Linky Blog Hop!

Tresa Black is hosting a Linky Blog Hop, along with other fellow Close To My Heart Consultants, to give you a sneek peek of stamp sets and products in the brand new Spring / Summer Idea Book/Catalog.

The new Idea Book/Catalog will be available for viewing online on 1 February 2011.  I must say I am liking a LOT of the new items, stamp sets, and papers in it and I have a very loooooong wish list.  I take hours going through each new book, poring over projects and circling items I would like to own.  I got through it at least a half dozen times when it first comes out and every time I see something I didn't notice before.

If you're like me, and would like a copy in your hands (rather than viewing it online), drop me a line at my Email Address  and for only $2.28 plus shipping, one can be yours!  (Plus I take the purchase price off your first order from me, so it's technically free!!!!)

Now on to the Linky Blog Hop!  (No drooling on keyboards, please!)

Inspired by Five ... (Jan 16 - 22)

I visit a TON of blogs every week and have so many ideas bookmarked in my Favorites that I want to CASE in some way and I thought I would share some of them with you.  I am going to keep it to my top five, though, so it's manageable.  I usually bookmark about four times that many!  LOL

They are from all types of stampers, papercrafters and fellow CTMH Consultants.  I find that even ideas from other stamping companies can translate so well to our CTMH products that I save them all, with ideas on which stamp sets or papers would really make the project my own. 

I am going to 'try' and make it a weekly post but it may be every two weeks.  We'll see how it goes.

1.  Sneak Peek at Bliss by Leisa Hubley from Big Red Scraps
2.  Birthday Wishes by Debbie Henderson from Debbie's Designs
3.  Cards Cards Cards from Just My Scrapbook
4.  Elegant Thoughts by Lynn from LW Designs
5.  Thinking of You by Kerin Sylvester from Stamps, Paper, Glitter!

My Craft Area - A Work in Progress

Over at the Heart 2 Heart CTMH Challenge Blog the challenge is all about organization this time around so here we go on the grand tour of my scrap room.

This room belonged to my son when he lived at home.  Once he moved out, we stripped it and redid it, including taking out the close that used to be inside the door.  It really cut into the dimensions of the room and I really wanted the extra space.

This first picture shows the view from my doorway.  The workstation in the middle of the room is made from the modular units you can get at Michaels.  I bought them at 40% and 50% off over a period of time until I had enough.  We assembled them and place them back to back to create a work surface for me to stand at.  There are a total of 16 units, 8 on each side.  My hubby and I added a piece on the top because it wasn't quite high enough.  It gives extra storage, too, so I can put my paper trimmers etc in there as the spaces (three) run straight across the top.  (Better seen in a later photo.  The top measures 57" x 31.5" and it is 3 feet high.  I also got a bar stool to sit on as my feet get sore quite quickly, though I prefer to scrap standing.

And from the next corner.  You can't really see it because I forgot to move my office chair but you can, over the top of the chair back, see a basket with CTMH stamp sets in it .... Well, that basket is sitting on top of 6 My Acrylix organizers and there is another two on the floor next to that stack.  :-) 

The brown desk holds my computer, printer, phone ... There is another piece not in the photo but it has my Silhouette and Cuttlebug on it.  (You can see it in the next picture)

And from the next corner.  My ink carousel is in the way but hubby added a shelf onto the stand my water jug (offering hot and cold water) is on and I have my Cricut there, along with my embossing gun (that you can kind of see the tip of).  See that stack of paper on the desk in the bottom right corner?  That is 134 sheets I am offering up as part of my own challenge this month.  It's on this blog if you want to check it out.

Under the water cooler is all of my embossing folders and Sizzix dies.

And the next corner.  That white spot is NOT from forgetting to paint that section.  LOL  It is a foam core board that I have notched and use as a backdrop to take photos of my projects.

More photos ... lol  These units are from the closet storage section at Zellers and got them when they were all on sale.  I "may" get doors for the top section, too, but have not decided for sure yet.  I am not done organizing and sorting all my stuff so if I get get it organized well enough and it looks nice, I may leave them open.  They'll probably hold all of my My Acrylix organizers anyway.  :-)  The unit on the far left has baskets for my punches that don't hang on the rod and the doors have all my old scrappy magazines that I am slowly geting through and tearing out the ideas I like.  Those are going into binders - it will save me a TON of space and I can  use it for something else.

All the middle sections under the windows hold misc altering stuff (boxes, tins, tubes etc) as well as my bags and such for storing stuff in.

The unit on the right holds - for now - my flowers.  They look tidy now that I've sorted and purged.  That shelf is a LOT fuller than it looks!  No more room.  There are more flowers in the basket next to the two My Acrylix organizers that are there.  The rest of the section holds CDs, family history stuff, address books and blank CDs.

