Let's Make A Christmas Card

It is almost mid November.... time to get thinking about making some Christmas Cards. I typically mail out around seventy five cards each year. My Mom always had her cards written out, addressed, stamped, and  ready to be mailed the day after Thanksgiving. I have desired to do this my whole adult life, but I think I only pulled it off once in my forty-five years of marriage, but I keep dreaming and trying. Never giving up. 

I knew the first minute I first saw this stamp set that I wanted to make it appear that the Angel was placing a beautiful star on top of a Christmas Tree. My card went together quickly....until I got to coloring the Angel. I think I colored the Angel four to five times in several different shades, but nothing clicked. When my daughter came over I asked her opinion on it and she suggested a gold gown. Initially I thought the gold was too much with the two gold glittery stars and a piece of gold foil used on the strip of designer papers, but in the end I went with it. I stamped the image on card stock and then paper pieced the Angel over a white base layer using the coordinating die. 

I am a Close To My Heart Maker. If I can be of service to you, please don't hesitate to contact me. Here is a link to my website. cherylarbo.closetomyheart.com

Happy Scrappin and card making!

Cheryl

Day 16 Of My "31 Days of Halloween"

Today is the last day of my treat boxes for the two Littles school. As I have mentioned, they only attend school days Monday through Thursday, so I only needed sixteen days of treats. I have never done a large project like this before and I have learned a lot along the way. I think my two biggest lessons were to start making them much sooner than two weeks prior to the start date and to buy the treats/snacks first and then create a treat box accordingly to the size of your treat. I have a large bag of leftover candy that was not used . Looks like I already have my sweets for Halloween night. I had thoughts of doing a "25 Days of Christmas" also, but will have to wait and see how long it takes me to clean up the mess I made making these. 

For today's treat box I made a cute rectangle box. Inside was a granola breakfast bar. My Grands love eating these. My daughter keeps extras on hand in their car so if they have activities that delay dinner, they have something good for them to tide them over until dinner. I bought a pack of twenty-four plastic toy fangs. My plans were to take them to the donut shop and ask that they put one in the center of each glazed donut we would buy, but the school mentioned someone had already signed up to bring donuts, so instead I tied one with a bow on the outside of each box. I thought they turned out cute. Enjoy!

I am a Close To My Heart Maker. If I can be of service to you, please don't hesitate to contact me. Here is a link for my website. Thank you! cherylarbo.closetomyheart.com

Happy scrappin and card making!

Cheryl

 

Day 14 Of My "31 Days of Halloween"

Today is day fourteen of my "31 Days of Halloween" Only two treats left to do. My craft room will be excited for me to take the time and clean things up..... my husband will too. I have multiple stamp sets, dies, papers, and projects scattered everywhere. Putting things back after I am finished with it is not my forte. 

For today's project I made a treat holder that holds a SpongeBob Krabby Pattie. All four of my Grands love these candies. Jameson likes them the best and a close second is Madison. I have never had one and I am totally okay with that. The two Littles are having a school party tomorrow and again on Thursday. I have a variety of leftover candy from my treat boxes. I think I will take it to the school and let them have it. I sure don't need to be tempted. 

I am a Close To My Heart Maker. If I can be of service to you, please don't hesitate to contact me. Here is a link for my website. cherylarbo.closetomyheart.com

Happy scrappin and card making!

Cheryl

Day 13 of my "31 Days of Halloween"

Lucky #13. This is the last four days of my Halloween treats for the two Littles at school. They do not attend school on Friday's so I only needed treats for the 16 days that they will be attending in October. Almost done for the month. I have had a lot of fun making these. I have to admit, it is much easier to make one project than it is 20, but the kids have enjoyed it. There was just one day when Jameson said he did not like one of the treats. It was the orange snowball hostess cake that had coconut on top. He said he did not like coconut, but he ate it. Lesson learned. No more treats for him with coconut. 

This little bag was quick and easy to make. I picked up a cute bag of individually wrapped coloring books with two small crayons included from Target. I love their dollar spot at the front of the store. I can always find something there. My saved measurements were not quite wide enough for this treat, but it was easy to keep the same original design, but to make modifications to fit. Enjoy!

