To Love a Hobby...

Septemeber Layout

2011-10-05T22:17:00.000-04:00

Foxie Roxie!!!

This layout I created using the new Roxie paper. It is my absolute favorite pack!

I used the new Art Philosophy Cricuit Cartridge to make the flowers on the right lower part of page two then used a clear block to totally smash the flower. The paper butterflies have pink ink distressed on the edges and glued down on just the body so they look 3D. Stamped some flourishes throughout the layout and added some bling to top it off!

New!!!

2011-08-04T02:00:00.000-04:00

You are looking at the cover of Close To My Heart's newest catalog. If you would like one, just drop me a line either email or phone. annericbowers@gmail.com or 419-438-0336. You can also shop online. Just click on the cute little grocery cart in the right hand column and it will take you directly to my CTMH website.
One new item that I am very, VERY excited to show you is the new Cricuit Cartridge. CTMH has bundled together 3 stamps sets along with 3 dimensional elements with the new cartridge. Check it out below!

Contact me if you have any questions regarding this new product!

August Club Crop Layout

2011-08-04T01:19:00.000-04:00

For this months club crop for the Crazy Croppers, I created a layout using the Mayberry paper. I totally forgot about this beautiful paper. I was so excited to create a layout using our new paper from our newest catalog....but I guess I will just have to wait one more month.

The technique this month I am teaching chalk popping. This is one of my all time favorite techniques. The sun in the far left hand corner and the grass located at the bottom of both pages are done with chalk popping.

For those of you who do not know how to do this...you use versa mark ink with the stamp of your choice, stamp on your page, then use chalk and go over it. That's it. Simple and easy!

June Club Crop Project

2011-06-16T16:20:00.000-04:00

Here is a look at the club project for this month. It is created using Close To My Heart Miracle Paper. If you like this paper, you might want to think about getting it ordered rather quickly. Once August hits, you can no longer purchase this paper or any of the current paper from the summer 2011 catalog.

The pinwheels in this layout are very easy to make! All you have to do is have a square piece of paper, put an X on one side if it using a pencil. Cut from the corners to the center stopping a half inch away from the center. Fold every other corner to the middle and there you have it! Easy as that!

Craft Fair!!!!

2011-04-19T22:57:00.000-04:00

Hello Blog Readers! I am attending a craft fair tomorrow with my CTMH items in hopes that people like my projects. The craft fair is at Northwest State until 6 pm. If you can, come check out all the crafters. This is our second Shop for the Cure there.

Here are a ton of papercrafting items that I will be selling there....

Here are 6 Memory Stars. I took two pictures of each so you could view the star and also the bottom part that I have hanging from each of them. These stars are just $10.00 each. If any of my readers would like to purchase any of the following items from me, just drop me an email and I can get one mailed out to you.

These next two pictures are what I call Memory Boards. They are just $17.50 and everything you need to put these together are enclosed in the kit except for adhesive and any distressing ink you might want to use.

WARNING!!! Your mouth might water looking at the next few photos. HeeHee! Here are some goodies made from The Goodie Gourmet, no bake cookies and white chocolate chex mix.

The no bake cookie tins are $15.00.

The white chocolate chex mix bags are $3.50 each.

Bunches of Circles

2011-04-12T16:07:00.001-04:00

I call this necklace bunches of circles. I'm not sure if any of you have ever tried looking for olive colored beads, but they are not easy to come by. I used olive colored crystals and rings to complete this "Bunches of Circles" necklace. Then to make my own pendant I wrapped crystals around a ring.

Necklaces

2011-04-12T13:56:00.000-04:00

I have been at it again. Making more necklaces.

This first one you see is one I made for my mom. She saw this in a book and said, "I just have to have that. It is soooo beautiful". So here it is. I was able to find shell beads to match the fish focal piece but there was only one hole on one side, so I got out my handy dandy pink drill and started drilling holes. This turned out just beautifully!

Here is another one I crochet'd. The colors in this one are blues and browns.

