Cross Stitch Wishes - Blog Hop Jan 2014

HAPPY NEW YEAR !!!!!!!

 

I can hardly believe we are talking about the 1st blog hop of 2014 !!!!!!!!  This months stamp of the month Cross Stitch Wishes features 13 stamps and it can be yours for $5 with a $50 order.  This set is so versatile for cards, scrap booking, and crafts.  If you've hopped here from Traci Godbee's website you are on the right track !!!! 

 

 

For this layout I used the layout from the back of the Idea book as my inspiration.  The cardstock and ink colors are smokey plum, honey, lagoon, sunset, and juniper.  The overlays are cut from the Artbooking Cricut Cartridge and the faux buttons are from the Artiste Cartridge.

 These hearts where cut from Artiste 3/4in and then stamped and popped on some 3-D foam tape.

 

Thanks for peeking at my LAST layout for 2013.  Keep coming back for more ideas with this set and my 1st layout of 2014!!!!  So now it is time to hop on over to Georgia Hauglid's Website for some more crafty inspiration!!!!

New Year's Card with Cricut

So here is a FAST card to honor the rolling in of the new year!  Cricut Artbooking is what makes this card so quick.  I used the craft room to size my overlay to 5.25 so it fit on my card perfectly!!!  I used the negative images (stars) to adorn the opposite side of the card. VIOLA the glitter paper and sentiment make this card sparkle. 

Sparkle & Shine with Heart to Heart Challenge

 

I've finally had my tech guy come out and fix my computer!!!! Thanks BRADY.  So now I'm able to catch up on my blog posts just in time to catch the last challenge of the year over @ H2H and Color my Heart.  The challenge over at H2H is the Sparkle & Shine paper and the Colors for this weeks color dare are RUBY & JUNIPER so this layout was beginning to be posted!  For this layout I used the Sparkle & Shine papers as well as the Workshop on the Go and the Silver washi tape from the Holiday mini.  If you want some extra Sparkle & Shine inspiration here is the link H2H or Color my Heart  

Clearly the Best: Party Favor Flavor

MERRY CHRISTMAS .......

Here is the card I sent out this year.  If you know me you know I struggled to find just the right card to create after a friend challenged me NOT to use the SAME stamp set I have used for the last few years.  The sentiment inside is a little faith based to keep with my personal preferences.

Here is the inspiration card I received from Michelle Loncar if you haven't seen my previous post about Color my Heart Dare.

Cards from Chrstmas Past . . . .

Today I'm remembering Christmas's gone by and I thought I'd post some of my favorite cards that I have sent out in years past.  So when you see the card I made for this year you will know that it is VERY different from the cards I typically make and send. 

Christmas Card Workshop

Earlier this month I was asked to help out in my sons Sunday School Class.  The teacher wanted the kids to make Christmas Cards for the shut ins at our church. I am always looking for a way to put my faith in ACTION (and use up some scraps) and share my Love for crafting.  So I jumped at the chance to help out.  Here are the cards I created

 

And here are some of the kids cards....

 

 

They did such a FANTASTIC job !!!!!! Each person received 2 cards!!!  The added bonus was I went home with 0 scraps because when the kids finished there cards and saw supplies left a few asked to make more!!! What a great feeling to share my faith and love of crafting with these kids and the recipients of the cards.

 

A BIG THANK YOU to Michelle Loncar and Color My Heart Dare

You can not image my surprise when I went to the mailbox and found package with my name on it.  I totally forgot about the prize coming from the Color My Heart gals for winning a Color Dare.  I am so thankful for the honor of winning and the prize. I also am thankful for the inspiration this cards has given me to FINALLY create this years Christmas card.  So keep coming back to see how I make this card my own.

 

If you'd like to see the winning card click here Scandinavian Wishes with a Twist
or the Color Dare website Color My Heart Dare

Washi Wonderland

Sparkle and Shine Card workshop

Here is a sampling of the Cards that some of the ladies made from a FANTASTIC home gathering.  I love how this gal Put her own personal touch on each card!!!!

