H2H Challenges: Sketch to Try

This week's Heart 2 Heart challenge is to use this sketch and some CTMH products to get crafty. At first, I struggled with this set until I turned it on its head.

My cards begin with a 4"x6" top-fold card base in Olive. I used my inks (with the colors matching the Stella paper pack) to stamp the vase, flowers, and greenery. I used the masking technique to make my vase look solid instead of clear.

I used the adorable A Garden stamp set. Can you believe that it's only $6.95?!? You can order your own by clicking HERE.

If you were wondering, I did use the Cricut on these cards to make the sentiment frame (which I trimmed down to the size I wanted).

Now, it's your turn to get sketchy with the H2H challenges!

Happy Easter!

Happy Easter! The girls are fortunately NOT too big to dye Easter eggs, so they did that yesterday. The lovely cards at left were made in secret yesterday afternoon by our little one (who's not so little anymore) for her daddy and me. Too sweet!

The girls are actually being sweet to each other today. Maybe it's all the candy and sweets? Not only did they wake up to Easter baskets, but our church had its annual Easter feast potluck dinner and Easter egg hunt.

Happy Easter from my family to yours!

Dotty for You: Available April 17!

You are so going to love this special offer, just in time for National Scrapbook Month in May! Beginning 4/17, place a $35 minimum purchase and add the Dotty for You paper pack for only $5! (You can add more with each $35 you spend.) Woohoo!

H2H Challenges: Spring!

Since April showers supposedly bring May flowers and the Easter Bunny's on his way, the first Heart 2 Heart challenge for April is spring and/or Easter! Share your lovely spring CTMH creations by linking your project to our challenge blog!

This card is for my new team members to welcome them to my CTMH family. (March had a great CTMH recruiting special, and boy did my team grow!) I used my Card Word Puzzle stamp set to stamp the flowers and the sentiment. With over 55 different words/word parts, the sentiments you can use are phenomenal! The Lucy paper pack seemed like the perfect choice for spring. The tag and its cute little dragonfly were cut with the Cricut Art Philosphy cartridge. A little baker's twine, a little Just Blooms paper flower, and an Opaque pearl completed this pretty card.

Now it's time to get your spring on and share your creations over at H2H. Hope to see you there!

CTMH Stamp of the Month Blog Hop: You Are... (April 2012

No foolin', it's time for the April edition of the Close To My Heart Stamp of the Month blog hop! April's stamp of the month, You Are..., is a great set to celebrate your loved ones and what they mean to you! (If you've started hopping already, you should have arrived here from the talented Wendy Coffman's blog. You'll head to Wanda Riley's blog next by just clicking on her name.)

Both of my projects celebrate a very special someone, my husband! (They use the Cruisin' paper pack with the April stamp of the month.) I am honoring my husband because he surprised me with a dinner party on Thursday for my 40th birthday! I made this card to tell him how much he means to me and how much I appreciate what he did!

Next up is a layout (from Magic, which is going quickly and won't be available any more!) to show how much we appreciate him. Yes, I snapped pictures of him mopping our kitchen! We joke that I think it's one of the sexiest things he could do. ;) LOL

What do you think of the splash of Cranberry? It is a subtle yet bright accent in the Cruisin' paper pack, and I love how it makes AMAZING pop.

Both of my projects use the cool new Durables square studs. They are self adhesive, so they are an easy, masculine addition to any project.

Thanks for visiting my blog. Be sure to talk to your consultant about getting your very own April stamp of the month for $17.95 (or $5 with a $50 minimum purchase). Don't have a consultant yet? Then I hope you'll consider me! Now hop on over to Wanda's blog to see her cool creation!

Stella Layout + Potential (March SOM) from Scrapbook Class

This layout might look familiar to you because the left page is a copy of the layout on the cover of the current Close To My Heart Idea Book! The pattern is based on the Elemental Workshop on the Go (no longer available). Our 2010-11 school pictures fit the Stella colors and layout sketch so well!

At my recent scrapbook class, participants made their own version, learning about the Cricut Art Philosophy cartridge which we used a lot here. The stamping is with the March stamp of the month, Potential (only available for a few more days!), and the Chocolate Alphabet Small. Do you see how I stamped the flourish to give the wooden bird a wing?

Because of all of the Cricut embellishments, I kept the bling to a minimum with the Mocha Opaques Pearls, but had to include some!

Here's a close up of my sweetie pies.

As always, please leave a comment or contact me if you have any questions. Hope you're having a fab day! I know that I will be today. ;)

H2H Challenges: Embossing & CR84FN 50

This week's Heart 2 Heart challenge is to use embossing (heat embossing or dry embossing or both) on your project. I chose to heat emboss one of the pretty flowers from the new Card Word Puzzle stamp set. My color scheme was inspired by the CR84FN color challenge #50: pink, orange, and yellow.

My mother-in-law has a BIG birthday coming up (even bigger than my upcoming big birthday), so I made this card for her. To begin, I random stamped the flower image with clear Versamark ink all over the front panel. I heat embossed with white embossing powder (which makes a lovely wedding card that you will see in the near future). Then the fun began! I used my waterbrush to paint each flower. The flower centers and a few of the flowers are Sunny Yellow, a few more flowers are Sunset, and the rest are Hollyhock. I love how the white embossing pops when you add color over it. I even painted outside the lines a bit so that you can really see that white embossing.

