Things that I LOVE!

If You have made it here, it is probably because I have sent you a link and already know me, but for those who don't know me I will start by telling you a little about myself. I am happily married to my husband Rob for 9 years, but we have been together going on 13 years now. We have 2 boys, Jaylen (16) and Logan (9) We live in a small North Idaho community, and ABSOUTLY LOVE where we live! We have 10 acres, that we love to enjoy. We have 2 horses, 3 dogs, and 1 lonely cat! (We call him a DAT.) He acts more like one of our dogs. We love to enjoy the outdoors. Hiking into high lakes is one of our most favorite things to do.

I personally love to scrapbook, and for years now I have been scrapbooking, and have decided to do it as a side job. My love for scrapbooking started about 15 years ago. It has progressed over the years, but I feel it is imminent at this point, and that I have been leading up to it being a business for years. I struggled with it for so long, because I knew or still know exactly what I want but haven't found a company that would give me the freedom to scrap my own way. The first company that I was involved in I loved, (still do) but I think that the freedom to scrap in a way where we can showcase our creative side, wasn't accepted until recently, and I have too much in me as far as
creativeness to stick to one type of scrapbooking. We have a whole world of scrapbook stuff within hands reach right here from the internet, and I will always be the one who motivates you use your imagination, and put in your album whatever you choose to, not what people tell you may hurt it years from now. What is the fun in scrapin with the same ole' stuff, over and over? BORING!!! For a painter, it would be like painting the same picture over and over, just moving stuff around on the canvas. Who would enjoy looking at that picture?? And would the artist keep paining? Certainly not!!

My Goal to want to help people scrapbook, has been within me for sometime now, I just didn't know how to express myself enough to figure out the 'RIGHT' way for me. It finally came to me a couple years back when a good friend of mine was going through a very rough time with her Dad. He was dying of cancer. She spent months away from her home and family taking care of him, and didn't have time to get all his memories in books before he was too sick. That left a whole lifetime of photos, and memories that she didn't have much of a clue about. I felt bad, but didn't know what to do. I wanted so badly to go be with her, and help her get her stuff done, so she could find time to reflect on his memories, but I never did. I didn't make that time to go be with my friend, and have always felt bad about it, (although I have never told her this story.) If I had it to do over again, I would of went to help her with her Dad for a week, so she could of taken some time to get his memories organized enough to know the details of the most important things... the 4 w's in scrapin... ( who, what, when, and where...) BEFORE he was gone.

I have done a lot of thinking over the past couple years about my friend, and I have wanted to make it my mission to help people get their memories organized before that time comes. Every new day is a memory, and I know for me I want my children, and grandchildren, and great grandchildren, to know who I am, and what I stand for, and how much LOVE I have to offer!

So that leads me to my next venture. If you know of anyone that needs help with scrapbooking, or making DVD slide shows with music, or if you know of any who is interested in either buying scrapbook products, or personalized scrap-booking, please let me know. I can also help in getting your Digital photos organized, and teach you how easy digital scrap-booking is without all the traditional expensive scrapbook tools. If you are still interested in TRADITIONAL STYLE scrapbooking, I can help you get organized with that as well. Most people spend lots of money each year on cameras , then film or digital cards, then developing, only to let sit in a shoe box under their bed. WHATS THE POINT??? Right??? That's A LOT of money to just throw under your bed!!! Anyway getting organized is a really good feeling, and I can share with you what works best for me, and maybe get you on the right track.

