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!