The center sentiment was cut using the CTMH/Cricut Art Philosphy cartridge. All the words are from the Card Word Puzzle stamp set. (I had to include a picture of it because you get so much- 63 stamps- for so little money- only $13.95!)

I used some white grosgrain ribbon and pearls to accent my card. The Just Blooms paper butterfly is sponged with the same colors as the flowers.

Now it's your turn to share your embossed projects at the Heart 2 Heart Challenges blog. Just remember to use some Close To My Heart products to submit. If you need some inspiration, our Design Team has lots of great ideas for you!
Have a fabulous week!

Scrap Our Stash March Challenge: Green

Here is my second submission for the Scrap Our Stash challenge blog's GREEN challenge for March. It's our family's trip to 4-H camp in 2010! Yep, our entire family went (parents as chaperons and daughters as campers) and had a great time.

Since the 4-H symbol is a green 4-leaf clover, I had to use GREEN on my layouts. I used the retired Splendor paper pack and was able to scrap the tons of pictures quickly with the photo pocket pages. You can just slide your photos in and call them done! Of course I had to gussy mine up a bit, but that's part of the scrappy fun to me.

You can still take the Scrap Our Stash GREEN challenge! Even though all my supplies are from Close To My Heart, all products and skill levels are welcome at SOS. See you there!

H2H Challenges: Photo Inspiration

This week's Heart 2 Heart challenge is to use the photo at right as the inspiration for your creation. I fell in love with the hot air balloons and was saddened not to have any hot air balloons in my stamp stash. I finally remembered a DIY honeycomb paper post that I saw (and saved on Pinterest) that helped me to create my own balloons. (The link is at the bottom if you'd like to learn how too.)

The Stella paper pack seemed like the perfect way to incorporate the color scheme of the inspiration photo. Each of my ballons is made with nine 1-1/4" punched circles. I folded them all in half and then followed the tutorial. (It would probably look better with thinner paper, but I still like how they turned out.) The "baskets" are pieces of one of the zip strips in the paper pack. The hemp is held on to the card with Liquid Glass. (Love that stuff!!!)

The clouds were a bit of an afterthought because the card looked a bit plain. I freehanded a few cloud shapes and then placed them on the card. I felt that it still needed a little something, so I pulled out my trusty ancient Liquid Applique. In the first close up, it is still wet and too shiny for a cloud. After zapping them with my heat tool, those clouds puffed right up for me.

Here's another little close up of the heated, (cooled) puffy clouds and the balloons themselves.

Now it's your turn to create a little something using Close To My Heart products and the H2H photo inspiration. You can link your project HERE, and you have all month to play. Hope you have a great weekend!

You can view a tutorial to make your own honeycomb paper accent by clicking HERE.

Our Furbabies {Studio J Layout Share}

Here are some of our pictures of our sweet furbabies from last year, scrapbooked the Studio J way! I promise that they do more than sleep, but that's about all the photos I took of them last year.

Yes, they sprawl all over our furniture. They're our babies, after all. We get on the furniture too. LOL

Scrapbook the "little" things in your life, because they are often actually the BIG ones. What pets do you have, if any?

Our Technology {Studio J Layout Share}

It took some time to gather all the pictures, but I really wanted to create a layout about the technology that we use in our daily lives. You may think that's a crazy subject, but how many of you remember your first cell phone? Was it in a bag that there was no way you could lug around? Or what about that cordless phone? Nobody makes phones that big anymore! I imagine that we will look back one day and laugh over the gadgets we love right now. (I probably should have added the microwave, dishwasher, etc., but I didn't think about them at the time.)

My two favorite photos are of my nephew on the iPad (I think he can operate it better than me!) and of my older daughter on the couch. What a teenager!

What modern technology would you hate to live without?

Exciting New NEWSLETTERS from CTMH & Me

Close To My Heart has updated all of our consultant websites, and I think that they look fabulous! (You can view mine HERE.) They have added a great new website feature: the option of ordering online and it counting toward's someone's party! I will be starting that feature in April, so if you need anything, feel free to help someone else as you shop. It doesn't cost you any extra at all.

Okay, you may be thinking, what does that have to do with newsletters? Well, as part of the advancement in technology, CTMH is also offering a very professional newsletter for each consultant to send out at the beginning of every month. I will also be able to share my upcoming classes, etc., in this beautiful new format. If you do not already have a CTMH consultant, please consider joining my mailing list. Email me at inkyscrapper @ gmail com (of course in the proper format) to get added to my news list. Thanks so much!

Finally, if you've ever thought about getting a discount on Close To My Heart, products, maybe now is the time to become a consultant! There is a fabulous recruiting special going on right now, and I'd love to share more with you. Every consultant now has a FREE website and free monthly newsletter. Again, email me!!

P.S. This gorgeous artwork from the CTMH Art Department uses the beautiful Pemberley paper pack. Lovely, isn't it?