Sonoma "Magic" Enchantment

Our Stickease, cardstock stickers make layouts SUPER easy. There are two 6x12 sheets of stickers/set, I used one sheet to create this layout and added some ribbon and brads. On the back of the sticker carrier sheets are 2 photos of layouts, I just adjusted them to fit my photos, which included trimming a few of the Stickease so they would fit my spaces better. But the layouts are impressive, fast, and easy.

Products Used

X7143B Sonoma Paper Pack
X7143C Sonoma Stickease

X5905 Bright Green Shade Cardstock Pack
Exclusive Inks Stamp Pads: Z2103 Bamboo, Z2114 Cocoa, Z2167 Creme Brulee,

Z697 Sponge
Z534 Microtip Scissors
Z1316 Designer Ribbon Rounds Cocoa Collection
Z1366 Brads--Metal Assortment
Z1471 CTMH Ruler
1772 Glue Dots
9034 Magic (Check my website for availabilty. These books are being discontinued and are only available while supplies last. They are FANTASTIC resources.



Sonoma "Magic" Lovely Assistant

I'm back to posting. I had a wonderful day yesterday with Ray and Samantha at Sea World. We took a bunch of great pictures, capturing lots of memories. I have so many old photos to scrap that I've decided I'm going to scrap my new ones with Studio J and my two boxes of old photos traditionally. I was sick one day and couldn't be up and down or in my scrap room so I stayed in my chair covered with my blanket and opened the computer to Studio J. I created some great layouts that I'll post as soon as I finish posting my Sonoma series.

For my Sea World photos, I want to add some of the Sea World epoxy stickers that I think are by Creative Imaginations. I'll just leave room on my layouts for them and when they arrive, I will stick them on the layout.

For now, it's on to my heritage pages and the 100% tradtional world of Sonoma!

If you look at the right page, the lady in the lower left corner is my grandmother holding my father. The paper above the photo is another photo copy of the back of the photo. She listed her weight and my dad's weight on it, something I never would have done. Something much better in those days, they weren't as vain as we were. This is another page that is sort of out of the Idea Book. I changed it quite a bit, with the Martha Stewart punched borders, changing the cardstock from Colonial White to discontinued textured Amethyst, adding extra embellishments and the Tim Holtz key and watch pieces to fill in empty spaces. My friend Eilene added a watch hand to the clock in addition to the stamped hands and it mini brad. It really looked nice, like a 2nd hand. Everyone can adjust layouts to best fit their own photos.

Products Used

X7143B Sonoma Paper Pack

B1392 Key Moments My Acrylix

X5906 Dk Green Shades Cardstock Pack for Olive Cardstock

Exclusive Inks Stamp Pads: Z2100 Amethyst, Z2103 Bamboo, Z2114 Cocoa, Z2137 Olive, Z2167 Creme Brulee

Z697 Sponge

Z534 Microtip Scissors
Z1360 Designer Brads

Z1367 Metal Bitty Brads

Z1471 CTMH Ruler
Z1151 3-D Foam Tape
1772 Glue Dots

Z341 Mini Glue Dots

9034 Magic (Check my website for availabilty. These books are being discontinued and are only available while supplies last. They are FANTASTIC resources

Scrap of unknown yellow cardstock for letters.

Sizzix letters. (Sorry, I honestly don't remember which ones I used.)

Discontinued Textured Amethyst Cardstock

Discontinued Chocolate Ribbon Rounds

Discontinued Prima Forever Flowers Fern Leaves (I would LOVE to have some more of these!) 

Martha Stewart Edge Punch
Tim Holtz Idea-Ology Sprocket Gears
Unknown source for black keys

Sonoma "Magic" Magic Act and "Reflections" Visual Textures

Cherish, Imagine, Magic, and Reflections are how-to books for Scrapbooking and Wishes and Originals are how-to books for Cardmaking, written by Jeanette R. Lynton the Founder & CEO of  Close To My Heart. They're my go-to guides. They're better than just sketches because they have the cutting dimensions, diagramsm and directions to put your layouts together.  They contain hundreds of patterns, ideas, mini-tutorials and beautiful photography. I am SO thankful that I bought all of them.

