Reflections of my art & soul - Pamela O'Connor, Close To My Heart Independent Consultant: July 2009

Wednesday, July 29, 2009

Pre Hop Post!

I’m so excited about the upcoming August Stamp of the Month Blog Hop. There are 64 CTMH Consultants participating!!! Check back here on August 1st to hop around the loop of very talented Close To My Heart consultants and view all the amazing artwork using the August Stamp of the Month.

In order to make the hop run smoothly, I’m testing out links to Jennifer’s Blog, she’ll be the one that you’ll jump to after mine. You'll be coming from Pam’s blog to make a full circle in the hop. I can’t wait to see what everyone comes up with - I hope you'll hop with us!

I’m off to the Close To My Heart Leadership Conference in Long Beach, CA tomorrow, so I’ll see you next Monday with lots of exciting news, I’m sure!

Have a wonderful and blessed weekend,

Wednesday, July 22, 2009

Friendship Makes Life Colorful

I taught this Workshop on the Go this month using the Bella Paper Packet & My Stickease, My Acrylix Buttoned Together stamp set, Hollyhock stitched ribbon, and foundry tabs. I just finished putting pictures and journaling on my pages and wanted to share them with my scrapbook club members and you!

I searched through several recent years worth of pictures of my best friend, Cindy and I so I could scrapbook about our decade long friendship and how we met. You can read my journaling in the picture at the bottom of this post.

I have dived back into my class notes from Stacey Julian’s online class, Library of Memories, recently and she reminded me that one of the most important things about scrapbooking is documenting the stories behind the photos. It’s all about the relationships you have with the ones you love!

So instead of just putting who, what, when, where…I included the WHY in my journaling. This will mean so much more to my children and my grandchildren someday when I’m not able to look over their shoulder and tell them how I met Cindy and why we remained friends for so long. That is a priceless gift to them from me.

Here are few close-ups of my layouts along with the journaling I included on this layout. Enjoy!

FIVE Reasons Why You Should Join My Stampers from the Heart Team in July!

Why you should join my Stampers from the Heart Team as an Independent Close To My Heart Consultant during the month of July:

1. Your start up consultant kit, shown here, contains over $300 worth of products and supplies for only $99.

2. You can choose one or both of the below Bonus Packs to add to your already fabulous consultant kit (see above):

The Scrapbooking Bonus Kit has $180 worth of scrapbooking products for only $60 (including an album and Reflections Scrapbook Program book which features over 100 layout designs and cutting guides)

The Card Making Bonus Kit has $150 worth of products for only $50 (including Originals Card Confidence book with dozens of step by step instructions for making beautiful cards)

3. Only during July when you join my Stampers from the Heart Team can you choose 5 items from the list below. That’s a possible $98.75 in extra product at absolutely NO COST to you – we’ll even pay the tax and shipping on these!

Choose Your “Favorite Five” from this list of products (click each to view):

• My Acrylix Thank You Stamp Set (retail value $22.95)
• Magic Moments Scrapbook Kit (retail value $34.95)
• Basic Textured Cardstock Combo Pack (retail value $14.95)
• Life Delights Memory Showcase Kit (retail value $12.95)
• My Originals Hello Birdie Card Kit (retail value $12.95)
• Creative Basics Silhouette Collection (retail value $8.95)
• HeartFelt Whimsy Die-Cuts (retail value $9.95)
• All-Out Adventure Rub-Ons (retail value $9.95)
• Window Charms Squares (retail value $9.95)

So what does this mean in terms of value? If you take advantage of both Bonus Kits and the Favorite Five free items, you would spend a total of $209 plus tax and shipping and receive a total of over $725 in products!

4. Let me show you how to earn $650+ in cash and free products by working just SIX NIGHTS as a new consultant in our ‘Straight to the Top’ program!

5. You will be joining a fabulous team of consultants as well as THE BEST scrapbook and stamping company in the industry. We have a fantastic training program, a solid and caring company, and we give you the tools to make you successful.

Would that get you off to a good start in your business? You bet! You just cannot go wrong with an incentive like this one.

Whether you want to start your own business or just get a great discount on your scrapbooking and stamping products, NOW IS THE TIME to join Close To My Heart.

It takes just five minutes to join!

Go to my website - pamela.myctmh.com, and click on Your Opportunities.

Scroll down to To sign up or for more information to become a Consultant, click here.

You'll see the application at the bottom.

Or contact me at pamela@myctmh.com if you have questions!

I LOVE what I do and so can YOU!

