Tuesday 15 July 2014

Team Brae-er July Blog Hop - Out With The Old

Welcome to our July Team Brae-er Blog Hop featuring retiring products.  Since July is the last month of the Spring/Summer Idea Book, we decided to feature some of our favourite soon to be retired products.  To purchase any of the items seen in our blog hop today,kindly contact your local consultant to place an order.

We hope that you will take the time to leave comments on our posts, as we really love feedback from our blog viewers....whether it was something that you really liked or some new technique that was used that you would like to learn how to do....by leaving us comments, we get to hear what you like, and what you want to see. Thank you… now on to our hop!  


If you have just hopped onto my blog, you can start here as this is a circular hop, but if you want to follow our team's blogs, then please start at the beginning and join Brae at the Brae-er. If you came from Lucy's Creative Expressions then you are in the right place! 




One of my favourite retiring products is the Skylark Paper Pack.  It was great for my post Easter family cruise on the Carnival Breeze.  My layout today shows my family enjoying some fun on the ship.  It was inspired by Laura Lee Ryan and uses the Imagine Pattern, Sweet Symphony.  



I am making this layout available to customers to do as a class, as well as a kit to pick up or receive by mail.  All options are $10.  The by mail option includes the postage but not the base kraft cardstock. 

Supplies Used:
X7177B Skylark Paper Packet
1301 Bamboo Cardstock
C1575 True To Life 
Z2118 Desert Sand Exclusive Inks Stamp Pad
Z1296 Distressing Inks
Natural Hemp (retired)
Chocolate Mini Medley (retired)
Cocoa Brads (retired)

Your next stop on the Team Brae-er Hop is Nicky of Timeless Cottage.   If you get lost along the way, you can head to Brae's blog at the Brae-er, as she has the complete blog list.

Thanks for hopping along with us - we hope you enjoyed some of our favourite retiring products and that we inspired you to get creative with some of designs, products and techniques seen along the way. 

July Cross Canada Blog Hop - Summer Albums

Welcome to our July Blog Hop featuring our Summer Mini Album creations.  To purchase any of the items seen in our blog hop today, contact your local consultant to place an order.

We hope that you will take the time to leave comments on our posts, as we love to get feedback from our viewers....whether it was something that you really liked or some new technique that was used that you would like to learn how to do....by leaving us comments, we get to hear what you like, and what you want to see. Thank you… now on to our hop! 

If you have just hopped onto my blog, you can start here as this is a circular hop.  If you arrived from Deanne Jacob's blog then you are in the right place.  She is also the start of our hop, so if you want to hop across Canada, pop over there first.

My project today features Flip Flaps.  This past Easter, we went on a family cruise to the Southern Caribbean.  I made this page of our stop in Curacao.  It was based on Make It From Your Heart Volume 2, Pattern 15, and inspired by the Spring/Summer 2014 Idea Book p.21 and Tabitha Goddard-Deuso.


Like many of you, we took too many pictures to scrapbook them all.  I still had many photos I wanted to use so I created a little mini-book on the page using the 4X6 Flip Flaps.




Supplies Used:

X7177B Skylark Paper Packet

X7177C Skylark Complements
Z3000    Skylark Assortment
Z1853    Aqua Dots
Z1947    Picture My Life Skylark Scrapbooking Program
Z1918    Teal Shimmer Trim
Z1984    Memory Protectors Top Load Value Pack
Z4114    4X6 Memory Protectors Flip Flaps
Z2194    Lagoon Exclusive Inks Ink Pad
Z1979    Marvy Uchida Journaling Pen


Your next stop on the Cross Canada Hop is Michelle of My Creations With Michelle.  Michelle also has the complete blog list posted in case you get lost along the way.

Thanks for hopping along with us - we hope we were able to inspire you to get creative using some of the designs, products and techniques seen along the way. We hope you will join us again next month when we will be featuring alternative uses for Picture My Life cards.   So mark August 15th on your calendars and hop along with us.






Wednesday 9 July 2014

Exploring the Cliffs of Moher with Studio J



We spent a year living in Limerick, Ireland and during that time we saw a lot of sights.  We bought a used car and as soon as we were comfortable driving on the "wrong" side of the road, we went exploring.  The Cliffs of Moher are one of the most popular tourist destinations in Ireland.  They are located in the Burren region of County Clare.  I knew looking at our photos that a simple 4X6 would not do.  

One great thing about scrapbooking in Studio J is that it is easy to put really big pictures on a page.  My pages above are each 12"X12".  Close To My Heart has made easy to follow videos to help walk you through your first few layouts and I followed one of the Love Your Layout videos to make the above layout.  From Studio J you will need to enter the login information you use for my website, or create an account.  

Once you are in your account, click "Create a New Project".  You then name your project and upload your photos.  You can also upload your photos later.  Next select "Create a Custom Layout".  To see all kits available, select "all kits" from the pull down bar on the right hand side.  For my layout above I selected Splendor, the Pattern was Powerful Trio and I used Kit Mix 2.  The rest of the steps can be seen in this video:  



If you have any questions, be sure to post below, or contact me.


Friday 4 July 2014


Hello and welcome.  My name is Julie and I created this blog to share two of my passions, travel and scrapbooking.  I joined Close To My Heart as a consultant in 2004, shortly after they came to Canada.  The My Acrylix stamp sets had just been released and I was hooked.  I have always enjoyed travel, but it was during my husbands year long sabbatical in Ireland in 2008-2009 that I really began seeing more of the world.  Renting a house, finding school for our children and buying a car in another country was just the start.

We have taken a lot of pictures of our travels, and Close To My Heart has a lot of solutions to get them off the computer and into albums.  Traditional scrapbooking, mini-albums, digital scrapbooking with Studio J as well as the new Picture My Life pocket scrapbooking.  Journey with me as I preserve my memories, and show you ways to preserve yours.  Along the way I'll share travel tips, particularly how to travel as a family and stay within your budget.

Thank-you and don't forget to subscribe.