April 5 for $5 Card Class Instructions

Hey ladies! Thanks for your patience in getting these pictures and instructions up! We had a great class with some fun new ladies this month! Be sure to bring a new pal next class so you can pick a prize out of my goodie basket (valued up to $34.95!!) Kari, Anja and Becky all got to pick prizes this month! On to the fun!

This first card pictured is from the Miracle kit, which we also worked with during Play Dates. Featured stamp set is Fill in the Blank. The clouds are stamped using the flower stamp. Remember with our My Acrylix stamps you can position them on the block any way you want and they just spring back to their original form when you pull them off! So smush some clouds, baby! The butterflies are adhered only in the center to lift the wings up a bit as if in flight. Edges are distressed with Desert Sand using the Direct to Paper technique - just rub the ink pad along the edge for as bold and edge as you wish! The words on your Sweet Leaf piece are barely inked to give it a sponged effect. Remember to click on the picture to zoom in to see detail!

Anj requested this one because she LOVES buttons! Using Salutations Seals, we stamped the Buttercup piece then the White Daisy piece with the same stamp. Using the Circle Punch, punch your buttercup piece around the stamp and then using Micro Tip scissors, trim around the edge of the stamped image on the White Daisy piece. Adhere the white over the buttercup using the stamped image as a guide and set aside. Dry emboss the front of the hollyhock base every 1/2 inch, making sure the raised image is facing out from the front. You can do this by running your stylus down the groove in your paper trimmer - make sure the face is down. Then lightly sand the surface to expose the white core. Adhere as shown.

Over The Rainbow is such a fun, cheerful set. This is my dark twisted spin! Lol! Cut out the center, black rainbow band and adhere in the space between the two Pansy Purple bands. Then trim around the whole image. Cut out the cloud and cut down the center. I sponged the edges in Pansy Purple, also. Cut out the tags, "Somewhere" and "Over the" and Direct to Paper distress with Pansy Purple. In this image, the letters for "hill" are from the Lots of Dots Irresistibles cardstock adhesive-backed alphabet. For your kit, I just Cricut cut the letters in Pansy Purple to keep the cost for the kit at $5. You could achieve a similar result by stamping in White Daisy pigment ink and/or embossing with White Daisy embossing powder.

This is on a Desert Sand base and most if it is done for you! Cut out the red lantern and adhere with some 3D Foam Tape and the hanging "strings" with a Chocolate, Desert Sand or Black marker. This was inspired by Vicki Wizniuk's art.

This 5 inch square card is from the Hope For Japan set, available now until April 30th. It's discounted at only $5 for this A-size stamp set and all profits go directly to the American Red Cross and their efforts in Japan. Papers are a retired paper kit, That's Amore, plus Black and Colonial White Cardstock. The central image is stamped twice. Once on the main square pieced and once more on a scrap, then punched with our 2" Scallop Circle Punch. After sponging the edges of the scallop in black, the image is overlaid to match the image below with a little 3D Foam Tape. Card design by Karen Pedersen - yet another wonderful reason for becoming a Consultant on my team!

Thanks so much for stopping by! My next 5 for $5 card class is the first Thursday of the month, on May 5th at 630 pm. Let me know if you would like to attend or would like to purchase a kit.

Warm wishes,

Whole Wheat Bread

Who doesn't love fresh bread warm from the oven, er... bread machine? I know I certainly do - it's my worst weakness! I thought I would share with you this recipe. It's my best success story at a long line of failed bread recipes! Too, dry, too flat, too flaky, too doughy. You name it, we've tried it. This is the best recipe ever, though! Who'd have thought to try recipes for regular bread in the bread machine? Winner, winner, chicken dinner!

And speaking of winners, I just have to congratulate Yvonne Wickham on signing her first downline, Sara Armstrong! Welcome to the team, Sara! Now, without further ado..

