H2H Challenges: ABCs

Last week's Heart 2 Heart Challenge was to use numbers in your project, so this week we're wanting to see your letters!  I needed a gift for our niece so I decided to personalize a little tin for her new bedroom makeover.

 Can you believe that this is the Georgia paper pack?  It doesn't look anything babyish at all, which is a good thing since she is now 15.  I cut her initials from the Artfully Sent CTMH/Cricut Cartridge.

 All the other elements were cut with the CTMH/Cricut Artistry cartridge.

 I used silver shimmer trim and sequins to embellish the tin.

 The slate ribbon was the last scrap of that pretty retired pattern.

 The tin include this little 3.5x3.5 card (also cut with Artistry) and a little birthday cash inside.

I think she liked it!

CTMH Cyberweek Sale!

CTMH is offering a fabulous Cyberweek Sale on 39 different crafty items, just in time to get your holiday craft projects ready for the gift-giving season.  The CTMH/Cricut Artfully Sent collection is included too!  This sale will run while supplies last, Monday 11/30 (11 AM EST) through Friday 12/4 (6 PM EST).  You can order directly on my website or contact me directly.  Also, the planner bundle will be available 12/1.

Z3111 Base & Bling Snowflake Charm—Faux Gold 

Z3112 Base & Bling Jingle Bell—Faux Gold

 Z3135 Base & Bling Snowflake Charm—Faux Silver 

Z3136 Base & Bling Jingle Bell—Faux Silver 

Z3138 Base & Bling Red Bead Charm—Faux Gold 

Z3139 Base & Bling Red Bead Charm—Faux Silver

 Z3180 Picture My Life™ Going Places Scrapbooking Program 

Z3147 Cut Above™ Dapper Giraffe Card Kit

Z2028 Designer Creations Short Stack Album 

Z2036 Designer Creations Slate Paper Bags 

Z2037 Designer Creations Lagoon Paper Bags 

Z2038 Designer Creations Ruby Paper Bags 

Z2039 Designer Creations Honey Paper Bags 

Z2049 Designer Creations Cupcake Box 

Z2050 Designer Creations Takeout Box 

Z2053 Designer Creations Buttoned Bag 

Z1838 5" x 7" Hinged Display Tray 

Z1750 Designed Décor Display Tray 

Z2006 Designed Décor Red Magnetic Chalkboard 

Z2015 Designed Décor Black Shadow Box 

Z2016 Designed Décor Colonial White Shadow Box

 Z1833 My Creations™ Kraft Container 

Z1871 My Creations™ Kraft 3-Ring Album

 Z1953 My Creations™ Journaling Cards Box 

Z1956 My Creations™ Hip Pics Album 

Z3043 My Creations™ Black Mini Book 

Z3044 My Creations™ Kraft Mini Book 

Z3069 My Creations™ Mini Mix Album 

Z3137 My Creations™ Pint-Sized Container 

Z3168 Cricut® Artfully Sent Collection 

Z1476 4 ¼" x 5 ½" White Daisy Envelopes 

Z1477 5" x 7" White Daisy Envelopes 

Z1478 6" x 6" White Daisy Envelopes 

Z1756 3" x 3" Colonial White Envelopes 

Z1757 4 ¼" x 5 ½" Colonial White Envelopes 

Z1758 5" x 7" Colonial White Envelopes 

Z1759 6" x 6" Colonial White Envelopes 

Z1851 Scallop Border Punch 

Z1997 Triangle Border Punch

Seasonal Expressions 2 Blog Hop

Have you seen the gorgeous new products in the Seasonal Expressions 2 catalog supplement?  These items are available through August, and you are going to want to get your hands on some of them!  My blog hop group is featuring all new projects using products from this Idea Book supplement.  (If you're already hopping then you've probably arrived from Lela's blog.  If you'd like to see more fabulous ideas with products from Season Expressions 2, go to Michelle's blog next.)

 For my project, I thought that the new Blossom paper pack was a great match with our Easter photos!  (Thank heavens for Walmart's 1-hour photo service in our small town!)  I used a sketch from the Cherish how-to guide to fit in all of my photos.

On this left page, you'll notice the cool new Boardwalk washi tape (3 coordinating tapes), Glacier extra thick twine, and Oceanside sequins.

To stamp my title, I used the gorgeous Vogue alphabet with Lagoon ink.  The pennants with my square photo use Blossom B&T, Boardwalk washi tape, and Teal shimmer trim.

Click HERE for the complete hop list!

Thanks for letting me share our Easter 2015 with you!  After leaving a comment, please go check out Michelle's amazing projecnext!

Family Is Forever Reunion Layout

The September stamp of the month, Family Is Forever, is a great stamp set to pair with family reunion photos!  We made this layout at my recent scrapbooking class, and pictures from our annual July family reunion were a great match.

