Flaunt Your Creativity: A Day of Firsts!

Today is a day of very exciting firsts. February 1st marks the release of the new Close To My Heart Spring/Summer Catalog! This is my FIRST catalog release since I began this new venture of working as a CTMH representative. I have had the privilege of previewing the catalog for the past month, and am overflowing with ideas of how to use all the new products! I can't wait to share them all with you! Contact me to receive your new catalog or you can view it on my CTMH site!

While it's very hard to pick just one, my favorite scrapbooking line is Skylark. It's a mix of yummy blues, greens, yellows and tans that can go either feminine or masculine depending on your embellishments and design. I always love products that can be used to scrapbook my son or my daughter!

I'm also very excited about the new embossing folders. There are 5 different designs - though my favorite is the Quatrefoil folder shown below. This is a great way to add texture and dimension to pages and cards. With CTMH's white core cardstock, a little sandpaper on the raised surface adds even more uniqueness!

My other FIRST on February 1st is that I'm hosting my first large scrapbooking crop. I am on the board of the Discovery Junction Children's Museum. We are a non-profit organizatio that is working to bring a much needed children's museum to Prince William County, Virginia. The proceeds for this crop have been donated to the museum to help make our dream a reality! I'm very excited for this day of fun! To welcome each attendee to their crafting nook for the day, I created these little place cards.

The base is Lagoon cardstock and the Colonial White piece was cut using CTMH's Art Philosophy Cricut Cartridge. The flair is from the Swirls Around stamp set and was stamped in Slate ink. I stamped the names using the A Typeface stamp set and Gypsy ink. This stamp set is great for two reasons (other than it is super cute) - 1) it is only $6.95 and you get 43 stamps and 2) there are multiples of the more frequently used letters. With all of these name cards, I never once ran out of letters! I was able to stamp each name by spelling the entire name out on the acrylic block and stamping at once (as opposed to having to stamp individual letters). Granted, if I ever have to stamp my niece's name, I will run into a problem since it has 4 E's!

This adorable butterfly was also cut from CTMH's Art Philosophy Cricut cartridge. I scored her down the middle so that I could easily fold her wings up for a 3-D effect, then used a glue dot to adhere her to the card. I added a few clear Bitty Sparkles down the middle to give her a little extra pop. I love how these turned out and hope the attendees enjoy them too!