A Card A Day - Day Twenty Three

Each day throughout the month of June, I will be posting a card with products used.  Once again I love those Picture My Life cards, nothing to making a greeting card in a few minutes.

For Always A La Carte Picture My Life 

White Daisy Cardstock 

Sequins Silver Assortment

Desert Sand Cardstock

Surecut Deluxe Paper Craft Trimmer 

Duck Easy Stick Adhesive

YOU STILL HAVE TIME TO SIGN UP AS I AM CURRENTLY WORKING ON THE CARDS.

TIME TO SIGN UP AGAIN!  IF YOU ARE NOT ALREADY SUBSCRIBED, IT'S TIME TO GET YOUR JUNE CARD KITS BY MAIL.

Here are the details....

Every month I create FIVE cards just for you! They are truly exclusive cards and super special. 

  

You may buy the card workshop for $25.00 by the 15th of each month. 

  

You will not be able to see the cards until you receive the kits. If you've been following my facebook page, blog, and newsletters then you've seen examples of my cards which will give you a good idea of what you'll be getting.

  

By the end of each month

I will sent out your card kits in the mail, the pieces will be cut and stamped for you.  The day I send out the kits I will send out instructions and photos of the card by email.  You will then be able to put the cards together.  For those of you who are consultants, I have no problem with you using my cards in your own workshops. 

  

So, this is the chance you've been waiting for!  Payments may be by credit card (you will call me with the number 989-906-6420), paypal me at caldreamin05@comcast.net or you may mail a check to:

  

Barbra Otten

1247 W. John Beers Road

Stevensville, MI 49127

  

The next cards will go out before the end of the month and your order must be in by the 15th.  

  

PASS MY INFO ALONG TO A FRIEND, IF HE OR SHE SIGNS UP, YOU WILL RECEIVE A GIFT FROM ME.  MAKE SURE YOUR FRIEND MENTIONS THAT YOU REFERRED THEM.

IF YOU'D LIKE TO SUBSCRIBE TO MY CARD KITS BY MAIL IN AN ONGOING BASIS, CALL ME AT (989) 906-6420 WITH YOUR CREDIT CARD NUMBER AND I WILL JUST RUN YOUR PAYMENT ON THE FIFTEENTH OF EVERY MONTH UNTIL YOU UNSUBSCRIBE.

Happy Valentine's Day & a Giveaway

I hope you have a wonderful Valentine's Day. I am happy to announce that I have a Facebook business page now. It's dedicated to scrapbooking, stamping and papercrafting discussions and yes, there will be giveaways. For instance, when I hit 100 "followers" I will be giving away a sanding kit to one of them picked randomly. To follow my Facebook page, click HERE and then hit the LIKE button! I'm already at 58 followers so it won't be long. There will be giveaways, specials and information on my Facebook business page that you will not find here so sign up today!!

How to work with photos on Studio J

This is the third part in a series on how to use Studio J digital scrapbooking. Look below for the last two installments.

Studio J is very easy and you probably don't even need my help or instructions at all but I'm posting some of what I've discovered using it in case you do want a little help. If not, time to try it out RIGHT HERE!

You've logged in now, uploaded your pictures, chosen your paper kit and pattern template and moved your pictures into place. Let's now look at some of the cool things you can do to your photos. Click on one of the pictures you've placed and see a whole menu pop up.

SCALE: The scale tool allows you to make your pictures larger or smaller so that your photo will fit perfectly into the template space. Normally I find I don't even have to use it because Studio J already does a great automatic job, but occasionally you may need to make your picture larger or smaller. This saves you a lot of time on editing before you upload your pictures. You can do it right on Studio J.

ROTATE: What if your picture isn't exactly rotated right, you took it on an angle and want it straight or you want a straight picture on an angle? Use the rotate key to get it just right.

The next three buttons are easy:

1) Remove picture from that template spot. (Don't worry, Studio J actually puts a check on the pictures you've used and removes it when you move the picture from the template position so you won't have to keep track).

2) Flip horizontally. Make your photo look the other way. Remember it's always best to not have the people in your photos looking off the page.

3) Flip vertically. Now I'm not sure how many times you may need to do this but you never know!

