No Time To Scrapbook

How many times have you found yourself saying "I wish I could do that but I just don't have the time anymore"?  I remember life before marriage, kids, a house, you name it when I would have the time to read, create, and scrapbook.  My photos were not in boxes or multiple folders on my computer, they were nicely displayed in albums.  Today I am going to share a little secret with you . . . digital scrapbooking!  I know, crazy right?!  I used to dabble in digital but did not like how I had to download all these different papers to my computer and pay for each kit I wanted to use.  Then I was introduced to Studio J by Close To My Heart and was blown away by how easy it was.  There is no downloading, everything is on the web for you to use.  There is no fee, you can use it for free!  You can upload your pictures and make your layouts at no cost to you!  Really.  If you want copies of the layouts you pay for whatever you want printed out and have it shipped to you.  Here are some samples of the layouts I did this past weekend on Studio J in 30 minutes!

  You also have the option of purchasing a year membership which will give you the following:

• All your prints at 50%discount
• Free shipping on one order a month
• Access to member-only layouts and papers
• Access to member-only special promotions and more

Would you be interested in an additional 22% off your layouts?   Today is the LAST DAY you can sign up as a Consultant for 50% off (less than the cost of a 1-year membership) and you can get all of the membership benefits along with an extra 22% discount on every CTMH product, including your Studio J layouts, plus get 2 extra bundles of awesome products and the You & Me Kit all for only $64.50! (that's over $300 worth of goodies!) Plus, your friends can enjoy the benefits of Studio J as well, and you will get commission on all of their purchases!

• Try Studio J for FREE here 
• Sign up for a Studio J Member ship here
• Order your new consultant kit and get an even bigger discount here 

For more information on Studio J check out Kristine Widtfeldt's article on the Creating Keepsake's Blog or view this video

                                      

Broken People

Broken relationships are different than relationships between broken people.  I think often how "messed up" I am when I interact with my husband, children, friends, family, etc.  I wonder how it is that anyone could love me when I find it so hard to even like me.  Now this is not a post for a pity party or for comments telling me how wonderful I am.  This is just being honest  I know the state of my heart and it is not pretty.  I need changing, I need a Savior and I need to be restored.  And as long as we are being honest, you do too.  Nothing brings this to light more than relationships.  I think of how I mother my children.  How dearly I love them.  I cook for them, bathe them, dress them, cuddle them, read to them, create with them.  I laugh with them, pray with them, play with them.  But then I also scream a them, get frustrated by them, want to be alone without them, and say things I don't mean.  I don't like that about myself.  Yet I am reminded that there is nothing that God can not redeem.  He can and has redeemed me.  He can redeem my children no matter how messed up I think I might make them.

So as I ramble on I am reminded that the best relationship that brings out the worst in me is my marriage.  At a friend's wedding that I attended recently this song was mentioned.  I listened to it and was struck with the thought that this is the best love song I have ever heard.  Seriously.  You listen and tell me if there is a better one out there.

"You bring out the worst in me.  It is a side I need to see."  These words hit home like none other.  I am daily reminded in my marriage of my heart and my need to confess and repent of my sins.  My friend, Kate and her husband have a marriage blog that I just love.  They posted about praying together in your marriage using the Lord's Prayer.  My prayer is that we all remember though we are broken we are forgiven through the blood of Jesus Christ.  Forgiveness isn't free-it cost Jesus everything.  Forgiveness is free-it cost me nothing.    

All things vintage

Love this blog, this woman is real, talented and inspiring!  I love vintage and she does amazing things with all things vintage!  Today she has a giveaway from Vintage Skye.  Check out her store at Etsy for some really beautiful vintage items.  Here are a few to get you inspired!

I could go crazy with these!  Love them all!!   

Color

"Colors, like features, follow the changes of the emotion." ~ Picasso

I love color!  Bright colors like red, orange and yellow.  Cool colors like green, purple and blue.  And every color in between.  I'm even learning to like pink.

