Flakey Friends

I needed another card for my club for this month and even though Christmas is only 12 days away, I thought I'd make a card that could be used after Christmas also. If my club is like me, they will need this as a Christmas card.  
The neat think about this card is that the tree folds flat for sending.

I can't believe I've had this cute stamp set called Flakey Friends for months now and this is the first card I made with it. Oh well, snowmen are always great for any occasion cards for the winter months. The snowflake borders on the sides are part of the stamp set too.

Speaking of stamps never used, the tree on the left and the swirls with it are from a retired CTMH set called Nature's Gift. I guess this is a case of too many stamps and so little time.

I used Non-traditional Christmas colors of Smokey Plum and Olive. The dimensional tree on the right was cut from the CTMH exclusive Cricut Cartridge "Art Philosophy". The tree folds flat for sending. 
I used CTMH Almond Glitz Glitter Gel for the centers of the snowfakes, and to decorate the tree.

For the snow on the one tree and under the snowman, I applied White Liquid Applique and added some heat to puff, then some Prisma Glitter on top.
The scarf and hat were colored in with our NEW Alcohol markers in Smokey Plum and Olive.

The design inspiration came from this weeks challenge at Try Stampin' on Tuesday

Other Challenge Blogs for this Card:
Creative Card Crew - Use a star
Ladybug Crafts Ink - Sparkliscious
Loves Rubberstamps - Let it Snow
Use it Tuesday - All about Christmas
All Beautiful Cards - Let it Snow
The Crazy Challenge - Christmas
Victorine - Non traditional Christmas Colors
Incy Wincy Designs - Christmas with snowflakes

Merry and Bright Swing Card

Today I decided to play with the CTMH Exclusive Cricut Cartridge, Artiste. I cut one of the swing cards out of Dakota B&T. I wanted a print that wasn't too busy and thought the wood grain would be perfect.

I combined Merry and Bright stamp set and the Perfect Fit - Holidays. The big snowflake is a spellbinders die and the snowflake border is a MS edge punch. I added some of the CTMH Red Glitz to the berries and flowers on the wreaths. Colors of ink used are Ruby and New England Ivy.

O Christmas Tree

Here is one of the cards that my November Club made. 
The background was made using the snowflake Cuttlebug embossing folder. The trees were made from two half circles of Pear & Partridge Papers folded into a tree. 
I took clear sparkles and colored them with a deep red Copic marker. I didn't have the CTMH alcohol marker needed to get the color I wanted.
The sentiment is from an old retired CTMH set.

Angelic Blessings Christmas Card

I fell in love with this Close to my Heart stamp set at first sight. It has so many possibilities.
My card started out being a Sympathy Card but it ended up a Christmas Card.

I started out with a sketch from My Time Made Easy.

The Angel is from a set called Angelic Blessings and the sentiment is from Card Chatter Christmas. Colors used are Sky and Gypsy.

I added some clear glitter from MS to the Angel wings and clouds. The Spellbinders dies was cut out and MS purple Glitter glue applied to the edging.  The Memory Box Dies Cut in the upper right corner was layered with prisma glitter.

I hand stitched around the card with white embroidery floss in just a regular straight stitch. I LOVE hand stitching. It's my therapy

Other Challenges for this card:
2 Sisters - Pastel Christmas
Kraftin Kimmie - Make own background
Sweet Stampin - All that Glitters
The Crafty Pad - Anything Goes
Gingerloft - No Coloring
Pile it on  - Make it sparkle
Sentimental Sunday - Dimension
Great Impressions - Holiday
Created With Love - Christmas with NO red or green

Tips and tricks with Studio J

Even though Studio J^® is fast and easy to use, it is helpful to know some great tricks that can make customizing your layouts even more exciting. Here are some Studio J tricks straight from our professional Close To My Heart artists:

1. Customize your background and texture paper. You can change the color and intensity of the background and texture paper included in whichever kit you choose. Simply select the piece of background and texture paper, change the color in the color selection tool, and increase or decrease the intensity of the color in that same popup box.

2. Crop My Stickease^® quotes, titles, and tags. The cropping feature on the My Stickease images allows you to select a section of a quote, title, or tag to use as a border or other embellishment.

3. Create a customized My Stickease image. If you have a specific image in mind to use as an embellishment on your page, you can create a customized My Stickease to fit your theme perfectly. Simply add a text box, photo hanger, ribbon, ribbon slides, and Stickease to create the little suitcase! So easy! Be sure to crop or send elements behind other elements when necessary, and add several elements together for a unique look!

