life is good!

Woohoo! Today is our first Sharing From the Heart Blog Hop for 2012! Thanks for stopping by. If you're hopping with us today, you should have come here from Heather's Blog. Don't worry, if you didn't, you can always just start here and hop to the next great inspiration! As most of you know, I rarely do single pages as I'm a double page layout gal because I want them to match up. Today's layout though is for the FIRST page of my personal 2012 Scrapbook. I scrap all sorts of fun stuff I do hoping that someday, one of my grandchildren will want to know all about me and my life. Yup, these picts were just taken last week and I thought they were perfect to get my book started. I was inspired by a challenge on SB.Com for this month's Lyrics challenge which was to use a Katy Perry Song Title. I chose "A Cup

of Coffee" and snapped these picts with that in mind... I love coffee! I also did this page for the SB.Com Challenge, for "One Month at a Time" to scrap January Pictures, hand write the journaling and use a list. It really worked perfect with this page. I used up my CTMH Roxie Paper with this layout. I really like the new paper packs and how they're designed. I used up all of the paper and feel good that I won't have any lingering pieces in my stash that I need to use up again. My books will be fresh at all times with current papers. I love that idea. Well, the next stop on the Sharing from the Heart Blog Hop is Deb's Blog. I'm sure she's got a great project, page or card to show off for us this month. Thanks for stopping by!

Supplies: All CTMH Roxie Paper Pack, Roxie Stickease, Stardust Glitz, Bling Buttons, Opposites Attract Cricut Cartridge

JOY!

OK, I have to admit ... I'm not missing the white stuff {"snow"} all that much. I do love stamping snowmen, snowflakes and other winter scenes but to get out and drive and work in it - un-unh... just not on my fun list. Tonight however, the pretty CTMH Wonderland papers were calling to me. It did make a very pretty card and the blues and purples are always great colors to play with ... I just felt a little guilty stamping a snow scene on a cool 50 degree night and wishing it would stay that way for all of winter. Maybe we could just have snowflakes ... inside ... on cards? Yeah, NO! I know it's not going to happen but a gal can dream. So this card is my tribute to a Non-Winter, LOL!

The sketch is this week's MOJO Monday #223. I also found a stamp that had not seen ink yet for the H2H Challenge this week! Stay Inspired!

Supplies: All CTMH - Paper Pack Wonderland, Petal CS, Stamps Winter Joy, Ink Chocolate, Sparkles & Bitty Sparkles, Snowflakes were cut with CTMH Cricut Cart Art Philosophy

Stay Inspired

This past New Years Eve found me in a hotel traveling back home from a visit with family. We had such a great time together and of course as you've seen me mention, welcoming my new niece Sarah to the family. As I was thinking about all of the posts about New Years Resolutions and if I wanted to have some, I decided that I wanted to have "goals" instead of Resolutions. I was also searching for my "WORD" of the year. I had originally thought it would be "committed" because there were several areas of my life I wanted to be more committed to but that night as I checked in, I changed my mind. The key card said "Stay Inspired" and that my friends became my "WORD" (s) of the year. I loved that phrase, it sounded so much more positive! It also really felt like it fit all of the areas of my life, even my passion for stamping and scrapbooking! So I wish you a good 2012 and encourage you to Stay Inspired!

The sketch is from this week's Let's Scrap Sketch Challenge.

Supplies: All CTMH - Paper Pack - Jingle, Stamps - Doodle Alpha, He Said/She Said, Ink - Black, Cricut Cartridge CTMH Art Philosophy, Cricut Cartridge Pooh Font

Happy New Year!

Happy 2012! Welcome to a New Year! I loved the holidays but sure glad to be back crafting. Let the fun begin for a new year. Tonight I worked late so didn't have time for alot other than getting some cards done for my Card Angel Sisters. I know it's supposed to warm up here in Ohio and the snow might melt but it's January so I'm thinking ... flakes and hearts. After all it's almost February, my favorite holiday month for Valentines!

I used sketch #15 from Freshly Made Sketches. It was just perfect for showing off the pretty new CTMH Winter paper I have "Wonderland". I found some lace in my PIF box that went wonderfully and I scoured my Scrap/Stamp/Office for some Vellum to complete the Perfect Sentiments #13 only to realize it didn't turn out as sparkly as I like Valentines. I have 1 little piece of Vellum left, I just might have to try again this weekend for another look but here's my first one! Enjoy!

