Blast from my crafting past.....

Holy cow!! My grandmother gave me back all the cards I had made for her and my grandfather over the past four years. She thought I could "re-use" the fronts. Some I actually might. It's always so interesting to see how your craft talent changes over time. Some of them made me reminisce, some made me giggle. Two of them I actually made at a CTMH party before I became a Consultant. The two snowmen cards I am particularly proud of.

Materials: ....heck if I remember ;) (I might if you really want to know)

Pre-made layout USED!!

FINALLY!! I used this pre-made layout from a post I shared back in August of 2008! The pictures I had from my good friend Sara's wedding matched perfectly. Sara and Cory were married at the Canal at the Ballard Locks last February. It was such a beautiful day and the sunset perfectly accentuated the ceremony. Her colors were cream, gold and red. I did change the large embellishment to better suit the occasion. The Silhouette paper is always a great choice for wedding photos. For the first time ever, I used alpha stickers!

Materials: please reference Aug. '08 blog. Changed embellishment uses cranberry grosgrain ribbon and Silhouette MyStickease.

For the coordinating layout, I chose another guide from Imagine called "Ensemble Piece". I love how easy these books make it to simply create a layout! I needed a six-picture LO and used the quick guide in the front of the book to find one that would work with the pictures and coordinate well with the other LO. Definitely must-have tools! I also used the Key To My Heart SS to create my own patterned paper. It helped to incorporate some more red into the LO. Made the title real easy as well. I created a pocket in both LOs to hold their wedding invitation and thank you card.

Materials: All CTMH. Colonial White, Black, and Desert Sand CS. Silhouette L2 PP, Silhouette MyStickease, Key To My Heart SS. Desert Sand, Black, Chocolate and Cranberry exclusive inks. Cranberry exclusive marker, Black ribbon round, sanding kit.

Playing with the girls...

A while ago, my friend Shannon had an all-day scrapbooking day for some of us to get together and catch up on some projects. It's also a great opportunity to play with Michelle's new Cricut machine! They're really fun, but I just can justify the cost for how much I think I'd use one.

Materials: All CTMH. White and Buttercup CS, Emporium L2 PP, Key To My Heart SS, Bird Basics SS, Say It In Style SS, Connections SS. Chocolate, Cocoa, Sweet Leaf and Twilight exclusive inks, scalloped scissors, sanding kit, edge distresser. Other: Cricut bird image, EK scallop punch.

Instead of working on layouts, I had decided to create some cards. I always seem to be scrambling at the last possible minute for a card to send for some event or another. I had stewed so much about how to put them together that I didn't get very many done in the five hours I was there. That is so me...debate forever on how something should look. The Originals book did help quite a bit.

Materials: All CTMH. White, Buttercup, and Spring Iris CS. Emporium L2 PP, Western Flourishes SS, Say It In Style SS. Spring Iris, Cocoa, Black and Hollyhock exclusive inks. Cocoa ribbon round, Just Blooms, dimensional elements, hollyhock button, cocoa brads, embossing stylus, sanding kit, sponge, edge distresser. Other: EK button punch.

A little play time...

I've been on vacation since Saturday because my little brother came home to visit from Tennessee after his tour in Afghanistan. I've been having a blast spending lots of time with him, but yesterday I took some time for myself and played with my new products.

Two of these cards, "Grateful" and "Nice Job", I made with inspiration from Kristina Werner's blog: http://www.kwernerdesign.com/ The other two I just thought of to make something using two of my favorite new stamp sets, "Aspiration" and "Bird Basics". They go well with the new "Unforgettable" paper.

For "Grateful", I used just blooms and stamped on them with the new "Intrinsic Backgrounds" and then sponged some more color around the edges. Also used was a button punch to cheat from using actual buttons, then I covered them in liquid glass. I used the same kind of idea for the flower on "Nice Job".

The bird on "Free as a Bird" is raised using 3d popdots. For the cherry blossom card, I used only the "Aspiration" ss and stamp the branch and blossoms on a 3x3 card, then stamped five more blossoms using sorbet and tulip and the roll technique. I cut them out and then used copper brads for the center and curled the edges up using the prongs from the brads to help keep their shape. A small glue dot to hold them in place finishes the look.

Thanks for looking, hope you enjoy them and become inspired too!

Materials: All CTMH. "Unforgettable" L2 pp, "Aspiration" ss, "Intrinsic Backgrounds" ss, "Bird Basics" ss, "Treasue Life" ss, "Say it in Style" ss. Cocoa, Juniper, Chocolate, Sorbet, Tulip and Blush exclusive inks. Colonial White pigment ink, copper brads, Juniper bigger brads, liquid glass, sponge, scalloped scissors, corner rounder.

