Cluster Stamping

Here is the newest of videos from Ms. Kristine and Ms. Monica with the Close to My Heart staff showing just how easy it is to use multiple stamps on a card or layout with one easy press.  Love it!!!  Enjoy!

The Magic of Monograms

The latest of Close to My Heart's videos has just been released using our new Mini Monograms.  These are such fun little stamps that at $2.95, is a very inexpensive way to make a big statement on your home decor, cards, and gift giving items.  During last months Christmas card workshop, we used this little stamp to put a finishing touch on our envelopes.  Enjoy the video below and happy stamping!

Bend it, Curve It, Stamp It

Our corporate office has been doing a series of videos showcasing some of the awesome uses of our clear acrylix stamps, many uses that can only be achieved with our clear, ply-able, amazing, stamps. 

Here is the first video showing some simple but fun technique to take our stamps and mold them to fit an array of projects. 



I would love to see what you create using the techniques shown here. Please post so that and everyone else can see too! If you have never tried our fabulous stamps, you must!  Click here to go to my website and choose from hundred of sets.   Have fun and happy creating!!!

Christmas Card Workshop coming up quickly!

I am so excited to announce my Christmas Card workshop using our NEW Pear and Partridge paper kits.  Recently Close to My Heart released their newest Christmas Card Workshop on the Go kit.  I have taken that kit and changed it up a bit to give us a fun afternoon full of 12 cards and 2 gift cards for easy Christmas giving. 

Join me, SATURDAY, October 13th from 1pm - 3pm at my house as we create these beautiful cards! 

The best part of the workshop - ALL THE PAPERS WILL BE PRE-CUT FOR YOU!!!  WOOHOO!!!  Now for those of you who are regular attenders for my workshops, you know this is not what I typically do so this is definitely a treat!!!  Don't miss out!

Workshop options are as follows:

Basic Workshop- $25 and includes:

• 14 Colonial White Cards & Envelopes
• Pear & Partridge Paper and Cardstock
• Red Glitter Glue
• Monogram letter - please specify what letter you would like when signing up
• Twill Ribbon

Workshop on the Go plus workshop - $40

• Complete Pear and Partridge Cards Workshop on the Go kit that includes:

• 15 Colonial White Cards & Envelopes
• Pear & Partridge papers & Cardstock
• Red Glitter SPARKLES
• Bamboo Twill Ribbon
• Special Card Stamp Set
• Monogram letter - please specify what letter you would like when signing up

Your own personal items to bring with you to create the workshop:

• adhesive
• 3D Foam Tape (pop-dots)
• If you have them: olive, cranberry, cocoa ink pads
• sharp scissors

The sign up for this workshop is to the right, through Paypal and is only open for a very short time - Through Thursday, October 4th  at 5pm in order to give me enough time to place the order for your supplies and get them back in time so don't delay - sign up now!

Looking forward to getting up a jump on the holidays with you!

Let's Get Organized!!!

Recently Close to My Heart came out with their new organizational bins to help keep everything at our finger tips when at home or traveling to a crop or workshop.  Of course, I love to have my things organized and ready to go at a moments notice so I was so excited to get my hands on these beautys!!!  I got my in last week and have been loving them!!!! They are perfect and hold everything from ink pads to ribbon to adhesive and so much more, not to mention the beautiful etched design on the outside - BEAUTIFUL!!!

Here is a video from Brian at our corporate office showing off these beautiful new boxes.



To get your hands on these beautiful new cases, go to my website now.

Happy organizing!!!

Chalk Adds a Little Pop to your House

I was so excited to get a little time today to straighten up the house.  Many people wouldn't believe this but I actually LOVE to organize.  It gives such a feeling of accomplishment and order when everything is in their place and there is a place for everything!

I didn't have a lot of time but I did have enough time to organize the pantry which I have been severely needing to do.  We buy a lot in bulk (with 4 kids and a husband who is 6'5" you would too!) so I definitely need a good way to organize it all. 

So, I ran to my neighborhood Ross, bought these great air tight jars and got to work.  As I was working, I grabbed my little label maker and started labeling the containers since a lot of the items look alike.  BUT, then I stopped and thought - I can do better!  I ran upstairs to my scrapbook room and grabbed a sheet of  Close to My Heart's Chalkboard paper.

