Almost Time!

The new idea book,  Annual Inspirations, will be live on August 1st!  It's 192 pages and loaded with amazing and wonderful things to inspire your creativity!  Want a closer look at what's inside?  Come to my open house and see for yourself!  Choose a date:

Monday, 8/18, 6pm
Wed, 8/20, 6pm
Monday, 8/25, 6pm
Wed, 8/27, 6pm

This is a combination open house and card class for August.  You will make 9 (yup, NINE!) little projects for only $5.

Please RSVP as soon as possible.  Special gifts if you bring a friend!

Smiles, Caron

Skylark Workshop!

(My sincerest thanks to Vicki Wizniuk for the card designs!)

Scraps of time...

Sometimes, all I have for creative time is a few minutes but what can you really get done in short little bits like five minutes or ten?  As it turns out, quite a lot!  I love spending my little bits of free time on Studio J, mainly because the project is right there in front of me, everything I need is at my fingertips and I don't have to put anything away when my time is up.  Here are a few of the layouts I recently did.  Click the picture to see it larger.

From an express collection.  All the difficult stuff was already done for me!

I'm using these as the front and back pages of my album :)

I thought this was a great way to combine several years' worth of pictures without creating layouts for each.

Another express collection - I just added pictures and words!

Smiles, Caron

Howdy!

Whenever consultants attend the Close To My Heart annual convention, we usually get an exclusive stamp set designed for the theme of that event - one that isn't sold, ever.  This cute stamp set was from when we went to Texas and I couldn't resist using it on this card.  I was trying to get a masculine feel and I think I succeeded but I think it really would work for anyone.

That great tan and white patterned cardstock is from our Paper Fundamentals assortment.  One side has a regular pattern like you see here and the other side has the pattern in tone on tone embossing.  All of the colors in the assortment are in the neutral basics colors so they go with everything!  I added some Durables Triangle studs for that "studly" touch :)

Smiles, Caron

Pinspiration

I admit it.  I'm a Pinterest lover.  It's amazing to me how many ideas are out there just waiting to inspire someone.  I think what keeps my hooked is finding so many other people who like the same things I do.  Since I've been suffering from a severe creative block, I often go to Pinterest to get ideas for my workshops.  Here's a card that I found so pretty that I had to try to recreate it myself.

This one was created by someone named 1StampingNightOwl:

I think it was the color combination and style that drew me to it.  So...I decided to try making it with products I had on hand and this is what I came up with (I obviously need better lighting for my photography):

Here's a close up of the flowers:

I had fun using our spray pen filled with water and a few drops of re-inker.  The diamond pattern came from Fabulous You, the sentiment and the swirl pattern on the flowers are from Hooray Bouquet and then I used both the Cricut Art Philosophy and Artiste cartridges for the shapes.

Thanks for the inspiration 1stampingnightowl!

Smiles, Caron

Me and my bud...

A co-worker of mine recently gave me a unique insight to my life with Adam.  She said she was jealous of me.  When I asked why, she recalled something that happened back in December.  The police department where we work brings Santa Claus to the station for the employees' families.  She was standing in line with her two young sons while Adam and I were right behind them, all waiting for our turn with the big guy.  She went on to say that as she looked at her boys, she wondered how many more years she had left before they knew the truth - not only about Santa but all the other experiences parents with little ones have. Hers are nearing that age when innocence and trust give way to skepticism and reality.  Adam never went through that and probably never will. He will stay "little" forever. With tears in her eyes, she told me that she wanted what I had.  Imagine that!

Smiles, Caron

Rockin' Ink Stars Blog Hop!

Hi everyone!  I'm so excited to be part of my very first blog hop!  If you haven't "done" one yet, it's simple - just start here and follow the link at the end of my post to go to the next one.  It's like a round robin so it doesn't matter where you start but if you came here from Terri's blog, you're on the right track!  Here's a list of all the participants just in case a link gets broken or something:

1. Melissa Robsinon, mlisrobinson.blogspot.com
2. Joy McHargue, studiowowjoy.com
3. Jennifer Kramer, 4heartsscrapbooking.blogspot.com
4. Michelle Brooks, michellebrooksink.blogspot.com
5. Marianne Hancock, thescrapbookchick.blogspot.com
6.  Terrie Dodd, my-life-in-real-time.blogspot.com
7. Caron Barnard, cbdots.blogspot.com
8. Alexandria Duran, papercraftsbyali.blogspot.com

The Rockin' Ink Stars is the name of the team I am in.  We have a wonderful upline, Michelle Brooks and countless team members.  This is our first team blog hop!  The theme is Spring so pretty much anything goes.  Check out the card I chose:

It's very simple and flat (something I'm not used to doing).  I used the Ariana papers and the lattice overlay design from the Cricut Artbooking cartridge.  The sentiment is from Joyful Birthday (one of my favorites!).

I also did a bonus card just because.  I'm not sure it shouts Spring but I really liked it so I decided to share it as well.

This one was also created from the Ariana paper pack!  Isn't it amazing how different the two are?  I used two stamp sets here, Perfect Fit-Birthday and  Perfect Fit-Frames.   These are both so easy to use when paired with the Cricut Art Philosophy cartridge.

Here's a close-up shot of the paper rosette.  They're really fun to make and add just the right pop of interest to a card.  

Well, that's it for my first entry!  Hop on over to Alexandria's blog to see what she whipped up for you!

Smiles, Caron