Christmas Traditions

Merry Christmas! and many blessing for your New Year ahead!

I am here, not very present this past month to say the least but here now...does that count? I really have missed the interaction I get on my Blog...the new year promises to be charged with exciting new things and a renewed commitment to my 'Kraft' and my blogging :) 

Early in the year I was asked to be a Contributing DT for one of the Let's Scrap challenges. Now if you have followed along on my site over the years you would know that I am a HUGE fan of everyone there, have served multiple DT terms and LOVE all their sketches, challenges and events! The Administration Team there is so hard working and packed with lovely ladies from all over the globe! I would love to re-join the ranks of talented ladies for a future DT term, but for now I'd like to share my layout for today's challenge over at Let's Scrap.

Ezme is hosting today's challenge and the criteria was to use any Let's Scrap sketch, incorporate a featured technique from the site, add some stitching and scrapbook something about your Heritage, an important event or tradition...this is what I did:

This layout is highlighting our family's love of games...during the holidays we spend many hours playing various games...one of our family favourites is Monopoly...we currently own 11 different versions of this game! I thought it was fitting to refer to this as the 12 days of games as we play one game or another almost daily :)

Pink Paislee has a great Christmas line out currently called Snow Village...I picked up a handful of sheets and an Ephemera pack...makes for some quick and easy scrapbooking!

My main tag was created using some of the Ranger Distress Stains...I am loving playing with this medium and anything Tim Holtz is magical!!! 

Tags are one of my newest loves {heart}

The Ephemera pack makes short work of embellishing...consider grabbing one for your next paper purchase...these bits will work nicely with my Project Life pages as well.

Thanks so much for stopping in today! I've missed this and you, so I need to get busy playing with my paper and glue so I can get back into my bloggin' routine once again!

 

Sneak Peeks of our Spring/Summer 2014 Catalog...

Hey There! I am so pleased to be able to show you some sneak peeks of some of the *new products* coming in our 2014 Spring/Summer Idea Book & Catalog! It's a rare occasion for Customers and Consultants to be getting an early look at any future catalog products so I'm thrilled to be able to show you these now!

Avonlea

I mentioned earlier this week that Close To My Heart will be releasing our own version of this popular Multi-Pocket/Multi-Photo Scrapbooking system. Our new Picture My Life™ Scrapbooking Program is going to simplify your memory keeping while at the same time offer you some variety in your albums. If you still LOVE playing with paper and glue like I do, that's great, but if in addition to playing with paper and glue you want some help getting MORE done in less time...then I hope you'll consider letting me help you! 

As you will see, we are going to be offering cards from two of our previous paper collections, four from our current paper collections and we will have two more from our new paper collections in the upcoming catalog (not yet released...it's a surprise!)

What will be included in our Picture My Life™ Scrapbooking Program?

Each individual program features a unique 12 x 12 cover page, 122 double-sided, designed cards plus 10 unique Memory Protectors™ to hold creative combinations of these cards and your own photos. You get 44 – 4" × 6" cards (2 each of 22 designs) which come in 14 vertical and 8 horizontal designs. You also get 78 – 3" × 4" cards (3 each of 26 designs) which come in 10 vertical designs and 16 horizontal designs.

Babycakes

Chantilly

How is the Picture My Life™ scrapbooking program intended to be used?

The product was designed to fill the 10 included Memory Protectors™ following a guideline of 50% photos to 50% cards (which will give you several different card options leftover to give you choice as you create your custom layout.) However, it’s just a fun and versatile product—you can use it any way you wish! If you use a higher ratio of photos, you can purchase additional Memory Protectors™ separately (all styles sold separately as well as part of the scrapbooking program); you can mix and match cards from different programs, and you can absolutely mix Picture My Life™ with classic 12" × 12" layouts, including those from Workshops on the Go™ and coordinating My Reflections™ paper packets.

Later Sk8r

Who should be using this new Picture My Life™ scrapbooking program?

Anyone who wants to preserve and showcase their photos beautifully, but may not be as interested in creativity or hands-on crafting. This style of memory keeping will help young moms, teens, and those of you with limited time or creative aspirations to organize dozens of photos quickly, easily, and with fast journaling options. The product is intended to be affordable, fast, and "individual," meaning it does not require group/club/workshop time to complete or extensive instruction to understand. It is intentionally intuitive.

For those of you who love Workshops on the Go™, how-to patterns, and hands-on creativity, we strongly encourage you to continue on with this memory-keeping style that you know! You may wish to purchase Picture My Life™ as a way to EXTEND your hand-crafted layouts or Workshops on the Go™ projects. You might choose to scrapbook your favorite photos from an event, but then use Picture My Life™ for all the other photos from that event.

