HOLIDAYS FROM THE HEART - NEW CAMPAIGN!

Are you ready? Are you ready for some pre-holiday excitement? (Christmas to be exact!). 

Close to My Heart has an awesome special beginning October 15th! 

I'm going to show you an early peek! 

Beginning October 15th, you can shop the (new and fun) Close to My Heart mini Holidays from the Heart gift catalog!  This is so exciting! It's 24 pages of yummy Christmas (new) items and some "after Christmas" fun products to move you into the new year and your January and February crafting.

IN ADDITION, for every $100 you order (from the Autumn/Winter 2013 Idea Book or the Holidays from the Heart catalog), you will qualify for one free “stared” item in the holiday catalog! Several items in the Holidays from the Heart Gift Guide are only available while supplies last, so be sure to place orders for your favorites early!

"While supplies last" products include:

• Sparkle & Shine paper pack Assortment (Z1860)
• Sparkle & Shine Washi Tape 3-Pack (Z1907)
• Workshops on the Go® Sparkle & Shine Scrapbooking Kit (G1071)
• Season's Tweetings Gift Bag Kit (Z1913)
• Season's Tweetings Gift Bags (Z1914)
• Sparkle Holiday Shapes (Z1910)
• Party Washi Tape 3-Pack (Z1908)
• My Creations® Hip Pics Album Kit (Z1915)

Here are a few of the items in the catalog:

Tweetings Gift Bags (while supplies last).

Hip Picks mini Album Kit (sweet!)

Look at the neat colors, mini size and stamp set! WHAT A GREAT GIFT FOR SOMEONE FOR CHRISTMAS!

Magical Days 25 days of Christmas stamp set (you can earn this set for FREE with your $100 order)! Stamp set is shown here mounted on little gifts bags stuffed with tissue, and then clipped to the CTMH black wired frame.

This is just a peek!  There are three more Christmas stamp sets, plus other little Christmas goodies. 

You will also be delighted with some "after Christmas" stamp sets and projects.

Beginning October 15th, you'll be able to go HERE to my website  and view the Holidays from the Heart catalog (click on the link for the 2013 Holiday Gift Guide). 
 
If you would like a "paper" Holidays from the Heart catalog, please let me know and I'll be glad to send one to you.

Enjoy!

 

OCTOBER SWEDISH CHRISTMAS.

Oh my! Close to My Heart has such fun and exciting specials in October!  First, being offered during the month of October only, is the Scandanavian Wishes stamp of the month set.... SO DARLING.

Isn't this just so sweet? The words can be stamped separately or in a line. The items outlined in red can be cut out with the CTMH Artiste or Art Philosophy cartridge (the tag, the house, the heart, and the ornament).

As with every Stamp of the Month set, purchase any items in the current Idea Book for a total of $50.00 or more, and receive the October Stamp of the Month set for just $5.00!

Go HERE on my Website to begin your order and to view the stamp set and ideas for using it. There are ideas for a Joy scrapbook page layout, a Warm Wishes Card and a Holiday gift box.

WARM WISHES CARD prepared by Close to My Heart designers.

HOLIDAY GIFT BOX prepared by CTMH designers.

I found some DARLING cards and tags made by Annette Green at Annette's Creative Journey. This gives you some ideas on how to use this sweet and versatile stamp set!  I love her ideas and designs, and especially the creative little house box/basket.

I'm of Swedish ancestry so of course, I love this stamp set!

There's another wonderful and fun special coming up on October 15th.  Stay tuned for my next blog post.  Subscribe to my posts via email so you won't miss anything!

Have fun creating!

 

OCTOBER FREE DOWNLOAD - REDISCOVER CTMH.

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

CLICK ON THE BOX TO THE RIGHT......
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 October - Rediscover Sweet:

Life is sweet and so are these adorable designed paper pieces! Download them for free through October 31st, and use them as cupcake flags or to wrap small chocolates and give the gift of sweet.

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 this sweet paper strip set is under the Rediscover blue box on the CTMH website.

Save this PDF file as a JPEG file on your computer. Then you can print out all or part of these darling paper strips!  I can see using them to add decoration to cards and scrapbook pages. These are neat designs that coordinate with our paper packs, and yet are new and different.

Do I see some Christmas, Halloween and Fall colors in there?

Enjoy this free download!

 

HALLOWEEN CANVAS BOARD AND PAPER SALE.

BOO AND TRICK OR TREAT DAY IS COMING and I found such a great deal on the Close to My Heart "While Supplies Last" sale! 

I made a cute 6x6 canvas display board (from CTMH), painted it bright orange, covered it with some of the Spellbound paper and some little felt "Hooligans" from last year's while supplies last sale, added some of our black tulle, a ribbon, gems and a ruffle of our For Always textiles. I modpodged over all the papers too.

The SPELLBOUND paper pack (18 sheets of paper) is on sale for only $2.20!!  Yup, you heard it right! $2.20 for 18 sheets of gorgeous Fall and Halloween inspired papers. The photo in the above link does not do it justice.  Plus, the papers are more orange than the browns it shows on the website picture.  I took a few pictures of my papers. Here they are:

And these are BLACK, not browns!  Everything is a vivid orange and black, white and black, etc. No browns, even though my camera even makes these papers look brown.  You get:

12 – 12" × 12" Cardstock Sheets (3 Black, 4 Sunset, 4 Slate, 1 White Daisy) 
6 – 12" × 12" B&T Duos® Papers (2 each of 3 double-sided designs)

Here are the cardstock colors:

  

 

I'm so excited to make some Halloween and Fall cards with this paper!  It is so beautiful "in person". It's well worth the price for just the cardstock! I never have enough black, and I love the slate!

