For the Troops!

I have a co-worker that just left to go back and serve. He was called away from his wife and 2 little ones about a month ago. Just this week we all got a group update from him telling us were he is and how he is doing. I've seen so many sites doing cards to send to people in the troupes so I asked him what his thoughts were about me heading up one of these mass shipping of cards and this is what he emailed me back:

"They will be given to the soldiers who don't get much mail. Mail call is always a highlight to the day, everyone here likes getting cards and anything really in the mail, it kinda makes you forget how far away from home you really are. If that makes any sense."

So, I was wondering if there is anyone who would like to make a card or two and would like to donate them to my box that I want to send to the troupes - if you are interested please post here or email me privately.

Thanks for reading :)

New Header - What do you think?

I've been trying to come up with a new header for my blog. A very nice, fellow consultant, came up with one for me - isn't it nice! I have color! She happens to have the same first name as me - talent must run in the name! I put her blog link below - check out her site when you have a chance!

Spring - Finally!

Spring has sprung at our house

and I've been busy and not enjoying it!

I took these pictures this week of things I'm looking forward to:

My Daughter's StrawberriesJeanie and I would go out the strawberries every

morning a eat the ones that were ready.

Purple Ball Flower - Or that's what I call it!
The hubby relandscaped the back yard and accidently forgot to dig these up and move them, but they still survived this year and I'll dig them up and move them out of the way.

Open Crops

Sorry haven't kept up - life is getting in the way!

I'm hosting open crops Wednesday nights at my lake house for $7 and Cherie of Tastefully Simple is catering it! Last week was great and the food was awesome. I've added a few Saturdays to the mix and I might open up Friday nights too! So if interested, comment here or email me privately.

Swap Cards

Here is the swap card I made for this month's unit meeting! I used the NEW papers from the May Catty!! Sneak Peek!

The paper is called Bella and it's actually only one sheet - the purple circles. The flowers are Botanical Dimensional Elements. I used foam squares to give them depth and a sparkle to add bling. The green is our Garden Green ribbon. The Chocolate cardstock creates a flap, giving it an additional panel.Perfectly hidden under that flap I stamped a message that came from our NEW Buttoned Up Stamp set! (guess what objects are on that stamp set???) Here is a closer look under the flap.
Here is the inside:And closer . . . . .

Wedding Card

I've been doing wedding invites and shower invites the last month. Here's the brides wedding card from me using the leftovers:I used Edge Anchors on the sides and instead of putting the Brads in the holes I put Sparkles! I thought that would dress it up a bit. The ink is Daisy White Pigment ink so it shows up on the dark purple paper really well. (The purple is a special milled paper with sparkles mixed into the paper.) The Garden Green cardstock in the background I embossed with my Cuttlebug.The stamps are from our Love Always set with Pansy Purple ink. I added another Sparkle to the swirl on the inside. I think she'll like it.

Send Us Your Layout Jpegs!

National Scrapbooking Month is all about you! We want you to share your story with us, so put together your best two-page layout featuring…you! Send a JPEG photo of your layout and a description of how it is highlighting you, your life, your passions, your hobbies—whatever is the best way to tell your story. Send your photo and description to scrapbookandshare@closetomyheart.com and you will be automatically entered into the contest to win $150 US retail in Close To My Heart product!

Sign up here to get email updates and I'll pick an additional winner for a free D size stamp set. Just for reading this!!!

Thank You Cards

My sister-in-law is part of a Garden Society and when they get donations she likes to send them a thank you card that has a flower/garden theme. So I knew that I would see her this weekend so I made 4 cards for her (I thought of it on Saturday night, otherwise I would have made more.)

First card is flowers from the June Word Puzzle Stamp set. I stamped the stems in Citrus Leaf ink and the flowers are Hollyhock ink. I took a Baby Pink marker and colored in the flowers. I matted the flowers onto Hollyhock cardstock and used Hollyhock Ribbon. The thanks came from a new set that is coming out in the May catalog! It's from a Stamp Of The Month Set called Tender Tags.