Simple Whole Wheat Bread

1 cup warm water
5/8 (.25 oz) package dry active yeast (one slightly rounded tsp.)
1 Tablespoon and 2-1/4 teaspoon honey
1-2/3 cups all purpose flour
1 Tablespoon butter, melted
1 Tablespoon and 2-1/4 teaspoons honey
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup and 4 Tablespoons whole wheat flour
2 teaspoons butter, melted

1. In a small glass, mix warm water, yeast and 1 Tablespoon and 2-1/4 teaspoons honey. In the bread machine, add 1 2/3 cup all purpose flour, then pour in the yeast mixture. Mix until just combined and let set for 30 minutes or until big and bubbly.
2. Add 1 Tablespoon melted butter,  1 Tablespoon and 2-1/4 teaspoons honey, salt and 1 cup plus 4 Tablespoons whole wheat flour.
3. Start your bread machine cycle as directed. I set mine at the smaller 1.5 lb. loaf size, and light color. It shows 2 hours and 53 minutes on the display for the cycle time. (I actually stop it at about 27-25 minutes to go on the bake time.)
4. After the mix cycle and during the first rise cycle, brush approx. 1 teaspoon melted butter over the top. This makes the crust really soft. Then on the final rise cycle, brush the second teaspoon over the top.
5. Don't forget to pull it out early at about 27-25 minutes to go.

The recipe originally made 3 loaves in the oven in 9x5 bread loaf pans on 350 for 25-30 minutes in case you've a hankerin' to do it the old fashioned way.

I hope you enjoy it as much as my family does!

Warm wishes,

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Happy Birthday cards tonight

Tonight for my card class we're making a few birthday cards. Here's a sneak peak...

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Crazy Big Sale and New For April

I'm a day late sharing the new April stuff because of April Fool's Day. If you didn't read my post, you SHOULD! You'll be amazed. I know I was! Scroll down to yesterday's post or read it here and leave me a comment!

Before I get to the April specials, though, I just had to share that there is a Crazy Big SALE going on right now on my website! Check it out here. Close To My Heart has bundled some paper packs, stickease, and accessories together and priced them at over 50% off, some much more than that! It's only while supplies last so get yours TODAY!

Take the photo you see above, for example. This bundle includes the Cherry-O Level 1 scrapbooking kit ($9.95 value), Level 2 Paper Pack ($12.95 value), the Cherry-O MyStickease Assortment ($4.95 value) and the Cherry-O Connections Textured Stickers ($4.15 value). This bundle's total value is $32.00 and is on sale while supplies last for $15.00. No foolin'!

Remember, if you spend $100 (before shipping and tax) on my website during April, you'll not only get a Level 1 Kit of your choice FREE ($9.95 value), but you'll also get the April Stamp of the Month FREE ($22.95). That's about $33 worth of FREE stuff. That deserves another YOWZA!

Ok, so I mentioned some of the great campaigns for April, but here they are outlined for you:

. The April Stamp of the Month looks like this (remember, the actual size of the carrier sheet is 6" x 6"):
My good friend Karen Pedersen has created some Mau-velous cards featuring this stamp set using the color combo of Chocolate, Cotton Candy, Pear and White Daisy. They are just beautiful and I'll show you a few of them throughout the month with the details on how to make them. Now, let me tell you how you can get this set at a discounted price...or even for FREE!

* earn it FREE when you spend $100 or more (before shipping and tax)
* earn it for 75% off ($5.74) when you spend $75 or more (before shipping and tax)
* earn it for 50% off ($11.74) when you spend $50 or more (before shipping and tax)
* earn it for 25% off ($17.21) when you spend $25 or more (before shipping and tax)
* purchase it for full retail price ($22.95)

You'll notice in #2 below that special hinges on spending $100 as well. When you spend $100 in April you not only get the Stamp of the Month ($22.95 value) FREE, but you also get a Level 1 Kit ($9.95 value) FREE. That is a total of $32.90 FREE when you spend $100 on my website in April. So what are you waiting for? Start shopping!

2. April's "Lovin' Level 1" Special: During April, when you place an order of $100 on my website, you’ll receive one My Reflections^® Level 1 kit ($9.95 value) of your choice FREE. Choose from several popular Level 1 kits. You’ll also qualify for a free April Stamp of the Month ($22.95 value) set! Now that’s a deal. Start shopping on my website here.

3. April's "Sparkle with Studio J" Special: This April, it’s time to let your Studio J^®layouts shine with this exclusive, members-only campaign! Studio J members get free bling when they buy 10 layouts this month. Bling it up and bling it on with FREE packages (one of each) self-adhesive Sparkles and Opaques Pearl gems! Click here to start with Studio J.

4. Hope For Japan: This is a special stamp set designed just for Japan and the current crisis. 100% of proceeds go to the American Red Cross to assist with their efforts in Japan. I don't make any commission on this set and it's important to me that you know that. I think this is a great way to help do a little to help a lot! This set is available until April 30th and you can buy as many as you want. They'd make great gifts, wouldn't they? My set just arrived yesterday and I can't wait to get started on some great art. It makes me feel good knowing I'm doing my part.