Laughing Lola

Surf's Up

So how are they different from Becky Higgins' Project Life? 

Well the most obvious answer to that is that we are working with the design elements from our paper collections! Our embellishments AND stamps will work hand in hand with the Picture My Life™ scrapbooking program. Our cards are printed on the same Background & Texture weight cardstock which is heavier than similar programs on the market. Our 12" X 12" cover page will give your albums a unique, finished look and our Memory Protectors™remain the same heavy-weight, durable material you’ve come to depend on to protect your photos—absolutely the industry standard!

How can I get one of these Picture My Life™ Scrapbooking Program's for FREE?

Join my Team!!! If you sign up between November 1 and December 15, 2013, and you submit qualifying minimum personal sales, you will receive one of your choice of the incredible new Picture My Life™ scrapbooking programs! You will also become the newest member of the Close To My Heart family!

Please message me if you have ANY questions about this new product line or about joining my team. Remember that 'you are usually your best customer' when considering becoming a Consultant and that you get a discount/commission every time you order for yourself or your friends and family!

Have a wonderful weekend and thanks for stopping by!

Classes, Retreats and Specials...Oh My!!!

So I have a feeling that I might be back! Grab your favourite beverage because this post is a little wordy! Only because I'm so supercalifragilistically EXCITED to share a couple Campaigns running with Close To My Heart right now!

The first is our Holiday from the Heart Gift Guide!

This mini-catalog is featuring some Exclusive, limited time product which is available right now until December 31st. There are several items in the catalog that have a 'star' and you can earn for FREE with each $100 in your order! I am currently playing with several of the goodies from this little catalog and let me tell you it's packed with goodness!!! I only 'earned' one free item and purchased the rest at regular price but as usual CTMH has some great value packed into this little guide! Contact me for your own copy or follow this LINK to see it for yourself right now online :)

The next exciting Campaign is for any of you that are thinking you'd like to Join My Team! Right now we are working on launching our next catalog (live to customers in February) but we are getting some inside information about what new products are in store! For those of you that have read a post or two of mine, you will know that I have embraced the Project Life philosophy for almost a year now. Both in the Becky Higgins style of recording a week in our life over a two page multi-pocket format AND in integrating my multi-pocket pages in amongst my regular/traditional scrapbooking pages. I have found that I am experiencing a great 'relief' in getting WAY MORE DONE and a fantastic feeling of satisfaction because more of my photos are in my albums!

So that being said, you can only imagine that I was out of my mind with excitement (cause scrappy things do that to me!!!) when I saw our newest promo highlighting our newest product release called 'Picture My Life™'. As you can see from the image above, we are going to be releasing 8 new Picture My Life™ scrapbooking programs. They will be featuring themes based on some of our most popular paper packets, plus two brand new paper packets. Each individual program features 122 double-sided, designed cards plus 10 unique Memory Protectors™ to hold creative combinations of these cards and your own photos. You get 44 – 4" × 6" cards (2 each of 22 designs) which come in 14 vertical and 8 horizontal designs. You also get 78 – 3" × 4" cards (3 each of 26 designs) which come in 10 vertical designs and 16 horizontal designs.

For me this means a couple things...I not only get to conitine to work in this multi-pocket, multi-photo format that I've grown to love and appreciate but I also get to offer it to my customers. My customers now have even more options and more benefits with CTMH and the quality of our products and compatibility of it all has just increased exponentially!

The papers in the Picture My Life™ scrapbooking program kits co-ordinate with our current paper packs AND stamps and embellishments. We will have the multi-pocket pages available to order separately in various styles and at competitive prices AND the best thing is they will be in the same awesome heavy duty quality that all of our current page protectors are made from!

Not only are we offering these new page protector styles, but we have also added protectors to work with the current Creative Memories pages and albums! We are aware of the turmoil and changes in the CM Company and with their current customers. We want to be able to offer some compatible products to those of you that LOVE the CM album system :)

This is what our future page protectors selection, available in our next catalog, is going to look like:

