CTMH December Stamp of the Month Blog Hop!

Welcome to the Close to my Heart Stamp of the Month Blog Hop!

This hop will go around in a Circle!  If you get lost, just click here Melinda's page for a complete list of names and blogs so you can get back on track!

You should have arrived from Alyson's.  If you did then you are in the right place and I hope you enjoyed her artwork!

When I saw this stamp set, I just knew that I would have to make a Christmas layout for pictures of the Grandkids.  I can't wait to take the perfect pictures ( I hope I can ).  Here is my Layout!

I had so much fun creating this page and I love the way it turned out.  I used the Cedar and Pine paper, sticker sheet and Compliments for most of it.  I cut the presents out of a sheet from the Holly Jolly paper.  My base pages are French Vanilla!  I fussy cut the Deer and the Sleigh and colored them with our alcohol markers.  The Believe sticker I placed on Sangria paper and then cut it out.

I bet you want to know about my tree!  I got this idea from page 19 of the Nov./ Dec. book.  I used the Cedar and Pine Scrapbooking stamp set, D1878 to create it and then I decorated in with the red Holly Jolly dots.

I used Evergreen for my photo mats and red shimmer trim across the center of the page.

Here is the picture from the book of the layout sample.

I hope you enjoyed my layout, all of the products I used can be found in our Nov/ Dec. book and are available through the end of December while supplies last except for the red shimmer trim, cardstock and inks and markers.  They are all available in our annual book.

You can visit my web page at paperdivas.ctmh.com.

Now on to Brenda's blog for more amazing artwork.

Thank you for hopping with us today!

Ronda

CTMH New Product Blog Hop!

Welcome to the Close to my heart, new product Blog Hop!  This hop will feature products from our new November/ December book!  I hope you enjoy all of the beautiful artwork!

This hop will go around in a circle and will feature artwork from 21 different consultants.  If you get lost along the way just click here Melinda's blog to see the complete list and find your way back to where you were!  Have fun!

You should have arrived from Heather Hick's blog.  If you did, then you are in the right place and I hope you enjoyed what she had to show you!

It was hard for me to choose just one new product to show you but I finally decided on the Custom Ornament thin cuts!

I took a picture of the whole page so you could see how it looks in the book.

I have been having so much fun playing with it.  Today I am sharing 3 cards that I have made!  I hope you love them as much as I do!

The first card on the top left, I am featuring the new Cedar and pine paper pack.  I cut the Ornament out of Candy apple and then I cut another one out of silver glitter paper, which you see on the bottom left and I used the parts that punch out to decorate my ornament.  I also used a piece of silver glitter paper along side of the cedar and pine and then I stamped the Merry and Bright from the Whimsical Holiday stamp set.  Then I just added a little bling with 3 black dots.

The next card in using Sapphire card stock with a strip of the snow flake paper from the new Holly Jolly paper along with some white shimmer trim that I cut in half.  I cut the ornament out of White Daisy and trimmed it in the silver foil paper punch outs from my next card. I added 3 silver glitter dots.  The sentiment is from a up coming stamp set.

My third card I started by cutting just the ornament shape out of white daisy that I cut out using our large rectangular stitched thin cut.  I then attached that to a piece of silver foil paper that was cut 1/8 inch bigger.  I placed the decorative pieces of the thin cut in side the cut out piece so just those would cut out of the foil paper.  Then I attached that to a piece of Gold foil paper that was cut  another 1/8 inch bigger.  I also cut the ornament hanger piece out of the gold foil. The Merry Christmas is also from an upcoming stamp set, and I used gold embossing powder for that!

I hope you enjoyed my cards.  I will leave a complete list of links to the products I have used at the bottom of the post.  Now you are on to Melissa Robinson's blog.  I'm sure she has some amazing artwork to show you!

Custom Ornament thin cut

Cedar and Pine paper pack

Holly Jolly paper pack

Silver Foil paper

Gold foil paper

Silver glitter paper

Silver Glitter Gems

Black and White dots

Gold glitter gems

Have a great day and Happy Hopping!

Ronda

CTMH Stamp of the Month Blog Hop!