How's that for a fun-filled, jam-packed, truer-than-true, no foolin' post for April Fool's Day?


Warm wishes,

Happy April Fool's Day!

The joke is, apparently, on us.

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Last Round

This first layout today, is a pattern that is exclusive to Studio J members. In addition to patterns, there are also paper kits exclusive to Studio J Members. Then on top of that there are Studio Paper kits that are not available in traditional paper kits. Still with me?

Fantastic! This layout was super easy! I changed the chocolate base from a Colonial White one, but all the other elements are the same as what was suggested. It took me about 20 minutes from starting up the computer to adding this to my shopping cart!

Yay! The final page! This one illustrates the toggle effect. When you select a kit it will have some basic embellishments suggested for you. If you don't like what they suggest, you can simply turn them "off" by toggling the switch located under "Embellishments" on the left tool bar. If you have the gray showing of an uncolored embellishment, it will print that way (you get a warning at checkout), but if you toggle them off they disappear as if they were never there. If you change your mind you can toggle them back on. For this layout, I actually put ribbons in the same general places, but the original one on the left page went right across Aidan's face. You can't simply move one that is one of the originals, so I toggled off and added my own. Then I changed the ribbons on the right side to match. Perfect!

Warm wishes,

Day four of Marsh Lake

Before we get started, just a reminder to get your Studio J orders in before the end of the month if you are a member so you can get your freebies! Also, the March block party ends tomorrow at 11:59 p.m. Let me know when you want your free My Acrylix block!

One thing I love about the Unitahs is its temper. Take this layout, the picture on the left side is from that morning while Brandon and the kids were out fishing (the very small blob of red on the right shore in the trees.) The picture on the right side was taken a few hours later in the midst of one of the worst rain storms I have ever seen up there! When the storms get fired up, they rip, but it's short-lived in the summer and only last a few hours. I used to hate the rain, but I've come to love it! (And a good thing, because it rains A LOT in the Uintahs!)

The brads on this page were duplicated with the copy and paste option. It's great because you can exactly replicate the spacing and alignment by simply grouping your embellishments (hold the shift button down, then click on each one to be grouped) then click "copy". When you "paste" they will show the same blue line around each one indicating it is still selected. I find it's easiest to orient it first (rotate) before the drag and drop. Then move your mouse over one of the elements then hold and drag where you want it.

All three layouts are pages in which I changed the paper combinations after the initial load. After you choose your paper kit and your layout pattern, it will prompt you with 6 choices of papers and colors. I am not a fan of white space and often prefer to have a dark paper as my base rather than the Colonial White or White Daisy that is suggested in the basic pattern. If you see one you don't like, don't worry! You can always change the paper afterward! In both layout 1 and 2 the Colonial White base was changed to New England Ivy with a click of the mouse! Simply select the paper you want changed and click on the box of colors. It will prompt you with the suggested colors for the kit then below that you can choose from all 60 colors of cardstock. If you want a B&T as in layout 1, you choose paper from the left tool bar and it will give you a selection of the pattern papers available with the kit. It's how I changed the B&T to the distressed Barn Red.

I hope you've enjoyed today's layouts! They have been so much fun to create in Studio J. I'm totally hooked now, and I'm actually getting caught up on my 10-year scrapbooking hiatus! I LOVE IT! You can see the final 3 layouts from our trip on tomorrow's post.

Warm wishes,

Two More Studio J Layouts

These two layouts are from our second day in Marsh Lake. Yes, I take A LOT of pictures. Don't make fun, it was difficult to weed it down to the ones I got, lol! The tips for these pages are less visible, but I wanted to tell you about them just the same.

 This first layout was one of my fastest! I didn't edit any of the photos and I kept the kit the way it was originally designed. However, it didn't always look like this! Notice the Butterfly in the bottom left corner. I loved this photo when I shot it, but the butterfly was much smaller in the overall photo. Through the magic of cropping, though I zoomed in to see the detail then saved it. Fast forward to Studio J time. On my first layout I wanted to highlight the butterfly - it was such a random event -we'd been driving slow waiting for the kids to catch up when low and behold this butterfly landed on the road practically under our feet! So I added this photo to a 4x6 photo well. Up pops a little yellow triangle with an exclamation point in it similar to the one below.

This symbol tells you your photo doesn't have enough resolution to look good in the size you have chosen. You can either rescan and/or resize it and upload it again or choose a smaller photo well. So I chose a layout that had a small photo well where it would still be prominent in the layout. I'm so glad Studio J tells me this because the photo looked fine on my computer's image editor, but if I had printed it for a traditional layout it wouldn't have turned out.