This little birdie set is great. I used Twilight ink for the bird, Citrus Leaf for the wing and a foam square to attach the wing. I used our Love Story Rub-Ons for the branch. The thank you is from Kanji Phrases stamp set. Vineyard Berry cardstock and ink and the Creative Basics Paper Pack for the B&T and ribbon.

Happy Easter!

We did something new this year. We decorated a tree with Easter Eggs - ok, for the rest of the world that's old hat - but for me and my 3 year old, it was the neatest thing since sliced bread. She help me hot glue ribbon to the eggs and then we hung them on the tree before Daddy got home so he could be surprised.

Our neighbor told my daughter that he wanted a tree just like ours! She's pretty proud of her decorating!

Baby Feet

Saw this layout in our Originals Book and scraplifted. Loved the colors and technique. I scored the card and then using a Pixie I chalked the score lines. I tore the center piece of paper and chalked that as well. Here is a close up of the chalking. I used our Pretty Pins - there are two different ones - I altered one (pulled off the pink and left the white top) so that it's more neutral. (I didn't think it would work, but a good tug and the pink came loose! I added a piece of ribbon and put it into the Sunny Yellow Cardstock. I stamped the feet with Dutch Blue.

Oh, I'm in trouble again....

The new idea book is coming out in May, but I get a copy and sneak peek in April! I've seen what's coming out in the near future and I'm gonna go broke!!

B is for Boy

Another Originals Book scraplifted idea! Loved how this looks. It's a 6x6 card with a "B" Dementional Element letter. The B is white so to make it fit better with the colors I'm using I sponged Chocolate ink on it and then took the sponge and ran it down the edges to deifine them. I stamped the words in Chocolate as well as the edges of the Colonial White cardstock piece in the middle and the Garden Green pieces. I sanded the Garden Green pieces first to give it a distressed look. I added a green safety pin to the Chocolate Poka Dot Ribbon. The stripe paper is from Caprice Paper Kit.

Sneak Peek - Oak Creek Club Layouts

Ok, no peeking if you are in my Oak Creek Club - We are doing some different types of layouts this month. Instead of just paper, I've incorporated our plastic photo storage pages and created little books! I think it turned out pretty good.
I know the photos are not the greatest but you'll get the idea (I hope) photos on the fly is what I'm doing lately. I'm running to the store to make a big picture to go inside. I'm blowing one up big enough to cover all three inserts - so when you flip open the pages, one large photo covers all. I have the front and the back decorated and I did left and right pages so that you get use out of all sides of the plastic photo storage page.

Here is one page flipped open (above) and all three open below - the large photo will extend over all three blue areas on the right. And with the neat trick of cutting up one of the photo protectors you can cover the flaps so little fingers don't wreck the page and makes it really sturdy!

Here is the backside and the next layout so that you use all sides of the photo protector. We made 12 layouts (6 - two page sets). This is just a base page workshop. The ladies will put photos and embellish later.

And I bet you thought all I did was cards. This technique was featured on CTMH TV - if you go to my website you can see this and many other projects on CTMH TV. The current project supplies can be purchased for 20%!

Unit Meeting Swap Card

Monocrome Card - same color family was the theme and we used a card layout from the Orignials book. So all the cards were pretty much the same layout, but the stamps and colors were your choice. Here is my card. I used Daisy White and Colonial White. The stamped flowers is the Colonial White pigment ink we have - loved how it turned out. I used foam squares to give it height. I sewed down the middle of the ribbon and pulled one of the strings to pucker it and glued it down with liquid glass. I think it would be great for a wedding card - what do you think? Too plain?

Over the Weekend - Training

So, I'm trying to get a ton of things made for my Craft Fair coming up in April - I have only 30+ cards made, and a few 3D projects. So expected to work the weekend away when Friday night I got a call from one of my downline asking me to come with a project for her to do for her club. I came up with a mini album (I've done these in the past a year or so ago) that can stand up or lay flat on a table. I did a few for the craft fair. This photo is the album opened and laying flat.

This is opened and standing up - it is like a criss cross pattern with the pages!

So I was able to come up with a project and supply her with all the product she needs to make ten of them. Can you say SMALL STORE in my office!