Heritage Scrapbooking with Live Beautifully

Close To My Heartbeautifully, Family, genealogy, heritage, history, keeping, live, memory, Month, National, scrapbook, scrapbooking, vintage 6 Comments

At the heart of scrapbooking is the idea of preserving memories and telling stories in a meaningful way that will last. Scrapbooks are a great way to preserve your family’s history and be artistic at the same time.

Our Live Beautifully paper packet, which is only available this month as part of National Scrapbooking Month, features vintage-inspired designs that are perfect for heritage scrapbooking.

The beautiful flowers on this page were trimmed right out of one of the Live Beautifully papers. To really make them pop, we curled up the edges and attached them using 3-D foam tape. They look like they’re blooming right off the page!

This page also shows how the All About the Gold Fundamentals make a great companion to your Live Beautifully papers. They are 12″ x 12″ clear overlays with gold foil designs; on this page we used the diagonal stripes design. These overlays work really well with the gold foil accents featured in the Live Beautifully paper packet.

And while we’re talking about gold, let’s not overlook gold glitter paper! We used it to mat our photos here, and we love the results! Gold glitter paper looks really elegant with sepia or black and white photos. We finished the page off with some gold foil accents from the Springtime Complements, including the title.

Which additional products do you like to use with the Live Beautifully paper packet for your heritage scrapbooking? Tell us in the comments below!

Recipes

12″ x 12″ A Moment in Time Page
CC1212B Live Beautifully Paper Packet, 1385 White Daisy Cardstock, 1386 Black Cardstock, Z3238 Gold Glitter Paper, Z3216 White Twine, Z3285 Cricut® Flower Market Collection

Cricut® Shapes:
¾” <font> “A MOMENT IN TIME”

12″ x 12″ Grandma & Grandpa Great Page
E1035 My Acrylix® Bistro Script Stamp Set, CC1212B Live Beautifully Paper Packet, Z3246 All About the Gold Fundamentals, 1385 White Daisy Cardstock, Z2805 Black Exclusive Inks™ Stamp Pad, Z3274 Clear Sparkles, Z1263 Bitty Sparkles, Z1151 3-D Foam Tape

12″ x 12″ My Favorite Page
CC1212B Live Beautifully Paper Packet, Z3238 Gold Glitter Paper, Z3307 Springtime Complements, Z1151 3-D Foam Tape

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May 11, 2017Community, Memory Keeping

How Much Do You Know About Your Great Grandparents?

Close To My Heartgrandparents, great, importance, keeping, memory, purpose, reason, remember, scrapbook, scrapbooking, why 31 Comments

This month is National Scrapbooking Month, and we want to take a moment to explain why memory keeping matters so deeply to us. In addition to the cathartic, empowering experience of creating something with your own two hands, scrapbooking allows you to fully preserve your memories: You can combine photos, stories, and mementos all in one place while creating artwork that is a reflection of you. These are the little things that represent your unique life, a life no one else lives or will ever live.

Did you know that it only takes three generations for your story to be lost? Think about it: Your children will remember some stories about you, and your grandchildren may remember a handful, but unless you have your memories preserved, you’ll be nothing more than a name, and maybe a face, to your great grandchildren and their posterity.

We now live in a generation consumed with sharing the present moment through channels like Facebook and Instagram, and even more short-lived forms like Insta stories and Snapchat. They’re an easy and fast way to share photos, which sounds great, right? However, if you were to look back at your social media accounts 40 years from now (assuming they still exist!) do they truly capture your story? Will your great grandchildren have access to these accounts, and if so, will what they see fully capture the legacy of your life?

The art of writing down our stories, printing our photos, saving our mementos, and storing everything in albums seems to be a dying art, but this is still the best way to preserve our memories. It gives you something tangible that can literally be handed down from generation to generation, something that can be experienced in person.

Also, your story isn’t the only one that can be lost. If no one else preserves your family’s stories, they will be lost as well. These are the stories of the people who mean the world to you, who fill your life with meaning and purpose.

We’re talking about the big stories here, the stories you yourself could never forget but others may not remember. When it comes to the small, beautiful, everyday moments, like the first word your child pronounces wrong or a kind act of service your spouse performs—these moments can be forgotten within months, weeks, even days unless you write them down, which is why we need to be diligent in our memory keeping. Time makes everything fade so fast.

