Hand-stamped To Coordinate!

Hi Friends,
I have been busy playing in the ink and wanted to share what I have come up with so far. I am just finishing the second Roxie Workshop (see two posts below) and decided to create some coordinating papers to go along with the ones I had from Close To My Heart.
The black solid one in the back has clear-embossing on the roses. It's a bit of a classy punch to the set. I liked the Argyle A LOT because I have sons and some of my friends were requesting more 'guy' themes with my layouts and classes. (I have grand-daughters now so please cut me some slack-smile here! I LOVE all the girly colors and patterns I can use now!)

I think if you click on the picture it will help you see more detail. This was fun! I have been an inky mess this week. Have some fun of your own and try something new. Close To My Heart has amazing re-inkers that allow you to really think (and stamp and splatter and brush....) outside of your box.
Talk to you soon,
Debbie

My Second 25th Birthday! prize drawing.

Hi Ladies,
In honor of my second 25th Birthday (the first one was more than 25 years ago) I am going to offer you a chance to receive at least $25.00 in free Close To My Heart products. It will really be quite simple for you.
Just click on over to my CTMH website and place an order of at least $25.00. For every $25.00 you order, before shipping and tax, your name will be put into a drawing. This is only for the rest of the month of March as this is my actual birthday month. On April 1st, I will draw a name from orders collected between now and  the end of March to win $25.00 in hostess rewards. I will contact the winner and have you tell me what you would like from the select hostess products in our current catalog. If you order $150.00 or more from the catalog, you will qualify for $25.00 in select product hostess rewards plus your name will be put in the drawing six times! How cool is that?! You might also like to contact your friends for outside orders to make your chances of winning even better.
Thanks for stopping by and if you have any questions please feel free to e-mail me at: debbiemay3115@yahoo.com

Happy Shopping from Debbie, The Birthday Girl

Workshop with Roxie

Hello again and thanks for stopping by!
I have been busy for several hours designing and laying out my Workshop for this coming Monday. Boy do I love this Roxie paper! It is a retired set that I have had for awhile and with Winter hanging on with a vengeance I decided to lean a little more to the deeper tones and cozy side of Roxie than going more with the brighter corals and sparkly Colonial White. Of course I used my beloved Colonial White in the layouts for some of the design, after all it is a beauty! Because these are for my Workshop and I try to keep the cost down and teach my customers that they don't have to spend a  fortune to create beauty, I used the Roxie Stickease and just a bit of additional embellishment by way of ribbons and buttons. I hope you enjoy looking at them. They make me smile!

I have enough supplies to make 7 more sets to sell to the first to contact me.

The set includes the paper and embellishments to create three 2-page layouts seen here.  Each set will include papers, Roxie embellishments and the extras that you see. You will need black ink, chipboard if you want to raise your photos, glue dots and/or foam tape to raise embellishment as you wish and adhesive.

Of course you can purchase adhesives and extra base color cardstock from my Close To My Heart website:   debbiemay.ctmh.com

The cost for the kit -three 2-page layouts- is $20.00 plus shipping and handling to your zip code. 

Please e-mail me if you are interested. 

debbiemay3115@yahoo.com

Thanks again for stopping by. I look forward to hearing from you and appreciate your comments, also!

Debbie

Rose Blossom Garden: Welcome!! New Follower Prize Drawing!!

Rose Blossom Garden: Welcome!! New Follower Prize Drawing!!: We would like to welcome you to a new challenge blog - Rose Blossom Garden!  Let me tell you why this challenge blog was created and wh...

March Stamp of the Month card set

Just a quick post to show a few card sets I made for some friends. When these are blown up I'm sorry to say my mistakes show up more than I realized. They are nice little sets, though. The box on the left holds four cards/envelopes and has a tiny velcro closure. The 'envelope' holder on the right holds two cards/envelopes. Of course they are Close To My Heart products. My friends are Close To My Heart, as well!

Thanks for looking!