I used the Cricut Art Philosophy cartridge and our new Chalk marker and got to work. This is a small sampling of what I made - the lighting wasn't great to show you the whole pantry.

The best part of the full sheets is that you can cut them to any shape you want and with the cricut cartridge you can, of course, change the size of them.  For my cabinets I made some smaller ones for my little jars and some more of the size shown for my bigger items. When my husband walked in and saw what I did, he immediately commented on the stickers and how much he liked them. He even took me out tonight to find some more jars to label and organize with.  :)

Memories with La Bella Vie

Wow!  What a crazy week this past week or so has been.We are back to school, I'm teaching at our homeschool coop, helping at the church and just trying to be a good mom and wife.  So it was nice to get together with some friends and have another All Day Crop last Saturday.  I usually just bring scrap papers to my all day crops, hoping to get a few cards made but also leaving lots of time to socialize with everyone and peruse their great artwork as well. 

However, this crop I came with the new La Bella Vie papers and had an idea in mind.  My husband and I celebrated our 15 year anniversary earlier this year and just recently I came across some pictures that we had taken on our honeymoon.  I thought these pictures fit perfectly with the theme of the papers and wanted to "play" a bit with them. 

Well...  What do you think?  we sure have changed a bit during the last 15 years and I am sure we will change a bit more during the next 15 years but I am so blessed to be married to my best friend. 

Well, I still had quite a bit of paper left and decided to create this layout with the pictures I found in my tote bag.  These beautiful pictures were taken by a sweet friend of mine who is a photographer in Franklin, TN - Captured Images by Andrea.   TinkerBell was so excited to have her pictures taken and Andrea did such a good job capturing the personality of my girl.

 

If you like these layouts and would like to create them yourself, join me on September 28th from 6 - 9pm as we, laugh, scrap and have a little girl time.  There are several workshop options to choose from so take a look to the left side and choose the best option that works for you.  Would love to have you join us!

Scholastic

Friday night was my Scholastic workshop and I thought I would show you what we created.

Here is the layout I created using the Imagine Book, Jazzy Combination on pg 38 & 39.

 

This is the 2nd layout of the night - the Workshop on the Go layout from corporate. 



As many of you know, we homeschool but my kids do attend a homeschool coop so every week in their lunch I try and put a quick card to let them know I love them and am thinking of them.  It doesn't have to be fancy but it does have to be there.  The kids have come to look forward to them and there is no way I can forget it.

Here are the cards I created for last weeks lunch. Like I said - very simple.  Remember, your cards don't always have to be brilliant but they do have to be there.

Cricut Artiste is EASY!!!

Our new Cricut Artiste is Hot, Hot, HOT!!!!!!  I absolutely love the cartridge and where I would never make a box or gift bag before, I can have something super easy and super cute in a matter of minutes.  If the whole idea of boxes, bags, banners, flowers and party favors from a simple pieces of paper confuses you - watch this quick video where Brian explains how the cartridge and booklets work together to create fabulous projects.  It is super easy with even more explanation then ever before; Look even a man can do it! :)



Here is one more quick video that corporate made to explain how the coordinating images use the same size on the size dial for all the cut pieces - like eyes on a halloween bag.



If you are ready to get your hands on your own Artiste Cartridge, click here to order yours now.

And, don't forget about our September 8th all day crop.  I will have my Artiste Cartridge at the crop for us all to use and create with.  Hope to see you there!

All Day Crop Coming Soon!

Our next all day crop is coming soon - September 8th!  Get your calendar out and mark out the day because you don't want to miss a chance to scrapbook, eat and have fun with your friends.  We will meet at the Best Western in Spring Hill, TN from 9am to 9pm.  Lunch and Dinner are provided for $25.  As usual,  I will have my personal stamps for you to use and new products for you to see and purchase. 

Sign up here to join us for the all day crop.

During the crop, I am going to kick off our monthly card/homedecor workshop.  This month we will focus our attention on the new Scroll Album from Close to My Heart.  This scroll is absolutely beautiful and a great way to display your loved ones out and about for all to see.  Don't have a mantel?  Thanks o.k.. Hang it vertically and let the scroll look like a ribbon hanging on your narrow wall.  Can't make it to the crop but still want to make the album?  We will be creating the album at 2pm so come by and make it with us even if you can't stay all day.  I so wish you could see the scroll in person - it is absolutely beautiful!

