"Find Your Style" with the January Stamp of the Month Blog Hop

If you have come here from Sarita'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 consultants here. This month we have 56 Close To My Heart Consultants sharing their creations using this month's SOTM and other great CTMH products on their blogs. This is simple to do - just click on the link at the end of the post on each blog to move to the next one! Here we go!

This stamp set, "Find Your Style", contains nine beautiful images including several sentiments.  I LOVE the dress form and beautiful butterfly but especially love the intricate designs on the images.  

 

This month I purchased two wooden frames at the Dollar Tree for $1 (packaged together) and used acrylic paint to paint one black.  Then, I used the Wings Level 2 Paper Packet and SOTM to decorate it - perfect for any desk or counter top.

 

I "picked and omitted" a portion of the saying by covering the undesired part, "A friend is", with scotch tape.  I inked the image up in Black ink and then removed the scotch tape, leaving only the desired part inked.  I stamped it on the Colonial White piece of cardstock and then stamped the larger "friend" image in Juniper ink.  The beautiful butterfly is stamped in Vineyard Berry ink and I used Clear Sparkles to add a little "sparkle" to the frame.   

Now "Hop" on over to Lori's Blog to see her work! Be sure to visit all the Consultants at their Blogs to get some great crafting ideas and other fun ideas! Remember, the January SOTM is only available until January 31, 2011! Contact me or click here to see how you can get this stamp set at a discount or even free! 

You can see some additional artwork using this stamp set by visiting my website.

Happy Hopping!

Christmas Preparations

Our Christmas tree and Christmas decorations have been up since soon after Thanksgiving but I had yet to post photos of them.

I struggled a bit with what to decorate the tree with this year but went ahead with Cowboy colors since my hubby has collected a few ornaments over the years and there was no better place to do so.  Of course, it would have made the Christmas day game a little more enjoyable had they won...but I won't go there.  :0)  The tree topper I had purchased was a bit too heavy for the tree so we stuck on the Santa's hat.  It fit perfectly with the theme!

While decorating, I remembered I had recently ordered some Snowflake Dimensional Elements and decided to make them ornaments to fill up the tree.  I sponged them in Pacifica Ink and added some "bling" to them with Clear Sparkles and Glitter Glue.  Some I punched holes through and others, just inserted the hook where it fit.

 They coordinated beautifully with our other ornaments and I was proud of my creations!

Shortly before Christmas, my hubby and I made our way to the Gaylord Texan in Grapevine where we enjoyed the sites and sounds of the holiday season.  One of the yummy delights in the Texan was a room made of Gingerbread.  It smelled delightful and the decorations were adorable. 

Here's a photo of the room:

Here's my hubby taking a moment for a pose in front of the gingerbread wall:

Hoping everyone's Christmas was enjoyable!

NEW Triangle Banner

One of the products that will be released and available on January 1st is a NEW banner, in the form of triangles, that is made out of chipboard.  It comes white for lots of versatility for decoration.

I made this banner for my friend's 15 year-old daughter birthday.  Obviously, her name is Victoria - and it fit perfect on the 8 triangles!  I understand she has hung it in her room so I'm glad she liked it!

 (In the new Idea Book...there are a few different samples made with it.  You'll have to wait until February 1st to see for yourself.  What a tease I am, huh?  Ahhh...the benefits to being a Consultant! LOL)

I LOVE being a Director with CTMH!

There are many benefits to being a Director with Close To My Heart, and I have posted about many of them in the past, but this week - amidst the hustle and bustle of the craziness - I received my Christmas gift!

Here is a close-up of the card and there was a sweet message inside, signed by Jeanette Lynton, our CEO and President.

And this was the beautiful contents of the box.  Isn't it STUNNING?!  

 I am grateful to all who have supported me over the last few years in obtaining and maintaining Director status.  To be a Director with Close To My Heart, you have to maintain 20 active first downline.  If you would like to know how to become a Consultant and reap ALL the benefits of being a Consultant and eventually a Director, contact me and I would be happy to share the details with you! 