Here is our plea to you, our readers. Please don’t let your stories be forgotten. When it comes down to it, it really doesn’t matter how exactly you preserve your memories, so long as you do it in a way that is meaningful to your posterity, easy for them to access, and will live far beyond your years.

It’s okay if you’re not a great scrapbooker. It’s okay if the pages you create aren’t perfect. It’s okay to stick to pocket scrapbooking or pre-cut kits because that’s all you have time for. We’ve got news for you, folks: There’s no “right” way to scrapbook! What really matters is that we all remember how important it is to preserve our stories and photos, and that we each do something about it before it’s too late.

If you are willing to pledge that your memories and the memories of your family won’t be forgotten, please sign your name in the comments below and share this post on Facebook. Make a goal to spend even 10 minutes a day preserving your memories, or maybe 30 minutes a week! Do whatever you can, just don’t let your story and the stories of your family be forgotten. Together, we can help others rediscover memory keeping and the true importance of it to future generations.

Let’s do this! 🙂

Recipes

12″ x 12″ Cut Above® Live Beautifully Layout
CC1225 Live Beautifully D-ring Album Bundle

12″ x 12″ Hello Life Pocket Scrapbooking Layout
B1548 My Acrylix® Journaling Prompts Stamp Set, D1702 My Acrylix® Capture This Stamp Set, CC1212B Live Beautifully Paper Packet, Z3271 Archival Black Exclusive Inks™ Stamp Pad, Z3217 Picture My Life™ Watercolor Cards—Gold, Z3264 Good Life Complements, Z3267 All Together Complements, Z3269 You & Me Complements, Z2012 Sequins Gold Assortment, Z1979 Marvy® Uchida® LePen™ Journaling Pen

6″ x 8″ Everyday Life™ Mini Album Beautiful Life Story Layout
B1548 My Acrylix® Journaling Prompts Stamp Set, Z3294 Memo Fundamentals, 1385 White Daisy Cardstock, X5770 Glacier Cardstock, Z2872 Whisper Exclusive Inks™ Stamp Pad, Z2841 Glacier Exclusive Inks™ Stamp Pad, Z3273 Baby Boy Complements, Z9979 Everyday Life™ Album—Stripes, Z1979 Marvy® Uchida® LePen™ Journaling Pen, Z3252 Memory Protectors™ 6″ x 8″

6″ x 8″ Everyday Life™ Mini Album Smile Layout
CC1212C My Acrylix® Live Beautifully Stamp Set, C1212B Live Beautifully Paper Packet, Z2844 Pixie Exclusive Inks™ Stamp Pad, Z2872 Whisper Exclusive Inks™ Stamp Pad, Z3271 Archival Black Exclusive Inks™ Stamp Pad, Z891 VersaMark™ Ink Pad, Z3283 Picture My Life™ Overlays—White Frames, Z9979 Everyday Life™ Album—Stripes, Z3192 Memory Protectors™ 6″ x 8″, Z3191 Memory Protectors™ 3″ x 4″, X7219C Little Dreamer Complements, Z3314 Black & White Dots, Z2068 Ranger™ White Super Fine Embossing Powder, Z555 Craft Heater

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May 4, 2017Create, Memory Keeping

Easy, Unique Mother’s Day Gift

Close To My Heartabove, beautifully, beginner, cut, day, gift, kit, live, May, mother, mother's, scrapbooking, special 7 Comments

With Mother’s Day just around the corner, today we’re sharing the perfect gift idea for all the mothers and mother figures in your life—one of our Live Beautifully album bundles!

These bundles come with an album, journaling pen, adhesive, and our new, limited-time Cut Above® Live Beautifully layout kit, which has everything you need to make five layouts, including base pages, pre-cut pieces, stickers, and photo placeholders. There’s no cutting or stamping required—all you do is follow the photos and instructions to attach the pieces and stickers to your pages!

Each of the layouts can be assembled in 15 minutes or less, meaning you could easily use the kit to make a personalized gift. You could either preserve some photos that are special to your mother, or make the album a tribute to her as a mother. The Live Beautifully kit is all about celebrating those who inspire and uplift us, so you could write down your thoughts about her, and even have your siblings pitch in!

