You Warm My Heart Card with Georgie

Happy New Year! I'm spending part of today doing something I love, creating! 

I'm combining old and new. For the new, I'm using some of the gorgeous Georgie paper and the Teal Shimmer Trim. For the old, I'm using the Wonderland stamp set from an old Workshop on the Go (G1031). You can see how I used it here and here and here in the past. The "smoke" rising from the cup is actually a plant tendril from a different stamp set, also retired, called So Grateful (B1395). Also for the old is a bit of retired Frosted paper used as the beige background for the sentiment.

I need to make a bunch of these and will be using them as thank you cards so I tried to keep my design on the simpler side for mass production!

When you first look at the papers in Georgie baby themed projects certainly come to mind, but I was actually attracted to the circles and chevron patterns in the pack. I thought the circles with their soft yellows and blues would go well here. Let me know what you think!

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Polar Bear Fun!

I love having some time off! It's been very difficult for me to get time to create with my new work schedule. I know, I should make the time, but when I see the dishes and laundry piling up, I figure I should make time for that first!!!  I even had time to go and get a bunch of new trimmer blades...I had been cutting with a dull blade for months now! It used to be that I could just pick up a Fiskars blade from Walmart or Target but my local stores don't carry them anymore. The nearest craft store is somewhat of a trek and it's a trek that's better done on a day off! Anyway, like I said, I love having time off!

I decided to do a bunch of cards which I could use as holiday, New Year's, winter birthdays, and thank you's. I picked the cute Polar Bear Holiday stamp set and the lovely To You and Yours set for the sentiment which I put on the inside using Outdoor Denim ink (some I'm leaving blank on the inside, like for the ones I'm saving for birthdays). The Polar Bear Holiday set has some great sentiments on it already but I really love the font on To You and Yours. The nice thing about the polar bear stamps is that I just needed to add a tiny bit of color with my Sky and Whisper CTMH alcohol markers and some colored pencils since they are white!

I also used the Frosted and Sparkle and Shine paper packs and Crystal Blue cardstock for my card bases because I had a lot of it! I don't know if you can tell from my pictures, but the front of my card is cut a little shorter so you can see the gray houndstooth pattern even while the card is closed and my card is slightly smaller than a standard size. It's about a 4" x 5.5" card with the front flap being 4.25" long. The Bronze Shimmer Trim and the Lagoon Houndstooth Washi Tape made for easy embellishments! I also used 3-D Foam Tape to pop up my sledding bears.

Here's a shot of my supplies. I cut out my circles using my Cuttlebug with Spellbinder dies (both regular and scalloped). I used an embossing plate to give some texture to the blue circles and inked them a little with Heavenly Blue ink (retired). In case you haven't heard, we will have embossing plates in the Spring/Summer 2014 CTMH Idea Book! Yay! We'll also have a bulk pack of sponge daubers!

Just for fun, here are my polar bears, cut out. Wheeeee! They look so happy! It really helps to have a good scissors like your handy dandy CTMH Micro Tip scissors. 

Here's the outside of my final card...

...and a view of the inside!

I'm linking up with 365 Cards for their Anything Goes Challenge. Seeing as how I always seem to be in need of cards, I think I should visit this challenge blog more often and get inspired!

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Hedgehog Birthday - Paper Players Challenge #163

I received my new "You Are My Happy," stamp set in the mail on Saturday (the special for this month) and I couldn't wait to play with my favorite image from the set, that cute little hedgehog! Here's an image of the sheet (1 of 3) with the hedgehog on it and the birthday cake too which I also used.

Every year, at the beginning of the school year, I think that it would be a good idea to make up a bunch of birthday cards to send out to my preschool students when their birthday rolls around. I often get started with two or three but never make enough of them for the whole class and then am left scrambling to make something at the last minute. Last school year, I did not even get to making a single one. This year, I've been motivated by that sweet hedgehog! Well, I'm not completely done...because this year I have two classes! But I do have a good head start! And before you think that I'm crazy to try this, you should know that our class sizes are small. I have eight in each class. That's manageable, right?

 

I'm entering my card in the Paper Players Challenge #163 (create a CAS project, "For the Kids").

 

I decided to do some paper piecing on the hedgehog and the cake images.

So this...

 ...became this!

 And this...

 ...became this!

 

I also used the Surf's Up paper pack, Aqua Dots, my Nestabilities circle dies, and the Holiday Tags stamp set (I cut the tags out with the Cricut Artiste cartridge) and came up with this card design.