THANKS TO MY FIRST DOWNLINE FOR HELPING ACHIEVE AND MAINTAIN THIS STATUS!  LOVE YOU ALL!

Wracking up on the Mexican food!

If you have never eaten Southwest New Mexican food, especially from my home town, then you don't know what GREAT Mexican food tastes like!  You might say you do but I guarantee, with just one taste, you would think otherwise.

The best Mexican food on earth is served at Jalisco's and we had to make a point to eat there twice during out visit over Thanksgiving!  I should have taken a picture of our plates - so you could see how yummy they look - but instead I took a picture of my hubby and sister.  They have a love/hate relationship going on!  LOL

Too bad Jalisco's doesn't ship!  I'd order from there at least once a month if I could! 

Some Christmas Cards

In November, my Azle club members made these cards and ornaments using the Dimensional Elements chipboards and the Mistletoe Level 2 Assortment.

They enjoyed making them and the results.  Of course, we listened to Christmas music as we created, helping to set the mood.

Too young to scrap?

I don't think so!

Alyzae (my niece) has been around Close To My Heart since she was born and has since become addicted to it.  She has her little stash of products and loves to play with them.

Over Thanksgiving, my Mom and I worked on some bazaar projects and she joined us at the table.

She worked diligently on a card for her Mom.  I love sharing this craft with her!

Projects made from scraps

As promised, here are this month's club projects!

In searching for some paper to create a desktop organizer and calendar with, I decided to use what was left of the ? kit.  There was just the right amount left over to do so and I love the results!

This desktop organizer contains some paper-made (cardstock) separators and it will look great on my scrapbooking desk at home!  I used 4x4 designs from Wishes to create each side.  I hope you like it!  (One side is missing from the photos because it was blurry.)

This is the CUTE journal cover, if I must say so myself.  We made coordinating pens and I look forward to tieing some ribbon around the binding when I have some time!  Thanks for looking!

Christmas Party with Azle Club

Monday night I was able to enjoy a fun evening with my club members - Debi, Patricia, Terri and Linda.  We enjoyed a delicious dinner complete with finger foods and a yummy drink!  We also exchanged gifts and  made two projects, a desk organizer made out of the My Creations Cube and decorated the front of the MyCreations Journal. 

 Linda and Terri check out their gifts.

 Debi smells the lifetime candle given to us by Patricia.

Debi, Patricia and Linda hard at work on their projects.

Our mess!  :)  But it's a fun and pretty mess!

The projects were a big hit and will be highlighted in tomorrow's post!  I'm looking forward to 2011 with these fun gals!

I LOVE Turtles!

Not THOSE kinds of turtles, silly!  At this time of the year you probably could have guessed what I was talking about!

Now...that's better!  I have a math coordinator who comes in my room daily to help with some students. She surprised me, before Thanksgiving break, with some goodies - some which were homemade turtles! She didn't know, at the time, that it's probably my favorite candy on the long list of chocolate items! Of course, I asked her for the recipe and we gave it a try on Sunday and they were super easy!

Here is the recipe and be sure to share if you try to make some yourself:

Ingredients:

1 package Kraft caramels

3T Eagle Brand Milk

1 1/2 cups chopped pecans (not too fine)

1/2 block Chocolate Almond Bark

Directions:

1.  Melt caramels.

2.  Add milk. 
3.  When blended, fold in pecans.
4.  Drop by teaspoonfuls onto wax paper (VERY lightly coated with flour or they will stick) until cool.
5.  Melt almond bark and tip "naked" turtles into it. 
6.  Put on wax paper until set.

EAT AND ENJOY!  YUMMMMMM!

Here's a picture of the naked turtles.  My co-worker thought it was too funny when I called them that, trying to understand her directions.  It helped!  LOL

A Thanksgiving with family

We ended up heading to New Mexico for Thanksgiving and had a wonderful time.  I will share some fun photos sporadically over the next week or so of our time with my family.

