Another Week 3 Day 5 card

Here's a quickie card that I did with one of the color palettes that were given on the last day of class.  I originally thought the colors were two greys, black, white, and red, but it was in fact a dark rosy/pinky (<--very technical terms) color.   

I used Whisper, Slate, and Black inks for the stamped background, which was a stamp from the SSS May card kit I do believe.  The sentiment is from the new Perfect Fit - Thanksgiving stamp set from CTMH.  I embossed it with CTMH silver powder.  The butterfly was punched from some cardstock from my scrap pile with a MS punch.   Added a sparkle and that was it. 

It was super quick design and very easy to put together.  Just the way I like them.  

Thanks for stopping by.  Have a great rest of the weekend! 

Week 3 Day 4 - Vintage

This was the last week of Summer Card Camp 2.   On day four, Kristina presented a challenge to step out of your comfort zone and try something new.  She had made a vintage looking card as an example because it was outside of her norm.  I love the look of vintage/ shabby chic look, but very seldom can I pull it off.  It, too, is outside of my normal cardmaking styles.  I thought I would give it a try, so here's my attempt at vintage.

I stayed with the color palette for the week.   I used Cocoa cardstock for my card base and dry embossed it with my Big Shot.  I gently rubbed over the top of my card with Briliance Galaxy Gold pigment ink.  The piece in the middle is Colonial White cardstock that I stamped with the word stamp in my Universal Backgrounds stamp set.  I crumpled it up after I stamped it and then flattened it back out.  I distressed the edges with my CTMH edge distresser.   I lightly went over the edges with Cocoa ink using my dauber and then randomly with Sky ink.  The flourish is a Fancy Dies Flourish from HA.  I used the new Sincere Expressions stamp set for the sentiment and embossed it with CTMH gold embossing powder on vellum.   The flowers and pearled lace trim were from my stash.  

It's a different look for me, but I think I like it.  It was definitely fun to make.  

I hope everyone is having a great weekend.  Thanks for stopping by!

Another Week 3 Day 3 card

Here's another card from Day 3.  This is based on another one of the sketches for the week. The example card was adorable, but I didn't have anything remotely close to the stamps used. But what I did have was one of the new stamps from Jeanette Lynton's archives.  For those of you who didn't know, the new idea book that will be going live on August 1st contains stamp sets that have been re-released.  These sets were some of Jeanette Lynton's personal favorites that were originally released in rubber and mounted on wood.  Now you can have them in acrylic stamps.   This little guy is from the Teddy Bear Birthday set and he's an A size stamp set, so he's only $6.95! He comes with presents, cake and a hat, too.

I thought he was cute and have been wanting to use him since I got him.   This is a 5.25 x5.25 card cut from CTMH kraft paper.  I used White Daisy, Sky, Gypsy and Chocolate for my colors.   I used Copics to color my little bear, but I used CTMH alcohol markers in Sky to color his bow.  I simply used my daubers and ink to make the circles on the strip at the bottom of the card.  The little scalloped border is also something new we have.   It's our new scalloped border punch.  I love, love, love it!  It, too, is a must have and will be available August 1st.  

I followed Lisa Spangler's lead in making this a window card.  The top layer is popped off the card face with 3d foam tape.  I found a stash of old alpha stickers and thought, why not?  I originally wanted it to be a baby card, but I didn't have the right letters or a stamp that I thought would fit, so a birthday card it became.   I feel like this card needs a little something else, but I was undecided on what I wanted, so I just let him be.  He's just so cute.   

Thanks for stopping by.  Have a great rest of the week! 

Week 3 Day 3

Another great day of designs and techniques from the Summer Card Camp 2 class.  I skipped a day.  I will probably come back to it later, but I saw butterflies and I got distracted.  Such is my life :)  Shari Caroll made a butterfly friend card for the class and I really liked it.  It was a little different for me, but I wanted to try it.  So here's my card.  I tried to get it as close to her card as I could because, well, I loved her card..lol.

This is a standard size top fold card.  I used Neenah Desert Storm cardstock for the base. I used CTMH White Daisy, Chocolate, Sky, and Gypsy cardstocks for the embellishments.  The sentiment is a stamp from CTMH  Friendship Bouquet stamp set. I cut the butterfly from the CTMH Artiste Cricut cartridge.  The baker's twine is the chocolate from the Neutral Assorment. 

This card was fun and fairly quick to put together and it has a butterfly.  How much better can it get?