Welcome to the CTMH November SOTM Blog Hop!  This hop will circle around to several Consultants blogs showing their artwork using this stamp set and CTMH products.  If you get lost click here to find the complete list.  Melinda's List.

You should have arrived from Kristine Ponte's page, if you did, you are in the right place.  I hope you enjoyed her artwork.

I have decided to use our Hawthorn papers for a layout of a Family Gathering!  I hope you like it!

Every year my Family gets together and we celebrate my Brothers Birthday!  He passed away in 2013.  I have pictures of each year!  And it seems that Close to my Heart always has a good stamp set to go with them every year.

I got the design for this page from the Make it from your Heart idea book Volume 3, pattern 22.  If you don't have this book you need to get it.  It has gotten me out of a scrapbooking slump many times.  It is so easy to use too.

I love the little flowers on the stamp set too and plan to combine them with our Sunflower Sympathy Stamp and thin cut set we have right now to make another page.

I took the little journal card on top from the mix in paper pack that is available  in the September/ October book.  I just cut it to size.

The colors of paper and inks I used in this page are:  Evergreen, Sangria, Saffron, Sage, pebble and toffee!

Well now on to Jen Rubio's page to see some more amazing artwork.

Here is a complete list and link to all of the supplies I used on my page.
Hawthorn paper pack
make it from your Heart, volume 3
mix in paper pack
cardstock
ink pads

Some of these items will be retired by the time this post goes live but you may still be able to get them in the on line only section of my website. On line only!

Thank you so much for joining our Hop and I hope you have a wonderful November!

Ronda

Sunflowers and Fall!

Don't you just love it at the end of summer when the fields of Sunflowers are so beautiful?  I know I sure do!  Today I am going to share a card I made using Close to my Hearts Sunflower Sympathy Stamp and thin cut set!  I love this set so much I will be turning this card into a Thanksgiving card!

I am also sharing this card with Heart 2 Heart Challenges blog!  Check out all of the beautiful artwork on their blog.

I used the Hawthorn paper pack (the Sangria plaid), our new stitched circles embossing folder with Saffron cardstock.  I used Saffron and Gold Rush to stamp the Sunflower on White Daisy.  I used Sangria for the middle piece and then topped that off with Gold stickles around the center.  The leaves are stamped in Evergreen!  Such a pretty green. I stamped the Thinking of you in Sangria and put some Gold embellishing thread on the back side and formed loops!  The yellow ribbon is from my stash!

I really like the way this card turned out and I hope you do too!  Most of these products will be retiring at the end of the month, except the inks and Saffron cardstock so if you like them, you better get them.

Here is a complete list of link where you can buy these products and I hope you visit my website soon.  Don't miss out!

Sunflower sympathy stamp set

Hawthorn paper pack

Saffron cardstock

Gold embellishing thread

Circle stitched embossing folder

Stamp pads

I hope you enjoy the rest of your fall!

Ronda

Pumpkin Spice

Who doesn't like a little Pumpkin Spice in their life?  I have been having so much fun making fall cards that I would like to share one of them with you!  This one is going to be entered in this weeks Heart 2 Heart Challenge!  I have had so much fun working with this stamp and thin cut set!  There is only 6 more days to get it and it will be gone so check it out on my Close to my Heart page!  Here is the link:  https://paperdivas.closetomyheart.com/Retail/Product.aspx?ItemID=12522&ci=14856.

I have used the Hawthorn paper collection to make this card!  This Sangria plaid is my favorite piece in the pack!

To color the pumpkins I used an Orange water color pencil along each line and then I dipped our clear shimmer brush into the ink on the top of the ink pad.  I then just blended the colors without mixing them to much.  I love the look I got.  I didn't want a bright orange pumpkin.  I wanted it to match the paper a little bit.  It also has a really nice shimmer.

I also used our new Sangria ribbon and some sequins to embellish.  I stamped the Autumn Blessings in Sangria (my new favorite color)!  https://paperdivas.closetomyheart.com/Retail/Product.aspx?ItemID=11653&ci=15083

Here is the link to the Hawthorn paper pack, which will also be retiring at the end of the month!
https://paperdivas.closetomyheart.com/Retail/Product.aspx?ItemID=12489&ci=14814.

and the beautiful Sangria Ribbon! https://paperdivas.closetomyheart.com/Retail/Product.aspx?ItemID=12623&ci=14905.

