"Love Me Do" Blog Hop Layout

Welcome to the “Love Me Do” Valentine’s Blog Hop!  This week, January 16^th-20^th, we have a group of 5 talented designers sharing projects with you on their blogs to get you prepared for the upcoming season of love!  Whether you use these designs to create something for your loved ones or spring-board off the inspirations given, we would love to see your work as well, so leave a comment on the blogs as you go through.

On January 24^th, we will be giving away a collection of goodies from the group to one lucky participant.  The giveaway will be hosted through filling out a Google Docs form, on Live.Teach.Create on January 20^th, asking various questions about the posts throughout the week.  All those who enter with the correct answers will have a chance to win!

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I am a Close To My Heart independent consultant. The products I used for today's project include the Roxie kit, Bling Assortment, Designer Brads Rhinestone, Designer Ribbon, and Cricut Art Philosphy set. The only non-CTMH product was the foam letter stickers from American Crafts. (Hey, we all have an assortment of scrapbooking products, right?)

I love how I was able to use the Cricut designs to cut out the hearts in different sizes and also the fancy overlay design. I also used one of the stamps that comes with the collection to stamp on the inside of the smaller hearts.

The layout is super simple - obviously. I kept wavering from adding a little more text, or a tag, but ultimately decided I really just wanted the photo to stand on its own. I guess if it bothers me later down the road I can add some journaling on the bottom half or tuck a tag behind the photo. For now, I like the simplicity of it.

I don't have a technique to show with this project. I did want to let you know that the design was inspired by a page I found on Pinterest. You can find inspiration many places on the web, and I hope that you've found something you like from this page.

Thanks for joining me today for the “Love Me Do” Valentine’s Blog Hop!  Next person in the hop is Jayma.  Check back again with me tomorrow as well for another new idea.

"Love Me Do" Valentine's Blog Hop

Welcome to the “Love Me Do” Valentine’s Blog Hop!  This week, January 16^th-20^th, we have a group of 5 talented designers sharing projects with you on their blogs to get you prepared for the upcoming season of love!  Whether you use these designs to create something for your loved ones or spring-board off the inspirations given, we would love to see your work as well, so leave a comment on the blogs as you go through.

On January 24^th, we will be giving away a collection of goodies from the group to one lucky participant.  The giveaway will be hosted through filling out a Google Docs form, on Live.Teach.Create on January 20^th, asking various questions about the posts throughout the week.  All those who enter with the correct answers will have a chance to win!

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As a Close To My Heart consultant, I wanted to show you how you can use our products to create a cute "french fry" box to fill with goodies. The box was cut using my Cricut and the exclusive Art Philosophy cartridge sold by CTMH. I used papers from the Roxie collection and the the tag stamp set that comes with the cartridge. I also used the "Love Life" stamp set.

To start off today's project, I stamped the image on card stock cut with the Cricut to match the ticket stamp with Versamark ink. The ink is clear but you will be able to see the image while it is wet. Immediately sprinkle embossing powder on the image and tap off excess. Heat with a heat gun until powder has melted and you can see the complete image.

Next I stamped a background image not he card stock and wrapped some B&T (background and texture) paper around the box.

I cut a piece of patterned paper just slightly smaller than the inside for a liner.

Then I used my adhesive runner to glue the sides together. I added the embossed image and a couple of stamped images, along with a couple of paper flowers inked on the edges and a sparkly rhinestone in the center of the flower.

The treat box can be filled with some sweets for your sweetie!

Thanks for joining me today for Day # of the “Love Me Do” Valentine’s Blog Hop!  Next person in the hop is Jayma.  Check back again with me tomorrow as well for another new idea.

Kicking Off 2012 In Style

On Sunday I checked the mailbox for any mail that may have come in while we were out of town and I found a surprise box from my Close To My Heart upline. In it was a beautiful card and the tote bag pictured above as congratulations for reaching my Straight To The Top sales goal. Now, I am a bag lover. I have several bags in my closet but I never use them. Well this one is too pretty to leave with the others. It's such a great size for carrying my planner, purse, and of course, the latest CTMH Idea Book!

