Color Dare: Dream Pop

I made this layout for my Lehi club in July.  And, it just so happened to be the Color Dare Challenge this week.

I used the Dream Pop paper, Artiste cartridge, Washi tape and a tiny bit of the Colonial White rosette ribbon.  I love the way I got to use these fun spring colors for these pictures!

AND: I used Studio J to print my pictures!!!  I needed 3x3 pictures, and none of the ones I had would work, so I created a "No Limits" layout with the 3 4x6 photo wells, and 4 3x3 photo wells.  I had it alone in the project, so I could order just that layout.  When I went to check out, I changed it from a layout + .jpg to just the .jpg.  It was only $2.95, then a few minutes later, I got the email with the upload link, and retrieved my .jpg image.  Then I sent it to Costco, and only a couple hours later, I had the pictures in hand!  I LOVE THIS!  You can create ANY size pictures you want, and get them printed quickly.  So great!

Black & White Birthday Workshop

Black and White Birthday!

I'm in LOVE with the new "For Always" paper!  So elegant and stunning!  It can be paired with almost all of our colors, and does not disappoint.

This workshop includes 2 each of the 3 cards below (6 cards total), and 3 clear pillowboxes (great for small gifts like jewelry, candy, gift cards, etc.).  

This workshop will be held Friday, May 3rd.  

7:00-9:00pm

Workshop fee: $16 

Sign up and pay before April 26th, or asap, as space is limited!

Some of my favorite colors are...

Lagoon, Pear and Outdoor Denim!   I was thrilled to have been chosen as the winner on the Color Dare on February 15th.  They asked me to make something to showcase one of their upcoming Color Dares.  When I heard this color combination, I was so excited!  I love these colors.  Here's what I came up with:

Studio J Layout:

This layout wasn't difficult.  It was made using the Later Sk8ter papers.  The only really improvements that I made were the stitching along the pear ribbon, and the lagoon colored ribbon flowers.  To make these, I went to the Embellishments: Ribbon and selected Flat knot.   I used 3 of them fanned out to make the flower.  Then I went to Embellishments: Buttons, and put a button over the top, along with the thread.  To make 2, I made one at first (enlarge your view so it's easier to line things up), then holding the CTRL key and select each of the pieces to the flower.  While they are all selected, click COPY, then PASTE.  Then CTRL and select all the pieces again and move them!

I LOVE how fresh the CTMH papers are!  Notice that our family pictures were taken just a few days before I received the catalog showcasing Later Sk8ter.  How perfect is this paper for our pictures?  I was giddy when I saw this paper packet and knew that it would be so easy to scrapbook these pictures.

And to use the paper I had on hand, I made this little box made from the CTMH Cricut Cartridge: Artiste.

Some of the details of this little box (all from Artiste Cartridge):
Box: pg. 39, cut at 2.5", lid also cut at 2.5" (be sure the "real dial size" button is NOT selected)
Flower: pg. 68, cut at 5"
The bottom of the box is Outdoor Denim, stamped in the same color using the "In the Background" stamp set.  The top is Pear, stamped with Pear ink, with the same set.  It's hard to see, but there is Green Glitter Glitz Gel in the center of the flower.

February's Special - STUDIO J!

Digital Delights!

February 2013 Constant Campaign

February is sure to be a month of digital delights because you can purchase any Studio J^® layout for only $5—that’s a savings of $1.95 per layout! This is a great opportunity to try Studio J for the first time. Create adorable baby layouts with the Wishes and Fishes kit (shown), or use the new Express Collections with collections of 10 ready-made layouts plus a front and back cover that are easy to use and professionally designed. Preserve your memories at a low price for a truly digital delight!

Here are some of my latest layouts:  

(With lots more on the way this month!)

Upcoming Workshops

Well, it's time for me to get back to being me...including Close to my Heart.  It's been a fun 4 months with baby Tyson, but I've been itching to create.  Hopefully you are itching too, and will be able to join me for one of my upcoming workshops!

SPRING!
I don't know about you, but I'm ready for SPRING!  Here's a fun banner to welcome in bright, happy colors and flowers!  Plus, you will get to make 4 baby cards (2 boy, 2 girl).  Banner measures about 4" x 24", cards are 4" x 4".

This workshop will be held  

Friday, February 22nd: 7:00-9:00pm

Workshop fee: $16 

Sign up before February 15th, or asap, as space is limited!

IF YOU PLACED AN ORDER SINCE TYSON WAS BORN: you will get to make the banner for FREE!  Add the cards for just $5 more!  Please let me know if you would like to come make the banner!  All orders placed between September 14-January 14th count, including Studio J!

Black and White Birthday!

I'm in LOVE with the new "For Always" paper!  So elegant and stunning!  It can be paired with almost all of our colors, and does not disappoint.

