gabby sews

We went on a fun trip earlier this year to celebrate my 50th birthday. One of our destinations was Universal Studios Orlando. I am a huge Harry Potter fan and I was not disappointed! When our blog hop this month tasked us with using the Jeepers Creepers paper from Close To My Heart I knew instantly that the cute lightning bolt paper was screaming for me to use it to capture my memories from this awesome trip. I also used some of the Jeepers Creepers Compliments, Jeepers Creepers Washi Tape, and some retired epoxy bubbles (to get a similar look you can take our Clear Sparkles and color them with a black Shin-Han (or another type of alcohol) marker - make sure you let it completely dry before touching it).

I surprised myself by not using any stamping or Cricut cuts on this layout. However, I have some ideas for the rest of the paper packet and some Cricut cuts from our new cartridge Flower Market. There is a sugar skull on it that is too adorable?!? I've just got to use it!!

Thanks for stopping by and come back soon!! If you'd like to be notified whenever I post something new, just click on the follow by email button on the right hand side. I won't send you any other email other than notifications when I have a new blog post. Feel free to also check out my Facebook page at: https://www.facebook.com/gabbysews/ or my Instagram at: https://www.instagram.com/gabbysews/

Tuesday, September 13, 2016

Create Kindness Cardmaking Kit - National Stamping Month

September is National Stamping Month and Close To My Heart has a great kit available only until September 30th (or while supplies last).  The Create Kindness card kit contains all of the supplies needed to create 24 beautiful handmade cards that you can use to brighten someone’s day! The kit can be yours for only $46.95—a 15% savings off the retail value!  The kit comes with everything you need to create the cards including the stamp set, ink pad, stamping block, pre-cut circles, pre-printed card bases, and envelopes.  You even get one of our small storage boxes!  That comes out to less than $2 per card and you can use the stamp set, ink pad, stamping block, and storage box for more cards using your own card bases and paper.  Can't get a deal like that at Hallmark!!

Click here to purchase a kit for yourself:  http://reneprice.closetomyheart.com/ctmh/promotions/campaigns/1609-create-kindness.aspx

Monday, July 11, 2016

All good things must come to an end!

Good morning! Well...it's about time for a new annual idea book to be released by Close To My Heart and that means lots of items retiring to make way for new fun crafty stuff! To see a full list of what will be retiring as of July 31st check out my shop. You will notice all our ink pads on the list but don't worry not all the colors are retiring. We are getting a brand new ink pad design! It is a little big larger and features a magnetic lid - woohoo no more struggling with our lids!! Here are the colors that are retiring so if you want them, make sure you order soon since once they are gone, they are gone! I've heard rumor that some are already sold out. :-(

Gypsy
Cotton Candy
Topiary
Pear
Honey
Hollyhock
Sunset

Another special that expires on July 31st is our current recruiting campaign. I joined several years ago during one of these campaigns so that I could get a 22% discount on what I bought and this campaign is much better than when I joined!! For $75 you get so much!! You get your kit:

And you get $50 special product credit to use on purchasing what you want - ink, paper, stamps, etc. You can order from the new Idea Book that doesn't go live until August 1st and you will also get a 1-2 month preview on any future new catalogs - we have one big annual book with our fundamental items and then at least three seasonal catalogs with our fancy papers and coordinating stamps and embellishments. And you get your choice of one of our complete Fundamentals sets:

There are also other incentives along the way - called Straight To The Top. If you are interested, just let me know. I will never ever push you to sell anything but if you are interested in getting a discount on the items you buy, this is a great way to do it. To stay active all you need to do is spend $300 every quarter ($234 after your discount). Or...if you are interested in making this a business, I can certainly link you in with my upline who is absolutely fabulous in that area.

I hope everyone is having a good summer. I've spent a lot of it indoors trying to stay cool and working on paper crafting projects and lots of lovies for a project at my church. I've been posting pics on my Instagram. Follow me there for lots of visual fun!

