Avonlea Happy Birthday Card

I wanted to show this card as a variation of the cards from the Avonlea Cardmaking Kit.  I used the stamp set from the kit and some of the leftover paper for this card.  The stamp set has a lace border stamp with I stamped about an inch up on the card base.  I then trimmed along the edge of the stamped image and placed patterned paper behind it on the inside of the card.  The Happy Birthday stamp is from the stamp set For Every Occasion.  

Avonlea Card Workshop

Since I was MIA from the craft world for a couple of weeks I decided to ease back into things with a Close to My Heart Workshop on the Go.  In a couple of hours I had completed 15 cards with the Avonelea paper.  I made a couple more cards with the stamp set that is included in the workshop and I will be showing them in the coming days!

Do You Ever Get Stuck?

     These past couple of weeks I have been in a creative funk,  which explains my lack of posts!  It seemed like every time I would sit down to work on some paper crafting, I could not get inspired or something else would demanded my attention.  It seems like having a little one with an ear infection and then getting a bug myself can make a couple of weeks pass quickly without any thing getting accomplished. I think the loads of laundry piled in the laundry room are evidence enough!

     On a positive note we did accomplish something big over the last couple of weeks .... Catherine is riding her bike without training wheels!

As I have caught up around the house I have had some time for paper crafting so I promise I will have some blog posts this week with some of the cards that I have created!

Hello Life!

I've been playing with the stamp set It's Your Day which is the special this month from Close to My Heart.  One of my favorite stamps in the set is the bicycle and I embossed it with black embossing powder because who doesn't love a shiny bicycle!  

Another fun thing I did with this card is I mixed a couple of paper packs, I used Moonlight and Flirty.  I love the brightness the pink B&T from Flirty brings the Moonlight paper pack.  I love that you can totally change up a paper pack by adding in other colors and B&T paper!  It is a great way to challenge yourself when you are working on a project and I think you should give it a try!  

It's Your Day

September is National Stamping Month and to celebrate Close to My Heart has a great campaign going on right now.  If you spend $35 dollars you can buy the stamp set below for only $5.  It is 2 D  sized stamps in one envelope and its retail value is $35.90.  This stamp set has lots of great images and saying and it is truly a awesome deal!

I have been able to play with the stamp set a little bit and the card I made was inspired by a card on Pintrest.  I used the polk-a-dot stamp with Slate pigment ink on top of black card stock and I have to say that pigment ink is really a great product.  

I will definitely be using this stamp set on more projects since I have only used a few of the 50 imagines available.  This stamp set is only available through September 30th so make sure to visit my website if you are interested.

Halloween Layout

At the annual Close to My Heart convention we had a wonderful keynote speaker named Stacy Julian, she has online classes called Big Picture Classes.  One of the most important lessons I took away from her was to do this for ME!  Scrapbooks don't have to be done in order and not every event needs to be scrap-booked, scrap-booking is about the MEMORIES!  Here are some of the memories that I remembered while putting this layout together. Sophia was a little over a week old and her sisters where so excited hold her for the pictures (Hint: look at Maddie's face when she is NOT the one holding her and then when she is!) and it really reminds me of that sweet newborn stage mostly since Sophia is crawling and walking around the furniture now!

I scrapbook because I enjoy it and I've been enjoying it even more since I took the pressure off of myself that I don't have every picture and every event scrap-booked.  I encourage you to take the pressure off yourself and let's scrapbook MEMORIES!    

Clementine Layout #2

In my previous post I had a layout made with the Clementine paper pack and pictures from a birthday party at a horse farm, well here is another layout made with the same papers and more pictures from the party.  There are also some new embellishments such as canvas shapes, which can be ink or stamped on and paper flowers.    

I'm on a mission to get layouts made and pictures on those layouts, so in future I hope to post more of those layouts.  Some of them may be from retired product or even a mix of new and old, but I'm trying to do my best and use the supplies I have because it isn't about the products used it is about the memories that are put into scrapbooks!

Clementine Layout

During convention we get supplies to make layouts and cards and I am finally getting some of it completed.  The layout below was one of those layouts and it worked perfectly with pictures I have from the summer of 2010.

The girls were invited to a friend's birthday party that was at a horse farm.  Since convention was in Dallas this year we received a stamp set that had western gear and what better use for pictures at a horse farm!

We spent the day with friends and the girls got to feed the horses carrots.  Maddie really enjoyed feeding them and wasn't afraid at all.

Next week I will be sharing another layout we got a convention and it also uses the Clementine paper pack and I was able to use more of the pictures from the party.

Moonlight Bracket Frame and 1st Day of School!

I have another piece of artwork featuring the Moonlight paper pack and the Artiste Cricut cartridge, even though the paper pack geared towards Halloween and fall it can certainly be used for other things.  I made this frame for my sister-in-law's birthday. 

