So they tell me it is the weekend

Fridays just don't seem as great when you have to work overtime on Saturday but at least I only had to work a half day today...which means the rest of my day is play time!!!!! :-)

As promised (although a few days later than I had hoped) here are the photos of my Close To My Heart kit.

You read the list and it sounds like a lot of stuff but then you get the box and you dig in and it seems like you will never hit the bottom! I had a blast unpacking it...even hubby stood by watching in amazement lol

So the huge deal this month is the free Cricut cartridge of your choice with your kit. I chose the Artbooking cartridge because I want to make more art journals (not that I ever seem to put anything in them lol)

Here is what you get when you order a Cricut cartridge from Close To My Heart.....not just a cartridge!

 

Check this out! You get the awesome cartridge with 700 images and a font! PLUS 3, yep THREE coordinating stamp sets AND a set of 3 coordinating chipboard elements! How cool it that?! And just think, that was the Freebie in my kit and my reason for signing up! I am not disappointed. :-)

Now onto the rest of the kit...

CTMH has scrapbook 'kits' called Workshops On The Go. They include supplies and instructions to make at least 2 page layouts....or a ton of cards lol
The kit this month has the Skylark Workshop On The Go. It includes the Skylark paper pack ( 6 printed papers and 6 coordinating cardstocks), a coordinating stamp set, 3 additional sheets of cardstock, some acrylic flower embellishments and some slate striped twist ties. I love the colors of these papers!

 

Next came the Skylark extras....a package of 24 sheets of the bulk printed papers and a set of the Skylark Complements. These are printed chipboard embellishments.

Digging deeper I found 3 more stamp sets! Two of them compliment the Skylark set really well and then there was a full alphabet (upper and lower case)

Still digging.... look at all these supplies!
3 stamp pads (which go really well with the Skylark papers), 3 acrylic stamp blocks, 2 types of embellishments (teal flowers and metal triangle studs), teal ribbon, scissors, stamp cleaner, stamp cleaning brush, glue pen and a bottle of liquid glass. Oh, and a sponge for inking edges or whatever you want. I think that covers everything in this picture lol

But I'm not done yet!
I received 2 spiral bound books. Originals has card examples and lots of layout ideas and Reflections is the same thing but for scrapbook layouts. Both of these are really cool books with tons of ideas and gorgeous photos!

Everything else in the box was business supplies....you know, catalogs (which I must say are heavy, gorgeous and feel awesome in the hand!), order forms and stamp sets to give out to hostesses. I didn't figure you wanted to see those lol

So, have I used any of this stuff yet? Why yes I have lol  Not much, I have been pretty busy this week, but I managed to grab a few minutes of art time.

I made this card using some of the papers, stamps and my artbooking cartridge.
The teal and grid papers are both from the Skylark pack. The bird is from the Believe in Yourself set (#C1574). The 'Sweet' stamp is from the Sweet & Lovely set (D1571) that came in my Cricut bundle. I cut the heart background with the Artbooking cartridge. Oh and look, some of those gold metal studs! :-)

I also worked in one of my art journals this week. I wanted to experiment with cutting a stencil with my Cricut and then figured what better place to use it than in my journal. 'Live in the Moment' is from the Skylark stamp set (D1591) that came in the Skylark workshop. 'Believe in Yourself' is from the Believe in Yourself set (C1574). I cut the hexagon grid from Artbooking and used it as a stencil with the CTMH inks Lagoon and Desert Sand. And then I liked how the stencil itself looked with ink on it so I added part of it onto the page. Oh, and the little bird on the lower left, the blue larger layer is part of the paper, the brown top layer is a stamp from the Believe in Yourself set.

So there you have it! Or maybe there I have it lol

Either way, all of these wonderful products can be yours if you would like. For the month of April 2014, Close To My Heart is including 1 free Cricut bundle of your choice in the consultant kits. You are not obligated to every sell anything or buy anything else so you are basically buying your Cricut bundle for $99 (plus shipping and tax) and getting all these other awesome products for free!

If you are interested or have questions please visit my site at www.CherylWrede.ctmh.com

Ok, no more commercials! From now on, I will note if I use CTMH products and give you the name and such (just like I have always done with all my other supplies over the years) and will have my page link at the bottom of the post but won't be hounding you to check it out....I promise!

