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In The Snow on Throwback Thursday

January 28, 2016 by Carol

It is “Throwback Thursday” so I thought I would grab a snowball and throw it back about 8 years to a scrapbook page with 3 of my grandchildren and their parents. So you ever look back on old scrapbook pages and think “ugg”? This color pallet is not available anymore and I think it is a good thing. The matting color doesn’t make anything pop and while the blue dies match the ground Audrey is standing on, it isn’t doing anything for me now.These papers actually came in a paperpack with the cardstock.

That is the thing with looking back, I love looking at those precious little faces, the trends and my talent didn’t always go together. And while I might cringe at the colors now, it shows how much different my style is now. It shows your development in the craft. Don’t go back and redo older scrapbook pages, they tell a story about how you as a crafter have grown as well as the family story told on the page itself. There is a companion page that has the journaling on it, I will look for it and post it a bit later for you.

I will tell you though, I still love the way these rub-ons look – rubbed right over the photo itself. It doesn’t detract from the photo like writing on the photo does (you know who you are). Makes me sooo glad pictures are digital now so I can go back and try to remove the writing someone thought was a good idea…not! I also really thought I was clever putting the title on tags… remember when they were all the rage in scrapbooking?

Now it is YOUR turn. Send me pictures of your early scrapbook pages You can also send via text to 801-597-4896 so I can post them on Throwback Thursday.

What Color Do You Want to See?

January 27, 2016 by Carol

There has been a lot of talk lately from customers that say they want more choices in album covers like we have seen in past years – in the photo to the left. So I ask you, my wonderful readers, Are you happy with the album colors we have now or do you
prefer a wider range of colors, and if so, which colors would you like to see?

If you are new to scrapbooking, you can read more about choosing your album size in this post.

I have posted all the current albums in the individual photos – each with a link to the page it can be ordered on. I really want to know which one of what we are selling at this time is your favorite and if none appeal to you, tell me what does. It is only by voicing our opinions we can affect change. Please leave a comment below and tell me what YOU think.

Do You Like Handmade Family Cookbooks?

January 24, 2016 by Carol

Our love of food comes starts in the home very early in life. Maybe we were good babies and ate everything we were fed, but somehow I doubt it. Most of us have special memories surrounding foods, whether it be a holiday standard like green beans with mushroom soup and fried onions on top or what your mother made you when you were sad. Since I reserve Sunday for family centered activities, I am going to be posting our family recipes on Sundays. As we get further into the year, I will be inviting you to make a family cookbook. If you don’t have your own recipes, feel free to use mine!

I will be using Microsoft Word so it will be easy for you to copy and paste onto cards if you desire the recipe. So here is my favorite Peanut Butter Cookie Recipe. It comes straight out of the Betty Crocker Cookbook my mother had when I was a child.

Peanut Butter Cookies

¼ c granulated sugar
¼ c brown sugar
¼ c peanut butter
¼ c shortening
¼ c butter/margarine, softened
1 egg
1 ¼ c all purpose flour
¼ tsp baking soda
½ tsp baking powder
¼ tsp salt

Directions:

Mix sugars, peanut butter, shortening, butter and egg in large bowl. Stir in remaining ingredients. Cover and refrigerate about 2 hours or until firm.
Heat Oven to 375° F
Shape dough into 1 1/4″ balls. Place about 3 inches apart on an ungreased cookie sheet. Flatten in a crisscross pattern with fork dipped into sugar. (I think my mom used flour)
Bake nine to ten (9-10) minutes or until golden brown. Cool 5 minutes; remove from cookie sheet. Cool on wire rack.

That’s it. Easy as could be. I hope you enjoy this recipe and the series featured every Sunday. Here is a recipe cards that were posted last year, not done by me, but they give you a good idea of things you can do with the recipes.

Creatively, Carol

How Do You Keep Track of Everything?

January 20, 2016 by Carol

Trying to keep track of everything going on in your life, along with your kids lives can be a daunting challenge. Our smartphones are great but do you ever wish you could see everything at once, like in the days before smartphones ruled our lives? There is something to be said for “writing it down”, it helps commit things to memory. It actually helps to see time laid out in front of you. Maybe you think planners are boring compared to the techie manner of keeping your calendar. I would like to share with you the planner Close to my Heart debuted last month.

