Author Archives: Dana

About Dana

Hi there! My name is Dana Kessler and I have been a consultant with Close To My Heart since 2005. I was first introduced to CTMH at a crop - and when I saw our brand new My Acrylix Stamps, I was hooked! Nine years later, I now lead a fabulous team of over 25 Scraptabulous Designers and I have been blessed to earn six incentive trips with Close To My Heart. Scrapbooking is my passion, and I love sharing our great products with others! I offer monthly workshops, home gatherings, digital scrapbooking classes, weekend crops, and one on one training and design help.

Two Page Scrapbook Layout Outdoors Summer Hiking Camping Family Relax Vacation Explore #ctmhfreshair #scrapbooking #pagekits #scraptabulousdesigns

Enjoy the Outdoors with Fresh Air Workshop!

For the very first time, I am coming to you from MASSACHUSETTS!!!!  Our movers dropped off our stuff on Tuesday and I am surrounded by boxes, but we now have internet so it’s GAME TIME!

I absolutely LOVE the Fresh Air kit!  Take lots of pictures of your outdoor adventures this summer, cuz these pages will be PERFECT!  Browns, greens, and blues – pretty much makes me want to ditch this computer and start exploring my new backyard.  Also, I do want to apologize for the grainy photos, I had to take them in a hotel and the lighting was rough.

The boxes in my craft room have not been touched yet, but I do have the supplies for 3 page kits somewhere in there.  Please allow 2 weeks for me to find them and cut them for you.  Trust me when I say that I CANNOT wait to set up my new space, but the rest of my house has to come first.  Adulting rots…..

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Two Page Scrapbook Layout Friends Tea Party Fun Family Sweet #ctmhbeautifulfriendship #pagekits #scrapbooking #cricut #scraptabulousdesigns

Celebrate Friends with the Beautiful Friendship Page Kit!

Happy National Scrapbooking Month – again!   I think this is a record for me, getting 2 kits out in one week!  Whoop Whoop!!!

Beautiful Friendship is such a pretty kit!  I created 3 layouts that are perfect for celebrating friends and sweetness.  And seriously, if you don’t have pictures of a tea party, what better excuse is there to have one??  How fun would it be to get together with the girls and have a tea (or any hot drink) party?  Memories that will last a life time…

The last layout can be used for anything – even boy pictures!  I LOVE this layout, and the colors just happen to match the University of Michigan, so I think I’ll be using some pictures from the last game we attended.

I will be working on the Fresh Air kit next, and it will be released by June 10.  The movers show up on June 11, so I have to have all my creating done before then.  They are are going to FREAK when they see all my crafting stuff!!!  LOL

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Two Page Scrapbook Layout Postcard Perfect Summer Travel Page KIt #scrapbooking #pagekits #scraptabulousdesigns #ctmhpostcardperfect #cricutexplore

Postcard PERFECT is all about SUMMER!!!

Happy National Scrapbooking Month!!!  I hope you have all taken some time to get crafty, it’s definitely much needed therapy in my house.  Speaking of my house, we are officially homeless as of today.  Homeless, that is, until we close on our new house next month!  Whoop Whoop!!!  And next week I have to complete my son’s school album and highschool football layouts for his graduation party.  Happy NSM to me!

This kit was super fun to create – its WAY simple, and I LOVE that for summer photos.  No embellishments, just paper.  Lots of Cricut images and cut-outs, so no worries, these pages are still SCRAPTABULOUS!

Just a note on the pictures, it was pretty dreary here when I took the photos, so the dark blue color looks kinda black on the layouts.  I assure you – it totally looks blue in person!

Make sure to get your Postcard Perfect kit before its gone, it’s only here until May 31!  I am starting on Beautiful Friendship tomorrow, so be on the look out for another kit coming really quick!

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Two Page Scrapbook Layout Page Kit Girl Friends, Mothers Day Spring Baking Treat #ctmhgimmesomesugar #pagekits #scraptabuloudesigns #cricutexplore

Gimme Some Sugar – QUICK!

YAY!!!  Here is something for your Sweet Tooth!  And don’t wait too long, this kit is retiring TODAY.  That’s right – TODAY!

Gimme Some Sugar will be perfect for Mother’s Day, Spring Pictures, Girlfriends, or any special someone in your life.   The colors are soft and feminine and super-dee duper SWEET!

NOTE:  I wanted to get these photos out asap, so I am still working on the files for the cutting guides and they will be added to the link by midnight tonight.

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Two Page Scrapbook Pages Layout Stargazer Boy Awesome Fourth of July Rocket Stars Wonder Page Kits #ctmhstargazer #pagekits #scrapbooking #scraptabulousdesigns

FINALLY!!! Stargazer Scrapbooking Workshop is HERE!

Oh, my friends – this is a HAPPY DAY!!!  My life has been turned upside down these past few months and this kit just fell into the abyss.  For those of you that don’t know, we are in the process of moving from Michigan to Massachusetts.  So that means that I have been getting my current house ready to sell while visiting Massachusetts to find a new home.  Adding to excitement on the home front, my son is graduating high school this year, my daughter is getting ready for dance competitions, my website was hacked, and we went to Punta Cana for Spring Break!  Crazy town is my new normal.  And it’s all good!  So, now that ya’ll know why I am slower than molasses, let’s get back to what we all care about – scrapbooking!

Stargazer is a breath of fresh air!  Bright, primary colors are soooo fun!  Loving the blues because that means all kinds of pictures with denim will be perfect.  These layouts are gender nuetral and will work great for your boys, Fourth of July, school activities, celebrations, and pretty much anything AWESOME!

