Makover Monday Feature: the Close to My Heart Cloud Nine Cardmaking Kit

Welcome back to the start of a new week, AND the new Makeover Monday Feature on my blog!

Today I wanted to share a few different papers that I mixed and matched using the same patterns from the AWESOME Cloud Nine Cardmaking Kit that is available from Close to My Heart for National Papercrafting Month!  This super-versatile kit is only $15 ($46 retail value!) with a $35 purchase on my website HERE.  Ready, set, GO!

The first two are made with the soon-to-be-retired (and now out of stock since I created these cards, boo) Chantilly Paper Packet...it is always so hard to say good-bye to favorite papers!

The next one features the Laughing Lola Paper Packet...

You can see that there are lots of different ways to mix and match your papers with these patterns after (or before!) you use the ones included with the kit.  The stamps match up with the shapes in the Cricut Artiste Collection, so you can create an endless supply of these fun cards!  :)  You can only get it this month, though, so don't wait!

Know what else is around for JUST this month?  The Stamp of the Month!  ;)

Freshly Made for Breast Cancer Awareness Month

I made a special card in honor of a relatively new friend of mine that I happened to meet through my Close to My Heart business.  I am rather pleasantly surprised by all the new friends I have made along my journey so far as a consultant.  I feel so blessed!

This new friend is a former consultant who has just fought the fight of her life against breast cancer, and I am so happy to say that she has beaten it!  There are far too many people I know who have battled and are still fighting this thing including my Aunt.  I unfortunately also know one who was not able to overcome it in this life.

I dedicate this card I made for Freshly Made Sketches 107 to all of the women who bravely do battle.

I used a new die cut and stamps from MFT (clear stamps, so I am linking up with Simon Says Stamp's Wednesday challenge again!), Close to My Heart Chantilly Pattern Paper, Inks, CS, Sparkles Flourishes, and the Cricut Artbooking Cartridge.

Next week I will have a special project related to this for you to see! 

Edited!  I just linked up with DL.ART's Linky Pinky Party for the month of October.  Go check out the pink HERE!

Another Birthday Card With Artbooking

Hi there!  I'm back again with another card from the Card-A-Day Challenge.  This one uses an adorable torn page shape cut from the Cricut Artbooking Cartridge.

AND, as a little side note...HAPPY BIRTHDAY, DANA!!!!  If I had realized sooner that it was your birthday today, I would have sent you a card, lol!  Hope you have a fantastic day though!  :)

Back to business!  Here is the card I made on the day we were to use Twine...

I am absolutely addicted to making these little envelopes on the front of cards now!  I used my We R Memory Keepers Envelope Punch Board and the Chantilly Paper Packet to make it, and it was super-easy.  I stamped  the star in Lagoon from Artbooking and the Happy Birthday Sentiment in Black from Holiday Tags.

The bright Sunset Orange Baker's Twine is found in the Paradise Assortment.  I love fraying the ends of the twine for some added interest and texture.  One of my favorite new embellishments has a whole different texture!  This button badge from the Babycakes Assortment adds both natural wood and shiny smooth enamel.

Thanks for popping in today!  See you soon!

Throwback Thursday! The Chantilly Textiles Flower is BACK!

Hey there!  Who's feeling sparkly today?  I have a great throwback for you today, so hold on to your hat!

Remember when the Chantilly Textiles first came out and I made THIS little flower?  The video shows me making a little pink flower that I JUST now finally attached to a card, lol!  Here it is!

Poor little guy had to wait all this time on my desk to make an appearance here!  I can't believe he didn't run away!  ;) 

I used the Chantilly Paper Packet that is still available and the retired Dotty For You yellow polk-a-dot paper as well.   The Bitty Sparkles were just the right bit of brightness on this one!  :)

Guess what?  I didn't use any stamps on this card!  The sentiment is cut from one of the zip strips on the Pattern Papers in Chantilly, so it was easy-peasy!  How sweet it is! 

Can you guess where I got this wonderful card pattern?  You guessed it!  It is none other than pattern #28 in Make It From Your Heart Volume 2!  I highly recommend both volumes for loads of inspiration from Jeanette Lynton (founder of CTMH) in your cardmaking and scrapbooking!