Ok, now I will share with you what is working for me, and the products I love!!! First I love CTMH (CLOSE TO MY HEART) What I love about them is even the novice scrapper, can make pages that look like a professional made them. I love their FASTER, SIMPLER, EASIER Philosophy. This is great for your first timer, expert crafter, or somewhere in-between. There are 3 levels, 1. Simply beautiful, 2. Especially creative, and 3. Masterfully rewarding. These levels are custom fit for your experience level. I am confident that once you get started you will all be to a level 3 in no time! The Levels are different kits that you can buy, that are perfect suited for your creativeness! Even the easy level 1 kit, the pages look like pro pages. The Level one packs are $9.95 and you can do many pages with one kit. Besides the levels, CTMH is one of the leading companies for Acrylix type stamps, and I absolutely love them!! At first, I didn't think in my scrapbooking venture that I would use stamps over and over, but I have since then changed my mind. What a great way to make your pages different. I love to be different. I don't want my pages to look like everybody else's! The new acrylic stamp sets are not hinged to an old fashioned wooden block like they used to be, They now come in a package that holds anywhere from 5 - 25 or so stamps. Here is a picture of 2 of the stamp collections next to a movie, so you can compare the size to a DVD. They are flexible so when they are put into a case 3 of them are equal to the size of a dvd. Don't you LOVE that idea??? I love the fact that I can collect all the stamps I want and still take them with me to scrap nights everywhere!! The other advantage to the Acrylix stamps are that the blocks that they attach to are clear as well. So you can see through the block for easy positioning of your stamp! Those are just some of the many great things I love about CTMH. I know you will have fun with CTMH, so if your interested in CTMH email me, and I can help you find what your looking for! (And maybe get you free products, along the way!) Here is my latest page I did with my new great CTMH products! This fresh new EMPORIUM kit is wonderful! I used my sewing machine a lot on this page, of which I usually don't do, but wanted to put the $300 dollar dust collector to use! HAHA!

This is actually a page # 16 and 17 from the CTMH Spring 2009 idea book. They are loaded with tons of ideas! Totally great for newbies or expert scrappers!

Ok the other thing that I love CM (Creative Memories) Products. I love all their digital stuff. With their Memory Manager 2.0 that allows you to organize all your digital photos, like no other company I have found, and the Story book Creator plus software, that allows you to create custom photo books, page prints (of which you can print full scrapbook pages at Costco..) and cards to boot!! The Company came out with hard or softcover storybooks, that this software makes in a flash!! What I love about it is, IF I decide to make a album of a special trip, and I want to keep one, and my children want one as well for them to take with them as they get older, I can have two of them printed and delivered to my door within a week. You can share your storybook online with others, and others will have the opportunity to purchase it as well. I love the idea of making family albums, and being able to share them with the whole family, and just because I do all the work, doesn't mean I have to go to the expense to give them a timeless treasure, that will be enjoyed with so many people for years to come!! LOVE IT!!! The digital program kit can be purchased for about $120 or so, and what I love is you don't have to be a professional to make AWESOME ALBUMS!! When you purchase the kit you also get a $40 off coupon toward your first story book. You can also purchase new papers, and embellishments for your storybook program, that you will have forever and you can use over and over and over... The company also had the best circle and oval cutter I have ever used. Man I love their tools! I Love their punches, I love LOVE their tape runner, Their personal trimmer, ALL their ALBUMS, and I could go on and ON!!! They just came out with their MAX albums, and I absolutely love them! If you love top load scrapbook page Albums, you will SO LOVE THESE! The top load albums have always drove me CRAZY. When you flip the page, your scrapbook page would poke out the top, always having to tap it back in. Not to mention the dust factor... dust is inevitable, right? Well with this album you don't have to worry about it because it is side load from the INSIDE. LOVE IT!!! Also I love their new PICFOLIO album, you can slide in pictures and journaling boxes, it is so easy! All the digital paper is also offered for traditional scrapbookers as well, or vise versa. Which makes it very versatile. Their new Albums are now TRUE FIT. If you were a customer of CM in the past, most of you know how IRRITATING it was to finish a page, and go to put it in your album and it it wouldn't FIT. Wow would that tick me off... I would then have to take it apart to get it to fit, and trim off a 1/4 inch of the paper. I am so glad they changed that! The last thing that I love about CM is their Everyday Displays. These are 18 x 18 or 11.5 x 11.5 page frames, that make wonderful gifts for anyone, or just a great place to display your precious new page! They are magnetic! You gotta love that!

CM offers great photo storage ideas as well. The power sort mini box will hold up to 600 photographs!!
And the LARGE POWER SORT BOX will hold up to 2400 photos! What a great way to get organized! Shown here is the Mini Box.

OK like I said I am pretty passionate about what I love, and I really feel that you can put whatever you want in your album. Don't let people tell you that you can't, and if they do just do what you think is right! Sorry to offend anyone if you don't believe what I do, that is not what I am trying to do here, I just want people to know that I feel the most important thing is, is to simply be creative in your OWN way, cherish your memories whatever way you choose! If interested in Creative Memories let me know, (And maybe get you free products, along the way also! ;o)

Other than that I know of quite a few companies that have the newest, freshest product on the market, that I love!!

Thanks for your time, and if you or anyone you know is interested please let me know I would love to help!!!

Happy Scrapin~!

Lots of Love,

Tonya