July Guest DT and Design Team Call!

I have a lot of info to share with you today so let's get to it!

1st, I want to thank our outgoing Guest DT for June, Dawn, one last time for joining us in June - we look forward to seeing more of your artwork in future challenges here at H2H!

And then I am excited to introduce you to our Guest DT for July - Jody Gustafson!! Congratulations and welcome Jody!

Here is a little of info about Jody:

"My real name is Barbara but you can call me Jody. I've been married to the best husband ever for 41 years. I'm a mother of 2 great children, Mikel and Carrie. I've been blessed to be a grandmother to 6 super wonderful grandchildren, Autumn, Joshua, Alicyn, Alexis, Ashley & Zachary. I have been an independent consultant with Close to my Heart since 1998. The reason I joined this company is because I was looking for a fun way to make a little extra money. When I saw my friends beautiful handmade cards and scrapbook pages I knew I could have fun with this business. My time with this company has been filled with special times and special people. It is a real privilege to work with the finest products in the industry. One of the greatest joys of the job is the people that I have met and that I now call "friend."


Jody will be joining us for 2 challenges during the month of July so watch for her fabulous artwork to be posted with the team during the month. If you would like to visit Jody's blog, you can visit her at Cre8n' Memories. Stop by and leave her some congrats! (and be sure to check out the Hedgehog Quiet Book she made for the SOM blog hop -it is super cute!)
 
On to the next bit of news - it is time to consider applying for the next round of the H2H Design Team. The current members will be ending their term on July 31st so new members will be chosen by July 22nd and will start their first challenge on Aug. 2nd. Do you have what it takes? Here are the requirements to consider before applying:
 
* You must be a current Close To My Heart consultant (Junior consultants are welcome).
* You agree to be a member of the Design Team for a term of 4 months.
* You must have a blog and be willing to join a Yahoo Group set up specifically for team members.
* You must be able to participate in every week's challenge (posted by 6:00 am on Monday mornings) and have your artwork for each challenge posted to the DT Yahoo Group the Saturday before the challenge begins.
* You must be willing to post your artwork on any other boards/galleries you belong to and advertise our challenge blog whenever and where ever you can so we can continually grow in numbers of participants. We currently have a group at Paper Craft Planet and on Facebook that I would like DT members to join but this is optional.
* You will be expected to submit your choices every week for the Friday Five selections and once a month for the Guest DT selection.
* You will be expected to visit the blogs of the challenge participants and leave comments.
 
What will you get in return?
 
* Committment to producing artwork once a week gives you an opportunity to create on a regular basis!
* Increased blog traffic which will hopefully lead to an increase in your business!
* Fun and fellowship with the entire team and a chance to meet new consultants and CTMH fans!
 
Now who couldn't use a little of that?

To apply, please send an email to me at mbryt1@bex.net.
You must include the following:
 
* Name, address, phone number, email address, blog address, website address (if you have a website).
* A brief bio telling me how long you have been with CTMH, a little about your stamping/scrapbooking background, and anything you would like to share about your family or hobbies, for instance.
* Please tell me if you have ever had any experience on any other Design Teams
* Tell me why you would like to be on this team.
* Tell me what your favorite type of challenges are.
* You MUST send 3 samples of your best CTMH artwork. These do not have to be elaborate but they must be well done, attractive and clean.
 
The deadline to apply is July 20th and new members will be notified July 22nd and announced on the blog on July 25th.
 
That's it for me today - see you Friday with a new group of Friday Five winners!

We're getting Patriotic this week!

EDIT: By no means did I want anyine to think I was leaving our Canadian friends out of the fun! Please feel free to add your artwork that includes stars or stripes - and a Maple Leaf if you wish. This challenge is not exclusive to the US!

Thank you to everyone who played along with our color challenge last week. As always, your artwork was inspiring!

I entered all of the participants into Random.org and the winner of my mystery prize is #32 - Sheri! Congrats Sheri - please contact me at mbryt1@bex.net so I can get your mailing info for your prize.

Before I get to this week's challenge, I also want to thank Dawn for being a great Guest DT for June - we loved having you join us Dawn! Watch for an announcement this week about the July Guest DT and for an opportunity to apply for the next round of Design Team members! Lots of fun coming in July!

This week, we are getting patriotic! We'll let you interpret that however you would like but your finished project must include stars and/or stripes. Here are the fabulous DT samples to get your creative juices flowing!

Helen

Tracey

Angela

Carol

Katy

Jayma

Makes me want to stand up and salute! So now it's your turn. Let's see your patriotic spirit!! Create and post your project - be sure it's to a public gallery - and then come back here and leave us a link. We'll stop by and see what you created and you might just find yourself in the next Friday Five!

Friday Five - Look what Dad got!

NOTE: Be sure when linking to your artwork that you are posting your artwork in a public area. We have had a couple of instances this week where artwork was posted to Facebook and to a secure Blogger account - both require people to be "friends" or authorized to visit so we can't see your lovely artwork!!! And we don't want to miss out on your work! Now on to this week's Friday Five -

A week ago, you were all challenged to create something for Dad using scraps or recycled items...and you rose to that challenge with ease! After all, who among us doesn't have scraps to use up? Here's our top five for the week - congratulations ladies!

