NEW Inkysquids Cricut Store

Want to create gorgeous layouts like the one here?  Try my Cricut Affiliate Store at https://tinyurl.com/ShopInkysquidsCricutStore.

  Anything you purchase through the affiliate link will support my small business and allow you to get your hands on ALL the goodies.  We have a GREAT new Cricut cartridge called Complete Creativity.

That includes:

•  All the CTMH exclusive Cricut collections
•  Cricut Access subscriptions and purchases
•  NEW CTMH Cricut collection, Complete Creativity
•  NEW CTMH Digital Art + vintage images
• Cricut machines
•  Mats, blades, vinyl, infusible ink, heat press, ETC. 

If you are a Cricut Access Members, ALL past CTMH single images are available FREE with your Cricut Access subscription.  If you are interested in subscribing to CRICUT ACCESS, subscribe HERE.

Oh, Canada!

Did you know that Canada celebrated 150 year of Canadian Confederation on July 1, 2017?  In 1867, Canada was created with British colonies of Canada, Nova Scotia, and New Brunswick and then split into provinces.  Happy Canada Day!

One of the sneak peeks of the new 2017-18 Idea Books is in an exclusive product bundle that you can purchase during the month of July at 20% off the retail price! This bundle includes the brand new Canadian-themed digital Cricut® collection as well as a Canada 150 stamp set and 12 sheets of cardstock.

Welcome Home

Every January, we celebrate National Papercrafting Month as a way of acknowledging the pure joy of playing with paper! We scrapbook with it, we make cards with it, we decorate with it—in short, we craft with it! This January, we are celebrating the joys of paper-crafted home décor with the beautiful Welcome Home wreath kit. This kit comes with pre-cut pieces you can simply pop out and attach to the sturdy chipboard wreath base, making a welcoming décor piece for your home.

City Sidewalks Cricut Digital Cartridge

 

Dress up your artwork in holiday style with the festive images from this mini digital Cricut® collection. We've designed this collection to work with our City Sidewalks paper packet, so you can complete Christmas projects in less time. 30 complete images, including titles, photo frames, borders, card sentiments, card overlays, and other cheery Christmas designs.The fun and playful images are sure to have you singing your way through all your Christmas crafting!

Yuletide Scrapbooking

I know we just got into the Autumn holiday season, and I'm already showing Christmas themed stamps. Many of us like to get a jump on our holiday and New Years cards. Got some photos from last year that you want to scrapbook? Warm up your Cricut and cut/stamp the images from this month's special stamp.

SOTM: Yuletide Joy

Yuletide Joy is a great stamp set but is only available during the month of October.
Get it now for $5 with your qualifying order.

Available October 1-31, 2016

Flamingos and Pineapples, Oh My!

Calypso and its matching stamp sets make great craft projects such as a Flamingo Birthday party or Pineapple Home Decor.  Check out these samples to inspire your creativity!

Retiring List

Every year we retire older products in order to make way for new and exciting products that will be coming out in the next idea books. The list of products from our 2015-2016 Annual Inspirations catalog that will be retiring has been posted on my Facebook page in the photos section. These items will no longer be available after July 31, and are available while supplies last. 

Once you look through the list, you will notice that we are retiring three of our beloved Cricut® collections, as well as our rolling tote. Also remember the new policy about stamps. We are retiring all of our stamps after every catalog. There are a few exceptions, like the state/country stamps. 

Although our other retired products will be unavailable after July 31, in the case of these three retiring Cricut® cartridges and the rolling tote, we will keep them available past the July 31 deadline while supplies last, so that you and your customers can continue placing orders for these favorites until they are all gone.

Flash Sales

News flash! During the month of June, we’re offering great deals on bundles of discounted Close To My Heart products every weekend! Check my website, inkysquid.ctmh.com, each Friday during June to find a new set of bundles. There will be lots to choose from, but you’ll need to snatch them up quick, because they’re only available through the following Monday while supplies last! Bundles will be available at various discount levels and price points throughout the month, so check every weekend to see the new offerings. Remember, these discounts won’t last forever, and some will be gone in a flash, so act quickly to score the best deals!
Dates:
Friday, June 3, 2016 at 3:00 pm (MDT) – Monday, June 6, 2016 at 3:00 pm (MDT)
Friday, June 10, 2016 at 3:00 pm (MDT) – Monday, June 13, 2016 at 3:00 pm (MDT)
Friday, June 17, 2016 at 3:00 pm (MDT) – Monday, June 20, 2016 at 3:00 pm (MDT)
Friday, June 24, 2016 at 3:00 pm (MDT) – Monday, June 27, 2016 at 3:00 pm (MDT)

Baby, You're Worth IT!

