Our Beginnings

This is the second Avonlea layout which is finished except for the journaling. I'm in the middle of a computer crisis at the moment with my desktop CPU downstairs next to my husband's desk. It's searching for a driver for its new motherboard. So I'm working off my laptop.

 

The good news is that I finally found my Avonlea pages which you didn't know were lost. That's another story. Nevertheless, both the first and second layouts are now safely secured in my green CTMH scrapbook. Now that I've given you far more information than you wanted to know, let me tell you about these pages.

 

I'm using the autumn/winter book layouts to share a bit about our history/memories/stories that David and I share. This layout is a reversed version found in Jeannette Lynton's Imagine book and it works quite well for these pages.

 

This is the bonus project that you can complete with the remaining product in the Avonlea Workshop on the Go. 

 

 I found the suede rub-ons most interesting to use and liked highlighting them with cocoa markers. I would love to do a slightly blinged up version substitutie opaque pearl flourishes for the suede which would open up a whole new dimension. Don't be surprised if I add some more Avonlea later in this heritage book.

 

Regardless, I found the Avonlea look to be quite exiting. If you like it too, pop over to my website (http://dianecook.myctmh.com) and order yours today.

 

Next up is Clementine.

 

Avonlea -- Our Wedding

 

When the Autumn/Winter 2012 Close To My Heart Idea Book came out, I decided to use our eight new Workshops on the Go as a launch point for my long-awaited heritage album. I started by scanning our wedding photos into my computer and selected the Avonlea workshop as the backdrop for our wedding. My only significant change in this layout is in the alphabet font -- I didn't have the Keepsakes Alphabet, so I substituted with the Field Trip design. I will be doing the additional layout with the remaining Avonlea products.

I ordered an extra Avonlea Paper Pack because I want to redo this layout with some distinctive changes, which I will share in another post. Since I still have the stamp set and instruction, I only needed to order the Avonlea paper pack for my redo. Of course, I let my fingers do the walking through the accessories pages of our Idea Book..

The Avonlea WOTG includes the Avonlea Paper Packet, My Acrylix Workshop, Colonial White Cardstock, Parlor Velvet Rub-Ons, Opaques Mocha Adhesive Gems, and an Instructional Guide. Additional required tools are: E1024 My Acrylix Keepsakes Alphabet; Z2111 Chocolate Exclusive Inks Pad; Z2137 Olive Exclusive Inks Pad, Z2434 Chocolate Exclusive Inks Marker, and Z697 Sponge.  Visit my website (http://dianecook.myctmh.com) to place your order today.

 

 

CELEBRATING THE HARVEST WITH AN ARTISTE HARVEST BOX

 

PRODUCTS:

*  B1395 My Acrylix So Grateful Stamp set

* 1245 Olive Cardstock

* 1388 Colonial White Cardstock

* X4928 Saddle Cardstock

* Z2123 Goldrush Exclusive Inks Pad

* Z2137 Olive Exclusive Inks Pad

* Z2171 Saddle Exclusive Inks Pad

* Z1088 Chocolate Waxy Flax

* Z1743 Sparkles Brown & Tan Ass’t

* Z1790 Cricut Artiste Collection

* Z679 Liquid Glass

Take a favorite stamp set, mix in custom-designed shapes from CTMH Cricut Artiste Collection and you have a perfect gift box to fill with goodies for those special people in your  circle. I got the idea from page 74 in our current Fall/Winter catalog and proceeded to put it together in a matter of minutes.  Feel free to order your products from my CTMH Website (dianecook.myctmh.com).

