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

 

Scrapbooking a Story Without an Exact Photo

In the scheme of telling your own story on scrapbook pages, you may come across stories for which you have no exact photo. What do you do? Should you just forget telling the story? No, no, no! TELL the story anyway.

A picture may be worth a thousand words, but a paragraph can tell the story with or without the photo. Today, I wanted to tell about my first bedroom that was such a beautiful place for a little girl! I don’t know of a single picture that exists of that room. We moved from that home when I was seven years old, and my next bedrooms looked nothing like it. What to do, what to do.

The room was lavender and white, so I used that as the main color scheme for my page! The story was told, and a picture added from that timeframe of my childhood.

LOAD514-Day 2
The story includes how my mom was refinishing furniture before it was even trendy! She refinished an iron and brass bed, painting it white. The bed was repainted yellow for my own girls, and then used by my first granddaughter! I’m sure my mom didn’t have any idea how many little girls would use that bed frame!

The story of the bed frame will probably get another visit on future pages, because I know there are pictures of it in the girls’ rooms. Just because I told about the bed once, doesn’t mean I can’t tell it again. After all, it will somebody else’s story!

What ways have used to tell a story without an exact photo for the story?

KS

Layout-A-Day, May 2014

It’s another month of the challenge from LayoutADay.com to create a scrapbook page each day this month! Whether I complete the challenge or not, I’ll have more pages done than I would normally have. Participating is always fun because we post photos of our pages in a group on Flickr.

During these challenges, I have created many pages about my own life. If I don’t tell my story, who will? The daily prompts of LOAD inspire stories that I would probably not have thought about on my own. All of the members different pages are so diverse and it is always fun to see the different stories created from the same prompt of the day.

Today, I went WAY back in my story — the year I was born! With the internet, it is fairly easy to come up with all kinds of facts for a page like this. dMarie.com has a great feature called “Time Capsule.” All you do is just pop in the date and it pull together all kinds of facts about headlines, songs, prices of day-to-day items and more.  Here’s a look at my page.

LOAD514-01-Kristie Sloan

Close to My Heart Special Deal!

Many of you know how crazy I am about scrapbooking, and also technology! I love scrapbooking the old fashioned paper way, digitally, and even hybrid (combing a little of both!)  So recently, when I found out that Close to My Heart was offering to throw in a Cricut bundle with new consultant sign-ups, I couldn’t resist!

The special Close to My Heart (CTMH) Cricut bundles are packed full with each cartridge having 700 images, 3 coordinating stamp sets, and 2 coordinating sheets of white chipboard embellishments! Because I love to share good things with you, I would be remiss if I didn’t tell YOU about the great deal going on until April 30th. Until the end of April, you can join Close to My Heart for $99, and select a free Cricut bundle (normally $99 alone!). That means you are getting over $408 of retail product for just $99. So what’s the catch? There is none!

Close to My Heart April 2014 offer

You will have from now until the end of September to decide exactly what you want to do with Close to My Heart — whether you want to continue as a hobbiest to receive the discount, or you want to build your business, or it’s not anything you want to continue with. It’s all up to you, no foul, no harm!

The company has both fantastic products and customer service! You are not required to keep inventory, so it is easy to get started with the new consultants kit!

Details:

  • Spring/Summer Consultant Kit is only $99 plus shipping and tax (about $124)
  • It includes over $300 worth of “real” product…inks, multiple stamp sets, 3 acrylic blocks, stamp cleaner and scrubber, several embellishment packs, trim, adhesive, liquid glass, inking sponge,printed chipboard, 2 design book and more
  • PLUS your choice of 1 CTMH Cricut Cartridge Bundle: ART PHILOSOPHY, ARTISTE OR ARTBOOKING that includes 3 matching stamp sets and 2 sheets of white chipboard embellishments
  • You do NOT have a quota for April, May, June so enjoy your kit, start showing friends and family the products and see if you have people interested in ordering from you as a CTMH Consultant
  • If you or anyone wants to order they can do so online through your free CTMH website you get and product ships directly to them so you don’t even have to deliver anything …remember you get a 22% on all orders placed including your own.
  • If you want to continue being a Consultant you have a $300 quota each quarter to meet…your first quarter is July, August, September (that’s only $100 a month and easy to do if you try).
  • If you don’t sell $300 total for July, August and September then at end of September you stop being a consultant automatically and get to keep all your kit …

So it is totally worth it to give CTMH a try….and join my team of consultants and I will help you in anyway I can while we have fun!

