Our Crazy, Busy, Wonderful Life!!

WOW! What a year 2012 has been for our family! We had two children graduate High School. One join the Marines and the other one start college. Our 16 year old son got his driver's license and Kendall started school! Needless to say we have been BUSY! With so much going on the last few months I have not taken the time to post much so while we have a little time off work I am going to try to post some of my recent artwork and a few pics of the family. We are so very blessed and can't wait to see what adventures 2013 will hold for us. We wish you all the best and hope you had a wonderful holiday season!

Clementine Layout

We will be making this wonderful layout at our club this month on August 25th at 4:00 PM at The Longhorn Cafe in Tarkington, TX. IT features the Close To My Heart paper pack, Clementine. It also features the Buttons, Bits, and Bobs and Trinity alphabet stamp set. The layout design is from the Imagine book on pg. 88-89. If you attend club, the cost of the layout is $5 to cover the cost of the supplies. If you would like to order the layout as a pre-stamped kit the cost is $7. Please let me know if you would like one, I have a limited number available. Thanks!

Mini-Album

We also made an All About Me mini-album. I decided to make mine all about Kendall! :) I still need to add the journaling but the album came together very quickly and was so easy.

Convention Cards

Here are the cards we made! I love them all! I would have never put La Belle Vie paper with Dakota paper, but I love, love, love how it turned out! So creative!

CTMH Convention 2012 Projects

Convention was such a fun, but exhausting event! We learned so much and made so many great projects in just 3 days! Needless to say, I didn't get them all finished at convention so I have been working on getting everything finished up this week. I have one last project left to complete (the scroll album), but I wanted to go ahead and post the pictures of all the other projects we made. We made a mini-album, 6 cards, 3 two-page layouts, and 1 one-page layout. HEre are the layouts and I will post the cards and mini-album shortly. Enjoy the pics and let me know if you have any questions! Thanks!

July Club Layout

We will be making this layout on July 27th at The Longhorn Cafe in Tarkington beginning at 6:00 PM. We would love to have you join us for an evening of fun and scrappin'. Please email me at jlhicks5@sbcglobal.net if you have any questions. The layout features the Superhero paper pack by Close To My Heart. Our featured colors will be Black, Cranberry, Moonstruck, and Sky. We will be using the American Celebration, Vintage USA, and Superhero Workshop Stamp Sets. The cost of each 2 page layout is $5 to cover the cost of the supplies. Happy Scrappin'!

Convention Swap Cards

Wow! I can't believe it has been so long since I last posted. I have never been the best blogger, but I can't believe that it has been over three months now. The last three months have been absolutely insane in our house. Nick and Ryan both graduated High School in May. Then a week later, Ryan left for the Marines and Nick started his classes at the Vast Academy at HCC in Houston. What a crazy, fun, wild ride these last few weeks have been. James and I are both teaching summer school. Jefferson is enjoying the time off before his junior year and Kendall can't wait to start kindergarten. Ok, now that everyone is caught up on our life, on to the good stuff! I have been making cards for the upcoming Close To My Heart Convention in Dallas, TX. This is my first convention and I beyond excited!! I have made fifty cards (10 each of 5 designs) to swap with my wonderfully, talented CTMH sisters. Here are the five cards I created. I hope that someone (well actually 50 people) is willing to swap with me! Let me know what you think and I will try to post a little more often. I actually have several layouts I need to post and some great family stuff to share!

Footloose Paper

Ok, I am seriously in LOVE with the Footloose paper pack! I spent the weekend working on a club layout for April using this paper pack. The only problem is that I just kept creating and came up with three layouts! So now our hostess has to pick which layout we will be creating at club. Here are the pics of the three layouts. The H2Oh! layout is the Visual Texture design from the Cherish Sketch Book. The Paradise layout is the Personality Presence layout from the Imagine Sketch book. The Life's A Beach layout also came from Imagine and it is the Medley design. As you can tell, I modified each design to fit the needs of the layout and paper pack. I am excited to put pictures from our Beach House stay last summer on these pages! I will post pics of the layouts once I have pictures on them and will let you know which one our hostess pics for April's club.

Cruisin' Display Board Items

These are the items I completed for our display board swap using the Cruisin' Paper Pack. This layout was so much fun to make. I think I am going to modify it slightly and use it for my club layout in June! I will post the modified version soon! As always, all products are Close To My Heart. The layout design is from the Imagine Sketch Book.

Victory Paper Pack Creations

I participated in a couple of swaps recently and I was assigned the Victory paper pack by Close To My Heart. These are the items I created for both swaps. I love, love, love this paper pack. It works perfectly for pics of our three boys!

