Altered Frame

 I taught a class for a lady's birthday party and this is what we made.  The idea for the mini book in a frame was not my idea but the design is mine.  We had a blast and everyone's frame turned out differently depending on the personality and style of the creator.

All products were purchased at Michaels.

Anniversary Tray

I bought this tray and paper (7Gypsies) awhile back and just left it out until I could decide what to do with it.  I started a couple of times to use it but nothing ever came together until I got these photos back from the printer.  The photos are from my in-laws 50th anniversary trip.  They took the whole family along with them-except me-I had a previous commitment :(  You can click on the photo to see all the yummy vintage touches I added.  The buttons and spools were my grandmother's, probably from the 50's.  Now, I hope that it stays on my shelf after my in-laws come to visit!  I have a special gift for them but she might just want to exchange it for this!

Sonoma Wooden Spool Picture Holder

I'm sorry this photo isn't better but this is such a small project I had some major problems trying to get a good one!  Are you tired of Sonoma papers yet?  I hope not!  They are so gorgeous and versatile.

I had a bunch of wooden spools from my mom and wanted to use them in my crafting.  This is a large thread spool.  It's about 2 1/2" high.  I was able to use small scraps from my Sonoma paper from Close To My Heart.  The sentiment is from the cut off border of one of the sheets of paper.  The butterfly is CTMH as well.  The "picture holder" on top is one of the new Foundry Pins from CTMH.  After punching a circle of paper to cover the top of the spool, I stacked 2 clear buttons in the center and then stuck a Foundry Pin through the holes and into the paper covering the spool hole.  I used Liquid Glass to adhere the buttons and a drop to secure the pin.

Inspiration H2H Challenge

This week at www.heart2heartchallenges.blogspot.com the challenge is to find something to inspire your artwork.  It's probably  not the kind of inspiration they had in mind but,  I found lots of inspiration starting with this white shadowbox frame I found on clearance for $1.20!!! at HL.  However, I didn't think I could get the back off to change what was on the inside.  Then, I was inspired by Antoinette at inspired stamps who actually figured out she could take the back off and made a cute anniversary display with the frame.  So, back to the store to buy several of these frames.

My final inspiration came from the rejection I received from a card magazine for my card submission.  I loved the card and didn't want to put it away so now it is proudly residing in my clearance shadow box!  Thank you to H2H for the challenge and to HL, Antoinette and the not to be mentioned magazine who rejected my card! 

Be sure you check back August 1st for some THRILLING news from Close To My Heart, our new catalog is available that day and it is a DOOZY!

Supplies:
Close To My Heart Sophia stamps
CTMH Miracle and Emporium papers
CTMH card stock
CTMH Buttons
CTMH Inks
Baker's Twine and reproduction stamps

Be sure to check out my previous post for a great give away!

Family Canvas

 

I have been doing my best to "use what I have" and I have a bunch!  So, when www.heart2heartchallenges.blogspot.com announced an ABC Challenge (anything but a card) it gave me the push I needed to use up my canvases I've been "saving". 

This is the one I made for the challenge using my Wings papers from Close To My Heart.  This is one of the most versatile packs of paper we have because of the diversity of patterns and colors.  You may have to click on the top photo to see all the details but I matted the photo of my parents, me and my siblings on 3 different stacked mats from the Wings papers to give it importance.  The banner conveys my feelings of what I feel to have both of my parents and 4 siblings alive and living nearby.  Love them all so much!

I made the flowers using our 2"scalloped circle punch.  I just slit the circles every 3rd scallop to create the petals and then stacked 3 together and pierced with a button brad.  Then I fluffed them until I was happy with the look. This project did not use a lot of supplies but I think it packs a punch with the colors and embellies I chose.

Supply list from Close To My Heart

Wings B & T Paper

Button brads

Pleated Juniper Ribbon

Juniper and Black ink

Sophia Stamps

Circle of Love stamps

Non-CTMH

black lace-Michaels

hat pins-stash

Banner chipboard-Maya Rd

Silver paint-stash

Baker's Twine-Crafty Scrapper

Canvas-Michaels

Magnifique Scrapbook Frame

 

This project started as a kit I purchased from The Crafty Scrapper in Waxahachie (an AMAZING store). The original design was by one of their teachers- Annette Prudhomme.  Once I got it home though, I decided I really didn't like the paper and some of the embellies that came with it so I turned to my stash and decided the Close To My Heart Level 1 Magnifique papers I have been hoarding would be perfect.  I really love how it turned out with my changes and it is a great addition to my dining room.  Since I added buttons, I am submitting this project to the Button challenge at www.heart2heartchallenges.blogspot.com.

I loved her technique for the denim and cream felt flower.  You simply take a 1 1/2 x 12 strip of the fabric.  Fold it in half lengthwise and sew or glue the open edge closed. Once dry, cut the folded side at short intervals and then roll and glue the fabric on itself until you are happy with your flower.  The booklet is just 2 pieces of cardstock cut to fit the opening of the frame, I used waxy flax tied around the center to hold them together and then adhered the back cover to the glass with a tape runner.  For the Peacock, I used a resist technique by stamping it in Versamark and embossing it with white emb. powder.  I then used the 3 shades of ink and sponged it over the cardstock and embossed image.

Close To My Heart products used
Level 1 Magnifique paper
Colonial White and Pacifica Cardstock
Buttons
Circle of Love Stamp Set
Crystal Blue, Heavenly Blue and Pacifica Inks
Prisma Glitter
Liquid Glass
spray pen using pearl paint, water and dutch blue reinker
Colonial White Waxy Flax
White embossing powder and Versamark

Products from kit
denim for flower
felt for flower
organza flowers
velvet flowers
pins
chipboard
stamped wings
frame
hanging beads

From my stash: Brown ribbon and mod podge

Monkey Candy Box

 

I made this for a sweet little 8 yo boy I know who has just had surgery to remove a brain tumor.  Please say a prayer for him and his family.  Things do seem to be looking good at this point. 

