Card Patterns & H2H New Catalog Sneak Peek!

OK. I admit I'm a hardcore CTMH fanatic. I scared my father-in-law by leaping and bounding over a small child and various train tracks and toys to get to the door when FedEx delivered my new catalog shipment after Christmas. I literally giggle and bounce in my seat when I'm sitting down with a pile of new CTMH goodness to design a new project. Those who've scrapped with me know that I TALK to my projects...complimenting them on how cute they will be when the "grow up." I love what I do...

So you can see how out of commission I must have been last week. All of my new stuff came in - not catalogs this time, but actual scrumptious new product...and there it sat. I had the boxes here for a few hours before I busted them open. Then I left them on the table until John came home and he moved them upstairs for me...where they sat untouched until today. Thanks goodness for acupuncture - pain be gone, and let the wild stamping begin!

I used sketch #148 from the Card Patterns blog to kick off the stamping tonight. Don't you just love the broken background? I stamped the largest flower from my new Card Word Puzzle set in Colonial White pigment ink all over a sheet of Bamboo Cardstock, then cut it into 1 x 3 inch strips to use for my background. I inked each panel with Outdoor denim ink, then mounted those onto heavily sanded Desert sand CS. I stamped and embossed the same flower image on my card base using a pearlescent embossing powder.

I accented on the left side with a bit of Cricut cut scalloped border, which I also (carefully) sanded. I love that border on the Art Philosophy cartridge particularly because, as a busy mama who loves a good shortcut, that border is actually a double sided border. I like to trim it in half and get two for the wait of cutting once intricate border. Impatience, thy name might be Wendy...or in this case, as I got 4 cards out of each border, perhaps I'm a clever clogs!

The little scalloped edge square (at 1 1/2") was also cut on my trusty Cricut. I topped it off with a bit of the new Pemberly Paper packet, and a stamped butterfly. I stamped the butterfly onto the B&T square and onto some scrap Desert Sand paper. Then I got out my fabulous Pearl Paint, tinted a couple shades of blue using a Outdoor Denim reinker and detailed my butterfly with a fine tipped brush.

I added a strip of the new Color Ready Seam Binding, which I kept in the original creamy color for this card. It's super light and flexible, easy to tie and work with, and almost sheer, but with more heft than an organdy ribbon. I love it! An adorably dotted new Just Blooms flower and a few Pearl Opaques finish off my embellishments. Now my card is all grown up (with 11 siblings) and ready to fly off to Tina Lovell's swap group. Bon voyage!

I linked this blog post to the H2H Ready For A New Year challenge, which asks everyone to use a brand new stamp set you haven't briken out of your stash before.  Check it out, then play along, too!