This week the challenge at the colourQ was red, yellow, brown and white.  Here is what I did with it.  

I got the idea for the box bag from Jaime Benavides.  I am going to give this to my hostess, I love the idea and it was super easy.  I'm really pleased with the way it turned out.  

Products used:

Cardstock: Colonial White & Cranberry  

Paper: Mayberry

Stamp Sets: You & Me,  Thank You, and Find Your Style

Embelishments: Kraft Ready Made Borders, Mocha Opaques    

Since this is a bag and anything but a card it would also work for the Heart 2 Heart challenge this week but I already posted a layout for that challenge.  Oh well.  At least I'm having fun and creating a lot this week!  

   

Creative Workshop

This Saturday, May 28, 2011  at 1:00 pm I'm going to have a creative workshop at my house.  I'm super excited to do a scrapbook page with you and show you some new techniques I'm learning.  If you are not into scrapbooking come on out anyway and I will have a card and materials for you to make.  This is all free for you!  So take a few hours from the busyness of life and come play with some great Close To My Heart products.  I'm looking forward to creating with you.  Please contact me if you are coming so I know how many people to prepare for.  Here is a sample of what we will be making . . .

Schooling options - Already?

I remember the first time I had a "play date" for my son with friends of mine and their kids.  He was not quite a year old and the conversation turned to schooling.  What are you going to do for schooling?  I remember thinking "what am I going to do for schooling?  I'm still wondering what I'm going to do about this small child that demands so much of my attention.  Not to mention the fact that I am pregnant again with a surprise - yeah I'm still trying to figure out what I'm going to do about that!  Schooling?!"  This is my son at the time of this discussion.

 Well here I am just a few days later (or at least it feels like that) and my oldest is ready to enter Kindergarten in the fall.  What am I going to do about schooling?  My family now . . .

There was a time in my life when I believed the words "homeschooling" and "me" would never be in the same sentence!  But now my husband and I are giving it some serious thought.  For those of you who do homeschooling and those of you who don't, for those of you who are thinking about it and for those of you who know you will never think about it I recommend this post by Ann Voskamp, Why Would Anyone Be Crazy Enough To Homeschool?.  I found it very helpful for me, hope it helps you!  

Summer Days

 . . . drifting away but Oh those Summer Nights!  I love Grease!  And I love Summer!  The warmer weather, soaking up the sun, fun in the water, my kids can run and play all day outside.  I just am so thankful for the seasons and am really ready for summer.

Anyway, this week's Heart to Heart Challange was ABC anything but a card.  This was an easy one for me because most of what I do is not a card but hard because I'm just not sure my art is "challange" worthy yet.  This layout I came up with all on my own.  I wanted to try the stitching over a stamp ever since I saw it on Jeannette's blog and really love how the sun turned out.  It was quite time consuming though and I'm not sure I'll try something to this scale again in the near future but I do love the end result.

Heart 2 Heart Challange

I just joined Close To My Heart this month as an independent consultant because I love to scrapbook AND because they had such an awesome deal that was too good to pass up!  I'm still not sure I'm going to be able to make this a business but I know how much I will use the products I got.  It was like Christmas in May when I received my kit.  Check out all you can get ($300 worth of products) for $65 this month only!
This week on Heart to Heart Challenges they wanted us to show our favorite technique.  Well I'm still learning so many different techniques (and having so much fun doing it!) but I think my favorite so far is sponging.  I love the look of sponging, the easy of making subtle or more intense color and the way you can coordinate your colors with any of the 60 exclusive inks offered. I especially like that I can make my white cardstock ANY color!  In this layout I used the sponge to ink the letters in the title and the circles to make the pink flower.

   Last week Stephanie Huber showed us how to make these flowers.  They were so easy once I got the hang of it.  It did take me a few tries.  You can use the circle punch to make six circles.  (I used the cricuit for these because I wanted my flowers slightly smaller)  Then I sponged the circles with smoothie ink.

