Seasonal Expressions 1 New Product Blog Hop

Welcome to the Seasonal Expressions 1 New Product Blog Hop!

If you came from visiting Katie Skiff, then you are in the right place.  If you just happened upon my little corner of the blog world, simply start here and continue hopping until you return here -- our fun hop is one big loop for your viewing pleasure. 

This hop features a variety of products from the newly released Seasonal Expressions 1 idea book.  I am so excited for this hop because there are so many fun new products in this release.  I couldn't wait to play!!  Back in November, when Monica from CTMH shared a sneak peak look at the SE1 book during a Periscope from Creative Life, I immediately fell in LOVE with the sweet little pirate in the Pirate Birthday stamp set.  He is so cute!!  And the Regatta collection... *sigh*... be still my heart!!  I have had a major soft spot for all things nautical since I was younger.

So it should come as no surprise that for today's project, I chose to play with the new Regatta paper packet and the new Pirate birthday stamp set.  To color the pirate, I used one of my favorite stamping techniques -- watercoloring with a blending pen.  This technique allows me to perfectly match any color without having to have a full set of markers.  I simply use my stamp pads and the blending pen.  For more details on how I achieve this technique, please visit my December 6th post where I talked it through in length.

Supplies used:

*Pirate Birthday stamp set
*Regatta paper packet
*12" x 12" Flaxen cardstock
*12" x 12" Sapphire cardstock
*12" x 12" White Daisy cardstock
*White Daisy card bases
*Black Exclusive Inks stamp pad
*Flaxen Exclusive Inks stamp pad
*Sapphire Exclusive Inks stamp pad
*Black Memento ink pad
*Blending Pen
*Enamel & Glitter Duos Blue Dots

To order these or any of our other fabulous Close to My Heart products, please visit http://jddesigns.ctmh.com.

Thank you for visiting me at jd designs and for hopping with us on the Seasonal Expressions 1 New Product Blog Hop!  Next up on the hop is Gina Brandstetter. I hope you'll hop on over to her blog for more inspiration.

Until next time, remember to design with {heart}!

Damask Divas Team Everyday Life Planner Blog Hop

Welcome to the Damask Divas' Everyday Life Planner Blog Hop!

The Damask Divas' team is excited to inspire you with fabulous projects from this beautiful collection!  If you came from visiting {Mandy Leahy}, then you are in the right place.  You can see the full hop line-up over on the {Damask Divas' blog}.

The new Everyday Life collection from CTMH includes a beautiful black and gold 8"x9" album that can be used as a planner with the coordinating 2016 planner pages set, as a My Crush album with the gorgeous coordinating My Crush pages pack, as a Picture My Life album with the new 4"x6" and 4"x3" Memory Protectors, or as a combination of all 3.

Personally, I have decided to use the collection as a memory planner.  A memory planner is a fun, new way to capture moments in your life in a smaller, simpler format than a traditional scrapbook.  Now before anyone panics, I will still be scrapbooking -- but my memory planner will be used to document the daily/weekly activities in my family's life throughout the year.  It's the perfect place to capture the funny things that get said, milestones in my son's life, and other little daily moments as well as the typical stuff we like to scrapbook from birthdays to holidays and everything else in between.

Month At-a-Glance (so far)

Week 1 -- Memory Planning / Keeping

Supplies used:

*Everyday Life™ Album - Black
*Everyday Life™ 2016 Planner Pages
*Everyday Life™ Perfect Plan Roller Stamp
*Everyday Life™ Washi Tape
*Jennifer's Hand stamp set
*Sweeter with You stamp set
*Patch of Sky stamp set
*Cheers, 2016 stamp set (retired Nov 2015 SOTM)

*Black Memento ink pad

*Smoothie Exclusive Inks stamp pad

*Juniper Exclusive Inks stamp pad

*Thistle Exclusive Inks stamp pad

*Slate Exclusive Inks stamp pad

*Gold Foil Tape
*Lagoon Hearts Washi Tape (retired, but still available as of 1.14.2016)
*Carnival Washi Tape Pack (retired, but still available as of 1.14.2016)

To order these or any of our other fabulous Close to My Heart products, please visit http://jddesigns.ctmh.com.