Baby Mini Album

2011-04-12T13:04:00.000-04:00

My husband approached me and ask that I create some kind of album for one of his employees who just had a baby. I knew just exactly what I wanted to make. Remember from one of my previous posts a Tru Fit Folio Album I made. Well I did it again, but with boy colors.

Here is the front cover.

And the inside front.

Below you are looking at tabs that pull out for pictures or journaling. Whatever your creativity guides you to put on them.

And other side...

Have any questions about how I made this. Just drop me an email to annericbowers@gmail.com

....More Crochet'd Bracelets AND my first NECKLACE

2011-04-10T20:50:00.001-04:00

I have been very busy this morning. Who needs to do spring cleaning and laundry when you can be beading!!!

I have managed to make 3 bracelets and one necklace. Check these out!!!

This first one is the necklace. Isn't it beautiful. So far, this color combination is my favorite.

And here is a closeup view for you.....

The next three pictures are bracelets. The first one is a combination of paper beads and real beads.

If anyone wants to purchase any jewelry from me, I am taking orders. Just let me know what color, wrist size, and necklace length. Base price of bracelets are $25.00. Necklaces are $35.00. The reason I say base price is because of the beads. Depending on what beads you want, could raise the price of the crochet'd bracelets and necklaces.

If you would like the non-crochet'd bracelets or necklaces, bace prices are $15.00 for bracelets and $25.00 for necklaces.

My shipping charges are $3.00.

Thank you for looking at my blog and enjoy all the crafting ideas I share!!!

Crochet'd Bracelet

2011-04-06T23:28:00.000-04:00

Wowza!!! That's all I can say about this bracelet. One of my good friends, Serenity (http://www.serenitylovestoscrapbook.blogspot.com/) has taught me how to crochet with beading wire in order to make this lovely bracelet. A big THANK YOU goes out to her. Stay tuned for more of these bracelets to come. This is sooooo much fun and I just can't get enough of it.

April layout

2011-03-30T14:53:00.000-04:00

Here is a really cool layout! Can you figure out what paper I used? The colors are dutch blue, sunset, and outdoor denim. On the pencil I used taffy, grey wool, and sunset. The stamp sets: Everyday Life, Good Work, and School Rules. The technique is Beveled Photo Mat.

I handstitched the zigzag on both pages.

Here are a couple of closeups:

March Crazy Croppers Club Layout

2011-03-30T14:30:00.000-04:00

This layout I taugt the club how to puddle pad. The colors for this are: Honey, Blush, Tulip, and Pear.

Here is a close up view of the Puddle Pad technique:

I used the stamp set Love in Bloom.

February Club Layout

2011-03-30T14:17:00.000-04:00

Hello All. Here is the layout for the month of February that I created for the Crazy Croppers club. They had two options, a boyish or girlie version. I taught the technique of masking and using our new spray pens. Totally awesome!!

And now for the girlie version.......

All I did was reverse the pink polka dot paper and that gave me the boyish version as black is on the opposite side.

Jewelry Making

2011-03-14T12:12:00.000-04:00

I have been into making jewelry lately. It started first with making paper beads, and then into making the real deal. It is so addicting and fun! Here are some creations that I have made thus far.....

This is just a flat washer that I covered with CTMH paper and then topped off with Liquid Glass. It turned out really neat!

These green beads are made from paper. COOL!!!

This set my mom and I worked on. She had the idea to make the earings.

This picture doesn't really do this one justice. It is hard to see, but there are different colored beads on both the bracelet and necklace. I wanted to create something very plain and simple and this is what I came up with.

That is all I have made so far.

Sohpia Layout

2011-01-14T18:01:00.001-05:00

Gosh, I just absolutely love scrapbooking!!!!!! I can just sit in my craft room and let my creativity flow.

Here is a layout I have been working on all week.....yes, I said all week! It took me this long to get these two pages done. I did lots of cutting with my scissors and x-acto knife as you will notice on the small green butterflies.

