Convention Roomie Gifts

One of the highlights of attending convention is the roomie gifts we give and receive! This year, since I had the opportunity to work with the cricut cartridge for Extravaganza, I decided to use it for my roomie gifts!

I gave each roomie a "Celebrate" wand and a couple of chocolate party favors! I also featured these in my Extravaganza class.

For the wand, I used two star images cut at 5 1/2" - then scored 1/4" around the outside edges and sandwiched them around a piece of styrofoam. I inserted a wooden dowel through the bottom into the styrofoam. I used a 1" ribbon card and 2 ovals at 1" and 1 1/4".

For the favor, I used a 4 1/2" flat box, 2" decorative frame, and a 3" bow on top. I added the sentiment on a 1/2" oval matted on a 3/4" oval. (Inside is a Ghardelli chocolate!)

These make great and easy gifts and decorations! I think I'm going to be making a bunch of these!

Convention Roomie & Team Gifts

I'm ashamed I'm just now getting to this, but it seems it was a whirl-wind getting ready for convention and Extravaganza, then a whirl-wind getting back and in the groove again!

Here are my wonderful roomies from this year: Maria, Lisa, and Vanessa!


I LOVE getting to see many of my CTMH sistas that I only get to see once a year - or only at CTMH events. And usually we are bearing gifts for each other! Here are just a few of the wonderful gifts I received while at convention this year:

Team gift from my amazing upline Lisa Stenz!


A roomie gift from Lisa!! (Love the 31 bag!)


A roomie gift from Vanessa:


A team gift from my up/upline Denise A-T:





Here is a Crush Book from Denise:

Thank you, everyone, for making me feel overwhelmingly blessed by your thoughtfulness and generosity! Already looking forward to next year!!

Gravity Zip Line

My brother and his girlfriend, Renee, are visiting this week - so I had to take a break from my craft studio - I'm going through withdrawls not being able to work with my new Art Philosophy cricut cartridge! But we've had a great time - even in this extreeme heat! We went up near the New River Gorge Bridge and went zip lining on the longest zip line on the east coast! We started off on some training zips at 25 miles per hour and eventually ended up at 1600 (or was it 1800) feet going 60 miles per hour! WOO HOO! (Actually, it was more relaxing and scenic than scarey. The guides did a great job of making us feel completely safe. Anyway here are some highlights of the day. (PS - my brother doesn't want his pics on the internet so you won't see him - he's not in witness protection or America's Most Wanted - just his thing, so I'll respect that.)

Convention Highlights

We had a BLAST at convention this year at the Disneyland Hotel! Here are a few highlights:



And thanks to Christine David for providing this glimpse into the hillarious entertainment on awards night this year. It still makes me crack up just thinking about it!






Next year is in Dallas, TX! I hope you can join me! I've already got it marked on my calendar and I'm ready to go!

Team Meeting and Project

This past Saturday, I had the honor of hosting our team meeting to share all of the wonder and excitement of convention with my team! We had 20 of us there! I absolutely love each and every one of these ladies! They are my treasures -- and we always leave excited and inspired by each other!

In addition to making their own little cricut gift bag for their Mickey Mint Meltaway (see post below) we also made these little daisy pots.

It needs a cute little tag - which is easy enough with this cricut cartridge and SO many to choose from!

Here is a similar pot of daisies that I made to display at my Extravaganza class using the same flowers in a couple different sizes. I also added leaves (crumpled and inked).




This is a tag from the cricut that coordinates with a stamp set that is included in the cricut bundle! Cute,huh?


To make the flowers I used 3 different sizes of the flat daisy image (2", 2 1/4", 2 1/2") and layered them with 3-D foam tape. Then layed them in a box - sprayed them with a spray on adhesive, placed them in my glitter tray and added prisma glitter. OR you can just ink the edged with a little Desert Sand ink for dimension and leave them plain. I added a different flower image in olive at 3/4" topped with a circle shape 1/2" in honey.


Then I added another Olive colored flower shape on the bottom (for the petals to grow out of) and to attach to the wooden stem. I used our soft-set eyelet tool to create a hole just large enough for the wooden stem to go through. I put 3-D foam tape around the inside of the hole to attach the green flower to the white daisies and the green flower to the stick.


I then added a leave image from the cricut cartridge - crumpled and inked.

Creating with this cricut cartridge is SO easy and SO MUCH FUN!!! Stay tuned for even more creative fun!

Club Gifts

I brought back some Mickey Mint Meltaways for my club members and team! I needed a quick and easy way to package them individually, so I turned to our fabulous new Cricut Cartridge for inspiration! There were so many options to choose from (8 different bags/boxes in 47 different sizes) but I ended up using the little gift bag in a 4.5" size and modified it a bit. I added a 1.5" flower and a couple of 3/4" leaves and I'm done!




And since I didn't have any of the bulk papers yet, I decided to use cardstock and show our new August stamp of the month "Wicked" in a non-halloween look. It doesn't look like halloween at all, does it?

Chirp, Chirp,....here it comes.....

I am SO excited to announce Close To My Heart's exclusive Cricut cartridge that coordinates with our stamp sets and dimensional elements - making your paper crafting super easy and very rewarding!! I just got back from our annual convention where I taught a class on using this little beauty to create 3-D projects - which I'll be sharing with you soon. But for now, I simply wanted to get the word out!

