April CTMH Promotion - So Exciting!

Sign Up as a Consultant in April and earn a FREE Cricut Cartridge or $100 in Select Product Credit!!

If you've ever thought of having your own business or simply getting a discount on your favorite papercrafting supplies, now is the time! Signing up as a new Consultant with Close To My Heart during April is more rewarding than ever. Did you know the price of the New Consultant Kit has dropped to $75? Here's what's included in your kit:

• New Consultant Essential Supplies

• $50 in Select Product Credit to spend on additional supplies

• The chance to earn awesome Straight To The Top rewards

If that doesn't have you drooling what about a FREE Cricut Cartridge? That's right! When you submit $350 in personal sales within your first 30 days**, you get your choice of either a FREE Cricut® collection or $100 in Select Product Credit—and that’s in addition to the Straight To The Top start-up bonus that you’ll earn along the way!

*Offer valid April 1, 2016 (9:00 am MDT) – April 30, 2016 (11:59 pm MDT). Cricut® collections available while supplies last. No tax will be charged on the free item. Shipping/handling will be charged based on the retail value of the free Cricut® collection.

Watch this video to learn more about the perks and benefits of becomming a CTMH Consultant:

To learn more, you may also join us for one of our free upcoming Opportunity Webinars. During the webinar, CTMH will walk through the contents of the New Consultant Kit, talk about the Consultant discount, explain how new Consultants can earn free products, and answer the most frequently asked questions. Those who join the webinar will come away understanding what an incredible opportunity it is to join Close To My Heart.

So mark your calendar and attend one of these free 1-hour webinars!

Tuesday, April 5, 6:00 pm PDT

Thursday, April 14, 6:00 pm PDT

Saturday, April 23, 8:00 am PDT

Wednesday, April 27, 6:00 pm PDT

Join the Opportunity calls via phone by calling 1-201-479-4595. To join online, go tohttp://fuze.me/32464058 a few minutes before the scheduled webinar time. You can also simply go to www.fuze.com or open the Fuze app and enter the meeting ID: 32464058. If you wish to participate online, we encourage you to download the Fuze application beforehand so you can be all set up to enjoy the webinar when it’s time to join.

So if earning money—and rewards—through your love of scrapbooking and stamping sounds like a dream job, then now is the perfect time to join Close To My Heart. Believe us, it’s worth it! If you have questions about becoming a CTMH Consultant, feel free to contact me. Are you ready to sign up? Click { HERE } for the online application. 

Balloon Animal Shaker Card

I recently purchased the Fuse Tool and finally had a chance to play with it on this shaker card. I used a 3" x 4" Flip Flap for the pocket and trimmed it to size using the Fuse Tool to seal the edges. 

The balloon shapes were cut from the Artiste cartridge. I added a thin layer of Liquid Glass for extra shine. The card design is based on Freshly Made Sketch #223. 

Such a fun and sweet little card!

~Michelle 

Project Recipe (all CTMH unless otherwise noted):
Paper: White Daisy Cardstock (1385), Gypsy Cardstock (X5757), Lagoon Cardstock (X5762), Blush Cardstock (retired)
Stamp: Balloon Animals (S1602)
Ink: Archival Black (44751), Lagoon (Z2195)
Other: Artiste Cricut Cartridge (Z3170), Neutral Metallic Bakers Twine (Z1921), buttons (retired), rhinestones (unknown), Liquid Glass (Z679), Flip Flap (Z3027), Fuse Tool (We R Memory Keepers)

Share the Love Blog Hop

Welcome to the Share the Love Blog Hop! Today, approximately 27 CTMH consultants will be showcasing projects made with the Share the Love stamp set! If you've arrived from Melinda Everitt's blog you are on the right track. Melinda's post also contains a list of all participants so if you get lost on the hop make sure to go back to her post.

I was very inspired by the "share the love" sentiment and decided to create a set of 12 note cards and box holder! These cards are perfect to add sweet little notes and encouraging words to my kids and husband's lunch boxes.

The project was created in Cricut Design Space using images from the Artiste and Artbooking Cartridges. I resized them to be 4" x 5" and stamped them using a variety of techniques such as masking and rock-n-roll. I also used the backside of the heart balloon image to create a fun and different look!