• Top Load (10 protectors with a 12" x 12" pocket and a gutter seam, $9.95)
• Top Load Value Pack (25 protectors with a 12" x 12" pocket and a gutter seam, $19.95)
• Side Load (10 protectors with a 12" x 12" pocket and a gutter seam, $9.95)
• Side Load Value Pack (25 protectors with a 12" x 12" pocket and a gutter seam, $19.95)
• Strap Side Load (25 protectors with a 12" x 12" pocket for strap binding, no gutter seam, $19.95)
• Design 1 (10 protectors – 6 vertical 6" × 4" pockets each, $9.95)
• Design 2 (10 protectors – 6 horizontal 4" × 6" pockets each, $9.95)
• Design 3 (10 protectors – 4 vertical 6" × 4" pockets & 4 horizontal 3" x 4" pockets each, $9.95)
• Design 4 (10 protectors – 4 horizontal 4" × 6" pockets & 4 vertical 4" × 3" pockets each, $9.95)
• Design 5 (10 protectors – 3 vertical 6" × 4" pockets & 6 horizontal 3" × 4" pockets each, $9.95)

So as you can see, in a couple months we will be able to help those of you that might not be scrapbookers but do have a shoe box or computer full of photos! You will be able to simple organize and jazz up those photos in a very simple format AND you will have those special moments into an album you can sit down and enjoy! For those of you that enjoy playing with paper and glue, this new program will extend your creativity and ability to get more done in less time AND it will add some more interest into your albums while at the same time allowing you to get more photos and moments recorded and stored for future reference! It's all Goodness on the horizon ;)

Moving onto current events ;) I am working on some layouts for a couple classes at the Ultimate Scrapbook Retreat this November 22-24th...I always look sooooo forward to getting away and getting creative but this month I wanted to offer a class or two with some of CTMH's new Christmas and Winter collections!

I am totally enjoying the new products and our new Artbooking Cricut cartridge...have you seen it in action? Do you have yours yet? Let me know if you want it added to your Christmas Wish List or have your husband/family message me and I can hook you up for the Holidays ;) Remember that with the purchase of your Artbooking Cricut cartridge, you've just earned one FREE 'star' item out of the Holiday from the Heart Gift Guide!!!

Here's a couple sneaks of my upcoming classes...

Thanks so much for hanging out here today, I love hearing from you so leave me a note in the comments below if you'd like :)

Everything's Good!

Oh yeah..I'm safe and sound...just MIA!

I'm not sure what's happened there? I seem to go through phases every year where I'm super busy with DT stuff and Close To My Heart stuff and Project Life stuff and I'm so 'on top' of my Blog!

Seeing as I'm taking a break from my two previous Design Team's I seem to have fallen off the proverbial 'Bloggin' Wagon'...I apologize to those of you that like to see my artwork or for those of you that enjoy my banter ;)

Sooooo, what have I been up to you ask? Well since my last post the kids have returned to school of course which means I have been working more at my new job at my local Scrapbook Shoppe and re-organizing spaces in the house! Right? cause those two automatically go together. LOL

I have lots of updates to share this month but I thought I'd talk a little bit about my Project Life journey to date :)

I've been playing with my Project Life album, working on it means that I am constantly chipping away at organizing my photos, figuring out what I want to print and then ordering them...then once I've got them into their sleeves for the week I like to add my cards and journalling and embellies of course ;)

As you can see, I am working on several weeks...print some photos...add some cards and journalling...it's like a work in progress all the time but I'm OK with that...I'm currently printing photos for Weeks 31-44...I'm only 13 weeks behind!!! HaHaHa

You know the funny thing is that once I finish organizing 'what' photos I want to print and where they are going to go in my Project Life page spread...then send them off to print...It will only take me a few hours to corner round them and then put them into their proper spots in my page sleeves...I'll take several more hours to choose cards and embellish and journal on each weeks' spread...but I will have that many weeks worth of memories into an album...so it's all good!

One of the things that I've discovered works for me is I record each of my weeks activities into a calendar...sometimes I need to refer to my iPhoto Library to refresh my memory on dates and when I do I like to flag my photos so that they will be easy to find for future printing. The other resource I've found on the World Wide Web is Project Life planning sheets. I print them out to plan my pages, especially seeing as I'm so many weeks behind. This way I can plan my week spread, figure out photos and photo placement and I record it so that I know where to slide everything in once I have all my photos printed! Makes everything so much easier to sit and work through all those details first so that once I've got my photos in the sleeves I can start the creative part of recording our memories.

I like the planner pages I've found on these sites:
marcypenner.com
zoepearndesigns.com

The more you look around online, the more help AND inspiration AND motivation you find :)

another sketch from Scrapbook Challenges...

Hello and welcome to my scrappy space! I've got another sketch from Scrapbook Challenges here for you today. Remember that every Monday we release another great sketch and this week you are in for a treat as we've got a double-page sketch! 

