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And MORE from April!

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Earlier in April I posted about all the FUN I was having in what is easily one of the busiest month’s of my year- and of course it didn’t end at that post! I still had one more BIG show- Creativ Fest in Toronto and had so much fun hanging with my team members- Cheryl, Sheri, Cindy and Carol!

We took TWO car loads FULL to the show and this is my car only returning home- a success inmy books!

IMG_1566 Then this happened……..

 

Screen Shot 2014-05-02 at 7.39.16 PM Can you tell what that is?? I just earned my THIRD trip with Close to my Heart and I have LOTS of time to spare!! I cannot wait to take my husband and two kids to the Disney Aulani Resort in Hawaii next year!!!

and to top it all off it was my 9th anniversary with CTMH in April- I have been given so much from this company and have earned lots too! I am now a proud Senior Executive Director of the LARGEST team in Canada- 9 years ago I would never have expected this but now here I sit- proof that a choice to be part of this company CAN really lead to big things!!!

 

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Until we craft again, The Brae-er


April is AWESOME with CTMH

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These are a series of pictures just from the first half of April! April is AWESOME with CTMH and this is my photographic proof!

Always the busiest month (and September/October as well) but a month that inspires and motivates! It starts wit Scrapfest in Kitchener with my downline Lucy and our friend Lynn (she won’t become a consultant but man can she sell!).  We had a great time and welcomed many new ladies to our team and shared our passion and product with the masses!

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April is also the month that I have ALMOST earned the next Close to my Heart incentive trip to Disney Aulani in Hawaii!!!! I have many months to go so it is ‘in the bag’ so to speak.  I LOVE watching my points creep closer and closer to the 32,000- maybe by the end of this month! My loyal customers and my hard working team are the reason my family and I will be able to enjoy this exclusive resort next winter (and after this winter I think we need it).

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Add to all that my team Winning (or actually EARNING cause there was a lot of work to do to be in the running for this) a Thrive incentive! This summer we will be treated to one of the corporate VPs come to us and giving us a free team training! I cannot wait – it will be quite the event!

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What will the rest of the month hold??

You will have to check back to find out- there is so much! My team has welcomed over 80 new consultants- we are working on a goal of 100!

Why all the action? check out the ‘Montly Special‘ to see

Until we craft again, The Brae-er


“My Favourite Things” Team Blog Hop

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Welcome to my team blog hop featuring …. you guessed it… A Few of My Favourite things ( I am Canadian so my spelling in my post will include the letter U – LOL).

My team and I are featuring some of our favourite product and memories and likely a whole bunch of other things on this blog hop- I hope you enjoy it and please leave a little love on the blogs you visit.

I have MANY favourite things- product wise, memories wise and so much more! One of my MOST favourite things in my team- some who you will visit today! They are a hardworking bunch that love the product as much as me and share it with all they see.  Did you know this month through their hard efforts they have welcomed more than 70 people to our team! That is awesome and just shows their dedication and passion!

I did find some artwork though to show you other favourite things- a layout I created to feature my daughters 2nd birthday.  This features my first favourite paper pack from this idea book (Balloon Ride), my daughter (who of course is a fav of mine as well), and her party- I LOVE,  LOVE, LOVE to throw a big, fun, themed birthday party for my kids! She may not remember it but I sure will and this one was a lot of fun- even if we were rained out and everyone had to squeeze inside my little house. I used a mix of hexagons on this layout- some from our Dimensional Elements shapes and some cut on our Cricut cartridge- another FAV!! How can you not love them?? Then I mixed in some sparkles and flowers and voila- a layout fit for a birthday princess!

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Now you can hop on over to visit some more fun blogs to share in favourite things… before you do though I would love to hear from you – what is your favourite CTMH product currently? Let me know in the comments below.

Now hop on over to Michelle Stewart’s blog.

If you happen to get lost along the way please come back here for our full list of participants:

1. Brae Montgomery- you are here!

2. Michelle Stewart – http://mycreationswithmichelle.blogspot.ca/2014/04/my-favourite-things-blog-hop.html

3. Lucy Imrie  http://www.lucyscreativeexpressions.blogspot.ca/2014/04/my-favourite-things-brae-ers-monthly.html

4. Tamara Lisowski  https://geermara.blogspot.com/2014/04/ctmh-these-are-few-of-my-favourite.html

5. Sheri Ballantyne — http://sherisays-justscrapit.blogspot.ca/2014/04/brae-ers-blog-hop-my-favourite-things.html

6. Michelle Hughes – http://therighthugh.blogspot.ca/2014/04/these-are-few-of-my-favourite-things_15.html

7. Kimberly Clark – cricut! – http://leokc34.blogspot.com/2014/04/a-few-of-my-favorite-things.html

8. Alyson Mayo –  http://createwithalyson.blogspot.com/2014/04/brae-ers-unit-blog-hop-my-favourite.html

9. Heather Steeves – http://paperplayroom.blogspot.ca/2014/04/my-favourite-things-april-team-blog-hop.html

Until we craft again, The Brae-er


Shamrock Card

Happy St. Patrick’s Day- for you I made this Shamrock card!  Glitter paper, some simple sticking, Cricut Artiste, paper fundamentals and some of our marquee shapes- it came together very easily!

shamrock card

 

The card base was cut on the Artiste cartridge (so cute!) and the hearts that make up my shamrock were also cut using that cartridge (yes, there are four hears that make up my shamrock- I scored them down the middle and used foam tape to give them some lift).

