...and the Shoppers Rush Home with Their Treasures!

What a month it has been! Or a couple of months for that matter! I thought I had my Christmas all "wrapped up" at the beginning of the month but I find myself busier and behinder than ever as the days march along. How can this possibly be??

I signed up for a recipe swap at the last possible minute. What kind of fool am I? Being an ace procrastinator and a struggler of ideas, I thought it would behoove me to go another step and sign up for three spots. I think I need my head examined. Oh, did that already, too.

Because I was terrified to let my husband know I had committed to another thing, I was trying to be sneaky about working on this swap - like in between stamping gift tags and Christmas cards. I didn't quite get away with it and he found me out... but not until I was almost completely done. I got them into the mail only one day late. That could be some sort of record!

The swap was 6x6 Crock Pot Recipes, CTMH products only since the players were all CTMH consultants.

Chicken soft tacos is my submission for the Main Dish category. I chose the colors based on the Mexican flag.

German Potato Salad is my Side Dish entry. Also based on flag colors, Germany this time, Black, Red & Gold.

My final submission is in the Desserts category, Cinnamon Raisin Bread Pudding in shades of browns. I should get 5 more back in these categories - I'll share them when I do.

Merry Christmas!!

YAY for me!!

It's official!

I finally have one thing....

Yes

ONE

thing....

O

N

E

thing...

organized in my craft room!!

My beautiful Close To My Heart papers are comfy & cozy in their own special slots. Each one marked with the color and name of the paper. How special are they??


My husband put in three of these double door units for me a few months ago. You can see they just fit below the lowered section of the ceiling. We wanted to keep them away from the wall on the right because of the air intake. It occurred to me that taking my paper rack off the table and re-orienting it to stand up and down in the corner would fill the space in question and still not block the intake. It also means more work space on the table!! It meant taking apart and rebuilding the rack but I love the results!! I turned the slots vertical on the botton two cubes and have a great place to store my Close To My Heart eyelet case, ribbon case, acrylix blocks case and a few other items.


Although it doesn't appear so, I do have paper in every single slot!



While cutting the tags for IDing my papers, I also made up the season color cards for the wall. Now that they are there, I am not sure what their purpose is... **blushing** but they are in order of the catalog listing and also stored in the same order.
OMHeck, I feel so dang organized!!!!!

Creative Basics Jingle - Part II

Seems like today may be a good time to get back to business here and follow up with those 6x6 cards I started with the Jingle Creative Basics pack.

NOTHING could be easier than creating cards with the ideas and instructions found in our Wishes book. Fabulous is the best way to describe the results!!

Switched this one up with a different stamp set. I love the snowflake 'O' in the word and how fun is it to add brads? Don't forget, in this case a spool of Juniper colored ribbon is included with the paper!

The beautiful colors of Tulip and Juniper and the patterned paper really make a nice composition without too much embellisment. In this case I tried my hand with the glitter rub-ons. I need a little more experience with them!

I truly love Love LOVE my liquid glass!! And have I ever mentioned that I am still using up the very first bottle I bought? Sometimes I think it's a magic bottle that will never become empty. It simply goes so very very far!! I dotted the ornaments, stars and decoratios on all three little red trees. So pretty in person!

I simply love this ornament stamp set. The saying is available in English, French or Spanish. I can hardly remember the last time I actually used my markes to color in anything. I almost forgot how fun it is!

More coloring with markers! Once I started it was hard to stop!! When I cut the central ornament out I also sponged a little juniper around the edges to make it look more round. In the background I masked the 'front' ornament to stamp the 'back' one. Then, without removing the mask I also sponged a little shadow between them for added depth.

Thanks for stopping by today. I hope you like what you see!

Evolution of scrapbooking - a personal story

I don't recall much fuss being made about scrap books when I was a kid. Although it's true that my mother saw most of her vacations and travels through the view finder of her camera, she stuck mainly to slides, which don't elicit much response when attached to the pages of a photo album. Even as a kid I found those family slide shows much too boring to sit through. I have to wonder why we forced those events upon family, friends and neighbors. Not only the blurry out-of-focus photos or 12millionth view of the same subject, but the monotone voice of the man or woman behind the slide machine droning on and on and on and . . .

It can only be described as extreme delight that I discovered Mom did keep a photo album of her years in college. What a happy treasure to have! It covers her college life and summers from the late 1930's to the early 1940's. Black and white photos with within white borders, adhered with photo corners to black pages with descriptions written in white. All bound in an embossed album adorned with a decal of her school, Washington State College, many years later to become Washington State University or WAZZU as we fondly like to call it.

I'm about to share pages from this album with you. I doubt I'll have a lot to comment on and I am sure they mean a lot more to me than to you. But this is not only part of my ancestry, it's part of the evolution of scrapping in my family.

