Happy 5th Birthday to Bevyn!!!

It’s so hard to believe that our baby is turning 5 today! She is turning into such a big girl right before our eyes. I thought I’d share a few photos of her on her special day.

 

Up bright & early for her special day…bed head and all!

First present of the day, because all birthday girls need something new to wear.

Bevyn’s new Hello Kitty outfit.

I think she really loves it!

Bevyn’s pick for her birthday lunch with Mommy & Caitlyn.

Once Daddy arrives home, there is another present waiting for the princess.

She is super excited about her new Disney Princess bedding!

Mommy with her little princess.

Daddy, Mommy & Princess Bevyn.

The fun will continue on Sunday when we host her ‘Brave’ birthday party at our house with friends & family.

Happy Father’s Day–The Greatest Gift

Yesterday, I stepped away from working on my Extravaganza class artwork to finish up my Convention Studio J layouts (which I’ll share during this next week) and to create a special gift for my wonderful husband for Father’s Day.

I decided to create a few Studio J layouts for him and then make them into a wall hanging for the kids to give him…resulting in a hybrid project. My first attempt at that & I am fairly pleased with how it turned out.

I used a retired 9” x 9” My Creations Accordion Album I had leftover and layered the 8” x 8” Studio J layouts I printed (from my FREE jpeg files I got when I ordered my 12” x 12” Studio J layouts) with my printer onto some coordinating cardstock and then onto the album itself.

Here are the Studio J layouts I made using the Studio J Victory Kit which is perfect for Father’s Day…

Here is the completed wall hanging…

The greatest gift I ever had came from God, I call him dad! ~Author Unknown

Happy Father’s Day!

Take a Break to Create with CTMH

So much has happened this last week that I still don’t quite feel like I’ve gotten back into my routine after the holidays and with the kids going back to school.

We had a pretty significant winter storm come through Monday night which brought us 4” of snow and Bevyn’s preschool shut down for Tuesday. The older kids still had to go to school.

Then my new Close To My Heart product order arrived on Wednesday, but I had a hair appointment and had already started cleaning & organizing my scrapbook room, so this morning was the first chance I’ve taken to create.

I thought I’d share a quick card and a little sneak peek of a new paper packet from the new 2012 Spring/Summer Idea Book (available to customers February 1st) and a card idea I found on Pinterest from October Afternoon!

Using the new Stella Workshops on the Go Kit, the My Acrylix Just for You Stamp Set, the Rock the Block My Acrylix Stamp Set, three Flutter Paper Shapes and my CTMH Cricut Art Philosophy cartridge, I created this…

I just LOVE this bold color combo using Sunset, Lagoon, Olive & Tulip with a touch of Cocoa! I cut the postage stamp shape using my CTMH Cricut Art Philosophy cartridge. The stitched lines are a stamp from the Stella WOTG Kit. This was such an easy card to make.

Below are a few highlights from this past week…

Our snow day fun…

My newly organized workstation in my scrapbook room…

Until next time…have a blessed day!

My Precious Baby in the Spotlight

One of the highlights for me personally at the Close To My Heart Convention in Disneyland this summer was while I was perusing the Extravaganza artwork during our break. I was snapping photos of the art boards and something familiar caught my eye. My brain didn’t register it at first, but the longer I looked the more I began to process it.

Hey, that’s my ‘Bevyn’ in that picture!

Yesterday I received my Convention CD in the mail and so I thought I’d share with you the art board that I saw at Convention. All the artwork is beautiful, but I especially love the layout created by the Close To My Heart Art Department featuring my darling daughter, Bevyn. She is about a year old here…she is now 4 years old. I rarely submit photos to Close To My Heart and I honestly don’t remember sending this in, so that is why I was so surprised to see it.

How cool is that!?! You can bet I’ll be sending in more in the near future! I’d love to see some featured in an upcoming Idea Book and I’m sure the kids would get a kick out of it as well.

Now, it’s time to re-create this layout for my personal scrapbook! There are hundreds of amazing projects on my Convention CD that I’d love to CASE…so hopefully, I’ll see you again soon…with some new creations inspired by some very talented Close To My Heart artists!

