Make your own Calendar!!!

Happy December everyone!  Here in Michigan, you would never know that it was December!  It has been so warm!  Well they say that is about to change and according to the wind last night, I believe them.

Today I want to share with you, Close to my Hearts December special.  It is a make your own calendar kit.  You get everything you need to create 12 beautiful layouts.  And my favorite part about this is at the end of the year, you can just put the pages in an album and you are all finished.  This would be a great gift to give.  You could give the calendar kit or wait until the year is over and give the album.  And since you only see one page at a time, you can work on it all year long.

This kit comes with or without a stamp set.  The whole kit is 20% off the retail value.

Check it out on my website at paperdivas.ctmh.com.  You won't be sorry!

Have a wonderful rest of the year and check back soon for more Close to my Heart or other news from me!

Hugs, Ronda

CYBER MONDAY SALE!!!!!!

Do you need some awesome, beautiful desktop storage?  Close to my Heart is having an awesome sale for Cyber Monday.  Starting at 12:00 a.m. Mountain time through the 11:59 p.m.   All of their Workspace Wonder storage pieces will be on sale.  40% off for some bundles they have put together or 30% off individual pieces.  Check it out and don't wait because it is while supplies last.  Go to paperdivas.ctmh.com.  Put together an awesome organization set for you!

  Check out all of the pieces we have!  Have a great day!

Ronda, Hugs

Shadow boxes for your Holiday photos!

Happy Saturday and Happy Veterans Day!  Thank you to all who are serving and who have served!

I am going to participate in a craft show next Friday and Saturday, November 17th and 18th!  The main thing I will be displaying are Shadow boxes for Holiday pictures!  I will also have greeting cards for sale as well as some other paper crafts.  Here are some pictures of some of the shadow boxes.

These are just the pages which can be put in white or black shadow boxes.  These are all made with Close to my Heart products.  Some of the products are available on my website and some of them are retired.  I have used various CTMH Cricut cartridges too.  The one just above with the tree is from the Artbooking Cartridge.

Here are some more that are available.  Each one is unique and have different sizes of photo mats.  I use the corner photo holders so you can change them out each year.

Please contact me for more information on my custom made shadow boxes.  They make great Christmas presents.  Check out my website for some of these supplies at paperdivas.ctmh.com.

Thanks for looking,

Hugs, Ronda

rondaladuke@outlook.com.

Just for fun!!!

Well it's November and starting to get cold here in Michigan!  How about we warm things up with an awesome sale from Close to my Heart!

All of our Paper Fundaments paper packs, compliments and ribbon packs in our Annual idea book are up to 40% off.

If you buy just one or two things in a group you get 30% off but if you buy all three, you get 40% 0ff!!  This deal is amazing and these groups are fantastic.

Here are some pictures to get you excited.

 This is the whimsy collection!

 This is the adventure collection.  This pack all looks like it has been water colored.  So pretty!

 This one is Enchantment!

 And my personal favorite is the Basic's collection.  These are all brand new colors.

Click on the idea book to the left or go to paperdivas.ctmh.com.  click on promotions and they all will come up.  Don't forget to pick up a matching cardstock pack to go with them.

Have a great weekend!  Hugs!!!

Ronda

Herb ice cubes!

Good morning!  Today's post is about freezing your herbs.  It comes a time when you just don't know what to do with all that sweet basil and parsley in your garden.  I hate letting it go to waste.  So what do I do?  I wash it, let it dry and then put it in ice cube trays and fill with water or olive oil.  That is of course after I have dried it all summer and have jars stored in the basement.

I bought these nice ice cube trays from Tupperware.  I love that they have a lid on them.  This year I froze one tray with a mixture of parsley and sweet basil and another with just sweet basil.  Today I have to go out and pick more so the parsley I will put it in the fridge and use in smoothies and cooking.  It lasts a long time in the fridge if you don't wash it.  I think I will make some sweet basil in oil with the basil.

 I chop the herbs up good so all you have to do is throw the cube in the pot and it is just like fresh.

I hope you enjoyed todays post.  Come back a check out another in a few days.  I will be posting the cards for my Beary Christmas workshop.

And as always, for your paper crafting needs.  Check out my website at paperdivas.ctmh.com.  You can also email me at rondaladuke@outlook.com.

Have a great day!  Hugs!!!

Ronda

Operation Smile

Good morning everyone!

Today I want to share with you, information about Operation Smile and what Close to my Heart does to support this wonderful Organization.

We have a stamp set called Punny Pals.  It is so dang cute.  The item number is D1751.  It sells for $17.95 and CTMH donates $7.00 of each one sold to Operation Smile!  You get 36 stamps in this set.

Now because October is Operation smile month.  CTMH has came out with a thin die set to go with each of these cute little animals.

This by itself sells for $28.95.  This is only available in October.  The stamp set and it's donation is available through the end of July 2018.  There is always an Operation smile stamp set with the CTMH donation available.  It changes with each Annual idea book.

Also for October you can purchase this sweet card kit. Which includes the die set!  This sells for $39.95.  You get 10 pieces of 12 x 12 paper, 32 card bases and envelopes and the die set.  The stamp set is sold separately because of the donation that CTMH give with each set sold.

You can buy the cards and envelope separate so if you want to make more than 32, for $9.95.  The kit is a saving of about $9.00 when you buy it all together.

