Masculine Birthday Card

The month of May is full of card opportunities.  There is Mother's Day, my son and son in law's birthdays, my daughter in law's birthday and the list goes on.  So, for my son and son-in-law's birthday cards, I was very inspired by Dana Kessler to the point of pretty much casing her card.  When I have so many cards, the creative juices are sometimes stagnant.  Anyway, here is my rendition of Dana's lovely card:

I used our retired textured cardstock to make this card.  I really love this paper because one side is true color and the other is a lighter, coordinated color.  The base of this card is cocoa.

This one shows some detail a little better:

And here is the inside of the card:

Papers:  Jackson WOTG papers; Cocoa textured cardstock (ret.)

Stamps:  D1646 Finding the Words; S1504 Typed Note (ret.) -- below

Inks:  Juniper, Cocoa, and Black Exclusive Inks

Embellishments:  z3024 Bronze Shimmer Trim; z3041 Oceanside Sequins; z3073 Brave Enamel Shapes; z1263 Bitty Sparkles

Other:   z1686 CTMH Art Philosophy Cricut Cartridge; z1924 Dot Embossing Folder

 

D1646 Finding the Words

 

 

S1504 Typed Note

 

 

And here is the wonderful cake that my Grandson picked for his father, my son--a real outdoors man.  He had to make sure that he would be able to keep the boat, fisherman, and fish.  Of course his dad told my Grandson that he could hold them for him.  :-)

 

 

Happy Birthday Ian! 

 

Love, Mom

 

Dotty For You Blog Hop

Welcome to the Dotty For You Blog Hop CELEBRATING NATIONAL SCRAPBOOKING MONTH in May 2012.  Dotty for You includes 24 specially designed, coordinating B&T Duos® sheets (2 each of 12 patterns) and an artwork idea insert to get your creative juices flowing. This oh-so-cute package will be available April 17 thru May 31, 2012.  Join Close to my Heart today or host a $400 party and you can get your package FREE (a $19.95 value), OR with a $35 purchase you can get this package for just $5.

 

If you have come here from Helen Onulak's blog, you are on the right path!  You can find a list of all the partipant's in case you get lost here:  http://bowlofstamps.blogspot.com/p/sotm-blog-hop-list.html.

We have almost 40 CTMH Consultants sharing their creations using these amazing papers. The hop is simple to follow --just click on the link provided at the end of the post to move to the next blog!

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This standard size card came from last week's MojoMonday sketch.  I just love the look of the bright popping colors with black background!  First, a small view of the sketch:

Papers: Dotty For You papers; Sweet Leaf and Black Cardstock

Stamps: Cricket Art Philosphy D-size Stamp set (one of 3 that comes with the cartridge) and S1204 You Are (April Stamp of the Month)

Ink: Lagoon and Smoothie Exclusive Inks

Embellishments: Z1683 Mixed Shapes Dimentional Elements; Z1466 Bling Assortment button; Z1702 Paradise Assortment Baker's Twine; Lace from Colonial White Designer Ribbon Collection (Retired); Cricket Art Philosophy cartridge

A second card I did, also standard size just went together in about 30 minutes (usually it takes me days staring at a blank canvas to create a card and even longer for scrapbook pages); however with the beautiful colors of spring and something I did a long time ago this came together so easily!

I like both of these pictures and couldn't decide from which angle I liked it better.  Tee hee....

Papers: Dotty For You papers; Colonial White and Black Cardstock

Stamps: D1475 Card Chatter - Birthday

Ink: VersaMark and White embossing powder

Embellishments: Z1702 Paradise Assortment Baker's Twine; Z1694 Bouquet Assortment

Other:  Z578 Corner Rounder

Hope you enjoyed my slant on these gorgeous papers!  Now it's off to Dawn Ross' Blog to see her lovely creations!

First Layout of the New Year

I have not been much of a scrapbooker but I love paper crafting.  My layouts are far and few in between.  But I've been wanting to do a layout of my grandson, Xander.  So here is the captured memories of my grand son's first haircut, in March last year.  I chose Lucky papers to match what he and his dad were wearing.  I just love the colors!!  I actually did this layout in Studio J last year.  [Studio J is the FREE to use online program from Close to My Heart that you can access here.]  I designed the layout in Studio J and used that to create this traditional scrapbooking page.  Feel free to click picture to see details.

