging, Social Media

Summer Project: Speedy & Meaningful Memory Keeping

The Northern Hemisphere is anxiously awaiting the arrival of Summer: longer days, inspiration, more sun-filled memories to be kept someplace, and maybe even having children home more often during the week. My idea? Let’s dedicate summer to not only making memories, but let’s also dedicate a few quiet hours to some meaningful memory keeping…and by a few, I mean, let’s make this speedy. ‘Cuz ain’t nobody got time for hours of laborious scrapbooking.

Summer Project: Speedy & Meaningful Memory Keeping

Speed through a few partially-finished projects
Learn some new skills
Review and improve some phone photography

How can we do this? One of my favorite things about the internet is that I’ve been able to learn so much on a variety of subjects without needing to enroll in university classes. I just open up my laptop, pay some money to enroll in a class, and then I get to learn more about things like blogging, storytelling, setting goals, coding…the list goes on.

So let’s use the power of the interwebs to get our proverbial shit together and get some of our projects done and off our desks!

Not into scrapbooking? That’s cool, some of these classes/ebooks will appeal to bloggers, writers, crafters, and phoneography enthusiasts alike.

The Phone Photography Project: Through the month of July, participate in photo challenges, get inspiration, get help improving your phoneography skills, and connect with others. With the help of 32 instructors, participants will get 32 days of dozens of tips and tricks from the pros for taking better photos with your mobile-phone camera, app reviews for iPhone and Android, dozens of project ideas, hundreds of fellow students in a private classroom and on Instagram, giveaways, contests, discounts, bonus downloads, and more.

Find out more about The Phone Photography Project.

Hello Story by Ali Edwards - Projects for your summer

Hello Story by Ali Edwards: This 12-week workshop is fantastic for those of you looking for creative storytelling techniques to share more of your words and more of yourself in your memory-keeping. Ali will share 12 storytelling techniques, exclusive layout templates, specific weekly topics, videos, and more during the workshop. As a big fan of Ali’s work, I can’t wait to sign up for this workshop and hope to see some of you participating, as well.

Find out more about Hello Story by Ali Edwards.

For those of you looking to get some pages done in a short amount of time, Fashionably Fast may be the ebook for you:

Join the speediest scrapbooker on the block, May Flaum, as she joins forces with five of the fastest (and most fabulous) scrapbookers she knows in Fashionably Fast: 10 strategies for stylish, speedy scrapbook pages. This popular instructor has compiled her 10 best time-saving strategies, which are illustrated by 20 gorgeous scrapbook pages and accompanied with 30 minutes of exclusive video instruction! See how easy it can be to accelerate your scrapbooking process without sacrificing artistry.

Buy your copy of Fashionably Fast: 10 strategies for stylish, speedy scrapbook pages by May Flaum for only $9.99 here.

Fold It In: Self-Paced Accordion Mini-Album Workshop

FOLD IT IN by Kristin of rukrisitn papercrafts: I wrote about my involvement in the Fold It In workshop recently, and I’m still excited about it…I mean, I was seriously able to make a mini-album in no time at all and I already have ideas for other albums/cards/gifts using this workshop. This workshop also includes access to a private Facebook group so you can share your creations with others, get more inspiration for your own albums, and to make new crafty friends.

Buy your copy of the Fold It In self-paced accordion mini-album workshop for only $12.

Reasons to join these types of classes if you’ve never done it before