Aside from the awesome projects you'll see with this stamp set you should note it's also pretty special to CTMH. Not only is it  filled with adorable icons and lovable sentiments perfect for your stamp collection, but CTMH will also donate $7 USD of the proceeds from each set sold to Operation Smile, an amazing organization that provides surgeries to repair cleft lips and palates for children all over the world! If that's not "sharing the love" I'm not sure what is!

This stamp set is only available until February 29th. To order yours please contact your CTMH Consultant or visit my webpage, www.michellebattitori.ctmh.com. Thank you for checking out my project. Now it's time to hop to Brenda Lapp's blog to see what's she's created!

~Michelle Battitori

Project Recipe
Stamps:Share the Love Stamp Set (CC1060)
Ink: Bamboo Ink (Z2103), Pomegranate Ink (Z2653), Poppy Ink (Z2652), Eggplant Ink (Z2647), Black Ink (Z2105)
Paper: Sangria Paper Packet (X7199B), Colonial White Cardstock (1388), Chocolate Cardstock (X5643)
Other: Red Enamel Heart (Z2009), Shimmer Trim-Coral (Z3088) Cricut Artiste Cartridge (Z3170), Cricut Artbooking Cartridge (Z3169)

Watercolor Technique Class

This Friday, October 16, is all about watercolor techniques! We'll explore brushed backgrounds, using watercolor pencils and blended colors as we create three adorable cards perfect for cheering up someone's day! 

Class time is 7:00 pm and the cost is $5. If you are in the Northern VA area and would like to attend please RSVP at my meetup site, Manassas Papercrafters. 

See you Friday!

~Michelle

October SOTM Blog Hop - Twinkle

Welcome to October's SOTM blog hop! If you have arrived from Jacquelin Green's blog you are on the right track! This month over 45 CTMH consultants will be featuring artwork with the October Stamp of the Month set, Twinkle.

Today I made a clean and simple card and treat box set. For the card I curved the string to fit my card front and stamped it twice with black ink. Then, I went along and stamped the light bulb outline in black ink. I followed it up with the fill bulb using a variety of ink pads that coordinate with the Whimsy Paper Fundamentals pack.

The gift box, tag, leaves, and flowers were all cut with the Cricut Artiste cartridge using the Enchantment Paper Fundamentals pack. I love that this box requires no adhesive to assemble! Since the paper is so beautiful I kept the box simple and just accented it with some small flowers and leaves also cut from the Aritste cardstock and Enchantment Fundamentals pack. Now all I have to do is fill it with some awesome little baked goodies and gift it to one of my awesome neighbors!

Now please continue to Michelle Jones's blog to see what she's created! If you happen to come across a broken blog link please visit Melinda's blog for a full list of participating consultants.

Thanks for stopping by!
~Michelle Battitori

Card Recipe:
S1510 Twinkle Stamp of the Month
Z3126 Enchantment Paper Fundamentals
Z2105 Black Ink
Z2649 Peacock Ink
Z2651 Saffron Ink
Z2648 Sapphire Ink
Z2647 Eggplant Ink
Z2652 Poppy Ink
1385 White Daisy Cardstock

Gift Box Recipe:
S1510 Twinkle Stamp of the Month
Z3126 Enchantment Paper Fundamentals
Z2105 Black Ink
Z2652 Poppy Ink
1385 White Daisy Cardstock
1386 Black Cardstock
Z3170 Cricut Artiste Cartridge
Z1752 Clear Sparkles

Quick and Easy Watercolor Card Set

I've been taking a watercolor class and one of the lessons was using watercolor as a background. So I pulled out my paint palette and used Freshly Made Sketch #205 to whip up this four card set in a matter of minutes.

I kept this card pretty clean and simple. I embossed the background with our new Confetti Stars Embossing Folder. The black strip is from the Paper Fundamentals collection. One side has a embossed background and the other is printed.

The stamp set is from Hello Life Cardmaking Stamp set. This set is part of the National Stamping special and is only available thru 9/30/15. You can see the three stamps sets available HERE.

Thanks for stopping by and have a wonderful day!