Clearly the Best: Create the Date

Artbooking Made East: Elegant Mini Albums

Clearly the best : Swirlin Shapes

Cricut Tags

Simple Scallops

Subway Speak

Artbooking made Easy; Friendship Layout

Special Care - December 2013 Stamp of the Month Blog Hop

Welcome to our Stamp of the Month Blog Hop!  We will be featuring December's SOTM, which is SPECIAL CARE, a set of 6 stamps.  If you have come here from Lisa Sargent's Blog you are on the right path! The blog hop is a great big circle, so you can start here and work your way all around.  If you get lost along the way, you’ll find the complete list of participating consultants here COMPLETE LIST OF HOPPERS

This month we have OVER 30 Close To My Heart Consultants sharing their creations using this month's SOTM and other great CTMH products on their blogs. This is simple to do - just click on the link at the end of the post on each blog to move to the next one! Here we go!

 

 

So here is the page I made using Special Care.  It is a very versatile set but since we are in full Christmas Swing at my house I wanted to feature it as a Christmas set.  Every year we host the family and I LOVE to take pictures (big surprise there hu) in front of the tree.  So the bottom opening I thought would be great for a group shot of all my nieces and nephews and the top slots can be for each individual family pose. 

This page also uses cranberry and topiary cardstock and inks as well as the stamp set trim a tree, sparkle holiday shapes, ruby chevron ribbon, and the silver sparkle and shine washi tape.

One of my crafty friends asked me about paper piecing technique so  I have a tutorial below if you'd like to stick around if not to keep on hopping follow the link below

 I know Georgia Hauglid's blog will be full of creative ideas. Happy hopping!!!!

 

So I think it is easy to take for granted some of the basics a one of my friends asked me about a card that was "paper pieced" the other day. So I thought a little tutorial was in order.  So here goes

To begin you will need to stamp your image in each ink you want to have on the final product.  Since my image only uses 2 colors I only stamped my image in cranberry and topiary. 

 

then I trimmed the base image in this case cranberry.  Then I only cut out the part of the Topiary image that I wanted for my final product.

 

 Finally I adhered them together lining up the edges as best I could so it appears to be ONE image.  Now what if I wanted to add color ???? I would have stamped a third image in that color and cut out only the parts I wanted on my final image. I hope this is helpful to any and all that needed a little paper piecing advise.

 

Special care with a little Laughing Lola

So the stamp of the month blog hop is right around the corner and I just couldn't wait to post this Laughing Lola card using the Hugs and Kisses required sentiment from special care.  My nieces are the crafty sort (I have no idea where they got that from : ) so for Christmas I bought them one of those rainbow looms and it looked like so much fun  I need one for my self.  The dilemma is that I'm the only girl in the house so tucked in with there loom will be one of these cards inviting them over for a GIRLS day in to make some super cool bracelets. 

So the additional items I needed to create these cards was Lagoon and gypsy ink and cardstock.  The X & O are cut from my Art Philosophy Cartridge and the card base is from Artiste.

If you'd LOVE this stamp set you can only purchase it in December 2013 for 17.95 but wait if you send $50 on Close to my Heart goodies it's ONLY $5.  Don't forget to stop by December 1st for the blog hop using this stamp set for some GREAT ideas!!!!

Happy Thanksgiving!!!!!

Photo booths are ALL the rage at parties these days.  However ALOT of sites are wanting you to pay for art work so I decided to make my own using my cricut and images off my computer. 

the head band is from the Artbooking cartridge and the feathers are from Artiste.

The word bubble is from Artisite and the alphabet font is from the Artbooking

 

Since time was short I used the Cricut Craftroom to position my letters EXACTLY where I wanted them.  This saved time so I only needed to run my mat through once and used up some of my scraps laying around.  These projects came together in a snap.

 

 

Huntington Swap #3

OH I think this is my favorite out of this round of swaps!!!! I think it is the use of the glitter paper it gets me everytime!!! I also love and never thought to cut an image out of the paper and use it as the focal image or embellishment kudos to the crafty gal that made this card!!!!  I also love the Cricut sentiment and the use of the shrunken page layout Cricut craft room to the rescue there . . . . ok ok I LOVE EVERYTHING about this card!!!!