4. Select more than one element at a time. If you want to move several elements of your layout at once, simply click and drag your mouse around the elements you would like to select. Let’s take buttons, for example. After the buttons have been selected, you can click the icons in the popup box to choose to align the buttons vertically or horizontally if you desire.

5. Make faux washi tape with vellum text boxes. To create the look of a piece of clear washi tape, make a small rectangular text box, filled with vellum background (this is the default color for text boxes). You can make the tape strips as large or small as you want, or even layer them for more emphasis.

6. Stretch one photo across multiple photo wells. If you have fewer photos than photo wells, instead of deleting the excess wells, try scaling the picture to a larger size and then copying the picture to other photo wells and matching the photos up until they align with an almost seamless image. This trick works best with photo wells that are adjacent to each other.

7. Create ruffled ribbon. Select “Ribbons” in the drop-down menu under the Embellishments toolset. Choose ribbon tab and rotate the tab so that it is vertical on the page. Then layer several tabs on top of one another, sending every other one to the back to create a ruffled look.

8. Create a jagged border with text boxes. You can create a jagged border simply by rotating multiple text boxes about 45 degrees and making them the same color as the background. Put these boxes on top of a long, rectangular box of another color, and you’ve got a jagged border!

9. Change the background of your layout. Sometimes you may like the photo and journal arrangement in a layout, and yet want to change the background colors. Because photos sit on top of everything else, this is easy to do. Simply pull a journaling box over the space you want for a different background and fill it with a color from the color selection tool or a patterned paper from the Papers toolset. Then, send it backwards until the photo wells are on top of your new background.

Bonus Trick! Use keyboard keys to make embellishments. Did you know that some of the best tools for creating custom embellishments are the basic keys on your keyboard? It’s as simple as typing into a journaling box with no background color. Use periods to make a polka dot pattern, angle brackets to create a trendy Chevron look, overlapping pound signs to make burlap, question marks to make rope, and so much more!

October is the perfect month to give these Studio J hints a go because for every 9 layouts you create, you’ll get a 10th layout for FREE!

October SOTM meets La Belle Vie

Here is the third and last card for my October classes. 

I LOVE the La Belle Vie paper pack and just had to make a Christmas Card with it. I tried to keep it simple because it is a class card. But OH, the possibilities of this paper and this stamp set.

The glittery strip at the bottom  is from the CTMH Silver Shimmer Trim.

I cut the ornament using the NEW Cricut Cartridge "Artiste", and stamped with the coordinating ornament stamp. I added a small piece of the silver Shimmer trim to the hanger portion of the ornament. 

I just happened to have a roll of this mauve ribbon in my stash that seems to match perfectly in real life. Looks awful in the picture though.  

October SOTM Mitten Card

Here is the second card for my classes this month using the October SOTM, Very Merry Christmas

This card was made using retired "Lucky" Paper along with some Pacifica Cardstock that I used an embossing folder on and then sanded. 

The mittens were stamped with Sky ink, cut out  and sponged with Pacifica. I applied liquid applique to the tops and puffed it with my heat gun. I then added glitter for extra sparkle.

The tag the mittens are layered on was cut using the NEW Artiste Cricut cartridge then used a snowflake embossing folder and sponged the edges with sky ink.

October SOTM Gift Tag

I just thought I needed to throw a gift tag in the mix of cards for my classes.
I thought this just turned out so cute. I think I need to make a bunch of these for my daughter. She has a habit of calling me at night saying she needs tags by the morning. I guess that's my fault for falsely passing myself off as Super Mom when she was younger. 

Here is a cute gift tag made using the October Stamp of the Month, Very Merry Christmas. I cut both layers with the Cricut Artiste Cartridge.  I attached the two parts together only at the top and stamped the to: & from: on the inside. 
I also used the NEW CTMH Cranberry Alcohol Ink Marker to color in the red on the tree.

Inside

October SOTM - Money or Gift Card Holder

I'm a little late getting my October workshop cards posted, but here they are. The first one is a Money or Gift card holder. I posted one for the blog hop, however, I threw that together in a hurry and wasn't 100% pleased with it. So, here is the one I'm using for my classes this month.

The card, ornaments and tags were all cut form the NEW Close to my Heart exclusive Cricut cartridge, Artiste. The paper pack I used is called Pear & Partridge. The stamp set is called Very Merry Christmas. The Bakers Twine is from the Harvest Assortment. The Close to my Heart twine is thicker and a much better quality then any other I have tried previously. It's beautiful to work with.

