Movin' On - See You Soon

This is my last post to this blog - I am moving.

Change can be good, but it can also bring mixed emotions. For me it is leaving Inkin' Paper Dolls which was inspired by my grandmother who called her favorite gals, "Dolls." I still love the "Dolls" part of my identity, but the Inkin Paper aspect no longer reflects what I am all about.

My new digs will be www.storysavers.blogspot.com. They better reflect my new plan for my CTMH business moving forward. Come check me out soon.

Guess What I Lost Today!

Yes, I have used this statement with my husband several times during the first week of my vacation without him but with my son.

Here are the top 3 reasons why I should not vacation as a single parent (ie, things I have lost on my first week of vacation):

1. My Car Keys
After checking out of my LA hotel and before checking into my San Diego hotel, we spent the day at Legoland. As the park closed at 8 pm, son and I headed to car. However, I no longer had the car keys. I LOST them sometime during the day at the park. No keys turned into lost and found, no change of clothes for tomorrow, and dying cell phone. Since it was late, all the rental car companies were closed, Toyota could not make me a key that night, and the only hotel in walking distance was an overpriced Sheraton (never mind that my hotel in San Diego was prepaid). Fortunately, a VERY NICE family took pity on us and drove us to the local outlet mall for clothes. It was located across the street from a Holiday Inn who had a room waiting for us. FORTUNATELY, Legoland's landscapers found my key and Holiday Inn drove me back to Legoland! Saved from a very expensive resolution!!

2. My Son's 5 day Legoland Ticket (after 3 days at the park)
Since I like to make the most of my time at the amusement parks, I am the one family member willing to be there from open to close - no matter how many hours that is. So since my son was such a good sport, I treated him to a nice restaurant dinner and tic-tac-toe at 8:30 at night. I warned the hostess that he might not make the Friday night 25 minute wait for a table. She was good enough to get us to a table in 5 minutes. So after a few rounds of tic-tac-toe (played on the back side of our Legoland ticket) and eating half of his dinner, he was out like a light. Wish I could remember the last time I ate dinner in a restaurant without my son sleeping on my lap. Anyway, our waitress was good enough to wrap up his dinner and my undelivered meal. I scooped up the two meals, my backpack and the sleeping boy. But what did I choose to not take with us? His kid's menu and our tic-tac-toe games, aka our Legoland ticket!

3. My Son (please don't let CPS know)
So I did not really lose him, and I did get him back. Good new is that he knew his father's phone number to give to security to call. Bad new is that his father knew I lost him. Not something we really need to dwell on. Taking responsibility for it and it just adds to my list of reasons that bickering with DH over who long we need to stay at a park looks better than my history of losing people and things when he does not vacation with me! Of course, ask him about how many times our DD hurt herself on the same day (again, please don't let CPS know).

Here is to not adding to this list!

Here is my second Universal Studios layout completed while on vacation (posted in next post).

Studio J and Mummies

Any guesses on how many times we rode the Revenge of the Mummy Roller Coaster in two days?

Vacation Challenge

So I am 7 days into a 21 day trip from home. The first 11 days are alone with my son who just turned 8 last month. We started in LA at Universal (our first day is above), just spent 4 of the last 5 days at Legoland and head out to Seaworld tomorrow.

I was challenged to try to use Studio J each night once my son goes to sleep to capture that day's events. I have done pretty well - half of Universal is done and 75% of Legoland is done. It is so much easier to remember the little stories we want to save, and he LOVES to see our pictures in a meaningful way the next day.

So here is my summertime challenge to you - Try capturing whatever you took pictures of today, tonight. I did 4 two page layouts last night alone. If you plan to do 1 or 2 two page layouts each time you have pictures during the day, you can be done in less than 30 minutes - try it and see!

CLEARANCE SALE

So you might have thought that I did NOT survive the end of the school year. I am happy to report that I did - In fact I survived the end of the school year, a three-day Create-N-Play weekend, and the first of 2 vacations!! While there were a few tears shed, there were no stitches, surgeries, or trips to the hospital. So far, so good!

Summer is already going by way too fast for me. I woke up this morning and realized that I will be at CTMH's annual Leadership and Convention 4 weeks from today - YEA!! New products, new toys, new ideas!! On the "good news, bad news" side of this, the current catalog is going away at the end of July.

