this is April's stamp set of the month, Blessed...a great two-step set to customize the ink colour of your image...contact me for more information on how you can get this set for free or at a discount!

During the month of April, spend $100 on CTMH products on my website and get a Level 1 Kit FREE! 

National Scrapbooking Month Promotion

You are going to be head over heels for this one...Excited doesn't even fully express how I'm feeling about this kit...you can complete two full layouts! Each kit contains a complete D-size stamp set, one pkg. of Mocha Opaques, six sheets of patterned CARDSTOCK weight paper, one Irresistables chipboard sheet and new chocolate ribbon! Watch the video to see all you get and the featured layouts you will be creating when you order this kit in May!

Happy Scrappin' and thanks for stoppin' by :)

Close To My Heart booth#519

I thought I'd post some pictures of my CTMH booth at the Abbotsford Tradex this past weekend. The 19th Annual Arts & Crafts Show sponsored in part by the Canadian Scrapbooker Magazine was held on April 1st and 2nd and was fantastic! The Scrapbook Carnival end of the building was a buzzing with creativity, classes, makin' & takin' and fun. I hope that all attendees enjoyed the weekend as much as myself and my wonderful team of helpers.

playing around with my daisy pens...great way to keep all your pens at an event like this...not many people slipping a daisy in their purse :)

various small items for purchase...edge distressers, waxy flax and sanding kits were popular...thanks to my assistant Tania :)

Olivia and Tania, Assistants Extraordinaire! Couldn't have managed without you!

Marissa and Tania workin' the makin' & takin' table...the Enjoy Life stamp set was a hit with this great masculine card...many thanks from our customers on the creation of something masculine...my pleasure ladies!

Me and my girls...thanks again for all the help!

Great corner booth...we were rockin' our 10' x 10' space...thankful for the shag carpet...special thanks to Katherina Doyle, Canadian Scrapbooker Magazine for the digs :)


We sold a few of the Hope for Japan stamp sets this past weekend but they are still available for sale until the end of April, so if you are interested in purchasing one, drop me a line as I will be putting another order through by the end of next weeks Clubs...I should be getting my own set by next week, fingers crossed, can't wait to play with it!

Keep your eyes open for May's National Scrapbooking Day special...new paper collection kit...that's all I'm saying for today :) You are going to LOVE it...

Studio J®: Step-by-Step Basics

Wow! What an event...this past weekend at the Scrapbook Carnival in the Art & Crafts Expo at the Tradex was so much fun...special thanks to my BFF Tania for all her help as well as my fantastic daughters...it was so awesome to be able to connect with so many lovely women...and the odd husband here and there too :)

I was thrilled to be able to show everyone how great Close To My Heart products are and let them play with our Acrylic stamps, inks, papers, waxy flax and distressers. I hope to see some of those lovely ladies again in  the future :)

April is starting off with a bang! We have two specials for customers in the month of April, one for orders on myCTMH website and the other for Studio J members...

One of the things I love about Studio J custom prints is how easy it is to jazz them up by adding a few simple embellishments. See how a few Sparkles and Opaques gems were added to this Studio J layout? It only takes a few seconds because the gems are peel-and-stick. And don’t you think it gives nice dimension to the page? This month, Studio J members get a free package of each of these embellishments when they buy 10 layouts. Now’s a great time to get online and get caught up on all your scrapbooking, and when you receive your prints in the mail, you can glam them up with these adorable Opaques and Sparkles!

Close to my Heart has just uploaded a youTube video tutorial on our online Studio J Scrapbooking  program...click on the video link to see how they created a beautiful 2 page layout in under 8 minutes!

It is soooo easy to create some beautiful pages quickly and with a Studio J membership you will benefit from some fabulous savings to the layout costs and shipping that you will wonder why you haven't been creating with Studio J sooner than now! 

You will want to use Studio J online Scrapbooking in conjunction to your Classic scrapbooking so you can create some faster.simpler.easier layouts when you are short on time....and when you want to play with paper and scissors...all of your CTMH supplies are going to match with all the Studio J papers online!

