American Idol autograph book

Every year I go and see the American Idol tour and every year my friend, Paula, and I spend time trying to meet them. It takes effort and pre-plannnig but we usually manage to be in the right place at the right time. Last year we took one of the Close to my Heart accordian albums, a blank one, for the Idols to sign. It worked okay except the Idols signed it every which way and when I later scrapbooked it the autographs were upside down and right side up and just didn't look as readable as I'd hoped. This time Paula and I decided to make the book ahead of time leaving the perfect spaces for the Idols to sign. We were lucky enough to get 9 out of 10 Idol autographs. It's not Close to my Heart paper in case you're wondering. Here's the title page. There are 10 Idols and only 8 pages so we had to squeeze a few together on the pages.

On the left page was supposed to be Megan's along with Allison and I totally forgot to put it on. Megan signed anyway on the upper left, Allison right on the journaling block. Matt (my fellow Western Michigan University alumni) is on the right. He was very popular at the show being a Michigan guy.

Anoop was the only one who didn't sign. He came out only briefly and never made it down to where we were standing. Michael signed next to his picture. Adam Lambert was most obviously the favorite at the show and after as was in evidence when a herd of people shoved their way through the very thick bushes behind me when Adam came near. I was most thrilled with meeting him myself and was more than pleased when he looked at my book then up at me and said, "that's neat."

Danny was the person who I voted for the most (along with Matt). I liked his voice and his story. He came out to see us during the day (we were at the arena from 2:30 in the afternoon to about 1:30 in the early morning). I was very excited to meet him. There's a picture of Paula and Danny down below the album pictures that turned out just excellent.

Lil and Scott signed very close to each other but I could make it out. The winner of American Idol, Kris, signed the last page of the book. He was very cute and very sweet.

Here's Michael and me, early in the day.

The best photo, Danny and Paula, what a great time we had!

Candy!

A few months back I showed you how to use mailing labels to make cute little wrapped Hershey's Nuggets. Well, I'm making party favors for my new catalog premiere party this Sunday (each person gets a goodie bag full of handmade items as my thank you) and I wanted to make those candy wrappers again and also a little bag topper too. So, let's review how to make the wrappers first. You need some blank mailing labels, I recommend the ones that are 1" by 4". Shorter than 4 inches and the label just barely makes it around the nugget. It's better to have a bit too long than too short.

I used the new stamp set Many Thanks. I started with one of the larger stamps but not too large or half your stamp will disappear off from the label. With this type of random stamping, the rule of threes doesn't matter as much. Simply stamp around the page of labels leaving space for the smaller stamps. I used autumn terracotta.

Next I took the next smallest stamp and used outdoor denim ink. Stamp it in between the other leaves.

Fill in the spaces again with another stamp and honey ink. It's okay if the leaves overlap a bit.

I went ahead with a 4th stamp and used autumn terracotta again, slipping the leaf in the smaller spaces.

Lastly I took a small acorn stamp and the outdoor denim ink and stamped anywhere that need another splash of the darker color.

Once done, peel off a label.

Start your label on the side of the candy, wrap it around keeping the edges flush.

I bought Wilton clear mini treat bags and they just barely fit 4 candies. The bag is too tall for only four candies so you can either trim the top of the bag or fold it over twice. Staple it to hold it steady for your topper.

Here's two options for a topper. You can randomly stamp on a piece of white cardstock just like you did on the labels. Cut out 3" by 4" rectangles, score so that the piece folds down 1 1/2". Distress with outdoor denim ink.

Attach to your bag with a staple on each side. Add a 1" by 1 1/2" piece of white cardstock that you distressed with outdoor denim. Stamp the "many thanks" sentiment in autumn terracotta and add to the topper.

Here's the finished look, cute, huh?

The other option is to cut a 3" by 4" piece of white cardstock, distress with outdoor denim ink and fold. Use one of your leftover labels and stick it right on the middle of the topper then add the "many thanks" label like you did above. Both looks work great! So, do you think my customers will like these Sunday?



