EASY FUN POSTCARDS.

Who doesn't like to send a sweet little note to someone through the mail? (snail mail that is!)  I sure do, so I decided to play around with making some of my own photo and paper pieced postcards.

These are easy and fun and quick.
 

Here's my first attempt. It's a 4x6 and I glued the photo on a heavy piece of our Colonial White cardstock with Tombo adhesive tape. Mind you, this was a "hurry up and try it" project with not much thought for content! I had this photo laying around. I distressed the edges on the front with our cocoa ink.

 Here's the back:

I just drew in the divider lines in the middle and did some stamping with brown ink to make it look a little shabby.

Here's my 5x8 postcard:

Another quick "try it out" sample. I wanted to see if our B&T papers would go through the mail OK. I glued the papers on with the heavier duty SCORE tape. The picture is adhered with Tombo adhesive tape. I distressed the edges with cocoa ink.

Here's the back of the 5x8 card. I wanted to see if this large of a card would mail well.  It did fine as you can see! I drew in the divider lines in the middle and did some randon stamping with cocoa ink.

I love the look of these postcards!  I mailed them to myself to see how they would fare and they did very well without much damage.  I think it's a good idea to use fairly heavy cardstock. Our Colonial White worked great!

Hope you have fun with some postcards!  Everyone loves to receive a little treat via snail mail. I think sending thank you notes or "hello" notes by mail is a custom that we should keep alive.  I still love receiving a note in my mailbox.


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CONTEST TO WIN FREE ALPHABET STAMP SET!

I don't post alot of videos on my blog concerning Close to My Heart classes and products, because you can view them on my website HERE at CTMH TV, but this video (and contest) is an exception!

Jeanette Lynton, the founder and CEO of Close to My Heart, has a neat contest going on right now on her blog!  You have a chance to win a FREE E-sized alphabet stamp set (retail value of $29.95) of your choice from the Autumn/Winter 2013 Idea Book!  This is so exciting so I wanted to share this with you, just in case you weren't aware of it.

Just go to Jeanette's blog HERE - BE AN ALPHA CONTEST to read her contest post and view the video.  All you have to do is make a comment on her blog sharing one "alpha" wish, or comment on her Facebook or YouTube by August 31, 2013 to be entered to win one of 20 stamp sets being given away.  

I must say too, that all of the "alpha wishes" posted by everyone are very touching, fun and inspiring!

You can choose from two sets:

The Vogue Alphabet set is 73 pieces and very fancy and scrolly.

The Framework Alphabet set is 66 pieces and kind of blocky (is that a word?) and hand-drawn looking.









I've already entered to win by posting a comment on Jeanette's blog and on her Facebook page.  Hope you do too!
 
 

FREE Monthly downloads-REDISCOVER CTMH.

Simply Awesome! A free download each month from Close to My Heart!   

As a year-long "Rediscover CTMH campaign, there will be available each month a FREE exclusive download from Close to My Heart. There will be specially designed, colorful gift tags, notepaper, home décor, and more!   I will post it here on my blog the first of each month.  AND DID I SAY FREE???? We love free stuff, right?

For August:

Nab some really cute exclusive stationery now through August 31st for FREE! Use it to write letters or quick notes to family members near and far as an enduring and classic way to express your love. Available only from Close To My Heart!

Click on the picture box above (Rediscover CTMH blue box) which will take you to the link on the Close to My Heart Website.  The link to the stationery is under the Rediscover blue box on the CTMH website.

Aaron Brown, a fellow CTMH consultant, has made a darling little notepad from the stationery.

And she used part of it to make the decorative strip along the left edge!  Very clever!  View her tutorial and video at her blog HERE.

Have a blast with this neat download! And be sure to subscribe to my blog posts (upper right at top of column) to receive notice of each new download!


 

NEW AUTUMN WINTER IDEA BOOK IS HERE!

Here it is! The Autumn/Winter 2013 Idea Book!!  Full of new paper packs, new stamp sets, card kits, jewelry kits, frames and more!

There are now six new HOSTESS stamp sets that only a person hosting an online or home gathering can earn with hostess rewards. Those are on the first pages of the Idea Book.

The Stamps of the Month are also now shown in the FRONT of the Idea Book, rather than the back.  Check out the August Stamp of the Month, Chocolate Affair, for you chocolate lovers! It's FREE with a purchase of $50 or more.  What great gifts!  If you purchase, for example, $100 of products, you can earn TWO free stamps of the month!  Think Christmas, think gifts.
 

Click HERE to view the Idea Book online... right now.... right here!

HAVE FUN!
 

THINK OUTSIDE THE BOX.

DON'T LEAVE THIS PAGE until you look down below at some of my recent FUN AND UNUSUAL scrapbook pages!

I took one of the Big Picture Classes in May which was to celebrate National Scrapbooking Day (or maybe it was National Stamping Month??? - can't remember for sure!).... all I know is that it was FREE and lasted all day long and I loved it!

