Three Amigos November Blog Hop

Welcome to the Three Amigos' November CTMH Mini-Blog Hop.  We are three Close to My Heart Consultants with a love for Stamping and Scrapping and would like to share our creative ideas with you.  On the 3rd day of each month, we will feature a different CTMH product and create a card, layout or other project.  There are only 3 stops on this hop so it will only take a few minutes to hop through.
 
For this month's "Hop," we decided to use anything from the Holidays From the Heart Gift Guide this month. Have you seen all of the fabulous products in this guide yet? I'm in the process of creating a Christmas mini album, but it's not quite ready to show yet.  Today I am going to show you a card I created using the Lifting Spirits stamp set (C1570) and Party Washi Tape (Z1908).

 

 

The balloon is colored with our watercolor pencils and popped up off of an embossed cloud background.  I stamped and lightly sponged the clouds with Sky ink.  Did you spot the washi tape behind the white grosgrain ribbon and the sentiment?

 

I tried several different ribbons and bakers twine before settling on the white grosgrain.  It adds just the right amount of softness and allows the washi tape design to peek through.

I decorated the inside of the card as well.  The background hearts are stamped with Sky Ink and appear to be falling from the sky.  I added a few fussy cut clouds and hearts, leaving plenty of space to write a note to the recipient.

Thanks for stopping by!  Hop on over to Lisa's Blog to see what she created to share with you.



Three Amigos October Blog Hop

Welcome to the Three Amigos' October CTMH Mini-Blog Hop.  We are three Close to My Heart Consultants with a love for Stamping and Scrapping and would like to share our creative ideas with you.  On the 3rd day of each month, we will feature a different CTMH product and create a card, layout or other project.  There are only 3 stops on this hop so it will only take a few minutes to hop through.
 
For this month's "Hop," we chose the "Always Grateful" Stamp set (C1559) which you can purchase for $13.95 on my website.  The images and sentiments in this stamp set make it the perfect stamp set for autumn and winter projects.  I decided to try something less seasonal with my card.

 

I used three strips of Sarita Textiles for the background, rounding the bottom of each strip and fraying the edges.  The burlap ribbon, color-ready seam binding ribbon, and rosewood mini-medley accents "hold" the background in place. 

 



The sentiment in the stamp set reads, "Today I am thankful."  I inked only part of the sentiment for my card using Saddle ink.

I used the new Vogue Alphabet (E1026) to create the sentiment inside the card and used a square of the Sarita Textiles to mat it.

Now hop over to Lisa's Blog and see what she has created to share with you!
 

Three Amigos Blog Hop

Welcome to the Three Amigos' September CTMH Mini-Blog Hop.  We are three Close to My Heart Consultants with a love for Stamping and Scrapping and would like to share our creative ideas with you.  On the 3rd day of each month, we will feature a different CTMH product and create a card, layout or other project.  There are only 3 stops on this hop so it will only take a few minutes to hop through.
 
For our first "Hop," we chose the "Reel Life" Stamp set (B1431) which you can purchase for $9.95 on my website.
 
I originally planned to make a one-page layout for my project today, but it just wasn't working out the way I envisioned.  So, Plan B to the rescue.  I made this card for my daughter who recently moved back to college.  I'll send it with a little care package to help the weeks go by faster in between visits home.
 

 

 

Please excuse the less than stellar picture.  I followed Pattern 28 from the Make It From Your Heart Volume 2 book. Chevrons seem to be all the rage right now and this stamp set has the perfect stamp for creating a custom patterned paper.  Using the three arrow stamp, I stamped with Outdoor Denim ink onto Lagoon cardstock.  To create the chevron, I rotated the stamp 180 degrees and lined up the edges with the first row, repeating until the cardstock piece was covered.  I used the [EPIC] stamp to create the Buttercup tone-on-tone pattern, stamping once with Sorbet ink to emphasize the word and tie it in with the HELLO today phrase.  The frame was cut using the Cricut Artiste cartridge and stamped with the Perfect Fit - Frames 2 stamp set (D1536).  The new Jute Ribbon (Z1867) adds a bit of texture to the card.  I stretched and flattened the ribbon so it wouldn't be so bulky and left the ends a little frayed.  Aqua Dots (Z1853) were attached to the frame as a finishing touch.

 

Now hop over to Lisa's Blog and see what she has created to share with you!







A Good Day to Play

My friend, Lisa, texted last night, "Scrapbook a bit tomorrow?"  We rarely get the chance to scrap together since she lives 2000 miles and a few time zones away.  My response, "Yes!  I need the creative inspiration!"  Lisa wanted to do something with masking and asked if I had any ideas.  When we signed onto Skype this morning, I still had no idea what we would make.  Winging it, this is what I came up with...