Inside

A Very Merry Christmas - October SOTM Blog Hop

Welcome to the Close to my Heart, October Stamp of the Month (SOTM) Blog Hop. This month's stamp set is called A Very Merry Christmas. It has so many possibilities. Unfortunately, I just returned home from a two week vacation and totally forgot about this hop. So, I literally threw this together in the past three hours. I guess that's a good thing to show how easy this set is to use. However, it's time to post and I just realized that I forgot the Glitter. What's a Christmas card without glitter!!! You'll just have to imagine the ornaments glittery.

If you've come here from Kathleen's blog, then you're on the right path. If you just happened upon my blog, then you can continue along with this hop from here and when you return back here, you know you've seen them all.

My card today is actually a gift card holder cut from the CTMH exclusive newest Cricut Cartridge called "Artiste"This cuts everything out for you that all you have to do is fold it where shown. The paper I used is from the Pear and Partridge Paper Pack. The tag and the ornaments were all cut from the same Cricut cartridge. I first stamped the Don't Open image on the tag. After cutting a bunch of ornaments, I used the ends of the Don't open stamp and stamped it on the ornaments. One in Cranberry and the other in Olive.
I then turn another ornament the opposite way and stamped the tree on it. All were mounted with foam tape. Bakers Twine - Harvest Collection, was used for the bow and ornament hangers. The Bling at the top is from the Bouquet Assortment.

Now hop on over to Allisa's Blog and see what fabulous eye candy she has for you.

Here is the entire stamp set.

Fall Favorites - Club Card 3

Here is the 3rd and final card for my club this month. 
I used a paper from the Flirty Paper pack for this card. 

The inspiration started with a sketch from I Spy Sketch challenge blog.

The pumpkins were colored with water color pencils and a water brush. This time I stamped them with Tuxedo Black Ink. 
I then stamped images from a set called Simple Memories with Versa Mark stamp pad and used white embossing powder. 

I tied it all up with Bakers Twine.

Other challenges for this card:
Fab n' Funky - Colors of Autumn

Fall Favorites - Club card 2

Here is my second card my club is making this month. 

This card uses the paper from the Pear and Partridge paper pack. I love when I can use Christmas paper for more then Christmas.

The Happy Thanksgiving mat was cut from the NEW CTMH exclusive Cricut Cartridge "Artiste".  The Thanksgiving  is from the Abundance Stamp Set. I then second generationed the pumpkins from the September Stamp of the Month and edge sponged with Gold Rush ink. Isn't this a great stamp set. And it can be yours for only $5.00 with an additional $50 purchase.

The border was stamped with Memento brown ink and colored with water color pencils and a water brush.

I'll post the 3rd card for my class as soon as I get the picture taken.

Fall Favorites - Class Card 1

I hope you all had a wonderful Labor Day Weekend. I'm still wondering where the summer went. 

Well, since Fall will be here very soon, here are some fall inspirations. These are two of the three cards my club will be making this month. I have a few changes to make on the third card before I can post it. I have a major headache this morning so those changes may take a while. Both cards feature the CTMH September Stamp of the Month. You can see the stamp set here. This set can be yours for only $5.00 with an additional $50 purchase. Or buy it for only $17.95 with no other purchase necessary.
.

This first card is my favorite. It is a 5 x 7 card using the most of the stamps in the set. The inspiration for this card came from one my dear friend Krista made. 
I stamped the scarecrow with the Smokey Plum Pigment inks, new to the Fall?winter catalog. The smokey Plum is in the Enchantment collection. I then covered it with Clear Detail Embossing Powder and heat set it. This gives it a raised affect. This card shows how this set can be used without coloring in the images.

The word fall was stamped by making a puddle pad with Autumn Terracotta, Olive and Honey Re-Inkers.

The flower was cut from the CTMH exclusive Cricut Cartridge, Art Philosophy, then stamped with one of the stamps in the It's Your Say stamp sets. This is the National Stamping Month special and is only available  until September 30. Cost is only $5.00 for both sets with a $35 order.

The fence was made with a MS punch then layered with a piece of Burlap Ribbon where I trimmed off the stitched edgings and pulled out some thread to fringe it. I used the cut off stitched binding and made a know and attached it to the center of the flower.

This post is getting very long so I will post the next card in a new post.

Fall Favorites - CTMH Sept. SOTM

Welcome to the Close to my Heart September Stamp of the Month Blog Hop. This month we have 61 consultants showing off their gorgeous art work. 
The stamp set is called Fall Favorites. This is such a beautiful set and just perfect for coloring with our new Alcohol Markers.

If you've come her from Beth's Blog, then you are on the right track. However, if you just happened onto my blog, you can start the blog hop right here and when you get back here, you know you've seen them all.