As we ring in the new year, I set some new goals for myself with CTMH. I definitely want to set up a monthly scrapbooking workshop. I want to set aside some specific creative time and also get new people involved in this hobby. I want to get into the habit of scrapping every week and posting to this blog. I'm preparing to participate in a blog hop later this month, as well.

Speaking of blogging, I've been neglecting this blog and really want to work on posting on a regular basis.

I've got to finish cleaning up my scrap room and organizing myself for all the projects I want to get done. I've started another few classes at Big Picture Classes, including Stacy's "12" class, which has the ambitious goal of creating 12 layouts a month for the whole year. That 144 layouts!! And don't forget that in February is Layout A Day, where I hope to keep up.

What are your scrapbooking plans for the new year?

Typeset Layout

I got my new consultant kit in Friday, I think I posted that already, lol. When I went home and had time to play, I knew exactly what I wanted to scrap. It didn't take long for this layout to come together and I was very happy with all of it.

Then today (Sunday) I started to get my supplies ready for my Jumpstart/Open House. I also wanted to try my hand making a video demonstrating how to make the card I'll be showing at the party. I've got some things to learn, but overall was happy with the result.

I need to set the camera to record horizontally instead of vertically or it makes the video narrow. It only took splicing four videos to get this one complete version.

And here's the finished card.

I'm ready to start creating with CTMH!

My consultant kit came in today!! I've been waiting for it all week, anxious to see the new Idea Book and new papers and stamp sets. My box did not disappoint!

Inside were two of the new paper kits which I hope to make plenty of pages from and maybe a few cards so that I can show at my jumpstart party next week. A very nice black album comes in the kit. Looks great! There were also a variety of supplies that will definitely come in handy: some blocks, stamp cleaner, glue, glitter gel. And then plenty of business supplies for taking orders!!

 Here's what the majority of the contents looks like out of the box. There were still some items in it, if you can believe that! So much good stuff to start off my business.

And I'm also getting ready to participate in Ali Edwards' Week in the Life project, as I did last year. Basically you document your life for a week, whether routine or something out of the ordinary. It will be fun to compare last year's project to this year's. I had a regular week last year, which is great. It shows what we are on a regular basis, what we do on a regular basis. This time around, it will include my new adventure along with some of our summer activities. I just know it will be a great week for so many reasons!

I hope to share my new creations over the weekend! If you're working on a new project, participating in Ali's project, or want to share you craftiness, please do! I love looking at new blogs for more inspiration!!

I'm a Close To My Heart Consultant again!!

Really, how could I stay away!? I became a consultant for Close To My Heart way back in 2004 and enjoyed sharing my love of scrapbooking with others. I was lucky enough to introduce scrapbooking, cardmaking and stamping to many fun ladies. But as other priorities took over I stepped down from teaching and eventually dropped out of the business. Over the last few days that passion was re-ignited after reading all the fun tweets coming from consultants enjoying the annual convention at Disney! The price to become a consultant again was right and the new products were too beautiful to pass up.

On Monday morning, I signed up with a great team and now I'm tracking my FedEx package as it makes its way to me! Looks like it will be here on Friday. As soon as I get the new goodies I plan to make some new layouts and schedule my Jumpstart gathering right away.

I'll be updating this site to include links to my online store once it is set up. Meanwhile, if you're interested in learning more about Close To My Heart or if you'd like to schedule a home gathering where you can earn FREE PRODUCT please contact me.

June's 4x6 Photo Love-Inspired layout

I'm back with another layout inspired by Shimelle's 4x6 Photo Love template.  For June's layout, we were to use 6 photos. I like sketches that mostly use 4x6 photos as it really makes it easy for me to print what I want and then use on a layout without having to worry about resizing or special sizes. I especially love that Shimelle makes putting together great pages so quickly.

Here's my page:

I'm going to try to also do my layouts for the first four sketches of the year, now that I know how easy layout 5 & 6 were to put together.

Have you tried using these sketches? How do you like them?