Thanks for stopping by!

Week 3 Day 1

As usual, a day late and always a dollar short..lol.  Week 3 at Summer Card Camp 2 has three new sketches and a new color palette.  The colors this week are two shades of brown, blue, and two shades of purple.   When I saw the star card that Kristina made, I knew I had to make one.

This is a standard-sized top fold card cut from Neenah Desert Storm paper.  For my purple colors I used CTMH Gypsy and the blue is Sky.  The background stamp is from Stampabilities and stamped on CTMH White Daisy cardstock.  I cut the stars and the frame from the Art Philosophy Cricut cartridge and used my trusty daubers and inked on some color.   The sentiment is from the Just a Number stamp set. I added some CTMH natural hemp cord and that was it.  

I think I really like the soft colors and simple design of this card. Quick and cute, just the way I like them!

That's all for tonight.  Thanks for stopping by! 

Stretching Your Holiday Stamps Project

The crafty assignment from Summer Card Camp from Week 2, Day 4, was to stretch your holiday stamps.  In other words, use them for something other than holidays.  I thought it was a neat idea and a great challenge.  I have been wanting to use some of the new  holiday stamps that will be appearing live on August 1st in our new idea book.  The stamp set I used is called Wintry Wishes and it's a part of the new hostess line of stamp sets.  Anytime you host a party, you have the option of buying these new hostess sets.  There are several to choose from.  Here's my cute little feathered friend.

There are three of these little guys in the stamp set.  I think they are adorable.  I colored him with Copic markers and then cut him out leaving some white showing around the image.  I added some glitter glitz gel to his snowball.  I used the little snowflake stamp from the set for the embossed snowflakes.  They really are silver.  The lighting makes them look almost gold.   This is a standard A2 White Daisy card base from CTMH.  I simply free hand cut the curve on the bottom of the card face.  I traced my curve onto some black cardstock and cut out the black strip.  I adhered my blue piece of cardstock to the inside of my card. 

The sentiment is a stamp from the Cricut Artiste Collection - Birthday stamp set.  The original sentiment says " Hope your birthday's as sweet as you."  I masked off the "sweet" with washi tape while inking and removed it to stamp the image.   I found some little glittery alpha stickers in my stash so I used them to replace the "sweet" with "cool." I used my white gel pen to make some dashed lines under my curved card front to finish it off.  

I had fun with my little feathered friend.   I foresee a long lasting friendship between us.  

That's it for tonight.  Thanks for stopping by!  Have a great weekend!

Week 2 Day 3

Just a quick post tonight.  Here's a card I did for the Summer Card Camp, week 2, day 3.  I loved the plaid stamping on the inspiration card.  I used the color palette for the week of Crystal Blue, Sweet Leaf, Topiary, and Cocoa.  

The stamps used to make the plaid are from SSS  and are in this month's card kit.

That's it for tonight.  Thanks for stopping by!

Week 2 Day 1

I haven't had time to do much this week, but I wanted to try some of the card assignments from Summer Card Camp 2 for Week 2.  I did manage to get a round one done from day 1.   The color palette this week is a light blue, two shades of green and a brown.  I went with Close to My Heart inks in Crystal Blue, Sweet Leaf, Topiary and Cocoa.  Kristina did her card with a watercolor resist.  I just used my inks as watercolor to color in my background.

I used a floral background stamp from Hero Arts.  I stamped it in Rich Cocoa Memento ink onto our Colonial White circle  card base.  I then used my CTMH inks and my blending pen and colored in my flowers and leaves.  I used our Gold Embossing powder to emboss the sentiment on vellum.  The sentiment is from our new A size stamp set Sincere Expressions.   It will be available for purchase on August 1.  

I wasn't sure about the vellum banner.  It just seemed lacking to me.  I added the little pieces of paper and the sparkle because I thought it just needed something.  I couldn't find anything I liked for ribbon or twine.  It's a bit random, but maybe it worked. 

That's it for tonight.  Thanks for stopping by! 

Live for Love Layout

This is the final page in my convention album and it is my personal favorite.   I won't go into all the sappy details, but it basically describes how my daughter changed our lives.   I put pictures of her and me in chronological order from the time she was about a year old until the present.  It's really amazing how time flies.

This was the first time I had used the large flip flaps.  They are wonderful for extending the page just enough to get all the photos you wanted in a layout.  I was able to put 13 photos in this layout, quite a lengthy bit of journaling,  and still had room for embellishing.

