Auction Poinsettia Frame

Hi, Stampin' Friends! Quick peek at the second project for Ben's preschool auction this weekend...a way easier than it looks Paper crafty frame class. Oh, how I love glitter glitz!

The poinsettia flowers are graduated snowflakes cut from Art Philosophy which I worked over with an embossing stylus to shape them and give them dimension. I added extra lift by layering foam tape in between the layers of petals. The carnation flowers are 1 1/4" scallops (also cut on art philosophy). It's one of my favorite quick flowers. You stack up four scalloped circles and attach in the center with any brad. Then scrunch, scrunch, scrunch until it's an adorable little flower.

I'm linking this up to the H2H Photo Inspiration Challenge. I love the colors in the photo with the pear and wine. 

I'm also linking this up to the Paper Issues Holiday Happy Party - make sure you hop over and check out the amazing projects there!

I should have Black Friday Classes ready to post in a day or so. Catch ya later!

Mojo Monday 206

I don't usually like to do 2 posts in one night, but I unexpectedly finished my Mojo Sketch card tonight, and I wanted to get it posted before I got too busy with Gabe's back to school stuff and the Blog Hop for Thursday. The sketch this week is Circle or Square, and since I had a pack of the new Kraft 6x6 square cards, I went with Square!

The Kraft cards come with a pretty scalloped edge, but since I wanted to make something fun to mail off a couple of the Monster bookmarks from my Open House this weekend, pretty scallops would not do! I trimmed off the scalloped edge and pinked it to match the monster bookmark teeth. The papers I chose are from that spooky cute new Mischief packet, and plus a bit of Wings on my bookmarks. I finished it off with the last bit of fence from my awesome new Felt shapes, and a sentiment from the August SOTM Wicked, which is only available until Wednesday!

To make the bookmarks I cut a 5x5 square of B&T paper. I scored it at 2 1/2 each way. Then I turned it diagonally/diamond shaped  to trim off 1/2 of the two side squares crating 2 triangle flaps. Also cut off one of the remaining whole scored squares. You brad on the adorable googly eyes on the only remaining complete scored square, then fold up the other half of that square towards the back of the bookmark to cover up the brads so your bookmark won't snag on your pages. fold over the two triangle wings you made with the original side cuts and adhere those two triangles together to make a little pocket that will slide over the edge of your book pages. Makes it look like the little guy is chomping your pages! On the card I hung them off some squares of B&T so they would be easily removable with no adhesive stickiness for the little recipients.

BOO-YA! Have a wicked night y'all, and check back here Thursday for the September SOTM Blog Hop!

April Workshop: Mother's Day Frame

Hello, stampers! I've been hibernating this month, getting ready for the CK show this week. Are you going to be there? Look for a coupon and more detail in your email tonight! We have a fabulous booth planned, with awesome (and affordable) hands-on projects, adorable page kits, and outstanding products, of course! Hope to see you there - I'll have a gift in my pocket for the forst 25 of my stampers who come visit me at the booth!

I've also been a busy bee working on our workshops for April. Monthly Memories club pages for April are Sophia - so adorable! Those will be up on my website later today. For now I want to share the Mother's Day Frame project we'll be doing at the crop day on April 30th. I just LOVE this project!

We'll be learning to make three different kinds of paper flowers, and tips for pleating that yummy extra wide Stitched Sweet Leaf grosgrain ribbon. You can even change the title to whatever you need for your gift! Best of all the project will be $7 or 2 for $12 - an affordable, beautiful, handmade gift from your heart!

I'm only planning to make 24 kits for this frame project, so RSVP asap to reserve your gifts! I can make them up as a take home kit if the date doesn't work for you too. See ya at the show!!

Mojo Monday 173

Welcome back, stampers! It's Monday, so Mojo sketch time!

I've been a little bit obsessed with the January SOTM this month. It's been a while since a SOTM was this inspiring for me! Today I used a bit of the SOTM (the SOAR sentiment - love that font!) and a bit of the Club workshop stamp set (the INSPIRE sentiment)...then set my stamps aside and played with that new pleated ribbon. Every time I use it I love it more. This time I made a flower with it - sweet!

I grabbed a small scrap of paper just sitting on my table and laid down a base of Monoadhesive to hold my flower in place while I was working. I made a double layer of flower "petals" by wrapping the ribbon around in a circle shape on my adhesive coated paper scrap. Once it was in place to my satisfaction, I secured it under the ribbon with Liquid Glass. Then I filled the center with lots of Grey Opaque stick on Pearls. I trimmed a couple of leaves out of the Wings B&T I was using for the rest of the card, folded them in half for texture, and swiped them with Black to make them pop a bit more.

I used My StickEase photo corners under the main B&T layer on my card for more dimension. I also used a My StickEase border in the center of the card instead of the suggested ribbon. Well, maybe border is a bit of a stretch. I love to use my trimmer to cut out the little 1/8 inch border strips between the actual StickEase borders so I can use them. I ran it down the center of the card three times, then embellished the center strip with the teeny bitty grey Opaques pearls.