 

So do you think I can make ten (and a half!) more? Wish me luck!

 

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Simple Sympathy Card

Here's a simple sympathy card. I used my Cricut Artiste to make the roses, a Nestabilities die to make the deckled rectangle, and the Argyle Cuttlebug embossing folder. One of my favorite elements of the card is the tiny double bow. After reading this post by Allisa Chilton, I went ahead and purchased a Bow Easy and that is what I used to help me with this bow!

Supplies Used (All CTMH except where noted)--

Cardstock: Honey, Chocolate, White Daisy, Bamboo

Stamp Set:(D476) Card Chatter - Sympathy

Embellishments: Designer Ribbon Rounds Cocoa Collection, Opaques Pearl Adhesive Gems, Liquid Glass, Nestabilities Deckled Rectangles, Cuttleug Argyle Embossing Folder

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Gnome Home

I love the CTMH stamp set Gnome Garden but, as so often happens with me, I set it aside after getting it and never inked it up because I was waiting for the right inspiration! Well, now it will be retiring soon so I thought it would be a shame if I didn't use it before August 1st rolls around. Heart 2 Heart's latest challenge is a wonderful sketch and helped me put my stamp to use.

Here's the sketch:

Here's my card!

Supplies used (all CTMH except where noted): Cranberry cardstock, Creme Brulee cardstock, Chocolate cardstock, White Daisy cardstock, (X7148B) Pemberley paper pack, (C1470) Gnome Garden, (44751) Archival Black stamp pad, (Z1701) Baker's Twine Neutral Assortment, Retired Cranberry buttons, (Z1686) Art Philosophy Cricut cartridge, Spellbinders nestabilities (circles large and small), Cuttlebug embossing folder (Victoria and Seeing Spots), Copic markers 

My daughter and I have a long term project (translation: we do a little and then stop, then we do a little more and stop) of making a sort of fairy garden spot in the backyard. So I'm picturing using this stamp set on a scrapbook layout for pictures of our little fairy garden if we ever finally get around to completing our project! Isn't that funny? Getting a stamp set to go with pictures you don't even have?

;-) 

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A Little Birdie - Retro Sketches #17

It seems that I am gravitating to sketch challenges lately! I made some more time for creating (don't worry, I did do some laundry too finally!) and based my card on Retro Sketch #17.

I pulled out my CTMH June Stamp of the Month, which I love but hadn't used yet! This is what I came up with.

The outside doesn't really make sense by itself  so here's a pic of the inside.

Supplies used (All CTMH except where noted): (S1206) A Little Birdies stamp set, (Z2105) Black stamp pad, (X7154B) Cruisin' Level 2 paper pack, (Z1701) Baker's Twine Neutral Assortment, (Z578) Corner Rounder, Spellbinders Lattice Rectangles Nestabilities, Crayola and Loew-Cornell Colored Pencils

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Best Fishes - Freshly Made Sketches #40

I used the following sketch from Freshly Made Sketches to make my card.

I changed my card a little bit and since my main image already had a sentiment, I used a wooden shell embellishment instead of the banner on the bottom left.

Supplies used (all CTMH except where noted): (X7151B) Footloose Level 2 paper pack, Cocoa cardstock, Pear Cardstock, (C1500) Under the Sea stamp set, (44571) Archival Black stamp pad, (Z2194) Sky stamp pad, (Z2195) Lagoon stamp pad, (Z2197) Pear stamp pad, (Z2167) Creme Brulee stamp pad, (Z2114) Cocoa stamp pad, (Z1693) Seaside Wooden Shapes, (1771) Waterbrush, (Z1702) Baker's Twine Paradise Assortment, (Z1336) Opaques Pearl Adhesive Gems, (Z679) Liquid Glass, (Z697) Round Sponge, Cuttlebug Tiny Bubbles Embossing Folder, Spellbinders Nestabilities, Fiskars Paper Crimper, Crayola green colored pencil

I used some techniques and supplies that I taught in my recent Kids' Scramp Camp. Every participant received the Under the Sea stamp set and that's what I used here (since that's what I had out!). I combined two of the stamps from that set onto one acrylic block and then left the little tiny fish on its own block to stamp into my main image.

I used the Archival Black stamp pad to stamp my fishes and let them dry a bit before going in and using my waterbrush with ink from my stamp pads to paint. I used the Archival Black instead of the regular black just so the images wouldn't bleed while I was painting them.

Since I didn't want to use brads on my cards, I used Liquid Glass on some punched cardstock circles again (upper right corner). See my post from 6/22/12 to see details on how I do this. Although I wanted this card to be appropriate for giving to either a male or a female, I couldn't resist adding a little pearl to the shell. My son assured me that he wouldn't mind getting a card with a pearl on it. I had another small wooden shell shape which looked more like what a pearl would come in...a clam shell, so I decided to make another card with the same design. I used Pacifica ink instead of Lagoon for the "sea" and I used Cocoa cardstock circles instead of the Bamboo circles that I used in the first card on the upper right.

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Bee Happy Thank You

This is one of those projects I started awhile ago and never got around to photographing. I used the Mojo Monday Sketch #245, but I never posted it on their challenge blog since I didn't photograph it until today!

Part of the reason that it took me some time to photograph it was that I wanted to make enough to send one to each of my preschool students as a thank you. I also was busy preparing for Art Camp which ended today. I used a bee stamp from the Bee Happy stamp set since we were the "Yellow Bumblebees," during our end of the year field day.

I played around with some of my new copic markers which I got using a gift certificate for Oozak.com (a gift from my lovely preschool class) to color in the sweet bee stamp. I'm still learning but here's a closer look at the colored image.

I didn't want to have to worry about whether or not I would need extra postage for these cards but I still wanted some dimension so I used one of my favorite techniques. After using a regular hole punch to get the red circles on the bottom left and the light yellow center for the flower, I applied some Liquid Glass.

After the Liquid Glass dried, my little punched holes somewhat resembled brads and give my cards dimension, not to mention some shine, without too much bulk.

Supplies used (all CTMH except for copics and nestabilities dies): (January special from 2009) Key to My Heart papers, (X7141B) Elemental Level 2 paper pack, (Z679) Liquid Glass, (B1374) Bee Happy stamp set, (44751) Archival black ink, (Z578) Corner Rounder, (Z1710) Just Blooms Paradise Paper Flowers, (Z1686) Cricut Art Philosophy Cartridge to cut banners, Copic markers, nestabilities 

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Pemberley Celebrate

A few college friends and I try to get together once a year to celebrate our birthdays and exchange gifts. Part of my gift to each of them this year was a set of handmade cards. We met yesterday but of course I hadn't finished my cards beforehand and was working in the morning before we met! My daughter was watching me create  and she said," No offense Mama, but you leave things to the last minute!" No offense taken darling! Yes, I definitely have procrastinating tendencies.

I do love one of the cards I came up with to go into my friends' gifts. I used my favorite new paper pack and favorite new stamp set from the CTMH Spring/Summer Idea Book: The Pemberley paper pack and the Card Word Puzzle stamp set. 

I followed along with Freshly Made Sketches #21. Isn't this a great sketch?

I love the design teams interpretations and got the idea of using crimped paper and the Lacey Circles Nestabilities from them! Here's what I came up with.

Supplies used (all CTMH except for Nestabilities and paper crimper):
Stamp sets: (C1494) Card Word Puzzle, Stamp set from Z1686 Cricut® Art Philosophy Collection ("Celebrate") 
Stamp pads: (Z2140) Outdoor Denim
Papers: (X7148B) Pemberley Level 2 paper pack, (X254) 5 1/2" X 4 1/4" White Cards & Envelopes
Embellishments: (Z1263) Bitty Sparkles
Other: Fiskars paper crimper, Nestabilities (Lacey Circles and Standard Circles Small)Pin It

You Warm My Heart Red Mug

It snowed over here today! I didn't even realize that it was supposed to. It was a pretty light snowfall and it looked so pretty as it was falling. It has already mostly melted from the sidewalks so we'll see if we have a delay tomorrow with the schools due to ice. After my daughter came in from playing in the snow, I made her a cup of hot chocolate and started working on this card...perfect for this weather.

I was inspired by the Inspired By #5 Challenge and this cozy picture.

I hope you're not tired of this stamp set yet! I was hoping we still had some heart sprinkles that I could use on the Liquid Applique for the "cream" in the mug but no such luck. I used red sugar sprinkles instead.

