Trends

Scrapbooking has been going through quite a few changes lately.  Your local scrapbook store may have closed and the big box stores have downsized their scrapbook departments.  For those of us who love to create with paper and love to preserve memories this is disheartening.  I am so thankful to work for a company that is committed to memory keeping.  Because of that, not only do they continue to produce traditional scrapbook supplies, they also follow the trends.  One of these trends is the Smash Book.  Close To My Heart has come up with it's own version called My Crush.  It is an on-the-go scrapbook/journaling system that appeals to the younger crowd.  

We recently went on a cruise to the Southern Caribbean with my sister-in-law and brother-in-law.  I always make some sort of mini scrapbook for them.  This year I decided I would make them a My Crush book.  I'll be teaching a class on this wonderful way to document memories at the scrapbook retreat at Singing Hills.  Here is my teaser picture to get the ladies interested in my class.  

I am going to show them how to take this portable My Crush book with them and how they can put everything together.  Does this make you want to make a Crush book of your own?  It's easy.  The book is only $12.95  and there are adorable embellishment assortments that include alphabet stickers, journal cards and envelopes for only $4.95.  It's quite a deal.  You can get this and much more at my website:

www.ctmh.com/claudettelewis

It's Been a While!

I can't believe that we are ready to welcome March in.   Will it come in like a lion or a lamb?  Hard to say with the weather we have had this year.  I know there are lots of people here in New Hampshire who would not be upset if there was no more snowfall this year.  I don't know though, they are predicting another storm for Monday.  I guess we'll wait and see.

You would think that with all the snow days and vacation I would be all caught up with my scrapbooking by now, but not so much.  I love taking the pictures and I love scrapbooking them, but I do not like uploading and printing them.   Next month Close To My Heart has a special for their Studio J layouts.  Just $5.00 a layout.  Ladies, that is a bargain!  I am going to experiment with their new photo well layout and get some of those odd sized pictures printed.  Not mention, I have quite a few pictures that need to be scrapbooked and are not printed yet so I'm going to get some of that done on Studio J.  It makes my heart happy to get caught up.  If you would like to play with Studio J.  Head on over to my website www.ctmh.com/claudettelewis and try it out.  There is no fee for playing.  You only pay for the layouts you order.

I promised I would show you some pictures of my 10-page Christmas layout in my last post.  I know we are thinking about Spring now. But please bear with me and I show you a cute layout using our new Ivy Lane paper pack after.  That should get you in the mood for Spring.  

I apologize for the pictures.  I didn't have the time to play and crop the pictures.

 

Okay, so tell my why this page loaded sideways when none of the others did?

These last two pages are from the Sparkle and Shine Workshop on the Go.  Love the paper?  You cannot get the paper pack anymore, but it is in our Studio J program so stop in and try it out.  

And now, for the new Ivy Lane.  I couldn't resist using this beautiful layout to focus on my beautiful granddaughters.  They are a joy.  

I'm off to get organized for my scrapbook weekend.  I love to spend time visiting with the ladies and scrapping my beautiful family.

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year!

I have been home an extra two days for snow days and I'm loving it.  Yesterday was spent preparing for my 10-page Christmas layout and today was spent putting away Christmas decorations, cleaning the house, and cleaning out my inbox for my email (yes, it hasn't been done in a long time and there was a lot to be done).  

I have also been spending time each day pouring over the new Close To My Heart catalog.  It's so much fun to browse and dream about what I "need."  This year we will have a new scrapbook program called Picture My Life which is like the Project Life program that many have been doing.  I'm so excited to get going on this as I have lots of pictures that need to be scrapped.  If you're wondering how that is different than traditional scrapbooking, here is a quiick view of one of the kits available in February:

I have lots of pictures from our cruise excursion last February to see the Mayan ruins in Belize.  This is the perfect solution to scrap all those extra photos in a jiffy.  I think Picture My Life and traditional scrapbooking will help me to stay on track this year. 

Happy New Year!

