D.I.Y. Mixtape CD Sleeve

I'm back with another crafty tutorial using Adobe Photoshop Elements! Today I thought it'd be fun to show you how to make your own custom cd sleeves! Mixtapes totally aren't a thing of the past right? Well, we're planning on whipping some homemade mixtapes to give to our wedding guests featuring some of our very favorite songs. I wanted to keep the whole DIY theme to the wedding while not spending too much money. This method is perfect! 

I went ahead and created a PNG template for you to download and use during this. That way you don't have to make it yourself! Just CLICK HERE and save the image to your computer. You'll see where to place it in step two.

Supplies that you'll need for this: 
Adobe Photoshop Elements -- Cardstock paper -- Printer 
Ruler and Exacto (or another cutting utensil) -- Glue 
Your favorite tunes on an awesome mix CD

Don't let the number of steps fool you... this project is very easy! I broke it down in the tiniest steps so I don't lose anyone along the way. You can use photos, graphics, hand-drawn elements, etc for this project. You can even print it out on scrapbook paper for a cool pattern (or scan it in!), or print the back out completely blank and handwrite the track list for an extra special touch. Your call! It doesn't have to be as extensive as mine below. You can find some great free fonts to use at DaFont.com!


How simple was that?! I'm happy to answer any questions you might have below! Let me know if anything is confusing or misleading. If you decide to give it a whirl, let me see the finished product (and your track list! I'm always on the hunt for new tunes!)

If you'd like to stay up to date on the latest tutorials and DIYs from the other ladies, you can follow along in the Photoshop Elements Ambassador program by subscribing on FacebookTwitterYouTube and Pinterest

I'll be hosting a Twitter chat next Thursday, September 6th (1pm CST) on the Adobe Elements Twitter so come chat with me if you have any questions about Elements!

** I borrowed this gorgeous photo to showcase on the cover of my example sleeve.

People You Should Know

I'm Emily from The Morose Bee and it's been awesome sponsoring LCH this month! I started my shop because I realized that I love quirky clothing and accessories, but you can't always find "off the wall" pieces at basic stores. One day it clicked that I could just try making things myself and when I discovered Etsy I knew the time was right. Creating jewelry and accessories is such a therapeutic time for me and it's made all the more wonderful when someone is excited to purchase and own something that I've made. I'm hoping to start getting more into sewing, embroidery, and textile based projects. I don't know how this will change my products and aesthetic with The Morose Bee, but I'm looking forward to the journey. I always love trying new mediums.

Hey all you lovely readers of Little Chief Honeybee! My name is Emily Meyers and I blog over at Life, etc. I'm a stay at home mom who spends her days thrifting, sewing, cooking, taking photos, and playing dress-up. I've been married to my amazing husband Martin for three years now and we have three little kids to show for it! Eleanor is two, Sophia is one, and John is three months. I started blogging privately in August 2011 as a sort of online journal to document all of my family's many adventures and to encourage myself to take more photos. In February I decided to make it public, and started sponsoring other blogs in order to make new friends and advertise my Etsy shop. I called my blog Life, etc because I believe in living life to the fullest and then some, and I wanted my blog to be full of the things I love most about life in order to inspire others to do the same.

In the last six months my blog has grown so tremendously and gone from being just a journal to my full-time job! It's evolved into so much more than I ever thought possible in such a short amount of time, and I have so many exciting plans of where I want to take it! I find myself so inspired everyday to do something amazing, and to live a beautiful life that's overflowing with positive and happy things. The favorite thing about blogging is hearing when someone has used a hair tutorial or recipe of mine and knowing that I've helped them feel inspired and happier in some way. I hope to see my blog grow in order to touch others and help them to live a fuller, more inspired life. I'm so overwhelmed at the kindness and support that comes from my readers, and I'm so lucky to have made so many friends and to be doing something that I love while still being home with my family. I wouldn't trade this life for anything, and I can't wait to see what the future will hold!


