Embrace the Philosophy of Fun

I have, in short order: enjoyed a week off in Jamaica and +25 weather, came home and got incredibly sick and slept most of the weekend away, got in a Mother's Day card, and started a new meal plan which involves a lot more meal prep and clean up and back to my dance classes.

Which means, I didn't get a chance to get anything up or post any of the beautiful Jamaican sunsets I took photos. But enough about me! I want to tell you about March's latest campaign, Embrace the Philosophy of Fun!

Ever felt like you wanted to be a CTMH consultant? It's a great way to get access to all these products and so much more - and, you end up being able to save some $$. Hobbies were not meant to be cheap. When you sign up as a new Consultant between March 1 - March 31st, you'll receive a free Cricut Art Philosophy Collection! The collection includes:

* 1 Cricut® cartridge with accompanying booklet of shapes
* 3 coordinating My Acrylix® D-size stamp sets
* 3 sheets of matching Dimensional Elements shapes.

If you already own the collection, you can also opt to get 100$ worth of select product credit - that's even more fun goodies to buy! I doubted at the time, but I absolutely adore my Cricut and the Art Philosophy cartridge.

Note: Additional requirements and limitation regarding the redemption and shipping of Select Product Credit apply. Select Product Credit is added to the new Consultant account following approval of enrollment.

I'll post the Mother's Day card pretty soon!

Happy Valentine's Day!

The stores always start prepping for this way back in January, and the cards are always pink in color and can be seen from across the room. I thought I'd do up a Valentine's card for my husband; honestly, without him I wouldn't be who I was today and secondly I'd leave the house without my head attached!

Happy Valentine's Day to everyone - because you all deserve to feel special!

Today's inspiration is from i{heart}2stamp : Feburary Sketch For You To Try 2012. Of course, the additional die cut behind the circle is a trick I borrowed from Random Acts of Creativity : Feburary SFYTT

Look closely as I interpreted the three circles differently and put three little hearts, with bling at the top of the card. At first I wanted to pick all masculine colors, but pink and red are of course Valentine colors! Oh well, the yellow and orange balances it out, I think.

On top of everything else, my husband is not only my best friend but my soul mate, and so I thought these particular sentiments from the set Soul Mates was just perfect. I always like to keep the colors from the front of the card and bring them to the inside so that the card has a unified look.

Michaels, etc:
* Ribbon
* Yellow patterned cardstock
* Brown solid cardstock

CTMH:
* Soul Mates
* Childhood Portrait
* Grace Level 2 Paper Pack
* Itty Bitty Rhinestones
* Clear Sparkles Rhinestones
* You and Me diecut
* Chocolate Ink
* Smoothie Ink
* Olive Ink

Hope you have a great Valentine's,

Recycling...

Leftover from the husband's Christmas gift (a huge driving wheel for the PS3) was this box with white insides. I had read some time ago on a food blog that instead of buying a whitebox to photograph in - you could just make your own! So, I turned that box into my white box. The best time of day to take pictures is around noon-2:00 PM.

I am planning to bring down all birthday cards with me between March to August when I go to Denmark, but I haven't done anything yet for a close family friend or my mother in law. This one is for the close family friend.

Today's inspiration: Mojo Monday's MOJO277 and in particular, Sarah Bigelow of Sarah's Creations. I love her flourish around the circle.

I don't often think of white when I'm cutting out embellishments, but I was definetly inspired by Sarah's use of white and it just went so well with this card. All of CTMH's patterned paper can be mixed and still produce beautiful results: this one is a mix of Wonderland and Lucky (retired).

To color in the owl on the front and the little compass on the inside, I actually used a paintbrush and CTMH inks; first I dabbed the tip of the brush right on the inkpad, then on scrap paper so the ink is not too dark and then color in my item. I do all the shading later, skipping the scrap paper step.

Michaels, etc:
* White cardstock
* Brown ribbon (thanks, Crave Cupcakes)
* Flower brad
* Dark rhinestones

CTMH:
* Card Chatter - Birthday
* Pair A Phrase (retired)
* Lucky Level 2 Paper Pack
* Wonderland Level 2 Paper Pack
* Chocolate Ink
* Outdoor Denim Ink
* Honey Ink
* Art Philosophy Cricut Cartridge

It's snowing once again!

Such amazing new papers!!

With the new catalog always comes new paper packs, and boy are the ones this time around super pretty! I thought I'd share with you some projects that the amazing Design Team at CTMH came up with - I'm going to have to try my hand at some of these.

These three are from Victory, Lucy, and Pemberly

These three are from Florentine, Stella and Superhero

And finally, these two are from Cruisin and Footloose.

All the 3-D shapes are cut with CTMH's exclusive Cricut Cartridge - that's just a smattering of the many versatile images available. For those of you who are interested in trying out the projects above, I'll make you a deal - if you buy the corresponding Level 2 paper pack I'll cut out the pieces for you and give you everything in a bag - leftovers and all! You can also buy the corresponding stamp set - just ask me - or change it up and do your own thing.

With a new catalog we always have to say g'bye to some other items as they are retired. After the Spring/Summer 2012 catalog period is over CTMH will be retiring the following products:

* How To Books

* Full Distressing Kit (items can still be purchased separately)

* Exclusive Inks Markers

* Cardstock Shade packs

* 8 1/2 x 11 Cardstock packs

So if you had your heart set on any of these items, make sure to order them before the Autumn/Winter 2012 catalog comes out.

Happy scrapp'in,

I have Cricut moments...

... sometimes I just want to use my Cricut so I dream up excuses to use it. This excuse is a continuation of the Portugal party. I'm thinking that at the very end of the trip I'd like to put some little goodies on the dinner table that are packaged up all nice as "party favors". It's a way to finish the trip with a bang and guess what I get to play with another Cricut 3-D shape!

My original inspiration is from the treat box that Carla made for one of her all day scrapbooking crops. It's done in red with little hearts stamped on it. Just in time for heart2heart's challenge: 3-D Items!

I realized that I haven't touched my Costco stash of background papers in a while. I wanted something that reminded me of Spring, as his birthday is actually in March, and I wanted to try out some new inks I'd gotten. My favorite thing about this shape is that there's no adhesives required. You just need to hook two slots together for the left and right sides, slide in your items (chocolate!!) and then the ribbon ties it all together at the top.

Michaels, etc:
* Green patterned paper - Costco
* Ribbon

CTMH:
* Art Philosophy Cricut cartridge
* Lucky Workshop Stamp set - Retired
* Barn Red Ink
* Spring Iris Ink

Hopefully you are staying warm this winter - I'm currently enjoying spring-like temperatures out there!