Inspirations and Wings!

Beginning January 1 Close to My Heart will be featuring a new brochure called Inspirations.  These two layouts of my niece, Ellie, singing in the spring variety show,  include the new Wings Level 2 paper pack (X7135B) from Inspirations.  In the top layout I also used a new pleated ribbon product (Z1398) from Inspirations.  Isn't it striking?  The big butterflies are from the new stamp set Find Your Style (D1452) which is the January Stamp of the Month.  Feel free to contact me to purchase any of these products.  And don't forget that the new Spring/Summer 2011 catalog will be released February 1!  I have seen a sneak peek and you won't be disappointed!  Contact me to receive your copy when it is available!
Also, if you crave some more inspiration this month, look no further than the website Big Red Scraps at http://www.bigredscraps.ning.com/  This website features cards, projects, and layouts with Close to My Heart products.  You can search by categories and stamplift to your heart's content!
Happy stamping and scrapping!

Merry Christmas!

Well as promised here is the final family Christmas photo.  Everyone finally cooperated and I think it turned out pretty good.  May your holidays be merry and bright!

Christmas Cookies!

I've officially begun the Christmas baking.  I started today with peanut butter crisscross cookies.  My mom and grandmother (her mother) both used to bake these.  Basically they are just peanut butter cookies but you take a fork and add a crisscross hatch pattern to the top.  We kids always got to do that part.  During the Christmas season these cookies also got dressed up with some red and green sprinkle sugar.  I guess they thought this made them special for the holidays.  Mom and Granny are both gone now and I miss them terribly.  My niece, Sarah, never got to know my mom and I wish she was here to bake these with her.  My mom always had a day when all the grandkids came over and baked Christmas cookies with her.  Guess they will have to settle for Aunt Marty now!  Hopefully my brothers will both be pleased when I serve these Christmas Eve.  On to more baking!  Hug your loved ones extra hard tonight!

Family Christmas Photo

Know how hard it is to get 3 men to pose for the annual family Christmas photo?  Nearly impossible!  Hubby is in pain because he threw his back out working in the barn.  Son number 1 (in maroon) is impatient to go somewhere with his girlfriend.  Son number 2 (in front) is bored and waiting to go shoot hoops with his friends.  Talk about uncooperative!  We only do this once a year so you would think they could be a little more accomodating.  But no!  Well don't fear.  This was only the test shot while I adjusted the camera.  The real photo is coming soon!

More Craft Show Projects

Here are two more of my craft show items.  The first is a slider box.  It is made to contain 7 Hershey Nuggets which are covered in patterned paper and have letters stamped on them to spell BELIEVE.  I sold out of those quickly!  They were very popular.  The second photo shows the gift card holder which I sold out of as well.  I got the patterns for both of these from fellow CTMH consultant Tresa Black.  Looks like I'll be making more of these for sure!

Tis the Season!

For craft shows that is!  I will be selling my papercraft wares at my school craft show on November 20 and here is the first item I've been working on. They are necklaces made from metal washers!  Yes my husband thought I was crazy when I asked him to get me washers at the hardware store.  You cover them with patterned paper, add embellishments and then apply Liquid Glass over the top.  Add some suede cording and you're all set! 

What a View!

You know I complain quite a bit to my friends in the city about living in the country and how far I have to travel to get to shops and restaurants.  But every once in a while I catch a view like this that reminds me why I love it here in rural Ohio!  I got up this morning with a day off from work due to a doctor's appointment, looked out my bedroom window and saw this.  The woods behind my house are beautiful this time of year.  And with the heavy fog it created such a cool scene.  Of course I grabbed my camera!  Now the Amish workers who are putting on our new roof probably thought I had lost my mind, but oh well!  I thought these turned out pretty good.  And I'm super excited because in November I'm taking a class from Nikon!  I can't wait to learn more and hope to see a big improvement in my photos!

What's a Girl to Do?



What's a girl to do when she's at her son's football game and things are not going so well for the team?  Take pictures of the sunset of course!  It was homecoming and our team lost 9-7.  It was a real heartbreaker!  But as a consolation I did get this awesome shot of the sun just as it was setting behind the tree line of our village.  It was totally a fluke, but I'm pretty happy with the way it turned out.  My favorite color is orange and I've always been drawn to sunsets.  Hey when life hands you lemons, take photos!

Fair Winners

All four of these layouts were entered in my local county fair.  I won first place for the layout entitled, "The WILDS" and second place on all the others.  I was a little disappointed as I have done much better in the past, but I think I like them all anyway!  My style is simple and clean and I like it that way!  Oh well, there is always next year! 

A Sad Farewell

We said goodbye this week to a treasured member of our family.  This is my oldest son's dog, Pal.  She was 14 years old.  We had to put her down due to cancer.  It was really hard, but our vet assured us that we were doing the responsible thing.  She would have suffered if we had let things go much longer.  Still it is hard to come home and not find her waiting.  I will miss her howling at the fire siren in town each day at noon and shuffling out from under the pine trees each morning as I leave.  We will miss you Pal.

TAG Challenge

The Heart 2 Heart challenge this week was TAGS.  Somewhere you had to use a tag in your artwork.  I chose this Christmas page that I did this year.  The tag has a cute little reindeer with a bitty brad in Hollyhock as a nose.  The reindeer is from the Heartfelt Christmas set and the papers are from the Jingle Collection. 

I Do Miss the View

This was the view from our hotel balcony in Myrtle Beach.  I do miss it!  I do not miss the crowds and the heat though!  Now on to scrapping this trip!

