Happy Valentine's Day & a Giveaway

I hope you have a wonderful Valentine's Day. I am happy to announce that I have a Facebook business page now. It's dedicated to scrapbooking, stamping and papercrafting discussions and yes, there will be giveaways. For instance, when I hit 100 "followers" I will be giving away a sanding kit to one of them picked randomly. To follow my Facebook page, click HERE and then hit the LIKE button! I'm already at 58 followers so it won't be long. There will be giveaways, specials and information on my Facebook business page that you will not find here so sign up today!!

Valentine's Thoughts from Winnie the Pooh

Pooh sure knew his stuff....

"If ever there is tomorrow when we're not together...there is something you must always remember. You are braver than you believe, stronger than you seem, and smarter than you think. But the most important thing is, even if we're apart...I'll always be with you."

"If you live to be 100, I hope I live to be 100 minus 1 day, so I never have to live without you.”

"If there ever comes a day when we can't be together keep me in your heart, I'll stay there forever”

“Promise me you'll never forget me because if I thought you would I'd never leave.”

“Piglet: "Pooh, how do you spell love?" Pooh: "You don't spell it, you feel it."

Director bag

A cool thing happened the other day. An unexpected package showed up on my front porch. Inside was a beautiful scrapbooking over the shoulder bag, a set of heart shaped measuring spoons and a certificate congratulating me on becoming a director last May. The gifts were delayed but I was so happy to see them! I'm currently a senior executive manager having had a few of my girls fall to junior consultant but I'll be back up to director by July for sure!!! If you'd like to join my team and start your own journey to director, you can start by looking at the enrollment form RIGHT HERE!

Studio J Special

Cool special for February! For those of you who have tried out (remember it's free to try) Studio J, you're going to love this one. Buy 9 Studio J layouts in February and get one FREE!

For those of you who already are joining memberships, that means your saving are even BIGGER! For those of you who just want to get your feet yet, why not do it during a special?

You can see what Studio J is all about RIGHT HERE!

Krafty, Kool & Kolorful!

Our new Kraft Ready-Color Borders are awesome! Check out this video to see the cool things you can do with them. When you are finished, buy them HERE!

Tic Tac Toe card

I really like this new A Game stamp set from Close to my Heart. It's simple and sweet and I always love any set with lots of little stamps in it because you know I am a big random stamping fan! No random stamping on this card though, just a simple card with some dry embossing added. Cut out your paper as follows:

Cotton candy cardstock: 5 1/2 by 4 1/4 inches
White cardstock: 5 1/2 by 8 1/2 inches, folded in half for card base
White cardstock: 2 1/2 by 2 1/2 inches
Hollyhock cardstock: 3 1/2 by 4 1/4 inches
Pear cardstock: Cut 3 of them, 3/4 by 3/4 inches
Pear cardstock: 1/2 by 4 1/4 inches

Distress all pieces with hollyhock ink.

Take your dry embossing tool and your trimmer and make linese on your cotton candy cardstock 1/2 inch apart then sand with sandpaper to reveal the white core.

Dry emboss the hollyhock piece but this time do it more randomly, don't go all the way to the end of the cardstock on every groove, also no measuring on this one, keep it random. Sand and blue about 1 1/2 inches from bottom of card front.

Add pear cardstock strip just below the hollyhock piece.


Stamp the tic tac toe lines in pear ink on the white cardstock square. Stamp the hearts as shown using cotton candy ink and the tic tac toe words in hollyhock ink. Cross those hearts with pear ink and the line stamp. Glue to card about 1 inch from bottom and 1/2 inch from left side.

Add two buttons which you have threaded with waxy flax to the upper left of the card about a 1/2 inch from the left, one inch from the top. Use glue dots to hold them securely. Take the three squares you cut and add two to the upper right of the card about an inch down from the top, 1/4 inch from the right hand side and the last one centered and just slightly overlapping the tic tac toe image. That's it, easy and pretty!!!