If you've had a chance to play online with Studio J, you will notice that all the page kits consist of ALL of Close To My Hearts past and present paper collections so you can dig into that stash of papers in your rooms and get creating once you've been inspired with the patterns and layouts you see in Studio J...remember that when you play with the layouts online, you can simply turn to your own paper stash and create off the designs you've just created on Studio J!

In April you will receive a package of Opaques and Sparkles with each 

Happy creating ladies :)

Getting Ready for the Tradex Scrapbook Carnival!

Good morning...I have delivered kids to buses and school...now it's time to pack up the Cargo Van with all my booth shlop :)

If you're in the neighbourhood, stop by the Tradex and visit me at Booth #519...I am literally rolling out the carpet, once I have it packed!

As CTMH has the new Hope For Japan stamp set available for purchase, I am hoping to add to the fundraising efforts with my booth door prize...$1 gets your name in the draw for a $75.00 shopping spree and the Hope for Japan stamp set...all money raised will go towards the Red Cross efforts in Japan.

Hope to have some pictures to post later tonight of my booth...gotta go and get packin'

Phew...what a month!

Well March is almost behind us and I've been super busy :) Spring break ends today, sorry kids...but I'm OK with returning to some routine...all three are safely on their way this morning as no one missed their bus today!

I had a fantastic time at the Timberline Retreat and connected with some great ladies! We enjoyed many classes, one of which was the Lucky two page layout and we also played with the 3x3 kraft mini album using the Mayberry paper collection.

The countdown has begun for the 19th Annual Sewing and Crafts Expo at the Abbotsford Tradex this Friday and Saturday (Apr. 1-2) I was fortunate enough to be invited to represent Close To My Heart and will have a booth there to feature all things CTMH...come by and see me at Booth #519.

If you are interested in participating in some Make & Takes or classes sponsored by Canadian Scrapbooker Magazine...then follow this link to register for the classes...or stop by the Make & Take Loonie Bar tables during the event for some great projects.

HOT NEWS:

Close To My Heart has created a exclusive stamp set called 'Hope For Japan'...I know that you are probably thinking of all those people that have been terribly affected by the recent earthquake and tsunami that hit the shores of Japan and wondering what you can do to help.

The Hope For Japan A-size stamp set is available for a special price of $5.00 with 100% of the profits of the sale of this stamp set going to the American Red Cross efforts in Japan.

This set is available now until the 30th of April...please consider supporting this worthy cause.

Timberline Class

Just thought I'd post my Timberline 'Lucky' layout class...I really love how this turned out...not sure yet what I'll use for pictures but it's ready for when I finally decide :)

I'll update the products used when I'm at my retreat this weekend...I'll probably have a bit more time...I've still got to pack up to go! The challenge with this class will be getting it completed for everyone in 1 hour!

Have a great weekend!

Close To My Heart is offering FREE My Acrylix® blocks!!!

Close To My Heart is offering FREE My Acrylix® blocks!!!

Throughout March, when you buy $30 in My Acrylix® stamps from Close To My Heart, you will receive

a free My Acrylix® block. 

{Your choice of either 3" x 3" (Y1006)

or 2" x 6 1/2" (Y1010).}

Limit one free My Acrylix® block per order per customer. Qualifying stamp purchases include A-, B-, C-, D-, E-size stamp sets, and Stamp of the Month sets purchased at full retail or at a discount. K-size stamp sets, Stamp of the Months earned for free, and Workshops on the Go™ are excluded. Tax and shipping/handling may apply.

OK...EWWW

Well the sun was shining...ever so briefly here...but as I go from room to room to deliver folded laundry and pick up the odd glass or water bottle..I'm realizing firstly that it is time for wrapping my head around Spring-Cleaning! Secondly, I hate Mess!!!

Beware of thermos bottles lying within the depths of your teenagers' rooms...when you open them up and some sort of SLIME pours out...followed by a tea bag! I wouldn't think that a tea bag and water would produce such a substance...but it did! Yuck

I feel like I've loaded and unloaded the dish washer twice today...hand washed a sink full of dishes three times today and delivered four baskets of laundry today...wait a minute...I Did :)

Oh well, such is my life...as I do love it...sometimes I don't like it though...hope you are enjoying yours!

