Merry and Bright Blog Hop

Welcome to the Merry and Bright Blog Hop! You might be arriving her from BECCA's BLOG. On this month's Blog Hops with Heart we made you some fabulously merry holiday projects!

For me, holiday crafts are the most fun. I love that holiday decorations are never too sparkly! This year I added a sweet Holiday Banner and an advent tree to our entryway. I used some rhinestone covered push pins to hold up my new decor creations.If you want a closer look at that triple block decoration hanging from what is normally just key hooks, you can see that ornament up close HERE.

 I found the banner in my to be decorated project drawer. Perhaps it originally came from Michaels? I can't be sure. I painted most of the banner pieces with a dark red acrylic paint and swiped the edges them with the green. I flipped the colors on the dividing banner.  I outlined every letter with glitter gel, and embellished the banner with wooden snowflakes, sequins, rhinestone and bitty sparkles, and more glitter gel. Lemme tell ya, that was a lot of Liquid Glass, Stampin' Friends.  I tied the banner pieces together using baker's twine and topped the bows with more rhinestone sparkles.

I found a blank tree wooden decor piece at Craft Warehouse. I painted it with the same dark red and green acrylic paints. I outlined each tree "branch" with silver glitter gel. I stamped the numbers on for a guideline, and then I filled in the letters with a sharpie marker. I found a very vintage CTMH rhinestone circle frame sticker, which I mounted on Ruby cardstock and topped with a gingham bow to create the Advent marker. It moves along with the help of a glue dot behind the bow.

I coated the entire piece with a glitter acrylic paint topcoat. This isn't the greatest picture, but can you see the bling? It might just be the sparkliest paint ever! I adhered a glittered kraft star diecut to the top of the tree for one last touch of sparkle. I know there wasn't a lick of paper on my projects today, but almost everything (but the tree base) came out of my stamp room stash, so I hope you'll still enjoy my glittery decor items!

Next up on the hop is AMIE'S BLOG. Happy Hoppin' Holidays!

Day 64: Operation Smile CREATE Wall Display

On Friday I'm heading to Seattle for a Close To My Heart Making Connections Event. At the event there will be an artwork auction to raise money for Operation Smile, an amazing charity that provides free, life-changing surgeries for children. I'm so excited to be bringing this piece of altered wood wall art to the Operation Smile Auction.

I wish you could see the sparkle of this piece, carefully painted with layers of silver glitter paint. I added a sentiment from the upcoming June SOTM, altered a bit with a little handmade banner to better fit the CTMH event. It says, "You can't buy happiness, but you can buy CTMH & that's the same kind of thing."

I handmade these paper gerber daisies using only one image from the Artiste Cartridge. Here's my Gerber Daisy Cricut Design Space file if you have that cartridge and you'd like to give it a go! I cut three larger daisies for the bases of the flower, and embossed a line down each petal. Then I formed the three smaller daisies using my embossing tool and the foam mat so they would curl up to form the center. Liquid glass holds them together, and I filled the centered with glitter gel, though a nice button wouldn't go wrong, either. 

. Aaaand I just couldn't let it go without a darling little butterfly, colored with my Shin Han markers and glittered on the black overlay. I'm linking this up to the Heart 2 Heart Wonderful World Challenge. 

It was a lot of detailed work to put this sweet wall display together, and at first I was like all "I'm too busy with show prep to donate artwork". But then I looked at the Operation Smile videos again, and I knew it was important to make time to help CTMH and Operation Smile help more children. I love how CTMH makes it possible to do good with every stamp set I purchase. 

If you're coming on Friday, be ready for the amazing auction - there's way more goodies than this! See you in Seattle!

Day 62: Making Connections Gerber Daisy Name Badge

So carrying on with the scrappin' my stash idea, I decided to work on my name badge for the upcoming Making Connections meeting in Seattle next week. 

My fabulous second upline Naomi Smith challenged us all to make a name badge for her team meeting. I started with a super old blue metal frame leftover from my Super Hero Album project that's been kicking around in my odds and ends bowl for, oh my goodness, three years. I painted the bright blue frame silver with some nail polish, then added a coat of silver glitter polish to be sure it was shiny enough. I adhered my frame to some Black cardstock and a bit of doily I couldn't bear to part with...I only hoard scrapbooking embellishments. And mason jars. And books.  