These two units I got at Canadian Tire several years ago.  The wire racks hold all my CTMH cardstock and I have our cardstock samples hanging from the spots that corresponds to the cardstock on the shelf.  At first I thought this was a good idea but they hang too low so if I need something out of one of the drawers, I have to hold them out of the way to close the drawers.  Time to rethink this .... hmmmm. 

The next row is my TV and stereo and the drawers hold embossing powders, paints, my stamping blocks, glitter, hand punches, misc. tools and such.  A work in progress still.

The next row down is all my patterned paper housed in Cropper Hopper paper keepers.  Yes, there is a LOT of it.  I LOVE me some patterned paper!!!!

All my CTMH paper packs are in the one furthest on the right, in alphabetical order so I can find them easier.  Yep, a little anal.  :-)

The bottom row holds Iris craft containers from Michaels that have all of my alphabets (stickers, chipboard, rubons etc), bling, stickers, chipboards, felt, diecuts, transparencies, rubons.

My fab hubby made me this ribbon organizer and most of my ribbon is on dowels behind those lovely strands that are hanging down.  Eventually I want to put doors or something over this.  Eventually.

This is the right hand side of my work table.  This is where I will have all my personal scrapping stuff eventually.  Most of the drawers have stuff just thrown in there until I can get around to finish sorting etc it all.  I've been purging as I go and listing my excess on a seperate blog so it's taking some time.

This side of the work table will be for all of my CTMH business items etc.  Easier to keep everyting seperated out.  Once I am done sorting and etc., of course. 

Well, that's it for now!  The basic bones are exactly how I want them, I just need to finish sorting and organizing - a little at a time. 

Altered Notepad using Wings

This is the best shot I could get of the interior.  My camera does not like white so changed out the background behind the notepad and that's as good as it gets.  LOL

I've been wanting to do one of these for a while now.  I've seen several versions on various blogs so I don't know who to give credit to but they all influenced me in some way.

I borrowed the interior of Chiaki's second notepad (scroll down if you click on the link) where she made a little pocket on the interior of her folder.  I covered mine with patterned paper, though.

My folder dimenstions for cutting and scoring are different, too, as I had different sized note pads than she did so had to design my own template.

I am absolutely in LOVE with the new Wings paper pack and bought one back in December before it was available to the general public (because I'm special ... but actually because I am a Consultant and we get to get our hot little hands on new items one month before our customers).  I have another set on the way and HOPE it will be here tomorrow.  LOL

Anyway .... when I saw this notepad folder by Jen (Roxybonds), I knew for sure that I wanted to do something almost identical. 

 I love the new butterfly stamp from the January Stamp of the Month.  I am all about butterflies!!!  I covered my stamp in Juniper ink, then daubed on Vineyard Berry down the body and some of the wings, then daubed Black on the outside edges. 

I didn't add any bling or use ribbon on the cover like Jen did but substituted a border punched piece of patterned paper.  I also wanted a way to close the pad, so added a piece of ribbon that I could tie if I wanted.

The sentiment on the front is from the Wings Workshop on the Go, exclusive to the kit, and I can't wait to use the other images from this set on a future project.  Definitely my style.  :-)

Supplies Used (All CTMH unless otherwise noted):

Cardstock: Black, Colonial White

Patterned Paper:  Wings Level 2

Inks: Juniper, Vineyard Berry, Black

Border Punch: Stampin' Up
Ribbon: Michaels

Stamp Sets:

D1452 Find Your Style (Jan 2011 SOTM)

B1376 Wings Workshop exclusive

Discounted Items!

You really need to go and check out the Discounted section from Close To My Heart!  They've added quite a bit of new stuff since the last time I looked. 

Hurry over (click on Discounted Products icon at right) as they are only there while supplies last!  Except for two items, everything is 50% or more off. 

New items I've noticed in the last week:

- card kits
- Stickease Assortment sticker sets
- Level One and Level Two paper packs

There's even a pack of Textured 12x12 cardstock on there if you're running low on some summer colors.  :-)

Blog Candy!

A fellow CTMH consultant is celebrating one year as a blogger and is giving away a TON of stuff to someone.  You really have to check out the post to see all of the stuff that is going to be included. 

Run, don't walk to Isn't That Sweet? to get your chance to win.

January 2011 Challenge

Was November and December crazy busy or was it just me? I know it normally is but it seemed worse this year for some reason.

I know I sure didn't get the challenge done that was due the end of December ... lol. No one did, actually, so I am going to use the same prize package for January. I think it's a good one. Who doesn't need more patterned paper?

Here it is again:

TWO (sometimes FOUR) sheets of EVERY Close To My Heart paper pack that I have, including any from Constant Campaigns that I've ordered as well !!!