Here are some layouts to show you how this approach could work:

Here’s another idea: If your mother loves scrapbooking, you could give her the bundle so she can enjoy a fun, easy scrapbooking project. You could even give her a “scrapbooking night” where you can assemble the layouts together while chatting and snacking on sweets—any mom would love that quality time, especially while revisiting old photos and happy memories.

Whether she creates the layouts herself or receives them in a completed album, your mother will love receiving this bundle. And because you save 20% by buying the kit in a bundle, you are also getting a great discount on the perfect gift! It’s a win-win!

Order your bundle today, and show your mother how much you appreciate her!

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May 2, 2017Memory Keeping

A Closer Look at Our Cut Above® Live Beautifully Layout Kit

Close To My Heartabove, beautifully, beginner, cut, easy, fast, keeping, kit, live, May, memory, Month, National, scrapbooking 2 Comments

May is National Scrapbooking Month, and to celebrate, we’ve created a whole new Cut Above® layout kit to help you create not one, not two, but FIVE layouts!

It’s called Live Beautifully, and it is all about living a beautiful life, dreaming big, and inspiring others.

If you’re not familiar with our Cut Above layout kits, you get everything you need to assemble scrapbook layouts in one convenient kit: base pages, pre-cut pieces and die-cuts, stickers, and photo placeholders—all you need is adhesive and a journaling pen! Each of the five layouts in the Live Beautifully kit can be assembled in 15 minutes or less—they’re that easy!

Cut Above is the perfect solution for those who enjoy the art of scrapbooking but are looking for a quicker alternative. Even if you’re a die-hard decorative scrapbooker who loves to spend hours on a layout, this kit is a great way to catch up on documenting your stories without sacrificing quality.

Let’s take a closer look at the layouts this kit creates:

Gorgeous, right? You’d never guess these come together so quickly! The gold foil accents really add a special touch, and if you want, you can pop up pieces with 3-D foam tape to add dimension.

If you want to get this kit at a discount, buy the kit in a bundle with an album, adhesive, and journaling pen—that way you save 20% and you have everything you need to make and store your pages!

An amazing scrapbooking kit with pre-cut pieces and stickers! #ctmh #closetomyheart #livebeautifully #memorykeeping #scrapbooking #fast #easy #kit

Grey D-ring album bundle

Black post-bound album bundle

So what are you waiting for! Give the Cut Above Live Beautifully layout kit a try! We know you’ll love it! 🙂

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April 4, 2017Create, Learn

4 Reasons Why Our Cut Above® Layout Kits Will Make Your Life Easier

Close To My Heartabove, always, baby, beginner, cut, forever, kit, little, one, quick, scrapbooking, wedding, workshop 12 Comments

If you haven’t heard about our Cut Above® layout kits before, now is the perfect time to learn about them—because this month they’re 50% off! That means they’re just $7.48 USD each!

We have two different kits: Forever & Always and Little One. They come with instructions, base pages, pre-cut pieces, and stickers to complete a two-page scrapbooking layout—no cutting required! You also get two Memory Protectors™ for storing your finished pages.

As an added bonus, the kits also come with coordinating pocket scrapbooking cards and two divided Memory Protectors for any leftover photos you may have.

Here’s what the Forever & Always layout kit looks like when it’s all completed—and remember, you make all of these pages for $7.48!

Quick scrapbooking kits—no cutting required! #closetomyheart #ctmh #cutabove #wedding #anniversary #love #baby

If saving big on an easy scrapbooking project isn’t enough to send you racing to your shopping cart, here are four more reasons why our Cut Above® layout kits will make your life easier:

1. You’ll save time.

And that means you’ll have more time to spend on other scrapbooking projects, learning new crafting techniques, or doing something else entirely! Check out this video to see how quickly the Little One kit comes together—you’ll be done in 15 minutes or less!

2. There is NO cutting . . . except cutting corners. 😉

No trimming, no fussy cutting, no cranking your die-cutting machine, no programming your Cricut®—aka less hassle for you! We know you love detailed paper accents though, so we just include those right in your kit! For example, take a look at the circle on the Little One layout with those pie-shaped pieces—creating something like that by hand takes a protractor… and a lot of time… and patience. And then you have the doilies on the Forever & Always layout. Sure, you can get that look with a Cricut®, but getting it in a kit saves you the time and hassle of cutting and cleaning up!

3. They work for multiple occasions.

You might take a look at these kits and think “Well, I’m not getting married or having a baby anytime soon, so I don’t know what I’d do with them.”

