Senior Scrapbook pages 12 & 13

I'm back with more of my son's senior scrapbook today.  Here are the next two pages covering one of his pre-season wrestling tournaments.

These pages were created using Studio J, Close to My Heart's online digital scrapbooking program.  It is absolutely free to play around with and try out.  Check it out on my website or contact me with any questions.

Thanks for stopping by again today!  Hope to see you back again soon.

64 Years of Wedded Bliss

Today is the anniversary of my wonderful grandparents.  They have been together for 64 years.  I threw this card together for them late last night.  There are things I would have done differently if I weren't working on a deadline to complete the card.

The inspiration for this card came from a card that Jeri from Bug 'N Me Creations made.  You can see her original card HERE.  I did not make my card a shaped card, but I did like how the "happy" was the main focal point of the card.

Here is my version:

Here is the inside:

I have to apologize for the photos.  In my haste, I didn't have time to wait on the "good light" of the day to take my pictures.

The card is an A2 size.  The paper came from Close to My Heart - the paper is now retired, but I have a few pieces leftover from an earlier project.

Here are the items for this card:

• Cricut
• Gypsy
• Xyron
• Adhesive
• Sweet Pea paper (retired) from Close to My Heart
• From My Kitchen Cricut cartridge
• Just Because Cards Cricut cartridge
• Stand and Salute Cricut cartridge
• Varsity Letter Cricut cartridge
• Black Exclusive Inks from Close to My Heart
• Say It in Style stamp set from Close to My Heart
• Amore stamp set (retired) from Close to My Heart
• My Acrylix Blocks from Close to My Heart
• Ribbon from my stash
• Black fine tip pen

I am linking this up to the "Get Your Brag On" linky party and the TGIF Linky Party.

Thanks for stopping by.  I hope to be back soon with a birthday card for a sweet little girl soon to be one.  Have a great night!

Dotty for You Promotion

Close to My Heart is celebrating National Scrapbooking Month with the fabulous Dotty for You paper packet.

This fabulous promotion is available from April 17 through May 31 or until supplies last.  How can you get this great paper pack, you ask? 

• Place an order of $35 or more, and it can be yours for $5.
• Host a gathering with a sales total of at least $400 in qualifying sales, and it will be yours for free.
• Join CTMH as a new consultant between April 1 & May 31, and it will be yours for free.

Hip Hippo Hooray

My niece is turning 4 this week.  Her birthday party was last weekend, so she has already received the card I made - loved the hippo.

This card is 5-1/2"x4-1/4".  There were a lot of layers to put together on this card.  I don't usually make cards with so many "little pieces", but I was really happy with how it turned out.  The Xyron makes putting all those little pieces together so much easier than glue!

The items I used for this card were:

• Cricut Expression
• Gypsy
• Xyron
• The Christmas Card Stack by DCWV
• The Fun in the Sun Summer Stack by DCWV
• Create a Critter Cricut cartridge
• Cuttin' Up Cricut cartridge
• From My Kitchen Cricut cartridge
• Just Because Cards Cricut cartridge
• Turquoise Stickles by Ranger

Thanks for stopping by!  Hope you've had some crafting time this week.

I'm linking up to:

April Stamp of the Month

April is here, and that means a new Close to My Heart stamp of the month.  This month's stamp set is so versatile!

There are so many possibilities for this stamp set!  You can purchase the set for $17.95, or with a $50 purchase, the set it yours for $5.  You can check out the details on my website. 

You can see directions and supplies needed for making all the items (scrapbook page, 2 cards and the travel album) seen in the above photo HERE.

Cupcake Birthday Card

I'm back today with another birthday card for a dear friend of mine, Tracy.  Hopefully you get the card in the mail before you see it here. :-)

This was another card that was inspired by Pinterest.  See the original HERE from Kassidy at the Inking it Up Crazy blog.

This is an A2 (5-1/2"x4-1/4") card.  It was made with scraps from my stash.  The inside is simply stamped with Happy Birthday.  Here are the rest of the details:

• Cricut Expression
• Gypsy
• Cuttlebug
• Xyron
• Create a Critter Cricut cartridge
• From My Kitchen Cricut cartridge
• Just Because Cards Cricut cartridge
• Stamps from the Close to My Heart Cricut Art Philosophy collection
• Spots and Dots Cuttlebug embossing folder
• Swiss Dots Cuttlebug embossing folder
• Craf-T Chalks Kit #2
• Magenta Stickles
• Ribbon (from my stash)
• Foam tape
• Black Exclusive Inks stamp pad by Close to My Heart
• Sparkle Sheer Shimmer Spritz by Tsukineko

Thanks for stopping by today!  Hope to see you back again this week for some more new projects.

Feminine Birthday Card

Sorry for the lack of posts this week.  I forgot to schedule posts before I left with my son for his college visit this week.  I meant to post this birthday card that I made for my mom yesterday. Happy belated birthday Mom!

