Welcome!

Welcome to the new home of "Created By Rosie!"  I just signed up as a Close To My Heart Independent Consultant and I figured a blog would be the best way to show off all my creations and goodies!

Just a little bit about me.... well....

I'm 30, married to the most wonderfully supportive husband in the world, have the laziest dog I know (who I swear is part goat sometimes), and I've been a crafter my entire life.  My friends call me "Martha Jr." but I'd really like to say that I'm "Martha Jr., JR."  My mom is the original "Martha Jr." and everything (well, almost everything) I know came from her.  I knit, crochet, sew, bake, am an aspiring photographer, and now scrapbook and card make.  I guess there isn't much I haven't done or tried, and I'm always up to new challenges.

Due to some severe Carpal Tunnel issues, I (reluctantly) had to give up on my knitting and crocheting for a bit as my hand didn't want to play nice afterwards.  I got my first big girl camera "Bella" (a Nikon D5100) for my 30th birthday last November from my Hubby and my family and just recently completed photography school to learn how to use it.  Ha ha ha.  It's one art I can do that doesn't seem to aggravate my hands :-D  Then, Christmas 2011 I got my first Cricut Expression from my Hubby's wonderful grandparents.  I was so excited!  I had used my sister's "Baby Bug" earlier last year to do all of her wedding & bridal shower stuff, and really wanted one of my own.  That's when my obsession for paper-crafting was born.  Not only could I make cards and other crafts for gifts, but I can now also incorporate my photography with it and start making scrapbooks. 

Since Christmas, I've managed to accumulate about 50 Cricut cartridges, a Cuttlebug, stacks and stacks of paper, and more recently I've started "hoarding" stamps.  I managed to snag a great deal on a Close To My Heart Art Philosophy bundle over on the Cricut message boards and, yet again, another obsession was born.  I signed up as a Close To My Heart consultant on March 31st and I'm (impatiently) waiting for Mr. FedEx man to delivery my wonderful box of goodies so I can get started playing!  Stupid storm in the west has my packages delayed a bit, so hopefully it'll be here by the end of the week.

Now, I used to be a independent rep for another direct-sales company many moons ago, and it didn't go so well.  Probably for more than one reason, but I think the main one was that I had no passion for what I was selling.  Honestly, I've been a tomboy since I was a kid... did I honestly think I was going to be able to sell cosmetics when I hadn't worn more than lipgloss my entire life?  Plus, I hated having to "peddle" to my friends and family.  That was one reason I didn't really like the idea of signing up with another direct-sales company.  However, when I found out that the quarterly minimum was reasonable, and I spend WAY more than that every three months at my local stores, I figured I'd give it a try.  Not to mention the deal you get for $99 is unbelievable!  Since I signed up in March, I was able to get the Art Philosophy bundle included free with my Consultant Kit, but since I already had it, I was able to get $100 in FREE PRODUCT!!  No strings attached!  Total music to my ears!! 

My goal with this blog is to share some of the things I create (not all will be CTMH, but there will be some) and to hopefully progress into the tutorial/videos arena.  We'll see on that one, but for now I'll just be sharing some "recipes" for the things I've made.

I'm not a pushy sales-woman, but if you are interested in purchasing anything from Close To My Heart, please click the shopping cart image at the top of my blog to visit the online store.  Be sure to checkout the different promotions and campaigns they are doing to score some pretty great deals!  If you're interested in hosting an online "party" where you can earn some pretty great rewards, please email me at createdbyrosie@gmail.com and we'll get everything setup for you. 

I'm so excited to start this new wonderful journey and to share it all with you!!  Until next time..... I'm off to stalk my packages online AGAIN for the millionth time today :-)