Everything in this layout is from CTMH except for a few things, the curlies on the butterfly from the first layout and its body is used with floral wire and the green color on its wings is Scribbles 3D Paint and then added some CTMH Prisma Glitter. The wings for the butterfly is just a white paper flower from Just Blooms. I just cut two petals and used that for one wing and so on. I made the hollyhock and pear colored paper flowers and added some Stardust Glitter Glue to the tips after I distressed them with Desert Sand color. Notice the chalking effect I did behind the circle patterned paper. This technique I used VersaMark. Gotta love that stuff!!!

The paper I used is called Sophia which you can find in the new catalog which starts February 1st.

Please, let me know what you think! I love hearing comments!

and some close ups......

And Page Two:

And some close ups for you of the second page.....

January Wings Layout

2011-01-11T12:19:00.001-05:00

CTMH has some very beautiful new paper. For example: A new one I used in this upcoming layout is called Wings! The four colors used is Black, Juniper, Sweet Leaf, and Vineyard Berry. The flowers I made are out of cardstock and the ribbon I used is just $4.50 for 3 different colors of 12" each Black, Vineyard Berry, and Juniper.

This is the layout my Crazy Croppers Club is putting together this month. I am teaching them the Watermist technique which I did using the hearts.

40th Birthday Cake

2010-12-01T15:09:00.000-05:00

I thought I would share with everyone a cake that I just did for a customers 40th Birthday. The 10" layer is white and the 8" layer is chocolate. YUM!! YUM!!

This was my first try at making roses too. I still need lots of practice with them, that's for sure!

Thank you for looking!

2010-11-17T15:54:00.000-05:00

Check out this really neat project!!!

I was recently approached by a close friend of mine and was asked to create a Christmas present for her mom. Her mom needed something to keep track of family birthdays and important dates and cards. (Her mom likes to buy a bunch of cards all at once for the entire year) Well.........after just 5 days, this is what I came up with.

This is the front of what I call THE CARD KEEPER. Catchy name huh?

My friend requested that I include a gardenia flower, so I purchase this one at Hobby Lobby for $4.00, kind of pricey, but with gardenia's being a wedding flower, they are hard to find this time of year. This was a hair clip and I just removed the clips from the back and glued it on the front.

Overall, the supplies cost me $26.65 to make this card keeper.

This book is what you see when you first open THE CARD KEEPER. I made this log book to be able to keep track of birthdates and all other special dates (anniversaries, etc.) that need to be remembered. It has 12 dividers and each section has 5 pieces of lined notebook paper. I took it to Office Max and had it binded for $3.20 and self laminated tabs at the top for each month.

This is the back half of the book. It is an accordian style folder. It has 6 sections that I have labeled: HAPPY BIRTHDAY, HAPPY ANNIVERSARY, THANK YOU, FEEL BETTER SOON, THINKING OF YOU, AND HEARTFELT that way it can hold all different kinds of cards.

This is a view of the back side of THE CARD KEEPER. The white band is a headband and the closure is a button with a brad through the middle.

Here are the sections inside the accordian folder.

What you see here is the book that I made to log the dates in. It is REMOVABLE!!! How cool right? that way you can take it out of the book and to the store with you when you have to go shopping for your cards (unless you make them of course).

So there you have it! THE CARD KEEPER!!!

I LOVE comments. Please let me know what you think!

October Club Crop Layout

2010-10-05T10:04:00.001-04:00

Wow! It has just been way too long since I have posted anything on my blog. So sorry to my followers out there!

Here is something I have created for my Crazy Croppers Scrapbook Club crop that is coming up on October 16th. My hostess this month chose the Magnifique paper for me to create a layout with. For the scrolls I used the Circle of Love stamp and the Variegated Stamping technique.

Here is page one:

and page two:

June Crop Project at Kathy's on June 19th

2010-06-12T15:54:00.000-04:00

Hello All! I just made this layout for all the guests to do at Kathy's crop for next Saturday, the 19th. It uses the Zippidee paper and a couple of stamp sets, Cherish the Moment which is the stamp of the month for May and A Little Everything stamp set. A technique called Antiquing is done on the word "HAPPY". I hope to see all of you at Kathy's so you can do this wonderful layout!

