Don't Let it Slip By!

 I would like to say a huge thank you to everyone who joined in the Calendar blog hop.  I loved reading all your comments and was thrilled to have so many new followers join me!  I am beginning to think about the prize I will have when I reach 100 followers.  Karel should be announcing the winner of the Designer Calendar cartridge today-good luck!

Now then, time to gift yourself with an end of the year goodie!  Time’s almost up on 2010  and to get this great deal. Spend just $20 or more on my Close to My Heart website, get a free D-sized stamp set worth $22.95 for free! It’s like a surprise gift, you won’t know what you get until you get it, but there are some seriously fab stamps shipping out to customers. Will one of them go to you? It’s the last day of the sale, so Shop Now

2011 Calendar Blog Hop

Happy week between Christmas and New Year 2011 and Welcome to the Calendar Blog Hop!  If you arrived here from Lora at Notes From The Scrapbook Lady, then you are on the right track.  The complete list of participating blogs is below.  Be sure you visit all of them because The Grand Prize Blog Candy is a brand-new Designer’s Calendar Cartridge, donated by Karelj at One By One The Flamingos Are Stealing My Sanity!  In order to be eligible to win, you need to leave a comment on each and every stop on the hop, along with a way for her to contact you.  She will choose a winner by random.org on the 31^st and announce it on her blog, as well as contacting the winner personally.

The month I chose is November.  Thanksgiving holds a special place in my heart for many personal reasons. It has been a pivotal time in our lives many times.  Someday I plan to write a book called Thanksgiving Through Tears.  I truly am thankful for the life God has given me with all of its ups and downs. My layout page is entitled "gratitude" and will hold a photo of my sons. There's so much gratitude in my heart with the sons God entrusted to my husband and me.  All supplies and stamps used are from Close To My Heart. 

The base page is Vineyard Berry cardstock that I stamped with several leaves from the Flourished Blessings stamp set with Chocolate Ink.  You might not see it well in the photo but it just leaves a nice tone on tone pattern to the cardstock.  The patterned papers are from the beautiful collection Olivia.  I cut the leaves out with the Cricut Designers Calendar cartridge also with the Olivia papers.  I embossed the title box and the quote using  stamps from the "A Little Thanks" stamp set and Versamark ink with gold embossing powder.  I rubbed the edges of the box in Versamark and embossing powder as well then heat set it for the finishing touch.  The 2 gold brads are from CTMH as well.  I roughed up the edges of the mat, sentiment box and the leaves with the edges of scissors after wetting the paper a bit.  Then I scrunched up the mat and leaves and straightened them back out to adhere to the page.  The edges of the page are inked with chocolate.


After making several calendars for gifts using the Designers Calendar cartridge, I learned a great use for the Cricut markers.  It saves so much time to draw the outlines of the grid and the lettering using the markers instead of cutting and gluing.  I used Copic E31 Brick marker to fill in the lettering.  Easy Peasy! You can "print" out several calendar pages in a hurry this way.  I stamped the numbers using the Chocolate Font Stamps in chocolate ink.  The leaves are from two different sets-Flourished Blessings and Timeless.  The words are from Timeless as well.  For the variegated look of the leaves, I stamped first in Terracotta ink and stamped the first inking on a scrap paper, I then rolled the edges of the stamp around the chocolate ink pad.  Love the faded fall leaves this way!  Finally I chose to mark the 2 major holidays (Thanksgiving and Veteran's Day) with leaves and a CTMH Mocha Pearl.  


I really enjoyed this project and think it took me more time to type up the instructions than to actually do it!
Now then, you are in for a huge treat because my extremely talented friend Colleen at www.scrappycol.blogspot.com has also created a delightful November layout and calendar page.  In fact, hers is bound to outshine mine by a mile!  Happy hopping and a blessed New Year!

