You're Amazing: Retrosketch #22

My order of new CTMH stuff arrived yesterday and I got a little bit of time this morning to create! CTMH has come out with a wonderful new Cricut cartridge called Artiste (available August 1st). I sat for about half an hour just looking through all of the things in the accompanying handbook. Go to this link to see the handbook online: http://www.cricut.com/res/handbooks/artiste_handbook_web.pdf

I'll be showing the items I make with Artiste on my blog throughout the week but my first item is this quick little card for my nephew. In addition to the Artiste cartridge for cutting the notebook shaped paper, I used stamps from one of the sets that come with the cartridge bundle, two sheet from the new Avonlea paper pack (solid teal cardstock and patterned paper) and a sheet from the new Scholastic paper pack (graph paper...LOVE stationery themed papers!).

I used Retrosketches #22 for some inspiration.

I love this sketch...it's very elegant and well balanced! You can go many ways with it and I just kept things simple. I wasn't sure if my nephew would want anything too fussy. But I can see myself using this sketch again with a more gussied up card. :-)

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Gnome Home

I love the CTMH stamp set Gnome Garden but, as so often happens with me, I set it aside after getting it and never inked it up because I was waiting for the right inspiration! Well, now it will be retiring soon so I thought it would be a shame if I didn't use it before August 1st rolls around. Heart 2 Heart's latest challenge is a wonderful sketch and helped me put my stamp to use.

Here's the sketch:

Here's my card!

Supplies used (all CTMH except where noted): Cranberry cardstock, Creme Brulee cardstock, Chocolate cardstock, White Daisy cardstock, (X7148B) Pemberley paper pack, (C1470) Gnome Garden, (44751) Archival Black stamp pad, (Z1701) Baker's Twine Neutral Assortment, Retired Cranberry buttons, (Z1686) Art Philosophy Cricut cartridge, Spellbinders nestabilities (circles large and small), Cuttlebug embossing folder (Victoria and Seeing Spots), Copic markers 

My daughter and I have a long term project (translation: we do a little and then stop, then we do a little more and stop) of making a sort of fairy garden spot in the backyard. So I'm picturing using this stamp set on a scrapbook layout for pictures of our little fairy garden if we ever finally get around to completing our project! Isn't that funny? Getting a stamp set to go with pictures you don't even have?

;-) 

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Items Retiring on August 1st

The new Close To My Heart catalog goes live on August 1st so I thought I'd post a list of items which are retiring. If there's anything that you just can't live without, you should purchase them now before they are gone! You can shop 24/7 on my website: http://lubna.ctmh.com/Retail/Category.aspx.
Thanks to CTMH consultants Debra Van Patten for compiling most of this comprehensive list and Tamytha Jenkins for making the slide show (great for visual people like me!).

Z1163 Double Scrubber (Note: Being replaced with a new version.)
Z1006 Microfiber Cloth
Z1404 Quick Pic 12x12 Album - Dark Cranberry
Z1405 Quick Pic 12x12 Album - Outdoor Denim
Z1406 Quick Pic 12x12 Album - Dark Chocolate
Z4110 Snapease Album System
Z1323 Clear Cards - 4 1/4" x 5 ½" Asst.
Z1309 Clear Cards - 4 ½” Asst.
Z1383 Sweet Leaf Stitched Grosgrain Ribbon
Z1384 Designer Ribbon - Pink Collection
Z1397 Canvas Badge Buttons
Z1367 Bitty Brads Basic Asst
Z1368 Bitty Brads Metal Asst
Z1104 Clear Sparkles (Note: Being replaced with all round sparkles)
Z1698 Mini-Medley Accents - Pacifica
Z1320 Mini-Medley Accents - Tulip
Z1338 Mini-Medley Accents - Sunset
Z1488 Mini-Medley Accents - Honey
Z1403 Photo Hangers
Z1402 Hinges
Z1690 Bitty Buds Asst
Z1691 Bottle Caps
Z1693 Seaside Wooden Shapes (SOLD OUT)
Z1688 Comic Badge Buttons
Z1635 Heirloom Asst
Z1337 Dimensional Elements Ornaments (Note: Updated to coordinate with Cricut Artiste)
Z1224 My Creations All Sorts Mini Album
Z1334 My Creations Mix and Mingle Mini Album
Z1321 My Creations A-Door-Ables
Z1152 My Creations Cube
4275 My Legacy Writers
Z338 Euro Personal Trimmer (Note: Being replaced with Fiskars SureCut Deluxe Craft Trimmer)
Z339 Euro Trimmer Replacement Blades
Z340 Euro Trimmer Replacement Blade/Scoring
1766 Dotto Dots Dispenser
1767 Dotto Dots Refill


