WINNER Post

Just dropping in with a quick Winner post!  Sorry it's taken so long (I was sick all weekend & been playing catchup all week).  So, without further ado, the winner of the two titles from Northridge Publishing is...

Babe O'Mara - congratulations!


I'm off to email her now... better luck next time to everyone else.

Pair-A-Phrase Blog Hop

Hello and welcome to our special Pair-A-Phrase blog hop!  In case you didn't know, Close To My Heart is offering an awesome special for National Stamping Month, and that's what we're featuring.  If you're just starting out, or are arriving here from Mary Eisen's blog, you're in the right place.  When you're done here, you'll move along to Laura Petruso's blog and see what she has made for us.

"TO CELEBRATE NATIONAL STAMPING MONTH IN September, we are offering our first-ever double stamp set! You can get the exclusive My Acrylix® Pair-a-Phrase double stamp set FREE when you place an order of $75 from August 15 through September 30, 2011. You’ll love this double set—two D-size sets in one envelope—which includes lots of clever phrases and coordinating images you’ll use in your handmade cards all year. And with a retail value of $35.90, this set drastically increases the value of your qualifying purchase! Have double the fun stamping during National Stamping Month with our new Pair-a-Phrase double stamp set!"

There are lots of possibilities with this fun set, and I chose to make some favors for Thanksgiving using the stamp set with the Art Philosophy Cricut cartridge.

 

I heat embossed the silverware with silver embossing powder on a round tag cut at 2" from Art Philosophy, then colored them in with a Grey Wool marker.  I curved the sentiment stamp on the block to follow the curve of the circle, and stamped it in Olive.

I cut the take out box from a Mayberry paper at Fit to Page size, and two lengths of the border at 3/4".  My Gypsy is currently down & almost out, or I would have welded them into a single piece.  I added Cocoa ribbon through the tag and along the center of the border and adhered everything down.  Finally, to make it look a little more authentic, I pierced holed in either side of the box and added a craft wire handle.

As a quick reminder, through the end of August, you also get an additional stamp set, A Typeface, free once you make a $50 purchase PLUS order the stamp of the month for $5.  This means you can get both free stamp sets at once if you meet the requirements of both offers, an even better deal!

Now, if you're ready, you can hop along to Laura's blog.  If you don't currently have a consultant, I would love it if you would visit my website and take a look at all of the fabulous products available!

Cards with Echo Park Paper - and a Giveaway!

If you're new here and visiting from Cutters Creek, welcome! I'd love it if you'd take a look around at some of my other projects while you're here.

I have been extremely lucky, and got my hands on both the 12x12 and 6x6 Country Drive from Echo Park Paper.  I immediately had a project in mind, and used some product to make three thank you cards for some very special people!

All three 6x6 cards were made with papers from the 6x6 pad, some embellishments from the 12x12 collection and a few items from my stash.  You can see the details and supplies used over on the Cutters Creek Blog today.

I also have a giveaway for you today!  While at CHA, the nice folks over at Northridge Publishing let us have complimentary copies of some of their beautiful publications.  Kim at Cutters Creek will be carrying several titles, so to celebrate I am giving away BOTH the August issue of Scrapbook Trends (Kim has September available for preorder) AND a copy of Cricut Cards (which Kim also has available for preorder).  In order to win, you need to leave a comment both here and on today's post over at the Cutters Creek blog.  All comments posted by Midnight Central Time this Friday August 12, will be eligible to win.  US and Canada entries only please!  Of course, we would love it if you would also follow or subscribe to both blogs as well!

Looking Forward to Halloween with Our Craft Lounge stamps

For some reason, I have Halloween on the brain lately.  I do love Halloween, but even I have to admit this is getting a bit ridiculous!  I have to promise myself that this is the last Halloween project for a while - after all, school starts in less than two weeks so there are plenty of related projects there I should probably be doing...

