Day 86: Atlantic Hearts Sunshine Card

While I was working on those boards I produced quite a few Cricut cuts for items I just couldn't fit onto the boards. With 700 awesome cuts on each CTMH Cricut cartridge, it was hard to choose what to feature and what to leave off.

I had this cute owl leftover when I finished my Artiste Board. I had cut him too big for my board, and also too large for a standard A2 card, so hes on a 5x7 card. Which, if you know me, you know I rarely make a 5x7 card, but he was just too cute to relegate to the odds and ends bin. I paired him with a sunshine I made by embossing a medallion with the chevron embossing folder. I filled the embossed lines with glitter gel, and added a sweet sentiment from a long retired stamp set. 

Normally I'm a big fan of googly eyes on owls, but I just couldn't get them to look right on this guy. I think maybe I needed bigger ones than I normally keep in my stash. I added these black sparkle gems instead. I stamped his wings with Smoothie ink. His feathers are Canary cardstock, Smoothie stripe washi tape, and some black chevron tape I got from this cute Etsy store, SpiegelMom Scraps. 

I used this week's card sketch from Atlantic Hearts Sketch Challenge. The challenge is open now, so hop on over and join the party!

Day 83: Artiste Board

Right now as you are reading this I'm busy with my team of fabulous ladies building the CTMH booth for Heirloom Pro tomorrow. Here's the second of my Cricut boards we are using for signage in the booth.

Artiste has an entirely different flavor than Art Philosophy. While I love the simple shapes of Art Philosophy for scrapping and building my own garden, I love the 3-D images of Artiste. There's so many cool projects I had a lot of trouble choosing what to put on this board.

I had to bring in the cuppie, which I detailed with some freehand embossing, Shin Han Markers, and lots of glitter and gems. I also made a sparkly sunshine out of a flower and a button image. 

I love the different shapes of the rolled flowers on this cartridge. I also love that the 3-D elements are even incorporated into cards on this cartridge. Hello! How cute is that? 

Tomorrow is the first day to visit us over at Heirloom Pro in Puyallup - hope to see you soon!

H2H You've Been Framed!

I'm honored to be helping out as a guest DT member over at Heart 2 Heart in December. The first challenge is called You've Been Framed. So I grabbed a frame from my stash and glitzed it up with some Sparkle and Shine papers, red shimmer tape, and some glittery flowers and snowflakes. I don't actually have my prints yet from our fabulous Apple Blossom Photography shoot, so this is just a printout from my computer until the prints arrive. 

I used the centers from the snowflakes I cut for this project all stacked up to create my flower centers. The swirls are Bamboo CS covered in washi tape BEFORE I cut them on the cricut - so cool! I did a liberal sprinkling of sparkles over my frame and scrappy photo background. And yes, those are some of the sparkly Rudolph noses that I made for the craft fair in our photo. Adorable!

I hope you'll pop over to Heart 2 Heart to play along!

Make It Monday for my friend

OK...maybe it's just me. But when I'm feeling poorly, I sometimes have a hard time getting motivated to do, well, anything. Cleaning, cooking, crafting, even sometimes sleeping become things that sound good in theory, but are not really happening. But a project for someone else...now that'll get me going every time.

Today my friend LaRonda needed a sign board for an upcoming fair. She's an amazing Usborne Books consultant, and my boys love every single book we've ever been lucky enough to buy from her. Helping LaRonda with her project was just the kick I needed to get back into the Stamp Pad and get some major use out of my Art Philosophy and Artiste Cartridges today. We (mostly) whipped this out while Max was napping, and I finished up the flower vase this evening after the boys when to bed. 

Here's a close up of her cute Pick a Date Idea.  I built the vase out of Vellum that I partially inked on the backside with Heavenly Blue ink. I sprayed the front of the vase with Krylon glitter spray. The flowers are embossed with my favorite Swiss Dott cuttlebug folder and inked with Smokey Plum ink. The dates for her upcoming available parties will be in the center of each flower - how cute is that? I so want to make one of these for my upcoming craft fair now!

I'm linking this up to Make It Monday at an Original Belle, because they have awesome ideas and I made this on Monday! 

Don't forget to check out the new Friday Favorite Things - just because my shoulder took me down does not mean I forgot this week's drawing!

Friday Favorite Things!