Well I hope enjoyed my post and my card and will come back and visit soon!

Happy, Happy Fall!

Ronda

Craft With Heart!

The weekend is here and while I am going outside today to clean up some gardens, yes the sun is shinning and it is going to be about 60 so I better get some done.  We have had a frost the last 2 nights so I think it is about time.  I need to plant my Garlic too!  I thought I would make post about how much fun and how much I love this card kit Subscription, Craft With Heart.

So far I have only one friend that has joined me in this Subscription service but I am hoping to get at least 2 more.  I had a craft day on Thursday and my 2 dear Friends, Marty and Judie came over to play.  First we made an ornament out of the Christmas special we have right now, Holiday Cheer.  It makes the cutest shaker tags and ornaments.  I will talk about that on my next post but if you want to check it out you can click right here https://paperdivas.closetomyheart.com/ctmh/promotions/campaigns/1910-holiday-cheer.aspx.  You will see them in the pictures I post today but I will give a close up in the next post.  The possibilities are endless making these and they are so much fun!

Our Craft with Heart is a subscription service and you have 2 to choose from.  Scrapbook pages or cards.  Today I want to talk about the New card subscription.  Marty is my partner in crime here and we made these three cards our own by changing the layout of things and adding a little extra bling.  Beside those little things the cards are just as directed and they are really cute.  I can't wait until our next playdate so we can make some more of them.

Now, a little information on the service before I show you some pictures!  You get a box every 3 months and it only cost $1.38 per card if you pay for the whole year.  Each box contains 24 cards, 2 each of 12 cards.  Click right here to get all of the pricing!  https://paperdivas.closetomyheart.com/ctmh/products/craft-with-heart.aspx.

Now for some fun pictures of our finished projects and the contents inside the box!

 Here is Marty and I feeling good about what we have made!

 Here is the contents of the box.  You get a unique stamp set, a pack of shaker adhesive and acetate, ribbon, sequins, a ink spot and a acrylic block.  Then you get pre scored card bases, die cuts numbered for each card with envelopes.  That is a lot of stuff for $1.38 a card.

 Here is a close up of the stamp set.  You can only get it with the subscription!

 On this Merry and Bright card , the only thing we added was some stickles in the middle of the poinsettia and 2 Gold Glitter Gems!

 On this Happy Birthday card we changed the sentiment from Forever Grateful for you and made the sentiment green instead of black and then we added the sequins.

On this Merry Christmas card we changed the placement of the tree and the banner and added clear sparkles which I have colored red with our alcohol markers and then add bitty sparkles also colored red to the tree.  You can look at the sparkles here:  https://paperdivas.closetomyheart.com/Retail/Product.aspx?ItemID=9384&ci=6770.

So what do you think?  Cute huh?  Now wouldn't you love to join our Craft with Heart crafting club?  We will have a special day just for this and put the whole kit together, once a quarter and we can do it at rotating houses.

I sure hope you will join us and lets see what we can do with this amazing service!

Until next time and happy Crafting!

Ronda

Hawthorn

Have you seen Close to my Hearts Hawthorn papers and products!  There are some absolutely beautiful products in this line!  It is a little bit masculine and a little bit fall!  Check it out here:  https://paperdivas.closetomyheart.com/retail/search.aspx?searchvalue=oct19.

I have loved working with this paper pack and some of our other new products!  Take a look!

Featured here along with the Hawthorn paper are a couple of the new stamp and die sets!  Sunflower Sympathy https://paperdivas.closetomyheart.com/Retail/Product.aspx?ItemID=12834&ci=14860and Autumn blessings!

 This was made with the October Special Share the Seasons, but you can still get it here https://paperdivas.closetomyheart.com/Retail/Product.aspx?ItemID=12787&ci=14378

 This layout I made with the Hawthorn paper and the October Stamp of the Month!  Which you can get for only $5 with a $50 order!

