Celebrating Christmas

I hope you had a wonderful and relaxing holiday! I certainly did. Neal and I had a leisurely day at home with our little old fur babies. Thanks to our moms, we did have gifts to unwrap, so that was nice! My gift to Neal is doing the litter all week and cleaning up after the cats…not a pleasant job, but it’s better than the alternative of putting them down. Anyway, I’ve been using my holiday from school to catch up on photographing my club projects and uploading them to my CTMH art page. I’ll share a few of the projects here over the next couple of days. Be sure to check back on the 1st for a special announcement!

Christmas 2008 in Boise—Neal and I were snowed in at home and weren’t able to make it down for this celebration. I was so disappointed. Christmas didn’t feel like Christmas last year.


I absolutely love this photo of my mom and sister! They are looking at photos from the Disney cruise we took that summer.


Photos of the whole family…minus me and Neal. :-(


Here are a few detail shots. I used textured cardstock so the ink coverage on the stamped packages isn’t as clear as the one below. I love the look of the textured cardstock and try to use it as often as possible.


These Twinkle Brads make me so happy…I have 3 packages of them! LOL! The other thing that I really like about this LO is the use of the Dimensional Elements On Target. The large scalloped circle is fantastic! My crop buddies make fun of me because I’m so particular about filing off the "nubbies" on the chipboard before inking. When inking, I used the back of the large gift stamp to get lots of ink on the chipboard. I let it dry and then when back with a sponge dauber to even out the ink coverage. It’s a fairly time consuming process, but I love deep, vivid color it produces. I also like that the chipboard is easy to cut so I’m able to use partial circles or make my circles cover two pages.


The WOTG directions say to stamp the title onto white cardstock and then sponge ink onto the letters. It also suggests stamping each letter with the zigzag stamp. I chose to stamp my letters onto B&T paper and adhered them using foam tape. I love this paper!

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Studio J Sneak Peek

Close To My Heart’s Studio J will launch in a few months, and I can't wait to share it with everyone I know! Since I attended Leadership, I was given early access to Studio J but have only now had a chance to play with it. I placed my first order a few minutes ago and thought I would share my LOs here.

So, what the heck is Studio J?! It is a FREE online scrapbooking studio. It's like digital scrapbooking, but not nearly as time consuming, expensive, or difficult to use. You’ll be able to try the full, web-based program through my CTMH website when Studio J launches in March. Until then, enjoy this little sneak peek!


Good news--if you are a digi-scrapper, you can import PNG files to drop in the photo wells like I did here with Katie Pertiet's Postage Frame Clusters!

If you know nothing about digital scrapbooking, never fear...Studio J was designed just for you! The following LOs were designed in a flash; choosing my photos and writing my journaling was the longest part of the process.

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Creativity Challenge Update

Wow! It's a little embarrassing that I haven't updated my Weekly Creativity Challenge for 3 months! It’s not that I haven’t been creative; it simply is that my blog took a backseat to school, my online classes, my CTMH club, and my sick kitties. I’m on winter break now, so I’m going to get back into the swing of posting.

9/20-26 ~ Complete the Telling Stories Deeply and the Learn Something New Every Day class prompts. Create digi LOs for Learn Something New.
Although I didn’t do any of the Telling Stories lessons, I did manage 10 digi LOs for Learn Something New. I also went on a bit of a digi shopping spree. I’m technically not a digital scrapbooker, but I have purchased a ton of digi elements, papers, PDF files, Etc. over the past few months. Not really sure what that is all about other than the fact that most of the items are $.25 at Designer Digitals…LOL!

Blog ~ Post digi LOs. Blog “The Great Escape” story!
How is it possible that I STILL haven’t written about “The Great Escape”? Seriously!

CTMH ~ Finish card kit and Twitterpated WOTG.
I finished ½ the card kit and both Twitterpated LOs. I am absolutely in LOVE with those LOs and will post them during break!

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The Passing of Jim Rohn

My sister called me today to let me know that Jim Rohn passed away. We met him several times at Herbalife conventions in the early 90s. I was always so inspired after listening to Rohn speak. During Shimelle's Learn Something New Every Day 2006 workshop, I created this page as a reminder to myself to make healthy choices. "We must all suffer from one of two pains; the pain of discipline or the pain of regret. The difference is discipline weighs ounces while regret weighs tons." His words of wisdom helped me get back into exercising; I eventually lost 45 pounds! I feel very fortunate to have met him in person and send my heartfelt condolences to his family and friends.

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