Sneak Peeks & Teases!

Well it's summertime and I haven't blogged for a while.  

Shame!

Shame on me!

But being summer it also means that I've attended another Close To My Heart convention and I'm full of news about the upcoming catalog & great new ideas!  

But I can't tell you. 

Why?  

Because the catalog doesn't go live until September 1, 2018. 

If that seems like a long way off, I agree, but that time will fly by -trust me!  In the mean time I'm going to show you a little peek of a project we made at convention.  This is a brand new product that teams up Close To My Heart with Stacy Julian! 

{{{SQUEAL!}}}

I was so lucky to be asked to help with her presentation at convention so was able, with a handful of other consultants, to be coached by her in a Facebook Live session.  How do I express how exciting that was?  

Okay - here is your sneak peek

View #1

View #2

What do you think the amazing team of Close To My Heart and Stacy Julian has brought us now?

Stay tuned because I will tease show you more in the "between" time.  In the meantime, my website is still open for business and we have some awesome specials!  This month is Stampaganza! Buy two stamp sets at the retail value and get a third set of equal or lesser value for free ...and we brought back our fun "solos" stamp sets just for this event!  Check it all out on my web site. 

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Throw Back Thursday: Swapping Pins!

If you have been stamping as long as I have (and I know a lot of you have!) you might remember that many years ago stampers were swapping pins at conventions all around the country.  I think I only made pins to swap once at one of those big commercial conventions.  But pin swapping at a Close To My Heart convention wasn't to be passed up as far as I was concerned.  

You still see pins of all sorts attached to consultants sweaters or lanyards, but only a few and usually only provided for a special reason.  In the past, though, many of us brought multitudes of pins to swap and proudly wore as many as we could fit on our clothing.  Here are a few of my favorites that have survived my moves and purging over the years.

First is my "AOL Pin."  

Back in the earlier days of the internet Social Media was limited pretty much to chat rooms owned by your service provider.  A bunch of *DOTS consultants had a chat room in AOL. Which is entirely the sole reason I insisted we get AOL when we got our first dial up internet connection.  There were many limitations to using the internet in those days.  One limitation being that a screen name could only be nine or ten letters long.  And it had to be unique to the person using it.  I came up with CUStampin which became how I was known in the DOTS chat room. Very few people used their actual name.  

It was decided by a group of ladies that we would all make the exact same pin personalized with our screen names in order to help us find each other at our Close To My Heart convention.  It was a lot of fun and a great ice breaker.  This tradition carried on, with new designs for several years.  This pin is about 4" tall.

Next, my button pin: 

I borrowed my in-laws button maker for this pin.  Rather than write the words multiple times, I photocopied them and then stamped the image inside.  Legally, the CTMH images can only be reproduced by hand stamping each one, but I wasn't willing to risk severe cramps or carpal tunnel syndrome by writing the words over and over and over.  The thin paper I used to stamp on was the primary reason for making this a button. It's just under 2-1/2".

I believe if you've stamped and glittered very long at all you most likely have been asked, "Do you know you have glitter on your face?"

Next is my CTMH Kin pin: 

This is an example of the kind of pin you might still see on a consultant at convention today.  It's very personal and wouldn't be used for swapping.  This pin was all done with shrink plastic and is about 3" long.  Two of my CTMH friends and I had started growing our teams.  The three of us were not "related" by uplines but decided to support each other in our business efforts and decided to call ourselves "kin."  Each little doll represents one of us or our downline and is colored accordingly to who it is. I made one for each of the eight of us who was at convention. It's still one of my favorite pins and brings back memories of our ice cream socials.  Yum! Everything on this pin but the "name tag" on each doll was stamped with CTMH - including the old logo. 

Last pin for today - one of my all time favorites:

This pin is actually three dimensional so that it appears you really could break the glass.  The words were done on clear label paper and all else hand stamped with DOTS stamps.  It doesn't show in the photo, but there is glitter behind the stamp. The pin is about 2" square. I think this was the year that they announced at convention that we would no longer be known as DOTS, but as Close To My Heart.  I didn't know whether to be sad that my pin was obsolete or to be happy that it would now be so rare. Unfortunately the red and pink of the frame have faded almost completely away.

Most pins were laminated for durability as were my CUStampin pin and this one.  

I hope you've enjoyed this little trip in time.  See you again soon, or as I used to say, C U Stampin!


*DOTS was the birth mother of  CTMH.

Convention 2012: Catch the Fever!

One of the highlights of my year is always my "Girlfriend Vacation" aka the annual Close To My Heart convention.  This year we are gathering in Dallas, Texas for three full days of fun, excitement, crafting, education and networking.  And those are just the planned activities.  {wink-wink}

The CTMH Corporate team who works long and hard all year putting our conventions together (along with their "regular" responsibilities) put together this video as a teaser.  Trust me, once you've gone to convention you don't need a teaser, but I thought this was fun and want to share it with you.

A Little Bit of a Tease

I've been working diligently on my Convention Swap Cards and I am so excited to show you!  However, I can't reveal them before convention.  

It's in "The Rules."  

Besides, if I revealed them now I would be stalked the moment my toes touch down in California.  

Really. 

They are that awesome. 

I will, however, leave you with just a tiny peek....

A Little Something with Sophia

A Little Bit of Lucky

Close To My Heart Convention

The Close To My Heart convention is coming up this July. In case you don't know, that is a big deal to us consultants! There are a lot of different reasons to go and all of them good. It's a great time to get information and training from the "big dogs" (sorry ladies) and experts in crafting, sales or marketing. It's a time to get the first preview of the 2010 Winter Catalog & Idea Book. It's a fantastic networking opportunity. We get to play with new product and make things. And probably my favorite part, we get to catch up with people we haven't seen since the last convention and make new friends!! I loves my Close To My Heart friends!!!

Who wouldn't want to be part of that? My daughter wanted to so much she even signed on to be a consultant! I am so excited to be sharing this experience with her! And early in March she will have her first gathering. We are X*Cite*Ted!!

Part of convention is a scrapbook contest. It has specific instructions for six 2-page layouts. I thought it would be Fun to participate in the contest this year and my entry has to be there by May. I need some help, though. I have three subjects I can scrap around and I am at a loss which to use.

First I thought of my darling daughters and milestones in their/our lives. Obviously I have LOTS of photos and mementos to work with on that subject. However, photography is part of the evaluation and some of those old photos are not so good!

Second subject is Harriett and our family's relationship with her. She was not ever a particularly willing subject when it came to capturing her on film, but I have some ideas to make pages about her that are not necessarily photos of her.

Third is my Mom. I have been wanting to do a tribute album to her for a long time, too. Unfortunately, she can't appreciate it like she would have had I gotten to this earlier. As a subject she offers me an amazing amount of topic to work with.

I am so undecided. All three of these really appeal to me and eventually I will do them all. But I don't know which one would be best to do first or offer the best potential to winning or placing in that contest! HELP!!