Mother's Day Fun

Every year I make a card for my Mom for Mother's Day.  This year I decided that I would make a card in a box.  I had seen several examples on the internet and when I went to my scrapbook retreat, a Stampin' Up consultant taught a class making one of these adorable cards. I watched tutorial videos online to learn how to make the cards and found out that I could make this card using the Close To My Heart Artiste Cricut cartridge!  It was so easy and fun that I made cards for my daughter and daughters-in-law.  I could have cut out the flowers using my Cricut cartridges, but decided to use up some of my stash.  Here are a couple of the cards.....

I have to say that I'm hooked on these cute little cards. My grandkids can expect these cards for their birthdays this year.

What I Have Been Up To

I know I haven't posted in quite a while.  That is because I've been doing lots of fun things over the last few weeks.  During school vacation, I was so happy to go to a Girl's Night Out and participate in a Paint Nite in Newmarket.  I was a little worried as I had never painted before, but Dina picked out an easy pattern for this night.

Here are a few pictures of what it was like

This is my painting.

Look how serious we are about our paintings!

I was oblivious to the fun the people beside me were having.

Look how big our group was! We took up one whole table.

It started raining just as we left, but we were all able to keep our paintings dry.

Can you pick mine out?

If you ever have a chance to go to one of these do it!  It was such an enjoyable time and I found that I LOVE painting.  Big surprise right?  

Free to Be Me

This month Close To My Heart has a cute paper pack to celebrate National Scrapbook Month.  For a $50 order, you can order the Free to Be Me paper pack for just $5.00.  I ordered mine already and it is absolutely adorable.  It even has a couple of vellum papers included. If you purchase the paper pack, I will give you a set of instructions to make this adorable layout.  The instructions also include an additional layout and three cards using the May Stamp of the Month.  The Stamp of the Month valued at $17.95 can also be purchased for $5.00 with a $50 purchase.  So, for just an additional $10 with a $50 purchase you would receive a $29.90 value.

Here is a photo of a layout that you can create using this beautiful paper pack:

My friend Dina made this layout last weekend while we were away scrapbooking and it is absolutely gorgeous.  The colors are so vibrant and I absolutely love the vellum paper.  I can't wait to get started on my layouts and cards.

If you are interested, just go to my website at  claudettelewis.ctmh.com

Have a great day!

Trends

Scrapbooking has been going through quite a few changes lately.  Your local scrapbook store may have closed and the big box stores have downsized their scrapbook departments.  For those of us who love to create with paper and love to preserve memories this is disheartening.  I am so thankful to work for a company that is committed to memory keeping.  Because of that, not only do they continue to produce traditional scrapbook supplies, they also follow the trends.  One of these trends is the Smash Book.  Close To My Heart has come up with it's own version called My Crush.  It is an on-the-go scrapbook/journaling system that appeals to the younger crowd.  

We recently went on a cruise to the Southern Caribbean with my sister-in-law and brother-in-law.  I always make some sort of mini scrapbook for them.  This year I decided I would make them a My Crush book.  I'll be teaching a class on this wonderful way to document memories at the scrapbook retreat at Singing Hills.  Here is my teaser picture to get the ladies interested in my class.  

I am going to show them how to take this portable My Crush book with them and how they can put everything together.  Does this make you want to make a Crush book of your own?  It's easy.  The book is only $12.95  and there are adorable embellishment assortments that include alphabet stickers, journal cards and envelopes for only $4.95.  It's quite a deal.  You can get this and much more at my website:

www.ctmh.com/claudettelewis

It's Been a While!

I can't believe that we are ready to welcome March in.   Will it come in like a lion or a lamb?  Hard to say with the weather we have had this year.  I know there are lots of people here in New Hampshire who would not be upset if there was no more snowfall this year.  I don't know though, they are predicting another storm for Monday.  I guess we'll wait and see.

You would think that with all the snow days and vacation I would be all caught up with my scrapbooking by now, but not so much.  I love taking the pictures and I love scrapbooking them, but I do not like uploading and printing them.   Next month Close To My Heart has a special for their Studio J layouts.  Just $5.00 a layout.  Ladies, that is a bargain!  I am going to experiment with their new photo well layout and get some of those odd sized pictures printed.  Not mention, I have quite a few pictures that need to be scrapbooked and are not printed yet so I'm going to get some of that done on Studio J.  It makes my heart happy to get caught up.  If you would like to play with Studio J.  Head on over to my website www.ctmh.com/claudettelewis and try it out.  There is no fee for playing.  You only pay for the layouts you order.

I promised I would show you some pictures of my 10-page Christmas layout in my last post.  I know we are thinking about Spring now. But please bear with me and I show you a cute layout using our new Ivy Lane paper pack after.  That should get you in the mood for Spring.  

I apologize for the pictures.  I didn't have the time to play and crop the pictures.

 

Okay, so tell my why this page loaded sideways when none of the others did?

These last two pages are from the Sparkle and Shine Workshop on the Go.  Love the paper?  You cannot get the paper pack anymore, but it is in our Studio J program so stop in and try it out.  

And now, for the new Ivy Lane.  I couldn't resist using this beautiful layout to focus on my beautiful granddaughters.  They are a joy.  

I'm off to get organized for my scrapbook weekend.  I love to spend time visiting with the ladies and scrapping my beautiful family.

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year!

I have been home an extra two days for snow days and I'm loving it.  Yesterday was spent preparing for my 10-page Christmas layout and today was spent putting away Christmas decorations, cleaning the house, and cleaning out my inbox for my email (yes, it hasn't been done in a long time and there was a lot to be done).  

I have also been spending time each day pouring over the new Close To My Heart catalog.  It's so much fun to browse and dream about what I "need."  This year we will have a new scrapbook program called Picture My Life which is like the Project Life program that many have been doing.  I'm so excited to get going on this as I have lots of pictures that need to be scrapped.  If you're wondering how that is different than traditional scrapbooking, here is a quiick view of one of the kits available in February:

I have lots of pictures from our cruise excursion last February to see the Mayan ruins in Belize.  This is the perfect solution to scrap all those extra photos in a jiffy.  I think Picture My Life and traditional scrapbooking will help me to stay on track this year. 

Happy New Year!

Tis The Season

I recently returned from a wonderful trip to visit my son and his family over Thanksgiving.  Last year he was preparing to leave for Afghanistan and his little girl was very sick.  It was a difficult time. He was called away on Thanksgiving Day and didn't even get to eat this special meal with his family.  He then flew to Afghanistan for his birthday.  Happy Birthday right?  That is the life of a soldier.  It made this Thanksgiving so precious. We had so much to be thankful for.  He returned safely and whole from overseas and my granddaughter is doing so much better. We were also able to celebrate his birthday with him this year as it was on Thanksgiving Day. I haven't been able to do that for years. I am so grateful for every minute I get to spend with my boys and their families as that doesn't happen very often.  We are blessed that we are able to travel to visit them.

Since Thanksgiving was so late in the month, it seems that Christmas is right around the corner.  How many of you are hinting about what you would like for Christmas this year.  You will definitely want to put the Artbooking Cricut cartridge on that list for Santa.  It's the easiest cartridge I have for designing and making layouts.  Here is a video that shows a couple of Christmas layouts.  Enjoy!