Four Fabulous Years!!!!

Today is my 4th Anniversary as a Close to My Heart Independent Consultant!!!! 

I have no idea how the time has flown since I picked up my first My Acrylix Stamp set and Exclusive Ink Pad. 

This was my first Idea Book back in the Spring of 2012...

Remember?  Stella was my FAVORITE paper packet!  Which was yours?  Pemberley?  Typeset?  How about Footloose?

Just for giggles, here is that first post I made on my blog about it--the big announcement, lol.

Can you believe they had not even invented Shimmer Trim yet back in the day?  The horror!  ;)

If you are still with me on my little stroll down memory keeping lane, thank you for humoring me.  My customers and blog followers have been amazing along my journey.  I quite frankly could not have come this far without you guys.  And I would be talking to MYSELF for goodness sake!

To my friends near and far who have supported and buoyed me as I navigated the sea of planning crafty classes, THANK YOU for filling my sparkle bucket day after day...I reflect your kindness, your optimism, and your encouragement that you so selflessly have given.  I love you all more than glitter.  And that's a LOT!

Now!  DON'T forget to take advantage of the fantastic sale going on right now on my Close to My Heart Website...

 
And this sunny Stamp of the Month is only here for March, too!

Stitched Flowers for MCT Designer's Challenge!

I am SO glad I finally picked up this flower die and played with it!  I am a HUGE fan of Emma's stitched dies over at My Creative Time, and I am slowly building a collection.

Can I just say the timing was excellent for me to grab this one, because this month's MCT Designer's Challenge is to use a FLOWER on a Mother's Day project!  YES!!!

I just LOVED using the Jubilee Paper Packet from Close to My Heart to make the flowers!  It reminds me soooooo much of a retired paper packet called Pemberley that I adored when I first became a Close to My Heart consultant.  :)

I actually even used the Pemberley Assortment resin flowers to complement the paper flowers and the gorgeous font from the Mother's Day My Acrylix Stamp Set.

I was in my craft cave with my teen hanging around trying to butter me up for some reason, when she showed me how she had twirled a skinny triangle of glitter paper around my tweezers.  I was so annoyed!  I reprimanded her for playing around with my things, especially my precious glitter paper, and took it, only to exclaim a moment later that she was BRILLIANT!

Aren't they just the perfect thing to add to flowers?  Oh, I could kiss her!  But don't tell her that!  ;)  The glitter paper is just stiff enough to hold its shape after you let it go. Can't hold it back anymore!  ;)  I used 5 of these die-cut flowers to layer on my card, so I am off to link up with Heart 2 Heart Challenges: Take 5!  You should check it out over there--serious CTMH inspiration, my peeps!

Hope you decide to try this neat little embellishment idea yourself!  :)

Three-peat Stamping!

Thank you for coming in to take a peek at my latest post!  All the girls (and guy!) over on one of my Close to My Heart Facebook groups are trying out this amazingly simple yet powerful stamping technique called triple stamping.  You can see how to do it HERE in this YouTube video by Dawn.  Thank you for the great tutorial, Dawn!  It is a great way to make a beautiful card using only stamping to get a lot of bang for your buck.   I like to call it Three-peat Stamping, myself....any former Bulls fans out there?  Do you remember the day?  Sigh...but I digress.  :)

Here is my first attempt:

I really wanted to use the Pirouette stamp for this to see how it would look.  I really like the effect, but let me tell you, I need more practice with this stamp because it is large!  Large, and solid, lol.  It left some blank spaces to fill in with a black marker, but that really wasn't too difficult to fix up.  I also must have been a little crooked, because my sentiment is running downhill, lol.  Ooops!  See, bloggers make mistakes too!   I admit, I was in a hurry to see how it would look.  Lesson learned!  Slow down and get it right.  Now I know I like the look, so I will definitely make more of these!  ;)

I made a total of SIX different cards like this tonight!  I will post others in the days to come, but here are two more right now:

For both of these cards I used the Pemberley Workshop Stamp set from the previous Idea Book.  I used the Pemberley Paper Packet which is still available to try a pattern paper as the mat on the first card.  I like the effect, but I LOVE how the darker, solid mat makes it POP!

Which one do you prefer?  I would love to know!

Remember, I am having a giveaway for anyone who orders on my website through my Card Workshop Gathering and helps me reach my goal this month!  I am soooooo close!!!  Read about it HERE!

Damask Divas September Blog Hop!

Welcome to my blog!  Starting at midnight of Sept. 1st, I am part of the Damask Divas September Blog Hop. We are showcasing the beautiful new Paper packet, Clementine, from Close to My Heart.  If you came from Diana's Blog, you are in the right place.  If you have jumped here and just discovered our blog hop, feel free to check the list at Damask Divas to find out where you are in the hop.

This month, I had a backlog of pictures and needed to catch up so I decided to create a layout from the new Make It from Your Heart--Volume 1.  I chose the pattern, In Focus, on page 14 (which is really just named Pattern 14, lol thank you, Shelly!)  The pics I used are from spring break 2010 on a trip to Florida.  I feel like the colors in Clementine make these photos of the setting sun on the ocean come to life.

