Journal and Card Gift Set with CTMH "A Tweet" and Bliss

A very dear friend of mine had something sad happen and I wanted to give her a card to tell her I care and a journal so she can write her feelings down. I've found at times in my life that writing things down can be very theraputic. Speaking the words of sorrow can break your heart all over again but somehow writing them helps me heal.

I inked up our new seam binding with Gray Wool ink - it takes color beautifully and ties gorgeous bows!

This project is also for our Heart2Heart Challenge this week - to create a 3-D object.  To play along with the challenge, include CTMH products in your project and post your link to this week's challenge at:

http://heart2heartchallenges.blogspot.com/2012/01/3-d-projects.html

If you'd like to make this project, get these materials:

Paper:  Bliss (retired but our upcoming Florentine paper with soft colors would be a good subsitute)

Ink:  Gray Wool, Chocolate

Stamps:  A Tweet, True Friends (retired)

Other:  Art Philosophy, My Creations Journal, Color Ready Seam Binding, Bronze Glitz Glitter Gel

Hope you are all having a wonderful weekend!

Hugs,

Paige

Beautiful Bird with CTMH Florentine, Laser Cut Wooden Shapes, Resin Flower

I'm in love with our new Florentine paper pack - its such a soft and romantic set of papers just right for lovely vintage cards and projects.  Here I've paired it up with our new Beautiful Bouquet resin flowers (see all the colors they come in peaking out on the lower right of the picture) and one of our new Garden laser cut wooden shapes.  The Garden shapes are thin wood veneer that come with a dark edge from the laser cut, kind of pre-distressed, and you can sponge them with color or stamp directly on their surface.

Here is a close up so you can see the depth of the paper and the lovely grained surface of the inked wooden bird.

Our new Idea Book will be going live on February 1st so get ready to shop!

To make this card, get these products:

Paper:  Florentine

Ink:  Brown Bag

Stamp:  Love Life (the flourish was used as a pattern for the dots of Glitz)

Other:  Art Philosophy Cartridge for card base, Garden Laser Cut Wooden Shapes, Silver Glitz Glitter Gel, Bronz Glitz Glitter Gel, Signo Uni-ball White Gel Pen

Heart2Heart Inspiration Challenge card with CTMH Art Philosophy and Live Inspired

The Heart2Heart Challenge this week is an Inspiration challenge!  We were given a beautiful photo and asked to create something based off the picture.  Here's what I was inspired to create!

After I cut the leaves with my Art Philosohy cartridge, I painted them with Pearl Paint to given them a soft shine.  I added some roses and a tag stamped with several images from the "Live Inspired" set.  The butterflies unfortunately didn't photograph very well, in real life they are much prettier with an undercoating of Stardust Glitz, some sparkles and a Liquid Glass cover.  The ribbon is our new seam-binding - this stuff ties bows like a dream! 

To see the inspiration photo and compare my project with the base photo, visit Heart2Heart Challenges by clicking HERE!  To join the fun, create a project using some CTMH product and link your photo using the easy Mr. Linky tool at the bottom of the H2H Challeng post!

After several days of being in the middle of a power outtage due to a massive ice storm, I am so thankful to have power back and be online! We've been through several long term power outtages over the last 11 years so we know how to make-do through them but they are still a big old pain in the butt!  I'm so glad to be back in the land of electricity, central heating, dishwashers and washing machines again!  My poor kids are going to have a whole week tacked on to the end of the school year after this one - lets hope its the last major event of this winter.

Paige

Bling Birthday Card in Amethyst and Crystal Blue for Heart2Heart Challenges

After spending a lot of time with my good friend the snow shovel today, I decided I needed some time to recuperate in my craft room.  Lucky for me, Heart2Heart Challenges posted a new challenge yesterday - use Amethyst, Crystal Blue and Bling on a project.  To play along, simply use some CTMH product on your project and link your photo up with our Mr. Linky tool on this week's challenge post!  Click HERE to go to it!

I needed a birthday card for my DD who is turning 16 tomorrow - EEK!  Can it be possible my little baby girl is 16 years old?!?  I'm so proud of the young woman she has become - she is strong, smart, persistent, loving, helpful, generous, beautiful and hard working.  She is working so hard at school this year taking lots of difficult classes with tons of homework and she keeps at it even if it means doing homework all evening and all weekend.  We all just love her to pieces!

I've also been a busy girl working on display items for my Open House celebration of the Spring/Summer Idea Book.  While I'm not quite ready yet to show off those projects, I thought you might get a kick out of seeing the whirl wind disaster I can create making just ONE little card!  No, I am not a neat creator - I keep pulling out stuff from my stash until I get the look I want which usually means lots of boxes and bags open and on my desk with my creating space getting smaller and smaller!

Hope you are all staying warm and dry on this snowy night!

Paige

Vintage lovely with CTMH Sonoma, Just a Note and Sweet Moments

This sweet vintage card features the lovely "Sweet Moments" cameo/lace set combined with a sneak peek of an upcoming set from CTMH called "Just a Note" (the big flower).   I pulled out the Sonoma paper pack and played up the purples in the paper using Amethyst, Petal and Smokey Plum colors along with Cocoa and Olive for accents.  I *lurve* using the zip strip from our paper packs to accent items - here I matched it up with a Kraft fringed border strip.

My order of new stuff arrived this week so I'm very much looking forward to some play time over the three day weekend!