EDIT PHOTOS ICON: Now this button is fun. Control brightness, contrast, hue and sharpen your picture here. Who needs to be a great photographer with the ability to fix everything!! Want to erase a wrinkle, smooth out bad skin, whiten teeth? Click on the "select tool" button and do all that and more! Just choose your tool, the size of tool you'll need, and move your mouse to the photo and go to town. Now we can all look airbrushed like the models on magazines. Don't like the fixing you did? Click "undo" and do it again.

What if you don't want a photo in that template spot, instead you want a journal block? Just click on the next icon, "convert to text well (or convert to photo well)" to switch from one to the other.
Finally the last icon on the top of your photo is the delete photo or garbage button. Only use this if you don't want the photo to remain uploaded at all.

FILTER: On the bottom of the photo menu you have the option to turn your photo from full color to black or white or sepia. I'm doing this on a layout about the small town we visit often, St. Joseph, Michigan. It's been around forever so I thought it would be cool to have the photos look older.

MAT: I'm a big fan of mats around my photos. It's their very own picture frame. With the mat tool you can make mats in different widths and different colors. Choose your width size in the pull down menu and then the color box will pop up. At the top of the colors are the hues that Studio J recommends for this particular paper set but you have the option of using any of the 60 different colors that we make.

CLEAR DISTRESSING: The last icon is to clear distressing when you've put it on. You'll do that with the distressing tool on the left hand side of the page, I'll explain that tool in another post.

Tomorrow we'll talk about how to change the patterns and cardstock papers on your layout. In the meantime, how fast do you get your Halloween pictures done? Halloween was just a few days ago and my layout is finished with Studio J!

Want to get some Christmas pictures scrapped?

After Thanksgiving I bet you'll be ready to get away for some "me time." On the 28th I'm having a Workshop on the Go class at my house in Stevensville, Michigan at 2:00. We will be working on the Mistletoe Workshop on the Go kit and making a two page layout. The kit contains:

1 – My Acrylix® All the Best Stamp Set (exclusive to this kit)
1 – Mistletoe Level 2 Paper Packet
1 – Mistletoe Level 2 Assortment
1 – Workshop Guide

Featured Colors: Cocoa, Cranberry, Garden Green, New England Ivy (I have these inks if you don't or you can EMAIL ME to order some of your own.)

Order the kit using the paypal link below or call me at (989) 906-6420 and it will be ready and waiting for you at my house on the 28th! If you can't make that date but still want the kit, click on the same paypay link or order directly from MY WEBSITE.

By the way, if you aren't a scrapbooker, this same kit teaches you how to make Christmas cards.

How to make money your way!

When I was younger I worked as a waitress in a Pizza Hut for about a year. I was living on my own at the time and in college so money was a big deal for me. One of things I loved about being a waitress was knowing that every time I worked, I would come home with cold hard cash. I think that's definitely a factor in working as an independent consultant for Close to my Heart too. Each time I do a party I know that I'll come home with money. It doesn't come in the form of tips like it did when I was a waitress, instead it's a commission but I still revel in the knowledge that I get to bring that cash home.

I don't know about you but I'm not big on having bosses. With Close to my Heart, I choose what I do for work, when I want to work and who I'll work with. There's noone looking over my shoulder to micro-manage me. What freedom!! Imagine being in control of your income, your schedule and how hard you work! I know exactly how many parties I can do to bring home the amount of money I need for the month. Right now I'm working a lot. Check out my calendar HERE to see. The reason is that my daughter's tuition is coming due in December and I will probably be paying for the majority of it out of my check. In January I could choose not to work so much for whatever reason, the beauty is that I decide.

There are a lot of advantages to joining Close to my Heart like I did that have nothing to do with what you can choose to earn money-wise but I'm not discussing those today. Instead I want to talk about what we all seem to need in these trying times. Cold, hard cash. Wouldn't you like to be the one who is control of your own income? What difference would just a $100.00 extra a month make to you? How about $300? How about more? The thing is, with Close to my Heart, you decide. Another thing is that YOU CAN START RIGHT AWAY! No waiting for that first check. Just like getting a tip, you can walk away with cash from your very first party. If you want to be in control, consider signing up with me and Close to my Heart and I'll show you how!

Holiday Marketplace Stop-N-Shop Perry, Michigan

I will be attending this event as a vendor, sounds like fun! Hope to see you there!