Stay tuned for next weeks March Workshop projects...there's loads of them as each group is working on different ones! TFSB

Swap Layouts are in the Mail!

Lots of trimming, but they are all done :) I've really enjoyed working on these Funky Swap layouts but I'm glad they're done...now it's time to get busy on next weeks Workshops and my weekend retreat at Timberline! I thought I'd post a couple pictures of the work in progress...

I absolutely can not scrapboook without my Ranger blending tools by Tim Holtz...that and the craft sheet that you can use for so many things...I like how my blending tool glides along the craft mat and allows me to ink the edges softly.

Just a  little bit of trimming involved there...I love how the titles turned out...little rock n' rollin' with Honey, Olive and Smoothie inks...

This is for the Female Child layout...the base page is with CTMH's new Kraft cardstock...I'm lovin' it

Supplies used are all CTMH unless otherwise noted:

Cardstock; Kraft, Colonial White, Chocolate, Smoothie 

B&T Duos; Mayberry paper collection

Stamp Sets; True Happiness (D1365), Over The Rainbow (D1426)

Punches; EK border, SU

This is for the Female Adult layout...I've used the Wings paper collection, I really liked how this layout for my CTMH Consultant's Swap turned out...5 spots are for 3"X 3"photos and 1 spot for a 5"x 5"...or a little larger as the Juniper mat is 6"X 6"...this design is featured in the MAGIC how-to-book, page 116, Magician's Choice...I'm afraid I can't take credit for this design...just my interpretation of one of the many great designs in Jeannette Lynton's newest book...MAGIC

I incorporated small words to capture my feelings about my friend in this layout...I could have used the black rectangle on the right side page to put some journalling as well, but I liked the random words scattered here and there instead...this way I am leading the reader from picture to picture...

Supplies used are all CTMH unless otherwise noted:

Cardstock; Vineyard Berry, White Daisy, Black, Juniper

B&T Duos; Wings paper collection

Stamp Sets; Bohemian Alphabet (E1019), Dreams Come True (D1470), Take a Picture (C1440)

Embellishments; Opaques Licorice, Green Asst. brads, Mini-Medley Black, Level 2 Asst. Wings

Punches; 2"Round Scallop & 1.25" round punch, EK border, Martha Stewart butterflys

Somewhere Over the Rainbow...

I'm just putting the finishing touches on my second Swap layout and I thought I'd show you how I work when I'm stamping...I spent under 10 minutes stamping these two 12x12 sheets of Colonial White cardstock...most of the time was spent making sure each row of the rainbow was lining up with the colour before it...I will machine stitch between the rainbow colours and cut all these guys out! I'll need to do some blending with the Sky ink on the clouds to make them look nicely 'Sky' like as well as the sunshine...now I realize that I am stamping multiple images many times, but I do this with stamp sets that I like and can see going with certain paper collections...I usually will pull out a compatible base coloured cardstock and start stamping the images in the compatible coloured inks for a specific paper collection...sometimes I'll trim them all out, sometimes I'll just tuck the sheet of stamped images into the zippee of it's coordinating paper collection. The next time I dip into my paper collections, I just might incorporate one of the previously stamped images...I find I can quickly create layouts this way and when I'm at a day crop or weekend retreat, I won't need to pull out all my inks and stamps to get some embellished layouts using stamps.

 

I've been playing with CTMH's Honey, Smoothie, Sky and Olive Exclusive Inks and they work fantastically with the Mayberry paper collection...these little images are going to be featured in my 'Female Child' Swap layout...

Thanks for stopping by and stay tuned for the finish products...

Only a few more days for the Free, Free, & Fabulous and Perfect 10 Promotions!

You only have a few more days to take advantage of the two great 

Close to my Heart February Promotions!

