Five-Minute Layout!!!

Yes, 5 minutes! My pictures are down. The date/place/situation are all logged in, and it fits in just perfectly for my no-frills son's album.

For this layout, I used a "My Reflections" Level 1 Kit. Have you ever tried those? Talk about FAST and EASY! I added a bit of card stock to the base page and matted a couple of the pictures to complete the look. My title was also simple, thanks to the stickease that comes in the kit and a Cocoa marker! Using these Level 1 pages and the extras that come in those kits, I was able to make an entire album (actually, almost 2!) with 112 pages, over the course of only 9 days!

Football Layout

I just love the Cherish and Imagine scrap-booking programs! They make my scrap-booking so uncomplicated. I used some of my leftover retired papers to create this simple layout. The Outdoor Denim is actually a B&T paper (background and texture) and I used Barn Red card stock as my mattes and accents along with a smattering of Bamboo card stock. I used the Rustic Alphabet in Outdoor Denim for the titles and distressed the Barn Red card stock with some 2nd generation random stamping using the same stamps. 2nd generation just means that after I ink up the stamp, I stamp it first on scrap paper before I stamp it onto the project. That way it leaves just a shadow of the image instead of a dark stamp.

Email!

I'm so disappointed! I truly worked for hours getting that email set up and all linked only to have my sweet friend confirm that none of the links worked and it was received all messed up! Yikes! So I've recreated the entire email for you all here. Thanks for understanding!
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September is
National Stamping Month!

Close to My Heart is celebrating with a dynamite special! Many of you have really liked some of the stamp sets that I own which were limited edition specials from the past. You've been sad that I could no longer find those sets. Well, this is one of those sets! The full-sized stamp set comes with enough card bases and envelopes for 16 cards with full-color instructions. The set also includes mini stamp pads, coordinating card stock, design paper, ribbon, and embellishments! Click on the picture link to find the flyer with pictures, purchase information, and how to earn this kit for Free!



Monthly Workshops (Most of these titles are also links!)
Scrappin' Happy - this is a scrap-booking workshop where we'll make 8-10 layouts using the Cherish or Imagine instructions. It is a FREE workshop when you bring your own "My Reflections" paper pack, or you can purchase a package for a minimal amount. Each month requires a different amount of supplies, but the fee will be less than $15. Click HERE to see some samples from my Scrappin' Happy workshop!
Workshops on the Go - this is also a scrap-booking workshop where we will make some great layouts using a different NEW paper package each month. Your supply kit includes a paper pack with matchinging embellishments and an exlusive stamp set created especially for the workshop and ONLY available through the workshop! Also, each kit has a full-color instruction sheet with extra layouts you can do with the leftover supplies from the workshop. It even has instructions for a set of cards!
As You Like It Club - this club meets after the Scrappin' Happy workshops for a few hours of free scrap-booking and free use of my stamps and inks. Club members also get free gifts with each monthly club order and enjoy the hostess rewards one month out of the club term. Contact me if you would like to learn more about joining this great group of talented, creative ladies!
Other workshops offered during this season:
Jingle Gift Album - I'm still in the process of creating this, so there is no artwork I can post for it. However, you see it in the new Fall/Winter Idea book on page 43 (which you can see online at my website - HERE!) In my workshop, we're using the new Jingle paper pack to create a Christmas book. The workshop is set for October 24th at 10 AM.
Christmas Greeting Card Workshop - Oh, these are FUN! We'll be making 8 simple, festive cards on Saturday morning, November 28, at 10 AM for only $7! That's right - less than $1 a card! And they're EASY to recreate at home for a bundle of homemade cards to make your friends and family feel extra special this Christmas! Click HERE to see this set.

