Thursday, February 28, 2013

March Stamp of the Month

Welcome to this month’s Stamp of the Month blog hop!  A hop goes in a big loop so once you see our 55+ participants, you’ll be right back here.  If you’ve come from Adeline’s blog welcome! 
This month’s stamp set is Floral Happiness, a beautiful, versatile stamp set that features a technique that made the Close to My Heart My Acrylix so popular to begin with!  It’s a two part stamp where you stamp the base of the flower and the details separately to create a beautiful and unique image.  I love it! 
Did you know that our Idea Book is a wonderful place to get project ideas?  That’s where I start when I need to make a card quickly.  Keep reading to see a pic of the original card below.
CTMH March SOTM Floral Happiness
 
To create the rose, I stamped the solid large rose in Buttercup ink on White Daisy cardstock.  I then lined up the detail stamp and stamped it in Honey ink.  If you’re not sure about the alignment, check the carrier sheet that the stamps cling to.  The stamps are side by side and aligned.  This one’s a bit tricky and honestly, I didn’t align it perfectly (and it didn’t matter!).
I used a strip of Avonlea paper on the left and paired it with the slate cardstock on the right.  I scored the slate paper at 1/2” intervals and then sanded the raised lines to create this soft line texture that lends interest to the cardstock.  It has the feeling of an old weather-beaten fence to me.  The swirls were cut from the Art Philosophy Cricut cartridge at 1 and 1.25.”  This is exactly how the CTMH artist did it.  I took this info from our Idea Book Recipes guide.  Did you know that we had such a thing?  They’re wonderful and they now provide the Cricut cut info too.  Click here and then look in the left column for “Recipes.”
Here’s a shot of the card that was featured in our Idea Book.  Even though they’re based on the same stamp and Cricut shapes, they’re so different!
March SOTM example
Here’s what the whole set looks like.  You can get it for just $5 with a $50 purchase in the month of March.  Or for just $17.95 when ordered separately. 
 
  S1303-FloralHappiness
 
 
















I’m excited to send you to Wendy’s blog next.  She has some amazing artwork and never disappoints!  Thanks for stopping by!

Tuesday, February 19, 2013

Cricut Craft Room with Artiste

Monica from Close to My Heart gives some great tips on how to use Cricut Craft Room!  Check out her awesome video and the projects she features

I love using Cricut Craft Room!  It’s a convenient way to create a project that you want to cut over and over. If you have any questions let me know!

Friday, February 8, 2013

Flirty Thanks

Flirty has been such a fun paper pack!  I’ve loved working with the fun Raspberry color which isn’t part of the standard CTMH colors.  It’s definitely a fall paper with the rich Goldrush yellows and oranges in it.  We can add a bit more of the Raspberry and keep it from looking fresh all year long.  This is a semi-retired paper pack.  The papers were officially retired on Jan 31.

I have great news for you!  The Workshop on the Go is available through the end of the month (or until sold out) and the regular papers have already made their return in the “While Supplies Last” section of my website right now for only $1.75!!!

Card-Flirty and Casual Expression Stamp Compatible with CTMH Cricut Artiste

This card was created for my Fun & Fabulous 4th Friday card workshop in January.  I based my card on one from Vicki Wizniuk’s blog.  In further reading, she created it with materials given to her at the CTMH convention last summer!   I rotated it and changed the colors a bit.  In creating another card for this workshop, I realized its design is nearly identical to the birthday card I posted earlier for this workshop. 

Even better, both cards are ultimately designed from the same pattern in the CTMH Wishes Card How to Program.  It’s currently unavailable but I’m confident that it will return in the next Idea Book or two.  The Originals Card How to Program was re-introduced this year in a soft cover format.  I’m hoping that Wishes will be coming back in the next Idea Book cycle. 

Now that I have you thinking about How To Books and patterns, don’t forget about the deeply discounted Flirty Papers in the “While Supplies Last” Section of my website.  Join my personal gathering and I’ll send you a surprise to thank you!

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Have a fabulous weekend!