Bye-bye birdies!

For those who were actually looking forward to my flashback last week - sorry I just totally spaced it! I had been super busy with a major project deadline (which I will share later, I promise - right now it's top secret) and Friday completely got away from me! This is the last week of school for the girls, so maybe I'll post a new flashback this week - if I get a chance!

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Do you remember last year and our feathered friends? You can check them out here - here - and here. Well, the birds came back again this year - luckily (for us) they didn't build their nest on our porch light like they did last year. Instead they built it on our privacy 'wall' on our deck - which was probably a bad idea (for them - you'll see why later). We were anxious to see them leave so we could finish our deck and painting our house (as you can tell by our pictures below, it needs major work!), but we didn't want to see them gone so soon!

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April 22nd - as they are building the nest

May 2nd - we see eggs!

May 13th - we see another nest in the tree in our front yard. Unfortunately they are a lot higher up and hard to watch. This is a bad pic because the only way I could take a picture was through the window.

May 20th - we first notice baby birds!

We had fun watching them for a couple of days. As we worked outside on Saturday we would see them being fed - and sometimes when we would walk out onto our deck when the momma bird was gone, the babies would poke their heads up. Sadly, Sunday after church, we came home to find a sad scene. We're not exactly sure what happened, but there are no more birdies and we found lots of carnage at the scene. We suspect a cat was able to climb up there and get to them - this is why we think the wall was a poor choice. We're sad that we won't get to watch these ones grow up like we did last year, but I guess now we can move on with our house work - as long as the weather will cooperate!

Weekend Activities

Brianna did a terrific job at her dance recital this weekend. Kaylee missed it and wants to do it again next year, and of course now that Brailee is 3, she is excited that she is old enough to start, too! I enjoyed this year knowing that next year could be crazy with 3 girls dancing!

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Here is her ballet costume - they danced to a song called "Candle on the Water"

And here she is in her tap costume with her BFF Aubrey. Unfortunately they are not in the same class, but they had fun together during the recital. Brianna's class danced to a song called "My Guy" and Aubrey's class did "Brass Monkey"

My favorite dance of the night (besides Brianna, of course) was the all-boy group that danced to "Move It, Move It!" It was a hit!
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Thanks for looking!

Over the Rainbow

I can't believe how long it's been since I've shared something NEW and made of actual paper! I think Studio J may just become my new best friend this summer to make me feel like I'm creating something and not getting behind in my scrapbooking!

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This was the free Make & Take card I created for my Open House, which was last week. Actually, I can't say I created it, because I didn't even get my sample done before people started showing up! Yikes! I had it all in my head - paper pack to use, stamp set, ink colors needed, Wishes pattern to use, etc, and I was going to throw it all together after I set things up for my Open House and waited for people to show up. Well, as I was setting up, the Census man showed up - now he didn't take too long, but it was just enough to throw me off. And then just before my Open House was scheduled to start, I get a call from the girls' school - Kaylee had fallen and banged up her leg and head pretty bad coming in from recess. She was okay (at the moment) but they just wanted to let me know so I could keep an eye on her that night. So, Open House begins and it started off hopping - plus I had a couple ladies that I told could come early, so I didn't get a chance to pop out my card. But I did cut all the pieces for them and showed them what I had in mind and just let them do what they wanted. It was fun to see what they came up with! Then about 30 minutes later I get another call from the school - now they want Kaylee to come home, so I had to leave my Open House to pick her up. Thanks to my awesome ladies who were there and were so understanding and stuck around while I picked up Kaylee, especially since I had just put Trysten down for his nap. BTW - she was fine, just a little sore - she came home and rested for a few hours and ended up playing at their last soccer game that night! Anyway, it was just a busy day and I didn't even make my card until after my Open House, before I put everything away! Okay, enough jabber, here is my card!

And then since I had leftover pieces and another idea, I made another one - this time I flipped the pattern.

Products Used - all CTMH: Wishes Pattern - Simple Expression, NEW Splendor paper pack, NEW Over the Rainbow stamp set, Summer and Winter Brads, Colonial White ricrac, Goldrush, Heavenly Blue, Moonstruck, Bamboo, and Topiary inks, Edge Distressor.

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Thanks for looking!

Flashback Friday

Are you sick of seeing pictures of our house yet? If you're wanting to see some paper projects, check back tomorrow as I will be posting something new - gasp!

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This week's flashback is our Master Bedroom. Here it is before...


And here it is shortly after we moved in - we painted the walls a pretty green color - which David never liked, but he lived with it ;-)


Then Fall of 2008 we repainted our room this pretty brown color - I would call it Desert Sand for all you CTMH fans ;-) And last month we re-textured all the walls and painted it the same color and took our old fan from our Living Room and installed it in our bedroom. I never thought I would like a fan in the bedroom, but the few warm nights we've had, it's been pretty nice so far!

And here is our new bed - I love all the storage! Before, we had 3 mismatched dressers to hold all of our clothes and our room was always cluttered and not very pretty. We purchased this storage bed and matching dresser and it fits everything perfectly. We really like our room now!

Thanks for looking!

