Sunday, October 26, 2014

A day for me

So.... I'm sure you all have heard the saying, "the best laid plans ..."  I've had one of those days.  I have looked forward to this day all week long.  I planned on getting some of my Christmas gifts started if not done and wrapped.  Well.....

I have a nice breakfast, finish my coffee, and I am ready to get started.  Do you remember this kit from the last catalog??

I decided that these would make great gifts for my boys, so I was going to make 3 of them.  I bought the canvases when they were on sale last month at Michael s, and I bought the paint I wanted to use a few weeks ago.  The other thing I had ready was the HEIDI SWAPP stencil I was sure would mimic the CTMH chevron in the original kit.  I was good to go! 

Only ..... where is the paint?  It must be here somewhere .... 2o minutes later ... I threw on some clothes and ran to Micheal's and bought a new tube of paint. Not my plan.  But, Santa got me a gift while I was there.  I'm sure it will be wrapped and under the tree on Dec. 24!  ;-)  Project life is on sale this week and I have had my eye on one of the HEIDI SWAPP kits.  (yeah!!)

Anyway, back to my story.  So I come home, get started again, and I am ready to start putting things together.  I just need to print a few pictures.                       
 Print..... a few..... pictures.      
 Oh NO!!  No ink!! 
How does this happen?  I do not want to go back into town.  I have things to do.  

So .....
I make some lunch, eat, pout, put my shoes on and head back into town to get ink.  Pout some more, and finally get home so I can get this done.  




I am happy to report that 2 of the 3 are done and the pictures are printed and the detail work is done for the third.  I don't plan to quit tonight until all 3 are done and wrapped.

I love feeling like I have a head start on Christmas.  Now, what am I going to do for the daughter-in-love?

How are you doing on your Christmas list?   C

Sunday, October 19, 2014

Halloween' s a comin'


So, I got up early thisorning and decided to make up a  Halloween card kit I got from my friend Sharon. 5 adorable cards that went together so quick! I'm looking forward to getting them mailed out to the little people I'm our family. 


I started this post a couple weeks ago and didn't get it up!  Since then, I have hosted my annual Fall retreat at Storm Mountain Retreat Center in South Dakota.  What an amazing time we had!  I am Blessed to have such fun and loving scrapping friends.  I think we had the nicest weather we have ever had up there, too warn for a fire, but great for sitting on the deck and taking short walks.  





I have made so many Halloween cards this year I have them coming out of my ears~!  I am planning on doing some mailing next week and hope that my family enjoys them.  Now it's off to making Thanksgiving and Christmas cards.  

See you soon!   Connie

Monday, September 1, 2014

STASH BASH

Ugg!  Trying to get through all of the OLD paper workshops I have in my Scrap room Before the Holiday Craziness hits is daunting.  I took the most current year's worth of paper to a Crop last weekend and made it through 3 ... 3!!  I was hoping to get through 12.  But I just keep plugging away.
Finishing up the SKYLARK paper pack was interesting. Having a printed paper with an orientation to work with made it a bit more of a challenge for getting cards done. I do like how they turned out!    

The SARITA paper pack was fun too.  I LOVE the colors.  And I pulled out a few of my woodies and a retro TIM HOLTZ stamp that is so fun!!  

A closer look at some of the cards.....

And now on to the PROPLAYER paper pack ... Getting some of the boys' pictures scrapped too which is good.  

I hope you are getting some time in your scrapbooking room this fall.  See you soon!    C

Sunday, August 3, 2014

HELLO AGAIN - it's me

What a weird year this has been. I feel like I am just about ready for April and in reality it's August already, when did that happen?  This year, both of my boys have moved out of the house, leaving me with room to grow, and a burning ambition to downsize and go through EVERYTHING I own. For a scrap booker, this may not really be a good thing.  As I have been going through things, I am finding many projects I need to finish, many projects I SHOULD finish, and many thing I wonder what the heck I was thinking.

I frequently find myself frozen, overwhelmed with all the things I want to do, and all the things I 'should' do.  I have made it a goal to just do one thing at a time, do a little at a time, and make an effort to enjoy the process.  I have also promised myself I will not let guilt force me to do projects that I no longer have any desire to do.  But, those are few and far between I find.