Now, here are some close up pics!

These two images below were stamped onto colonial white cardstock using desert sand and cranberry ink pads and then cut out.

Here is the Antiquing technique.

May Crazy Croppers Club Project

2010-05-22T22:43:00.000-04:00

For this months club project I created a two-page layout using the new Cherry-O paper from CTMH. This layout teaches the club members how to do paper layering with stitching. The colors used in this layout are chocolate, Crystal Blue, Sweet Leaf, Tulip, and Blush. I used the cricut to cut out cherries. I also used the new Cherry-O Opaques which are only $4.95. These are on the small crystal blue pieces, the flowers.

Above is page one and below is page two.

Mother's Day Card

2010-05-11T14:26:00.000-04:00

Happy Mother's Day to all mom's out there.

Here is the card I made for my mom.

It is a clear card from Close To My Heart. I punched holes on the left side of it with my Big Bite then weaved ribbon through that and then put flower buttons on. Then I did paper quilling to make the rose and the stem.

True Fit Folio Album

2010-05-11T14:20:00.000-04:00

Here is an album made from CTMH's True Fit Folios. I made this as a baby shower gift for my son's 4th grade school teacher.

This first page on the left, I made some glimmer mist and sprayed a white piece of cardstock, then stamped it with the flower and the scroll then added some jewels.

Each section has a tab at the top to pull which then pulls out a hidden piece of cardstock so the new mommy to be can write down any notes she wants to remember.

This is the back side of the album. One could certainly put more pictures and embellies on this side too!

I had so much fun creating this album as I don't have any girls. Any chance I get to make something girlie, you bet I'm all over that. =-)

Miracle Layout

2010-04-20T15:30:00.000-04:00

Check this out! Isn't this just one of the cutest papers you have seen? I sewed around the edges, distressed and inked them as well. The scrolls are from the CTMH dimensional elements and the butterflies came in the Miracle Kit. The paper to the left of the picture, the brown with words on it . . I created from using the stamp set Floral Elements and inked the edges of it after I tore the paper. This was my first attempt at making a more difficult layout and I don't think it turned out too shabby if I do say so myself. There are close up pics also.

On the scrolls, I sprayed them with CTMH glimmer mist.

Spring Widewater Scrapbook Retreat

2010-04-18T18:41:00.000-04:00

Hello All. We just had our Spring Scrapbook Retreat at Widewater on April 9th, 10th, and 11th. One of the projects everyone made was a magnetic board. I totally sold out of them. This was just a pizza pan purchased at Walmart for $3.97 and then cardstock and patterned paper. I bought magnets from Lowe's that were already sticky on the back and then everyone created what they wanted over the magnet. Very fun and very easy to do. Check out some pics below. The first one, was my demo board.

and last but not least, I bet you can't guess whose magnetic board this was . . . .

yes, Denise's. the leather jacket, helmet, and boot is her magnet.

Way to go girls! See you all at the next crop in November!

Spring Wreath

2010-03-11T21:04:00.001-05:00

Spring is in the air!!! Can you smell it? I sure can. Are you getting the spring cleaning fever yet? I definately am. I was at JoAnn Fabrics today, picking up a few last minute items and of course, spring silk flowers are all over the place. I LOVE making wreaths. For some reason, it comes very easily to me to make them. Not sure why, but they do. I won't say how much I spent on silk flowers, but, look at the result!!!! I made this in one hour while watching my son have wrestling practice. Not too shabby huh?! What do you think? I have it hanging on the inside of my front door so I can enjoy it.