When you become a Close To My Heart Consultant during February and achieve Straight To The Top**, you will receive a rebate of $140 on your New Consultant Kit, plus $110 in select product credit rewards. That’s a total retail value of almost $544 in products and business supplies for FREE! Your kit's free, your select products are free—how fabulous! 

You’ll receive all of the business essentials you need plus your choice of three “choose me” collections! If you can’t decide which “choose me” collections you want, get them all! Each additional collection is only $40 more!

If you have ever thought about turning your hobby into a lucrative business, 

this opportunity is perfect for you!

OR

If you have ever wondered how you could get all the CTMH products that you want for you

 and your friends at a great discount, this opportunity is perfect for you!

OR

If you would like to have access to Studio J online scrapbooking, for you and your friends

 at a huge discount, this opportunity is perfect for you!

OR

If you just want to get almost $430 worth of fabulous product for only $140, 

this opportunity is perfect for you.

Whether you want to start a booming business, be a Hobbyist or Customer Consultant and get a great discount on all of your CTMH products, buy and/or sell online digital scrapbooking, or even just take advantage of purchasing the kit to get the goodies at a great price, this kit is a GREAT deal!

Do you have more questions? Feel free to contact me. I’d love to help answer your questions.

To check out what is in the new kit and/or to join my Team right now and earn the Free, Free, & Fabulous rewards, click here.

**“Straight To The Top” information 

Reach Straight To The Top by: 

• Submitting sales of $330 or more in your first month and 

• Submitting total sales of $1,330 or more during your first three months. 

Then redeem your $110 in select product credit for My Acrylix® stamps, blocks, Exclusive Inks,® cardstock, My Reflections® paper packets, and more! Plus, if you sign up in February, you will get reimbursed $140 for your kit fee. 

PLUS

Don't forget about the great “Perfect 10” Studio J Promotion! 

February is free layout month for Studio J® members! For every 9 custom-printed Studio J layouts you buy, you’ll receive the 10th layout free. To receive the discount, just add 10 or more layouts to your cart. You’ll see a discount reflected in your order total. And you can totally take advantage of this promotion by ordering in multiples of 10. Buy 9, get 1 free. Buy 18, get 2 free. Buy 27, get 3 free. And so on!

If you’re not a member yet, now’s a great time to join! Click here to check out

 Studio J online scrapbooking now.

I’ll be back with some artwork soon...hopefully some pictures of completed Swap layouts and pictures of the classes I'll be offering at the Timberline 3-day Retreat March 11th-13th...

contact me if you want to join me there!

Check out these Crafty Places!

Good Morning...I've been spending far too much time surfing the World Wide Web aka. www.

But luckily for you and me, I have found some great sites for inspiration, challenges (don't we all need some of those to get the fires a burnin') and layout and card maps!

You might have noticed the two links on the right column that

 I'm a Member of: Big Red Scraps & Let's Scrap...

Big Red Scraps is a site created by fellow Close To My Heart Consultant, Leisa Hubley, for sharing your Close To My Heart creations.  Big Red Scraps, Paper Creations using CTMH products is a searchable CTMH gallery site for everyone to share their CTMH artwork.

Isn't she the greatest for setting up a gallery for all of us to use?...on there you will find Consultant Artwork and Artwork by other CTMH fans...I love this site because it allows me to see what other creative ladies have done with stamp sets, colour combinations and paper collections...usually products that I have and sometimes I find it challenging to use everything I have in a new and different way...looking to this site often provides me just the right amount of inspiration to get creatin'. 

Check out Big Red Scraps now to just look around or become a member too and you can share your creations and be inspired!

Big Red Blog Candy 

Leisa from Big Red Scraps is celebrating 200 followers! 

Congratulations Leisa! 

To celebrate she is giving away some yummy candy:

Drop by her personal blog, she is SO talented!

Now Let's Scrap!

I am also a new Member of Let's Scrap, it offers inspiration and support galore! Since joining two days ago, I've been IM'd by all of their DT ladies offering info and insight into this site...I think it just might be one of my newest favorite places to hang-out, share my Artwork and get inspired with all of their Weekly challenges...join as a member or just stop by to see what all the fuss is about...I hope you participate in the challenges and become a member so you can upload your Artwork for all of us to be inspired from too. 

