Merry Christmas!!!

I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas. The weather here was absolutely wonderful for Christmas. I woke up to a light dusting of snow all over the ground which made it truly feel like Christmas. Growing up in NY, there was almost always snow on the ground on Christmas but here in TN it hardly ever snows in December. In fact, our winter weather comes more towards the end of January and February. The snow here made my Christmas feel like a true Christmas.

A couple days before Christmas time, I decide to sit down and try and put together some extra Christmas cards using the scraps from Close to My Hearts Mistletoe papers. Of course, anytime Mama is in her scrap room, all the kids come running. My two oldest kids love to scrapbook with me and thought is would be fun to make their own cards. They had helped a lot with the cards for the car dealership last week so they were ready to go on their own. Here is a picture of some of the cards that we were able to make. We had so much fun until the wee hours of the night but that's what doing life together is all about, right. :)

This one here is my favorite, I think.....

The picture doesn't show the detail very well, but at the top around the flowers, we took prisma glitter and outlined the flowers. The effect was beautiful!

Once Christmas came the kids were thrilled. Bruiser, worried that he might have been on the naughty list but then figured that there have always been presents under the tree before so there should be now too. I wasn't so sure though :). He wasn't so sure either when there were several presents for the other kids and only a few for him. However, don't feel sorry for him, his presents just happened to be bigger and more expensive than the rest which means he got them last :). The end result - he was a happy boy!

Whiz Kid was thrilled with his new drums, Mama was o.k. with them too because they came with head phones so I don't have to hear them all the time.
Princess was our most excited child at Christmas this year, as her long awaited dreams of having her own camera, finally came true! Her screams were silent at first as nothing would come out, and then she finally found her voice and used it until the rest of us had to quiet her down.
Tinker Bell, well she loves everything. Although there wasn't a main gift that she wanted, all her many little gifts sure kept her tickled. I bought her a doctors kit like the one that I had when I was growing up and she was thrilled. Needless to say, everyone had their checkup before the day was through. and though some were told that it didn't look good so a shot was needed, we all should make it. :)

As our kids are getting older, we are trying to really teach them the true meaning of Christmas -giving! God gave us his son to save us and be our redeemer, we give presents at Christmas in honor of Jesus. This year, Whiz Kid and Princess, each with their own money, went out and bought everyone gifts for Christmas. They were both so excited to give their gifts and wanted their presents to be the first given out. It was fun to see them so excited to give rather than receive and the joy that comes from it. I hope and pray your Christmas was filled with joy and love as ours was.

All Through the House Workshop

It is hard to believe that Christmas is right around the corner. I love the lights, the tree, the giving of presents and of course, the food (I'm Italian what else do you expect :) ). Last week I taught my Christmas workshop using our new Mistletoe papers. I always try and make this layout so that I can display as many pictures on the layout as possible. At Christmas I always take twice as many pictures than any other event, and I always take a lot of pictures :). Let's just say thank goodness for digital cameras! :) This year I created a tri-fold layout using our new 12" flip flaps. The layout can hold over 20 pictures! What do you think? Lots of room for pictures, huh! Sorry the picture is turned sideways. In Picture Manager the layout is correctly positioned but somehow it isn't transferring like I need it to here. So, have fun, tilt your head and take a look. Then laugh at yourself because you know your kids will be laughing at you. :)

Also, I thought I would share a card with you that I had to make. My father works at a car dealership and called me last week asking me to put together 200 cards for him in 4 days!!! Well there was definitely an assembly line process going on here at my house. I used the new That's Amore December Stamp of the Month as the ornament, the Flyin' High Stamp Set for the car and the St. Nick Stamp Set for the Merry Christmas wording. Definitely not the stamp sets you would expect for a Christmas card but I think it worked. Hope you enjoy!

Having Fun with Friends

Last week I had so much fun getting together with my friends in Franklin. About once a month they have a girls night and I am blessed that they include me to come and help them keep their scrapbooks growing. This month we created a simpler version of my November Workshop but it turned out just as spectacular.

I really like how all the girls creative styles come out with each layout. Aren't they great!

Ahhhh, the Beauty of Fall

I think I have decided that fall is my favorite time of the year. The gorgeous leaves, the sweet sunshine accompanied by the cool breeze, driving down the road and seeing deer in the fields - absolutely beautiful!!! I hope you are enjoying this time of the year as much as I have been.

During my last workshop, we played with the new Olivia papers which really highlight the season and all its glory. I thought I would share with you what we created. This first layout shows my beautiful Princess and big Bruiser as they sit in a small stream and enjoy the beautiful fall day.

