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If you {heart} Close To My Heart, then this challenge blog is for you! Please read our revised rules, above.

Saturday, April 30, 2011

More intros

I have a couple more people to introduce you to before we get started on May challenges. Let's meet our Guest DT for May - Joelle Hiller!


"My name is Joelle Hiller. I’ve been a high school math teacher for 14 years, but I’m currently on a temporary leave to care for my daughter who was born last September. My husband and I also have a 6-year-old son. I’m grateful to have the opportunity to stay at home and focus on being mom for a bit – I love spending time with my beautiful baby girl and sharing in all her wonderful baby “firsts”, and having the freedom to volunteer in my son’s class on a regular basis.

I was first introduced to CTMH at a local scrapbooking convention. I fell in love with the paper packs and the coordination of the paper, ink, and embellishments – I think it appealed to my orderly, mathematical brain! I had been scrapbooking for a few years before this, but had never tried stamping before. I tried it, and I got hooked. I am more of a hobbyist consultant right now, but would like to become more actively involved in the future.

A few other random bits about me…I’d choose a good book over a good movie every time; a Mediterranean cruise was my favorite vacation; I have to admit it, though I’m a little ashamed…I love my iPhone and am not sure I could live without it; and when I’m not scrapbooking, I am working on researching my family tree and preserving old family photos."

Welcome Joelle! You can visit Joelle at her blog Scrapbook Snippets.

Speaking of Guest DTs, I would normally say goodbye to our April Guest DT, Shari Maclaskey, at this time but, due to our taking a week off this past week from challenges, I have asked Shari to join us for a challenge in May so she will be popping back up sometime this month so stay tuned!

I also have two new sponsors to introduce to you but will do so on Monday when we start our challenges back up. See you then!

Thursday, April 28, 2011

Thank you and intros to share!

First, I would like to thank everyone who has contacted me with thoughts and prayers as our family goes through this most difficult time. I am also so thankful for my wonderful Design Team who have supported me and offered words of comfort, as well. You all touch my heart and I am so grateful to call each of you my friend. We are hanging together strong as a family and from them, God and each of you, I am beginning to find peace and solace, if not answers.

With that said, I thank you all for the challenge-less week. My heart just wasn't into it and it felt like the right thing to do. But we do have a lot of changes coming up here at H2H and I wanted to get back into the swing of things and share some news and info with you all before we get back to the challenges this coming Monday!

The current Design Team started in January and were to end their term on April 30th. I made a change along the way and asked the team to stay for an additional 2 months and was thrilled when they said yes!! With the exception of two of our gals who will be leaving after our next challenge - and leaving for a very good reason, I might add! Lisa and Corina will be leaving the team as they will have committments preparing for their teaching stint at CTMH's Convention this summer! Congratulations ladies and we wish you great success! And while I am sad to have these very talented ladies leave the team, I am equally excited to introduce you to two new DT members that I asked to join us. And without further ado, here are their intros!

First up, Haley Dyer!!


"Hi!  I'm Haley Dyer, AKA the Inky Scrapper.  I started out mainly as a scrapbooker, but love how I can use my supplies to create cards, home decor, and more.  I've been a CTMH consultant for 11 years, which is a very natural extension of my love of paper crafting and teaching.  (I've been teaching elementary school- 5th grade in particular- for more years than I care to count!)  My favorite scrapbook subjects are my family: my husband, two daughters (almost 13 and 10- Yikes!), our dog, and our cat, plus our extended family too.  In addition to paper crafting, I love to read and travel.  As if this weren't enough, I'm also a consultant for the Longaberger Company.  Paper crafting, however, is my passion."

You can stop and visit Haley's blog at The Inky Scrapper (and check out her blog candy giveaway while you're there)!


Our 2nd new DT member is Jody Gustafson:

"My real name is Barbara but you can call me Jody. I've been married to the best husband ever for 43 years. I'm a mother of 2 great children, Mikel and Carrie. I've been blessed to be a grandmother to 6 super wonderful grandchildren, Autumn, Joshua, Alicyn, Alexis, Ashley and Zachary. I have been an independent consultant with Close to my Heart since 1998. The reason I joined this company is because I was looking for a fun way to make a little extra money. When I saw my friends beautiful handmade cards and scrapbook pages I knew I could have fun with this business. My time with this company has been filled with special times and special people. It is a real privilege to work with the finest products in the industry.  One of the greatest joys of the job is the people that I have met and that I now call "friend."