I won't know until I attend convention which of the Spring/Summer CTMH items will be retired. CTMH has announced that only some of the 8 NEW paper packs will continue while all the others will retire. There is no guaranteed for any of the stamp sets or colors either.

SO GET THEM WHILE YOU CAN

Order current catalog items and receive your choice of a level 2 paper pack, You & Me Kit, and/or Stamp of the Month free. The more you buy, the more you get. In fact, if you purchase $150 in new product, you will receive the 6 free items AND another $25 in free products of your choice.
You can help me make space for the great new products available August 1st. Here is how it works -

Purchase $25, get one free item
Purchase $50, get two free items
Purchase $75, get three free items
Purchase $100, get four free items
Purchase $125, get 5 free items
Purchase $150, get 6 free items + $25 free items of your choice

This offer ends June 25th - the day before I leave for my next vacation and convention. If I don't have the items in stock before I leave, I will have them for you after August 17th (when I return). Of course, this is only available through me, not any other consultant and not my website. Have questions? Call me or email me at kellyhammonds@yahoo.com. Don't forget to visit my website too - http://kellyh.myctmh.com.

Class Digital Scrapbook using Studio J

I am the type of person who has always loved the start of the school year - shopping for school supplies, new classes, new friends, etc. It represents new beginnings.

On the other hand, I actually dread the end of the school year. It represents things coming to an end. I look forward to the kids being home for the summer. It is the idea that so much time is spent organizing year end parties and teacher gifts. I do like the end result and LOVE finding ways to capture the past year's memories, but I do not enjoy the loss of sleep.

This past week I worked on my daughter's class gift for the 2 teachers. The class had compiled pictures all year long of various events into an online album, so having plenty of pictures to work with was easy. I uploaded them to Studio J, colorized the embellishments, and added a title. Each student is represented on their own page. Then I did a few collages of the bigger school events. Thirty four pages later, we had a book. Each student drew a picture and wrote a note to face their page in the scrapbook (not shown here). Here are four of the pages...

One of the reasons I like this project is it is so easy to reproduce for the second teacher and any parents who also want a copy. You just order another copy.
By the way, my youngest Abigail (right page above) turns 6 years old today - Happy Birthday Abby!!

Is it Classic Scrapbooking or is it Studio J?

I might be dating myself, but do you remember the old commercial, "Is it Live, or Is it Memorex?" The ad attempted to claim that the sound quality of a audio cassette tape (again, dating myself) was as good as a live action of a glass shattering.

We I think my Studio J (ie., digital) scrapbook page looks as good as my classic scrapbook page. Can you tell the difference?

Both are using the new Lucky Papers.

Did you know that you can purchase a year Studio J membership for only $65 (plus tax) and receive some classic products too? Ask me how, but ask me before the end of the month.

Studio J Has Me Blogging Again!

So last week I was in Salt Lake City to participate in CTMH's first ever (and probably only) Studio J Boot Camp. I wanted to attend to create great scrapbook pages beyond the basics I have mastered and be able to do more advanced work. Of course it helped that attendance was very limited - only 40 consultants company-wide.

What I did not realize until after I was there, was that there is goals and accountability for the next 16 weeks!

So in addition to working on more pages (more on that later), I have revitalized my goal to post to my blog. I am an email-kinda gal, so transitioning to blogging is a challenge. I hope you will visit my blog periodically - at least to hold me accountable to post at least a couple of times a week.

In return, you will get some great Studio J samples and tips, Classic Scrap booking samples and tips, and reminders of all the workshops and crops I hold. So I hope you will not only check back often, but also provide me some feedback every now and then.

Above is one of the 8 layouts I completed last week. What I love about this layout is that this paper does not exist as actual touch-it feel-it paper. I hear many of you out there cringing about not actually playing with the paper - the cutting, the adhering, the unique smell of a new paper pack. The good thing is that Studio J is not an all or nothing style. I do both the classic and the Studio J depending on my mood, my location, and my patience at the moment for printing different sized pictures.

The paper is from the Magnifique Paper Pack which is great blues and browns. Problem is that I wanted it to match my kids' Christmas portraits so I was able to change the color of the paper with a simple mouse click. So easy, so beautiful!