Supplies used (all CTMH except for sprinkles, circle punch, heart punch, chalk, and Nestabilities--Standard Circles Small and Large):
Stamp sets: (G1031) Wonderland Workshop on the Go stamp set, heart from (D1222) Tiny Typewriter Alphabet, heart from (retired) Solos "L"
Stamp pads: (Z2166) Tulip stamp pad, (Z2125) Grey Wool stamp pad, (Z2124) Grey Flannel stamp pad, (Z2163) White Daisy Pigment ink pad, (Z891)Versamark
Papers: Grey Flannel Cardstock, Grey Wool Cardstock, White Daisy Cardstock, patterned paper from (retired) Perfect Day
Embellishments: (Z281) White Hemp, (Z1615) Red Ribbon Collection, (Z308) Liquid Applique, (retired) White Daisy Mini-Medley, (Z578) Corner rounderPin It

Sweet as Honey

Happy New Year!

Well, break is over for me and the kids so we will be getting our noses back to the grindstone once more. Although I love teaching, I do love my free time, especially having time to create! So I was commiserating with my kids about going back to school a little today. I decided I needed to make something cheerful to end our break and to start the new year.

I've been enjoying Laurel Seabrook's blog for quite awhile now and she has recently started a challenge blog called Inspired By. The Inspired By challenge #4 is to use the following invitation as a starting point.

I was inspired by the layout, texture, and the colors. Here's what I came up with.

Supplies used (all CTMH except for Nestabilities): (B1374) Bee Happy stamp set, Grey Wool Cardstock, White Daisy Cardstock, Corner Rounder, Black stamp pad, (Z2350) Sunflower marker, (Z2310) Buttercup marker, (Z2352) Sunny Yellow marker, Corner rounder to make scalloped edges, Houndstooth paper is from the retired Splendor paper pack, Nestabilities - Lacey Circles, Standard Circles (small and large)

One of the sentiments from this stamp set is, "Don't worry, bee happy," so now I have the Bobby McPherrin song going through my head!

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Play Date Cafe Challenge PDCC92 - Just a Note

My first thought after seeing the colors for the current challenge at The Play Date Cafe was, "Yummy!" The suggested colors are Coral, Petal Pink, and Antique Gold. Interestingly enough, I ended up using some CTMH colors named after desserts: Sorbet and Creme Brulee. Quite yummy!

I think this color combination is just gorgeous and it is one that I don't tend to use it very much so I'm glad it made me think outside of my box.

Supplies used (all CTMH except for ribbon, thread, and nestabilities): (X7131B) Sophia Level 2 paper pack, the patterned paper behind dragon fly is from the retired Life Delights, (D1444) A Little Thanks stamp set, (C1299-retired) Butterfly Kiss-dragonfly image, (Z2114) Cocoa stamp pad, Sorbet cardstock, Creme Brulee cardstock, (Z697) Round Sponge.

Nestabilities Lattice Rectangles

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Heart to Heart Challenge 66

I've been trying to organize and declutter my craft area and although I knew I had a lot of retired (CTMH) items, my efforts have brought to light the enormity of the amount of retired paper, embellishments, and stamps that I have! Yikes! (And I do let my daughter use my things and I often donate items to the preschool where I work. There's just so much!) I think I had better get down to more creating!

So here's my entry for this week's Heart 2 Heart Challenge (using a number of retired items such as that cute ribbon). I don't know if you can tell from the photo, but I used Liquid Glass on the beak and on the little white dot on the irises.

Supplies used (all CTMH except Nestabilities): (C1362) You're a Hoot stamp set, (Z2116) Cranberry stamp pad, (Z2153) Sweet Leaf stamp pad, (Z2111) Chocolate stamp pad, (Z1361) Brads - Red Assortment, (Z679) Liquid Glass, (Z697) Round Sponge, Nestabilities Decorative Elements Dies
(retired items - ribbon, flower, paper)

Here's an image of the sketch from Heart 2 Heart.

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Clean and Simple FTL 148 Plus Cards with Sophia Scraps

My Kids' Scramp Camp ended yesterday so I am in the process of reclaiming my dining room! I should have taken a before and after picture but the dining table was covered with layers upon layeers of paper and then ink underneath that...but it wasn't too difficult to clean up and it got me in the creating mood. As promised, here are some projects using some of the leftovers of the Sophia paper pack.

My first card was inspired by the current sketch on http://cleanandsimplestamping.blogspot.com/:



And here it is:

Supplies used (all CTMH except for nestabilities dies): (C1340) Aspiration stamp set, (D1187) For Every Occasion stamp set, (X7131B) Sophia Level 2 paper pack, (Z2166) Tulip stamp pad, (Z2128) Hollyhock stamp pad, White Daisy Organdy Ribbon, (Z1151) Foam Tape, (Z1326) Sparkles - Red, Pink, Purple Assortment

So in keeping with the circle theme I made the following two cards. The first one is very simple, no stamping at all. The second one is a non standard size and I added a Desert Sand colored card base to change it up a bit.