Well stop that silliness, and open your mind to the world of possibilities! 😉 These kits can be used for more than just two occasions. Ready for some inspiration?

Quick scrapbooking kits—no cutting required! #closetomyheart #ctmh #cutabove #wedding #anniversary #love #baby

How about using the Forever & Always kit for anniversary photos?

Quick scrapbooking kits—no cutting required! #closetomyheart #ctmh #cutabove #wedding #anniversary #love #baby

Or using it for anybody you want to spend forever & always with, like family? We especially love these generational photos of grandma, daughter, and granddaughter.

Quick scrapbooking kits—no cutting required! #closetomyheart #ctmh #cutabove #wedding #anniversary #love #baby

And even though YOU may not be the one having a baby, the Little One kit is perfect for pictures of any little one (including toddlers and little kiddos!) in your life, be it niece, grandson, cousin, goddaughter—you name it!

Quick scrapbooking kits—no cutting required! #closetomyheart #ctmh #cutabove #wedding #anniversary #love #baby

It’s even good for fur babies!

4. They make handmade easy.

Even though the base pages are printed and all the loose pieces are pre-cut, these layouts are still handmade—and you can tell! One thing that sets these pages apart from any store-bought, pre-designed scrapbooks is that they have dimension. To start off, you are attaching loose pieces and stickers to the pages, which already gives them dimension—but then you can also pop up any pieces you want with 3-D foam tape for even more personality!

Quick scrapbooking kits—no cutting required! #closetomyheart #ctmh #cutabove #wedding #anniversary #love #baby

Whether you’re new to scrapbooking or just looking for something new to try, these kits are sure to make your life a little bit easier. And at 50% off this month, they’re a total steal!

Have questions about our Cut Above® kits? Leave them in the comments below, and we’ll give you answers!

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March 16, 2017Create

Fun With Flip Flaps™

Close To My Heartadd, extra, flap, flip, hack, interactive, leftover, more, photo, scrapbooking, tip, trick 11 Comments

Have you ever given Flip Flaps™ a try? Are you wondering what we’re even talking about?

Flip Flaps are exactly what they sound like—flaps that you attach to a page that flip to reveal additional photos, sentiments, or designs—and they’re something you can only get with Close To My Heart! If you aren’t quite sure how to incorporate them into your scrapbooking, keep reading! We’re going to show you some fun ways to use them, and you’re sure to get inspired!

If you’re the kind of person that loves taking photos, then Flip Flaps are for you! There’s only so much space on a scrapbook layout for photos, but when you add Flip Flaps to your pages, you can use more of your photos that you wouldn’t have room for otherwise. As you can see above, they come in several different sizes and can be positioned anywhere on a page using the adhesive strip—and they work great with pocket scrapbooking layouts, too! What a fun and easy way to include more photos in your scrapbooking without taking up more space!

A charming way to share more of your photos is to stack your Flip Flaps and create “mini albums” right on your pages! You can stack them directly on top of each other or create a cascading effect, like we did here. Notice that we attached the Flip Flaps to the outside of the Memory Protectors™. This way, our page is interactive while keeping the artwork and photos protected.

Get extra creative with your Flip Flaps by making cute accents out of them. Look at these little presents that double as tiny album jackets! It’s such a great way to add some personality to your pages. Another fun idea is to use Flip Flaps to preserve memorabilia, like postcards or letters, that have writing on both sides.

Try incorporating Flip Flaps into your scrapbooking to extend your creative options and have even more fun preserving your memories! We know you’ll love them, just like we do. 🙂

Recipes

12″ x 12″ Sun & Surf Pocket Scrapbooking Layout
B1548 My Acrylix® Journaling Prompts Stamp Set, C1619 My Acrylix® So Many Smiles Stamp Set, D1708 My Acrylix® Sending Smiles Stamp Set (part of a Cricut® bundle), Cc1219 Swirly Seashells Stamp + Thin Cuts, C1671 My Acrylix® Sugar Rush—Cardmaking Stamp Set, X7218B Dreamin’ Big Paper Packet, X7215B Sugar Rush Paper Packet, X7217B Some Kinda Wonderful Paper Packet, X7216B Hello Lovely Paper Packet, 1385 White Daisy Cardstock, Z2865 Juniper Exclusive Inks™ Stamp Pad, Z3271 Archival Black Exclusive Inks™ Stamp Pad, X7215C Sugar Rush Complements, X7218C Dreamin’ Big Complements, Z3315 Dreamin’ Big Sequins, Z1979 Marvy® Uchida® LePen™ Journaling Pen, Z3231 Memory Protectors™ Flip Flaps™ 4″ x 6″, Z3230 Memory Protectors™ Flip Flaps™ 3″ x 4″, Z1951 Memory Protectors™ Design 4, Z1950 Memory Protectors™ Design 3, Z3169 Cricut® Artbooking Collection, Z3285 Cricut® Flower Market Collection

