Scrapbooking pages

Now that the holiday rush is over, I have put away the last of the Christmas decorations and thrown away the last of the toy packaging. Now, it is time for me to scrapbook. I love the doldrums of January and February because, to me, it means I get to spend a lot of time in my craft room! It also means hunting will soon be over and when that happens, not only do I get my husband back, but I get to go to crops! I did a day crop this past weekend and finished up my son's first year album (it only took me 3 1/2 years to do) but I have a few more scheduled for the next few weeks.

If you are a customer of mine, check your January newsletter - I made some changes to my Crop in February. Payments are due to me to hold your spot and it is filling up quickly!

Now on to some of my scrapbook pages.

Here are two layouts I did this weekend to finish up my son's album. One of the ways I can get a lot done at these crops is that I use up my stash of layouts I make for workshops, classes and swaps I participate in so you'll see some old and new paper packs. I'll share some more layouts with you over the next few days. Enjoy!

Using up leftovers, part two

Sometimes when I have no real direction but a strong desire to get crafty, some really crazy things happen. This time, I challenged myself. If you know me, I hate challenges. The very idea to challenge myself was clearly some sort of torture meant to cleanse me from something but I decided to honor it - sometimes, these things work out, I told myself. Well, this time it did.

My son was settled into a new movie from Christmas so I knew I had a chunk of time to myself. I had eight 3"x 3" cards cut out of Cocoa cardstock I had intended to use in a Christmas gift but never got around to using. I pulled out the small scraps (6" and under) from my Wonderland paper pack and played. The challenge was to use only those scraps, no stamping but any other kind of embellishment I wanted. I doubted I would make all eight but I wanted to be prepared. After an hour, my son came to me because the movie was over and when I counted, I had made eight cards! Wow, I was really impressed! Here's the result of my self-imposed challenge. With these results, I might have to continue this!

My 2012 Class Schedule

I have just updated my Class Schedule for the new year. Check it out on the above tab! See you in 2012!

I have all the final details in place for my Winter Weekend Crop in February. Check out the "Upcoming Events" tab for more information or email me for an application.

Scrapbooking catch up

Having a second child on the way has increased the pressure to finish my firstborn's baby book. Currently, I am on the second album of his first year but only up to six months of age.... I think I have a problem brewing on my hands! I have started something I will have to continue for the next one, I can only hope that this one will be as cooperative in front of the camera as my son.

I am learning some things as I go along, one being that CTMH still has the photo storage pages that hold 12 photos in a 12" x 12" size page. They are available in either horizontal or vertical pockets. They are a great way to add a bunch of photos to your layout without Flip Flaps (that's another story for another time). This layout is from the Baby Parade I entered my son when he was 6 months old. My husband is a truck driver so I decorated the stroller to look like Daddy's truck, complete with the swan hood ornament! He won first place in his division and was invited to participate in the main parade a few days later but considering I would be the one to walk the whole thing while he slept (the parade would have been at his bedtime) I declined the offer but it was still an honor!

First Day to see the New Idea Book

Today is the day - here is the new Fall/Winter 2011 Idea Book from Close to My Heart! It is stuffed full of great new products as well as some old favorites. There are great new paper packs, embellishments, and of course the new Cricut cartridge! Check it out online now! My Open House is August 12 & 13th where I will have all the new products, accessories and even some completed projects for you to see. More information to come as soon as I can get the photos up. Still can't wait? Schedule your own Gathering to learn how to use the products yourself and earn some for free!! I am having a Booking Blitz this month so schedule your Gathering now to see what you can get in addition to the great incentives the company offers. I hope you enjoy looking through this Idea Book as much as I have!

While I've been waiting

While I have been (not so) patiently waiting for my new product to come so I can start playing with it, I've been using my time wisely. I am working on organizing my digital photo albums and getting caught up on sorting, tagging, and making copies for friends and family. Here are some of the photos I thought I posted before leaving for convention.

The first three are the roommate gifts I made using the My Creations Journal. I went a different direction with each of them so stretch myself (never a good idea when time is short) but I'm happy with the result.

The next four photos are the cards I did for the card swap. Each year, the consultants swap cards or small trinkets that they've made so imagine 1500 gals swapping cards every time we'd get together - it was so cool to see all the talent and generosity.

