Happy Anniversary!!

Happy Anniversary to me and .... Close to My Heart!!  March 2014 marks my 6th year anniversary with Close to My Heart.  Little did I know what I would gain from my decision to become a Close to My Heart consultant.  I honestly joined to receive the discount - a good reason for sure, but what I have gained is much, much more than a discount.

I have met so many wonderful ladies (& gents) who enjoy paper crafting as much as I do.  The friendships I have developed with so many talented, creative, and funny ladies has enriched my life.  I love these women as sisters and I am truly blessed to be a CTMH consultant.

I am soooooo excited to see some of these ladies in May at the ReDiscover Toronto event. This is a smaller than convention event brought to us by CTMH Corporate.  It is such a creative, and learning experience. 

Just a little longer to wait than ReDiscover, Toronto is Convention 2014 held at Disneyland Resort, Anaheim, California.  This is a fabulous time reconnecting with long distance friendships from around Canada and the US - not to mention non-stop creating, business mentorship and just plain giggles with thousands of consultants who are paper crafting crazy!!!!

Want to be part of this fun?  I would love to invite you to become a member of the Paper Traditions team in April - join for $99.00 and receive your choice of one of three exclusive to CTMH cricut cartridges for FREE!!!  Yep that's right free - you will receive over $400.00 in products for $99.00!!!!

Since pictures are worth 1,000 words - here are a few of my favourite people!!!

The very talented Alyson Mayo. 

Brian, Monica and Kristine were snagged by four crazy Canadian girls for a photo op!!!

 Barb, Jackie and Nancy are three fabulous women I met at convention in 2011 - we of course had to room together in Dallas in 2012.  We are from the east and west of Canada and shared a ton of laughs over the week.

Here we are at the opening of Convention 2011 in Disneyland. Four ladies who had not previously met - plotting for 2012 and Dallas, TX. 







Enjoy,

Jennifer

Ready to Ride??

I know Spring has to be just around the corner.  I just wish it was a sharp bend instead of a long, slow, winding, curve type corner. 

Mr. Moose is ready to get out his hog and ride!!!  I love this image which I coloured in the Harley Davidson theme of orange and black. 

Born to Ride is stamped, cut out and popped up with foam tape for some added dimension.

Add some tire tracks and he's ready to roll.


Let's hope to hear the chirp of birds and roar of motorcycles soon.

Skylark Box Card

I don't know about you, but I've had enough of winter!!!  The snow and cold temperatures here in Southern Ontario, Canada just keep coming - we even have a new term "polar vortex".  To help bring Spring along, I decided to create a box card with flowers, and butterflies, and dragon flies - maybe that will melt the snow and chase away the cold temperatures.

Thanks to a great tutorial from Splitcoast Stampers this card box came together pretty quickly.  It is a bit of fliddling but worth it in the end. 

The leaves and front blue butterfly were cut with Artiste and Art Philosophy cricut. 

This is a close up of the inside of the card.  I tucked the leaf stems into the support cross pieces and added the flowers and butterflies to the stems.   I've used flowers from my stash, added aqua dots for the centres and attached with glue dots. 

The back of the card has a white space to write your message or stamp your sentiment to the recipient.  I've left my blank for now.





 

I hope you enjoy this touch of Spring!!! 

 

Enjoy





Babycakes Baby Album

 

I love, love, love doing baby albums.  It is my "go to" gift for my nieces and nephews and for special friends who may be expecting a grandbaby.  For this baby album I used the beautiful Babycakes paper from CTMH. Lets have a look at each page.

 

 This page came together in a snap.  Believe it or not the frame was the leftover from the page below.  I loved how it worked for the first page in the album.  The title, branch, leaves & owl were all cut with the Artbooking cricut cartridge (exclusive to CTMH)

These two pages were created with the Babycakes Workshop on the Go.  All the directions, cutting guides, paper, embellishments were included to make this great 2 page layout.  The exclusive stamp set in the WOTG created the banner and cute titles.

 CTMH How To Books provide a great resource to help with your layouts.  Add the co-ordinating stickease and you're finished another layout.  I used some ribbon from my stash, the zip strip and some foam tape for added dimension. 

 Another layout using the CTMH How To Books, co-ordinating stickease and ribbon. 

This is the second layout provided with the Babycakes WOTG.






Now the new mommy can simply add her photos to the pages and she'll have her baby album full in no time. 

Enjoy



LaBelle Vie Waterfall Card

It always happens when I'm tidying up to make room for wonderful new products; I come across some old favourites... and I just have to play.

 This is the LaBelle Vie paper package (retired) with stamped images from Treasure Life (retired).

I love the chalkboard design on the paper, and the rich plums and pinks.  I paired it with images stamped in slate grey.

Treasure Life is one of my all time favourite stamp sets.  It has wonderful sentiments and different trees/branches - just a great stamp set.

I really pulled out the stash for this card using long retired baby pink embellishments for the brads and pull on the waterfall.

I know my ladies are going to love creating this fun, interactive waterfall card.

I think I now have room for even more new product!!!






Enjoy,

Jennifer

Give a Lift & Balloon Ride

With the release of every new idea book from CTMH there is usually one thing (well more than one) that is a must have.   For me that was the paper package Balloon Ride and the stamp set Give a Lift.  My oldest when he was a wee boy always loved hot air balloons and this paper and stamp set brought back so many memories and  put a smile on my face.

I was able to get crafty with both and absolutely love my first project with them.

 I coloured the image in with my blending pen, using sky and sorbet inks.  The ribbon and brads are from my retired stash.  The image is cut with Artiste at 3" and ink distressed with saddle (my go to brown)

 I love the card when it is opened up,  The sentiment is stamped with sorbet ink and the easel is held open with opaque mocha pearls (retired). 

If you haven't tried and easel card before, give it a go  - it is a really quick and fun project.







Enjoy,


Jennifer

MIA - Missing in Mexico

Sorry I've been MIA lately - we just returned from a beautiful vacation in sunny Mexico.  I have a number of photos to scrapbook including those from a family wedding we attended there. 

This was the view from our room on our first morning.  Not too hard to take considering the weather we've been having in Ontario, Canada.






I promise to get busy with some new projects in the coming days.  Stay tuned!!

Until then, enjoy the beautiful Mexican sunrise.

Jennifer