Picture Frame Birthday Gift with CTMH Chantilly, Wonderland and Create a Critter Cartridge

This cutie patootie puppy frame is a gift for one of my kids to give to a friend for her birthday.  I love using the Michael's $1 picture frames and making them into something special as a keepsake of the party or the day.  

Our Glitter paper was the perfect accent along with some pinks from the Chantilly paper pack.  The blue background is our long retired Wonderland paper.  I used Create a Critter to cut out the decorations for the frame.  This one got a resounding "awwwwww" from my daughter so I hope the girl this is meant for likes it as much!  I'll be pairing this up with the Chantilly cupcake card I made last week. for a nice gift set.

Hope you are having a fabulous weekend!  We are getting rain all weekend after a gorgeous sunny week.  My morning walk turned into quite a moist experience so I'm hoping the sunshine comes back again on Monday.  The joke out where we live is how do you know its a Monday?  Because the sun is out again.  Seriously, I don't know why but we get a whole lot of crappy weekends after beautiful work week weather - just so unfair to the kiddos!

Stay crafty my friends,

Paige

PS - I'm adding this one to the Heart2Heart Challenge "Button it Up" from last week.  Don't you love it when you use your stash, make something cute AND get to submit a new piece of art for a challenge site?

Giftables in the new Spring/Summer 2013 book

Here is a terrific video CTMH corp put together showing some of the new adorable giftable items in the Spring/Summer 2013 book.  Love the kraft containers and the clear pillow boxes!

PS - if you are getting this via e-mail you'll need to click out to my blog to see the video.  For some reason feedburner doesn't show You Tube videos.

Bake Me a Cake Challenge at Heart2Heart Challenges

A couple of months ago the owner of the Heart2Heart Challenges blog, Ms. Haley D. herself, asked for suggestions for upcoming challenges.  One of the things I've learned about myself over the years is that I am an idea generator, so I promptly sent in a list.  I was excited to see that Haley picked up several of my ideas for upcoming challenges including this one that I've been WAITING for - Bake Me a Cake!  Make any kind of cake/cupcake themed project and step it up by adding baker's twine, get it?  Baker's twine - tee-hee!  Sorry, my family is full of punsters and I can't resist a good one!

Mmmm...almost good enough to eat!

I've been watching the emerging sequin trend and jumped on board with a package I found in my kids art supplies a couple of weeks ago.  I've been waiting for a project to use them on and this sweet treat called out for some shaped sequins (the flower topper) and pearls!  Don't you love the mini wooden clothes pins?  Did you know that you can dye them by sponging dye inks on them?  Love the look and I just had to add a bit of our Chocolate Baker's Twine tied in a double bow.

I made a CCR file of this project to share.  The base is two cupcake shapes (one cut on reverse).  I scored the back one at the top and adhered just that section to the decorated front of the card for opening.  Here's the file if you'd like to make this cutie patootie Art Philosophy card for yourself!

https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B-s0bPFar76fYjZ5aC0wcG9iMGM/edit?usp=sharing

I hope you'll join us this week at Heart2Heart Challenges as we bake up some fun with our Cake/Cupcake themed challenge!

What went into my project:

Paper:  Chantilly Paper, Buzz and Bumble Paper, Buttercup CS

Ink:  Cotton Candy Dye Ink, Cocoa Dye Ink, Cotton Candy Pigment Ink

Stamps:  Chantilly Cardmaking WOTG Stamp Set

Other:  Adhesive Pearls, Neutral Baker's Twine, Mini Clothespin, Cricut Art Philosophy Cartridge, shaped sequins (my kids art supplies)

How to get a full 12" border with the CTMH cartridges and more!

Hi All -

Here is a video CTMH corporate put together with lots of great artwork made with the Cricut CTMH Artiste Cartridge using coordinating stamp sets BUT the best part of the video is a trick they use to fool your Cricut machine into cutting a full 12" border with your machine.  Start the video at 7 minutes in to catch the trick and then scroll it back to the beginning to watch the entire show - beautiful artwork and several good tips in this one!

Paige

PS - If you are getting this blog post via e-mail, you'll need to click above to go to my blog to view the video.  Enjoy!

Rain Drops Keep Falling on my Head - Mixed Media Canvas for Heart2Heart Challenges

Last month our corporate art department created a digital image to advertise the For Always paper pack on our websites.  I saw the ad and instantly fell in love with the adorable image of the For Always paper pack being used as clouds raining little hearts.  I took that inspiration and created a canvas for my own home decor for this week's challenge "Rain Drops Keep Falling on my Head" at Heart2Heart Challenges this week.  I think this is a great little inspiration piece for my home - especially as I live in the very rainy Seattle area!

I used some Gelatos on my canvas to create the gray and brown background.  I used my stamp scrubber pad to texture the ground and my finger tips to textured the gray skies to look like sheets of rain.

I stamped the hearts using our pigment inkpads in Honey and Crystal Blue directly to the canvas.  After they dried I added some Liquid Glass for shine and Stardust Glitz Gel between for a shimmery effect.

The girl is actually a witch from the "Frightful Affair" cartridge.  I cut off her witch's hat and cauldron - I loved those boots - perfect in honey with some Liquid Glass to look like rain boots for a fashionable lady.  The umbrella is from a retired set called Springtime stamped in Sweet Leaf and Crystal Blue pigment ink with Green Glitz Gel added to the dots.

I hope you'll join us at Heart2Heart Challenges this week and create your own "Rain Drops Keep Falling on my Head" project!  What a fun way to celebrate the April showers we all get - can't wait for those May flowers!

What went into this project?

Paper:  For Always Paper Pack, Honey CS, Vanilla Cream CS (retired)

Ink:  Pigment ink in Honey, Crystal Blue, Sweet Leaf, Black.  Dye ink in Crystal Blue

Stamps:  A Rainbow, Springtime, Whoo's Your Valentine (mini heart) - all retired unfortunately

Other:  Stardust and Green Glitz Glitter Gel, Liquid Glass, Artiste Cartridge (clouds), Frightful Affair Cartridge (witch with cauldron modified), Heart Dimensional Elements