Three Amigos Blog Hop Challenge #13

Welcome to the Three Amigos Blog Hop. We are three friends with a love for stamping and scrapping, and would like to share our creative ideas with you. On the 3rd of each month, we feature a different CTMH product and create a card, layout, or other project. There are only three stops on this hop, so it will only take a few minutes to hop through. When you finish hopping, be sure to check out the Three Amigos Blog Hop Challenge!

This month's challenge is April Showers!  With rain, and possibly even snow, in our forecast, spring projects are very welcome. The Cricut Artistry cartridge contains a very cool raindrop background cut and an umbrella image to coordinate with it. I created a 6x6 card using some retired White Daisy textured cardstock that I've been hoarding saving for just the right occasion. I backed my raindrop cut (also from textured cardstock) with a piece of Lagoon B&T paper from the Adventure Fundamentals Paper Pack.

The umbrella is pieced together using Heather Cardstock, B&T from the Gimme Some Sugar Paper Pack, and Bashful Glitter Paper. I added a bit of Clear Shimmer Brush to the Heather part of the handle so it would sparkle like the glitter paper.

More Lagoon B&T on the inside, along with a sentiment banner cut using the Party Banners Thin Cuts. The sentiments are from a stamp set included in the Flower Market Cricut Bundle.

Thanks for hopping by today! Hop over to Lisa's Blog and Donna's Blog to see what they created for you, then over to the Three Amigos Blog Hop Challenge. We hope you play along!

Supplies Used:
X7228B Gimme Some Sugar Paper Packet
Z3351 Adventure Fundamentals Paper Packet
X5948 Heather Cardstock
Z3360 Bashful Glitter Paper
Z2826 Heather Ink Pad
Z2895 Lagoon Ink Pad
Z3293 Shimmer Brush- Clear
Z4152 Thin Cuts Party Banners
Z2060 Thin 3-D Foam Tape
Z3167 Artistry Cricut Collection
Z3285 Flower Market Cricut Collection
White Daisy Textured Cardstock (Retired)

Color Dare #266 Snappy Birthday

It's time for another Color My Heart Color Dare challenge! This week's colors are Black, Pebble, Pewter, "Pick Your Own Pink", Silver, and White Daisy.

I have been drawn to the Oh Snap! stamp set since the Holiday Expressions Idea Book was released. When I pulled it out and set it next to the Operation Smile Punny Pals stamp set that was already on my table, the idea for my card was born! I chose to use Bashful for my pink.

I was able to create a camera with multiple shades of Pewter and Pebble thanks to our new two-sided cardstock. The back side of each color is a lighter shade of that color. After stamping the camera on both the "light" and regular shades of the Pewter and Pebble cardstocks, I cut out various parts and pieced them together (Pebble base, "light" pebble flash, "light" Pewter woodgrain and dial, Pewter lens). I traced over the stitching with a black journaling pen for a little added contrast. The center of the lens is Silver Foil Paper layered with a heart cut from Bashful Glitter paper.

See the "punny" birthday greeting? I got the idea from the "Yappy Birthday" greeting in the Punny Pals stamp set. I used the masking technique and a few sentiments from the Sending Smiles stamp set (included in the Flower Market Cricut Bundle) to stamp "SNAPPY" onto the flash. "Birthday" is from the Punny Pals sentiment. It's hard to tell from the photo, but the camera is mounted onto the card with Thin 3-D Foam Tape.

The Oh Snap! stamp set includes a filmstrip stamp. I stamped it onto black cardstock using VersaMark ink and colored the small rectangles with a white gel pen. The sentiment is also from the Sending Smiles stamp set.

Ready to play? Just create a project using ALL and ONLY the colors in this week's challenge. The color graphic shows Pixie, but you get to choose your own pink! If you don't have the exact colors, use the closest colors you have. Our color challenges are now open for two weeks, giving you more time and flexibility to create, share and invite your crafty friends to join us too. You have until 10pm EST Thursday, November 2nd to enter! I can't wait to see what you create!

Supplies Used:

D1708 Sending Smiles (Flower Market Cricut Bundle)

D1748 Oh Snap!

