Card with Stella!!

I joined a challenge on the Cricut Circle message boards, where I have to use a specific cartridge each week. This was the first week and the cartridge was "Sophie" which was a circle exclusive cartridge. This is what I came up with:



The card base is CTMH Daisy White paper cut down to a 4 3/4 x 4 3/4 card. Then after thumbing though my paper, I chose the CTMH Stella paper for the background of the card, the oval and flowers. Don't you just love this paper?!?! The background was cut at 4 1/2 x 4 1/2 and the oval and flower oval were from the Sophie cart and cut at 3 inches. Then I grabbed the CTMH "Happy Birthday" stamp which came with the Art Philosophy bundle and there you have it!

When cutting out the images, I saw this little bird and decided I needed to use it, so I dressed up the inside of the card with my scraps and the little birdie!



Supplies used for this card:
CTMH Daisy White cardstock
CTMH Stella paper pack
CTMH Happy Birthday stamp (from Art Philosphy bundle)
CTMH inks - lagoon, olive, tulip
Cricut Cartridge - Sophie
Peals and Liquid Pearls

CTMH gathering project and Target mailboxes

Today I have two Valentine's Day Projects. The first is one of the gathering projects from CTMH. It uses the Art Philosophy cartridge, my favorite CTMH "Lucy" paper, as well as CTMH "Colonial White", and the CTMH "A Blossom" stamp set. It's perfect for Valentine's! The heart bag was cut out at 5 1/2" and would a perfect little treat bag for the kids! The flowers are stamped on the corresponding cuts outs from the Art Philosophy cartridge! It makes such a cute little gift!



Next up are the Target mailboxes. I've seen a lot of crafters really do these up and make works of art out of these $1.00 mailboxes and some paper! After making 100 or so paper flowers Saturday, combined with the fact that I was making them for my bosses 2 year old twins, I decided to keep my mailboxes SIMPLE! I pulled out my vinyl, cut the names from, what else, the Art Philosophy cartridge, cut out the hearts from the same cart, then decided to add the Hello Kitty silhouette from the Hello Kitty cartridge. I put a couple of dozen Hershey's kisses inside and viola! Very easy project!




I hope you enjoyed today's projects as much as I enjoyed making them! Here is a list of tools used for the projects:

Heart Bag:
Cricut
CTMH Art Philosophy Cartridge
CTMH Lucy paper
CTMH Colonial White paper
CTMH A Blossom stamp set
CTMH inks, blush, creme brulee, grey wool
CTMH button - grey glitter

Target Mailboxes:
Cricut
CTMH Art Philosophy Cartridge
Hello Kitty Cartridge Greetings Cartridge
Pink Cricut Vinyl
Mini Mailboxes - Target $1.00 bin

Kissing Ball

Paper Flowers! There are so many possibilities! Yesterday I spent all day making paper flowers, I lost count after 60! I went back and forth over what to do, then I decided on a Kissing Ball for Valentine's Day.



I cut the flowers using the Art Philosophy cartridge at 3.5 inches. The paper is "Lucy" from Close To My Heart. It's double sided paper, so when I was making the flowers, I reversed every other one. If you look closely you will see the difference; some flowers have the white "flower pattern" on the inside, some have the pink patern on the inside. I thought it gave it the project more interest.




Lucy is definitely one of my favorite of the new CTMH papers this year. Here's a better look at the paper:



Tools used for this project:

5 1/2" styrofoam ball
Hot glue gun
CTMH paper - Lucy
CTMH Art Philosophy cartridge
ribbon

Thanks for looking!

A Brand New Close To My Heart Idea Book and February Specials!

February is an exciting month at Close to My Heart! Not only are the offering another fabulous Stamp of the Month, but their new 2012 Spring/Summer Idea Book has been released and they are offering an awesome deal for you to try their digital scrapbooking program, Studio J®!


February Stamp of the Month: As always, Close To My Heart has designed a beautiful stamp set that is available during this month only. The February set is called "Thoughtful Tidings" and is full of wonderful sentiments, many of which coordinate with shapes on our CTMH/Cricut Art Philosophy Cartridge. You can see a few fun boxes and 3D items below that the talented Close To My Heart Art Department created below. This is a must have if you own the Art Philosphy Cart! Five of the eleven stamps coordinate with cuts from Art Philosophy! It's a great addition to your stamp collection! If you spend $50, it's yours for only $5 (a $17.95 value). Or, you can purchase it for $17.95. Either way, it's only available during the month of February. Once your spend $50, you will be prompted to add it, or if you are purchasing it for the $17.95 price, enter item #S1202. Contact me to place an order or click the button on the right to go to my site or go directly to my website and order there!