The first night was spent hanging out with my sister, cousins, and friends.  We frequented a few "spots" and enjoyed the company of one another.  Unfortunately, my sister wasn't feeling so well this evening but we still managed to get a few pictures with her before she headed home early for the night.  Sadly, she was sick on Thanksgiving day as well.

 My sister and hubby.  They sure have a good time when they are together!

 These are my cousins, Analisa and Marisela, from my dad's side of the family.  Most people think we could separate this photo in the middle and make sister pairs out of the cousins.  We receive many comments about us looking alike.

 Enjoying a night out with family and friends!

Santa's Workshop

Several friends and I co-hosted a Santa's Workshop on the 20th of November where we taught 6 different classes, projects that were perfect for the holidays and friends and family members on gift lists.  The classes were $6 each or all 6 for $25!  We had 14 guests in attendance and most of them completed all of the projects.

 Francene taught how to alter wooden frames into something beautiful!

 Debi designed a recipe wall-hanger, perfect for including your favorite recipes (or we discussed other ways to use this in your home - bills, Christmas cards, etc.).

Guests at Karen's workshop created a greeting card box and 4x4 cards to go inside it.

Kim designed and taught this adorable gift bag and a gift card holder - to use as one gift or to separate for two!

I showed how to decorate a plain candle with any stamp image of choice and we altered a gift box and handmade this paper bow.  Both the candle and bow were a big hit!

I had a great time visiting with my dear friend, Kristy, meeting new ladies who enjoy this hobby as much as I, and spending time with the co-hosts.  We topped off the day with a delicious dinner at Uncle Julio's!  We plan on doing this again in the near future so stay tuned for further details!

Hand-crafted jewelry

My upline Jody P. from Arizona sent me this beautiful handmade card and necklace made out of Close To My Heart Paper (the Olivia paper packet).  They were sent to me as a "prize" for a drawing she held with her team.  I was honored that my name was drawn and even moreso when I received my goodies!

That's Amore'! - December Stamp of the Month Blog Hop

If you have come here from Brae Montgomery'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 consultants here. This month we have 63 Close To My Heart Consultants sharing their creations using this month's SOTM and other great CTMH products on their blogs. This is simple to do - just click on the link at the end of the post on each blog to move to the next one! Here we go!

This month we are featuring "Amore'", a set of 13 stamps. This stamp set is perfect for Valentine-themed items and versatile enough to be used throughout the year!

I enjoyed incorporating the Magnifique paper packet with this stamp set, getting away for a minute from the typical "love" colors that also would have looked gorgeous with this stamp set.

Incorporating our white-core cardstock, I used our Embossing Stylus and Sanding Kit to create this striped texture to the Pacifica cardstock.  Difficult to see clearly in this photo, I also used our Blue & Green Sparkles Assortment to "bling" up the Pacifica heart and a piece of Chocolate ribbon and bow always finishes off creations nicely. 

As you can see in the image of the stamp set, I "omitted" the "love" in the "I love you" sentiment to be able to include the larger "love" image.  I did so by putting tape over the images I did not want to ink up and then removed it before stamping an image.  (This is a technique taught in an episode of CTMH TV.)

Now "Hop" on over to Wendy Coffman's Blog to see her work! Be sure to visit all the Consultants at their Blogs to get some great crafting ideas and other fun ideas! Remember, the December SOTM is only available until December 31, 2010! Contact me or click here to see how you can get this stamp set at a discount or even free! You can see some additional artwork using this stamp set by visiting my website.

Happy Hopping!

Tailgating at the World Series

My husband and I had a great time tailgating and hanging out before the first World Series game held in Arlington! We had hoped to get some tickets but didn't have luck there - buying tickets that weren't outrageously priced, that is!  But we did have some fun and took advantage of great photo opportunities so I'm sharing them here!  Luckily the Rangers won and it was fun being in the excitement of the event!

A photo of the stadium taken from where we tailgated.

A view of Cowboys' Stadium from where we tailgated.

Taken on our way towards the stadium.  Obviously it was a little windy but otherwise a beautiful day!

On our way back to the car - with a Six Flags roller coaster in the distance.