The first page which appears to be an untitled title pages is an aerial view of the Washington State College campus most likely taken in the late 1930's.

College dorm mates of Steven's Hall ready for their first formal dinner. My mom is the woman in the lower left corner.

My mother always claimed to have no artistic ability but this album proves that she is more creative than she gives herself credit for. Notice the left page photos of campus scenes form a "W" for her school.

All dressed up for the "Masqued Ball." I like how Mom cut out some of the figures in this layout.

I think the use of different size photos really adds interest to this album. She was very good about labeling the photos, although I wish she had spent a little time journaling, too.

Mom was a veterinary student and I love that she has photos from her lab classes! In those days it was very unusual for a woman to study in this field.

More veterinary labs....

I really appreciate that Mom put a lot of photos of herself in her album. This is something a lot of women neglect to do! I particularly like this photo. Mom had the honor of standing up with the other woman in the picture when she married. 60 years later I drove Mom to the 60th Wedding anniversary of this same friend.

One of Mom's old flames in the upper right. I don't know who drew the little guy diving into the water but I love it!

More little sketches accent the page.

I love how she put the photos together on this page.

Mom went to school a long way from home (for those days). The couple in the upper photo are her parents (my grandparents) on Dad's Weekend in 1941. The girls in the lower photo are from the cross state rival school... you may have heard of the University of Washington Huskies...

Love the caption on this page... if you can't read it, it says.... "How the Old Maids Club amused itself on the weekends."

Sophomore year (1942) back in the animal anatomy lab.

Another one of my favorite pages.... Mom's sister and brother in law, Aunt Jean and Uncle Ernie.

I like how Mom grouped the photos of herself dressed up for the Veterinarian Hobo Dinner.

Another grouping of photos that I really like.

This page really amuses me. She captioned it, "Snow Scenes" but seems to have cut much of the snow out of the photos! LOL

Once again, I really appreciate the number of photos Mom included of herself in her album. And on this, the last page I will share with you, I love her photo montage in the upper right.

Creative Basics - Jingle

When I ordered my new toys from the CTMH Winter 2009 Idea Book I got a paper packet called Creative Basics Jingle Collection - page 30 if you want to follow along in the book... Last night I cracked open my Wishes Card Confidence program and selected the Celebrations Workshop to use this paper with. This workshop uses only 2 sheets of the background texture papers, 2 coordinating sheets of cardstock and 6 more cardstock for the 6" x 6" cards bases. With that, I can create 12 beautiful cards, two each of 6 designs.

I chose White Daisy, Juniper, Hollyhock & Tulip for my bases. Since it was pretty late in the evening all I did was cut all the papers according to the cutting guide in Wishes and organize the bases with the cut pieces. I decided to not do the same color bases for the 2nd card of each design to see how different they would look. I had time to make up three of the 12 cards. Take a peek!!

The Juniper grossgrain ribbon is included with the Creative Basics Jingle Collection papers. I tied the white craft buttons with natural hemp and sponged them with Tulip and Juniper inks.

More natural hemp (sponged with Juniper ink) knotted and attached to the card with Liquid Glass. Pretty glittery Twinkle Brads adorn the center of the snowflakes.

The Holiday Trinkets My Acrylix stamp set is what I have used for all of these cards. I really like the simplicity of this card, and distressing paper is one of my very favorite techniques!
I have nine more cards to do with this project... hurry back!!

Be still my heart!

I've got two workshops coming up in October using the new Twitterpated Workshop On The Go kit. Putting these layouts and cards together with the kit was a snap and so much fun!! The colors are soft and warm and the patterns so pretty. I think you'll like them!

First the kit... I love Love LOVE this!! Everything in the kit is full size... no skimpin' on the product! It includes a full package of Twitterpated Level 2 papers, a My Acrylix(TM) stamp set made just for this kit, a full package of Designer Ribbon Rounds(TM) Chocolate Collection ribbons, and full color instructions with a cutting guide for making the projects shown here. The full value is $35.95 but it costs only $29.95. After making these projects I still have a full half package of paper and lots of ribbons for other projects.

Next the projects...

This is the two page layout. My workshops for these classes are free after you purchase the kit. There are other fun options to choose, too, like the Dimensional Elements in Color... the little chip board buttons. Cute!!

And of course my favorite thing is always the cards. Instructions are for six cards, two of each of these. Other items used on these other than what I've already mentioned are brads, buttons and natural hemp. So pretty, right?

If you are interested in either of these workshops or just purchasing the kit (instructions included!) just let me know!

Scrap book workshop is on October 7th - sign up ends tomorrow

Cards workshop is on October 14th - sign up ends on September 30th.

Thanks for dropping in!

...and it doesn't stop there!

