CHERRY-O CLUB Layout

LOVE MY CLUBS- I know I say that all the time but its the BEST way to scrapbook in my opinion!!! Also a FUN Girls night out!!!!! Each month Close To My Heart offers a brand new 'workshop on the go.' It includes a paper packet (22 pieces of beautiful paper) an accessory that matches perfect (this one is the tulip colored metal / ribbon you see below), and a STAMP set!!! Cant beat it - for $30.00! We complete two pages that are detailed and elaborately embellished! To attend an open Workshop or order by mail - drop me an email! Have the most fun and organize your own club! Grab some friends and earn free stuff! Email me for details!

Club Life Preservers!

Club life preservers always have a great time!! I love to see what these girls come up with. A couple of them almost always switch the papers or try something different! Always looks great! Kelly and Becca have some great looking "Caboodle pages there!" Check out their sweet little girls on Easter! Shawn, Joanna, Shannon, and Teneal! Again - everyone is very cooperative when you say "SMILE!" heehee Melinda we missed you this day!!! :-)

See you all this weekend! Good luck tomorrow Teneal- keep us posted on Baby Gavin!

Club Superstars!

Club Superstar girls are so much fun! I love getting together for these nights- its like Girls night out! Terri, Carol, and Tonya! This is what you get when you hold up a camera and say "SMILE!" Emily & Sherrie with their 'you rock' pages!

Tanda and Miss Alana! I'll tell you what- Dont let Alana's age fool you- she can keep up and run circles around me! She's a great scrapbooker!

YOU ROCK!

See you all next Thursday night!

Summer Birthdays are great!

Check out this cool card by Kelly Mullins!!! I love these colors! She's used white daisy on cocoa (looks like cocoa) paper and it looks so cool.. When I stamp sometimes I forget I can do this with our pigment based ink pads. They are more 'paint-like' so you can stamp on any dark cardstock- EVEN black! THANKS FOR SHARING KELLY! Also - Happy Birthday to whoever is getting this card! (hope they arent watching!) lol

JACKPOT- I HIT IT!!! YAY!!!

okay -so I am usually 'that' person who says ' I never win anything.' Well not the other day! I was so tickled that the paper I bought was the one selected for the free 'extra.' I LOVED this paper back when it was new in October 08.. wow! been a while... Perfect Day paper was the cover of the Fall/Winter 08 idea book when I first started with CTMH and I have used it off and on ever since. I would probably say its my favorite of any so when I saw that it was on sale and cheap shipping - I snatched one up and Whalah! Got me a free acrylic album to go with it- I think I just might decorate it with Perfect Day papers! ;-) Paid $12.06 TOTAL and got $27.90 (not even including tx and SH!) BE SURE TO CHECK IT OUT EVERY DAY AND TAKE A CHANCE!

Grape Salad Anyone???

So summer is definitely in FULL swing now! This has become one of my 'potluck' staples for summer gatherings since I was introduced to it about 2 years ago (maybe last year- cant remember - anyway) THANK YOU JOANNA WILLIAMS- because it is so easy and CHEAP to make a BIG ol' pyrex dish full. I apologize for the picture below- My husband made it to the fridge before my camera did! :-) here's the before pic - before the granola topping - see recipe below!

Cream cheese and powdered sugar... MIX WELL... I used 2- 8 oz packages of cream cheese and 2 cups powdered sugar. Fold in a large cool whip - or two small.. add as many grapes as you want -for this recipe I always try to find a BIG bag of small red seedless grapes. SEEDLESS is important here as you do NOT slice the grapes- unless you want to.

OKAY- NOW TOPPING.... Mix 2 cups oats and 1 - 1 1/2 cups of brown sugar. You can add chopped pecans too - which is GREAT - except I have a lil one with a nut allergy so we leave that stuff out... Add melted butter and sprinkle over top and REFRIGERATE! Popping it into the fridge 30 mins to an hour before serving really makes a difference -it seems to 'set' a little.

Baby BLUE!

Jackie, Teneal, and Mallory will be welcoming Mr Gavin any day now! (we hope this week right Teneal?!) Cant wait to meet this little guy! He's very lucky to be blessed with such a sweet family who are just going to love him to pieces! I even have faith in Hannah! ;-)

This is one of my favorite pages to do because of all the detail in the lettering on top! Take plain white chipboard and sponge it whatever color you want. use a Qtip or small paint brush to coat it with the pearl paint to give it a shimmering look!

Its almost here!

SOOOOOOOOOOOO-its been a crazy busy week for me and I have NOT got to create much so I thought I'd pull out an 'oldy but goody' today! Below is last years Father's Day card! (WOW- have I been bloggin' that long!) I have to really try hard to 'boy up' some of our papers (unless its for a toddler!) so I went with Moon Doggie last year! This card was originally created by Tina Sutton and is VERY simple to make!!! Email me for direction on how you can recreate this pattern! SO cute! All you will need is two patterned papers, two solid cardstock papers, and one base paper. AND STAMPS OF COURSE! ;-) Dont forget how easy it is to personalize the envelope!! or make your own with a template..

I hope you all have a FANTASTIC weekend!

Coffee and Dessert..............

I LOVE SCRAPBOOK QUIPS AND QUOTES! ....and cheesecake!

Jackpot June! Hit or Miss?

