Project Inspiration - Make it from Your Heart

Close to My Heart has done it again.   I have mentioned it before, but the Make it from Your Heart how-to book is really a must have.   With the release of the new Fall/Winter Idea book, came this new book.  The pricing is quite affordable at just $7.95 and is packed full of new recipes.  Here's a video to  tell you about a few of its features. 

I love this little jewel.  Visit here to get yours today.  It will definitely fuel the inspirational fire. 

Cricut Card Holder

I'm still investigating all the images and 3d projects on our new Cricut Artiste cartridge.  I doubt I will ever be able to cut them all out.  I kept seeing these nifty little card holders on the boards but had never tried one for myself.  I found them and put a couple together for myself.  I LOVE them.  These would make such great gifts, too.  Who wouldn't love a set of cards in a matching card holder?

I had been making cards from the freshly retired Sonoma paper so I thought it only fitting to make them their own holder.  You cut the holder on 6" to hold your standard 4.75x5.5 cards.   There are actually seven embellished cards and their envelopes in this holder.  I would say that was the maximum.

What I used for this one was the Sonoma B&T and Bamboo cardstock.  I decided I would use my new monogram stamp.   They fit on a 1.25" circle, which is perfect since we have a 1.25" circle punch.  The leaves were cut from the Cricut in Olive cardstock.  The edges were inked in either Smokey Plum or Bamboo.   The flowers were little white paper flowers that my friend had given me long ago.  I took our Smokey Plum alcohol markers and colored them.  It worked great.  I colored the little pearls in the center of the flowers with the same markers.  The white was too stark to me, so the markers just gave a hint of color and softened them just enough.

That's it for me tonight.  Back to work for me tomorrow.  It seems that Isaac has spared us so far.  Tomorrow may prove differently.  Stay safe everyone!

Thanks for stopping by.  Happy Scrapping!

Avonlea Leftovers and Sonoma Sympathy

This past weekend I had a wonderful group of ladies and we did the Avonlea Card Workshop on the Go.  I love the new WOTG card kits.  They have everything you need, with exception of the ink and adhesive, to make 15 cards, five each of three designs. These are the cards I made from the kit.  And I went right by the directions (see..I do have it in me..lol)

I wish I had taken pictures of all the cards our group made.  Everyone has different styles and ideas and  even though we all used the same kit, each one was personal.  By adding a couple of sheets of cardstock from my personal stash I was able to squeeze out about six extra cards, two more of each and enough leftovers to make some really cute thank you notes.   I decided to try a little different color scheme.  Here's the same card from the kit but with Slate instead of Chocolate cardstock and Twilight instead of Smokey Plum cardstock.   Twilight is pretty close to that teal found in the B&T.  Beside it is the little thank you note made with the leftovers. The thank you stamp is from the Casual Expressions stamp set.

After Saturday morning I was on a cardmaking roll.  I went on to pull out some older paper from Sonoma and use the same recipe as the WOTG cards to make some sympathy cards.  I love the colors in Sonoma, too.  Sadly it is retired.  I was able to snag some from the "While Supplies Last" page on my shopping website.  You never know what you can find there.  And they are really good deals.   Here are the the first two. 

That's card #1 from the WOTG.  I used Bamboo cardstock for the card face and the Sonoma B&T paper.  The flourish and the flowers were cut with the Cricut Art Philosophy cartridge.  The leaves on the right were cut with the Cricut  Artiste.  I used the new alcohol ink markers in Smokey Plum for the flowers on the left.  I used Smokey Plum ink and daubed it on for the flowers on the right.  There is definitely a color difference, but certainly a place for both.  Here's another one. 

The sentiments are from the Words of Comfort stamp set.  The patterned Bamboo cardstock was stamped with the flourish from the Avonlea WOTG kit, just like it called for in the kit.  I used our seam binding ribbon and daubed on the Smokey Plum ink for the bow.  

That's it for tonight.  Hopefully tomorrow I can put the creative cap back on while I wait to see what hurricane Isaac is going to do.    Thanks for stopping by and for everyone who is on the Gulf Coast.....stay safe!

Happy Scrapping!

Fall Leaves

Fall is my favorite time of the year.  I have been kind of hung up on fall colors lately.  While playing with all the fall colors I searched for fall stamps.  I had ordered Harvest Happiness back in June while it was buy two get one free.  I love this stamp set.  I had actually started out making some package toppers I had seen on the boards (which are absolutely darling...I'll have to finish those up to show you) but in the meantime I ended up producing some pretty neat scraps I thought. I was using my trusty daubers to ink my stamps so I could achieve the shading I wanted.  After each use I would stamp again on a spare piece of cardstock before reinking.   I looked after I was through and thought that it was kind of pretty and needed to find a use for it.  So, this is what I ended up with.

