My New Gig

First off, I want to thank you all for following me here on this blog (along with any other platform). You may have heard that Close To My Heart is closing. I have loved being an Independent Maker with Close To My Heart over the past 6 years - cannot believe it is that long, time has flown by. 

While I am very sad to see this chapter in my life ending I am very happy to announce that I have signed up with Stampin' Up as an Independent Demonstrator. I have been a long time customer of Stampin' Up and have loved their products for many years. 

I am excited to start this journey with Stampin' Up and look forward to sharing my artwork with you here in the coming months. I hope you continue to follow me and shop with me on my new website here.

Thank you again for all of your continued support!

January 2024 Monthly Recap Layout

Did my first Monthly Recap layout for 2024 during a recent Scrapbook with me. I have been working on catching up on my scrapbooking during these events along with using up my stash of Close To My Heart products. I used the Gnomes for Winter collection for this layout and love how it came out.

The inspiration for this layout came from this sketch from Scrap Much. You can see this sketch along with others here.

The sketch was converted from 12"x12" to 8 1/2" x 11" for my album size. I also converted the photo size to work with the different layout size. I changed up the layout a bit to add more variety of the patterned papers - instead of using the same pattern on the top and bottom of the larger striped strips I used different patterns instead. I also used Zip Strips in place of a couple of the patterns. The title was cut on my Cricut using a cut file I found. The embellishment clusters are a combination of stickers and the acrylic shapes from the Gnomes for Winter collection.

If you are interested in joining me for one of my Scrapbook with me events make sure to Like and Follow my Facebook page to get updates on upcoming events.

I hope you like these layout. Thanks for stopping by!

Sawa Layout

After recovering from the shoulder surgery I could not wait to get out of the house and took advantage of a chance to go out to dinner at a local hibachi restaurant. Always love this kind of food and the experience that you get there. It was definitely a challenge using the chopsticks and eating there with one arm still in a sling though.

The inspiration for this layout came from this sketch from Sketch Savvy. You can see this sketch along with others here.

The sketch was converted from 12"x12" to 8 1/2" x 11" for my album size. I also converted the photo size to work with the different layout size. The title is die cut using the Slimline Alphabet Thin Cuts set and some small letter stickers from my stash. The embellishment clusters are a combination of die cut circles and stars along with some enamel dots from my stash.

If you are interested in joining me for one of my Scrapbook with me events make sure to Like and Follow my Facebook page to get updates on upcoming events.

I hope you like these layout. Thanks for stopping by!

Winter Wonderland Layout

One of the things I love to do is be a vendor at the Ready, Set, Crop Retreat weekends! I had so much fun being a Close To My Heart vendor at the Winter Wonderland weekend in January. It is always great to be there, see familiar faces, meet some new people, and teach classes. I completed this layout during a recent Scrapbook with me and used up the remainder of the Four Seasons: Winter collection from my stash.

The inspiration for this layout came from this sketch from Scrapbooks and Cards Today. You can see this sketch along with others here.

The sketch was converted from 12"x12" to 8 1/2" x 11" for my album size. I also converted the photo size to work with the different layout size. The title is a combination of die cut letters using the Slimline Alphabet Thin Cuts set and some small letter stickers from my stash. The embellishment clusters are a combination of stamped images along with stickers from the Four Seasons: Winter collection.

If you are interested in joining me for one of my Scrapbook with me events make sure to Like and Follow my Facebook page to get updates on upcoming events.

I hope you like these layout. Thanks for stopping by!

Be Mine Layout

The title of the layout is a little misleading in that it is not a Valentine's Day layout but one from a recent cooking class Meghan and I did together called "Be Mine Macaroons". We had so much fun learning how to make these treats from scratch at a local Sur La Table store. Mine did not come out the best but they still tasted great!

The inspiration for this layout came from this sketch from Even More Scrapping. You can see this sketch along with others here.

The sketch was converted from 12"x12" to 8 1/2" x 11" for my album size. I also converted the photo size to work with the different layout size. This was a great stash busting layout as I used up quite a bit of paper and embellishments from my stash for this. The title was die cut using the Simple Serif Thin Cuts set.

If you are interested in joining me for one of my Scrapbook with me events make sure to Like and Follow my Facebook page to get updates on upcoming events.

I hope you like these layout. Thanks for stopping by!

Baked with Love Layout

Started working on my layouts for 2024 with this one I did at a recent Scrapbook with me. Meghan and I love making chocolate chip cookies together and I think we both are to the point where we do not even need the recipe anymore. I used up some more of my stash of the Evergreen collection along with the November/December Mix-Ins for this layout.

The inspiration for this layout came from this sketch from Sketch n Scrap. You can see this sketch along with others here.

I took this 1-page 12"x12" sketch and first converted it to 8 1/2"x11" to fit with my current album size. The title was cut with my Cricut and the embellishments are from my stash. I moved the location of the journal strips to fit better with my photos and layout.

If you are interested in joining me for one of my Scrapbook with me events make sure to Like and Follow my Facebook page to get updates on upcoming events.

I hope you like these layout. Thanks for stopping by!

 

Christmas Day 2023 Layout

I realized I have a couple more layouts from 2023 to complete and share. This one is a 2 page layout I did for Christmas Day. We usually have a very quiet Christmas Day here - just the four of us sleeping in, relaxing and then enjoying a delicious meal at dinner time. This year was no exception. I used up my scraps of the Silver Bells collection from Close To My Heart to finish this layout.

The inspiration for this layout came from this sketch from Sketch n Scrap. You can see this sketch along with others here.

I took this 1-page 12"x12" sketch and first converted it to 8 1/2"x11" to fit with my current album size. I modified the photo sizes for the new layout size. I also took this and flipped the sketch over to add a right-hand side page. I added an additional photo with this page. I added a Flip Flap on the left-hand page to hold a couple extra pictures. I added some faux-stitched lines around the photos using a white gel pen and ruler. The embellishments and title are from the sticker sheet with the Silver Bells collection.

If you are interested in joining me for one of my Scrapbook with me events make sure to Like and Follow my Facebook page to get updates on upcoming events.

I hope you like these layout. Thanks for stopping by!

 

Every Photo Has A Story Layout and a Process Video

I finally did some scrapbooking of my recent shoulder surgery. I had a lot of photos but wanted to keep the layout simple so I used Flip Flaps to add the additional photos and not detract from the layout itself. I pulled out my stash of paper from the Skylark collection that was a recent Bring Back My Pack special from Close To My Heart. I am sharing the details of this layout here along with a process video that you can see at the end of the post.

The inspiration for this layout came from this sketch from Page Maps You can see this sketch along with others here.

I converted this sketch from 12" x 12" to 8 1/2" x 11" as that is the layout size I have been working in. I kept the photos close to the original size but cut down the number on the right page from 3 to 2. I did use Flip Flaps on both pages to add more photos as well as hide some that are a little sensitive - like the picture of the scar on my shoulder. The title was stamped from a set in my stash using Intense Black Exclusive Ink and then I colored in the word STORY using Colorista Pencils. I did some shading variations to darken the bottom of each letter.

You can watch my scrapbook process on this video from my YouTube channel.

If you are interested in joining me for one of my Scrapbook with me events make sure to Like and Follow my Facebook page to get updates on upcoming events.

I hope you like these layout. Thanks for stopping by!