1. January and April: Celeste at Touched by a Butterfly at   http://touchedbyabutterfly.blogspot.com/

2.  January and September:  Jessica at  Overjoyed Scrapper  www.overjoyedscrapper.blogspot.com

 3. February: Christel at Scrappin' Sista  http://onescrappinsista.blogspot.com
 4. February and March: Karelj at One By One The Flamingos Are Stealing My Sanity   http://karelj.blogspot.com
 5. March and July: Diane at Crafting This Moment  http://www.craftingthismoment.blogspot.com/
 6. April: Bonnie at A Scrap Above  http://ascrapabove.blogspot.com
 7. May: Michelle at Peanut Butter and Jelly Designs  http://peanutbutterandjellydesigns.blogspot.com/
 8.   May:  Natalie at Timeless Legacy Designs  http://timelesslegacydesigns.blogspot.com
 9. June: Lisa at Lisa's Paper Butterflies  http://lisaspaperbutterflies.blogspot.com
 10. June: Jamie at Glitter, Paper, Stamps, Oh My!    http://jamieisacraftymomma.blogspot.com/
 11.  July: Summer and Jennifer at Cricut Diaries  http://cricutdiaries.blogspot.com
 12. August: Denise at Starlight Scrapper  http://starlightscrapper.blogspot.com
 13. August: Gina at Gina Thornton Stamping  http://ginathorntonstamping.blogspot.com/
 14. September: Deb at If It's Groovy http://ifitsgroovy.blogspot.com
 15. October: Rebecca at Creations with Becka  www.creationswithbecka.blogspot.com
 16 . October: Lora at Notes From The Scrapbook Lady   http://scrpbooklady.blogspot.com/
 17. November: Belinda at Queen Bee's Musings  www.queenbeesmusings.blogspot.com **YOU ARE HERE**
 18. November and December : Col at Col's Creative Corner at www.scrappycol.blogspot.com
19. December: Deb at Tidbit's Place  http://tidbitsplace.blogspot.com

I will be participating in a Calendar Blog Hop for December 28, 29 and 30, the week between Christmas and New Years. The premise is simple: Every blogger has designed a colorful, 12 inch by 12 inch, two page layout for a 2011 calendar. The first page will be a cute layout, which will include the month and some mats for pictures and some adorable embellies. The second page will be the days and weeks, with sweet embellishments for special days. Each blogger will post her (his?) creation for the hop---along with the detailed how-tos of making it. Every person who hops will then have all the instructions for making the entire year's calendar just as they need it! And, since we all like different styles and themes, there are two blogs featurning each month so you can choose your favorite for every month!


We'll be giving the Cricut Cartridge Designer's Calendar as the main blog candy. Hope you'll join us for some New Year's Joy!

Valentine Sneak Peek

So I should really be working on more Christmas gifts but I got my new January CTMH products in and just had to play!  This card has been in my head since I saw the "A Sip" stamp set earlier this year .  I've seen loads of Christmas cards made with it but I thought it really fit Valentine better.  When a coming product and stamp set that you will see in January arrived, I paired them up with "A Sip" and voila!  The cardstock is Vineyard Berry and Colonial White.  Ink is Vineyard Berry and Versamark for the silver embossing.  The Mocha Pearls topped the whole thing off.  Now, back to Christmas projects!

A Gift Challenge

The challenge at www.heart2heartchallenges.blogspot.com this week is to make a gift.  Since my DIL asked me to make a name photo album for her friend, it worked out great.
Here are some of the inner pages.  Because I had to make this in a hurry and get it mailed, I did not do any stamping.  It was easier not to have to pick my stamps:-)  I used papers and stickers from the CTMH Grace paper packs as well as a few others I had left from past projects.I bound it together with my Bind It All.  I used Tim Holtz tissue tape on the binding to reinforce it.  I really like how the "e" and "a" turned out.  I used cocoa cardstock and ran through the Xyron.  I then sprinkled CTMH gold embossing powder on and melted with the heat gun.  Then I used the sanding block to scruff it up. 

Elegant Angel Card

I wish I could have taken a better photo of this card but it just wasn't working out tonight!  I think I have made over 100 cards this season and have failed to take photos of most of them because of my haste.  However, I loved this one so much that I had to stop and photograph it.  This is for my very elegant Aunt Gennie.  She loves victorian things and this fits the bill.  I started with a turquoise card base from my stash and then added a layer of the gorgeous Magnifique paper from CTMH.  The torn music is actually torn out of a Messiah score that I've had since college days that's been in the closet for 25 years.  I was hesitant at first but figured Handel would forgive me!

The angel is cut from a little book of images that I had on hand.  The ornament (from All The Best stamp set-CTMH) was stamped in Versamark ink and embossed with gold embossing powder from CTMH.  The flower was brown and I just gussied it up by pressing into Versamark and embossing with the gold powder as well.  I added more glitz with a few gold rhinestones.  I need to pop her in the mail before I keep her!