I've gone through all of my paper packs from CTMH and the winner will receive 134 pieces of patterned paper!

Here are the paper pack sheets that will be included (I ended up putting in FOUR sheets of ones I had multiple packs of):

Aspen - 4

Bella - 2

Best Friends - 2

Boom-Di-Ada - 2

Caboodle - 2

Caprice - 4

Cherry-O - 2

Elegant Bouquet - 4

Emporium - 4

Evensong - 2

Felicity - 4

Floral Impressions - 4

Floral Tapestry - 2

Free Spirit - 4

Good Times - 2

Grace - 4

Heirloom - 4

Holiday - 2

Jingle - 4

Key to my Heart - 4

Life Delights - 4

Magnifique - 2

Miracle - 4

Mistletoe - 4

Moon Doggie - 2

More to Adore - 2

Notebook - 4

Olivia - 4

Passages - 2

Perfect Day - 4

Sarsaparilla - 2

Silhouette - 4

Splendor - 2

Sweet Home - 4

That's Amore - 2

Tickled Pink - 2

Tinkerin' - 2

Topstitch - 2

Twitterpted - 2

Unforgettable - 2

Veranda - 4

Victorian Elegance - 2

Vintage Travel - 2

Whoops-A-Daisy - 2

Zippidee - 2

Now, on to the challenge:

As always ... a sketch. I loved this one from last month so am using it again this month since I didn't get it done anyway.



Sketch by Stacy Cohen on the Pencillines blog.



For those of you who are cardmakers (you need to make THREE cards using this sketch), here is your sketch:



Sketch by Becky Fleck of Page Maps.



OR

Use your stash of flowers in a different way on a layout. I want to see some creativity here, ladies! (I went through my stash of flowers the other day ... OBSCENE! I am going to try and do this one as well as the sketch one.)

You have until midnight on 5 February 2011 to complete the challenge. You get one entry per layout you do (or per three cards for cardmakers).

Three ways to enter:

1.  Email me your completed projects

or

2.  Post your photos to my CTMH Group on Facebook (open group that anyone can join)

or

3.  Comment on this post with a link to your completed project.

Winner will be chosen by random drawing on 6 February 2011 using random.org. (Each entry will be assigned a number in the order they are posted/received by me and those numbers will be used in the random draw.)

Looking for Inspiration?

If you're looking for ideas for your Close To My Heart products, check out Big Red Scraps.  It's an online community dedicated totally to all things Close To My Heart.

If you've got a certain stamp set or paper packet you're looking for ideas for, you can even search the gallery by its name and see all the ideas for it on one page. 

Check it out!

Christmas Card time!

I am FINALLY done making my Christmas cards.  I did 68 this year.  Whew!  I don't normally do that many, but every 5 years I do everyone.  This year was extra special because I wanted to send pictures from my son's wedding this summer to those who could not make it or who I thought might like a couple of them.  (Yeah, I'm a proud mama!)

I based this card on one by K Werner who based her card on this one.  I just couldn't leave the original design alone and had to add inking to the white edges and around the stamped circle images.  It still wasn't sitting right with me so I punched out circles and mounted the images inside the circles leaving enough space so the background showed through a bit.  A little bling in the middle of each snowflake and I was finally happy with the end result.

Supplies:

Stamp sets:

B1194 Music of Winter (retired)

B1357 All the Best (Mistletoe Workshop on the Go exclusive stamp set)

Cardstock:  Sweet Leaf, White Daisy

Inks: Cranberry, Clover Meadow

Ribbon: Cranberry Grosgrain

Embellishments:  Z1104 Sparkles

This one is a simple one and I just had no creative ideas so lifted it from Vicki Wizniuk who lifted Andrea Walford.  I changed mine out a bit because I didn't want the bulk of the buttons so just stapled my ribbon to the card instead.  I didn't add the bling along the scallops, either, opting instead to just use a punch that included holes in the scallops so the background shows through.

Supplies:

Stamp Sets:

D1384 Snow Flurries (sentiment)

Ribbon: Cranberry Grosgrain

Ink: Black

Cardstock: White Daisy, Cranberry, New England Ivy, Olive

Vicki Wizniuk proved inspiration for this one, too.  She is amazingly talented on her own but she also has an amazing talent for finding other amazing talent.  So ... I CASEd Vicki and she CASEd Connie Collins who CASEd it from a card she saw in Paper Crafts Holiday Cards & More (vol. 5).

                                       

Supplies:

Cardstock: Colonial White, Ponderosa Pine

Patterned Paper: X5802 Holiday

Stamp Sets:

C1379 Holiday Commentary

This one was totally lifted from the founder and CEO of Close To My Heart, Jeanette Lynton! 