If you like this you might also like Candy Time, Part Two.

The best small town in America!

I've lived in a lot of places, small towns, big towns, small cities, huge cities, the country, and the suburbs. Now I live in a small town called Stevensville, in Michigan and right next to us is what I think is the best small town in America. It's called St. Joseph and it's a beach town with a gorgeous beach called Silver Beach. This is a town where you smile whenever you are there. There are festivals all the time and this year they've decided to restore the town back to what it used to be, with an amusement park like they used to have but one that retains charm. St. Joseph is building a carousel that has hand carved horses, it big and beautiful. They are also going to have this great kids activity area, both due later. This weekend they unveiled the fountain. This is not a typical fountain that's just there for the beauty but one that's for fun! One that kids can run through with abandon.

But all these things to do are not why I'm writing about St. Joseph today. You know how you go to the movies and see these made up towns that just seem too good to be true, where people actually walk down the street and say hello and local bands come and play the Star Spangled Banner at events? The one's where the mayor comes out and dedicates a brand new structure and cuts a ribbon? I didn't really think those places existed until I moved here. St. Joe is one of those places and we had a blast yesterday watching the new fountain get dedicated. Here's some pictures!

*What St. Joseph used to look like years ago.

*When the ribbon was cut, this whole array of balloons went flying.

*The fountain has it's own mascot, Splash.

*People were ready for the fountain to be turned on, lots of kids had swimming suits.

*The tallest kaleidoscope in Michigan is almost ready!

*The horses are all hand carved ready for the carousel to be finished.

*The carousel is getting there, it's enormous.

Here's a video of the fountain at work.

Lots of Cards!

Have you tried bulk card-making? It's a wonderful way to create beautiful greeting cards at low cost. What you see below is a 16 card workshop (only 14 cards shown) that I made from 8 pieces of colonial white cardstock for card bases, 4 pieces of cardstock for the card fronts, and just three 12 x 12 pieces of patterned paper from the Caprice set. That's cheap folks! I even only used one stamp set, the September Word Puzzle. The Wishes book from Close to my Heart has this wonderful bulk card making pattern that took me about an hour to cut, an hour to put together and an hour to decorate, not bad for 16 cards. Even though the pattern is for 2 of eight different cards, I challenge you to see if you can tell which cards used the same pattern. Do you have three hours to make 16 beautiful handmade cards? Go for it!

Here's more cards made from this same pattern.

Key To My Heart

Help Wanted!

As you all know, Christmas and the months leading up to it, is the busiest retail season of the year. It is for Close to my Heart consultants too. In fact, I'm already completely booked up in September and October with home parties, clubs and workshops. I expect for November to be booked soon too. I will be making a bunch of extra Christmas money this year and my kids are going to have an awesome holiday because of that. Are you interested in the same thing, an incredible Christmas due to some extra income? What would an extra paycheck do to help make that happen? Well, guess what? I know a job that doesn't require a job interview or a suit. You don't have to turn in a resume and it's a job full of fun! Doesn't that sound appealing?

I love my job, I get to create scrapbooking and stamping projects and then share them with my friends and yours. On top of that, I get free products and cash!! Even better, I make my own schedule, work as much or as little as I want to and, at this time of the year especially, do very very well! I'd like you to have that chance too. I have an awesome team of eight great ladies who are as excited about this opportunity and these products as I am. It's easy to sell what you love. Close to my Heart makes it simple too, you don't even have to invent new projects to teach! They have tons of ideas with directions and exact measurements so no use telling me you aren't creative enough to do this. They also tell you how to throw a party, how to run a club, how to teach an incredible workshop and anything they don't tell you, I can. I am a very hands-on team leader and I will be there to support you every step of the way.

So, here's the thing, if you want to get over $325.00 worth of products for $99 (plus shipping and tax) and make some money for Christmas and have a lot of fun, call or email me and we can talk. This is the place for you!