Schedule:
September

• Scrappin' Happy - Sept. 26, 4 PM
• As You Like It Club Night - Sept. 26, 6 PM - 10 PM
• Workshop on the Go (Grace) - Sept. 27, 5 PM

October

• Gift Album Workshop (Jingle Christmas Album) - Oct. 24, 10 AM
• Scrappin' Happy - Oct. 24, 4 PM
• As You Like It Club Night - Oct. 24, 6 PM - 10 PM
• Workshop on the Go (Twitterpated) - Oct. 25, 5 PM

November

• Retreat at the Addison Hilton Garden Inn - Nov. 20-22
• Christmas Card Workshop - Nov. 28, 10 AM
• Scrappin' Happy - Nov. 28, 4 PM
• As You Like It Club Night - Nov. 28, 6 PM - 10 PM
• Workshop on the Go (Jingle) - Nov. 29, 5 PM

December

• Workshop on the Go (Home Sweet Home) - Dec. 27, 5 PM

All workshops must be pre-paid, but the monthly WOTGs can be your AYLI club order if you are a member and would like to attend. Please contact me by email (marjiec@verizon.net) to sign up for a workshop and I'll let you know how to send in your supply fee.

Let me hear from you!

Grace Workshop on the Go - September 27

These first 3 layouts are the ones we'll be making at the workshop. They are all patterns from the Close To My Heart scrap-booking program called Imagine. I will have them fully decorated soon and will post them again at that point, but I wanted you to be able to see both the first step and the final product. By the way,

this is our new Grace paper pack. I love the autumn coloring of these papers! I'm offering a this workshop on Sunday night, September 27, beginning at 5PM. You will receive the Grace paper pack, a full color instruction sheet to create the last layout in this article, the edge anchors that were used, and a medium-sized stamp set create especially for this
workshop. Oh, and it is the ONLY way you can get the stamp set! You will find a flyer for this workshop HERE. Please contact me for supply cost and to reserve your place as space is limited!



I can't wait to get my pictures on these!

Christmas Card Workshop - November 28; 10 AM

This workshop will be completed in only a couple of hours and you'll leave with 8 hand-made Christmas cards that are easy to re-create. Email me with your desire to participate in this workshop and follow up with pre-payment so I can order your supplies. The supply fee for this workshop is only $7. That's less than $1 per card!

Christmas Layouts

Isn't that sleigh cool!!!??? I think, but I'm not sure, that she cut it out of some of the B&T using a Sissix machine. She also used glitter glue on the "skis". I love the way Alissa used little circle punches of the kids' faces as extra accents!

She also added the clear sparkles to the title and the sleigh along with ribbon and stick ease. This is a basic layout, with B&T as the base and coordinating primary colors as mattes for the title and pictures.

The second layout is also quite simple, with cardstock (9 x 12) and 2 coordinating B&Ts (1 x 12 and 2 x 12) vertically next to the cardstock. Again, she used mattes, ribbon, and stick ease to complete the look.

Christmas Layouts

Even when paper is retired, the ideas can be used again and again - and I know there are still some of you with retired paper still a part of your collection. I know I still have some - including this Hollydays pack. (Yes, it is one of my favorites!)

Kym used a picture as a title for this cover page for her Christmas book. The layout is actually a calendar layout and she added some "days" under the picture to show how the trip fit into the month's activities.

In these layouts, she displayed her Christmas card choice as well as some other cute-cute portraits that weren't chosen.

Her left layout used the green pattern paper (B&T) as the base and has one 2 x 12 B&T running vertically about 3 inches from the left edge on it. The right layout was built on white cardstock. A 9 x 12 made up the right side and a 3 x 12 strip made up the left. A 1 x 12 strip of the paper on the right ran through the middle of the paper on the left as an accent. Added to the basic layout are ribbon and stick ease pieces along with Cricut letters. Kym used edge anchors as accents on the red mattes on the left page and connected the two pages by using matching paper for her matte on the right layout.

Layouts from Julie

Thanks so much to Julie Armstrong for these layouts using the Evensong paper pack and stick ease.

These layouts are so easy, but so well-organized. The same layouts can be used again with a different paper pack to create an entirely look.




The first left layout uses a 4 x 12 piece, an 8 x 8 cardstock and another 4 x 8 cardstock. Add some accent paper or stickease and a design paper matte to complete the image.

The first right layout holds a 6 x 12 cardstock and a 6 x 12 design sheet. Matching accents, along with coordinating mattes make this an easy, inviting layout set.