I will be back tomorrow with the "recipe" for this card; I just wanted to make sure I got it posted before it was really belated (although I did make sure she got the actual card on her birthday).

Senior Scrapbook pages 8-11

Welcome back!  Thanks for taking time out of your weekend to stop by.  I'm continuing on sharing my son's senior scrapbook today.

Here are the next two double-page layouts of my son's senior scrapbook:

The first layout was created with the Game On kit in Studio J.  The second layout was created using the Sophisticated kit.

Wishing you a great weekend! Thanks for stopping by to check out my work. If you're interested in checking out Studio J for yourself, you can find out more by clicking the link HERE. I would love to have you "like" me on facebook with the button at the top of the page as I am getting my page started there. See you soon with more layouts!

Sports Theme Birthday Card

Yea!!  It's Friday and the start of spring break here.  No major plans for us ~ a couple of college visits this week as we try to narrow down the decision, and my daughter still has her activities to keep her (and us) busy.  I know I promised some more scrapbook layouts today, but it's a special day!

Today is my nephew Jack's birthday.  Happy birthday!!  We wish we were closer to celebrate with you, but we'll see you soon.  Jack, like many 11-year old boys, loves to play sports.  That love of sports was the inspiration for his birthday card.

This card is 4-1/4"x5-1/2".  I used the Gypsy when creating this card.  It really helped me visualize what sizes I needed to make the bat and balls. 

The supplies I used for this card were:

• Paper from my scrap stash
• Tombow adhesive
• Xyron Creative Station
• Cricut Expression
• Sports Mania Cricut cartridge
• Designer's Calendar Cricut cartridge
• Gypsy
• Black Exclusive Inks stamp pad from Close to my Heart
• Dutch Blue Exclusive Inks stamp pad from Close to my Heart
• ColorBox French Blue Chalk Ink
• 3x3 My Acrylix Block from Close to my Heart
• Stamps from the Cricut Art Philosophy Collection from Close to my Heart
• Say It In Style My Acrylix stamp set from Close to my Heart

Thanks for stopping by today!  Hopefully you are looking forward to a weekend full of crafting.  See you soon a new project.

18th Birthday Card

I wanted to share something different today.  Today I'm going to share the birthday card I made for my son's 18th birthday.  I can't take credit for the design ~ it's something I found on Pinterest.  If you want to see the original idea, you can see it HERE; it came from JulieH on the Cricut message board.

The card is a 6x6 square with the fold at the top.  The yellow mat is cut using the Art Philosophy Cricut cartridge exclusively from Close to my Heart at 5.87" wide.  The "happy birthday" mat is cut using the same cartridge but at 5.75" wide.

The "18" is cut from the Plantin Schoolbook Cricut cartridge and cut again using the shadow feature at 5.5" tall.  "Jonathan" was cut from the font on the Wild Card Cricut cartridge and welded using my Gypsy.  I played with the size until I was happy with the way it lay over the 18; I would make it a different size if using a different length name.  As JulieH explained in her original directions, I cut Jonathan three times, ran them through my Xyron, and attached them together to make it thicker.

On the inside, I cut a mat from the Art Philosophy Cricut cartridge at 5.75" wide.  The sentiment is cut at 5.5" wide from the Create a Critter Cricut cartridge.

Here are the supplies I used:
Cricut Expression
Xyron Creative Station
Art Philosophy Cricut cartridge from Close to my Heart
Plantin Schoolbook Cricut cartridge
Wild Card Cricut cartridge
Create a Critter Cricut cartridge
Black cardstock (from my stash)
Yellow cardstock from Hobby Lobby
Multi Colored Bday Words from The Paper Studio
Solid Glitter - Silver from The Paper Studio
Solid Glitter - Turquoise from The Paper Studio
Clouds from Colorbok

Hope to see you back at my blog soon!  Stop back tomorrow as I'll have some more of my scrapbooking layouts. 

Senior Year Scrapbook pages 6 & 7

I'm back again....this might be a new record for me for the number of posts in a row.  Today I'm going to share the next two pages of my son's senior year scrapbook with you.  This layout was created using Studio J and the Stardust kit.

Yes, those are "duct-tape pants" he's wearing.  He spent many hours covering a pair of jeans and an old hat in neon duct tape for this football game.  Once again, the bonfire pictures are pictures I downloaded from friends' facebook pages.

It's the middle of the week!!! Thanks for stopping by again today. If you're interested in checking out Studio J for yourself, you can find out more by clicking the link HERE. I would love to have you "like" me on facebook with the button at the top of the page as I am getting my page started there. See you soon with more layouts!

Senior Year Scrapbook pages 3 - 5

I'm back with some more of my son's senior scrapbook.  First up is "the other half" of yesterday's layout.  This ended up paired up with a page with his school picture instead of the page from yesterday's post.