Congratulations Card

Well finally here is the card I made for last weeks H2H challenge.  The challenge was to use the colors vineyard berry, blush and creme brulee together.  I used cardstock to make paper flowers with a technique my dear friend Tracey Mason taught me at convention this year.  I'm afraid my flowers aren't quite as good as hers.  I need to practice!  But I did like these colors together.  Hopefully I will be able to do the next challenge if Blogger will upload my image this time!

Myrtle Beach

Last week I spent some time in Myrtle Beach for a baseball tournament with my youngest son.  It was HOT!  Sadly his team did not win the tournament but we had a lot of fun. 

So Frustrating!

Well I had great intentions of entering the H2H Challenge this week and have tried for two days to upload a photo of my card, but Blogger just won't cooperate! It will not let me upload the image. It just keeps freezing up on me. So nothing new to share. I will try again tomorrow even though the challenge will be officially over. Say a little prayer that it will work next time!

Recipe Challenge

This week's challenge at Heart to Heart is a recipe challenge so I created this layout. I recently found an old album containing some family photos that I thought were lost forever. I was overjoyed to find this picture of my mom. She was such an amazing woman and a wonderful cook! I included her recipe for apple pie which always got rave reviews from everyone who sampled it. I used bits and pieces of cardstock from the new Olivia kit (X7128B), a retired apple stamp from Close to My Heart, some Colonial White ric-rac and white crocheted flowers from the White Daisy Medley (Z1136). It's a very simple layout, but overall I was very pleased. Now to get busy on some more of those found photos!

H2H Challenge

For this week's Heart to Heart Challenge I am posting my newest day planner. It is actually a Close to My Heart weekly calendar kit. I decorate the front and back covers and write in the dates and use this as my day planner. I can include lots of writing in the boxes and attach appointment reminder cards, etc. on the back of the preceding page. I used the papers from the new Olivia Level 2 kit (X7128B) and images from a new stamp set called The Present (D1436). I used new ink colors in Smoothie (Z2196) and Sunset (Z2191) and new embellishments called Foundry Metal Flourishes (Z1331) and tiny pearl dots called Opaques in Mocha (Z1333). These products are not available yet, but be sure to contact me to get your new Close to My Heart Fall/Winter catalog so that you can be among the first to order!

Good Friends, Good Times

Here's another photo from the Close to My Heart convention this year. At the closing banquet I sat with my roommates Cindy Walker, Joyce Beenes, Tracey Mason and fellow Ohio consultant Valerie Villers. Friends like these gals make my day!

Convention 2010

I have just returned from the annual Close to My Heart convention held this year in beautiful Washington D.C. My dear friend and roommate, Tracey Mason won the coveted album contest. I was thrilled and proud of her. Visit her blog at tmasonstudio.blogspot.com in the coming weeks to see some samples from her winning entry. You won't be disappointed! Thanks to my other roomies Joyce Beenes and Cindy Walker for a terrific week. It was a blast!

Senior Pictures

I've been busy working on senior pictures with my crew. The professional ones are just too expensive so I'm trying out my photography skills. A little too much sun on this one, but we're going to keep trying. I'm bound for Washington D.C. and my annual Close to My Heart convention. Woo-hoo! Car trip with my partner in crime, Cindy! I'll have new artwork to post next week! Yeah!

Howdy!

Whew! It feels like its been forever since I had a chance to blog! Maybe now that the school year is over I will have a little more time for my artwork! Here is a cute birthday card I made using the new HOWDY! stamp set from the Summer catalog. Since we live on a farm and my oldest son raises cows I thought it was perfect! The summer birthday nieces and nephew will be getting this card. The papers are from the new Zippedee Level 2 kit. My card is a far cry from Disney, but the patterns worked! Enjoy!

Finally!

I finally had the chance to plant my impatients this weekend. It seems that Spring has finally decided to arrive and stay. I am so thankful. I am not much of a Winter person any more. I like WARM weather! My oldest son attended his second prom this weekend, so fair warning...more prom layouts to come soon!

More Prom Layouts

Here is another layout I did with my son and niece's prom photos. The paper I used is from a calendar kit Clost to My Heart sold SEVERAL years ago! I found a few pieces of background and texture paper that I never used and decided to put it to good use! I am trying to reduce my backlog of old papers!

New from Summer Catalog!

One of the new products in the Summer CTMH catalog is clear cards! One is round with scalloped edges and the other style is rectangular. They are fabulous to decorate. The dimensional possibilities are amazing! Here are two designs I tried out. They both use the new papers from the Creative Basics kit and one uses the new Glitz glitter glue. Love it!

More Miracle Kit Photos

Here are the last few Miracle Kit pages. I am really pleased with the way they turned out.

Miracle Kit

Here is another page from the Miracle Kit. See the post below for the first page.

Miracle Kit

It's prom time! I used our new Miracle Kit to showcase some of the pictures I took of my kids. I LOVE this kit! For the price you can't go wrong. I love how you can customize the dimensional elements and ink them in any coordinating color. I chose sorbet as my accent color. Email me if you are interested in purchasing this kit or earning it FREE!

State Degree

Well this is definitely not artwork to share, but I had to add this photo of my son, Perry as he earned his State Degree in FFA this weekend. We are so proud of him. It is a huge accomplishment.

Welcome to My Blog!

I'm finally getting started on blogging and trying to get this up and running! Wish me luck!