Huntington Swap #2

This card was created by the talented Bobbi Markley. I love the distressing and the use and variety of bling in the lower left corner. Subtle yet stunning !!!!

Huntington Swap #1

Hi crafters I thought you would love to see some of the swaps I have received for the Huntington Paper pack. So if I have the contact info I will post the originator of each item if not well ya know it was some crafty person.

So first is a little gift item that could work anytime of the year but I thought was especially nice for a thanksgiving treat.

 

here is the inside!!! I just LOVE this idea as a give away after a get together.

Clearly The Best: Crafts for Your Curls

Artbooking made easy : CHRISTMAS layouts

Artbooking Made Easy: Cross-Cartridge Collaboration

Artbooking Made Easy: Cross-Cartridge Collaboration

Artbooking made Easy : Festive Albums

Wacky Washi

Blast from the past !!!!

Clearly The Best: Do the Twist (S02E05)

Artbookingmade easy : Freedom Layouts

Happy Birthday !!!!!!

This is actually the 1st card I made for the Color Dare Challenge but I posted it 2nd to celebrate my girl friends birthday TODAY.   For this card  I used Topiary ink, For Always paper and some shimmer trim to add some bling.  The sketch is from Cas(e).

 

 

Color Dare - Cas(e) this Sketch

Black, White and Green . . . .

Can only mean one thing . . . . For Always paper !!!!! I love how easily I can "die" this paper to coordinate with any color scheme!!! The Green ink I used is Topiary the sentiment is from Always Grateful stamp set.  The ribbon is the Color ready so again I died it the bling is from the Sparkles Clear Flourishes.

H2H - Color Dare - Mojo

Lots of Layers . . . .

This week over at H2H the challenge is LAYERS and lots of them!!!! Whenever I here layers I know Mojo Monday is the place to find a sketch !!!! So this card came together so fast for me.

For this card I used Fall harvest for the background stamping and Everlasting life for the sentiment.  The paper is from the Huntington pack and the cardstock is saddle, olive, goldrush and honey.  The inks are saddle and chocolate.  If you what to be inspired by these challenges follow the links below.

H2H  -   Mojo Monday

 

ILLUMINATE with Novembers Stamp of the Month Blog Hop

Welcome to our Stamp of the Month Blog Hop!  We will be featuring November's SOTM, which is ILLUMINATE, a set of 15 stamps.  If you have come here from Nikka Geer's blog you are on the right path! The blog hop is a great big circle, so you can start here and work your way all around.  If you get lost along the way, you’ll find the complete list of participating consultants here COMPLETE LIST OF HOPPERS

This month we have OVER 50 Close To My Heart Consultants sharing their creations using this month's SOTM and other great CTMH products on their blogs. This is simple to do - just click on the link at the end of the post on each blog to move to the next one! Here we go!

 

 

So if you follow my blog you KNOW Lola and I have a good thing going.  So I used the Laughing Lola Papers, Gypsy and Black ink.  I also used my honey marker (lighter) our glitter paper (cuts like a DREAM) and some glitter trim as well as some random gems.  The stamps are from the Stamp of the month and I just LOVE this sentiment!!!!  My card is loosely inspired by pattern 19 in the make it from your heart volume #1.  I love to pick up boxes of envelopes from the dollar store and make my card to fit whatever envelope they have so this card measures 4.5 x 9 and fits into the envelope like it was made for it well I guess that is because it was : )

 

Now "Hop" on over to Kim Schnoor's blog  to see her work! Be sure to visit all the Consultants at their Blogs to get some great crafting ideas and other fun ideas! Remember, the November SOTM is only available until the last day of the month!  Contact your CTMH Consultant (or click here) to see how you can get this stamp set at a discount

A treat . . . not a trick

I've seen these all over I wish I could give credit to where it is due because I totally scrap lifted this idea but there are SO many different styles I can't really say who's I saw first.  Well this is my spin on it. I used the Art philosophy Cartridge to cut out the treat topper from a fall piece of paper from the photo stack.  I used the font from the Your are my Happy stamp set in Daisy White on black cardstock.