The second set has a few more pieces but is still terribly simple. For the right layout, use a 4 x 12 design piece, a 5 x 12 cardstock (the red) and two 1 x 12 strips of cardstock (top and bottom borders for the other cardstock). The bottom corners are created by cutting a 4 x 4 square directly down the middle horizontally (from the bottom left corner to the top right corner). The right layout is made with three sections of 4 x 12 paper - 2 different cardstock pieces and 1 b&t (design sheet). The set is connected and completed through the accents and stick ease that is added.

Blue Ribbon Layouts

This is the perfect layout to end this month of July! I should recognize the kids in these pictures, but I don't (Alas!) so give me a holler if these layouts are yours so I can give you credit!

These layouts use the Blue Ribbon paper pack and the easy instructions for them can be found in the Imagine book from CTMH. The artist used Dutch Blue cardstock as the base and 3 different B&T papers along with mattes from Holiday Red to give just enough accent to make the pictures pop. The American Pride is a sticker from Me and My Big Idea company and is accented with decorative brads.

From Cindy Hardy

Cindy Hardy shared her designs from a collection of pictures from a recent vacation. She used 2 full sheets of B&T from the Simple Pleasures pack as her base page here, and tore a Desert Sand card stock in half (with extra tearing) to make the "beach" part of the layout. The cardstock was also wrinkled slightly and distressed with Cocoa ink on the raised areas as well as the white torn edge.

In keeping with the look, she tore and distressed the journaling card and the matte for it. She added some stamped, distressed images and Cricut lettering for the title.

Sarsaparilla Layouts

Yes - Stinkin' Cute! The left layout was a make and take from one of my Open Houses. It was super simple! Just a 4 x 11 B&T with a 3 x 10 plaid B&T overlapping it - all vertical. A Bamboo cardstock strip 2 1/2 x 12 goes horizontally across the other two pieces.

(I think this is Alissa's layout, but if you recognize it as yours, let me know!) She continued the theme onto the second layout, using larger pieces (7 x 12 and 7 x 7, but the same overlapping genre) and matching stick ease throughout both layouts.

Layouts using leftovers

Some of my customers save every single scrap of paper they cut. It occurs to me that they can be terribly valuable and this layout is a perfect example of what you can do with just a little bit of old paper.

First, Lynn started with Topiary cardstock. She had a scrap of old paper (the one with squares) that was about 1 1/2 x 12. Using Creative Memory cutting system, she cut the strip almost in half with a wavy edge and made a parallel cut on the larger of the pieces.

For the top, she used a piece of retired mono-chromatic paper (also topiary), but you can duplicate this look by random stamping with white daisy. Our pigment ink comes out very opaque, and will be totally dry in a couple of hours. (Or use the heat tool to set the color in a couple of minutes!)

Lynn brought in a second color (sunny yellow) with the Cricut letters and the mattes for the picutures.

Kym Glass Layouts

Kym used some level 1 papers from the Majestic Blue paper pack. Level 1 packs can make scrap-booking so FAST and EASY!

When I first started my Close to My Heart business, I used Level 1 kits to make 112 layouts for my daughter, Breana's, book. It took 9 days - not 216 hours, but 9 regular days where I cooked and took care of my kids and taught classes and ran errands!

So take a look at these layouts. There's a Cricut double title at the top of one, some stamping from the "New Horizons" paper pack on the right layout, a little ribbon at the bottom. In fact, aside from those accents and some matting she added, there's only one other piece of paper she cut - the 8 x 6 (or thereabouts) B&T under the picture on the right layout.

Precious Baby!

Special thanks to Lisa Navarre for sharing these precious layouts!

Lisa used the Boom-di-ada paper pack to scrap-book her precious baby girl. I love the way the pinks in the clothes is drawn out from the pinks of the "boom" paper.

The layouts here are deceptively simple. The right was created with a 7 x 12 piece of B&T (design) paper on a 12 x 12 Garden Green cardstock. She added some matching stick ease and a matte and accents drawing in some orange to the layout. The right layout was even simpler, using a 4 x 12 cut of striped B&T on a 12 x 12 Garden Green cardstock. She added a couple of pieces of stick ease here as well and matted one of the pictures in Hollyhock.