Have fun! (don't we always??????)

 

YUMMY GLUTEN FREE SOURDOUGH PANCAKES!

Hi all, It's time for another wonderful gluten free recipe! My husband's delicious gluten free sourdough pancakes... and they are oh so good!

I've put the recipe on recipe cards if you want to print them out.

Here's the recipe. The "starter" can be used for other yummy delights, such as muffins, rolls, bread, biscuits. I haven't been able to get my husband to try gluten free sourdough bread yet but I'll keep urging him as I had to with these pancakes.

There you have it!  These are really not hard to make. It takes a crock with lid, a medium bowl and a small bowl. Be sure to never use metal bowls or spoons! My husband says it ruins the starter.

Now we have to try  making some gluten free sourdough rolls. That is my next favorite thing (or used to be when I could still eat wheat). I think hubby tried them once with regular sourdough but they turned out like hockey pucks!   

Sure hope you try these if you have to eat gluten free.  There is nothing like a sweet/tart sourdough pancake with pure maple syrup and a little sprinkle of powdered sugar!

SUMMER FLOWERS REMINISCE.

Sadly, Summer is coming to an end.............. I love Fall and the golden days... but I'm missing my colorful summer flowers!

It's time to travel down memory lane, and visit some of my old friends of summers past.  Here's Crocosmia from last year, being visited by our local hummingbird!

These are one of my all-time favorites! The vivid oranges brighten up my summer yard... and keep me company way into the Fall.

I like to reminisce about flowers of my past, like this stunning Iris!

My son gave me three Iris bulbs a few years ago, and although I had to leave them at my previous house, I have this picture to remind me of their beauty.

Geranium hanging baskets graced my last house entry gate. I hope to have hanging baskets next year although I don't have any gates where I live now.  I LOVE garden gates!

One of my old friends, Queen Anne's Lace, grew in profusion along the road to my last home. I have loved these flowers since my childhood.  Isn't Mother Nature amazing?

My last home was in a very wet climate (SW Washington). I didn't think I would see any here in dry central Oregon, but there are actually a few peaking their stately heads up in my little backyard viola flower bed!  

Every Fall, it seems I find myself drawn to my flowers of previous years. They are like old friends that I like to visit every now and then.  I'm glad I've taken tons of pictures!

I didn't have too many flowers this year since we've only been here a year, so I depended on what was already here!  There are lots of wildflowers in my front flower bed.... which are just now saying hello to me!

I tucked in a little green plastic tray that I found at our Rhubarb Festival for 50 cents!  I keep it filled with water and the birds and bees love it.

Oh my.. one of the last pink carnations that is hanging on to the very last minute of summer!

It is really hard to keep flowers around for very long, as the local deer love browsing here for their midnight snacks!  This flower pot (below) used to have really glorious blooms!

 

........until mama and her baby came by for a delicious snack. One morning, she was standing practically ON my deck, munching away at EVERYTHING!

I tried hanging tin foil on a post in my flowers, and also draped foil over my pots. It seems to help.  I sprinkled some of my marigolds with chili powder, thinking it would keep the deer away, but all I did was kill the blooms! (duh....).

It's been a few weeks now since the last deer foray, and a few flowers have managed to begin forming new blossoms.  I'm glad the deer left me "something" to look at!

I also have a few survivors on my back deck, because every night, I drag the pots back right next to my house.  I did this after catching a deer right in my fenced backyard, happily munching away at my strawberries in a pot on the edge of the deck!

My lone back deck survivor - Begonias and daisies.

 

I will savor this lone pot for the rest of the summer!

I hope I have a few more days to enjoy my lovely summer flowers...... until the frost hits, which should be soon.  In this neck of the woods, some of our nights have already hit 32 degrees!

When they are gone for another year, I'll continue to reminisce about my old friends of summers past.

CUTE "FROSTED" CARDS.

Just wanted to do a quick post to show you a couple of darling Christmas cards using the new FROSTED papers and the September Stamp of the Month,  POSTER TIDINGS.

This card uses our Slate Satin Polka Dot Ribbon. One of my favorites!

This card is made using the Colonial White Die Cut Card.

On the top card, you can see how just part of the stamp was used. I love that idea!

These cute cards were made by Gina Brandstetter, a fellow CTMH consultant, at Gina's Little Corner of Stampin Heaven. You can view the stamp set on my September 5th post, or on Gina's blog link above.  Thank you Gina for the cute ideas!  I also love how she put a "ribbon" and a "bow" on the top card where the words "ribbons and bows" were on the stamp. Oh so clever!

Many of the Close to My Heart consultants have blog hops highlighting the different new papers. If you would like to see more ideas, search for "CTMH Frosted" (for example, or any of the new papers) on google or most search engines. This is a great way to find neat ideas for projects and cards.

If you have any questions about how these cards were made, let me know and I can help you with the cuts and designs.