A New Adventure

Finally, we are on the move once again. My husbands company is transferring us to a new location. We are on the move to Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk, Sakhalin Islands, RUSSIA. I am excited to explore another part of our great world and have been frantically been selling and condensing my scrapbooking collection as we will be moving from 2800sqft to 1500sqft. I also have to give up my Close to my Heart Consultant Status as I cannot get any of thier fabulous products shipped there. I do plan to still keep my blog but the direction of my posts will be different as I will be focusing, not on classes, but catching up with my personal scrapbooking and enter various contests. I hope that I will meet some other expaitriates that also share my passion so that we can scrap together. In the coming months look for some posts regarding life in the Sakhalin Islands along with pictures. Wish me Luck and inspiration.

New Year, New Goals, New Idea Book!

This year I decided to be pro-active with my businesses. I started doing family photography late last year and that is going at just the right pace. But this year I have decided to revamp my Close to my Heart and how I am going to run things, just like corporate did this year. Corporate Close to my Heart made the change of only 2Idea Books per year. Now the new Spring/Summer Idea Book is packed full of extra paper packs, embellishments, chipboard and other fun stuff all starting in February!

The new and improved Idea Book still has some great features like the Stamp of the Month, Workshops on the Go, Exclusive CTMH colors and same great stamp sets.

The changes I intend on making will hopefully excite and encourage those to paticipate and enjoy scrapboking once again. I am keeping all my day crops, classes (maybe adding a few), same products and help that everyone recieved last year. Changes will include incentives, purchase a paper pack out of the new Idea Book and attend either the evening classes for the month OR the all-day Saturday crop for FREE! On top of that, for every $25 in new CTMH product you buy, you will get an additional $10 of open stock product in my studio. The great clearance! For those who attend classes and crops on a regular basis this is a great deal for them, they spend and little and get alot...FREE, every month! For those who read this blog, I have not forgotten you, I will be giving away Blog Candy once a month, you must be a follower of this blog and leave a comment on one of my posts during that month.

As for me, I will be showcasing 1-2 paper packs a month, this month I have awesome cards and a fantastic layout already made with the new 'Wings' paper pack. Check back for a look at what I created!

Just around the corner!

Here is Christmas right around the corner and I thought, cause I haven't blogged in a while, some of my favorite Christmas cards I have made. All of these cards contain Close to my Heart paper and each one so individual!

This one has some great circles on it and I used a very old paper pack, Just Chillin, I still love the colors in this palette and the retro snowflakes.

This card is made entirely from cardstock alone. I love Pink for winter, it seems soft just like snow. But the multiple shades of pink make the card for me! With real stitching around everything you just want to touch this card over and over!

This is a fun paper pack called 'Jingle' and I love the different shapes on this card. With a heat embossed 'Jingle' and stitching I constantly run my fingers across it!

I constantly get compliments on this card, maybe it's monocromatic scheme or just a bit of sparkle but everyone loves this card!
This awesome card has some of my favorite colors, Blue and Brown, not overly traditional but with white snowflakes, rhinestones, heat embossing, ribbon and stitching this card has lots of elements to play with!
I hope you liked my cards and find inspiration in them!

Heart 2 Heart Challenge - Heat/Dry Embossing

I went a little crazy with the Heat Embossing on this one, I choose just simple Clover Meadow Cardstock and Random Stamped/Heat Embossed the back ground. I then Stamped out the title and heat embossed that baby.

To add a soft touch to my page, I stitched this fun pattern up the side of the pictures to hopefully push the idea of 'Spring' with a little jump! Just a fun page using only pictures, 1 piece of paper and some embossing for that brilliant white!

Heart to Heart Challenges

What a great opportunity to be a sponsor for this weeks challenge at Heart to Heart Challenges! I have been very busy getting ready for craft fairs and jumpstarting my new family photography business, you can find my FB page called Just Peachy Family Photography. But I am excited by this weeks challenge...Dry/Heat embossing! If you never have done either you should definately try it...everyone I know who tries it falls in love with embossing, it brings your projects to the next level. I encourage you to try it and submit your finished project to Heart to Heart Challenges and you might win my fabulous prize, a full Key to my Heart Kit, this was a promotion a while back, you can not buy this from your local Close to my Heart Consultant, so play the Heart 2 Heart Challenge and this fancy prize might be yours!!!

5 for $5 - Halloween Treat Containers

This is my first class after having our new baby daughter, but she is now 9 1/2 weeks old and it's time to get back into the swing of things. The next couple of months are going to fly by, with lots of holidays coming up, ih ave a long list of everything I would like to get done. But my first 5 for $5 this month is for Halloween, we are making treat containers. These fun little things perk up any Spooky gift giving.

this easy little bag is made with patterned paper from Close to my Heart's New Hooligans line. Fun Halloween colors and the stamp set used is called 'Beware'.

This scary popcorn cup is made with Orange Close to my Heart Cardstock, cut on the Cricut, and embellished with some creepy patterned paper. To finish this cup off we cut tags and added some ribbon.

You can't see it in the picture very well but each box we will make has been random stamped with CTMH's September stamp of the month, 'Thriller'. Great art on this stamp set. I also used glimmer mist to give each box and eerie green shine. Fun and easy to fill, the clear front let's you show what's in the box...no suprises here.

Easy to make, this bag topper can be attached to any ziploc bag and given away with lots of candy inside...what a way to dress up a boring snack bag.

Super fun Frankenstien Matchbooks, just attach your candy to the inside and give away. I first saw this great idea on Vicki Wizniuk's Blog, thanks for the inspiration Vicki!
The class is tomorrow night and I hope that this one sells out...I am also opening this up to anyone who wants to do this in the afternoon if they can.