Holiday Specials

This month only and some throughout December you will find all sorts of specials being offered for all of your seasonal and non-seasonal crafting needs!

Here are just a few images of the specials being offered. Please log onto my website to get the full details on each of these deals!

Important Things

Advent Calendar

Christmas Blessings

The Great Outdoors

True North

Days of December

Fund Your Fun!

Hello Pumpkin Deluxe Workshop

As always you will also find a Stamp of the Month that can be purchased at a discounted price. This stamp is called Seasonal Trees and will be perfect for crafting cards, scrapbook pages and home decor pieces.

Please log onto my website for more information and tons of inspiration!

Holiday Card Buffet 2017

Recently I held my annual Holiday Card Buffet. This event has become one that the ladies anxiously, but patiently wait for each year! I knew I had to really bring the fun this year. I did that by first, making 14 different card designs and a little over 100 card kits in total! Second, I threw in a little twist that involved raffle tickets and prizes!!

Here is my table full of cards. (both sides)

In the red baskets are the card kits and the items needed to complete the card. This may have included stamps, inks, embossing powder with heat tool, embossing folders, thin cuts, watercolors and embellishments. The wooden crate in the center of the table contained a card kit that only required assembly as it was cut on the Cricut and had no further stamping involved.

Here are the ladies hard at work. They are very focused!

I announced at the beginning of the workshop that inside some of the card kits they will find a raffle ticket with a number on it. If they find it, they were to put their name on it and drop it in the corresponding pail on the counter top. I had a total of 5 prizes that coincidentally matched the card that they found the ticket in! This became somewhat of a scavenger hunt to find the tickets!!

Here are just a few of the prizes~

For those that made the pop&twist Beary Christmas card, they had the chance to win a boxed set of cards featuring the Beary Christmas PML cards. It was a set of 5 cards in an altered, decorated box.

This next one was my favorite card and prize. I didn't get enough of that darling Llama from this summer, so he came to visit again for the Holiday!

Ladies who made the Fa la la la Llama card, found the ticket to win a matching chipboard banner. It was even packaged up so cute with a little funny tag.

Who needs a little caffeine pick-me-up during the hectic holidays? I do! This card featured a Cricut cut coffee cup on a pocket card where a tag and gift card could be neatly tucked away. The prize for this card was a K-cup holder using that same Cricut coffee cup.

Some of the other prizes included an ink pad with mini thank you stamp and a set of snowflake ornament gift tags.

In the next few days I will share some of the cards that the ladies created from the delicious buffet!

Christmas in the Warehouse!

It's Tuesday! That means its time for another warehouse sale. This week the bundles will have you prepared for all of your Holiday crafting needs. Be sure to check out all of the items at a deep discount online.

Only one more Tuesday this month. Don't let these deals pass you by!

Family Gatherings with White Pines

Can I just say how adorable the little critters of White Pines collection is. You will find these cuties in the Compliments along with some titles and embellishments. The colors all blend perfectly with soft blues and bright, festive reds. Take a look at this two-page layout.

{left side}

{right side}

This collection can be found in the Holiday Expressions book. Be sure to grab this collection before the end of the month as it will expire. You are going to have so much fun scrapping your Holiday memories!

The Reason for the Season

One last post before you celebrate the Holiday with your family and friends. I originally saw these die cuts on Katy Taylor's Blog. Immediately I knew this would be a perfect Christmas gift for a couple of very special little girls! They were purchased from Pretty Paper Pretty Ribbons Graphics site then cut on my Cricut Explore. Katy did such a wonderful job on her scene and even made them 3D so they stand on their own. I left mine flat, but the thought did occur to me later that I should add magnets behind them so they could be placed on a refrigerator or metal board like Close To My Heart's chalkboard.

I used a Birchbox to store all the little pieces and decorated the outside.

All of the tiny layers were tedious to assemble, but the final result is so cute!

Thank you so much for the inspiration Katy!

I hope that all of you are enjoying your Holiday and remembering the Reason for the Season!

Merry Christmas!

 

First Ever Crate Card Club

Last month I introduced my customers to a new club I was starting. I call it the Crate Card Club!

This is the original photo I made for the flyer and introduction. I did an example and explanation of the club and handed out 6 colorful crates that day.