Christmas Canvas

Let the Christmas crafting begin!  Truth be told, I have actually been creating Christmas gifts, cards, etc for months.  However, some items required appropriate holiday photos.  When www.heart2heartchallenges.blogspot.com announced a sketch challenge this week all the pieces of this gift came together.  This photo of me and my 3 sons (loved that show!) was taken on Thanksgiving and I knew my mom would love to have one.  What else does an 83 yo need? She loves photos of all her kids, grands, greats and great-greats.  So, when I saw the sketch challenge, I pulled out a canvas I'd had for a while and my CTMH Mistletoe papers and it all came together.  Now I need to make another for my MIL! 

Close To My Heart Supplies:  Mistletoe paper pack, cranberry and New England Ivy inks, Versamark ink, gold embossing powder, Everlasting Life and All the Best stamp sets, Mocha Pearls.  Other Supplies:  modge podge, canvas, ribbon and tiny bow from Michaels.  Thanks for stopping by!

Thankful-H2H Challenge

 I really hope I didn't miss the deadline for this week's challenge at www.heart2heartchallenges.blogspot.com!  I almost just skipped it for the week after all the revelry of the season!  But, my designs have been chosen as a winner in the Friday Five over there for the last 2 weeks and I didn't want to miss a possible streak:-)

So, I pulled out my Close To My Heart products:  Olivia Paper Pack along with the pretty and sparkly Shimmer Brads, Chocolate ink, Flourished Blessings stamp set, A Little Thanks stamp set (available til Tuesday!), Versamark ink pad and Gold Embossing Powder.  Because all of the paper in the pack coordinates I was able  to create this in under 45 minutes-I kid you not! 

I scissor distressed the edges of the quote to give it personality.  Spritzed a little water on the back photo mat and leaves (cut with the Cricut Designer Calendar cart), wadded them up, spread them out, rubbed ink on them.FUN!  For the title , I ran the edges of the "box" in Versamark and embossing powder, then heat set.

Hope you likey-it's also a sneak peak of the calendar page blog hop(my month is November) I will be joining the week between Christmas and New Years.  Thanks H2H for helping me have half the project done.  Stay tuned for after Christmas for the "calendar" portion of this page.

Pretty, Pretty Princess H2H Challenge

This week at H2H the challenge is to create a girly girl item.  Since one of my Scrap Diva friends is expecting a little girl in Dec., I thought of her (all boys in my house!).  I will use this as a gift topper for her and she can use it as an ornament. 

The recipe is quite simple: 
Ingredients
1.  CTMH Dimensional Elements Ornament


2.  CTMH Cherry O Opaques
3.  Versamark ink and CTMH silver embossing powder
4.  CTMH organdy ribbon
5.  Micro beads, pearl pins and silver pearls from my stash
6.  CTMH Liquid Glass
7.  CTMH White Daisy cardstock and Jingle pink paper
8.  Hollyhock ink
9.  Small CTMH Chocolate number stamps

Directions:  Press decorative top of ornament and just the "cap" portion of the bottom of the ornament  into Versamark pad.  Sprinkle embossing powder over and shake off excess.  Heat with heat gun till melted and shiny.  Immediately sprinkle more powder over melted powder and heat again.  Repeat until happy with the look.  Adhere decorative top of ornament to the round bottom.  Cut stem off Cherry O Opaque flower and adhere to center of ornament.   Cut stem off Cherry O small flower Opaque and pull out center pearl.  Adhere to ornament top and poke hole in center. Put drops of Liquid Glass in the outer decorative holes and center of ornament.  Sprinkle micro beads over all and press in to adhere then shake off excess.  Decorate outer edges with pearls as desired. Attach ribbon and pins.  Create year tag with inks, paper and stamps.  Fit for a Princess Baby!

Christmas Lip Balm

These are fabulous teacher gifts or just because gifts.  I cut various Christmas shapes with my Cricut and then used my Cuttlebug to emboss.  Sanded the wonderul CTMH cardstock to show the wintry white core.  Stamped various Christmas sentiments on a tag.  Punched two holes in the cards for ribbon and used a glue dot to put a lip balm between the holes.  Threaded ribbon and tag, tied the bow and all done!  If you would like to purchase instead of make, I have several left from the craft shows.  They are $2 + actual shipping.  Let me know!