All of the layouts in each book, as is the case of this layout, can be mixed and matched. Each page, below, is from a different book. Plus the layouts are designed so that you can turn them in any direction and have a different look. I have already started on a new workshop and one of the layouts I'm using was created by another consultant. I didn't even recognize it until I pulled the book out and then I realized I had created it in the Sonoma workshop, she just turned it upside down.  I have Pagemaps and Sketches but I still keep going back to these becaue of all the detailed instructions.

As noted below, some are sold out, but you can still get those still available on my website, where shipping starts at just 4.95. After CTMH is finished selling them, check amazon.com. Some are available now there and at Michaels.

Products Used

X7143B Sonoma Paper Pack
Exclusive Inks Stamp Pads: Z2114 Cocoa, Z2147 Smokey Plum
Z1316 CTMH Designer Ribbon Rounds Cocoa Collection
Z1336 Cream Pearls
Z1635 Heirloom Assortment (for flower in between the two buttons on the right page)
Z697 Sponge
Z534 Microtip Scissors
Z1471 CTMH Ruler
Z1151 3-D Foam Tape
1772 Glue Dots
Layout
9031 Reflections and 9034 Magic (Check my website for availabilty. These books are being discontinued and are only available while supplies last. They are FANTASTIC resources!)

Discontinued CTMH New England Ivy Textured Cardstock
Creative Memories Silver Pen
K and Co. Letter Stickers
Buttons

Sonoma Magic "Out of the Hat

I LOVED finding these pictures. The car was actually my grandmothers! I went and bought the Tim Holtz Sizzix Jalopy die to use on this layout. I wound up getting the Movers & Shapers Jalopy, as well as the ATC embossing folder for another car my Dad has that looks just like this one. I was going to put a picture of his car on the left page and noticed his had spoke wheels and this one didn't; that's how I realized they weren't the same cars. A good way you can identify different eras in your photos when they all look to be the same--check the little details--haircuts, clothing, belts, shoes, jewelry, toys, or in this case wheels.

Right under the car I have a note that says, "Mother's grinning like an opossom in her new car, HAHA." It was on the back of the photo in my dad's handwriting and so nice to have. I make photocopies of the backs of photos like this at Staples and then sponge the white paper with Bamboo ink and/or Creme Brulee and Cocoa, Smokey Plum, or Amethyst on the edges. Then I will add them to my pages right beside their original photo. The sponging makes it so the bright white doesn't detract from the layout and I incorporate my ancestors' writings in my layout.

Products Used

X7143B Sonoma Paper Pack
X7143C Sonoma Stickease
Exclusive Inks Stamp Pads: Z2100 Amethyst, Z2103 Bamboo, Z2114 Cocoa, Z2167 Creme Brulee, an Z2147 Smokey Plum,
Z697 Sponge
Z534 Microtip Scissors
Z1316 Designer Ribbon Rounds Cocoa Collection
Z1366 Brads--Metal Assortment
Z1471 CTMH Ruler
Z1151 3-D Foam Tape
1772 Glue Dots
9034 Magic (Check my website for availabilty. These books are being discontinued and are only available while supplies last. They are FANTASTIC resources!)

Additional Items:
Sizzix Tim Holtz Jalopy Die
Encore Copper Ink Pad
Crayola Metallic Copper colored Pencil (Their metallics are soft and contain a good amount of pigment.)
Stampin Up First Edition Special Designer Series Paper
Discontinued CTMH Pansy Purple Textured Cardstock
Discontinued CTMH Colonial White Textured Cardstock
The journaling sticker is actually two from an old CTMH Stickease pack. I save journaling stickers or blocks. For thiw layout, I cut 2 in half diagonally since I couldn't decide on which color to use and pushed the two halves together, making one block out of both colors.
Prima flowers

Sonoma "Reflections" Triple Play Tagline

When I make a layout, I rarely pick it out with pictures in mind. I usually do so because I like the paper and layout. I add my pictures afterwards, or pick pictures out after I have decided what to make and then figure out a way to make it work. I have wanted to create this layout from the first time I saw it when Reflections first arrived at my house. So, when I was getting to the end of my layouts and had lots of scraps left, but not many full sheets of paper, I decided, I was gong to make it. I never once considered the photos. I knew I had a lot of little pictures of my dad, but never dreamed that when I made 16 small squares I would have 16 small pictures of my dad. SURPRISE!!! I was so happy that the two worked together.

