Friday, December 28, 2012

January News

All of the 2013 CROP NIGHTS are listed (yea) so plan ahead to come join the fun.  We have the best time together.

AND…..

In January the Hostess will be: Cheryl Childers

If you would like to help Cheryl earn FREE product just add your order to her party listed as "Cheryl Childers " at the bottom of my (shopping cart on the right of this screen)

Join one of Jennifer’s Gathering:
  • Cheryl Childers 26 Jan 2013 

Also do not forget that January is the last active month for the Fall / Winter 2012 CTMH Catalog.  If you have any items on your wish list that are listed on the below retired list I would not wait to order them.

2012 Autumn/Winter Idea Book Retiring List

  While Supplies Last.

Please remember that we are unable to accept exchanges for items included on the Retired list.    

Item #    Item Description    Page # Autumn/Winter 2012 Idea Book 
Z1349    Shimmer Designer Brads    127        
Z1360    Rhinestone Designer Brads    127        
Z1361    Brads Red Assortment     127        
Z1362    Brads Pink Assortment    127        
Z1363    Brads Blue Assortment    127        
Z1364    Brads Green Assortment    127        
Z1365    Brads Basic Assortment    127        
Z1387    Wooden Designer Buttons    125        
Z1391    Buttons Clear Assortment    125        
Z1395    Irresistible™ Eclectic Chipboard Die-Cuts (the alphabet)    130        
Z1465    Irresistible™ Make-It-Count Numbers    130        
Z1681    Dimensional Elements  Numbers     131        
Z1761    Dimensional Elements Ornaments    131        
Z1762    Dimensional Elements Snowflakes    131        
Z1765    Color-Ready Arbor Wooden Shapes    130        
X7147C    Stella Complements Canvas Shapes    68        
X7148C    My Stickease® Pemberley Assortment    68        
X7150C    My Stickease® Victory Assortment    69        
X7153C    My Stickease® Florentine Assortment    69        
X7158C    La Belle Vie My Stickease® Assortment    38        
X7160C    Flirty Complements Dimensional Elements    50        
X7161C    Moonlight Complements Dimensional Elements    56        
X7162C    Pear & Partridge Complements Glittery Rub-Ons    62        
Z1464    Milepost Shapes    128        
Z1466    Bling Assortment    128        
Z1695    Urban Felt Alphabet     130        
Z1696    Keepsake Felt Alphabet     130        
Z1709    Just Blooms® Petals Paper Flowers    129        
Z1460    Foundry® Ribbon Slides    126        
Z1711    Foundry® Binder Clips    126        
Z1712    Foundry® Number Plates     126        
Z1461    Décor Journaling Spots    129        
Z1687    Bohemian Assortment     128        
Z1689    Timeless Charms    128        
Z1692    Tough Tags    128        
Z1694    Bouquet Assortment    128        
Z1741    Haunted Assortment    128        
Z1749    Autumn Lane Assortment     128        
Z1763    Boutique Assortment    128        
Z1772    Dimensional Elements In Color—Holiday    128        
Z1393    Mini-Medley Accents Black Collection     126        
Z1316    Designer Ribbon Cocoa Collection                         124        
Z1385    Designer Ribbon Blue Collection    124        
Z1615    Designer Ribbon Red Collection    124        
Z1616    Designer Ribbon Green Collection    124        
Z1388    Newsprint Rub-Ons     130        
Z1700    Dark Chocolate Tapestry Velvet Rub-Ons    126        
Z1733    Black Tapestry Velvet Rub-Ons    126        
Z1743    Festive Velvet Rub-Ons     126        
Z1742    Parlor Velvet Rub-Ons    126        
Z1407    "6"" x 6"" Olive Quick Pic™ Album"    122        
Z1408    "6"" x 6"" Pansy Purple Quick Pic™ Album"    122         
Z1054    My Creations® Display Album    132        
Z1378    My Creations® Banner    132        
Z1614    My Creations® Memory Game    132        
Z188    Craft Jars    120        
Z1352    "4 1/2"" Colonial White Circle Cards"    123        
Z1353    "4 1/2"" White Daisy Circle Cards"    123        
Z1731    My Originals® Sweet Surprises Card Kit    123        
X7147B    My Reflections® Stella Paper Packet    68        
X7148B    My Reflections® Pemberley Paper Packet    68        
X7150B    My Reflections® Victory Paper Packet    69        
X7153B    My Reflections® Florentine Paper Packet    69        
X7158B    La Belle Vie Paper Packet     38        
X7160B    Flirty Paper Packet    50        
X7161B    Moonlight Paper Packet    56        
X7162B    Pear & Partridge Paper Packet    62        
Z1252    Cutting Knife    135        
G1041    Workshops on the Go® Avonlea Cardmaking Kit    22        
G1043    Workshops on the Go® Pear & Partridge Cardmaking Kit    66        
G1040    Workshops on the Go® Spellbound Cricut® Kit    14        
G1042    Workshops on the Go® Scroll Album Kit    23        
G1044    Workshops on the Go® Advent Calendar Kit    67        
G1045    Workshops on the Go® Avonlea Scrapbooking Kit    21        
G1046    Workshops on the Go® Clementine Scrapbooking Kit    29        
G1047    Workshops on the Go® Dakota Scrapbooking Kit    35        
G1048    Workshops on the Go® La Belle Vie Scrapbooking Kit     41        
G1049    Workshops on the Go® Scholastic Scrapbooking Kit    47        
G1050    Workshops on the Go® Flirty Scrapbooking Kit    53        
G1051    Workshops on the Go® Moonlight Scrapbooking Kit    59        
G1052    Workshops on the Go® Pear & Partridge Scrapbooking Kit    65      