 This last card was made with the Share the Seasons kit and our new embossing folder Stitched Circles https://paperdivas.closetomyheart.com/Retail/Product.aspx?ItemID=12524&ci=15502.

I hope you enjoyed my little post about Hawthorn and hope you will visit my site soon!

Happy crafting,

Ronda

Every Little Thing!

If you love Purple and butterflies then this paper sweet is for you!  It is so beautiful with the Purple, Black and Julep (color of the year)!  I have had so much fun playing with these products and I'm sure that you would too!  Take a look here:  https://paperdivas.closetomyheart.com/retail/search.aspx?searchvalue=Every+Little+Thing.

I would like to share some of the cards I have made with it!  These are Thank you cards that I sent to my customers this month!  I used the PML cards from the set.

This one is a shaker card I made!  I stamped on top of the acetate using Stazon ink.

This one is from the special we had in September called Share the Seasons.  It came with 2 thin cuts and 2 stamp sets.  You can still get them while supplies last with or without the stamp sets here:  https://paperdivas.closetomyheart.com/Retail/Product.aspx?ItemID=12787&ci=14378
It is so much fun to play with!

 On this one I stamped the butterflies in Wisteria on the lighter side of the wisteria paper!

I just love this one using some Sapphire in the paper pack and an old stamp set!  Also using the Thin cut from Share the Seasons which can also be purchased by itself through the year!  Here is the link:  https://paperdivas.closetomyheart.com/Retail/Product.aspx?ItemID=12773&ci=14883.  There is also one with circles.

And then one more using the same thin cut.  You cut away where ever you want to make bigger stamping or embellishing areas!

I really love this one!

That is it for today!  I hope you all have a great week and stay warm!  Happy crafting!

Ronda

Butter pie crust!

When I first retired, one of the things I wanted to do was to learn how to make pies!  My husband loves pie, especially Cherry!

So I searched through recipes and found one for butter pie crust.  Butter has to make it better, right?  The first one I made, My husband told me it was the best pie he had ever eaten.  So naturally I made a few more using these pie crust recipe.  I really hated doing it, it is sticky and the bottom crust seemed to be gooey!  It sticks to the counter and it never looks very pretty in the pie plate because it is so hard to work with.   Messy but it really did taste so good.

I always make my own filling too.  No high fructose syrup in this house.

So finally if you have to make pie, because your husband loves it you take your brothers advise and just buy the ones rolled up in the dairy isle.  So that is what I have been doing for the last few years.

I always get the response, thanks for the pie honey but it's not like your butter crust.  Ugggg!

So he has been working hard remodeling our office so I decided to make him a cherry pie with real butter crust.  The recipe only makes one crust so I had to double the recipe.

Not being a crust expert and not having done it in quite a few years I just doubled it.  Well I think I put in to much apple cider vinegar or ice water because it was so sticky.  I divided the crust in two and put it in the fridge for an hour like the instructions said. I knew I needed more flour so I put a lot on the counter, more on top of the crust and on my roller.

Oh wow this is pretty nice! I wanted to make the bottom crust thin so it would crisp up more NOT!  It completely stuck to the counter but I finally got the first one done and put it in the fridge in the pie pan.  Then the same thing happened to the second crust but I managed to get it in another pie pan and it was a mess.

Oh well, lets get this pie finished.  So I put the filling in the first crust and then tried to flip the other one upside down onto the top and of Corse you know it was just awful.  Ugliest looking pie but I trimmed it up and decide to just use a fork to try and get the two to stick together.  I dipped the fork in sugar and went around the crust adding sugar each time.

Well so the story ends that this is an ugly pie but Oh my gosh, the crust taste so good.  LOL!!!

There is enough crust left over so I prepped that into a disc and put it in the freezer.  The next pie will have one store bought and one butter crust.

I may try this again just to see if I can perfect it.  Here is the result.

I hope you all have a great week and happy pie making!

Hugs, Ronda

PML cards take 2

Today I want to show you a group of cards I made using the PML cards from the Every Little Thing products that we have on sale now through October 31.  To see the entire pack of these cards just scroll a couple of posts back!