Before I say goodbye until next time, I want to share with you another fun addition available for the Everyday Life Collection -- the Picture My Life Live Your Day scrapbooking program!  This beautiful collection of PML cards coordinates perfectly with the Everyday Life collection and is available through January 31st for only $8.95 USD!  The Live Your Day set is great for embellishing your planner or adding pocket scrapbooking fun to your Everyday Life album.  The 4x6 and 4x3 cards are even wonderful for creating quick and pretty cards to send your family and friends. Hurry over to my online store to get yours today -- because after January 31, this PML set disappears FOREVER!

Thank you for visiting me at jd designs and for hopping with us on the Everyday Life Planner Blog Hop!  Next up on the hop is {Cheri Parish}. I hope you'll hop on over to her blog for more inspiration.

Until next time, design with {heart}!

Workshops YOUR Way -- Charlotte, Part 2: The Leftovers

In yesterday's post, I shared lots of information about the new Workshop Your Way kits.  (If you missed it, please click here to go back and check it out.)  Today, I wanted to share another reason CTMH has released these fabulous new kits.  In its ongoing efforts to help us document our memories, CTMH wants to encourage us all to consume our products and not collect them.  The project guides that coordinate with the new WYW kits do just that!  These guides are designed to use almost all the products included in the kits with very little scraps or leftovers.

To help you remember from yesterday, here is a picture of everything included in the Charlotte WYW kit...

And here is a recap of all the projects you can make with the cutting guide...

And lastly, here are the leftovers you will have after making the suggested projects -- 3 double-page traditional layouts, 1 double-page Picture My Life layout and 9 cards (3 each of 3 designs)...

To recap, there are... 

*3 1/2 zip strips

*2 triangle B&T pieces

*1 4x6 PML card

*2 3/4 - 3x4 PML cards

*4 1/2 stickers plus 2 word/phrase stickers

*6 gold puffies

*several chipboard shapes

*partial spool black/gold ribbon

Isn't it crazy how little product is leftover??  Way to go, CTMH, for helping us to use, not collect, our supplies!!  And you know me, I couldn't let those scraps just hang around... so I created 3 more projects to finish up all the paper and the majority of the embellishments.  The remaining embellishments I was comfortable putting in my stash for future use.  I will be sharing those 3 projects (1 single page layout and 2 cards) in the near future so stay tuned!

To order the Charlotte Workshop Your Way kit or any of our other fabulous Close to My Heart products, please visit http://jddesigns.ctmh.com.

 Also, Close to My Heart is looking for feedback on the new Workshop Your Way program as they decide whether to move forward with this style workshop or keep going with the traditional Workshops on the Go.  Please leave me a comment and let me know what you think.  I'll be happy to pass your thoughts on to CTMH.

Until next time, design with {heart}!

Workshops YOUR Way - Charlotte

In the recently released Seasonal Expression 1 Idea Book / Catalog, Close to My Heart introduced lots of new products.  If you've had a chance to look through the book, you may have noticed a change to two of CTMH's best selling products, the Workshop kits.  CTMH has sold its famous Workshops on the Go in either scrapbooking or card making specific kits for years.  In fact, these fabulous kits are one of many things that drew me to CTMH several years ago.  In keeping with the fantastic value and fun of the Workshop kits, but in an attempt to appeal to a wider variety of crafters, CTMH has revamped the kits to include more B&T (patterned) cardstock, more embellishments, and more suggested products.  To go along with these improvements, CTMH also changed up the breakdown of the paper packets.  