D1751 Punny Pals

1385 White Daisy Cardstock

1386 Black Cardstock

X5941 Bashful Cardstock

Z3360 Bashful Glitter Paper

Z3366 Silver Foil Paper

Z2819 Bashful Ink

Z2832 Pewter Ink

Z2833 Pebble Ink

Z891 VersaMark Ink

Z2060 Thin 3-D Foam Tape

Z534 Microtip Scissors

4275 My Legacy Writer Set (Retired)

Other: Sakura White Jelly Roll Pen

Thanks for stopping by!

Three Amigos July 2017 Blog Hop Challenge

Welcome to the Three Amigos Blog Hop. We are three Close To My Heart Independent Consultants with a love for stamping and scrapping, and would like to share our creative ideas with you. On the 3rd of each month, we feature a different CTMH product and create a card, layout, or other project. There are only three stops on this hop, so it will only take a few minutes to hop through. When you finish hopping, be sure to check out the Three Amigos Blog Hop Challenge!

This month we are sharing projects using Prickly Pear (papers or featured colors) from the new Seasonal Expressions 2 Idea Book. The featured colors are blossom, emerald, lemon, poppy, sapphire, sea glass, sorbet, tangerine, and white daisy.

I just love how fun this paper pack is. I paired two of the patterned papers with tangerine cardstock to create the background of my card. The cacti are stamped using emerald pigment ink and heat embossed with clear embossing powder. The flowers are also clear heat embossed with blossom pigment ink. I squeezed my ink pads to place ink on the inside lid, spritzed it with water, and used a small waterbrush to watercolor the cacti. I added more ink to the water to make it darker for shading. Then I added color from the ocean watercolor pencil for variation. The sentiment if from the Sending Smiles stamp set included in the Cricut Flower Market Collection. I added gold sequins and rose gold foil tape.

I repeated the squares of patterned paper on the inside, and added another small cactus.

Thanks for hopping by today! Hop over to Lisa's Blog and Donna's Blog to see what they created for you, then over to the Three Amigos Blog Hop Challenge. We hope you play along!

Supplies Used:

X7221B Prickly Pear Paper Pack

D1708 Sending Smiles (Flower Market Cricut Collection)

1385 White Daisy Cardstock

X5783 Emerald cardstock

X5786 Tangerine Cardstock

Z2806 Emerald Ink

Z2809 Tangerine Ink

Z2810 Blossom Ink

Z2506 Adventure Mini Pigment Ink Pads Set

Z2088 Ranger Clear super Fine Embossing Powder

Z3218 Rose Gold Foil Tape

Z2012 Gold sequins assortment

3505 Watercolor Pencils

Just a Few Projects

If you are anything like me, you look through the idea book and want to recreate the artwork inside. Close To My Heart has an amazing art department! Each Annual Inspirations Idea Book and Seasonal Expressions has a list of all of the supplies used for each piece of art. They even include Cricut cut sizes when a CTMH cartridge was used. How cool is that?!? You can find the recipes under each idea book and save the PDF file for future reference.

Today I am sharing a few projects I made in September and October, but didn't get around to sharing. Two of them are Halloween themed, but I want to show how you I made the basic designs with just a few minor changes.

I surprised some of my scrapbooking friends in September by showing up at the monthly crop. I miss that crop and all of my scrapping friends like you wouldn't believe! While I was there, we chose a card from the Idea Book to recreate. Take a look at the heart balloon card on page 15. I didn't have the Whimsy Fundamentals with me, so we made the card using Adventure Fundamentals.The only things we changed about the card are the colors and the sentiment.

You'll find this layout on page 10 of the Holiday Expressions. I happened to be looking through some photos of my oldest daughter and immediately knew this picture would be perfect for this layout design. I used the flowers from the Sugar Skull stamp set, but decided the cat and sentiment from the August SOTM were a better fit. I embossed the sentiment and hat with black embossing powder, and the cat with silver embossing powder. The cat and the hat are cut out from patterned paper included in the Jeepers Creepers paper Pack.