Do you like the gorgeous bag and heart dangles ? What about the idea of getting all of the products in the medium organizer for free?!

Signing up as a new Consultant with Close To My Heart during April is more rewarding than ever. Not only do you get your beautiful New Consultant Kit at a new, lower price, but 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!

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!

Santa's Wallet

Santa's Wallet is a cute card that I've seen throughout Pintrest and the web. It's a super easy card, and was also easy to make into a gift card.  The card base is a solid Cranberry Cardstock and the belt is solid Black Cardstock.  The belt buckle is a Cricut cut in CTMH's glitter paper, with a Bitty Sparkle in the center.  The center of the gift card is two simple pockets on left and right.  One side is a sentiment card to sign, while the other is the place for the gift card.

 

Snowflake Interactive

Last year, CTMH released another Cricut cartridge called Artfully Sent.  It is a super fun, interactive card cartridge. It also has many cuts for Picture My Life style scrapbooking.  On one of the keys, it has a snowflake flip card, but the snowflake wasn't very big.  So I cut out two large snowflakes from the Artiste cartridge and made my own flip card.  In the Holiday Expressions Idea Book, we also released silver snowflake charms which is attached in the center of the Snowflake.  To show the versatility of the White Pines kit, I tried a different color scheme.  The card base is Fern; the B&T is from the WOTG; and the snowflakes are cut from White Daisy and Glacier cardstock. 

Merry Christmas Fab Friday Gift card

Even though the week is over, this Fab Friday sketch was fun to use with the wreath in the White Pines Cardmaking WOTG.  The little Bitty Sparkles fit right in as part of the layout.  I stamped the wreath image using pigment White Daisy and heat set first.  The white circle was stamped with Fern and Cranberry ink.  The Bitty Sparkles are the center of the flowers.  The whole thing is attached to the Fern Cardstock with 3-d Foam tape. 

 

The inside is a holding place for a gift card.  I used two regular A-2 card bases.  I scored one of the sides of each card and glued them together, leaving the center area without adhesive (someplace for the gift card to sit in).  Using a circle punch, I cut out the center notch to make it easier to pull out the card.  Decorate the inside as you wish.

Check out other ideas using this sketch by clicking on the image below.

From our house to yours...

The White Pines Cardmaking WOTG stamp set is really fun to work with.  In this card, I used multiple techniques.  The background is the Smoosh technique with an embossing folder where you add ink to the raised side of the folder and sandwich the paper in the folder.  Run it through the embossing machine and you get nice grout.  The wreath is stamped in several different generations of Fern ink plus a darker color, New England Ivy.  The bird is cut out from the Cricut, and tied with Fern twine.  I love this idea that came from Pretty Impact.

Sunshine Rays

  

Every time I look at this card, it  makes me smile.  It's one of my favorite cards I've made, because the colors are beautiful and the sun just pops out at me.   It also showcases several techniques that are really fun to play with.

 

The first technique is called Spirelli String Art.  Depending upon how you lay the strings, you can make different styles of art pieces.  In this case, I wound the string (CTMH Glacier Twine) every four petals of the Smoothie flower.  Both flowers were cut using the Cricut.  The inside of the flower is from the Blossom Cardmaking kit, stamped in Sunset Ink.

The second technique is called Faux Torn Mosaic and an explanation can be found at Splitcoast here.  Basically, I tore up a bunch of pieces of B&T paper, inked edges with Lagoon Ink (my fav color!) and randomly glued the pieces to the card base.  Make sure to overlap the edges, and then cut them off to make a clean cut.  The sentiment is from the Rain or Shine stamp set.  You can see another card I made earlier here called Summertime Rainbows.

Allow the B&T paper to lay over the edges.  Then cut them clean off.

Hello-Life!

