Heart 2 Heart (Tack It To The Wall)

When I first met my HH, he had a tee shirt that he liked to wear. A lot. It was a Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young shirt and by the time we met, the sleeves were cut off and it had faded from black to a dark gray. It wasn't long before there were holes in the shirt itself, but he continued to wear it anyway.  After we were married I told him, "Enough!  If you like the shirt that much, I'll tack it to the bedroom wall." And I did! I'm thinking I'm probably wearing out the Veranda and Perfect Day paper packs...someone's gonna tell me "Just tack 'em to the wall!" soon :)

The Heart 2 Heart challenge this week was a sketch.  I feel like my muse has gone missing though and I had a hard time creating something.  The first card is my attempt for the challenge:

Here was my initial attempt:

Thanks for stopping by!

Marie with a :) 

Wild About H2H

Corny post title, I know...but I'm in too much of a hurry to think of something clever! ("I'm Not Wild About Masculine Cards?" or "52 Thank You Cards in Stock But None Are Masculine?" Nah...pizza is waiting so I'll give up)
This week's Heart 2 Heart  challenge is (was? it's over in a couple of hours!) Time To Get Wild and we were required to use an animal or a bird.
I chose the owl and created this thank you card for one of the two wonderful men who picked up/dropped off my HH at the airport over the last couple of weeks. (Not only do I have wonderful friends, my wonderful friends have wonderful husbands!)

I'll be back with deets after I eat my pizza ;)
Thanks for stopping by,
Marie with a :)

How Sweet The Victory!

I've been wanting to try an easel card for quite some time.
The thing is between tutorials and me...well there's a bit of animosity there.
Perhaps it's my impatient "look-there's-something-shiny!" nature.
Perhaps it's my inability to follow directions precisely.
Whatever the reason, I have to psyche myself up to view one.
I wish I hadn't waited so long on this one...the Easel Card is soooooo easy.
Way easier than the mountain of laundry I also had to psyche myself up to conquer.

Closed view of the card

 open view, front

Open, side view

Sweet victory all the way around...THREE EMPTY HAMPERS (now if I can only persuade the kids to sleep in their clothes tonight...) and one Easel Card for a precious friend.
Supplies used: Veranda paper (CTMH) juniper, chocolate and smoothie Inks (CTMH) Opaques (CTMH) Find Your Style SS (CTMH) Sentiments (Our Daily Bread, Verve), nestabilites die

And another victory...I've been attempting to become a little more organized, maybe not to the degree that my sister Samantha is, but I know that "back in the day" when I used to keep lists, I was better able to stay on top of things (or maybe it wasn't the lists...maybe it was the fact that I refused to scrapbook? ) I recently downloaded a free program to print out some cool to do lists and "goal" sheets for each day, week and month.  I'll let you know how much help they are!  

The tutorial for the easel card is under my tutorials and such page; you'll need to scroll all the way to the bottom.
And I think you should check out what my sweet (and inspiring!) blogging friend Jane did with the butterfly from the Find Your Style stamp set: Scrappy Gram's Blog

Thanks for stopping by! Tomorrow I'll tell you my blog profile nightmare.  Yep, it appears I turned into "Marlies" for awhile...

Taking a Break From New Products.

I wanted to create a thank you card for a friend who gave me the coolest gift. You can read abuot it in this post.  I truly think I have the most amazing friends!
I took a break from Wings and used my favorite older  paper, Veranda, three stamp sets: Joy Forever, Curly Sentiments and Card Chatter Sympathy. I used old CTMH buttons (blush) and some of the new wooden ones. I also  used a card on page 101 of the new online Idea Book (which goes live on February 1st)  for an inspirational springboard:

I have another similar card in the works (same basic style) as well as my first Easel Card.  But that will need to wait because I'm supposed to meet a daughter online in the early morning hours.

Thanks for stopping by,
Marie with a :)

Thank You, Aaron Brown :)

Even before I had a blog, I followed Aaron Brown's blog.  She's just fabulously creative and as a fellow CTMH consultant, I've often look to her for inspiration.  I used her teabag Valentine idea (if you scrolled down a little on her blog you will have spotted it) as a springboard for these:

 Masculine Valentines are a challenge for me since my guys don't go for any of the "mushy" stuff...in fact, the little heart inside the guitar is probably too much but they'll just have to deal with it :) The tiny bags come from Target and they are a packet of about 12 for just a couple of dollars if my memory serves me right. I've had them for at least a year!

