Holiday Cards

Here's the 10 cards we did for our Holiday Card Workshop.   We did 2 each of these ten cards using a variety of stamp sets, the Believe papers, an Olive Mini Medley, the Chocolate striped ribbon, Sweet Leaf ribbon, Cranberry Ribbon, White Ribbon, Red and Silver Glitz Gel, Colonial White Waxy Flax and the Holiday Pockets.   We used Cranberry, Holiday Red, Topiary, and Chocolate inks. These cards feature the CTMH Cricut Art Philosophy Cartridge - it's so fun to have stamps to match up with precut images - so much easier than all the cutting we used to do.

 The Magic of Christmas Never Ends is from D1492, Christmas Love Stamp Set.

 The felt Holiday Pockets come in green, red and blue, and are the perfect size to slide in a gift card!

 On this card and two others, we used the cute little "zip strips" that come on the top of the printed papers now.   The back of the decorated zip strips have the paper pack name and all the colors used in it.  The sentiment is from Christmas Love Stamp Set, and the ornament is from Holiday Cheer.

 Here's my favorite - the sleight card.   I love blue and green together!

 This wreath card is made using the Remarkable Wreath stamp set.  It has the berries, flowers and leaves, making it a very seasonally versatile stamp set.  It also has several banners that stretch across the wreath:  4 You, Thanks, and Love, as well as the bow.

 This Merry Christmas card is from C1469, December 25th.

 The Santa was colored with Cranberry and Topiary inks with our blending pen.  The Santa is from the Believe Workshop Stamp Set.

 This card was also made with C1469, December 25th.  The holly leaves are made with the A Holiday stamp set - just $6.95!   See how the Cricut Art Philosophy images line up with our stamps - gotta love it!

 On this card we used Holiday Cheer.  I love these tabs from the Olive Mini Medley!

20 Card Christmas Workshop

We're using the fun Believe papers this year for our Holiday Card Workshop.   You'll be making 2 each of 10 cards.   The $30 fee includes soup, bread and dessert, plus I'll cut all your papers for you!  

Thursday, November 3rd 5:00 - Gladstone
Saturday, November 5th 10:00 - Gresham
Monday, November 7th 4:30 - Gresham


Contact me to reserve your spot!

August Stamp of the Month - A New Program!

Our Stamp of the Month program at CTMH is changing - for the better! Now you can get the SOTM for $5 with a $50 purchase. Before, it cost $11.77 with a $50 purchase, so I think you will appreciate this change. The other very cool thing is that there will now be a project idea sheet included with the stamp set, with online directions, that will be posted for one year! Cute, cute ideas - check out the picture below:

Extra!  Extra!  Here's the other good news for August:   If your August order comes to $50, you will not only get the August SOTM for $5, but you will get a great new stamp set called A Typeface.  It's a little alphabet, not in the Idea Book, and it's yours FREE with a $50 order!

New Product Blog Hop

Many thanks to Tresa Black (CTMH Consultant Extraordinaire from Washington) who is hosting this NEW product blog hop.

Here are my contributions:  2 layouts made with Typeset, a really nifty new paper pack.  

 Both of these layouts use the following products:

Typeset Paper Pack

Typeset Canvas Complements

Pin Clips (love these little cuties)

Milepost Shapes

Juniper Ink

Black Waxy Flax

This 2nd layout also shows our new Color Ready Cork Alphabet (SO cool looking!) and the Irresistable Numbers

Here's a couple of close ups that show off new embellishments:  This first one shows the Canvas Complements (self-adhesive) that coordinate with our Typeset papers.   They are SO great!  You can also see the zip strip that you cut off the top of our new printed papers (one side has the paper pack name and all the colors in it, and the other side has a coordinating design like this alphabet strip).  Last but not least, there's a milepost shape (you can see part of a bracket) down in the corner, that I've inked with Vineyard Berry for this layout.   You get 48 of various corrugated chipboard shapes in a package for only $3.95 - what a deal!