P.S. Did I mention that you don't have to live anywhere near me to do this? Think about it, you never know what door leads to an adventure.

Blog hop

Welcome to our Close to my Heart Stamp of the Month Blog Hop! We will be featuring the September's Stamp of the Month which is called, "Treasures." It's a set of 12 stamps and it's just beautiful. You can get this stamp set for free by simply purchasing $100 worth of our wonderful Close to my Heart products. You can see our brand new catalog here. The new catalog will be up sometime today, I see it's not as of 8:00 est.

If you have come here from Beth Naumann's Blog, you are on the right path!

This month we have 69 Close to my Heart consultants sharing their creations using this month's Stamp of the Month and the other great Close to my Heart products on their blogs. This is a simple to do, just click on the link at the end of the post on each blog to move to the next one. Here we go!!

For this particular card you will need some Sweet Home paper. This is one of our brand new papers that comes out today! I used our wondeful Wishes book for the inspiration for this card. The measurements for this card are as follows:'

Card base: 12" by 6" out of white cardstock
Card front: 6" by 6" Indian Corn Blue cardstock
3" by 3" garnet cardstock
5" by 1/2" blue patterned paper
2 1/2" by 3 1/2" blue polka dot paper
2" circle in white cardstock
2 1/4" circle in garnet cardstock
2 1/2" circle in Indian Corn Blue cardstock
2 3/4" by 1/2" white cardstock

Distress everything with a sponge tool and Indian Corn Blue ink.

For this next part you need a trimmer with a groove where it cuts, a dry embossing tool and a sanding block. Lay your card front on the groove at the 3" measurement, that should put the groove of the trimmer right along the center of your paper. Use your dry embossing tool to gently push the paper down into the groove forming a line in the paper. Do not press too hard or it will tear. Move the paper over a 1/2" and do it again. Continue on the paper until you have 1/2 inch lines along the whole paper in one direction then turn the paper and do the same thing again to make it look like the one below. Sand the raised grooves to expose the white core of our paper.

Take your garnet cardstock and do the same thing but only in one direction.

Glue the garnet paper one inch from the left side of the card front keeping it flush with the top and bottom of the card. I use Tombow adhesive, works beautifully on the textured paper.

Attach the thin patterned strip down on the left of the garnet paper, flush with the top and 1/4" from the left side. The lines you "drew" in the paper make it really easy to line the papers up.

Glue the polka dot paper 1/4" from the left of the thin patterned strip, about 1 inch from the top of the card.

Start layering the circles on the polka dot paper moving about 1/2" to the right with each circle.

Stamp the Queen Anne's Lace stamp on the circle in garnet for the stem, and Indian corn blue for the flower. Take a wiry sponge tool to make the tiny specks of color in Indian corn blue. This keeps the white paper from looking too bright.

Stamp the "you are my sunshine" phrase on the white rectangle and do the same thing with the wiry sponge tool.

Attach both to the card, the circle on the garnet circle, 1/2" to the right and the "sunshine" piece 1/4" from the bottom, 1/2" from the right hand bottom of the card. Add six brads on the right hand side of the circle following the curve. Glue the whole card to the card base, you can have it open on the bottom or to the right, your choice.

Now add the final touch, put glue on the flower parts of your embellishment and cover them with Prisma Glitter.

Let it dry awhile and then shake off the glitter. Our glitter lets the ink color show right through, I love that! Thanks so much for viewing our blog hop today, happy September!



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Now "Hop" on over to Terrie Dodd's Blog to see her work! Be sure to visit all the Consultants at their Blogs to get some great crafting ideas and other fun ideas! Remember, the September Stamp of the Month is only available until September 30th! Contact your
CTMH Consultant (or click here) to see how you can get this stamp set at a discount or even free!
***

Check out the post below this one to see what else I've done with the September stamp of the month.

If you get lost on the hop or find links that aren't working, click HERE for a
complete list of participating blogs.