Our very first club met this past weekend and it is already a success! In fact I already gained an eighth member for our next club in January!

Here is how the club works~

Each member brings their crate filled with a sample card and all the materials for all other members to create their sample card. Each person gets a turn to be the teacher. We rotate to each member around the table until we have completed everyone's cards. In the end you create/design one card yourself and get to make 7 (depending on how many members you have that day) more cards taught by other members. They can be any occasion they desire, I only require that they use mostly Close To My Heart products.

Each member received a plastic crate that they could decorate as they desired. I gave away all the brightly colored crates so I used an older clear one that I dressed up in some black gross grain ribbon and a Base & Bling pendant.

Inside I had my designed card (inspired by the Snowhaven card making WOTG) the papers already cut, stamp set, embellishments and envelopes. I also had all the stamps we were going to use already mounted on blocks.

Here are the cards that were created from all the members~

My card

Nanette

Pat

Tommie

 

 

Barbie

Janet

Lori

What did we learn from our first get together?

1. We get to use stamp sets that we don't already own

2. We learn different styles as everyone has unique ideas

3. We learn clever and creative techniques we never tried before

4. Everyone has a different way of teaching

5. Several cards can be made in a little amount of time

6. We will have a variety of cards for many occasions

7. We laugh and have way too much fun being members of this club!!

I can't wait to meet again in January!

Also~

In conjunction with the Crate Card Club I held a Holiday Open House where I showcased some of the Autumn and Winter collections available in the Annual Expressions Idea Book. I also hosted a Base & Bling buffet and gave a sneak peek to several products that will be featured in the newest Seasonal Expressions Idea Book. Whew!!! Yes, it was a big day for me!{and that's only the half of it!}. Stick around and I will have photo's from my Open House soon!

Sparkle & Shine Flip Album

Today is the day! I am so excited!! It's my annual Christmas card exchange. I look forward to this event every year. I like to mix it up and do something different each time. In the past I've done a secret gift exchange or handmade ornament exchange, in addition to swapping cards. This year I've included a cookie exchange! I was busy baking and decorating yesterday and I'm preparing for a major sugar rush today!!

I also like to provide a fun project to make so we can hang out and create for awhile! This year I've decided to create a mini flip album. After a shopping trip to Ikea this summer, I accumulated several of these darling frames. Then with the premier of the Artbooking Cricut cartridge I knew that I wanted to create a mini album. Finally, the Holiday Gift Guide arrived and the Sparkle & Shine papers and embellishments were the final touch!

The assembly will be so simple. All the pages were cut on my Cricut and then I cut the photo mats from the left over pieces of cardstock. We are decorating each page with the coordinating chipboard, zip strips, washi tape, twine and ribbon...that's it....no stamping at all?! {whaaaat?!!}

 

 

Come back soon as I will share all the Christmas cards from the exchange, cookies and other festive surprises that even the ladies don't know about!! ;)



Make a Card Today!

Hey Bloggers! Today is World Card Making Day! There are several blogs out there today celebrating too, inspiration is everywhere! I did a little research yesterday to figure out which cards are the most popular greeting cards. Birthday cards were number one, followed by Christmas. None of the sites I researched really gave the third most popular. Mostly they indicated that major Holidays such as Halloween, Valentine's Day, Mother's Day and Father's Day were all close runner up's.

So to celebrate today I created all brand new cards for Birthday, Christmas and a general everyday greeting card that I felt showcased a very hot trend in card making this year!

My first card is a Birthday card. Birthday's can't be sweeter than some colorful ice cream. Here I used the Fanfare stamp set and a fun shape cut on the Artiste cartridge.

For this Christmas card I steered away from the traditional colors and pulled in some beautiful blue papers from the Avonlea papers. I used the Perfect-Fit Holidays stamp set and added some bling to my snowflakes.

Finally, my everyday greeting card. Who doesn't love the surprise of happy mail!! I loved the trend of rainbow colors in artwork this year and those who know me best saw it in many of my projects! and of course I had to throw in a little bicycle {heart them}!!

I hope you get some time to make a card or two today. Better yet, send it to someone you love and let them know you care! Happy Day Everybody!