Getting Ready for Christmas

 

 

Christmas will be here sooner than you think, so I planned my first CTMH Christmas Card Workshop on the Go for September 18th in Lewes, Delaware and on September 23rd at our studio in Dover. This is a three-hour class and is well worth the time. I also plan to offer it again in October. I've added this sweet cardholder from our new Cricut Artiste cartridge which is a great use for the scraps. Of course, I wanted to see if I could get all the cards to fit . . .and they did! All 15 of them!!! So now all I have to do is address them. I have more class details on our website (www.scrappigators.com) or if you wish to tackle the workshop on your own, you can order G1052 at my CTMH website (http://dianecook.myctmh.com). To round out your purchase, consider the Cricut Artiste Collection (Z1790) which includes the cartridge with 700 images, My Acrlyix D-size stamp, and 12" x 9: Dimensional Elemings in coordinating shapes.

 

Also, we're hosting our first day crop on October 13th at the Kenton Ruritan Clubhouse in Kenton, DE. The $30 fee includes a salad and sandwhich bar for lunch, snacks, beverages, free make-and-takes and door prize drawings. We'll have vendors from Close to My Heart (me), Christian Lifestyles Scrappigators (my friend Melissa and me), Stampin Up (Laura Barthlemeh), and Creative Memories (Catina Bright). Visit our scrappigators website for more information about our Scrappigators Love to Crop day crop.

 

Finally, if you want to see a totally cute Christmas card featuring Copic products, pop on over to our scrappigators blog (http://scrappigators.blogspot.com) for a quick look-see.



 



CMTH Sunflower

 

There's nothing like a bright yellow sunflower to perk things up, especially this month. I completed my Intermediate Copic certification class, had surgery the following week, had to cancel a weekend event I had my heart set on attending the week after that, and am now forced to wear a clumpy boot on my right foot (not related to surgery) for at least a month in hopes of calming the bursitis and tendonities in my right heel. Yes, perky sunflowers are a perfect way to end the month and usher in a new season of Copics and classes.

This was the a Close To My Heart Stamp of the Month (S1205) that I simply fell in love with. My background paper is from the Dotto collection that was a bonus pack from several months ago. I used the following Copic markers to color this image: E37 Maroon; G94 Grayish Olive; R29 Lipstick Red; Y08 Acid Yellow; Y17 Golden Yellow; YG23 New Leaf. The buttons came from my Close To My Heart button stash from maybe their 2010 collection.

On a final note -- this will be my last duplicate entry from my scrappigators blog(http://scrappigators.blogspot.com).  I intend to use this blog to highlight my Close To My Heart projects, products, promotions, and workshops/classes. If you're interested in seeing more Copics, Mosaic Moments, EK Success and other projects, then please subscribe to my scrappigators blog as well. By the end of the year, I also hope to post at least one tutorial on the blogs as well.

Okay, I'm done. Have a great day!

Lolly Garden

I had a wonderful time at Intermediate Copic Training in Lyndhurst, NJ this past weekend and have been practicing with some of my new images. Alas, I need to finish some new samples so I decided to work on my August Flower of the Month, I planned to post it today. Then I stumbled upon my SparkleNSprinkle Lolly Garden (Set397) stamp set and decided to go town! Sadly, I had to nix it after the project was finished because it requires 13 markers! But, I'm going to do four more myself because it's such a cute card. I used the following Copic colors:

BG11 Moon White
BG13 Mint Green
FYG1 Fluorescent Yellow
C2 Cool Gray 2
C5 Cook Gray 5
E000 Pale Fruit Pink
E01 Pink Flamingo
R22 Light Prawn
R24 Prawn
BG0000 Snow Green
BG000 Pale Aqua
0 Colorless Blender
100 Black

I made my card base from a Recollections paper pack I had in my stash. For the flowers on the front, I stamped three each of four colors on paper scraps and used a 3/4" punch (I think) to cut out the flowers portion. I stamped the flowers around the bottom of the card and covered the flower portion with my punched colors. I used EK Success Repositional adhesive on the overlaping edge of the larger flower to keep the front closed. I'm looking forward to seeing what the next ones look like.