You can build your planner they way it works for you. With a beautiful hardcover black album with gold foil design. 9⅜” × 8¼” × 1½”; 1″ 3-ring. The binder is even covered inside with photo safe paper. Close to my Heart has reduced the price of the 2016 page pack from ~~$15.95~~ down to $4.95! They even have page protectors that fit in this binder so you could use the special Picture My Life cards. These cards are great for recording birthdays and special occasions that you can use year after year. Click here to order yours today!

Leave a comment and tell me what you think of our new Close to my Heart planner system.

A Funny Thing Happened When I Began to Shred

January 19, 2016 by Carol

With the beginning of a new year comes that clean out bug… and so I decided I could use that spot in the garage that held past tax envelopes .. like 1995! But a funny thing happened when I opened the envelope and started looking at all the supporting documents. I found dates! I knew I was only going to scan the tax document itself – I can’t truly toss them from my life as there is something about the Ghost of IRS Passed that seems to linger in the back of my mind. Anyway as I was saying. I found dates. I found a check for a trip to Gold Beach for my youngest son’s basketball camp. I remember doing a scrapbook page about his camp, but I had never dated the layout or journaling. Now I have a clue as to when the camp was held and can add that to the page.

You never know where you will find details to help your scrapbooking and memory keeping. . Keep an open mind and your eyes wide open for hints that will complete the story you are trying to tell. Another hint is to date the back of your scrapbook pages so you can see your progress and style over the years.

Carol

Organization in the New Year

January 2, 2016 by Carol

Do your photos look like this? — Pile of old black and white family photographs on a table

If you are like me your computer is full of photos, maybe even 2 or 3 copies of the same photograph. I have a goal for this year that you might want to tag along with and that is to organize the photos in your computer (s). I have never been very dilligent when it comes to labeling my photos – thinking there is plenty of time to do that later. Well, since I just found and labeled Christmas 2010 I find that thinking flawed. So as I plan and begin to get all my photographs sorted, I thought I would take you along for the ride. Please leave comments below if you think it is a good idea, have a suggestion about how I am doing it – I don’t think of everything, and if so inclined, work on yours along with me. I will set aside 15 minutes each day to sort photos. Life is busy and it is easy to get lost in old photographs. As you may know, I am a traditional scrapbooker, but I will also upload some pictures for Studio J Digital Photographs, which can simply be added to an album when printed.

I truly believe all photos should be backed up to the web, because of a failed external drive and not having a clue what pictures I may have lost. However, Cloud storage got me where I am today – lots of clouds with no sort of organization. Making sure your storage on your computer is available is really the first step. I found lots of unused storage on mine. You will want to download all your photos from the various clouds you have them stored in. After we clean up the copies so there is just one of each, labeled and tagged, I will upload the entire lot to Amazon because as a Prime member, you have unlimited storage of photos.

Here are the first steps to an organized set of photos:

Write down all the clouds you have photos on – we will use this later
Starting with the pictures that are currently stored on your computer. (In my case, I have 2 computers and 3 external drives.) I am using my laptop as “home base” as it is the easiest to use while watching tv with the family or not just sitting at my desk.
Create a few main files, Mine are listed as “People 1/1/2016,Misc Pics 1-1-2016 and Craft 1-1-2016.” These will be further sorted later, but this is my first step. Duplicates are easier to find if in the same folders.
Spend 15 minutes to sort pictures on your computer into these files. I suggest setting a timer since it is easy to get lost in this process.
After your 15 minutes are up, Take a look in each folder, do you see duplicates yet? If so, delete one of the photos after making sure your information like date picture taken, or tags have been added to the picture you are keeping. Also delete any blurry pictures if you can’t identify what it was you were trying to take a picture of.

This step will keep you busy until next Saturday morning when we will start dealing with the clouds. If your weather is really cold, this is a great way to still make good use of your time.

Happy New Year 2016!