This picture is a close-up of another Typeset Canvas Complement (inked with Juniper), along with a Pin Clip wrapped up with waxy flax, and part of (again!) a milepost shape.

Thanks for looking!   Enjoy your new product hop!>Linking up to www.fabulouslyartsy.com

August Create with Karen Calendar of Events

My August Events start this Thursday with all NEW products from the CTMH Autumn/Winter Idea Book, available at my August classes, and online starting Monday 8/1.   You will get a free Idea Book when you place an order - it's filled with wonderful ideas for cards, layouts and other projects.  

Thursday 8/4 6:00  Cards with Karen - Gladstone  (8360 Cason Rd)
Monday 8/8 4:00-9:00 Open House/Cards with Karen - Gresham (522 SW Lillyben)
Tuesday 8/9 4:00-9:00 Open House/Cards with Karen - Gresham
Friday 8/12 6:00 Scrapbook Club - Gresham
Tuesday 8/16 5:00 Scrapbook Club - Gresham
Monday 8/22 6:00  Scrapbooking/Cards with Karen - Salem (3500 River Rd N)

If you would like to make 4 incredibly adorable cards with new papers, stamp sets and embellishments, RSVP to let me know you're coming so I have materials prepped for you!   Who doesn't like to receive a hand made card?   Cards with Karen is $8 or FREE with a $15 order.

If you would love to make 4 amazing and beautiful 2 page layouts, contact me to order a kit for Scrapbook Club!  I promise you will love your layouts!

Sign up to follow my blog!

Click on "join this site" to become a follower of my blog (it's harmless, I promise).   I'll do a drawing from among all my new followers the end of August and someone will win some FREE goodies from the Fall CTMH Idea Book!

Soon the myctmh websites will be discontinued, (don't worry, there'll still be on-line shopping and other ways of lookng at CTMH products and art on line) and one of the ways to find out about my events will be to check my blog.   SO, sign up now and help me get in the habit of posting, and yourself in the habit of checking my blog!

Art from Convention Extravaganza and the NEW CTMH Autumn/Winter 2011 Idea Book

This is a plaid paper from the Roxie paper pack.   Looks like this artist cut a heart from the Art Philosophy Cricut cartridge.   This card base is one of our new ones:  a 6x6 scalloped Kraft card base.  

These cards are also from Extravaganza.   The cards you see here on the left are from the Elemental paper collection.   They are all small prints, in good basic colors:  red, green, blue, yellow and orange.   We'll be using these papers in September, and maybe a l-i-t-t-l-e bit in August too!

More art from CTMH Convention

This card was another piece I saw at convention, at Extravaganza.   It's made using the Believe papers.  Very cute new Christmas papers with Holiday Red, Topiary, Sweet Leaf and Sky.   Notice the holly is cut out with the Art Philosophy cartridge and then stamped.

These pictures were snapped rapidly, but this is just to give you an idea of some of our new products.   These pieces were made with the new Wonderland paper pack.   If you loved Aspen, you will LOVE Wonderland!    It is absolutely gorgeous, and as much as I love Summer, I can't wait to use these papers in an early Winter class.   YOu can also see the Frosty Topcoats (snowflakes).   We also have some beautiful new bling.  The centers of these snowflakes are the Rhinestone Designer Brads.  Wonderland colors are Crystal Blue, Chocolate, Gray Flannel, Twilight and Amethyst.  Gorgeous!

CTMH Convention in Anaheim!

I got back from my first CTMH Convention the other day, and I've decided it's worth being a consultant just to go to the convention! FUN, free goodies, fantastic speakers, amazing new Idea Book and incredible products!

I'm planning to post a couple of pictures each day (my goal) of art with new Fall/Winter products. The NEW Idea Book comes out Monday, August 1st and it's full of goodies. I love each and every one of the papers this time - and that's just for starters.