Well-Rounded Layouts

This double layout was the workshop activity that I had for a recent retreat. I had a LOT of fun putting this one together! I used the big circle and the regular circle templates from coluzzle and mixed a couple of different paper packs to complete it. I used the dot paper and the striped paper from the Good Times paper pack. I coupled that with the paisley paper and the multi-colored dotted paper from the Magic Moments paper pack.

With some many colors, virtually anything could've worked well as the accent color, but I had cranberry. Cocoa would've been a better choice, but sometimes I have to use what I have! The sweet leaf is the back side of one of the papers.

As for techniques, they are rather self-explanatory. Except for the largest circle, (where I used a dinner plate as a template) I used the coluzzle. On the journaling spot in the upper right, I folded the paper first and aligned the fold on the inside of the circle I was cutting so it would remained attached.

Layout by Cindy H.

Cindy used a B&T from a required paper packet coupled with some brightly colored cardstock to get this look. I love it!!!

The file folder was a coluzzle template. The small letters are the mini-type font stamped in white. She used a spiral clip and a library pocket and book card for her journaling with a star paper clip (from Office Depot) and some polka dot ribbon.

Her larger letters are from the Boutique font.

I LOVE the way all these primary colors blend together on this page. It makes for a great layout!

Notebook Layouts

I would never have thought of using the Notebook design papers on a wedding layout, but Sarah did an awesome job with these. She printed her journaling, a quotation, on vellum with rounded corners and attached it to the layout with pewter photo hangers.

She used the photo clips from the chocolate medley on the second page of the layout to highlight a picture. At the bottom of the page, she highlighted her letters - cut from a Cricut - with Hollyhock paper and printed out the definition of family to complete her page. This she attached using eyelets at the bottom of that page.

Final Vellum Techniques

For the last example, I made soft folds in the vellum, rather than the hard ones that I used when I made the stained glass look. I rubbed them with a Moonstruck stamp pad on the front of the vellum and stamped the dolphin image on the back of the vellum. After the dolphins were dry, I highlighted them with water-color pencils in gray and blue and smeared them with a water brush pen. I completed the waterish look by tearing the vellum and distressing the edge, also with Moonstruck ink. To complete the artwork, I placed the stamped vellum over a cardstock with the stamped image of the whales.

More Vellum Techniques

Stamping with vellum can lead to perfectly ingenius designs. I flat-out LOVE the dolphin picture in the second example. I did something like it using a snowman on some cards I made this last Christmas. To create this effect, you'll use some appropriate stamp (something that would go with water or ice, or you could even use letters). Stamp the image at the top half of the card - onto the cardstock base. Stamp the image again on the bottom side of the vellum (stamp it and turn the vellum over after it is totally dry) to make the mirror appearance. For the dolphins, I enhanced the vellum by "painting" with the water brush using Outdoor Denim ink on the NON-STAMPED side of the vellum and, after tearing the edge of the vellum, distressing that edge with the same Outdoor Denim inkpad.

Vellum Techniques

I love using vellum on my layouts and on cards and years ago, I even taught a workshop on the techniques that can be used with it. It can be a little tricky, but I have some tricks to working with it.

• Use it as your medium for journaling. You can write on it, allowing plenty of drying time, or just print your journaling out onto it from your computer. Vellum sheets will go in most printers just like regular paper.


• Adhering vellum to your project can be the trickiest of all! If I have paper on my vellum like in the example, I'll adhere the vellum to the base using Mono-adhesive right under the paper. If there isn't any paper on the top of the vellum, I'll use another method of connecting the vellum because I just haven't found an adhesive that doesn't show through. I often use brads or eyelets in the corners or use something of the same in the middle and incorporate it into my design. As a last resort, I'll use the tiniest of dots of Liquid Glass to adhere the vellum and then put another on the top of the vellum as decoration.
  


• Make sharp random folds in it to give your artwork a stained glass effect like you can see in the example. You can even color the different sections with markers, intensifying the effect. Chalk or "paint" with a water pen dipped in ink for a more transparent look to the color. CTMH sells several stamps with a stained glass feel too them. Stamping them in black on the top of the vellum after coloring the bottom of the vellum completes the stained glass picture.

