Clearly the Best: Random Stamping

Getting Organized to Move

We are moving. I'm not sure when; I'm not 100% sure exactly where. But, we are moving and we are moving across the country. It's a huge undertaking to move a household as large as ours. Even though we only have three kids left at home now, we moved to the house we currently live in as a family of seven, since five of our eight kids lived with us then.  But, even then, we downsized from a 3,600 square foot house (including a refinished attic which served as a home office) to a 2,500 square foot house with the belongings of a family of 10 since none of our adult kids who had moved out had taken any furniture or major belongings.

So, last night I decided to organize our move. The house is already half-way packed up; we are not quite down to the bare essentials, but we are pared down quite a bit. I'm excited about being in our new place; I am not excited about the actual move.  But, we have truck drivers lined up and ready to go, just waiting for us to give them the word.

I found some wonderful, very organizational printables from the Gifts We Use Blog by Ferly Tangonan to help create a moving notebook and plan to use it as a Family Moving Manual to keep everyone, including myself, organized through this move.

Ferly has some great printables for all kinds of organization!

Being creative and practical can work together! 

My moving planner pages are decorative, but the notebook, itself, is plain.

Happy Organizing!

~Tricia

Clearly the Best: Passion for Patterns

A Giveaway - Don't Miss Out!

Elle's Studio is having a fabulous giveaway - and you get several chances to enter!

From Elle's Studio:

Elle’s Studio is giving away a bunch of goodies from their Sweet Life collection and everyday tag line – some of Kelly’s favorites! You’ll be able to find plenty of uses for their tags – besides layouts, they are perfect for mini albums, cards, Project Life and more. And, just in time for the holidays, they now have gift certificates available!

Plus, all of our Signature Series readers are invited to Celebrate December with Elle’s Studio! The month of December will be packed with Holiday Inspiration, projects, layouts, and gift ideas from many talented designers. Be sure to check theElle’s Studio blog EVERY DAY for prizes, giveaways, and inspiration! And speaking of inspiration, here’s some from Kelly herself – featuring some of Elle’s Studio’s super cute ‘Sweet Life’ cut-outs!

Have fun!
~Tricia

Monogram Stamps—A Personal Touch

The Right Tools Make All the Difference

Using Up Paper Packs!

I'm busy making some Christmas gifts and some of those gifts are sets of handmade cards. I pulled out a couple of older paper packs which still had paper left and whipped up a set of cards this past weekend. Enjoy!  I'll likely make a little folder to keep them in and even add a few more cards, but this is a start. I used  a retired paper pack called Elegant Bouquet for this set of cards. I will have paper left, too, which speaks to the amount of paper Close To My Heart's paper packs hold!

Enjoy!

Thanks for looking!

Tricia

Project Inspiration 2012 Autumn/Winter Idea Book: Holiday Ornaments

Clearly the Best: The Magic of Monograms (S01E09)

Memory Folders = FUN!!!

This week, I saw a video with Heidi Swapp making a memory folder she called Memory File Scrapbook Pages and I loved the idea so much that I decided to make my own version. These are so cute, fun and easy to make that I'm going to make some in different sizes. Check out my project, step by step:

I started with a Close To My Heart True Fit Folio file folder:

I cut along the outside line to make one side of the folder shorter than the other, just to create visual interest.

These came in white, so I added some color with my Creme Brulee stamp pad:

In the interest of using up some leftover supplies I have on hand, I used an older paper pack called Felicity, cut the papers into various sizes to form a booklet, and stitched them together with twine to secure:

I then made a border piece to put along the folder flap, added the creme brulee color to the rest of the folder, and made various embellishments with paper to scatter and add interest to the project.  Take a look at the rest of the pics to see what I've done:

This last pic is a different color because I took it in the dining room. All the other pics were taken in my studio. (Guess which room has the better lighting!!)

Anyway, I will add pictures and more embellishments when I figure out which pictures to use. In the meantime, I have to say, it was fun and easy to make and is a great use of leftover paper packs!

Enjoy!

~Tricia

Card makers rejoice!

Clearly the Best: Coordinate With Cricut® Cuts

Get Organized!

Terrific Two Tones!

Clearly the Best: Spanning the Space

Adding Color to Your Crafts

Clearly the Best: The Swipe Hype (S01E02)

Easy Party Planning with Cricut®

Clearly The Best!

Clearly the Best strikes again!

Art Attack!

Cricut® Artiste Easy Instruction

Project Inspiration 2012 Autumn/Winter Idea Book: Harvest Banner

Love Your Layout: August 2012

Close To My Heart Artiste Cricut Bundle Overview!!!

Project Inspiration 2012 Autumn/Winter Idea Book: Stepping Up Your Stamping

An Afternoon with My Cricut!

What a fun time I had today with my Cricut, My Close To My Heart Art Philosophy Cricut cartridge and a few paper clips!

I started with the Art Philosophy Cartridge and my Cricut Expressions......

 Using a variety of different card stock colors, I cut summery shapes of flowers, butterflies, dragonflies and birds and mounted each one to the lights with a paper clip!  Fun, easy and inexpensive!  Close To My heart's great card stock is perfect for the Cricut!

The Cricut's easy auto-fill option really helped on this project. I just pressed the auto-fill option and it automatically filled my 12 x 12 card stock with the right-sized images!

I know the lights are a little bright in these pics, but I hope you can see the effect of "summer" flitting around in my breezeway!  Happy Summer!

~Tricia

My Creative Studio

I've never shared pictures of my creative studio so I decided it was about time I did!  I think it's messy, but I like it that way.  I know where everything is!  Enjoy and thanks for looking!

This is an overview from the entry door.

My Cricut desk.

My main desk/work area....with a project in progress!

The wall above my main desk.  I display pictures and special momentos. The large poster-like pic is a foam- mounted picture of the front of an article I wrote for a publishing house when my son was deployed to Iraq.  They used it to advertise at a book sale. It was pretty cool!  The framed poem to its left is titled, "My Hero, My Son" and I wrote it when my son came home from the war the first time.

I'm partially scrapping out of suitcases as I've not had time to fully unpack from the last crop I attended! Ah, well, what can I say???

I hope you've enjoyed this little picture view of my creative space.  Thanks for looking!

~Tricia

Love Your Layout: June 2012

Project Inspiration 2012 Spring/Summer Idea Book: Color Ready Seam Bindi...

More with Dotty For You!

I did this layout last week, finishing up over the weekend, with Dotty For You!  I love this paper pack so much that I just ordered another one!

~Tricia

Dotty For You!

The Dotty For You paper pack is absolutely fantastic!  I sat down in my studio this evening and whipped out these 6 cards in no time.  You can get the Dotty For You paper pack for only $5 or even FREE!  Click here to  find out how....and enjoy these pics of my Dotty For You artwork in the meantime!  I love the brilliant colors in this paper pack, don't you?
~Tricia

Chicago!

Chicago is such a great city!  My oldest son lives there and has become a great tour guide.  Check out my Studio J layouts of a trip we took to Chicago and enjoy the city sights!

Have you tried Studio J?

~Tricia

More From Studio J!

I created these pages from the pictures I took of my flower garden a couple years ago.  I love the fact that Studio J sizes the pictures to fit so I don't have to order specialty-sized prints!  Enjoy!
~Tricia

White on White Cards

Here are a few cards I made with Close To My Heart's White Daisy card stock, my Cuttlebug and some ribbon and accessories: