February Shenanigans

Continuing my walk through of my 2015 album, this is the layout I made showing our big cousin's weekend with my sister's kids.

I am blessed that my sister and I were able to have our children so close in age. They are the best of friends!! When I go away for my weekend crops, I'm lucky that I can drop my kids off at my sister's house until my hubby comes home on Saturday and since they love it too, I'm guilt free for some Mommy-only time! :)

CTMH scrapbooking layout using Chantilly (retired) paper pack and "Live Laugh Love" stamp set.

I had only small scraps from my Chantilly paper pack (retired) but I love how simple this layout turned out to be. I used negative space in the layout to provide "mats" for the photos on the left and since the base layer was White Daisy, I was able to journal directly on the page. A little stamping from the "Live Laugh Love" stamp set and done! I was hoping to be done with this paper pack but I have a few tiny scraps I can use to make some cards. A good problem to have I guess! :)

I'll continue my walk through next week, there are still lots of pages to share! I'm going to spend the weekend with my Close to My Heart team at a weekend retreat so I'll have even more to share! ;)

Happy crafting!
Stephanie

Easter Candy treat bags, part 1

On Monday, I told you I started a board on Pinterest of my artwork. I thought it would be nice to show you some of the stuff I made I found on Pinterest. One of them was Easter S'mores, aka Peeps S'mores. I'm not a fan of Peeps, but I love s'mores! This is a treat bag I made up for a benefit sale I was at last weekend. I'm also thinking this would be a cute idea for Easter gifts at my son's preschool (though they will only get enough to make one s'more - those kids are sweet enough!).

I used Lucy B&T paper,  A Typeface for the letters and a new stamp set, My Peeps,  to decorate the bag. Each bag holds one chocolate bar (the only kind of chocolate is Hershey's), two graham crackers and four Peeps. I hand colored the Easter eggs with colored pencils.

Secret Sister Gift

This is the gift I made for my Secret Sister in my Mom's Group. She might figure this out if she knows me, but we'll have to wait and see!

 All wrapped up!

 She will get 4 of these blank cards.

She will get 4 of these 3"x 3" gift cards.

When Creativity Flows

Sometimes creativity just flows. When it does, it can be hard to keep up! Here are a few cards I made recently. First, you'll recognize this one from my last post:

I really liked the flourish (February 2011 Stamp of the Month) so I decided to see what else I could do. Here's what I came up with:

This is a very simple card with just chocolate ink to decorate the card. Simple and straight forward.

This is a fast card to welcome a little girl. The sentiment is from Card Word Puzzle and the little feet are from a retired set from many years ago.

Same stamp, different cards and still very fast and impressive. What's easier?

New Paper Pack: Lucy

With all the new paper packs that are in the new Spring Summer 2012 Idea Book, I have a really hard time choosing which one I like the best. I have a little boy so I love the Superhero and Victory paper packs and with a little girl on the way, I love that there are two paper packs (Stella and Lucy) I can use in her album but I'm going to have to pick Lucy as my favorite pack simply because I love how versatile it is: you can use it for a little girl's page, gardens or even for Mother's Day.

Here is a layout I am doing for my team's swap (**warning: spoiler alert**) using Lucy and the new stamp set: New Arrival. I was inspired by the layout featured on Jeanette Lynton's website on January 11, 2012. I simplified it a bit so I could make many copies. I used Gray Baker's Twine as the single embellishment on the right page so the photos really stand out.

 Here is a close up of the main embellishment I did with the Art Philosophy cartridge in Creme Brulee card stock. I used Sweet Leaf ink on Sweet Leaf card stock with the little stamps in the New Arrival stamp set.

 I used Sweet Leaf ribbon to make a banner to highlight the embellishment on the top left of the page. This image is also from the New Arrival stamp set.

Check back again in a couple of hours, I'll have some cards I made with the Victory paper pack and Family Love stamp set.

Here is another card my upline, Krista Hershberger, designed for a team meeting back in November. It uses the November stamp of the month and Dreaming paper pack. I love how the bronze Glitz gel sparkles up the ribbon. Make sure to check out her blog!

And last but not least...

Here is the last card we did at our Christmas Card Workshop back in September. Stephanie Z designed this great card using my favorite new stamp set "Remarkable Wreath". Great job, Stephanie!

I have such talented uplines and I am awed by their creativity. My second upline, Krista Hershberger, was in charge of the Christmas Card Workshop back in September and aside from planning an awesome day for 14 consultants and 40 guests (and their kids!) she designed three awesome cards.  Here are her creations. Please make sure you check out her blog too. She posts a lot of great ideas!

 The last two cards, Krista designed with the Art Philosophy Cricut cartridge and the matching stamp sets. For the workshop, she precut all the design elements for all the guests to show them how fast and simple this cartridge can make your papercrafting. After seeing these designs, I'm a believer!

Christmas Cards

It seems that a lot of my busy-ness has come down to one thing - homemade Christmas cards. I struggle with this every year because as a crafter I want to give a homemade card to everyone. Unfortunately, my card list is much longer than I want to make cards for and I never start early enough to make it possible. I also love sending photos of the kids to family and friends and the photo cards are so simple to do. Maybe when I don't have cute kid photos to send each year, I will work on shortening my list down to a managable level (or just start earlier) but for now, I simply save the cards I make in classes for "someday". Over the next few days, I will share with you some of the cards my sister consultants designed for our Team's Christmas Card Workshop back in September. I shared with you the card I designed but here are some of the other designs the guests got to make throughout the day.

