Flowers in a Boot

Hello! I have a sweet card to share with you today! I held an Open House this morning to celebrate the new 2016-17 Annual Inspirations Idea Book. We looked at some fabulous new products and flipped through the pages of inspiration. Then we really had some fun by playing with a few of the new items. My card design was inspired by the Freshly Made Sketches this week, however the flowers and colors were inspired by some Sea Glass iced cupcakes and Ikea napkins! {what?}

Here is one of the cupcakes on a napkin, do you see my inspiration?

Here is the sketch on FMS~

Curious about the new products we got to work with? We had fun trying out some flower cuts from the newest Cricut cartridge Flower Market. They looked adorable in that Sea Glass rain boot also from the Flower Market cartridge. We used some older, almost retired Calypso paper and some new Rustic Home Fundamentals paper. For our sentiment we quickly and easily added a Thin Cuts thanks and simple stamped sentiment from one of the stamps included in the Cricut Flower Market collection.

Remember that you can get the Rustic Home collection for free with the Basically the Best promotion going on this month only. More details can be found in the Current Specials tab at the top.

Thanks for stopping by!

Circus Alphabet ~ July Stamp of the Month

Look at how cute the Stamp of the Month is in July! Getting 2 alphabets for only $5 is fantastic!! Watch this video for some inspiring ideas, then check out the sneak peek of my Open House project below!

 I will be hosting my Summer Open House, Wednesday, July 16th. I will have the new Annual Inspiration Idea Book available along with new products and artwork on display. You can make this 12x12 summer inspired layout {using the July Stamp of the Month} for only $10. You may get to play with a few other new items too!! ;) Once you get to play with this alphabet, you'll want one of your own! Please contact me if your interested in attending the Open House event and creating the project.

 Not able to attend this time?....No worries, because the Idea Book is sooooo large, I will also be hosting a Fall Open House {September/October} and Holiday workshops!

***sneak peek***

The Circus Alphabet is only $5 after qualifying purchase of $50. You can order through me directly or online here.

It's Almost Here!

Last day of July!

What does that mean?

Last chance to get this month's fabulous promotions: Stamp of the Month, Work the Workshop Canvas Art Kit & Patriotic Stamp sets. (be sure to check the Current Specials tab at the top to see full details on these promotions.)

 What else does it mean?

That tomorrow is August 1st! It's almost here!! The new Autumn/Winter Idea Book is officially live! I have been hard at work preparing for my Open House this Saturday.

With creativity comes chaos!!

I can't wait to show you the new products and share all my creations with you. If you are unable to make it, don't worry, you can still see all the goodies right here all month long.

You can also place orders starting tomorrow! Be sure to get your order in early to me via email or by phone (not online) so you are eligible to earn prizes!

Also~ Don't forget about the Pajama Party tonight! BigPictureClasses.com

Pear and Partridge Projects

At my Open House I gave guests a look at a variety of projects from many of the new products in the Autumn/Winter Idea Book. This season's Christmas papers are absolutely gorgeous! I love all the new home decor items and I am also impressed with the card workshop on the go offered in this book.

You can make your Christmas cards quickly and easily with this affordable kit. I created the cards exactly as shown in the instructions booklet included. I simply added a card holder cut on the new Cricut Artiste Cartridge.

I also created the new bracket frame in the Pear & Partridge papers. I was able to cut the bracket shape on the Cricut Art Philosophy Cartridge. I embellished around the frame using the coordinating dimensional elements. These are gorgeous by the way, they add so much dimension and are self adhesive. I added a background layout with some cardstock and one of the zip strips. I can simply add a photo from our Holiday celebrations later.

Open House~ Wall of "Colorful" Cards!

At my Open House last weekend I introduced my guests to the "new" color families. I am so glad that Close To My Heart decided to streamline them and personally think the change was a brilliant idea. I will miss some of the colors that have retired, but embrace the new changes! Here is a little clothespin idea I created to showcase the new "lines" of color!

I just love the new names they were each given as well! {Enchantment, Adventure & Whimsy}

I also displayed several cards within some of the color families using several new stamps from the Artiste Collection and the National Stamping Month promotion "It's Your Day"!

Here are some of the cards up close~

Open House Highlights

Just a few highlights from my Open House & Ice Cream Social! The ladies had lots of products to check out and were introduced to several new items. It was a very "interactive" Open House! Guests were greeted by yours truly decked out with a mustache and they too were given their own 'staches. Pics were taken and then used directly on the "Create & Take" project. Even the kids got in on the action!

