News From Leadership

The news from San Diego has been great. New products galore and no price increases. This was my biggest worry as Stamping Up had so many!

The best news is the new Cherish Book - Imagine. 50 more layouts for us all to work on. How cool is that. You can order from the 1st September so not long to wait.

In addition there are new Solo Numbers to add to our Solo Letters. I'm so excited as I have been wanting these for a while.

There has also been a change in the hostess benefits program - once you get to the $350 level as a hostess you can now purchase an item at 50% or choose from some pre-bundled packets of smaller products. This is a great way to purchase some of those larger items like the rolling cart. There has been a slight change from the freestyle awards but I think you will find this new program which rolls out from 1st September and is valid for the rest of this calendar year is to the customers benefit.

I will be England for the next 10 days and so I don't think I will have chance to post but come back in August and I will be posting more regularly again with lots of new product information and samples.

Finally the Cuttlebug Envelopes

Well the painters are finally finished and I can get to the camera again which was blocked in a cupboard by other furniture which meant I could access it. The place has been crazy with all the stuff in the wrong place so I'm glad to get everything back to normal a little.

Here are a couple of pictures of the envelopes I put through the cuttlebug embossing folder. As you can see it gives the envelope a really great texture which is so easy to do. On the red one I has to run it through twice as the flap was too large to do it in one go but it was easy to line-up so nobody would know. Now I need some more embossing folders to play with. One note of warning the word one didn't work as well I thought as the words went the wrong way (for me anyways). Have fun.

Today is the monthly crop that I run with Leslie - should be fun. I'm teaching the Christmas Card workshop as part of it as well. I promise to share some of the pages I make tomorrow.

Cuttlebug Fun

Do you own a cuttlebug if not can I suggest a purchase - I know us scrappers and stampers don't need an excuse but I love this little machine and so easy to use.

The embossing folders are the coolest thing ever and they work create with the white core of the Close to My Heart cardstock - if though you don't want the white core to show through you can sandwich your cardstock in some scrap cardstock and the extra thickness prevents the cracking of the surface covering of the cardstock.

I was reading split coast stampers last night and found a great tip for using the embossing folders on envelopes. You put the flap of the envelope into the folder and it makes them real cute - so guess what I'm doing today! Watch this space for examples.

Ball Park Fun

This weekend was fun. We went to see the Rangers play ball and just hung out on Sunday. I got busy preparing for some workshop I'm doing this week and for the painters who arrived today to start work. It's funny having people here working on your house around you!

I thought I'd share one the cards I'm teaching this week. Its uses the great vellum Close to My Heart Sells. You emboss the image with white embossing powder being careful with the heat so as not to bend the vellum. Then you color with the markers from behind. Makes a really nice soft color.

Another August Stamp of the Month Card

Another look with the same set of stamps and colors - this one has less green but I do like how the flower came out. I added a little prisma glitter to give it a little extra something.

This one came about from me posting the original card and then Shari Froemming used this to create her card which she shared with me. I then went back and used her card with my colors and came up with this one. Its funny how a design can change over time when you see another persons view on it. Same with scrapbooking. Give people the same supplies and pictures and they will come up with something different. I see this every month when I swap cards but its funny to see it with one card.

August Stamp of the Month

Had to get my sample done for the Stamp of the Month swap today. The August Stamp of the Month is really cute with lots of circles with words and some really cute birds. The colors that I could use were directed by the swap which limited me a little but I think what I came up with is cute.

I used the dimensional elements that Close to My Heart sells to make the flower and use the empressor guide and tool to make the sanded box.

If you want to see the August Stamp of the Month - you can go to my website - www.ronnie.myctmh.com and click on the picture of the July Stamp of the Month. At the bottom of that page there is a link to the August Stamp of the Month.

Canvas Clock

As promised here are the pictures of the clock now dry and face applied. I'm really happy with the effect and sure my mother-in-law will be as well. All products are Close To My Heart - other than the canvas board and clock parts. They are the More to Adore papers and the small stamp I used for the mat corners is from the playful flourishes set. I thought this worked great to accent the picture. Once again the picture is my daughter - need to make something with the son on soon or he may start to get jealous!

Sorry that the picture isn't the best - don't know what happened.

Newsletter Day

Today I feel like I've been at the computer all day as I was updating my website and creating my July newsletter. (If you want to read it you can find it under events on my website for July). Finally got it all done and treated myself to some creating this afternoon. I've had all the stuff ready to make a scrapbook clock for a while so finally I sat down to work on that. Its drying now and then I need to seal the board once more before I had the clock movement. When its totally finished I'll share. I'm happy so far with the creation.

I've also been working on Christmas Cards - seems a little early in July to be thinking about this but I have classes every month now until nearer the time so people can get their cards done in batches. I always believe that Christmas Cards should be simple if your making lots of them - no more than 5 steps in total otherwise you'll give-up before you even start. Thats the reason I really like this one. Its only a few short steps and your done. Cut the paper, adhere the papers, Stamp the stitches, Stamp the sentiments and your done. You could do this design with lots of different papers using up some of your stash. To make it more of a 'holiday' card rather than a Christmas use blue hues, some snowflake paper and stamp warm winter wishes instead. I like card designs which are functional and simple like this.

Recipe Card Tin Finished

Finally found time today to complete my sample recipe card tin. I'd made one before but gave it to someone before I took pictures and so I had to start from scratch again. I'm going to teach this as a workshop in August and I think it would make a great Christmas present for someone. All the products are from Close to My Heart and I used my Wishblade to create the 'Recipe' title for the front.

One piece of advice if your working with Modge Podge - I learnt this recently and it really works - paint the glue onto the paper and not the tin. Allow it to soak in a little as well.