One Page Layout without My Cricut?

I wasn't sure if I could actually pull this off to tell you the truth!  I have a gathering coming up where we will be making a scrapbook layout.  Some of the guests are new to scrapping and have never seen a cricut, so I don't want them to run away screaming just yet, lol.  The hostess and I decided to keep it on the down-low and Cricut cut free.  :)

One of the Close to My Heart videos on the Consultant Website inspired me to come up with the following page, and I really love it!

I used Buttercup CS for the base.  The two pics are 4 x 6 matted next to each other on White Daisy with a 1/8 inch mat.  The banner cuts are made with a 2 inch scallop circle punch on White Daisy and a 1.5 inch circle punch on Twilight.  They are folded over a strand of Baker's Twine and adhered with Bonding Memories glue.  I stamped the little flower from C1536 Happy Thoughts My Acrylix from Close to My Heart.  All the patterned papers are from the Chantilly Paper Packet.

This cute journal box is a 1.75 x 2.75 inch rectangle of White Daisy that I cut on my trimmer and used a stamp from D1524 Frame It Up My Acrylix.  I popped it up with foam squares for dimension.  I {heart} dimension!  ;) 

The last hand-made element on this page is the scallop boarder on the White Daisy cardstock at the bottom.  I did this with my corner edger all along the edge of the paper, and it was so easy! 

I am so proud of myself for making a cricut-free layout for a change!  It sure won't stop me from using mine all the time, but it is good to know that I can still do it all by myself, and show my customers who don't have a cricut how to make fabulous pages!  :)

Be Still And Know that I AM God

I have a request to go along with this card.  Prayers, and lots of them.

I made this one for a friend who has been very suddenly diagnosed with stage four cancer.  There it is again...THAT word.  I don't want to say it anymore, don't want to hear it anymore, don't want to feel the pain of another family struggling to deal with it.  I'm giving this one to God, just like the verse says.  "Be Still and Know that I AM God."  Without Him, I don't know what else to do.  Her treatment has been nothing short of miraculous so far, and I expect nothing less in the weeks to come.  Thanks in advance for all your prayers for her, it means the world to a lot of people, including me.  We love you, Betty Boop! 

Easy-Peasy Cards

Raise your hand if you think you could never make your own fancy schmancy cards.  If your hand is frantically waving in the air, then this post is for YOU!!!

Sometimes the need arises to make several cards at once or even a simple single card needs to be whipped out lickity split.  Maybe sometimes, you just don't want the fuss of designing a card, and that is totally fine!  Here are a couple of simple, yet pleasing cards for you to make.

This first set went together super-fast and easy.   I used White Daisy Cardstock, Chantilly Paper, the Cricut Artiste Collection, and Shimmer Trim or Washi to accent them.  The Inks I used were taken from the colors of the paper--Buttercup, Cotton Candy, Blush, Pear, Twilight, and Lagoon (because I like it with this paper!)  The cards are all 3 x 3, so I can get 8 of them from one sheet of cardstock!  Guess I better make one in Sunset and one in Ruby to have a complete set!  ;)

The next cards are 3 x 4 and based on the same type of design--simple!  No Artiste Collection needed for this one.  I used the B1398 Just for You My Acrylix Stamp Set instead.  LOVE this set--it was brand new when I was a brand new Close to My Heart Independent Consultant a year ago!  For only $9.95 it is a steal!

I love this little sentiment because it is so versatile.  :)

So, there you have it!  Easy-peasy cards!  :)

Color My Heart Color Dare #35

Welcome back to another Color Dare!  Each week at Color My Heart, Sarah posts up another challenging combination of colors for you to play with.  You get to stretch your creativity, play with your Close to My Heart products, and link up your creation to enter the contest.  If she picks yours as her fave, you get to display the coveted Color Dare Diamond badge on your blog!

This week we have a beautiful combo of spring colors for you to try--Buttercup, Blush, and Sky.