When you are part of a scrapbooking community, no matter where you live, you are connecting with people that share the same interest as you...you'd be surprised with how great it is to talk to people you've never met before through some of these Scrapbooking Forums, sharing with others your common interests and tidbits of your lives is actually very rewarding. Whether you are meeting others in person, through Monthly Workshop Clubs (like mine :)) or through the World Wide Web...you're enriching your life through these connections and after all we are all Scrapin' Sisters and Brothers aren't we?

Let's talk about Swaps and Scraps!

Good Morning my fellow paper addicted pals :) 

I'm not sure sometimes what I'm thinking when I decide to do things...I am currently working away on a CTMH Swap with some lovely ladies in Canada...just spent last Saturday at a 12 hour School fundraising crop and two weeks before that I had another 12 hour School fundraising crop as well as a week of Workshops and a Card Class...phew...I am really enjoying myself of course, meeting some great people and showing off all of CTMH's fantastic products...but we always seem to forget the actual time it takes to prep for these events and Classes and Workshops and Swaps...don't we? Oh well, I'll get plenty of rest when I'm old...I'd add in there grey too, but alas...that part is here already!

So I'm prepping for my Swap right now and I don't know about you, but I can't seem to throw out my 1" strips of paper...it's a problem I know I have but I have room technically to keep it, so I do! My thought is that I just might need that 1" strip and I'm happy to say that I'M RIGHT!!! As you can see I've used up some of my 1" strips creating the title for my Swap...they are actually extremely handy for trimming them and I have decided to stamp extras just because I might use them with this paper later...these letters are going to be trimmed out, edges inked and added to my Swap pieces to be mailed out this week! I'll post pictures of the Swap layouts once they are in the mail to my Swappin' Gals...

Sometimes I just like to pull out my stamps and inks, grab some cardstock and play...this way I can sit at the table while the family is watching a movie, doing homework or just hanging out...I don't feel guilty leaving everyone like I would when I go down to my Workshop alone and I have the TV and family to keep me company. Some of my neatest embellishments have been made this way...there are times when I want to be creative but I don't really want to scrapbook and I find that this is a great way to get to know your stamp sets...play with colour combinations and be productive while spending time with your family.

It is fun to stamp and play with my stamps and inks when I have them out and am creating...then I just tuck my creations into a zippy or my paper pack envelope, sometimes I've already trimmed them and sometimes I just sit on the couch while we're watching our favorite shows and cut them out then...next time I'm creating with that particular paper collection...I've already got some embellishments made to use...faster.simpler.easier....that's what it's all about with Close To My Heart.

Here I've stamped, embossed, punched and inked chipboard bits...some I was planning on using but didn't and some I just cut out and put in my sturdy CTMH storage envelopes...

And because I love to show you how messy I can get while scrapbooking...

  

I have to say I am lucky that I have a supportive husband...this is the main floor kitchen area, the island to be specific...I do have a very large scrapbooking Workshop just for me downstairs...but remember how I mentioned I like to be around my family...tee hee

Get Your Sketch On!

Good Morning :)  Thanks to a fellow CTMH Consultant, I have stumbled across a fantastic Sketch Blog! It's called 'Get Your Sketch On' and I am working on it right now! How about trying it too...add your link to your layout with the link below(first time I've used Mr.Linky in my own posts...so hopefully it all works :))...I'd love to see what you've done too with this sketch...it's super simple...just the way I like it, clean lines and you can use as many pictures as you'd like...that's the benefit of using sketches. You can start with the sketch design, follow it exactly, or you can use it as a starting point and then go your own way, adding your own special signature style to it...whatever gets the Mojo Goin'

New Scallop Punch!