STAMPS 
A1104    A Tweet    90        
A1111    A Tulip    68        
A1116    A Melody    94        
A1122    Bravo    92        
A1128    Quick Cards—Shell    80        
A1129    A Rainbow    85        
B1365    Spring Up    71        
B1369    Rosy Regards    67        
B1374    Bee Happy    83        
B1397    He Is Risen    74        
B1402    My Peeps    72        
C1439    Enjoy Life    95        
C1440    Take a Picture    93        
C1442    Tailor-Made    94        
C1450    Eclectic Edges    99        
C1452    Delight    71        
C1455    Aspire    96        
C1456    Heartfelt Treasures    68        
C1457    Happy Camper    84        
C1458    Paper Lantern    90        
C1473    Remarkable Wreath    70        
C1474    10 Things    105        
C1485    Super Powers    47        
C1498    Country Life    82        
C1499    Perfect Day    80        
D1195    The Works Alphabet    117        
D1222    Tiny Typewriter Alphabet    117        
D1296    Chocolate Alphabet Small    114        
D1301    Hodge Podge Alphabet    114        
D1303    Classmate Alphabet    114        
D1462    Splendid Day    77        
D1464    Card Chatter—Love    106        
D1467    Trees & Things    76        
D1472    Simple Memories    66        
D1478    Bingo Alphabet    113        
D1505    Roar!    89        
D1508    Diverse Backgrounds    102        
D1509    Magic Adventures    78        
D1511    Kick Back    81        
E1013    Field Trip Alphabet    114      

Friday, December 14, 2012

Inspiration Troubles

So I have been surfing Pinterest the last couple of days and working on my boards.  You know cleaning out double pins and making sure that decorating ideas was not in the food board – that kind of stuff.  But while surfing I found a cute card that I thought would be super quick to scrap lift. 

Remember those words…..

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by Shabby Mommy

Ok so my first mistake was thinking I would change the size.  Now if you know me you know that math is not my strong point Smile  Measurements are my bane of existence. 

My favorite card size is 5.5 x 4 because it will only take one stamp and those stamps are starting to get really expensive but I love sending cards.  So cutting down the card base size was not the problem.  It was cutting down the tabs. So I measured my card then divided that by the card size and came up with    1 1/4 for each tab.   Perfect because I could fit all of the paper strips on one Cricut mat.

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So I cut out all of the tabs at 1 1/4 and stamped my sentiment on the Colonial White tabs.  I went to do a dry run layout on the cards and that is when I noticed that my tabs were WAY too small.  DARN IT!  Now what.

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Back burner to think on that problem because this is also when I realized that I did not have the correct color ribbon.  No big deal – I have re-inkers so I will just dye the ribbon.  Here is what I did.