Tis The Season

I recently returned from a wonderful trip to visit my son and his family over Thanksgiving.  Last year he was preparing to leave for Afghanistan and his little girl was very sick.  It was a difficult time. He was called away on Thanksgiving Day and didn't even get to eat this special meal with his family.  He then flew to Afghanistan for his birthday.  Happy Birthday right?  That is the life of a soldier.  It made this Thanksgiving so precious. We had so much to be thankful for.  He returned safely and whole from overseas and my granddaughter is doing so much better. We were also able to celebrate his birthday with him this year as it was on Thanksgiving Day. I haven't been able to do that for years. I am so grateful for every minute I get to spend with my boys and their families as that doesn't happen very often.  We are blessed that we are able to travel to visit them.

Since Thanksgiving was so late in the month, it seems that Christmas is right around the corner.  How many of you are hinting about what you would like for Christmas this year.  You will definitely want to put the Artbooking Cricut cartridge on that list for Santa.  It's the easiest cartridge I have for designing and making layouts.  Here is a video that shows a couple of Christmas layouts.  Enjoy!

Fall Into Artbooking

Every time I watch a video from Close To My Heart, I get more ideas about how to create beautiful pages using the Artbooking Cartridge.  This video has a Fall theme and has lots of information about using real dial size.  I can't wait to go down to my creative corner and make these beautiful pages for the hike we took over Columbus Day weekend.  The colors were just beautiful and we had a wonderful day.  But that is a story for another time.  When I complete the pages, I'll tell you the story.  In the meantime, enjoy the video!

Until next time.

As Promised

Here is a picture of the layout I made for my class at Singing Hills:

I loved working with the Huntington paper pack.  It has such beautiful Autumn colors to complement all your wonderful Thanksgiving and Autumn pictures.  This is the second layout from the Close To My Heart Workshop on the Go.  It was so easy to put together!  My students loved creating with this paper pack!  I still have to make the first layout.  When I do, I'll be sure to take more pictures.

This layout I made when I took a class from one of my friends, Nancy Hay:

This is such a cute layout using the Sparkle and Shine paper pack in our Christmas mini catalog. The picture doesn't do it justice.  I loved it so much, that I ordered the Workshop on the Go so I could get the adorable stamp set.  I can't wait to take pictures for this!  

I have two more layouts that I made while at Singing Hills, but I still have to embellish them before I can show them to you.  

Today I spent time looking for my husband's fishing pictures that we've taken over the years.  I was brought back in time while looking through the photos.  It was so much fun to look at all those precious memories we made over the years.  I realized how much work I have to get all those pictures scrapped.  I'm so glad that Close To My Heart is coming out with it's own Project Life.  It's called Picture Life and I cannot wait until it goes live.  Until then, here are a few peeks at what will be available in February!

Avonlea

Babycakes

Chantilly

Later Sk8r

Laughing Lola

Surf's Up

There's something for every occasion!  Aren't they just the cutest?  I cannot wait to order these.  

Back from Singing Hills

I just spent a wonderful weekend at Singing Hills with a group of scrapbooking ladies.  It was great to see the ladies who regularly make the trip for the weekend and it was wonderful to meet new ladies.  One of those ladies was very special.  Peggy had a wonderful personality and kept us all in stitches for the weekend.  I was so blessed to meet her.  While I was there, I had so much fun creating new layouts.  I didn't get many done, but at least I got a few done.  I meant to get some pictures of them today before the sun went down, but alas, the day got away from me.  For some reason, those pictures just aren't the same without natural light.  So here is a picture of the cards I created for one of my classes.  They were so much fun to make.  

Now it's time to plan my Christmas card class.  I love the new sparkle and shine paper,  but the lovely blues in the frosted paper are beautiful.  I guess I'll just have to use both!   Now that those warm summer days are gone, it's time to create once again. 

I found out some exciting news last week.  Close To My Heart will have a new line of products in the Spring and Summer catalog that is similar to Project Life.  The name of this new product is called Picture My Life and I cannot wait to see what will be available.  I am always amazed at how Close To My Heart stays with the trends.  As soon as I get more information, I'll be letting you know.