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.

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.

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.

Guest Design Team...

Surprise! I know I was, surprised that is.  I was invited to be the Guest Design team member for the month of October on the Heart 2 Heart Challenge blog.  You can go here to see my picture and a little blurb about me.    And... I get a cool new badge for my blog. Check out the side bar on the right! Be sure to check in at the challenge blog each week to see the inspiration posted by all the talented contributors!  Happy stamping!  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.

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.

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.

Heart 2 Heart Doilies and Lace

I rummaged through my scrap box and found some bits and pieces of older Close to my heart papers and used some as flowers and some to layer on my card.  I like the look of the lace on the side, reminds me of a petticoat peeking out from the bottom of a hem line.  

Be sure to visit the Heart 2 Heart challenge blog to see all the other projects for this challenge.  Thanks for stopping, I'll talk to you again soon.

Heart 2 Heart Inspiration II

Orange!!?? a color I am not usually drawn to but lately have been using and photographing a lot.  The middle picture is of things that were sitting on or near my worktable so I gathered them up for a quick photo shoot. These are just a few of the orange inspired pictures I've taken lately.  So my challenge was to create a card with my inspiration color for the Heart to Heart inspiration challenge.

I love orange and blue together (nope not a Denver Bronco fan) more like Chicago Bears! (Mostly just to support the DH).  All papers, stamps and inks are from Close to my heart, ribbon and buttons from my stash.  Thanks for stopping by I'll talk to you again soon.

Heart 2 Heart and Good intentions

At the beginning of my summer break I had all these good intentions, I was going to get my craft room cleaned and organized (I plan this every summer), I was going to do on-line challenges, I was going to get a lot of sewing and clean up done around the house and yard.  Well, here I am again at the end of my summer break, and while I got a few things done, a few things started, a few things thought about.  In the end, I did not accomplish everything I wanted to do.  I have one more week to try to get at least one major project finished.  Not sure which semi-started one I'm going to do but I'll let you know.  Meanwhile, I did do a few challenge cards for the Heart 2 Heart July challenges.  We were supposed to create a card based on the picture above.  Here is my card....

All the papers, stamps, inks and buttons are from Close to my heart.  The ribbon is from my stash.   Off to get some work done.  I'll post another challenge card later.  Talk to you soon.