Last weekend, the goal was organization.  I had pictures ALL OVER MY HOUSE!  They needed to be in ONE place so I could spend less time searching for the picture "I know I have!" somewhere!!  It took 10 hours of finding, sorting, labeling , and focusing, but I think I have most of them together.  I still have a pile of things I need to sort through on the side of my desk, and I know there are photos in there, but I am not ready to face that pile just yet.  This weekend is for creating!

This weekend, I started by making the second set of cards for the CLOUD NINE card kit.  There were plenty of die cuts for 2 sets of cards, but not enough paper. So, I used some of the paper from the SARITA paper kit.  I substituted COTTON CANDY for the yellow in the kit, and it worked out great! I really like these cutting directions, and I am thinking of using them for my Christmas cards with the BULK paper from 2013's SPARKLE AND SHINE.

Next,  I dug out the box of left over product from the CHRISTMAS TAG class I held last fall.  My mission this week is to get all those leftover tags put together so they are ready to use or give away this year. I have 2 of the sets finished, but it may take me all week to finish the rest.  The mission, get them done!!


And, finally, I want to share the pages and cards we made in my Monthly Scrap Book Club last month.  We used the TIMBERLINE paper and the workshop stamp set. I used pictures from a recent "girls trip" and scrapped the first of the pages I need to get done.  I think they turned out great, and I'm anxious to get the rest of the pictures on paper!  I hope you enjoy them!






See you soon, and keep playing with that paper!!

Friday, January 31, 2014

Have a Plan for your photos now!!

I am always amazed when someone can't find a photo they are looking for.  I almost always can locate a photo from an event fairly quickly once I open my computer up.  See, I have a plan.  I know, this is where my husband always rolls his eyes, but I have this plan, and it has worked for me for over 10 years, so I am going to stick with it! 

At the end of the year, actually, I try to do it every 3 months or so, I download all the pictures from my phone and my camera on to my desktop.  I have a file ......



STOP!  

Maybe we should start at the beginning of the year.   


OK .... this is what my PHOTOS section of my desktop looks like.  I can't figure out how to get close enough for you to actually read the file titles, so you are going to have to trust me.  


The first files are 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012 etc. right up to 2014.  In January, when I had a day to sit and do computer work for a couple hours, I finalized my 2013 files and opened my 2014 files.  


The steps I take to open a new year are simply to create file folders so I have somewhere to put all my pictures.  So, for 2014, in my pictures library, I created a file and named it 2014.  Every time I download pictures from my camera or phone - or steal them from Facebook or get them from friends this year, the pictures will go somewhere in this file.  


After this step, it kinda gets personal according to how you think, how you scrapbook and what you take pictures of.  My beginning file always has the 12 months, and my 3 boys names, my sister's name, and storage folders.  So the breakdown looks like this:



2014

     Jan
     Feb 
     Mar
     Apr
     May
     June
     July
     Aug
     Sept
     Oct
     Nov
     Dec
     Will
     James
     Tori
     Paula (I have a special album I am making for her!)
     Phone(this just gives me a temporary place to dump pictures so I can sort them into folders easily)
     Camera (see phone note!)

Then, when I know certain events are going to happen in any given month, I will add yet another sub-folder at this point. For example May.  I have several things that happen every May that I like to scrap and keep pictures of. So, my folder in my 2014 file will look like this:

*2014
    ** May
          ***NATIONAL SCRAP BOOKING DAY (all day crop I DO take pictures!)
          ***BIRTHDAY (mine!)
          ***HOG (road clean up, and rides start this month!)
          ***YARD (Spring fever hits and I start yard clean up!)

Now, as more things happen, I may add new folders, but basically this is it.  I try to clean out my phone and my camera about every 3 months, but may do it more often if I am ready to scrapbook and event. 

At the end of the year, I make sure I have all the pictures I want from all my devices and friends and family (it's after Christmas you know, so I have to collect pictures from other people!) And I make sure every thing is in it's proper file and I BACK IT UP.   

Let me say that again.  BACK IT UP! 

 I make a DVD disk of each year, I have them filed in my scrap booking room in a DVD box designed just for this purpose.  I got this box at TARGET I believe and it is just perfect. Picture disks are the only thing I keep in that particular box.  They are organized and labeled by year. I should have a second copy made so I can keep a back up copy at my sister's house.  Maybe that will be one of my goals this year. 