Now if you buy this kit and the stamp set, you also qualify for the stamp set of the month which is called Christmas Tunes.  It is so nice.

Don't for get to add it to your cart.  It will show you it when you add your items.  It is only $5.00!

So there you have it.  Please help us make beautiful smiles around the world.  It only cost $250 to fix a smile.  All of the doctors and nurses donate there time and equipment.

Please look up Operation Smile for more information.

My website is paperdivas.ctmh.com.  Click on Promotion on the top of the page and then Share a smile and everything will come up.  When you check out, please round up your order.  CTMH is also matching all round ups this month to go to Operation Smile.

Thank you so much,

Hugs, Ronda

Fall in Michigan???

Happy Saturday and the second day of fall.  I usually don't complain about the heat here in Michigan.  I haven't ran the air condition for about 3 weeks and now for the last few days, it is going non stop.  95 degrees on the first day of fall.  That is just crazy!  The one thing I love about it is that I haven't pulled up all my pepper or tomato plants and my peppers are going crazy.  I have bell and hot peppers galore.  I am so happy I froze some blanched tomatoes because I am going to make some super hot sauce.

I think I will just share a few veggie garden pictures today to give you something to think about over the next few months.

 This part of the garden will be raised next year.  I filled the first section of raised with nothing but mine and my mom's compost and organic garden soil.  It made a huge difference in my plants from previous years.

 I still have one Roma plant with 3 green tomatoes.  I'm hoping this heat will ripen them up.

 Sweet basil is my favorite!

 This is lime basil.  I have dried some of it but I haven't really used any yet.

 I planted some garlic bulbs in the block holes a week ago.  I hope they do good.  It is a great space saver.

 The green onions did great in the holes.  I had them in 4 different ones and I am still pulling them up.

I hope you enjoy your weekend and please follow my blog and don't forget for all your paper crafting needs.  Go to  paperdivas.ctmh.com.

Hugs, Ronda

Celebrate Fall!

Happy Friday everyone!  Today I want to share with you Close to my Hearts featured papers for September!

Here are four cards I made for my Fall card workshop!  I just love these papers!

This one is my favorite of the four!

This page shows the Cats and Bats paper pack!

 Here is the Falling for you Paper pack!

 This is called a Double Dutch fold card!  I really like this fold!

 This flower paper is my favorite in the Fall for You pack!

 I have only one Halloween card for my workshop!  That doesn't mean I won't create some more!  I love how CTMH puts non traditional papers in their packs.

Here is a list of the supplies I used to make these cards.  You can get these at paperdivas.ctmh.com.

Cats and Bats paper pack- X7224B, Emerald paper and stamp pad-x5969, z2806. Scallop Boarder thin die-z3348.  Falling for you paper pack- X7223B, September stamp of the month- S1709,  Hello and thanks thin die set (retired) z3259.  Fern paper and ink pad- x5960, z2850, pebble paper -x5955.  Goldrush paper and ink pad- x5962, z2823, Hear border thin cuts- Z3347, Basic ovals thin cuts- Z3328 and Gold Glitter Gems- z3312.

I hope you have a great weekend and check back next week for more Close to my Heart artwork and Gardening news!

Hugs,  Ronda

More garden news!

Happy Monday !  I was just going through all of the pictures I took this summer of my veggie garden and I thought I would share a few today.

I hope everyone is safe from Hurricane Irma and your homes didn't get much damage.  I've seen that a lot of cars were damaged by trees.

At the beginning of the growing season, I took a picture of this tomato plant growing out of the side of my compost bin.

Now at the end of the season my bin is surrounded by what I call garden donors!  These are all cherry tomatoes that have just grown up on there own.  I have probably gotten 2 gallon bags full of them so far.  The first picture is what the above plant looks like now and the second is the other side of the bin where about four plants grew.

There is a beautiful dill growing there too.  I also have a nice little frog living under these plants.  He hides when I come out but sings to me from his hiding place.

Well that's it for today!  Come back tomorrow for a look at some tomato plants and the canning I did with them.

Hugs,  Ronda

Garden Pictures!

Good morning and happy Saturday to you!  As we await the horrible storm of Irma in Florida, I sit up here in mid Michigan on a sunny but chilly morning.  It is 11:18 and only 59 degrees.  That's pretty chilly for September 9th. Yesterday I got outside and pulled up some veggie plants, cleaned things up and brought in a nice bell pepper along with some pretty green tomatoes that might turn red down in the basement.  I also dug up my red skin potatoes.  There weren't very many but it will give us a couple of side dishes with meals.

I have some russet potatoes growing too but I didn't plant them until July so they won't be ready for a while.  Here is  a picture of there pretty flowers.

Down below is what used to be in this space.  I let the sage and Thyme flower for the bee's and then I dug them up because they were too over grown and woody.  I left in the lemon thyme!  I also had some garlic there.

Well that is it for today, I must get working on my next card workshop which will be fall cards using Close to my Hearts Falling for you and maybe a little cats and bats paper packs.

Have a wonderful weekend and please continue to pray for the people and homes in the path of Irma and also all of the people and homes in the path of all the wild fires.

Check back tomorrow or Monday for another post on my summer veggie plant news.

Hugs,  Ronda