You Rock Card

A made a card for my son's hockey team's manager. He is really into music, so I used the You Rock paper pack and stamps. Including an itunes gift card would be great way to continue the theme.

Close to my Heart Supplies used:

You Rock Level 2 Paper Pack, White Daisy Cardstock, Live in the Moment Stamp Set (from Workshop pack), Smokey Plum, Sunflower, and Outdoor Denim Stamp Pads, Corner Rounder

Other Supplies:

atyou Spica (Copic) Clear gel pen

It is hard to see, but I used the Spica pen on some of the notes and the star. This is a clear pen that leaves teeny, tiny bits of glass. It is great for details as the nib is very small.

I used my new Macro lens (thanks, Laura) for this pic. I see I need to play with it a bit more to get the right area highlighted. 

Spring Product Releases for Close to my Heart

Here are a few more new products:

You Rock Paper Pack

Top Coats: Rockin': These are a pack of 14 die-cut transparencies made to go with You Rock $5.75. I used 3 on my "Fab Four" layout. (see post below). Two on the front and the swirl inside the flap.

Caboodle Paper Pack

Topstitch Paper Pack

You can view or purchase these items and soooo many more at my website, http://www.fullofscrap.myctmh.com/.

I will post more new product as I purchase it. LOL!

You Rock Layout (Rockband)

It's the new year and we have some new product! (More on new product in a few days) I got so fired up when I saw the You Rock paper pack. I knew exactly what I wanted to do. I waited ever so impatiently for my product to arrive and spent New Year's Eve (and a few days after) knocking out this baby!

All paper, stamps, ink, transparencies, alpha stickers, and adhesive is Close to my Heart except fun foam and black gel pen. I also used a Fisker's wave ruler and BoBunny's flex ruler.

Here is the close up of the photo. I used City Lights Urban Rainbow filter by Faith True to get the rainbow effect.  http://scraporchard.com/market/product.php?productid=19292&cat=0&page=1

 This was applied in Photoshop Elements 5.

Angled view to show depth.

This is going to be wall art. I wasn't getting the depth I wanted with regular pop dots so I used fun foam. It looks great but at it's thickest point it measures 3/4 in! It will not fit in a regular page protector. If anyone has ideas on how to hang it, please email me.

The "black" rays for the background were made by making a mask and brushing Liquid Glass ( a dimensional adhesive) over the open areas.

This is a flap to hide my journaling. Alpha stickers are Lots O' Dots. These start off white. When you color or dye them with ink etc. the almost invisible dots resist the ink and stay white! Loooove these! Two sheets are only $5.75.

Velcro dot to hold flap shut.

Journaling reads:

Santa brought us Rockband for Christmas 2008.Since then we have been having regular jam sessions. Santa then gave us Beatles Rockband for Christmas 2009 and found it was our favorite. We all knew the songs and it made it easier. L discovered she loves to drum. Thank goodness for no fail mode! Dec. 31/09

Studio J

What is Studio J?

It is a FREE, yes FREE, online scrapbooking design software brought to you by Close to my Heart. It will help you easily create 2 page layouts using our paper packs, embellishments, and our scrapbook patterns. When you are done designing, you have two options: contact me so you can order physical product to reproduce your page OR have your layouts printed and shipped to your door. This will be available early 2010.

I got to see this program in action at Regionals! It will be so easy to use, your kids will be able to design their own layouts! You will be able to change your cardstock color, patterned paper, or embellishment in seconds. You can also change your color photos to black and white or sepia, or write text on your photos. At the moment, this is still being tested within the office, but will soon be available for consultants to use. This way we will be well informed when it goes "live" in 2010. From listening to Jeanette, this looks like the start of something much larger. When we start, we will have 25 scrapbook patterns to choose from. It sounds like they will be adding more over time. We will have exclusive paper packs just for Studio J. She also talked about a possible card version and maybe taking this international.

For a video, and FAQ go to http://www.studioj.com/. You can sign up for the mail list and get updates.

This digiscrapper can't wait!

Close to my Heart Minneapolis Regionals Update

Wow, I love my company! I just got back from a CTMH mini-convention this past weekend. I have soooo much to show and tell you! This will be the first of many posts. Check back often for more great updates.



Our second morning started with Jeanette Lynton, the president of Close to my Heart, teaching us a class! You can find her blog at www.jeanettelynton.com. Our project was using a new product for the next catalogue that will be released Jan.1/10! It is a chipboard covered journal that has blank pages inside. The best part is that it has a page protector on the cover so your photo or artwork doesn't get ruined.

I already have several ideas for this journal. A picture of my kids on the outside, and all the cute things they say on the inside, an art journal to sketch all the ideas that float around my head, a mini album, a great teacher gift, and of course a diary. I don't have an exact price yet, but it will be well under $10. Good thing because with all the ideas I have, I will be buying several!

While we did this project Jeanette let us ask her questions. What a great president! I truly feel like she listens and cares for her consultants. What did she tell us? That is another post!

