Last Chance for May specials!

I hope you had a wonderful Memorial Day. We went camping with several families from our Cheers group at church and ate Smores to our hearts content! YUM!!! If smores are a little sweet for you try this: try adding peanut butter to the cracker before the chocolate and marshmallow. My husband who is not a big fan of smores at two this way and loved them! They cut the sweetness down a bit and if you add natural peanut butter you might even play the healthy card J Maybe!

I wanted to post a couple quick reminders:

1. Today is the last day for our You and Me Paper Pack special. This paper pack is super cute and well worth the money. In the kit you get all the papers needed to create 2 double page layouts, a cute stamp set which includes a stitch stamp to make your layout look like you added real stitching to it, large chocolate ribbon, brown opaques and fabulous resist dimensional elements where you add color to the chipboard and a design resists the color and stand outs. Super cute!!!

Here is a layout I created with the "boy" themed paper: It came together rather quickly and is super cute (if you ask me J). As a reminder, this kit can be purchased outright for $39.95 or with a $50 order is only $15!

2. Today is also the last day to sign up to be a Close to My Heart Consultant for HALF PRICE!!!

You can't ask for a better deal than that!!! You get to choose any 3 bundle packages that you like out of the Consultant kit bundles to customize your kit to work for you! In addition to this amazing deal – you also receive the You and Me kit FREE!!! Don't delay – go to my website at http://www.heatherhick.myctmh.com/ and select Opportunities and join the Close to My Heart family today – you won't regret it!

Thank You!

Close to My Heart recently announced that because of your purchase of the Hope for Japan My Acrylix Stamp set, we were able to donate $80,000 to the Red Cross for the Japanese people who were effected by the recent disasters. Thank you again for all of your support and help for those suffering.

I thought I would share with you some fun cards I found from some other Close to My Heart Consultants using the Hope for Japan Stamp. I hope this gives you a little inspiration in using this fun set. Enjoy!

Love Your Layout

Close to My Heart is so excited about their online scrapbooking program, Studio J, that they have created a series of videos to show you how easy Studio J is and how quickly you can turn your pictures into beautiful scrapbook layouts. Check out the first video below to see just how simple scrapbooking with Studio J can be.

Would you like to play with Studio J for free? Click here to play with Studio J with no obligation.

Would you like to get your layouts at half price, get free shipping and get access to members-only templates and kits? Click here to purchase a 3 month ($30) or 1 year ($99) membership. You can also purchase a 5 pack for $55.

Would you like to get all of the 1 year membership benefits PLUS an additional 22% off of your layouts, 2 additional bundles of products, the You & Me scrapbooking kit for less than the cost of a regular 1 year membership? Click here to order the New Consultant Kit (with over $300 in products) for only $64.50 (plus tax and shipping). This is the best option for anyone who love Studio J and/or traditional scrapbooking. Hurry, this offer is only available until May 31st!

I know as soon as you play with Studio J, you will fall in love with it just like I did!!!

Happy Mother's Day

Happy Mother's Day to all you wonderful mothers' out there who take the time to read this blog. This morning I woke up to all the kids in bed with us trying to give me their card first. Last night as the kids were going to bed, I jokingly told them that I wanted breakfast in bed in the morning. I was specific too - I wanted eggs, pancakes, bacon, orange juice and coffee! I guess I was feeling hungry as I told them. Anyway, as I was opening their cards, Whiz Kid handed me a piece of paper that he said he had worked on in bed last night. I opened it to find a drawing of my breakfast just as I had described - I now had my breakfast in bed! Yep, he's my very literal child - got to love him!!!

I thought I would share with you the card I made for my mother-in-law for Mother's Day. Here I used the new Sophia papers and used the technique I taught at my April workshop to make the flower soft and velvety. This is such a fun and easy technique. It works well on scrapbook layouts but is perfect for handmade cards because you can touch and feel the end result without it getting hidden under your page protector like it would in on a layout.

To create the effect you need:

• Fun Flock


• a small ziplock bag


• Reinker - the color of your choice (I used hollyhock)


• Spray Pen


• water
  

Fill your Spray Pen with water up to the 4th line and add 20+ drops of reinker to the water. The more reinker the darker the color. Shake well. Pour the desired amount of Fun Flock into your ziplock bag and spray several sprays of the reinker mixture into the bag. Close up and massage with your fingers to mix the color through-out the fun flock. If you want a darker color, spray a few extra sprays of your reinker mixture and massage again until mixed thoroughly. When you have reached the desired color, pour the flock onto a paper plate and let dry. If there are any large clumps, use a knife or piercing tool to break them up. Let completely dry. Once dry, stamp or cut out an image and use your glue pen to draw glue where you want the flock. Rub with your fingers the flock over the image and shake off the excess. Let dry. This technique gives such a nice velvety look and feel to your flowers, clouds, animals, etc. You can do this technique over and over again and changing only the color to fit your design. An easy and inexpensive technique to add a little punch to your projects.

Here's the technique used on my Sophia Workshop on the Go layout for April. It's hard to see in the pictures but I hope you can see it.

Here's the 2nd layout we created at the layout. Fun!