Layout number two uses a few of the same techniques we've rehashed, like text boxes over My Stickease on the Checklist, and in this case, even some stitching! The title is created with the Title Tool, which uses the My Stickease Alphabet and easily matches the spacing and proportion for you. I added a text box beneath "Under" to finish the title. Just remove the "paper" from the text box to get a clear background and you can add text over anything - photos, Stickease, titles. Thirdly, the right side journalling box was modified from the original which covered all 3 papers below the photos across the whole page. I just didn't have that much journalling for this page, despite Studio J's ability to scale the font to the box size, so I deleted the Journal text box, then added another that I could size to my specifications and finished it off with some brads.

Check out this video by Tresa Black about why Studio J is so fabulous!

Stay tuned this week for more Marsh Lake coverage and Studio J tips and don't forget to take advantage of the Block Party Constant Campaign, now through March 31st where you can get a free My Acrylix block with your $25 stamp order!

Warm wishes,

Studio J and Marsh Lake

Good morning! I can't believe how much I've learned about Studio J in just playing around online. Did you know you play and you never have to pay unless you decide to print? Sure! I know you'll love it if you try it, too. I mean check these pages out? And best of all, I got free shipping, free page protectors, free jpegs to put on my website and I have a full-size jpeg stored and backed up in addition to my professionally printed scrapbook, all for only $3.25 per page (as a consultant I get an additional 22% off - totally worth it even if all you do is hobby!) Learn more about the savings with Studio J memberships by contacting me today!

The first layout uses multiple My Stickease branches to create a log pole in which to stick the journalling "signs". This is a small branch copied and pasted several times to get the desired height for the amount of journalling. The "signs" are a Title, "On the Trail", shrunk down to the size I wanted and then text boxes added  to create journalling strips. The photos on both layouts have been fixed in Studio J to make the colors pop a bit more by tweaking the brightness and contrast. I also gave the center logging picture a surreal effect by changing the hue and saturation.

I confess I may have given myself a face lift on the second page... It's not the best picture. It needed all the help I could give it! A little airbrushing magic and glare removal were all that was needed. I couldn't help the hair, but, eh. You do what you can.

***Studio J Members, have you got your layouts in for the month? There's still time to save on shipping and sheet protectors with your minimum purchase of 4 layouts!***

Warm wishes,

PS- Happy Birthday to Jeanette Lynton our founder and CEO of Close To My Heart!

Marsh Lake Album

Tip #1 - You can resize all of the My Stickease up to 200%! The tags and title have all been changed from their original sizes. 

I'm so excited, I finally finished by Studio J album of our trip to Marsh Lake this past summer! (Click on the photos to seem them bigger and read the journaling!) After watching all of the online tutorials by fellow consultant, Amy Ulen (she has 16 now), I've really had the itch to get these done. I've had them uploaded for several months now, but never could find the time. Silly me! That's what Studio J is for! 

This weekend I completed TWELVE 2-page layouts from our trip to Marsh and 5 MORE from our Disneyland vacation over Christmas! I NEVER would have finished that many with traditional scrapbooking. Well, you know me. I take an hour just to pick out the layout I want to use! Studio J makes it easy though because you can easily choose a layout based on the number of photos, just like our pattern books, but it also gives you 6 kit suggestions to start with the papers picked! This simple feature takes out most of the time I waste wondering what to do! Then, click, drag and drop and you're done!

After having lost my photos many times over the years due to technological malfunctions, viruses, and most recently - Garrett, I LOVE the security of knowing my photos are securely stored online just waiting for my login to scrap them!

Tip #2 - Place a text box over your My Stickease to customize them. Check out the beaver's sign!

I also loved that I could use Back Country My Reflections Kit to get my camping photos done. I've had them sitting in my files so long the paper kit retired! There are at least four exclusive kits in Studio J that have never been released in paper and every kit since 2008 is still available. Never miss a trick!

I'll be showing off my work throughout the week so make sure to stop by and see how our trip went. Don't forget, from now until April 30th, you can order the Hope For Japan A-size set for only $5 and 100% goes to the American Red Cross Japan Relief Fund. See this special set here, and order it here. The block party is still going on through the end of March. Get a free 3x3 or 6x2-1/2 My Acrylix block with your $25 stamp purchase. Shop my website or contact me today!

Warm wishes,