• Each paper packet will now include 12 double-sided B&T cardstock papers instead of 6 B&T and 6 solid cardstock sheets.  But never fear scrappers, several of the new B&T designs feature a more muted pattern which allows you to use them as base pages and photo mats like you would traditionally use solid cardstock.
• Instead of included a full color cutting guide for one layout or 3 card designs in the workshop, the new Workshop Your Way kits will feature online cutting guides that can be viewed / saved / printed.  This flexibility allows you to access the guide from your smartphone, tablet, laptop, etc, while still allowing you the ability to print, if you wish.  The major upside to the digital access of the cutting guide is CTMH will now be including instructions for 3 double-page layouts, 3-4 card designs, and a double-page Picture My Life layout.
• The products included in the Workshop Your Way kits will help you create the projects featured in the cutting guide.  To complete the cards, you will need to add some card bases/envelopes, the coordinating stamp set and thin cut dies, and ink.  As always, CTMH will provide a shopping list in the Idea Book next to the Workshop Your Way listing.
• That's right!  You NO longer have to purchase the entire kit to get the stamp set.  AND Close to My Heart has release coordinating thin cut dies to go along with the WYW coordinating stamp sets.
• To help support the new Workshop Your Way concept, Close to My Heart will be releasing YouTube videos featuring how to cut the papers in the collection to make all the suggested projects AND hyperlapsed videos showing the assembly of all projects.  These videos will allow you to attend / participate in a workshop virtually anywhere in the world whenever you want!  How fun is that??

Anyways, that's enough rambling for now.  Let's get to the fun part!!  Please allow me to introduce you to the first fabulous kit in the NEW Workshop Your Way lineup.  Drumroll please.... here's CHARLOTTE!!

Charlotte Featured Colors: Black, Champagne, Slate, Sorbet, Whisper, White Daisy

Charlotte Workshop Your Way Kit includes:

1 – Charlotte Paper Packet (X7205B)

1 – Charlotte Complements (X7205C)

3 – Cardstock Sheets (1 Black, 2 Whisper)

1 – Black & Gold Ribbon (Z3197)

1 – Treasured Puffies (Z3203)

To help you get better acquainted with Charlotte and the new WYW kit, I put together the following video.

To order the Charlotte Workshop Your Way kit or any of our other fabulous Close to My Heart products, please visit http://jddesigns.ctmh.com.

 Also, Close to My Heart is looking for feedback on the new Workshop Your Way program as they decide whether to move forward with this style workshop or keep going with the traditional Workshops on the Go.  Please leave me a comment and let me know what you think.  I'll be happy to pass your thoughts on to CTMH.

Until next time, design with {heart}!

National Papercrafting Month PML Live Your Day Blog Hop

Welcome to the National Papercrafting Month - Live Your Day Blog Hop!

If you came from visiting Haley Dyer, then you are in the right place.  If you just happened upon my little corner of the blog world, simply start here and continue hopping until you return here -- our fun hop is one big loop for your viewing pleasure. 

This hop features the Live Your Day -- Picture My Life scrapbooking program which is available in January only to celebrate National Papercrafting Month.  This beautiful pocket scrapbooking program a total of 56 cards and was designed to coordinate perfectly with the new Everyday Life collection.  You can use these fabulous cards as decorations and embellishments for your planner or traditional scrapbooking pages or as the focal point on a card front or as part of quick and easy pocket scrapbooking pages.  You can also embellish the cards as you would traditional cardstock or you can simply leave them as they are -- either way the Live Your Day PML program is the perfect addition to your papercrafting supplies.

For today's project, I wanted to show you how quick and easy these cards can be to use.  I simply took the 12 month title cards and the 12 birthday journal cards and inserted them into the pockets the 3" x 4" memory protectors to create a birthday calendar.  Then, I added the completed pages to the end of my Everyday Life planner.  I will go back and add the birthdays of my family and friends to the cards to allow me to see at a glance whose birthday is in the coming month as I plan the birthday cards I need to make and send.

Supplies used:

*Everyday Life album - Black
*Everyday Life™ 2016 Planner Pages
*Memory Protectors - 4" x 3"
*Picture My Life™ Live Your Day Scrapbooking Program

To order these or any of our other fabulous Close to My Heart products, please visit http://jddesigns.ctmh.com.

