Warm Your Heart Card

I love that it's holiday card making season. Holiday cards are hands down my favorite kind of cards to make. 

I combined a classic green and red color combo with two kinds of gray, pulling the gray tones from the woodgrain background in the card base. I was working off the new sketch from RetroSketches. I stamped the Colonial White Panel with images from Woodland Wishes in Fern, Ruby, and Slate. Then I stamped over the images using the star from the October SOTM  using Whisper ink to fill in the background with swirly goodness. 

I embossed the SOTM sentiment in white onto a Ruby banner, which I threaded through a Thin Cut heart. I topped off my banner with a wooden snowflake accented with some gray enamel gems. I couldn't resist a little hand drawn stitch line around the card base to frame the stamped print.

Ho, Ho, Hope this project warmed your heart!

Spread the Love Blog Hop

Welcome to the Spread the Love Blog Hop, featuring the heart warming Operation Smile stamp set. The current Operation Smile set is called True Love, an utterly adorable set of 9 images. You might be arriving here from NINA'S BLOG. You'll find 17 fabulous projects on this hop!

I started my project with a base of Sorbet cardstock embossed with a heart embossing folder. I sanded the cardstock to bring out the hearts. I added heavily sanded Sapphire cardstock and a panel of burlap I got from the Rustic Home Fundamentals. I wrapped this panel in copper twine before adhering it to my card. I drew inspiration from sketch 148 over at RetroSketches and this week's Color Throwdown Challenge.

I colored the sweet little boy using my Shin Han alcohol markers, and added some shimmer brush to the balloon images. Can you even with his sweet little face and that awesomesauce sentiment?

I kid you not when I say that True Love is one of my absolute favorite stamp sets in this new Idea Book. That sentiment alone is enough reason to add this one to your stash, and with every True Love purchase, you are literally helping to change the life of a child.  Next up on the hop is JEAN'S BLOG. Be sure to hop all the way around and Spread the Love to all our crafty friends!

Gratitude Doily Card

So out of the entire Stamp of the Month set this month, I think this Gratitude sentiment image is my absolute favorite. 

I combined some of the new Enchantment Fundamentals with some Sangria retired paper. I love how the patterns in the new fundamentals can support and extend whats already in my paper stash! I was working off the sweet new RetroSketches sketch.

I topped off the design with slate sequins topped with some rounded clear gems. I love the look of white doilies against bold colors! 

Crafty Card Buffet kicks on on Sunday!

Have a Purrfect Birthday Card

Good morning, Stampin' Peeps! In our house we are down to the last week before school starts. Haircuts have been had, new shoes and sensory socks have been purchased, and this month's Stamp of the Month has finally been opened and used. I never meant for that last one to take so long, as this cat set is so cute, but that's how summer rolls to an end in our house.

Since it's not feeling quite like summer anymore, I grabbed a packet of (retired) Sarita papers to make my first kitty cat card. I started with the new sketch from Retro Sketches. I cut my base out of Pomegranate cardstock, and layered on some patterned paper before adding a doily that I spritzed with Heidi Swapp Color Shine in Mustard. Then I layered on the dot print and popped up the sentiment with foam tape. The sentiment is a combo of stamps from the SOTM and Sweet Birthday.  I glued a strip of yellow organza ribbon down as a base for my thick twine wrap, which I shredded at the ends. 

I've seen so many adorable cards with this cat all dressed up, but I wanted to start simply, so I just colored him using a few Shin Han Markers and a lot of blending pen. I popped on a couple sequins over the eyes, then filled those with my favorite tiny wiggly eyes. Then I tucked him in amid the ribbons, right where a cat would like to be, purrfectly content!

Teacher Thank You Card

I'm heading out to Orlando in a few short hours for the 2016 Close To My Heart convention. In all the bustle of the end of school and getting ready for this trip I forgot to post the cute little cards I did for the boys' teachers on the last day of school. 