This layout was completed in Studio J, Close to my Heart's online digital scrapbooking program.  The kit used was Class Act.  These were pictures from the first football game of the season - every game had a different "theme" for the student body.

Here is the next two page layout.  They were made using the Magnifique kit.  I was "super-pleased" with the way the class of 2012 pictures came out.  It was a photo I downloaded from one of my son's friends facebook pages.  I wasn't sure it would be high-quality enough to print, but it turned out pretty good.

Wow - posts two days in a row!!  Thanks for stopping by again to check out my work. If you're interested in checking out Studio J for yourself, you can find out more by clicking the link HERE. I would love to have you "like" me on facebook with the button at the top of the page as I am getting my page started there. See you soon with more layouts!

Senior Year Scrapbook

As I said in my recent post, I just don't know where all my time is going this year.  My son is a senior, and I'm really trying not only to play "catch up" on his scrapbooks, but to keep current on this year's book. 

The easiest way I've found to stay current is digital scrapbooking.  Now, don't get me wrong, I still love playing with paper AND my Cricut, but digital scrapbooking really is so much faster and convenient in this day of digital photos.  I have been using Close to my Heart's digital scrapbooking program, Studio J.  I really resisted when it was first introduced, but, after playing with it, I can honestly say I LOVE it! 

I don't have a photo printer at home, so traditionally when I scrapbooked, I would have to plan ahead to get my pictures printed or print pictures and hope they were sized right when I sat down to create.  Nothing kills my creativity faster than working on a page and not having the photo I want!  With Studio J, I upload my photos, choose the papers and layout I want to use, and create away.  No more printing pictures.  No more cropping photos; I can enlarge or crop the photos as I am using them in the program.

Best of all, the papers in the current Idea Book are all represented in Studio J as well as some of the retired lines!  I can add traditional pages to my digital pages or add elements from the same paper pack to create dimension.  The possibilities are endless!

I thought I would start today with the opening page of his scrapbook.  I've known for YEARS what I wanted on this page.

Everything about this page is digital.  I did not add any traditional elements to this at all.  I used the Class Act paper kit.  Once you have created  your pages (everything is created in two-page layouts) in Studio J, you have the option to have them printed (and sent to you with page protectors) or you can purchase the images and have them printed yourself. 

Because you create in two-page layouts, the "other half" of this layout is used later in the book.  I knew there were some pages that I would have that I would need to create myself - school picture, newspaper articles, team pictures, etc. - and just planned to use the other half opposite one of those pages.

Hope you are having a great start to week!  Thanks for stopping by to check out my work.  If you're interested in checking out Studio J for yourself, you can find out more by clicking the link HERE.  I would love to have you "like" me on facebook with the button at the top of the page as I am getting my page started there.  See you soon with more layouts!

150+ Wins Shirt

During wrestling season this year, my son hit a big career-mark - 150 wins.  To celebrate, I had ready my first ever Cricut-cut vinyl shirt for him.  After his win, his younger sister ran out on the mat to present him with the shirt (so mom and dad could video and take pictures).  Great senior memory for us!

I used Cricut Craft Room while designing this shirt.  The letters were "double layered" to make them two colors; I "hid" anything I did not want cut as I cut each color.  The words on the front were cut from the Varisty Letter Cricut cartridge at 1.097" tall.  The wrestlers are the blackout version from Sports Mania cut at 3.889" tall.

I purchased the metallic heat-transfer vinyl from Coastal Business Supplies.  They had great service and were super-fast with the shipping.  The metallic doesn't photograph very well, but it sure looks great in person!

Both the "150+" and the "career wins" were welded together in Cricut Craft Room and then made to fit to 11.5" wide for the back of the shirt.  The 150 and career wins were cut using the Varsity Letter Cricut cartridge.  The + was cut from Plantin Schoolbook.

I was very pleased with how well this turned out.  The vinyl was surprisingly easy to work with.  With all my settings at 3, it produced a perfect "kiss-cut" leaving the backing intact which made "weeding" and then the placement/ironing very easy.

Hope you have a safe St. Patrick's Day and get some crafting done in between all the "March Madness".

Blogging Question

I know, I know, I know....  

I've been MIA for so long you probably thought I'd fallen off the face of the earth.  Who knew that senior year would be so busy - senior activities, college applications, scholarship deadlines. 

On top of that, my husband is running for common pleas court judge in our county and I'm the treasurer (website designer, shirt-maker and anything else that comes along) for his campaign.  Very exciting, but quite time consuming trying to figure out what the heck we're doing.

For those of you who have both Facebook & blogs to share your creations, what have you found is the easiest way to keep everything up to date now that Facebook no longer imports blog posts?  I would really like to be more active & creative again, but I don't want to spend all my time trying to keep everything up to date.  What's your best internet management tool?  (Don't even get me started on how much time I spend on Pinterest...LOL!!)  Also, how to you promote your facebook pages to more users?

Thanks for your suggestions!