Artfully Sent Cricut cartridge is HERE!!

I am so excited that the Artfully Sent Cricut Cartridge Collection is finally here. This is an amazing collection and is now available to order. I can not wait until my collection arrives. So before I can post my own photos check out this awesome clip from the Close to My Heart YouTube channel about this fantastic cartridge. Even if you are not a card-maker there are lots of ways to enhance your scrapbooking and Picture My Life scrapbooking with this cartridge. Did I already mention I'm excited :)

Product Description

Cardmaking has never been easier or more fun! With our newest Cricut® collection, you can make handmade masterpieces in no time at all. Choose from cards with sentiments cut directly into them, or combine several cutouts to create your own pop-up scenes. Featuring more than 25 different card themes and 5 different card formats including dynamic interactive designs, this cartridge has a card for any and all occasions—even if the occasion is "just because"! Card styles include pop-ups, scenes, sentiments, sleeves, and pocket cards.
Collection includes:
1 – Cartridge (700 images: Cards and Font)
3 – My Acrylix® D-size stamp sets
1 – 12" × 12" White Daisy Cardstock Pack
Recommended blocks for included stamp sets: 1" × 1" (Y1000), 1" × 3½" (Y1002), 3" × 3" (Y1006), 2" × 3½" (Y1009).
Cricut® is a registered trademark of Provo Craft & Novelty, Inc. All rights reserved.

You can order your collection today on my consultant website for $130, click here.  Or add another $70 of product to the order to get $30 free product, contact me to arrange this. Or book an EZ invite online gathering, invite your friends to purchase online and potentially you could earn this collection for HALF PRICE Plus a heap of free products!

#30yearsofhappy National Stamping Month Stamps

September is National Stamping Month 

To celebrate Close to My Heart are launching the #30yearsofhappy Stamping incentive. With every purchase of $30 of Close to My Heart Stamps in September you get one of the #30yearsofhappy! C-sized stamp sets FREE. 

(yes I did get excited by the idea of these stamp sets being FREE).

I have made some cute little samples using the stamp set and wanted to share with you. I will probably keep making them and posting them cause I might be a little addicted to my new blog. If you'd like daily ideas using this set follow Close to My Heart on Facebook for all of September they are posting daily updates using the hashtag #30yearsofhappy.

Here is a cute card that I made using random stamping on a 2.25 inch x 5.5 inch piece of white daisy cardstock. I used Thistle, Lagoon, Gypsy and Canary Inks with Black ink being for the "Fabulous" to tie in the Black Shimmer Trim. For those following along at home remember random stamping looks better in sets of 3's, and I followed this principle with all the colours except Canary which I used an odd number of them, remembering to go over the edge.

To put the card together I used the 5.5 X 4.25 inch Colonial White Cards & Envelopes.

 I covered the card front with Kraft Cardstock cut to the same size as the card (5.5" X 4.25") stuck the white card stock onto the Kraft and then added 5.5 inch sections of black shimmer trim. 

I also made a page border using the similar random stamping technique on 2"x2" squares of white cardstock. I used the Kraft cardstock cut at 1.25" x 12". To give some dimention I used some Durables Triangle Studs

again in sets of 3's to keep that "pleasing to the eye" look.

These cute #30yearsofhappy stamp sets are so versatile and young children to teenagers to older family members would love these stamps. And... there is no limit to the number of free sets you can earn. ie. Spend $90 on CTMH Stamps and earn 3x FREE promotional stamp sets. These are so cute and would be the perfect gift for young people in your life. Team the free gift with a 1" X 1" My Acrylix® Block and Exclusive Inks® Stamp Pad to make an inexpensive stocking stuffer or birthday gift. 

Family is Forever S1409 : CTMH Stamp of the Month Australasian Blog Hop

Hello and welcome aboard our Stamp of the month Australasian Close to My Heart Blog Hop. If you have arrived here from Jo Armstrong's Blog, Jo's CTMH Craftroom then you are in the right place. If you landed here by accident, no problem, please join in by following the link at the end of this post. This is my very first Blog Hop, so I am very excited. I hope you like it.

Today I would like to share with you the Page and Card I've made which features the September Stamp of the Month - Family is Forever set which is available exclusively throughout September for $27 or for just $5 when you spend $75.

The main thing I wanted to share was that I have used two ink colours to create my more realistic looking tree. I used Chocolate to create the tree trunk and New England Ivy to create the leaves. Black was the other colour I used on the sentiment and hearts at the top of the page. To get the two-coloured stamping look I used a bit of the Rock & Roll Technique (click here to view a Close to My Heart YouTube Clip on the technique) and put the Chocolate on first and then the New England Ivy around the edges for the leaves. To get into the middle of the tree, I used the corner of the stamp pad, so make sure you have baby wipes handy to clean up any excess ink on your pad edges or acrylic blocks, if you are going to try this technique at home.

FYI: The page is sitting on my Versamat™ in this photo so that is the black edging around the page, it gave it a bit of distinction from my wooden table. I love my Versamat, I use it for every single thing I stamp (upside-down on the foam side) and to line up my paper on my page (on the grid side). 

The page design was inspired by the Reflections™ Scrapbook Program Basic Title Topper section. The loveheart shape was cut using scissors this time but next time I will cut it out using the Cricut® Artiste Collection because its a neater finish but if you don't have a cricut you can still use this lovely heart by hand-cutting or "fussy cutting" as we like to call it. I used some 3-D Foam Tape to give the heart some dimension.

I am totally in love with the 12" X 12" Kraft Cardstock and have been using it for matting everything at the moment! The Kraft Cardstock really goes well with the natural look of the Chocolate and New England Ivy ink. The background texture paper I used is the embossed Sweet Leaf paper that comes from the NEW Paper Fundamentals Whimsy Assortment. I love that it is subtle yet creates texture and dimension on the page.

The cute little red lovehearts go so great with this Stamp of the Month because there are already so many hearts that match with it in this Stamp set. They are the NEW Red Enamel Hearts I think they are really sweet.

The card is the same technique using a different sentiment and I added extra Red Enamel Hearts and shimmer trim (all cards need Shimmer Trim or lots of Bling, in my humble opinon!!). This was a quick little card to put together using the 5 1/2" X 4 1/4" White Cards & Envelopes.

 

 
Septembers Stamp of the Month - Family is Forever is only available until 30th September from your CTMH consultant. I'd love you to leave a comment before heading off to the next stop on the Blog Hop, which is Georgia O'Shea's Blog.