Aren't the colors perfect?  I would have never thought to use them in this way--these pics were the next to use in my scrapbook order, so it just kind of fell into place.  The strips of blue that border the squares of color are from another paper pack, Pemberley.   I also took the letters from the Pemberley Stickease to spell out "perfect."  The color was just begging to be paired up with the colors of the sunset in Clementine.  I inked the edges of a cork heart shape with the new Cashmere Ink and placed one of the Cottage Assortment buttons in the center.  The word "ending" is stamped with the Trinity Alphabet My Acrylix in Saddle Ink.

Next, I fashioned my very own sun from the shapes on our new Artiste Cricut cartridge with one of Clementine's pattered papers and some Sorbet Cardstock.  This cartridge is JAM PACKED with new shapes--700 shapes in all!

I wanted to capture the emotions of the moment in a journalling tag that I cut from the Art Philosophy Cartridge.  It is inked in Saddle and embellished with Soebet Ribbon from the Designer Ribbon Red Collection, Natural Hemp, Sorbet Buttons from the Buttons Red Assortment, a cork heart from the Evergreen Cork Shapes, and another one of the Cottage Assortment buttons.  The words are stamped from the Keepsake Alphabet My Acrylix in first and second generation technique.  First generation stamping is the color you get when you ink up a stamp and stamp it the first time.  Second generation is the lighter color you get when you immediately stamp it again.  This is a very useful technique for creating movement on your pages, or for stamping in a color that you might not have.  ;)

So, what do you think?  I am really loving Jeanette Lynton's new book that I got this layout from.  It really gives you a lot of bang for your buck, and I will be posting other layouts from it soon!  I highly recommend it!  :)

Thanks for popping in on our hop!  Now you are off to Sheri Ann's Blog to see her beautiful creation with Clementine.  DON"T FORGET TO ENTER THE GIVEAWAY ON OUR DAMASK DIVAS TEAM BLOG!  I hope you are having a great time learning about some amazing projects you can make with the versatile Clementine Paper Packet! If you get lost in the hop, you can find the entire list of talented consultants at the Damask Divas Blog.  Now hop to it!

Mojo Monday 249

Today I am participating in the Mojo Monday Sketch Challenge for the first time.  I really loved the sketch and used it to create a card for my sister.   Mollie, if you are reading this, turn back NOW!  ;)

Here is the sketch:

 Mollie, seriously, this is your last chance to not see your card early, lol...

Here is my card:

 I used the Pemberley Papers for this as well as Vanilla Creme and Bamboo Cardstock. 

For the banner/flag I stamped in Outdoor Denim Ink and adhered it to one of the cricut dimensional elements chipboard shapes.  The sentiment is from the Cricut Art Philosophy Collection.  The rope stamp is from the Pemberley Workshop stamp set, and let me tell you, I LOVE this set!  (it is only available for a couple more weeks if you are interested.)  The background is stamped with the rose from Card Word Puzzle in the same ink using first and second generation images.  (Also only available for a short time longer!)  I added some Opaques from the Licorice selection for bling.  I love to dress up this image with the bitty pearls as well, but these took on the Pemberley blues so well I just had to use them.

Now, a funny thing happened while I was putting on the pearls.  One of them shot out of the tweezers and I could not find it.  This is hardly unusual since they are tricky to grip.  It is actually a regular occurrence around here.  They do turn up eventually.  THIS particular pearl, however, I found while I was putting the card away until it needs to be mailed.  It was at the top of the card on the dark blue Pemberley paper!  If you look closely, you can see it in the picture since I had no idea at the time that it was there, lol! 

I loved trying my hand at a sketch for a change and hope to do more in the future.  Thanks for looking!  Unless you are Mollie, then you should not be reading this!  ;)

It's April WHAT???

So, my computer is telling me that it is April 11th.  Really?  I am in shock!  Where has the time gone?  Maybe what they say about time flying when you are having fun is true after all because I have been having a FANTABULOUSLY fun time using all my new Close to My Heart products!  Today I finished up my Pemberley Workshop On the Go layout.  I tweaked a few things to fit my pictures better and love the final product!  I hope you do too!

 I used a different background paper on this side so I would still have a sheet left.  I need to conserve it for another project.

 These Honey colored flowers are soooooo super-easy to make!  They look like I spent a fortune and hours on them, but nope!

 Sponging the papers is such a fantastic technique to use.  Did I mention how easy it is as well?

You can order the Pemberley Workshop on the Go Kit from my CTMH website here.  It is one of my favorites right now.  Also, starting on Tuesday, April 17th, you can order the Limited Edition DOTTY FOR YOU Paper pack for only $5 with a $35 order!  What a steal!  It comes with 24 double-sided cardstock weight papers.  Just look at the wonderful colors!  They each have a pattern on one side and the dotted pattern on the other. If these colors don't say, "spring," I don't know what does.  Thank you to my amazing director, Mandy Leahy, for the great pic!