I am, like every one else I know, behind on my scrap booking, so I love that I know just where to go to get the pictures from 2009 when I am ready to work on that book.  This makes my life easier, I hope it will help you get some control over your photographs so you have more time to play too!  


see you soon!  
Connie










Friday, January 10, 2014

The gift of a December Daily

I have a friend who is as fascinated with the concept of the DECEMBER DAILY album as I am.  OK, maybe not as much as me, but she wanted to give it a try this year too.  I knew she has other things going in her life and she wouldn't have one in time to do the 'plan' this year. So, I made her one as a Christmas gift and made sure she had it Dec. 1.  I have no idea if she has it done or not, but it turned out so cute, I wanted to share it with you.

 OK, so all these pictures appear upright in my file folders and I can't figure out how to get them upright here.  I'm sorry!  Stand on your head, get a crimp in your neck - oh I mean DON'T do those things, but check out this cute album.  I used the SPARKLE AND SHINE paper by CTMH and and 8X8 album.  I wanted it to be SIMPLE!  I think that is the concept of a December Daily. 



 I thought one picture per page or day would keep things easy. 

 I cut all the numbers from the ART PHILOSOPHY Cricut cartridge. 

Each page has a little journalling block that is embellished just a bit!

 I ALWAYS take pictures with my cell phone upside down.  It must be more comfortable to keep my thumb out of the picture that way!  ha ha 

 Are you standing on your head yet?

 Hmm ... I thought these were in order. ??




 I love zip strips!  They make a page look 'done up' with so little effort. 


  I used the embellishment pack for the SPARKLE AND SHINE paper too!


 I'm getting kinda dizzy!





 I added some wood veneer tree embellishments through out the album.  I love these things!






 In case you can't tell, I made a few pages for Christmas Eve and Christmas day.  I think they deserve some extra pictures.  My favorite holiday of the year!  I gave my friend a baggie of short banners she could add to her pictures to embellish them if she needed them.  I love how this turned out and may be doing this for myself next year!  

Yes, I did do a Dec. Daily album.  I will be finishing it up this weekend and will post pictures of mine sometime next week.  

In the meantime, spend some time in your happy crafty space! 
Connie







Thursday, January 9, 2014

So thankful for my second job!

This is Glitter Tape.  I got it from Michael's for a ridiculously low price.  But, I wouldn't have even looked twice at it if I had not done the BABY CAKES WORKSHOP ON THE GO by CLOSE TO MY HEART. I absolutely HATE glitter ribbon.  But, working with glitter tape is an amazingly easy experience.  Once you figure out how to get the backing off, which can be a trick, it goes on and stays on - so smooth.  And it adds the sparkle  that a page or card needs now and then.

Don't tell my sister I said things need sparkle now and then.  She'll have a coronary.  I'm not much of a sparkle person.  But, a touch, now and then, is good for the soul.

So, this is my Michael's stash of glitter tape.  And I have all of the CTMH glitter tape so far.  I am thrilled that the new catalog has PURPLE tape!!  How fun is that going to be on the LAUGHING LOLA pocket life pages?!  I can't wait to play with all of the new things!

I hope you are spending time in your creative happy place today.  I know I am!  Connie

Wednesday, January 8, 2014


Well, it has been a long time since I have been here.  I'm sure your holidays were crazy too!  Mine involved not only the holiday planning, shopping, wrapping, cooking and working, I had kids moving in and out of my house!  Total chaos!  I couldn't wrap my head around anything last month.  My oldest and his girlfriend moved out on the 1st of January.  My tree came down today, and I think I may be getting back into the crazy routine that is my life. 

I thought I should start by telling you that our new catalog is in my hot little hands! 
It is AMAZING!!
I can't wait to share it with you all!  It goes live (active) February 1.  If you want one and you don't have one - call me!  I can hook you up!  

January is NATIONAL PAPER CRAFTING MONTH!  
Close to My Heart always offers a wonderful special, and this year is no exception!  
Cloud Nine card kit is full of fun stamps, colors, and new products to play with.  you can make 10 fabulous cards and check out 6 of our brand new products for only $15!  Ask me how! 


OK, that is all I am going to do tonight.  But, I have many things to share this month, so you will hear from me again soon!  

Hang out in your happy place!  C