Butterfly Bouquet

 More paper butterflies.  I started making these with no real idea as to what I would use them for I just thought they would be pretty.  I used several different inks so that I could get a variation of tones on each butterfly.  Then one day a couple of weeks ago, I was browsing around some of my favorite sites on the web and I saw this post at Saucy's Sprinkles she used feather butterflies but it gave me the idea to try it with my paper ones.  I still need to make more to really fill out my bouquet but, here is the start.

The peacock green is from Tim Holtz's special addition "Spring collection" I'm hoping he makes it a permanent color.  I also used CTMH colors of sunflower, dutch blue, sorbet and sunset.  They work great because just like TH's inks you can layer the colors and they won't get all muddy, you get tones from each of them.  It's still a work in progress but I like it so far.

Have a great weekend, we're supposed to get more rain, Yay!  Love the rain.  I'll talk to you again soon.

Halloween treats

 I had seen these cute little peppermint patty spider treats on a site some time ago and thought they would be cute to make for the staff for the start of conferences.  Our fall conferences coincide with the Halloween holiday.  I'm in the process of constructing 97 of these little guys.  They'll have a little tag hanging from one leg that reads: "Hope your conferences are filled with lots of treats and no tricks." 

However, in the past, the thought of making these by punching out all the different pieces with several different size punches made my wrist and thumb start aching just thinking about it.  Enter the new little paper crafting hero from Close to my heart... The Art Philosophy cricut cartridge.  All the pieces for these critters can be cut using that cartridge! No punches necessary, except for a standard single hole punch, for the small black pupils.  Even the legs are from the cartridge and I loved being able to cut just the right size to layer everything, as well as cut different size circles based on the diameter of my candy pieces.  So versatile!

These little treats were also inspired by the Heart 2 Heart challenge blog.  This week's challenge: Halloween or Fall.  You should head over there and see all the wonderful inspiration.  The papers for this project are all from Close to my heart, Hydrangea, black, daisy white and one of my favorite greens of all times, citrus leaf.  The shapes are: Scalloped circle, photo corners base and layer, and a plain circle.  For my purposes it was easy to load my paper, choose my shape, set the size and then auto fill the page.  The cricut maximized my paper and did all the cutting for me.  Now if it could just use glue dots I'd be set (ha, ha).

Have a great week and I'll talk to you again soon.  (If my post looks a little off it's because my motherboard died on my computer and I'm using my DH machine, he doesn't any photo editing software on his, but I'm grateful I could still participate this week!)  Oh, the original site were I found these little guys is here.

A little french flair

I don't know why, but when I see stripes with a scalloped edge it always makes me imagine a little cafe on a sidewalk in Paris with a striped awning shading the little tables set in white linen with fresh loaves of bread in baskets on the tables.  I've never been there (to Paris that is) so I don't know why that is what  I think of,  but there you go, that is just how my little pea brain works. 

This card makes me think of the promise of spring.  I know, we just started fall, but I don't do cold very well so I am always looking toward the warmer months with anticipation. 

There you have it, my special gift card set that I'm sending off in a few days.  I hope my aunt enjoys them and can use them.  I'll talk to you again soon.

Holiday thanks

The third card in the set is a thank you card, it was inspired by the October 3rd Heart 2 Heart challenge card sketch.  The wonderful thing about the Heart 2 Heart challenges is that they are open for the whole month so when you finally have a chance to get into your stamping space you still have the opportunity to participate in their fun challenges.  The color combination for this card is holiday red, colonial white and chocolate.

The stamp sets used are the Close to My Heart "Remarkable Wreath" and "Universal Backgrounds"  I love the look of text on my backgrounds almost as much and I love polka dots, (well it's not really that close).  I guess I'll have to try combining them on a project soon.  The last card of the gift set is tomorrow.  I'll talk to you again soon.

Love is all you need

As promised, here is the second card in the Close to my heart "Remarkable Wreath" card set.  This card was done in several blue tones, with the addition of cream, bamboo and chocolate.  I also used the words background stamp from the "Universal backgrounds" set.  I stamped the words background right on my designer paper and then layered all the other elements on top of that.

I hope your day is filled with love.  I'll be back tomorrow with the next card.  Talk to you again soon.

Four the numbers!

