Elegant Mini Albums

"Artbooking Made Easy" is a wonderful series from Close To My Heart, created for your viewing pleasure in order to make using our "Artbooking" Cricut cartridge, well...easy! Kristine Widtfeldt is my favorite CTMH personality (sorry Monica!), and in this video, she shows you two of the many mini albums you can create with the "Artbooking" cartridge - and a helpful hint at the end! Sit back, watch and enjoy...then imagine the possibilities.....

Party Favor Inspiration!

This week, I have a Close To My Heart video for you. My computer is having major "issues", so I have to work on that before anything else. Hopefully, it will be resolved by next week and I'll be back with a full post. Until then, this video is one of my favorites - Kristine is awesome, and so are the adorable party favors!! These are also featured in the Spring-Summer 2014 Idea Book on pages 108 and 110. Enjoy!

An Anniversary

Today is the tenth anniversary of my grandmother’s death. She was the last of my grandparents to pass away. I mention this because I am in the business of memory-keeping. I have kept diaries and journals, and have a dozen scrapbooks filled with the memories and stories of my life. But my grandmother – she left nothing. After her passing, I asked my mother if she had found any journals or scrapbooks that my grandmother had kept, but she found nothing. Now that she is gone, I can’t ask her about her life growing up, her favorite things, her favorite memories – and she left nothing behind to clue me in. Of course, these are the things I should have asked about while she was still alive, but it never occurred to me that she wouldn’t be around someday to ask (weird, right?).

Therefore, today, I urge you to take some time out of your busy schedules to talk to your family members, your friends, and/or those closest to you. Find out their stories and write them down. You don’t have to scrapbook them, or if you do, it doesn’t have to be an artistic masterpiece. Just get the memories down on paper, because someday, perhaps sooner than you expect, the memories will no longer be there, and will be lost forever. And that would truly be a shame.

I did this layout, dedicated to my deceased grandmother, on the first anniversary of her death. On the left-hand side of the layout is a poem that my grandmother had written to her mother on her mother’s birthday. On the right, is the following journaling:

“The first time I read this poem, written by my grandmother, was on the day of her funeral. I was given the honor of reciting it during the church service in her memory. I love this poem because it gives me a brief glimpse into the life of my grandmother that I never knew. First that she was a writer of poetry, and second, that she had a deep love, admiration and respect for her mother. From the poem I can also tell that it was written after she was married, and after she had had at least one child of her own.

Now it is the first anniversary of my grandmother’s death on May 7^th, 2004, just two days after her 84^th birthday. This year, one year later, the anniversary falls on the day before Mother’s Day. This poem may have been written for her mother, but it might as well have been written for herself. All of the same things are true, and she was loved, admired and respected more than anyone else I know.

I really wish that I had taken the time to get to know her as a person, and not just my grandmother. We talked about day-to-day things, but never really talked about her life, her dreams, her past. When you’re young, you lose sight of the fact that the people in your life actually had lives of their own before you came into it. It’s still hard to believe, even after a year, that I won’t be seeing her again in this life. Most every childhood memory I have is at her house in North Adams. She was one of those people that you just assumed would always be there.

I wish that she could have met my daughter in person, but at least she got to see her in video that my parents had taken. I am also glad that I had a chance to be there with her in the hospital before she passed away, so that I could tell her how much I loved her, and for her to know that I was there. She may not have heard me talking, but I know she knew I was there, and I’m sure that meant the world to her. That much I am happy for.

My grandmother was a kind and loving woman, with a great sense of humor! She will be missed today, tomorrow and always.”      – May 7, 2005

May you continue to rest in peace, Gram. I will love and miss you always.

Picture My Life™!

As I mentioned in last week’s blog post, I recently took part in a Craft & Vendor Fair here in Uxbridge. I did several different projects using Close To My Heart’s newest products – one of which was a “Year in Review” album using the “Picture My Life” Scrapbooking Program. In a different BLOG POST, I shared several cards that I created using the PML cards, and the “My CreationsJournaling Cards Box” I decorated to hold them. This time, I actually used the cards and the awesome pocket pages that come with them to create a fun album of the year 2013.

