April Showers bring May Flowers Challenge Card for Heart2Heart Challenges

We've certainly had our fair share of April showers here in the Pacific Northwest and I'm glad to say they are definitely bringing out the May flowers!  For this week's challenge at Heart2Heart Challenges, we're looking for your floral projects - share with us any kind of project featuring flowers using CTMH products and then link to our Challenge site at http://heart2heartchallenges.blogspot.com.  Be sure to include in your blog post that you are participating in our challenge!

Here is the card I made for this week's challenge.  I used our awesome Hooray Bouquet stamp set - definitely a must have set as the flowers all coordinate with the AP cartridge so NO cutting required!  Love it!

Close up of the stacked dimension on the flowers.

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

Paper:  Victory (ledger paper), Florentine (blue paper)

Stamp:  Hooray Bouquet

Ink:  Taffy, Sorbet, Twilight (1 and 2nd Generation stamping)

Other:  Neutral Assortment Baker's Twine, Buttons (retired CTMH)

Have a happy Monday!

Paige

Wow! Totally Terrific card with CTMH Superhero!

Ah, Superhero.  How I love the bright, fun and funky patterns in this awesome kit!  Here I matched up the paper with the WOTG (workshop on the go) stamp set to make this fun card to congratulate just about anybody on a job well done.  I've been seeing a lot of cards with cut out openings for embellishments and really like how the buttons pop out from the blue strip using this technique.

Whoopsi - looks like my Baker's Twine bow collapsed in this first picture!

Close up on the stamped WOW.  I used liquid glass on top to give it some dimension. 

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

Paper:  Superhero

Stamps:  Superhero WOTG stamp

Ink:  Sunny Yellow, Black

Other:  Neutral Baker's Twine, Red Buttons (the ones shown are retired but the Red Assortment is a good subsitute), small circle punch (I think its a .5" size)

Hope you are having a fabulous day and are ready for a beautiful weekend!  I am hoping the very worst of the flu illness is finally past for my two boys.  Hopefully they'll get plenty of rest and nourishment over the weekend so they are ready to start the arduous process of getting caught up with a WEEK worth of assignments from school!  Those poor guys are going to be doing double work all next week!!!

Paige

Beautiful Wonderful You card with CTMH Simple Memories and Partial Stamping Technique

Sometimes just partially stamping an image can give it a whole new look.  I saw a card by Maile Belles and loved her partial stamped doily images and had to copy!  Click here to see her original.

Did you know if you use a Sharpie (or any alcohol based marker like a Copic) you can color adhesive gems and pearls?  Here I've colored my sparkles with some fine tip Sharpies I bought because they looked similar to some of the colors in the CTMH palette.

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

Paper:  Juniper CS, White Daisy CS

Stamps:  Simple Memories (Doily image), Card Word Puzzle (words)

Ink:  Olive, Juniper, Pansy Purple

Other:  Sparkles, Sweet Leaf Ribbon, Sharpies for coloring Sparkles

Thanks for stopping by today!

Paige

Party Hat Birthday Card

What says PARTY better than a party hat? 

At first I thought I would cut the hat with the AP banner but it was a bit too wide so instead I used a 3x4" rectangle and shaved the two sides down by marking the midpoint on one side and cutting the corners. 

Most of the products on this one are retired with the exception of the Paradise Baker's Twine (on the button) and the sentiment which is from our new "Just a Number" stamp set.  This design is good for using up bits of your stash so have some fun and make some party hats today!

Hope you are having a cheery day!

Paige

Fancy Fold Heart Card with Lucy and AP cartridge

This card was lifted from a very talented fellow CTMH consultant, Pam Klassen - see her beautiful original HERE.  Pam made her card into a cute Valentine and I changed mine up to be a birthday card.  

The shapes for this one were cut using the AP cartridge and this time I was smart enough to write down on a post-it what size I cut things at - see below for sizes!

Cut Directions for AP Cartridge:

Card Base:  Scalloped Square Card Base at 4.25"

Pink inside:  Scalloped Square at 3.75"

Heart:  at 4.25"

Flowers and Butterfly:  Per directions on Lucy WOTG stamp set

Score the card base at about 2" up from the bottom.  The heart is adhered to the bottom section only, to make sure it fits in a standard sized envelope use a ruler or mat to make sure the top of the heart does not extend beyond 5.5" when adhered to the front.  To make the card stand up you pop dot an image (a flower on this card) to the inside to catch the top flap when folded up.

To make this card, get these supplies:

Paper:  Lucy

Stamp:  Just a Number

Ink:  Pear, Gray Wool, Cotton Candy, Sunny Yellow

Other:  Stardust Glitz Glitter Gel, AP Cartridge

That's all folks!  Thanks for stopping by today!

