Say Goodbye to Studio J

This is a sad, sad month for me. Close To My Heart has announced that they will be discontinuing their Studio J® online scrapbooking program, which has been the only way I have scrapbooked for the last several years. I know that without it, I will not get nearly the amount of scrapbooking done that I have in the past - if any at all. They are ending the program for good on April 30th, or when their photo paper runs out...so it could be sooner!

Knowing this, I scrambled to get some layouts done last month. Our family traveled to Niagra Falls last summer, and late in the summer, I had a catastrophic hard-drive failure, causing me to lose months of photos that had not been backed up. I was, and still am, devastated, being that our Niagra trip was one of the sets of photos that I lost...or so I thought. Come to find out, months later, I discovered that all of the Niagra photos were still on my husband's camera! Alleluia! So, after backing them up in 3 different places, I wanted to make sure I got them scrapbooked as well. Studio J to the rescue! I thought I would share just a few of my favorite layouts:

I love the fact that I can now add photo wells and/or rotate existing photo wells to suit the orientations of my photos - you could never do that before!

I love everything about Studio J - I have had so much fun with it over the years, and am so sad to see it go. Hopefully I will get a chance to squeeze just a few more layouts into this month before their paper runs out!

Thank you, Studio J and CTMH, for giving me the tools to record my memories - I never would have done it without you!

An Album in an Afternoon

Are you a scrapbooker who feels that they are never going to be "caught up"? Are you someone who's always wanted to scrapbook, but don't know where to start or don't have the time? Are you a "love-my-paper-and-glue" scrapbooker, but wish there was a quick and easy way to record those everyday moments? Well, whether you said "yes" to one or all of the above, Close To My Heart's Studio J is for you. Personally, I really wanted to be a scrapbooker, but constantly struggled with getting my photos onto a page. It would take me hours and hours to put one page together...needless to say, I didn't get a lot done. Then I discovered Studio J...and now it is the only way I scrapbook.

I LOVE how easy it is to get my digital photos onto a two-page spread, match colors and patterns to my liking, and receive a high-quality, full-color 12" x 12" print from CTMH at a very reasonable price. This month I completed 14 two-page layouts - my son's 12th birthday party, our trip over the summer to Myrtle Beach, Christmas 2013, and a spread that I used for two single-page layouts of a rainbow and my daughter's new gerbil, Speedy. I complete them, order them, and within a week, have them in an album. I couldn't be happier.

What's even better is that CTMH has several How-To Videos online for Studio J, as well as a series called "Love Your Layout", which spotlights different tips, tricks, and hints in Studio J. To access these videos, simply go to my website, click "CTMH TV", then select "Studio J How-To Videos" or "Studio J: Love Your Layout".

Here are just a few of the layouts from my latest purchase:

Aren't they fantastic?! I can guarantee you that I would NEVER have come close to any of these layouts had I attempted them myself with paper, glue & embellishments. Had I even tried to come close, it would have cost me a LOT more money, and most definitely a LOT more time!

I urge you to give Studio J a try - you can log in as a guest without having to create an account (though creating an account is fast and FREE) and just play. There's no software to install, and nothing to purchase. Take a look at the videos. I know you're going to love it as much as I do!