Cupcake Card - December Stamp of the Month

Welcome to our Close to My Heart December Stamp of the Month - Cutie Pie Blog Hop!

This stamp set has 11 stamps and can only be purchased in the month of December.

If you came here from Nancy Womersley's Blog, you are on the right path! The blog hop is a great big circle, so you can start here and work your way all around. If you get lost along the way, you'll find the complete list of participating consultants here on Melinda Everitt's Blog.

For this Blog Hop we have 59 Close to My Heart Consultants sharing their creations using the December Stamp of the Month - Cutie Pie and other great CTMH products on their blogs. This is simple to do - just click on the link at the end of the post on each blog to move to the next one. Here we go!

I made this Waterfall Card for my Stamping Five Group Gatherings.

I used Close to My Heart's Brushed Paper Packet with CTMH Hollyhock and Canary cardstocks.

To embellish this waterfall card, I used CTMH's Dot Embossing Folder, CTMH Sponge Dauber with CTMH Black ink and the following Copic Markers: Red - E09 & R08; Dark Pink - R37; Light Pink - RV32 & RV11; Teal - G46, T1 & G00 and Green - YG03 & T2.

I used CTMH's Cutie Pie - December Stamp of the Month, A Typeface, Joyful Birthday, Ice Cream Dream - June Stamp of the Month and Curlicue Frames - comes with Artfully Sent Cricut Cartridge stamp sets with CTMH Black ink.

Now "Hop" on over to Wendy Coffman's Blog to see her work! Be sure to visit all the Consultants at their blogs to get some great crafting ideas.

I have CTMH Orders going in on:
Monday, December 1, 2014 &
Wednesday, December 3, 2014

Don't forget about the great CTMH December Promotion. Spend $50 before shipping & taxes on any products and you may purchase as many C & D Size Stamp Sets for $10 (excluding C & D Size stamp sets from the New Seasonal Expressions).

For more information, please email me at ddigby@shaw.ca.

Heart's of the West 8th Blog Hop - Snowhaven Paper Packet

Welcome to the Hearts of the West Team Blog Hop!

If this is your first time joining us, you will love it. This hop features Close to My Heart Consultants from all over Canada showing you their inspiration with a feature CTMH product. This month's challenge is using the Snowhaven Paper Packet, chosen by our Team Leader, Nancy Klein.

If you came from Kathy Skipper's Blog, then you are in the right place. This is a go around blog hop so you can start anywhere. Just in case you get lost along the way, the full list is at the bottom of this post. So, as always, grab your beverage of choice, relax and hop around Canada with us.

I used Close to My Heart's Snowhaven Paper Packet with CTMH's Cranberry cardstock.

To embellish the 6 x 6 layout, I used CTMH's Artfully Sent Cricut Cartridge for the word "JOY", CTMH's Artbooking Cricut Cartridge for the 5 inch calendar, Cricut Chalkboard Font - Condensed for the word "DECEMBER", straight stitch on my sewing machine with red thread from FabricLand and Stampin' Up Riding Hood Red Marker to write all the numbers in.

I used CTMH's Joyful Jar (discontinued) stamp set to stamp the bobble on Christmas day with CTMH Cranberry ink.

Your next stop is Sonia Parent St Jean's Blog.

Thanks for joining us this month and come back next month to see what creative projects we can inspire you with!

1. Nancy Klein
2. Chantal Pearson
3. Freya Hall Dunbar
4. Holly Young-Bower
5. Kerry Hammel
6. Kathy Skipper
7. Donna Digby - You are Here!
8. Sonia Parent St Jean
9. Terry Ann Diack
10. Corrina Murphy
11. Linda Pekrul
12. Heather Myers

Celebrate Birthday Card

I used CTMH's Brushed Paper Packet with CTMH Cranberry, White Daisy and Pixie cardstocks.

To embellish the card, I used CTMH's Dot embossing folder and CTMH Artbooking Cricut Cartridge for the butterfly die-cut.