I am a Close To My Heart Maker. If I can be of service to you, please don't hesitate to contact me. Here is a link to my website. cherylarbo.closetomyheart.com

Happy scrapbooking and card making!

Cheryl

Day Eleven Of My "31 Days of Halloween"

Today is my day eleven of my "31 Days of Halloween". We went to the State Fair all day on Friday and got home around 9pm. It was a great day with my girls and three of my Grands, but I was slap worn out when I got home. We had a garage sale yesterday and afterwards we watched a couple football games. The weather was perfect for a yard sale. Not too hot or chilly. It started off a little windy, but as it warmed up the wind died down. Today is day two of our garage sale, but only until 10:30 am. Then we have to get ready for Jameson's basketball game at noon. Getting up two mornings at 5:30 am in order to get an early start with the yard sale is no fun, but people get out early so we have to be ready. It is turning out to be a busy weekend!

For my project today, I am doing an apple juice treat box. My Grands all love apple juice. I wanted to do something different other than snacks. They would have been happy with bottled water, but I was not so sure their friends at school would be. I think this is the first treat that I used my Cricut to make one of my treat boxes. It was super fast for this handy machine to do all of my scoring and cutting. I also used a Sizzix die I was gifted to cut out the pumpkins. I thought the boxes turned out cute. Enjoy!

I am a Close To My Heart Maker. If I can be of service to you, please contact me . Here is my website. cherylarbo.closetomyheart.com. Have a blessed Sunday! 

Happy scrappin and card making!

Cheryl

Day Ten Of My "31 Days of Halloween"

Today is day ten of my "31 Days of Halloween". I originally had another treat box planned, but my friend Andrea posted a quick, easy, and cute treat that she made and I wanted to make it also. I thought it was adorable and the kids would love it. I used my ScanNCut to cut the bats. My daughter glued each one to the bottom of the brownies and then the googley eyes on the top. Cute..cute! We attended my Grands volleyball game tonight and the two Littles were there. I forgot to ask them how they liked today's treat. 

I am a Close To My Heart Consultant. If I can be of service to you, please don't hesitate to contact me. Here is the link to my website. cherylarbo.closetomyheart.com  Enjoy!

Happy scrappin and card making!

Cheryl

Day Nine of my "31 Days of Halloween"

Close To My Heart really knocked our current September/October mini catalog out of the park with all of the numerous adorable Halloween stamps along with our Pumpkin Spice paper packet. There also are several really cute Christmas stamp sets to go along with the Christmas "Holly & Ivy" paper collection that we will be using in class this month. 

Day nine of my "31 Days of Halloween". This was the most time involved treat I have made so far. Not because the boxes were cut and assembled by hand, it was because all of the images were stamped and colored by hand. I thought they turned out really cute and worth the time it took to make them. Of course the kids will just rip the boxes open to see what is inside, but that is okay too. Jameson, my five year old Grandson loves sitting with me at the table making cards for his Mom's and friends. So if just one other child discovers they would love to do the same, it is so worth the effort. Inside each treat box is a yummy orange Hostess Snow-ball.... one of my most favorite cakes. Enjoy!

I am a Close To My Heart Maker. If I can be of service to you, please contact me to let me know. Here is a link for my website.

Happy scrappin and card making!

Cheryl

 

Day Seven of my "31 Days of Halloween"

Today is day seven of my "31 Days of Halloween". For my day six I bought some cute Halloween snack bags from the Dollar Tree and filled them each with a packet of hand sanitizer, chips, and a toy. I totally forgot to take a pic of the bag. I will have to ask the girls at the end of the week what the kids at school are thinking about these treats. I remember being tickled in second grade receiving one stick of gum in my final report card from my teacher. It was a huge deal for me. Hoping the kids enjoy receiving them. Honestly I will probably have more fun making them and excitement thinking about them receiving them than the kids actually will. 

For my treat today I made a cute Monster treat box from a video I found on YouTube. I ordered the Rice Krispies "Trick or Treat" mini squares from my local Walmart online. They were around $9.00 for a box of sixty. Three fit in each box. The cost per child was around $.45 each. Sadly, I am sure the belly bands will get torn off by the kids. Wishing I had used velcro clasps on them instead. Oh well.... I will remember this when I make other treat boxes. I used our Close To My Heart retired Jeepers Creepers collection of papers, stamps, and coordinating dies. I am trying to use as much of my retired paper collections as I can. I am loving these projects to help me with this. Enjoy! 

