July 2016 Stamp of the Month

July 2016 Stamp of the Month is "From the Notebook." Each month you can purchase a new D-size stamp set, available for one month only, for just $5. When you place an order of $50 or more in Close To My Heart products, you qualify for this special Stamp of the Month pricing.

Joyful Stars July 2015 Blog Hop

Welcome to the Joyful Stars July Blog Hop! This hop is a circle, so it doesn't matter if you are coming from Nancy's blog or if you start here on my blog. Just continue around until you're back to the blog that you started on to make sure you see all the fabulous projects.


Close To My Heart's Annual Convention is happening right now. At convention it's tradition for roommates to exchange gifts. My BFF Jolene and I decided not to attend convention, but we are at a local retreat and decided to exchange roomie gifts! I made Jolene a Picture My Life Mini Album. I got the idea from a Cricut Design Space Make It Now project. I had to resize the images to fit the 3" x 4" cards in the Picture My Life collection. Here are some of the pages.

I also resized the images to fit the 4" x 6" cards and made this mini album.

If you have a subscription to the Design Space image library you can cut these projects. Here are the links!
3" x 4" Picture My Life Mini Album
4" x 6" Picture My Life Mini Album (Note: The dark gray piece says it needs a 12 x 24 mat. I cut on 12 x 12 and it was fine. Once you assemble and decorate you won't see the part that is "cut off'.")

The pink pieces in each project are sized for the using paper to decorate the cover flap. If you don't want to cut it just hide that piece.

Our current Picture My Life cards are retiring August 31 and some collections are already unavailable. Contact your consultant to purchase your favorite collection before it is gone!

Thanks for hopping along this month. Your next stop is Andrea's blog. Just in case you get lost or experience a technical difficulty, you might want to keep Joyce's blog open in a separate tab, as she has a full list of participants.

Joyful Stars June 2015 Blog Hop

Welcome to the Joyful Stars June Blog Hop! Several consultants are sharing their creations using current Close To My Heart products. If you've come here from Joyce's blog, then you're on the right track. If you just happened upon my blog, that's fine, just continue from here and when you get back to me, you know you've seen them all.

My project this month may look familiar to Close to My Heart Consultants. It was a project using our Hip Pic Album that the CTMH Art Department designed for consultants to make at a regional event. I didn't have time to complete the mini album there. Now it is finished and ready for Summer 2015!

Supplies:
Hip Pic Album
Hello Summer Stamp Set
Seaside Paper
My Crush™ Best Day Ever Assortment
Gold Polka-Dot Washi Tape
Flamingo Dots

Thanks for hopping along this month. Your next stop on the Joyful Stars blog hop is Betty's blog. Just in case you get lost or experience a technical difficulty, you might want to keep Joyce's blog open in a separate tab, as she has a full list of participants.

Hip Pic Album Present

I love this Hip Pic Album that my friend Jolene gifted me. It includes photos from our wonderful time in Disneyworld at Close To My Heart's 2013 Convention. 

Convention Present for My Roomie!

Jolene and I at the Close To My Heart 2011 Convention in Disneyland, CA 

It's time for CTMH's 2013 Convention in Disneyworld, FL! Two years ago in Disneyland we wore Minnie Ears and that inspired my roomie gift this year. In January I saw this polka dot scarf and I immediately though how adorable it would look with the Minnie Ears! So then I decided to make a layout that could be used to showcase photos we take at convention wearing our Minnie Ears and polka dot scarf!

This layout pattern is "Now You See It" from the How-To Book Magic (retired). The color palette is Cranberry, Honey, and Black. I used Black cardstock and Black Glitter Paper. I embellished the layout with Dimensional Elements Stars, Dimensional Elements Awards, and Sparkles Black Flourishes. I used A Typeface stamp set for CTMH and Convention. The numbers for 2013 is from a retired stamp set. Minnie, Mickey, and Disney was cut from the Mickey and Friends Cricut Cartridge. the "@" was cut with CTMH's Artiste Cricut Cartridge! Then I added some "stictches" on elements with a black journaling pen and "dots" with a white pen. 

Stella Card Organizer

Today I'm on my way to Dallas, Texas so I'm writing this blog ahead of time! One of the traditions at Convention is to exchange a gift with your roommates. My roommate is Jolene and she loves the Stella paper packet. So I made her a card organizer. This is the third card organizer I've made. I think it's such a wonderful, practical gift. You can find the tutorial here.

Supplies:
Stella Paper Packet and Extra Cardstock (Close To My Heart)
Stella Canvas Shapes (Close To My Heart)
Irresistibles™ Eclectic Chipboard Die-Cuts (Close To My Heart)
Ring Binding System (Carl Brands)
Crop-A-Dile (We R Memory Keepers)
Chipboard for the cover

Card Organizer

I made this for my boss, who is actually a good friend too. She is celebrating a birthday tomorrow. I've made one of these before and posted on my blog, see it here to get a link to the tutorial.

Supplies:

Roxie Level 2 Paper Packet (CTMH)

Newsprint Rub-Ons (CTMH)

Just Blooms Paper Flowers - Spring Blossom (CTMH)

Opaques - Licorice (CTMH)

Bling Flourish (Not sure where this one came from but CTMH will soon be my supplier!)

Carl Brands Ring Binding System (Carl Brands) 

Believe in Yourself Journal

I've moved on to a new paper packet! This one is called Topstitch. I love Close To My Heart's line of My Creations projects. The 5 x 7 Journal is new in the Spring Idea Book and Catalog. I designed this to be a journal that I can use for goals and inspiration. Right now I'm a bit overwhelmed with things I have several professional and personal goals. I'm hoping writing things down and breaking down projects will help ease the stress!

Christmas Card Tracker

This is a Christmas Card Tracker. Inside are pages to write names and addresses. Then for the next 4 years there are columns to mark when a Christmas card is sent and received. I'm not sure where I saw this idea, but someone else created the pdf of the inside pages. I downloaded last year and changed the dates for to 2009 - 2012. This is the first time I used Close To My Heart's 3 ring binder for a project. I love it. I can think of several other uses for it too! For example, if I delete the Christmas card columns it becomes an address book.

Love Is Book

I recently participated in a swap with other consultants. Each of us signed up for a part of the Bible verse from I Corinthians 13:4-8. We made 18 pages of our part of the verse and then swapped pages to have a complete book. The rules were to use That's Amore paper and two embellishments. I made the "love is kind." page. I had the pages before Valentine's Day and bound it with my Bind It All machine. I thought about giving it to my parents as a gift, but I bought them dinner instead. Now I can keep the book for myself!

Card Organizer

I spent last weekend on a Scrap n' Stamp retreat with other Close To My Heart Consultants. It was wonderful. I decided to use my time making projects that were on my to do list. This card organizer is something I saw on Splitcoast Stampers many months ago. You can find the directions here.

Supplies: Colonial White Cardstock (Close To My Heart), Magic Moments Background and Texture Paper (Close To My Heart), Magic Moment Scrapbook Kit - Only the Stickers (Close To My Heart), Color Ready Alphabet (Close To My Heart), and Bind It All