Wednesday, December 31, 2014

National Papercrafting Month - Year Noted Paper Kit

Getting Ready for 2015

Welcome Back!

Winter Break is almost over and the kids will be back in school, that means we will back to our normal schedules again.  In some ways that is great but it also means that the fun of the holidays are over.  

This is Kaela's last "Winter Break" so I have been taking some time to spend with her and the family - so less scrapbooking towards the end of December.  It has been a great time of decorating the house and cooking (oh the food) but now it is back to creative time and Curves for me.  I have been partially cleared by the orthopedic doctor to go back to Curves and it is none too soon because my britches are getting tight and I am feeling sluggish again.  

I am not sure if it is because Kaela is home for the lack of working out but I have my days and nights mixed up again, hence writing the blog at 4am....

Since I am awake I have been getting myself organized for the New Year.


The photo is not the best in the world because I was sneaking.  Kaela is having a sleep over and I was trying to get in - get the shot - and get out without waking up the girls. 

 But what you are looking at is a preview of the first 4 months of the 2015 Workshops we will be working on.

January 22, 2015 Yuletide Carol
Feb 19, 2015  Brushed
March 26, 2015  Wanderful
April 23, 2015  Seaside

May and June will be super busy in the Perry House with the end of the school year (GRADUATION) and the Kaela will be getting ready for a school trip in June.  

July- I have the CTMH Convention to attend and then I will be getting Kaela ready to go off to UNT in the fall.  We also have one last weekend girls road trip planned to Austin to see Idina Menzel in concert. 

August- We will start a whole new batch of Workshops with a new catalog full of beautiful papers to play with!  

Mark your calendars, pre-order your supplies and join me to get some serious scrapbooking done this year.  I can not wait to work on these layouts.

See you soon.

Tuesday, December 30, 2014

2015 Pop Sugar Reading Challenge

I love to READ almost as much as I love to scrapbook so when I found this new reading challenge on facebook it intrigued me. 

It is not like most "book clubs" in the fact that it does not tell you what books to read what month but rather gives you a list of questions and you find your book based on those questions.

Found on popsugar.com

If you are interested in the facebook page here is the link: 

 https://www.facebook.com/groups/2015bookchallenge/

I love real books, Kindle books and my Audible books!!!!

When I am scrapbooking / Cardmaking I love to listen to books so I do not think I will have a problem finishing this list in the 2015 timeframe.

If you are a avid reader or just enjoy the occasional good book this might be a neat little list to ponder.  

The first book I am starting with is:


For some strange reason I love presidential reads

Stay safe this NYE! 

Monday, December 29, 2014

January 2015 Workshop: Yuletide Carol




January  22, 2015
7pm to 9pm
1504 High Country Lane
Allen, Texas 75002
RSVP:  Email: jperry@myscraproom.net


Products To Pre-Order:
Workshops on the Go: Yuletide Carol Scrapbooking Kit
G1084  $29.95

Other supplies that are needed:
Basic Kit (your personal supplies)
Paper Trimmer
Scissors
Adhesive 
3-D foam tape
My Acrylix Blocks (if you have them)
Piercing Tool

I will be pre-cutting cricut shapes for this layout



The holidays are over and your tree is put away.  Take a night to enjoy the memories and scrapbook your christmas photos on this beautiful layout.

New Studio J® Express Collection for Your Holiday Photos



New Studio J® Express Collection for Your Holiday Photos

On January 1, 2015 we will release a new Studio J® Express Collection designed by our studio artists with your holiday photos in mind. 


Like our other Express Collections, this limited edition collection will offer you 10 pre-designed layouts plus a first and last page, all featuring designs from the Yuletide Carol paper packet, which is perfect for preserving your memories from this festive time of year. 

With a grand total of 65 photo wells, this collection invites you to snap away to your heart’s content this holiday season! 

The collection will only be available January 1, 2015 - February 28, 2015 so be sure to make time in the first part of next year to add your photos and order your layouts to keep the memories fresh for years to come!

Thursday, December 18, 2014

What a day

What a day it has been.  

I was having trouble getting motivated to fix the blog problems and or work on a few Studio J pages so I moved locations over to a little coffee shop around the corner from my house.  I have been sitting here most of the day drinking coffee or smoothies and getting some serious work done.

I think I have the blog as fixed as I can get it.  Most of the photos that were used to create the past blog posts I deleted once I thought I did not need them anymore - I know that was a big mistake but it is what it is.

Then as you know I have been working on my Grand Canyon photos in Studio J.  Since Monday I have completed 38 pages.  I have more to work on but uploading photos to Studio J is taking a while because I have it set on high resolution.


As soon as the last batch of photos load I am going to have to go home to cook dinner for my family but I am excited about the progress I am making with this album.  I am not going to give up traditional scrapbooking but this is a fun way to get those vacation photos into an album before the sun tan fades.

Wednesday, December 17, 2014

Pulling My Hair Out!



I was checking the blog hours ago and found that most of my photos that are attached to blog posts starting in May (when I moved over to Blogger) are missing.  I handed my computer over to Mike (hubby that is also my personal IT person) to see if he could find what I did to mess the blog up so badly.  Well I did do something but Mike said it is also Bloggers fault.

I use Picasa and Blogger & both are Google products.  When I post a blog the post gets saved on Picasa Web Albums.  Ok that makes sense but I was looking at this album and thought hmmmm I need to clean this up a bit - and that folks was a huge mistake!  