I'm so pleased to announce that the winner of this week's Friday Favorite Things Alcohol Marker giveaway is Selina! I've already emailed her for her color choice of our 40 fabulous Alcohol Marker colors. Congrats!!

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Today I have a variation of my Pun Fun workshop created for you by one of my fabulous team members, Cathy Lambert. She took my Flirty Pun Fun instructions and created these cards using the sweet new Clementine papers! How stinkin' cute are these? 

You can find more info on the Pun Fun workshop HERE, and on my Consultant Teaching kits HERE. I'll announce the next giveaway this weekend - Happy Friday to all!

P.S. - I've got a fun NEW Mystery Hostess Party open on my website. When you visit, just click on the Mystery Hostess party in the bottom right corner of my front page. Shop for the latest super fun CTMH goodness which will be shipped to you right away, then right before the party closes I'll draw a winner for $25 in FREE Products from our party participants! And everyone who joins the party gets a fun hand-stamped goodie from me in addition to the fab CTMH supplies. 

Join my party today!

Now, back to your Happy Friday, Stamping Peeps!!

Dakota Pages for Scrapbook Club!

Good afternoon, ladies! I meant to post this yesterday for my Monthly Memories Club gals, but was feeling a little under the weather. So no pics got added (sad!) but I'm feeling much better (glad!) and I'm posting as is (phew!) On the first two pages I used the Foil My StickEase to make the faux "bows". I also used a Twilight Alcohol marker to tint the resist pattern on my Houndstooth Irresistibles Alphabet, making my letters Blue and Black! 

I used patterns from the new Make It From Your Heart book for all the pages, which I am so LOVING!!  One of our favorite things to say around my boy-infested home is, "There's no extra charge for awesomeness." Make It From Your Heart sure proves that! So much awesome tucked into one $7.95 book! For this second set of pages I embossed stars in the background (which is black distressed with Black ink, but I pumped up the contrast to bring out the shiny stars). 

Finally, I stamplifted one of the actual samples from the Make It From Your Heart book but twisting it to fit my Dakota papers. The original had rainbow colored banners and  hand stitched clouds - as in every cloud was stitched all the way around the edges. We just went to the State Fair (ONE FAIR DAY, lol) and this year for the first time the boys rode this suspended chair ride that s...l...o...w...l...y... drifts across the fairgrounds. Of course, my train obsessed boys insisted on calling it the air tram. I'm planning an 8x6 Photo Collage of all the random fair pics (including tractors, an actual tiger, and a great big pickle) on the left and the awesome "air tram" pics for the right page. 

My clouds are not stitched...yet...I'm holding back for now! I did stamp them with third generation Slate ink using the swirly flourish in the Dakota Stamp set and added a glitter glitz "silver lining" to each cloud. I felt that the Dakota colors (and the Whisper Grey CS color) were a better fit for our typical Oregon weather. 

Although Gabe did say to me, completely earnestly just a couple of days ago, that something must be wrong with the sky. when we asked him why he explained, " 'Cause there aren't any clouds. The sky is supposed to have clouds!"  So John and I may be transplants, but our boys are Oregonian through and through!

Catch ya back here tomorrow to post the Friday Favorite Things Alcohol Marker Give-away. Good luck, and may your sunny summer skies be full of clouds. Just the way they should be!

Pun Fun Card Workshop!

How much do you LOVE this fab NEW Pun Fun Stamp set!?  When I got this at convention I was  so excited. I just love all the clever punny sayings and adorable little images. It's the perfect set for learning how to use our new alcohol Markers too!  

Pick your style of purse!

Make this fab set of twelve 3x3 cards with a cute Artiste purse to hold them, all pre-cut and ready for you to stamp with the adorable Pun Fun stamp set - which is included in your kit! You'll create 2 of each design so you'll come out a Pro on using our new Alcohol Ink Markers. We'll be learning to shade, remove color, and stamp background blocks, all using these fantastic new markers!

Kit includes one purse and TWELVE cards!

Date: Saturday, September 22th (New To You Sale and Open House from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.)

Location: Wendy's Stamp Pad (or precut To Go kits are available to be shipped right to you!)

Cost: $25 includes your own Pun Fun stamp set!

Included: Pre-cut, ready-to-assemble cards, Pun Fun Stamp set, and fabulous scrappy company!

