Happy New Year...

What a great start we had!  After Christmas, we went to Ohio to visit my family and after a few days, David and I left the kids with my parents and finally took a honeymoon!  15.5 years, 4 children, 5 deployments and 15 moves later!  We spent 4 blissful days in Oahu enjoying the absolutely BEAUTIFUL scenery, snorkeling, swimming, kayaking, hiking and just spending time together!  It was amazing! Something we will definitely have to do again...soon!  If you have never been, find a way to go!  So, this year I set off my resolutions until I got home and back into the swing of things...obviously, you know where I am going with this! 
Resolutions:
1. Post to my blog more often!
2. Scrapbook!
3. Paper craft more!
4. Use up my stash!
5. Make more gifts!

Ambitious?  Maybe.  But with all the wonderful supplies I have and all the new supplies CTMH is going to carry (you should see the new catalog!), I NEED to do this!  So... here are a few things I have already made this year.

Birthday gift for Holly's friend:  personalized trinket box and matching birthday card

Top View: CTMH paper retired, Olive, Sweet leaf, Cocoa, Sky and Cotton Candy cs, AP Cart-butterflies, swirls, crochet flowers, buttons; (Non-CTMH: Life's a beach Cart, Luau Cart, Storytime cart,  Basic Grey-Lemonade paper pack, pearls-Michaels, white wash paint, box- Michaels

Side view of box: CTMH paper-retired, Cotton Candy and Sky cs, AP cart-butterfly,  MS edger punch, white wash paint

Card using retired CTMH paper. Cocoa,  Cotton Candy, Sky cs,  AP Cartridge (Shapes and butterfly), D1482 Love Life, D1475 Card Chatter-Birthday, Inks: sweet leaf and cocoa, white Organdy ribbon; (Non-CTMH) Basic Grey-lemonade paper pad, cuttlebug EF, pearls- Michaels

Gift Bag for gifts from Hawaii: Basic Grey- Lemonade pp, Luau Cart, CTMH Cocoa CS, CTMH retired gems

Birthday card: CTMH: You & Me promotion (retired) pp/ stamp set, Colonial white & Chocolate cs, Olive, Sunflower, Chocolate inks, D1482 Love Life; PTI die-stamp shape

Inside: D1475 Card chatter-birthday (see above for paper/ink)

 Hope to chat soon!  Have a great day!

Lori

Workout journal

I decided it would be nice to have a workout journal to record my workouts and to see if/how I have progressed.  When you do something like Cross-fit, a constantly changing and varying workout, it's easy to lose track of what you've accomplished and where you want to go without recording it.  CTMH began carrying these wonderful journals with a 7"x5" pocket on the front cover in which you slide your creation/decorative front and it remains protected.  Genius!  So, I decided to use it as my record keeper for workouts.  The stamp set, Be Yourself (D1349) is one of my favorites and perfect for this use.  CTMH TV has a wonderful episode that teaches "Overstamping" the technique I used for this journal. Enjoy!

I also wanted to share another card with you.  Just a cute little card I whipped up using another one of my favorite stamp sets, Free Spirit (D1217).

A few more cards...

that I made this week. This first one is based on a sketch by Clean and Simple. I'm really liking this idea. Pretty card with not a lot of fuss!



Products all CTMH: CS: Textured white daisy and Hollyhock, Inks: Chocolate, Hollyhock, Stamps: Aspiration, Accessories: chocolate watercolor pencil.

This is another take on Mojo Monday. I like to cut out two of everything when I make a card. That way I can make a couple different cards with the same sketch/idea. With this one, I simply flipped 2 of the pieces over and made a different looking card. (Gotta love that about CTMH papers... They are 2 sided!) The bird is the stamp that is included in this months promotion of Felicity. (see side bar or go to CTMH website, or better yet, call me!) I inked it with Barn Red, used my sponge dauber to take away some of the ink to add shading then stamped it and embossed it with irridescent embossing powder! Love that effect!

This is the inside...

Products all CTMH: CS Colonial White, B/T paper: Felicity (Jan promotion), Inks: Chocolate, Barn Red, Stamps: Felicity (Jan promotion), Card Chatter-thanks, Accessories: Colonial white organdy ribbon, Chocolate watercolor pencil, EK Success corner rounder, MS border punch.

This next card was for my nephew this weekend. He was in the pinewood derby and won first place in his troop and second place in his ??? next step above a troop. (We will be in boy scouts soon so I'll learn more about it then). He advanced to districts. Way to go Cody!
I made this card using my new cricut I got from my sisters and brother for Christmas! The car is from Cars (obviously) and was a little more work than I thought, but I wanted to add shading and highlights to give it a little more dimension. I think it turned out pretty cute. The exhaust is from a Stamp of the month we had last fall. (I hope we get it in our new catalog...so cute).


The inside of this one...not very creative, but it's a cute saying!

Products all CTMH except where noted: CS: Holiday Red, White Daisy, Sunny Yellow, Black, Spring Iris, Card Base (unknown), Inks: Black, Hydrangea, Stamps: Say it in Style, Boys at play, Around the Block (Nov SOM), Accessories: Cricut -Cars, sanding block, cranberry marker, Signo white gel pen, Copic C1