I needed a quick card for a friend and believe it or not, I had NONE just lying around. But wait, I just made a gaggle of new cards with the CTMH Everyday Celebration card kit, right? I grabbed an unused card base from the kit and used it as a template to cut a new card and *snap* I was in business!!

So when you purchase this kit be sure to make yourself at template from the card bases, save those instructions, and you are in business for any kind of card you need for anytime you need it. Don't be fooled into thinking you can only make those cards with the papers, stamps & embellishments included in the kit - you can make an unlimited number of cards with other stamps, papers & embellishments substituted for the kit supplies...

Now I ask... just how AWESOME is that???

My New Toys

While I have been on my mental vacation the rest of the world didn't stop and wait for me. That's okay, because it means the latest and greatest Close to my Heart Idea Book/Catalog has been released!! It's online now for you to peruse (drool over) or you can contact me personally for a hard copy that you can take anywhere. Follow this link to my Paper Boutique, click on the photo of the new Idea Book in the lower right corner - sit back and enjoy!

Along with our exciting new Idea Book coming out this month we are also celebrating National Stamping Month with our Everyday Celebration card kit. Here's what I got in my kit. It was simply amazing to open this kit and realize that the only... and I do mean ONLY... things not included were a tape runner, paper cutter and postage stamps to mail the cards. The papers are bright and beautiful, the stamp set so versatile, and all other embellishments, inks and tools are included and ready to use, including color instructions to make 16 beautiful cards!!

I had so much fun making these cards with so little fuss. I have no doubt you'll love this kit, too!! The flyer is here, Delight in the Everyday, and you can order the kit either online or contact me.

There is so much more to share, but please forgive me, I really have to get back to playing. Thanks for coming by!

Fight like a girl

It's true, I have been missing in action for more than a month. I was actually surprised to see that I have NO blogs for August what-so-ever. I'm thinking I have a lot of making up to do!!

I went to the Kentucky State Fair last month but sadly forgot to take my camera. No fair photos or layouts will be forthcoming. We saw all types of livestock and crafts and so much more that it's hard to remember.

This little card did arise from my fair experience, however. I saw the saying on a T-shirt a woman was wearing and begged my daughters to help me remember it. From that little saying, a card was born.

Of course all supplies are Close to My Heart. Thanks for stopping by!

Missing in Action?

I'm still alive and kickin' in my Kentucky home. Things have been busy and won't be getting "back to normal." I am sad to tell you that we lost our very good friend, Harriett, to breast cancer in June. That precipitated a trip to Seattle for her funeral. Then back to Kentucky and a gajillion things to catch up or get started on. Please stay tuned for some fun stuff to be posted... I've got some cards to share and will be working on some memorial pages about Harriett.

The new Close To My Heart catalogs will be released soon... Can't wait to see exciting new product and the incredible artwork (IDEAS!!) that always accompany it.

Don't change that channel!!

Harborside Picnic

While I am 'experimenting' with my new layout I hope you will be patient with my new posts. My main goal was to have my blog fill the entire page instead of just the the center half of the page. In doing so, the formatting for my past blogs appears really odd. Please bear with me while I learn my way around the new format.



The pages I want to share with you today are more created by my daughter, Alyssa. Last summer we attended a picnic at the nursing home where my mother is living. We had a fun time with G'ma, acting like teens and taking goofy pictures. Can I just say that all the fun photos our kids take today with their instant digital results are just not adult friendly? Okay, maybe it's just me, but someday I will learn that "goofy" needs to stay with the younger generation and out of my life!



These layouts have really grown on me. Although I hated the photos of me, I've come to enjoy them once they have been assigned to a layout lovingly created by my daughter. It's funny how an awful photo in hand becomes a treasure in the scrapbook. I may have to start being a little easier on myself!






My favorite page of all is this one, my mother and my daughter. I have threatened to steal it from her scrapbook and frame it for the wall. Aren't they sweet?


...and I think I am liking my new blog layout, how about you?



Most products in these pages are Close to my Heart with a few contraband embellishments that my daughter picked up somewhere else... gah!!

Longaberger Trip

Last winter before Christmas my oldest daughter and I took a trip to the Longaberger factory in Ohio. It was a fun bus trip arranged by Longaberger consultants. When we got on the bus we had gift baskets waiting for us (empty - LOL) and bags of goodies to help us keep our energy up throughout the long day.



The drive there was very long which was quite alright since it was so dang early I was already planning my first nap. "Santa" had dropped off some goodies for us and they were delivered as well during the ride.


We had a blast shopping and touring the Homestead. Lunch was provided, a full hot meal. Then into town for more shopping and the Christmas parade. I don't think snow was expected, but it did snow the entire day which made the day just that much more special.



These layouts are all done by my daughter. She's just beginning to get into scrapbooking and I am so pleased with her results. All products are Close to my Heart.