I wanted the layout to look complete with the flip flaps opened and closed.  So I was very careful to line up all my embellishing on both sides of the papers.  I even embellished on the outside of the page protector so there would be a sturdy, as well as decorative, piece to open and close the flaps.

I used papers from Surf's Up, Typeset, Clementine, and La Belle Vie.  It was the first time I had really ventured way out there on using papers from so many different packs, but I loved the colors together.  I used Juniper, Sorbet,  Chocolate, and Colonial White cardstocks.  There's a lot going on with the embellishments on this page so I'll only touch on a few of them.

The LOVE in the title was cut from the Art Philosophy cartridge.  I cut the letters out of Colonial White cardstock five times and then glued them all together to give the feel of chipboard letters.  I liked that they were a little bit chunkier and sturdier than just the single cut letter.

My favorite embellishment on the page is the little scrapling heart.  I used very thinly cut scraps from all the papers I used and adhered them to the front of one of our chipboard hearts.  I cut them close to the edge of the heart and then sanded and inked the edges.  I have gotten into the habit of using up scraps to make coordinating embellishments like this.  It's fun, easy, and I love the end result.  Plus, you can be sure it matches your page!

This is definitely my favorite page, probably because of subject matter, but I was pleased with the way it came together.  I tried new things and I loved it.  I foresee many more large flip flaps in my future :)
 

Thanks for stopping by! Have a great rest of the weekend!

Live to Dance!

This is the fourth layout from my convention album. I do believe this one is my daughter's favorite.  Although they are all about her, this is about her and what she loves: dance.   I love the song by Lee Ann Womack, I Hope You Dance.  I quoted the first verse of the song and put it on the page.   I thought it just kind of fit.  It sums up the message I want to give her on how I hope she lives her life. And that's what the album theme was, "Live!"

 

I used the chevron paper from the For Always paper pack with Lagoon and Cranberry.  The border stamp is actually from the Snowflakes stamp set.  The pictures are from  her dances throughout the years and all the costumes were different in color, so I printed the pictures in  black and white.  After getting the pages put together I just felt it was a little bland.  I took a chance and tried something new for me, I tinted the photographs with our alcohol markers. It worked beautifully.  I actually used the Twilight marker ( I didn't have Lagoon) and Cranberry.  The colors worked out great.  I just highlighted parts of her on the pictures to make her stand out and give color. 

I cut the title out of our black glitter paper.  It really does cut wonderfully on the Cricut.  The Live is a cut from the Artiste Cricut cartridge.  The dance is the font from the Art Philosophy Cricut cartridge.  I used Cricut Craft Room and welded them together.  I felt like it got a little lost on the page so I just hand cut the white paper behind it to make it stand out more.  The flowers were from the Artiste cartridge as well.  I stamped them with the Hello Blooms stamp set and used 3d foam tape to stack them up.  

I only have one more layout left from the album.  I'll try to have it up tomorrow.  And as always, thanks for stopping by!  Have a great weekend!

 

Live for Adventure

Here's another page of my convention album.  This one was "Live for Adventure."  It showcased my daughter's birthday trip to Disney World.  It amazes me the rides she will ride.  She won't try a new vegetable, but if it turns you upside down, backwards and makes you feel like you are going to die, she's first in line.

I used some Tommy and retired Fanfare papers on kraft bases for this layout.  I went through my mini medleys and used brads and accents from Honey and Outdoor Denim.  I used the wooden trinket shapes all over the page.  These little things are so neat.  They are color ready, but I just left them natural on this page.  The stars and arrows all came from the same collection with many more shapes in there.  I used the mesh stamp from the Universal Background set for the letters and some of the accent paper pieces.   I cut the letters from the Artiste Cricut cartridge, stamped them, and then used some 3d foam tape for a little dimension.  

I wanted patterned paper on the right page, but it was already so busy.  I found the Fanfare paper and thought I could make that work.  It didn't have any yellow in it so I used the Honey pigment ink (coincidentally from the Adventure collection) and my little star stamp and stamped over the white stars on the paper to kind of tie it in.   

That's it for tonight. I'll try to get the dance page up tomorrow.  Thanks for stopping by!

SCC2 Day 4

As usual, I have things a bit out of order.  Such is my life!  I had a little quiet time in the craft room this evening, so I thought I would give some of these homework assignments from the card class a whirl.