I had not yet had a chance to play with my Close to My Heart Acrylix set B1420 Hello Tweety when I received my assignment on the design team, so I decided to give it a workout for this challenge.  Here is the lovely spring flavored card I came up with:

While I think it is gorgeous, I also think it is soooo sad!  How lonely does that little bird look?  :(  Perfectly fitting of the sentiment, sigh.

That Buttercup Patterned paper in the background is from the Chantilly Paper Packet and it made an absolutely fantastic looking wallpaper, didn't it?  

Because our stamps are clear, I was able to line up the cage bars to add them exactly where they should be on the little bird.

A touch of Black Shimmer Trim at the bottom to draws the eye downward.  I added the image of the little birds on a wire to the inside corner.

I have grown quite fond of this stamp set!  Here is a look at the whole thing...

Now, it's your turn to get creative!  Use these CTMH colors, or some similar, to make your very own paper creation and link up to us at the Color My Heart Color Dare!  You have until Thursday the 28th at 9pm CST!  :)

H2H Goes Green for March Madness!

Is it really Monday already???  Time sure flies when you are having a fabulous time, and that is true for me right now guest designing on Heart 2 Heart.  I am having a blast!  Oh, and there is that little matter of the hour of sleep I lost yesterday... :)

This new challenge for March is called Go Green!  Hmmmm...what do you think that means?  ;)  I'm an Irish girl at heart and it is certainly in my blood, so I knew which direction to go with this challenge right away.  I made a little gift set that includes a little girl's headband with a matching gift bag.

When I first got my hands on the new Chantilly Textiles, I wasn't really sure what I was going to do with them since I absolutely don't sew!  I figured out an easy way to make a flower with it using Close to My Heart's Liquid Glass to hold it together.  You can see the video tutorial I made HERE.  This particular flower is a bit bigger than the others I had made, and I embellished it with three fun four leaf clovers stamped in Topiary and Sweet Leaf Inks on White Daisy Cardstock.  I found this little stamp (and the word "lucky" on the tag) on the retired March Word Puzzle My Acrylix.  I also placed a retired sparkle brad in the center. 

I happened to have a plain green elastic headband sitting around that my girlies don't use, so attached it easily by using another circle of cardstock underneath it and my trusty liquid glass.  Let me tell you, my little model was more than happy to try it on and show it off.  Getting it off of her though, was another story!  ;)

A few green Sparkles add just the right amount of bling!

On to the gift bag!  I immediately reached for the fabulously versatile Chantilly Paper Packet for this one.  The cut for this bag is on the Close to My Heart Cricut Art Philosophy Cartridge.  I cut it at the biggest size it would allow which escapes me now...

I haven't been stamping with Close to My Heart for long enough to have a collection of St. Patty's day stuff, hey wait a minute, what day is it???  March 11th???  Oh my goodness, today is my FIRST ANNIVERSARY with Close to My Heart!!!!  I signed up one year ago today with my upline, Mandy Leahy!!!  Do you know what I told her?  *whispers* That I was only going to be a hobbyist!!!!  Well, we both know how that turned out, lol!!!  In a few short months I had held my first open house, booked my first gathering, and met my Straight to the Top goals!  Now I mostly have card and scrapbook workshops as my business, but I am working it every day right here on my blog!  I LOVE MY JOB!!!!  Ok, sorry about that little tangent!  Where were we?   The gift bag...

I decided to use some of the cute little tags on the Cricut Art Philosophy Cartridge that have an adorable little shamrock cut out on them.  Then I just used the shamrock part of the cut, lol!  I shimmered the Pear Cardstock up a bit with my Glitter Glitz in green.  I made a lucky little tic-tac-toe game on the front with my Slate Polka-dot Washi tape.  Guess the O's lost...

My paper crimper that my sis got me for Christmas sure came in handy to fill the bag!  :)  AND I did use one of those left over shamrock tags for the gift tag.  LOVE, LOVE, LOVE this golden glitter paper!  

I hope you liked my little gift set.  It is definitely a more out-of-the-box project for me, but I am certainly glad I tried it!  Now, I either need to make a few more, or figure out which little girl gets to wear it on St. Patrick's Day!  Yikes!  ;)

Please join in at Heart 2 Heart this month by making something green with your own Close to My Heart supplies (mostly.)  Link your project up at the Heart 2 Heart Challenges Blog and play along with us during March Madness...you just might get lucky yourself this month and win a prize!  Read more about it here!