Monday, June 27, 2016

Hippos and Giraffes!

I used Mojo Monday's sketch 454 for these cards. The paper came from The Paper Studio's So-So Sweet Mat Stack. The layers were cut using some layering basics dies from Spellbinders and an awesome cross-stitch circle die from Gina Marie Designs. The stamp set is Safari Ballet (A1180) from Close To My Heart. We have a new catalog coming out on August 1st and I'm not sure if this stamp set is being held over to the new catalog or not. I colored the images using Prismacolor colored pencils and I also used the new Spectrum Noir Clear Sparkle Pen on their little tutus and bows.

Sunday, May 1, 2016

New Catty and Awesome Promotions!!

Hi all! Today a new Close To My Heart Catalog launches (here's a link: http://reneprice.ctmh.com/ctmh/products/online-idea-book.aspx) and we have three great promotions this month too! It's National Scrapbooking Month and CTMH is celebrating!!

The first promotion is a limited paper pack called Happy Times that you can get for FREE with any qualifying purchase of $60 (or you can purchase it on it's own for $14.95). It has 14 beautiful 2-sided papers which feature florals, stripes, gold foil details, and more!

The second promotion is a gorgeous D-size stamp set to coordinate with the Happy Times paper. This stamp set features some buildable flowers, leaves, and some sweet sentiments that have so many uses for card making, scrapbooking, and creating pocket albums! This set costs $17.95 and includes 18 pieces.

The third promotion is an exciting one for me because I think CTMH has the absolute best photo albums. We carry both post bound and 3-ring binders. This month they are on sale for 25% off while supplies last. That makes each album only $26.21 each! I know you can get cheaper albums at the big box stores and I've bought those myself. However, what I've noticed about the CTMH albums is that I don't experience the cracking of the interior liners and I've opened and closed the 3-ring ones untold amounts of times and they still line up perfectly - don't you hate it when they go all cattywompus?!?!

And finally the fourth promotion is our Stamp of The Month for May, Celebrate with Cake. You can get this stamp for $5 with any $50 qualifying purchase. It's another buildable stamp specifically designed for birthdays, weddings, and anniversaries. And...my 50th birthday is coming up this month so I like to think they created this stamp set just for me!! lol It comes with 17 pieces including cake stands and layers, flowers, banners, and four sentiments.

As an added bonus if you place at least a $60 qualifying purchase, I will be emailing you instructions you can use with your free paper packet to create these six scrapbook pages or 12 cards!!

Tuesday, April 5, 2016

Organizing with Evernote

I love to use Evernote to organize all sorts of things! I have all of my Close To My Heart stamps organized in this awesome free tool. I've also started organizing my sewing patterns and I can't wait to finish that project - no more buying the same pattern two (or three) times! I can also keep notes and pictures of projects I've made using each item.

I put together a quick little tutorial covering the basics of Evernote and how I put my stamps in it. I also give you a sneak peek of my sewing pattern organization that is just in the beginning stages. I hope it helps you and if you have any questions, just leave me a comment and I'll do my best to answer.

Monday, April 4, 2016

How I Organize My Stamps

Hi! I've had some questions about how I organize all my stamp sets. I have a very small space for all my non-sewing crafting and I share the space with my husband so keeping things contained is a must. The Close To My Heart stamps (which are the majority of my collection) come in a very sturdy plastic envelope that is closed with a snap on the back. I discard the care card and stamping cushion that come in the envelope and then remove the snap. I created a video to show you how I do that:

I then store all my stamps in a CTMH Large Organizer (well...I have quite the stamp addiction so I have two organizers) numerically. I keep an Evernote database of all my stamps by keywords so all I have to do is search for a certain image and Evernote will tell me where to find it. I've been keeping my stamps like this for over a year and it's working great!

If you have any questions about my process or supplies used, just leave me a comment. You can purchase the large organizer on my website - link on the sidebar.