September Constant Campaign - National Stamping Month

To celebrate National Stamping Month in September, we are bringing back our popular double stamp set promotion! You can get the exclusive, new My Acrylix^® It’s Your Day double stamp set for just $5 when you place a minimum order of $35 in full retail products from August 15 through September 30, 2012. You’ll love this double set—two D-size sets in one envelope—which includes nearly 50 trendy images that makes it easy to capture the everyday moments in your life. The double set has a retail value of $35.90, which drastically increases the value of your qualifying purchase! Have twice the fun stamping during National Stamping Month with our new, exclusive It’s Your Day double stamp set!

Dates: Offer valid August 15 (9:00 am MDT) – September 30, 2012 (11:59 pm MDT)

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Avonlea Card Box

Here's the beautiful new Avonlea paper pack on another card box. After cutting so many pieces of Roxie for the girls' to put on their boxes last week for art camp, I decided to make one of my own.

Here's a close up of the roses and some bling. All of the shaped cuts here, including the roses, were made with new Cricut Artiste cartridge. With the latest catalog, CTMH has gone to offering some colors which are exclusive to certain paper packs, meaning that they can't be bought separately. The Avonlea paper pack is one of those which has some exclusive colors andI used the elegant Avonlea Off White for the cardstock for the roses. 

I love this box. It's a great size to hold not only cards but other trinkets or jewelry. I think a decorated box would make a great unique gift. I also love its magnetic closure.

Supplies used--

Paper: (X7155B) Avonlea

Embellishments: (Z1466) Bling Assortment, (Z1263) Bitty Sparkles

Other: (Z1647) Card Box, (Z1790) Cricut Artiste Cartridge

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Busy, Busy, Busy!

The second session of my Kids' Scramping Art Camp is well under way. It is a lot of work but really fun! The girls are busy, busy, busy and doing a wonderful job on their various projects.

Do these look familiar? We started off with card boxes again on Monday. I love how they all put their own creative slant on them. I had precut some elements like rose spirals with the Cricut Art Philosophy Cartridge. Even though rolling up the roses isn't necessarily easy for little hands, they did a great job with it. Liquid Glass was also a big hit. I showed them how to use it to make dew drops on their roses. They used it for that and to put other details in, such as the veins on the leaves or just extra dimension here and there.

It was cute that they all happened to wear flip flops on Tuesday. I couldn't resist taking a picture!

On Tuesday, we worked on making jewelry. Blogger is automatically turning my picture around, sorry!

Wednesday was all about painting and monograms! We painted and decorated large monograms.

We also made a framed chipboard monogram collage--the girls either stamped, sponged, glittered, or did some sort of combo on each of their chipboard monograms and then they put them on some cardstock. This was eventually put into a frame they had painted.

One thing the girls enjoyed was finding out that you could use a pencil eraser as a stamp to make polka dots!

 

Our last technique today was to use the waterbrush. I showed them how to stamp with a lined image and then how to squeeze a closed stamp pad and use the open stamp pad as a palette to pick up some color.

Whew! I just love it that they are all interested and absorbed by the activities we are doing!
I am also going to be a vendor at the Tri Delta Crop for a Cure coming up this Saturday! I love this crop. It's a fun group and a great cause. I guess it's busy season again!

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Display Tray

One of my must haves from the new Close To My Heart catalog was the display tray. I was so excited to see it in the catalog and it was one of the first things I played with when my new items arrived. Here's what I ended up doing with it.

Believe it or not, every item I used on the tray is CTMH (except that I embossed the Sweet Leaf rectangle with a Cuttlebug folder) although some of it is very old. It's as if my hoarding had a purpose...somehow I knew I would use those little doodads on this display tray eventually!

I left my chipboard letter F unadorned but I'm still wondering if I should stamp it or cover it with paper. I do kind of like that your eye has a place to rest. What do you think?

Here are some close ups of a few of the compartments. I used both the Cricut Art Philosophy cartridge and the new Cricut Artiste cartridge throughout my project. The upside down triangle banners (Art Philosophy) are on chipboard die cut shapes to make them more sturdy.

The "Family" sentiment is on some shapes cut with the Art Philosophy cart and adhered to a chipboard die cut and popped up with foam tape. Remember the Canvas Badge Buttons? I used one in the collage below to make the stamped circle "Love This" pop up a bit. I used our old peated ribbon to make a flower (just wrapped aound itself, glued it with Tacky Glue and stuck a brad through the middle). The "leaf" is one of our old Foundry embellishments (originally meant to be a photo corner, I think).

 The main banner below is another chipboard element (paper is cut out with the Artiste cartridge).

Supplies used (I'm not listing unavailable products)

(Z1750) Display Tray,

Paper: (X7156B) Clementine Paper Packet, Sweet Leaf Cardstock, Chocolate

Cricut Cartridges: (Z1790) Artiste, (Z1686) Art Philosophy

Stamp sets: (D1482) Love Life

Embellishments: (Z1127) Designer Ribbon Rounds™ Chocolate Collection, (Z1371) Buttons Blue Assortment, (Z1410) Antiqued Copper Designer Brads, (Z1333) Opaques Mocha Adhesive Gems, (Z1269) Filigree Charms, (Z1336) Opaques Pearl Adhesive Gems, (Z1466) Bling Assortment, (Z1685) Dimensional Elements Banners, (Z1683) Dimensional Elements Mixed Shapes, (Z1659) Dimensional Elements Monograms "F", (Z1276) Mini-Medley Accents Colonial White, (Z1096) Embroidery Floss Neutral Assortment

Stamp pads: (Z2114) Cocoa, (Z2167) Créme Brulee, (44751) Archival Black, (Z1296) Distressing Inks

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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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