I used CTMH's Brushed Scrapbooking Workshop (butterfly), Magical Moments (celebrate), Stitch Wonder (stitching), Holiday Tags (happy birthday) and Your Own Kind of Wonderful (inside sentiment) stamp sets with CTMH Cranberry, Pixie, Hollyhock and Black inks.

Latte Thanks Card

My friend, Caroline, ordered this stamp set that I was debating on getting myself. She graciously loaned it to me so I could play with it.

I used Close to My Heart's Brushed & Hopscotch Paper Packets with CTMH Juniper and Glacier cardstocks.

To embellish the card, I used CTMH's Diamond embossing folder, CTMH's buttons (discontinued), Stampin' Up ribbon, a paper clip from my stash and embroidery floss from my stash.

I used Simon Says Stamp What's Brewing stamp set with CTMH Black ink.

Heartstrings - CTMH Picture My Life Scrapbooking Program

In the New Close To My Heart Seasonal Expressions Mini Idea Book/Catalogue, they have added 2 New Picture My Life Scrapbooking Program Kits.

For $9.75, you get 20 - 4 x 6 double sided cards (2 of each 10 designs) and 36 - 3 x 4 double sided cards (2 of each 18 designs.

The above photos are of the Heartstrings line. The second photo is the back of the first photo. The forth photo is the back of the third photo. This way you get to see all the double sided cards offered in the line.

To see the rest of the Picture My Life Kits, please refer to the top of my right sidebar.

Shanna's Dry Erase Boards

I made these two dry erase boards for my best-friend, Shanna's, birthday.

The white framed dry erase board is for her Craft Room.

I used Simple Stories Summer Fresh Paper line, Don Juan Cricut Cartridge for the word "CREATE", MFT Stamps twine for the stitching and the bow, Close to My Heart's Burlap Ribbon (discontinued), Postage Stamp Nestabilities to cut out our photo and Hero Arts Crafty Friends stamp with CTMH Cocoa ink.

The brown from dry erase board is for her office at work.

I used Simple Stories Summer Fresh Paper line, Don Juan Cricut Cartridge for the words "To Do...", CTMH Comments (paperclip - discontinued) and It's Your Day (note to self - discontinued) stamp sets with CTMH Outdoor Denim ink.

Happy Birthday Shanna!

This is the card that I made for my best-friend, Shanna's, birthday this year.

I used Carta Bella Warm & Cozy 6 x 6 Paper Pad with Stampin' Up Brown cardstock.

To embellish the card, I used We R Memory Keepers Metal "S", metal label holder from my stash, buttons from my stash and ribbon from FabricLand.

I used Unity Being Kind Strengthens Others, Stampin' Up Fabulous Four and Close to My Heart's Your Own Kind of Wonderful stamp sets with CTMH Outdoor Denim ink.

Happy Birthday Shanna 2013!

Here is the birthday card that I was making for my best-friend, Shanna, last year before I was in my car accident. I decided to still finish it this year and give it to her, plus another card for this year that you will see on tomorrow's post.

I used Doodlebug Design's Day to Day 6 x 6 Paper Pad with Bazzill Dark Brown Suede & White Prismatic cardstocks (looks black in the photo, but it is dark brown).

To embellish the card I used Stampin' Up ribbon, Nestabilities Wonky Rectangles and a Doodlebug paper clip.

I used Taylored Expressions Oh Snap and Stampin' Up Happiest Birthday Wishes stamp sets with CTMH Cranberry and Lagoon inks.

I used the following Copic Markers: BG57, R29, YG25, Y17 and E57.

Happy 40th Birthday Gerry!

For the Gift Bag filled with 40 sugar free chocolates, I used Close to My Heart's Chalk It Up Paper Packet with CTMH Flaxen, Lagoon & Whisper cardstocks.

To embellish the Gift Bag, I used CTMH's Diamond Embossing Folder, CTMH Scaredy Cat Assortment (stars) and a CTMH Sponge Dauber with CTMH Black ink.

For the Gift Bag, I used CTMH's Doodle Designs, an un-named large alphabet set (40 - discontinued), Handwritten Print Alphabet (ENJOY) and Puppy Party (Happy Birthday) with CTMH Black ink.