This second layout was created using Close to My Heart's new Magic Layout book. if you notice in the second picture, there is a pull out strip to showcase more pictures. My brother-in-law was recently married and so I thought these papers would be beautiful to highlight the occasion and of course I wanted to show off more people then just them, hence the pull out strip.

In case you missed my baby, here is a picture of my Whiz Kid all dressed up for the wedding.

Isn't he handsome!!! Yes, I am a proud mama!

Take some pictures of some of your favorite things during this beautiful season, or extra pictures as you celebrate Thanksgiving with your family, grab you a pack of Olivia paper and stickease and have at it. These papers can only enhance your pictures!

Have a wonderful Thanksgiving and don't eat too much! :)

No Spooks here

Keeping up with our yearly Halloween tradition, our family went to visit our ol' friend Chuck. You know - the big cheese - the big Mr. Chuck E. Cheese. Each year we give our kids the option to go to our church where we have a fabulous concert and trunk or treat event or they can go visit the Chuck at his house. I don't know if it's because they can't get me near the place any other day of the year or if they really love Chuck but they always choose to go see their big mouse friend. It's the perfect time to go too because NO ONE else is there and we have the place to ourselves. It's fabulous!

Hope you had a fun Halloween too!

They did it!!!

A few weekends ago my friends headed up to Nashville and participated in the Women's Half Marathon. They had trained for several months in preparation for the big event. I was able to join in on the fun by joining them on Saturday mornings, sometimes at 5:30am, to walk for a couple hours before our families would be up and about. Getting together that early, and doing something that makes your body hurt so good is something I never would have considered enjoyable until doing it with these amazing ladies. We have had so much fun!

I was so excited to be able to go up to Nashville for the race and cheer them on as they crossed over the finish line. Of course, my camera was in tow and many pictures were taken. Using our new Studio J software, I was able to create two layouts to show off the event, that I can pass on to the girls. These layouts came together so quickly and I was really pleased with the finished product. Let me know what you think.

Because of the heavy crowds there was very few places to be able to take any good pictures so, as you can see, there are several tree shadows all over the pictures, but I wasn't about to let that spoil my documentation of this fabulous accomplishment. Congratulations ladies, you did awesome!!!

Card/Recipe Box

Well I told you last week was crazy. I had originally scheduled my hostess club for Monday night but my order did not come in on time. I hated to cancel getting together as this is one of my favorite events each month. We make new and different things each month, we share our lives together and usually laugh until we cry. It's a blast and I was so sad to have to cancel this month. We were planning on making some card/recipe boxes so I thought I would share the instructions here so you could enjoy them too!

Here are a few pictures of some boxes that other consultants have created to give you some ideas to get started.

Creating the boxes is super simple and only takes about 2 pieces of B&T (patterned) paper and embellishments. This is a great way to use up some left over papers and create a fabulous teachers gift or Christmas gift. Here is a template on cutting your paper to fit our new card boxes. http://cms.closetomyheart.com/~/media/72BF8C9D8C714BB0B6BEE3EFB498F1BE.ashx

Use these instructions and post what you create!

Yes, I'm still here!

It seems like forever since my last post, and I guess after looking at my last post it really has been forever! Life has been so crazy here lately! As I stated a few posts back, we are back in school, started school at our one-day a week homeschool co-op, Artsy Fartsy is taking classes at Learning RX and my scrapbooking life is busy and fun! Been a busy past couple of weeks and looking to get a bit crazier before it lets up. Hey, but how dull would life be if I didn't live it to the fullest, right!

Last night was my monthly workshop, and true to form with the craziness of life, my order finally arrived Tuesday night. As I went to unpack everything and get ready for my workshop I realized that I made a mistake in my order and instead of ordering the # of paper packs I needed, I ordered the matching Stickease instead! Unbelievable! Well, God is good and it was like watching him with the loaves and fishes, my paper multiplied miraculously! Only one person wasn't able to create the layouts EXACTLY like the rest of us because she was only using the papers I had left over from the 1/2 pack of paper I used for my 4 layouts and 2 cards. How would there be enough paper left over for her to create her 2 double page layouts (4 pages)? Only God knows and only God could do it - and praise Him - he did!!!

Here are the layouts we created at the workshop. This first one was my own creation from our new Magic book. In the 2nd picture you can see how I was able to hide my journaling in a creative way, which I absolutely love! I hope you like it too!

This second layout was from our Workshop on the Go. Close to My Heart creates a full double page layout and 6 cards and puts all the colored instructions into a full color brochure for each of our paper kits. I love creating these kits and always have plenty left over to create my own layout when I'm through.

Cherry-O

Life is like a bowl of cherries - you never know what you are going to get. What a perfectly true statement. God is good and greatly to be praised and praise the Lord he plans what cherry we will get each day and helps us handle the bad ones and rejoices with us over the good ones. Here are some of the good cherries in my life.

