Beginning something new this year..."Project Life". If you haven't heard of it, I will post weekly (one of my New Year's resolutions) about what is entailed in the project as well as photos of what I completed for that week. From what I have read, there are different ways of completing this project. I have chosen to do mine weekly. It may be a bit confusing at the beginning, but it will hopefully become more clear as I go. Basically it's a year of scrapbooking and commitment to it, but in a fun and easy way. I will be getting my kit ready, using Close to my Heart products instead of others that I have seen sold on-line. My goal is to use my own products and a lot of what I have sitting in my scrapbook room waiting to find a home in one of my albums! I hope you will join me on my journey and start your own along with me! Happy New Year!

Whooo's Your Valentine? National Papercrafting Month: January 2013

Having Fun

Happy Thanksgiving! While my kids are all playing video games or computer games, I am also playing on the computer! There are so many great Close to my Heart videos on YouTube that I thought it was only fair that I share them here with you! Enjoy the videos that I have shared and feel free to let me know if you have any questions or need any of the awesome products you saw in the videos!

Cricut® Cards and Envelopes

Cricut Artiste Stamps and Dimensional Elements

Re-vamping with Overstamping

Don't miss this great opportunity to become a Close to my Heart consultant and join my team in the month of August!  Read the flyer for more details or contact me at
http://lauriesmith.myctmh.com.
Also, I was in awe of the Art Philosophy Cricut cartridge and didn't think it could get any better and then Close to my Heart released the Cricut Artiste in the Autumn/Winter 2012 Idea Book and I was wrong...it got a whole lot better!  Up to 700 images plus an extra book to show step-by-step instructions to  assemble the 3-D cut outs!  Cute, cute, cute!  Contact me for more information, or order yours on-line today!  Just click on the "Come Shop With Me" box to the right!

I hope you are all ready for a look at the amazing items in the new Close to my Heart Idea Book!  I unpacked my boxes from my convention bundles and a pre-order I sent in and there was no room left on my table!  Lots of exciting products, adorable and very useful stamp sets and some fascinating new home decor items!  I still don't know where to begin!  I guess I will begin by showing all of this at Mary Ann's crop on August 18th!  Contact me at thecountrycropper@gmail.com for more information!  If you do not live in the area and would like to see the new products, simply click on the "Come Shop With Me" box to the right and browse through the Idea Book on-line.  You can also order directly on the site and have the items shipped right to your doorstep!

Dallas Time Y'all!

Hey Ladies, it's Dallas time!  I am so excited!  I'm getting ready to head south for an exciting 3 days of Close to my Heart Convention in Dallas, Texas!  I will be attending general sessions with inspirational keynote speakers and will get to see the new Autumn/Winter Idea Book on Thursday!  I cannot wait!  I will also get to see new products and lots of artwork.  I also get to create while I'm there to bring back items for you to see at our crops and gatherings!  I will be taking lots of pictures, so be sure to check back sometime next week to see what all the excitement is about!  Yee-Haw!  Have a great week y'all!

I have totes full of my kids school papers, art work, and all of those special pages they colored just for me out of their favorite coloring book.  I keep saying I'm going to tackle those totes one of these days, but today is not the day.  Today, I did decide to tackle a large pile of papers in my office which included mail, newspapers and my youngest son's school papers.  I threw it all in a box and carried it into my dining room.  I was just going to sort it into piles of bills to pay, my son's papers and junk to burn.  Then a great idea came up and I gave it a try.  I grabbed some 12" x 12" papers, a cutter and a box of photo squares.  While sorting through the pile of papers, when I came to one of my son's papers that I wanted to keep, I chose a scrapbook paper to match, put photo squares on the back of his paper and stuck it down to the chosen scrapbook paper.  In less than an hour, I had sorted through all of my mail, pulled out all the coupons I wanted and had 24 pages of my son's kindergarten work ready for his scrapbook.  All I have left is a little journaling and some minor embellishments, so I don't upstage his work, and I am done!  From now on, when I clean out my son's school folder, there will be scrapbook paper, a cutter and photo squares in hand!  Why didn't I think of this when my soon to be 20 year old was in kindergarten! The first photo shows my beginning pile, the second photo shows my work in progress and the last photo shows a much more organized, colorful and smaller pile of my son's precious papers!

Bonnie's Party

We enjoyed another great day of scrapbooking and cardmaking at Bonnie's party/crop last Saturday!  We started the day out with a guest speaker giving us lots of great information on how to save lots of $$$$ using coupons.  The more I can save on groceries and daily items, the more I have to spend on my scrapbooking supplies!  

Below are just a few photos of our fun and accomplishments of the day.  

Our next crop is April 14th!

Donna's completed 2 page layout using her Lucy Hostess Kit!

Mary's completed 2 page layout using our new Cruisin' paper packet!

Jaime and Mary raiding the snack table during a needed break.

Denise watching Connie getting started on another Disney page.

The "Teeth" have made another debut at Bonnie's table!  I wonder where they ended up at the end of the night???!!