The “Picture My Life” program that I have is “Skylark”, but there are seven other patterns/themes to choose from! Each one comes with 122 double-sided cards (44 4” x 6” and 78 3” x 4”), one 12” x 12” Designed Cover Sheet, and ten 12” x 12” Memory Protectors in various designs. All this for just $24.95. Believe me – it’s a bargain! Check out the album I was able to create:

I love how flexible and versatile this program is. The designs of the cards allow some to be used by themselves in a pocket, while others invite journaling or even smaller photos to be mounted to them. I was able to sum up my entire year in one afternoon - fantastic. It's not fancy, or frilly, or Museum-of-Fine-Arts-worthy, but my photos and my memories are now safely recorded and visible for future generations. Mission accomplished.


Check out all eight "Picture My Life" programs on my website at funforyou.ctmh.com!

So Many Possibilities!

I recently took part in a Craft & Vendor Fair here in Uxbridge, and it was a lot of fun. One of the projects that I really wanted to have for the fair were completed pages to put inside of my “My Creations™ Kraft 3-Ring Album”. Lucky for me, Close To My Heart’s “Artbooking” Cricut cartridge has several 8” x 8” mini albums on it, which fit perfectly inside the Kraft Album.

I had a lot of pictures from our trip to England, back in 2000, that I never did an album for. So I knew I’d need a lot of pages. Because of this, I did not stick to just one album on the “Artbooking” cartridge – I used pages, overlays, icons, and titles from the “Travel Mini Album”, the “Snapshot Mini Album”, and the “Inspiration Mini Album” – all 8” x 8”.

Being that most of my photos had an overall grey look to them, I decided to stay very simple and neutral with my paper choices for the album pages. I used Whisper and Slate as my base colors, and Ruby for a pop of color. That’s it – all cardstock – no patterned paper. I did use CTMH’s new “Embossing Folder – Quatrefoil” on some of the pieces, though, to add subtle texture and pattern.

What I love is the variety of pages throughout the album. Some of the pages are only half-pages, some have fun borders and die-cuts, some folded up to be pocket pages – it’s so fun & interactive! So without further ado, here is the final product:

Let's start with the cover - I used the “Embossing Folder – Quatrefoil” on the Ruby strip to the left. Cool how you can do a long strip like that, right? The embossing folders have a slit in the top of them so you can move your paper through and continue to emboss longer strips of paper. A very unique feature!

First page - a cool "travel" overlay in Slate (and I saved all of the cute shapes that came out of that for future use!).

There is another Slate overlay used later on in the album - the chevron. I saved all of the strips that were cut out of that overlay and used them as accents throughout the book. Don't you just love that "speech-bubble" page?!

I just love all of the fun icons and titles there are to use...

Another half-page on the right...

Ah - there's the chevron overlay! Whew - Hugh Grant is so handsome!

The word "pocket" and the arrow are not actually part of the album - I put them in the photo so you would know that that page is a pocket page! The border I made from a strip of our chevron Washi Tape and a strip from the chevron overlay.

The reverse side of the pocket page has another pocket attached (again with the Quatrefoil embossing). Love the "Today" border!

Pages of all shapes and sizes....

Almost done...

Complete! Fun, right?! I am so glad that I was finally able to get these pictures into an album - in hardly any time at all!


Ok, now that you've seen the album and just some of what the "Artbooking" cartridge can do, would you like to know how to get your own "Artbooking" (or "Art Philosophy" or "Artiste") cartridge for FREE? If not, you can stop reading here. But if so - READ ON!