I am a Close To My Heart Maker. If I can be of service to you please contact me. Here is a link for my website. cherylarbo.closetomyheart.com

Happy Scrappin!

Cheryl

A 2013 Card Challenge

I made this cute card to participate in someone's card challenge back in 2013. The only way I can remember it was a card challenge was because it came up in my Facebook Memories online today. This is an old, retired Close To My Heart stamp. It is another one that if you are fortunate to have in your stash, it is a keeper. I had made a note at the time back then on why I made the card. This shows how important journaling is. I am a huge journalist. I believe journaling sometimes is more important than a picture. I do not remember who's challenge it was. Maybe it was a local challenge here in Fort Worth since I was living here back then or if it was an online challenge. Either way, this was my first attempt at sponging a background image and I totally loved and enjoyed doing it. I have made a few cards using this inking method  over the years. I need to do more. It is very relaxing and fun to do. Sponging a background has a big impact on a card. Someone may think it is difficult or too much trouble, but it is a very simple and easy technique that has a huge "wow" impact on a card. Enjoy!

I am a Close To My Heart Maker/Consultant. If I can be of service to you or if you would like to attend my local monthly card classes in Fort Worth, please don't hesitate to reach out to me. cherylarbo.closetomyheart.com

Happy scrappin and card making!

Cheryl

Cats and Bats Card

I was looking at my Facebook Memories tonight and this cute card I created back in 2017 came up. I loved using our Cats and Bats collection of papers, stamps, and dies. 

Happy Scrappin! 

Cheryl

Maryland to Texas

I have a sweet friend Pat that lives in Maryland. We met on Facebook and quickly became great friends. A few months back she emailed me saying she was coming to Fort Worth for a Team Meeting with some mutual Stampin Up Demonstrators. Well, she cannot come to Fort Worth without meeting me!! So we made plans and counted the days down.

I live and breath making cards, but lately I have been on a kick making these cute handmade gift bags. I had already made her a pretty floral one all set to go with a cute friends tag on it. Well, the morning of our getting together, I looked at the friend stamp and wished I had a cute Texas stamp to use instead. Then I remembered Close To My Heart had given an adorable stamp set to everyone that attended the Texas Convention three or four years ago and I had one sitting in a drawer! From there I got thinking about using some kind of map instead of a floral paper. So I searched thru my travel 12" x 12" papers and found a piece of paper from a Little Yellow Bicycle "Pack Your Bags" collection that had a map of the USA on it. I lucked up and had two pieces of it!!! Within an hour or so I remade her bag and was hoping she preferred this one over the floral print. We had a fantastic time talking and laughing in her hotel room. I actually hated to leave for dinner a few hours later, as I knew I would be going back home afterwards.

Here is the stamp set I used and the bag I made......Don't you just love this stamp set!!! One of the pics is blurry....darn it! But I did not have time to retake my pics prior to my leaving for us to meet. Enjoy!

Happy Scrapping..........Cheryl

Using the long star stamp and red ink, I stamped over the Baltimore to

Fort Worth area that was her route flying. The stamp was

the perfect length for this!

I picked up this cute ribbon from The Little Blue House, 

which is a local scrapbook store here in Keller. It matched great

This is the back of the bag. Don't you LOVE the cowboy boots!!

Sorry....this is blurry :(

A full shot of the front of the bag....love it! I was excited 

to give it to her. I stopped at Hobby Lobby and 

bought a few Texas souvenirs and candy to put inside it

A close up of the front die cut and stamps used. I need to find 

more of this paper. I want to make another one! 

Library Card

Okay, I am all set for my Library class in the morning. Here is my second project we will be making. I used our Inspirations to make a simple card using the "Have A Happy Day" stamp set. Not knowing the crafting level of everyone attending, I did not want anything too confusing that might run a new scrapbooker off . Excited to see how things go tomorrow.