I'm still using the same color palette, although I changed out some of the colors to different shades.  One of today's challenges was to create a card in 10 minutes.  I'll be honest, that's about unheard of for me.  I can't make up my mind in 10 minutes :)  But I did it!  I used the card by Marion Vagg as my model.

Once you have your colors and gather your supplies it did go together in 10 minutes...yay!  I used Sweetleaf, Buttercup and this time I went with Dutch Blue cardstock on a standard-sized White Daisy card base.  I used a die from Memory Box for the foilage.  I punched out my butterflies with a MS punch.  I used our alcohol marker in Sorbet to do some shading on the butterflies. I cut 1/4 inch from my card front on the right side and put a 1/2 inch strip of Dutch Blue on the inside of the card instead of on the face.  Now, you can see the colored strip when it's closed and it decorates the inside of your card as well. 

Another card today was by Kristina Werner.  It was a star shaped card.  I didn't have any star dies, but I did have heart-shaped ones.  I followed her lead with the strips of paper and embossing the card front.  

I cut my heart from some Bazzil cardstock so it would be a little bit sturdier.  The papers I used for the stripes are from the SSS July card kit.  I just loved that print and the colors worked with the palette this week.  This card also went together very quickly and easily.  

The last card I finished was actually the first one I started.  I had stamped the image and had done the coloring earlier.  I used CTMH Sweetleaf, Buttercup, Smoothie, and Crystal Blue inks along with my blending pen to color them.   I coated parts of it with liquid glass, so it had to have time to dry before I put it all together.  This card is my version of sketch #3 from the class sketches for the week.

That's it for tonight.  I am hoping for a productive weekend, so perhaps I will be able to post more in the near future.  

Thanks for stopping by!

Summer Card Camp 2

Online Card Classes has another class going on right now.  It's Summer Card Camp 2.  I didn't take the first class, but I didn't want to miss my chance at this one.  This week the color combo was a blue, green, pinkish redish color and a yellowish orangish color (those are the technical terms by the way:))  I used Closed to My Heart ink colors in Crystal Blue, Sweetleaf, Smoothie, and Honey or Buttercup.

The first card I used some of our new stamps that will be available on August 1st called One-Way Borders.  I love this stamp set. I used it to make the little arrow designs.  The flowers were from the Viva stamp set we got at convention.  

I used the new Happy Autumn stamp set for the flowers on this card.  I used my daubers to color directly on my stamps before stamping.  It gives a softer more muted effect.  I fussy cut them and the sentiment which is from Casual Expressions.   Added a few bitty opaques and that was it. 

These two came together fairly quickly.  You can't really see any of the detail of the second card in the picture, but I embossed the card front in a trellis design.  The banner is in the same color, White Daisy, but smooth.  I really liked the effect of the white on white. 

Thanks for stopping by!  

Live like a Princess

I missed my goal of having more of my album pages posted last week.  I did manage to get one more page photographed and uploaded at least.  I have a really hard time with the lighting here.  Its been so rainy and dreary lately getting nice natural light is a joke.  I struggle with the best way to get a two page layout photographed anyway, the lighting is just another challenge.

With each Close to My Heart convention, they have an album contest.  This year's theme was Viva!  or Live!  Although my pages are very different, they are all directed and centered around my daughter.  So each page was kind of a message to her and how I hope she lives her life.  The previous post was about the  "Live for the Happy Moments" layout.  Everyone gets down and has bad days, but you have to remember to keep on trucking and live for all those happy moments.  This page is "Live like a Princess."  I think every little girl should be treated like a princess from time to time.  She used to get a princess costume every year for either birthday or Christmas and I tried to have pictures taken in them.

                                     

Some of you may recognize this paper, it's from last year's Christmas paper, Pear and Partridge.  I added some Chocolate and Cranberry cardstock.  The flowers were from the Love Blooms stamp set. I stamped them on the Cranberry and then used the Cranberry alcohol marker to shade the petals a bit.  I then did some partial outlining with our gold metallic marker.  Some of the flowers are flat and others I fussy cut and layered for dimension.

I used our clear detail embossing powder with the Universal Background woodgrain background stamp and embossed the wood detail onto all the Chocolate cardstock.  I wanted to kind of mimic the wood from the treasure chest in the picture.

I cut the little mini banner from the Art Philosphy Cricut cartridge.  I used a couple of different stamps to layer the images behind my letters.  I second and third generation stamped them in Cranberry and then used the lower case Glamour Alphabet for the letters in Chocolate.  I used the gold metallic marker to give them some detail. too.  

