Thursday, July 16, 2015

Back to School Supply Cakes

I was thrilled to be asked to make 2 of my School Supply Cakes to be raffled  off during the Virginia State PTA Conference! 500+ people looking at my work, and hopefully ordering as well, is amazing news!  Here are just a handfull of the over 2 dozen cakes I have made.








Monday, December 8, 2014

Playing Catch Up

I took a few steps back from the wonderful world of Social Media as I was dealing with getting my life back in order.  Now that some things are back to working smoothly, I feel it's time to share a few projects I have done over my 2 year hiatus.  Get ready for some pics and just quick little blurbs!

Set of 4 coasters and Breast Cancer Awareness keychain.

Our table at a craft fair.  Partner in crime: Danielle!

Dry erase calendar that I made as a raffle prize for as PTA function.

Custom subway art style 8x10 canvases.

Another canvas.
Hair bows for Jilly to wear at horse shows.




Scrapbook layout I used as a submission piece.
3x3 Thank you cards for the Principal before she moved on to a new school.



8x10 canvas of Principal's favorite Dr. Seuss quote.




First page of Wyatt's scrapbook
 
First page of scrapbook for Cooper.

Crafty day with Granma.  I will be selling some of these this weekend!



 
Elsa inspired Christmas headband.


Ana inspired Christmas headband.
"Do you want to build a snowman" take home craft from out obligatory Frozen birthday party.

School supply cake.

 


 
Baseball Wreath for my front door.
 
That's all for now, more to come soon!

Saturday, April 28, 2012

CTMH Art Philosophy Cricut Cartridge Blog Hop

If you have arrived from Gloria’s blog, then you are in the right place.  If not, you may go back and start from the beginning with Courtney, or just keep rolling through until you hit my blog again.

Art Philosophy Cricut Cartridge available exclusively from Close To My Heart is such a versatile group of images and fonts, that you could make 2 different projects  every day for one year!

*First thing’s first; let me clue you in to my shorthand. Art Philosophy Cricut Cartridge (we will simply call this the AP cart from here on out) available exclusively from Close To My Heart (CTMH, but you already knew that one…right?!?)

And now for some background of my project.  I am the VP of Special Events for one of my kids PTA’s and our school mascot is the Penguins.  I am one of ‘those people’ who has trouble saying no when it means that kids or someone who is impacting my kids will have to do without.  Teacher Appreciation Week is creeping up on us, and here is what I came up with.

penguin2penguin1

Here’s a list of the pieces you will need to cut with their sizes and what page number of the AP book you can find them on:

<Oval3> cut at 2 3/4 inch on pg. #42

<Shape9> cut at 1 3/4 inch on page #57 (you will use the center point feature to cut the oval out of the black cardstock to create his white belly)

<Heart1> Font Layer + Shift cut at 3 inch on pg. #26

<Tag4> Font cut at 1 inch on pg. #60 (you need to cut 3 of these for each card you make, 1 for the beak and 2 more for his feet)

Then you just get to gluing!  Please feel free to leave a comment should you have any questions about assembly, but it’s pretty straight forward.

Thanks for stopping by, and I hope you enjoyed my Penguin card as much as (I hope anyway!) my daughter’s teacher will! 

Now, scoot on over to Ann Marie's blog and check out what she has in store for you!

Wednesday, April 18, 2012

Memory Miser Submission

On the same day I read a blog post about how imparting knowledge might help someone else find their full potential, a fellow CTMH Consultant announced there is a need for crafty-Cricut savvy folks to lend some time and expertise to Memory Miser. I took this as the universe flashing a huge multi-colored sign for me because I am, as we all are, an expert at something

I believe my something is the ability to connect with a person.

I have heard too many stories of people buying a Cricut machine only to let it sit in the box because it was intimidating. I recently met such a person at a crop, and after 10 minutes of me just showcasing basic button features she asked me if I offer classes. She told me she had spent $65 on Cricut classes from local craft stores, yet still felt lost until speaking with me.  And I am pleased to say that after we freed her Cricut from the box and spent a bit of time together, she feels more confident in her abilities to not only use the machine, but to better express herself artistically.

 

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Here is a little something I put together for a crop that my up-line was throwing for the PTO of her daughters school. She used these 6 Mason jars to hold the tickets for raffles she held through out the event.