 We had several challenges over a 10 hour period. What a blast! You would listen to the teacher, read her ideas and suggestions, and then go make your project, post it on the Big Picture Classes gallery, and be entered to win something fun and neat.

I was just looking at the different scrapbook pages that I made for some of the challenges.... and realized how fun they were and how "outside the box" they were!  

I probably never would have thought of them on my own!

So thought I'd show them to you, just for the sake of "ideas and inspiration". I'm not adding how I did them, or cutting recipes, measurements, etc.  I just wanted to show you the theme or idea that may just get you inspired to make a page or pages using some of your photos that are sitting in a box.

On this challenge, we were to make a page doing some handwritten journaling and talk about a relationship.

This was easy and quick. I used premade embellishments that came with an entire set of papers and stickers, etc. (not Close to My Heart... I had already started this page years ago!). I hand journaled and used stickers for the word "Sisters" and then drew around them with a black marker. I stuck some cute stickers on the paper, flowers and tags and voila! was done! Hand journaling is SO important.. that is what was stressed in this challenge.

The next challenge was to make up a "bucket list" for the summer.  What a great idea!

Never would have thought of it!  So I ran to my little digital scrapbooking program on my computer (an old one I downloaded years ago), made up a quick little page, printed it out, and voila! I was done!  This goes to show how fun digital scrapbooking can be.

Another fun challenge was to make a page showing the last 3 pictures we took with our cell phone!

Again, I NEVER would have thought of this!  I literally blew this page out in about 10 minutes. I matted the photos, used some premade tags that I had in my stash, wrote on them, made a little title, added a couple of strips of paper top and bottom, and voila! was done!

I got carried away with "the last 3" so also put the last three friends I made and the last three meals I made.  Oh... I see I also remembered to put a date on there.  Just a neat little memory to keep.

I'll show you one more.. this was fun! We were to make a page using a technique we've never used before.

Can you figure this out? ha!  Now that I look at it, it looks like an angry monster with teeth!  I sure didn't see that before!  I chose to scribble with paint on a page (as I've seen done before on videos, etc.) and then use just ONE PHOTO of no people! That's not like me at all.... and keep it very simple and no embellishments.  Hard to do.

Well.. I guess you can call the star an embellishment! This was fun. I used some textured white cardstock or you could use watercolor paper. Made dabs of acrylic paint on a little tray and added water and started scribbling!  Have fun.... be creative!

Then quickly chose one photo that would kind of match... cut the star out of my Cricut machine, added the date, and voila! done in about 10 minutes!

Boy it was HARD not to add lace!!

OK.. that's it for today.  I just thought these was such neat, innovative ideas from BIG PICTURE CLASSES.  I plan to take more classes down the road. Some are free. Some are a one-time only class and some may be a 4 to 6 week class.   

(Note: Close to My Heart is pairing (once again) with Big Picture Classes for another Pajama party on July 31st.  Go HERE to find out how to register and I think it's free. It will be covering the new Close to My Heart "Artbooking" Cricut cartridge and its many uses.)

Have fun scrapbooking "out of the box"!!

 

A GREAT HELP FROM CTMH.

The other day, while browsing my website (just for fun because it has so many neat ideas), I discovered something new that I didn't even know about!

There is a tab under "Ideas and Inspiration" called WORKSHOPS ON THE GO and it is FULL of great tips, ideas and recipes for bonus projects and layouts!  Wow.. this is amazing!  Of course, these projects coincide with the Workshop on the Go kits for each paper, but you could vary your projects and use the supplies and stamp sets you have on hand.

Here are a couple more of the bonus projects that are shown for the For Always and Tommy papers, which will both be carrying forward to the Autumn/Winter 2013 Idea Book:

This is good to know.  Go check it out when you have a chance HERE, ON MY WEBSITE.

 

I'M FULFILLED........

I am so happy today that I seem to have my crafting "mojo" back! With the advent of summer, I have kind of drifted off into the outdoor world, leaving my craft area all alone, which I'm sure makes it very sad! 

In the last few days, I've been creating like crazy........ here's one fun thing I made: 

CUTE LITTLE PAPER BOX WITH one of my SHABBY FLOWERS (handmade).  I used the Martha Stewart scoreboard pattern for making boxes.

I ADDED SCALLOPS AND FAUX STITCHING (FREE HAND) WITH A SHARPIE PEN. I love tiny things!  This box is only 2" square.

I used a little piece of retired Lucy paper on the top.

I'm fulfilled in what I do.....

I never thought that a lot of

money or fine clothes---

the finer things of life----

would make you happy.

My concept of happiness is

to be fulfilled in a spiritual sense.

Coretta Scott King (b. 1927)

American Civil Rights leader.

NATURE INSPIRES ME

CRAFTING AND CREATING DOES FULFILL ME!  It IS all very spiritual in that I revel in the colors of nature, which I believe are reflected in all of things that I make.