Close to My Heart released their new Cherry-O paper at the beginning of the summer and I have had so much fun playing with it. The first layout here is showing my sweet nephews. I copied this layout from the winner of the Make it From Your Heart contest with Close to My Heart. She did such an amazing job that I fell in love with the layout and had to scraplift it. :) It is still missing the title but hopefully that will come soon.

This second layout I created was highlighting my own "cherries" as we made cupcakes together. The girls were so much fun as they made and decorated their cupcakes with a special cupcake icing toy that they received for Christmas. They love anything to do with cooking and this time they were able to do it all on their own. Don't they look like they are having fun?!

While playing with the Cherry-O papers I created this card to use in a make-n-take at a Crop for the Cure event this past weekend. I also taught this card at my hostess club this past weekend. I love these papers - aren't they beautiful!!!

Here are the other cards that we worked on during our hostess club. We used some of Close to My Heart's older papers but we were working on some simple, yet elegant interactive cards. What do you think?

It's Been a Big Day!

Today has definitely been a big day all around!

To start my morning off, it was our first day of school. I wasn't quite as ready as I would have liked to be but the kids were chomping at the bit to start school and there was no holding them back. We rearranged the school room so even little Tinker Bell would have her own desk, and we began. (Can you see Mamma's coffee off to the side :) - I am not a morning person :))

Our first day was a pretty good day considering we changed all of our curriculum this year and are starting fresh. I was as nervous as the 1st day we started homeschooling, six years ago, as I wasn't sure what this curriculum would bring. I'm praying for an easier and more enjoyable school year for all. Although we did have our hiccups, today did run pretty smoothly and the kids seemed to enjoy all their studies.

Today was also the first day of Close to My Heart's amazing $2, $4, $6 for 8 We appreciate You Sale. Every other year or so Close to My Heart has a huge "side walk sale" in Utah where they clear house for their new and upcoming product. This year they decided to do it big and to thank all of their customers by offering all but 4 their current Stickease (card stock stickers), Level 1 paper kits (semi-prelaid out papers) and Level 2 paper kits (patterned paper and coordinating cardstock) for over a 50% discount. This is the biggest sale I think Close to My Heart has ever done and it has rivaled the day after Thanksgiving sales. The system was pretty slow with thousands of people shopping at the same time, some people had error codes but many, many people were able to save hundreds and hundreds of dollars. The Sale will run for only another 7 days and although there is a lot that is already sold out, there is even more still available. You can check out the sale on my website at http://www.heatherhicks.myctmh.com/.

I thought I would share this months workshop with you too. I just finished creating it this past weekend. I created this layout using our new Passages papers and plan on teaching it at my workshop on the 20th. If you want to make this too, e-mail me at HeatherHicks@MyCTMH.com to get all the details. I would love to have you join us.

I have to say I had a blast creating this layout and loved that I had all my pictures organized and ready to flip through t0 pick out the perfect pictures for my layout. I also just love these pictures!!! This is my Bruiser as a baby. Doesn't he just have the cutest cheeks! Just looking at those cheeks makes me want to kiss all over them. These pictures bring back so many memories which I guess is what scrapbooking is all about! At the beginning of the year I taught a workshop helping everyone get their pictures organized and ready to be scrapbooked. This organizational system has helped me tremendously!!! It is so nice to be able to have pictures on hand and ready when I am creating my layouts. I love it!!!! If you have been struggling getting your pictures organized, e-mail me, I would love to have a workshop with you and your friends to help you get started too!

Surprise! The Retired List Has Arrived!

WOW!!! Close to My Heart is always ahead of the game but - wow!!! They have already released this years retired list and you wont believe all that is on there. Every single paper kit released up through our Summer Idea Book is on the list. 6 of our summer colors, Many of our accents, ribbons and much more!!! Can you believe that! Close to My Heart has some big plans for 2011 and in order to bring in all the new goodies they have released quite an extensive list of retired products. You better check it out now before it's too late. All items listed are available until December 31st or until Sold Out.

Select the link below to see the retired list.

http://missgi.fatcow.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/07/Retiredlist20101.pdf

Shop My website here to get your items before they are gone: http://heatherhicks.myctmh.com/

Good luck!

Pictures from Washington DC

Last Thursday I had my teams unit meeting where I shared with my team some of the wonderful things coming from Close to My Heart in the near future. During the next few posts, I thought I would share some of the fun details with you. So...