Cricut® Shapes:
Artbooking
1 1/4″ Shift+Title<Vacation> (p. 62)

Flower Market
2 3/4″ Title <h> (p. 26)

12″ x 12″ Happy With You Page
C1671 My Acrylix® Sugar Rush—Cardmaking Stamp Set,C1619 My Acrylix® So Many Smiles Stamp Set, X7218B Dreamin’ Big Paper Packet, X7216B Hello Lovely Paper Packet, 1385 White Daisy Cardstock, Z2873 Slate Exclusive Inks™ Stamp Pad, Z2814 Cocoa Exclusive Inks™ Stamp Pad, Z2841 Glacier Exclusive Inks™ Stamp Pad, Z2865 Juniper Exclusive Inks™ Stamp Pad, Z2895 Lagoon Exclusive Inks™ Stamp Pad, Z2849 Peacock Exclusive Inks™ Stamp Pad, Z3314 Black & White Dots, Z3269 You & Me Complements, Z3267 All Together Complements, Z3234 Memory Protectors™ Flip Flaps™ 3″ x 3″, Z3169 Cricut® Artbooking Collection

Cricut® Shapes:
Artbooking
11 1/2″ Overlay <HeloWrld> (p. 84)

12″ x 12″ Let’s Celebrate Page
D1708 My Acrylix® Sending Smiles Stamp Set (part of a Cricut® bundle), X7215B Sugar Rush Paper Packet, 1385 White Daisy Cardstock, X5789 Sea Glass Cardstock, Z2873 Slate Exclusive Inks™ Stamp Pad, X7215C Sugar Rush Complements, Z3315 Dreamin’ Big Sequins, Z3216 White Twine, Z1979 Marvy® Uchida® LePen™ Journaling Pen, Z3233 Memory Protectors™ Flip Flaps™ 2″ x 2″, Z3234 Memory Protectors™ Flip Flaps™ 3″ x 3″, Z3169 Cricut® Artbooking Collection, Thread

Cricut® Shapes:
Artbooking
11″ Overlay <Happy> (p. 86) (contoured to enlarge individual stars)
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March 2, 2017Community

13 Tips for Finding Time to Preserve Your Memories

Close To My Heartfinding, help, how, keeping, memories, memory, preserve, scrapbooking, story, time, tips 4 Comments

It’s one thing to understand the importance of memory keeping…and it’s another thing entirely to find time to make it happen. Here are some tips to help you out. 🙂

1. Write It in Your Planner

Just writing down a reminder will increase your chances of making it happen.

2. Do It with A Friend

You know how people talk about having a workout buddy to hold yourself accountable? Why not have a scrappin’ buddy? You can keep each other accountable and have fun along the way!

3. Attend a Monthly Crop, Workshop, or Club

Or…you can have a BUNCH of scrappin’ buddies! By committing to a regular crop, workshop, or club, you hold yourself accountable to make memory keeping happen. Plus, it’s nice to get out of the house and away from any distractions. 😉

4. Divide Up Tasks

Sometimes it’s hard to work on preserving your memories because it seems like such an overwhelming task, especially if you’re new to the game. Breaking it into manageable steps will make it much more approachable: For example, organize a box of photos today, start working on some layouts tomorrow, and attach the photos to your layouts next week. Baby steps are just fine, folks!

5. Commit to a Specific Amount of Time Each Day

Committing to 10, 20, or 30 minutes of memory keeping each day might be better suited for your lifestyle, so try it out! And remember, spending time sorting photos or cutting paper totally counts if that’s what step you need to do next—you don’t have to finish anything.

6. Scrap Early in the Morning or Late at Night

If your kiddos or spouse keep interrupting you whenever you sit down to start working, try working early in the morning or late at night for maximum productivity.