I never feel like my work is up to par with other consultants but no one refused an offer to swap and I even had one lady track me down for a card I swapped with a friend of hers - that was a good feeling! ;)

This last one is the business card I did the night before I left. I was all done packing but still had some time to unwind (1am isn't the time to unwind, especially when I had to get up at 5am but I figured I'd sleep on the plane). I also made the little card holder too, I didn't want to take my nice one in case I lost it.

I'll have some new stuff to post soon - in the meantime, enjoy your summer!

Journaling Book

This is a journal I made for an expo I'm going to this weekend - I realized I didn't have a whole lot to display so I spent my free crop day working on stuff for me! My gals are so good they barely need me anymore - unless it's to find something I've recently moved to a new location! I was able to create a lot of artwork today so you'll see more as the week progresses. Enjoy!

My Crop Room

In my effort to make my house (and life) more efficient, I have moved my crop room (again!). I have used it a few times now since I've put it into it's current configuration and I think I like it. There is always something more to do, but it works for me for right now. Here are some pictures. I had a free crop today for my customers, a Workshop on the Go class on Thursday and my hubby took a photo of me after I set the room up (I just had to test it out!). The space is such that I can work while my son plays or watches a movie or I can have up to 6 people in the room with kids or if all the kids will be outside or upstairs, I can have A LOT more guests. Check it out and if you are interested in coming to a crop, check out my Events tab for upcoming dates - hope to see you soon!

 

Crop Room is set up for 4 guests plus myself to teach.

More pictures after the jump...

These are some bookmarks I made with the leftover pieces I cut from my January Gatherings. The paper is from Wings paper pack. Stamps are listed below each photo.

Soul Mates Word Puzzle

Soul Mates Word Puzzle

Dreams Come True & Treasures

Easy cards from You & Me

I was on vacation this past week and really enjoyed my time away from reality - sitting on the beach is very therapeutic! My hubby requested that I take only a small stash of my papers along, the idea of a family vacation is that we spend time as a family, so I limited what I brought to one small rolling bag. My mother in law brought another box full of stuff down for me when she came for a few days so I was able to accomplish more than I thought I would. And my son actually took 2-3 hour naps each day! I won't bombard you with all I did in one post but I will have something to post every day for the next few weeks so make sure to check back often.

Embossing backgrounds

Since I joined Close to My Heart last fall, I've been in self-imposed exile from the local craft stores only so I'm not tempted to buy something I already have (a sad, but often repeated offense). But my dad's birthday party was fast approaching and I was in charge of favors, table numbers and other things my family thought I would like doing. As I was walking through the two craft stores who share a parking lot I was only finding things on sale that I needed to buy for the party. I had a 40% off coupon burning a hole in my pocket - actually I had given in to my son so I wouldn't forget it and he was waving it in front of me. Constantly. (He's good at helping me remember things)so I wondered over to an aisle I don't visit often - Cuttlebug, Cricut and Sizzix territory. I was lucky enough to find an embossing machine from Sizzix for a price I was willing to pay with the coupon and a folder I could use this weekend. This is the result:

I used a template from Wishes Card Confidence Program and some scraps left over from the Wings Workshop on the Go. The background image is from the Wings WOTG kit stamp set and the sentiment is from Treasures stamp set. The card base was embossed using the Sizzix then sanded.

This company is AMAZING!!!!

I have such a creative high right now! I have the awesome privileged to be in a unit of such amazing and talented consultants - I love what I do and as I get to know more of the wonderful ladies (and men) attached to CTMH I love getting to know every single one! One of my uplines in CTMH is Kathy Markloff. She has been with the company 20 years (and has all the Idea Books to prove it!!). Corp allowed only 5 top directors to host regional training events called LeaderShare. This is the first time for the events and Kathy was selected as one of the directors to have an event. Thankfully she lives in the same region I do (yea!) so it was a no-brainer for me to go. The cost of the event was so reasonable and the product we received to use during our creative time (*remember, this is a training event for us so of course we have to do some creating!*) far outweighed the price we paid to attend. I actually had the stamp sets in my arsenal already so I now have some additional sets to sell (bonus!) plus I got to learn and use some new-to-me products. Enough talking, pictures are worth a thousand words so here are some pictures to show you my day:

Kathy Markloff

Joyce Houck had little goodie bags for her "Shining Stars"

This was the largest group for LeaderShare

While we were there, some of the Corp execs dropped by to teach us Business Classes. Christine David spoke about goals and the importance of play. Brian showed us how to go from basic to advanced in our Studio J class in the afternoon. I learned so much! There are definitely things for me to work on but it was nice to sit and just play too! Here are the projects we did at our Creative Training:

This is a cute gift idea: Our My Creations Cube using Mayberry paper pack.