At any rate, I just couldn't resist making a fun card with some Our Craft Lounge stamps.  The Spooky Tags set would be great for simple tags on  treat bags or homemade items (have to let the neighbors know where they came from or they'll just throw them out!).  But they also make some great scrapbook embellishments and cards - here's what I made this time:

I based my color palette on an eery sunset.  Using glossy white cardstock, I brayered on ink, moving from bottom to top of my panel.  Beginning with Sunset, followed by Spring Iris, ending with Outdoor Denim.  Next, I stamped the image, then the sentiment, over the brayered background using black Staz-on ink.

Digging through my stash of Halloween papers, I found the perfect pattern/color combination in this Heidi Grace paper.  (Not long ago, I saw they still carry some of this paper at Joann's.)  I added some machine stitching using black upholstery thread, then topped the card with some cardstock panels and popped up my image panel on some foam adhesive tape.  Finally, I colored some clear Sparkles with a black alcohol marker and added them in a swirl design.

I left the inside simple, with a cardstock liner and a stamped sentiment from the same stamp set.  All supplies other than the stamps, marker and pattern paper are from Close To My Heart.

Overall dimensions of this card are 8" x 3.5", perfect for gifting a couple of dollars to a special little someone too far away for Trick-or-Treat.  Or maybe a school store gift certificate for a favorite teacher to replenish a few supplies.

Thanks for stopping by!  I'd love to see/hear what you like to make for Halloween, or whatever your favorite holiday is!

Halloween Decor with Authentique, Close To My Heart, Cricut, and Tim Holtz

While visiting CHA this year, I saw a paper company whose papers I had not seen in person before and I went a little ga-ga.  Authentique Paper's 12x12 papers are heavy weight, printed on both sides of a nicely textured cardstock.  For this project, due to the size, I chose to use the smaller 6x6 papers with their reduced patterns.  These papers are a 65 lb. weight, making them great for layering.  They also carry sticker and cardstock elements, which I don't have on hand, so I just used the papers.

As soon as I saw these 6x6 papers from the Glowing collection, I knew what I wanted to do with them.  Of course, it has taken me until now to finish it, but I absolutely love it!  I ran out and bought a Tim Holtz Configurations box and a package of Box Feet as the base for my project.  The knob is also Tim Holtz, from part of a package I had on hand.

Here are the details of all those little boxes:

 

 This was a really easy one!  I just trimmed the paper to size, traced the web with Black Diamond Stickles, and filled in the spider's body with Liquid Glass.  I adhered the dried piece to a cardstock platform to lift it away from the back of the box.

Here's another easy one.  I stamped the cat with Black Staz-On ink and added some Lime Green Stickles to its eyes.  I also placed this one on an even higher cardstcok platform, bringing it almost to the front of the box.

For this box, I used the new Art Philosophy Cricut cartridge (exclusive from Close To My Heart).  I cut a couple of branches from New England Ivy cardstock and distressed it with black distressing ink.  They are adhered and various points using Liquid Glass adhesive.  The flowers are also from this Cricut cartridge, using the scalloped flower cut on page 68 of the handbook.  I cut them at various sizes, from 1.25" to 2.75", distressed them with the distress ink and rolled them.  I added Black Diamond Stickles to the edges of some of the petals.

This one was done the same way.  For both boxes, I used Liquid Glass to adhere the flowers so they could be manipulated and moved into the desired position.

For this box, I stamped the witch hat directly on the patterned paper using Staz-On ink (I did this for the super dark color.), and I stamped the sentiment on the clear window sheet that goes in the "lid" of the Configurations box.

These two boxes go together.  The witch legs were stamped on white cardstock using Memento ink and colored using a Copic marker for the skin, and an Autumn Terracotta marker (CTMH) for the stockings.  I cut out the image and adhered it to the pattern paper using a Quickie Glue Pen.  I cut the plaque image using Art Philosophy, and trimmed the top of it straight with my paper trimmer.  After stamping the sentiment, I distressed the edges with Autumn Terracotta ink, and adhered it to the pattern paper with two layers of foam tape.

Another easy one, where I just traced the pattern on the paper with Black Diamond Stickles.