Ornaments

I really had fun making these ornaments and thought they turned out beautifully.  I even decorated "take out" boxes to put them in.  I priced them under $5 and only sold a couple.  Can't figure that out.  Oh well, now I have Christmas presents all ready to give:-)  If you've never made these before they are super easy.  Buy clear glass balls.  Remove the tops and squirt in a bit of Pledge Future Floor Polish (yes, you read that right!).  Hold paper towel over opening and Swish around to cover the inside of the ball.  Pour excess out.  Sprinkle in some super fine glitter ( I like Martha Stewart's)  and cover the top with the paper towel again.  Shake till inside is coated with glitter.  Pour out excess glitter.  Put top back on and tie on a pretty ribbon.  I also added crystal "stickers" from the $1 bin at Michaels or single crystals/pearls.   The ones that are not glittered are made by dabbing on various colors of alcohol inks from Ranger Ink.

Turkey Stix

Hello all!  Thank you to everyone who joined in on the Veteran's Day Blog Hop on Thursday.  It was great to "meet" some new followers and "see" some old friends. I think I added 20 followers and I'm so thankful!  I am up to 52 and would like to hit 100 by New Year's.  Why?  It's just nice to know there are kindred crafters out in the wide world who take a look at what I am posting.  On that same note-I LOVE your comments!  Thank you to all those who took the time to do so-I felt warm all day Thursday from the kind words.

Now, what have I been up to?  Craft shows and making all the stuff to sell there.  I am one of those old fashioned gals who still believe a "craft" show should have handmade CRAFTS (or at least Cricutmade-hee hee).  Really, it saddens me to watch folks buy "made in China" cra_ at a Craft show.  Now stepping down off my soapbox.

My best sellers by far were these little M & M stixs. I did not come up with the idea but found it on the consultant's message board for CTMH.

 I welded 2 turkeys from the Cricut cartridge "Designer's Calendar" together and cut in CTMH chocolate Cardstock.  For most of them I then cut a single turkey out of Thanksgiving patterned paper I had left over from last year.  A few I just left plain and sanded the cardstock to show the detail.  I typed out the cute sentiment on my computer and just printed and trimmed.  The most time consuming part was stacking the M&Ms(and keeping them away from the hubby)!  I used 1x8 bags from www.clearbags.com.  Once you have the first one manipulated in the bag it gets easier to stack them.  I used a blunt wooden skewer to open the bag and slide them down and poke into place.  Then I folded over and sealed the bag, leaving a little space at the top to staple the turkey to.  I also made some Christmas ones (which I did NOT get a good pic of).  Again, I pretty much sold all 100 that I made.  Now I'll need to make more for family and friends!

Veteran's Day Blog Hop-Trifold Album

I'm so thankful for our veterans and our current service men and women!  My Dad served in WWII as a young man.  In fact, like so many  others, he left high school before graduation to serve. He talked many times over the years about lacking just a few credits to graduate but he and my mom married soon after he came home from the war and then started a family.  He never completed those credits to get his diploma but he worked hard and provided for his 5 children and raised us well.

When the state of Texas decided to allow schools to award diplomas to WWII vets who had left school to serve, I jumped right in and made sure Dad received his diploma.  The small town of Spur even invited us down to award it to Dad on one of their high school awards night.  Dad was so proud and we were all beaming with pride as well.  This photo is of him and my son who graduated that year.  Grandson and Grandpa both have the same graduation year of 2005!

Now, on to my project.  This Tri-fold album was so much fun to make!

I used the  "July Word Puzzle" stamp set from Close To My Heart.  I also used a couple of stamps from "Celebrate Life". The papers are from the CTMH  collections of Cherry O and Sweet Home.  Stamp inks are Indian Corn Blue and Tulip.  The colonial white flowers and title chipboards are CTMH but other embellies are from my stash.  If you'd like to make your own, you can find directions on-line at various sites, just search "tri-fold album" or "tri-fold card".  God Bless our Veterans!!!!