MARCH "YOU ROCK" CLUB PROJECT

2010-03-11T15:32:00.000-05:00

Here is the two page layout I created for the Crazy Croppers Scrapbook Club for the month of March. It is done with the "You Rock" paper from Close To My Heart. The falling star cluster I created on my own and didn't lift from anywhere. Putting the glitter on it, happened by accident actually. I used my Xyron to get the adhesive on and put the stars in there the wrong way, so I added prisma glitter to that and then put it back through my Xyron the right way this time. The glitter actually looks pretty cool on there I think. It brings out each color of the star.

Great Teachers Gift

2010-03-09T11:29:00.000-05:00

Wow! It has been such a long time since I have posted anything on my blog. To all of my viewers out there, I am totally sorry about that. I have been one very busy person!

I wanted to give you all a peek at this really cool teacher gift idea I made for my son's teacher. As you notice, I did it in Ohio State Buckeye Colors as she is a huge Buckeye fan.

This is a post it note holder. I used a 4 x 6 clear picture frame purchased at Walmart for $1.00. Bought the sticky notes at Office Max. That was the most expensive thing. They are $7.00 for a huge pack of them. It is so hard to find white nowadays. I created the design and stuck it inside the frame and put the sticky notes on the outside and BAM!!! A cute little sticky note holder.

2009-05-18T12:41:00.000-04:00

My sister and I were busy over the weekend working on cards. We wanted to make 10 cards from one Close To My Heart stamp set. We ran out of time even staying up until 2 am and managed to get 7 cards done. Here is what we came up with.

She used the Out West stamp set and this is what she came up with . . . .

Liquid glass was used on the pattern paper on the dots to make it "POP". Very cute!!!

Prisma glitter was used on the boots to make 'em sparkle!

On this card, she random stamped the lower part of the paper under the fuzzy ribbon.

And here is a waterfall card . . .

We had such a good time making all of these.

And here is what I came up with . . . using the Tickled Pink Stamp Set.

. . . and a side view so you can see the 3D effect of the flower on the front

This one is just a single piece of cardstock with an insert for the info to go on. You would pull on the green ribbon to take out the insert.

I have to say that this card is my favorite. It took a little time cutting out the flower like this, but it sure was worth it. . . the only bad thing about this card . . . . . you can't put it in an envelope.

Here is another view so you can see the flower a little better.

On this one, I random stamped the flower on the white paper.

This card is a 2 fold. It folds up and then down. Very cute.

And lastly, a cute little girlie one!

Recipe Book

2009-05-04T09:25:00.000-04:00

Here is my recipe book I am working on. I am putting just my favorites in there that I use all the time. I used the new 3 ring binder from Close To My Heart. In the title, which you can't see very well, I have the words "My Favorite" in gray above the word "Recipes" I have been seeing so many neat ideas with beads so I thought I would try it. I think it turned out pretty good. I used Silhouette paper from Close To My Heart also. Here are 4 recipes I have scrapped so far.

The 3-ring binder I used does have 5 dividers that came with it. But of course, you could make more of them and use the ones it came with as a template. :) And get this, the price is just $5.95. How cool is that. The size of this is 5 1/2" x 8 1/2". There is also another neat thing that I found for recipes on orientaltrading.com that would work great. The item number is IN-65/90118. It is $7.99 and 20 double sided recipe cards come with it and has 12 tabs. Very neat!!!

Peg Board Project

2009-04-29T08:41:00.001-04:00

Here is a great idea for you ladies!

I have been noticing a lot of scrappers with those spice containers attached to a metal strip on their wall, so I went out and purchased some of those spice containers that were magentic. I was originally going to put them on a pizza pan and hang that on my wall, but that just didn't cut it. I didn't like the looks of it. I then remembered that I had a large 3' x 2' peg board taking up space in my attic. So . . . . that was it!!! That is what I put my spice containers on. I bought some galvanized metal from Menard's for $5.47 and cut some strips of it and used wood glue to put it on my peg board. I also bought 4 cork board squares for $6.00, covered 2 of them in fabric, put ribbon around it to hold pictures, placed them between the metal sheets and glued that down with the wood glue. Then, there you have it! How awesome! I think I still need to add a little more things to my peg board. Any ideas you can give me?