Then I added some freshly cut and assembled Gerber Daisies (extra from a project that I'll be revealing very soon), and a few more bits from my catch-all bowl. I miss those sparkly rhinestone flowers...but not that much, since I stocked up big time when they retired. Ahem. In any case, I think my embellie hoarding has paid off on this project. 

I'm gonna link this one up to the Heart 2 Heart Wonderful World Challenge, 'cause what in the world could be better than heading off to a CTMH event to chat, learn, and craft with lots of CTMH friends? Hope to see ya in Seattle!

Day 7: March SOTM Blog Hop

Welcome to the March SOTM Blog Hop. This month we have over 60 consultants sharing their creative projects using the March SOTM. You should be arriving here from ANGELA'S BLOG. Let's get hopping!

This month I chose to paint a small 4x6 canvas to use with my favorite stamp in that set, the "Choose happy" sentiment. I painted the canvas silver, and added streaks of Silver glitter paint, sparkly pink nail polish, and Outdoor Denim ink, I embossed the scalloped border and frame onto pink cardstock and fussy cut the elements. You'll see a bit of one of the swirl stamps in there as well as some black sparkle flourishes. My colors were grey/silver, Outdoor Denim, and Blush pink. I'm linking up to the Heart 2 Heart Think Pink Challenge.

Here you can see the texture of the nail polish splatters. The flowers were colored with a blush marker and glittered. I love this flower shape because I don't have to cut leaves too - I can just trim out the individual petals and turn those into leaves.

Don't forget you can get this SOTM for as low as $5, but only through the month of March. Contact your consultant or click here to order yours today! Next up on the hop is ALYSON'S BLOG. I can't wait to see what she's done with this adorable stamp set.

Other Projects I've made with the March SOTM:

Choose Happy Embroidery Hoop Wall Art

Choose Happy Monochromatic Card

Atlantic Hearts Sketch Challenge Card

Scrapping Our Stash Blog Hop

I'm so excited to be back sharing another Scrapping Our Stash project this month. You could be arriving here smiling from BOBBI'S BLOG, Vintage Muse Designs - welcome! I've been doing a series of Wall Art Hoops inspired by this fabulous "stash only" blog hop you hopping. My wall of hoops is getting to look more like an actual inspiration wall instead of just a few random non-matching projects! I added two hoops this week, and this is one of the new additions.

This time I covered the inner hoop of my embroidery hoop with strips of Washi Tape, just looking to make a solid surface to glue on since I knew you wouldn't even see the fabric. Plus, I couldn't find my bag of fabric scraps. Ahem. Then I grabbed my huge bin of paper flowers and started gluing. I covered the base with lots of the scraggly can't really use them white flowers that I also couldn't bring myself to purge. Then I added anything I could find in pinks, purples, a few yellows, and teals. Some are slightly altered from previous projects with marker or glitter. Even the butterfly was a leftover from another project, already inked and glittered. Then I dug into my sparkles stash and glued on a variety of odds and ends doo-dads I had leftover from well, everything.

I used some really old rub-ons on scraps of Lagoon paper to make up the words of my quote. Each word was trimmed out and detailed with a sketchy little hand-drawn border. Then WINGS is white mostly because I didn't have enough black letters, but then I decided I liked it and gave it a bit of a glitter border too.  I glued the words onto the flower bed with Liquid Glass and was happy to find they didn't fall off come morning even without foam tape.

I'll share my other new hoop early next week - it's black and white and polka dot and very, very sparkly! The next blog on the hop is Monica over at Scrap Inspired. I hope you'll be inspired to hit up your stash for hidden treasures, too!

Atlantic Hearts Sketch 65

I've been a little off the radar this month, which is nutty because I've got a ton of stuff to share with y'all! I thought I'd get some posting done this weekend when we were hanging at the KOA with the boys. They go to sleep by 8 p.m., so every evening at the KOA is very, very long hanging out by the ten with the sleeping boys...more so when the WIFI gives out the first night and ruins all your gotta-catch-up-on-my-blog plans. I have to admit, hanging by the river quietly was kind of nice too!

