Life is GOOD

Summertime and the livin' (and craftin') is easy!

Maybe it's eating fresh produce from your garden or farmers' market or barbecue with friends. Maybe it's a family vacation or a lazy day reading and napping in a hammock or visiting on a porch swing. Perhaps it is celebrating a wedding or birthday any time of year. We scrapbook all kinds of moments to help us remember the good times. Looking back, we can probably say that despite its sometimes unpleasant difficulties, for the most part, life is good.

What does living the good life mean to you? Show us how your Life is GOOD by making a papercrafting or digital project -- be sure to use at least some Close To My Heart supplies -- and link up your blog to Heart 2 Heart Challenges. For this challenge, you'll have to hurry! All July challenges close July 31. This is the final challenge in the "Life is" series. Come back next week for the first August challenge on a different theme.

Our talented guest designer Gretchen has this amazing project to show just how good life is!

Guest Designer Gretchen

Take a look at how our Design Team interpreted this Life is GOOD challenge and get inspired!

Melissa Robinson

Brandi Robinson

Paige Dolecki

Alyson Mayo

Allie Kostiuk

Heather Jane

You have until the end of the month to play along with any of our "Life Is..." challenges.  What are you waiting for?  We want to enjoy the good life with you!

Life is a Highway

Welcome back to another Life Is... challenge here at Heart 2 Heart!  Are you enjoy this month's series?  We love seeing how you interpret our challenges!  Thanks to everyone who has played so far this month!

This week, we are thinking Life is a Highway. This may conjure up images of road trips, cars, or you may even be inspired by the song! We would love to have you play along with us.

Our Guest Designer, Gretchedn, has come up with this fabulous scrapbook layout to get us started.

Gretchen 

Here are some of the Design Team creations to help you feel inspired.

Laurie Levorson

Angela White

Nikka Geers

Haley Dyer

Lauren Moore

We hope this has inspired you to get crafty with your highway ideas!

June's H2H Addicts, Top 10, and Top Chick!

Is your summer as crazy busy as ours?!?  I am not sure where the time is going, but it is slipping by quickly.  Make the most of each day, peeps!  We have loved how you've interpreted our June challenges.  Of course there is still time for July.

The crazy crafters who play along with all of the challenges of the month earn special recognition as our H2H Addicts.  Thanks for joining us each week...
*Sue at I Luv Scrapping Too
*Jody G.
*Debi B.

It is time for us to announce our Top 10 for June.  Boy was there some tough competition!  You gals ROCK!

Warm vs. Cool Color Challenge:

Katrina

Wendy

Lubna

Around the World: Maps

Jody G.

Vicky

Man, Oh, Man

Cheryl E.

The Leaf Studio

Amy

Let Them Eat Cake!

Jody G.

Amy

Are the Top 10 fabulous?!?  It's not too late for YOU to join us for July!

You're probably wondering who our Top Chick is.  I'll bet you have your favorite, and we do too.  Congratulations to...


...


...

Jody!!!

Winners, be sure to grab your blog badges and display them with pride!

Life is a Beach

Hi everyone, it's Allie here at Heart2Heart! In my neck of the woods summer is full on and the sun is beating down every day...not that I'm complaining though, I love it! I'm thinking it's time to hit a place with golden sand, fresh water, and a cool breeze, so our theme this week is pretty fitting: Life is a Beach!

First, check out some creativity from our talented July Guest Designer:

Guest Designer Gretchen

And next, some fabulous beachy fun from our new Team Slate:

Alyson

Allie

New DT: Paige

New DT: Melissa

Cynthia

Brandi

New DT: Heather Jane

Now it's your turn to show us how your Life is a Beach. Remember to use some Close To My Heart products - we can't wait to see what you come up with!

July's Challenges: Life Is...

Welcome to the new design team term here at H2H!  We are really excited to kick off our July "Life Is..." series with our all-new Team Cashmere creating for you!  We have new team members, but the Heart 2 Heart rules are the same:

• Use something from Close To My Heart.
• Mention us in your post.
• Link up with your deep URL so we can go directly to your project.
• Have fun and be creative!

Oh, one more thing: all of the challenges for the month are open until the end of the month, so feel free to link up to any of the month's challenges during the month they are active.

OK, you are probably wondering about July's "Life Is..." series.  All of our July challenges will start out with "Life Is..." so to get us started, our first July challenge is LIFE IS A PICNIC!  Our guest designer Gretchen has something fun for us.

Guest Designer Gretchen

New DT Laurie

New DT Angela

Brandi

New DT Melissa

Nikka

Haley

Lauren

Are your creative juices flowing?!?  If so then it's time to join the party, er, picnic!  You have until the end of the month to play along with any of our July "Life Is..." series.  We'll be back next Monday with the next installment, and until then we'll be visiting your blogs.  Enjoy the picnic!

Our Two New Teams

Now that you've met the new gals here at Heart 2 Heart, it's time to introduce our new teams for our July-December term.  (I cannot say the last half of the year, because there is no way the year is already half over!!!)  We decide a few years ago to have two teams to offer greater variety and to help the Design Team not be overwhelmed by their duties.  We alternate teams each week, but of course we're all welcome to play along any time.

You may notice that we did a little rearranging and some of our returning DT are on different teams than before.  We think you'll enjoy the variety.  In our tradition of naming our teams CTMH colors, I would like to introduce TEAM SLATE to you!