If you'd like to make this card, get these supplies:

Paper:  Sonoma, Kraft

Stamps:  Sweet Moments, Just a Note (available starting Feb 1)

Ink:  Amethyst, Petal, Smokey Plum, Bamboo, Cocoa, Olive

Other:  Mocha Opaques, Pewter Brad, Crochet Flowers (retired)

Heart 2 Heart Challenges Design Team Project - Write-on/Wipe-off Birthday Countdown

I created this project for the Heart 2 Heart Challenge Design Team assignment to use a stamp set that hasn't seen ink.   Fortunately for me, I had the PERFECT set sitting on my desk - our new "Rock the Block" promotion!  At the bottom of this post I'll have all the information on how you can get this E size set PLUS a set of our new Collage Cubes for just $15! 

This fabulous and fun stamp set was perfect for creating a reusable write-on/wipe-off birthday countdown 12x12" for my daughter's upcoming birthday!  Here is the project under the glass of my 12x12" frame showing the area to write the daily countdown.

and here is a shot of the project without the glass to eliminate any photo glare....

I used lots of techniques on this baby - spraying the background with a mix of Pearl Paint and re-inker, heat embossing, hand-tinting with a blender pen, tone-on-tone stamping, layering off-set letters, making scalloped pinwheels, ruffling ribbon and more! 

Rock the Block Promotion:  Available through January 31, 2012!

- Visit my website and purchase $25 in products from our Fall/Winter 2011 Idea Book and get this E size set PLUS a set of 9 Collage Cubes in chipboard frame for just $15 - a savings of $30!

Here is a larger shot of the E size stamp set you'll get!

If you'd like to make the Birthday Countdown project, get these supplies:

Paper:  Gypsy CS, Sunset CS, White Daisy CS, Black CS

Stamps:  Rock the Block (available till January 31, 2012)

Ink:  Sunset, Gypsy, Sky, Pear, Versmark, Sky re-inker

Other:  Art Philosophy Cartridge, Sweet Leaf Stitched Grosgrain Ribbon, Silver Glitz Glitter Gel, Blending Pen, Signo Uni-ball White Gel Pen

You are in my thoughts card with CTMH Rosy Regards

When I was a little girl my Grandma had a beautiful set of china in her dining room that was her 20th anniversary gift from my Grandpa and had gorgeous yellow roses on it. I remember that set so clearly but I definitely don't remember her ever letting our crew of grandkids eat off it! 
This card was inspired by a little 4x4 beauty in the upcoming Idea Book.  As soon as I saw it I thought of that china and had to make my own version in honor of the memory.

If you'd like to make this card, get these supplies:

Paper:  Gray Wool CS, White Daisy CS, Creme Brulee CS, Sweet Leaf (this paper is from a retired set but CS is perfect too)

Stamps:  Rosy Regards

Ink:  Creme Brulee, Sweet Leaf, Gray Wool

Other:  Art Philosophy Cartridge (scalloped square), Cuttlebug Embossing Folder

Whoo-hoo! Its official - I'm on the Heart 2 Heart Challenges Design Team!

Don't you just love it when you have a New Year's Resolution that you can knock off the list in January?

I'm so excited (think Kermit the Frog madly waiving his arms around) to let you know that I'm one of the designers for the Heart 2 Heart Challenge blog for the next 6 months!  You may have noticed the logo I put up the other day on the right side of my blog (tee-hee) but I didn't want to announce until my little bio was put up on the site for the new Design Teams.

If you haven't yet visited the Heart 2 Heart Challenge blog - GO THERE NOW!  Its a great place to find Close to my Heart product inspiration!  All the designers are Close to my Heart consultants but ANYONE can join in the fun and post projects on our linky area under the challenges.  Its a great way to show of what you've been working on and get some new blog traffic!

What's new this time around?  We now have two fabulous 5 person teams of Designers!  So many of the ladies in these groups are peeps I've been following either on their blogs or via posts on the Consultant Bulletin Board and I can tell you without a doubt this is going to be an awesome run of challenges! 

How can you participate if you DON'T have a blog?  Its simple!  You just need to post your photo to a public online area!  Over at Splitcoast Stampers you can set up a FREE online gallery to post your photos.  You can also use free public folders on Photobucket or Flicker.  Once the photo is there you can link that photo using our easy Mr. Linky tool - a simple copy and paste to get your artwork linked up to the Challenge site! 

You can also set up a free blog using Google Blogger.  It is surprisingly easy to do and free, plus people can visit you and leave nice comments about your work!

I hope you all will take the time to check out the H2H Challenge Blog, see how easy it is to link up a picture and join in the fun!  Look for my first Heart 2 Heart Challenge post coming your way on Monday!

Hugs,

Paige

A trip down memory lane - favorites from 2011!

I thought it would be fun to recap this year with a quick post of a few of my favorites from 2011!

January - we released our new chipboard banners and I made this gem with Wings.

February - my annual Valentine's Day Countdown.  I'm looking forward to my 3rd Annual Valentine's Day countdown next month!  This monster card is still one of my favorite cuties!

March - a rainbow of happiness!

April - Mother's Day Z-fold cutie adorned with roses!

May - Peacock twins!  A duo of cards made from retired Simply Snapshot pages.

June - Wow - I had one heck of creative streak going on in June! Many favorites to choose from but this cutie won tops in my heart.

But I can't leave June without also showing this one too!

July - What says summer better than a sunny picnic complete with marauding ants?

August - This one was for the August SOTM blog hop. I just love the sassy witch from that set!

September - Another blog hop beauty!  I took a $1 Michaels' frame and made an accordian mini-scrapbook in the middle.  Love this project!

October - Caught a bug? Let him go and get well soon!

November - I *lurve* my Art Philosophy Cartridge and my Expression 2!  Flowers cut at full page size ROCK!

December - A super fun 12 Days of Christmas Cards started off my holiday season right!

Hope you've enjoyed this quick visual trip down my 2011 creative path!  I've got some fun crafty news coming up for the first half of 2012 that I'll be sharing soon!

Hugs,

Paige