For the card, I used Chalk It Up Paper Packet with Flaxen, Lagoon, Whisper & Black cardstocks.

To embellish the card, I used CTMH's Diamond Embossing Folder, CTMH Corner Rounder, CTMH Chalk It Up Assortment and CTMH Artbooking Cricut Cartridge to cut out the "Seriously" banner.

For the card, I used CTMH's Hopscotch Scrapbooking Workshop (seriously), Doodle Designs (circle & inside stars), Handwritten Print Alphabet (40), Magical Moment (celebrate) and Holiday Tags (happy birthday) stamp sets with CTMH Black ink.

Color My Heart Challenge Blog - Color Dare #120

This week at Color My Heart Challenge Blog our Color Dare #120 is to use Close to My Heart Colors: Barn Red, Goldrush, Glacier, Olive & Lagoon.

I used Close to My Heart's Pathfinding Paper Packet with CTMH Olive & Chocolate cardstocks.

To embellish this 12 x 12 layout, I used CTMH's Stitch Guide with piercing tool & foam mat, CTMH's Damask Embossing Folder, CTMH Edge Distresser, CTMH Artbooking Cricut Cartridge for the title, CTMH buttons (discontinued), embroidery floss from my stash and a Chocolate Zig Marker to draw out the faux stitching.

I used CTMH's Pathfinding Scrapbooking Workshop stamp set for the leaf with CTMH Olive ink.

This is the Title Page for my Thanksgiving/Birthday Celebrations album. My younger brother's birthday and my birthday normally land on or are near Thanksgiving weekend. So, we celebrate our birthdays and Thanksgiving together.

I did cheat a bit on this page....my lagoon colour is in my grandpa's shirt in the top right corner. I really tried to bring some lagoon cardstock or patterned paper into this layout, but it just wouldn't work.

You may use any products to participate in the Color My Heart Challenges, but we encourage you to use CTMH products. For this Color Dare Challenge, you have until Thursday, December 04, 2014 at 10:00 p.m. Eastern Time to submit your project.

For more information about our challenges, please check us out at Color My Heart Challenge Blog: http://colormyheartcolordare.blogspot.ca. I look forward to seeing what types of projects you can inspire us with.

Concussion Awareness

Tomorrow, Friday, November 21, 2014 at 12:00 p.m., it will be exactly one year to the day and time of my accident that gave me my Vestibular Concussion.

To this day, I still can't drive; even being a passenger in a vehicle is horrible. I am nauseous from the time I wake up in the morning and until I go back to bed at night. How nauseous I am depends on what I do that day or what I did the day before. I have a headache every day that works the same as my nausea.

I still have memory loss, foggy brain, neck & shoulder pain and the more I do, the worse all my symptoms get. I can go into more detail about what I can and cannot do, but this is the jist of it.

Am I better than I year ago tomorrow, yes. I couldn't type a blog post like this for months after my accident and I can walk more before getting really ill as long as I don't do stairs. 

I am about 40% better almost one year later. I will never be 100% better, but I may be 97% better. I am hoping that I will be 97% better and that 3% I have lost will be that I can never ride a roller coaster again. Why you may ask? I never rode roller coasters in the first place.

I don't think it will be that simple of a change, but I can be hopeful.

Tomorrow I am celebrating my one year of surviving my concussion with a 12 Hour Scrapbooking Crop with my close friends/family and my Close to My Heart Customers as a Thank You to them for being so supportive this past year.

Concussion Awareness Ribbon is grey. I made this ribbon with a bit of Donna Flair to represent my battle. I am known for my scrap room; which is teal & green and I love gerbera daisies.

The ribbon is Close to My Heart's Slate Diagonal Striped Ribbon, the flower is from Prima Marketing, the button is from MFT Stamps, the embroidery floss is from my stash and the pin it is all attached to is from Michaels.

