Gina's Little Corner of StampinHeaven

Today I'm flying to Orlando, Florida to spend the next 5 days with hundreds of fellow Close to My Heart Consultants!  The next several days will be filled with laughter and learning through business classes, creative time, General Session and best of all - new product reveals as Close To My Heart unveils the next Annual Inspiration book that will go live to customers on August 1. I'm taking my handy dandy notebook to fill with inspiration and ideas to bring back to my customers! Stayed tuned for updates!  Be sure to LIKE and FOLLOW my StampinHeaven Facebook page for updates! Find it here:   https://www.facebook.com/StampinHeaven/ Do you live locally in the Middle Tennessee area? Join my StampinHeaven Group page on Facebook and be IN THE KNOW of my local events! Join here:  https://www.facebook.com/groups/StampinHeaven/ 

I can't believe that another year is nearly gone (in terms of Close To My Heart product years!).  In just 11 days I will be boarding a plane headed to California and one of the best parks in the world - Disneyland!!  This is the 2nd year in a row the Close To My Heart is holding their annual convention at Disneyland.  I love it!  Disney KNOWS how to treat their guests and between CTMH and Disney - they do it up right!!! The excitement has already begun with teasers from Close To My Heart and predictions among consultants.   Each June, CTMH releases their list of retiring products which ALWAYS starts a buzz.... "What does this mean?" "What will replace this?"  "Will we get that?"..... and on it goes.   By the way - if YOU want to know what is retiring, you can visit my website here: Retiring Items If you see something you want, you better get it before it is gone forever!!!  All retiring items will be unavailable after August 31 (or sooner i...

Today, I'm off to my 4th Close To My Heart Convention!  I knew after attending my very first convention in Washington, DC in 2010 that I would never want to miss another one!  In 2011, I went to Disneyland in California and last year I attended the convention in Dallas, TX.  This year it's off to Disney WORLD in Orlando Flordia!! I will be staying at the Coronado Springs Resort..... I can't wait for all the excitement to begin.  The first General Session is always electric with anticipation of the new product announcements.  There will be much laughter, squealing, cheering and LOTS of giveaways!   It is a tradition to make (or purchase) roomie gifts for the ladies you room with.  Last year I roomed with 3 other ladies but this year it is just me and my friend Heather.  I've had an idea for several weeks now what I wanted to do but didn't get a chance to finally sit down and do it until Sunday afternoon.   For Heather's w...

The Close To My Heart Convention is coming up in July and takes place in Dallas, Texas.  This will be my third convention.  I love attending convention because the excitement is so electric!  Each convention, I look forward to seeing all my sister consultants that I have formed close bonds with.  There is nothing like it.  I'm so excited about it, I've got a little countdown badge over to the right!  Plus I'll be teaching this year! YEE HAW! - Even MORE excited about that! Corporate sent out postcard reminders to all consultants to remember to sign up for convention.  Then they challenged us to use that postcard to make a layout!  I had pinned mine to my bulletin board and then got busy and forgot all about creating a layout.   Yesterday, another consultant posted her layout (which was awesome by the way) and I started thinking I really should try to do something. Last night I had one of those moments ..... where an idea just comes to...

I received some VERY exciting news yesterday which came at the end of what has been a very stressful week at work.  If you read my previous post, I mentioned that this past week has been all work and absolutely no time to play!  It is our year end closing at work and I've been working some very late hours - not getting home until nearly 10:30 or 11:00 each night.  Then it's back to work by 7:30 am for more.  Yesterday, although it was Good Friday and everyone else got the day off, my department was still trudging along trying to get our entries done.   Late yesterday I received an email from Close to My Heart that I had been selected to teach at this year's convention in Dallas!  I was so excited I began jumping up and down with squeals of joy.   Some weary accountants looked up from their desks wondering what in the world I could be so excited about! Back in February I had carefully boxed up my submission - 2 layouts, 2 cards and a "Creat...