Stay Tuned for Veteran's Day Blog Hop

Stay tuned for The Land Of The Free Because Of The Brave Veteran's Day Blog Hop!  It's starting in just a few hours!  Wonderful stories, projects and blog candy are more than enough reasons to support our troops and honor our Veterans on this 20 blog hop!!Start here:  http://karelj.blogspot.com/ and then hop your way to my blog!

Shaped Card for H2H

This sweet little card is for the shaped card challenge at www.heart2heartchallenges.blogspot.com.  I have been in "assembly line" mode making things for craft shows so I had a blast breaking away from that and really getting creative.  I used the skate cut from the Cricut Christmas cartridge.  I welded 2 of them together on my (New!) Gypsy to  create a card and then cut out the shape from CTMH White Daisy cardstock.  I then used a silver Galaxy marker to color in the "blade".  The stamps I used were from Close To My Heart: Snow Flurries and All the Best.  I used Heavenly and Moonstruck inks.  The blue pearls were in my stash.  I know a sweet little skater that I will be sending this to for Christmas.  Have a fabulous week!

My Favorite CTMH Product

Close To My Heart posted this on Facebook today:

Write a blog post on your personal or business blog about your favorite Close To My Heart product, post a link here [http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#!/CloseToMyHeart], and you could win $50 US in Close To My Heart product! Winners will be picked at random and announced Friday, November 12th.

Are you a friend of Close To My Heart on Facebook? If not, then you should be!

I'm not sure I can choose just one favorite product but I will try so I have a chance at the $50!  I absolutely love our acrylic stamps-the designs, the ease of use, the crisp images.  Our inks are vibrant and fun to work with.  I just ordered my first album from CTMH and was extremely impressed with the quality and look of them.

But, I would have to say my absolute favorite product would have to be our papers.  They are true 12 x 12 size for us serious scrapbookers, they cut beautifully in my Cricut, they have so many designs and colors to choose from but most of all-they coordinate beautifully!!  No longer do I stand in front of racks of paper and try to figure out what I want to buy or what will go with my project.  All I have to do is choose a design packet and know that everything in that collection will be perfect together. Storage of paper is so much easier now that I don't have tons of single sheets that don't match anything.  CTMH paper collections come in their own storage bag and that's exactly how I keep them.  Thanks CTMH!

I  received an order for a "Texas style" glass block using stars, this week.  Here's my first attempt.

A Color Challenge

I've been a busy bee creating goodies to sell at craft shows this month.  I decided if I was going to have time to participate in the color challenge at www.heart2heartchallenges.blogspot.com I would just have to make it along with the items I'm doing in quantity to sell.  So was born this post-it holder!  I think I've made a 100 of these handy items, made from 5x7 acrylic frames, so it was fun to challenge myself to use colors I normally wouldn't.  The challenge colors were Indian Corn Blue, Brown Bag and Sunset.  Naturally I turned to the beautiful Olivia collection of papers from Close To My Heart as the background of my creation.  I was so lucky to find this fall colored post-it pad to coordinate.  I used Sunset ink to stamp the flower from The Present stamp set onto the notes.  I used Indian Corn Blue to stamp the sentiment from the same stamp set.  The edges of the sentiment card are sponged in Brown Bag ink.  I tied some CTMH Colonial White Waxy Flax (love this stuff! now I need to order more) around the frame and embellished with a flower from Recollections that I found in the after Halloween sale at Michaels. It needed a bit of sparkle so I added some orange gemstones.  All done in a jiffy!

Coming Soon! Veterans' Day Blog Hop!

The Land Of The Free Because Of The Brave Blog Hop

November 11, 2010 - all 24 hours of it!

20 amazing bloggers!

Patriotic RED, White and BLUE projects!

Interviews and comments from Veterans,

Active Military personnel and Military Friends and Family

Got Kleenex?  Better go buy some before Thursday!

We hope you will check out links to sites like Operation Write Home and Operation Care and Comfort. You may find a new way to help support our active and retired military.

A Blog Hop wouldn't be any fun without Blog candy!

Marlo Letterle, the developer of the marvelous Scrap'NTote, will be sending a tote to the Grand Prize Winner!

Check out her great Cricut Storage Solution.

You can find a great interview with Marlo at http://www.examiner.com/arts-crafts-in-national/scrap-n-tote-interview-with-marlo-letterle

Anne-Therese Cermola Luper, who owns Paper Patch Crafts, a terrific on-line store, is donating
a *super-secret* Grand Prize too!