Using a sketch, like this one from Cherish, makes scrapbooking so simple.  Just choose your papers, cut, and adhere.  Of course, we had to get a little fancy...  You'll notice that I used Chocolate ink to distress most of my paper pieces and then distressed the photos with Desert Sand ink to soften them up a bit.

To stamp this gorgeous tree, we tried a couple of techniques.

1. Ink up entire stamp in Desert Sand ink.  Rub the stamp across the pad to get the streaked, bark-like effect.
2. Ink up the leaves (or at least most of them) by pressing them into Olive ink.*
3. Use a sponge dauber to pull ink off of the hearts.
4. Huff (breathe) onto the stamp to activate the ink, and stamp onto Colonial White card stock.
5. Use a (retired) Barn Red marker to color in the hearts.

To add the family names, I just used one of our new Shin-Han Touch Twin markers to write them.

*During our class, my friend Peg wanted autumn-colored leaves (and I unfortunately forget to snap a picture), but she used a sponge dauber to pull ink off of the leaves, then pressed them into Goldrush, Autumn Terracotta, and Barn Red inks (in that order, lightest to darkest) to create beautiful fall foliage.

We stamped the "Family is Forever" sentiment by inking it up in Goldrush, then Autumn Terracotta, and then Barn Red ink, moving progressively across the stamp to create the fall/rainbow effect. I absolutely love doing this technique!  Finally, we used pieces of the Pathfinding embellishments assortment, gold shimmer trim, and gold sequins to embellish our layout.  I really love how it turned out!

I am linking up my layout to the Lasting Memories challenge #109 209, Autumn Colors.  Thanks for letting me share the highlights of this year's family reunion with you!

More Father's Day Fun

Because my parents were volunteering at the local Scottish Festival, we put off celebrating Father's Day with them (which actually made it extra special because longtime friends were in town visiting).

Since I certainly inherited my love of camping from my parents, I knew I wanted to use my Happy Camper stamp set and the Timberline paper pack for his card. (We traveled out west in '89 in a silver airstream, so I had to make this camper with Whisper card stock.)  I paper pieced the camper onto the barn wood piece and colored it with White Daisy, Lagoon, Ponderosa Pine, and Whisper markers.  The "happy Father's day" sentiment and circle are from the Holiday Tags stamp set, cut with the Artiste CTMH/Cricut cartridge.  I embellished the sentiments with triangle Durables studs.

Love you, Dad!

Our younger daughter made this cute card for her Dad using the same basic supplies that I did.

Aren't they cute?

I'm entering both cards in the Heart 2 Heart Challenges "So Studly" challenge!  I'm sure you can see why!

You're the Bomb Card

The June stamp of the month, Kaboom!, is great fun!  Here's a card I made with this set and the Jubilee paper pack.  I hope you'll take the time to click on the photo to see some of the details up close.

How about those Cranberry sticks of dynamite behind the sentiment?  (The focal sentiment was cut with the CTMH Cricut Art Philosphy cartridge.)  I did a lot of tone-on-tone stamping on this card.  Do you want to know a trick for the background?  Arrange your un-inked stamps on your project.  Lay a block on top of the stamps to pick them up while keeping them positioned where you want them.

Then you can ink them up and stamp away!  For this background, I used Desert Sand ink on the Kraft background.  I am loving our Kraft card stock!

Who wouldn't want to know that they're da bomb dot com?!?  Brighten someone's day today!

H2H Challenges: Shabby Chic

The "shabby chic" look has been popular in home decor for quite some time, and Heart 2 Heart Challenges is asking you to take this style to your paper crafting projects.

Hopefully my card fits the bill!  It's an 8"x3.5" White Daisy card stock base with layers of the gorgeous Ariana paper pack (following a sketch from Wishes).  I don't know how well you can see the little bird, but is and the sentiment are from the Love This stamp set.  You probably can't tell at all that I paper pieced the bird, but its little epoxy eye jumps out, doesn't it?

If you need a little inspiration, be sure to check out all of the H2H Design Team's creations this week.  (BTW, this week is the last February challenge, and then the voting will begin for YOUR favorite creations!)  Show off your shabby chic style and link up by Friday!

Balloon Ride Meets Tuesday Morning Sketches

It has been so hard not posting some of the new goodies Close To My Heart is unveiling February 1!  Since that's only a few short days away, I couldn't resist sharing this card I made based on Tuesday Morning's Sketch #234.

Here's the sketch:

 I started with a Cashmere card stock base (4.25"x4.25") and used two different pieces of Balloon Ride B&T for the top and bottom panels with Saddle ink distressing.  I used my CTMH/Cricut Art Philosophy cartridge to cut the "stamp," which is sponged in Cashmere ink.  The Sorbet balloon is from the Balloon Ride assortment.  I used Bronze shimmer trim and new hemp baker's twine to accent my card.