Blessing Book

Some friends at our church are moving away and I was torn as to what to do for them. One of our mutual friends suggested a blessing book like she had seen at a shower. Well, that really jazzed me! I got online and began looking up all sorts of quotation websites. I found some great ones - mainly when I "Googled" inspiration and quotation. I also found some great scriptures when I added that word to my search.

Some of them I printed directly off of my computer, but some of them I just wrote up myself using a calligraphy marker. This booklet wasn't hard to make, with 9-inch flaps. I created it by using 4 12x6 inch pieces. I scored 2 of the pieces at 3 inches and again at 9 inches. These 2 pieces I adhered to a 6 x 6 square (which makes up the back of the booklet) so that they were side by side.
Once those two pages are created, make two more exactly the same way. Adhere them directly on top of the first two pages sticking down only the 3-inch flap, side-by-side, just like before. You can see in the picture with the flowers how the flap on the back page, covered with the pink and green plaid, is sticking out on the side.

Once your book is finished, it will have 4 pages, 2 on each side of a 6 x 6 base. Each page is 6 x 6 with a 3 x 6 flap that folds out.

At this point, your 6x6 base has a back cardstock cover and two layers of side-by-side cardstocks (3 x 6 flaps). Use another 6 x 12 piece, scored at 3 and 9, to cover the base. The flaps are folded in, like the picture below and connected with ribbon, a paper strap, or cut stamps like mine shows.


Inside my base flaps, I put yet another 12 x 4 cardstock - this time scored at 4 and 8 in an accordion fold. In this last "locked" booklet, I wrote my regards as well as the poem by Robert Frost called The Road not Taken in this section.

I've seen this type of project done in Christmas paper with little elves all through it. I think it would be great for a baby book using the CTMH paper pack called "Sweet Pea" or a kid book using the new "Animal Cookies" paper pack. For mine, I used a CTMH limited edition called Key to My Heart. I never miss out on the limited editions - especially those with stamp sets included like this one. I LOVE that key and keyhole set! These papers are some of my favorites, and I wish they were still available. BUT, they are very similar to the CTMH Perfect Day papers. Woohoo!

Father's Day Gift Album

I made this up for a workshop coming up this weekend. I got the idea from our newest Idea Book.

I decorated the new 4 x 6 binder first with inks. I sponged it all over with Garden Green, then edged it and distressed the sides of it using Barn Red ink. I distressed the B&T's (from the Back Country Paper pack) with Barn Red as well.

I stamped the letters in Outdoor Denim on Barn Red cardstock and added brass brads and a piece from the new Color Dimensional Elements "Adventure" set to finish off the cover.

This is an example of the inside pages. They are all similar, although each has its own, unique layout. I sponged both sides of each page with Bamboo and edged it with Garden Green. I used both Garden Green cardstock and Back Country B&T paper to matte the pages and added pictures and note.

Each double layout holds a picture of one of my kids and a letter they wrote to their dad. I used more of the "Adventure" Color Dimensional Elements throughout the book, too. Also, to protect the pictures, I put them into envelopes from Clearbags.com. I folded them up behind the picture and adhered them using 3D sponge squares.

Even though it doesn't show, the inside of the front and back covers were set up just like the front cover. I sponged them with Garden Green and distressed them with Barn Red. I used the green B&T that looks like a wood grain for the inside decor. For the back cover, I used the tree paper, centered, over the distressing.

Graduation Album

This great book was easy to put together. Ann didn't want an actual album, but she did want to commemorate the graduation of her brother. We created this using a 12 x 12 cardstock for the back and front covers, page protectors for the inside pages, and a 12 x 4 inch cardstock as the binding for the book. We tied inexpensive tassels that she found in the fabric section of Walmart for the binding. She used a tag and some tassels that she found in the lighting section for decoration on the front.

Each page told a different piece of his journey and saved the memories of his special day. We used an old CTMH kit for this, but our new Silhouette paper package and stickease would be perfect for this project. You can easily add the school color to the pallet by adding some detail stamps to the paper and using matching cardstock as photo matting.

