Spotlight on Autumn

Tags

Alcohol Marker, Close To My Heart, Copic, CTMH, ShinHan, Stamp of the Month

Greetings fellow Paper Crafters!  Today I wanted to make some Thanksgiving cards and I have been eager to try a technique that is new to me called Spotlight Stamping.  I saw a couple gals in the paper crafting community showcase this technique lately and I couldn’t wait for Autumn…the leaves were a perfect way to utilize this.

Spotlight Stamping Thanksgiving card.

I used my MISTI and made two identical card fronts.  I stamped leaves and acorn from the CTMH Fall Harvest stamp set, randomly placing them to fill in the entire page .  I colored one of the stamped panels with my alcohol markers and then die cut a rectangle out of the center and popped it up with foam tape above the identical uncolored panel.  I topped that off with a “Life is Good” banner from the Love This Story stamp set also by CTMH.  The interior of the card was stamped with CTMH Year Round Cheer, Give Thanks stamp.

Interior of Spotlight Stamping Thanksgiving Card

I colored in the pumpkin pie with alcohol markers and called it done!

I hope you enjoyed today’s project.  I would love it if you would Like us on Facebook and follow our blog by clicking on the link to the left, so you don’t miss a thing!

Happy Scrappin’

Let Me Call You Sweetheart

Tags

Alcohol Marker, Beetle Black, Close To My Heart, CTMH, Distress Inks, Doodlebug Designs, eBosser, Mini 8 Punch, ShinHan, Stamp of the Month, Tim Holtz, We R Memory Keepers, Worn Lipstick

Happy Wednesday to you!  Today is the second in a set of four Old-style Valentines.  I used these adorable images ‘Sherry and Dog with Bone’ from Sunsational Stamps.  I colored them with ShinHan alcohol markers and distressed the background with Worn Lipstick Distress Ink.  I added a few die cut hearts that I cut with my fabulous eBosser.  I cut the background doily with We R Memory Keepers Mini 8 Punch Rose pattern.  I cut it on Beetle Black cardstock from Doodlebug.  I mounted all that on the card base, and stamped the inside sentiment with CTMH Brushstrokes and January’s Stamp Of The Month Beloved Bouquet.

Sherry & Dog With Bone Valentine

Sherry from Sunsational Stamps

Sentiment for Valentine Card

I hope you enjoyed our card today.  We would love it if you would follow our blog by clicking on the ‘follow me’ button and Like us on Facebook so you don’t miss a thing!

Happy Scrappin’

Who Could Resist?

Tags

CTMH, eBosser, Embossing Powder, Ranger, Stamp of the Month, Versamark, Zig Clean Color Real Brush Markers

Happy weekend all!  I saw on Facebook that today is National Card Making Day, so… I made a card!  I wanted to use embossing resist with my Zig Clean Watercolor Markers.

Birthday card using Embossing Resist with Zig Clean Watercolor Brush Markers

Close up of watercolor

I started with 140 LB cold press watercolor paper and stamped it using one of the lovely images from CTMH September Stamp of the Month Paper Garden.  I stamped it with clear Versamark then coated it with Ranger embossing powder in Lettuce and heated with my heat gun.  Next I randomly brushed orange and yellow Zig Clean Color Real Brush markers, then using a medium side flat paint brush I added water and swept the brush from left to right on a slight angle.  Then I wrapped some bakers twine around the watercolor paper fastening it on the back of the canvas, and added three pearls.

For the base piece I used CTMH B&T Duos in New England Ivy, ran it through my eBosser with a honeycomb embossing folder and adhered all it to a light yellow card base.

I hope you liked today’s card.  Happy Card Making Day!  Please follow our blog by clicking on the left hand side.  Like us on Facebook too so you don’t miss a thing.

Happy Scrappin’

Vintage Birthday Card with Mixed Media Bookmark

Tags

Authentique, Close To My Heart, CTMH, Distress Inks, Fiskars, Graphic 45, Memento Inks, Modge Podge, Peeled Paint, Stamp of the Month, Tea Dye, Teresa Collins, Tim Holtz, Vintage, Walnut Stain

Salutations one and all, today I will show you a mixed media technique that I used to make a vintage bookmark that was added to a birthday card for a gal that loves the colors gold and green, has a passion for books (not Kindles or Nooks) and all things vintage, so I came up with this.

