August Paper Trail Blog Hop

Welcome to the August Paper Trail bog hop!  If you arrived here from Vicki's blog, The Wizard's Hangout, you are on the right path. We have some awesome new artists joining our hop this month.  Be sure to show them some love by leaving comments.

In July Close to my Heart consultants from all over the US and Canada came together in Anaheim, California for our annual convention. Beautiful new papers were introduced and I am so excited to share them with you over the next few months.  But for August our artists agreed to an "anything goes" hop since we had so little time to order, receive and use our new products.  I'm going to "cheat" a bit and give you 8 little peeks of the new papers I got to use on 3"x3" cards we made in our Leadership training.

Mischief (L) and Elemental (R)

Dreamin' (L) and Sonoma (R)

Roxie (L) and Typeset (R)

Believe (L) and Wonderland (R)

Hope you've enjoyed these little cards.  Now hop on over to Linda's blog, The Paper Taylor, and enjoy some more paper candy.

Art Philosophy!

Art Philosophy by Cricut, exclusively for Close to My Heart

 
Art philosophy (Z1686) is available on August first through my website, Paper Boutique.  I am so excited for you to see all the great images to use alone or with our stamps.  Great 3-D projects, too!!   The Art Philosophy package includes three exclusive D-size stamp sets and three sets of Dimensional Elements designed to perfectly coordinate with images on the cartridge, a total retail value of over $120!

Check it out here on Hello Thursday.  Click on the blue box next to the origami flowers to see more images and ideas.

The Sticky Boy Story

The story behind Sticky Boy:

Sticky Boy started out as a wood stamp in the DOTS (pre-Close To My Heart) days called "What's Up?" When we introduced My Acrylix, David Lynton wanted to call the product line "Sticky Boys."  Here is the introductory video they showed when they were introduced...

After that for a few years, David dressed up as a giant Sticky Boy and the stamps were hidden treasures to spot at events, the tradition continues.   Sticky Boy is our Mascot.


**Thanks to Bren Yule for providing this information & video.  As a long time consultant I clearly recall where & why Sticky Boy came into existence, but I completely spaced this awesome video. 

Gadgets & Gizmos

I'm back from the Close To My Heart convention in Anaheim and so excited about all that's new!  Actually, I've been back nearly a week but my head is still spinning & twirling with all the ideas and new products, I feel like I may still be in one of Alice's Magic Tea Cups!

Alyssa, Mickey & Me

Anaheim of course, is home to Disneyland so our very first order of business was stopping in and saying hello to Mickey.  I credit him for the awesome warm days and cool evenings and so much fun we almost didn't want to stop for convention.  But we didn't lose our heads completely!

Me & Sticky Boy!

One of the highlights for me was finally finding a Sticky Boy!  He's the prototype of our My Acrylix stamps and has attended every convention since we introduced My Acrylix. Every consultant wants to find him and there are many clones of him to be discovered.  But having attended many conventions this is the first time I got so lucky.

Hangin' out with Sticky Boy

Right now he's hanging out on my window over my kitchen table and watching me as I've been catching up on convention create and takes.

Art Philosophy.  Just of few ideas of so many more!

Have you heard our big news?  I mean REALLY BIG news?  Close To My Heart now has an exclusive Cricut cartridge, Art Philosophy!  I am so excited!!  It has over 700 images including a font, shapes that fits some of our new stamps, 3-dimensional flowers & projects and so much more!  It comes with three exclusive 'D' size Close To My Heart stamp sets and three 9x12 sheets of Dimensional Elements, that all coordinate.  Awesome!!

And now that I have swapped all my swap cards I'll give you a peek at what I swapped.  Many thanks to Alyssa and Mary Jane for being part of my production line.

Sweetheart Gift Holder

Sweetheart Gift Holder open

Card with Mayberry Papers and Bless this Nest

Cards with Lucky Papers

Sophia Gift Holder

Sophia Gift Holder open

Paper Trail Blog Hop, Fanfare

It's July already and time for a blog hop!  If you arrived here from Karen's blog, Inky Fingers, you're on the right path. 

This month we are using Fanfare, a red white & blue collection perfect for scrapping your 4th of July photos.  I used Studio J to do a military layout of my nephew, a Navy Corpsman.

Click on photos to view original size

I also did a Father's Day card for my husband.  You may have noticed by now that I love the tri-fold shutter card and tend to use it quite often.

Lastly, I did a series of cards using a simple sketch and mixing up the papers and stamps. 

The stamp set is called "Horizon" and I love the images! 

I hope you found some inspiration here.  If you like what you see please leave a comment and let me know!  Now you are on your way to Lynne's blog, Field's Finery.  Enjoy the hop!