Stacy Julian wants to make your weekend with a surprise giveaway!!! Find out how to win a new Story by Stacy™ Short Story workshop kit below!
You have until 11 a.m. (MDT) Sunday, September 9, to enter the giveaway. Winners will be notified by email on Monday.
Good luck! 😉
Telling stories is what Story Starter is all about. This first workshop kit in the Story by Stacy™ product line walks you through the process of recalling detailed memories, writing them down, and then organizing them into small stories to pair with photos.
Story Starter albums get even better when you add stamping to your story cards with the Colorful Textures and Quotable Words stamp sets. These stamp sets are designed especially to work with the stories you tell in these albums, and today we are giving you some ideas for how you can use the Story Starter workshop kit with its coordinating stamp sets to personalize your written memories.
There are so many ways you can include splashes of color on your story cards. With the Colorful Textures stamp set, you can stamp simple images to match each story and photo in your Story Starter album. Shapes like hearts and stars fit perfectly next to words on your story card.
These shapes can also be used to decorate your quote cards. With one solid and one outline circle, small touches of color make your quote cards more interesting and unique to you.
Colorful Textures includes a few words that can be used to make short phrases. You can see we arranged the words to stamp the phrase “I LOVE the way YOU” on our story card. Build your phrase on a My Acrylix® block, like we did. Leave one word out. Stamp the phrase with Black ink, and then stamp the missing word in a different color.
The Quotable Words stamp set gives you many options for stamping phrases or quotes on your story cards. You can use these images to personalize your story, or you can even incorporate them into how you write your memories on the story cards.
This story card makes use of the checklist image and “the BEST things:” sentiment to create a repeatable format for each story card in the album. Stamp your images in a different color on each story card, like you see here, and then write your memories from your Story Starter workbook in a list on each story card.
Not only are these stamp sets designed specifically for Story Starter, they are also meant to work together. You can combine words and textures to create story cards that coordinate with your story and photos. Every card could be different, or you could use a repeatable element on each card.
Mix the solid shapes from Colorful Textures with a sentiment from Quotable Words to create borders on your story cards. You can use longer shapes along the edges of your card and stamp a phrase in the middle.
As you write your stories, don’t forget you can use the lined or blank side of your story card. The story doesn’t have to fill the entire card. If you have extra space, fill it with a combination of images from Colorful Textures and Quotable Words, or you can intentionally leave some white space as you write your memories down.
Stamping on your story cards can happen before or after you complete your writing. In the video, you can see that stamping first lets you organize your memories in creative ways, and it took no time at all! If you choose to write your story first, then stamp with a light color of ink over your words to highlight a particular phrase, or use smaller shapes to stamp around the edges.
Your written words and the photos that go with them are the most important part of your Story Starter album. You can see above that the story is complete with or without stamped images. By including stamping, you can make your album your own, add fun pops of color, and highlight the parts that are the most significant to you.
Your style is unique, just like your story! Story Starter helps you uncover those stories stuck in your memory bank, write them down, and share them in fun, easy ways. With the Colorful Textures and Quotable Words stamp sets, you use your own creativity to add personalization and color to your Story Starter album.
Today’s blog post comes from our beloved friend, Stacy Julian! Stacy is a recognized leader in the scrapbooking industry. She is the founding editor of Simple Scrapbooks magazine and the visionary founder of Big Picture Scrapbooking. After getting her initial start into the papercrafting world through Close To My Heart, Stacy is coming “home” to combine her ideas and training into the Story by Stacy™ product line! We could not be more thrilled about this partnership!
For as long as there have been human beings, human beings have been telling stories. Stories are how we connect, celebrate, and remember. Stories organize our thoughts, experiences, and beliefs for sharing. Stories are how we pass down personal histories. Stories teach, motivate, and inspire. We understand who we are and what we are capable of because of the stories we tell ourselves. Storytelling is a powerful force for good. I know you know this, but even as memory keepers we can lose sight of the importance of documenting stories—and sometimes we make it harder than it is.
Hello. I’m Stacy Julian.
I’ve had the pleasure of working in the scrapbooking and paper crafting industry for a very long time and I’m beyond thrilled to be partnering with Close To My Heart on a new line of Story by Stacy™ products designed to help people discover and document their stories. This is my first foray into product design and, while I am having a blast with all of that, what I truly love most about Story by Stacy™ is the education and training that is a part of the products we are developing. I’m so excited to work with Close To My Heart Consultants and to learn from them as we share the joy of preserving personal stories with all of you.
Our very first product and program is called Story Starter. The Story Starter kit is designed to show you how simple it is to access your unique and valuable memories. When we scrapbook, we tend to believe that the story of a relationship, a special place, or a meaningful experience is in the pictures we take, but that’s not entirely true. While pictures are wonderful illustrations, the full story is inside of YOU and it takes just a few minutes to invite it out to play.
As you learn and practice the Story Starter process, you’ll be amazed at what you can remember! AND as specific details surface in your mind you’ll be able to pair them with photographs that you might not otherwise choose to use in an album. When you start with the story, the result will be a more genuine reflection of what matters most to you.
With Story Starter, all of these delicious details are then wrapped up in super CUTE mini books with inside pages that can be personalized with playful stamped images.