Finally, I fussy cut a trio of fluttering butterflies from the Wings B&T to float up the side of the card in place of the suggested buttons. They are popped out on the wings, and detailed with Liquid Glass. Here's the sketch - now go out and stamp!

Wings Club pages

Hi! I haven't gotten pics onto these yet, but I wanted to be sure to post the Wings pages, cards, and the adorable wall banner where club members can find them to plan out your pics for our club in February! The banner is for the I Want It All kit - otherwise, you'll be making 6 cards per CTMHs design instead. I just love this paper - can't wait to get my pics on there!

For details on Monthly Memories club and this kit, check out my website here!

Mojo Monday 172 - Contest!

Time to start keeping my New Year's resolution - a year of Mojo Monday challenges to complete! I set Ben down with some leftover birthday wrapping paper from Max's party on Friday and a pair of safety scissors (his "project") so I could whip out my project for Mojo Monday today. An hour later we are both happy campers - me with a completed card, and him with a huge pile of wrapping paper "snowflakes"!

Today I used the green patterns from my new Wing's kit - I know, everything lately has been Wings, but I couldn't order stuff from the new catalog until January, so this is my new catty fix! I love how this combo of B&T's looks totally different from the ones with the Vineyard Berry in them.

I turned again to my January Stamp of the Month - and finally took my death grip off that beautiful butterfly stamp. The bird is also just adorable - I am loving this set! I stamped her in Juniper Ink onto Sweet Leaf Cardstock, rolled in a hint of black on the edges. Then I cut off her back wing (sorry, birdie!), inked the edges some more direct to paper and re-layered her back together. I trimmed the swirl and leaf embellishments out of the B&T paper I used for the main background - lovely, lovely print!

I embellished my adorable little bird with a lot of teeny drops of Liquid Glass - rhinestones would've covered up the pretty stamped image, but I felt she needed some subtle bling on her edges.  You can really see the Liquid Glass dimension in this angled shot.

Finally, I had a go at making one of those pretty pleated paper medallions that are everywhere right now. It was way easier than it looks! I used B&T Paper 3/4" x 6". I folded it in half, and each half in half, and so on until it was accordion pleated to my liking. I did not do the pre-scoring a lot of the instructions ask for, but I did crease the folds really well. I made three of these, and glued them together end to end to get a long enough strip, then glued the end together to close the circle. I whacked a (mostly) circle from a scrap of cardstock and covered it with Monoadhesive for the base, just to make putting the medallion together easier - like a 3rd hand! I squished my pleated strip down so that the pleats were flat against the CS base - the center is glued on really close together and the outer edges fan out to make the medallion. Then I put some Liquid Glass in the center to hold it together and weighted it down with a couple stamp pads for a few minutes. Voila!

Linking up: Tresa Black is hosting an Inspirations Blog hop - for all the awesome products from the new Inspirations brochure! I just love Tresa's work, so I know you'll enjoy this extra bit of blog hopping as much as I did. If you haven't been out to her blog before, get ready to bookmark a new favorite. Enjoy!

January SOTM Blog Hop!

Welcome to our CTMH Stamp of the Month Blog Hop! We will be featuring January's SOTM called  Find Your Style, a set of 9 gorgeous stamps. I am addicted to this butterfly!

If you have come here from Tamytha's Blog, you are on the right path! If this is your first stop, you may want to go back to Helen's Blog and start from the beginning!

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!

I did a card with this beautiful stamp set for Mojo's sketch earlier this week, but I couldn't resist getting in another card with this beautiful butterfly. I used the butterfly B&T from the Wings papers to add a swirl of smaller fussy-cut butterflies trailing behind the larger stamped butterfly. Many of the wings are popped out with teeny slivers of 3-D foam tape. I stamped the larger butterfly using my baby wipe puddle pad inked with black and Vineyard Berry re-inkers, and stamped it onto B&T paper to bring in extra color. Then I pieced the body from the Black diamond B&T. 

I stamped the front background Colonial White cardstock with the main sentiment verse in Black ink, then repeatedly in 2nd and third generation in lots of directions to echo the feel of the distressing on the stamp set images. I stamped the back Colonial White CS layer with the butterfly image in Black ink all around the edges. I swiped everything with Black ink and assembled the card. Finally I spritzed the entire project with my NEW Spray Pen filled with water and 6 drops of Vineyard Berry re-inker.

Now "Hop" on over to Lisa'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 January SOTM is only available until the last day of January! PLUS you can earn it for FREE along with super discounts on the new sneak peek stamps from the Inspiration Brochure! See the FAQ on my site for details. Be sure to ask your CTMH Consultant (or click here) to see the Inspirations Brochure - you're gonna love it!