Layout Contest at Shipshewana Crop

Another activity we had at our Shipshewana crop was a layout contest (we had a card contest too) and here are the results. We gave the ladies each a pattern from the Imagine Idea book and cutting guide and they went to town. Can you believe that all these layouts are based on the same pattern?

Third place winner!

Second place winner!

First place winner!

Shipshewana Crop - Lots of fun!

We had lots of fun at our Shipshewana crop in lots of other ways too. First of all, there was the food! Four meals, including two breakfasts, a lunch and a dinner were provided by the hotel as part of the weekend's fee but the scrapbookers also brought LOTS of snacks, so many that we had to move some in the kitchen so what you are seeing here isn't even everything!

Drinks were plentiful too, bottles and bottles of pop came in and it's definite that noone went away hungry or thirsty.

All throughout the weekend the scrappers collected tickets for various tasks, finishing a page, winning a contest, turning in their deposit on time, etc. They then brought their tickets to the prize table where they could try to win various prize packages. One name was drawn on Sunday morning for each prize.

Two people won our snowflake board and were able to spend $150 in our brand new Close to my Heart catalog! Others took out time from scrapbooking to make a card or two. All monies from the cards went to one of our missing participants who is ill in the hospital.

What's a crop without some shopping? Our team brought in some of the brand new products to sell to the scrapbookers so they didn't have to go far for supplies.

Display boards were plentiful for great ideas and as examples of our upcoming workshops!





Does this all look like fun? It is! It was just as fun for the consultants on my team who ran the crop. Would you like to be one of them in August? We're signing up new members every day and we'd love to have you on our team. Click on this link to sign up today!!! SIGN ME UP!

Silent auction at Shipshewana Crop

The Shipshewana croppers had lots of activities that they could participate in without interrupting their serious scrapping. The Can't Stop Dreaming Team set out a silent auction with all monies to benefit the Operation Smile charity. Scrapbookers bid throughout the weekend and we ended up collecting $80 to help children with facial deformities. Thanks everyone!

Lucky Paper!

And now we come to my favorite paper, Lucky! I have two boys and, as you all know, there are just not enough boy oriented scrapbook papers out there. This one fits the bill. I love the colors, I love the distressed look. I like how it makes me think about mud and outdoors and messy little guys. Yes, even though they are 13 and 15, mine still get messy. This paper is awesome, I like it even better in person and it is my go to paper for the new catalog. If you think it may be yours too, BUY IT HERE.

Fanfare Paper!

Are you ready to party? Do you love the Fourth of July, baseball, hot dogs, apple pie and Chevrolet....oh sorry, I got carried away thinking about summer. That's what the new Fanfare paper does to me. If Sophia says "spring," Fanfare paper is for sure talking about summer. Look at these colors, they make me want to pull out my camera, insert fresh batteries and count down the days until the warm weather is here once again. I'm heading to Anaheim in July for our Close to my Heart convention at the Disneyland hotel and I just know that the pictures I take are going to end up on Fanfare paper! You can buy yours HERE!

Mayberry Paper!

I know that you're already humming the tune, right? Even if you are way younger than I am, the word Mayberry still conjures up the theme song from the Andy Griffith show. Mayberry was small town in it's essence. This new paper definitely has that same feel to it. The first thing I thought when I saw it was "picnic." I love the faded colors and outdoorsy feel. You will too. Find this new paper RIGHT HERE.

Bliss Paper!

It's February 1st which means all these papers I've been showing you are now AVAILABLE!

Are you one of those people like me who still hasn't scrapbooked your wedding pictures? I've been married 20 years and those pictures are still tucked away in a photo holder because I was too afraid to scrapbook these most precious pictures. Well, now is the time. This Bliss paper is just gorgeous, silvers and golds in wonderful patterns. Wait until you see this paper in person, believe me, the photos don't do it justice.

Don't have wedding pictures to do? How about heritage photos? This paper is also just made for those! You're going to love it, RIGHT HERE.