Then I folded the circles to form a cone.

After making six cones, I glued them to a slightly larger circle with the points meeting in the center, added a brad and . . . FLOWER! 

I loved them so much I used them to make a card and I'm sure I'll use them in more layouts of my little girl!
Just another reason I am enjoying Close To My Heart!

Weekends are for Singing

So its the weekend and I think on weekends I'll share some songs that move me.  I love to listen to music when I'm cleaning or doing the dishes.  My children and I dance to music on the computer or from the radio.  We make our own music with dishes, toys and even singing.  If you walk by my house on any given day you might hear what sounds like dying animals but no worries it is just me and my kids playing music band.  To be honest it is the sound of dying animals I'd rather have you hear than me screaming at the kids (which happens more than I care to admit-forgive me Jesus).

 The truth of who I am . . . I am broken, I have "paper skin" and I need Jesus every single minute of every single day!

"By the grace of God I am what I am . . ." I Corinthians 15:10

and finally may you remember where it is that our strength comes from

 

. . . and Me & You

Here are the scrapbook layouts I did using the You & Me kit designed especially for National Scrapbooking Month.  Like I said before I love how you can do both a masculine and feminine layout with this kit.  My favorite (besides the stamp set) is the vintage look to these layouts.  Absolutely in love with them!  The ones pictured above I plan on adding pictures of my little girl from her one year pictures.  Then this layout below I am going to add pictures of all three of my kids.

  In addition to the two layouts I made six cards with the leftover scraps of paper, irresistibles, opaques,
and stamp set.  

After I was done with the cards I found another strip of paper and I still have tons of opaques left so I am going to make another card.  The only thing I added that did not come with the kit was a Kraft Color-Ready Border on the pink celebrate card and a stamp from the Thank You stamp set (which is also available in French and Spanish).
So as you can see this You & Me kit available only this month is a great deal!  I made two layouts and six cards with the materials in this kit.  Have I mentioned how much I love this kit?!  

You & Me

I can not explain in words how much I love this kit.  I love the paper choices.  I love the vintage look.  I love the stamp set.  I love that you can use it for both feminine and masculine layouts.  I love, love, love this You and Me Kit.  I also love the song by the Turtles which was in the singing card that my hubby gave me for Valentine's Day but I digress.  So the first thing I did with the stamp set was two sets of cards for my son's preschool teachers.  I got the idea from Lisa Stenz and I love her blog.  She references Valerie for the box idea. I used the basic template but adjusted it slightly.   For the Box I took a 12x12 piece of cardstock and pasted it to a 12x12 piece of patterned paper from the Mayberry papers.  I found that just one piece of patterned paper was not sturdy enough of a box for my liking.  Then I cut the paper down to 8 1/2 x 12 .  I scored at 1" and 2" on both sides and the top of the paper.  The bottom of the paper I scored at 2" and 3" then I folded and cut to come up with this.

 
  Then using the You & Me stamp set I made a set of six cards and lined envelopes following Lisa's tutorial.

                                 ( I used the Bohemian Alphabet Stamp to make this monogram card)

These were super easy and so much fun to make.  I'm offering a class on Monday, June 6th at 7:00pm.  You will learn how to make the box, line your envelopes with patterned paper, and use the You & Me stamp set (from the May National Scrapbooking Month Kit) to make clean and simple Thank You cards.  The cost for this class will be $10 or $5 with a $25 order.  Because the kit is only available in May if you order the kit this month the class will be free for you.

Contact me for more information, questions or to order a kit.  I'm super excited about teaching some of the techniques I've learned and hope you will join me.  Please contact me no later than May 27th if you are interested in joining the class or ordering a kit.

Another Giveaway

Check out this adorable apron made by my friend Rachel on her blog.  Super, super cute!   

Lilla Rose Clips

Found Lilla Rose clips on-line and they look adorable.  Check out Stephanie's blog for a giveaway today! 