Jena DeVries http://livelovelaughscrapbook.blogspot.com/2009/09/september-sotm-blog-hop.html
Nona Davenport http://nonapearl.blogspot.com/2009/08/septembers-stamp-of-month-blog-hop.html
Katy Donaldson http://scrappinkaty.blogspot.com/2009/09/stom-blog-hop.html
Cibele Glazer http://flowerfoot.blogspot.com/2009/09/treasures-september-stamp-of-month-blog.html
Laura Dame http://thecroppersconnection.blogspot.com/2009_09_01_archive.html#6447711629602400966 Lori Leng http://pinkcloudscrappers.blogspot.com/2009/09/september-stamp-of-month-blog-hop.html
Jamia Bankhead http://papermadnessinc.blogspot.com/2009/09/welcome-to-september-blog-hop.html
Melissa Laverty http://fancymelissa.blogspot.com/2009/09/ctmh-treasures-blog-hop-september-stamp.html
Pamela OConnor http://cherishyourmemories.blogspot.com/2009/09/september-stamp-of-month-blog-hop.html
Sheila Bennett http://sheila-bennett.blogspot.com/2009/09/treasures-sotm-blog-hop.html
Adeline E. Brill http://adeline-brill.blogspot.com/2009/08/0901-its-september.html
Wendy Kessler http://www.myscrapbookingblog.com/2009/09/01/september-ctmh-sotm-blog-hop/
Beth Naumann http://bethscreativeblock.blogspot.com/2009/08/september-stamp-of-month-blog-hop.html
Barbra Otten http://barbraotten.blogspot.com/2009/09/blog-hop.html
Terrie Dodd http://my-life-in-real-time.blogspot.com/2009/08/september-sotm-blog-hop.html
Judy Burger http://makingtimeformemories.blogspot.com/2009/09/september-stamp-of-month-blog-hop.html
Jessica Booth http://jessicabooth.blogspot.com/2009/08/september-ctmh-blog-hop.html
Leisa Hubley http://bigredscraps.blogspot.com/2009/08/stamp-of-month-blog-hop-brayered-sky.html
Helen Onulak http://www.hookedonstamping.com/index.php/cards/september-stamp-of-the-month-blog-hop/
Debra Van Patten http://memoriesoftheheartbydeb.blogspot.com/2009/09/september-sotm-blog-hop.html
Juli Clark http://thestampteacher.blogspot.com/2009/09/september-stamp-of-month-blog-hop.html
Sarita Schraeder http://blessedscrapper.blogspot.com/2009/09/september-blog-hop-full-of-treasures.html
Michelle Robinson http://amaizenbluelady.typepad.com/my_crazy_scrappin_times/2009/08/september-ctmh-stamp-of-the-month-blog-hop.html
Maricar Harris http://maricarharris.blogspot.com/2009/09/september-stamp-of-month-blog-hop.html
Antoinette Herrin http://godblessyourart.blogspot.com/2009/09/september-stamp-of-month-blog-hop.html
Kathleen Androlewicz http://bowlofstamps.blogspot.com/2009/09/september-stamp-of-month-blog-hop.html
Cindy Leek http://paperspadsandpictures.blogspot.com/2009/09/september-close-to-my-heart-stamp-of.html
Dawn Heuft http://stamptildawn.blogspot.com/2009/08/september-stamp-of-month-blop-hop.html
Barbara Harris http://paper-creations117.blogspot.com/2009/07/close-to-my-heart-stamp-of-month-blog.html
Alanna Moses http://creationsbylaurie.blogspot.com/2009/09/september-stamp-of-month-blog-hop.html
Laurie Levnik http://creationsbylaurie.blogspot.com/2009/09/september-stamp-of-month-blog-hop.html
Karen Norman http://gettinscrappywithit.blogspot.com/2009/09/treasures-september-stamp-of-month-blog.html