And Jody's blog can be found at Cre8n' Memories - and be sure to leave her some love while you're there!

Welcome ladies - we are looking forward to your fabulous creations!!

How about more introductions? Watch for another post soon when you will meet the Guest DT for May as well as our two new sponsors.

But before I sign off, I want to announce the prize winner from the Bunny blog Hop! We had so many participants and I think everyone had a great time so we're calling it a success! Thank you to everyone who played along.

So I plugged in all of the numbers of the players at Random.org and the prize winner is......

#39 - Lisa Sargent!!

Lisa, email me at mbryt1@bex.net with your address and I will get the prize out to you.

Ok, that's it for me  - but I will be back soon with more info to share!!


Monday, April 25, 2011

A week of silence

Hello Heart 2 Heart readers this is Jessica here filling in for Mary. It is with a heavy heart that I will share with you today that last week Mary lost her infant granddaughter Liberty. The upcoming months are going to be very difficult for Mary and her family and I ask that you would keep them in your thoughts and prayers. We as a design team decided to take this week of from our challenge in memory of little Liberty. We will be back with our next challenge next Monday and in the meantime you can still play along with any of our other challenges from the month. We will also be back later this week with the winner of the random prize drawing from last weeks bunny hop, so make sure you check in to see if it might be you!

Monday, April 18, 2011

It's time to Hop, Hop, Hop!


This week is a From Our Heart to Yours challenge in which we, the Design Team, share something with all of our fabulous followers - and newcomers as well!

As Easter will end this week, we thought that a Bunny blog Hop would be a great thing to share with all of you!

Here are the details - in case you missed them. Your project MUST include Close To My Heart products (if it does not, it will be removed). It must also be Easter or Spring themed. You must link to your post below between the hours of 8 am EST and 8 pm EST TODAY ONLY! No other entries will be accepted through the week.

Then the fun begins - just hop around to all the links to see what everyone has created! And be sure to leave comments along the way cause who doesn't love comments???

You will want to check through out the day as more and more links are added. Spread the word - let's get as many people as we can playing along. One lucky player will be getting a prize too so everyone post and hip hop down the bloggy trail.

To kick us off, I have a fabulous easter card to share with your from our April Guest DT - Shari McLaskey:


I know! How awesome is that card?? Fabulous work Shari and thanks for starting us on the Bunny Hop! The rest of the DT will be found in the links below so link up and have a great time hopping!


It's Bunny Hop Day!

From Our Heart to Yours, we present the 1st H2H Bunny Hop! We will start posting links at 8 am so come back then and post away! We can't wait to see what you have all created!

Sunday, April 17, 2011

One more day till our Bunny Hop

Are you ready? Got your Easter/Spring artwork ready to post? Cause our 1st H2H Bunny Hop is tomorrow!!! 

Only one day this week to post your artwork and that's Monday, April 18, from 8 am EST to 8 pm EST. Then we can all hop around through the day and check each other's artwork!

Join in the fun - grab your Bunny Hop badge below (right click on the badge and Save As to your pc, then upload as an image to your blog) - and we'll hop over for a quick hello on Monday!

If you missed all the details on this hop and want to be ready, scroll down to this past Monday's post. Remember, all artwork posts that do not use CTMH products will be removed!

Friday, April 15, 2011

Blog Hop badge

Just a reminder - our Easter/Spring Bunny blog Hop is this Monday! Get your artwork ready now so you can link up Monday, April 18th between 8 am EST and 8 pm EST. These are the only hours in which you can leave a link for your artwork next week!!

Here is a badge you can place on your blog post to advertise the hop. Be sure to add our blog address as well: http://heart2heartchallenges.blogspot.com/


So hop to it and plan on participating in the Bunny Hop! See you then!