I had some photos that were screaming my name yesterday...photos from a recent baseball tournament down in Tacoma Washington. 

My son is a true baseball fan and player and he loves to steal...whenever he can...but unfortunately for the other team he is FAST! So it's not very often that he gets caught out on a steal or on his lead-offs from the bag...

One of the things I LOVE about Close o My Heart's cardstock is that it's white core...so when I want to sand it or distress it I can see this awesome contrast!

Now if you've been with me for long you would know that I love all manufacturers of Scrappy stuff...I've been getting the Studio Calico Project Life kits for quite a few months now and in one of my recent kits I got these awesome cork adhesive asterisks! Aren't they fantastic?!!

You can also see in the photo above that I have sanded the edges of the photos, which makes them stand out against the black CS base nicely and adds a little roughness to them for this baseball layout ;)

Love mixing up my title with various alpha fonts and stickers...adds a great connection of colours to this page and it's a great way to add some interest too! My arrows are an assortment from CTMH, Studio Calico and Freckled Fawn...like I said, I love to mix it up!

Here's the sketch:

Thanks so much for stoppin' by today!

Holidays from the Heart...

Hello! I have some exciting Close To My Heart news to share with all of you...

We have a festive supplement to the Autumn/Winter 2013 Idea Book coming in October! The Holidays from the Heart Gift Guide is being offered for a limited time and inside you will find all-new products including papers, project kits, embellishments, stamps and more!

I've taken a sneak peek online and let me tell you that you are going to love everything in it! my order is in and I should be receiving the Holidays for the Heart mini-catty's in about a week! 

If you are wanting to get your hands on one of these mini-catty's...let me know!

September is National Stamping Month!!!

What better way to celebrate National Stamping Month than with a special stamp set from Close To My Heart? Well we've done it! not one, not two but THREE full stamp sets for $10...yup! How awesome is CTMH? 

Now I've got the stamp set images below...didn't realize that the first one is so poorly focussed until I uploaded it here?!!! Silly me ;) but you get the idea...I LOVE that we've got sentiments, images and a full alphabet in this stamp set this month. Contact me if you want this set as it will be available for this month only OR as supplies last...whichever comes first!

Check out this LINK for some ideas and inspiration from some fellow CTMH Consultants...I wasn't sure I'd get my stamp set in time to join this BlogHop so I didn't sign up ;( but if you follow the link you can still check out all the inspirational creations for yourself...enjoy!

Blog Hoppin' with Poster Tidings in September!

Hello! Welcome to our Close To My Heart 'stamp of the month' Blog Hop! Hopefully you've had smooth sailing so far and have arrived here from Nancy Womersley's Blog...if this is your first stop, no worries as this is a circular hop and you will end up back here again once you've hopped on around to everyone's sites!

This month's stamp set is great! I've used the Fall themed one but am looking forward to creating with the Christmas one next...

This certainly was a basic layout design...I wanted to play with the 'Happy Autumn' stamp set and the Huntington papers... I love the rich Autumn tones in the papers and the inks...the sentiment was stamped in Autumn Terracotta, of course, and I've rocked some Red barn from the bottom up to add a little depth to the stamped sentiment. The Huntington assortment with these fantastic wooden buttons and canvas images were the perfect accessory to this page...now just need to take some new family fall photos to fill this page!!!

 Now head on over to Jean McNulty's Blog to see what she's done with this month's stamp, Poster Tidings!

Sizzlin' Summer Sketch#12

Sizzlin' Summer sketches are still coming your way...when I get a chance to actually get them done! I hope you are visiting Scrapbook Challenges to see all the sketches and examples from our Design Team and members in the gallery!

This sketch started one way and ended another, which is fine because I like how it all turned out!

I'm playing with our new 'Frosted' paper collection from Close To My Heart which will work great for Winter or Christmas  themed projects...check out some cards I created at the end of this post using one of our fantastic card kits! 

These glittery sparkles are discontinued now but I'm glad I bought lots when we had them in our catalog! I've just used an assortment of punches for the snowflakes that were in my stamp drawer at home...fast and easy when you are punching it outta card stock! Which is 'Colonial White' by the way :)

I have been featuring CTMH's new 'Artbooking' cartridge from Cricut in the previous few weeks...this project's title and fancy doily on the left side were both cut out of our cartridges...our glitter paper is so fantastic that it cuts like butter on the Cricut machine too! Which makes for some fun embellishments and titles in glitter!

