It's Autumn!

After a long, hot summer....it's Autumn.  What a beautiful time of the year.  With this comes a new Close-to-My-Heart catalog.  It's another new idea book filled with new stamps sets, new markers, new papers and MUCH more.  It amazes me that with each new book comes so much new and innovative product.  The company does a great job of keeping up with the national trends in the stamping and scrapping industry.  

Favorites....hmmm....it's so hard to say.  I LOVE the new Cricut Cartridge, Artiste.  A year ago CTMH came out with the first cartridge, "Art Philosophy" and with its 700 images, it quickly became an important part of my card-making and scrapbooking.  Now, with the new cartridge, yes it also has another 700 images, it promises to be another "must have" product.  This cartridge has lots of 3-D projects, each one more fun that the other.  As with "Art Philosophy", the "Artiste" cartridge also coordinates with many of the stamp sets in the new catalog.  All I can say is "Awesome"! 

Close-to-My-Heart really sells itself.  With the help of another CTMH customer, I have started a Scrapbooking Club.  I also still have my original Card-Making Club.  The scrappers will make layout (2 pages) and one card when they get together.  The Card-Makers make four cards or projects at each meeting.  If you are interested in either of these groups, let me know, there is room in each group for more people!  

2-Page Layout

Card made with Cricut Artiste Cartridge......Swing Card

Another Cricut Cut Card.....Closed and Open

Announcing Garage Craft Sale

Better late than not at all!!!  My craft sale starts this afternoon, 7/12/11.  Here's the schedule:  Today from 1:00 to 8:00, Friday from 9:00 to 8:00, and Saturday from 9:00 to 2:00.   My apologies for the late notice, but it slipped my mind.   Come see what I have......the garage is full of rubber stamps, papers, stencils, markers and MUCH more!   Hope to see you this weekend.

Cleaning The Craft Room

One of the first things I wanted to do once I retired was to clean out my craft room.  I worked for four days last week (yes....it took four days!).  I went through the entire space going through paper, embellishments, stamp sets and MUCH MORE.  I am preparing for a Craft Garage Sale next month.  Date TBA.  Here are some pictures I took AFTER I was done.  Look at these now, since it may not always look like this.  Enjoy the tour!

Desk #1 holds business papers and also is my Cricut Area.

   

Bookcase #1 with retired Acrylic Stamp Sets.  The beside is some workspace and also holds some paper packets that are organized into color groups.  

Bookcase #2 holds 12 x 12 paper

Closet - filled with current Stamp Sets, Scrapbooks, Envelopes and Supplies

Desk #2 is my work space.  Shadowbox shelves hold embellishments that I use often. 

Behind the door to the room I have my ribbon collection.

New Spring/Summer Catalog Released

The Spring/Summer 2012 Idea Book was released on February 1st. It is full of card and scrapbook ideas using spring and summer colors. There are eight new paper packets that will help you make perfect spring/summer scrapbook layouts and/or beautiful seasonal greeting cards. Be sure to contact me to get your copy of this new catalog.

Along with the new stamps and products, there are still the staples of scrapbooks, page prrotectors, card-stock, ink, markers and more.

This is a card made with one of my favorite new paper packets, "Pemberly". Love the colors in this packet, Indian Corn Blue, Outdoor Denim, Desert Sand, Bamboo, Honey......these all blend beautifully to make your projects perfect.

This card was made using the Close to My Heart "Art Philosphy" Cricut Cartridge that was released last summer. The new catalog contains many new stamps that coordinate with that cartridge.

The butterfly is a paper butterfly that comes in white. I used my Indian Corn Blue Stamp Pad and a sponge to apply ink, thus coloring the plain white and making it blue. I added three small Opaque Adhesive Gems to the center to make an eye-catching embellishment.

This is a sampling of the "Pemberly" Paper packet......you'll love it!

This is one of my most favorite new things. It is "color-ready" ribbon that is white that you also color using your ink pads. It is really easy to do, and ties beautifully. You will notice that the cards posted above have ribbon of them that has been colored with my Indian Corn Blue Stamp Pad.

Call me with any questions you may have. Let me "show you how"!