I used the CTMH Art Philosophy Cartridge (better known as the AP Cart!) to cut the tag with the dragonfly, and also the rose.  I knew Mason jars were popular, but the attendants at the crop love these so much, that we actually handed out the jars at the end of the night as extra door prizes!  (Talk about getting all warm and fuzzy, I was over the moon with the response to this project!)

 

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This card using the CTMH Florentine paper, features a lace doily heart (also from the AP Cart) on the front.  This was one of the pieces I submitted to CTMH as part of my Extravaganza Teaching Application.

 

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This was another submission for Extravaganza.  I used the AP Cart to cut the title and the beautiful swirly shapes. I used a resist technique on the CTMH Color Ready Seam Binding Ribbon to match the swirly and keep the theme.

 

Enjoy!

Friday, March 16, 2012

There’s NO way!!!

30 cards in less than 2 hours?!?  That’s just crazy!

That’s not crazy, it just Chrissy!!

That’s right, 30 cards (5 each of 6 designs) from first cut to last stamped image in under 2 hours.  (*In all fairness, I have the majority of my buttons pre-strung with the same thread!)

 30 cards

C’mon, you know you want to see if you can pull it off too!  Contact me to schedule your very own “Beat the Clock” Challenge.

 

Enjoy

Tuesday, March 13, 2012

Remiss

I have to say that the PTA gig is a blast.  My only complaint is that I keep forgetting to take pictures of the projects that I use for raffle prizes!

Thankfully, this morning I know the winner of the picture frame/dry erase board.  I did one for last Friday’s Bingo, and there was only one other raffle basket (out of 9!) that had more tickets in it!  I am really happy that it went to this person, because she commented to me at Bingo how much she liked it. 

Here is her picture of it – I have to say that I love the fact that she likes it so much that she posted a pic on her Facebook page already!!

raffle picture frame

 

The days of the week are magnets that I glued to the frame.  I like this idea because it adds function and flair.  You could even put wallet size pictures in the 4x6 frames and still see the notes you write for each day of the week.

 

Enjoy!

Wednesday, February 29, 2012

I gotta be me…

Anyone who knows anything about me knows I don’t play by the book, nor do I like to be kept in the box.  From time to time I may stray into the box just to peek at what everybody else is doing, but then I wander back out and do things my own way.

Full story:

Was playing with some of the new products from the CTMH Spring Summer Idea Book, and was given a sample of the Color Ready Seam Binding ribbon to add to a layout I spent much of the day working on.  At first I thought to myself “Ok, cool, I can make this ribbon any color I want to…” But then I had to go and be me and say “…but I don’t want regular ribbon, I want a design on it…”  This ribbon doesn’t like you just stamping a design on it, it’s purpose is to suck up all that gorgeous ink. Hence my problem.

So I sat for a bit, moved on to another project and it hit me like lightning – resist!!!

So I broke out the  Versa Mark and embossing powder, and gave it a go.  I LOVED IT!!!

Here is a very quick video tutorial of the steps and final product…

And here’s what it looks like on the final layout that is an original design by me, and yes, this is the layout I submitted with my application to teach at the conference this year!  Wish me luck!

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Enjoy!

Why I do what I do.

People often ask me once they find out that I love to craft and create, "What is the one project you are most proud of?" My answer is always the same, "My five kids!" They are the reason I have been scrapbooking for so many years. I want to be able to capture their childhood through pictures, and evoke emotion through the art of scrapbooking. I found a wonderful company, Close To My Heart (CTMH), that allows me to do just that. Their breathtaking line of paper packs with coordinating embellishments and stamp sets take the guess work out of scrapping, and they are a huge time saver. And let's be honest, when it's fun it's easier to get a project done. Once I discovered CTMH, I decided to become a consultant so that I am better equipped to share the joy I feel when preserving memories that will be passed on for generations to come.



Another benefit to using Close To My Heart products is the versatility they offer. Not only do you get to create and protect your precious memories by scrapbooking, but you can also use the paper packs and embellishments to create personalized and unique cards as well as sprucing up your home decor. I love having the ability to transform a simple photograph into a piece of art I am proud to display in my home or give as a gift to a special person.



It is not the amount of 'creative talent' but rather the level of interest and passion you possess that will determine what we are capable of accomplishing together. Let me show you how simple, quick and most importantly fun scrapbooking and paper crafting can be.