It was based on last week's Retro Sketches sketch, but I didn't get it posted before the sketch closed. I sued the Happy Times papers from the May Special, and the Treats of Friendship stamp set.

Be sure to pop over and check out the stamp sets - so, so much is going away next month when CTMH retires some of our Cricut Cartridges and I don't want you to miss out! Plus there is new (!) Clearance and the Friday Flash Sales going on this month. Happy stamping! 

Sending Laughs and Love on Mother's Day

True confession time...I'm almost incapable of mailing anything on time. I'm trying to be a better person about going to the Post Office. Does anyone else here struggle with that particular experience? I make cards all the time, but can't mail them on time to save my life. I'm fabulous at email and texting. I love getting snail mail. Yet I seem to lose all adulting function when I have to mail a package. 

This year I've got my Mother's Day cards done early, thanks to the fab sketch over at Retro Sketches. I used the adorable new stamp set from this month's Happy Times special (plus the two sentiments from a retired camera set, but seriously, do you blame me?). I still had the bit and pieces from my next Scrap Much? layout on my desk (it'll post on Friday), so the paper is Bazzill cardstock and a teensy bit of Simple Stories You & Me.

I stamped the flowers and fussy cut all the shapes, putting them together with thin foam tape. I added red acrylic hearts and some tiny red glitter dots, so the Post Office will super love me this week. Cross your fingers for me that these will arrive (mostly) on time!

Arrrr Pirate Birthday Card

Tonight I'm packing instead of unpacking... for the CTMH Seasonal Expressions launch in Seattle this weekend!  I'm so excited to get to hang with my CTMH peeps, checking out the new goodies, laughing, and learning! It's an afternoon event, so I'll be attending a team meeting in the morning and this is my card for the swap.

I wasn't quite done playing with the watercolors and salt technique. I painted some large pieces of paper first with a lot of water, then blue and green watercolors. You want the paper to be fairly wet. Then I sprinkled on some really big salt flakes I had in my kitchen, which led to bigger splotches in the watercolor as it dried. I really liked the bigger salt flakes. My inspiration sketch came form RetroSketches.

I stamped the pirate from Pirate Birthday, then took him (and all his buddies) along to the park with the boys to enjoy the sunshine while I colored and cut them out. I added the ARRRR! with Block Uppercase, and that's also where I got the "x"s to mark my spots on the card border. The pirate stripe B&T is actually from the super girlie La Vie En Rose papers. Finally I added a bunch of glitter dots and jewels for the pirate booty. ARRRRR!!

You Make Me Smile Card

So, while I got a lot of things done today, unpacking or cleaning anything in my studio was sadly not on the list. Sometimes creativity is just using up what's right in front of you...

I knew I wanted to make something with the adorable RetroSketches sketch this week. Charlotte was still on my desk from yesterday's project, so I decided to just go with it and make a card using only what I could reach on my desk. That included the little gold glitter fundamentals heart stickers luckily!

I added a kraft cardstock Cricut cut heart that I painted with white Wink of Stella. I just love the sweet bubble sentiments in this month's Operation Smile benefit set, Share the Love. Thanks for the inspiration, RetroSketches! Your sketches always make me smile!

Day 361: Sock Monkey Birthday Card

A few weeks ago I saw this adorable Sock Monkey card by Margi Gilbertson in the February SOTM Blog Hop. I really wanted to try making my own sock monkey card, but at that time I had literally just packed everything we owned and driven three rambunctious boy children back to Oregon, so my supplies and crafting time were pretty limited. I would not even dare to say were halfway unpacked, but I am finding enough goodies as I unpack to feel the itch to create again.

I hopped over to Retrosketches, because I always love their cool sketches, and this week was no exception. I double embossed the bamboo cardstock background panel with my heart folder, then layered on a chipboard adhesive border that I colored red with a marker and some black arrow washi tape. I outlined the panel with a black journaling marker because my real stitching materials are still lost in the cardboard abyss. I added a super old FRIENDS rub-on, carefully trimming off the "s", and popped up a heart bubble from Share the Love. I love all the fun older goodies I'm finding as I unpack!

