Gifts of Love

I can't believe it's been almost a whole month since I've posted anything! Whew! What a busy and beautiful season!

I just had to share a couple of very meaningful gifts I received.

The first is from my Danville Club - at our Decmeber club, they presented me with TWO HUGE bags FULL of goodies! You really can't see them all here, but it's the best I could do! Every year, I am unexpectedly surprised! You think I'd get a clue - but I was just so taken off guard and overwhelmed by their generous love! I LOVE YOU GUYS!!!

This next gift is just so cool, I had to share. It's from one of my over-the-top creative friends. It's a homemade candle - and scented too! So cute!



And this gift is also from another over-the-top creative friend! It's a comfort shawl - the most thoughtful gift I could imagine. Have you ever felt like you needed a hug, or found comfort in the fact that someone is thinking of you and praying for you? That's what I feel everytime I wrap this aroundme. Wow! I LOVE THIS! I walk around the house in it all the time! (My husband thinks I look like Old Mother Hubbard! Men! What do they know! LOL!)

Anyway, I have met everyone of these gifted and wonderful women through my Close To My Heart business! I continue to thank God for the opportunity to have a job I absolutely LOVE and work with people I look forward to seeing all the time!

I hope you have enjoyed this sacred season with close family and friends. My brother arrives tonight and we continue the celebration!

Merry Christmas and God Bless Us Everyone!

Clearance Items Available - up to 90% off!!

SHOP MY WEBSITE THIS MONTH FOR A PLETHORA OF DEALS AND DELIGHTS!

Beginning today, Thursday, December 9, 2010, you can access a variety of retired products that are available at discounted prices - some up to 90% off!!!! We will occasionally add to this collection of products when we have retired items left in inventory that we know you will love. Because inventory can fluctuate, check my website often to take advantage of these products that are offered while supplies last!


In addition to this, you can still receive a FREE stamp set valued at $22.95 with each $20 order on my website - including the clearance items - with our Plenty for Twenty special all this month! You can place as many qualifying orders as you want during the month to receive several stamp sets. What happens if you receive a stamp set you already have or don't really want? Bring it with you to my Open House in January to exchange with someone else, or select from my cash and carry stamps!

AND, some of the Plenty for Twenty orders will find a hidden treasure inside......the legendary STICKY BOY!!! You just might be a lucky recipient! Who is Sticky Boy, you say? Click here to find out.

Browse the Clearance items now! These deals won't last!! »

Christmas Wish List

Do you have a list of items you'd love to have for your scrapbooking, cardmaking, and papercrafting? Why not fill out a Wish List and pass it on to your family and friends! Have them order directly through me and receive a 10% discount. OR have them order online here and receive a FREE stamp set with each order of $20 or more. (See the December Special in the post below.) Don't forget that Studio J memberships and 5-packs make great gifts too! You can even request a gift certificate in any amount! I'll even gift wrap and deliver! How easy is that?

So save everyone the hassle of mall shopping and traffic and ensure you get items you really need or want! Click here to print out your wish list or click here to start shopping online now!

Plenty for Twenty in December

Close To My Heart has an awesome special that will fit perfectly into your budget this month! Place an order of only $20 or more* on my website from December 1-31, 2010, and you'll be rewarded with a popular, retired D-size stamp set for FREE! Talk about getting more for your money-the free stamp set is valued at $22.95! I'm sure you'll be thrilled with the set that CTMH picks out for you. They're also giving you FREE shipping/handling and tax on your free stamp set. That's a lot of Plenty for your Twenty! Click here to start shopping!

*Excluding tax and shipping/handing. Qualifying purchases must include shippable products (Studio J® layout purchases excluded, Studio J memberships and 5-packs will count toward a qualifying order only if shippable items are also ordered).

Christmas Ornaments

Have you seen our new Christmas Ornament Dimensional Elements in the Autumn/Winter Idea Book? I just LOVE our DE products - they are substantial chipboard elements in various shapes, but they come in clean white - which means you can ink them, stamp on them, add paint or glitter, OR cover them with paper! (Most other brands come in a cardboard color which doesn't leave you with as many options!)

Anyway - these are SO easy to personalize with photos, or "to: & from:" stamps as gift tags, or to match any tree theme or color theme! Here is one version featuring our traditional Mistletoe papers and photos:



Isn't it adorable? Wouldn't your kids LOVE to see pictures of themselves or pets or family members on the tree? Or how about a mini tree in their own room? They could even participate in making these OR you could surprise them by slipping it into their room while they are sleeping on Christmas Eve! Wouldn't that be fun?