 I covered the new chipboard bracket frame with B&T paper and inked the edges with Close to My Heart's new pigment ink.  The 3-d flowers were cut with the new Artiste Cricut cartridge.  I have enjoyed playing with the Moonlight paper pack and I know I will get lots more use out of it as we start entering fall.  One of the signs that fall is right around the corner, school started today.  This means Catherine is officially a First Grader!  I thought I would share a couple of pictures from this morning.

  

It is tradition to take pictures of Catherine on the first day of school on our front steps.  As I was loading pictures on my computer, I was comparing the pictures from her 1st day of Kindergarten and this morning, and she has grown up so much in one year!

The last picture I have to share is one of the three girls.  Now that the kids are back in school it is the perfect time to pull out all those fall pictures and get them scrapbooked!

Artiste Coffin

Since Halloween will be here before we know it I decided to make a fun 3-D coffin with the Artiste Cricut cartridge.  This coffin would be a great party favor for a Halloween party or a perfect treat for co-workers, teachers or friends when filled with candy.  I cut it out of Slate cardstock and it assembles very easily.  

I stamped the lid of the coffin with a cobweb stamp and then embossed the image with white embossing powder.  I sponged the middle of the cobweb with Slate ink and then using our spray pen, I lightly sprayed over the the top of the image with a mixture of black re-inker and rubbing alcohol.  I added one of our CUTE skull brads and put bitty sparkles in place of his eyes.

I cut out a skeleton from the Artiste Cricut cartridge and attached him to the bottom of the coffin, that way when the coffin was filled candy there would be a fun surprise inside!

Now I just need to plan a Halloween party so I can cut out a bunch more of these coffins to gives as cute and easy favors!

Fall Gift Card Holder

In mid-July I attended Close to My Heart's annual convention and it is always a great time to see the new fall/winter Idea Book, new product and spend time with friends.  One of the most exciting new products that was debuted was a new Cricut cartridge.  It is called the Artiste Cricut cartridge and it is once again exclusive to Close to My Heart.  The Artiste Cricut cartridge has 700 images but this time there are many 3-D items.  Over the next couple of posts I will be showing you items I have made with the new cartridge and new product.  The first item I have to share is a gift card holder using the Moonlight paper pack.  This is a great paper pack that can be used for fall, Halloween or even everyday cards and scrapbook pages. 

As an accent I used a leaf from the new Arbor Wooden Shapes and I sponged it with ink, then I covered it with Liquid Glass.  I added some black hemp and an embellishment from the Haunted Assortment with coordinates with the Moonlight paper pack.

In the next couple of days I will be sharing more items I have made with the Moonlight paper pack!

Baroque Borders Card

Today I'm featuring a card I stamped with the August stamp of the month Barque Borders.  I used one of the stamps on a piece of background and texture paper from the Florentine paper pack.  The paper has a small pattern and using the same color ink with a larger stamp gives the paper a whole new look.    

Cruisin' Swap Card

For the month of July I used the Cruisin' paper packet for my swap card.  I love the blue's in the argyle paper. 

I cut the flowers out of cranberry cardstock with the Art Philosophy Cricut cartridge and add a glitter button with a black brad in the middle.  The black tulle that is tucked behind the flower is actually in our new Idea Book which is out today.  You can view the new Idea Book on my Close to My Heart website by clicking here.

I will be sharing more new products in the coming days, so be sure to check back often!

Convention Studio J Layout #5

This layout is with Victory paper and was perfect with pictures of the girls with Derek on Father's Day!

Convention Studio J Layout #4

This layout is of our garden, the girls have really enjoyed helping plant and take care of the vegetables.  

Convention Studio J Layout #3

This layout is of Catherine and the instructions that we were given the papers were blue since I only have girls I changed the the colors to pink.  

Convention Studio J Layout #2

This layout is of Maddie and it is the Mischief paper but with Studio J you can easily change the color of your patterned paper.  You can make any paper work with the pictures you already have!

Convention Studio J Layout #1

Over the next couple of weeks I am going to be sharing the Studio J layouts we got to make for Convention.  This layout is of Sophia and it uses the Lucy paper.

3x3 Stella Cards

I made these 3x3 cards with the paper pack Stella.  I used the A sized stamp set A Garden on both of them and the A sized alphabet for the word Love.  The 3x3 cards are a great sized card to make to slip into gifts and they coordinate perfectly with the A sized stamp sets.

A Blossom Card

A while back I showed some cards I had made with size A stamp sets, well I found a couple more that I had made but I hadn't posted them.  This card I used the stamp set A Blossom and paired it with the paper pack Footloose.  The two pieces of the flower where cut out using the Close to My Heart Cricut cartridge with make the card very easy to put together.

Victory Swap

As you know each month I participate in a swap with members of our Close to My Heart unit.  It is a great way to get ideas and it also helps me to actually have to make something each month.  I try and do something a little bit different with the papers and this month I loved my results.  We used the paper pack Victory for this months swap and is the most masculine pack that we have in this idea book.  For an example I made this card with the paper pack.