Well what can I say?  It was AWESOME but I wouldn't expect anything less from Close To My Heart.  I had a blast and they literally BLEW me away with all the new products.   I can't stop looking at my new Idea Book!   These are my wonderful roomies!   Jackie Gay (Alabama), Me, Rae Bangs (Washington) and Sharon Ivanaukas (New Jersey).    Aren't those the cutest Minnie Mouse ears? On Friday, We created a layout with the new Roxie paper.  (This one may be my favorites) We used the new Bling Assortment that has large and small buttons along with pins.  Also - check out the new 10 Things Pocket .  It has numbered strips for journaling.  The stamp set we used is called 10 Things ! On Saturday at our Gadgets & Gizmos class we created this cute little My Creations chipboard Memory Game .  Inside it has 24 3x3 chipboard squares.   This little box has ALL KINDS of potential!  I'm currently planning an Advent C...

Yes - It WAS big!   And the more I learned about it at Extravaganza, the more I got excited!!  So what was it?   We have a Close To My Heart Cricut cartridge!  Oh it is not just another cartridge!  It is THE cartridge of all Cartridges!!   How can this be you say?   Can you think of another exclusively designed Cricut Cartridge that has over 700 images!  It has 100 very specific individual shapes.  It has 50 labels, 50 tags, 6 rolled flowers designs, 17 different borders, 8 flourishes, 8 boxes, bags, door hangers, 2 envelope shapes - rectangle and square AND a new exclusive Serif style font - upper & lower plus a decorative layer!   WHEW!  That takes my breath away ..... but wait that is not ALL! This new Art Philosophy Cricut cartridge was designed especially for our stamps!  There are numerous images in the new Idea Book that were designed to work with this cartridge!...

What a day it has been!  The morning started out with a team picture of the Scattered Hearts Unit (will post that when it is available).    Then we all gathered outside the convention room doors anxiously awaiting for them to open.   It is almost like Christmas Day waiting until the parents get up and you can start opening your presents! The doors finally open.....  and it is magical!   The stage has been transformed into a fairy tale. Cinderella and her prince danced for us..... Jeanette introduced Close To My Heart's new Mission Statement: We show you how to celebrate relationships through discovering your creativity, to preserve and share the moments that matter most. This encompasses all aspects of preservation no matter how you do it - whether it is classical scrapbooking or using our Studio J program.    Times are changing and Close To My Heart is embracing the change in every way.    AW...

Yesterday was a great day!   It was my first time to attend Leadership so wasn't sure what to expect except I knew I'd be inspired to work my business more.  Jeanette Lynton, CEO and Founder of Close To My Heart came out and greeted everyone.   She is an awesome lady.   She introduced Brian Holman, VP of Finance and COO.  Brian had many great things to say of Jeanette.  He said,  "Jeanette is an Innovator NOT an Imitator".   So true!    I'm sure we will see evidence of that today.  Brian said this will be the most exciting convention since the announcement of the My Acrylix Stamps.   That is HUGE! We got our Create & Take kits which had a 'hint' of things to come.  The kit included everything needed to make 8 3x3 cards.   Each card had a piece of one of the new papers. We also got a bag of embellishments for the cards and there were 3 new types of embellishments....

I have returned home from Hot and Humid Chattanooga. And guess what?! It's HOT & HUMID here too!  So, it's a good day to gather together my supplies for convention. (I pulled out my clothes last week and have them pressed and stacked ready to put in my suitcase). Close to My Heart sent us a supply list a few weeks ago.  These are things that we will need when we do our Create & Takes. This is so much fun.  At Extravaganza on Thursday we will gets lots of new products and we'll be using them in our Create & Takes. So today I have been going through my supply list and checking off my items one by one.  I thought it would be fun to show you which supplies I'm bringing for each day.   Get your imagination going and start wondering what we'll be doing! Wednesday's list is for Leadership Day.   The combination of ink pads I'm required to bring is a bit odd.   I wonder if certain colors will be used for one project and other colors for a ...

Only 4 days until I leave for California for our annual Close To My Heart Convention.  But for now.... I'm sitting here in Chattanooga waiting for a softball game to begin.   I've got tons of things I keep thinking about that I need to do as soon as I get home Sunday night before I fly out on Tuesday. I attended my first CTMH convention last year in Washington, DC.  I was forewarned that it would be a non-stop blast and it was true!  CTMH goes all out.  I met so many people and made some lasting friendships. I'm looking forward to doing the same again this year!   I'll be staying at the Disneyland hotel right in Downtown Disney. I arrive Tuesday afternoon and all the fun begins on Wednesday.  This year I get to go to Leadership.    Leadership is only open to Managers and above. I was so excited to make Manager in May and as soon as I did, I got on the Corp Boards searching for a Leadership ticket because by ...