A New Love

So I've been scrapbooking since I was in high school and I love it!  I love to create art with color, paper and pictures.  I'm biased I know but my kids a super cute and need to be displayed in works of art.  I love simple and I hate pink.  Those things have never changed.  Something in my scrapbooking has recently changed, however and that is stamping.  STAMPING?!  I always hated to stamp anything.  I can make cards, labels, frames, scrapbooks, etc but I hated using stamps.  The blocks were big and bulky, the stamps always "half stamped" or smudged and I was never satisfied with the results.  Then last fall I was invited to a Close To My Heart (CTMH) party by a dear friend of mine.  I use to scrapbook with her a lot but had not seen her since we had moved.  So I went and was blown away by the ease of these stamps!  I'm serious.  They are beautiful, flexible and acrylic so you can see through them!  Never had stamping been so easy or resulted in such perfectly beautiful (and simple) images.  I was sold.  It is so super easy even my three year old can stamp perfect images with it.

This month is National Scrapbooking Month and CTMH has an unbelieveable deal.  I signed up because I was able to get the kit at 50% discount (that is over $300 worth of product for $65).  In addition I got the new You and Me Kit only available for this Month.  I love this kit!  So this month I'm going to post different cards and layouts that I'm doing with this kit and the stamp.  It is amazing!  Check out the video below for the layouts you can do.  Maybe the "hating pink" thing is changing too!  Contact me if you are interested in hosting a gathering at your own home to make a layout or card with your friends.   

Why Blog?

I have been following many blogs for quite some time now and find such a wealth of knowledge and inspiration from these people.  I love to cook but women who share recipes and cooking tips like Ree with a sense of humor and bit of spice inspire me to be a better chef in my own tiny kitchen.  Then there are women who making cleaning their home sound fun and baking doable (I'm not a baker by any means!) like Lindsay.  She is such an encouragement in my role as a mother, homemaker, wife of a youth pastor and child of God. 
I know I can find inspiration everywhere but sometimes I forget.  I forget that the drops of rain outside forming puddles which reflect the green from the Catalpa speak of the Creator and shout to my kids "jump in me".  I forget the music that plays on my computer, kitchen CD player or from the mouths of my precious children is the music singing within my own soul. I need reminders and find them in books and blogs.
Kat makes me want to be a better woman inspiring me to not just know about my Heavenly Father but to study Him.  My ultimate favorite blogger right now is the author of One Thousand Gifts.  In January, I was encouraged by Lindsay on passionate homemaking to put together a reading list.  I did and on that list was Ann Voskamp's book One Thousand Gifts.  This was before the book became a New York Best Seller, and I read it in a day.  It has changed my life.  I have always known that being content with the now was so important and so I prayed for contentment.  As a mother of young children I often find myself wishing my kids were older.  "When they are all out of diapers" or "when they can dress themselves"  then I will be content.  But then that stage comes and I'm not.  Ann's challenge to start a gratitude journal has prompted me to do the same and my life is changing because of it!
So all these beautiful, godly, honest women are blogging and I thought maybe I should blog.  Then I immediately thought "why should I blog?  what could I possibly have to say that isn't out there on the web already?  These women have so much to share-I don't."  Sure my kids do funny things (at least funny to me) and I am an insane woman so my thoughts might be of interest to others but really . . . So why an I blogging?  Well because I need somewhere to put my thoughts, and I want to share my creative nature.  Because God is teaching me things all the time and I want to share what He is doing in my life, even if it is small and seems insignificant.  So here you will find my musings on my own broken life, my marvel that God loves even me, and my creations aka art.  I hope you will find inspiration and encouragement here and on the other blogs I have shared.  God says to you and me "you are precious and honored in my sight, and . . . I love you." (Isaiah 43:4)

The day I came up with the title for my blog I received this devotion from Proverbs 31 Ministries and it confirmed in my mind that indeed I am broken but I am loved and I am treasured.  We can be restored and healed.  So are you, my friend!  Be inspired and go inspire someone else . . .