PLEASE RSVP by September 15 to get your Pun Fun Cards workshop kit! Only 8 spaces available in person!

Workshop and TO GO Kits

(1) Pun Fun Cards Kit $25.00 USD  (2) Pun FunCards Kits $50.00 USD  TO GO Pun Fun Cards Kit (shipped to you) $30.00 USD  (2) TO GO Pun Fun Cards Kits (shipped to you) $60.00 USD

 

Want to teach my workshop? Consultant Instructions Kits are available HERE!

I'm linking this project up to the Heart 2 Heart mini cards challenge.

And don't forget - just one more day to enter this week's Alcohol Marker giveaway!

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You are the heart of my business - thanks for stopping by!  

Alcohol Marker Blending & the next giveaway!

I am off to Bend this weekend, and here's the swap card I did for my upline's fab team meeting. I used yet another completely adorable sketch from Freshly Made Sketches - I love their style! I also chose my colors from the new Play Date Cafe Color Challenge, so for me that's Autumn Terracotta, Honey, and my new favorite neutral, Slate. 

I used my It's Your Day National Stamping Month special set and my shiny new CTMH alcohol markers to add the stripes to my beloved Shimmer Tape. I stamped the tape with the bold strip image using a light pigment ink to mark the stripes, then colored it with my Honey (bottom) and Autumn Terracotta (upper stripes) markers. You can see that the top stripe is darker, and for that I just colored the striped three times instead of once to layer on the additional color. How fun is that?

The main sentiment image is from one of the Cricut Artiste coordinating sets. I inked it in Slate ink, then stamped it onto the Dotty background image from It's Your Day to add the texture before stamping it onto White Daisy CS. Of course, I couldn't resist adding that little giggly [Tee-Hee] to my Hello bubble. [Tee-Hee]

Like my new Infographic? Pin me to win!

I used some tips from this fab You Tube video by Aimee Noel  when shading my butterflies for this project. If you are new to Alcohol Markers, watch the video. I learned that we need to shake the markers before coloring! I added three or so layers of color to each butterfly, using both Autumn Terracotta Markers and the Honey Marker to shade them. Each time I added color I used the lightest color as a blending pen to smooth the color across the image. When I was happy with the shading, I stamped over the top with the scripty corner image from the Scroll WOTG using Sunset Pigment Ink. I used the Autumn terracotta Marker to color in my plain sparkles as well, changing them to a soft coordinating orange glow!

And since I'll be in Bend this weekend, I probably won't be blogging much, so I thought I'd better announce the next Friday Favorite Things giveaway today! I'll be giving away a brand new C1511 Love Blooms Stamp set for one lucky Stamping Friend next Friday. 

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That's it for me, as I've got a 6:30 a.m. carpool to Bend...hope you have a giggling good time this weekend - I know I will! [Tee-Hee]

Celebrate National Stamping Month Blog Hop!

Welcome to our National Stamping Month Blog Hop!  We will be featuring the special DOUBLE sized It's Your Day stamp set. You'll love this double set (2 D-sized stamp sets in one envelope) of totally trendy images that celebrate who you are and your day to day activities!  If you have come here from ELIZABETH'S BLOG, you are on the right path!

This month we have 40+ Close To My Heart Consultants sharing their creations using this special National Stamping Month stamp set 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!

I found this Hot Pink six opening 4x6 frame at Target on the cheap. I knew it would work great with the sheet of Chalkboard paper I won at Convention in Dallas! I trimmed the self adhesive chalkboard paper to into six 4x6 pieces and decorated each piece with the It's Your Day stamps, my new Pigment Ink stacks and Alcohol Markers, and lots of sparkles and silver glitter glitz. I have individual close ups of each section below, plus my Friday Favorite Things giveaway button, so please scroll down if you want to see more. Otherwise you can hop on over to SHERI'S BLOG to see her fabulous project!

Since my frame was Hot Pink (I know the pics came out really red, but it's more of a raspberry hot pink), I went with the new color combo from Play Date Cafe - bright pink, orange, and yellow. I knew they would pop against the black of the chalkboard and the white of the Artiste Cricut letters I cut. Some of the pieces I stamped right onto the Chalkboard paper with pigment inks, and some I stamped onto scrap White Daisy Cardstock and cut out. For my Sparkly WISHES word I covered the letters in Silver Glitter Glitz. I've found that if you do a really thin base coat and let that dry for a few minutes it makes the surface of the letter more rough, which allows a thicker coat of glitz to adhere without shrinking in and leaving bare patches.