I wanted to use it in a girlie way so I stamped a flower, used the blending pen with honey ink and added bronze glitz gel to the center.

Father's Day Gifts

I have been blessed to have such a wonderful father and that my husband is such a great father as well, they are also two of the most difficult men to purchase gifts for.  So for Father's Day I decided to make them something instead.  I was inspired by a pin on Pintrest that had a map Mod Podged onto a wooden letter.  

For my husband's letter I choose to use a piece of scrapbook paper from the current paper pack Cruisin', I painted the chipboard M black and edged it with black ink.

For my father's letter I used a piece of paper from the retired paper pack Passages, I painted the chipboard letter brown and edged it with cocoa ink.

Same Card Different Occasions

There are times when you might need multiple cards in the same week but they are for different occasions.  You can easily knock out two birds with one stone if you make couple of the same cards but put different sentiments and even change up and embellishment or two.  I was inspired by a card I saw here on this blog.  

The card above was the Thank You card I made for Catherine's teacher for the end of the year.

I also needed a card for a dear friend's birthday, as you can see here I changed this card up by using seam binding ribbon rather than baker's twine.

So remember if you are cutting one card you might as well cut two or three, then put different sentiments on them.  Before long you will have a nice stash of cards and you won't have to worry about scrambling to make a card when an occasion comes up!  

Gift Bag

In my previous post I shared a set of personalized notecards I had made for Catherine's teacher, I decorated a gift bag and tag for them to go in.

I started with a plain white bag and Mod Podged paper to the front and back of the bag.

I cut a tag, 3D flower and leaves out with the Close to My Heart exclusive Cricut cartridge and attached it with grey baker's twine!

Using the Cricut cartridge it doesn't take much time to make a cute tag to jazz up any gift! 

End of School Thank You Gift

Catherine finished her first year of kindergarten in May and I made her teacher a set of personalized notecards.  Catherine has a severe food allergies and her teacher was SO great with everything during the school year, I felt the notecards were the least I could do for her!

I made a set of 10 cards using smoothie, sunset, buttercup, sweat leaf and lagoon paper.

   I ordered a personalized name stamp from Close to My Heart and used the butterfly stamp from the stamp set A Tree. 

I also stamped the back of the envelope with her name and the butterfly stamp in a coordinating color to match the notecards.

I included the name stamp, an ink pad and block with the notecards.  The personalized name stamps are only $5.95 and they make great gifts!  

Footloose Swap Card

For our swap in May we used the Footloose paper.  The paper has a beachy, summery feel to it and I thought it would be perfect for summer birthday party invites.  I like how this paper can be for either boy or girl and you can play up the the pinks or the blues.       

The Guest List

While making my grandma's birthday album I wanted to include the guest list but I wasn't sure how to go about doing it and make it look nice.  I also had some random pictures left that really didn't work on any of the pages but I thought they still needed to be included.  

Well I found the perfect solution with Close to My Heart's page protectors with six horizontal pockets.  They hold 4 x 6 photos, so I was able to put the extra photo's in and add the guest list.   

I printed off the guest list onto pieces of cardstock and then I put pattern paper and solid cardstock as the base.  To add some decoration to the pages I chose to embellish the extra 4 x 6 spots with stickers that coordinated with the paper packet.  

Those page protectors made it really easy to include the photo's that didn't make it onto scrapbook pages and made the guest list not seem so boring.  With a few stickers it was really easy to spruce up the spaces that would have otherwise been blank.  This could easily be used with lots of scrapbooks as a way of including pictures and other important dates, names or even thoughts.   

So Blessed!

I'm going to continue to show pages from the album I completed for my grandmother, the pages today feature pictures of her grandchildren and great-grandchildren.  She has been blessed with 13 grandchildren and 9 great-grandchildren.    

 Eleven of us grandchildren were able to make it for her party.  

Since her 90th birthday she has been blessed with 3 more great-grandchildren!

The last layout features pictures of my older sister and her family, my family and my younger sister. 

When we were younger we would always get together for holidays and now that we have our own families we have gotten together less and less over the years.  That really made the day so special for my grandmother that so many of us could make it.

A Big Project

 I recently completed a big scrapbooking project that I had started a year and a half ago.  My grandma turned 90 in May of 2010.  I thought as a gift I would make her a scrapbook to remember all of the details of her important day.

What I didn't realize is how difficult it would be for me because it was such a big occasion and that I wanted the importance of it to transfer onto the scrapbook pages.  I made the scrapbook pages in spurts and last May I had all the pages put together but they just needed to be embellished.  Life truly does get in the way if we let it and a year later I have finally completed her scrapbook.

 I will be showing the pages in a couple of post.  I used the retired paper packet Veranda.  The theme of the scrapbook is flowers since gardening has always been and still is one of my grandma's favorite activities. 

Today is my grandma's 92nd birthday so I felt in honor of her it is the perfect day to post them on my blog!  If I live to be 92 and have as much spring in my step as she does I will be very lucky!