I stamped the monkey image three times without reinking to get a variety of colors. I used a brown Memento ink pad and swiped the stamp down across the pad as I inked it to give the monkey some extra texture. Then I trimmed out the monkeys to piece the sock monkey details onto the darkest monkey. I added the mouth and stitch details with markers, and gave him a happy little banner to hold. I never would've thought to make this balloon monkey into a sock monkey (thanks, Margi!), but he was a whole lotta fun to make!

Day 351: Sending Love Valentine Card

I wanted to make a sweet valentine card tonight using La Vie En Rose, but I couldn't find my paper packet, just the Complements, so I had to get a little creative...

I started with the new sketch from Retro Sketches and some white cardstock. I filled in the spaces using bits of stickers from the La Vie En Rose complements packet. I used the divider pieces between the border strips to create that striped background, and the polka dot border sticker to create the pomegranate dot piece.

I stamped the plane from Lifting Spirits (which is sadly retired), then masked the seat area and added the raccoon from Animal Greetings, the Operation Smile benefit stamp set. My markers are still buried in the cardboard towers yet to be unpacked, so I did a light wash of color with my waterbrush. I did have the essentials in my travel tote, which, of course, includes wiggly eyes! 

Day 345: February SOTM Blog Hop

Welcome to the February SOTM Blog hop! This month we have 40 talented CTMH artists sharing their creations with Balloon Animals, an adorable set of 13 birthday themed images. You may be arriving here from KRISTA'S BLOG - let's hop!

So I had a plan for a super cute layout, but we are in the middle of moving, and still I thought I could finish it when we got to Oregon, and then I fell over an office desk mat pointy side up and tore my hands open, so stamping (and everything) is quite painful, so a quick card became the order of the day! I love how quickly these solid stamps work up! I started with the new sketch from RetroSketches. In all my other February SOTM projects I have fussy cut the balloon animals, because their shapes are simple and it's easy to do. On this card it was nice to see that they are still adorable stamped right on the paper with no fussy cutting required.

I added some of the new washi tapes (arrow and narrow pink), and also some paper and stickers from the Penelope line.
Next up on the hop is HELEN'S BLOG. Be sure to hop all the way around to see everyone's fabulous Balloon Animal Projects! You can only bring these cuties home in the month of February, so contact your consultant or click here to get yours today!

Day 330: You Did It! Card

Early this morning my husband left for Portland and now I am officially the only grownup in charge around these parts until we bring our family back together in February. The house is about 60% packed, there are towers of boxes everywhere, this week has included a lot of late nights trying to fit in all the heavy stuff before John had to go...and it's my birthday today. So I decided that the boys and I needed to get out of the house a bit today and have some fun! 

After our busy day of boy fun, I made dinner and we cuddled to watch Inside Out together. After teeth brushing we started reading A Horse and His Boy, because Daddy reads the Harry Potter books with awesome voices, so Mommy is not allowed to read Harry Potter anymore, thus we read from the Chronicles of Narnia when Dad is unavailable. Finally, at about 9:50 tonight I sat down at my stamp table to whip up a project for today's blog post. In front of me on the table was one of my favs, my Crazy Good stamp set. I decided to make a quick card using the phrases that appealed to my tired mom attitude and it had to made with stuff I didn't have to stand up to reach. Priorities... 

I popped over to peek at the new Sketch from RetroSketches, and combined that with the ColourQ challenge.  I used Lagoon, Pear, and Breeze inks to create my ombre stripes, lining the break with silver foil tape. I stamped the word bubble in Memento Tuxedo Black and used the same ink pads to add color direct to the paper before trimming out the bubble. I couldn't reach my box of Cricut diecuts (yes, I was serious about that), so I added a frame of green glitter triangle enamel shapes. The white space at the top was vast, so I flipped my piercing tool over and added some impromptu polka dots using Lagoon ink. Now I'm off to bed because my sweet kiddos wake up at 5 am when it's not a school day. 

