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  • 2016 Close to my Heart Retiring Stamp Sets Announced

    It happens every year, stamp sets retire to make was for new ones. Sometimes we see stamp sets we loved, but were waiting to buy – the time is now! These stamp sets will be retired on April 30th of this year and with March’s Stampaganza going on it is the perfect time to get…

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  • 8 Way to Freshen Up Your Digital Photography

    Creatively is the root of photography today, as settings and props have developed in the 57 years since anyone began taking pictures of me growing up. These suggestions far beyond  reach far beyond the formal pictures of the 1950’s. Here are 8 ways to freshen up your photos. 1.Create a focal point in your pictures- Adjust…

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  • Studio J is Great for Printing Pictures

    Have you ever priced odd sized photographs to print?  It seems no one understands that a person who scrapbooks needs pictures in all shapes and sizes. While I was looking for the sketch of the week in Studio J, Close to my Heart’s digital scrapbook program, I learned there are some templates just for printing…

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  • Interesting Facts for Birthday Scrapbook Layouts

    Good Morning!  It is Sunday so that means I am working on genealogy today. As I was looking for an obituary I had a great thought… You can get great details about someone’s birthday for your scrapbook layout when you look at old newspapers. Now, I am not talking about sitting in a dusty old…

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  • In The Snow on Throwback Thursday

    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…

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  • What Color Do You Want to See?

    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…

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  • Do You Like Handmade Family Cookbooks?

    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…

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  • How Do You Keep Track of Everything?

    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”,…

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  • A Funny Thing Happened When I Began to Shred

    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…

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  • Organization in the New Year

    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…

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  • Happy New Year 2016!

    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…

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  • The Busiest Week of the Year?

    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…

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

    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…

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  • Motivational Monday –

    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…

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  • Motivational Monday – Sangria Continues

    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…

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