Kite Fun

2009-04-29T08:24:00.000-04:00

Here are a few pictures of my oldest and youngest son flying their kite this past weekend. My middle son isn't here as he was a little frustrated that his kite wouldn't stay up in the air. I wasn't able to capture his lovely grouchy face before he put his kite away for the day. What a fun day we had though. The weather was finally nice and Gavin, my youngest, just had a blast. This was his first time flying a kite. All three of my kids were given kites for Easter and they just couldn't wait to get them out. Stefan, my oldest, was doing really well flying his kite all by himself, although, every time he tried to run to keep it up, he ran into the trees, that wasn't so fun. How precious it was to watch them flying their kites !!!!!

Tickled Pink Layout

2009-04-29T08:13:00.000-04:00

Check this out everyone! These two pages, I just made last night. I used the Tickled Pink paper by Close To My Heart. Since I have 3 boys, I tried to bring out the green in the paper rather than the pink.

Birthdays Calendar

2009-04-22T08:01:00.000-04:00

Here is my version of a calendar I made at the last crop I was at. I can't take full credit for it as the idea was in the CTMH Summer Idea Book on page 82.

Oh, and by the way . . . My grocery caddy took 2nd place in the March CTMH contest and earned me $50.00 in free product. So see, all you CTMH Consultants out there, it can be done. Don't get discouraged. :-)

2009-04-03T10:23:00.000-04:00

Here is my latest invention . . . . A Grocery Caddy

I was so tired of writing down my grocery list on notebook paper and then losing it or even forgetting to take it to the grocery store. I also have a problem with cutting out coupons and then forgetting to take them to the grocery store. And, when I do remember to take them to the store, half the time I forget to give them to the checkout lady. How many of you out there can relate to that? So, I invented this Grocery Caddy. It not only contains my grocery list, but my menu for two weeks, AND holds all of my coupons. It cost me around $32.00 to make.

There are 15 tabs on the side:

Deli & Fresh Produce

Meats

Frozen

Snacks

Beverages

Breakfast

Canned Foods

Ethnic Foods

Condiments

Baking

Dairy

Plastics

Cleaning Products

Toiletries/Bath & Body

Miscellaneous

The first page of the caddy is my menu page with Monday through Sunday wrote on it two times (enough for 2 weeks) with lines following each day.

In each section I have a typed up list of the staples (for those of you who aren't cook or bake savvy, that word means the items you have to have on hand all the time) and the usual items I constantly get at the grocery store with a box beside it so I can check mark it if I need that item. Then, on the bottom part of the page, there are more lines to write in other items not on my ready-made list. Now . . . . I have to give my husband lots of credit for this next part. He came up with the idea to put wet erase transparency pages on top of my staples list so I can mark on that. HOW COOL is that??!!! This book will last forever, okay, well, at least until it the wear and tear sets in.

Right after this ready-made list of my staples, are my coupon pockets. The flap opens to the side so that the coupons won't fall out.

The paper products used for this entire caddy is That's Amore by Close To My Heart. I laminated the tabs and the front and back cover. I took the caddy to Office Max to have binded for just $3.50. Go Office Max. You gotta love office stores. Some day, I will invest in a Zutter so I can bind it myself. The wet erase transparencies I bought at Office Max too for $26.99 for 100 sheets. I have since made 2 other books and then sold some transparency sheets to my sisters so they could make their own Grocery Caddy too! The size of my caddy is 6 x 9.

I would love to hear your comments about my Grocery Caddy!

Hi Jess! I just read your comment. I will surely make you one. Let me know what colors you would like in it. I also will email you the "staples list" that I have put together so you can send me back an email of the changes you want made to it. The cost to have me make it is $40.00 not including the shipping. Drop me an email if you are still interested. aebowers@embarqmail.com

Also, if there is anyone else who would like a grocery caddy, please feel free to email me and let me know. I would be glad to make more! They are so much fun to do.