7. Make It a Habit

Whatever actions you’ve taken to implement other habits into your life, apply those same actions to memory keeping. Once it’s a habit, you’ll save time and energy just by having a rhythm. You won’t even have to think about it anymore.

8. Simplify Your Schedule

Sometimes making room for something in your life simply means cutting something else out. See if there’s anything of less value you can cut from your schedule to make way for memory keeping.

9. Look Into Quicker Options

The great thing about memory keeping nowadays is that there are a million different options for how to do it. Some of our favorite time-savers include pocket scrapbooking, our Pocket Plus™ Memory Protectors™ for adding more photos between your layouts, and our Cut Above™ layout kits, which come with pre-cut pieces for easy assembly. Even if you’re a die-hard decorative scrapbooker who loves those intricate frills—maybe even just on some layouts—there are lots of great products that make getting that fancy look take less time.

10. Set Goals

Setting goals is always a good idea when you need to motivate yourself to make time for something. Maybe you want to get that Christmas album done by the end of summer vacation, or maybe you want to finish organizing your 1995 photos by the end of the month—just having a specific goal in mind will make you more likely to take steps to reach that goal.

11. Replace Social Media Time

If we were to actually keep track of how much time we spend on Facebook, Pinterest (and Farmville and Candy Crush, etc., etc.), we’d probably be very surprised. Try replacing your social media time (or at least part of it) with memory keeping…we know you won’t regret it!

12. Scrap Whenever You Watch TV

Another great way to get something done is to pair it with an activity you enjoy. Make a commitment to work on preserving your memories anytime you sit down to watch TV.

13. Dedicate a Space to Memory Keeping

Productivity can often be improved just by dedicating a space for a certain task. Dedicate a space to memory keeping (ideally a place where you can leave projects you’re in the middle of), and decorate it with things that inspire you, like a vision board.

How do you find time for memory keeping? Tell us in the comments below.

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January 31, 2017Community

From Jeanette: Stories from the Heart

Close To My Heartheart, Jeanette, keeping, lynton, memory, remembering, scrapbooking, stories, story, storytelling 3 Comments

jeanette-lynton

Preserving memories is my life’s work. It’s at the heart of everything I do, from my own personal scrapbooking to the vision I have for this company. The milestones, the every day routines, the light in a child’s eye as they discover the world—these are the moments, stories, and images I seek to capture. And when I do, I carefully place them in scrapbook albums for safekeeping. Though they may just look like pretty paper and photos to someone else, they are my most prized possessions. The stories they tell are my personal history and the history of my family.

It is because of my passion for memory keeping that I’m excited to launch a new series of blog posts called “Stories from the Heart.” I want you, my readers and dear friends, to look through your old scrapbooks, find a page or layout with a story you want to tell, and then share that story with the world through our blog.

Stories from the Heart is a celebration of memory keeping, a reminder of why we do what we do, an opportunity to share the beautiful stories that fill our scrapbooks.

To launch this series, I want to share the story behind one of my favorite scrapbook layouts. 🙂

We were doing a photos shoot for the 1998 September & October edition of I Love Remembering, a magazine subscription we published back in the day.

The photo shoot was in western Utah (basically in the middle of the desert!), and we were taking pictures of my daughters, Aubrey and Rachel, in an abandoned pioneer schoolhouse. They had on these adorable matching outfits, including hand-stamped sweaters and backpacks, which were back-to-school crafting projects we’d be featuring in the magazine article.

The two photos on the right page of my scrapbook layout are some additional photos taken from this photo shoot. I loved all the pictures we took that day, and I wanted to preserve some of them in my own scrapbook.

The photo of the girls hugging absolutely melts my heart. It perfectly captures the love these sisters have for each other to this day. No matter how different they may be, they always have each other’s back.

In contrast to these professionally staged photos, the big photo on the left page was completely unplanned! It was a scorching hot day, and after wearing those hand-stamped sweaters, Aubrey and Rachel were melting like popsicles! They went to find some shade in the schoolhouse, and when they came back out, they had taken off their little sweaters, and this beautiful scene appeared: The rustic blue door, the sunflowers Rachel was still holding from the shoot, the sweet, tired looks on their faces—it was such a perfect moment, so I had to take a picture.

