National Scrapbooking Month is May!

Beginning April 15 order your own Miracle paper kit to celebrate National Scrapbooking Month. From April 15 - May 31 purchase the kit outright for $19.95 (CC1009). The kit is a spring-themed grouping of everything you will need to complete a couple great 2 page layouts and some cards. The kit includes an instruction spreadsheet to guide you as you complete the projects. Some talented CTMH consultants have used this kit to create their own projects. I hope to try this also.

Want the kit for less? You can get other CTMH products at the same time! Place an order for a minimum of $40.00 (excluding Studio J orders) and purchase kit for only $10.00 (CC1009A). Place an order for a minimum of $60.00 (excluding Studio J orders) and purchase kit for only $5.00 (CC1009B). If you host a Home Gathering with minimum sales of $300 you receive kit for FREE (CC1009C).

Be the first to send me an e-mail stating that you would like to book a Home Gathering and hold it before May 15 so you can get the Miracle paper pack FREE and you will get an additional gift from me to thank you for your booking!

Goodbye, Diane

Today is the day my basket guild group says goodbye to one of our members. The last couple months she has been dealing with inoperable cancer. Thursday morning as I was getting ready for work and thinking about Diane I remembered what someone in my breast cancer support group did when Liz died. They had made pink ribbon pins for each member of the group to wear at the funeral. Trying to translate this idea to Diane I came up with making heart pins (her business name was From the Heart). I used one of the many hearts included in CTMH's stamp set So Luck (C1390 $13.95) which was new in our spring idea book. I stamped onto a piece of packaging chipboard that came from CTMH with my summer Idea Books! It was white on one side so worked well. The color ink I used was Cranberry which is a nice dark red unless you put liquid glass on it - then it turns an orangish red. I put clear embossing powder mixed with prisma glitter - still turned orangish red. A new lesson learned. The surface of the pins had a rough feel from the glitter, so I added a layer of liquid glass.

I had to take this photo of a single pin without a flash because of the glitter, so its not the best. Before embossing I stamped her name on each pin using a retired CTMH set - Doodle alphabet with cocoa ink. The letters look like they are floating in the embossing powder or liquid glass layer instead of stamped on the surface. I made 26 of these pins. About 18 guild members responded they would be attending the funeral and would be honored to wear the pin. There may be a few who didn't respond or read my e-mail, so thought I'd better have a few more. Diane will be remembered for her good deeds long after today. Also, most of us are not wearing black to funeral - bright colors are the order of the day!

March 2010 - NO SNOW ALL MONTH IN MN!!!!

March was a busy month, especially the last week. It was hard to pick just one photo to represent the month for me. There was one unusual event which I have highlighted in the title of this blog - no snow. There is no picture to document this. I have decided to highlight Kaylan's Bridal Shower as a highlight of the month. The cake was made by Jill at work - she used the CTMH stamped images from the invitations I highlighted in last blog to decorate cake. Kaylan has really been a part of the family for quite a while now, since she and Matt have been going together (through their ups and downs) for some time, but the wedding will take place in May.

At work Gregg is getting ready to retire. He is now in his 32nd year at Mayo. His "official" retirement party takes place next Friday, April 16th, but his 8 closest co-workers and sposes held a "roasting" at Terri & Craig's house early in March. Here is a photo of Gregg and his wife Mary. Gregg is wearing one of his gag gifts - an apron declaring him the master fish chef for him to wear at his next fishing trip. Today he was beginning to clear out some of the things accumulated during his time at Mayo - what a process.

March also saw me attending the funeral of my cousin Gary. He had been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer around 2 years ago, so it was quite a trip for him which ended with his coffin being taken to the cemetary in a horse drawn wagon. I like this picture of the horses because I happened to catch my gold PT Cruiser in the background - not on purpose! Gary was a cowboy in every sense of the word, so he went out with a cowboy's funeral. Roy Rogers had written a Cowboy's Prayer which was included in the printed program and the last song at the funeral was a recording of George Strait singing The Cowboy Rides Away. It was good to see some extended family, but was a quick trip to Jackson and back in one day.

The day after Gary's funeral I got together with a group of friends and co-workers to celebrate Ruth's birthday. Her birthday is earlier in the month, but it took until almost the end to find a time that would work for all of us to get together. We are kind of a birthday club, since we try to at least plan things to do about 4 or 5 times a year. Mary B. (back left in photo) has a birthday in January, Ruth's is in March (sitting - looks like the rest of us are trying to keep her from leaving!). My birthday is towards the end of June so we usually try to have a pool party at Ruth's to enjoy the warm MN summer. I'm in the middle of the photo. Mary V. (back right) has a September birthday and then we try to plan a holiday get together that happens sometime between November and January. This year our holiday celebration and Mary B.'s birthday happened at the same time.

Here is documentation of my last Holiday celebration for 2009. These are college friends (most truly are - we have just adopted Sharon as a college friend, even though Becky didn't introduce us until about 2 years ago). In this photo Becky and Sharon are in front with Kris and Jane behind. I took the photo, so I'm behind the camera. Kris gave us an evening out at The Melting Pot in Minneapolis as our Christmas gift. Thank you Kris! Back in December we began looking for a good date and came up with March 27.

The Melting Pot is a fondue place where you have heating surfaces in the table and you take care of cooking your meal. Our appetizer was a cheese fondue. Here Sharon is adding the veggies to a pot of some kind of red wine broth mixture. Note the little bottle of tabsco sauce front bottom left. Sharon's meat was cagjun seasoned. After she had fondued a few pieces we were all tasting it on ours from cooking in the same pots. LOL - it was fine.