Mojo Time Again! :)

I haven't played at Mojo Monday for a while so I figured I would jump in this week and use the sketch for a birthday card, or two, or three that I needed to make this month.  Raise your hand if you know a lot of someones with March birthdays...what is up with that?  :)

Anyway, I have been super-addicted to the Chantilly Paper Packet lately.  I think it is the springy colors that have me craving warmer weather here in the Midwest.  It will come, it will come!

Here is my entry for Mojo Monday #283...

And here is the sketch...

You can get the bling gems I used for the center of this flower in the While Supplies Last area of my CTMH website right now for a steal!   Hurry though, because when they are gone, they are GONE!  Did you know they can be colored with permanent markers or our Alcohol Ink Markers?  Yep!

I love how this flower turned out.  I am usually very careful to not mix my inks on my ink pads, but I just HAD to try this out.  I inked up the flower stamp from the Hello Love My Acrylix in Buttercup Ink first, then rolled the edges in the Cotton Candy Ink before I stamped it!  Isn't it gorgeous tipped like that?  The cut for this flower as well as the rest of my cuts on this card are on the Close to My Heart Cricut Artiste Cartridge.  To celebrate National  Scrapbook Month, I am offering the Artiste Collection with FREE SHIPPING!!!  Just click on THIS LINK to order! 

I have been trying out some different things with ribbon lately.  I used this Sweet Leaf Grosgrain  ribbon for leaves by folding it in half lengthwise after cutting the end at an angle.  Glue dots easily hold it in place.  The little Birthday sentiment is found on one of the My Acrylix sets that is included with the Cricut Artiste Collection!  I love this one!  I stamped it in Blush Ink onto the shape that my Expression 2 cut out so nicely for me.  I am sure glad you can see through all of our stamps to line it up just right.  ;)

I really wanted the shadows of this beautiful doily cut to show through for depth, so I popped it up with my foam tape.

The blank space at the top of the card was absolutely stressing me out for some reason.  I wanted to remain true to the sketch, so I left it out for the Mojo entry, then added some carefully trimmed Sparkles Flourishes after I was finished, lol!  Now my brain can rest!  ;)

Color Dare #33 + Easter = FUN!

You are going to LOVE this dare!  It is totally different than any other we have done...this time we want you to use two different paper packs to come up with a lovely combination of whatever colors they happen to be!  The Close to My Heart Papers can be current or retired.  I chose one of each: Dotty for You and Chantilly.

Now, I am definitely NOT a math whiz by any means.  I am famous for measuring and cutting my paper only to find out that I should have cut it a different size.  I do know that this was a super-fun, low-key project for me though with practically no measuring involved!  I let my Cricut Expression 2 do all of the cutting along with my Close to My Heart Artiste cartridge!

I made this adorable Easter time treat.  It is actually a clever sucker sleeve (try saying that three times fast!)

I used the Smoothie Dotty for You paper for the juicy strawberry, and the Pear B&T Chantilly Paper as the leaf.  The easy-peasy tag is one of the square remnants from the Irresistibles Frames that I inked with Buttercup Exclusive Ink.  Have I ever mentioned how much I LOVE using leftovers?  Not the food kind so much, but the paper type, YES!

A simple banner with the sentiment is popped up with a few layers of cardstock for dimension.  This is a fantastic trick that I just learned from Katy Tayor, one of the DT at the Heart 2 Heart Challenges Blog.  Here is her post about this clever technique.  I continued the "dots" theme with some of our new Washi tape.  It was really easy to punch a hole in one corner of my tag to tie it to the stem, I mean stick, of the sucker.  ;)

This pretty green ribbon is actually our Color Ready Seam Binding Ribbon that I colored with our amazing Alcohol Ink markers!  I love this method of quickly coloring the ribbon because it dries so fast!  Patience is not one of my strong points.  Sparkle, yes--patience, no.  ;)  Here is a look at the backside of the berry.