January 1, 2016 by Carol

I would like to wish you all a Very Happy New Year! I have lots of wonderful things coming in 2016 and I can’t wait to share them with you. My Goal for this year is a blog post every day, projects, sketches, and specials. So come on back when the sun comes up and see what I have for you.

The Busiest Week of the Year?

December 17, 2015 by Carol

What is your busiest week of the year? Do you find the Christmas holiday stressful? You are not alone. So many things to check, did I remember everyone I wanted to? Do I have all the food for Christmas Dinner? Wrapping last minute Christmas Gifts should not be an extra stressor, so I wanted to share with you a simple little wrapping that will help with that chore: Some of the products are no longer available, but you will get the idea.

Small Holiday gift bag

Every year I need to give a gift card or two. To me gift cards don’t give that personal feeling of giving a special gift. So my way of sharing that special feeling is to create a special gift bag. This small bag is perfect for a gift card.

Supplies

X7146B Wonderland My Reflections® paper packet
C1469 December 25^th My Acrylix® Stamp Set
Z2160 Twilight Exclusives Ink® Pad
Z1104 Sparkles® Clear
Z1686 Art of Philosophy Cricut Cartridge
Z1468 Top Coats® Icing Overlays
Z1360 Designer Brads Rhinestone
Z1081 Colonial White Waxy Flax®
Z1397 Edge Distresser
Z1772 Memory Glue Dots
1512 Bonding Memories® Glue
Piercing tool

Step 1

Using Twilight cardstock cut your box using (fit to page) Font layer <square1>.Fold and adhere side and bottom. Cut out Snowflake <snowflake2> at 2” in white daisy cardstock. Cut tag <Tag1> in white daisy 1 ¾ “.Hint: The size is marked on the stamp set carrier sheet.

Step 2

.Cut your patterned paper to decorate gift bag. Use the Edge Distresser to rough edges. This will give it the look of snow. Adhere the patterned paper to bag.

Step 3

Adhere an icing snowflake over the white daisy snowflake. When using the top coats there is a protective coating on them, you need to remove coating from both sides. Use the piercing tool to pierce the center of the snowflakes and adhere the Designer Rhinestone brad. Use a glue dot to adhere snowflake to the bag.

Step 4

Stamp gift tag and adhere sparkles, Attach to the tag to handle with white waxy flax and enjoy.

If you need some help picking current products to make your bag, or help choosing thing

Creatively, Carol

Do You Feel Like the White Rabbit in Alice in Wonderland?

December 5, 2015 by Carol

This is a great picture of how I feel this morning. I have a list a mile long and I know when the rest of the house wakes up, the time to accomplish what I want to do will be cut in half. Do you ever feel like that? I know part of it is the time of year, but sadly, most of the stuff on my list isn’t Christmas related, not directly.

I would like to be able to post some relative content that will feed your creative side, provide answers to your questions and offer you some video to make things a bit simplier to do but I need your help. What are you struggling with? Is it time to do your projects? a place to make them? Perhaps you need a layout to kickstart your mojo. I want to be there to help however it would be more productive if I knew what everyone wanted to know or what they needed.

Your assignment for today is to leave a comment below and tell me how I can help you achieve what you desire. Do you have a question that needs answering? A technique you want to learn, or need a video on just how to do it? Leave me a comment below so I can make sure to answer your questions and make this blog more relevant to your needs.

Now I better get started on my list, Have a wonderfully creative day!!

Creatively, Carol

Motivational Monday –

October 26, 2015 by Carol

I keeping with our Sangria Theme this month, I wanted to share the layout as it is on Studio J. I also used the left side of this layout in a Facebook post with a darling little girl. I love how the focal picture on the left could be an explanation for the pictures on the right side. We have been doing Sangria in our Sketches this month, how are you feeling about the color theme? do you like the layouts? Have you tried them??

Leave a message and let me know!

Motivational Monday – Sangria Continues

October 19, 2015 by Carol

I hope your Monday is starting out well. Last week I showed you the first layout in the Studio J Express Collection of Sangria. Today I have the 2nd layout for you. Please remember, if you want to do these layouts in Studio J, our digital scrapbook program, you only have 2 months they are available and then they are gone forever. I love Studio J for ideas, then you can add your own twist to make it your own.