Beautiful Stamps, Amazing Discounts
Each month you can enjoy a new D-size stamp set, available for one month only, for just $5—that’s over 70% off retail! When you place an order of $50 or more in Close To My Heart products, you qualify for this special Stamp of the Month pricing.


2012 Spring/Summer Idea Book: Every 6 months (in February and August) Close To My Heart comes out with a brand new Idea Book full of so many wonderful things, including (but not limited to!) 8 new scrapbooking kits, dozens and dozens of new stamp sets, a plethora of pretty embellishments and 6 new Stamps of the Month. Here it is. You can view it by clicking on the icon of the new Idea Book on the right side of my blog or go direct to my website and click on "products".



Studio J® - Five for Free: To be perfectly honest, I've never done digital scrapbooking. I like my paper and my embellishments and my Cricut! However, after becoming a CTMH consultant I thought I should at least look at what it involves. WOW was I impressed. What a great way to get pages done FAST! Unlike other digital scrapbooking programs, Studio J® allows access to ALL of their current paper lines and a lot of the older ones as well! No buying paper packs. They're all there, ready for you to use however you like! It's a monthly membership program, but for the month of February you can give a try at a great price! You can double your layouts with our Five for Free promotion! For each Studio J® 5-pack you purchase this February, you’ll get one free 5-pack. That means you get 10 two page layouts for just $55—that’s just $2.75 per page, with free shipping. Even if you’re already taking advantage of Studio J’s incredibly low members-only pricing, you’ll save even more when you purchase 5-packs through this special February deal. To order your 5-pack and to get one free, head to my website, click on "Shop Online" then add item #SJ5P. To build your layouts, head to my website, click on "Studio J" and go from there.

Also, beginning February 1, you can visit StudioJ.com for a set of instructions for creating five beautifully crafted layouts in Studio J. These instructions are intended to help you become familiar with Studio J and its features.



Thanks for stopping by! Don't forget to check back in for details of a great giveaway for everyone who places an order of $25.00 or more in the month of February!!!

It's been too long

It's been too long since I've posted on my blog. It's not for lack of projects because I have done quite a few; not as many as I would have liked, but I think we've all been there! With the new year I decided I needed to do something different, so I decided to become a CLOSE TO MY HEART consultant! I'm going to combine my love for the Cricut, with my love for papercrafting, with my love for CTMH products (especially their stamps)!

Be on the lookout for new projects, along with some really great giveaways!

CS FATHER'S DAY BLOG HOP

Welcome to CS's Father's Day Blog Hop. Thanks for joining us.

You should have arrived here from Roberta's blog www.txscrappermom.blogspot.com. If you missed the beginning of the hop, please go back to the start of the top of the hop at Chris' blog http://chatterscene-mom.blogspot.com to start so you don't miss any of the projects. There is Blog Candy offered so you want to start at the beginning and read how to participate to win.




My project for the hop is my favorite kind - quick and easy! I used one of my all time favorite carts - Celebrate With A Flourish. The images are so pretty on their own, so you really don't have to add a whole lot more. This is a 5" x 5" card. I used different hues of blue and a beige from my C'oredinations stack. I cuttlebugged the background for a little texture, but since I forgot to use my sentiment stamp I improvised and cut a rectangle with plan white paper. I used the Father's Day stamp from Recollections, which I just picked up from Michael's on sale for $1.50! There were 4 different stamps in the package! I left the inside blank for my girls to write a personalized message. Easy peasy!

Thanks for hopping along with us. Remember, if you leave a comment on every designers blog hop post, your name will go into the drawing for the for the blog Candy offered by ChatterScene.

Next up on the hop , is Renee at http://icameisawicreated.blogspot.com

Thanks so much for joining us on the hop!

Theresa Collins Baby Boutique and Elegant Edges

I got the Theresa Collins Baby Boutique Imagine cartridge today and had to make something. I needed a birthday card, but nothing really feminine.

I cut the fleur de lis out at 3" and did the layers. I then cut out the mat on the Imagine and flood filled it with the gray from the TCBB cart, so it would match the gray in the fleur de lis. The mat was cut at 5".

I added the fleur de lis ribbon and the bird sticker are both from Michaels.

The card base was made from a sheet of black C'oredinations paper and the birthday stamp is an old one from my stash.