I hope my four leaf clover gives you lots of good luck today!

Until we craft again, The Brae-er


Just Married Wedding Card

I know what at least one of you is thinking- yes I sure do love the Skylark paper! and I love this card! When I made it I had no wedding on the books for this year so I was not sure who I would be giving it too- but, as is the way, we received an invite to my friend Michelle’s wedding just the other day!

just married card

This card was created with the Skylark paper, some of our colour ready ribbon (which is retired but was the perfect ribbon for the card), the Rosewood mini-medley collection, Lagoon houndstooth washi tape, slate dot washi tape, Newlyweds mini stamp and the CTMH cricut art booking cartridge (for the polaroid image)- oh, and there is just a bit of bronze shimmer trim behind the chevrons on the polaroid.

How many of you have taken the plunge and purchased some of the Skylark paper? I promise you will not regret it! AND I promise to feature more of the other paper packs 🙂

Until we craft again, The Brae-er


Birthday Cards- two fun looks!

Can you even have enough birthday cards?! I don’t think so- it seems every time I create some then we have a whole bunch of family birthdays come up (not that they should be a surprise to me but somehow they are every year).  I made these two last weekend and have managed to hold onto the one but the other has already gone to brighten my sister-in-laws birthday!

happy bday hexagon card

 

The top card is a 6×6 card created with the Cricut Artbooking cartridge. I used the hexagon overlay and cut it out MANY times to create my white background (and on this one I left the inner hexagons in the overlay) AND to create the coloured hexagons to brighten my card.  The sentiment for the card also came of the Artbooking cartridge.  My ribbon banner was hand cut- just take a 1/2 inch strip of paper (I backed mine with some pink paper) and fold to get this look.    Aqua dots and flamingo dots were added for some more pop!  The paper featured is Lollydoodle.  I may try REALLY hard to never give this one away 🙂

happy bday kraft card

 

This card has a VERY different look- I used glitter paper, shimmer trim and Kraft paper for this one  The stamped image is from the ‘one-way borders’ and is stamped in white daisy ink on the kraft paper.  My centre image was cut on the cricut Art Philosophy.  I added some glitter gems and voila! I think this one is fun but a little distinguished- a more grown up look for a birthday card!

Do you handcraft your birthday cards?

Until we craft again, The Brae-er


‘Fun’ and simple layouts with the Cricut

 

I really enjoy finding inspiration and then re-creating it with my own touches (especially when they are simple layouts using the cricut!).  If you follow my Pinterest boards you will see (and can follow) my Card and Layout Inspiration boards and sometimes (like today) you can connect where my muse resides!  I saw something on Pinterest that ‘pin’spired this one page layout- it was so clean and simple yet so pretty! I just could not resist!! I used a variety of our current papers to achieve the look (and card stock as well)- there is Jubilee, Balloon Ride, Laughing Lola, Skylark, Ivy Lane an Ariana! I used the Cricut Artiste for my sun and the clouds.  My stamped sentiment comes from the stamp collection featured with our Cricut Art Philosophy and then our cork letters (they are gone now but were a favourite of mine!)  The adhesive sequins are not sold separately but were leftover from the Ivy Lane Cardmaking Kit – I do hope that we carry them in the next Idea Book as I have really enjoyed them.

day filled with fun layout

Where do you find your inspiration?

Share below!

Until we craft again, The Brae-er


Embossing comes to Close to my Heart

Embossing has been around for years and like any aspect of Papercrafting it comes and goes with the trends- right now it is ON! Add to this that Close to my Heart is now offering a variety of  embossing folders and life is good!!

All this week I will be sharing different projects created with our folders- AND I will be sharing fun ways you can use these folders.  To start us off here is a video on our NEW embossing folders (all are available to purchase on my website and for the remainder of this week when you purchase two packs of card stock you get one embossing folder FREE).

Until we craft again, The Brae-er


Spring/Summer CTMH Idea Book Reveal: Day 15

Welcome to the last day! Today I get to sit back and wait to see how much hostess rewards we have to give away to our Grand Prize winner! I cannot wait- be sure to check back tomorrow to see who it is!

Today I wanted to showcase a card and a stamp set- CTMH has some of the cutest stamps!  The paper is one you have seen before – maybe it is my actual favourite pack since I seem to use it so much- Skylark! I actually have mixed in two stamp sets on this card- one which is an upcoming stamp of the month (the word bubble) and the ‘Owls’ stamp set.  To create my colourful owl I stamped the branch and the owl on a variety of papers (they are from a few different paper packs).  I then cut out the pieces I wanted and pieced them together- paper piecing! I love how it all turned out in the end.

owl card

Products revealed:

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Till tomorrow!

Until we craft again, The Brae-er