Thanks for stopping by, Stampin' Friends, and a super big THANK YOU and lots of hugs for all the sweet birthday greetings that poured in through text and Facebook today. I'm definitely feeling the love! 

Day 316: Congrats Stamp of Month Card

I've been stewing on this card since I saw the new RetroSketches challenge in my inbox yesterday. I didn't have time to make it up until tonight, but combining the sketch with the ColourQ challenge made this card a breeze! 

First I layered the stripe from La Vie en Rose onto the card base. The second stripe is the backside of the bolder black stripe. Then I added a bit of aqua shimmer trim and used Liquid Glass to secure the last bit of my gold foil Beautiful You overlay card. 

I stamped the smaller rose from the January SOTM in black ink of white paper. I layered strips of the aqua shimmer trim over a 1 1.4 inch strip of the striped paper - can you see the ghosted black stripes through the shimmer trim? Then I layered on the banner sentiments (from Crazy Good) and added some gold sequins for extra sparkle. I love it when a card comes together so quickly!

Day 304: Light in My Life Thank You Card

I find that I'm not quite done with this month's adorable SOTM. That mason jar is just too cute!

I started with the new sketch from RetroSketches. I decided to stamp the base of my card with the LIGHT IN MY LIFE sentiment and added a panel of black cardstock. I loved the Friday Mashup idea of using Black, Silver, and Gold, so I layered on a Beautiful You PML card that is gold foil embossed. I altered the card by adding stripes of Silver foil tape. 

I stamped the jar and the thank you sentiment onto white cardstock, then cut them out together as one piece. I colored the candle with silvery Wink of Stella, and added gold glitter gel to the flame and as a halo around the flame by tapping it out with my fingertip. Then I popped that element up with thin 3-D foam tape. Finally, I added the light strands in White Daisy ink along the bottom of the black cardstock panel and filled them in with the same gold glitter gel.  

Thanks for stopping by today, Stampin' Friends!

Day 290: Merry Everything Santa Holiday Card

Word on the street is that tomorrow will bring another windstorm to my area, so I stayed up late to make sure a power outage won't break my heard won blog post streak. 

The first card I made started with the new sketch from RetroSketches. I stamped the background with the presents from Reindeer Bells. Then I layered on some Cranberry cardstock. 

I stamped and colored the Santa image with my Shin Han Markers. My stamp ink was Memento Rich Brown. Fingers crossed the storm will just pass us by mildly. Stay safe, Stampin' Friends! 

Day 281: Candlelight Garden Thank You Card

Tonight I'm sharing a little sneak peek of the December SOTM called Candlelight Garden. It's such a pretty and versatile set! I was holding this set for the SOTM blog hop on December 1, but in the bustle of last week's power outage adventure I plum forgot to sign up for the hop. 

I started with this week's challenge from Retrosketches. I stamped the jar and the bouquet along the right side of the card, then I fussy cut about 3/4 of an inch of the card edge right off. I masked off the jar and added the string lights using Glacier ink. Then I water colored everything using my water brush and ink from my pads (Glacier, Juniper, Honey, and Pomegranate).

I stamped my sentiment onto a 3/4" cardstock scrap, then cut in a dovetail for a banner. I outlined the sentiment and card front with a journaling pen. Finally I lined the inner edge of the card with some La Vie En Rose paper. I know I'm going to be loving on this set all through the month of December. 

Don't forget to check out CTMH's Cyberweek Sale! From 8 a.m. PST on Monday, November 30 through 3 p.m. PST on Friday December, 4th, a selection of current awesome goodies can be yours at 25% off retail pricing. Get supplies you'll need to make handcrafted gifts and cards for the holidays, including the amazing Cricut Artfully Sent Collection at a fab discount! Let me know if I can help you make a plan to use these specially priced items to give your holiday gift giving a handmade from the heart touch!