Sign up here for the scroll workshop.

It's National Scrapbooking Month Again!!!

YEAH!!! It is National Scrapbooking Month again and CTMH has come out with a cute double stamp set - "It's Your Day" to celebrate.  Watch this quick video below to see how cute and fun this stamp set is for your everyday moments.



Don't forget to come to my Open House Saturday, August 18th to see a preview of MANY of the new products in our Fall Idea Book, have a little to eat and play with the products.  You can place an qualifying order there or hop over to my website and start shopping now.  While you are there, don't forget to select the While Supplies Last button on the bottom of the list to the right, to see all the items on Clearance.  These items have been going fast, so you better check it out soon!

HUGE SALE!!!

Go now to my website to get some incredible deals on papers, stamps sets, embellishments and even our quick pix albums for $2!!!! Quantities are limited so stop reading and go now!!! :)

Join Me for a fun filled Open House

Fall Catalog Open House

 August 18th 

 11am to 1pm

At my home -  E-mail me for the address

I will have many of the new items from the Fall Close to My Heart Idea Book including our newest Cricut Artiste catridge for you to see.  We will be creating a quick make-n-take, have some snacks and preview many of the upcoming classes and workshops for the coming months.

Bring a new friend and you can choose one of our new Alcohol base marker pairs of your choice for FREE!!!

Working On Some Cards

I have been working on a few cards lately.  I love using my scraps of papers from my layouts to make different cards.  I found I needed a thank you card and a sympathy card this week and wanted to start working on cards for my kids for when they attend their homeschool co-op.  Last year I started putting real cards in their lunch every week and with 4 kids - I'm going through cards quickly!

They are simple but simple is good. You don't need to over whelm, just send a smile.  Hope you enjoy!

Decorate for a quick, fun Space Party!

Love this new video CTMH created showing off our new Cricut Artiste cartridge.  Their are so many themed buttons on this cartridge and so much can do with them that you will be thinking up reasons to have a party. 


To get your cartridge with 698 unique images on it, click here.

It's August 1st - Celebration Day! Woohoo!!!

Today is a day to celebrate.  Nope it's not my birthday or anniversary.  It's not the beginning of a vacation but it is the 1st day of Close to My Heart's new Fall Catalog and the beginning of their new $49 Consultant Kit!!!!  This kit is full of fun supplies, business papers and ideas to keep you moving and teaching others for months to come.  For only $49 why not give it a try!?!  Close to My Heart is an amazing company to work with on preserving your memories by scrapbooking and give others smiles with cards and gifts. 

AND not only can you get a fabulous kit for only $49, CTMH is now throwing in their convention bag that was given to all attendign cosultants at convention last month.  This is a beautiful, versatile, perfect for scrapbooking bag and current consultants who did not attend convention are drooling all over trying to get their hands on it.  BUT, while supplies last, all new consultants will receive one FREE in their consultant kit.  The retail value is over $50 more then the consultant kit itself!!!Sign up and  Get yours today!!!


Also, I thought I would share something fun with you.  Recently, at the CTMH convention in Dallas, we were blessed to have Simple Scrapbooking founder Stacey Julien as a guest speaker.  She showed us this fabulous video of her family and it brought tears to my eyes.  It inspired me to try and create one myself.  My husband had to go out of town recently and to send him a little hug, I sent this.  I hope you enjoy.

Sweet Treats

Tonight I had my team meeting with several of my downline in the area.  It was so good to see them and catch up a bit.  I was able to go through the new catalog with them and talk with them about some of the exciting changes that Close to My Heart has made.

To help show off our new Treat cups that Close to My Heart is selling, I made these cute flowers from old retired papers and our new Cricut cartridge - Artiste.  Nope, I hadn't told you about it yet, but there is a new cartridge and it is fabulous!!!

I made these as flowers but for some reason blogger isn't loading them the way I have them and won't let me rotate the pictures but here they are anyway

These sweet treat cups come to 10 per pack for only $3.95.  You can use them in a card or in flowers like I did above and really brighten someone's day.  

We also made these cute gift card holders with the new Artiste Cricut Cartridge and the dreamin papers.  These are perfect for birthday, Christmas, any day gift cards. 