Flashback Friday

This week's flashback is our upstairs Living Room. Here is the fireplace BEFORE (look how little Brianna was!):

David sanded and re-stained the mantle, and we painted the bookshelves...

And here is the fireplace AFTER:

And some cute little kids playing IN the bookshelf ;-)

Here is the wall and the door going out to the backyard - BEFORE:

I don't have a picture of the door and wall before we painted it red, but you can kind of see it in the picture above with the fireplace. Here it is after we painted it red in the Fall of 2005:

And then in the Fall of 2009, David replaced our sliding door - this new one has blinds INSIDE the window - I LOVE it! This door faces West, so when the sun sets, it's nice to be able to keep out the glare. Plus this door is SO much easier to open and we finally have a screen again. I just have to be careful because sometimes even Trysten can get it open!

And here are the stairs BEFORE - the ballisters (sp?) were a major safety hazard - wide enough for a kid to fit through!

So David ripped them out and put in new ones, sanded down the pole...

...and re-stained it all. Here it is AFTER:

Thanks for joining me on another Flashback! If you missed my past House Project posts and want to see what else we have done, just click on the following links:

Upstairs Bathrooms

Bedroom 1

Kitchen/Dining Room

Thanks for looking!

Flashback Friday

This week's flashback is our kitchen and dining room. Here it is before we bought the house - what did I tell you about the WALLPAPER in this house! I will say the kitchen is probably my least favorite feature of our house, even updated. I wish I had a bar to do projects and cookies and stuff at with the kids, and the flooring and countertops need to be updated, but this is what we've got for now! Here is the kitchen - BEFORE:

Notice the shutters - you'll see them again later - or not!

And here it is after we got our hands on it - we took down all the wallpaper and painted, and we also installed a microwave/vent over the stove. We did this work right after moving in, but for some reason the only pictures I could find were taken almost a year and a half later.

Notice the shutters again - we painted them at first but scroll down to see what we did to them with our latest update.

Then in the Spring of 2006, we painted our cabinets (but I couldn't find a picture from when we did that) and last week we finished replacing the baseboard and repainted the kitchen walls again just to freshen it up. It's amazing what a coat of paint can do to some outdated cabinets. I have always wanted to do a wash technique with glaze on them but I've never gotten around to it.

We also eventually replaced the light fixtures. Oh, and remember the shutters? Well, when David took them off so we could repaint last week, I was just amazed at how much bigger that window seemed, so I said leave them off and I LOVE my window now! We put up some mini blinds for privacy since this window faces the front of the house, but it's just so much brighter now. I think I may add a valance or some sort of window treatment - any suggestions?

And the dining room:

BEFORE:

AFTER - but this is not a completely updated picture, we just replaced all the baseboard so it looks a little better now:

Thanks for looking and joining me on my little Flashback!

Today...

...marks my 5 year Anniversary as a CTMH Consultant! I signed up just for the discount (before I had EVER seen or played with the products) but after I got my Consultant Kit just a few days later, and had my Jump Start Gathering a few days after that, I was HOOKED! I am continually blown away by the amazing products that CTMH produces, and I have learned so much and really played with my creativity over the last 5 years. I haven't had a chance to attend any Corp events yet, like Convention or Album Retreat or anything, but I have made lots of friends through CTMH - hopefully one day I'll get to go and meet all of the fabulous people that I have met online. I have won a few artwork contests, which is fun, and have something *in the works* that you'll have to stay tuned for. It's been an exciting adventure - thanks for letting me share!

5 Things...

...I simply can't live without! This week's challenge over at Sketches! {by tamara} is a journaling challenge from Joan, one of the Design Team Members. The challenge is to make a layout about the 5 Material Things you cannot live without. This was a bit of a challenge for me since I did this layout with NO pictures - I guess I *could* have taken pictures of myself eating these goodies, but that would NOT have been pretty ;-P With all of these journaling challenges, I have also challenged myself to use my own handwriting! I don't like my handwriting, and I like to have things centered or lined up just perfect, so using my own handwriting is difficult for me sometimes, but I know it is important to have in my scrapbooks! Anyway, here is the layout that I created - I chose treats for my topic...

This was the last month for this current Design Team - I sure had a lot of fun and I was really challenged, especially to find the time to get my projects done! I hope to be on more Design

Teams in the future, but for now I have a lot of other things to take care of first. Hopefully I still find the time to get creative once in a while!

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Thanks for visiting!

Studio J Release!

Studio J is now available to the public! Scroll down to find out more - I've posted some FAQ's about Studio J. Or hop on over to my website HERE to start your Studio J projects now! Here is another fun layout that I created using Studio J.


This is one of my favorite layouts! I used one of my absolute favorite paper packs, Life Delights - this paper is retired, but available on Studio J, so I don't have to worry about ever running out! I also ordered 2 of this layout and gave a copy to Kayt's mom - I very rarely duplicate a layout because of the time and effort but this just took a click of the mouse to change the quantity to 2! I also love being able to see my pictures in place to see if that's where I really want them to go. I originally had a different picture as my 5x7, but changed it to this one instead. When I scrapbook Traditionally, I admit that I waste lots of pictures because they end up being the wrong size or the wrong picture - with Studio J there are no wasted prints!



