And The Winner Is...

Okay...so not too many entries for the giveaway.  (But that makes it better for everyone that did enter!)  I counted any comments both from the blog and facebook....and just for any of you who tried to guess my favorite Christmas song, it is: "The Christmas Song" by Mel Torme!

The winner of the Christmas tile is:

Kirsten Esselman

Congratulations Kir!

Giveaway

I got to spend my weekend working at a craft fair in a local city.  It was a lot of fun meeting new people and telling them about something that I absolutely love...Heritage Makers.  It also got my holiday season started off right...the hustle and bustle of people, Santa talking to the kids, yummy smells....Mmmmmm!

So, now I feel like passing my Christmas spirit on to you!  I'm having my very first giveaway...EVER!!  I've got to tell you, I've always wanted to do something like this...and it's really cool to be able to do one just in time for Christmas!

Here's what you can win:  A 6x6 Christmas Tile...made especially by me!

These tiles are perfect for your own Christmas decorating or for giving away as neighbor, friend, and teacher gifts.  They're fun.  You can personalize them however you want, and they are relatively inexpensive.  These particular tiles were made by using a 1/4 page of an HM 12x12 scrap page (so you get 4 6x6 tiles out of 1 page), a standard 6x6 tile, and a little bit of modge podge.  Click here for directions to make your own.

#1 - Let it Snow

OR

#2 - Silent Night

To enter, simply leave me a comment with your name, e-mail address (so I can contact you if you win), and tell me which tile you want.

You can also earn some extra entries by doing any of the following:

1.  Blog or post on facebook about the giveaway, then leave me a comment that it's been done!

2.  If you haven't already registered for a free account....REGISTER on my website, then leave me a comment.  OR  If you already have an account, refer someone else to my website and have them sign up for a free account.  Leave me a comment with their full name and when I receive confirmation from HM that their account has been activated, you'll get another entry.

3.  Leave me a comment and guess my favorite Christmas song.  If you get it right, I'll give you an extra entry. HINT:  it's sung by a crooner!

I'll keep the drawing open until next Monday (Dec. 7th) at noon...and who know, if it goes well, maybe I'll do another one before Christmas!

Remember the holiday deadlines if you're planning on ordering for Christmas:

United States

Storybooks

Dec. 2 (ground and priority)

Dec. 7 (two day)

Dec. 10 (next day)

Other Products

Dec. 11 (ground and priority)

Dec. 14 (direct ship cards/two day)

Dec. 16 (next day)

Here's to starting the holidays off right!  Merry Christmas and Happy Heritage Making!

A Gift For Me

Click here to preview the entire book

So last week was my birthday...and I'm gonna toot my own horn a little.

For the past few weeks I've been working on a special book for my family. The book itself hasn't been hard, but I'm a little bit OCD about pictures and making things just right, so it's taken me a while to complete the project. I'm now happy to say that my first Heritage Makers book is done, and to make things even better, my copy arrived in the mail just in time for my birthday.

Happy Birthday to me!!

Merry Christmas to me!!

{Insert any other happy holiday greeting} to me....

YAY!

Seriously, I was like a 4 year old on Christmas morning. The package came in the mail, and I was trying to rip it open as I walked into the house.  When I finally got the packaging off of my little creation, I had to sit down and savor each page.    I mean I worked on the thing everyday, but there is just something so rewarding about seeing something that you've created go from a picture on a computer screen to something tangible that you can hold in your hand!  I think I'm hooked.  I'm trying to decide what to do for my next book...and I'm working on tweaking the same book for each of my different families.

Stay tuned for the holiday special of the week.  I'll post it sometime after 12 pm MST today.

Happy Heritage Making!

Top Secret Santa Agent

Warning: Don't read this post in front of the kiddies!

Shhhhh...it's top secret!

This idea is more of a pre-Christmas gift rather than a Christmas gift, but since HM is running their card special this week, I thought it would be appropriate. (Click here for card prices)

If your house is anything like mine, you probably have a Santa Claus fan (or two...or three.) Here's a fun little idea to start the season out right: Letter's from Santa!

(Click here to view the entire postcard from Santa)

What kid wouldn't want to get their own letter from Santa Claus? To this day my sister swears that she called the North Pole and talked to Santa Claus. It has been the pinnacle of her Christmas experience! Unfortunately I no longer have that phone number, and honestly, the phone bill is probably out of the budget this year, BUT a well timed letter from the Big Guy might be just as good! Send a little extra holiday cheer your kids way. Think what a little reminder about the naughty or nice list could do to help your happy home for the next several weeks. Maybe some encouragement to keep their rooms clean...talk kindly...share. (Oooh, I think a letter from Santa every month starting January 1st might be worth it's weight in gold!)

