Studio J Is Now Live!

Welcome to the start of my virtual Summer Open House! I have had a few techical difficulities today, but now we are up and running! So check my blog frequently for new summer inspirations! And remember, our summer Idea book goes live tomorrow, May 1st! And by the way, did you know that tomorrow is National Scrapbook Day? Wahoo!! I am ready to scrapbook! Are you?

Have you heard the news??? Studio J is now live and ready for your exploration, play and use! Studio J is Close To My Heart's exclusive on-line design studio! Unlike many "digital" programs, with Studio there is no software to purchase. Your only expense is to print your finished layouts! And with their awesome current promotion, when you purchase 5 layouts in a single order, you receive 5 free page protectors. When you purchase 10 layouts in a single order, you receive the free page protectors AND free shipping! And there is more! I have a special deal for my clients who set up accounts on my website! E-mail me and I will share the "can't pass up deal" with you!

For those who aren't sure about on-line studio scrapbooking, here is a thought to take advantage of the program that I shared with my crop group on Saturday. Let's say you are wanting to create a layout with Silhouette. You know your picture sizes, but aren't sure which patterns or cardstock colors would work the best with your layout. Log into Studio J, pull up the Silhouette collection. Find a design that compliments your photographs. You can then rotate, flip, and switch out the patterns until you find the perfect solution. Now, reference the book (Imagine or Cherish), locate the same image and use the cutting guides to recreate the layout you designed on line! How perfect is that! You can design your layout on the go, or when you have a few minutes but not enough time to pull out all of your treasured supplies, then when you are ready to create, you have already completed the hard part! And for me, the best part...and John can attest to this...I don't have to determine some funky round about way to print my journaling on my layout! I can type it into Studio J--change the font to help the space accommodate my words ...for my journaling the font needs to shrink, for many others, the font size might need to be enlarged (:-)) but whatever your style, how easy was that? Perfect!

This layout I created for my son Nicholas and (shhhh) I am going to have a copy made for my sister-in-law too. I have struggled with a way to capture Nicholas' emotions that he has expressed over Aunt Laura's baby (yes, he knows the baby is Uncle Chad's too, but to Nicholas, Aunt Laura and the baby are the ones he worries about). Every night (yes, every night), Nicholas prays for Aunt Laura's baby...and he has just said the cutest things! I wrote down my favorite of his sayings and included those in the accent spaces of the layout--they are more precious than any embellishment I could have added. This idea worked perfect! The paper collection is Hippioty-Hop and is exclusive to the Studio J on-line studio! The softer colors were so perfect for the soft ideas of the layout!

For my ultimate scrapbooking challenge, there are 150 layouts. With this layout, I have now completed 23 1/2 layouts and have 126 1/2 more to create in 8 months...wowsers!! The layout design is Interesting Variation from Cherish.