Ladybugs

This is a "just for fun" card I did when I probably should have been doing something else. It's from the Inkadinkado 99121 Mindscapes stamp set. Inside the ladybug shell is a fantasy pattern that begs for some kind of special treatment. I used five Copic colors plus At You Spica 00 Clear. The cardstock came from my stash amd the sentiment was from a Close To My Heart sentiment stamp set. My marker colors are:

• R27 Cadmium Red
• R29 Red Lipstick
• G20 Wax White
• G24 Willow
• Y08 Acid Yellow

I'm going to play with this one some more, I think.

June-July Flower of the Month

This is my first flower of the month; it just took two months to get the classes going. Unfortunately, I discovered two distinct flowers using two unique techniques -- so I suppose these were the June-July Flowers of the Month.Both project-sets used Copic markers, but not any specific ones. The violet patterns were part of my morning class with the oranges came from my late afternoon class. The featured flower in the center cards was from Gina K's Year of Flowers. Not only to we color the "magnified" petals with Copics, but the backgrounds were created with the same colors. The outside flowers are from Elizabeth Craft Designs. In this case, we used the burnished velvet technique to create totally awesome flowers.

Copic Butterflies

These three cards are from SparkleNSprinkles Fancy Butterflies (Set 437) collection. I created the cards using The Paper Cut Lemon Drop, Blu Raspberry, Sour Apple and Sweet Tooth colors with matching envelopes. My Copic colors were BG01 Aqua Blue, BG05 Holiday Blue, Y15 Cadmium Yellow, and Y17 Golden Yellow. Of course, I used Memento Tuxedo Black to stamp my Copic Images onto Copic Cardstock. I thought about adding bling in the form of glitter, maybe embossing, and more, but couldn't bring myself to it. This seemed to work well, especially with the Paper Cut colors. I'll be adding this workshop to my August selections.

Circles Up!

Sometimes you stumble across a project that you just have to scraplift! This is mine. I finally came up with a name for it -- Circles Up! I stumbled across the layout on www.spottedcanary.com in the "All About Me" section of scrapbooking projects. Brittny Kvilhaug actually submitted the project on Feb 13, this year. Of course, I made lots of changes, but you can certainly recognize the inspiration of it all. Now all I have to do is decide whether or not to add a second page to the layout . . . As far is journaling is concerned, I would cut a small circle in vellum, journal and adhese.

This is a great little project that took me more time to photograph than build. It offers opportunities to demonstrate for cutting circles (punches, vs electronic die cuts, vs hand cutting, vs gadget cutting, etc.), creating faux lace edging, and decorative scoring. In other words, with a few minor adjustments, this could end up on my class schedule on our website (www.scrappigators.com)

As far as products are concerned, I used the Graphic 45 "Once Upon a Springtime" paper pack for the circles and flourish, Bazzill Vintage Pink as my cardstock base, for the top flourish, and for the larger circle designed to hold a round photo, and Bazzill Berry Blush for the top piece of cardstock. My lace edging was torn from a Wilton doily sponged with Close To My Heart's Cotton Candy Exclusive Inks. I cut the smaller circles using the Cricut Plantin Schoolbook cartridge, the larger circle and two fourishes from Close To My Heart's Art Philosophy Cricut carrtridge and the "Dream" title with Cricut's Sophisticated Cartridge. I added extra "bling" by placing self-adhesive faux pearls on the flourishes and at the scored intersections. Of course, Close To My Heart products are available on http://dianecook.myctmh.com.

Copic 101 Revised

After almost a year of teaching my Inkadinkado Copic Floral Class, I decided it was time to refresh my Copic 101 class and start to work on Copic 102 -- Birds and Bugs OR Birds, Butterflies and Bugs. While the cornerstone of the class is working with these IN-CRED-BLE Copic markers, I'm also integrating some primo products from SparkleNSprinkle. In this case, I used the Celestial Glitter to set off the floral centers. I also used SparkleN Sprinkles Blossoms Stamp set to create this WONderful card bouquet. My papers came from Bazzill, Paper Cuts, Melissa Frances and Recollections. I'm also redirecting my color blending pallete embrace the balance of threes. in this case, my "threes" are pink and blue -- selected to embrace Copic Blending rules. Best of all, I got to use my Sizzix Vagabond (brand new happy dance for major progress on decluttering my craft room) to cut out the Spellbinders Nestibilities. That's when I discovered what I ddin't have but is now on order to maximize the awesomeness of my Sizzix. Another big bonus lies with my newly revamped website (www.scrappigators.com) -- a continuing work in progress. I've streamlined the site a bit and am excited to see what the changes will bring.