Make sure you check in and see what you can win! There will be prizes and tutorials from the participating blogs.  Rumor has it there's at least one Cricut Cartridge that will go to one lucky Blog Hopper! Maybe even more!!!!

I hope you will join us in celebrating the men, women, and their families and friends who help to make and keep our great Country The Land Of The Free! It is only because they are The Brave!
See You Thursday! 

To My Hubby

I heard this for the first time today and it is now my song for my sweet husband who has danced with me in many a minefield in our 27 years of marriage!

Manly Card-Embossing Techniques

 I needed a manly card for a swap and for my DH's birthday.  Then the gals at www.heart2heartchallenges.blogspot.com issued a challenge for embossing.  So I created a card to knock all 3 out of the park (sorry, lots of baseball talk around these parts-GO RANGERS!).


"Dry/Ink" embossing: I started with a card base made from CTMH Cocoa cardstock.  I used an emery board on the edges to distress.  The next layer is a fun technique I saw Tim Holtz use this summer.  I took his woodgrain embossing folder and rubbed chocolate ink directly on the inside of the folder and then used my Cuttlebug to emboss  CTMH brown bag cardstock.  I love how it embeds the ink into the recessed areas to bring out the grain.  I then sanded the cardstock a bit and used brown bag ink to rub over the raised edges.

Emboss resist: I used Versamark ink with a stamp from the CTMH set "Live Inspired" to stamp the bird image.  Before it dried, I sprinkled clear embossing powder over it and shook the excess off.  Using my heat gun, I melted the powder.  Then I took brown bag ink and sponged over the image and cardstock (CTMH Colonial White).  I sponged more with Chocolate ink. I rubbed the excess ink off the embossed image. I tore around the embossed image and inked area and then inked the torn edges.

Gold Embossing:  I stamped the sentiment on the tag with Versamark as well but used gold embossing powder on it.  I also sponged around it with the same colors as above.

The finishing touches were a little brown waxy flax around the tag, topped with a filigree charm.  The memo pin is from Tim Holtz tied with a little bit of Colonial White waxy flax.

Thank you for stopping by.  Leave me some love with your comments!

Punkin' Glass Block

I love making these glass block lights.  The self adhesive vinyl that I get from www.expressionsvinyl.com makes it so easy.  I used black, orange, dark green and brown vinyls.  The pumpkin was cut using Stretch Your Imagination Cricut cartridge and the spiders are from Doodlecharms cartridge.  I added a little sparkle with clear rhinestones for the spiders' eyes.  BOO!

His & Hers Homecoming Mums

We do homecoming  bigger in Texas.  It wasn't enough to only bedeck our girls with mums and ribbons and doodads.  Nowadays the girls make a "garter" mum for the boys.  This is the 4th mum I've made over the years and I will probably have to make 2 next year when son #3 will be old enough to date.  Fun times!  And, no, this mum wasn't big enough to need to wear around her neck like some others I've seen but she was marching in the parade and this just was easier to wear that way.

Leaves & Lip Balm

The challenge this week at www.heart2heartchallenges.blogspot.com this week is leaves and trees.  It sparked a great idea on how to present these fall lip balms to friends, family or teachers.  I cut the leaf shape from the Doodlecharms Cricut cartridge using Close To My Heart cardstock in various shades of brown and then embossed them all in different folders with my Cuttlebug.  An emery board helped me reveal the white core of the cardstock.  I swiped various shades of CTMH ink over the leaves-brown bag, cocoa, goldrush.  To attach the lip balm tubes, I punched 2 holes in the center of the leaves, put a glue dot on the back of the tube for extra hold and tied a ribbon through the holes.  The tags are just scraps of cardstock that are stamped with various sentiments and leaves from the following CTMH sets: Flourished Blessings, Timeless and our current Petite Perk stamps.  Easy Peasy Lemon Squeezy!

Stamping & Embossing Christmas

Over on www.fabulouslyartsy.com, the question for the day is "what have you been stamping?".  For me the answer is anything for Christmas!  One of my favorite projects I've done so far is this little card/tag holder.  I'll try to post instructions and photos of my cards this weekend.  I stamped the cute little trees using the very affordable Close To My Heart stamp set called A Timber (7.95!) and the ornament with All The Best set.  The papers are all from CTMH's Mistletoe collection.  To get the shimmery gold look, I first stamped with Versamark and then embossed with gold embossing powder.  Hope you like!