~Michelle

Card Recipe (links to items used are in the item numbers):
Z3146 Watercolor Paper
Z3132 Watercolor Paints
Z3118 Paintbrush Set
1385 White Daisy Cardstock
Z3128 Paper Fundamentals Basic
CC1041 Hello Life Cardmaking Stamp Set (only available until 9/30)
Z2190 Gypsy Ink
Z2640 Thistle Ink
Z891 VersaMark Ink Pad
Ranger Black Embossing Powder (not CTMH)
Z555 Craft Heater
Z3119 Confetti Stars Embossing Folder
Z3190 Artiste Cricut Cartridge
Z1979 Marvy Uchida Journaling Pen

Graduation Card

My dear husband volunteered me to make a graduation card for a friend who recently received her Master's Degree. I was a little stumped on what to do so after browsing Pinterest I found THIS ONE and knew I had to CASE it (Copy and Steal Everything).

I started by cutting Champagne Cardstock at 10" x 7" and scoring on the 10" side to create a 5" x 7" card. I cut Black Cardstock to 5" x 7" and embossed it with the Quatrefoil folder. I did the same thing with the 3" x 3" Black Cardstock piece I used for the cap.

The neckline on the gown took me a minute to figure out but once I realized it was a pennant/triangle shape it came together pretty quickly. I used Cricut Design space and the Artiste Cartridge for my card. You could do the same thing with the Cricut Craft Room and any triangle shape.

I finished off the card with a homemade tassel and a bit of stamping using the Happy Couple (D1539)  and Card Chatter - Love (retired) stamp sets. I used some Opaque Pearls from my stash as a mock pearl necklace.

Thanks for looking and have a great day!

~Michelle Battitori

Kids Robot Birthday Cards

For this week's Freshly Made Sketch #133 I decided to finally break out this fun stamp set, Robot Family, with a couple of kids birthday cards! The paper is from a retired CTMH pack called You Rock. It was one of the first sets I bought as a consultant and I am determined to use every square inch of it! If you don't have it in your stash Pro-Player would make a great substitute!

I wanted to use the gear stamp that's included with the set so I stamped it a few times with Grey Flannel Ink on the inside and then stamped and matted the sentiment on another piece of B&T from the pack.

Robot Family Stamp Set (C1385)

I colored the robots using watercolor pencils. The circle on the card was cut with my Cricut Artiste Cartridge using the card feature and <i>. It was cut at 5" and trimmed in half.

Supplies Used (All CTMH unless otherwise noted):
Paper: You Rock (retired), Indian Corn Blue Cardstock, White Daisy Cardstock
Stamps: Robot Family (C1583)
Ink: Black, Grey Flannel
Other: White Daisy Bulk Cards & Envelopes, Cricut Artiste, Watercolor Pencils

Thanks for looking!

~Michelle

P.S. Did you know that you can get a CTMH Cricut Cartridge for free in April? Contact me for more info or visit THIS PAGE.

Here's the sketch:

Want a FREE Cricut Cartridge?

April is a wonderful time to join my team, The Handmade Brigade, as a Close To My Heart Independent Consultant!

 

 

When you sign up this month, April 2014, you'll not only start out on your artistic journey, but you'll also be given the right "art-full" tools with a free Close To My Heart Cricut collection FREE! Our new consultant kit is just $99 and comes packed with nearly triple the retail value in products and supplies to help you succeed.

Plus, when you qualify for the Straight To The Top program, you will be refunded the price of your New Consultant Kit! If you are doing the math that's almost $400 in free products just for doing something you love!

 

Here's what's in each of the Cricut Collections:

Artbooking:

   

1. Cartridge (700 Images; Font, Mini Books, Layouts)
2. My Acrylix™ D-size Stamp Sets
3. 12" × 9" Dimensional Elements in coordinating shapes

Artiste:

 

 

1. Cartridge (700 Images: Themed Projects, Cards, Font, Shapes, and 3-D Items)
2. My Acrylix™ D-size Stamp Sets
3. 12" × 9" Dimensional Elements in coordinating shapes

Art Philosophy:

   

1. Cartridge (700 Images: Font, Basic Shapes, and 3-D Items)
2. My Acrylix™ D-size Stamp Sets
3. 12" × 9" Dimensional Elements in coordinating shapes

More information on becomming a consultant can be found HERE. If you have specific questions please contact me! This really is a great opportunity to make a little extra money or just support your crafty habit!