Here is another version, using the very same ornaments, but only using ink, prisma glitter, silver embossing powder and a few pearls. In this version is would be SO easy to match any tree theme with our 60 exclusive colors(Disney, Dr. Suess, primary colors, room colors, etc.) Plus you could add pictures to these as well! These would also be super easy to coordinate with your gift wrap as decorations on the package OR put the person's picture in the ornament OR a stamped "To: & From:" inside or on the back. Can't you see how the variations are just endless?




Everyone at my December All Day Crop will receive a set of these to decorate as desired!

I'm also holding a workshop that day to make these. Want to come? Bring your desired color swatch or gift wrap to match! Can't make it? Order a set of these beauties to do at home! Already decorated for this year? Order a set now for next year!

Contact me for more info!

Christmas Cookies & Tea Bag

Here is another quick and easy gift bag to make for your Christmas cookie gifts. This one has an optional pocket on the back to include a tea bag or gift card to your local coffee shop or tea room!





I got this template from My Time Made Easy. This particular template is called the Tote-All Package.

The front flap attached to the back and folds down over the front and is attached with a velco dot or mini-magnet. I'm not sure I really like the star and tag I put on the front of the bag. I think I'll play around with some other ideas.....but I had to get something posted for my newsletter right away! ;o)

This is a workshop I am offering this month - Monday, December 13th at 6:30pm. The workshop is $6 per bag. Let me know if you are interested in attending or if you'd like to receive a kit by mail.

Christmas Cookie & Coffee Holder

Happy Belated Thanksgiving everyone! Hope you had a wonderful day filled with good food and family fun! We have traveled to Nebraska to spend the holiday with my mother-in-law. I had to run into town to run some errands and thought I would stop into McD's for a fruit smoothie and quickly update my blog, check my mail, etc. (No internet or cell service out in the country!) I know -- I told myself it might do me some good to go "unplugged" for the week -- BUT I JUST CAN'T! I'll go unplugged "most" of the time. Does that count? ;o)

Anyway, I had meant to post this a WEEK ago and ran out of time. A very precious commodity that I seem to lack enough of! Anyway, I wanted to share these simple little gifts that I made for each of my croppers at my last all day crop.


You can use any sort of drink you want - I chose one of MY favs - Starbucks frappacinos's! For one of my younger croppers, I used a YooHoo chocolate milk drink. Then slide a cookie of your choice in the little slot - instant yummy gratification! :o)

These can be embellished a million different ways! For the green one, I added prisma glitter to one of our dimensional elements snowflakes. For the red one I added prisma glitter to the scallopped flap and the scallopped edge on the tag! (Everything is better with a little sparkle!)

These would be quick and EASY gifts to make for friends, neighbors, teachers, Sunday School teachers, and co-workers! Just about anyone!

It's so simple and could be modified for any occassion!

Start with an 11" x 4" piece of cardstock scored at 3", 6", 6 1/2", 9 1/2", 10".

Cut a circle out of the first 3" section large enough to slide over your bottle (~2").

Then cut 1/2 an oval shape out of the cookie section to showcase your culinary creation! Embellish as desired!

I will be having a workshop in December with easy cookie gift ideas, including this one.

Hope you can join me!

Until then, enjoy your holiday!

Christmas Cookie Recipe Album

One of my clubs is hosting a Christmas Cookie exchange next month! I LOVE cookies! I love FOOD!! Anyway - everyone is to prepare a 6x6 layout including their recipe. I decided to use our My Creations Display album to store the recipes in. Then I decided to add on our Festive Memories Christmas Card Kit and tweek it a little! These gorgeous photo cards come with beautiful coordinating adhesive artwork (stickease) along with red and green sparkles to glam it up a bit! Using our 4x6 Flip Flaps, I cut the 5x7 cards down to just a 4x6 frame and slid it into the flip flap. Then decorated the outside of the flip flap. I plan on putting a photo of the person in the front frame, the cookie ingredients on the inside flap and the cooking instructions on the base page! I can't wait to sample all the cookies and get photos of each of them to include with their recipes!


I used Liquid Applique and Prisma Glitter on the "cookie" to make it look like frosting!