TFL

Wedding Card and Memory Box

It's been a rough 3 weeks. Between being really sick and having to go to New Orleans for my niece's wedding, I've hardly had time to do much of anything! Today I'm posting the memory box that I made for my niece, along with a card for her, made by my beautiful daughter Madeline.

I have the box hand made by a fellow in North Carolina. His name is Ernie and his business is Pop's Wood Shop. He's wonderful to do business with. I just tell him what I want and he makes it and ships it. This is the 2nd box I've had him made and I so very pleased with his work. The reason I needed something made is because I couldn't find a plain wooden box that was large enough to hold a lot of stuff.

This box is 12" x 12" x 8", so it can hold a lot of wedding stuff! The box arrives unfinished, allowing me to custom the look to the brides taste. As a matter of fact, I posted the box I did for the bride's brother, who got married last July.

I knew immediately what I wanted to do with this box. The wedding colors were black and white and the bride likes things simple. I painted the box, inside and out, with black acrylic paint. I then lined the interior of the box with black velvet. I took the wedding invitation and modpoged it onto the top and added a simple pearl and lace ribbon edging. We added nickel plated hardward and it was done!



For the card, since I was so sick, Madeline stepped up and made one for me. She cut the bride and groom from the Wedding cart. She used a white mesh ribbon to make a veil and then used glossy accents on the entire cut. She found the black and white paper from DCWV's new stack. She used Elegant Cakes for the swirly cut and the initials. Of couse, she used glossy accents on that too! Can you tell that's her favorite product????



I think she did a fabulous job! I really wish she'd spend more time crafting because I think she has an eye for it!

I'm looking forward to getting back into the swing of things soon. Three weeks without crafting is way too long! Thanks for looking!

THANKS MOM BLOG HOP

Welcome to the THANKS MOM BLOG HOP. This is the final stop on the hop! Thanks for joining us to enjoy all the wonderful crafty inspiration in honor of mother's everywhere from the talented designers in this hop.

You should have arrived here from DARCY'S page http://dlmbscrapping-time2create.blogspot.com/. If you missed the beginning of the hop, please go back to the start of the hop at DEBBIE'S page http://www.debseclecticthoughts.blogspot.com/ to start so you don't miss any of the projects. There is a Grand Prize Blog Candy offered so you want to start at the beginning and read how to participate to win.


Hi everyone, Happy Mother’s Day! I'm Kelly, welcome to my blog!

Today I’m featuring one of my new favorite home décor items! I love to alter things, so it’s no surprise that I had to give the printer’s tray from 7 Gypsies a try. A friend requested that I make one for her to give to her daughter for Mother’s Day. The tray is 12” x 12” and comes in a variety of opening sizes. The one I’m using today has 12 openings, each 2 ¾" x 3 ¾".

I was given four photographs to work with, but very little direction. The only thing I knew was that she liked modern, clean lines. Well, that was kind of a stretch for me. I think that the tray calls out for more of a vintage look, but I accepted the challenge. I knew that her décor was black and white, with splashes of red, so that is where I began.



I’ll give a brief description of each square, but want to let you know that the paper is from the new Bella Armoire stack from DCWV. It’s all black and white and gorgeous!



I decided to put the four photos in the corners and work from there. I matted each photo on paper from the stack, as the photos were a little smaller than the openings. I kept all of the photos plain, with the exception of the wedding photo at the bottom left. Included in the stack was a page of journaling tags and sayings. I saw the “one beautiful day” and knew I wanted to use it with that wedding photo, so I added pearls along the sides of the photo since that this is the only photo that was in portrait mode. I then pop dotted the saying and added a pearl to each end.



Next I had to get busy creating the remaining 8 spaces. I knew I wanted to use initials, so I got out the Cricut and made the scalloped oval mats with Lacey Labels, then used Plantin Schoolbook for the “N”, which I cut out of vinyl. The M & M are also PS and cut out of vinyl then placed on rescued bathroom tile samples from my office.

I was told not to use flowers or butterflies (gasp), so I decided to use the bird from Cindy Loo. I used different 3 different paper patterns and instead of using the eye cut out, I inserted some bling! I placed it on a premade rosette from Michael’s Recollections line.

I needed something for the space between their two photos at the top, so I decided on a plain white heart. This heart was from Celebrate With A Flourish and is very elegant. I added the LOVE tag from Tim Holtz and some bling.



I had an empty space that I wasn’t quite sure what to do, so I took some black and white buttons, some black buttons and flowered crystals and made a simple design. It filled the space and I really like the way it came out.

Next up were the metal tags with words from Tim Holtz. I used the Live, Play, Love tags, backed with some red ribbon and more bling.

