Gina's Little Corner of StampinHeaven

With each new Idea Book I have received since joining Close To My Heart back in 2006, I always thought "There is NO Way they can top this!"  Yet every issue seemed to out do and blow away the last.  Now Close To My Heart is 'Blowin' it out of the Water" once again!   First, they have this AWESOME Autumn/Winter Idea coming out (Available Sept 1), and then they announce a NEW Idea Book cycle for 2011.  Beginning in February, Close To My Heart will adjust the Idea Book cycle to 6 months each.  How can this be better you say?   Well, for starters, they are going from 112 pages to 132 pages!  Do you know what that means?   More products and more artwork!  To make room for all the new product, it is necessary to retire many things.   Retiring product is nothing new for CTMH.  But retiring almost EVERY paper packet is!  Even one of my most recent favs - Cherry-O!    Although many favorites are not hanging around as long as we are used to, there will be an abundance of n

Who has a favorite time of the month?   There are certain days we look forward to and even some days we dread.  But, my favorite time of the month is the LAST week of the month!  Why?  Because this is the week I get to meet with all of my StampinHeaven Hostess Clubs!    I have 4 clubs that meet three different days.  It makes my week busy but I look forward to the time we spend together.   We don't always get all accomplished that is planned but I think we all have a good time!  Even though, we all do the same project, I get to see so many creative ways to alter a layout!  Each layout takes on a personal feel for that person.    Sometimes the difference might be small yet it becomes a unique creative personal touch for that layout.  I'm so blessed to have made SO many friends in the past 5 years. Each person that I have met through Close To My Heart - be it another consultant, or a customer - has become a friend that I would not have had if not for my decision to become a con

I finally finished my pages for the August Workshop.   We'll be doing the feature layout from the Passages kit.   I just love the colors in these papers.... they are from my favorite color families - Browns and Greens.   This kit would have been perfect for the trip my family took to Sedona, Arizona several years ago but I already scrapped that trip. The Arizona trip pages were from my early days of scrapbooking -  BEFORE I had been introduced to Close To My Heart.  But, I'm a firm believer in NOT going back and redoing pages. You lose that sense of 'creative development' over the years if you re-do things.  Besides, it is fun to go back and see the early styles of scrapbooking.   For these pages, I used pictures from my Mom and Dad's trip to Rome back in 1978.   Talk about a sense of style!  Whoa!  I went over to my mom's to get the pictures and she handed me a magnetic album!  YIKES!  Oh - she knows better than that but I guess having soooo many pictures thr

OK OK, I know you are anxiously waiting to see what was in that big box I got on Monday.   It took a while to go through!  I LOVE it all!   Actually, I was so overwhelmed with all the new stuff I didn't know what to do!   One item, I set aside to look at last.  It is the new Magic book.  Jeanette Lynton's newest How To book!  It is GORGEOUS!   The layouts are FABULOUS!   I can't wait to start using this book!  There are many tips and techniques in this book that show how you can hide your journaling, reveal photos, incorporate moving elements and more!  This book even INCLUDES a Technique Highlights and Template DVD!  There are 35 ALL NEW exclusive layouts in this book.  It is a MUST HAVE for every scrapbooker that loves surprises and dimension on their pages!  Order your September 1st!   I've been so busy this week that I have not had a chance to do much scrapping.  With all this new product, it is hard to concentrate on the immediate task at hand which is to finish my

Talk about Christmas in July!   The Man in Brown stopped by my house today and left this BIG box on my doorstep!   It's my Bundles of New Product that I ordered from Convention!!  I'm so excited and can't wait to open it up and play.  Think my family will mind if they must 'fend' for themselves for dinner tonight?  I've got to new things to play with!   So why am I sitting here typing this??   I don't know!   Keep checking back - maybe I'll share some of these fabulous goodies with you!  

Have you ever had a ton of pictures you wanted to scrapbook but didn't want to create pages and pages of the same event and fill up an album?   Or maybe you are looking for the certain layout sketch that contains 10-12 photos... Those 10-12 photos are all the same event and you want to keep them all together on a layout.  I'm so excited about Close To My Heart's newest product coming out in September.  They are called Flip-Flaps!  Not only do these flip flaps enable you to add EVEN MORE photos to a layout, they add a whole new dimension.   WOW! Here is the layout that we did in our Create and Take at convention. (These pictures are from a vacation we took in 2000! I have been waiting for just the right paper!) The paper is from the new Magnifique that will be available in the Autumn/Winter 2010 Close To My Heart Idea Book. (Colors used: Pacifica, Lagoon, Pear & Chocolate) This is the LEFT layout.  I used a 8x12 Flip Flap on the left side of the layout and a 4x12 on

Check out this CUTE card made by Margi Gilbertson, Director with Close to My Heart. She taught the Extravangza class - Irresistibly Adorable Ideas at Convention. She showed us several techniques, including the masking technique used on the little hedgehog. To make the hedgehog, Margi stamped him onto a white piece of cardstock 2 times.  She then cut the body out of one, and the fur out of the other.  She used a sponge dauber and Desert Sand ink to colore his body. For the fur, she used a sponge dauber with Chocolate ink and also a little bit of black for dimension.  Then she fit them together when attaching to the card. The tie-dye effect was done by sponging with the NEW Cotton Candy, Pear, Sky and Smooth ink colors onto the card.  Then she splattered pure bleach with a toothbrush onto the card to get the bleaching.   The word "LOVE" was stamped with My Acrylix Extreme Caps(D1250) using VersaMark ink and Clear Embossing Powder. This gives the letters a glossy shine.. She

Scattered Hearts is the name of Tina Sutton's unit of consultants. These consultants span all across the United States hence the appropriately named group of Scattered Hearts.  These are just a few of the Scattered Hearts that attended convention.   I believe Tina has over 1,000 downline in her unit.   I got the privilege to meet many of these fantastic ladies.  She had a team meeting on Wednesday and gave lots of prizes and recognized top sellers and leaders on her team.  What a fun group!   (Where am I?  well somewhere in the middle third row from the front)

I just returned home from my very first Close To My Heart Convention in Washington, D.C. I joined CTMH in 2006 and have always wanted to go. My dream came true this year and it was an experience I'll never forget. Everything about was AWESOME. It is so exciting to be surrounded by people that get just as giddy about paper and stamps as you do! The 3 day convention was filled with wonderful introductions to our new 2010 Autumn/Winter products, Extravaganza, Create & Takes, and Awards Gala and a fun night at the Closing Banquet. At the Create & Take we created 4 cards using some of the new papers and embellishments. OH AND CLEAR CARDS! I love these cards and since convention, the creative portion of my brain has been churning away on a 'Clearly Christmas' card workshop that will be a special workshop in addition to my ANNUAL Christmas Card Extravaganza workshop in November. (stay tuned for more info). Here is a look at a couple of cards we made including the 2 Clear c