Closer look at the left page layout:

 Closer look at the right page layout:

Supplies used (all CTMH unless otherwise noted):

Paper:  Lucky Workshop on the Go Kit; Cocoa, Outdoor Denim, Indian Corn Blue, Autumn Terracotta, and Colonial White CS; Lucky My Stickease Assortment

Stamps:  D1471 Vintage Type

Ink: Olive, Cocoa, Outdoor Denim, Bamboo

Embellishments:  Wooden buttons, Autumn Terracotta waxy flax (ret.), Autumn Terracotta brads, Autumn Terracotta photo clips (ret.), Outdoor Denim grosgrain ribbon from the Blue Collection, Autumn Terracotta grosgrain ribbon (ret.) Pewter photo hanger

Other:  Cricut Art Philosophy cartridge; SU tearing ruler

And, for the curious, here is what I actually created in Studio J.  When doing the actual layout, it helped me to size my pictures and choose which way someone was looking (because you can also flip pictures around).  What a super tool to help in designing your layouts (a necessity for me who professes to be more of a card maker than a scrapbooker).

Studio J was fun but when I look at the two layouts, I think I love the classical scrapbooking one best because of all the textures and dimension!  But you can't beat Studio J for a design tool (and it's FREE - go to my shop on line site and create yourself an account and have FUN, FUN, FUN!!)

January 2012 SOTM Blog Hop

Happy New Year Everyone!! This month the featured stamp of the month is S1211-Little Reminder, a set of 25 images!  Below are the images in this stamp set.

If you have come here from Lalia Harris's blog, you are on the right path!  I am the first stop for this month's hop! You can find a list of all the partipant's (in case you get lost) here: http://bowlofstamps.blogspot.com/p/sotm-blog-hop-list.html  This month we have over 50 Close To My Heart Consultants sharing their creations using this set. The hop is simple to follow - just click on the link provided in the post to move to the next blog!

* * *

My item is a "standard-size card made from the Sonoma Workshop on the Go (WOTG) Papers.  I was trying to make a birthday card for my granddaughter whose birthday is January 6th.  This is one of those cards that looked so much more elegant in my head.  :-)

Supplies used: S1211 Little Reminder Stamp Set; G1028 Sonoma WOTG; Colonial White, Chocolate, Smokey Plum & Olive Cardstock; Olive, Chocolate & Smokey Plum Exclusive Inks; CTMH Cricut Art Philosphy Cartridge; Z1635 Heirloom Assortment (flower); Smokey Plus organza ribbon (retired); old Fiskar border punch.

Time to hop on over to Helen Onulak's Blog to see her beautiful eye candy! Be sure to visit all the Consultants' Blogs to get some great crafting and other fun ideas! Remember, the SOTM is only available until January 31st! Contact your CTMH Consultant (or click here) to see how you can get this stamp set for $5! Here we go!

Happy hopping!

November's Sharing from the Heart Blog Hop

Welcome to November's Hop! This month's themes we have three themes that each hopper chose from, Thanksgiving, Stamp Of The Month, or Gift Ideas. They may have done all three or only 1 of them.

You have arrived from Jody Gustafson's blog. My project was tags.  Needs lots of tags for gifts, right?

The large tags are 5" tall (not including ribbon).  The small tags are approximately 3" tall.  If you are using your CTMH Art Philosophy cartridge in your Cricut to cut out your tags, the small ones are "original" size.  You can click on any pictures for greater detail.  I shamelessly copied these ideas from Annette Green.

Here are the individual tags close up.

In the meantime, please hop on over to Kristine Ponte's Blog to enjoy her lovely eye-candy.

If you get lost along the way, please enjoy all of the lovely posts below:

Diana Soling http://mystampingspot.blogspot.com/

Deb Fortin http://papercrazy.blogspot.com/

Elizabeth http://ejoym.blogspot.com/

Heather Hunt http://creativecoconut08.blogspot.com/

Jody Gustafson http://cre8nmemories.blogspot.com/

You Are Here----->; http://bowlofstamps.blogspot.com/

Kristine Ponte http://kponte.blogspot.com/

Lori Stroup http://loriannie670.blogspot.com/

Wendy K. http://myscrapbookingblog.com/

Adeline Brill http://adeline-brill.blogspot.com/

Lela Norris http://lilola4life.blogspot.com/

Thanks for stopping by and have a day full of wonder and delight!

Holiday Projects Are A Breeze!

In the first video, making tags can be a breeze with the new CTMH Art Philosophy Cartridge and the December 25th C1469 stamp set!  See how easy below:



And here's a way to make cute quick cards.  Again, the CTMH Art Philosphy is showcased along with the A Holiday A1115 stamp set:



Now, for the last video we have it All Buttoned Up:

"Enjoy" Scrapbook Pages that Pop with Flowers!

Quickly cut, stamp, and curl pretty 3-D flowers using Close To My Heart’s new Cricut® Art Philosophy cartridge, My Acrylix® Hooray Bouquet stamp set, and your own creativity. Pick up more ideas for embellishing your layouts, cards, and gifts with fun florals in this how-to video.



I can't wait, my cartridge won't be here until next week.....

Happy Scrapping!