Convention Re-cap {part one}

Chantilly Ballroom, Saturday

Well I am back at home!  What a whirlwind adventure!  I have to say that I really enjoyed getting to meet so many people so intent on sharing CTMH with friends!

And seeing all the exciting new products was not too shabby either.  ;)  For this post I wanted to focus on the people and the place.  First, the people.

Here's a picture of me, my upline Lisa Stenz and my new friend Susan.

Susan, Me, Lisa (L-R)

I have to say these women were just so sweet!  Lisa is a real jewel and I am so thankful to have her as an upline.  And Susan is just as wonderful.  As newbies, we helped each other find our way around and keep each other company.  We also are keeping in touch so we can bounce ideas off each other.

The following picture was taken at the Awards Banquet on Friday night.  Lisa received awards and was also appointed to the 2012 Advisory Board.  A great big Woo-Hoo to her!!

Paige, Me, Noelle, Christine, Vanessa, Lisa, Lisa, and Susan (L-R)

Now for some pictures around the hotel.  It had an Asian theme.  And I couldn't help but feel like a tourist in a museum carrying my camera around and snapping pictures of the artwork.  Here's some shots I got....

little heads that I first thought were bugs

figurines carved in what looked like 'pink' jade

the amoeba...it changed colors and shape, hung from the top of the atrium

giant elephant!

angry art 

kind of haunting

really haunting

good to know the hotel doesn't support mao

in the garden

a huge statue

Next time I'll post about some new products!
Meredith

Smile {Inspired by Current Catalog}

Recently I was flipping through the Current Catalog.  I saw THIS card.  (I would love to just copy and paste a picture of it for you, but sadly I can't seem to do it.)  But I did take a picture of the catalog page with my camera.....how's that for cheating the system??

So I thought it might be fun to try to re-create the look.   I grabbed every color of the rainbow...a few million stamps....and....whatdya think?

Similar anyway.

I changed the sentiment, to make it fit with the stamp sizes I had.  Here's a fun fact:  Those circles behind the letters are actually the back side of another stamp.  It's a cool little trick you can do with the MyAcrylix stamps.  The reverse side of the stamp is smooth, so if you like the shape of a particular stamp, just put it on the clear block facing in and voila! you have another stamp.  In this case the actual stamp is the large center of a flower with some texture detail.  But when I flipped it over it became a somewhat misshapen circle.  Perfect for what I needed!

Hope it brought a smile to your face!
Meredith

Supplies:  (all CTMH unless noted)
Ink:  Black, Watermelon, Sunflower, Hydrangea, Sunny Yellow, Heavenly Blue, Sorbet, Citrus Leaf
Stamps:  Solos "S" "M" "I" "L" "E",  two of these stamps came from Workshop-on-the-Go kits, Just for You (B1398), Family Love (D1506)
Other: card base (Hobby Lobby)


*all current CTMH products can be found on my shopping website listed on the sidebar*

Cookies from the trash...

taste SO much better!  At least according to my son.

One day after cleaning and re-organizing the pantry I noticed my son had chocolate all over his face.  When I figured out where it came from, I did what any self respecting mom would have done.

 I grabbed the camera and made him re-create what he did....

I titled this LO "Gah-ya" because that is how he says Gotcha!  And he does say it often.  I haven't added the journaling yet.  I really love the look of the spool of film.  Finally I remembered about a punch I had that makes paper look like a spiral notebook.  In this case I think it works to look like a some negatives...

Click on the pictures to enlarge the details.

Thanks for stopping by!
Meredith


Supplies: (all CTMH unless noted)
Paper:  Sweet Leaf CS, Black CS, White Daisy CS, Olive CS, Tan Camouflage (Hot Off The Press)
Stamps:  Star Struck (D1237), Boutique Alphabet (E1003), Journaling Jots (B1269)
Ink:  Olive, Chocolate, Black, Chocolate Marker
Other:  adhesive, punch (Stampin' Up)

 *All current CTMH supplies can be found on my shopping website listed on the sidebar*

I'm official...

I know it's silly to be this excited, but I just got my first ever business card in the mail.  (Well I guess that's not entirely true...I did have business cards in my past life when I was a police officer.  But these I designed myself at Vistaprint.com).

I love the way they turned out....

Front:

And back:

In other news, I am also in love with that new red nail polish...it's China Glaze Ruby Pumps.  Gotta love the sparkle!

I'm also working on a LO using pictures of my son eating cookies out of the trash....

Until next time,
Meredith

Key To My Heart

While rearranging the scrap stuff, I went though all of my CTMH papers and stamps from when I was a consultant a few years ago.  Oh I have TONS of stuff too--and it's all still beautiful.    One of my favorites was a promotional kit called Key to My Heart.  It had a beautiful "E" size stamp set.

Of course I had all my new kit stuff still out on my table, so I decided to combine a little.  I wanted to try the new die-cut cards (Z1738).  I also had one of the stamps from my Art Philosophy kit out.

This is the fold over flap of the tri-fold card.

I wanted to use the flourish stamp in the Key to my Heart set to decorate it.  It is a very large almost L-shaped stamp.  So to cover the area I needed to stamp part of it....

Then I inked another part of the stamp to cover that bit that is empty there in the corner.

With that done, I covered the outside flap with some patterned paper, and inked the edges with Cocoa ink and a Sponge Dauber.  I used cocoa ink to stamp a keyhole and flourish from my new stamp set as a little embellishment to the flap.

My next task was to make a cut out key.  I inked the key with Juniper ink.  I stamped it one time on scratch paper, and then without re-inking I stamped it onto my Colonial White cardstock.  This technique is called second generation stamping.   I cut it out with the Micro Tip Scissors and again used the cocoa ink to distress the edges.

For the inside I stamped the sentiment with Creme Brulee ink (which happens to be my all time favorite ink color!)  I inked the heart image with Juniper ink and then stamped off on scratch paper.

 I used the dauber in Cocoa ink to ink the edges of the stamp....

Then I stamped it onto Colonial White cs, cut it out and used foam dot adhesives to pop it up off the base.

For a final touch I added a bit of cream ribbon to the key and adhered it to the front of the card.

Here's the inside...

Whew!  This post took longer to create than the card!

NOTE:  While I used a retired set, you can find a key stamp and flourish stamps in the current catalog.

Happy Stamping!
Meredith