Kristine here, and I am
in love! Thanks to Jeanette, who relented and let me do a guest post after
listening to me rave about my Studio J fun for the past several weeks. First, a
confession: I'm not just the marketing VP at Close To My Heart. I'm also a
long-time customer and huge devotee of Studio J and I can't resist a deal. When
the "Perfect 10" offer came up in January, I planned to create 10
layouts during the promotion. But I created THIRTY instead!
What a blast. I love
swapping out papers, resizing and moving around My Stickease, and testing
different photos here and there without ever actually cutting a one. Every
night at bedtime, I've been curling up with my laptop and some of my favorite
jpgs. Some nights, I've made three or four layouts before realizing that it's
well past midnight. (They do say that time flies when you're having fun.)
Here are a couple of my
favorites I wanted to share. These first two feature my son Trey, one on a fun
day at the park, and the other from our time together at Disneyland following
Convention last year.
Did you even notice that the two layouts use the same pattern? But I've rotated the left pages, used different kits, and covered one band of photos with a Chocolate text box, and voila—they look completely different!
These next two layouts
come from the "way back" machine. If you're like me, you have tons of
old photos from the pre-digital era and maybe even from your pre-scrapbooking
era. I decided to get on the ball and get some of these oldies but goodies
scanned so I could finally preserve them forever with Studio J. The first layout
is pure fun—me, in the big-hair '80s. My kids think these photos are hilarious.
I love that whether the photos are black and white or full color, they're
always the star because Studio J makes 'em look great.
The last layout features
some decades-old photos of my grandfather who worked as an auto mechanic in
downtown Salt Lake until retiring at 92. A huge part of my childhood was spent
roaming "the shop," and the memories are still as rich and vivid as
they were then. Unfortunately, the handful of photos I have of grampa aren't so
vivid. But thanks to Studio J, they really can last forever.
When I showed my dad
this layout, he was so choked up he couldn't speak for a minute. Then he said,
"How did you do this? And can you get me one?" Wow. That was awesome.
And yes, he did get a Studio J tutorial right on the spot.
Now, with the Five For
Free promotion in February (Buy a 5-pack, get a 5-pack free), I can create all
month long…again. You know I will.
These are fantastic, Kristine! I especially love the 80s one! I too have raved about the 10 layouts I did in January, and I am planning on taking advantage of the 5-for-5 promo this month! I am in love with Studio J!
ReplyDeleteLove them all!!
ReplyDeleteI'd have to pick the one about your grandfather! I love to use Studio J to do my page planning. I'm currently traveling in a motorhome full-time so I use Studio J to make layouts and then I know just what I need of my supplies to copy it with traditional supplies. Just not enough room to pull out lots of choices and play with them! Now I do my "playing arond" in Studio J.
ReplyDeleteGreat layouts!!! My favorite is the one of your grandfather :)
ReplyDeleteWhat I love most about your post is perfectly you lay out why making layouts of your memories has so much value! Plus you explain the value of the Studio J special value, too!
ReplyDeleteBeautiful layouts - thanks for sharing!
I'm inspired! Bought a membership in December and haven't created anything - yet! I need to padlock my scraproom and just sit at the computer!
ReplyDeleteI totally remember you looking vaguely like that!!! Ahhhh... the 80s... Your dad was always really good at photography. I bet he ends up being great at Studio J :)
ReplyDelete@Tina: Thanks for the kind words! You Hoer girls and Justin were always among my dad's favorite photography subjects. And gulp, yes, you probably DO remember me looking like that. But careful: I remember what YOU looked like in the '80s! (Adorable.)
ReplyDeleteKristine,
ReplyDeleteWhat setting did you use to scan the photos of your dad? I have a friend who is scanning all her old photos but Studio J gives her a warning about the resolution & that her picture will be pixelated. Any input would be appreciated.
Thanks,
Debbie M.
@Debbie: As your friend has already discovered, a scanned photo's resolution will be limited by the original photo. Unlike a TV cop show would have you believe, you can't "sharpen resolution" on something that isn't there.
ReplyDeleteI was lucky: most of the old photos that I had to work with were 8x10s (my dad is a photographer and maintained his own darkroom and I grew up with black and whites floating in our bathtub or oversized prints hanging from clothespins).
However, even with the scanner's highest resolution--I used a Kodak high-speed scanner; they have these for use by members at Sam's Club--even some of these larger photos have a resolution that will limit the photo wells you can drop them into. Unfortunately, that's just the nature of older photos.
I'd encourage your friend to scan at the highest resolution the scanner will allow, then play around with a variety of Studio J patterns--the ones with the smaller wells will always work best for scanned, older photos!