My card today is an Easel card. I think I have a slight addition to them. They are just so beautiful to have sitting around on display.
The inspiration for my card started with the Critter Sketch Challenge
I made my own background papers by stamping two of the stamps with Autumn Terracotta ink on the Autumn Terracotta cardstock. 

I used Honey, Autumn Terracotta, and Olive, Smokey Plum & Sky Alcohol Markers to color in my image.  

I cut a length of the Burlap Ribbon to fit the card then cut it in half and fringed the cut end. I used the strands that I pulled out to tie through three buttons from the Antique Gold mini medley Accents Collection.

The hand stitching was done using matching Embroidery Floss.
The Happy Birthday is from an old retired stamp set but I love the font on it.

Now hop on over to Georgia's Blog and see what great eye candy she has for you.

Other challenge blogs with this card:
Cute Card Thursday - Stitching
Delightful Challenge - Fall
Stampin' Sisters in Christ - Dies or punches
Totally Stampalicious - Anything Goes
Pile It On - Something starting with a "P"
Sentimental Sunday - Stitching

August Class Cards

Here are two of the three cards for my clubs and classes this month. The 1st one was posted yesterday in the previous post. Both cards use the August Stamp of the month for the background.  The first card is a technique called Water Stamping.

Country Life

This week I'm playing along with 2 Sisters challenge blog which is this sketch as well as to use an animal that's fond on a farm. For this I used the Close to my Heart stamp set called Country Life. I had a hard time deciding which animal to use. So, I think I will actually make a set of three cards with a different animal on each. I Might post them in a day or two.

The papers I used are the Kraft Cardstock and the Clementine B&T paper along with the NEW Saddle ink pad. This is one of our new brown colors. LOVE IT!!!

This is one of the cards that my club and classes will be making this month.

CTMH August Stamp of the Month Blog Hop

Welcome to the August Stamp of the Month Blog Hop. This is the first SOTM from the NEW FABULOUS, Fall/Winter Idea book. It's called Baroque Borders and has limitless possibilities!!!

If you've come her from Pamela's Blog, you are on the right path. If you just happened upon my post, then you can just continue along from here.
My card today is made using the new Moonlight paper pack. This is a great paper for Halloween or any fall projects.

Me & two of my downline got together the other week and played with this set.
We started with a square piece of CS, folded in the corners to the center, stamped it and layered with papers and added a flap to the front.
I stamped one of the stamps onto a canvas Badge Button for the closure along with some of the new Harvest Assortment of Baker's Twine.
I added Opaques Pearl Flourishes. I didn't have ours yet so mine are from another company.

I stamped the NEW "A" size stamps called Bountiful Season. It was stamped twice. The leaf was colored on the stamp using daubers on both. On the second one, I added clear detail EP and heated for a brighter color. Then cut out the leaf and mounted with foam tape. 

The inside of the card was decorated with the Moonlight B&T. The center of the card uses another piece of a plainer colored B&T from that pack then the Baroque Borders was stamped on it as well and Happy BIrthday from the 4 Friends stamp set.

Now, head on over to Wanda's Blog and see what great project she has to show you.

The Story of Us Layout

Left Side

Right Side

I wanted to show what I did with the layouts from the first Make & Take on Thursday at Convention. I was a helper for that particular one and had my layouts finished with photos. Many of you asked if that was my daughter and I said  "no, my brother and his family. My niece is the bride."

These pictures and what I did with them tell a story.

Last Saturday, the last day of convention, my brother lost his battle with cancer and passed away. Two days later, the Groom's mother passed away. A year ago, the grooms son died. All three of these people are in this layout. Because of the deaths in that family, I decided to frame the layouts and present it to them at the after funeral dinner.

I changed the color of the roses to yellow since those were in the brides flowers. I LOVE Un-Du. It easily took the pink roses off with no damage. I also added lots of pearly swirls to make it look more like wedding pictures. I also removed the flip flaps and put the photos right on the layout.
I wish I could have found 13" x 13" instead of the 12 x 12. It would have framed it much nicer. But, these were all I could find on such short notice. Actually, I would have loved to have found a 12 x 24. That would have framed up much better then two separate frames.

CTMH July SOTM - Live Out Loud - Blog Hop

Welcome to the July Stamp of the Month Blog Hop. We have another fabulous SOTM this month called "Live Out Loud."

If you've come here from Wendy's Blog, you're on the right path. If you've just happened upon my blog, you can follow the hop by continuing along from here. When you return back here, you know you've seen them all. We have 57 consultants displaying their art this month.

My card wias inspired by the sketch challenge at Mojo Monday.

It uses the Florentine Paper pack, one of my favorites. The flowers were cut from the Cricut Art Philosophy Cartridge. 
The bakers twine used on the left side started as grey in color then was colored by running it through the Olive stamp pad.
I cut apart pieces of the Sparkles Fourishes to add some bling.