Supplies: Paper - CTMH Wonderland; Ink - CTMH Grey Wool, Petal; Stamps - CTMH Winter Joy; CTMH Art Philosophy Cricut Cart, MM Snowflake Brads; Crystal Stickles

Countdown to New Catty

I'm not sure why but my Crafty Clock gets ticking as we get close to starting to countdown for the new catty. It may be this time of year when I get lots more crafting done due to weather ... or maybe it's the holidays and all the occasions to scrap or reasons to make cards. I start getting motivated to "use up" all the older paper packs I have so I can make room for new...woohoo! This week was no different! Time to use up the older Christmas paper packs so I can get ready to scrap 2011 holidays with new stuff! Do you find yourself doing the same?

Now is a GREAT time to check out all of the fantastic layout ideas in CTMH Jeannette Lynton Sketch Idea book, "Magic". Both of these layouts came from ideas from this book. Of course, it was a GREAT time to use my Cricut CTMH Art Philosophy Cartridge for both layouts. I don't think I do a page without it now!

Thanks for stopping by on our Sharing from the Heart Blog Hop! If you came from Deb's Blog you're on the right path and it's time to hop to Polly's Blog. Don't worry if you started here! No matter where you start, you'll still get around the loop to see all of the GREAT creations this month. Thanks for stopping!

Supplies: CTMH Mistletoe Paper Pack, CTMH Art Philosophy Cricut Cart, CTMH Stamps Holiday Wishes, CTMH Ink Cranberry, New England Ivy

November 2011 Sharing From the Heart

Whew! I almost missed this month's Sharing From the Heart Blog Hop! I don't know how I missed the sign up? Well Diana, bless her heart, was willing to add me to the list so here I am! You should be hopping in from Adeline's Blog. I was so excited to show off my pages for this time because I REALLY like the CTMH Elemental Paper Pack! It's SO versatile. The colors are awesome and the patterns are great for fun backgrounds. This sketch is from Even More Scrapping #34 Sketch. Cheryl does such a great job with the sketches! I rotated the sketch to make it work for my pictures.
Check out the CUTE leaves and letters all cut from the CTMH Art Philosophy Cricut Cart. For the accent colors to go with the Elemental Paper Pack I used the new Dark Yellow & Orange Shade Pack. It gave me some great variety for the leaves and the letters. Don't forget that with the new CTMH DSP, the fun strip I have in the middle was cut from the top of the paper. I think this is a GREAT idea and I'm really pleased they have the name now on the back of the strip and not on the paper. By the way, these fun Fall photos are from our annual Fall Tour Day. Here in Ohio, every year in October they designate a weekend and a variety of Fall stops you can
check out. We only picked 2 - 3 stops but it was a beautiful day and just perfect to be out touring the every day sites we miss. Not to mention, the color was indescribable. For this page I added a poem I found called, "October's Party". Sometimes I don't have alot of journaling for this as we go every year and the pictures are just sites we saw so a poem worked perfectly. I had SO much fun cutting out the leaves on my CTMH Art Philosophy Cricut Cartridge that I cut some extra to use for a card. The word "Fall" was actually a goof for my page as it was too large to fit in the spot I wanted. All good, it could go on my card. The card design is from this weeks Card Pattern's #141.
Making the card was a great way to use up the scraps from the page. I added Glitz Glitter to some of the leaves to give it a little sparkle.

Well, I hope you've had fun on the Sharing From the Heart Blog Hop for November. You probably arrived from Adeline's Blog but if not, no worries because you're now back at the beginning and headed to Diana's Blog. Thanks for Hopping!


Supplies: All CTMH
Paper - CTMH Elemental Paper Pack, Cardstock Dark Yellow & Orange Shade Pack
CTMH Art Philosophy Cricut Cartridge
CTMH Wooden Buttons & Glitz Glitter (card)

Ahhh Holidays

I always look forward to the holidays but getting there is crazy. No matter how much planning and practice I've had, it just seems to be controlled chaos. I find myself wishing for peace and yet, the holiday arrives and it becomes quiet and calm around my house for a few days. Ahhh, Holidays! Once again this year I find myself planning and figuring for how to get all I want completed done for the celebrations. I'm hopeful this year, I have the perfect plan, LOL! We'll see? It's always fun to try. My card is sketch came from Freshly Made Sketches #10 and a cute card I cased in the SCS Gallery. Supplies: CTMH Paper Cranberry, Garden Green, Black; CTMH Stamps Universal Backgrounds, Everlasting Life; CTMH Ink Black, Encore Gold; CTMH Opaques; CTMH Art Philosophy Cricut Cartridge