September is National Stamping Month, and this year Close To My Heart has something to help every kind of papercrafter say a big “hello” to life! Available only during the month of September, these exclusive C-size My Acrylix® Hello, Life! stamp sets can be purchased for $13.95 each! Or, for an even better deal, you can purchase all three for only $34.95 —a savings of $6.90! Each stamp set is designed to fit with a specific type of papercrafting, whether that’s scrapbooking, cardmaking, or pocket scrapbooking. However, all the stamp sets coordinate with each other and can be used together to create dynamic artwork.

These stamp sets also coordinate with shapes from the new Cricut® Artistry collection to help expand your artwork options even further. Remember, these stamp sets are available for one month only, so get your orders in for one stamp set—or all three—before these gorgeous stamps disappear! Make certain to follow Close To My Heart’s blog, Instagram, and Facebook page for artwork inspiration featuring these lively stamp sets all month long. You can post your own artwork to your social media channels using the hashtag #ctmhHelloLife.

Brand New Artistry Cartridge!

Tap into your creative genius with the Cricut® Artistry collection, which includes a dynamic cartridge, THREE exclusive D-size stamp sets, and an Enchantment cardstock combo pack—all for just $99! The Artistry cartridge is an artist's gold mine, replete with a glittering medley of banners, layered shapes, borders, backgrounds, and icons. Each key features its own unique theme, so you'll find a wide variety of choices within this extensive 700-image package, from maritime adventures and camping trips to newborn celebrations and holiday parties—and then some! In addition, the cartridge's unique font will add visual spice to any project you create!

CTMH Cricut Cartridge: Artistry

WOTG: Wanderful

The travel bug was put into my head and heart from a long line of travelers. My parents love to travel and took us on many family trips around the country (and Canada too). Their parents were travels, and traveled the US and Europe. It's in our spirit to seek new cultures and see beautiful countrysides. Share those beautiful photos on scrapbook pages using this month's spotlight kit, Wanderful.

 

WOTG: Wanderful

Yuletide Carol Ribbons

  

Scraps left over tend to make interesting cards.  Adding banners, or bits and pieces can add dimension and texture to cards.  Also, tags can be a way to pop out your sentiment.  This card, layout found here,  uses both a tag sentiment and scraps as ribbons, even my favorite Shimmer Trim.

 

Layering the different scraps, stamping bits, even adding doodads like Badge Buttons, sequins, and fibers, make cards more interesting.  The above card has everything.  Using a sketch from LilyBean Paperie, I stamped on B&T paper, cutouts from the Cricut, Badge Buttons, and different ribbons.  This card has a lot going on, but I love how it makes the eye travel is so many different directions.

Yuletide Carol Tickets

Four of the stamps in the Yuletide Carol Workshop are ticket shapes with different sayings. These are great, especially when stamped on pre-cut papers from the Cricut cartridges.  I built this card based on a tea card from Peggy. I love how adding stamps to Close To My Heart's Background and Texture Paper creates a unique background no one else has.  It added the right kick to my card base.  Then, the fun tickets stamped in Ruby and New England Ivy finalized this cute card.

 

Making my own backgrounds is a favorite of mine, so that I can create unique cards.  Melissa shows a technique to make a ticket background.  With this set, four different tickets made for an easy background in New England Ivy, Desert Sand, and Ruby, showcasing my favorite saying, Oh, What Fun.

One Day Only! Cyber Monday Sale

For the first time ever, Close To My Heart is offering a Cyber Monday Sale today. There has never been a better time to buy Close To My Heart’s exclusive Cricut® Collections for 20% off the retail price. Whether you love scrapbooking, cardmaking, or creating 3-D projects, our four exclusive Cricut® collections make the perfect addition to any craft room! Sale started at midnight (MST) and ends at 11:59 pm tonight. Make sure you share the news about this sale with all your friends and family members, too! You will be able to take advantage of this special deal at my online shop, inkysquid.ctmh.com.  While you are there, check out the "While Supplies Last" area for great deals on retired products.  Also, take advantage of  December's "Deal of the Decade" on C- and D- sized stamps and you could save even more!  Orders must be submitted between 12:00 am and 11:59 pm (MST) on Monday, December 1 in order to get the discount on your selected Cricut® collections. Enjoy extra savings on Close To My Heart's exclusive Cricut® collections this Cyber Monday!

Offer Valid from midnight (MST) until 11:59 pm  on December 1