Close to My Heart Online Scrapbooking

I discovered something really cool!  Online scrapbooking!  No tools to buy, paper and stickers and products to store...NO MESS!!!  I found it through my good friend Beth A. (click here to see more on her website), who is a Close to My Heart representative.  I've got a ton of photos on my computer, and last year when my desk top died I lost sooooo many photos and I was devastated.  This is going to be a fantastic way for me to get my photos into books.  All you do is upload your photos (everything is taken through for you step by step), choose a paper pack of already coordinated papers (there's a ton), choose a layout, and then start making your pages.  It's so easy because it's all drag and drop and click here and there to change colors, embellishments like ribbons, brads, hinges, buttons, etc, stickers and tags, edit text blocks and titles...voila!  You have professional looking scrapbook pages. 

This month they are giving away a free jpg file which includes 2 high resolution files of each page for you to print on your own, and one low resolution file that you can share on the net.  All you have to do is create an account and start playing.  Give it a try!  It's a lot of fun to see everything come together.  And what else is nice is that you can change paper colors and patterns with just a click, and if you don't like it you can undo it.  Unlike real scrapbooking where you have to cut up lots of paper, decide you don't like this or that, and then you've wasted stuff.  No glue.  No tape.  No paper scraps.  No crooked cropping.  Here are the two pages I made first.  Now, I did this when I didn't know to click on the different pull downs to access different embellishments and things, so it is just a little plain, but I love it and Matthew loves it (he picked out the paper pack).  Except I realized after I did it that I made a typo.  Figures, huh?  Here's my layout of Matthew's 11th birthday this year.  You can click on it for a larger view.

You can order prints of the 12x12 pages and have them mailed to you also.  That's what I'm trying to talk hubby into letting me do.  I really want to get caught up on my scrapbooking and this makes that task fun and so much less daunting.  I've made 2 more layouts, but I can't show you those since I don't have jpg's of them.  If Jeff let's me order some then I will show those to you also.  I'm getting better with a little practice.

So if you would like to learn more about Studio J, contact Beth A. here through her website. 

Beading Day With The Girls

Today was a very fun day!  I had two ladies come over, Beth and Eve, to learn how to do some beading.  We started with this pattern of mine in square stitch.  Neither were used to working with such tiny beads as delicas, so it was a challenge to pick up and work with those little buggers. 

We were going right along learning how to do this, and Eve made a mistake.  The pattern is set up for loom, so it reads left to right on all the rows.  Well, for square stitch you have to go left to right, flip over the work for the next row and then go right to left.  She forgot to read the 2nd row backwards, so we were going to have to take out the work.  The beads weren't agreeing with us and they weren't coming out, the thread was fraying, etc.  So we ended up just starting over.  I said, ok I'll get you back to where you were quickly.  I started beading away, got to the 2nd row to about where she was and gave it back to her.  She then gets to only room for 2 beads left, but the chart says there should be 6 more beads.  WHAT???!!!  uh oh.  What went wrong?  I checked all the beads in the 2nd row and they were all correct.  Guess what!  I messed up from trying to go too quickly and skipped 4 beads in the first row!  I was so upset that I messed her up!  I felt so bad.  I said, "ok, what I just did....don't do that!"  Started it over again.  In the entire time the girls were here poor Eve only got through the 2nd row, and there's only 17 beads in one row.  I felt terrible having messed her up. 

We had a very fun time together, though, and I'm so glad they came over and had a bead day with me.  We're going to get together again when it's time to learn how to do the clasps.  The first two rows are the hardest because there's not much to hold on to.  Once Beth got to her 3rd row she agreed at how much easier it was.

Here are some pics of Beth and Eve.  (Oh, btw.  You've all heard me rave about Beth and her cabs.  Don't be confused.  That's Beth E.  This is Beth A.)  And...Beth was such a sweetheart.  She brought me a little goody gift...a Symphony chocolate  bar with almonds and toffee bits!  OOOOOOH YUM!!!!!   Guess what I'll be snacking on tonight!!!

Beth holding up her first two little rows. lol

Eve's first couple rows...I don't know if this was the 1st, 2nd or 3rd time we did it. lol

I don't have many friends...I'm pretty anti-social.  So it was fun to interact with live humans for a change (not that I don't love and appreciate all of you...it's just different).  And my hubby was so cute.  I laid down for a nap before they came and when I got up he had gone shopping for our little get-together.  He got several kinds of soda and some Chex Mix to munch on.  Wasn't that thoughtful of him?  He's so cute.