Every piece, save the mats behind the photos, was cut from the “Artbooking” Cricut cartridge. Wouldn’t it be incredible to have it for yourself?! You can have the “Artbooking” cartridge AND three D-size coordinating stamp sets AND three coordinating sheets of Dimensional Elements for the incredible low price of $99...OR, you could get it for FREE. That’s right – FREE. How? Become a CTMH Consultant in the month of April and get your choice of one of our three incredible Cricut Collections for FREE. Is this special for you? YES! Here’s why…

It’s a super sweet deal! Over $400 in fabulous CTMH products for only $99. A New Consultant Kit is $99. It comes with about $309 in new CTMH products in it. Right now you get to add a free Cricut Collection, which gives you over $400 in fabulous products!

You can get it ALL FREE! That’s right. When you have $1200 in sales in your first three months, you get the cost of your kit back. That means you end up getting the $400 in products for FREE when you get that $99 kit cost back. It’s easy to hit that $1200 goal and I’m here to help you along the way.

You get to be part of my team! I have a very supportive team that shares creative and business ideas to help each other be successful and have fun. In fact, we just completed a CTMH challenge, making us one of only 20 teams in the company to complete the goal. It’s awesome. I love being part of the Creative Hearts Team.

CTMH is amazing! CTMH has fantastic training, support materials, and remains an innovative leader in the scrapbooking and paper-crafting industries.  As a Consultant, you receive a discount on all of your personal purchases. You are also provided with a free website to use with your business and provide online shopping to your customers. CTMH is celebrating 30 years of being in business, they are completely debt free, and able to move forward as a very healthy company.

It’s FUN, FLEXIBLE, and FULL OF POSSIBILITIES! Becoming a CTMH Consultant is one of the best choices I have ever made. I have so much fun creating, learning new things, and sharing it with other people. I have the flexibility to set my own schedule around the other things that are important to me, instead of fitting family and life around my work. I have been able to travel and do so many other things thanks to all of the possibilities I have with my CTMH business.

Jump onto my website NOW to take advantage of this incredible deal – before it’s gone! I look forward to "working" with you!

Artbooking Made Easy!

My absolute favorite Close To My Heart product has got to be their Cricut cartridges. There are currently three different ones to choose from - "Art Philosophy", "Artiste", and the latest addition, "Artbooking". It's no coincidence that there is "Art" in each of their names! With over 700 images on EACH cartridge, you are never going to run out of reasons to use these collections. And since the latest cartridge, "Artbooking", is so unique, CTMH has put together an entire series of videos entitled "Artbooking Made Easy". Each episode focuses on two theme-related pages in the cartridge's booklet. The latest release - "Artbooking Made Easy - All-Star Scrapbooking!" Use the two "team-related" pages in the booklet to create fun & sporty layouts for your scrapbooks. Watch the video and be sure to go to MY WEBSITE to view more episodes!

From Bland to Beautiful!

I am very excited to be one of the vendors at this year's third annual Uxbridge Women's Club Craft & Vendor Fair on April 12. There are so many things I would love to showcase, but I really have to narrow it down due to space constraints! One item I really want to share is the "My Creations™ Journaling Cards Box" because it is the perfect place to store my "Picture My Life" cards. It also has a magnetic closure, and is made from a very sturdy white chipboard:

Here it is open with my "Picture My Life" cards in it:

Nice, right? But kind of plain (who are we kidding - it's horribly plain!). But this is the beauty of this, and all, of CTMH's "My Creations" line - it is a blank canvas just waiting for you to embellish it! I decided to dress mine up with patterned paper from the "Ariana" Paper Pack, a bow from the "Ariana Assortment", and a bit of Bronze Shimmer Trim. I also used our Scallop Border Punch with some Crystal Blue cardstock to create the scalloped edge along the top of the cover. Here it is all gussied up:

Whoa! MUCH better, right? I painted the whole thing with matte Mod Podge so the paper wouldn't get worn. I love it!

I hope you will be able to come out on April 12 to the Craft & Vendor Fair! Check out the Facebook Page HERE. And to order Close To My Heart products ANYTIME, visit my website at funforyou.ctmh.com!