• Allie (British Columbia, Canada)
• Alyson (Ontario, Canada)
• Cynthia (West Virginia)
• Heather Jane (Michigan)
• Melissa (Texas)
• Paige (Washington)

TEAM CASHMERE's members are:

• Angela (California)
• Brandi (Ontario, Canada)
• Haley (Georgia)
• Lauren (New Zealand)
• Laurie (Nebraska)
• Nikka (Texas)

You can see that we stretch around the world with great representation of our Close To My Heart countries.  Tomorrow, Team Cashmere will be up with our first July challenge.  See you then!

Welcome Our New Design Team Members!

The current Heart 2 Heart designers are so excited to welcome some fresh new faces to our design team!  We are looking forward to a fantastic second half of the year and the creativity these ladies are bringing to the team.

Hi Everyone! I am Angela White and I have been a Close To My Heart consultant for almost 2 years. I started scrapbooking in 2009 but I have been crafting for as long as I can remember. I've been married to my wonderful husband for 17 years, and am a mother of 5 (3 are in college, 1 in high school and my youngest is in middle school). I am also a pet mom to our parrott Mickey and  2 dogs, Tinkerbell our Yorkie and Sephora our Boston Terrier. Aside from being a mom and a Close To My Heart consultant, I help my husband manage our family business.

I appreciate having the flexibility to devote time to my crafting and sharing my passion with others.  I believe that the best way to preserve and share our life's memories are done through scrapbooks, cards and other crafts. I am so excited to be a part of the Heart2Heart Challenges and hope that I can help inspire everyone to share their passion and memories through crafting.

Hi everyone!  I am Melissa Robinson and have been a Close To My Heart Consultant since October 1998! An educator by day, my most recent positions were as a high school and elementary school Principal but am currently working outside of education as a Financial Analyst.

I was invited to attend my first CTMH gathering with my Mom approximately 20 years ago.  She invited me to a "stamp" party and I reluctantly went, feeling sorry for her to have to attend by herself and thinking it was postage stamps (lol)!  Boy did I leave with a different feeling! I love Close To My Heart products and all the fabulous people I have met through this company and who share the love of papercrafting.   

I currently reside in Irving, Texas and am the Director of the Heartfelt Sentiments Team.  I am honored to have been selected as a member of the H2H Design Team and look forward to celebrating your creativity!

Hello, Crafty Friends!  My name is Laurie Levorson and I am beyond excited to be a new member of the Heart 2 Heart Design Team!  I am the happy wife of a wonderful husband, the proud mother of two grown sons, and the giddy grandmother of an 18 month old perfect little boy!  I have lived all my life in a small town near Lincoln, Nebraska.  I recently retired from 32 years of teaching kindergarten and first grade and happily joined the Close To My Heart family a little over a year ago.   I love to read, golf, and garden but my favorite place at home is in my craft room.  I caught the paper crafting bug about 10 years ago and have been addicted ever since!

I look forward to sharing my work on the Heart 2 Heart Challenge Blog and making new blogging friends! 

Hi. I'm Heather Jane Schmuckal, I live on our family farm near Traverse City, MI. I have been a Close To My Heart Consultant for over 4 years. I’m married to my high school sweetheart and together we chase around our three children. My family tree has many talented and artistic role models in it. As a baby I toddled down the isle of my Grandmother’s arts and craft store where she taught painting classes. I grew up with the encouragement to follow my talents where they might lead me. During elementary school I was the gal that the other kids asked for my help on the cards we were making for the nursing home. In high school, art class was my favorite- I did Independent Study. I earned many awards during high school and college, a billboard with my design, and a few cash prizes. I worked as a graphic artist until my third baby was born, since then I have been a happy homemaker. I have been scrapbooking for about 18 years, since I discovered an album my Mom had put together of her college years. Seeing a story told of a time my Mom was not just “my Mom” was inspiring! I want to tell my story!

Hello!  I’m Paige Dolecki from Stampologist.com and I’ve been a CTMH Consultant for the past 7+ years.  I’m addicted to creating beautiful things with our stamps and our amazing Cricut cartridges and love sharing my passion with my customers and friends!  My family calls my craft room a cave of wonders because my kids know they can probably find just about anything they need for a project in Mom’s room.  My husband and I have a daughter in college at Washington State Univeristy, a son who is a high school senior and a son who is in his last year of middle school.  Besides getting creative on a regular basis I am also a Black Belt in Tae-Kwon-Do and enjoy teaching students how to achieve their own black belts through mentoring and instruction.  I’m looking forward to being on the Heart 2 Heart Design Team and sharing inspiration with my fellow Close to my Heart fans!

Introducing Our July Guest Designer

The Heart 2 Heart Design Team is delighted to welcome Gretchen Stumme to join us this month!  Here's a info about her.

Hi!  My name is Gretchen Stumme and I have been a crafter/artist for as long as I can remember.  I’ve tried a variety of mediums at one time or another, but paper-crafting has stuck as one of my favorites.  I bought my first stamp to use on the back of my wedding invitations and was instantly hooked. 

I am a Marketing Specialist as well as a Close To My Heart consultant.  I love teaching workshops in book making, paper arts, and quilting.  If you don’t find me in my studio behind my paper cutter or sewing machine, I’m probably out and about behind my camera.  The local zoo animals are my favorite subjects! 

I grew up in Connecticut, but have lived in Upstate New York with my husband Dave since our college years.

Please welcome Gretchen!