National Stamping Month - Hello, Life!

September is National Stamping Month, and this year
Close To My Heart has something to help every kind of papercrafter say a big “hello” to life!

Available only during the month of September, these exclusive C-size My Acrylix Hello, Life! stamp sets can be purchased for $13.95 each! Or, for an even better deal, you can purchase all three for only $34.95 - a savings of $6.90! 

Each stamp set is designed to fit with a specific type of papercrafting, whether that’s traditional scrapbooking, cardmaking, or pocket scrapbooking. However, all the stamp sets coordinate with each other and can be used together to create dynamic artwork. These stamp sets also coordinate with shapes from the new Cricut® Artistry collection to help expand your artwork options even further. Remember, these stamp sets are available for one month only, so get your orders in for one stamp set—or all three—before these gorgeous stamps disappear! Make certain to follow Close To My Heart’s blog, Instagram, and Facebook page for artwork inspiration featuring these lively stamp sets all month long. You can post your own artwork to your social media channels using the hashtag #ctmhHelloLife. Visit my website to order yours today!

Timberline Layout

Last October, I turned fifty. Yeah - kind of a big birthday. I wanted to do something special to celebrate, so our family took a day trip to the Grand Canyon. (Have I mentioned how much I love living in Arizona?) It was an amazing day, and I took tons of pictures. It has been a busy year, so I'm just getting around to planning the pages, printing the pictures, and scrapbooking the memories. That's actually kind of fast for me! 

When I have a scrapbooking project that involves a lot of pictures and numerous layouts, I take time to plan. This post from a few years ago tells how I do my page planning. It has worked really well for me and ultimately saves me time when I'm ready to scrap. This time, I printed a contact sheet of my photos which made it much easier to order the photos and sort them. The company where I used to order my photos went out of business, but now I just order my photos through Studio J. It's very easy to do using an Express Collection (Photo Collections or Photo Mixes), which are pages of photo wells in various sizes. If you need a size not included in an Express Collection, you can select the No Limits layout in any of the page collections, which is essentially a blank layout in which you add photo wells or journaling wells of whatever size you want. The quality is great, and the cost per photo is very reasonable.

I had a scrapbooking day with my daughter Saturday, and I started on the Grand Canyon photos. My little notebook has the layouts, photo sizes, and photos listed. The Magic how-to book is on the stand, ready to go!

I've been focused on using up existing paper packets so I can get some of the new papers in good conscience. The paper I selected for this layout is Timberline. I love the way the colors work with the gorgeous colors in the photos!

I like to add some dimension where I can on my pages. The main photo is highlighted by using 3-D Foam Tape, one of my favorite tools. (It also comes in a thin version.) I also found some sweet little wooden embellies in my stash, so I added them to the journaling block. 

I love how these pages turned out, so now I'm eager to continue scrapping this great trip! 

Wanderful WOTG - Part II

As promised, here is the additional layout from the Wanderful Workshop on the Go. I love how easy it is to put these pages together! These pictures are from the super fun girls' weekend in June when my daughter, a friend, and I flew to Maine for a friend's wedding. It's great to capture the details soon after the event before the details are forgotten.

When I make the pages from a Workshop on the Go, I'm always inspired by the creative embellishments. The step-by-step instructions included with the kit make it so easy, and I often apply the techniques to future layouts. The metal chevron embellishment wasn't used in the instructions, but I used it to cover an ink "oops" when I accidentally got some ink from the edge of my block on the page. It happens, so I look at it as an opportunity to creatively fix the mistake.

The large stamped image was fun to make. I stamped it twice: once in Black and once in Crystal Blue. On the Crystal Blue image, I cut the upper and lower half of the globe and paper pieced it onto the Black image. It gives it some dimension, and it was a lot easier than trying to carefully color the stamp in two different inks. Try this technique on your next card or layout! 

Why I Do What I Do . . .

This beautiful video tells the story of why I do what I do - and keep doing it. Memory keeping is precious and worth the investment. 

Wanderful Workshop on the Go

I had the great opportunity to travel to New England in June for a friend's wedding. It was an amazing girls' weekend with another friend, my daughter, and me. We packed a whole lot of fun into the four days we stayed in Maine: a day trip to Boston, a day trip to the Yankee Candle Village in MA, a visit to a charming lighthouse, and lots and lots of "lobstah" rolls and "chowdah."

I took a million pictures (give or take), so I decided to go through my stash of scrapbooking supplies to make some pages to showcase the pictures. I landed on the Wanderful Workshop on the Go. I love the travel-themed papers, and the WOTG makes it so easy to make gorgeous pages. All the thinking and planning is done for me, and all the materials (except for ink) are included in the kit. There are some amazing kits coming in the new Annual Inspirations, so be on the lookout for more! 

Here is the first layout from the workshop. In addition to the main layout, there is also a second layout featured, too. I'm working on that one now and will post in a few days. I used the Cricut Artbooking cartridge on this layout, but there is also an option to make the layout without Cricut. CTMH Cricut cartridge sets now come with cardstock rather than dimensional elements plus three coordinating stamp sets.

A Fresh Start

So, I blinked, and two years passed, just like that. I knew it had been quite a while since I did any blogging, but two years?? We've had a few life changes in that time. It was just about two years ago that I interviewed for a new position with my company and was selected to move from Illinois to Arizona for the new role. I moved first, then my husband and oldest son moved a couple of months later. Less than a year later, my mother moved from Illinois to our home in Arizona, and our youngest son moved out here to finish his last two years of college. During all the moving and adjustments, scrapbooking and stamping went by the wayside for a while. Did I mention we moved twice in two years? Once to a rental house, and a year later to a newly built home. 

After ten months in our new house, I am slowly but surely getting unpacked and settled. It has been a challenge because I don't have a dedicated scrapbook room in this house. I've become very creative with my storage solutions since my scrap area is in the master bedroom! As I'm unpacking the very last of the scrapbooking boxes (no mean feat, I assure you!), I am becoming more and more motivated to get crafty again. The last box I opened contained about 60 stamp sets and a few Cricut cartridges that I've been missing. That was a very sweet surprise! I'm even thinking of becoming a CTMH consultant again. I'll keep you posted on that front. 

I'm excited about getting started again. Thanks for hanging in there - expect to see more of me!