Christmas Gift Tags

I am loving how easy the Art Philosophy Cricut Cartridge is making my holiday gift giving this year! I am able to make some really easy gifts that look like a million bucks! Below are some of the gift tags I made to attach to the kids' gifts. I went a little more dramatic for the tags that will go on the adult gifts but for the kids' I kept it simple.

I cut 14 of the tag from the Art Philosophy cartridge in Olive cardstock and 14 of the rectangle from White Daisy cardstock. Using the December 25th stamp set, I used Cranberry ink to stamp the image onto the white cardstock. Super easy!

This the tag I am using for the adults' tags. I cut Barn Red cardstock to 4"x 6", White Daisy cardstock to 3.5" x 5.5". I used Olive ink with an image from the June Stamp of the Month stamp set and some of the gingham ribbon from the red collection. Since the adults actually care who the gift is from, I made it bigger to accommodate all the extra sentiments adults like.

Christmas Layout using Sonoma

Here is the design I made for my team swap using Sonoma. I used the "Oh Holy Night" scrapbook page from the Idea Book (page 83) and matched it with the Quartet: Offset pattern from Reflections. It's kept me pretty busy to make so many but now I can concentrate on my Christmas Card Workshop and Scrapbook Workshop (using Typeset) in September. I am updating my Calendar with dates for the next few months so make sure you check your calendar too - I have lots of great papers and embellishments to show you!

My Cricut is chirping!

Since it's arrival on my doorstep, my Cricut has been chirping everyday as I explore all that the Art Philosophy cartridge can do! My son has actually told me to "stop working, Mommy!" I guess I have been spending more time in my craft space than normal -- but oh! it's so much fun! I am working on getting projects made for my Open House this weekend so I will post some pictures of finished projects soon but for now, I will show you what you get when you purchase an Art Philosophy cartridge of your very own:

You get 2 sheets of die cut chipboard, 3 exclusive stamp sets plus the Art Philosophy cartridge for $99! The retail value is over $124 - saving you money. Plus, have you noticed in the Idea Book? Some of the stamp images are outlined in red? This indicates there is a coordinating image on the cartridge! How cool is that?!

Take a look here, on the stamp set itself, there is a dark outline around the image but also there is a size indicated so you there is no guessing on the size setting for the Cricut! CTMH thought of everything! The hardest part is to pay attention to your work so you don't hand cut something the machine can do - learn from my mistakes! ;)

August Specials

Close to My Heart is celebration National Scrapbooking Month (September) and it's spilling over into August! Starting August 15th, celebrate our new Stamp of the Month (SOTM) program with an extra stamp set with your SOTM purchase. You can now get the SOTM for $5 with a $50 order -- so from August 15 - the end of September you get two stamp sets for $5! That's an Extra! Extra! deal!

Extra! Extra! stamp set with SOTM purchase

Also during August 15 - the end of September, you get our first ever double-sized stamp set for free with a $75 order. Combine the two deals and get 4 stamp sets for $5 with a $75 order -- that's a savings of over $65!!

Covered Recipe Box

This project has been in my "To Do" pile since I first saw the Fall/Winter 2010 catalog last August and I finally got to make it! Yea! It's a long picture tutorial, so follow along after the jump. PS This was super easy - I will be doing many more of these as wedding gifts with some family recipes inside.

Finished Project - So easy to make!

More pictures after the jump ...

June SOTM

This is a card we made at my upline's team meeting last month and when I got home I discovered that I actually had some of the stamps to recreate it! She got the design from someone else, so if it's yours please let me know!

I used Juniper cardstock and ink, black cardstock and ink, mocha opaques and the June SOTM, Friendship Blessings and Unity stamp sets. 

These are some bookmarks I made with the leftover pieces I cut from my January Gatherings. The paper is from Wings paper pack. Stamps are listed below each photo.

Soul Mates Word Puzzle

Soul Mates Word Puzzle

Dreams Come True & Treasures

Hope for Japan stamp set

I wanted to show the versatility of the "Hope for Japan" stamp set and saw this design on another website. I loved the straightforward simplicity of the layout and the colors are beautiful together.

I used Sophia B&T, black and Hollyhock cardstock. I actually sewed the buttons onto the cardstock before adhering to the card, something I only do when I have the time. I love using Liquid Glass to adhere my buttons but wanted to try something different. Enjoy!

I found the original - it came from Big Red Scraps. Check out her blog here.

Mayberry and You & Me card

This is a card I made to show a customer the beauty that is in the Mayberry Workshop on the Go stamp set. I thought of her when I saw it but she said she wasn't sure she liked it. So I made a scrapbook page and this card to show her something else to make with the stamps and -- she likes it! I hope you like it too!

Christmas Cards in June

Here are some cards I'm working on for a Christmas In July card workshop.  My upline's team usually hosts a large Christmas Card workshop in September but I wanted to do something before Mistletoe was retired - I love this paper pack!

 

More cards after the jump!

Mayberry & Friendship

Here are some quick cards I made using Mayberry papers and Friendship stamp set (February's SOTM). I kept it simple but I think it's too simple. What do you think?