Close to my Heart Autumn/Winter 2009 New Product

Paper Samples of all 4 new paper packs Clockwise from left
Twitterpated
Grace
Jingle
Sweet Home
$15.95 for 2 ea. of 6 patterns, 10 sheets cardstock

Creative Basics: Jingle 6 ea. of 2 designs (12 x 12) plus 4 yards Juniper Grosgrain Ribbon $9.95

These are made to make cards but can also to be used with Jingle paper pack. Backs are same pattern put monochromatic, Juniper and Tulip. So you really get 4 different papers.

Top Coats: Framed In 12 different frames, 6 White, 6 Colonial White $6.25

These were hard to photograph! The cream frame on the photo is my favorite. Several of the transparencies nest. Attach with vellum glue or our Liquid Glass. Make sure to take off the clear protective backing before attaching. Makes a HUGE difference.

Across the Board Rub ons 3 sheets Chocolate, Colonial White and White Daisy $12.50

These can be used as borders or cut to use smaller portions. Designs include: stars, zig zag stitch, straight stitch, cross stitch, single line dots, wishing you the best, thank you, line alpha, filled numbers, flowers, swirls, 3 line dots, days of the week, months, ruler.

Flurry Chipboard 9 x 12 sheet $6.25

Several large to medium snowflakes. These look gorgeous covered in Prisma Glitter!

Twinkle Brads 24 Brads: 3 Big brads and 3 standard brads for 3 colors: Hollyhock, Olive, Tulip $4.95

These are glitter covered brads. Made to coordinate with Jingle but could be used will any paper pack.

All-Sorts Chipboard album $7.50 4 1/4 x 7

Front and Back pages are the same, 4 more pages all different. I will be using 1-2 of these plus one of our Clear Acrylic Mini Album ($18.50) for my December daily mini album.

There is so much more. 75+ stamps sets, 2 new ribbon sets (Buttercup, Cranberry), Basic colored buttons, Pewter mini embellies, Bookplate and large Circle chipboard, Cocoa embossing powder, Snapease album system (makes it so your post bound album can be added to in seconds!), Soft set Eyelet Tool (no more banging!), soft set eyelets in basic colors, and a new shoulder tote and Rolling Carryall.

I will be placing an order on Sept. 20.

Treasures: September 09 Stamp of the Month

13 Stamps: large dandelion, large stem, dill flowers, stemmed dandelion, individual seed, round heart, You are my Sunshine, thank you, Make a Wish (made to follow stem), trust your heart, It is when you give of yourself that you truly give, the winds of change bring treasures unknown...embrace change (small swirl), and Those who bring sunshine into the lives of others cannot keep it to themselves (large swirl).

How to make this layout:

1. First I took a picture of my daughter pretending to blow a dandelion. I had it printed out at 5 x 7.

2. I stamped several of the stemmed dandelion (medium), and the individual seed (small) stamps with White Daisy Pigment ink on a transparency. These took a long time to dry. I even used my heat gun to speed up the process. It still took 2-3 days.

3. I stamped two of the large swirl and one of the small swirl with Brown Staz-On on a transparency. These take 2-3 minutes to dry. Once dandelions and swirls are dry, I used our scissors to cut them out.

4. My base was Crystal Blue cardstock. I cut a large curved piece out of Sweet Leaf patterned paper from the Emporium pack. I used the dotted line stamp from Priceless Love Word Puzzle along the curve of the paper in chocolate ink. I glued it to the left side of my layout.

5. I used a Buttercup die cut from a past Close to my Heart promo. You could use one of the new felt frames or the chipboard circles from On Target. I stamped mine with the same dotted line stamp.

6. I made these curves by hand drawing the middle Crystal Blue and Sweet Leaf circle patterned paper (it looks brown and cream in this pic) from Twitterpated. I then used this piece to make the Twilight swirl paper from Serendipity. I used the Twilight pieces to make the 2 remaining Twilight pieces from Emporium. I lined them all up and used fun foam to give them dimension making sure to tuck the ends under where the photo will be but over the frame.

7.Glued my photo making sure to tuck the one corner under the frame. Glued the dandelion to photo, trimming stem to stop at my daughter's hand. Placed swirls on and glued.

8. Took transparency dandelions and scattered them all over the page. All transparent items glued down with Vellum glue in strategic spots to minimize glue showing.Title was made by stamping "You are my Sunshine" stamp with Honey ink on the reverse side of Honey textured cardstock. Our textured cardstock is lighter on the reverse side. This was perfect because Honey would have been to strong of a color and would have drawn your eyes away from my daughter, the focal point. Frame for title is from "Noteworthy" stamped in Honey. This is a full frame stamp but I just used one end. I cut both out and used fun foam to raise up the title. I added one of our small rhinestone crystals to dot the "i" in sunshine.

All products are Close to my Heart except Vellum adhesive (3M).

Please email me if you have any questions on how I made this layout. I will be ordering Sept. 20.