Inside of card with bookmark tucked inside a vellum pocket

Front of Bookmark

Back of Bookmark…I thought this saying was appropriate for reading a good book.

• I created the tag using thin chipboard as my canvas.
• I then placed a Tim Holtz ‘burlap’ stencil over it.  I taped it down with some microspore tape (it is more easily removed than Washi or painters tape).
• Next I applied Distress ink in Peeled Paint.  I did this on both sides of the bookmark.
• Once the stencil was removed I then distressed both sides with Tea Dye Distress ink.
• In the next step I grabbed a paper cocktail napkin that has a vintage motif printed on it and tore around the edges to a size that fit on the front of the bookmark.
• I glued it down using Matte Modge Podge.  Once dried, I added a top coat on the napkin, making sure to ‘seal’ the edges down and let dry completely.
• I added a chipboard bird to the top front corner of the bookmark.
• On the backside, I stamped the days of the week in a border using Fiskars – Teresa Collins Calendar stamp set.  I used Memento Tuxedo Black ink.
• I then added word stickers from Authentique ( I am not sure what collection these were from, I have had them for a while).  I used the words WHAT.A.LOVELY.WAY.TO.SPEND.A.DAY.  I thought that sentiment was perfect for reading a good book.  I distressed the edges of the word stickers with the Tea Dye ink and put them in place.
• I used Walnut Stain Distress ink to distress the edges of the entire bookmark.
• I then painted on a final coat of Matte Modge Podge to both sides of the bookmark (making that two coats total for the front).  I set it aside to completely dry.
• I added a Graphic 45 key from their Staples.  I attached it to a bit of white ribbon using Close To My Heart Extra Thick Twine in Flax.  I just love the look of this twine.  It is more like miniature rope.

The remainder of the card was made using CTMH New England Ivy textured cardstock.  I cut it 9×7.  I scored the long end at 1″ and 5″.  I added a light green vellum pocket in the interior center, to hold the bookmark.  I then added another vellum panel on the right side of the interior of the card and stamped a sentiment from the CTMH Your Own Kind of Wonderful stamp set.  I used CTMH Topiary dye ink.

The belly band was made using American Crafts gold Washi tape wrapping a strip of cardstock.  I stamped the typewriter and Happy Birthday XOXOXO which came from April’s Stamp of the Month Typed Note from CTMH.  I used clear Distress Embossing ink and gold embossing powder.  Finally, I fussy cut that out and added to belly band with 3D foam squares.

Vintage style birthday card with mixed media book mark.

Thank you for stopping by and I hope you enjoyed today’s project.  Please click on the left to follow our blog and Like us on Facebook, so you don’t miss a thing!

Happy Scrappin’

Oodles and Oodles of Thanks

Tags

Alcohol Ink, Choose Happy, Close To My Heart, CTMH, Distress Inks, Evergreen Bough, Peeled Paint, Scattered Straw, ShinHan, Stamp of the Month, Stencil, Tim Holtz, Tumbled Glass

Oodles of Hellos to you!  I have been busy making cards…yes again, or should I say STILL.  🙂  I am looking forward to finishing up with all my recent card orders so I can concentrate on scrapbooking.  I haven’t been able to make page layouts in quite a while and I am missing it.

But I digress…  Today I have a couple of Thank You cards that I made using the CTMH Choose Happy Stamp of the Month set for March, and one of the cards is being entered into a stencil challenge.  I circle punched an index card with three size  circles and then laid a Tim Holtz circle stencil over the holes and randomly stenciled the tiny holes into the large punched holes to get this effect:

Stencil within a Stencil Technique

This was a lot of fun to do.  I then laid the punched out circles over the stenciled areas so I could add TH Distress Ink in Peeled Paint in the background.  The distress colors I used for the stenciled areas were; Evergreen Bough, Scattered Straw and Tumbled Glass.  The Thanks Oodles frame was colored with the ShinHan alcohol markers in the following colors; Peacock, Turquoise and Leaf Green.  These colors are so pretty together, and I just LOVE the frames in this stamp set, it is so whimsical.  The stamp set is only available through the end of March.