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First I cut my ribbon to a little bit longer length than what I needed to give me room to make a bow.

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Next was the re-inker, water and alcohol.  This is the part where you just kind of eyeball it.  I found that a little water and more alcohol than water then as much ink as you think you need to get the color you need.  Now CTMH does have a color ready ribbon that take dye really well but I do not have any.  So I am using what I have on hand. 

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I put in one ribbon at a time and wore gloves to keep the ink off of my fingers. 

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Set them out to dry while you finish your cards.

During this process of thinking about my card problem and finding something – anything to fill space since my tabs are too small my craft light died. 

So I had to stop and try and fix the light.  New light bulb?  Nope.  It is broken.

CRAP!

Amazon.com to the rescue. 

After looking for about an hour on the internet I finally found the replacement lamp I needed.

image

I need a clamp because I only have one location that I can place my lamp.  I ordered the lamp and 2 replacement light bulbs Smile 

So I have to finish working without task lighting… this is harder than it would seem. 

I pulled out stamps thinking that I had to have one that would be perfect then it hit me…. Embossing folders! 

Here is the finished card that took all day – All Day to put together

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The more that I look at it the more I like it.

Wednesday, December 12, 2012

Gift Card Holders 2012

Last year I hand cut about 15 gift card holders and made them very elaborate only to have the kids tear into them with out ever looking at all of my hard work…. Sad smile 

But it was a lesson learned.  The kids do not care what the package looks like they only care about what is on the inside.  So this year I am taking the simpler approach.  But I am getting some much needed help from

Cricut® Artiste Collection

image

In about 20 minutes I had the inside and the outside of 6 gift card holders DONE! The pattern I am using is on page 55 of the booklet.   I had a brain fart as to how to assemble these cute little envelopes so with some help from You Tube here is what I learned.  Smile

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Here is the base cut out

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Fold along the score lines.

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Ok – this is the part that was kicking my behind.  How to keep the card from falling out the bottom of the card.  Put some red line tape along one side as shown above.  Then I felt silly for letting it kick my behind!

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Then fold.  The red line tape closes what would have been open at the seam.  Do not put red line tape on all 4 sides or you will not be able to put your card in the slot.

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Here is what the inside looks like folded.

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To attach the ribbon for closing.  Put red line tape along the “front”

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Attach ribbon along on top of the red line tape.  Then add your top layer of      B & T paper to each side over the ribbon.

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It will look like this when you are done. 

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Now if you cut your top layer of B&T paper from the same pattern as the base cardstock you will have a cute little square that has only one place it can go.

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Now, Last year I decorated both the inside flaps and the outside flaps.  This year I am just writing notes to each of the teens on the inside flap.  They might read it before tearing into the paper.  Smile 

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Your gift card will fit in just like so,  Then you fold it all up and tie closed with the ribbon.

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Here are 2 of the finished cards.  I only have 4 left to do and then I am done.  So maybe an hour… I just stamped the fronts with a stamp from 2010 that I still love and colored with the CTMH Alcohol markers.

Note:  It helps to Emboss the stamped image BEFORE coloring.  The color did not bleed after I embossed the image and it only took a few minutes to emboss all 6 cards.  Easy.   Oh shoot – I just remember I was going to put brad in the button area.  Oh well. 

So in about 90 minutes I have 6 cute yet simple gift card holders for the teens in my family.  Life could not get any better than this.

A Bow with a Fork?

This is what I am working on right now.  I am the worst bow maker in the history of scrapbookers (really)!

  I normally leave the bow off of the card it the instructions say to put a bow but maybe if I can learn this technique I will be all set. 

It seems simple enough…. but I am blonde so it make take a spool of ribbon for me to get it.  Smile 

 

image

Pray……

Behind the Scenes

Tuesday, December 11, 2012

Hostess Rewards

I have had some questions on how to qualify for hostess rewards when you are too busy to have a party.

  It is simple!

image

First send me an email and let me know what month is good for you to have an ONLINE PARTY.

Then I will open an online party for the month that you choose.  All you have to do is place your order in the "Your Name"  from my web store.    I make the closing night of the party be the same night as the Crop Night.

  You can also invite your scrappy friends to place their orders online to and as long as they use your code their order will count towards your hostess level. 