I'm Holly, and I run a clothing store called Penelope Lane Clothing. The store is designed to make shopping more affordable for our wonderful customers. I try to give my customers the chance to influence what we are doing at the store as much as possible. Our latest goal of bringing in plus sizes has been achieved. Our future goal is to expand the inventory. I'd like to offer purses and other goodies soon. I am also hopeful we can open a store within the next year or so!

** USE THE CODE HONEYBEE FOR 20% OFF YOUR NEXT PURCHASE **

♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ 
It's thanks to these awesome ladies and other sponsors that LCH is able to be what it is! I'm so grateful for each and every one of my sponsors and I hope that you'll consider coming on board for future months! I'm always accepting new partners and you can find out more information HERE!

Things I Love Thursday

this view. ♥
this gorgeous kitty. ♥
kate nash is looking all sorts of fierce lately. ♥
♥ this dad wears a skirt to support his son's preference. #win ♥
this. ♥
this soldier competed in the spartan race with only one limb. amazing. ♥
this gorgeous photo. ♥
these words of wisdom. ♥
this is being prepared. ♥
♥ if this isn't the cutest little girl ever, i don't know what is ♥

// Our friend Elizabeth of Stockroom Vintage is hosting a bridal workshop in a couple of weeks here in Nashville. We're super excited about it! She's hosting a giveaway for free tickets here! If you attend the workshop you'll get a nice little discount (or two!) from Him + Honey, Jam + Toast (our friend Elle!), and others!

// Speaking of Elle -- her birthday was Monday! Pop over and tell her happy belated! I can't wait to take her out to celebrate!

// Jesse's blog post about their DIY wedding + how they saved is perfect for us right now.

// Wishlist Wears: 1 // 2 // 3 // 4 // 5 // 6

// Window shopping these women's dresses from Buffalo Jeans. The Alix is flirty and fun.

// This video is incredibly moving. This kid is so incredibly talented.

// I love honest blog posts like this one from Aileen.

// You already know I'm a huge fan of lists, and I think that's why I love Emily's Summer Bucket List so much.

// Foodie Finds: Boston Cream Pie Cupcakes -- No Bake Nutella Cheesecake -- 15 Dinners Under $1.50 -- Cinnamon Roll Cupcakes -- Baked Butternut Squash Fries -- Strawberry Shortcake Kabobs -- Sea Salt Caramel Cupcakes (I will not apologize for all of the sweet treats here. I'm clearly craving something... haha)

// Charlie is giving away some pretty Corelle dishes and you've got a super duper good chance of winning! There's only 5 entries so far so throw your name into the hat!

// Marisa's post "Lazy Bones" is all about motivation and getting things done! I really needed to read this.

// Sarah is hosting a "Comment Love Challenge" on her blog to help motivate people to leave kind and supportive comments on the blogs of others. Pop over to see what it's all about! You could win my PR + Marketing E-book!

What are you loving this week?

// Garden Rose


Shelby Park is one of my absolute favorite places to take outfit photos. It doesn't hurt that it's only a couple of minutes from our house, but it's also full of beautiful backdrops and scenery. The constant traffic inside the park is less than ideal, and the stares are plentiful when you're trying to get your ~mawdul poses on, but I guess that's to be expected when you're being a bit self-interested and you have pink hair ;) I didn't really like this outfit while I was wearing it, but looking at the photos (these are from Monday), I really kind of dig it. 

I snagged this dress at the Bettie Page boutique on Haight St. in San Francisco back in June. Melissa, Tieka and I perused Haight-Ashbury for a bit after our long day at the Adobe headquarters and I knew I had to have this dress when I saw it. I didn't even try it on, I just hoped for the best. Luckily it's perfect. I toned down the "whoa!" with a neutral grey cardi (I own so many grey cardigans!) and kept the hair simple with just a braided "headband".