Make sure and visit my website everyday during the month of June to look for some AWESOME deals for the Jackpot June Special that starts today and goes through the end of the month! Just go to http://www.TONYAMCCRARY.myctmh.com/ and have a chance at buying current or recently retired products at a discount and a chance to win big by hitting the Jackpot and getting products for FREE! On other days their will be goodie boxes available with up to a 50% discount! Sooo happy to see these goody boxes back!!

Memorial Day fun!

To honor those fallen in war I made red white and blueberry pancakes.. All joking aside... I did some reading about memorial day and it started to actually to remember those fallen in the Civil War and then they changed it to honor ALL fallen soldiers. Its super impressive that our country stops one day a year to reflect on why we have our freedom! NEVER leave them out of your prayers! I do not come from a military family BUT I am aware of the intense seriousness that comes with this territory. These families are to be highly respected for the sacrifices they make every day. So b/c of each and every one of them I was able to enjoy this beautiful weekend with my family.

More Memorial Day weekend FUN

Wills first drive in! Sparta Drive in- showing Shrek 3 or 4 or 9, 10, or 11! LOL I have no idea.. It was alright.. Kinda scary for lil ones! Rumple Stilskein (sp?) drives a hard bargain. :-) We ran into this sweet lil friend of Will's and her mommy and daddy! Check out this beauty! Blonde hair blue eyed sweetheart!

these are my nephews chillin in the back of their van watching the Show! It was also their first drive in! They loved it!

Here's my monster! he done pretty well. Considering i was afraid we'd only make it 10 minutes and he made it the WHOLE show well I'll say he done really GREAT! :-) he's only 2!

Graduation Season

VERY proud of 'my' two graduates this year- My nephews are moving on up!!! Congrats boys!

Out of gift wrap?

If you run out of gift wrapping paper just go pull some pretty scrapbook paper! I have used it numerous times! A 12 x 12 piece of paper wraps a DVD PERFECTLY! So just remember if you have something around that size you can use 1 piece! I have used several pieces to wrap larger gifts.. Just tape edges together and cut excess. My favorite wayto do this if I have time is to use plain white or colonial white CS and stamp whatever image and colors you wanted! VERY easy to personalize this way. I did this a lot at Christmas time! I even stamped their names on the paper instead of using tags! And then just tie them up with a big ol fluffy ribbon or a big bow! Sorry this picture is so small.. hmmm.. anyway- you get the point! :-)

Graduation time is here!

Lots of graduations have already occurred! But just in case you need some ideas for graduations Here is a couple of cute ideas... Handmade cards!

Make them a set of thank you cards for all the gifts they'll be receiving...

Write them a little note and tell them how proud you are of them! Tell them to aspire to be something they will be proud of!

Ideas: gas cards, (especially if college is a commute), home decor for a new dorm or apartment, a personalized stamp for a new address, a cool laptop case or briefcase, funny college quotes or poems, favorite recipes from home that maybe they can recreate themselves, a photo album of pictures from their home or hometown for them to take off to college, a letter they can read for when they miss home, and of course the #1 gift for highschool graduates, = CASH. :-) Congratulations to a sweet NEPHEW on graduating KINDERGARTEN. :-) Proud of you Carter Lee!

Creating just a bit!

Love to make stationary!! I was playing around with some new textured paper and thought I'd make up some note cards for my sis! Remember - Keep your cards simple!!! Don't forget to stamp your envelopes too!! Love personalized note cards!

Workshop on the GO!

Close to my heart packages up these AWESOME 'kits' for our workshops! Saves you money and makes its super easy to purchase everything you need for coordinating layouts. Each kit includes a level 2 paper packet (22 pieces of CUTE paper), includes accessories to match the patterns, a fully guided full color instruction brochure for a layout and cards... OH - and the STAMP!!! Yikes!! look how cute this stamp is!! All for $29.99!

These are a lil extra that you can get to match the cherry-o paper... Love all teh new products in this New Catalog!!! :-)

Steal of a Deal

LOVE LOVE LOVE the level 1 paper packets Close to My Heart offers. This one in particular is so 'sweet!' If it's hard to find time to make your pages- this is for you! Create 4 beautiful pages with leftover paper and stickers to spare! Just add your photos and Wah-lah! Add some brads and a little ribbon and it makes the level 1's look like advanced pages! Try it - you will love it! I will be having this workshop in a few weeks. $20.00 includes EVERYTHING you need to complete these exact pages. (paper packet- stickers- an ink pad (cocoa), and enough ribbon and brads to complete them.) Date to be announced SOON- stay tuned.. Let me know if you are interested! These level 1 workshops usually only take us about 1 1/2 hours!! If you bring your photos then you will leave with 4 perfect pages- ready to stick in your album!

In case you've ever wondered.............

what happens when you place an order??? The man in brown brings me these magical boxes and I get sooo excited! :-) This happens to be a large order from a couple weeks back... Its so much fun to sort through- bag it all up and hand them out to you guys! :-) THANKS so much for your business!!!!!!!!!!

EXPLOSION boxes some more.................

If you havent made any of thes yet.... WHY NOT? They are sooo much fun to make!! These are made by Melinda Ayers.. Melinda is a great friend of mine and is in a monthly workshop club! These boxes are soooo cute! If you would like some instructions, just drop me a line... After you make one its easy peasy!

Check out her sweet BABY boy... Ethan is so cute and funny! Thank you Melinda for sharing!!