This workshop includes 2 each of the 3 cards below (6 cards total), and 3 clear pillowboxes (great for small gifts like jewelry, candy, gift cards, etc.).  

This workshop will be held April 12th and 13th.  

Friday, April 12th: 7:00-9:00pm

Saturday, April 13th: 10:00am-Noon

Workshop fee: $16 

Sign up before April 3rd, or asap, as space is limited!

Quick and Cute
This has to be one of the easiest workshops ever!  Make 4 each of 4 designs, total of 16 - 3x3 cards, including envelopes!  Perfect for adding to your gifts, plates of goodies, or a quick note to a friend.  Only one of them says anything (you're sweet), the rest are wide open to interpretation--they can be for anything you need a little card for!

This workshop will be held June 14th and 15th.  

Friday, June 14th: 7:00-9:00pm

Saturday, June 15th: 10:00am-Noon

Workshop fee: $16 

Sign up before June 3rd, or asap, as space is limited!

Color Dare #29 ~ Blush & Cranberry

I love doing the Color Dare challenges, but lately I keep forgetting to look at the challenge before it's too late.  This week, I remembered!!!

Here's my take on the Blush and Cranberry Challenge.

For this card I used the following:
Whoos' your Valentine (December/January Special)
Cranberry and Blush Cardstock
Black and Gray Glitter Paper (lightest gray)
White Bulk card base
Cranberry Pigment Ink
Blush Exclusive Ink
Colonial White Rosette Ribbon
Bitty Silver Brad
Bitty sparkles
Foam Tape

It's hard to tell from the picture, but the "let's be friends" is curled.  The card layout was inspired by the "For Always" Workshop on the Go Cardmaking Kit.

Wait, I think this one is even better, I mounted it on a Cranberry Card base 6 x 4-3/4" now

Studio J® Tricks to Add Flair to Your Layouts

This information was provided by CTMH.  

I would love to see some of your Studio J layouts after you take advantage of October's SWEET promotion.  Buy 9 layouts, get your 10th FREE!

Even though Studio J^® is fast and easy to use, it is helpful to know some great tricks that can make customizing your layouts even more exciting. Here are some Studio J tricks straight from our professional Close To My Heart artists:
1. Customize your background and texture paper. You can change the color and intensity of the background and texture paper included in whichever kit you choose. Simply select the piece of background and texture paper, change the color in the color selection tool, and increase or decrease the intensity of the color in that same popup box.
2. Crop My Stickease^® quotes, titles, and tags. The cropping feature on the My Stickease images allows you to select a section of a quote, title, or tag to use as a border or other embellishment.
3. Create a customized My Stickease image. If you have a specific image in mind to use as an embellishment on your page, you can create a customized My Stickease to fit your theme perfectly. Simply add a text box, photo hanger, ribbon, ribbon slides, and Stickease to create the little suitcase! So easy! Be sure to crop or send elements behind other elements when necessary, and add several elements together for a unique look!

4. Select more than one element at a time. If you want to move several elements of your layout at once, simply click and drag your mouse around the elements you would like to select. Let’s take buttons, for example. After the buttons have been selected, you can click the icons in the popup box to choose to align the buttons vertically or horizontally if you desire.
5. Make faux washi tape with vellum text boxes. To create the look of a piece of clear washi tape, make a small rectangular text box, filled with vellum background (this is the default color for text boxes). You can make the tape strips as large or small as you want, or even layer them for more emphasis.

6. Stretch one photo across multiple photo wells. If you have fewer photos than photo wells, instead of deleting the excess wells, try scaling the picture to a larger size and then copying the picture to other photo wells and matching the photos up until they align with an almost seamless image. This trick works best with photo wells that are adjacent to each other.
7. Create ruffled ribbon. Select “Ribbons” in the drop-down menu under the Embellishments toolset. Choose ribbon tab and rotate the tab so that it is vertical on the page. Then layer several tabs on top of one another, sending every other one to the back to create a ruffled look.

8. Create a jagged border with text boxes. You can create a jagged border simply by rotating multiple text boxes about 45 degrees and making them the same color as the background. Put these boxes on top of a long, rectangular box of another color, and you’ve got a jagged border!

9. Change the background of your layout. Sometimes you may like the photo and journal arrangement in a layout, and yet want to change the background colors. Because photos sit on top of everything else, this is easy to do. Simply pull a journaling box over the space you want for a different background and fill it with a color from the color selection tool or a patterned paper from the Papers toolset. Then, send it backwards until the photo wells are on top of your new background.
Bonus Trick! Use keyboard keys to make embellishments. Did you know that some of the best tools for creating custom embellishments are the basic keys on your keyboard? It’s as simple as typing into a journaling box with no background color. Use periods to make a polka dot pattern, angle brackets to create a trendy Chevron look, overlapping pound signs to make burlap, question marks to make rope, and so much more!