Free Cricut Artbooking Class

It is time for the launch of the 2013 Autumn/Winter Idea Book & our latest Cricut Collection Artbooking! Trust me when I say you are going to love it! I don't know how the folks at CTMH do it, but they just keep coming up with amazing designs. As with all our Cricut collections you receive 3 coordinating sets of chip board and 3 coordinating acrylic stamps sets and there are over 700 images on this cartridge. Each key has all you will need to complete a layout or minibook of various sizes. The images can also be adapted to cardmaking and other paper crafting.

Join me August 14th from 7-9 for a Free Artbooking Class. You will get to make a project, receive a free Idea Book and see some of the other new products from the Idea Book. Order your Artbooking Collection before August 16th and I will give you free shipping! Please RSVP by August 13th (comment on the blog, email, phone or snail mail). Orders placed through the Fall/Winter Idea Book Launch link on my CTMH web address will be eligible for the Hostess prize drawing.

Join me for a fun evening and be inspired!

Surf 's Up

It's summer time and I know we are all spending time outside enjoying the sunshine and the surf!  For this month's blog hop, we are featuring the exclusive "Surf's Up" paper pack from Close to My Heart!    We're celebrating fun in the sun with this colorful paper pack that also has some amazing coordinating accessories and embellishment.

Not only are all of our creations going to use our Surf's Up paper line BUT they will also be using our exclusive Art Philosophy, Artiste, and/or the NEW Artbooking Cricut cartridges available exclusively through a Close to My Heart consultant!  What ?!?!? If you don't already have a Consultant that you are currently working with, please contact one of the Consultants in our hop with any questions you have!

In this hop, you will see projects featuring this versatile cartridges from many talented crafty ladies!  Enjoy our blog hop!  

If you have just hopped onto my blog, please start at the beginning at Lucy's blog – Love 2 Create . If you came

from Melinda's blog -- If You Bling It then you are in the right place!

Welcome Hoppers! Let me first confess that I spent a lot less time on this project than I would have liked due to a serious family emergency (more about that some other time). I had to decide pretty quickly what to take with me to work on this project before I left town and I will have to say that this is where our new Cricut Cartridge - ArtBooking (available 08/01/2013) came in so handy.

Because of the features on the cartridge that allow you to create a whole layout from one key I was able to quickly decide on the page themed elements that I wanted to utilize and not have to guess about what size to cut them at as you just set the dial size at one setting and each page element on that key cuts at the right proportion to fit your page. Genius! You are going to love it.

Forgive the quality of these photos, in addition to being in an unfamiliar setting with not so great lighting, the dog kept photo bombing me! Leo does not make a good photo assistant ;-). On the close ups you will notice ample use of epoxy bubbles/green and blue assortment (I finally had to make myself step away from the bling.) and burlap ribbon. The only other materials I used were the paper from the Surf's Up paper pack and the cuts made on my Cricut with the ArtBooking Cartridge. Sometimes less can be more.

I hope this has inspired you. Your next stop on our Surf's Up blog hop is Justine's blog, The Twilight Stamper .

Here is the complete lineup in case you get lost along the way:

1. Lucy ~Love 2 Create (link:  http://www.love2createitall.com/2013/07/surfs-up.html)
2. Theodora ~Celebrate Crafts (link:  http://www.celebratecrafts.com/2013/07/surfs-up.html)
3. Traci ~Paper Crafting 101  (link: http://papercrafting101.blogspot.com/2013/07/surfs-up.html)
4. Michelle ~My Flights of Fancy (link: http://www.myflightsoffancy.com/surfs-up-blog-hop  )
5. Melinda Everitt - ifyoublingit (link: http://ifyoublingit.blogspot.com/2013/07/surfs-up.html)
6. Melissa Harris ~ The Keen Krafter (link: http://thekeenkrafter.blogspot.com/2013/07/surfs-up.html)
7. Justine Hovey ~ The Twilight Stamper (link:  http://www.justinehovey.com/2013/07/surfs-up.html)
8. Heather Hunt ~ Creative Coconut (link: http://creativecoconut08.blogspot.ca/2013/07/surfs-up.html  )

Thanks for hopping along with us - we hope we were able to inspire you.

Close to My Heart Monogram Stationary Set

I created this set for a dear friend's birthday. It features our monogram stamp sets, Perfect Fit Frames 1, Perfect Fit Frames 2 and Honeycomb as well as the Claire paper pack. All shapes were cut with our Cricut Art Philosophy and Cricut Artiste cartridges. I'm really pleased with how this came out. The monogram stamps are great for creating special gifts or including as a gift for your crafty friends and family.

Retired List

As mentioned in my recent newsletter here is a link to the list of items retiring from the 2013 Spring/Summer Idea Book:
https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B5B-mrVyhaGUOUwtRnp0UWtBYmM/edit?usp=sharing .

Part of what delayed me in getting this up was that I couldn't figure out how to post a table in Blogger and keep it readable and even though my version of Adobe Reader on the home pc is updated it keeps crashing, so I think I may need to remove and re-install, so rather than delay this any further my solution was to put the pdf document in Google Docs for you to access. I'm not sure if you have to sign up for Google Docs to view this or if the link itself will be sufficient. However, if you do need to sign up it is free.

Some items have already sold out. To check "real time" availability of an item you can go to my online business account (https://melissaharris.ctmh.com) and go to the shopping page and type the item number in the shopping cart. Everything on the list is "while supplies last" only. The list is a bit long, but you will notice there is a category column that states if the item is a stamp, accessory, paper, etc. Feel free to email me with any questions. Sorry to get this out a few days late, but I've been out of town for a scrapbook retreat and was in crazy get ready mode before that. I'll share some pics of some of the things I created later, but for now I am off to play with my preview copy of our new "Artbooking" Cricut Cartridge that was recently delivered and will be available to you in August. Happy Shopping!
Melissa

Close to My Heart Card with Tommy

I created this on a recent scrapping/stamping retreat I went on for a card swap we all did. I like that this card has multiple uses -- anniversary, encouragement. The red Glitter Glitz doesn't show up as well in this picture as it does in person. but it really is a nice touch. I used our trifold-diecut cards for a base. The stamp and papers are from the Tommy Workshop on the Go Kit.

Let's Get Patriotic - Supporting our troops and country

Show your support of troops and country with new patriotic stamp sets—available only from
June 1 to July 31, 2013! As a show of our support, Close To My Heart will donate $3 from each
B-size My Acrylix® Courage stamp set and $5 from each D-size My
Acrylix® Home of the Brave stamp set to the USO, the leading, most
recognized military-support and services organization in the country.
Show your support today—stamp style!
* Offer valid June 1–July 31, 2013. No qualifying purchase required. No limit per order.

D1576 Home of the Brave
B1437 Courage
D1575 Strong & Free

While supplies last . . .

Don't you just love that phrase? ;-) I just happened to check my online ordering site today and noticed that Close to My Heart has added some new items to the "While Supplies Last" page. One of my favorite items the Bling Buttons are there. Might have to pick a few of those up for myself. :-) You can check all the sale items here. They won't last long.