Hop on the Creative Express!

October greetings, my fine creative friends! It's Kristine yet again, hollering from the rooftops about my love of cute artwork. Even better, cute, fast, affordable, fun artwork! I'm so giddy about my latest creations—made them all by myself in just a couple of hours on a lazy Sunday afternoon—that I have to share.

Hopefully, you already know about our great October promotion, where you can get a FREE layout in Studio J when you buy 9. (For those of you mathematic minds, that means for just $62.55 retail, you'll get 10 gorgeous, full-color, two-page 12-x12 layouts—that's only about THREE DOLLARS per page.) So yes, it's a great deal; don't let October slip away without getting yours.

Even better than the deal, though, is the glorious, awesome art! I used Studio J's new Express Collections for all 10 of the layouts I created for this promotion. Why?
• Creative block be gone!—embellishments, color palettes, even titling, are already done. I can add journaling, drop and drag in my favorite photos, and I have a professional piece I can claim as my own. If you struggle creatively (like yours truly), then you will love Express Collections. YOU CAN DO THIS!
• Layouts are fast and fabulous—the hardest part was choosing which photos to use! The actual creation process took just minutes. I literally made 10 layouts in the amount of time it took for the Sunday rolls to rise. Both the rolls and the layouts turned out great, by the way.
• It's all about me—Express Collections are easy, but they aren't cookie cutter. I can still swap colors, add distressing, or vary the title to make each layout a custom-tailored fit.

Here are a few of my favorite layouts, along with the "original" layout from the All About Me Express Collection. You can see that sometimes, I changed things up a little, a lot, or not at all.

Let's start with the easiest layout ever—I made zero changes and I dig it! I started with "All About Me Layout 7."

I chose some great photos from our Convention Directors' Dinner, and finished faster than you can say "hoe down."

The only thing I added were my photos and journaling, as well as tiny text boxes to hold the names of my friends in case my memory leaks like a 10-gallon hat (although Brian, Monica, Jill, Michelle, Amy, and Sundi, I don't think I'll ever forget you!).

Now, as you've just seen, Express Collections are designed to be good to go with very little effort. That's exactly what I found when I used the "All About Me Layout 9." Here's what the original layout looks like:

And here is what my finished layout looks like:

Can you see what I changed? Almost nothing, that's true, because it was perfect, right down to the Olive chair and my daughter's Vineyard Berry shirt. Sometimes all you need is the SLIGHTEST change to emphasize what you want. In this layout, I simply added a black photo mat to the middle photo on the right page. Because the three photos on that page are very similar, you can separate them with a simple mat in the middle and also accentuate the middle shot. Just click on the photo and choose the mat option—try on different mat sizes to get the look you want!

Love a particular Express Collections layout and color scheme, but your photos aren't quite right? That's the way I felt about the "All About Me Layout 6" design. The yellow and gray palette are super trendy, but I only had a few photos that coordinated with that color scheme. Here's the original version of this layout:

I wanted to do an entire layout focused on all the crazy characters I've been privileged to play in my role at Close To My Heart, from Alice in Wonderland, to a Real Scrapper, to a Dallas Cowboys Cheerleader—but wowza, were there a lot of wacky colors in all those costumes! Thank heaven that Studio J allows me to change my wild photos from color to black and white (or sepia) with just a click. In my "I'm A Character" layout, I changed the title to suit the photos, and popped a few in color, but toned down others by changing to black and white—easy!

The "Things That Matter" layout is absolutely my favorite of the bunch! I started with "All About Me Layout 10," shown here.

I loved the title, the embellishments, and the photo placements were perfect for the photos I had of me and my three children on their first day of school—one large photo and the four small photos. However, the blue and gray colors weren't quite perfect for the photos.

So, I introduced Cranberry (by changing mats to red and adding a brad or two), and clicked the blue/gray colors to totally neutral Slate/Bamboo so that the drama of the red would "pop." And voila, here's the result:

I love it!

Are you ready to get started yourself? If you've never tried Studio J, here's how easy it is:
• Visit Studioj.com OR your Consultant's Online Business Address and choose "Studio J" from the top menu
• Choose "Get Started"
• Create an account or simply "Enter Studio J." Using Studio J is ABSOLUTELY FREE and no credit card information is required to play. Try your hand at the fun and only pay if you decide to buy.
• Select "Create New Project" and give your project a name.
• Choose to upload photos immediately, or bypass this step and go straight to playing with kits and patterns
• Choose the "Start with an Express Collections" option
• From there, you'll be able to see all 6 of the Express Collections and the 11 layouts in each collection (10 layouts plus cover and end designs).

Need some extra inspiration? Visit us on Facebook at Facebook.com/CloseToMyHeart and view our photo album entitled "Studio J Express Collections." There are dozens of examples—including all 10 of mine—you can check out and tailor just for you! Happy October and happy Express Collections!