Scrappigators Copic Club Flower of the Month Test Drive

I'm revisiting, revamping, and reworking our Scrappigators Copic program. At the recommendation of one of my students, I'll be offering a 3-5 tiered teaching program with each having its own monthly club offering. I'm totally excited about my Copic Florals class. I cardlifted the circle call-out element from the Annie's Attic Copic 2 book but scaled it down to a 4.25" x 5.5" card. After watching a Copic Sketch DVD from Imagination International, I decided to create my own background. I also decided to use At You Spica pens for the center of the flowers which are from the Gina K "A Year of Flowers" stamp set. So you see, it's totally a little bit of this, a little bit of that, and a cool techniques. You can't really tell on this photo, but the center flower's call-out element is backed with foam dots to give it some extra dimension.

I used the following markers to complete this project:

* B000- Pale Porcelain Blue

* BOO - Frost Blue

* B02 – Robins Egg Blue

* BG05 – Holiday Blue

* At You Spica 02 - Pink

* At You Spica 10 - Black

* At You Spica 14 – Blossom

Copic Aquatics

Aren't these little guys just too cute? This is our Scrappigators Copic Club, Dover project for the month. The stamps are from Gina K Designs and I used the Don't Worry, Be Happy design elements featured in the Copic Coloring Guide by Colleen Schaan and Marianne Walker. The set requires five copic colors: BG11, BG72, BG74, YR04, and YR07. Of course, I changed things up a bit and used the same color scheme for two additional cards. Besides creating my own original Copic projects, I like incorporating designs from books and magazines into my teaching mix so my students can see they can replicate publication-worthy projects. I also used Paper Cuts Blue Raspberry  cardstock and embossed them with both Cuttlebug and Sizzix embossing envelopes. I made my envelope base from white cardstock.

Footloose WOTG

It's been forever since I've been able to blog! My SMASH books are growing -- especially my Scrappgiators one. We're vending regularly at Crop Classix weekend retreats, Becky & Clare's day crop in Millsboro, DE and Stamping by the Sea (last month) weekend event. We've suddently discovered that May is our take a breath month, so we're trying to play catch up there as well. That said, I'm excited about revisiting my Close To My Heart projects.

IThis is my first CTMH Workshop on the Go project this year. I'm featuring the Footloose WOTG at my May 21st Workshop at Scrappigators Country Store. Be sure to check out Scrappigators Group and our Scrappigators Country Store page on Facebook for more details. 

Here’s what the kit includes:

· My Reflections Footloose Paper Packet (X7151B)

· My Acrylix Footloose Workshop Stamp Set (C-size)

· 2 White Daisy Cardstock sheets

· 1 Wooden Badge Buttons (Z1703)

· 1 Instructional Brochure

We will also be using these additional products:

· E1002 My Acrylix Rustic Alphabet

· Z2167 Crème Brulee Exclusive Inks Pad

· Z2195 Lagoon Exclusive Inks Pad

· Z2135 New England Ivy Exclusive Inks Pad

· Z2164 Sorbet Exclusive Inks Pad *

· Sanding Kit

· 3-D Foam Tape

· Y1000 1”x1” My ACrylix Block

· Y1003 2”x2” My Acrylix Block

· Y1006 3”x3” My Acrylix Block

Scrappigators Country Store

We've been busier than we can be between vending at Crop Classix Cape May two weekends ago, Becky & Clare's Day Crop last weekend, and preparing for the opening of our "country store" yesterday. Getting ready involved moving an overly-filled classroom upstairs and resetting everything for "retail." We anticpated having more stock, but were pleasantly surprised by our sales at two prior events.