I'm so far off topic now...I'm super excited to share with you that I'm joining the Atlantic Hearts Sketch Challenge Design Team. My sweet Canadian friend Candra from Paper Dragon Fleur is already a member of this fabulously talented group of ladies, and she wrangled me an invite to play!

I'm jumping in with Sketch #65, and as soon as I saw it I knew what I wanted to do. I used two of the new CTMH embossing folders (which won't be released until August 1st, but I won mine at Convention - squee!). The CTMH folders make nice deep impressions (and are 5x7 instead of A2), so I embossed with both the new floral background and the honeycomb. I trimmed out the honeycomb in place of the oval from the sketch. Then I layered all my yummy inked and sanded embossed layers with a bit of Timberline woodgrain B&T (retiring at the ed of this month - sob!). All the cardstock here is either Whisper or Slate, so nice and basic. The stamps I used are from an adorable set called Have a Happy Day, which we got at Convention!

I cut some simple 6 petal flowers out of Colonial White CS using the Artiste cartridge. I broke down the fibers in the paper flowers using a stylus and foam mat (from the piercing tool kit). Each flower was spritzed with some Color Shine and inked around the edges with the new Thistle color (coming in August!). I topped them with either basic Sparkles or globs of Silver glitter gel topped with micro beads for the teensy tiny ones. A bit of Liquid Glass to pop them onto the card base and I was done! 

Here's the original sketch. Pop on over to Atlantic Hearts to check out more fun ideas for this sketch and to play along!

Holiday Auction Wreath

Here's the first of two classes I'm auctioning at my son's preschool Auction next week. Since I wasn't sure if the folks attending would be paper crafters, I chose some Holiday decor items that I hope will be a big hit! Instead of just making items, I'm auctioning crafty class experiences. Please cross your fingers for me that my auction items sell. I've never done one before, so I'm feeling a little nervous!

The first is a wreath made from ornaments, like dozens pinned to Pinterest by crafty wiz kids! It was amazingly easy to assemble, once I remembered how to load my hot glue gun. I chose a neutral color scheme, just golds and silvers, but I think I'm going to make another in reds and greens too! 

Of course, it wouldn't be my project without SOME papercraft, so I topped it off with a shiny wired ribbon and a big paper pointsettia. I kept this very simple to assemble - just multiple layers of an Art Philosophy flower that I embossed with my fav Swiss Dots embossing folder and adhered together with layers of 3-D Foam tape. I shaped each petal with a bit of bending and edged with with Almond Glitter Glitz. The Gold flourish came from the ornament hanging threads that came in each tube of the ornaments glued to the wreath, and I added a bit of bling...Rhinestone Designer brad, plus some Sparkles and dots of glitz. 

I'm linking this up to the Heart 2 Heart Keeping it Neutral Challenge. Check back here tomorrow for the SOTM Blog Hop. Stay safe, and Happy Halloween!

Adorable Team Meeting Cards!

This weekend I was a lucky gal who's hubby took the three kiddos (5, 3, and 2) while I got to spend the whole day Saturday stamping with my upline Ginni and a whole gob of super fun CTMH consultants (and even out to dinner with some of the amazing ladies from my team)!

Here's a couple of the many adorable projects the talented Ginni designed for us to make on Saturday. The new Milk Carton looks so sweet stamped up in the new My Peeps stamp set - I cannot wait to make some glittery peep inspired cards at Easter! We made a cute little CS holder that can tote a two pack of these cartons too. Check out that binder clip at the top - yet another new catty sneak peek!

I think my favorite card that we made is this Coffee Gift Card holder. Now, I am a super huge caffeine addict, and Starbucks was one of the first places each of my children could reliably identify as we were out and about town (hanging my head a bit). So a card that IS a coffee cup with a sliding panel to conceal a coffee gift card  - well, you could say that's just my cuppa tea! I love how she even added a little 1/4" strip detail to the lid we made so that it really looks like a coffee cup lid. The February SOTM sentiment topped off the card perfectly!

