CTMH Stamp of the Month Blog Hop for August

Welcome to the Stamp of the Month Blog Hop for August.   This month we are featuring the stamp set "A Chocolate Affair".   

Ok -- seriously, chocolate & crafting  . . . my two most favourite things!!  LOVE this stamp set!   

Hope you'll join us this month - we have CTMH consultants from across the US and Canada who have created some great projects for you featuring this month's stamp set.    The variety of ideas are sure to leave you feeling creatively inspired!

If you've come here from Michelle's Blog, then you are on the right path.  If my blog is your first stop, that will work too! Just keep hopping until you get back here again!   You'll find a link at the end of each post to move to the next site.  Enjoy :-)

Here are my creations for this month's hop:

Both card designs are from the brand new CTMH sketch book 'Make it From Your Heart Volume 2'.

Materials Used:
CTMH Babycakes paper pack
CTMH cardstock: Chocolate, Ruby
CTMH bulk colonial white card bases & envelopes
CTMH Ruby Chevron Ribbon
CTMH August 2013 Stamp of the Month: A Chocolate Affair
CTMH Ink: Ruby, Chocolate
CTMH Foam Tape

The August stamp of the month is available from your consultant (or from me!) for just $17.95 during the month of August.  OR -  get it for FREE with any CTMH purchase of $50 or more between August 1st & 31st.  

To see more great artwork using this set - keep hopping!   My friend JEN - the Roxybonds Scrapper is next up on the hop.

Shoot for the Stars

Let's Get Sketchy is hosting an 'Anything Goes' challenge for you this week!   Hope you'll play along!

Here is my layout for the challenge:

Chipboard alpha is inked in Cranberry ink with a sponge and then stamped on in black ink with various CTMH background stamps.  I also inked the edges of the letters in the black ink. 

Journalling was printed on my computer (white font with black background).

Chipboard stars were covered in patterned paper, which I trimmed to size with a craft knife, and then the edges were inked in black ink.  

I was totally inspired by Karen Pedersen's layout of the same title HERE.   

The sketch for my layout is actually a 'pattern' from CTMH's digital program Studio J called "Super Star".   

Materials Used:

CTMH paper collections (both retired): Superhero & Sweetheart

CTMH Black Waxy Flax (retired)

CTMH Cardstock: Black, White Daisy

CTMH Ink: Cranberry, Black

CTMH Licorice Opaques

CTMH Chipboard Letters - Dimensional Elements Monagrams

CTMH Stamp Sets - various retired

Staples

Don't forget to link up any new layout you create this week at Let's Get Sketchy for our "Anything Goes" challenge! 

Simple Saturday: The Best Things in Life

A simple & sweet card for you today:

Sketch is pattern #29 from "Make it From Your Heart Volume 1".

Materials Used:
CTMH Chantilly Paper Pack
CTMH Cardstock: Ruby, Buttercup
CTMH Chantilly Chipboard Complements

Have a great day!

Endless Days of Summer

Sharing today one of my completed layouts from CTMH's For Always Workshop on the Go Kit.   It is a pre-designed layout - just followed the instructions to complete it & added my photos and journalling. Easy peasy & I have 2 more favourite pictures scrapped in my albums!   (And I have lots of materials remaining in the kit to play with & design additional layouts).   

This gorgeous paper bow is cut with the CTMH Cricut Artiste cartridge.   

Title, scalloped border, scalloped circle also cut with CTMH Cricut Artiste cartridge.   

Love the stamp set included in this workshop kit!   

The For Always Workshop on the Go Scrapbooking Kit is 'while supplies last' as it retires with the Spring/Summer Idea book later this week - get it before it's gone!  

Workshops on the Go® For Always Scrapbooking Kit Contents 
For Always Paper Packet 
My Acrylix® For Always Workshop Stamp Set (C-size) 
White Daisy Cardstock Sheets 
For Always Assortment (resin flowers & pins)
Sparkles Black & Grey Assortment 
Instructional Guide 

Other items needed to complete layout as shown:
CTMH Cricut Artiste cartridge
CTMH ink pads: Honey, Lagoon, Black


Did you know that I offer a Kit of the Month program?   Buy any 6 of CTMH's Workshop on the Go kits from me in a 12 month period & get one absolutely FREE!     Check out all the details and a preview of our brand new Autumn/Winter kits HERE.  

Until next time,

Five Fabulous Finds

It's Friday and I have a new edition of my Five Fabulous Finds for you today!  

1.  My first pick is the Paperclipping Roundtable Episode 164.   A must-listen episode for every memory-keeper!   I listen to every episode of the Roundtable - great background listening when I'm scrapping - but the story you'll hear in this episode will stop you in your tracks!

2.  Next up . . . Alison Day, a fellow Let's Get Sketchy DT member, shared a great post on her blog recently entitled "10 Ways to Bust Your Stash".  The post is written by a fellow CTMH consultant, Alice Boll and contains some great tips worth sharing.  