Documenting Christmas 2014 - Post #1

At Crop & Create - Thunder Bay 2013, I attended the Documenting December Workshop, but with my concussion I was unable to do the album.

So, I have started it this year. It is more like a Documenting Christmas Album because there are traditional Christmas things that my family, friends and I do every year that occur in November.

My Documenting Christmas layouts will be to share my layouts and my Christmas 2014 Adventure. I won't be listing all the products that I use. This is a purely enjoyable project for myself and taking the time to list every item I use takes the fun out of it.

The first picture is my title page and the next photo is my first two page spread in the album. The pages are 6 x 8.

Christmas Wreath

Here is a Christmas Wreath that I made for my scrap room door.

A couple of month's ago, I saw a Michaels' flyer that had a tulle wreath for Halloween. I then showed my cousin, Brandi, and we decided to make a Christmas one with the leftover tulle from our grandparents' 70th Wedding Anniversary party a couple of years ago.

The colours of their party was teal, white and black. Even after making two wreaths, I still have a lot of teal tulle leftover, but all the white is now gone.

I bought a green styrofoam ring from Michaels and even the baubles are from there as well.

I ribbon tied each piece of tulle to the ring and then trimmed the tulle down.

I used two of Close to My Heart's Designer Creations Lagoon Paper Bags as a base for my grandparents' photo. I decorated the bags with CTMH Lagoon Hearts Washi Tape, plastic snowflakes from my stash and CTMH Silver Assortment Sequins.

Their 70th Anniversary photo was matted with CTMH Lagoon & White Daisy cardstocks.

Thanksgiving Picture My Life Style Layout

This year I started a Thanksgiving Album. My younger brother's birthday and my birthday normally lands on Thanksgiving weekend or near it. So, Thanksgiving Dinner is a real big celebration for our family and means a lot to me.

This year I had everyone at our Thanksgiving Dinner fill out what they were thankful for; excluding family & friends because everyone is thankful for that. I took everyone's photo to go with their thankful card and I have put it into an album.

The above photos are a sample of what the thankful for page looks like and then my last page of this year's festivities as an over view/collage layout. I won't be posting all the pages because I forgot to get permission from everyone to be able to post their photos on social media.

Amy didn't get her card filled out because we ran out of cards at the dinner and I forgot to get her to fill one out when we got home.

I just put these pages together last night and she was performing last night with her school's band and jazz band. Her and her friends came back to our place & most of them slept over. So, I will get her to fill out her card once all her friends have gone home.

If you want to know what I used to make the thankful for cards, here is my original post of my Thankful For Card Box: http://www.datsmystyledj.blogspot.ca/2014/08/hearts-of-west-blog-hop-5.html.

Fa la la la la la la la la

I am participating in Jingle Belles Challenge, created by my best-friend, Shanna - The Great Outdoors.

I used Close to My Heart's Chocolate, Ruby & New England Ivy cardstocks with CTMH Black Glitter Paper.

To embellish the card, I used CTMH's Artfully Sent Cricut Cartridge to cut out the deer, CTMH Black Sequins from CTMH's Black Mini Medley Accents Collection, Stampin' Up Woodgrain Embossing Folder and 3M Washi tape from Target.

I used CTMH's Tiny Typewriter Alphabet (discontinued), Unity Gurnsey Gingham and Unity Gingham Christmas Greetings stamp sets with CTMH Black ink.

Color My Heart Challenge Blog - Color Dare #119

This week at Color My Heart Challenge Blog our Color Dare #119 is to use Close to My Heart Colors: Smokey Plum, Hollyhock & Olive.

I am also participating in Freshly Made Sketches #162 - A Sketch by Kim.

I used Close to My Heart's Smokey Plum, Hollyhock, Olive & Colonial White cardstocks.

To embellish this card, I used CTMH's Scallop Embossing Folder, a Stampin' Up button and embroidery floss from my stash.

I used CTMH's Just to say (comes with Artfully Sent Cricut Cartridge) & Puppy Party stamp sets with CTMH Smokey Plum, Hollyhock & Olive inks.