There were many more projects too, layouts and cards galore! Thanks to Ginni for hosting us for such a fun day of stamping - can't wait to do it again in April!

December SOTM Blog Hop!

Welcome to our CTMH Stamp of the Month Blog Hop! We will be featuring December's SOTM, which is Mad About You, a Love themed set of 14 stamps! If you have come here from DOREEN'S BLOG, you are on the right path!  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! If you get lost along the way, you’ll find the complete list of participating consultants here.  Here we go!

This month I made this adorable little purse, just the right size to slip in a few chocolates or a gift card and deliver to your favorite girlfriend! I made a coordinating tag too, all using the Art Philosophy Cricut cartridge in conjunction with the December SOTM! I found my color combo from Julie Ebersole's Color Swatch Challenge. I chose Vineyard Berry, Lagoon, 2nd Generation Lagoon, Baby Pink, and Sweet Leaf to match the swatches.

And I knew I wanted to make the purse this week, but I was planning to use the new Rock the Block set...until I saw the Moxie Fab Get Inspired in the Kitchen Challenge. Suddenly my SOTM project gelled in my head and I was stamping my heart(s) out...literally!

I cut a bunch (like 20) of the small 1" hearts on White Daisy CS with my AP cartridge. I know I could have stamped them right onto the Cricut shape for the purse front...I did that on the back. See the difference? Just adding the hearts stamped onto White CS adds so much texture to my little purse! Would I have fussy cut them all to piece it by hand? Probably not...but now I don't have to think about the work, my cricut does it all for me!

Even the purse handle was cut on my Cricut. I loaded a fresh sheet into my Cricut, chose the correct image to cut (adorable double scalloped edge border) and hit the "Fit to Length" button. That lets the machine know that you want the strip to be a specific length (in this case, 7 inches). Then it automatically decides how wide to make the strip proportionally. That strip was actually a smidge wide for my taste, so I then trimmed it in half down the center with my paper trimmer and adhered the two sides separately to my 1/2" Cardstock to create my scalloped handle. Then I folded in the two end scallops on each side of my handle and adhered them to the inside of my Purse Lid with Liquid Glass (then covered up the inside of the Purse Lid with more Lagoon CS).

Finally, I stamped my Cricut flowers using the Big heart stamp in Baby Pink Ink. Each flower was then swiped on the edges and randomly stamped with the big swirl image in Vineyard Berry ink. I used the tip of my paper piercer to curl back the individual petals of the flower swirl, then rolled up the flower and filled it with Liquid Glass. After letting it dry on my table top for a few minutes (I like to rest a big block on top of it to help keep everything in place while it dries) I smooshed the flowers more with the same big block. You're thinking a nice, gentle press with the block, so sweet...but no. I grab the block and give each one a good SMACK and call it good - yea for distressed flowers!

I put the measurements and Cricut cuts for the purse below. Last note: how much do you LOVE those Rhinestone Brads?

Now "Hop" on over to PAIGE'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, this SOTM is only available until the end of December! Contact your CTMH Consultant (or click here) to see how you can get this stamp set for just $5!

Here are the purse dimensions and Cricut Cuts used:
To make the inner "box" of the purse:
1 3/4" x 11" CS, scored at 1/2" along each long side and 3 1/2" from each short end. Fold on the score lines, snip just at the intersections (little 1/2" snips) and fold up, adhering the corners to create the purse frame.

Cricut cuts:
Purse Front/Back
(pg. 47) 4 1/2" White Daisy CS x 2
(pg. 47) 4 3/4" Lagoon CS x 2
Mat, embellish, then adhere to CS Box frame.

Purse Lid:
(pg. 31) 4"  White Daisy CS
(pg. 21) 3 3/4" Lagoon CS (I ran this through the Swiss Dot Cuttlebug embossing folder)
Adhere together, then score a 1" fold in the center to make it into a "U" shape. adhere one side to the back of the purse with strong adhesive. Close with a velcro dot on the front.

Embellishments:
(pg. 26) 1" x 20
(pg. 68) 1 1/2" and 1" <FlurDeLs>
(pg. 62) 1/2" x4

Handle:
(pg. 62)   Fit to Length at 7"