Sunday, July 19, 2009

Camp Friendship 2009

Wow! What an experience this was!

This past Friday, I taught a scrapbook class to 130+ special education kids. We made a 3-Ring Binder to put pictures in of their week at camp. It was a blast, I tell you!

The process of making it all happen was wild & crazy, but I knew God’s hand was in it all as every aspect fell into place. Whew!

In the 10+ years I’ve been scrapbooking, I have never tackled a project like this. Just to imagine ordering that many of one item from Close To My Heart was wild.

Here is what my original order consisted of…

136 3-Ring Binders

86 Tinkerin’ Level 1 Scrapbook Kits

50 Animal Cookie Level 1 Scrapbook Kits

7 Pkgs Summer Craft Buttons

6 Pkgs Clear Craft Buttons

6 Pkgs Sunflower Waxy Flax

5 Pkgs Memory Book Glue Dots

4 Pkgs Euro Replacement Blads

3 Bottles of Liquid Glass

2 Pkgs 3/8” White Daisy Ricrac Ribbon

Here are a few visuals for you…

CRAZY!!! I was amazed that I could order all this in one order and have absolutely NO backorders! CTMH Rocks!!!

Unfortunately all didn’t go as planned…the 60 Tombow glue sticks I ordered from another company did not arrive…I got a total of 8 glue sticks in the order and the rest were backordered, so I had to shift gears, cancel that order and buy glue sticks locally. All worked out just fine though.

This whole project was under a tight time table. I placed my order on July 3rd and because of the July 4th holiday, didn’t receive my order until July 9th. That gave me only 1 week to prepare everything!

So, you can only imagine how many hours I have put in this past week preparing…long days and long nights…with very little rest! Oh, but it was so worth it! That’s why I love this job so much. :O)

By mid-week, I was beginning to panic a bit…especially when I got a phone call that they had 7 more kids that had not registered…eeekkk! But all turned out fine with help from one of my amazing downline, Sylvia. She helped me out with a few extra binders and kits and she even came over Wednesday evening after working all day and helped cut a few of the kits for me.

On Thursday I managed to have the kits ready for the 57 elementary kids and I delivered those that afternoon. I didn’t end up teaching those kids. Instead, I showed a few of the teachers how to put the binders together and they taught them on Friday as my SIL and myself taught the 82 junior high through college-aged kids.

So, after dropping those off, I headed back home to work on the 82 Tinkerin’ kits. My SIL followed me home and with her help, we got all the little pieces of the kits made and ready for me to finish up later that evening. This is what I sat down to at 11p to finish…

Keep in mind…to the left of this pile were 82 Level 1 Pre-made layouts which include 4 layouts in each kit…for a total of 328 pieces I had to cut 3 – 5x7 pieces out of…each sheet. I calculated that I cut out 984 - 5x7 pieces.

So, I had a very long night/morning! LOL! I managed to get them all completed and ready to go and get a few winks in before I had to be at my SIL’s house to pick her up at 830a.

Our first stop was at the junior high school all the way across town to teach 29 kids, then 1-1/2 hours later, we were back to the other side of town to teach 14 college students and another 1-1/2 hours later we were in the middle of town teaching 39 high school students. So, in 4-1/2 hours we taught 82 students how to scrapbook. What a joy it was! I hope they enjoy their scrapbooks filled with memories of their week at Camp Friendship 2009!

Have a blessed day and make it from your heart!

P.S. I’ll share some pictures of the finished Tinkerin’ binder in my next post.

Monday, July 06, 2009

My Creative Mojo is Back!

LOL! Well, at least I know how to copy someone else’s great ideas and add my own pictures and journaling with a few creative touches of my own. :O) That’s what is so great about Close To My Heart’s Workshop on the Go’s!

I few weeks ago I spent four wonderful days scrappin’ at the Covered Bridge Inn in Weatherford, Texas. I usually go 3 times a year so that I can get some serious scrapbooking done while visiting with my bff, Cindy. That is usually the only quality time we get to spend together since she lives in Stephenville…3 hours away from me.

At this retreat, I worked on creating all my upcoming Workshop on the Go layouts for my scrapbook clubs for July, August, and September. I am so happy with what I accomplished this time around. I created a total of 9 two-page layouts and I was able to get pictures and journaling done on 5 of them.

Here is 1 of the 3 layouts I will be teaching in August using the Animal Cookies Workshop on the Go. The 2 Cute layout features pictures of Bevyn singing ‘Itsy Bitsy Spider’.

