Stars Shine Bright - last post from Texas!

Here's Megan at the Awards dinner - her first fancy dinner as far as we could recall!   And no, that's not wine (kinda looks like it!), but iced tea!    She enjoyed the dinner, got to see Jeanette and Kristine, Monica and Brian, and enjoyed the performance by the Texas Tenors - they sang everything from bluegrass to opera!  Here's our yummy dessert:

 Now for more art pictures!   This is another item made by an Extravaganza teacher, Melissa Laverty.   It's a sweet little purse with an adorable bow made on the Artiste cricut cartridge with Avonlea papers.   I think I have to scraplift this idea, don't you! 

Here's a shot of several creations by another CTMH Extravaganza teacher, Tamra Pope.   This is Pear and Partridge paper collection.  Isn't it beautiful?  Tamra won first place for her themed Stars Shine Bright album.   She took first place with the CTMH staff votes, as well as earning Consultant's Choice.

Can you believe this?   Here's a Paris dress shoppe, all made with the Artiste cartridge!   You're looking at La Belle Vie papers!   Over the top amazing!

Stars Shine Bright Day 3!

Wow!   WHAT a day!!   We started out with a huge FOUR hours of Extravaganza, traveling to eight different booths to be shown what some amazing consultants (including my upline Ginni!) did with the eight paper packs, and snapping photos madly of their creations.   If I could show you just one little bit of what I saw today, we'll have an awesome six months of creating together!

Here's one picture that shows our new 12" chipboard star (oh yeah!) covered with paper from our Scholastic line.   Gorgeous, huh?

And since I'm showing off home decor items, here's our new Display Tray, art by Ginni Candelaria, using the Flirty paper pack!  Is that cute, or what?    (If you're reading this post and are following my blog, mention the Display Tray to me for a prize.)

After lunch we had our closing General Session where we learned that Album Retreats will be coming back for consultants.   I can't wait to hear more about this, because not too long after I became a consultant, CTMH stopped having these annual retreats (in Salt Lake), and I was so disappointed, but now they're back!   More honors and awards were given including three consultants who won a workshop for themselves and 20 friends put on by CTMH Corporate staff - talk about fun!   There was a question and answer period with Jeanette - what a wonderful lady!  We learned that many thousands of dollars were raised for Operation Smile this convention, by donations and auctions - lots of smiles will be fixed thanks to consultants' generosity!

As a grand finale, we got the news that convention next year will be held in Orlando at the Disney property there!    I'm hoping to add some of you to my team so you can go with me next year and find out just how much fun all of this is!  If you sign up to be a consultant in August you get the same very cool bag that we got for convention ($50 value) plus you can get the Essentials consultant kit for $49 or the Master kit for $99 - either one is an excellent value.

Then we had one final creative session, making two layouts and six cards.   During this session two of my CTMH heros Lisa Stenz (Remember the mini note card set made in the box? - that was Lisa's design she so generously shared.) and Tresa Black (Oh, my I love her art!  I even got her autograph last year at convention!).

This is a picture taken from the large screen in the ballroom, so it's not a good shot, but maybe you can see the bow made from burlap!  I'm telling you, Tresa makes everything look fantastic!  There was a live auction tonight benefiting Operation Smile even more and at least $6,500 more was raised!   Oh, and hey, I won another prize today - yee haw!  I won the Pear and Partridge Card Workshop on the Go Kit!




Tomorrow a very kind couple down here who have a fellowhip meeting in their home will be picking us up and taking us to their home for a Sunday morning fellowship meeting.   They live in Arlington and are driving over here to get us - it will be so special for Megan and I, the true highlight to our time here, I already know.  

CTMH Convention Day 2!

Hey there, it's Friday evening and I have a little time before the fancy awards dinner for more updates!

Color Your World:

Our color palette has completely changed - wow! I was very surprised but the more I think about it the happier I am!   In order to keep more trendy with color changes, CTMH will now have a set 40 colors plus White Daisy and Colonial White, and then add different colors in paper packs as I mentioned yesterday. This will enable us to change some colors out more easily, while sticking with a large number of stable colors we can count on. I DID get my wish for a new red: it's called Ruby! We also have several new basic colors: Slate, Whisper, Saddle, Cashmere and Champagne. Just to give you an idea of the "trend colors" the Avonlea Paper Pack features an Avonlea Teal (incredibly gorgeous) and an Avonlea Green card stock, as well as an Avonlea Off-White card stock. Two other new paper packs feature exclusive colors too!  Here's a photo that shows that beautiful Avonlea Teal so you have an idea what I mean:   

Avonlea is the featured paper pack in this Idea Book - featured on the front cover and shown first - you can see why!   We made (okay, started) a mini album this afternoon using these papers, and I can't wait to get it done.

Here's a mini album made with the NEW Dakota papers - don't you love it!!!    (Sorry, just a country girl at heart, I guess...) 

Stamp of the Month:

I think you'll be very happy with this Idea Book's variety in the Stamps of the Month:   Everything from borders and corner decorations to scarecrows to winter mittens!   There's also a stamp set that will be great for calendar making (I feel a workshop coming on...) and a Valentine stamp of the month for January.

More tomorrow....

Stars Shine Bright! CTMH Convention 2012

We're nearly done with the first day of Convention - it is SO much fun!    It's worth signing up as a consultant just to get to go to Convention!  

Megan and I toured Tuesday and Wednesday and got pretty hot - whew.   Tuesday we visited the Dallas Holocaust Museum where the exhibits focused on one day during World War II.   It was a very worthwhile, moving exhibit.    Then we went to the 6th Floor Museum, which focused on the life, presidency and last day of John F Kennedy.  It was an an incredible museum.   I was nearly the same age as John-John was at that time, so the only thing I remember from that time is that little guy saluting his dad's casket, and thinking how sad that his daddy died and that he must have been someone important.    Wednesday we went to the Dallas Aquarium and didn't even spend half the day missing trains like we did the first day. 

Enough about that -- you want to hear about CTMH's NEW products!

Here's a sneak peek (almost said peak, as if a mountain was going to sneak up on you!) of one paper pack called Flirty:

Isn't it gorgeous!  The Level 2 paper packs are nearly the same, with 6 sheets of printed papers and 6 sheets of card stocks.   Each printed paper has a different print on the back.   Some paper packs have a shade of card stock exclusive to that paper pack!  (That's a strip of card stock with the word love stamped on it - it's not part of the print!)

Here's a picture of the exciting General Session this morning -- what a crazy bunch of consultants!

 

YEE HAW!

There are:

• 8 NEW Paper Packs
• 13 NEW Workshop Kits!  One for each paper pack, two workshops for card workshops, and a few more.....!
• 62 NEW Stamp Sets! 
• NEW alcohol based markers (SO nice for shading and so easy to use!)
• 6 NEW Colors!
• NEW storage containers!
• NEW Studio J Express Collections - drag and drop your photos, add journaling and you're done!
• NEW pigment ink spots (small ink pads in pigment ink)
• Dozens of NEW embellishments!

AND, wait for it --- drum roll please ---    another cricut cartridge called Artiste!   We heard today that this was Jeanette's BABY, and it is quite different from the typical cartridge.  There are "suites" of cricut cuts that go together to make projects -- and a whole Halloween workshop designed using Artiste too!   I don't know many details, so more about that later.

I'll save more news for tomorrow's post:  color changes, stamps of the month and more!  Come to my Open House on 7/31 to play with new product and get YOUR hands on the Autumn/Winter Idea Book.