Come to my open house on August 18th and you can make something like this too! 

Hope to see you then!!!

Workshop changes and Footloose and Fancy Free

Last night was my Footloose workshop.  It was so much fun to get together and have some fun girl time.  I truly look forward to my workshop every month and am so excited to announce some major changes coming soon.  Thanks to those on my newsletter list who filled out my survey, I now have a better understanding of what you would like to see in my upcoming workshops.

To find out all the details for the workshop changes and to see all the new products being released August 1st, join me:

August 18th

11am to 1pm

Fall Catalog and Open House

  At 12pm, I will talk about the changes coming to my workshops and how I will be making them available for everyone!  If you have ever attended a workshop in the past or have wanted too, you will not want to miss informational Open House, as well as, a chance to see many new products and win some too!!!

I already showed you the picture of the layout for the Workshop on the Go project but please enjoy these pictures of the other layout that were created last night.

Lisa is always busy, out creating all of us at our workshops and crops.  True to form, she was busy working on this layout while we talked about the new catalog:

Plan to join us next month, on August 24th,  as we work with our new Scholastic paper packs.  But don't forget to first come to the open house on August 18th. Hope to see you there!!!

Announcing the 2012 Retirement List

Close to My Heart recently released their retiring products list for the year.  Their are some hot products here, some of which have already sold out!  So, take a look through-out the list and make sure you get your hands on your favorite products before it is too late and they are gone!  Also, don't forget about our Pick a Pair special during July - place any $75 order on my website and get a paper pack and coordinating stickease set free!  Shop Now!

 

Retiring Product

(not included in the Autumn/Winter 2012 Idea Book)

 

· The following products are scheduled to be retired from the CTMH product line and are not pictured in the Autumn/Winter 2012 Idea Book.

· All of our How-To Books have been retired and are sold out.

·

Paper Packs/Stickease/Complements

· Cruisin’ Paper Pack X7154B

· Cruisin’ Complements Foil Images X7154C

· Elemental Paper Pack X7141B

· Elemental Complements Dimensional Elements X7141C

· Footloose Paper Pack X7151B

· Footloose Complements Dimensional Elements X7151C

· Lucy Paper Pack X7149B

· Lucy Complements Glittery Rub-Ons X7149C

· Roxie Paper Pack X7140B

· Roxie My Stickease Assortment X7140C

· Sonoma Paper Pack X7143B

· Sonoma My Stickease Assortment X7143C

· Superhero Paper Pack X7152B

· Superhero Complements Rub-Ons X7152C

· Typeset Paper Pack X7139B

· Typeset Complements Canvas Shapes X7139C

Workshops on the Go

· WOTG Cruisin’ Kit

· WOTG Florentine Kit

· WOTG Footloose Kit

· WOTG Lucy Kit

· WOTG Pemberley Kit

· WOTG Stella Kit

· WOTG Superhero Kit

· WOTG Victory Kit

Stamp Sets:

A1095 Always Remember
A1099 Angel Sent
A1107 A Twinkle
A1108 A Flitter
A1109 A Sip
A1110 A Timber
A1113 A Game
A1115 A Holiday
B1356 St. Nick
B1359 Fright Night
B1361 Tannenbaum
B1362 Tag The Occasion
B1381 Holiday Cheer
B1393 Joyful Jar
B1394 John 3:16
C1379 Holiday Commentary
C1382 Holiday Commentary - Spanish
C1383 Holiday Commentary - French
C1401 Friendship Alphabet Small
C1408 Live Inspired
C1419 Harvest Home
C1420 Snow Days
C1423 Captured Moments
C1424 Nature's Gift
C1425 Month By Month
C1426 Thanksgiving
C1427 I Believe
C1429 Party Pennants
C1465 Unscripted
C1468 Winter Joy
C1470 Gnome Garden
C1471 Happy Clusters
C1472 Bundled Buddies
D1136 Giggle Caps
D1137 Giggle Lowercase
D1267 Rustic Numbers
D1306 Treasure Life
D1308 All Decked Out
D1373 Childhood Portrait
D1384 Snow Flurries
D1386 Save The Date
D1387 Made With Love
D1397 Save The Date - French
D1398 Save The Date - Spanish
D1401 Authentic
D1436 The Present
D1437 Party Animal
D1446 Adorn-able
D1449 Father Christmas
D1493 Fill In The Blank - Holiday
D1499 Live Your Style
E1002 Rustic Alphabet
E1006 Baroque Alphabet
E1011 Headline Alphabet Large
E1016 Friendship Alphabet Large

Papers/Inks/Reinkers

(Cardstock, inkpads, and reinkers are all included. Check your Idea Book for part numbers.)

