Mini Summer Art Journal

Have you ever seen a handmade art journal that has decorative edge cuts as part of the page design? They are beautiful — and time consuming! I adore their appearance, but don’t usually have the time to devote to their creation.

In recently going through the handbook of one of my Cricut cartridges, I decided that instead of cutting one of the little booklets from card stock, I would use mixed media paper. That way, I could create the small size I wanted, yet use it for whatever suits my mood! I have a large pad of Canson watercolor, 90 lb. paper, which I had picked up on sale. It is heavy enough to take whatever I decide to dish out on my pages. It is 12×18″ so it was easy to cut a 12×12″ sheet to place on the cutting mat. So that’s what I decided to use.

I used the Artbooking Cricut cartridge from Close to My Heart. To maximize my paper, I cut the pages at 5 inches. Now I have a sweet little booklet to use however I want. I may even just do background treatments and still put some little photos in it.

Mini summer art journal from Cricut Artbooking cartridge

Notice the bonus letters from the cut-outs of “summer” and “fun.”

Once I picked out which pages I wanted to use, it was a breeze! I love the fact that there are various sized page heights. I could have made two of the scrolled pages and flipped them opposite ways! Maybe next time.

Check out all the cuts you can do in the Artbooking handbook, and pick yours up here.

What would you do with a little summer art journal? Draw, paint, use it for photos….? Share your ideas in the comments!

KS

Guy Card

If you’re like a lot of us, there are far more cards ready for females than for the men in your life. Here is a quick card that was made with the Timberline paper packet. I love the wood look of one of the papers and the outdoor theme.

Timberline Card Your the Best

Masculine Card

With just a few simple cuts of paper, this card went together quickly.

  • Base of card – 8.5″ x 5.5″ folded in half
  • Decorative paper for front – 5.25″ x 4″ – inked on edges
  • Wood look strip for border strip – 1″ x 5.25″ – inked on edges
  • Thin strip with text – 1/2″ x 5.25″ – inked on edges
  • Circle of decorative paper – 1.25″ – inked on edges
  • Circle of plain paper to stamp greeting – 1″ – inked on edges
  • Hemp twine for bow
  • Small stamp for greeting
  • Ink pad to distress edges
  • Liquid Glass for glossy effect on stamped greeting

close up of greeting circles

The stamped greeting circle was adhered using foam dimensionals to lift it up a little bit, and Liquid Glass was used to give it a glossy finish.

The text strip was a “zip strip” from the top of one of the decorative papers. I love how they give you a little something extra on some of the pages!

Timberline Paper Packet

Timberline Paper Packet by Close to My Heart

This is a perfect paper pack to have on hand for a more masculine look, or if you have anyone who enjoys outdoor activities such a camping, fishing, or hiking! The catalog will soon be changing with new items, so grab a pack of this while it’s still available!  Click here to shop the Timberline collection.

KS

Four Scrapbook Layouts Using Studio J

Since I was out of town, but wanted to get a scrapbook page done each day for the Layout A Day challenge, I decided to turn to the Studio J free online software from Close to My Heart. I knew I had plenty of digital photos, and Studio J would be easy to access while I was away!

When I get ready to create a scrapbook page, I often look through my photos and find some that I haven’t done anything with, but I want to make sure the story gets told. This week I created a page of my daughter’s graduation, a firetruck ride my grandson took, and my granddaughter’s t-ball experience last summer, and photos of a crashed car and new car of another daughter.

The most recent event was a graduation.

graduation
This layout uses the digital kit, Notebook and the layout is 6-photo, Through the Lens.

firetruck ride scrapbook layoutThis layout of a firetruck ride uses the digital kit, Later SK8R, and the 6-photo layout, Golden Section.

tball digital scrapbook layout
This next layout is my granddaughter while playing t-ball during the summer. This is from the digital kit Discovery, using the 7-photo layout Sweet Symphony. I guess my time spent with cameras shows in my journaling, as I spelled “cannon” as “canon,” making it a camera. Luckily I can go back in and fix the  mistake before I print the pages!

new car scrapbook layout
This final layout shows photos of not only a new car my daughter got, but the reason why. A friend of mine said it was sure a pretty layout for such photos! Might as well make it better looking, right? This layout used the digital kit LaBelle Vie, and the 4-photo layout Leading Lady.

If you’d like to find out more about Studio J and how to use it, please let me know by signing up below and you’ll have access to our live and recorded sessions showing what’s it all about and how to create layouts. During each session, we’ll walk through a specific kit and do a layout! Hope to see you there!

 

 

Fast, Easy Digital Scrapbooking with Studio J

digital scrapbooking

Do you have a digital camera and more photos than you could hope to get into a scrapbook in a lifetime?

Do you wish you could do some digital scrapbooking, but don’t know how; and have no time or maybe desire to learn how?

I want to share a great way to do digital scrapbooking, called Studio J, by Close to My Heart.

  • There is no software to buy, download or update.
  • There are no digital kits to buy or keep track of.
  • There is no need to wonder where you put that digital page on your own computer!

Studio J has:

  • Pre-selected digital kits to select from, including embellishments
  • Pre-designed layouts to get you started
  • Drag, drop, click and color!
  • Premium printing

You can create pages in literally minutes, or you can swap out colors and papers to your hearts content!

Join me for a Live Studio J session.

I’ll show you how easy and fast it is to create your own pages and get them printed! Leave your name and email to receive your Studio J session link!  They are recorded, so don’t worry if you can’t make it live. Plus, by leaving your info you’ll receive info on future sessions! Sign up now to get your first link!

It’s going to be fun!

Scrapbooking Sad Topics

Not every scrapbook page has to have an entire journaled story. Sometimes it seems rather therapeutic to write down sad stories, and sometimes you just can’t do it. How do you deal with it on a scrapbook page? That depends on how you feel about others reading your journaling. If it is a private scrapbook, you can do what you wish, it’s yours! If it is an album that is primarily for anyone to look at, you have to decide if you are comfortable letting others read your journaling or not. If you don’t want others to read it, you may like to hide your journaling by tucking it behind elements on your page, or tuck it into a little envelope.

The other option you have is to create a layout with very little or no journaling.

This page is of my sister, who died of liver cancer when she was just 14 months old. I don’t have many photos of her, and have never made a layout with any of the photos I have. I was not very old, and my parents pretty much shielded me as much as possible from their grief and sadness.

She was a pretty baby, and I love these photos. To never acknowledge her seems wrong. So here is a page as an example of turning a sad story into a page I don’t mind sharing.

Scrapping a Sad Story

Since the photos all had such different coloring, they were converted to black and white so that they were not so distracting.

What stories have you been holding off telling? Share your comments with us!

KS