The Crop-A-Dial made this so much faster than the old way of pounding in eyelets with a hammer and the setting tool, quieter too. Just remember 3-C for standard eyelets. To punch your holes, it's real scientific. I eyeballed where I wanted my holes to be, drew a dot on my cardstock, grabbed 4 pieces stacked together, punched the hole, and then with my Crop-A-Dial still squeezed together, set the guide on the hole punching side so each other hole would be punched at the same depth. No more measureing. To set the eyelet, it's as easy as unlocking your front door. You need to put your key in the hole in your door to unlock your house. So with your Crop-A-Dial, you need to put the "stem" of the crop-a-dial or "KEY" in the hole of your eyelet, and the eyelet in the hole of your paper, before you squeeze and "unlock" the magic of the tool, by setting your eyelet. SIMPLE!

At the top of each piece of Close To My Heart's Background and Texture paper, are Zip Strips. One side of the Zip Strip contains identification information on the paper pack that the paper is from, such as colors used in that paper pack and the product name and number. The other side is useable with a printed border, alphabet, or words. When my layout was complete, it needed something else, I added the Zip Strips to the far left and right edges of each side and purple Sparkles to the Zip Strips.

Something else I have decided to do, thanks to my friend Candice is start using some of my old letter stickers. WOW were they a waste of money. I have gotten so used to using My Acrylix clear Stamps, Quickutz, Sizzix, and even Sandy's Accucut, that I just quit using the gazillion stickers I had bought over the years before these great machines and my clear stamps. This layout used five letters and I would have had to buy one alphabet just to get those 5 letters. Those days are over. PLUS with CTMH's My Acrylix and our blocks, they're super-simple to align. Our blocks have a laser cut line etched into the block. It is going to be hard using the stickers, but I'm determined to use some of the things I spent money on and get rid of them--creating more space in my craft room. We'll see how long that lasts! 

Products Used

X7143B Sonoma Paper Pack
C1465 Unscripted
Z1686 CTMH Cricut Art Philosophy Cartridge (For the little title tag on the right page.)
Exclusive Inks Stamp Pads: Z2100 Amethyst, Z2114 Cocoa, Z2137 Olive and Z2147 Smokey Plum
Z1326 Sparkles--Red, Pink, and Purple Assortment
Z1360 Designer Brads
Z697 Sponge
Z534 Microtip Scissors
Z1471 CTMH Ruler
Z1151 3-D Foam Tape
1772 Glue Dots (sometimes old photos have a hard time sticking to a page and I use a Glue Dot to keep them down.)
9031 Reflections (Check my website for availabilty. These books are being discontinued and are only available while supplies last. They are FANTASTIC resources!)

Discontinued CTMH Embroidery Floss Green Assortment
Discontinued CTMH Eyelets
Crop-A-Dile (The ONLY way to set alot of eyelets!)
Assorted Cardstocks used on other layouts
K and Co stickers

Sonoma, Magic "Magic Act"

This was one of the last set of pages I made and I had run out of papers to use, I was truly using scraps, with my friends bringing their own pale lavendar/purle pages since I didn't have anymore.

On the left page I learned that my love for dogs is from my dad! We always had dogs when I was growing up. It is so neat to learn about me from old photos as well as about my father. The right page has photos of him, his dad, and his brothers.

Old pictures are small and what do you do to fill in empty spaces? First I added some fern leaf punchies from the EK Success Corner Adorner. Not enough. The dog paw brads wouldn't work on the right page. I stood in the my craft room and just looked around until I saw the box containing the Making Memories Antique Glitter Deco Brads. They're a Glittery Copper and along with some of the words from Close To My Heart Background and Texture Paper Zip Strips, they filled in blank spots on the right page nicely. I also added some tiny square, clear sparkles, that may not show up online to the leaf punchies.

Products Used
X7143B Sonoma Paper Pack
Exclusive Inks Stamp Pads: Z2100 Amethyst, Z2147 Smokey Plum
Z697 Sponge
Z534 Microtip Scissors
Z1104 Clear Sparkles
Z1471 CTMH Ruler
Z1612 Pin Clips
1772 Glue Dots
9034 Magic (Check my website for availabilty. These books are being discontinued and are only available while supplies last. They are FANTASTIC resources!)

Additional Items:
Discontinued CTMH Amethyst Textured Cardstock
EK Success Corner Adorner--Fern Leaf
Making Memories paw print brad
Making Memories Antique Glitter Deco Brads
7 Gypsies D is for Dog Stickers
Bazzil cardstock (green)