You may use any products to participate in the Color My Heart Challenges, but we encourage you to use CTMH products. For this Color Dare Challenge, you have until Thursday, November 20, 2014 at 10:00 p.m. Eastern Time to submit your project.

For more information about our challenges, please check us out at Color My Heart Challenge Blog: http://colormyheartcolordare.blogspot.ca. I look forward to seeing what types of projects you can inspire us with.

Laughter is the Best Medicine

So, when you purchase a Close to My Heart Base & Bling Style Sheet (sticker sheet) to make a piece of jewelry or a magnet, what do you do with the rest of the stickers?

Well, you can make a card like I just did.

I used CTMH's Chalk It Up Paper Packet with CTMH Sorbet & Lagoon cardstocks.

To embellish the card, I used CTMH's Base & Bling Dreamer Style Sheet for the 3 stickers on the front of my card, CTMH Lagoon Hearts Washi Tape and CTMH Artiste Cricut Cartridge to cut out the bow.

I did cover my paper with the CTMH Lagoon Heart Washi Tape before cutting it out with my Cricut Machine. It cut out beautifully without any problems.

I used CTMH's Just to Say...stamp set that comes with the Artfully Sent Cricut Cartridge for the inside sentiment with CTMH Lagoon ink.

Don't forget to stop by my Jewelry & Picture My Life Buffet Open House TODAY from 4:00 p.m. - 7:00 p.m. in my Scrap Room.

For more information, please don't hesitate to contact me at ddigby@shaw.ca.

Hopscotch - CTMH Picture My Life Scrapbooking Program

In the New Close To My Heart Seasonal Expressions Mini Idea Book/Catalogue, they have added 2 New Picture My Life Scrapbooking Program Kits.

For $9.75, you get 20 - 4 x 6 double sided cards (2 of each 10 designs) and 36 - 3 x 4 double sided cards (2 of each 18 designs.

The above photos are of the Hopscotch line. The second photo is the back of the first photo. The forth photo is the back of the third photo. This way you get to see all the double sided cards offered in the line.

To see the rest of the Picture My Life Kits, please refer to the top of my right sidebar. The only one that I am missing is Heartstrings and I hope that the rest of my order will show up tomorrow to post it.

Don't forget to stop by my Jewelry & Picture My Life Buffet Open House on Thursday, November 13, 2014 from 4:00 p.m. - 7:00 p.m. in my Scrap Room.

For more information, please don't hesitate to contact me at ddigby@shaw.ca.

CTMH's Base & Bling Projects

Here is a quick photo bracelet I whipped up of my children.

I used Close to My Heart's Faux Antiqued Gold Base & Bling Oval Cuff, Oval Glass Cover and CTMH's Liquid Glass to put it all together.

I did print the photo off on my new photo printer and once I sealed the the glass cover over the photo the colouring of the photo did distort a bit, but not enough to ruin the photo. It gave it a yellow tinge; which goes nicely with the antique gold bracelet.

Again, when I made my photo necklace and I used a photo wet lab, there was no change in the photo.

The second photo is of my key ring that I made for my dad from my children.

I used Close to My Heart's Faux Antiqued Silver Rectangle Pendant, Rectangle Glass Cover and CTMH's Liquid Glass to put it all together. The key ring came from Things Engraved for $0.60.

I used the large "P" sticker from the CTMH Base & Bling Signature Style Sheets and covered over the "&" sticker for the base of my project. The rest of the stickers that I used came from CTMH's My Crush Holiday Happenings Assortment.

The third photo is of the 1 x 1 inch magnet that I made.

I used Close to My Heart's Base & Bling Square Glass Cover with a Sticker from the Base & Bling Journey Style Sheet that I adhered to a 1 x 1 inch magnet. Again, the glass cover was glued to the magnet part with CTMH's Liquid Glass.

Don't forget to stop by my Jewelry & Picture My Life Buffet Open House on Thursday, November 13, 2014 from 4:00 p.m. - 7:00 p.m. in my Scrap Room.

For more information, please don't hesitate to contact me at ddigby@shaw.ca.