Anyhoo...the look on my 4 year olds face when he get's his Christmas letter from Santa will be priceless! I can't wait to see it!

Ho Ho Ho!

Heritage Makers Giveaway

Attention all HM fans...or future fans!

Enter to win a FREE Heritage Makers 20 x 20 canvas credit just by becoming a fan of Heritage Makers on Facebook. By becoming a fan between now and November 29, 2009, you automatically enter the drawing to receive this great addition to your home décor. On Cyber Monday (November 30), we’ll post the winner on our fan page.

Don’t miss this chance.

Become a fan today by following this link http://bit.ly/4mwI9e!

Christmas Cards

(click here to view the entire card)

I don't know about you, but I never seem to be on the ball enough to get my Christmas cards out on time. They usually end up being a New Years greeting! Not this year!

With Heritage Makers, I can make my cards in a jiffy, and have them sent directly to whoever I need them to go to. WooHoo!! Cute. Easy. I can personalize them as much or as little as I want. And even better...they're done in time for me to send out to all our friends and family! A little less stress for a busy season!

HM has a bunch of Christmas art to choose from if you're one of those creative types and want to make your own...or, if you're more like me, they have a bunch of templates to choose from. Just drag and drop to swap your pics, personalize your text, and you're good to go. The best part is that a lot of the templates are available in Basic (meaning you don't need a premier membership to create something really cute.) Check out some of these cute BASIC cards!

I guess the only negative is that I won't have an excuse for not getting my Christmas cards out this year. Oh well!

Have fun creating your own cards. Let me know if I can help (or if you're really pinched for time, I'll create your cards for you) and contact me for special packages and pricing that is not available on-line!

New Art, New Templates

Heritage Makers has just released a bunch of new artwork, templates, and fonts, just in time for your holiday projects.

Wanna get the jump on Christmas cards this year. Check out these templates. They're really cute and super easy! Even better...they're made with BASIC art...no premier membership required!

Next, HM just introduced a bunch of new art into the art collection. My personal favorite??? The Canadiana Collection of course! WooHoo eh!! All new art is located in the Studio under the art collection tab. The newest collections will always be featured at the top of the art collection, and they will be highlighted to make sure that you don't miss them!

Lastly, check out the new fonts in your toolbox to help you give your project that extra special touch!

Happy heritage making...remember heritage is a million moments everyday!

Christmas Gift Idea

Ok...so, Christmas is approaching faster than I anticipated.

Christmas??

Why are we talking about Christmas when we haven't even gotten to Halloween yet??

Well, to put it simply... I'm one of those people. (My husband won't talk about Christmas until after Thanksgiving is over...he also does his Christmas shopping on Christmas Eve.) I tend to do my Christmas shopping all year round, but it hasn't happened that way this year, and now here I am at the end of October. Christmas is staring me right in the face, and I'm nowhere near as ready as I was last year at this time.

Anyhoo, if you're like me and feeling somewhat frazzled by the fast approaching holiday season, and need some quick and easy holiday gift ideas, here ya go....

(the posts over the next few weeks might give you a few ideas for family, friend, teacher, neighbor, etc. gifts, so stayed tuned)

Gift 1 - Poster!

Bah....poster. Who needs another poster in their house? Maybe you when you see this one! This is actually a family proclamation poster, so it would be perfect as an extended family gift.

It's super easy. It's made from a template...just drop your pics in, publish it, throw it in a frame when you get it and you're good to go. You can make it in both a 12X18 or an 18X24 size, and as with any Heritage Makers stuff that you do, it's completely customizable.

Click here for a better view.

Can it get any easier than that? Probably not!

Honestly, it took me about 10 minutes to do. (shhhh...I won't tell if you don't!)

Just remember that holiday deadlines are coming up, so if you want this for Christmas, you'll want to get busy. If you don't already have an account, go to www.featuringfamily.com and create one. Load your photos. Let me know if you want the template (because it's not available in the template gallery) and plop in your pics. Contact me for special pricing that's not available on-line, and publish away!!

Yay!! You're one gift closer to being ready for Christmas!

Tiles

I'm still in the process of creating some great storybooks with Heritage Makers...but in the mean time, here's another fun (and easy) project!

As a company, Heritage Makers believes that their products can be used to help strengthen the family. I think so too! And that doesn't necessarily mean I've done something with family pictures or memories or anything like that. In fact, for this project, I had conference on the mind.

