"This is Good!" Card

Each day this week I have been featuring a card made with the current CTMH paper packs. And... we have been doing the countdown on each set of papers, since they are all retiring on July 31st! This card uses the Skylark Paper Packet, which you only have one more day to purchase!

I used Juniper ink to sponge around the edges of my background paper, tall strip, and small hexagons. Those tiny little hexagons were cut with the Artbooking Cricut cartridge. Actually, I cut a large hexagon overlay for another project and saved these little "negative space" pieces for future projects.

All of the stamped images were done with Chocolate ink.

Let me tell you something about these stamp sets. The sentiment, "This is Good!" was taken from a Hostess Only stamp set. Did you know that CTMH hostesses have exclusive stamp sets that they can choose from? Not only can you earn FREE Hostess Rewards for almost all of the goodies in the catalog, but you also get to choose from exclusive stamp sets, DEEPLY discounted!

The tiny bird and flower were taken from a small 4 stamp set called "Delicate Wings." This set is not in any of our catalogs, and is not for purchase. It is an exclusive perk that I give to my Hostesses for holding a CTMH party/class, or Facebook party. 

Did you miss your chance to get this exclusive set from me? Don't worry, there is a brand new set being released on August 1st! 

If you host an in-home or online party with me this year, the exclusive new set will be yours! And, this is in addition to any FREE products and discounted products you can earn through CTMH!

Here's a last look at the card. The bird and flower have foam tape added to the back to pop off of the page for added dimension. The card design inspiration came from Case this Sketch, challenge #86, found HERE.

I'll see you in the craft room,

Cricut Artbooking Collection

Skylark Paper Packet

Chocolate Exclusive Inks Stamp Pad

Juniper Exclusive Inks

3-D Foam Tape

InLinkz.com

Lollydoodle Mini Book

 

This mini picture book just screams little girl, tween, and teen! It's got pink, glitter, gems, secret pockets, and trendy sayings... oh yeah, and a few cute little owls, too! Why does everyone loves owls so much right now? If you are one of the owl lovers, just wait until next week when I feature the August Stamp of the Month set!

Anyway, back to the mini book. I created this short book with the Lollydoodle Paper Packet and matching cardstock and inks. I used the Cricut Artbooking cartridge heavily for this project! All of the cute cut-outs, overlays, and sentiments are from Artbooking. The Lollydoodle Paper Packet, Complements, and Assortments used will all be retired next week when the new catalog comes out. For a list of all the retiring items that are left, you can go HERE (will open in a new window).

Let's take a tour through this short book! The front cover is pictured above. Next we have these two pages...

Small pictures can be tucked inside various places on all of these layouts. Some can be hidden (in small envelopes and pockets), and others are in plain sight. Now let's flip the page...

There's another cute owl! And, plenty of room for larger pictures or journaling here. Next...

This picture looks very busy, but if you look closely, you 'll see that there is a half page in the middle! Here's a shot with the half page lifted...

...and then closed to the other side. Here is a shot of the last decorated page (the back of the book is plain)...

The final page has a large pocket to tuck various items inside. And, there is a page tucked in to the pocket that can be removed for journaling or pictures...

A time-consuming book to make, but a cute result! The product list below looks a little intimidating because I used a lot of different items to make the book! But, they all worked cohesively together. Don't forget, if you think that any of these items are super cute, there is a very limited time left to purchase them!

I'll see you in the craft room,

Cricut Artbooking Collection	Lollydoodle Paper Packet	Lollydoodle Assortment	Lollydoodle Complements	12 x 12 Hollyhock Cardstock
12 x 12 Cotton Candy Cardstock	12 x 12 Lagoon Cardstock	12 x 12 Pear Cardstock	12 x 12 White Daisy Cardstock	Green Glitter Paper
Pink Glitter Gems	Hollyhock Exclusive Inks	Cotton Candy Exclusive Inks	Lagoon Exclusive Inks	Pear Exclusive Inks
Juniper Exclusive Inks	Baker's Twine Paradise Assortment	Memory Book Glue Dots	Bonding Memories Glue	Sponge Daubers

InLinkz.com

Make-and-Take Tags and Expo Recap

As you might remember, I attended the Rubber Stamp Convention in Carson, CA this past weekend as a vendor. This was, by far, the largest event I have ever done. Besides this event, I have only had a table at craft fairs... and it's been a few years for that as well! 

Since someone had cancelled their booth space, I was able to set up two tables at the event: one table for CTMH displays, and one table for make-and take projects. The front table was where most of the action was! I had three make-and-take seats ready for customers, and also some literature on the table about my workshops (local and online), and a draw box for a free draw.

The back table held more literature and various projects on display. Since my table was 2' smaller than I was told, I also had a little floor display, which is hard to see in the photo below.

I was fortunate that my daughter helped me out for the weekend. Actually, it was less fortune, and more bribery! She was paid to help at the event, and did a great job. Now there is something that you should know about my Megan... she did not inherit her mother's crafty gene. She has absolutely NO interest in crafting or creating. As a straight "A" student, she will work very hard on any creative project she is assigned, but always enlists my help.

So to my surprise, at some point throughout the event (during a lull in the afternoon), she asked me if she could make one of the make-and-take tags. Completely shocked, I said, "OF COURSE!" I guided her through the first one, and then she was off! She made about 30 tags over the course of two days!

When she first held the stamp, she thought it was the coolest thing ever because she could see through it and knew where it was going to stamp. I told her that she was lucky because she didn't get to play with just any old stamp, she got to play with Close To My Heart's premium clear stamps! I snapped a quick picture while she was distracted! Shhh, don't tell her that I posted it here...

It was a fun weekend with a lot of interaction with some very nice ladies! I will be following up with those that gave me their information within the next couple of days. I love what I do and am so excited to share CTMH and various types of paper crafting with others!

However.... as much fun as I had with the ladies at the event, one of the absolute highlights was meeting Tim Holtz!

I usually don't smile so hard (it shows all of the wrinkles...LOL!), but Tim was just too much fun! His booth was set up across from ours, so we saw his huge crowd all day as he was performing demos. I wanted to participate, but it was work time for me, guiding my own demos!

And speaking of demos, if I had to guess, I would say that we did about 200 make-and-take tags at our table. The tags were super easy to put together since all of the shapes were pre-cut with the CTMH Cricut cartridges! The ladies (and a couple of gents) got to ink/distress, stamp, and glue all of the components. The highlight for the majority of the ladies was using our awesome 2-way glue! Many of them had never used anything like it and LOVED it!

Here are the tags that we made:

Since our CTMH paper is patterned on both sides, customers had a choice of the pink pattern, or the gray pattern from the same piece of paper. There were three sentiments to choose from, as shown above. 

The adorable "Lollydoodle" paper that we used is only available for about two more weeks, then it will be retiring with all of the other patterned papers in the current Idea Book/Catalog. If you think it's cute, you need to get it now, before it's gone! But, a bunch of new paper packs will be introduced in our new Annual Inspirations Idea Book, available August 1, 2014!

I'll see you in the craft room,