~Michelle

Everything ABC's Blog Hop - E

Welcome to the Everything ABC's Blog Hop!

For this hop we will be featuring the letter 'E'. This may be the name of a paper, a stamp set or an embellishment. For this hop I'm focusing on the fun and super easy Easter Bunny Box from the Aritste Cricut Cartridge, one of the many items I'll have available for sale at an upcoming Spring Craft Fair!

If you have just hopped onto my blog, please start at the beginning at Linda's blog ~ Scrappy Therapy. If you are coming from Lauren's blog then you are on the right track.

When I first got this cartridge I was a bit intimidated by making some of these boxes. Now that I've made them I'm not sure why. They really are super easy!

Here's how to make them:

• Select Accent 1 and the <Spring> key on page 73. Set your dial size to 2 1/2" (make sure Real Dial Size is NOT set (if it is you'll get a tiny little box). Cut.
• The box already has score marks but I recommend using a bone folder and ruler to get a nice even line.
• Simply fold in the tabs, get your bunnies together and then slide the notched edges over the bunny! That's it...no adhesive required on this bad boy!

Now's the fun part...decorating. You can do a variety of things with this box. Here are a few examples of what I've done below:

For the pattern boxes I kept the embellishments very simple by adding the Spring sentiment from the Artiste Cartridge (p. 73, shift + <Easter> at 1").

For the cardstock boxes I cut several grass pieces out of green pattern cardstock (p. 73, shift + Accent 3 at 1"), trimming and adding around the box. 

The little bows also come from the Artiste Cartridge (p. Accent 3 + <g> p. 56 at 1/4"). The bow is perfect to use with brads but my stubby fingers were having trouble adding them to these small cuts. Instead I used a glue dot to fasten to the box and then added some adhesive gems!

It might be hard to tell in the photo but I also added Liquid Applique to the bunny tails. Once dry it "puffs" up giving my bunnies a fuzzy little backside!

Thanks for checking out my project and for "hopping" onto my blog! Please visit Sharon's blog, Sharon's Paper Fiesta, and see what creative project she's designed for the letter 'E'.

Have a great day!

~Michelle

If you get lost on this hop here's a complete list of hoppers and well as links to their blogs:

1. Linda Norman - Scrappy Therapy
2. Joy McHargue - Studiowow
3. Catherine Nowak ~ Catscrapbooking
4. Pam Trostle - Pam's Crafty Creations
5. Jenny Gilbert - Jen's Creative Classroom
6. Anita Autore- Cards and Coffee
7. Lauren Moore - CTMH Craftings
8. Michelle Battitori - That's me!!
9. Sharon Chapman-Sharon's PaperFiesta
10. Cary Magnani - My Heart's Design 
11. Stephanie Feist-The Quilted Scrapper
12. Shalana Glass - Scrappin with Shalana

Everything ABC Blog Hop - 'D'

Welcome to the Everything ABC's Blog Hop!

For this hop we will be featuring the letter 'D'. This may be the name of a paper, a stamp set or an embellishment. For this hop I'm focusing on a Disney, Dimensional Elements, D-sized stamp, mini album! Specifically, I'm focusing on the products that coordinate with the Artiste Cartridge.

 If you have just hopped onto my blog, please start at the beginning at Linda's blog ~ Scrappy Therapy. If you came from Lauren's, CTMH Craftings blog then you're on the right track!

Last weekend we took our two youngest children to see a Disney On Ice show. We had a wonderful time and since they've mentioned it every day since I thought it would be nice to have a little memento for them to flip through at their leisure.

Dimensional Elements are what Close To My Heart calls it's chipboard shapes. CTMH has a variety of Dimensional Elements to choose from -- Complements (that coordinate with certain paper packs), "Naked" (plain chipboard like the ones that come with our Cricut Cartridges), and Irresistibles (pre-embossed Dimensional Elements). One of the sheets that came with the Artiste cartridge is the cute little mini-album I'm using.

