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Wednesday, April 25, 2018

Scrapbooking to the 50’s

What do you do when you never get to scrapbook, you finally decide you are going to start and complete a layout, you pick the pictures and then realize that you don’t have a clue what paper you can use to create the layout?  You panic, set the pictures aside and say I guess I won’t be scrapbooking these this time.  Actually, I hope that’s not what you do. The correct answer is... get creative.

About this time last year, my two oldest children attended their homeschool formal - you know it’s time to scrapbook the event when the next one is almost here. It was such a fun theme and I couldn’t wait to scrapbook the pictures accept life kept coming and my scrapbook time seemed to get shorter and shorter. Two weeks ago I finally decided it was time. Time to take some time for me. Time to have some fun and scrapbook. Time to tackle over 100 pictures and try to keep those pictures to one to two double page layouts. Scrapbookers are infamous for taking way more pictures then we will ever be able to use but we don’t want to miss a thing (I’m proud to be a scrapbooker ๐Ÿ˜).

The theme of the formal was Shake, Rattle and Roll. Lots of 50’s themed items were brought in, including a couple cars and trucks. I admit I spent quite a bit of time looking through my stash of papers looking for 50’s themed paper but came up empty. Then I changed my mindset and thought if I could find just one piece of patterned paper that looked like it was from that era then I could supplement the rest with card stock.  I was excited to find one piece of argyle paper with colors that would work from our Cruisin’ My Reflections paper pack from 2012! See, this is why it is so important that we have a stash of paper to go through for our layouts. You have my permission to tell your husbands I said so.  Please feel free to give him access to my website so he can buy you more paper but make sure you don’t give him my phone number to call and complain about the size of your stash๐Ÿ˜ƒ.

I had to be creative with my embellishments, cardstock, cricut but ended up pleased with my final layout. So after all that yappin’, let me show you what I came up with.



On the left page, you can see where I added a Pocket Plus page  in order to add more photos to the layout. I would normally tell you to separate pictures with a journaling card or embellishment piece in the Pocket Plus page but I had too little paper and too many pictures to follow the “rules”.

Here’s the layout with the Pocket plus page turned over and a white frame overlay added to my middle picture. Again, just another way to break up the constant look of pictures and add interest and definition.






Here I add a piece of paper from our retired Basics Paper Fundamental pack.  To add in more pink to the layout and match my daughter's dress, I highlighted the words "love life" with the Watercolor Paints and this years color of the year color - Bashful. The cardstock colors and Crusin' papers are a little dark so to lighten them up and help draw out my daughter in the photos I added small accents of bashful throughout the layout.


If you look closely below the watercolored words you can see where I took some old, retired page protectors from our 4x4 mini albums and created a small mini album of sorts on my layout. If I had our 4x4 flip flaps in arms reach I would have used them instead but this was a great way for me to use up some of my retired items so I just went with it.

 I used some of our large, retired brads to hold all the pages together. By doing this I was able to add even more pictures without overwhelming the whole layout.






Other then cardstock everything, including my stamps were from my scraps or retired items. I love that I was able to put this layout together with items I already had (which incidentally helps me make room for more, new supplies- yay!)

I hope you are able to craft this week and remember to get creative, not frustrated!

Happy Scrappin'!




Tuesday, February 20, 2018

Scrapbooking like the Greatest Showman


Step Right Up and take advantage of an exclusive, limited-time offer that is sure to bring fun and delight to all! Introducing the limited-time My Acrylix Showtime stamp set and bundle, featuring fun, playful, circus-themed icons and sentiments that will be the perfect fit for birthday celebrations, theme park visits, a movie celebration to the Greatest Showman or any fun-filled adventure. 



This stamp is available on its own or as part of the Step Right Up bundle that pairs the stamp with 12 paper sheets—including 10 cardstock sheets in 5 colors and gold foil paper — gold pearls, and red shimmer trim. Best of all, this bundle is available at a sensational discount of only $28.95 (retail value of $39.79! Order yours today before this deal leaves town!



I don't know about your family but my family has definitely gotten caught up in the hype of the Greatest Showman movie.  Before we even left the theater my husband had purchased the soundtrack on iTunes and ALL my kids were singing along. I'm not sure what exactly is the biggest draw to the movie is but it definitely is a hit. May your creation a hit with these fun theme inspired papers and stamps and make sure to show them off here and on my Facebook page.  I can't wait to see what you create!

Wednesday, February 7, 2018

DIY Butterfly Mobile

These last few months (ok maybe a little longer) have been hard for me to find time to create with our recent move. I recently ordered the Original Scrapbox EZ-View desk and finally got it set up and organized with my scrapbooking and card making supplies.  I am determined to make a way to get in there and craft at least once a week, especially with my son graduating in May - I have to finish his scrapbook of his school years. I guess you know what you can expect to see pictures of in the coming months - haha! 

I don't know about you but I seem to get more accomplished when I have a pattern to follow. That's one of the reasons I love Close to My Heart's How to books because they tell me exactly how to cut the papers and lay them out to create a duplicate layout of the one they created but with my own papers. They also give me ideas or remind me of techniques I haven't used for a while in my scrapbooks.  I'm excited to tell you that all the softcover Idea books like the one shown below are now on sale under our Clearance section on my website.
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If your creativity goes beyond the page, Close to My Heart has created a video to show you how to create a fun butterfly mobile using products from this month's Pretty in Pink special.


Have fun creating and hopefully I will be joining you soon.  In the meantime, shop on my website during the month of February and with your $35 or higher purchase receive a pre-cut card workshop from me created by fellow consultant Lisa Stenz.