April Stamp of the Month Blog Hop - My Sunshine

Happy Easter and welcome to the April Stamp of the Month Blog Hop!  This month the featured stamp of the month is S1304 My Sunshine--a set of 8 adorable spring images compatible with the CTHM's Artiste Cricut cartridge!  Below are the images in this stamp set that is available only thru April 30th.

If you have come here from Helen Onulak's blog you are on the right path! You can find a list of all the participants (in case you get lost) here: http://bowlofstamps.blogspot.com/p/sotm-blog-hop-list.html  This month we have over 60 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!

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My item is a standard size card that I've made a birthday card.  Below is my card:

Here is a closer look:

Inside of Card:

Papers:  Surf's Up WOTG papers; White Daisy cardstocks
Stamps:  S1304 My Sunshine; D1529 Cricut Artiste Collection - Birthday; S1206 Life is Tweet (Ret.)
Ink:    Sorbet, Crystal Blue, Honey Exclusive Inks
Embellishments:  z1806 Green and Blue Epoxy Blue Bubbles; z1313 Stardust Glitter Glitz
Other:  Artiste CTMH Cricket Cartridge

Time to hop on over to Annette Green'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 thru April 30th! Contact your CTMH Consultant (or click here) to see how you can get this stamp set for $5!

Happy hopping!

Pemberly Sympathy Card

The most difficult cards for me to make are sympathy cards.  So I rely heavily on my sister consultants for inspiration.  Recently my boss lost her father and thanks to Vicki Wizniuk, I modeled my card after one of her beautiful sympathy cards. For the flower I used the Card Word Puzzle rose and stamped it directly onto the Crème Brulee decorative paper with Outdoor Denim ink. 

I love using dimension and this card has a lot of dimension.:

Below is the inside of the card.  Allisa Chilton is another consultant that is an inspiration to me.  Her cards are gorgeous on both the inside and the outside so I try to make the card's insides less plain.

Papers: Pemberly WOTG papers (Ret); Outdoor Denim, Desert Sand and White Daisy cardstocks

Stamps:  C1494 Card Word Puzzle
Ink:   Outdoor Denim Exclusive Inks; Buttercup alcohol markers

Embellishments:  z132 Color Ready Seam Binding Ribbon

Other: Spellbinder circle and scallop dies.

 

 

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Happy St. Patrick's Day!  In honor of St. Patrick's Day, here are some fun facts:

• St. Patrick’s Day is observed on March 17 because that is the feast day of St. Patrick, the patron saint of Ireland. It is believed that he died on March 17 in the year 461 AD. It is also a worldwide celebration of Irish culture and history. St. Patrick’s Day is a national holiday in Ireland, and a provincial holiday in the Canadian province of Newfoundland and Labrador.

• The actual color of St. Patrick is blue. Green became associated with St. Patrick's Day during the 19th century. Green, in Irish legends, was worn by fairies and immortals, and also by people to encourage their crops to grow.

• St. Patrick did not actually drive snakes out of Ireland; the snakes represent the pagans that he converted to Christianity. 

•  St. Patrick used the shamrock to explain the doctrine of the Blessed Trinity.  The Trinity is the idea that God is really three-in-one: The Father, The Son and The Holy Spirit. St. Patrick demonstrated the meaning of the Three-in-One by picking a shamrock from the grass growing at his feet and showing it to his listeners telling them that just as the shamrock is one leaf with three parts, God is one entity with three Persons.

• Saint Patrick was familiar with the Irish language and culture, because of his time as a slave there. When Patrick went back to Ireland to convert the Irish to Christianity, he was successful because he didn't try to make the Irish forget their old beliefs. He combined their old beliefs with the new beliefs.  Saint Patrick added the sun, a powerful Irish symbol, onto the Christian cross to create what is now called a Celtic cross, so that the new symbol of Christianity would be more natural to the Irish.

• Most Catholics attend mass in the morning and then attend the St. Patrick's Day parade.

• According to the Guinness Book of World Records, the highest number of leaves found on a clover is 14.

Can you find the Four Leaf Clover?  (Click to make larger)

Here is a fun Word Search:

Now, if that wasn't enough fun, here is a word scramble:

Answers:  Click here to get the solution.  I hope your day was super fun and I pray for many blessings for all!

Tea Dispenser Tutorial

I can't believe it has taken me this long to post the instructions for the Tea Dispenser (previously posted artwork here).  I wanted to wait until after my workshop.  This is the one we made at our workshop:

Here is the lid detail:

 

Papers:  Chantilly WOTG, including Twilight, Buttercup and White Daisy Cardstocks. Stamps:  C1496 Enjoy!
Ink:   Ruby Exclusive Inks
Embellishments:  z1807 Pink Glitter Gems; retired ribbon from Card WOTGs; z1780 Wrangler Assortment (pearl badge on lid colored w/ruby alcohol marker); z1786 Antique Gold Mini Medley Collection (white doily)
Other:  Art Philosophy Cricut Cartridge for Enjoy label and border of folded flower

1.  With a 6”x12” piece of cardstock, start by scoring 1” from the edge of the 12” side.  Then parallel to the 6” side, score at:  3-1/16”    5-3/4”     8-13/16”     11-1/2” (see below click on photo for details).

 

2.  Above the 1” line, score in the second panel 3/4” above the 1” score line (see above).  Cut out the pieces that are X-ed so that your panel looks like the one shown below:

3.  Score on all score lines illustrated by the dotted lines in the first picture.  Your cardstock should look like the one above.  Also make sure you cut out the tiny little piece on the bottom right of this picture (not shown cut out).

4.  To create the lid for this, cut a 4-1/4” x 4-5/8”.  Score at 3/4” on each edge of the lid, trim as shown below:

 

5. To create the decorative panels for this dispenser follow the measurements below:

Contrasting Matt Cardstock:  two (2-3/4 x 4-3/4"), one (2-3/8 x 4-3/4"), and one (2-3/8 x 4")

Floral B&T:   two (2-5/8 x 2-5/16"), one (2-1/4 x 2-5/16"), one (2-1/4 x 1-9/16"), and one (2-1/2 x 2-7/8") for lid

Pattern B&T (green):  two (2-5/8 x 2-5/16") and two (2-1/4 x 2-5/16")
Trim for lid edge:  two (1/2 x 2-1/2") and two (1/2 x 2-7/8")
Cardstock & Chipboard base:  3 x 3-3/8"

6.  It is easiest to place the panels on the scored dispenser before it is put together.  After trimming out the dispenser, adhere the sides together.
7.  Once the cardstock for the base is cut, adhere it to the chip board base and cut the chipboard.  Adhere the dispenser to the base.
8. For the accordion flower on the lid, I used a 3/4” x 12” strip cut from left over cardstock.  Score every 1/4” inch and then accordion fold.  Join ends together to form a circle.
9. I used a 12” ribbon to cover the line between the two B&T papers.  Then I added the rest of embellishments and greeting to the box. 
10. For the lid, I created a fanfold yoyo-flower by using a strip 12” x 3/4“.  I scored the strip at every 1/4” and then fan-folded the flower.  I joined the ends together so that the so that the strip forms a circle.  When I joined the ends, I joined it so that one mountain fold covered the first mountain fold on the other end of the strip.  A great tutorial for fan-fold flowers can be found here:
11. Fill your dispenser with Bigalow Tea or Stash Tea.  There are some brands that will not fit in your dispenser.  

(NOTE:  You can click on the little Print PDF button at the bottom of this article to print yourself a .pdf document of this tutorial).