Each Cricut cartridge comes with 3 Dimensional Elements sheets and 3 coordinating D-sized Stamp sets, making it super easy to add dimension and variety to our projects. My project focuses on the Dimensional Elemetns Album Pages that comes with the Artiste Cartridge (see page 60 of the Artiste handbook). The label tells me the proper dial size to use...in this case it's 3 3/4."

Once I decided on my paper choice, Skylark,  I went about cutting 2 of each shape, one for the front and one for the back. I adhered the paper with my Tombow adhesive.

I used a few different techniques to use with our Dimensional Elements sheets. The cover page focuses on our Irresistbles. I used my Juniper Alcohol Marker to color the letters. Because it's been embossed already the color only shows on the non-embossed portions.

On the 2nd page I stamped an image from one of the Artiste stamp sets and accentuated the page with one of the Skylark Complements pieces. 

For page 3 I used my Cricut to cut the star image from the Artiste Collection and stamped it with Sweet Leaf Ink. 

Page 4 didn't use any Dimensional Elements so I opted to add a little bling with our Silver Shimmer Trim...after all, Princess Ariel likes her shiny "thing-a-ma-bobs!"

For page 5, I cut the word bubble shape from the Artiste Cartridge at 1 1/2" (p. 65, Shift + Accent 2 <B>) using Brown Bag cardstock. I inked the border of the coordinating stamp, "thanks" with Brown Bag Ink and used it as a journaling spot.

For page 6 I went back to the Skylark Complements. I also stamped the arrow image from Word Balloons Stamp Set and trimmed with my scissors. 

For page 7 I covered the Dimensional Element shape with B&T paper and a little bit of Washi Tape. I also stamped a sentiment from the Kudos Stamp Set.

I kept page 8 very simple by adding a small strip of Silver Shimmer Trip. The top sentiment, Perfect Day, was trimmed from a zip strip and popped up with 3D Foam Tape.

For page 9 I used my Cricut Artiste to cut a banner shape out of B&T paper (p. 58, Shift + Accent 3 <K>). I stamped the coordinating image from the Birthday Collection Stamp set and adhered to the page.

For page 10 I went back to the Skylark Complements (I'm totally in love with them). I also added a little of Shimmer Tape tabs along the top.

I finished off my little mini just as I started...with some Irresistibles and a picture of the finale! 

And the back cover:

Supplies (all CTMH unless otherwise noted):

Paper: Skylark (X7177B), Crystal Blue Cardstock (1292), Sweet Leaf Cardstock  (X5639), Brown Bag Cardstock (, White Daisy Cardstock (1385)

Stamps: Cricut Artiste Kudos, Cricut Artiste Balloon Wishes, Cricut Artiste Birthday

Ink: Crystal Blue (Z2117), Juniper (Z2165), Chocoalte (Z2111), Saddle Cardstock (X5928), Sweet Leaf (Z2153)

Other: Cricut Artiste Cartridge (XXX), Dimensional Elements Album Pages (Z1791), Dimensional Elements Awards (Z1792), Dimensional Elements Quotes (Z1793), Irresistible Houndstooth Alphabet (retired), Skylark Complements (X7177C), Silver Shimmer Trim (Z1799), 3D Foam Tape (Z1151)

Thank you for stopping by and checking out my project. I hope it inspires you to create use your Dimensional Elements Album Pages for a little mini project of your own! Your next stop on our Everything ABC'S blog Hop is Catherine at Catscrapbooking.

~Michelle Battitori

Here's the entire hop in case you get lost along the way :):

1. Linda Norman- Scrappy Therapy 

2. Lauren Moore- CTMH Craftings

3. Michelle Battitori - that's me!

4. Catherine Nowak ~ Catscrapbooking 

5. Jenny Gilbert - Jen's Creative Classroom 

6.  Lisa Plummer - Flaunt Your Creativity

7. Cary Magnani - My Heart's Design 

8. Shalana Glass - Scrappin with Shalana 

9. Pam Trostle - Pam's Crafty Creations 

10. Michele Pryor - Michele's Ink It Stamp It 

11. Sharon Chapman - PaperFiesta

12 Anita Autore -  Cards and Coffee