4.  I am loving CTMH's new organizers - - I have some blog posts coming up in the next little while showing you just how I'm putting mine to use!   In the meantime - check out this Youtube video all about the "Large Organizer" & how it will help you GET ORGANIZED!!

5. Speaking of the organizers, fellow consultant Amy Mcgrew shared a great tip this week on her blog. Apparently our organizers fit perfectly in our retiring ink tower carrying case - - check it out & order your carrying case HERE before they are gone (currently while supplies last!)

6. Freebie Alert!!  Check out these super cute "You Make Me Happy" downloadable tags from CTMH.   Available for a limited time.  Watch for these to be showing up on some of my artwork soon!  Love them.  

That's all for today!
Have a great weekend!

Dreams

Good morning!   Wanted to share with you today the gifts I made for my Orlando roomie, my CTMH bestie, and my downline attending Convention.   

The first gift was this layout.   Sketch is from CTMH's Make it From Your Heart Volume 1 book. 

Materials Used:
CTMH Surf's Up Paper Collection
CTMH For Always Paper Collection
Die Cuts & Title Alpha: CTMH Art Philosophy Cricut Cartridge
CTMH Flutter Paper Shapes
CTMH Black Pearl Flourishes
Stamp Set: An exclusive set given to 2011 Convention Go-ers in Anaheim
CTMH Cardstock:  Black, Lagoon, Sorbet, White Daisy

PS.   Watch my blog coming soon -- I'm going to be creating page kits for sale here on the blog & this layout will be one of them!  Email me if you'd like to reserve yours now.  

In addition to the layout, I also created this little gift canister for each of 'my girls' and filled them with Convention survival supplies (i.e. snacks, kleenex, chocolate, gum, etc.).  

Materials Used:
CTMH My Creations Kraft Canister/Container
CTMH For Always Paper Collection
CTMH Black Tulle Ribbon
CTMH Cardstock: Lagoon
Circle Die Cuts cut with CTMH Art Philosophy Cricut Cartridge

Page Protector Solution for your Creative Memories Albums!

With all of the turmoil surrounding Creative Memories right now - I know there has been a lot of talk among those who use & love the Creative Memories albums about what to do now that they will no longer be able to buy CM page protectors for their albums going forward.

Not to worry - - the attached YouTube video, created by a new Australian CTMH consultant (formerly a CM consultant) will show you how you can adapt our fabulous CTMH page protectors for use in your CM albums/coversets.   Easy peasy!

I use CTMH page protectors exclusively in all of my albums, not because I sell them, but because they are simply the highest quality page protectors I've seen.   I actually went through all of my older finished scrapbooks at one point and replaced all the older page protectors with CTMH ones because they are just that much better.  You have to feel them to see the difference - but trust me on this - they are amazing.

The pricing she refers to in the video is Australian.  Here in Canada - you can pick up a 50-pack of our page protectors for $22.95.   Can't beat that!

So, for those of you using CM albums here in Canada - give the video a watch.  I hope you find the tips helpful!  Please don't hesitate to contact me if you have any questions about the CTMH page protectors!

Determined

We have a brand new multi-photo sketch for you to play with this week at Let's Get Sketchy!   I absolutely adore this sketch and can see myself using it repeatedly!  

Here is my take on it:

Materials Used:
CTMH Circle Around Stamp Set (retired)
CTMH Silver Shimmer Trim Tape
CTMH Dream Pop paper (retired)
Stars cut from CTMH Glitter paper
K&Co Washi Tape
AC Thickers Glitter Alpha

Hope you'll play along - - link up your creations at Let's Get Sketchy before July 31st for a chance to be featured or to win a prize!

Everybody Wants True Love

Good morning all - -
we have a new song on the playlist today at Scrap it with a Song!   This week's selection is "With UR Love" by Cher Lloyd.  

To be honest, I've never even heard the song - - so I googled the lyrics to find my inspiration.   A line in the song says "Everybody wants what I've got with you" which provided to starting point I was looking for!

In putting this layout together, I was also inspired by this week's episode of the PaperClipping Roundtable (#166).   The topic was "Starting Points" for layouts and one of my favourite scrappers, Shimelle, was talking about how she doesn't measure anything and in teaching her classes will often encourage people to just randomly cut up their patterned paper in squares & rectangles and then play with the placement of those pieces to start their layout.     Well, that is totally outside of the box for me.   I'm an accountant.  I measure.   I like precision.    (Which is why I fell in love with CTMH's layout design books so many years ago . . . they gave me measurements which meant no guesswork!).   However, I put my trust in Shimelle on this one & gave it a go!   I took out the three pieces of patterned paper from my scraps of the Chantilly collection.   I trimmed two of them only slightly and then just played with the placement on my page.   Yep, no sketch!!  Unheard of for me, lol!     Anyway - - way out of my comfort zone, for sure, but happy with how it turned out!   And I used up scraps from my stash which is always a good thing!  