Supplies:

Cardstock: Chocolate, Colonial White

Patterned Paper: X7130B Mistletoe

Stamp Sets:

C1379 Holiday Commentary

B1357 All the Best (Mistletoe Workshop on the Go exclusive stamp set)

All the designs were lifted in whole or in part from somewhere and I've given credit where I remembered where the idea came from.  I was just not feeling inspired this year and it was getting down to crunch time.  I am not ashamed of using the talents of other amazing crafters!  My name is Lisa and I am a CASEr!

Isn't it amazing how one good idea can spread from person to person and each one puts their own spin on it? 

Which one will YOU get if you're on my list?  You'll just have to wait and see!  :-)

Happy Holidays and Merry Christmas to everyone!

December Newsletter

Happy Holidays Everyone! Christmas is almost upon us. Are you ready? LOL

I'm going to make it short and sweet this month.

1. Plenty for Twenty Campaign
During the month of December, if you place an order of $20 or more on my website, will be rewarded with a popular, retired D-size stamp set for FREE!!! Talk about getting more for your money – the free stamp set is valued at $26.95. CTMH is sure you’ll be thrilled with the set they pick out for you. They are also including free shipping and handling and taxes on the free stamp set! Need more information? See the flyer!

2. Idea Books
I went over this last month but it bears repeating ... the Autumn/Winter Idea book will be valid until the end of January since the new Spring/Summer does not start until February 1.

3. January promotion
January will have it’s own mini catalog! Here is the link to the pdf version of it but will probably be ordering hard copies and get them out to you (mini idea books will be given to select clients as I will only be ordering 10).

Answers to FAQ about the January promotion:
1. Stamp sets in the mini are only available at the discounted price IF you purchase the January Workshop on the Go Kit.
2. Stamp sets in the mini can be purchased at the regular prices listed as well.
3. To receive the January Stamp of the Month set FREE you can either:
a. purchase the WOTG kit and FOUR or more items from the mini
b. purchase items from the mini and/or Autumn/Winter Idea Book totalling $117.50 or more (before shipping and taxes).
c. See chart in the mini (page 5) for how to qualify for savings of 25%, 50% or 75% off on the January Stamp of the Month. Otherwise, the chart available in your Autumn/Winter Idea book would apply (page 109).
4.  Promotion runs 1 January 2011 to 31 January 2011.
If you have any questions, email me!

4. Prices are falling!
CTMH has notified Canadian Consultants that because of our stronger dollar, prices on the majority of items will be going down! This means product prices will fall but it also means that qualifying purchases totals for the Stamps of the Month and Hostess Rewards will be going down, too. As an example, as of January 1, 2011, to qualify for the Stamp of the Month FREE, you only need to spend $110.95. That is $6.55 less than now! You’ll definitely be getting more for your money! Yay!

5. Girls Night Out!
Some of you have told me that you did not receive last month’s newsletter so this bears mentioning again, as well.

Every woman deserves at least one day a month to do something for herself without kids or a husband interrupting. Don’t you agree? We barely have time to do our normal household duties let alone time to pursue hobbies. Well here’s your chance. And it is PG-13. LOL

I would love to start a Scrapbook Club for sometime in February. If you are interested in joining here are a few of the details:

- a minimum of 5 (FIVE) Club members is required to start a club.
- you would be required to purchase a minimum of $25.00 each month for 6 months (or 7 if there is seven people in the Club).
- each month a different person will be considered Hostess. As the monthly Hostess all that is required is you bring a treat to nibble on during “recess”. That’s it! I provide coffee, tea or water and all classes will take place in my home. No worries about keeping your house clean!
- during the month you are Hostess, you will receive a minimum of $30 in free product. If sales are higher, you could get more product free!
- all Club members will receive any Idea Book/Catalogs that are brought out during the Club period for FREE.
- each month we will create different paper craft items (supplies for all projects are included in your Club ‘membership’) Projects will vary but will always be papercraft related – scrapbook pages, cards, 3D items, altered items, home decor items, and I’m always open to suggestions if there is something paper-crafty you’d like to try!
- NOTE: Because my husband is a shift worker, Club nights cannot be held on one particular day each month. Most Clubs typically run on the 3rd Tuesday or 2nd Monday of each month, as an example. Because of my husband’s varying shifts, I am not able to set dates in that way. What I am proposing is to do is, say, during the first week of each month but the day of the week would vary from month to month, depending on his shifts. Since there won't be a fixed date each month, I will have a makeup date within about 2 weeks of the original date for those who cannot make it to the original Club night. 

This gives you a general idea of what the Club is about but if you’re interested in more in-depth details, email me and I will send you more information – the fine print, per se. LOL

That’s it for now ... I hope you all have a wonderful holdiay season and that the New Year brings all that you could wish for you and your families!