Stamp colored with Leaf Green, Turquoise Blue and Peacock Green ShinHan Markers

Gift Tag to attach to a Close to My Heart product order.

The colors used on the gift tag were; Tender Pink, Cherry Pink, Peony Purple and Lavender.  These colors pack a lot of punch!

I hope you enjoyed today’s featured stamp and techniques.  Please click on the button to the left to follow our blog and like us on Facebook, so you don’t miss a thing!

Happy Scrappin’

How Do I Love Thee, Let Me Count The…Cards

Tags

Artbooking, Close To My Heart, Cricut, CTMH, eBosser, Stamp of the Month

Valentine greetings friends, I am still cranking out Valentine cards, so with no further ado, here are a few more designs.

Hexagons cut using Cricut Artbooking cartridge.

I love hexagons!  So, of course I own the Hexagon stamp sets…(yes, plural).  The stamp set I used is called Happy Hexagons, which is compatible with the CTMH Artbooking Cricut cartridge.

Hexagon Card

I used CTMH Pigment inks; Hollyhock, Cranberry and Cotton Candy as well as Memento Tuxedo Black ink for the arrows and sentiments.  I also added some pizzaz with the Pink Glitter Gems.  I love the glitter gems and have them in pretty much every color.  These sets are great because they contain several shades of the color family and they vary in size.

Lace Embossed with bling

Two types of embossed hearts

On the card above I embellished this one with two different types of embossed hearts.  The solid red one was run through my eBosser with the Polka Dot embossing folder.  I stamped the heart with the cranberry pigment ink, added clear embossing powder and heat set it.  The sentiment came from the January Stamp of the Month ‘This Moment‘.  The top strip of paper is from the Heartstrings paper collection.

Last, but not least is the card I made using the new stamp set Amour which is available in the new Seasonal Expressions 1 catalog.  I love anything French, so I went “Ooh-la-la’ over this set.

Je T’Adore Card

Ingredients for the Amour card

I also used the Forever in My Heart stamp set for the inside sentiment.  I embossed the silhouette of the couple and the Je T’Adore sentiment.  The script background was stamped with slate dye ink on light grey card stock.  All the shapes where cut using the Artbooking cartridge.

Amour Stamp Set

Amour Stamp Set

Forever in My Heart stamp set

Forever in My Heart stamp set

I hope you enjoyed these cards.  Please follow our blog and like us on Facebook.  Happy Valentine’s Day and Happy Scrapping!

Mini Hop – BIG Ideas!

Tags

Artfully Sent, Close To My Heart, Cricut, CTMH, Stamp of the Month

Howdy Hop-a-Long!  Today we are participating in a mini blog hop.  I partnered up with a fellow Close To My Heart Consultant to show you a couple of ideas using the Close To My Heart Cricut cartridge Artfully Sent.  This cartridge is jam-packed full of fabulously easy cards you can make in a flash!  There are 700 images on this cartridge, including pop-up cards, fold-out cards, icons, sentiments, pocket cards, sleeves, scenes, envelopes and an adorable font.  The options are nearly endless.  My card was a combination of two different pop-up cards.

 

Two Foxes Icon – I just love these little guys!

Two Foxes on the Nature background (Full inside view)

Front of card using the Fall Harvest stamp set and the You’ve Got A Friend In Me Stamp of the Month stamp set.

I also used this cartridge to decorate the inside of some Halloween cards I made.  Here is the inside of those cards.

Halloween Icons used inside a card

So as you can see these are very versatile!  Thank you so much for hopping over, now please hop on over to Kim’s blog if you haven’t already been there yet today.  You can find her here at:

http://www.kimbpapercrafts.blogspot.com

Happy Scrappy Hopping!

Beautiful Inside AND Out!