Hi everyone.  Welcome to my little space.  Today I am posting the card I designed for the Guest Design Team spot for the Heart 2 Heart challenge blog.  The challenge this week is to create a card and include a number on the front.  I decided to use the Close to My Heart "Remarkable Wreath" stamp set.  I have been wanting to use it for a while now and this seemed like the perfect opportunity.  In fact, once I started using it I couldn't stop!  I created a whole set of cards to send to one of my aunts in Illinois, so Aunt Dukie, if you're peeking in, these cards will be on their way to you soon.  

The first card in the set has fall tones, I used autumn terracotta, sorbet, sunflower and chocolate inks and some of my favorite polka dot papers that I have been hoarding for a while, a snippet of vintage lace that I purchased at the antique mall this summer and some of my beloved polka dot ribbon. 

I  also added some bling in the form of gold glitter dots sprinkled around the wreath.  They are very sparkly, but it was hard to capture with the camera.

I'll post the next card in the set tomorrow so be sure to check back.  Thanks again for stopping by and I'll talk to you again soon.

Baby gifts

Four new little ones are due in the next few weeks so it was time to put together their gifts.  These new little ones are made honorary Ravens and they get the t-shirt to prove it.  This year I wanted to package them up a little different so I found some baby bottles and rolled the shirts up really tight and slipped them inside the bottles.  Then decorated the top of the bottles with a tulle bow, silk flowers and a coordinating binkey.  I added a tag with a quote by Robert Munsch from his picture book, I'll love you forever.  The mom's to be really seemed to liked them.

The stamp set, and inks are all by Close to My Heart.  I pieced the tag image with a few scraps and colored the rest of it in with colored pencils.  Then I masked the whole image and sponged around it with CTMH Sky blue ink.  Thanks for stopping in today.  I'll talk to you again soon.

Just Married

Finally, here is the card from our third September wedding.  The sweet bride is a purple lover like me so I pulled out some of my "jewels" and purple papers to share with her.  Papers, stamps and inks are all by Close to my heart.   Boy, I don't know about you, but it sure was a Monday all day today.  I hope yours was good.  I'll talk to you again soon.

Clean and simple

When I make a card to give to a bride and groom I try to coordinate it with their wedding colors.  (I know.. I'm just weird that way)  The invitation for this wedding was very colorful with touches of bling through out.  The Close to my heart cricut cartridge "art philosophy" helped make this card quick and easy.  The large medallion shape was perfect for my stamp and left just the right spaces for some sparkle.  I hope you've got something to celebrate today.  I'll talk to you again soon.

September... the new June??

I know that June is traditionally the month for weddings, but we have 3 to go to this month, something unusual for us.  This is the card for the first wedding.  A sweet couple starting out with so much love for each other and thinking of others all the time.

I used another older Close to my heart stamp set and the colors sweet leaf and blush with just a touch of grey wool.  Wishing you love today.  I'll talk to you again soon.

Happy Fall!

The first weekend of a new season.  It's hard to believe yesterday was the first day of autumn, State fair is almost over and balloon fiesta is just around the corner.  This morning I noticed the tree in the neighbor's yard had some fall colors started.  Doesn't it feel like this year is flying by?

For this quick little card I used a couple of older retired Close to My heart stamp sets with a scrap of newer background paper.  I like to go back and revisit some of my old favorites now and then and use them again just for fun.  I hope you have some fun this weekend.  I'll talk to you again soon.

ME? I won!?

I am finding it hard to believe but, it actually happened!  I won the top spot at the Heart 2 Heart challenge blog this month.  I am beyond thrilled and completely in shock.  If you've never visited the blog you should hop on over there right now.  They have some great inspirational challenges and the Design team always does a wonderful job of interpreting the challenge to give even more inspiration and you get to use the great Close to my heart products. 

Check out my new, super cool badge.  Awesome, right! I just had to share.  Thanks for stopping by.  I'll talk to you again soon.

My Friend retired

My friend Jo retired, a year ago... That's when I started this project.  It was supposed to be a banner that I was going to hang over her cake at her reception.  But, as some projects do, this one began to evolve into something more than a simple banner and the more I worked on it, the less it got finished.  Have you ever had that happen to you?  You see the problem was, Jo is very special to me and I wanted this project to reflect all the fun and thoughtful times we have spent together.  By now, a banner is kind of unnecessary, but I had all this work done so I decided to turn it into a mini album (not so mini after all).  One side of the banner/book spells out the word retirement, the opposite side of each ban-nett? I don't know, what you'd call the individual flags of a banner!? Anyway, the opposite side has a short poem that goes along with the corresponding letter.  I added lots of charms and glitter, buttons and beads.  So this is the result.  Now I need to get it into the mail before another year goes by.