Holiday Marketplace Stop-N-Shop

November 7, 2010
10:00 AM - 3:00 PM

Perry City Hall Community Room
203 W. Polly Street 3rd Floor
Perry, MI

Come and join us for your one stop Christmas shopping needs!

It's a Twister!

First off I wanted to let you know that the June Jackpot special of the day is discounted Simple Snapshots album pages with a freebie of Color Ready alphabets if you hit the jackpot!

Now onto our adventure! Last night we were on our way to South Bend, Indiana at about 11:30 or so to pick up my husband's parents from the airport. There was a huge electrical thunderstorm with lightning flashing every second or so, extremely dramatic. All of a sudden, after receiving a call that the parents were evacuated from their plane, we turned around and the rain started. It was that kind of rain where you can't see five feet in front of you let alone the side of the road. We moved as slowly as we could trying to find a place to pull over and finally managed to find an overpass to hide under. We waited until the worst of it passed and then were able to get off the highway soon after. We arrived in Berrien Springs, Michigan and saw a path of debris up 139, people outside at nearly midnight with flashlights looking at the damage. This morning we went to Baroda to see what damage had occurred just miles from our house. You can see what we saw in both towns below.

I'm so excited!

I'm all set up for today's workshop and just had to show you all pictures! Here's six out of the seven card stations that people will be able to choose from. Each station has everything they will need to make up to 20 cards and the directions for each card (even though I'll be circulating too).

Each person can make the card of their choice or make all of the cards, it's up to them! I tried to really vary the types of cards so that there are a lot of choices. I also have extra Christmas sentiment stamps so they can choose whatever greeting they want on the inside of the card too.

For those who like to shop I'm also having a sale of the stamp sets, paper and extra embellishments I have from the Boyne Highlands event. Donuts and cider will be available for hungry participants too! I can't wait!

The best small town in America!

I've lived in a lot of places, small towns, big towns, small cities, huge cities, the country, and the suburbs. Now I live in a small town called Stevensville, in Michigan and right next to us is what I think is the best small town in America. It's called St. Joseph and it's a beach town with a gorgeous beach called Silver Beach. This is a town where you smile whenever you are there. There are festivals all the time and this year they've decided to restore the town back to what it used to be, with an amusement park like they used to have but one that retains charm. St. Joseph is building a carousel that has hand carved horses, it big and beautiful. They are also going to have this great kids activity area, both due later. This weekend they unveiled the fountain. This is not a typical fountain that's just there for the beauty but one that's for fun! One that kids can run through with abandon.

But all these things to do are not why I'm writing about St. Joseph today. You know how you go to the movies and see these made up towns that just seem too good to be true, where people actually walk down the street and say hello and local bands come and play the Star Spangled Banner at events? The one's where the mayor comes out and dedicates a brand new structure and cuts a ribbon? I didn't really think those places existed until I moved here. St. Joe is one of those places and we had a blast yesterday watching the new fountain get dedicated. Here's some pictures!

*What St. Joseph used to look like years ago.

*When the ribbon was cut, this whole array of balloons went flying.

*The fountain has it's own mascot, Splash.

*People were ready for the fountain to be turned on, lots of kids had swimming suits.

*The tallest kaleidoscope in Michigan is almost ready!

*The horses are all hand carved ready for the carousel to be finished.

*The carousel is getting there, it's enormous.

Here's a video of the fountain at work.

Crop in Clarkston, Michigan September 18-20

Hello everyone,

We still have some openings for the Inks Outside of the Box Fall Camp crop in Clarkston, Michigan. If you haven't checked out the link for this on the sidebar, please look for it. Much of the money from the weekend goes to the Operation Smile charity that fixes cleft palates for children who cannot afford the operation. You do not have to be a customer or a consulant for Close to my Heart to attend, it's just a regular crop, bring any supplies you want to crop with. We had a blast last spring at this crop and would love to see you there!

Fun at the Venetian Festival

What a fun day at the Venetian Festival yesterday! We rode rides, ate ice cream, watched the boat parade and the fireworks. This is a wonderful festival every year in St. Joseph. It's still going on today so I'll do my part for St. Joseph tourism and recommend you come take a peek before it closes at 7:00 tonight. Make sure you check out the town of St. Joe and the beautiful Silver Beach.