Gina's Little Corner of StampinHeaven

WOW..... As I type this I can't believe it's been 14 years.... 14 years of long standing friendships.  I love it that in our busy lives we have this one standing tradition that does not change - our annual Cookie Swap!!   There are 13 ladies in the swap.  The group started 14 years ago and although a few of the original members have moved on, there are about 6 or 7 of us that have continued this traditional from Year 1.  I look forward to this every year!  We each make enough cookies for everyone to take home 6 of each kind of cookie and we usually bring a few to sample.  That's alot of cookies!!  (A minimum of 78 cookies to include samples are needed to be exact!) After finding the perfect recipe (which means you need to find a recipe that makes PLENTY  - only doubling it one time if needed) the next thing to find is the container to put them in.  12 containers! Some years I've been creative, and then some years I just find a...

This past weekend I hosted a Scrapbooking Retreat at Henry Horton State Park.    I decided to add a little fun to our retreat by creating a Photo Booth.    This was easy do and creating props was easy with Close To  My Heart's Artistry and Artiste Cricut Cartridges! First, I created a backdrop using plastic tablecloths and painter's tape (for clean and easy removable) and added a few large snowflakes cut from Glitter Paper along with some strands of silver ribbon.   I had a Winter theme even though it was mid to upper 60's here in Tennessee all weekend! Who knew February would be so warm?! Here are some of the props I created with the Close To My Heart Artistry and Artiste Cricut Cartridges.   There were different speech bubbles on each cartridge.  I used the Handwritten Print (E1030) stamp for the phrases.  This was a good size font that was easy to read.  The sunglasses and champagne glass was cut from the Artistry Cartrid...

I wanted to send my team a bit of Holiday Cheer so I created some cute Holiday necklaces with Close To My Heart's Holiday Style Sheets and Base & Bling along with some Fern Twine.  These were a hit at my Holiday Craft Day and I thought my downline might like to have one to wear during the holiday season.  The necklaces laid on my craft table waiting for me to finish wrapping them up and getting the cards ready to mail.  While this project was on hold, one of my consultant friends messaged me a picture of some ornaments that another consultant had created using the Base & Bling!  I thought WOW! How pretty are those?!  I guess there is a good side to being a procrastinator sometimes.   I grabbed up the pendents cut all the twine off.  I wanted to make ornaments instead! I had square pendents to work with so I searched for a shape that would compliment the square shape. I found just what I needed on the Artiste Cricut Cartridge! Artiste - B...

Well after a nice long break from work for the Holidays, its back to work I go.  Working in Finance means there is no 'easing' back into the grind but jumping in with both feet and then swimming like the sharks are following you in attack.  I did get to do some creating while I was off - some for fun, some for classes and some because I needed to.   The card I'm sharing today is one I created for a friend.   I hope it brought her just a little bit of love and heartfelt sympathy.   The stamp set that I used - Happy To Be Friends is becoming a favorite.    Recipe: Hopscotch Paper  Indian Corn Blue Cardstock Quarterfoil Embossing Folder Stamp:  Happy To Be Friends Flaxen Ink Indian Corn Blue Ink Sunset Ink Desert Sand Ink Artiste Cricut Cartridge Happy to be Friends - C1605

I don't think I ever shared the Scaredy Cat Banner that we will creating next week at my September Girl's Night Out Event.  You might have seen it over on my Upcoming Events tab but I wanted to share it here in case you missed it!  This banner was so much fun to create and easy too because I used the Artiste Cricut Cartridge to cut the banners, borders and even the letters! Once the banners were assembled, I added the Scaredy Cat Compliments, Purple Shimmer Trim and scattered Black Epoxy Stars about.  The Thistle ribbon matches perfectly and makes a great way to hang the banner.    Now I'm all ready to decorate for Halloween! Everything for this project will be pre-cut for my GNO attendees.  All they need are some kindergarten skills - trimming and gluing!  You can't get any easier than that!

September is National Stamping Month, and Close To My Heart is ready to celebrate all month long! When you spend $30 on any current retail-priced stamps during the month of September, you qualify to receive the exclusive C-sized stamp set #30yearsofhappy for FREE! This special offer is part of our celebration of National Stamping Month and in honor of our ongoing celebration of our founder and CEO Jeanette Lynton’s 30-year anniversary in the scrapbooking and stamping industry. The exclusive stamp set features 30 mini images and sentiments perfectly suited for 30 days of happy stamping! To celebrate, we have a fun Blog Hop to help give you some creative ideas for the many uses of this adorable set!  If you came from Nikka Geers' blog you are on the right track!  When you get to the bottom of my post, just click on the link to the next blog.   The hop is a big circle so when you get back to me, you will know that you visited them all!   If you get lost alon...