Happy Scrapping...........Cheryl

cherylarbo.ctmh.com

Library Class

Last month I signed up for three free computer classes at our local library. It is my 2015 goal to attempt to learn more on using my computer and quit relying on others to help me use it. While signing up I asked if there were any scrapbooking or card making classes available. She said the lady that held a class was no longer doing them. Great news to me. When I left that day, I had volunteered to start another class. My first class is this Tuesday and is free to the public. Whoever signs up to take the class will bring their own supplies. I will furnish the stamps, punches, die cuts, etc. This month is going to be a "spring" theme. We will be making two projects this month. One of the them will be this cute gift bag. I am forever needing a small gift bag for my Grands teachers. I used one of my most favorite retired paper collections from Close To My Heart for the bag. I love that our papers are double sided. Perfect for this type of project. Enjoy!

                                         Happy Scrappin!........Cheryl

I Have The Bug.....;)

Yes, I have the bug. The "Monthly Living" bug. Other's know it best by "Project Life".  Close To My Heart has their version called "Picture My Life" Either way I am loving it. I have not made my first page yet, but I will be tomorrow and I know I will totally enjoy it. I have been watching a hand full of YouTube videos this afternoon. I have found several gals to follow on Facebook and Pinterest. Up until now I have had no interest in doing this type of scrapbooking, but for some crazy reason, I am hooked. "Monthly Living" will be my personal term for my random daily, weekly, and monthly pictures and journaling. There are tons of app's for this I am discovering too. Most are not free, so I am trying to be careful on which ones I prefer and pay for.

Close To My Heart just came out with some adorable albums I will to use for this. I love the Lagoon Chevron D-ring album and the Ruby Floral D-ring Album. They also have their solid albums too, but I love these bright and cheerful albums. I am not planning on spending tons of money on this new project either. I am going to buy one of our D-ring albums, a pack of Memory Protectors, and that is it. Planning on getting a lot of mileage out of my new Explore and four Close To My Heart Cricut cartridges to give me the journaling cards, die cuts, and embellishments that I need for my pages and album. On top of that I will add some ribbons, buttons, flowers, etc from my stash. I have also learned that I can use a plain piece of White Daisy card stock cut down to 8.5" x 11" in my printer, print any image or alphabet from a cartridge in amazing colors, and let my Explore nicely cut it out for me. I have also bought a 4" x 6" photo printer for my scrapbook room to quickly print out my pictures for my pages. It is wireless too and great to take to a crop or retreat.

Okay, I am off to bed. Facebook and YouTube will wear you out looking at blogs and videos.

                                                          Happy Scrappin.....Cheryl

It's time to go "Back to School!"

Well, I finally decided to jump head first into starting back with my Close To My Heart scrapbooking class. When I lived in Alabama I held my class each week, but I am just too busy now with my Grands to even consider that. Once a month will have to be my new schedule. I had my first workshop on August 31st and had five ladies attending with an additional four kits ordered. I was tickled and excited! For my first class I used the Close To My Heart's  "Chalk It Up" collection for a "Back to School" two page layout. I know the trend is to use one to two pictures per page, but our family takes tons of pictures and I am tired of only viewing them on my computer. I created my class layout to make the most out of using a large number of pictures.

I had a hard time trying to get a good picture of both pages. I normally use Picasa for my photo editing, but it crashed while we were at the beach in June. Until I either get a new computer or figure out how the crash happened, I am stuck.

On both of my pages I used the Close To My Heart  Art Philosophy, Artbooking, and Artiste Cricut cartridges to cut the number boarder, photo corners, and my die cut images.  I also used several of our clear stamp sets; Great Job, School Years, and Reel Life. My three Exclusive inks used were Black, Lagoon, and Sorbet. I was able to get six pictures on each page. This can decrease or increase depending on number of pictures needing to be used on the layout. For someone not having as many pictures, they can use sections of the paper collection in place of a picture. I also included my Grands class information and asked her to sign her name. Without documenting this info, sadly most of it can be forgotten over the years. I also suggest to always sign and date the back of your artwork. 

If you don't have a Close To My Heart Consultant, I would love to be your consultant. Please visit my website here. 

Now to get busy and start planning my September class.

Happy Scrappin! Cheryl