Why join my group?

  • You will receive a free “Whisper to Go” (that’s a project pdf instructions for the cartridge you selected when you join -courtesy of Cara Mlller)
  • You will receive a free monthly exclusive project pdf with color photos and detailed instruction for a different project designed by me using one of the CTHM Cricut Cartridges including a Cricut Craft Room and Design Space file
  • You get access to our private CTMH Team Facebook group to learn more tips and techniques using your CTMH products OR help growing your own CTMH team
  • You will be able to enter a monthly drawing for a PRIZE in our private CTMH Facebook group
  • You will be able to have fun using our CTMH products and sharing our projects and ideas

How to sign up:

SIGN UP TODAY (OR ANYTIME APRIL 1-APRIL 30TH) @ kristiesloan.ctmh.com Sign Up is easy. You can do everything electronically by going to my website:

  1. Go to kristiesloan.ctmh.com
  2. Click on “Opportunities,” select “Be a Consultant,” the click “Let’s get started.”
  3. It’ll take you into the application.
  4. It should only take less than 5 minutes to complete the application.
  5. You’ll receive a confirmation e-mail from CTMH within a few days (and sometimes immediately), at which time you’ll have access to the website (with the username and password you selected on the application). You will receive your kit in about 1 week!

I will be notified you signed up and will send you an invite to the CTMH Facebook Group and help you get started. Let me know what questions you have…I hope you will consider ordering the Spring/Summer Consultant kit and join me on this new CTMH venture and have fun doing it with me.

What’s in the Spring/Summer new consultant kit:

  • Read Me First Letter
  • Spring/Summer 2014 Idea Books (qty. 10)
  • Hostess Order Forms (qty. 25)
  • Customer Order Forms (qty. 25)
  • Close To My Heart Color Swatches (W471)
  • Spring/Summer 2014 B&T Duos™ Sampler (W1127)
  • Petite Perks™ Delicate Wings Incentive Stamp Set (qty. 5) (W2028)
  • Reflections™ Scrapbook Program (9037)
  • Originals Card Confidence Program™ (9036)
  • Workshops on the Go™ Skylark Scrapbooking Kit (G1072)
  • Skylark Complements Dimensional Elements (X7177C)
  • Skylark B&T Duos™ Bulk Paper (BULK322)
  • Skylark Bulk Resin Flowers (BULK340)
  • Durables Triangle Studs (Z1928)
  • Teal Shimmer Trim (Z1918)
  • Lagoon Exclusive Inks™ Pad (Z2195)
  • Desert Sand Exclusive Inks™ Pad (Z2118)
  • Slate Exclusive Inks™ Pad (Z2173)
  • My Acrylix™ Hopscotch Alphabet Stamp Set (E1028)
  • My Acrylix™ True to Life Stamp Set (C1575)
  • My Acrylix™ Believe in Yourself Stamp Set (C1574)
  • 3″ × 3″ My Acrylix™ Block (Y1006)
  • 4″ × 5″ My Acrylix™ Block (Y1012)
  • 2″ × 6½” My Acrylix™ Block (Y1010)
  • Non-Stick Micro-Tip Scissors (Z1836)
  • My Acrylix™ Stamp Scrubber (Z1782)
  • My Acrylix™ Spritz Cleaner (1778)
  • Bonding Memories™ Glue (1512)
  • Sponge (Z697)
  • Liquid Glass (Z679)
  • and Cello Bags (qty. 25) (W1152)

Check out the handbooks for each one of the CTMH Cricut cartridges.

Cricut Art Philosophy Handbook        Cricut Artiste Handbook        Cricut Art Booking Handbook