Below are my scrapbook club layouts using the Backwoods Workshop on the Go. These layouts were perfect for our pictures from Lake City, Colorado. As a matter of fact, my parents are there at this very moment. We have been there with them several times over the past 10 years. Can’t wait to go back!

Now, after completing all these layouts at retreat, I sorted through my past scrapbook club layouts that I haven’t put pictures and journaling on and this is what I ended up with…

Wow! I have a lot of work ahead of me. :O) There’s about 6” worth of layouts here that I have to find pictures for and journal, so that is my ongoing project for now.

Here is the finished layout from the top of the pile…

I pulled out some pictures of my son, Shaymus, when he was first born…14 years ago. This paper packet will be perfect for so many of his baby pictures.

It will be time to purchase some new Close To My Heart Legacy Albums…I bet I can fill 3 or 4 of them with all these layouts.

Stay tuned as I work through this stack…I will be sure to share with you what I’ve completed.

Thanks for visiting! Have a blessed day and make it from your heart…with Close To My Heart!

Sunday, July 05, 2009

I’m Getting My Scrapbook Room Back!

Over the last several weeks, I have been on an organization mission and I have been preparing to move back into my scrapbook room. You see…over the last two years I have shared it with our unexpected blessing, Bevyn, and it has turned more into a storage room, than a scrapbook/baby room.

My husband has been working hard on building a new room for our son, Shaymus. It is near completion and we are preparing to move him into his new room. Our oldest daughter, Caitlyn, will be moving into his old room and Bevyn into Caitlyn’s old room.

So, I thought it about time to get my scrapbook room back in order. I didn’t get pictures of the whole room before, but this gives you an idea of what I had to work with…

My first job to tackle were the counter tops and once I got those cleared of all the piles, I started on the piles on the floor.

Well, after several weeks of persistence, this is what I accomplished…

I can not express how wonderful it feels to get things back in order so that I can sit and actually be creative in my own space again. Now I still have to work around Bevyn for the time being, but soon it will be my space again and she will have her very own.

I still have several organization projects to work on, like my pile of memorabilia (not pictured). I’m pretty sure I am going to sort it all into file folders that are to the left of my scrappin’ area. I also am planning to pull everything out of the iris bin that is under my scrappin’ area and I’m going to fill it with cardstock scraps by color…it’s all currently piled inside the CTMH box under my scrappin’ area.

Thanks for stopping by to see what I’ve been up to. My next post I will be sharing some creative projects that I’ve been working on.

Have a great day and make it from your heart,

Wednesday, July 01, 2009

July SOTM Blog Hop!!!

Welcome to our Stamp of the Month Blog Hop! We will be featuring July's SOTM, which is You've Got Flair, a set of 8 stamps.

If you have come here from Lori’s Blog, you are on the right path! If this is your first stop, you may want to go back to Jena's Blog and start from the beginning!

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This month we have 43 Close To My Heart Consultants sharing their creations using this month's SOTM 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 love this stamp set! I have to admit, I was a little stumped at first…how do I showcase the detail of these beautiful stamps. I chose to use them with some Colonial White Pigment-Based Ink stamped onto Juniper Cardstock and then highlight an image on each card stamped in 2nd generation Black Ink and colored in using coordinating ink and a blending pen. I love the results!

All my card designs come from Jeanette Lynton’s latest Card Confidence Program, Wishes, and I used one of her recent Color Me Monday combinations of Hollyhock, Blush, Juniper, Creme Brulee. I used the reverse side of the Bella Level 2 Paper Packet B&T Duos for the Creme Brulee & Hollyhock.

Here are some close-ups…

Products Used: All products are Close To My Heart - Bella Level 2 Paper Packet, Juniper Cardstock, Colonial White Cardstock, Black Exclusive Inks Pad, Creme Brulee Exclusive Inks Pad, Hollyhock Exclusive Inks Pad, Juniper Exclusive Inks Pad, Blending Pen, Round Sponge, Creme Brulee Designer Ribbon Rounds, Hollyhock Designer Ribbon Rounds, Sparkles, Spring Blossom Mini Medley Accents, and Holiday Craft Buttons.

Now "Hop" on over to Reba's Blog to see her work! Be sure to visit all the Consultants at their Blogs to get some great crafting ideas and other fun ideas! Remember, the July SOTM is only available until July 31st! Contact your CTMH Consultant (or click here) to see how you can get this stamp set at a discount or even free!

Have a blessed day and make it from your heart!