 To make these strawberry suckers (minus the tag,) you need the following items:

I just love how Rachel Loesch at the Cricut With Heart Blog shows her projects with the cuts and sizes on her versamat, so decided to try it here.  GREAT idea, Rachel--it really helps explain the how-to of the design.

The 3D strawberry cut is on page 72 of the Cricut Artiste handbook.  I cut it at 3.5 inches relative dial size, but cut the leaf at 3 inches so it would not get in the way of the tag.  If you aren't adding a tag, then feel free to cut it larger to match the berry.   I cut the leaf out twice, flipping the paper over for the second cut.  This way I can glue the two together and have the green side show on both sides.  :)
I first tied the bakers twine to the stick and then wove it in and out of the flaps for the strawberry.  I wove three flaps through one side of the tie and the next three through the other, ending around the stick again with a knot.

Next, I inked up the edges of the leaf, and gently widened the hole in the middle with my Crop-o-dile just enough to fit snugly over the stick.

Finally, I added the ribbon to keep it all together.  This is also where I added my tag, but you certainly don't have to!  This was a pretty easy project for making to add to Easter baskets or for treat bags.  I hope you get a chance to try them!

Now it's your turn to take the Color My Heart Color Dare!  Pick any two Close to My Heart Paper Packs and combine them for a whole new look!  Be sure to link up with us to share your project.  I can't wait to see what you make!  :)

Color Dare #32 Gets Stuck in the Muck

Happy Thursday to you!   It's time for another Color Dare!  This week we are showcasing the three Close to My Heart colors Pear, Lagoon, and Outdoor Denim.

Alright, how many of you have launched yourselves head-first into a project or craft only only to find yourself come to a screeching halt?  (This is where you all humor me and raise your hands, or give up a sassy, "Mmmm HMMM!")  ;)  Well, THAT, my friends is what happened to me this week!  I thought I knew exactly what I was doing with this design, but unfortunately the two cuts from the Artiste Cartridge that I thought went together like peanut butter and jelly, well, they were actually more like peanut butter and ketchup, lol.  Thanks to the wonderful encouragement of the Color My Heart bloggess Sarah, though, the project came together after all!  Here is the finished product...

I had everything embellished by the time I realized that the Outdoor Denim colored card shape was NOT an envelope sleeve for the other cut!  I am not sure why I didn't realize it before, lol, but I sure didn't.  Here is the page in the handbook with the cuts...just so you don't think I am crazy... ;)

Sarah suggested I upload a photo so she could help "unstick" me from my design dilemma.  It is a good thing too, because she pointed out the simplest thing to me that would save the whole design (thanks, Sarah!)  :)  Whew!  Instead of using the entire card shape of the Outdoor Denim shape (yeah, it's not a sleeve, it's a card all on it's own) I simply needed to cut off the back and attach it to the front instead of using it as the sleeve that it was never meant to be, lol!  It worked out great too!  If you ever get stuck on a project, be sure to ask someone for an opinion before you scrap it!  ;)

I bet you thought these colors were from Later Sk8r, right?  Well, guess what?  The Zip Strip from the Chantilly Paper Packet matches it spot on!  All I had to do was change the little dots from pink to white with my gel pen!  ;)

Here it is when you open it up...I trimmed a picture of the girls being silly at the zoo to give to Grandma in this beautiful little presentation.

Here is my creative formulary for this wonderful little tuck card.  (I made up the name, isn't it fitting?  You tuck the end of the paper up under the little flap to close it.)

Cricut Artiste Cartridge
*Provocraft Expression 2 Cricut Cutting Machine
Whisper, Outdoor Denim, and White Daisy Cardstock
Chantilly Paper Packet Zip Strip
*White Gelly Roll Pen
Lagoon and Outdoor Denim Exclusive Inks
D1506 Family Love My Acrylix Stamp
D1546 Frame Flair My Acrylix Stamp
Silver Shimmer Trim
Satin Polka Dot Ribbon
Black Button Assortment
Paradise Assortment Baker's Twine

Now it's YOUR turn!  Get crafty with these three colors along with any neutrals you choose, and link up to the Color My Heart Color Dare!  We can't wait to see what you come up with!  :)