Send your choices for your hostess gifts  by email to me via email in advance of the party.

Pick out 3 levels of gifts.

Example: 

Level 1 is $150 to $249:  item 1

                                        item 2

Level 2 is $250 to $349:   above items PLUS

                                         item 3

                                         item 4

level 3 is $350 to $449  All above items PLUS

                                      Item 5

                                      Item 6

You get the picture.  You can send as many level as you think you will have in that amount but I always say send three and if you go higher then I will call and ask was you want.  What a happy phone call!   I will order the items that get you as close the the dollar amount without going over.

The fun part is that ANY online orders that use the code "Your Name" will count towards your party! So you can place your regular order before Crop night  using the code so that you do not have to wait for your order then once I close the final orders  after crop night your hostess rewards will ship to you.

Sound like fun? 

Nothing like having a party without having to clean your house first!

Let me know if you are interested. 

jperry@myscraproom.net

Saturday, December 8, 2012

Time Savings

Last year I hand cut 15 gift cards holders over the Christmas holidays.  The process if just cutting took 2 crop nights alone.

Well this year I am taking a short cut….

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I am using the CTMH Artiste Collection Cartridge to cut out all of my gift cards holders this year.

image

What took me several hours last year took less than one hour this year.  That was cutting the base holder and top covers in less than one hour. 

You really need one of CTMH Artiste Collection in your home today!

Friday, December 7, 2012

Clementine Workshop on the Go

I should be sleeping!  I woke up this morning at 1 am so I really should be sleeping.  But no I have a workshop on the brain.

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If you look on the back of the Clementine Workshop on the Go instructions you will find a bonus project.  The bonus project is a set of cards. 

Yea!  I am always needing cards. 

I started to work on this project during the last crop night.  I must have been tired because I was making it way harder than it was.

First off I like to make multiples of each card I make.

I put some in my card spinner to sell, I keep one for myself to send to friends and sometimes I send a group of cards to someone special when I think they might need a “pick me up”.

This workshop is for one card per pattern or so I thought.  I was getting kind of upset during crop because I like patterns that you cut once and get  multi cards but this pattern is one card at a time and that is way to complicated for me. 

But I guess this morning my brain said “self why not cut and make multiples of each card design on your own”  well duh! 

So here are the first two designs from the kit.

Design 3

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Design 5

Each of the cutting instructions are listed in the Wishes Card Confidence book from CTMH (now retired) but they are pretty easy to figure out without the book just by looking at the photo.

I am currently working on Design 2 and the Cricut is making this card much faster Smile 

So with the windows open because it is 70 degree in DECEMBER in Texas and my iPod playing all of the Twilight movie scores I am going to go back to work.  I hope everyone is having a great day.

Happy Friday

Thursday, December 6, 2012

Scheduled Outage for Systems Maintenance

Just wanted to let you know … I would hate for someone to try and place an order online and not know why the site is down.

From Corp:

All online systems will be unavailable tonight, December 6, 2012 from 9:00 pm until 12:00 am (MT) for a scheduled maintenance and update. You will not be able to place orders during this time nor access your Online Business Address (OBA) or Studio J®. Please plan your online activities accordingly.

Newsletters Blocked by AOL

Not getting your newsletter? 

For reasons still unknown to us, AOL’s email service has blocked delivery of the December Celebrate Your Creativity Newsletter to their customers. Consequently any of the customers on your newsletter mailing list who use AOL will not have received the December issue yet. We are in the process of resolving the restriction, but AOL will need to evaluate our request and lift the restriction before any newsletters will be delivered to AOL users. We regret the delay in the newsletter service for these users and hope for a speedy resolution.

As soon as Corp fixes the problem they will try to send the newsletters again.

Sorry for the delay.

Monday, December 3, 2012

December Stamp of the Month

I found some artwork on Pinterest that I am going to have a blast making using the December stamp of the month.

December SOM

Here is the official artwork from the CTMH Offices

Now here is the artwork I found on Pinterest….

2012Dec_CardSet

I have already contacted Helen to tell her that I am so scrap lifting her artwork!  I can not wait to begin!

Saturday, December 1, 2012

Finished!