Here is a card that I started yesterday morning and didn't finish until last night.   I found a sketch over at Unscripted Sketches that I wanted to use along with an inspiration photo from Inspired By to combine into one card.   I really struggled with this card and it actually morphed into the finished product after some trial and errors.   I couldn't believe I was struggling with what I thought would be an easy sketch! Here is my finished product To create this card, I cut 1" strips of Juniper, Sweet Leaf and Smoothie cardstock.  I adhered them to the card at an angle leaving a very small space of white in between each strip and overlapping the edges.  Once all the strips were attached, I trimmed them even to the card front.  I wanted to add shimmer to the card so I filled in each gap between the strips with Stardust Glitz Glitter Gel .  (I absolutely LOVE this stuff and it's retiring January 31! So you might want to grab some before i...

I purchased the My Creations Kraft Pocket Album a few months back not knowing what I would do with it but figured I would think of something!  A few weeks ago, I came across a stack of photo cards that I had bound together with a shiny gold ribbon.   I untied the ribbon to look at the cards.  I had saved every photo card that I had gotten over the last several years.  I never could throw away a photo card!  It just seemed odd to throw someone's carefully planned annual photo in the trash!  So I had kept every last one of them.   It was fun to look through the years to see how much my friends children had grown!  This is when my idea hit me!  I would use the pocket album to store these cards!  A pocket for each family!  There are 18 total pockets in this little album.  Perfect! So I set to work trying to decide how to decorate the front of the album and then I came across Close To My Heart's Video sharing the Pocket Album they...

Pillow Boxes are a cute and VERY EASY way to give a Christmas gift this year!  Close to My Heart's My Creations Pillow Boxes are clear and measure 6" x 3 1/2" x 1 1/2".  You get 3 pillow boxes for just $2.95.  The perfect size for hiding a gift card, jewelry, or other small gifts.  They are even food-safe!  So fill it up with homemade goodies!   I decorated my pillow boxes in just a snap with Washi tape. Christmas Tree Washi Pillow Box This one was really easy.   I used the Party Washi Tape and Sparkle & Shine Washi Tape 3 packs. The Party Washi 3-pack comes with a wood grain washi design which I used for my tree.  I used the honey washi in this same pack to cover my dimensional element star.  The juniper and ruby washi tapes from the Sparkle and Shine 3-pack make up my tree. Then I added some bling for ornaments.  My final touch was to add a tag I created using the Perfect Fit-Christmas stamp set. Santa P...

I combined challenges to make this card today using the sketch from Freshly Made Sketches and the Technique Challenge from Just Us Girls . I think it is quite a busy card myself but I still kind of like it.   I used Ruby and Topiary Inks for Merry Christmas.   The stamp is from Holiday Tags which also includes 4 frames - one I used here. The frames in this stamp set all coordinate with the Artiste Cricut Cartridge . Recipe: 4 1/4 x 5 1/2 White Daisy Card Green Glitter Paper - Z1847 Holiday Tags - D1560 Ruby Chevron Ribbon - Z1846 Ruby Ink - Z2170 Topiary Ink - Z2155 Artiste Cricut Cartridge Freshly Made Sketches Just Us Girls

My Dad's Birthday is coming up this Friday and I wanted to get ahead of the game and create his card early.  An October birthday calls for some fall colors and the paper in the Huntington Paper pack is just perfect - plus it is great for masculine cards. I used sketch #86 from RetroSketches for this card. I used the Artiste Cricut Cartridge to cut my notepad paper and stamped it with the Noted Backgrounds stamp (retired).   Recipe: 5x7 Colonial White Card Huntington Paper Pack (X7174B) Natural Hemp (Z280) Burlap Ribbon (Z1760) Noted Backgrounds (retired) Proplayer Assortment (Z1879) Artiste Cricut Collection - Z1790 Artiste Stamp - Happy Birthday Artiste - Banner  Challenges I'm entering this card in Retro Sketches The Paper Players

Welcome to our Stamp of the Month Blog Hop! This month we are featuring Scandinavian Wishes , a set of 12 stamps.  FOUR of these stamps coordinate with the Art Philosophy cricut cartridge! If you have come here from Beth's Naumann's Blog  you are on the right path! The blog hop is a great big circle, so you can start here and work your way around. If you get lost along the way, you'll find the complete list of participating consultant's HERE . We have over 50 consultants participating in the blog.  Following the hop is easy- just click on the link at the bottom of each post and it will take you to the next blog! I've got lots of projects to share with this set!  Once I began working with the stampset, more and more ideas came to me!  Not only did I use the Art Philosophy (Z1686)  cricut cartridge with the coordinating images, I also used the Artiste Cartridge (Z1790)  to create my gift boxes!  Check out my collection below and then...