These photos represent two of the four walls in our former living room minus carpet. We have lots of changes we want to make in the future depending upon the reception we get in the months ahead. We are only opened one weekend a month -- the first Thursday (noon to 6PM), Friday (10AM-6PM), and Saturday (10AM - 4PM). We hope this small effort will lead to bigger and better things for our Delaware customers. We are focused on selling product that you don't normally find in the big box craft stores.


Three people stopped by on our first day, which is great since we're relying on word of mouth and social networking. Two of the three drove up from the beach to see what we had to offer. Of course, one had a $50 gift certificate to Dover Downs and a gift card for Applebys, so we were the perfect excuse for her to make the drive to Dover. The other heard about Bylers (about 4 or 5 miles from our home) and made us the reason to drive up on Thursday. The third was Tina who came to rescue Melissa's 4-year-old. She wanted him to help her bake cookies. When I first told her about our new venture, she asked if we had enough stock. After a quick walkaround, she said, "yes, you do have enough stock."
We're quite proud of our inventory. We're not carrying a lot of paper, but we do have a good array of cardstock along with Melissa Frances' "First Avenue" collection and several Graphic 45 paper pads. Of course, we also have Mosaic Moments papers since this is one of our featured projects at retreats and day crops.

We're also expanding our Copic services. We have pens (a growing inventory), refills, and nibs. We're also offering a refill and pen-cleaning services.

We also have an active dollar bins (the little green bins) which Melissa keeps full one way or another. Here, our friend Elaine is checking out the offerings.

We're particularly proud of our "checkout" counter which we created with a table that has telescoping legs. It's a perfect fit. What we hope to see more of are smiling customers at the counter like Pat, one of our downstate friends.

Some of our other products include but are not limited to: Scraponizers, Paper Cut, quilling products, Herma Dotto Repositionable Adhesive, Zutter, our own Accessories, ETC product line and more.

All it all, it was a very good day. We hope to have many more which will support our sense that 2012 is going to be a very good year. We're tickled to say that we're off to a great start!

So Many Smashes, So Little Time

I couldn't help it. I saw the blue one and knew I had to have it along with the black, orange, yellow and pink. Then I figured it out. I used my Brother P-Touch to create labels for each. So my Pink (Pretty Style) Smash is now labeled "Family & Friend Smash 2012. My Blue "Retro Style" is labeled "Our Pets Smash 2012). My Yellow Smash is "Scrappigators Smash 2012." My Orange Simple Style" is now my "Steampunk Smash 2012" where I'll record and store great ideas and play with my steampunk papers and stamps. My Black Mod Style Smash will be my "Ministry Smash 2012." My Red Doodle Smash is "My First Smash 2012." Since we're moving my craftroom upstairs so we can run our Scrappigators Country Store downstairs, I'll find plenty of odds and ends to drop our scrapping pages. This photo above is in my Doodle "First Smash" book. I am totally into this bird. Doesn't it look great? I think 2012 is going to be a "Smashing" Great Year.

Smashing Progress Report

This is a page-in-progress that will, I am confident, that will receive more snips, scraps and bits over the days and weeks ahead. These are students from Michaels in Rehoboth. These photos were left over from another project and were a perfect fit for my Smash. There's also a little paperweaving practice swatch that didn't make the trash bin.

Post Christmas Smashing Post

 

One of the best things about the Christmas holidays is the January recovery time. Still trying to clean of my craft table where I found most of the pieces above. The heart is a 6" Cricut Plantin Schoolbook cartridge that I cut to try paper weaving. The Santa on the heart is a misting excercise. Since my last entry, I have purchased four more books to fill. I also have eight out of ten pages finished for Michaels in Rehoboth. I'm having a Smashing Good Time.