Most of the writing on my board so far is with the new Chalk Marker, which is not technically erasable. However...I did find that if you have a stray mark or need to remove the Chalk Ink from the chalkboard paper, the new Alcohol blending pen did a decent job of lifting off the bulk of the chalk ink, and a swab dipped in alcohol helped clean up any stray traces. So I feel comfortable writing some of my probably every day things on this reminder board. I also used the Days of the Week reminder stamps to create my numbered bullet points by inking only the frame of the stamp and not the little weekday name words inside. The little Pigment ink squares are very easy to control!

I stamped the heart images here and covered them with Silver Glitz. Details were added with the Chalk Marker, which doesn't have a fine tip but can write quite tiny if you are careful.

This board will hang next to our calendar, so the FAMILY section will be for special outings and family time, not appointments.

Here's where I got busy with my new Black pigment ink and Alcohol markers. Each tiny butterfly was colored with the new markers, and about half of them were stamped with the washi tape type pattern images in Black before coloring. They literally only had to dry for a minute (no heat setting) and then I was ready to color! I love how you can layer on up to three shades darker with the markers, and the alcohol blender worked well for blending and erasing.

This title was my favorite when it was done. It's the same 3/4" Artiste font, which is just the right size for filling in with the medium Sparkles! I coated the letters with Silver glitz first so the white wouldn't show between the gemstones. Then I carefully applied the gems right on top of the glitz.

I'm linking this to the Get Your Craft On DIY Linky Party as well, because that is where you should go to find many more fabulous altered DIY projects.

Here's a good spot to "Hop" on over to SHERI'S BLOG to continue finding more "It's Your Day" crafty fun! Be sure to visit all the Consultants Blogs to soak in the fab ideas! Remember, this huge double stamp set is just $5 with minimum purchase!  Contact your CTMH Consultant (or click here) to get yours today!

Here are some more projects I have made using this set...

Freshly Made Bike Card

And here's this weeks Friday Favorite Things Giveaway Prize!

 This week's prize is a pre-cut kit to make this beautiful 2 page layout designed by CTMH's art department including the full sized Autumn Lane Accessories assortment! I'll do a better post on the pages later this week. Hope you'll enter to win...and then don't forget to continue hopping on to SHERI'S BLOG to see her fabulous project!

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Thanks for hopping by!

Convention Round Up - Are you in it to win it?

Yee Haw! I figured today on sharing a few of the card projects that we made at Convention in Dallas. OK, I didn't actually make one single, solitary project while we were in Dallas...but that's not CTMH's fault! Actually, my card from yesterday was made with pieces I stole from another pre-cut card CTMH had designed, but I made other plans for the pieces! For these three cards I managed to pretty much follow directions,though I did bling up that center card a bit with my new pardner, Shimmer Trim. 

The first card is a bitty 4x4 card,just right for tucking into a present or gift bag. See that fabulous swoopy edge? This is one of the MANY new cards you can cut off the new CTMH exclusive Artiste cricut cartridge! I added a Flirty Raspberry backing to the little heart cut out and some sparkles to the sentiment (also cut on the Artiste) but otherwise I swear I followed the directions!

I also followed instructions here on this sweet Pun Fun Turtle card (other than some extra Slate distressing...but that doesn't count, does it?) 

Look at that adorable Shimmer Trim ruffle...with the adhesive backing, making ruffles with this new trim is so easy to do!

There was some instructional departure here, when I backed the Flirty Raspberry squares with Shimmer trim instead of just leaving it white. This is MUCH easier to do on a nice simple rectangle than it was on the swoopy frame from earlier this week. I didn't even need to patch it with Silver Glitter Glitz - just line up the strips and you are golden...or silver in this case!

Finally, here is a picture of the Rootin' Tootin' Convention exclusive Stamp set I'm giving away this week. How cute are those boots? Anyhow, if you havent' entered yet, no time like the present!  Please feel free to pass the entry news along to your friends and stampy buddies. If this one goes well, I'm hoping to start doing one every week! Tweet it, FB share it, pas it along - the more the merrier!

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Now to find a good punny name for my weekly giveaway...Thanks for stomping by!