Materials Used:
CTMH Chantilly collection paper
CTMH cardstock: White Daisy & Black
Alpha cut from CTMH Artiste Cricut cartridge
Glitter Alpha - Kaisercraft
Pink Alpha - Smoothie felt Keepsake Alpha from CTMH (retired)
Ribbon - CTMH Pink Designer Ribbon Collection (retired)
Flair - CTMH Chantilly Assortment

Hope you'll play along this week at Scrap it with a Song!  Would love to see what inspiration you find in this week's song pick!

Family

Taking a break from news & announcements today to bring you some new artwork :-)
In my rush to get ready for Convention in June - I completely forgot to post this layout I did for the June challenge at "Sketch with a Twist" (the twist was to use a transparency).

Materials Used:
CTMH patterned paper:  "For Always" collection
Die cuts & title:  CTMH Artiste Cricut cartridge
CTMH Licorice Opaques gems
CTMH frame transparency sheet (retired)
Metal & epoxy flowers - unkown manufacturer from my stash
Stamp Set: from the CTMH Kraft Scroll Album kit (retired)
Ink: CTMH desert sand
Cardstock: CTMH Black, White Daisy, Ruby

Thanks for stopping by - hope you are having a great week!   We are enjoying sunshine today in Calgary, for a nice change :-)

Introducing: "Artbooking"

Some of the biggest news out of CTMH's Convention this week was the announcement about our new Cricut cartridge - Artbooking!   

Here are the details:

- this cartridge features mini albums, coordinating elements for complete scrapbooking pages, unique cuts for your cards and other paper crafting items & more!

-  set your dial size once and with just one key you can create a complete themed scrapbook layout or mini album.   This cartridge takes the guesswork out of what size to set your dial at for each element.   Artbooking ensures that everything is cut at proportional size.   Themes include birthdays, babies, vacations and trips, friendship, sports, Halloween, Christmas & more!  

-  just like the CTMH Art Philosophy and Artiste cartridges you know & love - this cartridge is jam packed with 700 unique images to cut and comes with a complete coordinating collection including 3 coordinating stamp sets and 3 coordinating sheets of chipboard.   

- 30 themed double page layouts (12x12)

- 10 themed mini albums in a variety of sizes

- full page and partial page overlays to be used directly on your layouts or as stencils

- a great variety of phrases and titles 

- a super cute trendy font

- accessory images in a variety of themes

- themed photo mats to complete your pages

The complete collection will be priced at just $99 (full retail value is approximately $125).  

So  . . . you may be wondering why I'm telling you about this fantastic cartridge now when our Autumn/Winter products don't become available to customers until August 1st.    I've been hearing already from a ton of people wondering when & how they can get their Artbooking cartridge!   Well - - you actually have a few options I wanted to let you know about!  How about getting the cartridge collection at a discount, or early, or both!?!?   Note:  all offers available to Canadian customers only :-)

1)   EDIT AUG 1st - PRE-ORDER OPTION NO LONGER AVAILABLE.  PRE-ORDER - Send me an EMAIL between now and July 31st to pre-order your Cricut Artbooking collection!   Your order and payment for $99 plus tax will be processed on August 1st, as soon as the collection is available to order.   All pre-orders of the cartridge will receive FREE shipping and your collection will be delivered DIRECT to YOU from CTMH.    You'll also receive the August Stamp of the month "A Chocolate Affair" (retail value $17.95) for FREE with your order.  I will also mail you the new Autumn/Winter Idea Book free of charge when I receive your pre-order email!   

2)   1/2 PRICE - Did you know that qualifying hostesses can choose any of our Cricut collections as a 1/2 price reward item when their gathering (online hostess party or home workshop) reaches a sales total of $250 or more.  Contact me by EMAIL to find out how you can host an online hostess party, a home workshop with project of your choosing, or how you can join one of my fall/winter rotating hostess clubs.    If your gathering qualifies - - you can pick up this great collection for just $49.50.   

3)   JOIN CTMH as a CONSULTANT & get all of your purchases, including ARTBOOKING, at a DISCOUNT!   As of July 1st - - our NEW CONSULTANT KIT, priced at just $49, contains ALL NEW product from the Autumn/Winter Idea Book.  You can join TODAY and as a consultant would be able to order Artbooking NOW (not August 1st when it becomes publicly available).    Not only that - but you would pay the consultant-discounted price . . . 22% off of the retail value everyday.   

4)   Order any of our Cricut collections at $99 each, add an additional $51 in products to your order & you automatically qualify for Hostess Rewards - FREE PRODUCT - of at least $25!   (Available by email order only - csironside@shaw.ca).   Contact me for details!   

A few great options for you!  Which will you choose?

While you are deciding I'll leave you with a few pictures to soak in.    I'll be sharing lots of Artbooking creations in the coming weeks - - but to get your imagination started, here is a beautiful mini-album with all the pages and design elements cut with this collection:

And here is some artwork that the CTMH Corporate Art Department shared with us at Convention, again all created with Artbooking:

 So many creative possibilities!   

And now for all of you detail-oriented people like me  - - here are the Artbooking booklet pages - - check out just how many amazing things you'll be able to cut when you get your hands on this (warning - photo heavy!! I've included here all 79 pages of the book!):

Want one!?!?!?  Send me an EMAIL!