Some re-inkers are already gone!

· Amethyst

· Baby Pink

· Brown Bag

· Dutch Blue

· Garden Green

· Garnet

· Grey Flannel

· Grey Wool

· Heavenly Blue

· Holiday Red

· Key Lime

· Lilac Mist

· Moonstruck

· Pansy Purple

· Parchment

· Petal

· Spring Iris

· Sunflower

· Sunkiss Yellow

· Sunny Yellow

· Taffy

· Tulip

· Vanilla Cream

· Vineyard Berry

Other Cardstock

· Colonial White 6-pack X5901

· White Daisy 6-pack X5900

Cards

· Clear Cards 4-1/4” x 5-1/2”

· Clear Cards 4-1/2”

 

Albums/Accessories

· Quick Pic Album-Dark Chocolate Z1406

· Quick Pic Album-Dark Cranberry Z1405

· Quick Pic Album-Outdoor Denim Z1404

· Snapease Album System 12x12 Z4110

 

Embellishments

· Bitty Brads Basic Assortment Z1367

· Bitty Brads Metal Assortment Z1368

· Bitty Buds Assorment Z1690

· Bottle Caps Z1691

· Canvas Badge Buttons Z1397

· Clear Sparkles Z1104

· Color Ready Irresistibles- Lots of Dots Z1261

· Comic Badge Buttons Z1688

· Dimensional Elements-Ornaments Z1337

· Heirloom Assorment Z1635

· Hinges Z1402

· Mini-Medley Accents-Honey Z1488

· Mini-Medley Accents-Pacifica Z1698

· Mini-Medley Accents-Sunset Z1338

· Mini-Medley-Tulip Z1320

· Photo Hangers Z1403

· Ribbon-Designer Pink Collection Z1384

· Ribbon-Sw. Lf. Stitched Grosgrain (bulk) Z1383

· Seaside Wooden Shapes Z1693 (sold out)

 

My Creations Products

· My Creations A-Door-Ables Z1321

· My Creations All Sorts Mini Album Z1224

· My Creations Cube Z1152

· My Creations Mix & Mingle Album Z1334

 

Tools/Organization

· Craft Tray 1764

· Distressing Kit Z1299 (sold out)

· Dotto Dots Dispenser 1766

· Dotto Dots Dispenser-Refill 1767

· Double Scrubber Z1163

· Euro Personal Paper Trimmer Z338

· Euro Replacement Blades Z339

· Euro Replacement Blade/Scoring Z340

· Microfiber Cloth Z1006

· My Legacy Writer Black Pen Set 4275

· Shoulder Tote Z4204 (sold out)

Live Out Loud Stamp of the Month artwork

Thought I would share with you the card I am teaching at the Crop for the Cure event this evening.

I took a step back in time and used our Dreaming' papers but used this months Stamp of the Month - Live out Loud. I love this stamp set for both cards and layouts. It's one of those fun, feel good stamp sets. You can get your set for only $5 with any $50 purchase on my website at www.ctmh.com/heatherhicks. Don't forget to take advantage of this months Perfect Pair special too.

The butterflies were created using the Cricut Art Philosophy cartridge. And of course, a little bling to make it pop. Hope you like.

Heather

Join Me as we Crop for the Cure

This Saturday I will be participating in a Crop for the Cure at the Hillcrest United Methodist Church in Nashville from 2pm to Midnight!  Would love to have you join us! The cost is $25 and includes dinner, desert, goodie bags, make-n-takes and even someone to do $1/minute massages. This event is open to everyone, non-scrappers and scrappers alike.  Join us to support a great cause.

See here for all the details:
http://www.facebook.com/events/155074164626229/

Hope to see you there!

Huge Changes Coming to Studio J

I have just returned home from convention and wanted to post a couple of awesome updates to our Studio J Online Scrapbooking Program.   These changes will begin immediately - yeah, baby!