Reduce reuse recycle

Here is the title for a bulletin board I made at school.  I love the versitlity of the Aphabet font on the Art Philosophy Cartridge!!!! It truely is my "go to" for a GREAT title.

Fall Harvest & Count Your Blessings

Over at color my heart the dare is gypsy and buttercup.  This would be the perfect time to try a new technique.   I've used this method of using your blocks AS the stamp for your inks.  So I have a block that is 1 by 3 1/2 and I used the narrow side to transfer my ink to the card.  Then I stamped some leaves in saddle to add to the fall feel I used a little twine as my bling.

Over at color my heart the dare is gypsy and buttercup. This would be the perfect time to try a new technique. I've used this method of using your blocks AS the stamp for your inks. So I have a block that is 1 by 3 1/2 and I used the narrow side to transfer my ink to the card. Then I stamped some leaves in saddle to add to the fall feel I used a little twine as my bling which works perfectly for a challenge over at "Less is More"

I also used my absolute FAVORITE fall stamp set Fall Harvest for the leaves and the sentiment is from Count your blessings I added a little twine and viola!!!  to get inspired by one of the blogs I used today follow the links below.

Color My Heart  or "Less is More"

Frosted . . . . .

Happy Sunday Crafters . . . .
I have finally had time to sit and craft a little and I knew right where to look to get my creative juices flowing I popped over to Heart to Heart challenges to see that this weeks was a LACE challenge. ooooo As I went through my stash in truth looking for my budding Laughing Lola I saw my frosted paper and bang I knew this was the paper for this challenge.  I just LOVE the delicate lacey snowflakes on this paper !!!! I also used the sketch from Mojo Monday to give my card a little direction.

To give the background paper that lacey look I used a stamp from the sweet & lovely set from the Artbooking bundle and stamped it on the four corners.  I also used a stamp from the Merry & Bright Workshop on the go for my sentiment.  The inks are Twilight and grey flannel.  So if you'd LOVE to be inspired follow one or both of these links .  H2H and Mojo and here is the sketch

Trendy Trims

Clearly the Best: Connect the Dots (S02E03)

Artbooking Made Easy: Everyday Layouts (S01E08)

Clearly the Best: Preserve with Pizazz (S02E02)

Artbooking Made Easy: Fall into Artbooking (S01E07)

Swing fold with Santa

Ok I admit it I love this stamp set I love the cute little Santa's I love the sentiments!!! This stamp set is so versatile for Christmas and you can get it FREE with a qualifying order just like I did.  Yes that is right when I placed my order this was the star item I chose and I couldn't be more pleased with it!!!!!

 

 

Here is the inside of the card.

 

For this card I used my cricut artiste cartridge,  the Santa Stamp set, Sparkle & Shine Paperpack, Ruby Card Stock, Cranberry Ink and the NEW shimmer trim.  the photos just do NOT do this trim justice it is more silver shimmer than grey.

 

Sparkle & Shine with a little Santa Claus

 

Here are the fronts and backs to the Ghirardelli square candy wrappers I made for a swap. I love how perfectly the images from this stamp set fit onto these squares!!!!! The "wrapper is cut from the artiste cartridge from the "family key".  To seal the candy wrappers I used some of our two way glue.  Did you know that when it dries it is repositionable so I can open and close these little wrappers as needed.  Well everyone knows that these chocolates are so good I didn't need to close them after opening them ; )

Scandinavian wishes . . .

The card I've created for you today has been inspired by Cas(E) and Color Dare. Let me explain the challenge over at Color Dare this week is Cranberry plus

one.  Well with all this Christmas love flying over the new Mini it is no surprise my plus one is Topiary.  The ornament is from the stamp of the month Scandinavian wishes and the sentiment is from the Santa Claus stamp set from the Christmas mini.  I also used an embossing folder and distressed it with cranberry ink. 

 

 Here are the links to check out the great ideas Cas(E) and Color Dare