I also want to link this up to Heart 2 Heart Challenge's "two-faced" challenge because I used both sides of the gorgeous balloon B&T duos (on the bottom panel and on the "stamp").

May you be lifted up today too!

H2H Challenges: Ombre (Take 2)

Here's the second card that I made for the H2H Ombre challenge:

The colors (from top to bottom) are Sorbet, Smoothie, Hollyhock, and Ruby, with the addition of a Cranberry gift.  Each panel has the same color ink stamped on it, either from the NEW Geometric Backgrounds stamp set (available 8/1) or the birthday set from the Cricut Art Philosophy collection.  To jazz this card up, I added a pink sparkle and some red glitter glitz gel.

Remember, you have until 8/3 to play with color and try the H2H Ombre challenge!

H2H Challenges: Masking

 Since we've unveiled our new Heart 2 Heart Challenges Design Team, it's time for our first challenge!  We're challenging you to use the masking technique and some of your favorite CTMH products to create something special this week.  In honor of our Independence Day, here's the card I made:

This card uses a spray pen to create the white (masked) stars on the field of blue.  I used the Tommy paper pack and accented it with burlap ribbon (width cut in half), chipboard stars, and a 3-D foam dot.  Of course my stars were cut with the CTMH/Cricut Artiste cartridge and coordinating stamp set.  This color combo fits well with the ColourQ challenge #196.  The burlap ribbon is knotted on the left and hangs just a bit past the edge of the photo.

Here's a quick tutorial of how I created my field of stars:  I filled my spray pen up about half full with water, and then added a few drops of Outdoor Denim reinker.  I cut several different-sized stars from the same Artiste Cricut key.  (On the stamp set, it tell you which page in the booklet and what size to set your Cricut.) I added a dab of our Bonding Memories glue to the back of each star, and then set them aside while I mixed up my reinker in the spray pen.  (Letting the glue dry first creates a tacky, post-it type of adhesive.)

 Once I had the stars arranged on a 4" square of White Daisy card stock, I spritzed them with the spray pen.  (I laid a folded paper towel on a cookie sheet to catch the overspray.)

 It took a few spritzes to get the shade that I wanted.  (Yes, I did save the stars for another project!)

You can easily see how the stars created a mask and allowed me to have a neat two-toned piece of patterned card stock.  Give it a try, and then link up your masking project to the H2H challenge blog.

Stamp of the Month Blog Hop: June 2013 A Flowering Bunch

Close To My Heart has a cute, retro-inspired stamp of the month for June!  A Flowering Bunch is a set of 10 hip stamps.  Join me on this month's blog hop to see all kinds of great ideas with this set.  (If you're already hopping, then you've probably arrived from the talented Wendy Coffman's blog.  Check out my project, leave a comment, and then head on over to visit Sheila Bennett next.)

This stamp set seemed to pair well with the Claire paper collection, and in browsing through my photo storage system, I found these darling pictures of my DD (who will be 15 later this month!!!!) back when she was a year old.  I knew they would pair perfectly together!  I found a great sketch in my (retired) Cherish how-to guide, and the rest was easy peasy.

After stamping in Outdoor Denim, I colored some of the flowers with markers from the Claire color palette.  I used the CTMH/Cricut Artiste cartridge to make the title banner and the flower cutouts.  The pretty embellishments are also part of the Claire collection.  CTMH makes it so easy to mix and match!

Be sure to stop back often, because even in the midst of our remodel, since school is out I have found a little time to craft so I have more to share.  Hope to "see" you soon! Now go see Sheila's spectacular creation!  Thanks for hopping by!  Be sure to check out this month's Close To My Heart special offers on my sidebar.  There are some great opportunities this month!

SOS Challenges: Circle Around

This month's Scrap Our Stash Challenge is "circle around."  As St. Nick circles the world this month, we want you to incorporate circles on your layout!

Now, my layout has nothing to do with good ol' St. Nick, but I did use lots of circles!  Our older daughter is now a freshman in high school, so I recently scrapbooked the photos I took of her all dressed up and ready for Fall Ball, her first high schools dance.  For the layout, I used a sketch from Close To My Heart's Make It From the Heart, Vol. 1 how-to guide, but modified it to fit my photos.  I also dragged out my big Marvy circle and scalloped circle punches.

The retired Baby Pink and Grey Flannel cardstock and inks are a perfect match for her dress!  I also accented this layout with the retired Bliss pink & grey flower assortment.  Here's a close up of the title (Old World Alphabet) with that gorgeous silver shimmer trim self-adhesive tape:

Since it was her dance, I had her write the journaling for her layout.  I love how it all came together!

Now it's your turn!  Circle around with us at SOS!  All styles, products, and skill levels are welcome.  Scrap your stash and share with us!

Favorite Cards Recap

In honor of World Card Making Day today, I wanted to share some of my favorite cards (so far) of 2012: