Adore You for CTMH Featured Products Blog Hop

Happy New Year to all my crafty friends!  I don't know about you, but I've got lots and lots I want to accomplish this year and I can't wait to get started, and I'm excited to share our first CTMH Featured Products Blog Hop of the year, which featured the January 2017 Stamp of the Month, the lovely "Adore You" set.  You should have arrived here from Lauren's blog but as always, hops are circular so you are welcome to jump in anywhere along the way and simply follow the links until you've made the rounds.  A complete list of this week's participants is included at the bottom of this post in case you get lost along the way.  So now let's get to my project!

details:  I chose one of my favorite retired CTMH papers for this one, called "Roxie."  I added a little extra shimmer by using my clear ruler and gold metallic marker to random lines on the plaid patterned paper.  I stamped the heart and flower image on the red panel (actually a retired shade called Tulip) with Memento black ink.  On a separate piece of lighter colored paper I stamped and heat embossed the flower portion of that image as well as the sentiment (from a retired stamp set called Big Hug).  For the inside, I stamped the larger sentiment in (retired) Tulip  ink to coordinate with the front and the XOXO in black.

Edit:  I wasn't quite happy with this card so I came back to it a day later and made some changes, which I liked a lot better, so I thought I would share it too:

 I love this set!  I am betting this one will become a real go-to in my collection for scrapbooking as well as wedding, anniversary, and those fun little personal "I love you because..." kind of notes.

And now it's time for you to visit Terrie's blog and see what she has in store for you.  We hope to see you again on 1/18/17 when we will bring you sweet inspiration based on the new Sugar Rush paper kit and it's colors.  Happy crafting!  ~~  Annette

Complete list of participants:
1.  Annette Clark (here)
2.  Terrie Shortsleeve
3.  Donna Digby
4.  Lauren Moore

Love You to Pieces

I have spent a relaxing evening making cards while watching movies with my husband and when I came across an unfinished project from a year ago I immediately knew I could put it to use for a couple of current challenges.  I am using the sketch from Freshly Made Sketches and also sharing at Heart 2 Heart where the challenge this week is "two faced" or to use both sides of a designer paper.



details:  All products are from Close To My Heart.  I used the discontinued Roxie paper kit for the pieced heart as well as the card base as well as the discontinued Tulip for the banner.  I cut black shimmer trim in half to line the banner on the cover as well as the border inside the card.  I used Tulip ink for the sentiment from last year's "Happy Valentine's" Stamp of the Month on the cover and from the Stitch Wonder stamp set inside the card.  The large puzzle piece heart on the cover as well as the puzzle piece border on the inside were cut using the Artiste Cricut cartridge.

Happy crafting, Annette

Miss you already for combined challenges

Oh, my goodness, I am on a roll with not waiting until the last minute to figure out what I want to do for a challenge!  I actually had this card done Sunday morning, several days before one challenge was due and a whole week before the other closed but I had to wait to share it.  This weekend was the end of my daughter's winter break and we took her back to college Sunday afternoon and we could tell even the day before she went that it was going to be hard on her.  So my husband actually came up with the idea for me to make a card and mail it from home before she left so that she would get it in the mail the first or second day back.  Since I had already been playing around with color combinations and paper kits for this week's Color My Heart challenge to use Smoothie and the current sketch at Seize the Sketch it didn't take long to come up with something (although I did take the liberty of turning the sketch 90 degrees).  Even though this "Roxie" paper kit has been discontinued for a while, it is still one of my favorites.  Once I got going I would have loved to keep embellishing but I wanted to stay true to the sketch, so I ended up adding a little something extra to the stamping on the inside of the card as well as a little stamping on the back of the envelope.


details:  All three patterned papers are from the Roxie kit.  I cut both the banner and the flourished heart using the Art Philosophy Cricut cartridge from CTMH.  The banner is Smoothie cardstock stamped with black ink, and I added some black and clear sparkles.
For the top line of the  lettering I used the discontinued "Tiny Typewriter" alpha and the A Typeface alpha set.
The inside of the card was stamped with Smoothie ink and the discontinued "Love ya!" set.  In this stamp there is actually a cut out heart in the center of the "o" so I stamped that image on the patterned paper I wanted to use and fussy cut the corresponding part of the image and layered it over the white space, and I placed the stamped image toward the top of the card to leave plenty of room for a hand written note (something I often forget to do).
The polka dotted "smile" heart stamp is from the "From My Heart" set which is long discontinued but I'm thinking CTMH should let this one make a comeback, especially now that we have several heart images to choose from in their exclusive Cricut cartridges!

So hopefully this will put a smile on our daughter's face and make her day a little brighter, especially when I tell her it was her dad's idea.

Happy crafting,  Annette

Seize the Birthday with a Roxie rose

I have a confession to make:  I have always been absolutely terrible at remembering birthdays and getting cards sent BUT I'm finding an added bonus in participating in card challenges is I'm actually making birthday cards ahead of time.  Woohoo!  I was inspired by this week's sketch at Seize the Birthday to make a card for a special lady who's having a birthday this month and she loves roses so I have turned again to the retired CTMH Roxie papers.