What is Studio J?

Studio J™ is free online scrapbooking design software brought to you by Close To My Heart. Studio J helps you easily create custom-printed two-page layouts using our foundational scrapbook patterns, exclusive color palette, and themed designs all delivered in 12" × 12" custom prints ready for your albums. It’s a snap!

Is Studio J easy to use?

Studio J software is extremely intuitive and easy to use. The program walks you through five steps that include:
*upload some of your favorite photos
*choose from one of the 54 awesome My Reflections Kits (including most of your faves from our Idea Books plus some that are exclusive to Studio J).
*choose a layout pattern. There are MANY to choose from. They are like the patterns you'll find in our wonderful "how to" books like Cherish, Imagine, Reflections. The possibilities are endless because all the patterns you can choose from can be rotated 3 ways and flip flopped.
*now personalize! You get to drop your photos in, add text, choose cardstock and background and texture papers from the kit, add accessories (just about every accessory item you can imagine!), distressing, titling, MyStickease, and so much more.
*save and/or buy your layout(s).

It’s super simple and extremely fun to use!

I love Close To My Heart products. Will Studio J use the same great papers, patterns, colors, and embellishments?

Of course! If you love Close To My Heart’s scrapbooking philosophy, then you will love Studio J.

Do I need to download any software to my computer to use Studio J?

Not at all! You only need an Internet connection, and then you simply log in to my MyCTMH website and click on the Studio J link to get started. Feel free to design to your heart’s content—you are not required to buy anything or provide any personal information to get started!

Can I save what I am working on and come back to it later?

You bet! You can create a customer profile that allows you to save and return to a project in progress at a later time. Your active projects will be saved for up to 90 days, giving you plenty of time to work on them. You extend that timeline for your active projects by 90 days each time you make a purchase, and your purchased projects will remain archived for one full year after purchase.

Do I need a printer that can print 12" × 12" pages to use Studio J?

No. Your Studio J layouts are not available for you to print from a home computer. In fact, we take care of the printing for you. When you purchase your designed layouts, we print and ship them quickly and directly to you using only top quality printing technology and archival-quality papers.

What is the price?

You are not charged a thing until you order your custom prints. The price per printed two-page layout is $12.95. We also offer some fantastic rewards for larger orders. You can receive FREE Memory Protectors® to protect your layouts in your albums, and FREE shipping/handling based on the number of layout prints you purchase in a single order as follows:

*For 5–9 layout purchases: You’ll receive a pack of 5 Memory Protectors FREE!
*For 10–20 layout purchases: You’ll receive FREE shipping/handling PLUS a FREE pack of 5 Memory Protectors for every 5 layouts in your single order.

When can I begin creating with Studio J?

As of today, April 27th, you can now start creating layouts with Studio J!

Studio J Catch-up!

I had fully intended on sharing Studio J every day until the release date (which is tomorrow, BTW!) but our phone has been down since Saturday, which meant no internet, either ;-( We got it fixed this afternoon, so I'm back up and running and now I'm going to do a quick catch-up! This is what I was going to post the last three days that I've been MIA!

Something that I love about Studio J is that I can still distress my pages! You may not be able to tell in my pictures here, but all the edges of my papers are distressed - and my fingers are still clean ;-) You can also make your ribbon and accessories any color you choose (from within that paper pack) - here I chose Sunflower ribbon, which I would not have been able to do with a Traditional layout! So far with all of my Studio J layouts I have used the suggested accessories, or Toggle Accessories, just for ease of use, but you don't have to use them and you can accessorize the page as you see fit!

Something else I love about Studio J is that I can make the journaling and the title any color, font, size, etc, that I want to. I made the journaling Autumn Terracotta here and it shows up on the Cocoa paper - if I had done this as a Traditional layout, I would have had to create my journaling on a lighter piece in order for it to show up. I also had fun playing with the Stickease on this layout - lots of layers!

There are a few things that I love about Studio J that I did on this layout. First, I used a retired paper pack, but it's available on Studio J, so I don't miss out! Second, it's fun to play around with the same pattern - you may notice this is the same layout that Brianna used on her Halloween pages, I just used different paper. I also love that I can play around with the pictures and try them out in different places on the layout. I moved a few around to make them work with the embellishments and to tell the story.

Thanks for looking - I hope you're all as excited as me to see the endless possibilities with Studio J!

Studio J -

I love how quick and easy Studio J is - here is another layout that I did using some pictures from Halloween of 2006.

Something else I love about Studio J is the selection of paper. In addition to the regular paper packs, there are some exclusive and even retired paper packs available for use! Each Idea Book cycle, Close To My Heart adds one new, themed kit available only in Studio J. The kit I used here is called Boo! and is exclusive to Studio J. I also love that I can change the size of the Stickease - you can't do that with Classic Scrapbooking! It was so easy to work with the journaling and the Stickease all on the page and make it fit together just how I wanted it.

Thanks for looking - stay tuned for more Studio J artwork as we get closer to the release on April 27th!