A 2 page layout using paper from "Wings" (green) and "Bliss" (tan).

And as with anytime this many creative people get together, there is always something being swapped - here is a picture of the card I made:

6 x6 card using "Friendship", February's Stamp of the Month

This is a picture of all the other items I got in the swap (Because I don't have permission to showcase someone else's work on my blog, the photo is purposely far away):

My swap collection: three layouts, 5 cards & two gift holders (plus my creation)

This was my fabulous day - being a consultant, if only to pay for my own habit with a great discount on products I already buy, is so much fun! I get to play every time I go to work and I love what I do! If you want more information on how you can have this much fun too, please stay tuned! CTMH has something WONDERFUL in store for you in the month of May!

Sophia Gift Basket

I was asked to donate a gift basket to a fundraiser for a program I volunteer for and I wanted to share with you what I did. Most of it was handmade (cards, bookmarks, etc) but there was some product too. I chose to use the "Sophia" paper pack because of the bright, spring colors.

Lucky cards

Finally getting around to posting these cards I made for the "Lucky" Workshop on the Go in March. I have since used all of these because the paper pack is so versitle that I made them into birthday cards, thank you cards, gratitude and even a simple "hello". I used scraps from the workshop so I didn't follow the design too closely. But I am surprised by how addicting the wooden buttons are - I will definitely be ordering more of those!

Contest Update

I have heard those of you who are having trouble with the follow button. I have added the "Follow by Email" function. If you choose this method, you MUST email me directly telling me that soh I can enter you into the contest.

Thanks to those of you who are already following - make sure to tell your crafty friends so they can enter to win also!

Sophia Cards

I played around with the extra paper left over after finishing my Sophia Workshop and here's the result...

I loosely based the design and embellishments from the suggestion in the Workshop on the Go kit but didn't want to cut up all those little pieces so I used what I had on hand and did it my way! Kinda cute!

Sophia Workshop

I will be hosting a Workshop on April 17th from 6-9pm. YOU WILL WANT TO BE HERE! In addition to the two layouts will do using a beautiful paper pack, I will teach you some new, fun techniques to make 3D flowers to add to your layouts, cards, gifts and home decor. You do not want to miss this!



Payment is due in my hand by April 2nd  (I accept credit cards) to reserve your spot. Due to the extra technique, I am only having 5 spots for this event! This my only event this month so don't miss it!

March Specials

There are some great specials this month! Check them out below to see how easy it is to earn FREE and DISCOUNTED products by hosting your own gathering. Contact me if you would like to learn more.

Get the March Stamp of the Month for a discount or even for Free!

This special is awesome! When you purchase $25 in My Acrylix Stamps (Stamp of the Month purchases count!) then you get a My Acrylix block for FREE! You need a block anyway, so why not get one free?! Please email me for more information on either of these specials or check out my website to start shopping!

I had an AMAZING weekend!

I was extremely busy this weekend with all things related to scrapbooking! Every year, my mother-in-law and I travel to a Retreat Center nearby to scrapbook all weekend with a great group of ladies of all ages. I stayed up past 2:00 am each day because I just loved being so saturated with creativity and inspiration (that and I was scrapbooking my son's baby album and I can't believe how little he was!). I was also finishing up a swap with my CTMH team that I handed in today. I have a few new layouts to share and I will put pictures up soon.

Also, I participated in Casey's Home Kick Off Party yesterday and met a lot of people interested in CTMH and scrapbooking - if you are one of the ladies I met, welcome! Check out some of the projects I've already posted and check back again soon for more - or better yet, "Follow" me so you will know when I update!

My Favorite Product right now

After getting to play in my craft room a little bit this weekend, I came across a suggestion from the Corporate website for a card to make at Gatherings. I looked around and lo and behold! I actually had the stamp set they used in the template. I made about eight of these cards at one time and while I was working, I realized I made one different then what was suggested. Not a big deal and only obvious when they are all together but I like the added color in this card (I added the text in New England Ivy). I am thinking up different ways to use the rest of the stamp set and it has become my latest obsession: "The Present" stamp set from Close to My Heart.