March Club Layout

We will be creating this layout on March 23rd at 6:00 PM at the First United Methodist Church in Cleveland, TX. We would love to have you join us for an evening of food, fun, and fellowship! The layout features the new Florentine Paper Pack by Close To My Heart. The layout design is from the Imagine Sketch Book, with a little modification.

Rock the Block!

The Close To My Heart promotion for National Paper crafting Month is Rock the Block! You can get an exclusive E-size stamp set and the My Creations® Collage Cubes for just $15 with your qualifying purchase. Join the Craze! When you place a minimum order of $25 from the Autumn/Winter 2011 Idea Book, you can get two new products for just $15: the My Creations® Collage Cubes (a Spring/Summer 2012 sneak-peek product!) and the exclusive My Acrylix® Rock the Block E-size stamp set. That’s a retail savings of almost $30! You're going to love the Collage Cubes and the Rock the Block stamp set, which work together for interactive, 3-D fun.
*Offer valid December 19, 2011–January 31, 2012. Tax and shipping/handling apply. Some restrictions and exclusions apply; see your Consultant for full details. Only items available in the Autumn/Winter 2011 Idea Book count toward your qualifying purchase total.

This is a pic of the stamp set. I love it!!


Here are pictures of my completed projects using this promotion. I created the collage cubes using pictures of our family and I also created a card and a two-page layout using the exclusive stamp set. I used the CTMH Dreamin' paper pack for all of my projects.


To create the collage cubes my first step was to pic out six 4x6 pictures and coordinating papers.



Next, I inked all edges of the cubes and tray with a coordinating ink, I chose chocolate ink to go with the Dreamin' paper pack.

I then cut the paper and pictures to cover each block. I also added a few stamped images from the coordinating stamp set. Here are pictures of all six sides of the finished product.







I also decorated the tray. Here are a couple of pictures of it.



While I had out paper, ink, and stamp sets, I decided to continue on my creative roll and make a card and 2-page layout using the Rock the Block stamp set. I must say, I love this stamp set! I can see so many great ways to use each of the images!



Let me know what you think! If you are interested in ordering the Rock The Block special, please contact me at jlhicks5@sbcglobal.net or visit my website at www.ctmh.com/lhicks Thanks!!

Elemental Layout Featuring Circles (Lots of Circles!)

I love all the colors featured in the Elemental Paper Pack and I love layouts with Circles so I decided to combine the best of both worlds! This is one of my favorite layouts because it was something new and different for me. It features a pattern that I had not used before, Staccato from the Imagine How-To Book. It also features my favorite subjects, our family! These pictures were from our first day of school this year. It was Ryan and Nick's last first day of school since they are seniors this year and Kendall's first time to go to Pre-K. What an exciting and fun day! The circles were cut using the Art Philosophy Cricut Cartridge. I seriously don't know what I did before I had this cartridge. I love it!! All pieces of the layout is inked with Dessert Sand ink and we used the Trinity Alphabet and Picture Perfect stamp sets. Let me know if you have any questions! Thanks!!

Typeset Layout

I created this layout for our October Scrap Night. It features the CTMH Typeset Paper Pack. I love this paper pack and had so much fun creating this layout! The template is Dynamic Design from the Cherish How-To Book with a few personal alterations. I used the Art Philosophy Cricut Cartridge to create the border, background, pennants, small circles, ticket, and journaling tag. If you do not have this cartridge yet, it is an absolute must have item! It is like having 6 cartridges in one. Not to mention the other goodies that come with it, 3 stamp sets and 3 sheets of Dimensional Elements! It is available on my website, www.closetomyheart.com/lhicks or you can email me at jlhicks5@sbcglobal.net and I can get one ordered for you asap! All pieces of the layout were inked in black ink. I wrapped black hemp around the photo mats and used Black, Juniper, and Vineyard Berry ink on the Milepost Shapes. I used the Trinity Alphabet, Blue Ribbon, and Vintage Type stamp sets. I love the way it turned out! Let me know if you have any questions! Thanks!!

Christmas Layout

I designed this layout for our monthly scrapbook club for December. It features the Believe paper pack. The template is Hat Trick from the Magic How-To Book. I used the Printing 101 Cricut Cartridge for the title. The base pages are inked in Sweet Leaf and all other pieces are inked in White Daisy. I love the way the White Daisy ink softens the page! The stamp sets used were The Works Alphabet, Believe, Christmas Cheer, and Holiday Magic. I added a lot of Silver Glitz Gel and sparkles. They are hard to see in the picture, but they really make the page shine! I can't wait to put pics of the kids on it! If you have any questions please let me know! Thanks!!

Roxie Layout - Wild At Heart

We completed this layout at club last month. I just love the new paper packs and the Art Philosophy Cartiridge! It makes those cute flowers oh so easy!!!