The Hand Stitching on the card was done with matching Embroidery Floss.

This card is one that will be in the Silent Auction with several others at Convention. Stop by and place a bid!!!

Now hop on over to Jill's Blog and see what brautiful eye candy she has for you.

Hershey Park - Studio J Layout #5

Here is the 5th and last of my Studio J Digital Training Layouts for convention. On this layout, we learned to make a Faux Ribbon at the top of the page, using Text Boxes. This is a very cook technique that I never would have come up with on my own.
The pictures are of my Son Craig, his son Christian and my daughter Andrea.

My Grandson Jeffrey - Studio J Layout # 4

Here is the 4th of my 5 Studio J Digital Scrapbook Layouts I made last week. The pictures are of my daughter and grandson. Oh yeah, and Santa too!

I take care of Jeffrey and his sister during the week and he never fails to make me laugh. What a character.

On this layout, I added some different text boxes and extra flourishes as well as a star border on three of the blue stripes. I even added a shadow flourish on the right page with some buttons.

Mya's 1st Birthday - Studio J layout #3

Here is the 3rd of 5 layouts I completed for the CTMH convention. Making this digital layout really blew my mind. It uses the Mischief paper pack which is Halloween paper. Do you see anything there resembling Halloween? You can change any of the papers to any of our 60 colors to completely change the look to what you need for your pictures. I've changed so much on this layout, I don't even remember what the original looked like when I started. The cupcake papers are made from a piece of candy with the twisty end. I had to change the colors of papers to match my photos. I thought I was finished but I ended up changing the colors because of that darn red & blue high chair.

Did you know that you can put a text box over any color of paper and it lightens up your papers. That's because, unless you change the background, it is like putting a piece of vellum over it. I did this on mine. I wanted blue because of the high chair but it was just too dark so I covered it.
There was too much white to suit me so I put in some B&T paper and changed the color to petal. Then I added some scallop stitching and added red brads inside of each scallop.
I took one of the black frames and turned it into a rug under my table.
The cherries are brads and the stems are staples!!!

I absolutely love Studio J Digital scrapbooking. I can get as creative as I want or have time for and no matter if I keep it simple, or add lots of goodies, it ends up looking good either way. 

The Best Day - Studio J Layout #2

Here is the second layout out of 5 I did with the CTMH convention 5 pack.

The pictures for this layout were taken on Memorial Day. We combined our Family Memorial Day Picnic with putting a new pool liner in.

It's a big pool so trying to fill it with one hose was taking forever, but the kids loved it. It was a VERY hot day and even just a few inches of water was refreshing to everyone. The grandkids were running and sliding for hours.

I am so obsessed with Studio J because you can get as creative as you want with all the options available for each layout. Not to mention that I don't have to get all of my supplies out. This is so much Faster, Simpler & Easier.

If you'd like to learn to use Studio J, just contact me. I offer FREE group classes or one on one This is a fabulous way of getting your precious photos preserved for a life time.

Mya's two day adventure - Studio J Layout

Only 19 days yet until I leave for the Close to my Heart Convention in Dallas Texas. As one of our benefits of going to convention, CTMH has given us a FREE Studio J 5 pack. The main purpose of this was to train us to do things that we can do digitally on our layouts that we may not have thought of doing. We got step by step instruction but could change the layouts any way we wanted to go with our pictures.

This layout was about my Granddaughter Mya and her two day ordeal with the birth of her brother Jeffrey. She was so excited to feel him move in her mommy's tummy. You can tell by the look on her face, the love she had for this baby before he was even born. The smaller pictures were taken the next day in the hospital.

Life is Tweet - June SOTM Blog Hop

Welcome to the June Stamp of the Month Blog Hop. This is a fabulous Stamp Set and there are 55 consultants participating in this hop.You won't want a miss seeing a single piece of artwork from these talented ladies.

If you've come here from Lisa's Blog, you are on the right path.

However, you can start anywhere along the hop. It goes in one big circle. Just click on the next person's link at the bottom of this post.

My card today uses the Florentine papers. The flower was cut using the CTMH Exclusive Cricut cartridge, Art Philosophy.

Now, hop on over to Krista's Blog and see what fabulous artwork she has to share with you.

Dotty For You - Last Day to Order

Here is a beautiful card sent to me by my upline Kathy.

Today is the last day to get this fabulous paper pack, Dotty For You, for only $5 with a $35 purchase. Sometimes you can't appreciate the beauty of this paper until you see things made with it.

To view our current products and place an order, click here