Once I deleted photos from the web album I deleted them from the blog FOREVER - unless I go back in to each blog post.... all 154 of them and repost all of the photos!  

Sounds logical ... except I can not access photos from past catalogs from CTMH. 

So here is the grand plan... I am going to fix what I can but if you come across a blog post with what seems like missing photos you will know that it was once a pretty post then I had to go and muck it up.

So Sorry! Sometimes my OCD is not my best friend.....


Saturday, December 13, 2014

Doing The Digi Thing

I have a love / hate relationship with Studio - J.  I love that we have it and I would love to use it but it hates me.  From what I am being told by other people it is just a "Jenny thing" but today I am trying to get over my fear.

I have a monthly meeting with a group of consultants, you could say we have a consultants only crop and during these meetings we play and toss ideas around with each other.  I told Dorothy about my Studio - J phobia and she is helping me with the items that I am having blonde moments about.
*****************************************************************
Grand Canyon:

The original plan was to do Studio J layouts while on the road trip then to order the finished layouts once I was home.  The big kicker was that we did not have reliable WiFi on the road so I gave up.  Once I was home I start photo processing and uploading to CTMH to use Studio J and the program stopped me when I hit 250 images.  I picked out over 1000 images to use.  

Well before thinking the problem through I just had a big old hissy fit and sent all of the photos to Walgreens for printing!  Big mistake, because as soon as I was back to rational thinking a friend told me to break down the 1000 photos into separate "projects" of 250 photos each.  Now I feel stupid!  Am I really going to use all 1000 photos?  No but I like having options! 
*****************************************************************

After talking with Dorothy yesterday I decided to give it another go.  Tonight is like all of my past Studio J problems never happened - It is working like a dream!  I started working at 1 pm today and after a small learning curve I made 8 layouts in 4 hours and that is with the photo's uploading to CTMH after each page while my daughter is watching Hulu in her room (we are talking slow internet today).  




Yes these are two 12 x 12 photo enlargements.  Each page is $3.47, if you get an enlargement with Walgreens it is way more than $3.47 per photo.  Such a deal.







When the pages are printed they will not have the Studio J banner on the bottom, that is only for the jpegs.  While working on this blog post I have also finished 3 more layouts but will wait before getting those printed.

I think this Grand Canyon album is going to get finished really quick!

Tuesday, December 2, 2014

Clearly the Best: A Burst of Creativity (S02E01)

Thanksgiving Camping

We have the best Thanksgiving tradition - We go CAMPING!  

My in-laws live down the road from a Texas State Park so we go over there to park our home away from home and that gives us easy access to visit with family but also have our own space.  This year the Grandparents Perry were in town from FLA.  We had a blast - in fact so much fun that I forgot to take any "Thanksgiving" Photos!  I know right?


We always cook the turkey over the fire but this year we did the turkey (large oven) and the sweet potatoes (small oven) then took them over to Perry's Place for dinner.  Barbara and the gang had the rest of the fixings all ready once the bird showed up.  Best part:  I only had a couple of cutlery items to wash and that was that!



Friday was a lazy around the fire kind of day but since it was so warm and pretty I decided to finish working on my Christmas Cards.


I found another use for clear blocks... holding down paper in windy weather.  I have never tried to do any sort of scrapping while camping but this approach worked out really well.  I used the Cut Above Christmas Card kits and just like that I am done with my cards.


Cut Above™ Christmas Card Kit

Item Number: Z2064   $11.95

PRODUCT DESCRIPTION

10 – 7" × 5" Printed Card Bases
10 – Printed Banners
10 – Colonial White Deer
10 – Red Sparkles
12 – 3-D Foam Squares
10 – Glitter Paper Pieces
10 – Coordinating Envelopes
4 yards Red and White Baker's Twine

I just placed the kits (I bought 3) in a 12 x 12 box along with a basic scrapbooking crop bag and I was ready for some travel. Here is the what the finished card looks like.

On Saturday it was over to Perry Place to have a day relaxing with the parent and grandparents.  What a lovely way to spend the holidays.  No black Friday rush, no TV, no stress - just family friends and a campfire!  
Priceless.

Monday, December 1, 2014

Deal of the Decade!


This year marks the 10-year anniversary of Close To My Heart’s revolutionary My Acrylix®
clear polymer stamps—and we can’t wait for you to celebrate with us! 

With a qualifying purchase of $50 during the month of December, you will be eligible to purchase ANY C- or D-size stamps from the Annual Inspirations 2014–2015 idea book for only $10. 

That’s up to $7.95 USD of savings on a single stamp set! Plus, once you achieve the qualifying order total, there is no limit to the number of eligible stamp sets you can purchase at this 
discounted price. 

A purchase of $50 will also qualify you to receive the December Stamp 
of the Month for only $5, so if you purchase both the discounted Stamp of the Month and 
additional stamps at this special campaign pricing your savings will compound! 

It is truly the deal of the decade. 

*Offer valid December 1, 2014 (9:00 am MST)–December 31, 2014 (11:59 pm MST). 
Shipping/handling is calculated based on the full retail price of the discounted items 
C-size stamp set: $13.95 USD
D-size stamp set: $17.95 USD

December Stamp of the Month




Available only December 1–31, 2014


Cutie Pie SET OF 11
$17.95 USD

Purchase this D-size stamp set—available for one 
month only—for just $5 with your qualifying purchase. 

That’s over 70% off retail! Simply place an order of $50 
or more in Close To My Heart products to qualify for 
this special Stamp of the Month pricing.