I have always loved these pictures.  It was the only princess outfit that she had that wasn't pastel.  I thought the Pear and Partridge paper worked out great.  My apologies again for the poor lighting on the photos.  Maybe one day I'll get it right!

If you would like to purchase any of the items I used in the layout or other Close to My Heart products, please stop by my website here and join the mystery hostess gathering. For every $25 you spend, you get a chance to win $25 in free products. 

Thanks for stopping by! Happy Scrapping!

Have You Visited Dailycrafttv.com ?

Good morning everyone!  I hope everyone had a safe and enjoyable 4th of July.  It was a very rainy day here in Florida, but enjoyable nonetheless.  We spent the day with family and friends.  Today I am hoping to get a little done in the craft room.  I haven't had a chance to get photos of all the projects from convention or my album up yet, but I'm working on it!

It's raining again today, so if you have to be inside, might as well be in the craft room! I was wondering, have you ever visited Dailycrafttv.com? Daily Craft Tv is an online community showing new craft ideas and projects, as well as tons of instructional videos.  They have instruction in several categories like quilting, sewing, knitting, papercrafting, and of course, scrapbooking.  I'm not too crafty in any other realm but scrapbooking, so that is where my exploration lies within the site.  Most of the videos are hosted/instructed by the staff at either Creating Keepsakes Magazine or Paper Crafts Magazine.   You may recognize some of the names like Lisa Bearnson, Ali Edwards,  Becky Higgins, Annette Hardy, Cathy Zielske, and the list goes on.  And I do mean on and on.   These classes touch on everything from coloring techniques to photo editing to scrapbook design. They are anywhere from almost an hour to two hours long and start at only $4.99.   Each of the classes have a video preview, so you can sample the ones you may be interested in.  

I have always been a huge Creating Keepsakes fan.  I give them credit for introducing me to Close to My Heart, but that is a whole other story.  Creating Keepsakes had a collection of videos called the Essential Scrapbook Video Collection.  Some episodes from those videos are available on Daily Craft TV.   So if you missed buying the DVD for your home collection, you can view some of your favorite instructors on this site. 

I had the opportunity to take one of these online classes.  I chose the Scrapbooking with Surprise Supplies Class.  The instructor is Annette Hardy, who I had recognized from my Creating Keepsakes videos.  The class was almost two hours long and only $9.99.  The great thing about these classes is once you purchase them you can continue to access them.  I very rarely have two consecutive hours to devote to crafting, so I was able to watch what I could, when I could, and come back to it later. 

This particular class was designed around two scrapbook layouts which were available in a kit that can be purchased through the Scrap and Paper Shop.  I didn't have the kit, but I do have a room full of Close to My Heart supplies, so I figured I could make this work.  The video is easy to follow and she pretty much scraps in real time, so you can scrap along with her.  Annette is laid back and lighthearted with her instruction so you don't feel so stressed to keep up.  And of course, you can pause it if you need to.   I did finish watching the video and was inspired to make one of the layouts from the class, in true CTMH form of course.  I liked it so much when I was through, it was actually one of the layouts in the album I entered at convention.  

I used the sketch from the class as inspiration for a starting point.  Everything in this layout is Close to My Heart with one exception.  I took a tip for a surprise supply from the video and incorporated cupcake holders into my larger flowers.  

I also added a few extras,  like making my photos 3 dimensional.  It's kind of hard to tell from the photos, but I printed three of the same photos and fussy cut them.  I then layered them on top of each other to make my subjects stand out. I haven't done that in years, but it was so much fun and added a lot of interest to the page.   I used our alcohol markers to tint the little clear buttons.  The title is from our Eclectic Alpha dimensionals rubbed in Twilight ink.  I also incorporated some hidden journaling on the right page. 

This was a really fun layout to make. I used a lot of different techniques.  The layout and flowers were inspired by Scrapbooking with Surprise Supplies class.  

I didn't mean for this to be such a lengthy post, but I wanted to share with you both information on Daily Craft Tv and my layout that was inspired by that class.  If you haven't visited dailycrafttv.com, do stop by and check them out.  They have previews for all the classes, so peruse through what they have to offer.  You never know what you might find.  

Thanks for stopping by and have a great weekend!  I hope to have more pages posted soon.  

Happy Scrapping!