Home, Sweet Home!

It's the February Stamp of the Month!! It's a beautiful sentiments stamp set.  I love sentiments, because I love making cards.  But you can see from the picture above, the amazingly talented designers at CTMH used it to embellish the new treat bags and scrap booking layouts!

My stamp is on order and I'm (impatiently) waiting for it to arrive so I can get those cards out of my head!! 

This stamp retails for $17.95, but you can get it for only $5 with a qualifying order of $50!  Go to paperprincess.ctmh.com to get yours today!

~Theresa

It's here!

Oh, it's my favorite time of the year - the new catalog is out!  I don't know about you, but I love, love, LOVE getting the new catalog!  I even love the way it smells (you know that smell brand new books have when you open them for the first time?  That's the one.)  I'm such a goof, I even set the scene when I sit down to open it for the first time.  I go away to a quiet place with something to drink, my pen and paper and the brand new catalog.  I get all cozy before I open the cover.  I flip the pages slowly, soaking in every new paper pack, stamp and embellishment.  I go through it and mark down every single thing I want.  Every.  Single.  Thing.  (My husband saw this ritual once and gave me that look you give someone when they've lost their last marble.  Maybe it had something to do with the dreamy, faraway look in my eyes.  He doesn't judge too much - he loves being the recipient of my cards.)  Then comes the painstaking chore of deciding which items to order first.  It's not easy deciding what comes first and what comes after.  I'm a creative creature, I want it all. 

I see cards in everything (not much of a scrap booker, but I'm learning how to give it a go.)  I love making cards.

And the projects!  Oh, the projects!!  Close To My Heart has added AMAZING home decor projects to their catalog this time!  I can't wait to get my inked, little fingers on them!

Now it's your turn to get your fingers on your own!  Contact me today to get your catalog and get your creative juices flowing!!

~Theresa

Training Videos Tuesday - On Thursday!

I'm a little off my game this week.  I didn't get my training video up on Tuesday because I have been battling eager cold bugs at my house.  Usually they show up in January, but this year, they decided to visit us early.  All three of my guys are sick - and the baby has his first ear infection.  My hubby works the midnight shift, so sleep is hard enough for him when he's well.  My abnormally sleep-reluctant pumpkin is only sleeping right now while he's being held.  The only one in my house who's getting any rest is my ten year old.  He's a champion mattress hugger.  He can (and has) slept through a hurricane.  Hopefully, next week, they'll all be back to their regular selves and we can get back to normal.

But this video is too great to pass up passing it along.  I love that Close To My Heart creates these videos to highlight new techniques and projects.  I love learning new ways to be more creative in my own work and sharing that with all of you!

It's a Baby Girl!!

Oh, my gosh!!  I am so proud of how cute this card turned out to be!  I just had my second baby in June and after I found out I was having another son, one by one a whole bunch of family members and friends started expecting their own little bundles of joy (3 cousins, 1 sister, 1 step-sister and a couple girlfriends).  Babies are falling from heaven all around me.  So I decided to pull out my "Mommy" stamp and make some cards.  I made this one for my cousin whose baby is coming around the holidays.

I love pink and black together (in case you hadn't noticed from my blog).  I think it can be classy and girly and give great attitude all at the same time!  I knew I wanted to use Roxie for this card because it does all that and more.  I paper pieced her clothes and the baby carriage and used our Blending Pen to color in her skin and hair, the baby, the inside of the carriage and to add dimension to the ruffles on the back of the buggy.

I didn't go all out embellishing this card because I wanted the focus to be on the mom and baby carriage.  I accented the flourishes on the patterned paper by using Liquid Glass.  It added just the right amount of shine.  I finished it off with a few pearls and a little bling in mom's ears (just because I think every woman deserves a pair of diamond earrings) and on the wheels of the buggy.

I hope my cousin likes this as much as I do!

Enjoy!

Theresa
Collect. Create. Contribute.

Simple Sympathy

This is my first attempt at a sympathy card.  It was for my neighbor whose father passed away recently.  Because it was for a man, I didn't want it to be overly embellished.  I wanted it to be simple and slightly masculine. And I think I accomplished that.  But this card means so much more to me than just simple sympathy.

This family is very special to me.  I have a ten year old son with Autism and last year when we moved here, their daughter became his very first friend. Autism is a complicated disorder.  But to put it very, very simply, it's a lack of social appropriateness.  When he was diagnosed in 2008, he was non-verbal and he had violent fits.  I focused on intense one-on-one therapy and on strict diet changes and slowly this boy emerged who knew who he was, but not how to connect with his peers.  And when we moved to this house, it finally happened.  This little girl treats him the way we all try to raise our children to treat others without seeing his disability as a liability.  I could go on for days, telling you what an impact her acceptance of my son has done for us, both for my hope that he will one day be able to live an independent life and also for the things that she's taught him that I never could.  But I'll save that for another day.  So instead, I fell back to what I know.  Which was putting my hands to work.  I made them this card.

I love cards because they are a way to stay connected with our loved ones (just don't ask my mom, she'll tell you I don't call home enough).  When we're happy, when we're sad, we just need someone to say, "I see you and I'm here."  So until the end of the year, you'll see lots of cards.  I have a lot of people in my life to celebrate - family members that I'm grateful for, birthdays to commemorate (my baby sister is practically going gray at the thought of turning thirty this year), and people who have helped shape the woman I've become and the direction my life is heading.  And you'll probably see a few more sympathy cards on here, too.  And I'll work on my picture taking skills so the photos aren't so dark.  Enjoy.


Theresa
Collect. Create. Contribute.
  

My favorite things Thursday!

Craft heaters!!

These hand-held dynamos are great for all sorts of crafting needs.  But handle with care, because these little guys heat up fast and stay super-hot for a while!

Here's just a few things you can do with your craft heater...

~Speed up the drying time on Liquid Glass.
~Speed up the drying time on Pigment Inks
~Emboss!!

I use mine almost exclusively to emboss.  I love adding dimension to my projects without going "full splash".  (You know those projects where they threw everything in there - including the kitchen sink?  Not my kinda dimension.)  Embossing adds the right amount of flash.  And if I'm feeling in a particularly embellishing mood, I can add sparkles or opaques to my embellished pieces (see my *Wicked* Halloween card!).

Embossing does take some practice to get the right technique down.  So don't get discouraged if your stamped image looks pretty scary the first few times you do it.  Just keep at it and pretty soon, Hallmark will be knocking down your door.  (Just kidding.  That's just a minor fantasy of mine.)  Enjoy!

Theresa
Collect. Create. Contribute.

Free, free, free!!

Do you still use a 35mm camera to capture all your family's memorable events or did you switch to a digital camera?  If you did, then you need to digitize your scrapbooking, too!!

During the month of October when you purchase 9 two page Studio J layouts, Close To My Heart will give you the tenth two page layout free! 

Studio J is how Close To My Heart does digital scrapbooking.  There's no software to download and no upfront fees.  In fact, you don't pay a cent until you're satisfied with your pages and ready to see them in an album on your coffee table. You just log onto the website here and start scrappin'! 

I used Studio J for the first time last week and I couldn't believe how easy the whole process was!  I just uploaded my pictures, chose my paper pack and layout from the dozens offered and embellished to my heart's content.  Because it was so easy, I'm working on a birthday album for my mom and I'm going to have the pages delivered right to her!  

Wanna try it for yourself?  Just log in and start your own pages.

Theresa
Collect. Create. Contribute.