A new Journey begins

I am all about learning new things. If you have been here before or scroll through the many years of my blog you will see that I am always trying out new techniques and supplies (I love learning new things and having new toys lol)

Well, this week I started another new journey. I signed up to be a Close To My Heart consultant?

You might ask why? She doesn't scrapbook!
So true, I only scrapbook once a year to document our yearly anniversary trip (which was last week btw). BUT I do rubber stamp! A Lot! And I have loved CTMH (Close To My Heart) stamps for years.

So, why now?
I will tell you! Close To My Heart is offering such a great deal for the month of April 2014 that I just couldn't resist!

The standard consultant kit costs $99......and you receive approximately $300 in product plus business supplies. Now that in itself is a great deal. But wait! There's more. For this month of April 2014 they are also including your choice of a CTMH Cricut cartridge! That by itself is a $99 product because you don't just get the cartridge, you get coordinating stamp sets and chipboard embellishments!

So, for April only you are receiving $400 worth of product for only $99! Being a huge stamp lover and obsessive Cricut user, I just couldn't let this pass me by.

Here is what comes in the kit (mine actually arrived a few minutes ago and it is so heavy I honestly cannot lift it so have to wait for hubby to come home and help me....but I will post pics asap)  :-)

Contents of the New Consultant Kit Include:

• Read Me First Letter
• Spring/Summer 2014 Idea Books (qty. 10)
• Hostess Order Forms (qty. 25)
• Customer Order Forms (qty. 25)
• Close To My Heart Color Swatches (W471)
• Spring/Summer 2014 B&T Duos™ Sampler (W1127)
• Petite Perks™ Delicate Wings Incentive Stamp Set (qty. 5) (W2028)
• Reflections™ Scrapbook Program (9037)
• Originals Card Confidence Program™ (9036)
• Workshops on the Go™ Skylark Scrapbooking Kit (G1072)
• Skylark Complements Dimensional Elements (X7177C)
• Skylark B&T Duos™ Bulk Paper (BULK322)
• Skylark Bulk Resin Flowers (BULK340)
• Durables Triangle Studs (Z1928)
• Teal Shimmer Trim (Z1918)
• Lagoon Exclusive Inks™ Pad (Z2195)
• Desert Sand Exclusive Inks™ Pad (Z2118)
• Slate Exclusive Inks™ Pad (Z2173)
• My Acrylix™ Hopscotch Alphabet Stamp Set (E1028)
• My Acrylix™ True to Life Stamp Set (C1575)
• My Acrylix™ Believe in Yourself Stamp Set (C1574)
• 3" × 3" My Acrylix™ Block (Y1006)
• 4" × 5" My Acrylix™ Block (Y1012)
• 2" × 6½" My Acrylix™ Block (Y1010)
• Non-Stick Micro-Tip Scissors (Z1836)
• My Acrylix™ Stamp Scrubber (Z1782)
• My Acrylix™ Spritz Cleaner (1778)
• Bonding Memories™ Glue (1512)
• Sponge (Z697)
• Liquid Glass (Z679)
• and Cello Bags (qty. 25) (W1152)

(Some items may not be shown. Contents are subject to change without notice.)

Plus your choice of one of the three CTMH Cricut cartridges: Artiste, At Philosophy or Artbooking. 

I ordered Artbooking because I love making art journals. Everything in the picture comes with the Cricut cartridge! How cool is that???

 

 

Check our this video on how to become a consultant.

 

CTMH loves to have new consultants but they also understand how awesome this deal is for Cricut users that just want the cartridge and they are fine with that. (you can check out all 3 cartridges at CTMH)

 

So, if you would like to sign up (to sell or just take advantage of this awesome deal) you can go to my CTMH page and sign up.

 

Or if you have questions, you can leave a comment on this blog or go to my CTMH page and click the "contact me" link at the bottom of the page. I would love to answer your questions and be thrilled if you would like to join my team!

 

But, if you would just like to shop, I am fine with that too. Feel free to browse my CTMH page...make sure you check out all the awesome stamps, inks, papers (oh such gorgeous papers!!!) scrapbooks, Crush books and so many other supplies.