Beginning August 1st, you can order this collection - which has a retail value of $124.69 - for only $99! OR get it at half price as a hostess (with a home gathering or online party or book party)! OR join my team and get ALL of your supplies at a huge discount!

This collection include three coordinating D-size Stamp Sets, three coordinating Dimensional Elements sheets (Tags, Mixed Shapes, Banners), and the cartridge which has 700 unique images - each available in 47 different size options on a 12x12 mat, yeilding well over 30,000 creative options!! Using a 12x24 mat you have even MORE options! Trust me, you will never run out of ideas with this collection! I've only begun to scratch the surface!

Here is a short video to introduce you to the possibilities...and stay tuned for more artwork ideas and information!

Video Shoot in SLC

I've had to keep so many secrets these past few months.....it's been so hard!! I'm so excited to be able to share with you NOW that last month I was wisked away to Salt Lake City to participate in series of videos on recruiting with Close To My Heart. They chose 3 consultants - me, Briana Bostick, and Phil Wilhelm. It was such a wonderful experience in every way!

First, I got to hang out the Briana and Phil and get to know them a little better. We had dinner at a wonderful restaurant right next to our hotel. There was also a beautiful garden built into it!




The next day we were escorted to Jill's beautiful home to do the video shoot. While they were shooting one of us, the other two waited downstairs in Jill's rec room - practicing our lines and working with secret new product! Jill's creative studio is downstairs and it was hard for me to leave! I fell in love with every single detail of her creative space! Isn't it beautiful?


After we finished shooting, we were able to go visit the CLOSE TO MY HEART CORPORATE OFFICE!!!! We just wanted to take pictures out front because, like most companies with product development - everything is kept tightly under wraps! But we were able to enter the lobby. The receptionist must think we are goofy! We ooo'ed and awe'ed over the LOBBY! LOL! But it was a privilege and a treat that we were over-the-moon excited about!





In the back, we got to see the CTMH warehouse and the CTMH GOATS! Yes, I said GOATS!




After our visit to the corporate office, we were taken to The Shops at Riverwoods to shop and have dinner! Many very cool and unique shops here. I could spend the entire day just window shopping and love it! We had dinner at La Jolla Groves - I think I would eat there every day if I lived near by! Fantastic!




Dessert was amazing!!! But we ate it back at the hotel before taking any pictures! Guess you'll just have to try it for yourself!

Thank you CTMH for the VIP treatment and the opportunity to participate in the training videos! It was an honor and a joy, and an incredible memory!

You can check out even more photos on my facebook page - Creating With Christine!

Java with Jennifer

I had the privilege a few years ago to see Jennifer Rothschild at a women's conference. This woman is amazing. She lost her eyesight as a teenager, but God has taught her SO very much through this impairment - and I believe she now sees much more than any of us that have our eyesight!

I subscribe to her newsletter and wanted to share an article she wrote this month! It makes me smile for many reasons - it's all about heart issues and attitude and how we CHOOSE to see life around us, but also as a Close To My Heart Consultant, WE automatically identify colors around us as colors in our exclusive color palette! :o)

I hope this makes you smile and inspires you to take time to drink in your surroundings. To see beyond the ordinary and discover the extraordinary all around you!

How Do You See the World?

Emerson once said, "People only see what they are prepared to see." So, how do you see the world? I see it far more vividly since I got my new iPhone and an app that makes me smile each time I use it. I know, I know...it's quite a jump to go from Ralph Waldo Emerson to an iPhone app, but stick with me! The app is called "Color Identifier." It uses the camera in the iPhone to capture my surroundings and then it announces the colors it sees. But, unlike the color detector I use to identify my clothing, it has a vast and descriptive vocabulary it uses to communicate. My color detector simply announces "black" or "blue" or "light yellow" or "olive green" when I press it against fabric. That is so helpful when it comes to knowing the colors of my clothing, but it serves merely as a reporter. The Color Identifier, on the other hand, interprets what it sees like a bohemian artist or imaginative poet would! It uses names for colors like those creative people at Crayola do! For example, the sky isn't simply "blue," it's "Baltic Sea" on a bright day or "gun smoke" on a cloudy one. According to the Color Identifier, my front yard is blanketed with tones of asparagus, avocado and Rangoon green! Can't you just see that?! My office is an inviting palate of amber, spice, mustard, bamboo, oregano, potter's clay, sepia, nutmeg and Creole! Isn't that far more interesting and inspiring than shades of "brown?"

Some of us put little thought into what we see. We settle for "blue" when we've got Wedgewood, cobalt, Danube, cornflower or sapphire surrounding us and just waiting to splash out! Life can be ordinary or it can be interesting. We can perceive the world as normal, or it can be far better than normal in the most quirky and attractive sort of way. It can be "ho hum" or it can be "vavoom!" We can be flat line in our approach to life or we can be a cardiogram on steroids! The world around us is far more colorful than we often perceive. In fact, I believe there's a colorful person in all of us and she can be stifled by a lack of creativity, effort or an unwillingness to really see. So, try a little harder to see a little more clearly next time you look out your window or into your mirror. Choose to experience a little more deeply and feel a little more tingly!

Life is beautiful, see it as it truly is. At least life can be beautiful--it just depends on what you are willing to see when you look.

Blessed are they who see beautiful things in humble places where other people see nothing.

Well, that's what's been percolating in me lately.

You can read more from Jennifer here.