An Attempt at a come back :O)

I'm back :o)
I had taken a long break from blogging and paper crafting.  I needed to focus on taking care of my family. They needed me...I guess :o)
After a few years, I felt like I needed to get back to creating. I needed to get back in a consistent, regular way.
A scheduled way.
I really missed creating on a regular basis.

I decided  to rejoin Close To My Heart, as a consultant. I made a lot of good friends and met so many amazing people when I was a consultant, and I missed that.

I love Close to my Heart paper packets and stamps. Their products make scrapbooking easy, fun and quick.

Today I am sharing with you one of my favourite Close To My Heart paper packets, ZOE.
It's a great paper collection for cards, and scrapbooking. It can be used for masculine or feminine paper craft projects. The colours are adorable, fresh and trendy.
Zoe features grey as a neutral….I just love grey, it is so trendy right now. I just painted my main floor grey-LOVE it!

Zoe Paper Packet

A new CTMH product is Workshops On The Go. Each paper packet has a coordinating Workshop On The Go. It makes paper crafting easy…very easy. Everything matches. It's simply brilliant. 

Each WOTG features a selected paper packet (6 sheets of 12x12 double sided patterned paper and 6 12x12 sheets of card stock-4 different colours) , a complete list of instructions for one 2 page layout, a D-size stamp set, a package of embellishments and a package of coordinating ribbon, twine or tape. It retails $35.50 cnd$. It's a total  bargain!

Zoe Workshop On The Go

The Zoe workshop on the go comes with coral glitter adhesive tape. It's so pretty and so easy to apply to your paper project! 

I made 2, two page layouts and a 6x6 card and I still have a few sheets of paper, lots of scraps,  embellishments and ribbon to make more cards and at least one more two page layout.

Using what I received in the kit I created the following projects. (in addition to the kit I used the following stamp pads: slate/sweet leaf/glacier/sorbet and I also used two stamps from the set Cricut Artiste Collection Birthday Cricut Collection on the layout) 

A very simple 6x6 card

A Very Simple 12x12 Layout for my daughter's 20 Birthday. (yes, I have a 20 year old daughter!!! -Oh my!!)

I haven't blogged in a long time….so I apologize for the quality of the pictures. I'm having a hard time photographing my layout pages. :o) The colours are also not photographing the way I want them to. I know the colours are looking like they don't match…but in reality the colours all match perfectly together. The coral shimmer tape looks so pretty on that card-I'm in love with it.  

Oh well….I'm sure an afternoon of googling will solve those issues. :o)

I also want to give a bit of advice to those of you wanting to get back into scrapbooking. 

I have a lot of scrapbooking pages….. more than 12 albums FULL of scrapbook layouts. I have almost, completely, documented the last 11 years of our lives…give or take a few months here and there. I also have a few vacation albums and a couple of completed baby albums (I'm behind in that department) 

I keep my scrapbooking simple. I usually don't do very much stamping on my pages and I keep my layouts simple. Tackling scrapbooking this way I am able to binge scrapbook 10-15 layouts or more over a weekend, when I'm feeling extra creative. If I feel like doing more on a layout I do, but I never pressure myself to create the perfect, "publish worthy" layout. It's about documenting our family story. The kids LOVE sitting in the living room looking through the albums I've created. They laugh and smile and reminisce. It's priceless. :o) 

I almost always use kits. Kits that include matching paper/cardstock and embellishments. The CTMH Workshops on the Go are perfect. They have EVERYTHING (except for the stamp pads) you need to create adorable pages, quickly.  

I also use the CTMH How To Books. Each of the four books contain dozens of beautiful, timeless layouts, complete with cutting instructions and samples pages. A lot of the new style scrapbooking is designed for only a few pictures….but these books are packed with layout designs for several different numbers of pictures. I still scrapbook many pics at a time. The designs are completely customizable as well. I have used these books for years. :o)

  In addition to the CTMH How to Books I also use sketches for inspiration. I generally follow PageMaps for scrapbooking and Freshly Made Sketches for card making. 

I think that's enough information for now. :o) Contact me with questions.
I hope I inspired you today. See you soon!
Nicole M Bailey
jemolly@yahoo.ca