CLOSE TO MY HEART FEBRUARY STAMP OF THE MONTH

A Happy Hello

I love this stamp set! It is my favorite Stamp of the Month so far. I'm sure it is going to show up on scrapbook layouts, birthday cards, and in my planner(s). 

I could have played with it all day, but I had both grandchildren over, and they were a little too helpful. My craft room is very popular with both of them. I'm really amazed I was able to film a video.

These are just a few of the mini cards I made today. I hope they will inspire you to play around with this fun stamp set. 

 I made a video to show you the entire stamp set, and how many shapes there are to play with. This stamp set is only available until February 28th. It is $17.95 or just $5 with a $50 purchase. You can see this stamp set HERE on my website.

 Don't forget that your purchases enter you in the Crafts for a Cure Club. Click on the tab at the top of the page for more information on how you can earn free products.

Let me know if you have any questions. If you have already purchased this stamp set, what have you done with it? 

NOW HIRING!

Join a Fun Team Now

Now is a great time to start your own Close to My Heart Business. There is a lot of support available, whether you want to earn a little extra money, get a discount on great products, or make this your career. 

There is always room on the Crafts for a Cure Team for one and all. I would love to show you how to set up a blog, Facebook business page, etc to help grow your business. 

There are currently two great kits to choose from, and both are worth over $360. You simply go to the become a consultant section of my website, and get started.

Besides having access to support from me, there are lots of training videos, audio files, and emails you will have access to from Close to My Heart. 

If you are ready to make money sharing your love of crafting, I'm ready to help you. Contact me with any questions by emailing me at dedraclutz@hotmail.com, or leaving a comment below.

Valentines Treat Bags

Countdown Gifts for My Grandchildren

As soon as my grandchildren started opening their Christmas advent presents they began asking about Valentines and Easter countdown gifts. 

I really should have seen it coming. There is no way I can repeat the elaborate Christmas advent for each holiday, so I made little gift bags. The same concept, just a smaller scale so that I can actually follow through. 

Fortunately, I had already purchased adorable Valentines Treat Bags from the Close to My Heart Seasonal Expressions catalog, along with a cute stamp set. 

The treat bags are now safely on top of their 'fridge (where all parents put items they don't want gotten into, right?), waiting for tomorrow morning. We took them out to dinner so that they wouldn't drive their parents crazy until bedtime. 

Of course I made a video showing how the little treat bags came together. If you need any of these items for yourself, I have direct  links to all of the them on my CTMH website, listed below the video.

Supply List
Valentines Treat Bags 
Love Ya Silly Stamp Set 
EZ Dots Adhesive Runner 
Barn Red Exclusive Ink Pad 
Hollyhock Exclusive Ink Pad 
Outdoor Denim Exclusive Ink Pad 
Thistle Exclusive Ink Pad 

Are you doing any special crafts for Valentines Day? Let me know in the comments below.

FEBRUARY SPECIALS

Close to My Heart Albums!

Have you been using cheap photo albums that now look dirty, and old, with page protectors that are splitting? After you have gone to all of the work to make beautiful layouts,  preserving all of your memories, don't you want to protect them for years to come? Not only do CTMH albums hold up really well, the covers are easily wiped clean.

Close to My Heart has some of the best quality albums you will find, and come in both post-bound and D-ring styles. The D-ring is my favorite for ease of use, and is also a better choice for pocket scrapbooking, such as Picture my Life, and Project Life. The reason I recommend the D-ring for pocket scrapbooking is the pages are able to lie flat better than in a post-bound. However, the post-bound can be expanded.

The best part of Close to My Heart albums? They are on sale for the entire month of February! This month only you can buy one album at regular price, and receive a second album for half price. That is a savings of over $17!

Take a look at the albums, and how you can purchase a few for yourself on my Close to My Heart website.



Watch this CTMH video to see the albums in action. If you still have questions, or comments, please leave them in the comments section. I always love to hear from you all.

 

STAYING ON TRACK IN 2015

Planners, Planners, Planners

It all started when I saw a YouTube video on something called a mind dump. The idea is to clear your head by writing everything down in a notebook, which will free your mind to come up with new ideas. David Allen advocates this system in his "Getting Things Done" book. 

Soon I realized I needed a planner to keep track of all of my appointments, and to-do lists. Hmmm, how about planning for success in my fundraising business? I'm sure you can imagine how this snowballed, and I found myself needing several different notebook/planners.

 

I am sure that I will tweak this system as the year goes on, but I'm excited to have a system in place. In the video below you can see how I am using my current system. If I make big changes I will update you all as I go along.

The printables I used can be found on:

 The CEO of Me blog

PDX blog planner 

I also used the Seaside paper packet for the Blog/Close to My Heart planner.  

The Levenger disc bound system, and the Frixion pens can all be found on Amazon.

Your planner(s) will likely look very different from mine if you are raising children, work outside the home, etc. Let me know if you have a system to stay organized this year, and what it is.

 

THE VALENTINE'S TREE

A New Family Tradition

Some people may call it lazy, I prefer to think of it as an unplanned, new family tradition.  Yes, our Christmas tree is still up. Let's just say that January has flown by so far. My grandchildren were due for a visit, and I suddenly had a brilliant idea.

I pulled out all the stamps, paper, stickers, ribbon, etc, that were remotely Valentine's Day themed, and set up an extra work area in my craft room. Since my grandchildren are six and seven years old, they were all in. I love this age, they are so willing to agree to things, like The Valentine's Tree, even if they have never heard of it before.

They made some really cute decorations, and some that were . . . umm . . . interesting. My grandson added hearts to a drawing of Portal, his favorite video game to date. I guess if you add hearts to something it is automatically sweet, and befitting of The Valentine's Tree. They also had a little trouble making things that were ornament sized.

Adorable, right? You know what this means? I am obligated to leave the tree up year round. 

There were several discussions about future holidays. Easter will be easy, and Halloween is the most highly anticipated. My grandson explained that our 4th of July tree will need "George Washington, and some dead Red Coats." We may need to negotiate a little before July.

JANUARY IS FULL OF SPECIAL DEALS!

Four Special Offers this Month

There is a special Studio J collection to help you preserve all of those Christmas photos. Studio J is a fun, digital scrapbook program that is quick, easy, and economical to use. From January 1st until the end of February, this special express collection will be available using the festive Yuletide Carol paper collection. You can find more about this special HERE on my website. 

During the month of January, all Gatherings that reach $350 or higher will be eligible to receive up to 50% more Hostess Rewards! This means an additional $30, giving you the opportunity to earn up to $230 or more in select free products. This offer is only available during January and can be used for on-line gatherings also.

 

 There are two Year>>Noted kits available in January. You can see all of the products in each kit in this great video that Close to My Heart has put together.

Visit my Close to my Heart  WEBSITE ,place an order of $50 or more, and either of these kits can be yours for $5 or $10. 

Of course there is an adorable Stamp of the Month, available for just $5 with any $50 purchase.

 Once you have a qualifying order in your shopping cart on my WEBSITE these special offers will pop up, and you simply add them to your cart.

As always, your orders are greatly appreciated, as they help me donate funds to the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society. If you would like to know more about the LLS follow this LINK to their website. 

I hope everyone has had a  fantastic start to their new year. If you have any questions, or comments, please leave them in the comments below.