I just love how they turned out and it was so quick to do them.  I just used white card bases, trimmed down the PML card to 4 x 5.25 to leave just a little white edge showing.  I used our stitched circle thin cuts to cut out a circle of the Every Day Life paper and then used a smaller size in Wisteria to layer on top with my sentiment on it.  I used a little wisteria ribbon, a bit of Julep velvet ribbon and our Julep Sequins to embellish!  Julep is out color of the year!

To find all of the products used here just visit my website at paperdivas.ctmh.com.

I sure hope you enjoy your day and please follow my blog and visit my website soon!

For the love of paper.  Ronda

October Stamp of the Month Blog Hop

Welcome to the October Stamp of the Month Blog Hop, Autumn Air!  This hop will circle around several Consultants blogs so just sit back, relax and enjoy the beautiful artwork.  Here is a complete list of all of the blogs incase you get lost along the way.  Just click here for the complete list !

You should have arrived from Jessica Kaiser blog, if so then your in the right place!

I decided this was the perfect stamp set for a layout and I enjoyed making it so much.  I used the Hawthorn paper collection along with the light side of Toffee for the base pages.  I hope you like it!

I used sapphire, sage and paprika for the stamping.  Do you see the sapphire stamping just above the saffron pieces on the bottom of both sides?  I really like that little stamp.  It just added a little color.  I layered the leaves around the stamping of summer and fall to give them some dimension.

I really love using different sizes of photo's on my layouts and I use Persnickety prints to print all of my photos.  They have so many options and the photo's are wonderful quality.

I can use the 3 x 4 spot for a photo or put a PML card there and do some journaling.  I still have room for more embellishing too with maybe some wooden leaves.  I used some sequins around my leaves from the craft on collection of shaker sequins.  Here is a nice picture of the stamp set.

I just love it!  I will put the links below for all of the products that I have used but for now you will be moving on to Janet Royer's blog.  I hope you enjoy the rest of your journey on this blog hop!

Hawthorn paper pack, X7249B: https://paperdivas.closetomyheart.com/Retail/Product.aspx?ItemID=12489&ci=14814
Craft loose sequins, Z4059: https://paperdivas.closetomyheart.com/Retail/Product.aspx?ItemID=12131&ci=15804
Toffee paper, X5950: https://paperdivas.closetomyheart.com/Retail/Product.aspx?ItemID=10240&ci=8948 or you can make your own pack of 12 or 24 sheets of any colors using this Custom24 or custom12 as your item number.  You can also get the coordination cardstock for the Hawthorn paper, X7249D: https://paperdivas.closetomyheart.com/Retail/Product.aspx?ItemID=12490&ci=14816
Sapphire ink pad, Z2848: https://paperdivas.closetomyheart.com/Retail/Product.aspx?ItemID=9322&ci=6670
Sage ink pad, Z6504: https://paperdivas.closetomyheart.com/Retail/Product.aspx?ItemID=11312&ci=11881
Paprika ink pad, Z6515: https://paperdivas.closetomyheart.com/Retail/Product.aspx?ItemID=11652&ci=15081

Well I think that it is and you can visit my website at paperdivas.ctmh.com.  Thanks so much for looking at my Blog!  Have a great day!

Ronda

Close to my Heart and Picture my Life!

These are to things that are very close to my heart!  You already know that I love everything Close to my Heart.  But have I talked about Picture my Life?

What does that mean?  Well to me it means two things.  Number one is take pictures of my life.  Everything and Every one that is close to my heart.  Number two is Picture my Life cards or as we at CTMH call the PML cards.

What do we do with these cards!  There are two things that I use them for.  Number one, which I thing is the original purpose for them is scrapbooking!  There are two ways you can use them for scrapbooking.  You can use some of them for journaling directly on your pages or you can use a variety of pocket pages and slip your pictures and the PML cards into the pockets.  The second way you can use them is for cards.  I go through the cards and I put aside the ones that will work good for journaling or maybe the inside of a card.  Then I start creating cards with the rest.