Tags

Close To My Heart, Constant Campaign, CTMH, Splitcoast Stampers, Stamp of the Month

Hello Scrappy Followers!  This week is all about packaging.  I will walk you through the steps to make these nifty “purses” that are designed to hold four A2 cards and envelopes.  I have altered this slightly from a tutorial I saw from Splitcoast Stampers blog.  I needed a cute way to package up a couple of card orders I was asked to make and my usual acetate boxes are out of stock, so as they say, ‘Necessity is the Mother of Invention’, I had to go to the drawing board and alter this tutorial instructions to fit my needs.  Here is how it was done….

Card Purse

Inside of Note Card Pocket Purse.

Side View of the purse.

To make one purse package that holds four cards and envelopes (A2 size) you will need:

1. One sheet of 12×6 paper that coordinates with the cards that it will hold.
2. Two pieces of coordinating paper cut to 7″ x 3″
3. One strip of coordinating/contrasting paper cut at 6″ x 2″
4. Ribbon, Washi tape, border punch and embossing folder (optional)

I decided to emboss my 12×6 piece.  Since it was just solid white, I wanted to add interest.  My cards are very colorful and busy so I opted for a plain package.  Then you need to score it at 5-1/2 and at 6-1/2.  Fold so the tops are together and punch a hole for the ribbon.  Punch through both pieces at the same time so they are sure to line up.

Score both of the 7×3 pieces on one long side and both short sides at 1/4 AND 1/2 inch. Snip off the two scored corners, fold in and use extra strong adhesive along the outer scored edges (I used Score Tape).  Place them inside, fairly close to the bottom score lines to form pockets.

I added a strip of Washi tape at the top of each side to give it a little bit of strength.

I border punched the 6×2 strip and adhered it to the front top third.

Add coordinating ribbon to tie the purse closed and voila, a super nifty note card holder!

Make one and fill it with a small assortment of note cards for a personalized gift that would be perfect for any occasion.  I hope this inspires you to get your craft on!

Please visit my Close To My Heart business site to get more inspiration.  www.ejrobertson.ctmh.com  Remember if you order just $50 worth of CTMH product you qualify for the adorable September Stamp of the Month, which is Family is Forever.

September Stamp of the Month, Family Is Forever

And for the month of September we are offering a limited stamp set that is so adorable! Just purchase $30 worth of stamps from our Annual Inspirations catalog and you will receive this gem for FREE!

September’s Constant Campaign is FREE with a qualifying purchase.

Thanks so much for visiting and remember…Happy Scrappin’   🙂

 

Oh De Stress ;)

Tags

Close To My Heart, CTMH, Distress Inks, Stamp of the Month, Vintage

Salutations….We all have De Stress, and we all like to De Stress, and well this week is all about…you guessed it…Distress!

I have a couple of techniques to share with you for this one.  I have a vintage typewriter stamp set, complete with “type written” greetings.  This will be the April 2015 Stamp of the Month, but as a consultant for Close To My Heart, I was able to order it early.

I have a friend who was kind enough to place a large order for CTMH and she is so excited for April to come because she LOVES this stamp set.  I though it would be nice to make her thank you card using it.   Here are the pictures of the stamp set and card. I have also outlined the new techniques I used to achieve this look.

April 2015 Stamp Set of the Month

Completed Card

Close up of vintage postal washi and staple added.

To give the card that distressed “washed” appearance you need watercolor paper, two or three distress pads, inks or stains (I used Walnut Stain and Scattered Straw and Wild Honey ink pads) transfer a small amount of each on a craft mat, spritz with a little water and run the watercolor paper around in the wet colors.  I do several pieces at once so I have them on hand for other projects.  Be sure to let the paper dry completely before moving onto the next step.

Watercolor paper dipped in distress inks, stamped with clear embossing ink and black embossing powder added.

Bottom torn, embossed and note added.

Next I stamped the typewriter image with Distress Embossing Ink, it is a clear ink that stays nice and wet so you can add embossing powder in a color of choice.  I used shiny black.  Now to achieve the weathered look on the typewriter I only wanted the outline to emboss, so I had to “overheat” the center portion, both from above and underneath. The only thing to be cautious of is it gets super hot and you don’t want to scorch the paper.  Mine started smoking….so I thought it was time to stop.  HA!

Close up of distressed embossing technique.

So try one or both of these techniques soon.  Happy scrapping!!!