 I LOVE the new Sweetheart paper!

 They don't photograph well, but the CTMH pretty pins continue to be a favorite embellishment of mine. I haven't checked to see if they are retired...uh oh.

 My "club" girls are going to use the Magnifique Workshop on The Go kit tomorrow for cardmaking. I made a couple of extra cards to do in addition to the ones in the kit.  I like tearing a bit off the bottom of a card and coupling with second generation stamping.

This is what it looks like "opened" a bit.

A masculine valentine :)

Thanks for stopping by!
Marie with a :)

Another Planner Page...finally

Last night, I finally created another page for my planner...puts me at a total of 11 pages + cover...only 41 more to go!  I've also been challenging myself to create more masculine cards.

 My big gripe against masculine cards is no opportunity for BLING...unless you sneak in one like this gold photo hanger from CTMH. I was pretty happy when I saw in the new Idea Book that CTMH has brought back the Miracle Paper...which was a limited edition kit last year.

Thanks for stopping by!
Marie with a :)

Heart 2 Heart

I really like the shoe image in the January SOTM, Find Your Style.
I've just not been really certain how to use it on a card.  I've read the cutesy "shoe" sentiments that have been put out but most of them just don't fit me.  So I decided to use my Tiny Typewriter Alphabet and Hodge Podge Alphabet to create my own.  Then I cut the sentiment from the Baby Impressions ("an entire world of possibilities waiting to be discovered") in half and inserted the word "is" between the two halves on the inside of the card. I've made it for a friend who thinks she "can't" do something.  She just needs to take a step of faith!
(This was for the Heart 2 Heart challenge, but not the card I set out to make, lol.  So I'll be back with the one I intended to make...)

Products are all CTMH: Cardstock: Sky, Sorbet and Pear.  Inks: Sky and Pear  Stamp Sets: Tiny Alpahbets, Hodge Podge Alphabet, Find Your Style, Baby Impressions and On The Edge

Can you believe I almost threw this stamp set out??  Yep.  I ordered it with credit redemption back in October when I made the Straight To The Top Status.  I guess it was such a bountiful order that this set got left on the bottom of the box, which I tossed into the black hole (also known as our garage...).  My HH was sorting through some stuff this week and found it.  Yay, my hero once again :)

Hope you are having a beautiful Monday!

CPS 200

It's been a long time since I have done a CPS sketch challenge, but I needed some motivation for a masculine Get well.  CPS 200 worked :)  I also used flipped the sketch to create a card on "perspective."

One of my favorite paper lines from CTMH continues to be Veranda and I paired it with the new SOTM, Find Your Style. The sentiment is from Verve. 

 Isn't the butterfly from Find Your Style gorgeous?

 Here's another take on the sketch, using Free Spirit papers and the Legendary Moments stamp set. I also used the For Every Ocassion SS - I cut the "wishes" off Best Wishes and added it to the Get Well stamp.

I also used the Free Spirit paper pack to create a birthday card for my (fourth born) son who turns 17 this month.  When March rolls around, I will have four teenagers again because my youngest will turn 13! (my two oldest are in their twenties)

And guess what?  Even after creating these three cards, my craft room is still neat and organized :)

A Picture Worth A Thousand Words?

It's a well used saying: A Picture is Worth a Thousand Words.
Sometimes it's true.
And often it's not.
One of the reasons I scrapbook is because a picture cannot always tell the story.  It's been seven years since a tumor was discovered in our youngest child's skull.  We were told it was aggressive bone cancer. We had people around the world praying for her and God chose to answer in a miraculous way: turns out she didn't have cancer but a very, very rare disease that mimics cancer and would still require radiation and chemo.  Again folks prayed and once again God allowed a joyful answer to the prayers: our daughter responded so well to steroids and chemo that no radiation was necessary.  Two years later she was given a clean bill of health by her oncologist.
Sure we have photos.
But it's not until I go back and read journal entries and thoughts that were scrapbooked at the time that the full picture emerges.  It's so easy to "forget" little moments and even to forget emotions and thoughts during "big" moments.
That is why I scrapbook.
So I can pass the "full story," the "stones of remembrance" as the Bible calls them, onto my children. And their children.  And their children...
(Besides, it's just plain fun!)