My Acrylix Stamp Sets
A1095 Always Remember
A1099 Angel Sent
A1107 A Twinkle
A1108 A Flitter
A1109 A Sip
A1110 A Timber
A1113 A Game
A1115 A Holiday
B1356 St. Nick
B1359 Fright Night
B1361 Tannenbaum
B1362 Tag The Occasion
B1381 Holiday Cheer
B1393 Joyful Jar
B1394 John 3:16
B1402 My Peeps (no longer available)
C1379 Holiday Commentary
C1382 Holiday Commentary - Spanish
C1383 Holiday Commentary - French
C1401 Friendship Alphabet Small
C1408 Live Inspired
C1419 Harvest Home
C1420 Snow Days
C1423 Captured Moments
C1424 Nature's Gift
C1425 Month By Month
C1426 Thanksgiving
C1427 I Believe
C1429 Party Pennants
C1465 Unscripted
C1468 Winter Joy
C1470 Gnome Garden
C1471 Happy Clusters
C1472 Bundled Buddies
D1136 Giggle Caps
D1137 Giggle Lowercase
D1267 Rustic Numbers
D1306 Treasure Life
D1308 All Decked Out
D1373 Childhood Portrait
D1384 Snow Flurries
D1386 Save The Date
D1387 Made With Love
D1397 Save The Date - French
D1398 Save The Date - Spanish
D1401 Authentic
D1436 The Present
D1437 Party Animal
D1446 Adorn-able
D1449 Father Christmas
D1493 Fill In The Blank - Holiday
D1499 Live Your Style
E1002 Rustic Alphabet
E1006 Baroque Alphabet
E1011 Headline Alphabet Large
E1016 Friendship Alphabet Large

Paper Packs
X7139B Typeset
X7140B Roxie
X7141B Elemental
X7143B Sonoma
X7154B Cruisin'
X7152B Superhero
X7151B Footloose

All Combo Paper Packs and All Shade Paper Packs are retiring.

We have a ton of paper and stamp pad colors which are retiring!
Grey Wool
Grey Flannel
Vanilla Cream
Parchment
Brown Bag
Baby Pink
Taffy
Sunkiss Yellow
Key Lime
Heavenly Blue
Lilac Mist
Amethyst
Holiday Red
Sunflower
Sunny Yellow
Dutch Blue
Moonstruck
Vineyard Berry
Tulip
Garden Green
Spring Iris
Petal
Garnet
Pansy Purple

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Happy Birthday: Mojo Monday 249

I love this sketch from Mojo Monday and I wish I had looked at it earlier! Well, better late than never. :-)

The stamped bicycle image is embossed in black and I used the Cruisin' paper pack. Right now Cruisin' is only available as a Workshop on the Go and will retire on Auigust 1st when the new catalog goes live. Love this paper!

Supplies used: (X7154B) Cruisin' paper pack, (C1439) Enjoy Life stamp set, (C1494) Card Word Puzzle stamp pad, (Z2105) Black stamp pad, (Z2124) Grey Flannel stamp pad, (Z670) Black embossing powder, (Z891) Versamark stamp pad, (Z1701) Neutral Assortment Baker's Twine, (Z1686) Art Philosophy Cricut Cartridge

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Gift Cards

It's so nice to have access to the internet again! A day after the derecho storm that hit our area, our landline and internet went down for a week. However, we were still so much luckier than so many people and never lost power and didn't have any damage to our house or neighborhood, thank God!