Almost all of these pictures that I have highlighted as March memories occurred in the last few days of March - whew. 25th - Gary's funeral 26th- Ruth's lunch 27th- The Melting Pot 28th - Kaylan's Shower. It has taken me a few days to recover.

Bridal shower coming up!

Whew. . . the invitations are in the mail! These cute postcard invites were fast and easy to do using CTMH computer fonts. I have both CDs loaded on my computer. I used Daydream for the who, what, where and when info. Don't know what I am talking about? Turn to page 99 in current CTMH Idea Book to see all the great fonts you can add to your computer. I used two current stamp sets to add a little spring pizzaz to these invites (Express postage D1262 for the wording You're Invited on the postage side of the card and Thoughtful Seasons D1299 for the umbrella and heart). The umbrella stamp comes as one stamp, but I cut (YES, CUT) my stamp into two pieces to make it easier to do two different colors of ink.
These inivations are for my godson's bride-to-be Kaylan's bridal shower I am hosting along with his cousin Amanda. When I got married he was 16 months old and his dad was part of the bridal party. Our service was recorded by the minister as a gift to us and you can hear Matt crying that he wants his dad! Where has that time gone! Let's see, back to the invites . . . I used honey, topiary green, tulip, and star spangled blue for the colors.
I had moved my laptop back into my home office and have found that I post less frequently than when I had it based in my bedroom, so it is moving back in the bedroom! The printer is still in the office, but I can manage to take it there when I need to print. A wireless printer sounds like fun, but I am holding out for a printer that I can use to print 12 x 12 cardstock. I don't even dare to begin looking for that yet!
I went to a chili tasting fundraise for a 3 day cancer walk team tonight and I am paying for it now! That's why I am up at 4:20am. My next project is to go to Studio J and to begin building layouts from my recent Caribbean Cruise. Anyone who wants to know more about Studio J, just send me an e-mail and not only will you get whatever info you need, but you will also get a little "giftie" from me. I am having fun with Studio J since I can scrap in bed with only my laptop - no scissors, glue and paper to fall asleep with! LOL! No, seriously, I think even the most committed conventional scrapper should give our new product, Studio J, a try. Just ask me how! Come to my next Scrap Day on April 10 and see the layouts I am going to make with Studio J - no reservation necessary, no cost to see and play, but you may want to just let me know you are coming. Bring a friend who is new to CTMH and I will have something here for both of you to take home with you! Hmm. . . what could that be? Come and find out on Sat. April 10 from 10 am to 4pm. See you then!

How can it be March?

Hi Everyone, Sorry I haven't been posting very regularly so far this year. Last year I saw some scrappers/photographers who were taking a look at their lives by taking a photograph a day. I knew that was too ambitious for me. I thought I might be able to do "52 Sundays" since Sundays are my day where I have flexibility to do many different things. Well, that didn't work (at least didn't get completed). I decided to try something different for 2010. I decided to review photos taken during the month and posting a picture depicting something to remember about the month. Here it is March and no photos about that posted, so here goes . . .

January 2010 -Snow, cold and car troubles! February 2010 - 7 day Caribbean Cruise!

For some reason I prefer to share some info about February instead of January! I went cruising for the first time! It was a basket making cruise which meant when we had sea days we had basket classes. What could be better? Sound like something you'd like to do, then contact me for more information about the cruise taking place in 2012. Pack your bags for a 02-11-2012 departure. Vickie and I both went on this trip. We came home with unfinished projects, which is pretty typical for me on any weaving venture. I did complete one out of my four projects, had a little bit of a tan from time on the beach pictured above and many great memories. Tomorrow I will post more about my plans for CTMH during the month of March. If you have ever thought about a career with CTMH now looks like the time! Check back tomorrow for more!

Caboodle WOTG set for Sat. Feb. 27

Order your kit of Caboodle in time to attend my FREE 2 hour work session on Saturday, February 27 from 10 a.m. til noon. There are two ordering options; Basic for $29.95 includes the Level 2 paper pack, an exclusive stamp set titled This Way and the workshop guide. Get the Best option by adding Z1271 Tiny Tabs for $3.95 and the Sweet Leaf Ribbon Rounds for $7.95.

You will have the option to work on either cards or scrap booking layouts during the two hour work session.

Donation for Haiti

Order any 12” x 12” textured cardstock combo pack at full retail price and receive a second textured cardstock combo pack of your choice FREE. and with every offer purchased, Close To My Heart will donate $2 US to Operation Smile’s Haiti relief efforts.
Eligible packs include:
• X5747 Basic
• X5681 Spring Harmony
• X5745 Summer Celebration
• X5669 Autumn Harvest
• X5670 Winter Cozy
(See pages 100–101 of the current Idea Book to view the available colors and details about the textured cardstock combo packs.)
For only $14.95, you get two packs of 12” x 12” textured cardstock (a great deal at about $.30 a sheet!) and Operation Smile* will receive $2 US to benefit the urgent, important cause in Haiti.
There is no limit! You can buy as many as you want, and get the second free! Customers can have multiple qualifying textured combo packs on one order and receive multiple free textured combo packs. Note: You may choose a FREE textured combo pack that is the same or different as the full retail combo pack.
Dates: February 1-28, 2010
How do I order?: Online of course… Press the Close To My Heart button of the right side of your screen.

*Operation Smile is always a fantastic charitable partner—offering free facial reconstruction surgeries to needy children throughout the world. They’ve currently marshaled their medical teams and resources to provide emergency relief in Haiti, and the donations given as part of Hearts for Haiti will be used exclusively for Operation Smile’s efforts in Haiti. For more information on their on-the-ground response, you can visit www.operationsmile.org/haiti.