I am really getting hooked on CTMH's Perfect Fit Frames (there are two sets now) that have several stamp sets that work with the frames.  I used the Art Philosophy cartridge and my Cricut to cut this shape from the Perfect Frames stamp set. Usually I would have cut the shape on a solid colored piece of cardstock and stamped an image on it but this time I specifically wanted to use the plaid paper in the Roxie kit for a cohesive look as the same plaid shows up in the rose on the printed paper. Anyway, I paired the PF Frame shape with two of the stamps from the Perfect Fit-Birthday stamp set. I hope she enjoys it and I *know* she will be surprised to get it on time! LOL

Happy crafting! Annette

DYL: Decorate your life (aka use what you've got) #1

Somewhere, sometime I saw a saying that basically said 'give yourself permission to decorate your life.'  That really resonated with me because I wasn't necessarily told that growing up and I find I need to give myself that permission every now and then.  And, if I pair this with the idea of using what I have accumulated but not necessarily used yet, it just doubles the enjoyment I feel when I play...  I mean, create.  So I'm challenging myself to craft with something previously unused and share it at least one time per week.

So here's my first DYL project which is a cover for a 2-year calendar I picked up at a dollar store, so the left half of the picture will be the back cover and the right half the front.  All materials used are from CTMH and I believe all 3 stamp sets are retired.  I used black, Desert Sand, and Vanilla Cream CS and the patterned paper is from the Roxie kit (both the Vanilla Cream CS and the Roxie papers are also retired).  The "dream" stamp is from the Dreams Come True set (which I hadn't used yet), the "2013-2014" are from the Moments In Time set, and the image and "much happiness" is from Kanji Phrases, and the shape was cut using the Art Philosophy cartridge.  Coincidentally, I used this same paper, shape, and stamp for the first project I posted on this blog to make covers for small photo books (also bought at a dollar store) and this calendar is intended for my daughter's best friend who received the photo book, and this is the papers & stamps she asked for.  So, I guess if I can't get my daughter interested in papercrafting I shold be glad she and friend will at least let me make things for them, LOL.

PDE #1 -- use ribbon

Happy new year to everyone!  I have to take a minute to confess that my mojo, creativity, and joy were generally in short supply over the last few weeks but thankfully I think I'm back on track and *that* is a wonderful feeling!  So I have actually been busy the last week or so but some of what I've been making is per request of friends and family for upcoming events so I can't share some of them just yet, but I can share this one I made for a happy couple, and I'm entering this card at the Pause, Dream and Enjoy challenge to use ribbon.

 

details:  All products used were from Close To My Heart.  I used the retired Roxie paper kit (I can't get enough of this paper!), black ribbon and square sparkles, and I used the retired Treasure Life stamp set in black ink on the right-hand side of the card and the retired From My Heart stamp set in Tulip (also retired but this kit also uses Smoothie which is still available).  I'm always a little reluctant to post things using mostly retired items but I'm very much into using what I have at the moment and this would be a great project for anyone who still has scraps of this paper!

Happy crafting!

Annette

Color My Heart - Go BIG!

I have been playing around with the idea for this card for quite some time but it really came together when I was checking out all the past sketches for the 1-year anniversary of Freshly Made Sketches and saw #37.  While I didn't get this card finished early enough to enter that challenge, the Heart2Heart blog's challenge last week was "Go BIG!" and make a card larger than 4 1/4 x 5 1/2" and when I sized the border to the height I wanted to use everything came together for a 6x6" card so I am entering it there, which makes me every bit as happy because all the materials for this card are CTMH products.

The patterned papers are from the retired Roxie kit which  featured Vanilla Cream, Tulip, Smoothie, Black, and Desert Sand.  I used Art Philosophy cartridge to cut the border and sentiment shape from Vanilla Cream cardstock and the hearts from the Roxie patterned paper.  I know it's hard to read the sentiment as the writing is rather small, but it's from the January 2013 stamp of the month "Happy  Valentine's" and reads, "Whatever our souls are made of, his and mine are the same. ~ Emily Bronte"  I thought this was the *perfect* sentiment for this card!  I used black cardstock for the base of the Ying and Yang symbol but used the Groovy Times cartridge which is a Cricut product.  This is one of those times I don't think my photography skills do the card justice but I was happy with the results.

Happy crafting!

Annette

flip book with July Stamp of the Month "Live Out Loud"

As I get more involved in papercrafting I've found my organizationl style keeps changing and evolving, and I have been contemplating making a visual index of my stamps so I could go through the images more quickly.  Well, last weekend my computer completely crashed so since I had to redo my personal inventory anyway I figured I might as well make it something I would want to look at each day.  I made this after looking through the new catalog online and I really felt this sentiment, "Imagine the possibilities," perfectly sums up how I feel each time I go through the catalog, sit down to design something or, best of all, receive a new shipment of goodies from CTMH!

I had a small binder of unknown origin but if it fills up too quickly (which is a quite likely, lol) I may recreate the front and back covers layering the patterned paper over cardstock, punch a couple of holes along one edge, and use some jump rings or ribbon to make my own.  Other than the binder, everything else I used was a CTMH product:  Roxie cardstock (which will no longer be available after 8/1/12 but there's still time to order a set!), Desert Sand cardstock for the inner cover, and the July  Stamp of the Month set "Live Out Loud."  I used the Art Philosphy cartridge to cut the shapes (black, Vanilla Cream, and Smoothie) and used some Bitty Sparkles.  I love how it came together and I think I will like this system... at least for now.  

Happy crafting!

Annette