Here are the highlights:

•  No Memberships Period!!!!  Woo-hoooo!!! Everyone can play with Studio J absolutely free. All you need to do is create a FREE account if you don't already have an account, upload your pictures and play away.  You don't pay anything until you order your layout.  What if you already have a membership?  No worries, CTMH has a great plan.  All existing member benefits will continue as is through September 30, 2012, or until your membership expires, whichever comes first. This includes free shipping for one order per month of up to 20 layouts, current pricing, and free Memory Protectors^®.  Then, on October 1st, CTMH will credit your account 1 free layout for each month remaining on your membership as of July 1st!
• All printed layouts are now only $6.95 lowered from $13 and come is a FREE JPEG of your printed layout.
• Only want the JPEG - now you can purchase it for only $2.95
• In doing away with the memberships, there are now no member's only kits - all kits are available to everyone
• New Online Express layouts coming soon.  6 amazing collections of 10 coordinating layouts that are completely created and just needing your photos and title!  Everything else is done!  Talk about Faster, Simpler and Easier!!!!

If you are already a Studio J member or have an account, you will be receiving an e-mail directly from CTMH with more details. 

Studio J is getting better than ever and you will definitely want to try it if you haven't already.  Click on the layout below to take you to Studio J and begin playing now!  Have fun!

Layout 4 from my convention layouts

Can you tell what paper I used?

Who Knew a Convention Could Be So Much Fun?!

Close to My Heart's Conventions are always a blast and out of the norm.

Convention Bag Available to New Consultants!!!

Hi there,
hrhicks just shared an Instagram photo with you:

view full image

"The Convention Bag available for new Consultants Aug. 1st"

Thanks,
The Instagram Team

Amazing New Consultant opportunity in August

Oh my goodness!!! Close to my Heart is making it easier than ever to sign up to be a consultant.

Beginning August 1st, 2012 there will be offering 2 ways to sign up as a consultant. Choose the Essentials kit for only $49 great for the basics with papers, stamps and embellishments or the Master kit with more business items to get you and keep you going for only $99!. AND during August only, the first consultants to sign up will receive the awesome tote we received today at Convention. These bags are beautiful, sturdy and perfect to carry your scrapbook essentials!!! These fabulous bags are only available while supplies last so don't wait, set your Calendar for August 1st and sign up!!!   Make some money while you do what you love - scrapbooking and stamping all your memories! Once you see this new catalog - you will want everything and will want to show everyone all of it too!   It is amazing!!!!  Make some money while you do what you love - scrapbooking and stamping all your memories!

hrhicks shared an Instagram photo with you

Hi there,

hrhicks just shared an Instagram photo with you:

view full image

"New Fall Catalog!!!!"

Thanks,
The Instagram Team

Dallas baby!!!!

Hello, Hello ya'll from Dallas, TX!  I am at Close to My Heart's Annual Convention and so excited!!!  We just left our 1st general sessions meeting and all I can say is HEE-HAW!!!!!  All the new products, papers, markers, home decor items are AMAZING!!!!  And did I mention the new Cricut cartridge!  Yep - you are going to kick-up your heals and jump for joy as soon as you see this new catalog and many, many new items coming our way August 1st!!!!

Keep posted the next couple days as I will give you a sneak peak of all the new happenin's coming your way.

Until then!

-Heather

Studio J Layout #3 - Lucky

Convention layout #3

Here is the third layout I created for our Dallas Convention later this week.  This layout was created using the Lucky papers.  Some of the things done with this layout was to use the  'My Stickease' to create borders, using several journaling boxes to create the title, using letters as embellishments and so much more.  There are so many tricks you can use to create with Studio J to make the layouts yours!

Footloose Workshop Sign-Up Now!

I can't believe it is only two more days before I leave for our annual Close to My Heart Convention, this year in Dallas, TX!!!  Before I head out, I wanted to get you all the details for this months workshop.

Footloose Workshop

July 27th at 6pm

Come ready to create with all your summer photos ready to make a splash!  Sign up is to the right of this post, through PayPal.  The sign-up deadline is July 16th.  Hope to see you there!!!

P.S. After the workshop will be a sneak preview of the newest Idea Book from convention, along with layouts and creations galore from the upcoming catalog.  You won't want to miss it!