Tissue Tape Tree

I just had to have this music tissue tape from Tim Holtz but then had tons left over after completing my page and didn't know how to use it up.  I knew exactly what to do with it when I received my latest issue of Paper Crafts and saw a Christmas Tree Card made using painted masking tape.  I love how it turned out and am now planning to make several for quick Christmas cards.  The papers I used are nameless because they have been in my scrap drawer for some time just waiting to be used!  The card itself is made out of CTMH New England Ivy cardstock.  The twill tape is also from CTMH as well as the stamped sentiment which is from the Holiday Trinkets stamp set.  The angel, brads and star buttons were in my stash of goodies.  Let me know what you think!

Fall Banner

Banners are all the rage right now in scrapbooking and card making.  I jumped on the bandwagon wholeheartedly and have created a few for decorations.   I have a fence attached to my dining room wall with birdhouses above it and I change out the foliage on it every season.  This is my Fall banner for the fence.  I used premade canvas triangles and then cut the letters from chipboard and paper using the Cricut Cindy Loo cartridge.  I attached other embellishments that have been hanging around my studio and just seemed to be waiting for this project.  The paper I used is from Close To My Heart and is called Grace.  It's absolutely one of my faves for fall projects.

It's a birthday challenge!

This is my entry for this week's birthday challenge at www.heart2heartchallenges.blogspot.com.  The following products used are from my fave, of course-Close To My Heart. You can order anytime of day or night on my website http://belindak.myctmh.com.  Paper: chocolate and Sweet Leaf cardstock, patterned paper from Cherry O collection Flowers:chocolate and Colonial white with Hollyhock brads Stamp: this is no longer available and I can't remember the name! Ink: chocolate and black Staz On and Glitz Glitter Gel on the cake, flowers and dots.   



I used the Bloom Cricut cartridge to cut the leaf and 2 oval shapes (they were skewed a bit from the original with the help of Design Studio).  I used my Cuttlebug to emboss the zig zag line and the green oval.  I used black Staz On ink to stamp the cake and then colored in with my Copic markers.  Now to check my calendar for a lucky birthday girl!

Lighthouse Glass Block

I love making glass block lights.  This is my newest one using the Life's a Beach and Plantin Schoolbook cartridges from Cricut.  The vinyl is cut and adhered to vellum and then I adhered to the glass block.  I used black rhinestones to accent and a gold one for the light.  The red ribbon is a fun scrunchy one I found in the clearance aisle at HL.

Purpose Card

Our oldest son received his ministers credentials in September.  We are so proud of him and he is loving his ministry as a youth pastor.  I made this card to give him to recognize his accomplishment.  I decided it also would qualify for the latest challenge at www.heart2heartchallenges.blogspot.com.  The challenge was to use A-alphabet stamps or stickers, B-make it for a boy, C-use chocolate somewhere.  I went a little crazy with the gold embossing but since it was "from the heart" and not from a well thought out design, I am happy with it.

The stamps I used are from a set that is no longer available but one I have used over and over-"Felicity".  The cross was cut with my Cricut.  Thanks for stopping by!

70th Birthday

This is my entry for this week's challenge at www.heart2heartchallenges.blogspot.com.  

My FIL celebrates 70 years of life this week!  I created this card for him using the following Close To My Heart products:
Clear Card, Journey Paper Pack  & Stickease (tag), Celebrate Life Stamp Set, True Friends Stamp Set, Brown Bag Ink, Cranberry Ink, Chocolate Ribbon, Mini Medley brads, Liquid Glass for adhesive. 

I used the Cricut Cindy Loo cartridge to cut the numbers (welded with Design Studio) and the A Child's Year cartridge for the scalloped squares.  Thanks for looking!

ATC Swap and H2H challenge

I am in an ATC (artist's trading card) swap with the theme of Home Sweet Home.  I am in 3 groups and so made 3 different designs.  I also felt they qualified for the Heart 2 Heart challenge of making a sentiment a focal point.  You can see the great entries at www.heart2heartchallenges.blogspot.com. 