I decided that one way to strengthen my family would be to have uplifting, faith-building art/quotes/etc. around the house. As I was re-reading the April 2009 conference issue of the Ensign I remembered one of my favorites quotes given by Pres. Monson, and thought that it would be perfect for this project.

I used a 12X12 scrap page. I started with a picture of Pres. Monson, added the quote, threw in a picture that I took (I knew I'd find a use for it one day!), stuck on a couple of embellishments, and put a title on it. Who knew the title would be the hardest part to come up with??? Anyway, here's what the finished scrap page turned out like:

Click here for a better view of the finished scrap page!

Now for the second part of the project...

I wanted to use this as some kind of art around the house, so I needed to find a way to display it other than stick it on the wall. My solution: A Tile

Here are the quick and easy directions to making your creation into a tile:

Supplies:

1 tile (the size of the scrap page...in my case 12X12)

modge podge

foam brush

1 scrap page

Directions:

1. Since the scrap page and tile are very rarely the same size, trim the scrap page so that it will fit nicely on the tile. (Be sure to take this into account when you are actually making your scrap page, and don't put anything too close to the edge.)

2. Put a light layer of modge podge directly onto the tile.

3. Place the scrap page on the tile (right side up obviously!) Smooth out the page. Rub out as many of the bubbles as possible.

4. Turn face down (and add some weight) until dry.

5. When dry, place another layer of modge podge over top of the scrap page. Let dry again.

6. VOILA...done! Now find a place to put it.

The finished product is now sitting on top of my piano for all to see. I'm thinking of doing a few more (with other conference talks) to either display in other places around our house, or switch out every once in a while. I think that they are perfect little reminders of really important things!

Wouldn't this be a great Christmas gift??

So...now it's your turn. What quote, picture, etc. could you put on a tile that would be a good message for your family? Think about it, make it, and share it with me!

Family Standards/Mission Statement

So...

Here's a nifty, quick little project, made with a 7 panel family fold (technically, you could make it with any of the family fold's that you want to, but the 7 panel fit my family perfectly.)

I must admit that the idea to make this came because I was somewhat annoyed at my children and their behavior. I guess the other thing Heritage Makers does for me is offer me an outlet to vent my frustrations :) LOL!

Anyhoo, the idea came as I looked at a vinyl saying I had on my wall: "Be true to who you are and the family name you bear." As I thought about the saying I started thinking about WHO we are (meaning my family) and how that should be reflected in the way we act and the things we do, so I decided to use the letters of our surname to write a reminder for my kids of how the hubby and I expect them to act/behave/conduct themselves/etc. This is what I came up with:

Click here to get a closer look at the finished product.

We have this sitting on a little shelf in the living room, and we're planning to take a letter each week during our FHE and discuss what it means in a little bit more depth. I've also thought that since the family fold is fairly small, I can make copies for each of the kids to carry with them as a reminder of what we expect of our entire family.

So...there you have it. A quick and easy project with a potentially great lesson. What characteristics/qualities could the letters of your last name...or maybe each child's first name represent?? Think about it, make it, and share it with me!

Up and Running

Okie dokie...

I am officially up and running, and this is officially my first post for the Featuring Family Blog...a blog that will feature ways to feature our families.

First thing's first:

I am Heritage Makers Independent Consultant. Translation: It's my job to create (and help you create) projects to help preserve the meaningful relationships and memories in life.

Heritage Makers was founded in 2005 and has quickly become a leader in personal publishing.

At Heritage Makers their goal is to make preserving family stories simple, fun, and rewarding. Heritage Makers helps people everywhere create beautiful, heirloom quality storybooks which document the priceless relationships, events, and experiences of life. They also believe that the company can strengthen family, improve relationships, and build children's self esteem.

That's it (in a nutshell.)

For me personally, Heritage Makers has become a way for me to take the special memories that our family has created and make them into tangible projects for my entire family to enjoy. It has become a way to keep our family journal. I has also been a way for me to take things that are important to our family, be it pictures, stories, quotes, etc. and preserve them in some form or another. It has got me taking more pictures, and making notes to remember what those pictures are. I'm constantly thinking of new storybooks, posters, cards, etc. to create!

Which brings me to the reason for creating this blog....

My goal in starting this blog is to give you (the reader) ideas for projects. Things that you can do to make your home a heritage home. Everything from my own personal stories and projects to home decor. As this blog is a work in progress, check back often for new ideas...and remember, heritage is a million everyday moments!