Thank you for visiting me at jd Designs and for hopping with us on the National Papercrafting Month - Live Your Day Blog Hop!  Next up on the hop is Michelle Loncar. I hope you'll hop on over to her blog for more inspiration.

Until next time, remember to design with {heart}!

January Spotlight Collection -- La Vie En Rose

This month's spotlight collection is classy, gorgeous La Vie En Rose!  The stunning Black and White Daisy patterns are accompanied by a beautiful pixie, pomegranate, poppy, and ruby floral.  This collection pairs well with Fern and Peacock as well as almost any other color in the CTMH exclusive color palette.

To order these or any of our other fabulous Close to My Heart products, please visit http://jddesigns.ctmh.com.

Stay tuned throughout the month to my blog and my Facebook page for lots of fabulous La Vie En Rose inspiration.  And be sure to follow #ctmhlavieenrose all month long for all the La Vie En Rose fun!

Until next time, design with {heart}!

Stamp of the Month Blog Hop -- Beloved Bouquet

Welcome to the January Stamp of the Month Blog Hop!

If you came from visiting Dana Kessler, then you are in the right place.  If you just happened upon my little corner of the blog world, simply start here and continue hopping until you return here -- our fun hop is one big loop for your viewing pleasure. 

The month's featured stamp set is S1601 Beloved Bouquet (pictured below).  This set is only available until January 31st and is only $5 with a $50 Close to My Heart purchase.

Now let's jump right into my project.  For today's hop, I made a double gatefold card.  It may look slightly complex from the pictures, but I assure you it comes together rather easily.  Check out my YouTube video below to see me fully assemble this card.

Double Gatefold Card with opposing flaps

Card ready for envelope

Card with coordinating envelope

VIDEO TUTORIAL
(Click to view)

Dimensions:

*Card base -- 5 1/2" x 8 1/2" (score at 2 1/8" from each side)

*Front Panel layers
- White Daisy -- 5 1/4" x 1 7/8"
- B&T -- 5 1/8" x 1 3/4"

*Circle layers
- Black -- 2 1/2" punch
- White Daisy -- 2 1/4" punch

*Sentiment Layers
- Black -- 2 1/2" x 1 3/8"
- White Daisy -- 2 1/4" x 1 1/8"

Supplies used:

*Beloved Bouquet stamp set (available until 1.31.2015)

*Skylark paper packet (retired)

*12" x 12" Black cardstock

*12" x 12" White Daisy cardstock

*Pomegranate Exclusive Inks stamp pad

*Fern Exclusive Inks stamp pad

*2 1/4" circle punch
*2 1/2" circle punch

To order these or any of our other fabulous Close to My Heart products, please visit http://jddesigns.ctmh.com.

Thank you for visiting me at jd Designs and for hopping with us on the Close to My Heart Stamp of the Month January Blog Hop!  Next up on the hop is Terrie Shortsleeve. I hope you'll hop on over to her blog for more inspiration.

Until next time, design with {heart}!

January Close to My Heart Specials

January Constant Campaign

Celebrate National Papercrafting Month with the exclusive Picture My Life™ Live Your Day scrapbooking program—available for one month only! This collection was designed to coordinate perfectly with the sensational Everyday Life™ 2016 Planner Pages and My Crush® Everyday Life Pages, so you can seamlessly integrate pocket scrapbooking into your 2016 planner. Whether in the planner or on their own, these cards make it easy to preserve your everyday moments all year long. Get yours today for only $8.95 USD / $10.50 CAD before this offer is gone!

Dates: Offer valid January 1, 2016 (9:00 am MDT)–January 31, 2016 (11:59 pm MDT).

* * * * *

January Stamp of the Month

Only $5 with a $50 purchase

To order these or any of the other fabulous CTMH products, please visit my online store at jddesigns.ctmh.com.

Until next time, design with {heart}!