The PML card packs come with 24 cards in them for $6.95.  12 are 4 x 6 and 12 are 3x4.  The 4x6 ones you have to cut down a bit if you are making an A4 size card, 4.25 x 5.5.  I usually cut them down a little extra and put a piece of card stock behind the card to bring out the colors.

Here are some pictures of the current Every Little Thing card pack. X7248E in the September- October idea book.

Aren't they beautiful?  You can find the link to them here.  https://paperdivas.closetomyheart.com/Retail/Product.aspx?ItemID=12485&ci=14806.

If you want to see them along with all of the other Every Little thing products then go to page 6 and 7 of the book.  The link for that is here. https://paperdivas.closetomyheart.com/ctmh/products/online-idea-book.aspx

The next thing I want to show you is a group of Christmas cards that I made a couple of years ago using just PML cards and a little cardstock and some bling.

Aren't these just adorable and I put them together in a couple of hours.  So grab yourself a pack of card bases and envelopes which you can buy here if you don't have them.  https://paperdivas.closetomyheart.com/Retail/Product.aspx?ItemID=239&ci=5863

And make yourself some beautiful cards to send.  I will be working on the pack I showed you soon and my next post will be about the pocket scrapbooking.

I hope you have a great day and happy scrapping!

Ronda

Share the Season's Blog Hop

You have arrived her from Judy Faye Gamer blog.  

Welcome to the Close to my Heart Share the Seasons Blog Hop!

The possibilities with this set are so endless!  If you get lost while cruising the hop just click here to get the complete list.
  Here are a couple of cards I have made with this set along with the New Hawthorn paper and a retired Christmas pack called Tis the Season!

For the Christmas card I used Cranberry paper (also retired) to cut out the base square piece and then I used White Daisy to cut the largest frame from our rectangle thin cuts.  I used our now retired Alcohol markers to color in some of the stamps.  Don't forget to check out our new markers!

Keep scrolling to see the next two cards!

In the picture of the rectangular thin cuts the white pieces will give you a solid piece, I use that with a smaller one in a different color for the inside of my card.

 On my next card I used the fall stamps, I used our new Hawthorn paper along with Saffron and our new Paprika ink!  I love the piece of paper I used for the frame on this one.

To show use how endless the possibilities are I made another card with our new Every Little thing paper pack!  I just love how it turned out.

I used our new Wisteria paper with the black Frame and the September Stamp of the month!  Which is awesome.  I hope you enjoyed my cards and don't forget to look at all of the other blogs on the hop!

The next persons blog is Alyson Mayo.

Fall Garden!

I haven't posted anything from my garden this year so I thought I would post some things that are still growing now.

 First of all I grew this one tomato plant that was called a Biltmore highbred!  It was a nice growing plant, it didn't yield very many tomatoes but the ones that I did get were amazing.  Only one of them had cracks in it and they were all huge.  The last one I picked was 1 pound 6.6 ounces and it was amazing!  Here is a picture of the tomato and a picture of it on a BLT I made tonight.  It gives you an idea of how big around and meaty it was!  And it tasted so good.

I still have plenty of herbs growing!  I have a parsley pot and Oregano growing on the deck.  I also have Rosemary and Sweet Basil growing here with my Thyme (that never dies) and a small Lavender plant.

I have a couple of tomato plants struggling to ripen the fruit, a yellow cayenne, a Jalapeno, a purple Pino Nior and a sweet Orange pepper that have tons of peppers on them but it just hasn't been warm enough for them to ripen.  It is supposed to be in the mid 80's for a couple of days so hopefully that will help.

I planted my green beans in mid July and they are going strong and these Tomatillo's just won't quit.  I started with 4 plants, I made a batch of green enchilada sauce and now I am just waiting to get a few more to make some green salsa!

Now the last thing I will show you is the start of my beet plants coming up.  Hopefully the weather won't turn to cold before they mature.  This is the first time I have ever grown them.  Then look at these to lonely acorn squash's that are left.  I ended up with 5 all together from the one plant.

Well that is it for my Garden news.  I will let you know how my beets do and how the green salsa turns out.

I hope you have a happy and healthy fall!

Hugs,

Ronda