Easy Home Decor Projects!

When you start with awesome coordinating products, you can put together incredible home décor projects in a really short time.   I did BOTH of these framed pieces in less than 2 hours!  The bottom one is copied from one that CTMH Consultant Amy McGrew made (I love Amy's projects).   The Designed Décor frames come in Colonial White or Black.  What's fun about these projects is that you can put your 12 x 12 design into the frame for a season, then pull it out and put in a different design for a different season.  I just use a little removable adhesive to make sure my creation stays in the frame.  You can order all of these products on my website at http://christina.ctmh.com

 

This frame was made with the Pathfinding Paper Pack, the Pathfinding Assortment and the Rosewood Mini-Medley Accent Collection. 

 

To make the Christmas frame, you'll need our black Designed Décor Frame, the Snowhaven Paper Pack, Snowhaven Complements and the Ruby Mini-Medley Accessory pack.  All of the squares are cut 3 1/2" in size.  Note that I used the Chevron Embossing Folder for the two gray squares--just gave it some fun texture.  Below you'll see close-up photos of the different squares.

 



Picture My Life meets Cards--Sooooo Many Possibilities!!

Although I love our Picture My Life Program for quick, adorable scrapbooking pages, I've come to LOVE these Programs for making cards!  As soon as I saw the Pear & Partridge PML Program, I knew I had to make me some cards!!!  Each PML Program ($24.95) comes with 120 pre-printed, double-sided cards (44 -  4x6 and 78 - 3x4), one 12 x 12 title page and ten of our Memory Protectors.  But, starting this month, you can now buy JUST THE CARD DECK (no title page and no Memory Protectors) for only $14.95.  This is PERFECT for cardmakers who only want to use them for cards or for scrapbookers who prefer to use the cards on their classic layouts rather than in the pocket pages.  Thank you, Close to My Heart, for this exciting new option!!!

On Thursday, November 20th, 6 p.m., I'm offering a PML Pear & Partridge Christmas Card Workshop.  Cost for the class is $25 if you choose the card deck only program or $35 if you want the whole Pear & Partridge program (if you also scrapbook, you may want to have the Memory Protectors and title page so that you can do some scrapbooking as well).  We will make 15 cards in the class--the cost includes the extra cardstock and embellishments we will add.  After you've made your 15 cards, you are WELCOME to stay longer and make more cards. . .after all, you've got 120 pre-printed cards that come in your PML Program.  I'll have extra cardstock and embellishments on hand for you to purchase if you'd like to make more than the 15 included in the cost. 

If you'd like to create some of these cards on your own, you can order the Pear & Partridge PML Program through my website, http://christina.ctmh.com.  You'll need extra solid cardstock to mat the cards--I used Cranberry, New England Ivy and Juniper).  For embellishments, I recommend our Gold or Red Shimmer Trim, Gold Bling Gems, Gold Sequins, Gold Polka Dot Washi Tape and Cranberry Striped Twill Ribbon.  You can easily crank out 100 cards from one of these programs. . .perfect for those of you who have a LONG Christmas card list!!

Picture My Life Programs give you a fun, easy way to display your photos.  Just slide your cards and photos into the pockets, add some journaling, and you are done!

 

Here's a photo of just a FEW of the pre-printed cards that come in the Pear & Partridge PML Program.

 

These are 15 of the cards that I cranked out using the Pear & Partridge PML Program and some coordinating cardstock.  Below you'll  see some close-ups of a few of them.

 

Simple, Affordable Christmas Gift Ideas

Every November, I host a "Great Gifty Ideas" workshop for my customers, and the goal of this workshop is to give them fun, affordable projects that they can make as gifts for the holidays.  Here's our lineup for this year's class!

 

Here's the first project I've got lined up!  It's a purse made from ONE piece of patterned paper (I used paper from our Yuletide paper pack).   This purse is large enough to hold cards. . .below you can see some cards I made to with it (NOTE:  for the Great Gifty Ideas Workshop, we'll just be doing the purse--not the cards).   I got the instructions for this purse from a YouTube video by France Martin (http://youtu.be/MT6HhvXPZTc )--so feel free to check it out!

I embellished the purse with our Gold Shimmer Trim, Gold Bling Gems and the Black Striped Twill Ribbon.  The poinsettias are cut in Cranberry Cardstock from the Artiste cartridge, p. 80.

 

 

I got this super fun idea from Consultant Amy McGrew.  Amy used our Kraft Containers (shown below), and turned them into adorable snowmen!  Because these containers are so incredibly sturdy, you can fill them with any kind of small gifts--jewelry, socks, mittens, gift cards, candy, cookies, etc.  If you're wondering about the stocking cap, it is made with a toddler-size sock.  I tied a knot in the sock and sewed a bell on to the end of  it.

 



I've seen this cute little card box idea several places on the internet, but the inspiration for this project came from Jacquelin Green--I loved her Snowhaven cards that she made to go in the box and had to make a few for myself.  The scalloped card base is on the Art Philosophy cartridge (cut them 3").   

I've made a bunch of different Hershey nugget holders over the past few years, but I like this one because it's super fast.  The bottom is just a cardstock "tray" that holds your nuggets in place.  The bags are pretzel stick bags, which you can find in the candy making section of the store (I actually found them at Walmart).  To make the tray, cut a piece of cardstock 4 1/4" x 2 1/4".  Score a line 3/8" from each side down the length of it and fold the sides up.  To cover your nuggets, cut your patterned paper 1" x 3".



So, this time of year, my purse is an absolute mess--full of receipts, etc. from my shopping trips.  To help out with that, I designed this fun, three-pocket receipt organizer.  Each section is 3 1/2" wide, so you've got plenty of room to slide your receipts down into it.  You could also use it to store/organize coupons or cash.  Below is a picture of the inside.  I used the Brushed paper pack and the "Your Own Kind of Wonderful" stamp set.  You could make these out of cute Christmas papers, but I wanted it to be something you could use all year round.

 

 

November Stamp of the Month--It's the Little Things

We have such a pretty stamp of the month for November!  I'm a sucker for floral stamp sets (even though I have a zillion of them), but what I particularly like about this set is the cursive font on the sentiments.  You can only get this stamp set in the month of November. . .get it for only $5 with a $50 purchase OR buy it for the regular retail price of $17.95.  You can order it on my website, http://christina.ctmh.com

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