We cut out a fun overlay from the Travel Mini-Album (pg 39) with the new Cricut Artbooking cartridge, temporarily adhered the overlay onto a piece of Colonial White cardstock cut to the same size, and sponged the design using Buttercup, Sunset, and Slate inks.  The color combination was inspired by my favorite new paper pack, Babycakes.  I added a piece of the stripe paper from the Babycakes pack, color ready ribbon inked with Buttercup and Sunset, a dimensional tag stamped with words from the Card Word Puzzle stamp set, and a sentiment from the School Years stamp set.  Oh, and to dress up the masked background a wee bit, I added a small dot of Almond Glitz to the center of each sunburst.  Not bad for a spur of the moment idea!  I'm going to enter this card in the H2H July 1 challenge.  Be sure to check out all of the beautiful artwork on the Heart 2 Heart blog and try a challenge or two while you're there.

Take a peek at Lisa's blog too!  She's been creating up a storm lately!

A Ray of Sunshine

My girls are the sunshine in my life.  No doubt about it.  This month for the Asbury Scrapbook Class, we created a very simple layout featuring Surf's Up papers and the Patterned Pennants stamp set.  No matter how hard I tried to embellish the layout, the "less is more" look won.

I can't seem to catch the light at the right time to get good photos of my work... sigh.  The clouds were cut on the Cricut with the Artiste cartridge and popped up slightly with foam tape.

I left the background plain for now, but think I might sponge a little White Daisy pigment ink for wispy clouds.

Need to keep moving... too much to do and not enough time.  Thanks for stopping by!

Pajama Party

 

Close To My Heart is teaming up with Big Picture Classes to bring you a live webcast with step-by-step instructions for making this Happy Thoughts kraft container. The FREE webcast will air Thursday, May 30 from 7:00 pm to 8:00 pm (MDT). During the presentation, you’ll learn to make several projects from a variety of sponsors, including Close To My Heart’s Happy Thoughts kraft container, as the presenter walks you through the steps. Watch the Pajama Party by yourself or with your friends for a fun crafting pajama party. Anyone with an Internet connection can watch, so be sure to order your project supplies in advance and then tune in!
The Pajama Party class will be available for FREE at BigPictureClasses.com on May 30. If you would like to interact on the message board, participate in live chat, post to the gallery, download handouts, or enter any contests, you will need to log in to the Pajama Party “classroom” by creating a free account on the Big Picture Classes website.
To make our Happy Thoughts kraft container, you will want to have the following items—or similar products—on hand:

• My Acrylix^® Frame Flair Stamp Set (D1546)
• My Acrylix^® Happy Thoughts Stamp Set (C1536)
• Chantilly Paper Packet (need 1 sheet of B&T, X7163B)
• Crème Brulee Cardstock (need 1 sheet, X5754)
• Lagoon Cardstock (need 1 sheet, X5762)
• White Daisy Cardstock (need 1 sheet, 1385)
• Whisper Cardstock (need 1 sheet, X5929)
• Whisper Exclusive Inks^® Pad (Z2172)
• Lagoon Exclusive Inks^® Pad (Z2195)
• My Creations^® Kraft Container (Z1833)
• Baker’s Twine Neutral Assortment (need 3 yards, Z1701)
• Color-Ready Trinkets Wooden Shapes (Z1844)
• Sparkles Black & Grey Assortment (Z1754)
• 3-D Foam Tape (Z1151)
• Micro-Tip Scissors (Z534)
• Corner Rounder (Z1912)
• Paper Trimmer (Z1783)
• My Acrylix^® Spritz Cleaner (1778)
• My Acrylix^® Stamp Scrubber (Z1782)
• 2" × 3½" My Acrylix^® Block (Y1009)
• 4" × 5" My Acrylix^® Block (Y1012)
• Cricut^® Art Philosophy Collection (Z1790)

Quick Cards

The Workshop on the Go card kits are fabulous when you need to whip up a card in a pinch.  The instructional brochure lists all of the materials needed and includes the cutting guide and insturctions to complete the cards.  I had about an hour of "idle" time a few days ago and decided to make one of each of the cards in the Chantilly kit.  I completed all three cards with time to spare.

These cards were fast, simple, and easy.  I love that I could start with the designs from the workshop kit and tweak them slightly to suit my taste.  I only changed a few minor things, ommitting some of the wooden badge buttons, stamping my banners on scrap cardstock and hand cutting them, and inking the edges of everything.

Stamping the banners on scrap cardstock and cutting them out allowed me to ink the edges and add dimension to the card.  The wooden badge button on the Birthday Wishes card looked a little bare to me, so I stamped a flower on it before attaching it to the card.

The banners on the Happy Birthday card are all stamped, hand cut, inked, and adhered as well.  I omitted the badge buttons from this card and added a bow of baker's twine to the ribbon.

I did a little extra stamping on the Hope Your Day is Happy card.  The workshop brochure instructs you to stamp the sentiment background in desert sand and add the sentiment in lagoon.  I decided to add a little color to the sentiment by stamping the background in sweet leaf on a cardstock scrap, cutting out the rectangular piece (which I stamped with the lagoon sentiment), and adhering it over the desert sand rectangle.  You can see the contents of the workshop kit on page 22 of the Spring/Summer Idea Book.  If Chantilly is not your paper of choice, the card patterns are also included in Make It from Your Heart Volume 1.

Happy Scrapping!