I picked up this little clutch on mega clearance at TJ Maxx a couple of weeks ago and it was the perfect match for this dress and my MIA wedges. I topped it all off with a beautiful handmade necklace from the darling Sarah of Copperhead Creations. The little flowers are so dainty and sweet when juxtaposed with the hard lines of the foundation. Listen to me, I sound like someone who knows what she's talking about. (Just kidding). Her shop has so many pretty things though. Definitely worth a gander!

While it's a bit hard to see, I feel it's worth it to talk about the lip color I'm wearing in these photos, too. It's some cheap less-than-$3 lipcolor from Forever 21 in a really really bright pink. I loved the look of it so I picked it up and finally wore it yesterday. I really expected it to be super opaque and bright, but it was almost like a tinted moisturizing stick. It definitely had some pigment, but it was very subtle and it was so incredibly nice. I was honestly throughly surprised. I definitely don't knock cheap/drugstore makeup as I have my favorites for sure, but I kind of love this stuff. It didn't have a color name on it but just get the really really really bright pink one!


Yesterday we headed down to Columbia to take care of a few things like preparing for upcoming events (vague!), get some of Mike's dress pants hemmed and some of my dresses fixed, as well as getting my wedding dress altered a bit (!!!). I've been putting it on and prancing around the house just for the fun of it and I'm getting so excited. Mike picked out my wedding shoes and I'm trying to figure out what cardigan to wear. It's like 38 days away and we don't have a caterer, DJ, justice of the peace, decorations or hay bales. We're just winging it at this point. Am I crazy? I think I'm crazy. I did finally order our wedding rings last night though.

Target cardigan
Thrifted belt
TJ Maxx clutch

Life Lately

I've been feeling a bit hum-drum about things lately. It felt like life was giving me the short end of the stick and I was bumming out about a lot of things. Some not-so-great things happened over the course of a few days and I was just feeling down and out. We all have those days (err, weeks) right? Well, I'm a bit tired of feeling sorry for myself so instead, I'm going to recap on all of the awesome things that happened lately.

// I finished up both of my foot tattoos this week. Got color on both of them, and didn't feel like walking for a full day. They're now at the shedding stage and I'm dreading the itchy part.



// We're gearing up to have Honeybean open Saturday night at the Native launch party for the September issue at the Brick Factory (Cummins Station). Starts at 8pm and it's free! Free beer from Jackalope Brewery, so that's reason enough to come! (Enid likes to lounge outside of Honeybean when we clean)


// Toby was tuckered out after a trip to Target. He politely requested popcorn and then passed out two bites in. Poor kid. 


// I picked up some trusty black flats to replace my bow ones from Target. Let's be real here: I won't toss those babies until they're entirely too far gone. But I do love my black flats!


// I took plenty of silly in-car self portraits. Vanity.


// and then Sunday was the best day of all. We decided to surprise Toby with a trip to the zoo! He loves animals like crazy (what kid doesn't?) so we thought it'd be a great way to spend the day. We were getting ready and Toby requested I put on The Shins' vinyl and get his blue shirt with his blue anchor tie and his vest, too. Oh, and khakis like Daddy's. I'm tellin' ya, that kid has style. We stopped off for a quick lunch at Logan's before heading over. Turns out it was Nashville Predators Day at the zoo so there were some super fun blow-up rides and attractions for Toby to go crazy over. After seeing tigers and flamingos and giraffes, too, we were all so incredibly tuckered out. We headed home and didn't do much of anything else after that! You know, except go to the playground. Yowza!

We wrapped up the night with a camp night at "Fort Flynn" in the living room. We pulled out a tent we made for Toby several months ago and laid out every blanket in the house. We piled onto the cozy makeshift campsite and watched a movie Toby picked out. I'd say Sunday was the biggest success of all.



If that last picture doesn't show the happiest kid in all the land then I don't know what does. I love special nights like that. I guess all the crappy stuff that happened really pales in comparison to how much we've got going for us. Sometimes I just need that fresh new perspective. It's a great day indeed! Happy Tuesday!