The background paper with all the leaves is the second and third generation stamping byproduct of the project I was working on.    I cut it into a workable shape and then mounted it on another piece of Colonial White cardstock and then on to a larger piece of Saddle.   I inked the edges in Autumn Terracotta.   The ink colors are Goldrush, Autumn Terracotta, and Barn Red for the leaves plus Saddle for the acorns.  The sentiment is from the Abundance stamp set and stamped in Saddle.   I had some leftover Seam Binding Ribbon from the previous cards colored with Autumn Terracotta and a button from the Mini Medley in Antique Gold.

When I started making this, my intention was to have the bow at the top.  But to be honest, I wasn't paying attention when I adhered the ribbon and put it below the sentiment.  So, I just put the acorns at the top.  It's a bit different, but I can live with it.  Everything about this card was made with scraps from another project.  I guess even trash can be inspiring..lol.

Thanks for stopping by.  Hopefully, I'll be posting more soon.   Have a great weekend!

Happy Scrapping!

Flirty, Krafty, and Quick

Sounds kind of exciting!  Well, if you like stamping and cardmaking, it is.  I'm still playing around with new papers, mainly Flirty, at the moment.  So, with some leftover Flirty and the Bountiful Season Quickcard stamp, I ended up with two nice fall cards.  One very plain and the other just a little less plain, but both very quick.

I had been wanting to play with the Bountiful Season stamp since I got it.  I finally pulled it out and decided to give it a whirl.  I used Goldrush, Autumn Terracotta and Barn Red inks and daubed it directly on my stamp, then stamped the cardstock.  Here I used Colonial White.  I stamped it on a 3x3 square then mounted that on Saddle cardstock.  The leafy print paper is a B&T from the Flirty paper pack.  I inked all my edges with Saddle.  On the card on the left I used some of our new Burlap Ribbon.  I cut the edges off each side and then pulled some of the fibers off to make it less wide and not so bulky.  By pulling some of the fibers off the edges it gives a nice, almost frayed look.  The ribbon on top of that is our color ready seam binding inked with Saddle ink.  I added a bow and a button from the Mini Medley Accents in Antique Gold.  I used one of the fibers I pulled from the burlap as thread through my button.  I added it all to a standard 5x7 kraft card base.  Very simple.

Thanks for stopping by.  I am off to see what else I can come up with,  so check back soon.

Happy Scrapping!

Cricut Artiste Cartridge Video

Here's another great little video from Close to My Heart.  This one is about the great features that are on the new Crictut Artiste cartridge.  

They have made this cartridge even easier to use than the last.   I love, too, that the carrier sheet for our new stamps now have which cartridge holds the coordinating cut out shape, what size it needs to be cut at, and what page of the book it can be found on.  How much better can it get?

Hope you enjoyed the video.  If you are interested in ordering the Cricut Artiste cartridge you can click here to order online or contact me and I'll be glad to get one on its way to you.   Be sure to take advantage of our Stamp of the Month, Baroque Borders (available until August 30), and the National Stamping Month Campaign double stamp set, It's Your Day (available until September 30), both for just $5 with qualifying purchases. 

Thanks for stopping by!  Happy Scrapping!

Project Inspiration -- Alcohol Markers

With the release of the new idea book this month came new products.  One of which was our new alcohol ink markers.  I love these new markers. Here's a video with some great product info.

In this video the stamps are done in the new pigment ink.  I used the markers to color in the terracotta roses on my Flirty Flip Flap layout.  I love the effect.  I used our regular black ink, instead of pigment ink and I didn't have a problem with bleeding.  But I haven't tried anything with a pattern as intricate as the leaves he is coloring in the video.  I think I may just have to try that.  After all, this video is called Project Inspiration :) 

Happy Scrapping!   

Mini Accordion Tag Album

I wish I could take credit for this little thing, but alas, I cannot.   At our team meeting at convention we got this cute little create and take project.  Thank you Kimberly Moss and Michelle Brooks for including us in your CTMH family and for such a cute project.   On the instruction sheet Kimberly gave creative credit to a Tera Boring.  So thank you, too, Tera.

Everything on this was cut from the Art Philosophy Cricut cartridge.  I made this one with the things that came with our little kit and then I added a few more, too.  All the paper is from the Florentine paper pack and the tags are Colonial White cardstock.

There are some opaques from the Mocha collection and a couple of itty bitty opaques.  I used Saddle and Olive inks.  All the edges are inked with Saddle.   For stamps I used Friendship Bouquet and The Best Things sets.  

I used our Seam Binding ribbon and colored them with Saddle, Olive, Creme Brulee and Twilight inks. 