The whole process is fun and easy, and the finished project is a 100% valuable, and adorable, keepsake. I do need to warn you that the overall experience is addicting in the best of ways. You won’t be able to stop with just one Story Starter kit!
I cannot wait for you to get your hands on a Story Starter kit and workbook, so that you can start telling and sharing your stories in happy, colorful, and very authentic ways!
We love Stacy for her liberating philosophy and simple step-by-step thematic approach that unlocks a person’s creativity and helps them easily create stories out of life’s special moments. Please show our friend some love and share with us your thoughts about Story Starter in the comments below!
Our newest idea book has just launched, and we are dying to tell you about a whole new line of products! Designer Travel is our new, stylish, on-the-go organization system specifically designed to work with all of your favorite Close To My Heart Products, from papers and tools to markers and stamps!
Review the images below to learn more about each of the new products in the line. To see how the pieces all work together, watch the video that follows.
Carry-all Case. Hard-case bag with gold accents; attaches to trolley and fits paper insert or other Designer Travel storage cases.
Paper Insert. Six-pocket accordion-style insert sized to hold 12″ x 12″ paper; snaps into carry-all case, creating an additional two pockets.
Tool Case. Five internal mesh pockets sized to hold various tools and embellishments; zipper closure; fits inside carry-all case.
Block Case. Five internal mesh pockets sized to hold My Acrylix® blocks; zipper closure; fits inside carry-all case.
Marker Case. Holds up to 26 markers; zipper closure; fits inside carry-all case.
Ink Case. Holds 10 stamp pads with two movable dividers; zipper closure; fits inside carry-all case.
Stamp Case. Holds 15 stamp sets with two movable dividers; zipper closure; fits inside carry-all case.
The Designer Travel system is both beautiful and functional. Organize, store, and easily transport your supplies and current projects anywhere your crafting takes you!
We’re giving you more free patterns today! This time, instead of a scrapbooking layout, we’ve got a workshop for you and your friends to make 64 gratitude cards—8 cards in 8 designs—using our Basics Fundamental paper packet, which so happens to be on sale right now at 30% off!
These patterns were originally introduced at our 2016 convention as part of a Fundamentals card workshop. We’ve simply updated the cutting diagrams and flat patterns and created some new cards with one of our favorite paper packets!
All you will need to recreate these cards is one of each of the following:
B1536 My Acrylix® All the Thanks Stamp Set
Z3353 Basics Fundamental Paper Packet
Z2829 Espresso Exclusive Inks™ Stamp Pad
Z2831 Charcoal Exclusive Inks™ Stamp Pad
Z3095 Whisper Thick Twine
Z3274 Clear Sparkles
Z1263 Bitty Sparkles
Workshop Patterns and Cutting Diagrams
Download the patterns above and let the cardmaking extravaganza begin!
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!
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:
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!
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?
How about using the Forever & Always kit for anniversary photos?
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.
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!
It’s even good for fur babies!
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!
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!
It’s already November? Oh how time flies!
With the holiday season quickly approaching, we’re offering a one-of-a-kind workshop to help you get ahead on your Christmas scrapbooking, gift making, and decorating. It’s called the Happy, Happy Christmas workshop.
How does it work? Simply purchase the Happy, Happy Christmas album bundle, which comes with a red My Legacy™ scrapbooking album of your choice (post-bound or D-ring), Memory Protectors, and supplies to make five 2-page layouts—all of which you get at over a 10% discount! Then download the instructions online to complete your five layouts. It’s all right at your fingertips!
Now here’s what makes this workshop extra special. The instructions for these layouts also include instructions for four additional Christmas projects. Purchase one or more of the products linked below, and then follow the workshop instructions to use your leftover paper and embellishments to make these Christmas crafts!
Red Chalkboard—Purchase this deeply discounted chalkboard, and then use your leftover paper and embellishments to make this adorable work of art!
12″ x 12″ Display Tray—Just like the chalkboard, this display tray is deeply discounted. Adding leftover pocket scrapbooking cards and 3-D foam tape makes this wall accent really pop!
5″ x 7″ Hinged Display Tray—This hinged frame, which is perfect for a side table, mantle, or shelf, is also available at a great discount. Multiple layers with 3-D foam tape bring this artwork to life!
Everyday Life™ Sea Glass Album Bundle—This convenient bundle makes it easy to get everything you need to create a mini Christmas album with one click. It includes the Everyday Life™ Sea Glass album, as well as 6″ × 8″, 4″ × 6″, and 3″ × 4″ Memory Protectors™. Use your leftover My Crush® pages and Picture My Life™ pocket scrapbooking cards to make a no-hassle mini Christmas album!
All of these additional projects would make beautiful additions to your home—or the homes of loved ones. This unique workshop is a great way to really get your bang for your buck. It’s only available for the month of November, so make sure to talk to your Consultant to learn more about this workshop before it’s gone!
Music and scrapbooking go together like stamps and ink, paper and photos, Sticky Boy and Sticky Girl!
There’s nothing quite like turning up the tunes and diving into a scrapbooking project—the music helps you relax, think outside the box, and get creative.
We’ve put together a list of songs that celebrate memories and relationships, which is exactly what scrapbooking’s all about. The next time you want to slip away for an hour and create some pages, give these tunes a try:
Now we want to know what YOUR favorite scrapping songs are. Tell us in the comments below!