The first card used Close To My Heart cardstock that I used a Tim Holtz Cuttlebug folder to emboss in "bricks".  I sanded it to bring out the texture.  I combined the word and the house in my Cricut Design Studio and cut with my Cricut with White Daisy CTMH cardstock.  I then sponged Topiary and Moonlight inks over the cut out.  It's finished off with a heart crystal.

The center one is my fave.  I grew up in church so it has always felt like home to me.  I again started with CTMH cardstock in Holiday red.  I embossed a line around all four edges and used a nail file to bring out the white lines and distressing.  To mimic stitching, I ran the cards through my mini sewing machine (NO thread) to punch the holes on the white lines.  Enlarge the photo to see the detail.  I used CTMH Cranberry ink to stamp the flourishes from the CTMH Timeless stamp set.  The church was cut with my Cricut and then pressed into a Versamark ink pad and embossed with iridescent embossing powder.  The heart was cut with the Cricut as well and adhered to the church and covered in CTMH Liquid Glass.  The sentiment is from the CTMH Treasures of the Heart stamp set-stamped in our Colonial White pigment ink and embossed with clear emb. powder.

Finally, the 3rd card also is from CTMH cardstock sponged with a little Moonlight ink.The sentiment is actually 2 different stamps from 2 different sets.  I cut the "treasure" off a phrase in the A Tweet set and used "family" from the July Word Puzzle set.  The bird ( I know, I use it ALL the time) was cut with my Cuttlebug and a Tim Holtz die.  I sponged it in Crystal Blue, Heavenly Blue and Moonstruck CTMH inks. The nest was stamped in Brown Bag and embossed with clear embossing powder.  The stamp is from a CTMH stamp set but not sure of the name.  I colored the eggs with a Copic marker and covered in Liquid Glass.  The branches and flowers were stamped using the A Tweet stamp set.  Flowers-Hydrangea, branch in Brown Bag and leaves colored in with Copic marker.  I used a pop dot to adhere the wing and the nest to give it a little depth.

Thanks for looking!  Let me know which is your favorite!

Back Home

Hey everyone-I'm behind on projects and postings because I ended up in the hospital for 6 days starting
Labor Day with an infected cyst which caused my MS to flare.  Not fun but God sustained me throughout and everyone's prayers helped me get better in half the time the doctors were predicting!  In fact, a couple of my nurses and 2 of my doctors are Christians and they were praying for me as well.  God knew just where to place me.  Now it's behind me and I am so very ready to create something.  Give me a few days and I'll try to get something posted!

Splendid Technique!

I enjoyed watching Tresa Black and other talented CTMH consultants yesterday on a live broadcast on UStream of Creative University.  I especially loved learning this technique from Tresa called "Joseph's Coat".  I had to try it before going to bed last night and I know I will be using it a bunch!  You can see the instructions for this and other fun techniques at  http://www.ustream.tv/channel/fabulously-artsy. 

For this little bit of fall card, I used CTMH paper pack "Olivia" and the stamp sets "Something Splendid" (available 2 more days) and "Timeless".  Inks used are chocolate, creme brulee, sorbet and goldrush.    The sparkly brad is one of our new products being released on Wednesday.  Thanks for looking!

H2H stitching

This week's challenge at www.heart2heartchallenges.blogspot.com is to make something using stitching-faux or real.  I am in the middle of creating prototypes for my Christmas workshop and so I made one of the tags to fit the challenge. 

I used Close To My Heart's wonderful cardstock in Ponderosa Pine to cut the tag.  I trimmed it with a bit of paper from the fabulous, soon to be released  CTMH Mistletoe pack, the berries were enhanced with a bit of red stickles.  For the curly stitch and the straight stitches, I used CTMH stamps from the "Togetherness" set and Martha Stewart gold pigment ink, embossed with gold embossing powder.  The beautiful ornament comes from the soon to be released CTMH "All The Best" stamp set.  I again used the same gold ink and powder on CTMH Holiday Red cardstock. I crowned it with a red rhinestone from  my stash.  The sentiment is from the same set and I stamped it with Versamark and used red embossing powder-"All The Best" actually shows up better in person.

The final touch was to press the piece of colonial white ribbon in gold ink and tie a knot!  All the Christmas CTMH papers and stamps will be available to customers starting Sept. 1st and can be purchased on my website: http://belindak.myctmh.com