You will all receive your badge info later today in email. Michele - I can't find your email address - will you please contact me at mbryt1@bex.net so I can send your badge info out? Thank you!

There is still time to play along with this week's color challenge. Hope to see YOU in the next Friday Five!

Tulip, Black and Buttercup - what can you do with these?

Thank you all for playing along with us last week and creating a card/gift for Dad...you know he appreciated it!

This week we are going for a color challenge and I know, for me, it really was a challenge! Our scheduled sponsor for this week had to drop out so I will be filling in and will have a prize for one lucky player but it's a mystery what the prize includes so you'll just have to play along and take your chances! Bwahahaha.....

Our colors this week are Black, Tulip and Buttercup (and of course, white or cream).

And start off our samples, our fabulous Guest DT for June, Dawn, is playing along with us this week and created this:

Dawn

And from the rest of our great team we have:

Mary

Angela

Katy

Helen

Jayma

Tracey

Carol

What a variety! Feeling inspired? Then grab your color trio (if you don't have the exact colors, use something similar) and start creating! We are looking forward to seeing what you come up with! Once you have your artwork posted, be sure to head back here and leave a link to the post before Sunday at 10:00 pm EST to be eligible for this week's mystery prize. Happy stamping!

Friday Five time!

It's time for another fabulous, fantastic, first-rate Friday Five! Without further ado, here are this week's top picks (click the photo to see the entire layout!) :

Congratulations to all the winners - you are now eligible and in the running to be our July Guest DT!

There is still time to enter this week's challenge and create something for Dad! You might just be in our next Friday Five so show us what you got!

Happy Father's day to all the Dads out there - we'll be back Monday with another challenge!

Scrappy of a Different Sort!

Wasn't it fun to get scrappin' last week? We loved all your artwork and photos and had a great time looking through all of the links. Thanks to everyone who played!

Also, a BIG shout out to our sponsor from last week: Heather Hunt! Random.org drew a number from our participants and the lucky winner of Heather's prize package is Nikka Geers!! Nikka, please send your address to me at mbryt1@bex.com so I can forward it to Heather and she can send out your prize. Congratulations!!

For this week's challenge, we are getting scrappy for Dad but not with layouts!! This week we want to see your cards (or other projects) for Father's Day that are made with scraps and/or recycled items. You know you have scraps lying around and other goodies that Dad will think are cool on his card so get creative and play along! Here is what the Design Team created:

Mary

Katy

Jayma

Carol

Angela

Tracey

Helen

So what do you think? I'm sure Dad will LOVE them! So now it's your turn. Grab your scraps or recycled items and get creatin'! Then post your item, come back and leave a link and you might just be in the next Friday Five! If you need a refresher on the challenge guidelines, you can find them in the sidebar. Have a creative week!

Sketchy Friday Five!

Let me tell you - you guys really knocked last week's sketch out of the park! What inspiration! I don't think there will ever be a week that we don't have a hard time picking our five favorites! You all deserve a round of applause. But after much looking and re-looking, we have narrowed down our choices to this week's Friday Five - check out these talented creators:

Click the picture to see each piece of awesome artwork! Congratulations ladies - your Friday Five badge will be sent to your email later this morning.

* Angie - could you contact me please at mbryt1@bex.net? I can't find your email address. Thanks!

As always, there is still time to play along with this week's challenge so get scrappin'!

See you all on Monday with another fun challenge!!

It's Time to Get Scrappy!

Wow, another amazing week full of inspiration, all thanks to YOU! We love having you join in our challenges and we have another great challenge for you this week.

SCRAPBOOKING! Yep, no rules, just create a layout using CTMH products and join in the fun. Your layout MUST include photos!! Oh and if you don't scrapbook, well first off, why not?? and secondly, you can create another project but it must feature a photo.

So before we get to the fabulous Design Team and our new Guest DT, Dawn, I want to give a great big shout out to this week's prize sponsor - Heather Hunt! Heather's prize for this week includes 2 stamp sets and a beautiful item she created just for the winner! Take a look:

If you want to stop by and visit Heather, click here for her blog and here for her MyCTMH site. Thank you Heather! Thank you, Heather!

Ok, on to our DT creations. To start things off, our Guest DT, Dawn, created this beautiful layout:

 

And here is the rest of the team's creations - be sure to click on their name to see the entire layout on their blog (and leave some love while you're there):

Tracey

Helen

Katy

Carol

Mary

Angela

Jayma

Are you ready to get scrappy with us? Just post your creation on your blog or in another online public gallery and then leave us a link so we can see what you created. You have until Sunday at 10:00 pm EST to enter to be eligible to win Heather's prize package and to be consider for the next Friday Five group. Have fun creating!

Background Beauties in this Friday Five!

Our stamped background challenge really brought US a challenge - how to pick our favorite five! This is definitely a technique that everyone loves and that really shows in your artwork. Great projects everyone! So without further delay, here are our picks for this week's top five:

Fabulous work ladies - congratulations! You will receive your badge info in your email and you are now eligible to be chosen for Guest DT next month!

Amy - could you contact me please? I couldn't find your email address. Mine is mbryt1@bex.net. Thanks!

There is still time to enter this week's challenge! Be sure to spread the word about our challenge blog to friends, neighbors, customers - everyone who love CTMH! The more the merrier (and think of all the inspiration - swoon!)

See you Monday with another challenge!