Right above the photo of the family, I wanted to cut out the word family, but happened upon this sticker. I punched out a plain white circle, so you could read the word “family” since the sticker was clear. I dusted the back part that was outside of the white circle with baby powder to keep it from bending down and sticking, since I pop dotted it off of the page. Of course, more bling was added.

Lastly, I had a single sheet of paper and I don’t know who the mfg is, but it was a page of white roses on a black background. (see 1st photo above) I decided to cut it out and it fit perfectly; so much so I left it plain.

I hope you enjoyed my project as much as I enjoyed making it!

Thanks for hopping along with us. Remember, if you leave a comment on every designers blog hop post, your name will go into the drawing for the Blog Candy that our THANK MOM BLOG HOP hostess, Debbie, is offering as a Grand Prize.

Provo Craft Contest Entries

These were my entries for the PC E2 contest. Not winners, but I enjoyed making them and had a lot of fun!

The first is my Cosmo Girl layout. It is supposed to be a magazine cover. I used Base Camp for the lettering, Celebrate With A Flourish for the balloons, Give A Hoot for the butterflies, and Mother's Day Bouquet for the flowers.



I added some Viva Decor pearls to the middle of the flowers and some buttons on opposite corners. I did use my computer to print out the "story headlines" on gray Bazzill cardstock.

My second layout was all done with Paper Studio Birthday Extravaganza paper and mat stack paper! I saw this paper quite a bit on several other entries! I really do love the bright colors. For this one I used Elegant Edges and cut the large green mat, then I used Birthday Bash for the "happy birthday" and finally Mother's Day Bouquet for the flowers. I added a little bling on the flowers and if you look closely, I added a tag behind the top picture mat. I added a lot of aqua colored ribbon to make it appear like it was part of the party hat! Thanks for looking!

Altered Cabinet Door

Happy Easter everyone. Today I am posting my mother's Easter Day gift. I work for a real estate developer and we have a small area of sample building materials. In the process of purging a few months ago, there were a couple of cabinet doors, among other things, that I couldn't allow to be discarded, so I took them home!




I stripped down the door and then used Rub N Buff in Spanish Copper. It gives the door a metallic sheen. I found a single sheet of paper, which I cut down to fit into the recess of the door. I used one of my Mom's favorite photos of her and her two brothers. I had that reproduced into a 5x7 photo. I then cut out the faces of her Mom and Dad and put them into small frames along with a key and the Tim Holtz love ticket (see bottom right hand corner). I used some sample tile (from the sample room at my office) along the bottom of the recess.

I cut out two different flowers shapes from the Mother's Day Bouquet cartridge, put together some flowers, added some bling in the middle. Then I ran across some old lace that I had left over from a project. I made a rosette and added the prima flower to the middle.

I will be entering this into the Cricut Circle Blog's reuse, recycle, repurpose contest! Thanks for looking!

Bo Bunny Frame

I'm back from the Circle Meet Up in Dallas and had a wonderful time. When I download all of my photos, I'll post them with more details!

We spent Saturday at a LSS called PS Scrapbook in Allen, TX. We met up with Val, from the Cricut Demo Army. This was the first time I've met Val and she is one very talented, sweet lady! We had a blast. I also met several other really fun women, as we spent the day cropping!

While at the store, this kit from Bo Bunny caught my eye. Of course I had to buy and begin working on it immediately. This is the finished project:



This is all laid out on a 12" x 12" very thick piece of wood (about 3/4"). Naturally I wanted (or should I say needed) to ink it up. Val suggested I use glimmer mist and threw over her bottle of Brick Red Glimmer Mist. WOW what an idea! I finished up inking the sides with my Fired Brick Distressed Ink and I love the way it came out!

The only thing left to do is to add photos which I haven't done because I'm not sure if I'm going to keep it or give it to my niece who's getting married next month. I want to give it to her, but not sure it's her taste. We'll see.........

Lori's Garden Birthday Card

Here is another Lori's Garden birthday card. I just love this cartridge so much! It has such lovely images! The background paper as well as the bird was all done with the cartridge. I chose two different papers, the birdcages and the pink waves. I used a Happy Birthday stamp on the pink paper, along with some white frilly ribbon to hid the seam of the two different papers. I cut the bird on the branch out, then just the bird so I could pop it up to give it some dimension.