The BIG news is that Close to My Heart is teaming with Cricut, and we will have an Art Philosophy collection for $99. In includes an amazing Cricut cartridge, which cuts all these amazing shapes that line up with stamps in our catalog - yay! Lots of cutting by scissors will be eliminated. The Art Philosophy collection also includes 3 stamp sets made to go with the cartridge, plus 3 sheets of chipboard Dimensional Elements that pair up with the stamps and cartridge. PLUS, many other stamp sets in the Idea Book have images that have a Cricut image to go with them. I don't know much about Cricut yet, but I'm learning, and I have learned that this AP cartridge has many more images than a normal cartridge. I can't wait to try it all out.

Here's a picture showing some Extravaganza (20 min. classes with amazing teachers) Art from the convention.

This card shows the beautiful NEW Sonoma papers (smokey plum, olive, cocoa and bamboo).  I am SO thrilled that CTMH came out with a paper pack with purple in it!   Actually, there are two papers this time with purple....

Looks like it has a stamped image on a new dimensional element, and that is mounted on the amethyst card stock piece which is cut with the Art Philosophy cartridge. 

Fanfare Birthday Card

Here's one of the Fanfare Cards we'll be making in July Cards with Karen. Contact me to join us! Tues 7/19 - Gladstone, Wed. & Thur 7/20 & 21 - Gresham, Mon. 7/25 - Salem

Trees and Things Stamp set Ideas

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CTMH Convention!

Megan & I are getting SO excited! The CTMH Convention is July 14-16, in Anaheim, and it's getting very close! I can't wait to go down there and see all the other consultants, and find out about new products that will be in the Fall/Winter 2011 Idea Book. Stay tuned...

National Scrapbook Day!

Megan - 14 years ago!

Love, love, love this layout inspired by Karen Pedersen.   The dress Megan was wearing didn't really match the colors in the Sophia papers, so I ordered most of the prints in black and white, and just left one in color.   What do you think?

And here's a close-up of the Eclectic chipboard alphabet - ink it up in any color you like - the cute patterns resist the ink.   Very fun to use!

Sweetheart Layouts of Matt & Lisa

Here are the layouts I just completed of our friends Matt & Lisa - these are some of the engagement photos Scott took.   I really had fun doing these!    Congratulations on your engagement, Lisa & Matt!

Here's the product list:   Sweetheart Level 2 paper pack, Bohemian Alphabet, Priceless Love Word Puzzle, Spot On Backgrounds, Tulip, Black and Cotton Candy Stamp Pads, Monogram Dimensional Elements, Sweetheart Assortment, On Target Dimensional Elements, Framed Fun, Dimensional Elements, Red, Clear and Bitty Sparkles, Pink Button Assortments, Black Hemp, Cranberry Ribbon, Colonial White Waxy Flax.

This last layout has an interactive element.   That button on the left causes the picture to slide to the right and reveal another picture underneath - pretty cool.   You just cut a slit in the page protector and the button goes on top of the protector.   Here's another picture with the photo slid to the right:

These layouts are all from Magic, Close To My Heart's newst scrapbooking layout book. 

February Cards with Karen is Wed. 2/16 & Thur. 2/17 - It's a NEW Idea Book Open House!

It's a beautiful new Spring/Summer Idea Book, with more pages of art, more stamp sets, papers and embellishments!    Come and get a copy with your order at Cards with Karen this week.   

Wed. 2/16 4:00-6:30

Thur. 2/17 4:00-6:30

Thur. 2/17  6:30-9:00

• Make and takes:   4 cards to make with the Bliss papers
• Refreshments
•  Door Prizes

Please RSVP so I can prepare for you!    Cards with Karen is $8 or FREE with a $15 order.

Love & Friendship Card Workshop

Here's the workshop I'm doing next Sat. 2/5 and Mon. 2/7.  These cards feature all NEW products from the CTMH Spring/Summer Idea Book.  This paper pack is called Sweetheart!   Lots of new stamp sets will be used, as well as some new ribbons, buttons and brads.  We're making eight Valentine's, wedding and friends cards.   The $15 fee includes lunch.   You can make two sets for $25.