There are 12 pages - Here is a sampling:





Here is the flip flap open:


With the left over, cut off part of the cards, I was able to make eleven 3 1/2" x 5" cards, and use up the leftover stickease and sparkles too! You can use them for place settings, Thank you cards, gift tags or Christmas Cards! Here are just a couple -

So cute!! I'm offering this as another one of my kits available to anyone by mail or attending one of my upcoming crops! The kit, which will make a 12 page album and 11 cards, is $35 and includes:

My Creations Display Album

Festive Memories Card Kit

12 - 4x6 Flip Flaps

Cardstock and B&T paper to create the 12 base pages

Cardstock to cover the inside front and back

Paper, Ribbon & Accessories to create the cover as shown

This would also make a wonderful gift for family or friends filled with your favorite Christmas Recipes, Cookie Recipes, Family Favorite Recipes, or a collection of recipes from any group (neighbors, bible study, clubs, family, etc.).

For those who want to create coordinating names or titles on the inside, I used the Jasmine Cricut cartridge with the shadow - 2" size. I'm off to try out some cookie recipes!! :o)

Olivia Wall Hanging & Paper Flowers tutorial

I fell in love with this project and the flowers when I saw them on Debbie's blog! Simply Stunning! And the flower technique is SO COOL! Watch Tracy Mason's video tutorial here so you too can make these cool flowers for ANY project! Make one along with her and you will see how easy it is and how beautiful they turn out!

Our Mix & Mingle albums can be used in so many different ways! You can actually make a mini album, use the different pieces as interactive elements or frames in your layouts, cards and other artwork, as a table top display as seen on page 38 of the Autumn/Winter Idea Book, or as a wall hanging (see also pg. 86 of the Autumn/Winter Idea Book.) They come with 3 clear and 5 white chipboard pages to Mix & Mingle as desired! My wall hanging only used 6 pages, so I used the remaining 2 pages to create a coordinating card to give with the wall hanging. I added our Dimensional Elements Fresh Shapes (inked with Pear ink), and a few of our new Pearl Opaques. I also choose to use our Dimensional Elements Monograms to add the initial of the person I'm giving it to. On the inside of my card, I added a page with words that reflect the person's character and also begin with the letter "C"! You could add as many pages as you want and make a mini-album!







Make this project with left-overs from your Olivia kit or choose any paper pack! Want to make your own customized gift at one of my upcoming workshops? I'll order you the Mix & Mingle album along with an accessory & Monogram of your choice. YOU bring the paper - or choose your Level 2 paper pack and I'll order that for you as well!

Olivia Kit Club and Projects

I wanted to share with you what we are making in my Kit Clubs this month! I LOVE this paper pack - filled with the rich, warm colors of Autumn! Members of my club enjoy the benefit of getting together each month to work on layouts or cards or other projects with their kits. We always learn a new technique each month to use on our projects, enjoy each other's company - sharing stories of the past week, and eat delicious snacks prepared by our hostess! Each month, one of the girls gets to be the "hostess" and earn FREE products just for showing up! How cool is that?

Here is the featured layout we are doing:


Here is an additional layout using this kit and our new Magic book:


Here are the featured cards (6 total):


Here are additional cards you can make using this kit and our Originals book:

Add on our beautiful coordinating stickease for only $4.95 more and you can create these gorgeous layouts:



Add on our new Mix & Mingle album and you can create a stunning wall hanging too!

Everyone of my club members will receive a cute little pumpkin (inspired by Deneen Treble) along with a card using our fabulous stamp of the month - A Little Thanks! I'm so thankful for you guys! :o)

In order to MAX OUT my kit and use it all up, I'm creating a TON of thank you cards using this MUST HAVE stamp set. Check back to see those - coming soon....

Goodie Bags for Bookings!

One of my new downline is having her first party on Sunday. These are the bags (filled with goodies of course) that we are giving as an instant reward to everyone who books a party. I love these little bags! Can't wait to make more!

You can find the template here.

Cube Assembly Update!

Okay - so I've been using ribbon to assemble our My Creations Cubes to make them sturdy enough to hold heavy items - such as coffee mugs. I used this technique at my team meeting and found it to be very difficult for most people. Sooooooo.....back to the drawing board for a faster, simpler, easier way!

Here it is!
If you can't read the fine print on each photo, basically, I'm using cardstock "L"s or hinges with heavy duty adhesive to connect the open sides. No holes - no ribbon. I hope this helps you with your cube projects!

Here are dimensions and instructions for the lid.