I made cards to mail to my girls at college this year too. The design is part of the Workshops Your Way kit. Instead of using the white card bases, I chose to make bases from Black Cardstock instead. I matted the sentiment piece in black and cut it with a banner notch. I also decorated the insides and the envelopes. They loved them, which proves they are never too old for handmade cards and a package full of candy!

I hope you try recreating some of the artwork in our idea books too!

Supplies Used:

Balloon Love card:

C1660 Happy For You

Z3253 Adventure Fundamentals

X5790 Adventure Cardstock Combo Pack

Z2805 Black Ink Pad

Z2810 Blossom Ink Pad

Z2812 Raspberry Ink Pad

Z3286 Adventure Ribbon Pack

Z3285 Flower Market Cricut Collection (Sentiment Stamp Set)

Z2060 Thin 3-D Foam Tape

Jeepers Creepers Layout:

D1698 Sugar Skull

S1608 Purr-fect Halloween SOTM (Retired)

X7211B Jeepers Creepers Paper Pack

1386 Black Cardstock

X5790 Adventure Cardstock Combo Pack

Z4009 Jeepers Creepers Assortment

Z2013 Silver Sequins

Z2457 Marigold YR24 Shin Han Marker

Z2452 Golden Yellow Y222 Shin Han Marker

Z2454 Leaf Green GY234 Shin Han Marker

Z2450 Cherry Pink R5 Shin Han Marker

Z891 Tsukineko VersaMark Pad

Z2067 Ranger Silver Super Fine Embossing Powder

Z555 Craft Heater

Z2060 Thin 3-D Foam Tape

Black Embossing Powder (retired)

Jeepers Creepers Cards:

Z4006 Monstrous Halloween Thin Cuts Bundle

X7211B Jeepers Creepers Paper Pack

1386 Black Cardstock

X5786 Tangerine Cardstock

Z2805 Black Ink Pad

Z2086 Emerald Ink Pad

Z2087 Willow Ink Pad

Z2809 Tangerine Ink Pad

Z2812 Raspberry Ink Pad

Z4010 Jeepers Creepers Washi Pack

X254 White Cards and Envelopes Value Pack

Z1979 Marvy Uchida LePen Journaling Pen

Three Amigos November Blog Hop

Welcome to the Three Amigos Blog hop.  We are three Close to My Heart Independent Consultants with a love for stamping and scrapping and would like to share our creative ideas with you.  On the 3rd of each month we feature a different CTMH product and create a card, layout, or other project.  There are only three stops on this hop so it will only take a few minutes to hop through.

This month we are featuring the new Artfully Sent Cricut Cartridge. I fell in love with the "hello" card on page 18 of the Annual Inspirations Idea Book and decided to make a similar version using the Pretty Petals stamp set.

I cut this sleeve card at 5 1/2" using the "1" key. The sentiment is from a pocket card design on the same key cut at 4". The card front is backed with whisper cardstock. Using the back side of the front cut-out, I sponged slate ink to add dimension. I used all of the flower stamps and one of the center stamps to create the various designs on the card. The large flower stamp has a different design on each petal (see the palm leaf, heart, and swirl designs?) The dark purple glitter paper adds a little sparkle and the grey epoxy bubbles add a little bling. The sentiment is popped up using thin 3-D foam tape.

Thanks for stopping by today. Hop on over to Lisa's blog to see what she created this month!

Supplies Used:

C1599 Pretty Petals

X7190B Brushed Paper Packet

X5929 Whisper Cardstock

X5758 Sunset Cardstock

X5769 Thistle Cardstock

X5643 Chocolate Cardstock

Z2644 Pixie Ink Pad

Z2640 Thistle Ink Pad

Z2173 Slate Ink Pad

Z1935 Black and Grey Epoxy Bubbles

Z1989 Slate Diagonal Striped Ribbon

Z1992 Purple Glitter Paper

Z3107 Artfully Sent Collection

Cricut Artfully Sent

The new CTMH Cricut cartridge we've been waiting for, Artfully Sent, is available to order now!

Loaded with over 700 images and fonts, Artfully Sent will make cardmaking easier and more fun! You'll find over 25 themed cards and 5 different card styles.

You can watch a video highlighting Artfully Sent here.

Don't delay, order yours from my website today!