This little album was made by cutting three card tags and and one tag on page 50 at 5.5".  I adhered the cards to each other and used the single tag for the last card joint.  Hard to explain, but in order to have a tab on top of all four pages you have to have the single tag.   

This is a super cute idea, fun and easy.  Another great afternoon project. Thanks again to the lovely ladies who passed this idea along.    Thanks for looking.  Have a great rest of the weekend!

Happy Scrapping!

An Old Tree on New Paper, Thanks, and Boxes

A Tree is one of CTMH's "A" size stamp sets.  It's not shown in the new book, I don't believe, but it's still available.  I have seen so many beautiful cards made with this set, but I had never made one.  I thought I might try it with our new Avonlea paper.   So, here is my rendition of A Tree on Avonlea (kind of catchy I think :) )

I had some of the organdy ribbon left from the Avonlea Card WOTG so I added that with the pin clip for my sentiment.  I love the look of this ribbon, but working with can be challenging.  It may just be me, but I have a hard time getting this ribbon to hold.  I used glue dots on the paper and then laid my ribbon over it.  That seemed to work.  For the bow, I tied it, actually put my pin through it, and then used liquid glass to hold it in place.  The glue dot just didn't want to hold ribbon to ribbon.

My little butterfly I first stamped in Smokey Plum, but he really got lost in the tree.  This one was stamped in Gypsy.  He was still a little hard to see, so I coated him in liquid glass (if it sits still at my house it's liable to be coated with liquid glass..lol)  and added a couple of bitty sparkles.   He shows up better in real life.  I just couldn't seem to find a color I liked better with this green.   So what I used was:

Cardstock:  Colonial White, Chocolate
Ink:  Gypsy, Chocolate; New England Ivy
Embellishment:  organdy ribbon from WOTG kit; Foundry Pin Clip; Bitty Sparkles
Liquid Glass, 3d Foam Tape, and Colonial White card base

I also had made a card straight from our new book Make It from Your Heart.  For those of you who haven't seen this new book, you need to!  It's a great book.  It has 16 2-page layouts, two 1-page layouts, and 12 card patterns.  And it's only $7.95.   This is the pattern from page 43.  They used the Family stamp, I chose the Thanks stamp.  It's another lovely "A" size stamp set.

Instead of using the 3d flower shape I used the Love Blooms stamp set for the flower and leaves.  It's easier to mail when it's flat.  The background was random stamping with the You've Got Flair stamp set, which is retired.  I used Whisper ink on Colonial White cardstock.  The sentiment was stamped in black ink.  Ruby is the other color cardstock.  I truly love this color.    That tiny strip of stripes was a scrap of Black Currant from DCWV.   I used some pop up glue dots for dimension and voila!

Lastly,  I  made some boxes from the new Cricut Artiste cartridge.  These are all very simple boxes, but cute. Even the bow on the box in the middle was cut from the cartridge.   I was in search of a box that would hold an ink pad and a little stamp set.  Only one of these fit the bill.

The one on the left was the winner.  The one on the right would hold the ink pad, but it was just a little awkward.  I'm sure there are others on the cartridge (there are so many more things on that cartridge!), but these are just the ones I have tried so far.  I just had to cut the little butterfly box, because it was so stinking cute.  It would be perfect for party favors.

Thanks for stopping by.  I finished a little accordion tag album I'll be posting soon, so stop back by.

Happy Scrapping!

Avonlea Mini Album

One of the many, and I do mean many, great things from the new Cricut Artiste cartridge is the mini albums.  I had never really thought much about doing a mini album. But at convention one of our create and takes was this cute little mini album done in Avonlea papers and some of the new products.   Once I got my cartridge i realized all the pages were on the cartridge.  On page 60 of the Artiste booklet it has six pages you can cut and a cute little cover to go with it.    I just used what we got at convention and decided it would be a trial run for me.  I have to say, I think I could be a fan of the mini album.  The pages perfectly fit our Dimensional Elements Album Pages which come with the Artiste cartridge.   Simply cut your paper at 3 3/4" and there is no other cutting or fitting to be done.  They adhere perfectly, holes and all.  Because it was my first run through with the mini album I didn't want to waste my dimensional album pages (in case I couldn't figure it all out ;))  so I just glued my paper pieces together.  It actually turned out pretty sturdy.  It wouldn't stand up to the amount of handling it would had it been mounted on the dimensional elements, but it's sturdy enough for the coffee table.