Other: button punch from EK

January Club project

Here it is.....pictures of the layouts we'll be making for our January Club night! The "Evensong" pp and "Evergreen" ss are my favorite new Christmas products! And of course, what is better for Christmas layouts then the traditional colors? They go perfectly with these pictures. I hope they go well with some that you have. I only had enough pictures to complete about half of the layouts. These are going to be very easy to make, so I think most everyone will complete all six.

Materials: All CTMH. Evensong L2 pp, Evensong MyStickease, Evergreen ss, cranberry grosgrain ribbon, cranberry and new england ivy exclusive inks, clear sparkles, sponge.

Oh the fun we had.....

Well the Customer Appreciation Open House was a small success. There were only about six people that made it, but we all sure did have a blast. I had created some fun make & takes for everyone to do, as well as some giveaways and gift certificates. The debut of the new spring Idea Book was a hit! All the new papers and stamps were irresistible.

The first project was a simple card using the new "Unforgettable" pp and "Cupcake Sprinkles" ss. Using the "Lucky Three" card layout from Originals, the card was very easy to assemble. I tried making the card with different texture ideas like sanding, 3d dimension, and liquid glass.

Materials: All CTMH. Unforgettable pp, Cupcake Sprinkles ss, Spot On Backgrounds ss, sorbet and white daisy cardstock. Juniper, sorbet, tulip, desert sand, and creme brulee exclusive inks, sanding kit, sponge, liquid glass.

The second project was a single scrapbook page using the new "Emporium" pp and the limited edition "Key To My Heart" ss. I used an example from the new Idea Book to create this layout. It's a layout from the Imagine layout book. There was a lot of distressing going on with this page, but everyone seemed to like it. I'm a distressing junkie! The page used sanding, edge distressing, sponging, and 3d dimension. I love the way these papers work with my outdoor photos from my wine tasting trip to Chelan. Good thing our Club night next month uses this same paper so I can scrapbook some more!

Materials: All CTMH. Emporium pp, Key To My Heart ss, buttercup and colonial white cardstock. Twilight, cocoa, and sweet leaf exclusive inks, cocoa grosgrain ribbon, edge distresser, sanding kit, sponge

I truly hope everyone had fun, and I am very grateful for your continued business! I'm glad you all enjoy these terrific products as much as I do!

Now I can share....

Now that Christmas is over, I can share with you a tag album I made for two of my dear friends. Josie and Becky participated in the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer 3Day walk last September. I am still so proud of their efforts! They did an awesome job in fundraising and were troopers walking 60 miles in 3days....blisters and all.





With that prelude, here are some pictures of the memory album I made for each of them. All the pictures are the same except for one special personal picture each. They took these while they did their walk, and I secretly made copies so I could make this (it helps that I live with Josie and we share a computer) ;) When they opened their gifts, they both were so emotional with the memories of that weekend. They must have gone over it ten times reliving each moment from each picture.

I am so proud of my selfless friends that I wanted to create something very special so that they have a tangible item to help them remember every great and sometimes trying moment.

Materials: CTMH items--Big pinks flowers, "Playful Flourishes" SS, "Nature's Ambiance" rub-ons in white, blush exclusive ink, black exclusive marker, hollyhock ribbon rounds, Dermacoat acrylic paint, clear sparkles, edge distresser, sanding kit, corner rounder.
Other--acrylic tag album, random paper from my stash, breast cancer ribbon rub-ons by Royal Brush, pink sparkles by Michaels, Making Memories metal tags, misc. ribbon, Prima flowers, whole punch, chipboard.

Spring is here!....with CTMH

It's now official! The NEW Spring Idea Book has now released to the public! I absolutely love, love, love the new papers and stamps in this book. Close To My Heart really knows how to keep up with all the latest and greatest in the scrapbooking world.

I hopefully will be posting some artwork soon using some of the new items. In the meantime, please check out my previous post about my Customer Appreciation Open House where you can come and check out the new items for yourself and have fun creating cool make & takes. There will also be some door prizes and giveaways!

We also have available now the January Stamp of the Month, "Moments in Time". This is a very handy calendar stamp set that you can use for a variety of cool projects. You should check out my friend Nona's blog where she made a neat desk calendar: http://nonapearl.blogspot.com/2008/12/happy-new-year.html She always has cute ideas!

Happy New Year!