‘When You Wish’ Sneak Peek

If you are in the San Angelo/Christoval area, you will definitely want to make plans to stop by this Saturday to sneak-a-peek at what the new Close To My Heart Cricut Art Philosophy cartridge can do…and to pick up your FREE copy of the 2011 Autumn/Winter Idea Book!

My CTMH Cricut Art Philosophy collection arrived on Tuesday and my Cricut Expressions has been smokin’ ever since!

This amazing collection of goodness comes with the exclusive CTMH Cricut cartridge called Art Philosophy and three coordinating My Acrylix stamp sets and Dimensional Element sheets.

I’ve been having a TON of FUN playing with it all the last two days and below is just a sneak peek of one of the goodies I’ll be giving away for the on-time drawing…at 10:00 am sharp!

I thought I’d also share the darling 3” x 3” cards I made up from the CTMH Convention Leadership Day create ‘n take. This gives you a peek of our EIGHT new paper packets! Love them all!

   

I see a workshop in the works…more details to come!

Meanwhile…

Bevyn was creating her own concoction while I was busy playing with my new CTMH goodies.

Yummmmmm…NOT! Mixed in with toys and cheese crackers was about ten bucks in coins! It was not fun sorting that all out…

More creating and more adventures to come in the next few days…stay tuned!

Three Reasons Why I Scrapbook

I thought I’d share a few Studio J layouts that I created yesterday to celebrate why I love being a mom and scrapbooking memories of my children.

Click here to create real life, real scrapbooks, real time with Studio J.

~

A Happy Mother’s Day Prayer

Lord, you brought someone special to mind.

I pray you will bless her for the many ways she’s been a blessing.

Surround her with your love and the love of those who care so much for her.

Help her to see the many ways she has touched her family and the many hearts that are blessed by her life.

Happy Mother’s Day with Love,

In all my prayers for all of you, I always pray with joy. – Philippians 1:4

Happy Easter from Our Family to Yours

Happy Easter!

What a glorious day it has been already! The whole family was up before dawn so that we could attend our church’s Easter Sunrise Service this morning at 7 a.m.

What an AMAZING SONrise it was!

Here are a few pictures from this morning’s service…

 

 

When we got home, we found that The Easter Bunny had hopped by our house and left the kids some goodies!

 

Bevyn got the princess mirror she had been talking about all week long. However, The Easter Bunny forgot about the princess tap shoes she told me she wanted this morning…

 

Now I’m off to finish prepping the house and lunch for our extended family that will be arriving in about an hour…wishing I could sneak a nap in! I pray that each of you has a wonderful Easter Sunday celebrating our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ!

God Bless,

Scrapbooking in Real Time with CTMH Studio J

I’m really getting hooked on Close To My Heart’s Studio J Online Scrapbooking! I am planning on taking advantage of this month’s Studio J Member Special of buying 10 or more printed Studio J layouts so I can receive FREE shipping, FREE Memory Protectors & FREE Sparkles & Opaque Pearl Adhesive Gems.

I already have five layouts ready and just finished creating my sixth one this afternoon of Caitlyn’s district track meet that was TODAY. Yes, I said TODAY!

All I had to do was upload my digital pictures to my laptop, then upload them into my Studio J workspace on MyCTMH Website and voila!

(Click on Studio J layout to view it larger and in more detail.)

You wanna know what is SUPER cool about this layout? I was able to color coordinate it with Caitlyn’s school colors even though the original kit, Fanfare, didn’t contain the Cranberry B&T Duo paper you see in the center of the layout. Studio J has this awesome new feature so you can colorize ANY B&T Duo paper to ANY of CTMH’s 60 Exclusive Colors! The Cranberry B&T Duo you see was actually black with some red, blue & yellow in it.

If you’d like to give Studio J a try, click on the Studio J logo below. I promise…you will be amazed at how fast, simple & easy it is!

Even when life gets busy, you can capture the moments quickly and beautifully using Studio J Online Design Software.

Contact Me if you have questions and would like to get started using Studio J today!