I was working on a card for one of my daughter's best pals' 17th Birthday...she loves Blue so I had to dip into my stash of Magnifique papers...love this line...tried to keep it simple cause these girls are very sophisticated now...all the paper is CTMH, Lagoon CS and Magnifique PP, ribbon was from the wrappings of a pillow I bought from Homesense...beaded flower is from K & Co. the beauty opaques are CTMH and the stamp set I played with is Royal Birth (D1441)

 Also, I wanted to link up our newest tutorial video using our new Scallop Punch...It is a great companion to our 1 1/4 punch and can be used in so many different ways...contact me if you'd like to get your hands on one of your own :)

Pink Designer Ribbon...Oh My!

I wanted to post our latest tutorial with the gorgeous...let me repeat...GORGEOUS new pink ribbon collection...just when you thought you already knew how to use ribbon...take a look :

the items used in this tutorial are:

Designer Ribbon Pink Collection  Z1384

Opaques Pearl Adhesive Gems  Z1336

Sweetheart Level 2 paper collection  X7134B

Glitz Glitter Gel  Z1313

Here's a layout I created using this fabulous new ribbon plus a few more of my new favorites...

Supplies used (all CTMH unless otherwise noted):

Paper:  Sophia B&Ts; Hollyhock & Kraft CS

Inks:  Hollyhock, Pear, Sunset

Stamps:  January's SOTM 'Find your Style'

Embellishments:  Pink buttons, embroidery floss, Designer ribbon-Pink, Opaques Pearl gems, white daisy crochet flower, Irresistibles Eclectic alphabet chipboard

Other:  Sizzix - Birdcage die, Micro-tip scissors, glue dots, Liquid Glass

3x3 Wings Card Class

I wanted to dig into my new Card Chatter - Love (D1464) stamp set from CTMH and I really like it. I have used almost all of the sentiments inside over the past week, in this card and in the Wings 3x3 Card Class I held on Monday night...

Supplies used (all CTMH unless otherwise noted):

Paper:  Sweetheart B&Ts; Black, Tulip & White Daisy CS

Inks:  Black & Tulip

Stamps:  Card Chatter- Love

Embellishments:  Pink buttons, Colonial White waxy flax, White Daisy organza ribbon

Other:  Doily Scallop border punch (EK), Heart punch (Marvy), Micro-tip scissors, glue dots

this is my sentiments inside the card...I swiped my stamp across the stamp pad to get the smeared effect on the heart image.

I thought I'd also post a picture of some of the cards we did on Monday at my Wings Card Class...we finally have some sunshine here to take some nice bright pictures naturally...

 Just working on some of the Mayberry paper collection...hope to have something to show you soon with it :) TFSB...

February's Workshops

It's been a busy few days...I had a great time and met some really great gals at the Ranch Park Scrapbook fundraiser this past Saturday...it was my first experience as a vendor at one of these events and I'm thankful that Heather invited me to represent Close to My Heart...this evening was my Wings Card Class and we had a great time making our cards, stamping with a few different techniques and having constructed a fantastic little box to house them all in! Slight technical difficulties with the measurement of the box lid (too small) oops! Sorry ladies, luckily I could get that straightened out :)  

Now, it's time for February's WOTG Hostess Clubs, this month we are working on the Lucky paper collection and the Sweetheart paper collection...

Lucky Workshop on the Go, main brochure project

These wooden buttons are gorgeous

  

the next two are additional layouts featuring some of the Lucky myStickease stickers, Lucky Chipboard shapes and Lucky Journaling Spots...worked great for this Father and Son trip to LA...

I've used the Colour-Ready alphabets for my title...

Sweetheart Workshop on the Go, main brochure project...

used the new Banner stamp set for the title...

This next layout is featuring the myStickease stickers and the Sweetheart Asst. embellishments...

You might recognize this next one from the new catalog...I lifted the left page right outta the catalog...added the border punch and hearts as I didn't have the stamp set and then created the right page to coordinate with the left...added some more of the Sweetheart embellishment...played with CTMH's newest spray pen mixed with Tulip ink...love how it turned out!

here's a close up of the misting...I masked out the circle with a piece of cardstock that I cut and sized for my preference...then 1, 2, 3 sprayed away!

The title is the Lots of Dots Irresistables...love those too!