Make a difference in October

by CraftyAmanda in Close to My Heart, CTMH, Offer, Scrapbook, Stamping | 1 Comment

This month, Close to my Heart is matching all round up donations to Operation Smile up to $10,000 USD! Just think of how many children will benefit from the life altering surgeries provided by Operation Smile. So, just place an order and click the round up box to help us surpass the $10,000 match.

In addition to the round up offer, for each Puny Pals stamp set sold, $7 goes towards Operation Smile.

These are so cute, and during October you can purchase the thin cuts that coordinate with the stamps! Quick, fun and easy cards!

Also this month Close to My Heart has designed a super cute card kit to showcase the Puny Pals. Get yours today!

You can buy the cards, exclusive papers & thin cut as a bundle and save!

Thanks for helping change the future for children!

Happy Crafting!

Scrapbook Video Week #5

by CraftyAmanda in Artwork, Close to My Heart, Cricut, CTMH, Pattern, Scrapbook, Stamping, Workshop On the Go | 1 Comment

Soon I will be starting weekly videos again for both scrapbooks & cards. I need to find my craft table, reset my cameras and remind myself of some of the little things that help my recording sessions go more smoothly.

As I’ve started doing some re-organizing, purging and discovery around the house, I’ve realized I have too many good ideas and not enough execution of those ideas. For example, I found a cookbook that was given to me. I have no need of the contents of the cookbook, but I remember keeping it because it had a great 3 ring binder and would be perfect for a small scrapbook project. Wah-lah, that will be the project for our first fall video, coming soon to a facebook live station near you. 🙂

In the meantime, I’ve learned that I sometimes feel over whelmed by guilt of paper that is just languishing in boxes and on shelves. These are not unopened paper packs, but more the “left overs” and remains of paper packs from previous workshops & projects. It’s one of the reasons that I’ve been trying to fully use up packs so as not to add to the abandoned paper pack stash. In aid of reducing this APS (Abandoned Paper Stash) I’ve returned to some of my previous projects and pulling out different paper, did the same layouts again. I sometimes forget how much I love the “old” Pattern books, and this is a great way to reacquaint myself with them. Hope you enjoy!

As a bonus to help you envision your own papers in this pattern, here’s a photo from another gal that did this workshop.

The colors she choose work so well with her photos. I also love that this layout seems to draw my eye to the photos rather than to the papers & embellishments! Great Job Pat W!

If you have completed any of these projects, I would love to see them. You can email me the photos at Amanda@craftingwithamanda.com

Happy Crafting!

Surprise Album Part 2

by CraftyAmanda in About Me, Artwork, Close to My Heart, Cricut, CTMH, Scrapbook | 1 Comment

The album was accepted and enjoyed, but time didn’t allow me to print more photos and put them in the album while we were there. (I thought that might happened) So, now that I’m home, I will use these photos of the remaining pages and choose the prints that will work on each page. The titles and other embellishments I created are in a bundle and I left them with Mom. Hopefully she will remember to pack them for their return to Florida so that when I send the prints she can just place them in the book and have it completed quickly.

Here are the remaining pages from the book. I think I might have to use this as inspiration to create another not so mini album in the future. They are fun and satisfying to do.

Happy Crafting!

Surprise Album Part 1

by CraftyAmanda in Artwork, Close to My Heart, Cricut, CTMH, Scrapbook | 2 Comments

Have your heard the saying you find love when you least expect it? Or when you’re not looking for it? That’s exactly what happened to my Mom this year. She connected on facebook with a high school classmate and they got married this week. It has been a special journey for her, and for me as her daughter. I’ve seen and heard her joy, elation, vulnerabilities and cheered her rollercoaster ride to love.

I’ve had very little tractor time this summer, so once they announced the wedding date, I have been stealing time from other things and putting together this wedding album for them. The first few pages are already filled with photo from their HS year book, facebook posts and personal photos from when we got to meet Mom’s fiancé. The remaining pages are to be filled with photos from the wedding weekend. I also provided several roses, hearts & titles to match the style I had already started.

I was really pleased with my solution for adding both horizontal and vertical photo memory protectors to the book. Mom will be able to add more in between later pages as I created them to be modular. I took the standard memory protectors and using my bind it all, I punched holes along the edge and then cut a slit into the center of each of the punched holes. This allows me to place them anywhere in the book that I need more photo spaces.

Without further ado, here are the first few pages with photo inserts I have finished.

I found some photos of Mom in the HS yearbooks on line 🙂 yay!

I do believe necessity is the mother of invention. I had no clue how I was going to include the next photos that were tall when all I had were vertical page protectors. As I was sitting in a room of crafting supplies I decided to see what I could find. I found the 12 x 6″ page protectors for a 12 x 12 scrapbook and decided I would sacrifice one slot and see if I could make it work. I could! And, was able to use all three slots by just cutting the first photo a half inch narrower. yeah.

being 3 photos wide was too big for my book, so I folded the last section in and filled it up!
I had to have some extra built in flaps too. Makes it more interactive right?

This is a far as filled it before leaving for the wedding weekend.

Happy Crafting!

Quick Scrapbook layout

by CraftyAmanda in Artwork, Close to My Heart, Pattern, Scrapbook, Video, Workshop On the Go | 2 Comments

For today’s offering, I give you one of the pattern’s from an older CTMH scrapbook layout book, Cherish. These books have really helped me jumpstart my creativity and crank out some layouts. If you haven’t tried any of Jeannett Lynton’s how to books, you can see them here.

I rotated the pages and tilted the photos to make it speak more to me. How will you make it your own.