I cut both the tree and the "fence" from Art Philosophy.  I adhered the center of the tree only to the pattern paper using a Quickie Glue Pen, and bent up the remaining branches to give some dimension.  I trimmed the "fence" border cut to the proper length, scored folds for the side pieces, and adhered it to the sides of the box using a Quickie Glue Pen.

Here's a list of all the supplies I used:

• Glow Collection 6x6 papers - Authentique Paper
• Configurations box, knob, and Foundations Box Feet - Tim Holtz Idea-ology
• Art Philosophy Cricut cartridge - Close To My Heart exclusive
• Wicked, August stamp of the month - Close To My Heart
• Stickles in Black Diamond and Lime Green - Ranger Ink
• Cardstock, marker, and ink - Close To My Heart
• Memento Black Stamping Ink - Tsukineko
• Staz-On Black Ink - Tsukineko
• Liquid Glass and Foam Adhesive Tape - Close To My Heart
• Quickie Glue Pen - Sakura
• ATG gun - Scotch 3M
• Scor-tape

Easy Signs with Cricut and Markers

So, we recently had a garage sale at our house.  In an effort to spare people from trying to decipher my handwriting, I decided to make up some signs for various things using my Cricut and a black Cricut marker.

Saving myself from tagging 30 or so oddly shaped items...

Attempting to keep breakables unbroken!

We had a couple more, but you get the idea.  Look pretty good, huh?  Considerably better than my chicken scratches!  Here's the skinny  on making these easy signs.  I used plain 11x14 posterboard that comes in a 5-pack at the drug store, along with my 12x24 mat. 

You're going to want to use a Gypsy (or Design Studio, or Cricut Craft Room) so that you can get things reasonably centered and make sure they will fit in your space.  The key to  making signs like this is to be sure and pick a font that is easily readable in outline form.  I chose to use Mickey Font, but there are plenty of other good choices.  I have used one of the styles from Hello Kitty Font with good results as well.  I would also suggest keeping your letters at least 2 inches tall for good readability.

Once you're all set, switch your blade to a black marker, load your mat, and "cut".  Unload the mat, peel off your poster and you're all ready to go!  You can bet I'll be using this again soon - our PTO Home Shopping Expo will be coming up before I know it...

Wicked Pillow Box with Close To My Heart and Cricut

Welcome to the August Stamp of the Month blog hop! This month we are featuring Wicked, a set of 9 stamps sure to give you a wicked good time.  We have about 6o consultants participating, so you'll have plenty of project ideas, in addition to the project ideas now included right in your stamp package.  (You can go online for the assembly tips until August 2012!)  Also, FYI, there has been a super change to our SOTM program - now you have only two price points.  You can pay regular retail (now $17.95), or when you order $50 of product your price drops to just $5.00!  I am loving this deal, as this is how I buy my SOTM sets too.

If you've arrived here from Tutton's Treasures, or are just starting out, you're in the right place.  Our hop is a big circle, so you can just continue on around until you wind up back here!  Your next stop will be Creating with Wanda.

For my project, I've decided to combine the stamp set with our new exclusive Cricut cartridge, Art Philosophy.  There are some great 3-D items on this cartridge, and I've chosen to make a pillow box.  I give all of the details, including cut sizes I used, in my video below.  If you don't care to watch the video at this time, you can skip down to the pictures.

Side 1

Side 2

Notice I didn't label those as front & back - I think both sides look great, so neither one is really the "back" side!  In case you missed the measurements in the video, the pillow box was cut at 8", the tag at 1.75", and the solid shape for the witch at 2.25".

All items, including the Cricut cartridge, are available beginning August 1 on my Close To My Heart website. (The link for the Cricut cartridge is here.) If you don't have a consultant, I would be honored to have you as my customer.  I'm always happy to answer questions and help in any way needed, even if you have a product purchased elsewhere.  Thank you for stopping by!  I always enjoy comments, lol, and I'd love it if you'd become a follower or a subscriber.  Hope to see you again soon!  Don't forget to hop along to Creating with Wanda now.