Studio J Layout #2

As promised, here is my second Studio J layout that I created for convention.

My friend, Andrea, took these wonderful pictures of my silly Tinker Bell.  We had so much fun and Studio J made it so easy to put it all together.  However, can you believe that these papers were from our Holloween collection, Mischief?  It is amazing what a little change in color and manipulating can do.  It was amazing to see how even though Studio J gives you a templates and paper patterns to help start you off, how your imagination and creativity can take it way beyond the original.

Try it for yourself and let me know what you think.  Visit http://www.studioj.com/ and create a layout for yourself or go to my website and purchase a 5-layout pack or a membership for a great discount on multiple layouts. 

Have fun and happy creating!

Crusin' with the family

Last Friday night was my monthly workshop where we created with the Cruisin' papers from Close to My Heart.  I thought I would show you what we did.

Above is my layout from the Workshop on the Go guide.  I love  how it turned out!  The angles add so much to your pictures!

Here was the other layout we created.  The cruisin' paper is great for scrapbooking your travels, new vehicle or just a manly page to play around with it. One the layout shown above, there wasn't much room for journaling so I took the OHIO piece and made it a fold with hidden journaling inside.  Easy Peasy. If you like these papers and want to re-create these layouts on your own, simply visit my website and order your the Crusin' Workshop on the Go kit.  Have fun!

Next month we will be using our Footloose papers!  Keep your eyes out for the details.  Would love to have you there!



Convention Studio J layout #1

In just a few weeks I will be traveling to Dallas, TX for our annual Close to My Heart convention. I am super excited to see all the new products to be unveiled and all the creativity that flows so freely from all the consultants.

In preparation for convention, the corporate office gave us 5 Studio J layouts to create to practice and use some of the more complex techniques with the software. Now, I will tell you that I love to scrapbook and though I love Studio J and its simplicity, traditional scrapbooking is my way of scrapbooking. HOWEVER, I have to say that after creating the 5 layouts I couldn't stop! Once I was shown these techniques the juices started flowing and helped me see Studio J as a totally new tool all over again. If you like my layouts that I will show you over the next couple weeks, and would like to learn how to do them yourself, e-mail me at HeatherHicksCTMH@gmail.com. I am hoping to put together a Studio J class FREE of charge once I return from convention. Would love to show you all I have learned!
Here is the first of five layouts:

HOT NEW ITEM!!! Color-Ready Ribbon

I love when we come out with new products and I love it even more when the Close to My Heart corporate office gives us some grate tidbits on how to use these new tools. Here is the latest video from the corporate office on our new Color-Ready Seam Binding Ribbon. Enjoy!



To get your ribbon - shop my website at http://heatherhicks.ctmh.com/. While you are there, make sure to take advantage of our Stampaganza special - By 2 stamp sets get the 3rd one free.

Get Your Calendar's Out!!!

OK - I've got a couple events coming up that you will want to put on your calendar and save the date for:

June 30th - Next All Day Crop!

Where: My Home

Time: 9am to 5pm

Includes lunch and afternoon snacks

Only $10!!!

Space is limited to sign up before we fill up!!!

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Annual Scrapbook Retreat at

Grand Oak Retreat in Scottsboro, AL

November 15th or 16th - 18th

Why the 15th or the 16th?  I know not everyone can take Thursday and Friday off from work so I give the option to come down with us on Thursday or drive down on your own on Friday.  Although, I have to say, if you can get their Thursday it makes the retreat that much more amazing! We will depart my home around 11:30a.m. and return home on Sunday around 6p.m.

The cost for the workshop is $275 for Thursday through Sunday or $225 for Friday through Sunday.  Two Scrapbook Workshops will be taught during the retreat, wonderful home cooked meals are provided, a bathroom for every bedroom and lots and lots of cropping space.  For an additional charge, reserve some time for a massage!

Check out their website at http://grandoakretreat.com/index.html to see this amazing retreat for yourself. 

Sign up now for an amazing, relaxing and unforgettable weekend!  Can't wait to see you there!!!

Options/payment plan

Thursday - Sunday deposit$75.00 USD Friday - Sunday deposit$75.00 USD Additional payments$50.00 USD

Please note it's a first come, first serve and the deposit is non-refundable.