I got the idea, to reuse this acetate box, from www.heart2heartchallenges.blogspot.com. They are having a reduce, reuse, recycle challenge this month.  This box began life as packaging for a roll of vinyl.  I wrapped it with 2 strips of CTMH paper from the Sophia and Caboodle collections. I edged the paper with our awesome Kraft Color Ready borders.  They are the most versatile and cost effective items we carry!  The monkey was cut with the Create A Critter cart with my Cricut using CTMH cardstock.  The sentiment stamp is from My Pink Stamper. I wrote his name with a CTMH marker on one of our Canvas buttons.  These can be stamped on as well.  Of course, I had to add some fun googly eyes from my stash!

Hope you'll think twice before you throw away packaging again!  I just keep a bin under a table to throw all my reusable packaging in.

Bird Canvas-Ice Day Project

This is what I spent my "iced in" day doing.  This is day 2 and apparently tomorrow will be the same so I would love to join this bird in flying the coup! 

I started with a plain canvas that I painted with a mixture of CTMH Perfect Pearls paint and Vineyard Berry re-inker.  I then adhered 3 papers from the gorgeous CTMH Wings collection.  I used a 4th pattern from the same collection to die cut the cage (Tim Holtz Sizzix die).  I cut a 2nd cage in Kraft cardstock to adhere to the back of the patterned paper to make it sturdy.  To give it a 3D look, I bent it out in the middle and adhered with CTMH Liquid Glass.  The heart charm is from a broken bracelet-I always save broken jewelry for future projects.  The sentiment is from a pack of vellum quotes I bought on clearance.  I used Vineyard Berry ink and Juniper ink from CTMH to ink the bird-CTMH January Stamp of the Month.  The flowers were made from old sheet music using the spiral flower technique.  I added some brass looking flowers in the center and to the side.  The larger brass flower and leaves are from Tim Holtz, the others are CTMH.  The lace is from Michaels.  I finished it off with stick pins, rhinestones and gold pearls.

Stay warm and leave me some love!

Love

This is a simple 3x6 card that my guests will be making at a Gathering on Saturday.  All supplies are Close To My Heart.   I used the lovely papers from the Wings paper pack as well as the beautiful Bohemian Alphabet stamps.  I used my Cricut to cut out the squares and a decorative trimmer for the edge of the light paper.  To get the two tone lettering, I simply inked the top with Vineyard Berry and the bottom with Black.  With our clear stamps it is almost foolproof to do this. I inked the edges of the squares with Vineyard Berry and a sponge.

Wings Canvas and Candle

I had so much fun creating these 2 items for my bathroom!  I absolutely love the way they turned out.  The candle was not my idea.  I can not remember whose video I  watched to learn how to do this technique-I apologize!  Anyway, the candle is one I picked up cheap on clearance.  I cut the CTMH cardstock from the Cricut cartridge "Cindy Loo".  I then wrapped it around the candle and started on one edge with a heat gun and shot the candle with heat for a few seconds and then pressed the paper in to the softened wax.  I went all the way around until it was secured.  I decorated it further with pearls, ribbon and pearled hat pins.  I finished it off with a butterfly stamped with the "Find Your Style" stamp set from CTMH (only available through the end of the month).  I wrapped the middle of the butterfly with embroidery floss.

The canvas started out white.  I sprayed  on a mixture of Vineyard Berry re-inker, Pearl Paint and water mixed in our Spray Pen.  I then adhered a strip of paper from CTMH's "Wings" paper pack.  I printed the quote on a piece of vellum and adhered it with our cute little button brads.  The shoe and corner butterfly were stamped and embossed in black-both from the January "Find Your Style" stamps.  I sponged various colors in the blank spots and then added sparkle with our Glitz glitter glue.  The center embellishments are from our Wings Stickease.  I finished off the canvas with our ruffled ribbon and black lace from Michael's.  Let me know whatcha think!  I have plans to make 2 more small canvases and a large one to coordinate with this one.

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. 

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!

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!

Challenge Entry

This is my entry for the new Close To My Heart challenge blog at

www.heart2heartchallenges.blogspot.com.  The challenge was to use CTMH products and the colors sweet leaf, chocolate and sunflower.  The wood dress form is one I bought from "glue" (www.howdoyouglue.com).  I used CTMH cardstock for the dress and embellishments.  I ran the dress through my Cuttlebug using the birds and swirls embossing folder.  I used a file to distress the embossing and reveal the white core of the cardstock.  I cut the sunflowers out with my Cricut (Walk in My Garden cart).  The "sleeves" are made from a sunflower cut in half.  The hem is a strip of cardstock that I stamped with the scallop stamp from the CTMH March Stamp of the Month "A Little Everything".  I used the bee and "bee yourself" sentiment from the CTMH Spring Petite Perks stamp set.  I tied a piece of ribbon from the CTMH "sweet leaf collection" around the waist.  I had to use some bling all over with Stickles.  I can't wait to try CTMH's new glitter glue that is coming out in the Summer Idea Book on May 1st!  Maybe I'll break my Stickles addiction!  Now, to decide if I mail it off to a friend or keep it for myself....

 

You just have to love those $ bins at Michaels and JoAnns.  I picked up these colorful frames at Michaels.  I removed the easel backs and left the clear plastic in place (it appears to be glued in).  I chose several fonts from my Cricut cartridges and cut out the letters in black vinyl.  I applied them to the front of the plastic and set them on the ledge shelf.  Easy peasy!