The pages were cut from Avonlea B&T, Whisper, and Sweet Leaf.  The letters are from the Irresistible Houndstooth Alphas.  These letters are the perfect size for just about everything.  The rose was cut from the Artiste cricut cartridge.  The glittery strip is our new Silver Shimmer Trim aka glitter tape :) This stuff is great.  It is adhesive backed.  You can't really tell here because my lighting is horrible, but I took a dauber and used chocolate ink and daubed over that glitter tape just to soften it some.  It worked.  

All sprinkled throughout my little album are little sparkles and flowers from the new Floret Paper Shapes. 

I used stamps from the Love Blooms, Family Love, and Bonjour stamp sets.  When I got through decorating it all, which really didn't take long at all, I just used some metal rings to keep them all together.  The original instructions showed using our new Slate Satin Polka Dot Ribbon,  which is gorgeous, but apparently they are much more talented than I because I couldn't get it through the holes..lol.  The rings made it easier to turn the pages.  That's my story and I'm sticking to it!  

All in all,  this was a fun project and one I will definitely do again.  It's something I could see my daughter and I doing on a Saturday afternoon.  Using the dimensional elements would probably be ideal and perhaps last longer, but you can do it without it.  There's more pages and a different mini album on the Artiste cartridge, too.   I can't wait to try it now. 

Thanks for stopping by.   I hope to have more posted soon.    

Happy Scrapping!

National Stamping Month -- It's Your Day!

Close to My Heart kicked off their double stamp set promotion for National Stamping Month Today!  For an order of only $35 retail, you can purchase this double stamp set for only $5.   See what you get....

I just love that little mini album!  I foresee a lot of these in my future :)  What a great stamp set at a really great price.

Don't miss out!

Flirty Flip Flaps

I just realized it's been almost two weeks since I have posted anything on here.  Where does the time go?  I know a lot of my time has been spent playing with the new Artiste Cricut cartridge.  I don't think I will ever get through all of it!   I kept telling myself I still had layouts to finish up.  Just this past weekend I finally got through with two of the convention projects I had started.   The first one was a layout with the Flirty paper pack.  I really did fall in love with it when I saw it.  It was different from what I would normally do and had those bold Flirty colors.  Love, love, love.   This layout had a few firsts for me.  One being the new alcohol ink markers.  These are great! I do love them.  The other being the small Flip Flaps. At first I was unsure and thought about just not using them, but I'm so glad I did.  They are fun!  I can see where this could enhance any page.  Now they come in such a wide array of sizes, too.   Needless to say, I put all of them on my next "to order" list.  

The cutting guide for this layout is on page 31 of the new Make it from Your Heart pattern book.  I really liked the layout. I think the little floating circles intrigued me.   The circle accents are made with two circles.  You fold down four sides, toward the middle of one circle, then adhere it to the bottom circle.  It was a little tedious at times, but I love the effect.  The rose accents were made with the Love Blooms (C1511) stamp set. I have already gotten a lot of use out of that stamp set.  The roses were colored with the Autumn Terracotta marker set and the leaves with the Olive marker set.    I stamped the roses and the leaves with our black ink on Colonial White cardstock and let them dry well and then just colored and shaded with the markers.  I love the way they work.

Can you see the flip flaps?  These all come with a self adhesive strip.  You simply slide the strip under the adjoining paper, photo or embellishment.  I would definitely dry fit these to make sure everything lines up right.  They are serious about their adhesion, once they are there they are permanent!

This is the one on the top left side of the page.  To me these are perfect for incorporating some photos that might not have been front page worthy, but you didn't want to leave them out.  The other one is in the middle on the right page.

I hid my journaling behind this one.  These are just fun.  My daughter looked at these and said, "That's great, but how are you going to see them when they are in the album?"  Well, we cut our page protectors.   Another great thing about CTMH  page protectors, these things are sturdy.  After you put your  flip flaps on your page you slide the page into the page protector.

I use a sharpy and mark a small circle on the outside of the page protector just above and below where my actual flip flap is.  I then pull my page back out of the protector and put in a cutting mat.

I use a punch and punch a hole on each of my marks.  Then I take the exacto knife and a ruler and cut a slit from one hole to the other.

Once you get your slits cut, then slide your page back in, give yourself a little room,  extend the flip flap and pull it through the slit.

So now your flip flap photo is on the outside of the page protector, but still well protected.  Now its an interactive layout!  I can't wait to do more of these.   These come in sizes from 2"x 2" all the way up to 8" x12".   You can find them on page 122 of the new idea book.   Me being new to CTMH, this was way cool to me. I had never used these.   For those who have been familiar with CTMH longer, you probably know all about these little jewels.  But when I find something I love, I just have to share :)

Thanks for stopping by.  I'll be putting up pictures of my very first mini album,  hopefully, tomorrow.  So, stop back by and  see what's new.

Happy Scrapping!