Wonderful Blog Candy

Sylvias Stamping Place is celebrating 300 followers with some wonderful blog candy! Go check out her blog - it's fabulous!


http://sylviastamps.blogspot.com/2011/02/blog-candy.html

Lori's Garden and the Imagine

I've had my Imagine since the launch in 2010 (well actually I had to send the first one back because it didn't work at all). I haven't used it all that much, but when I do I'm really pleased with the images. I love how it makes the creative process easy!

I have to admit that Lori's Garden is my favorite Imagine cartridge! I know why people are paying over $200.00 for it on E-bay, although a little voice deep down is yelling SELL! LOL

Here's a birthday card I made with the cartridge. I printed and cut the frame, then did the same for the bird. The bird is pop dotted on the page because the wings go through the bird giving it great dimension! I happened to have the pink polka dotted cardstock on my desk. I used the Imagine on the cut only mode and cut one of the shapes that are preloaded onto the Imagine. I then used my trusty Happy Birthday stamp and tucked into the corner of the frame.



All of this was put on green cardstock which was part of The Paper Studio Affinity stack. Oh, and I did stickle the birds tail and wings, as well as some of the flower and the Happy Birthday tag!

Paper Blossoms

On a recent visit to Archiver's I fell in love with the new McGill Paper Blossoms punches. The oriental lily was my favorite! I realized that I didn't need all of the punches, as I could do the underneath "holder" and the stamen with my Cricut (using Joys of the Season and Potpourri Basket), so I just got the petal punch and the tool set, which helps give them a wonderful shape!

I played with it as soon as I got home! I decided to try some black and white flowers, as my niece is getting married in May and her colors are black and white. I made three flowers that just sat on my desk.

I decided to see how they would look on a card, so I pulled out my Black and White paper stack from The Paper Studio and the mat stack of solid colors, also from TPS. This is what I came up with. Another easy birthday card. I rounded the edges (something I usually forget about), used my favorite happy birthday stamp, added some Recollections pearls and a sheer ribbon.

Another easy peasy card!

Easy Colorful Birthday Cards

While thumbing through my stacks of paper, I ran across the Birthday Extravaganza stack from The Paper Studio. I decided to do a couple of birthday cards, letting the paper do most of the design work. I did cut out balloons in different colors using my Expression and the Celebrate With A Flourish cartridge. I chose four different colors of solid cardstock from The Paper Studio mat stack that coordinated with the Birthday Extravaganza paper.

On the first one I cut out the words "Happy Birthday" from one of the sheets, layered it onto the striped paper, then put on the balloons (pop dotting the 2nd and 4th ones). I then added a prima flower and within 5 minutes had a quick and easy birthday card!



For the second one, I used three different coordinating papers, the candles, the stripes, and the words. I then added the balloons, pop dotting them the same. Easy peasy!

Happy Valentines Day

Happy Valentine's Day! This was a quick and easy card to make - my favorite kind! I had just bought the large Hero's Art heart stamp at Michael's and I had the small SU heart stamp in my stash. I used a sheet of craft cardstock, stamped both hearts with black VersaMark ink and then inked the edges with Distressed Ink - Pumice Stone, while distressing the edges a bit. I found the red paper in a K&Company stack I had - it's actually double sided paper, but I really liked the plain dark red with the very faint swirls. Used a "Bee Mine" stamp which I believe is Hero's Arts (I got that at Michael's as well) for the sentiment and some Prima Flowers.

Better Late Than Never

I didn't post at all on my blog during December, so I'm trying to make up for it now. I did two different Christmas cards this year, one from Celebrate With A Flourish and one from Reminisce Accents.

The first one is the poinsettia card. The poinsettia was from Celebrate With A Flourish. The flowers and leaves were colored by hand using my Le Plume pens, which gave it a velvety look. I used glitter cardstock for the base (shadow feature). The then used glossy accents on the green swirly layer. I used Bazzil white cardstock for the base and the flowers and added pearls to the centers of the flowers.



The next one was the snowflake from Reminisce Accents. This one I didn't color, but instead used 4 different layers, 3 different shades of blue and one white and added some pearls and stickles to give it a little glimmer.



I ran the background of both cards through the Cuttlebug with the Divine Swirls folder. The tag idea came from watching Tim Holtz 12 Tags of Christmas. I used his method of daubber inking the edges, distressed color inking the tag, and stamping the sentiment. I used the Tim Holtz "Merry Christmas" stamp.

Guest Designer

Today I have a guest designer! It's my beautiful niece Bridget. She got an expression for Christmas and just like a kid, tore into it and made these three things right off the bat! How cool is she? I'm so proud of her and the wonderful job that she did that I wanted to share it with everyone. I definitely see a designer in the making! Way to go Bridget!