I think part of the reason I loved this shot was because it captured their cute little personalities. Rachael is staring at the camera head-on with confidence, holding the bouquet of flowers like a professional model. My sweet Aubrey is more shy and subdued, and you can see that in this photo by the way she is holding herself, legs turned in, arms tucked behind her back. She is my gentle, darling girl.

It’s still amazing to me how grown up they look in this photo. I remember being there and thinking, “I can already picture what they will look like as young women…my goodness.”

Those are the stories behind these scrapbook photos, and I hope you enjoyed hearing them. I know I loved going down memory lane as I remembered the stories of how these photos came to be.

I want to hear your stories now. As they say, a picture is worth a thousand words, and I want to hear your thousand words! Your stories are beautiful and deserve to be shared. Help me celebrate memory keeping—and help others realize the full value of this art—by submitting your stories to us. Read the bottom of this post to find out how.

Before I sign off, I just want to take a moment to thank you all for your friendship. One of the beautiful things about memory keeping is that it brings people together, and I’m so grateful for all the wonderful stories and memories I have with you.

Wishing you my love as you tell your stories,

Jeanette

If you would like a chance to share your story on our blog, here’s what you’ll need to do:

Find one scrapbook page or layout (please just one!) that you’d like to share.
Tell us the story behind the photo. What was happening? Who is in the photo? Is there something funny that happened before or after the photo was taken? Why is this photo meaningful to you?
Take a high-resolution photo of yourself (you can even be holding the pages or your entire scrapbook!).
Take a high-resolution photo of the layout or page on a flat surface (use natural lighting to improve the quality, and take the pages out of the protectors so they don’t reflect in the flash).
Email the photos and story to us at ctmhblog@closetomyheart.com with the subject “Stories from the Heart.” If we decide to share your story on the blog, we will contact you!

We can’t wait to start reading all your stories! 🙂

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January 24, 2017Create

Beginner Crafting Kits

Close To My Heartbaby, beginner, bridal, crafting, gift, ideas, kits, layout, newlywed, nursery, paper, projects, scrapbooking, succulent, wedding, wreath 5 Comments

If you’d love to craft but think you’re just not the “crafting type,” think again! There are so many resources that make learning to craft easy, including online tutorials and Consultants that can walk you through projects right in your own home!

Among these great resources are beginner crafting kits, like our limited-time Welcome Home wreath kit or our new Cut Above™ scrapbooking layout kits.

The Welcome Home wreath kit helps you create a beautiful paper succulent wreath. With pre-cut pieces you simply punch out, curl, layer, and attach, this is a wonderful place for beginners to start if they’re interested in trying out DIY home décor.

It’s a great project for your first home as a married couple—or give it as a unique bridal shower or wedding present to a friend! The new bride is sure to love creating something herself for her new home—especially with her new last name 😉 !

Our Cut Above™ Forever & Always layout kit is also a great beginner crafting kit for the bride. Those first few years together go by lightning fast, so start the habit of preserving your love story by doing something with all those wedding photos! Trust us, you won’t want to forget those sweet newlywed moments.

This affordable kit comes with pre-cut pieces and instructions for assembling the two pages you see in this album, as well as Memory Protectors™ to keep your pages safe.

It also comes with pocket cards and two divided Memory Protectors™ to create even more pages, which fit in between your main pages for preserving additional pictures and moments from your special day!

We also have a beginner Cut Above™ scrapbooking layout kit for baby photos—it’s called Little One, and it’s totally gender neutral.

The birth of your first child is definitely the time to start thinking about preserving memories—if you haven’t already (and not in that black hole of a phone or computer, either!).

In addition to being affordable (which is a must with a new babe around!), all the pages in this kit come together in less than 15 minutes—really! So complete your kit, and then take a nice long nap with all that time you save. 🙂 Get a feel for how easily these kits come together by watching this quick video:

And while you’re at it…

Why not add a Welcome Home wreath to baby’s nursery? Once again, this is a super affordable and unique baby shower gift, perfect for a new mama who will be nesting like crazy soon. 😉

Whether you’re a newlywed, young mom, or a friend looking for a unique shower gift, the Welcome Home wreath kit and the Cut Above™ layout kits are the perfect go-to projects for beginners. With affordable price tags and easy-to-follow instructions, these kits are sure to light a smile on anyone’s face as she discovers she can craft and make something beautiful for her family.

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Make It from Your Heart

Tag Archives: scrapbooking

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