Upon arrival to DC I was barely able to check into my hotel room at the Gaylord National Harbor hotel in order to go on a wonderful Photo Safari throughout the sites of DC. We met up at 8pm with Mr. David. Here is giving us the low down on how to use our cameras in dark settings. The class was started shortly before it got dark outside that way we could still see the settings on our cameras :). Smart thinking. Pretty soon we started our tour and were abl

e to practice taking pictures in the dark at some of the best places in DC.

What is cool about these last two pictures is that these were the last stops that we made on our tour. These pictures were taken around midnight. It was so neat to see how the pictures look like they were taken during the day time. I'm sure you all already knew how to do this but it was new to me and so cool. Yes, I know - it's the little things :).

The next morning was our Leadership day. This convention day is available for all Managers and above. Here is a picture of the Scattered Hearts team that was able to attend on Leadership Day.

Close to My Heart never does anything half hearted. Their presence was definately known and celebrated!!!

Hostess Club rocks!

Tonight was my hostess club here at my home. We had a hilariously funny night with a ton of laughter, tears, and creating. I don't think I have laughed so hard in months. It was a great time had by all. In the midst of the laughter we created an Event Calendar. This calendar is one that you write all the dates that you need to remember that do not change from year to year like birthdays and anniversaries. Here is what they looked liked when we finished. Enjoy!

Scrap Happy

I have been wanting to post pictures and all the happenings of last week in Washington DC at our annual Close to My Heart convention. Hopefully I can soon but in the mean time I wanted to share a layout I created today.

I created this layout for an upcoming Scrapbook extravaganza called Scrap Happy. You can find the basic information for the event here to the right on my side bar. This is a fun event where several different scrapbooking and stamp vendors come together to give you a chance to see whats new in the industry, take classes to learn new techniques and crop the day away. My layout will be giving a taste of Close to My Heart using over 7 of products to create this one layout. Here is another picture showing how the layout is interactive.

Come join me at the Scrap Happy in Nashville on September 11th. I would love to see some happy, familiar faces!

CTMH Scrappin Ladies

Enjoy this video of the corporate Close To My Heart chicks!!! This is just a little taste of what I experienced while at convention! The best part - the VP of Training, Events and Consultant Services and the VP of Marketing and Sales were the leaders of this awesome dance. With leaders like this, laughter and fun is always in store! (Good thing there good at the business side too!)

Just Peachy Keen!

This past weekend was a crazy busy but oh so much fun!!! The weekend started with my Friday night workshop. We had fun creating with our new Splendor papers.

We continued the fun on Saturday with our all day crop. I love my all day crops because there is always lots of food, catching up with friends and seeing fun creations that everyone is making. Here is Ms. Zada getting a head start on her Christmas gifts creating recipe boxes with our new Cherry-O papers.
One of the yummy foods that we had was Frozen Fruit Salad. This recipe is SO easy and SO yummy especially during the hot summer. I promised I would post the recipe so here goes (by the way, this is a huge recipe but is great for freezing and eating all summer long):

Frozen Fruit Salad:

14 bananas sliced
3 pounds sliced red grapes
1 #10 can of diced peaches, drained and rinsed
1 #10 can of crushed pineapple - un-drained
1 regular sized can of lemonade concentrate
1 regular sized can of orange juice concentrate
9 cups of water
sugar to taste. The recipe calls for something like 9 cups of sugar but I only use about a cup and a half of fructose.

Slice bananas and mix in with lemonade concentrate. Mix in all other ingredients. The #10 cans are the large cans that you can get at Sam's, Costco, BJ's, etc. Like I said, this creates a huge amount! We have to mix it in a rubbermade tote! :) Pour mix into large zip lock bags and freeze. When you are ready to eat, just take out of the freezer about an hour before and let begin to thaw. Salad should be eaten like a slush. Enjoy!!!

To finish my week I did something I hope would make my grandmother proud - I canned peaches. This is a whole new experience for me. Last year it was Strawberry jam and now peaches! It only took me about 6 hours - ugh!!! But hopefully they will be worth the effort.



Well, I'm off to have me some more fruit salad - enjoy your 4th of July weekend and remember to say a special prayer for our service men and women who are fighting to keep us safe. God Bless!

Happy Father's Day!!!!

This is the sign we woke up to this morning on our floor outside our bedroom. Whiz kid made it using toilet paper and staples. There was also a picture of him, Bruiser and Daddy playing Guitar Hero. A great start to our day!

I hope you and your families had a fabulous father's day!!!

Having fun in Hostess Club!

I love my hostess club! It is just a fun time to get together and create! I love it because it is planned time to get away, have fun with friends and make something new. This month we focused on making Dry Erase Boards to decorate our homes or give as gifts. Here's a little snippet of what we made - enjoy!

These are so fun and easy to make and make great gifts. It's a great way to use up your scraps. Try making some and upload them so I can see them.