Supplies used (all CTMH): (C1340) Aspiration stamp set, (X7131B) Sophia Level 2 paper pack, (Z2106) Blush stamp pad, (Z2128) Hollyhock stamp pad, (Z1127) Designer Ribbon Rounds™ Chocolate Collection, (Z1151) Foam Tape, (Z1326) Sparkles - Red, Pink, Purple Assortment, (Z578) Corner RounderPin It

Singing Birdie

The other day, at about 4:50am, I was awakened by what sounded like the tweeting of ALL the birds who had ever flown south for the winter and who had now decided to return, all at the same time, back up here for the spring! I woke up and said," The birds are back," to my sleeping husband. He said something like,"Huh?" and promptly went back to sleep.

Well, I hope this little stamped bird evokes a kinder and gentler mode of tweeting. I love the new background stamp, Universal Backgrounds. It has a wood grain pattern, a mesh pattern, a cursive writing pattern, and then, of course, these pretty musical notes.

Supplies Used: (A1104) A Tweet stamp set, (D1477) Universal Backgrounds stamp set, (Z2114) Cocoa stamp pad, (Z2167) Creme Brulee stamp pad, (X5754) Creme Brulee cardstock, nestabilities, (Z1131) Designer Ribbon Rounds™ Créme Brulee Coleection -- this is currently on sale!

Check out the "While Supplies Last" section of my website to see what else is on sale.Pin It

Hugs and Kisses

Here's a card I made for a friend who just had a baby girl. I used scraps from some of my old (retired) CTMH paper and paper pieced the main image. I love this stamp set, Love You Forever. The sentiment, "hugs and kisses" is from, A Little Buzz. If I make this card again, I would ink the edges of the main green rectangle the same way I did with the green rectangle which has "hug and kisses" on it but I didn't feel like taking the card apart and possibly ruining it! I will probably be including this in a package instead of sending it in an envelope, so I had a bit of fun and made it all poofy with the pearl on top of the crocheted flower on top of the paper flower on top of crocheted ribbon.

Supplies used: (C1398) Love you Forever stamp set, (B1353) A Little Buzz stamp set, (Z1033) Just Blooms™ Big Pinks Paper Flowers, (Z1126) Designer Ribbon Rounds™ Colonial White Collection, (Z1336) Opaques Pearl Adhesive Gems, (retired) Crocheted flower, nestabilities, retired paper

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Season's Greetings

The following card was based on a sketch I came across while looking at different blogs. I can't find the original sketch but some sites I use often for sketches are http://cardpositioningsystems.blogspot.com/ and http://cleanandsimplestamping.blogspot.com/. Aside from the paper piecing, this card came together pretty easily.

Supplies Used: (D1380) Just for the Holidays stamp set, (X7130B) Mistletoe Level 2 paper pack, (Z2137) Olive stamp pad, (Z2116) Cranberry stamp pad, (Z578) Corner Rounder, Red ribbon, Nestabilities

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Bravo

Here's a card I made for the music teacher at work. She's been with the school for 20 years!

This is the front of the card.

This is the inside of the card.

Supplies Used: (C1400) Encore stamp set, (Z2105) Black stamp pad, (Z2141) Pansy Purple stamp pad, (X5669) Textured Cardstock Autumn Harvest, (Z578) Corner Rounder, (Z1104) Clear Sparkles, (retired) Just Blooms Autumn Daisy, nestabilities

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Pink Owl Card

Whenever I look at my daughter's comforter, I think of stamping! I love all of the adorable nature images on it so I thought I would try to make a card inspired by these images. I normally don't work with these colors so it was a good challenge for me...and it took me a good long while!

Here's a picture of the comforter above.

And here's the card it inspired:

Supplies used: (C1323) Whooo Loves You stamp set, (C1362) You're a Hoot stamp set, (D1372) Grown With Love stamp set, (X7121B) Caboodle Level 2 paper pack, (Z2117) (Z2138) Crystal Blue stamp pad, Orange stamp pad, (Z2108) Brown Bag stamp pad, (Z2338) Orange marker, (X5745) Textured Paper Summer Celebration palette, (Z578) Corner rounder, hole puncher, nestabilities, black acid free pen

By the way, this is a 5" x 7" card. Most of the cards on my blog are standard size, 4.25" x 5.5" but I couldn't fit the tree on a smaller card!

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