This is such a sweet color set for a family of girls, but what do you think if you have a family of boys? Leave a comment below and let me know!

Don’t You Just Love Getting Handmade Cards

October 8, 2015 by Carol

Our mailboxes don’t usually come with nice surprises. If you are like me, you set your bills and such up online so you don’t have to deal with them in the mailbox, and let’s face it… it is easier. But wouldn’t it be nice if when we did make the trip to the mailbox there was a beautiful card waiting to be opened with YOUR name on it ! I think we forget about snail mail sometimes, but just think of the smile on that person’s face when they see it. It is time to take back sending cards and making people smile. Every Thursday I will post a card sketch that is pretty easy to put together even if you are a beginner. I hear you.. “That’s easy for you to say!”. But what if I can guarentee you that you can make a beautiful card? Would you give it a try? That is my challenge to all of you. Here is a sketch to start you off with. When your card is completed, send me a copy via text @ 801-597-4896 or e-mail and be entered into the monthly drawing for a Oldie but Goodie Stamp Set.

If you need help in how to get started, let me know. I am happy to create a set of tutorials taking you from the very beginning!

Start with a piece of cardstock of your choice and cut to 5 1/2 ” x 8 1/2″ and fold it in half. Next is a rectangle 3″ x 4 1/2″ use a punch for the bottom and go from there. What’s that I hear? You don’t have any tools to even get this far? Click on the links and take a look. Yes, some you can get at a local craft store with a coupon, but will they get online and help you out? I can always jump on Skype and show you what you need! Call me if you need help!! 801-597-4896

Memory Keeping is About Celebrating Relationships

October 6, 2015 by Carol

Memory keeping is about celebrating relationships. Whether you do it by just taking the pictures or by scrapbooking you are recording those great memories for your world to see. Family is important, whether it be your immediate family or your extended family. You might not think that recording those every day family moments are important to record but let me tell you a little story about a young man who was fascinated with bees. When he saw a picture of our great grandmother.

Here is a short video about celebrating relationships.

Leave me a comment below and tell me your thoughts on the subject of memory keeping.

Motivational Monday -San Diego State University Football

October 5, 2015 by Carol

It’s Motivational Monday so are you ready for some motivation for your scrapbooks? Today’s sketch is taken from the Studio J files. Do you do any digital scrapbooking? I know there are a lot of people that don’t have the time to scrapbook all their photos, but still want the ability to display their photos in a nice album. Studio J is just the ticket for those times. It is important to remember that Studio J is a limited time product and will be going away for good. If you have a project you want to do, you will want to get started soon because you only have until April to get things all finished. If you need to be more hands on, and feel and cut your way to a scrapbook page, studio J can also help with layout planning. Take a created layout like the one I have here and then duplicate it in paper. I will talk more about Studio J later this week, but if you want to check it out a bit, I do have a couple videos you might like to watch

Now, what you come to Creatively Carol for on a Monday Morning… Motivational Monday Sketch!

I look forward to seeing what you do with this sketch for yourself! Don’t forget to enter for a free stamp set by SEND ME THOSE PAGES! or text them to 801-597-4896. I hope this Motivational Monday scrapbook is a template you can use in your own scrapbook layouts.

The Mini Mix and the Mini Folio Albums

October 3, 2015 by Carol

At a recent baby shower everyone was privileged to make one of these very cute Mini Mix albums. I wanted to share the video with you today while I finish the one I bought to share with you in the near future. There are so many cute ways to use this book… from grandma’s brag book, to keeping a copy of school pictures through the years. The album has 12 – 4″ x 4″ pages in a mix of vellum, white cardstock, and kraft. It has a white chipboard cover which is perfect for decorating yourself. The spine is 7/8″ wide. Wouldn’t this be perfect for a momento of a baby shower, birthday party or bridal party? I enjoy doing parties where everyone is actually creating something – so much fun!!!

Please leave a comment below and tell me how you would use this album.