Yea –

It was a marathon but all of the wrapping that I know about is finished!  Oh and by the way that red glitter wrapping paper that I bought at Hobby Lobby?  It looks really cool on packages but if you buy it be prepared to have red glitter all over what ever room you use to wrap in!

I think Radar even has glitter on him.  Smile

While I was working on the gifts I made the decision that Mike is doing the stocking stuffers this year.  It is now my time to enjoy my holiday.

My Scraproom is all clean and ready for me to get back to playing.  I put the wrapping paper and cart in Mikes office so he can find it when he needs to wrap my gifts. (me sneaky)!

Friday, November 30, 2012

OCD Much?

After waking up at noon today (way later than I wanted) I started on the last 27,000 loads of laundry that I am still working on and decided that it is a great day to open the windows and get those gifts wrapped. 

It took longer yesterday for me to finish the Christmas cards and get them in the mail. But I was able to get them gone and my sisters birthday gift out too.  Yea I am ahead of the game this year!

Then I walked in my scraproom…..

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Yuck!

Maybe one reason I hate wrapping so much is that all my wrapping gear is in several different bags, bins, boxes.

I have trouble finding what I need. 

So, off to Target I go…..

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BTW, that huge blue bin is all of the Christmas gifts and will go back into my room as soon as I done.  It is where I hide everything with a lock on the bin to keep out peekers.

So now that I have all of my wrapping stuff where I can FIND IT.  I will get going on the wrapping and get all the stuff that is in that blue bin under the tree.  The best part:  I have room in the office closet to roll both wrapping carts in there for storage.

  Sweet!

Thursday, November 29, 2012

Stamps and Dimensional Elements from the Cricut® Artiste Collection

Rock & Roll

Re-vamping with Overstamping

Cool New Tools!

I have 2 of the new Quilling tools on my next order.  The flowers have always kicked my behind but with this new tool I am sure I will be able to get a beautiful flower the first time.

Do not forget to add Liquid glass to your order too Smile

Today….

Today I will get my house back in order after camping.  I have a mountain of laundry to do (yuck).  This morning I already:

Cleaned the kitchen

Put the camping stuff away

Sorted and started laundry

Now I will turn my scraproom into WRAP CENTRAL!

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That huge blue box? That is where I hide all of the gifts that I buy all year long for Christmas.  This time of year I also start saving all of those boxes that I get from Amazon.com for packing and wrapping all those Christmas gifts. 

So with my trusty audiobook on my IPod I will spend the next 2 days getting all of this wrapped and under the tree.

I am working a lot this month at the hospital so I am trying to get all of the Christmas cards and wrapping done so that I can sit back and enjoy December with no worries.

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I finished making the Christmas cards during 2 of the Monthly crop sessions so I only need to add the inserts, school photos and address the envies. 

Why do I get the feeling there is something I am forgetting?

Thanksgiving 2012

What a wonderful holiday!  We spend Thanksgiving camping at Bonham State Park and while this was our first year camping during the holiday we enjoyed it so much I think we will keep this tradition on the years that I do not have to work on Thanksgiving.

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The weather was beautiful but the puppies thought they would just stay in their blankets.

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One of the camping sites that I am a member of (http://www.popupexplorer.com/) has a new forum that they are doing with “camping gnomes”  You post picture of your camping adventure along with a gnome.  This is my mother Suzanne getting into the gnome action.  Smile 

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Getting everything ready for some outdoor cooking.  The campground was completely full but we were the only ones cooking our feast outside.

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Our turkey is ready to start cooking but the gnome had to make sure the lid was on tight.

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Homemade outdoor oven is ready to go!

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This is a good shot of our campsite.  Mike loves cooking outside any time we camp.

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Time for more of our feast to start cooking. Potatoes are on the coals, green bean casserole is in the crock pot.  The stuffing is in one of the Dutch ovens and the rolls are in the top Dutch oven.  The corn and gravy went on the coals in foil mini loaf pans about 2o minutes before the turkey was done. 

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****I was having a serious BAD HAIR DAY**** but hey we are camping here Smile  This is the feast! 

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These are all of the dishes after the feast…. I love camping!

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We waiting a little while after dinner to make the PIES!  They were yummy.

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Mike and Kaela braved the hoard of geese to feed them bread. 

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The beautiful Thanksgiving sunset.

When can I go camping again?