 

***Remember, the offer of the Cricut cartridge with your kit is only good through April 30, 2014!

 

Watch for photos of my kit coming in the next couple days and projects using my new 'toys' very soon. :-)

 



More exploring with the Explore

Since I am still in my free trial period (you get 2 free weeks of access to over 25000+ Cricut images when you buy the Explore-after that time you can buy a subscription) I am playing with lots of images from cartridges that I don't own....so beware.....picture heavy post. :-)

I am still exploring uses for vinyl and am totally loving it! I put a couple dragonflies on our glass door and they look so cute (no picture). Minnie has swiped at them a couple times from her cat tower thinking they were something she could play with. So far they are still stuck tight. :-)

On Monday, after work, we went and got new cell phones. Am I the only one that finds this both fun and infuriating. It is fun to get new toys to play with and pick one that has all the features you like but at the same time you are then dickering over the price, the amount of data...the hidden charges. Ugh! Sometimes I just long for the days of the phone hanging on the wall. But then how could I check Twitter while I am at the grocery? (just kidding, I never check twitter from anyplace but home.....I just don't care THAT much lol)

But to get back on track.....I had that new phone in my hot little hands for about an hour when I pulled out the vinyl and prettied it up. :-)

This cat image if from the Chore Chart cartridge and is about 2 inches tall. Notice how precise the whiskers are cut.

Now, I am one that when I get a new device like a phone or tablet, one of the first things I do is go online and order a vinyl skin for it. So, this was so much fun to create my own vinyl and make my phone unique to me. But for some reason I never put a skin on my iPad mini that I got last summer. I loved how my phone turned out so I grabbed the iPad and vinyl'd it up too!

The doily is from Edge to Edge and the monogram is from Miss Kate's Cuttables. I am still in awe of how the Explore can cut these doilies! The entire thing is only about 4 inches across and yet all those teensy pieces are cut perfectly. (and a nightmare to weed lol)

And as I think I mentioned in another post, hubby wanted something on the dishwasher so that he could differentiate between clean and dirty so I made him these...

We can move a magnet between the 2 of them.  :-)

Here is a closer look. The he is from the Barnyard Babies cartridge. I flipped one of them and I hand-cut the mud. 

But I cut paper and cardstock this week too lol

Because my free period is almost up, I cut out several images that I know I will use in the near future. I will doctor them up and assemble them later but here is one I completed yesterday. He is a puffin from the Seabirds and Shells cartridge. I colored on his details with Prismacolor pencils. I probably should have painted the white on his face but too late now lol  He is just a little guy, about 1 1/2 inches tall.

And finally, the Explore can cut SVG files. Yes, I know if you have the SureCutsALot program you could already do that. But I didn't. And I don't own a Silhouette so I have never played with SVGs before. I am finding tons of free images online and I love freebies!

Miss Kate's offers a freebie of the day so you have to go check every day but it is totally worth it!

This is her Pretty Bug from earlier this week. But don't worry, if you miss out on the freebie, you can still buy it from her for a very small price. 

I used a printed cardstock for the body (it was some sort of peeling paint looking thing lol) in what I think is a nice bug green. The wings were embossed with the Swiss Dots Cuttlebug folder and then I rubbed ink over them to highlight the dots. The base is another doily, from Edge to Edge this time cut at about 5 inches.  Isn't she cute? I was going to put her on a card but instead she now hangs over my work computer because she makes me smile.

But Miss's Kate's isn't the only place I find freebies.

Check out this adorable Pot Belly Bunny. He is the freebie of the week over at Little Scraps of Heaven.

The background paper was just hand cut in a rectangle and I used a corner punch to perk up the corners (nothing like doing it old school lol)
The text box was cut from.....hmmm.....hard to say, there are tons of rectangles out there but probably from George and Basic Shapes. I let the Explore do the writing for me. :-)

And one last picture. Hey, I warned you up front that I was bombarding you this week! lol

This was not a freebie but I still found him online from a site that does offer a freebie of the week. This is from the Cats Collection at Treasure Box Designs.

Sometimes I have a hard time resisting cats. Especially when they look at you like this! lol

All the shading was done with Prismacolor pencils. And her designs already have the 'cute' eyes cut-out, all you need to do is add the details. I liked that as I was assembling this on my lapdesk in front of the TV and really couldn't be messing with paint and water lol

My free trial period is almost up and I do not plan on subscribing (not when I own so many cartridges) so we shall see how it goes. It has been fun browsing the entire Cricut library thought! There are sooooo many images I never imaged they had. But I found myself drawn to things I already own so I think that is a good thing. But, if I do need something I don't already have it is nice to have the option of buying just that one image.

Until next time, have a wonderful week!