Really, does this photo speak a thousand words?  What about when Elizabeth's children see it....will they know what happened? They will if they read the journaling and information that was scrapbooked!

This page is entirely journaling...copied directly from a journal I was keeping at the time.

A lot of my scrapbooking is just everyday moments...kids' sports events, game nights, hiking, etc.  But I've also created a scrapbook all about me - my strengths and weaknesses - and I've also done scrapbook pages about job losses and growing faith.  Because some things a picture just can't show! (And it's not about how well a person writes, but the willingness to share the heart.  THAT is what future generations will appreciate.)

How about you?  Ready to get started on Scrapbooking?  If you live in my area, contact me!  If you are in Vermont, Contact my sister Samantha of Samies Sentiments. Anywhere else? You might want to consider becoming a Close To My Heart Consultant yourself! (And there's always Archivers...) 

Happy Scrapping!

Marie with a :)

To My Doubting Thomases...

"My craft room is totally organized!"  I grinned at my friend and upline, Theda.
"I'll have to see a picture!" She responded.  Translation?  Gotta see it to believe it.  I could hear my sister Samantha chuckling in the background, though she's miles away.
Here's the proof that I'm starting the year out a little more organized in my humble, much loved craft room:

The most amazing aspect of this photo is the fact there are no scraps of paper on the table. It took all of my will power but I tossed anything smaller than 2" that I was saving for "just in case."  Hey, I won't be known as the crazy cat lady in my old(er) age...but perhaps the "crazy paper lady..."
My craft room also serves as a study (when it's clean enough, lol!) and most of my Bible study and Counselor Training books are in the bookcase and skinny "wardrobe."

 My reinkers sit on top of an old dresser.

 My CTMH stamps are stored by size (A-D) and then alphabetically in dollar store crates. This makes it easy to flip through the (cough cough 217 sets) that I have.

 I do have non CTMH stamps as well.

 This desk top holds JUST sentiment stamps!

 This is a taller "fold-n-store" type table from Sam's Club.  I use it as my stamp station and keep a piece of foam out for stamping with my acryllics.  One of my sweet friends gave me the old cassette holders for keeping my most used inks close by.  Another sweet friend gifted me with the metal organizer hanging above the table. Yes, I have some awesome friends!

 Theda showed me how to use shoe organizers for storing many of my embellishments and dies.

 What craft room is complete without speakers?  My sweet husband bought these for me a couple of years ago.  Now I can listen to some of my favorite music or some inspirational Bible messages while crafting. I also keep  a note pad and handmade scripture memory book handy.

 I've seen some stunning storage systems in other bloggers craftrooms.  As for me?  CTMH boxes hold my paper upright for quick flipping through just fine :)

This is the picture-printing-circle-cutting-cricut corner.  See the wall hanging in the background?  About five years ago my family members were the cast of characters in a Christmas Play called "The Richest Family in Town." What sweet memories!  A member of  our church had someone in Haiti create the wall hanging for us.   

Been Playing...

I've been playing with some of the fabulous new CTMH products!
Although I was anticipating a bigger Idea Book, I'm VERY happy with all of the new papers, stamps and Workshop on The Go Kits.  Here's a few recently made cards:

Products: Biss paper pack (X7312B)

Stamp Sets: Find Your Style (D1452), Card Chatter Sympathy (D1476)

Natural Hemp (Z280)

Chocolate Ink (Z2111)

Wooden Designer Buttons (Z1387)

The sentiment for this one is from Verve but the gorgeous paper is from the new CTMH  Wings paper line!

this also showcases the Wings paper and the Find Your Style stamp set. The sentiments are from older CTMH SS.  I've posted a few other cards that I've created using the Find Your Style SS...if you click the link "handmade greeting cards" you'll see them :)

I can't wait to do more playing this weekend!

Thanks for stopping by,

Marie with a :)