Isn't this great, what an awesome doily huh?!!! Anyways, my goal was to keep this layout simple with simple embellishments and stay within the colours of this paper line...the photos are from 7 years ago when our family stayed at Leavenworth in Washington over the Thanksgiving weekend...this town is so interesting at that time of the year!

Our card kits come with enough product to create 15 cards! We also include an exclusive stamp set and envelopes!

Thanks so much for stopping by! Enjoy your weekend wherever you may be!!!

Sizzlin' Summer sketch #10

Hello again! 

Yes, I have missed a few posts' haven't I? Busy working and organizing some upcoming classes...getting sidetracked to say the least! But I'm back today with another Scrapbook Challenges sketch! 

I was trying to keep this one simple...I kept grabbing items to add to this layout and then I just decided it was finished...I am going to add a Project Life sleeve for the right hand side of the album and add the handful of other pics we took of Marissa's Birthday dinner...

I've used the Close To My Heart Sarita paper collection and embellishments...both the sticker sheet and the assortment of wooden bits. I also cut the doily in the background from the new Artbooking Cartridge...looks even better when it's not covered up!

I also stitched with my sewing machine to add a bit of dimension to these layers...I raised a couple of the card stock sticker flowers as well to make the layering of embellishments easier :)

Here's the sketch:

Thanks for stoppin' in today, I hope you enjoy the sketches this week!

you ready for another one?

Ok well here we are already with our Sizzlin' Summer sketch #7 from Scrapbook Challenges! Have you been playing along? I'd love to hear from you if you have been!

I knew I wanted to use some baseball photos for this sketch...after trimming them to 3½" X 5" I sanded the edges...laid the photos on some black cardstock and then thought...now what?!!!

So I sat and thought about a title...the sketch has a big one along the left hand side...I don't always care to follow the sketch exactly but in this case I thought I'd like to play with my Silhouette! It's been ages since I used it and the #1 reason I bought it was so that I could cut really cool downloaded images and words and...you get the idea!

So I played with the phrase 'take me out to the ball game'...used my 'too much paper!' font, 'ariel black' font and 'huntson' font that were on my computer, fiddled with various sizes and welded the letters together so that it would print nicely! I am still learning the Silhouette machine but it's been easy enough to figure out so far :)

The only patterned paper I've used on this layout is to cut the title! I am amazed that I was able to just leave it alone...simple enough in theory but hard for me to just let it be plain'ish...if you know me at all you would be amazed with me too!!! I have several stickers left over from my Simple Stories 24/seven collection so they made adding little finishing touches to this layout crazy fast! Of course the best part of this layout is the story...I LOVE baseball...just sayin'

Enjoy the sketch and I hope you have some luck getting a little scrappy time for yourself this month! Thanks so much for stoppin' in here and checkin' me out ;)

PS. Do you sense a little cheeky'ness? not sure whats come over me...must be this late night scrapbooking!

Sizzlin' Summer Sketch #6

Oh Yeah! I'm back...missed a couple sketches...did you notice? I hope you clicked on over to Scrapbook Challenges and got a look at them even though I've missed them here! 

Gah, my weekend and week are just speeding by and as life tends to interrupt our creative intentions...such was the case for me!!!

I seem to be doing some really late night scrappin' but at least I'm getting a chance to play along with all these fun sketches...this one started with an idea in my head around the sketch and then kinda went a little North East from there!!! LOL

Isn't she cute?!!! It's pretty much just me in this household that thinks so...she is when she's taking one of her many daily naps...when she's awake she's not quite as cute and friendly...her teeny tiny size, a whopping 2.5 lbs, means she is quite nervous around short people (AKA. kids!) and so she tends to growl and snap at them! Ooops!

Ok so do you totally love these papers? This is the new Babycakes collection from Close To My Heart and the Babycakes Asst. which are these lovely canvas adhesive backed embellishments! So fun! The tiny type I've used for 'Lucy' is included in our My Crush Besties Asst. pack...a great little package of goodies that you can use with our new My Crush albums for fast/on the go scrapbooking...or to incorporate into your layouts, mini-albums or Project Life pages!

It just so happened that there was a great title already on my Babycakes Asst. sheet...which happened to fit in with this photo of Lucy having her nap :)

These great arrows were cut using the Sizzix 'Note to Self' Thinlits which coordinate with the Echo Park paper 'Note to Self'...it was super fast running these arrows through my Big Shot.

Here's the sketch!

 

Thanks for stoppin' in today! I hope you have some fun with these sketches...stay tuned for tomorrow sketch#7 and perhaps I'll even have a chance to get caught up with the last couple I missed! Fingers crossed ;)