Gimme Some Sugar will be out by April 18 for those of you waiting for something SWEET!

I am also restocking ALL CURRENT PAGE KITS and will be releasing (3) K-12 School Workshops that I found in all my organizing!

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Hackers, Schmackers!!!!

Hi friends!  Just wanted to send out a quick note to let you all know that I believe my website is back up and running.  Thanks to everyone for the emails and alerts to let me know that my site was down.  It was completely paralyzing!

Stargazer is finished and will be out shortly, with Gimme Some Sugar quick to follow!

Thanks so much for your understanding!

Make Some SCRAPTABULOUS – because CUTE matters!

Hugs,

Dana

Two Page Scrapbook Layout Mermaids Flower Spring Beautiful Shine My Girl Make Waves #ctmhmakewaves #scrapbooking #pagekits #cricutexplore #scraptabulousdesigns

Make Waves with Mermaids and Flowers!

Hello – Did someone say MERMAIDS?  Make Waves will have you dreaming of the magical warm days to come!

So, to be completely transparent with you all, this kit had me paralyzed from the start.  I do not do pink/purple/cutesy in my daily life.  It’s not that I don’t like it, it’s just that time in my life was AGES ago and I went so *all in* with my daughter that I hit overload.  But – as usual, once I got over my fear (yes, I fear mermaids) and embraced the cutesy factor, the design went SWIMMINGLY well.  See how I did that there – HA!

Make Waves is truly fun and feminine!  I kept the mermaids to one layout, but you could easily add them to the other pages if you want.  The My Girl, Beautiful You and Shine Bright layouts will work well for so many photos (think pets, Mother’s Day, Easter, school, dance) and will totally look AWESOME with black and white photos, as well. Continue reading

Two Page Spring Outdoors Butterfly Family Love Story Scrapbook Layout #ctmhchelseagardens #pagekits #cricutexplore #scrapbooking #scraptabulousdesigns

Chelsea Gardens – Come on, SPRING!!!

Happy 2018, all of my beautiful friends!!!!  I hope you all had a SCRAPTABULOUS holiday season and took lots of pictures!  Here is my tribe this year in our matching jammies.  

And, just like that – it’s life back to normal in the FRIGID north!  So, let me tell you how hard it was for me to work with Chelsea Gardens during our deep freeze…..  Don’t get me wrong, the papers are simply STUNNING, but they make you feel spring and warmth and I was pretty much in crabby patty mode wishing that I could skip right from Christmas to Spring! 

But, now that I finished this workshop, I have fallen in love with this kit.  I even have some perfect photos to use with it!!!  My goal for 2018 is to show ya’ll more of my finished work, which means that I actually have to print photos and get scrappy.  I am WAY excited to see if I am up for the challenge!  I totally went all in with the butterflies and colors in this kit, I didn’t even try to fight it and make it into something else.  Sometimes, you just gotta go with the flow.  For the last layout, I kept it all nuetrals and even included a large photo mat for an 8×10 family photo!  Lots and lots of options for this layout.  Continue reading

Two Page Scrapbook Layout Silver Gold Christmas Holiday Winter Joy Birthday Love Merry #ctmhsilverandgold #scrapbooking #pagekits #cricut #scraptabulousdesigns

Give me ALL THE BLING with Silver and Gold!!

Happy December!!!!  We are right on the brink of a cold front here in Michigan, so it is totally starting to feel like WINTER!!!  I am happy to say that I have the majority of my Christmas decorations finished and we put up all our outside lights, too (you know, while it was like 60 degrees!).  I absolutely LOVE this time of year, even though I am a little sad missing those family members that we have lost and looking ahead to next year when my son will be away at college.  Life changes so quickly, but this is why I scrapbook – to preserve these precious memories that make my heart go bump.

OK – I know.  I just released a Christmas kit with Beary Christmas!  However, because some of us just can’t get enough of the holidays, CTMH gave us a second holiday kit with Silver and Gold.  But, my friends, as you all know – I don’t follow directions very well.  I created one Christmas layout (think of showcasing some of your favorite photos from multiple Christmas’!) and the others are entitled Joy, Birthday Cheer, and Love This.  I am LOVING the black, white, silver and gold – can’t wait to get my photos on these pages!

Dont’ forget:  I know this time of year is crazy town for lots of us, but I wanted to remind you that all of our paper packs in the Holiday Expressions will retire on December 31 (if they don’t sell out before then).  Get yours before they are gone so that you won’t be sorry! Continue reading

Two Page Scrapbook Layout Beary Christmas CTMH Holiday Family Merry Home #scraptabulousdesigns #scrapbooking #pagekits #cricutexplore #ctmhbearychristmas

It’s beginning to look a lot like BEARY CHRISTMAS!!!!

Oh my NOVEMBER!!!!  Seriously – where has time gone???  I hope you all had a Hauntingly Marvelous Halloween, because as you know, stores have gone from Halloween straight to Christmas!  I mean, there is some Thanksgiving stuff out right now, but it has been out for ages, hasn’t it??  

I have to say that I truly enjoyed working with our Beary Christmas papers!  Traditional colors and just enough whimsy to keep it cute and fun.  My daughter and I even had Christmas Bear pajamas last year, so I am thinking that I may use those photos on these pages!  I love it when things work out like that!!!! 

Don’t usually take a lot of Christmas pictures?  Then use these pages as inspiration for some special photo shoots this year or compile photos from Christmas’ past – how fun would that be?  As always, don’t forget the Flip Flaps if you take a bazillion holiday photos!  LOVE LOVE LOVE!!


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