While the ladies started creating their page from the new how-to book Make It from Your Heart, I was busy editing and printing their photo's!

Just as they were finished with assembly, I had their photo ready to go on the page. The last detail was to add their own mustache they used in the picture to the layout. How fun is that?!

Here is one table filled with lots of new goodies and fabulous projects! I will show more details on each of the projects in upcoming posts.

In this area I displayed the new color families, National Stamping Month promotion, and the new Cricut Artiste Collection. All of the cards I pinned up use the new stamps in both of these collections. {close-ups of each to come}

I cut strips of cardstock and adhered them to clothespins. I then strung them on a 12x12 cork board Just a fun way to display the new colors!

I have so much more to share with you from this fun event, be sure to come visit again!

Open House Sneak Peek!

It's almost here! My Open House, Ice Cream Social and Idea Book Reveal! So many fabulous new products! Several creative projects to share! I just thought you might like a little sneak peek!

Open House and Idea Book Reveal

This coming Saturday is my Open House, Ice Cream Social and Idea Book Reveal!! Oh Yeah! It's gonna be a big day, lots of surprises in store! I have been crafting up a storm in my room to prepare. Here is a pic for my event, check it out!

It's a quirky theme as you can see. Ladies are invited to come check out my "Stache" of goodies from the new Autumn/Winter Idea Book. I've also been playing with the new Cricut Artiste Cartridge and can't wait to show it off! I "Mustache" you a question? Do you love the current trend of mustaches as much as I do?

I'm also loving these cupcake wrappers that are on the new cartridge. The can be cut to any size you desire, so you can make standard or mini cupcakes/muffins. Look at all the fancy variations~

This is merely a glimpse of what I will have on display, stay tuned!

Open House

I held an Open House and Idea Book Premiere this past Saturday. It went really well and my customers were quite pleased with the new book and products. Here are some pictures from the event.

The first is a counter set up with the new Autumn/Winter Idea Books, B&T paper samples and the raffle prizes {I'll show more pics on these little goodies later}. I also included a fun "first impression" survey form in their books. I asked the ladies to browse the items on display and take a look through their books and pick their favorites based on first impression. I will reveal the results at the end of this post.


Here is a table set up with new product and some projects I made.



This is a Christmas organizer I created using the Big Shot Matchbox die. I made 12 matchbox from white daisy cardstock. I covered the fronts in some new and old papers. The pink and red paper is from the new Jingle collection and the blue is from Twitterpated. The green paper is from an oldie, but still a favorite, Emporium. I punched holes and drew ribbon through the front and knotted it in back creating a drawer pull. It could be used for storing gift tags or placing chocolates inside as a "countdown to Christmas" project.




This is just a simple ornament also created from the new Jingle papers. The ornament is also adorned with the Twinkle Brads and some organdy ribbon.

This card idea comes from the Wishes card confidence program and features the new Glitter Rub~ons. The rub~on was a little tricky at first, but the result is quite beautiful. Again I used the Jingle papers, some creme brulee ribbon and one small Twinkle brad. The sentiment is from the December Word Puzzle stamp.

Here is one of the pages I completed from the Twitterpated papers and I used the Top Coats over the photo on the left page. These are a very cool product, perfect for drawing your eye to a particular photo. I also like that they come in white daisy and colonial white and offer an array of designs and sentiments.

This next page features the new Grace papers and another new embellishment called Dimensional Elements In Color ~ Organic. They have cute designs on them that coordinate perfectly with the Twitterpated papers, but as you can see I found a few that worked with my layout too!

These were the spooky create and take projects that the ladies made. Great for dressing your Halloween table, they created a placement card, a goodie tag and a napkin ring. They used the new Beware stamp set and also the Big Shot machine to create 2 of the items.

Finally, the ladies could make one of the Around the Holidays cards for a $1 donation to Operation Smile. They loved this project so much and were thrilled with how easy and beautiful the cards are. I figure that these will be a big seller this year! Also, I decorated an empty Slim Jim canister to match the cards for the donations. I used the dove from Free Spirit stamp, embossed some dots on the blue cardstock and finished it with a sentiment from the December Word Puzzle stamp.

Curious about the customers favorites? Here are the results from the survey:

Top 2 papers: Grace and Jingle

Top 2 stamps: Many Thanks and Ms. Holiday Cheer

Top 2 new accessories: Top Coats and Twinkle Brads

What will your favorites be? Leave me a comment I would love to know.

I will post some pics soon of the raffle prizes I gave away and my September project.