I'm taking a break...his name is Tyson!

Friends,

Here's a little known fact - we were chosen to be the adoptive parents for a sweet baby due any minute now!  His name will be Tyson, and we couldn't be more excited!!!  Since we don't know exactly when he will be born (maybe he already is, when you are reading this!), I feel like I can't really make any major plans.  So, I won't be doing my fall open house this year.  I am also not planning on any workshops until at least the first part of next year.

In the meantime, I am going to make you an offer, I hope you won't want to refuse!  From now, until my next open house, I am offering you NO SHIPPING AND TAX!!!   That's pretty much my price on stuff!  Place orders as often as you want, and get everything for just the retail price!  (except on Studio J, I can't figure out how to make that work)

Anyone who takes advantage of this great offer will be invited to a special workshop that I will host in either January or February.  We will make something fun, and it won't cost anything. BUT, in order to be invited, you need to place an order between now and then!

So, get over here, and get your catalog, then shop as often as you want, (email me your order, and I will enter it, so you can get the discount).  I can even take credit cards.

Thanks for supporting me through this baby time, I'm excited to not stress out about anything but him for a while!!!

:)
Karen

Introducing: Artiste!

I'm thrilled to share Cricut Cartridge Artiste with you.  It is available only from a CTMH consultant (LIKE ME!).  And it's amazing!  I love all of the 3D items you can make with it.  Boxes, purses, bags, flowers, yo-yo's and so much more.  Plus, it's got a great Font, shapes, and lots of coordinating stamp sets to go with it.

Get this amazing cartridge (including an instruction book for all of the 3D items) along with 3 exclusive - and cute - stamp sets, and 3 sets of dimensional elements for just $99!  Available NOW at my website: My CTMH store.  If you would like a catalog or more information please email me at KarensAStamper at gmail.com.  I'd love to hear from you!

Why I Love Studio J

I don't know if you've ever heard me go on about Studio J, but you are about to!    Let me share my top 10 reasons why I love Studio J  - then I challenge you to try it out!  There's no commitment, just log on, create a quick account, and start playing around.  If you LOVE what you create, THEN you can purchase layouts for just $6.95 each!  No trips to Costco to pick up pictures, no sifting through all your paper and embellishments, just grab your credit card, and sit back a few days and your layouts will be on your doorstep before you know it!

Now... the Top 10 Reasons Why I Love Studio J

 1.  You can complete layouts in just minutes, with an internet connection.  This layout was completed before Josh got to lunch on his first day of school (this is last year, this year's is done, but I haven't ordered it yet--it's just a cute and took even less time with the Express Collection Layouts).

                            

2.  You can use lots of sizes of pictures, without planning ahead. Don't you hate waiting until you have your layout finished to print your pictures?  Or, worse, get all you pictures in 4x6, then find out that you want to use 3 - 5x7's and 6 - 2x2 pictures (as shown below)?  It's pretty great to just upload the pictures, then drag and drop them to the photo well, and they become whatever size you need!  You can even zoom in on them, and do some editing within Studio J!

3.  Funky shapes and sizes don't scare me! In the layout below you will notice some wedge shaped pictures.  Simple to do and creates a fun visual for your page!  Drag and drop, no measuring, templates, cutting and messing up!

4. Create multiple pages for different people.  The layouts below were so easy.  I quickly made layouts for 3 different family members.  One for us, one for Jake & his wife, and one for my in-laws.  They are similar but specific to each recipient.  (And, I must report, everyone was thrilled with their layouts!)

Our layout has a picture of my husband and his brother, and highlights our favorite part of the graduation ceremony--the soldiers coming out of the smoke-very cool!

This one is for his parents.

And finally the layout for Jake and his family

5.  To Journal or Not to Journal.  There are so many layout choices.  Some include lots of picture spots and journaling areas, and some don't.  There are titles on every page and space for journaling, however, you can change a journaling spot into a picture spot, and vice versa.  So much flexibility!

6.  Scrapbooks you can look at all day long.  With Studio J, when you order your 12x12 layout prints, you also get a set of .jpg images.  One of the images is great for sharing layouts on your blog, facebook page, emailing, etc., while the other one is two large files one for each page of your layout.  These can be used to re-print layouts at photo shops, or you can load them onto a SIM card and display them on a digital picture frame.  Josh loves to turn it on and look through the pages one at a time, it can occupy him (or me) for hours!

7.  Reprint all you want.  With Studio J's .jpg images, you can upload them to Costco and reprint your layouts for just $2.99 per page.  This is very convenient, but you can also reprint them from Studio J for up to one year.  While Costco's prints are less expensive, Studio J's quality can't be beat!  Studio J layouts are "custom printed to the highest quality, made to last a lifetime".