Here is hoping you get to finish a project that has been a while in the making.  Have a wonderful weekend, it's nice and cool and rainy here today.  I'll talk to you again soon.

Polka dot love

One of my go to design elements is polka dots.  To me, they add freshness to any design.  Big or little, a few or a lot, polka dots make me smile.

My card was inspired from here at the CASE challenge from Heart 2 Heart.  I initially chose this card because of the tonal quality and all the lovely layers.  My card is much thinner but, I kept the tonal and some of the layers.  My other inspiration was from the The Shabby Tea Room, using polka dots, something I dearly love to do.  I used the same shade of green ink on the whole card, stamping, distressing and playing with the Close to my heart mini misters (the felt flower and the pear). I could stay at my worktable all day but, I have to go get ready for school.  So I hope you have a "pearfect" day and I'll talk to you again soon.

Hot, red or green style!

If you live here or have ever visited then you probably know that our official state question is "Red or green?"  It is the most commonly asked question in regard to how you want your chilli.  This year they are predicting a super "hot" chilli crop.  So this card is my tongue in cheek take on the state question. 

A birthday card for a friend who we will be meeting for "new mexican" food in a few days.  This is the inside of the card... 

When I saw the challenge on the Heart 2 Heart blog this was the first thing that popped into my head.  Stop on over to their spot and look at all the other HOT ideas.  Thanks for stopping by.  I'll talk to you again soon.

All the papers, stamps and inks are from Close to my heart.

A challenging challenge

It's been a while since I did a Mojo Monday challenge and so I thought I try the latest one.  This is the sketch.

A challenge for me since I don't usually follow a layout plan, I'm more of a theme or color picture card maker.  Any way, here is my take on this sketch.

Can you tell I have back to school on the brain?  There's a lot going on with this card but all the images except the star are from the same very cool new Close to my heart set, Vintage Type, I used tulip, sunflower and outdoor denim inks and papers and the Art Philosophy Cricut cartridge to cut all the pointy edged circles (I'm sure they have an official name but I can't come up with it right now).  Have a great day and I'll talk to you again soon!

About Botanical

Earlier this summer I had the chance to visit a few art galleries and small boutiques.  In one of those, a simple little piece of art caught my eye.  It was a line drawing done on a vintage page from a dictionary.  It had just a little color but was very attractive in it's simplicity.  When I returned home I was still thinking about the piece and thought I might be able to recreate something that had the same simple appeal as the one I saw in the boutique.  I scanned a page from an old dictionary and printed it on to some cardstock.  Then I stamped some simple line images (retired Close to my heart) onto it and colored and shaded with colored pencils.  Trimmed it down and put it into a thrift store frame.

 

It reminds me, in feel, of the piece I saw. 

It was also a quick and fun little project that will be just right for a friend who loves to photograph flowers.  And, as luck would have it, I found a challenge that I think it is a perfect fit for.  Over at Moxie Fab World they had a challenge going on using botanicals. Slip on over there and look at some of the lovely botanical projects they have.  Have a great day, and I'll talk to you again soon.

A challenge or three...

Today was my first day back to school.  I spent the day working on the data base, ordering necessary supplies, preparing book lists and going through mail.  So when I got home it was time for a little creative time in the workroom.  I have been playing with the new Close to my heart Cricut cartridge Art Philosophy, the images are a-maz-ing! I cut the large tag, the scalloped oval, and the postage square frame using the Cricut then stamped and layered to my hearts content.

The stamps are from a brand new set from the new catalog called Sweet moments and I used three different coordinating patterned papers from a special kit called Miracle.  All from Close to my heart.  The ink colors are Sky, Sweet leaf, Bamboo, Colonial white and black.  Tags are some of my most favorite things to make.   This one was inspired by three different online challenges.  The first is the Heart 2 Heart challenge that called for celebrating birthdays,  the second was a mix and match challenge from The Shabby Tea Room .  That challenge was to mix at least three different patterned papers in a project.  The third challenge that inspired me was from Simon Says Stamp it was to make a tag.  I've never tried to combine challenges before and it was "challenging".  But, fun too.  I think I'm done for the evening so I'll say good night and sweet dreams to all.  I'll talk to you again soon.