Paige

Get Well Soon card with a funny twist

I've seen a couple of cards with band-aid stamps on them in various cardmaking magazines but I didn't have a stamp like that in my collection.  What to do when you really want the look?  I dug into my medicine cabinet and found a big honking band-aid to add to the front of this card!

I made this for the wife of one of my martial arts buddies who had to have surgery for an injury she received at her workplace.  

How easy to make this one - just frame out a band-aid, add a 1" heart and some letters from the AP cartridge!

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

Paper:  Lucy, Tulip CS, Chocolate CS

Stamps:  Joyful Jars (for sending you sentiment)

Ink:  Chocolate

Other:  Giant band-aid, Liquid Glass, AP Cartridge to cut letters, Martha Stewart 1" heart punch, 5x7" white cardbase

I'm so glad I had the chance to do a photo session today while my boys are wrapped up in movies on the couch.  The doctor said its a flu virus - what a bummer after we all were immunized in October.  It will probably hang around for several more days before they are back to the land of the living.  Thanks for stopping by today!

Paige

Boo-hoo. I hate the flu.

My boys have been hit HARD by some kind of flu bug.  I've been on Mommy duty since Thursday and am hoping they'll bounce back soon.  I haven't seen them this sick in a long time.  I have a couple of cards that just need to have their pictures taken so don't worry, I'll be back soon with some art postings!

In the mean time, Lysol is my friend as I try desperately to stay healthy for my final ceremonial test for Black Belt!  Just a couple more weeks (May 11th) and I'll have reached my goal that I've been working towards for the past 3.5 years!

Wish me luck on staying part of the non-sick crowd!

Paige

My heart is breaking for a local family....

Today my daughter came home with some terrible and sad news.  A young man who was in the same grade as her committed suicide last night.  While she didn't know this boy very well, they did have one class together at the beginning of the year.  This is the second teen suicide in our very small community.  Another young man took his life about a year ago.

My heart breaks for the family and friends of this young man.  It seems so incomprehensible that someone with a life ahead of them could decide to end it before its really even begun.  As a parent it just breaks your heart to think of any child living in such despair that suicide seems an answer.  There will probably never be an answer as to why - how can you ever guess another person's deepest thoughts and fears?

The only thing we can do after something as tragic as this is to keep talking to our children and letting them know we support and love them, that there is help for depression, connect them to our communities and keep showing them that each of us can choose a different path.  Each day we are given is an opportunity to change our path, imagine a new reality and create the life we want to lead.  Hold their hand and give them the courage to imagine that new reality.

While I know this isn't the usual posting for my site I felt I needed to share.  Our lives are always so full of things to do and places to go that when something like this happens, it forces us to pause and ponder.  I know I'll take this opportunity to discuss this will all my children over the weekend.  And hug them tight.

Please send out some prayers or good thoughts to invisibly surround this grieving family.  May they find their way through the grief and be granted peace.

Paige

Sewing Technique Challenge for Heart2Heart Challenges

I'm "sew" excited for this week's challenge at Heart2Heart Challenges - its a sewing technique challenge!  Create a project that features Close to my Heart products and some kind of sewing - machine, faux stitching, stamped stitching, hand stitching, etc. and post at the Heart2Heart Challenges site!  Remember to say in your post that your project is for our challenge!

One of the very first crafts I learned was hand embroidery so this project really took me back in time.  I don't think I've done an embroidery project in the past 10 years!  I have to admit after doing this I started thinking about a few unfinished pieces I have in my embroidery bag that I should probably finish one of these decades.  

I drew the stems and leaves by hand and used a back stitch to go over the outlines.  I then used a White Daisy marker to go over the inside of the leaf and a layer of Olive marker on top of that to give the leaf more definition.  The centers of the flowers are French Knots done with our black and white Baker's Twine.  It looks like little seeds when its knotted up like that!

A quick tip on doing hand embroidery on your cards, a double layer of paper is easier to work with than a single layer.  I used my piercing tool to make holes for the stitching on the lagoon/black piece and it was a breeze.  The single layer flower shape I had to put a couple of layers of Scotch Tape on the back of the shape to keep the paper from falling apart with so many French Knots.  I didn't stamp a sentiment on this card because I need to build up my stash of all purpose cards - you know the ones you can add any kind of sentiment to and send off at a moment's notice. 

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

Paper:  Stella, Black CS

Stamps:  Lucy WOTG stamp set

Ink:  Black, Sunset, Olive Marker, White Daisy Marker

Other:  Art Philosophy, Baker's Twine Neutral Assortment, Green Collection Embroidery Floss (retired)

Thanks so much for stopping by!  I hope you'll head on over to Heart2Heart Challenges and create a project for this week's sewing technique challenge!