Layouts from Christy

This is another set of layouts from Christy. Notice the silver hinges in the layout with the wedding cake. You can actually use those hinges by cutting a slit in the page protector and threading the "lid" through the slit. I have used things like that before, however I always make the picture the base of the section - under the page protector. I let the "lid" be journaling, artwork, or souvenirs.

In the bottom layout, that issue is remedied with the use of acid-free envelopes from clearbags.com. You can add a stack of pictures to your page just by attaching the protective bags and again, cutting a slit in the page protector to let the stack pull through.

If you try one of these ideas, please share it !

Chelsea's Baby Shower Layout

Chelsea shared this layout. I think it's a great example of using invitations in your layouts. The most important aspect is to make sure you use papers that will coordinate with the invitation. The pink shade that Chelsea used doesn't exactly match the colors on the invitation, but it coordinates - it doesn't clash with the shade.

I'm not a color guru, but I've learned so much about it since I started this journey with CTMH. For instance, this pink has purple overtones. They're not obvious at all, but if you put this pink next to one with orange overtones - like a salmon color - you would see a distinctive and often unpleasant difference.

In this case, while the colors aren't exact, the shading works well together with all the pinks being of the purply variety. The brown she is using is sort of a dark chocolate and also doesn't exactly match, but goes with the brown of the invitation. Browns also have shadings, from green to orange tones. This brown is rather green in tone, but not extremely. She embellished the brown cardstock with an impression machine that did a dry-emboss pattern on it. The "Love" label is from the Cricut, I think. I have the vague impression that it was a temporary label that she planned to switch out with something else, but I may be confusing her with one of the other guests. I think, if it were me, I would stamp the "LOVE" on some of the plain brown cardstock - that hasn't been impressed - in White Daisy. I would cut it out in an oval shape and maybe even edge the oval in the white daisy as well. Then I'd further accent it by raising it on a 3D foam square.

I really like this page! It is simplicity itself, starting with a solid, brightly colored base and having no other paper than a diagonally set design sheet. The only other papers on the layout are small-print mats for the pictures. What a quick way to introduce a section of pages from a singular event!

Perfect Day Double layout!

Brandy used the Perfect Day paper to make this cute double layout.

You know, when I first started scrap-booking, my pages were generally the same: white base, photos on cardstock mattes, title, journaling or captions, and stickers - lots of stickers! How things have changed!

Brandy has used a colored base to start with (Desert Sand) and shows it as a frame on the right layout and with turned-down corners on the left layout. (BTW, did you know that the Perfect Day paper has a design on the back that will show when you bend down the corners?)

No stickers here! Just stamped images and sentiments, ribbon, a paper flower, and accents used to make the tag ties. Scrap-booking has come a LONG way!

Perfect Day layout from Brandy

This paper pack has become a favorite with my club members and retreaters. In this layout, (looks like a variation on an Imagine design?) Brandy also used some of the matching stickease. Checkout the strip on the top left corner, as well as the sentiment and circular embellishment at the bottom. (Could those be pockets??)

The details are really attended to in this layout. The paper tearing at the top is echoed at the bottom and all cut edges are distressed with inking.

This paper highlights the newest colors from CTMH: Tulip (the dark pink), Sorbet (the orangey pink), Juniper (the bluish-green), and Creme' Broulee (the creamy yellow). I can't wait to see this layout when it is complete with pictures!

Limited Edition!

This awesome Key to My Heart paper pack/stamp set is only available until February 5!

Thanks SARAH for sharing these pages! I LOVE them!

The colors are our new ones: Sorbet, Juniper, Tulip, and Creme Brulee. However, if you're seeing this AFTER 2/5/09, don't dismay! This color scheme (and close to it) is available in the Perfect Day paper pack and also some of it is available in the Unforgettable paper pack!

Layouts from Lisa

I love these layouts! The title tells it all and the pictures are great with it!.

I love the way Lisa distressed these papers. She first tore them and then edged them with a dark brown ink that matches the letters she used. She also got more than 10 pictures on her pages by using a flip stack on the bottom right of the pages. She used envelopes from Clearbags.com and cut her pictures to fit into the 4x4 spaces.