Even before the storm, I had been having some issues with the touchpad on my laptop freezing up and essentially making my computer unusable. I finally broke down and got myself an external mouse. That seems to have solved my computer usability issues so I thought it's high time for another post!

First off, I wanted to say thank you to the folks at the wonderful Heart 2 Heart Challenge Blog. One of my cards was picked to be in their June Top Ten! Yay! Click here to see the post with that card.

Secondly, I also wanted to say thank you to all you sweet bloggers who have been commenting on my cards/posts. I read every comment and appreciate all of them! I'm hoping I'll be able to reciprocate more, at least for the summer months when my schedule isn't as crazy as it is during the school year.

I have been spending a whole lot of time cleaning out my basement and crafting area. More needs to be done but I am actually able to find things again and have space to put things back. I intend to clean up even more and take pictures of how things are set up down there at some point but for now, I am loving having room to create.

Since I've been cleaning and going through my things, I've come across tons of retired paper, of course. You all know I'm a paper hoarder, right? Although I am going through my retired papers and using up what I can on my scrapbook pages and standard cards, I still hate to get rid of the smaller scraps so one of my projects has been to create sets of 3" x 3" gift cards.

I start off by taking a 3" x 6" neutral piece of cardstock and folding it in half (with one of my multitude of bone folders which are now neatly organized on my desk!) to form my base. You could also use your handy dandy Art Philosophy Cricut cartridge to make some card bases. Then I start to play! With some cards, I simply use a 2 3/4" x 2 3/4" square of patterned paper on top and I sometimes add a little bit of embellishment. Some of the paper is so pretty though, that there is no need. I inked up the edges of this paper for a bit of contrast. These were very quick and simple to make. Have you ever been in a rush to get out the door on your way to a birthday party when you realized you didn't have a card? Make up a bunch of these to have on hand and your problem is solved! Or how about using one of these once in awhile to drop a note in your child's lunchbox?

With some of the cards, I added a bit more stamping and patterning with the scraps of left over scrapbooking paper. I also used a decorative scissors to add a deckled edge on one of the following cards.

For my last grouping, I used my Art Philosophy Cricut cartridge to cut out a number of shapes from scraps and I added decorative borders with some Martha Stewart punches. Wouldn't a set of these in a small box be a sweet little gift?

The stamp set Enjoy! is a really great one to use for this type of project.

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July Constant Campaign - Perfect Pair

During July, get a free paper packet and coordinating accessory with a qualifying online purchase.

Place an online order of $75 or more in July and we’ll send you a popular paper packet and coordinating accessory—a Perfect Pair—for free! Different Perfect Pairs are available on different dates throughout the month so you’ll want to place more than one qualifying order to snatch several Perfect Pairs.
Specific pairs are available on specific dates; see below to find out when your favorite Perfect Pairs will be available. Be sure to place your order early in the availability period, as the promotion is while supplies last.

Order Dates	Perfect Pair	Retail Value
July 1–5	Mischief Paper Packet (X7144B) and Midnight Felt Shapes (Z1462)	$15.90
July 6–10	Dreamin’ Paper Packet (X7142B) and Harvest Charms (Z1633)	$14.90
July 11–15	Fanfare Paper Packet (X7138B) and Fanfare Level 2 Assortment (Z1400)	$17.90
July 16–20	Lucky Paper Packet (X7137B) and Lucky My Stickease® Assortment (X7137C)	$17.90
July 21–25	Mayberry Paper Packet (X7136B) and Mayberry My Stickease® Assortment (X7136C)	$17.90
July 26–29	Sophia Paper Packet (X7131B) and Sophia My Stickease® Assortment (X7131C)	$17.90
July 30–31	Believe Paper Packet (X7145B) and Holiday Pockets (Z1486) OR Wonderland Paper Packet (X7146B) and Wonderland My Stickease® Assortment (X7146C)	$14.90

*Taxes and additional shipping/handling may apply. Offer good during above-specified dates, while supplies last.

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