Paige

A Blast from the Past - You are Amazing Butterfly Card

If you have a huge stash of papers to use up, raise your hand.....

Glad to see I'm in good company!  How many of you even recognize this background paper?  Its a real blast from the past - a set called Blue Ribbon from back in 2008.  It was a fun 4th of July themed paper with pretty butterfly images that inspired the theme of this card.

I used a very old retired CTMH botanical butterfly set to stamp the butterflies in black and filled them in with ink picked up from the lid using my waterbrush.  The orange one was done twice to get one image pop dotted over the ribbon.

With the exception of the waterbrush and inkpads used on this one, most of the products are retired so I won't do a product list.  I hope this blast from the past inspires you to dig out some of your old stash and make a project!

Thanks for stopping by today!

Paige

CTMH Superhero with Super Powers card

I loved this card so much I made another version with the superhero saying "Happy Birthday" for my son to take to his friend's birthday party a little while ago.  On the inside I wrote "Hope your birthday is as super as YOU are!"

I used our watercolor pencils to color my superhero in and then went over the pencil with our markers.  It gives a nice rich smooth look to the coloring.  For the face I used a Copic flesh tone marker that I bought specifically for images with faces.

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

Paper:  Superhero

Stamps:  Super Powers

Ink:  Sunny Yellow, Black, Markers

Other:  Watercolor Pencils, Durables Metal Squares, Neutral Assortment Baker's Twine, Milepost Coorugated Cardboard Shapes

Thanks for stopping by!

Paige

You + Me Chemistry card with CTMH Superhero

While I love all the papers in the new Idea Book, my favorite is Superhero.  Not only does it have the cool comic book papers but it also has this Periodic Table chemistry themed paper - LOVE IT!  Its just a great paper for boy projects!

The new black Baker's Twine is the perfect accent for this simple graphic card.

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

Paper:  Superhero

Stamps:  Cocktail Alphabet, Mad About You (retired, for heart)

Ink:  Black, Tulip

Other:  Liquid Glass, Neutral Assortment Baker's Twine

Thanks for stopping by today!

Paige

A Note for You Pemberley Card with CTMH Card Word Puzzle

Sometimes papers are just so lovely you don't even want to cut into them.  That is what inspired this card - I wanted a huge swath of the gorgeous flowered paper to be showcased.  I simply added a few dots of Stardust Glitz Glitter Gel to accent the flowers and stamped one extra flower from the coordinating Card Word Puzzle set and a quick sentiment and voila'!

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

Paper:  Pemberley

Ink:  Outdoor Denim, White Daisy Marker

Stamp:  Card Word Puzzle

Other:  Stardust Glitz Glitter Gel, Copper Designer Brads

Rose card with CTMH Pemberley and Card Word Puzzle

Another Pemberley card, this time using our uber versatile Card Word Puzzle stamp set.  I love, love, love the open work flowers in that set plus all the wonderful words to customize sentiments!  This one is based on an older Mojo Monday sketch and inspired by a card I saw on another CTMH consultant's blog - Vicki W. - Click here to see her original.

If you'd like to make this project, get these supplies:
Paper:  Pemberley, Kraft CS, Sweet Leaf CS
Ink:  Outdoor Denim, Olive, Honey Marker
Stamp:  Card Word Puzzle
Other:  Watercolor Pencils

Thanks for stopping by!

Paige

Easter Egg Card with Peeps for Heart2Heart Challenges

I hope all you peeps are more prepared for Easter than I am this year!  If it wasn't for the Heart2Heart Challenge this week where we needed to break out our eggs, bunnies and chicks I think I wouldn't have even remembered it was coming up next weekend.  Even worse I have all three kids home for Spring Break so the likelihood of hitting Target alone is near zero!  Guess I'll have to send Dad out on a Peter Rabbit mission.

When I read this week's challenge I knew exactly what I wanted to do - use the egg card shape from the AP cartridge and the My Peeps stamp set.  Cute, cute, cute!  This was one of the first stamps I bought from the new Idea Book 'cause those little bunnies were so darn adorable.

The pink pom pom ribbon is from our Designer Ribbon Pink collection - I started with a little bit and couldn't seem to stop adding it until the whole card was outlined.  The papers are from our Pemberley pack - told you it was versatile!

So hop on over to Heart2Heart Challenges and perk up your ears for our bunnies, chicks and eggs challenge, put it in a basket and deliver it with a bow so we can all admire YOUR inner Peter Rabbit!

If you'd like to make my project, get these supplies:

Paper:  Pemberley

Ink:  Chocolate, Honey

Other:  Designer Ribbon Pink Collection, Bronze Glitz Glitter Gel, Waterbrush, Art Philosophy Cartridge