8.  Reasonable shipping charges Studio J layouts are shipped via USPS, and you can have between 4-50 layouts shipped directly to you for just $5.95.  Here's an idea, set a goal each month for how many layouts you want to create, and that you can afford.  Create your layouts, and put the $6.95/layout in an envelope or savings account each month.  Be sure to check in every 30 days or so, so they know you are still working on them!  Then when you have enough layouts to justify the $5.95 shipping (at least 4 are needed), then you can place your order and use the money you have saved up each month to pay for them.  Be sure to order every 90 days so they will save your work!

9.  Super easy to use!  Studio J is very intuitive.  You can figure it out quite quickly.  BUT if you do have problems, shoot me an email or give me a call and I can help you any time!  I taught myself almost everything (my friend Adana also discovered some fun stuff I didn't know!).

10.  It's FUN!  It's fun to come home from an event and scrapbook it right then, in just a few minutes!  Sometimes I will get home, drop everything, and scrapbook those fun pictures just minutes after taking them.  While I have to wait a few days for them to be delivered, I can enjoy the process of making them immediately.  All it takes is an internet connection and some pictures.

C'mon.  Go try it now!

To celebrate National Stamping Month in September, we are
offering a new double stamp set! You can get the exclusive
My Acrylix®
  It’s Your Day double stamp set for just $5 when
you place a minimum order of $35 in full retail products
from August 15 through September 30. You’ll love this double
set—two D-size sets in one envelope—with trendy images
that capture the flavor of your day-to-day activities, errands,
and musings—the little things that make up who you are
and are worth remembering and sharing! With a retail
value of $35.90, this set drastically increases the value
of your qualifying purchase. Have twice the fun stamping
during National Stamping Month with our new It’s Your
Day double stamp set!

Order Yours NOW!

Offer available August 15–September 30, 2012.  
Tax and shipping/handling charges apply.
Limit one promotional item per qualifying order.

How to use the new markers

With the Autumn/Winter Idea Book came lots of new products.  One of them is our NEW alcohol based marker sets.  I was skeptical at first, but after getting several and trying them out, they are pretty dang cool!  Here's a short video on how to use and store them.  Let me know if you are interested in getting some for yourself, you won't be disappointed! Check them out here.

Color Dare #9

I had to take a week off for an AWESOME family reunion in Park City, but I'm back!  Here's Color My Heart's Dare #9

The challenge was to use Petal and Creme Brulee.  I also used Colonial White.  Since Petal is now discontinued (a moment of silence for our 20 discontinued colors...), I decided to bust out some OLD papers to use for this challenge.  Anyone remember Paper Garden and Key to My Heart?  Well, the Petal and the "cream" colored flower are both from Paper Garden, and the Creme Brulee is from Key to My Heart.  Since the back of the Paper Garden petal paper was pink, I covered the inside of the "envelope" with the Creme Brulee from KtMH.   These pictures don't do this pretty paper justice!  I used the August Stamp of the Month Baroque Backgrounds for the detail on the inside, and Happy Birthday came from C1257 Happy Birthday.  The flowers, and all elements of the card were cut using the NEW Artiste Cricut Cartridge from CTMH, and the Happy Birthday frame is from Art Philosophy!

I'm loving all the new card/card jackets that are on the Artiste Cartridge!  Anyone want one?  Visit me after August 1st to get one!  It's AWESOME, and I promise you won't be disappointed (unless you don't make the time to play with it--that's kinda on you :)!)  Shop here anytime:  My CTMH store

Color Dare #7

This week I chose to use Mojo Monday's Sketch #248 along with Color Dare #7.  It wasn't too challenging this week to use 2 of the 3 secondary colors for the color dare.  I love green and purple together!

For this card, I used D1510 - 4 My Friend, stamp set.  Z1383 sweet leaf ribbon, and the Cricut CTMH Art Philosophy cartridge for the green frame, the flower, and leaves.  I chose Topiary, Sweet Leaf, and Gypsy for my secondary colors.  Originally I tried using Lilac Mist for my card base, but I decided that white looked better in the background.  I also used the Cuttlebug for creating a pattern on the background.  It's hard to tell in the picture, but the Topiary frame is actually raised up using foam tape, which made it a little hard for me to focus on the sentiment.  Overall, I'm pretty pleased with the final card.  It ended up being 5"x7" and so three-dimensional, you would have to deliver these Congrats in person!

Here's the original sketch:

It's a pretty literal interpretation!