It’s an Easter hop!

Happy spring my friends!  To celebrate spring and upcoming Easter the Evergreen Memories Team have joined together to feature an Easter Blog Hop!  What’s a blog hop?  We’re linking our blogs together so you can hop from one to the next without any difficulty at all.  So if you’ve already been hopping, you’ve come from Tracie’s blog. 
Last month we had a wonderful Studio J promotion.  I scrapped almost all of my 2012 pictures in a couple of weeks!  Here’s my Easter layout with last year’s pictures.  I used the Chantilly paper pack in StudioJ to make a beautiful spring layout.  As I’m the only girl in my house, I try to make my layouts not too frilly all while being bright and beautiful.  Chantilly does that.  Do you realize it includes Twlight and Outdoor Denim in its color pallet?  This helps make some very balanced layouts!

The title Easter Blessings is the alphabet stickers that are part of the Chantilly My Stickease in Studio J.  Those cute little flowers were already a part of the font!  It was so simple!  I was also so pleased that I could rotate my journaling box on the diagonal so that it matched the direction of the box.  I did by adding a NEW text box.  Don’t try to do this with one of the text boxes that came in the pre-designed template; they are fixed and can’t be resized or rotated. 
Stay tuned for more Easter projects on my blog in the next week!  I have a super cute 3D project that I’ve been working on. 
Please hop on over to Carla’s Blog to see her delightful project!

Happy Birthday with Later Sk8r papers

Hello friends!  Here’s a very simple card for the boys!  I used the new Later Sk8r paper pack which is full of paint, stains and fun. 

I had started with the sketch featuring the card that says Hugs by Lisa Stenz (click this pic to see the card). This card design is from the new Make It From Your Heart Vol I how-to guide.  (It’s a Volume 1 guide, which means more will come and this one will be discontinued so get it now).  I had this card in mind for a workshop so I wanted it simple as possible with lots of fun. And it worked!  Instead of stamping a round or square element that’s to top each of the bars of paper, with the Perfect Fit—Birthday stamp set B1417 on pg 95 of the Idea Book,  I used the Artiste Cricut Cartridge to make this gear border on pg 39 of the Artiste handbook.   I cut it at 1.75” tall and it makes enough for exactly two cards!  (That’s a workshop planner’s dream come true!)  The happy birthday sentiment that I ended up using down below does come that same set “Perfect Fit—Birthday”

So here you have it.  I love the fun, shiny, new epoxy bubbles give a beautiful non-girly sparkle to any card.  And one that you can make in just a few minutes! 

 

It just so happens that this week’s color challenge is Lagoon, Outdoor Denim and Pear over at the Color My Heart Blog so I’m entering it in Dare # 32. 

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.

 
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!

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. 
 
 
 
 
















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

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!

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!!!

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!

Have a fabulous weekend!