Jan Moxey http://scrapandstamp4ever.blogspot.com/2009/08/ready-to-do-september-hop.html
Tammy Lea Pinchard http://mycreativeclubhouse.blogspot.com/2009/09/september-stamp-of-month-blog-hop.html
Kelly Triggs http://stampinallday.blogspot.com/2009/09/bouncin-right-along.html
Deb Young http://scrapbookczar.blogspot.com/2009/08/ctmh-stamp-of-month-blog-hop-ctmh.html
Nancy Ball http://ballisticdesign.blogspot.com/2009/08/blog-hop-sept-sotm-treasures.html
Chris Shouse http://houseostamps.wordpress.com/2009/09/01/blog-hop-september-stamp-of-the-month/
Dawn Ross http://iamahappystamper.blogspot.com/2009/09/september-stamp-of-month-blog-hop.html
Brae Montgomery http://thebrae-er.blogspot.com/2009/08/september-stamp-of-month-treasures-blog.html
Laurie R Newton http://scrapsfromthebeach.blogspot.com/2009/09/september-stamp-of-month-blog-hop-d1375.html
Haley Dyer http://inkyscrapper.blogspot.com/2009/09/september-stamp-of-month-blog-hop-and.html
Carol Taggio http://craftycarol55.blogspot.com/2009/09/september-stom-blog-hop.html
Amy McVey http://clearlystamping.blogspot.com/2009/09/september-stamp-of-month-treasures-blog.html
Carla Ironside http://carlacreates.blogspot.com/2009/09/ctmh-september-stamp-of-month-blog-hop.html
Jen Rubio http://jenrubio.blogspot.com/2009/08/september-stamp-of-month-blog-hop.html
Kristie Horness-Herdener http://goofyscrapper.blogspot.com/2009/08/september-blog-hop_31.html
Jill Lucas http://scrapwench.blogspot.com/2009/08/september-stamp-of-month-blog-hop.html
Wanda Riley http://creatingwithwanda.blogspot.com/2009/08/blog-hop.html
Miranda Kurz http://www.scrampinwithmiranda.com/2009/09/september-stamp-of-month-blog-hop.html
Jody Gustafson http://cre8nmemories.blogspot.com/2009/08/make-wish-sotm-blog-hop.html
Susan Brooks http://stampingintheopen.blogspot.com/2009/08/september-blog-hop.html
Kami Welter http://scrappin4memories.blogspot.com/2009/09/september-stamp-of-month-blog-hop.html
Jennifer Patrick http://roxybonds-scrappin.blogspot.com/2009/08/stamp-of-month-blog-hop-treasures.html
Julia Menssen http://ralphandjulia.blogspot.com/2009/08/september-sotm-blog-hop.html
Shannon Pelletier http://mycolorfulworldinvt.blogspot.com/2009/09/september-sotm-blog-hop.html
Linda Shewchuk http://awesomememories.blogspot.com/2009/09/blog-hop-stamp-of-month-september.html
Brenda Harmless http://keepsakeswithheart.blogspot.com/2009/09/ctmh-september-stamp-of-month-blog-hop.html
Donni Alvarenga http://donniscreativetherapy.blogspot.com/2009/08/september-stamp-of-month-treasures.html
Nancy Brown http://creativelyartsygallery.blogspot.com/2009/08/treasures-sept-stamp-of-month-blog-hop.html
Traci Godbee http://createwithtraci.blogspot.com/2009/09/september-stamp-of-month-blog-hop.html
Pam Klassen http://eimmap.blogspot.com/2009/08/september-sotm-treasures.html
Lori Miller http://clearlyfromtheheart.blogspot.com/2009/09/september-blog-hop-treasures.html
Kimberly Smith http://verykimberry.blogspot.com/2009/09/september-sotm-blog-hop.html
Caren Goldsein http://scrappycaren.blogspot.com/2009/08/september-sotm-blog-hop.html
Misty Jackson http://misstscraps.blogspot.com/2009/09/september-sotm-blog-hop.html