Debbie

For Always

Hi there,
During the last several weeks we have had some things happen in our family that have really made us realize that time is short to really love the ones we have. My parents will be 89 this year, my youngest son is 14 going on 25 at times and at others 12, my middle son left our home town for the South this morning and I am feeling lonely for my family to be all together again. Not to be all sappy and emotional now, when we are all together it is sometimes quite crazy and crowded! I tend to think my kids still need me to tell them when to brush their teeth and comb their hair. And that's not the least of my 'helpful input'. Maybe we'll save more on that for another time.....
While preparing for my Club for March, I chose the paper named 'For Always' because I wanted a fresh crispy design to go with this month's Close To My Heart  stamp of the month. It is a beautiful layered rose set and I have had fun working with it. I think a nice black and white family photo would be lovely in the photo spot, maybe one from the old days when my grandparents were still with us. The grey in the roses would pull the grey tones from an old photo and be so pretty.

I cut the paper on an angle then used the top strip that comes on our papers to cover the seam where I    simply flipped the cut corner over. The roses are layer stamped and the top, smaller one is lifted with foam tape. The 'Family' embellishment is done with a new product I found while playing on pinterest. It is double sided adhesive sheets by silhouette. Simply place on the cricut cutting mat, select the 'Family' cut from the

Close To My Heart exclusive cartridge, and hit cut! Then you peel the backing off and place it on your paper. Press down all over for a good 'stick' then peel off the top layer to expose the sticky top. The kit came with super fine glitter that you then spread around and rub into the sticky design. It turns out great and shiny, all set for your project. And the glitter stays put and doesn't flake all over either. 

Enjoy!

Debbie

Quilted Chantilly

Hi, and welcome back! Or if it's your first time here, glad to have ya!
Today I'd like to share a few personal details and explain why I do some of the things I do. Don't run for the escape button, I won't get too personal.
If you've been reading my blog since I began this past December, you already know that I like to make things with my hands. I sew, I paint, I build inside and out, and as of about 4 years ago I began scrapbooking as a hobby and then as a Close To My Heart consultant in March 2012. I tend to 'collect' (some might be tempted to use the 'H' word...) things that are associated with my passions and I have a hard time throwing anything out that 'I just might need' someday. Don't get me wrong, I don't keep wrappers from french fries or dirty combs from the street. But I do store and collect things that could possibly come in handy some day. So clearly scrapbooking is right up my alley!

Two years ago I completed a quilt that I had started in 1982 when I became pregnant for my first child. It had been moved from place to place, worked on now and then and stuffed back in a storage container until I came across it one day around Christmas of 2010. Before the decorations and boxes had been put away that year I decided that it was time to finish the project that I now refer to as my '30 Year Quilt'. As it turns out, during the year 2011 I ended up not only finishing that first quilt for my oldest son, but hand pieced and finished two more for my younger sons in time for Christmas. Of course I collected lots of fabric pieces in the process and probably have enough material left over to cover South-East Michigan if I wanted.

The following spring, 2012 (only a year ago) I met a CTMH consultant and by the time she was through with her demonstration, I knew where I was headed. You see, I am a great believer in things happening for a reason. I believe that God places certain people in our lives for reasons we might not understand at the moment. At the time I had been hoping to be involved with teaching some basic Art classes at a local school as a volunteer and for some reason, it just wasn't coming into line. I was discouraged but when the opportunity to join CTMH was offered, it was clear as a bell why the teaching position hadn't happened. So now I find myself not only teaching, which I love and find I seem to do OK at, but working with Art in a new way that also feeds my 'collecting' tendencies. Perfect all around, if you ask me. And I can even combine two of my interests in a new way altogether.
Which brings me to my new post: Quilted Chantilly. (If you scroll way down to my very first post you will see my Quilted Christmas Cards that my super supportive daughter-in-law photographed and then helped me post on my new blog.) So without further delay, I present to you Quilted Chantilly!

This is the group of four that I did with the Chantilly paper package from Close To My Heart. The colors are so fresh and pretty I feel like I'm in a garden, pretty much the closest place to Heaven on Earth, to me.
They aren't perfect, in fact they are a little wonky in spots, but that is the way sewn quilts sometimes are. The top left and the bottom right blocks begin with 1" pieces. The Log Cabin is done with 1/2" strips.The top right blocks begin with 1/4" pieces then cut on diagonal for design. More on that one below.

The quilting pattern name of the next one is called Maple Leaf so I did this for my CTMH Canadian friends! This is a tiny one and only measures 4 3/4" square. 

Thanks again for stopping by to see what I've been up to. If you would like to purchase some Chantilly beauty for yourself, check out my CTMH site for details. This has been a fun and therapeutic project for me. It's great to lose yourself in something you enjoy and get a little break from the real world. 

Talk to you soon!

Debbie