National Scrapbook Month:Miracle Kit

May is National Scrapbook Month. Starting April 15, Close to my Heart has a promo called the Miracle Kit.

The kit includes:

1 Floral Patterned Paper

1 Striped Patterned Paper

5 sheets Colonial White Cardstock

1 Bamboo Cardstock

1 sheet of My Stickease

1 Half Bracket Die-Cut

1 1/4 Circle Die-Cut

1 Colonial White Mini-Medleys

12' Colonial White Waxy Flax

2 Sponges

3 Flip Flaps

1 Instruction Brochure

1 Irresistibles Chipboard Shapes

This last item is my favorite! Like our Lot's O' Dots alpha, once these are colored a pattern immerges! It's like magic.

You can purchase this kit for $23.50. But why not get it at a discount or even FREE? When you purchase $47 in product (before shipping and tax) it is only $10 or spend $70 and it is $5. You can earn it for FREE by having a party (or cataloge party) with $375 in sales or when you sign up as a consultant. This promo is while supplies last or May 31st. You can order online at my website. All you have to do is click on the button above, marked "Shop CTMH 24/7". You can sign up to be a consultant there too. Or if you are in Manitoba, you can email me at scrappychick@mts.net.

Majestic Blue Journal

My family and I recently got into geocaching. Geocaching is a modern day "treasure hunt" using a GPS unit. (You can find out more about geocaching at http://www.geocaching.com/) We needed to document our adventures, so I chose Close to my Heart's My Creations Journal. You may remember my post back in October using this journal. It is a 7x5 white chipboard journal with a clear pocket in the front with 75 unlined pages. It is only $9.25!

Front

Close to my Heart Suppllies used:

Majestic Blue Level 2 Paper Pack, Desert Sand and Crystal Blue Cardstock, Outdoor Denim and Desert Sand Stamp Pads, Boutique Borders Stamp Set (Frame), With Love Stamp Set (floral branch), Treasure Life Stamp Set (Sentiment), Outdoor Denim Ribbon Collection, Pewter Designer Brads, All-Out Adventure Rub-ons, Journey Journaling Tags, Sanding Kit

Inside Covers

I achieved the colored edges by taking the front and back covers off. This is easily done by temporarily bending back the spiral binding. I then inked the edges with my Sponge Dauber in Desert Sand ink. You could also paint it. I didn't have the patience to let me dry ;)

It is hard to read, but I used a "X marks the spot" stamp from Classmate Alpha Stamp Set.

  

Back

Frame is from Priceless Love Stamp Set and Sentiment is from Enjoy the Journey Stamp Set.

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!