Let's look forward to Spring,

Cathy

Here's What I've Been Doing

I usually have a theme when I update the blog, but this time I decided to just show you some of the things that have been keeping me busy during the last couple of months. I've really enjoyed using my Close to My Heart Cricut Art Philosophy Cartridge in conjuction with my stamps. Below you will see what I just finished yesterday. You see, my parents will be celebrating their 65th Wedding Anniversary. We are having a dinner for them, so I made little treat boxes for each place setting. There should be 38 of us!

You will see that I tried to coordinate the boxes with the napkins we will be using. The close up version below.

Yes, I actually made 38 of the baby roses to add to the boxes! I have loved making the flowers as you will see throughout my post.

This is a bouquet of roses made with a pen as the stem. I used cardstock from the Cardstock Shade Pack of Blush, Hollyhock and Tulip.

I'm ready for 2012. These are my calendar and checkbook cover for the new year.

I made several of these this fall, using them for Anniversaries and Birthdays.

This is an extremely simple "thinking of you" or "get well" card.

My niece, April, is expecting her third child. I made this card to congratulate them on their newest addition to their family!

Yet another rose with an accompanying birthday card for our new school librarian.

Birthday card done using a Cuttlebug Embossing Folder for the border around the flowers.

Another Adams Central friend celebrated her 60th birthday, so a black rose was in order!
It was a fun celebration.

August 2011 -Guess What's New

It has been forever since I posted to this blog. Actually, not forever, just February! We are about to turn the calendar to August, and on August 1st the new Close to my Heart catalog is released to the public. I've had it for a week or so, and I just ordered a very few products to get me started with new things.

The most exciting thing in the new book is a Cricut Cartridge Bundle!! What is that you ask? Well, Close to my Heart has partnered with Cricut and they have given us a wonderful new tool to use. Lots of people already have the Cricut personal electronic cutter. I didn't have until a week or so ago, but when I learned of the new opportunity, I purchased a Cricut. The Cricut Cartridge Bundle from CTMH contains not only the cartridge, but three exclusive stamp sets and three coordinating demensional element packs. It's SO MUCH fun. Throughout the whole new catalog you will find stamp sets that contain stamps that have matching images on the Cricut cartridge! It's really neat. I was excited when I heard about this new product, but since the cartridge arrived on my doorstep on Tuesday, I haven't left my stamp room. There are an incredible number of images on the cartridge, over 700 of them!!

Along with the Cricut, there are lots of new products and stamps. The second bit of exciting news is that the cost of stamp sets has been REDUCED. The D-size sets now sell for $17.95 rather than $22.95, C-size sets are $13.95, B-size are $9.95 and A-size are $6.95. So, even if you choose not to use Cricut, the stamps are still beautiful and useful as you created your own unique artwork.

With the good also has to come the bad, and paper prices have increased a bit, so they have come up with packages with fewer pieces in them in order to help with the price point. It's a PERFECT deal for the customer.

I have been with the company for 13 1/2 years now, and have seen many changes. I have learned that CTMH keeps up with the current trends and thus offers updated product and the highest quality product out there.

Call me or stop by my house to pick up your new catalog.

Here is a picture of the Cricut Cartridge Case, showing just a few shapes.

This is an oval card that I actually cut with Cricut. Isn't that fun?

Another Cricut-Cut shaped card

The flowers on this one were cut with Cricut. The paper is from a new packet entitled "Sonoma"

This is a fall-colored pack with Smokey Plum and Olive.

I was also excited that they have brought out a 6 x 6 album again. This is a pre-assembled album with 8 memory protectors, so that's 16 pages. It's really nice, and I'm able to create my baby albums again. These will be great for gift-giving.

Here is a card created with Smoothie cardstock and stamps from a new set. Don't you just love the "flourish"?

New paper using Smoothie

February 2011

What else do you do when you are confined to the house due to a winter storm? Well, you update your blog! Not with snow pictures, but cards. I don't exactly know where January went, but I kept really busy with year-end procedures at Adams Central. I don't usually have a whole lot of stamp time during January. But, today is February 1st, and although some of you have already seen these cards, I thought I would go ahead and post them anyway. The colors used are Barn Red, Sweet Leaf, Juniper and Black. Some of these components are in the Wings Workshop Kit.

If I have not given you your Spring/Summer Catalog, please call or stop by to pick one up. It's really fun to look at the flowers and bright colors in the Spring/Summer Idea Book.