BabyCakes Cards

Using up scraps from the BabyCakes paper pack to make cards for friend Debbie's walk/run in April. I made three different projects with the paper pack and 18 cards to go in Debbie's box that will be raffled off.

Playing catch-up

Trying to get caught up on projects. Right now I have three going. I work on one til I get too much "wet" and then move to another. I have even set up another table in my scrap room to hold the wet stuff while it's drying. Some I will be able to share as I get it complete and some notsomuch as they are for Christmas gifts.

Here is a couple that I CAN share. My nail gal over over 10 years will be welcoming her second grandchild the middle of February 2014. I'm already betting on a Valentines Day girl! They know it's a girl to go with their soon to be 3 year old son and her name will be Melanie. So of course I had to do one of Sue's World Famous Name Wall Hangings for her room! CTMH has the cutest "baby" paper pack in the Fall/Winter Idea Book called BabyCakes, so that is what I used along with the Canvas Compliments that go with the paper pack.

A fellow CTMH Consultant who used the paper pack for her contribution to this summer's Convention used our 3 x 3 blocks to make "alphabet blocks" which were displayed in the Art Room. I took her idea and made it my own, using more of the Canvas Compliments and other stamp sets that I have accumulated over the years. What is hard to see in the pics is the Glossy Accents and Viva Iridescent German Glitter tht I used on the side with the birds and the side with the bee, dragonfly and ladybug.

Another swap set

This may be my last set of swap cards for Convention. I *might* have one more idea in me, but we'll have to wait for this weekend when I'm off to see if I get to it! For this set, I used Dream Pop which was CTMH's special for April, I believe. It's not available any more, I do know that! I cut "quilt squares" out of the different cardstocks and once they were applied to Kraft cardstock that I inked the edges of using the  Direct To Paper technique, I got out my handy dandy circa 1970's Singer Touch and Sew machine that I inherited from my Nana Sara and sewed around the outer squares.

wall hanging

One of my co-workers is pregnant and having a little girl at the end of the month. Her name will be Eden. So pretty! I decided she needed one of "Sue's World Famous Wall Hangings" to go in her room. Not knowing the colors she was using and wanting it to be a surprise, I used last month's CTMH special cardstock from Dream Pop. Added in some flowers and birds from Dyan Reaveley's How Does Your Garden Grow stamp set colored with Dyan's fabulous Spray Inks. Added a bit of white Signo Uniball white pen highlighting for good measure. I gave the hanging to Jackie today and she fell in love! She said the pinks and greens will match the nursery almost exactly! I think that's pretty cool since I had no idea what colors to use!

Surf's Still Up!

Yet another set of 10 cards done for Convention using the Surf's Up paper pack. The Thank You sentiment is a special early release from CTMH's Fall/Winter Idea Book and all profits on the sale of this stamp will go to help the OK tornado relief efforts.

Surf's Up!

That's the name of this paper pack. Twenty more cards finished!

First one it's kinda hard to tell but the fishie has Diamond Stickles on the patterned part of the body. Now I'm working on one of "Sue's World Famous Wall Hangings" for a co-worker who is having a little girl the end of the month.  When I get it finished, I'll share pics of it. Also have to get some Father's Day cards done! Good thing I've got two days off in a row this week.

More swap cards

Well lookit me! Posting two days in a row! But don't get used to it. I go back to work tomorrow!!

Another 10 cards done for swapping at Convention. Using Buzz and Bumble again. The technique of the side strip is called Seminole Patchwork. Sentiment is from the Buzz and Bumble Workshop On The Go stamp set. Hard to see, but there is "bling" at the top and bottom of the scrollwork on the sentiment and it's pop-dotted for dimension.

Swap cards

Don't fall over from shock! Yes, I'm actually posting twice in the same month! It'sn almost time again for the annual Close To My Heart Convention and this year, it's in my "backyard" of Orlando at DisneyWorld. John and I are headed over and we will be joined by my CTMH sister and friend Debbie and her family that I talk about here. We've been online friends for about 5 years now and this will be our first time meeting In Real Life. John and I are both super excited for that!

So I'm making a few swap cards. I will be giving all the cards I swap to Debbie for her annual Save R Sight run/walk that she does in their Illinois hometown. I managed to make 10 cards of the same design this afternoon. I used the Buzz and Bumble paper pack and the Patterned Pennants stamp set.

Whoo's Your Valentine

This was our CTMH January special. I wasn't going to order it, but decided what the heck and I'm glad I did! Dang but it's cute! I filled the tubes with M&M's and will be sharing them next week with friends at Whole Foods Market.

CTMH sneek peek

Yes, I'm still here! Had a bout of the plague-y crud that's been going around and had some back/right hip issues for a while, but thankfully both are better now. Work is keeping me busy (and out of trouble!) but I am loving being back in the work force.

It's almost time for the Spring/Summer 2013 Close To My Heart Idea Book launch to customers. Feb 1 is the big day! Once again, I am participating in Upline Susan's swap and I have two paper packs to share with you. First up is Buzz & Bumble. I love the browns and yellows in this pack. The bee is from the stamp set that comes in the Buzz & Bumble Workshops On The Go paper pack and the "honeycomb" hexagons are from the Honeycomb Flair stamp set. The bee hive reminds me of the old wax stamp impressions that we "useta" use on letters that we would write and mail. There are 4 different impressions in the Buzz & Bumble Assortment and also 4 flowers and 4 little bees.

And second we have Surf's Up. This one is bright and summery with blues and greens and yellows. The Pinwheel is part of the Surf's Up Assortment and there are 2 pinwheels, 2 rosettes and 4 buttons with designs stamped on them in this collection.

Paper Rosettes

It's challenge 32 time at Linda's and this week we are working on page 63 of the Compendium of Curiosities book by Tim Holtz.

I needed a Thank You card, so I used the Rosette die to make a flower. It's kinda hard to tell in the pic, but I used Glossy Accents and Distress Stickles Dry Glitter Clear Rock Candy along the edges of my "flower." I LOVE the shimmer and sparkle it gives. Just that little something extra! The papers I used are CTMH Avonlea. And I used my CTMH Artiste Cricut cartridge to cut the leaves, which I folded in the center and pop-dotted to give them a bit of dimension.

Troop cards

Still working on cards to send the troops in between other projects. On the first one, I decided I wanted to incorporate some Dyan images with the Dotty For You paper pack. I random stamped the flowers and leaves and used my Dylusions Ink Sprays and hand painted the images. For the other two, I was thinking they could use these to send to their kids for a job well done in school or at home.

More Troops cards

I am especially loving the layout for the first two cards! Each square is 1.5' X 1.5", so this is a great card for using up all those bits and pieces of cs and paper that you've got laying around. I ended up doing eight of these, just using pieces. For the third card, I used my sponge and Smoothie Pigment Ink and colored the white crochet flower. Since these do not need to be exclusively CTMH, the "button" brads are some that Debie and Evan sent me. I thought they looked really cute on these cards.

Cards for our Troops

We recently found out that one of our CTMH Team sisters is being deployed to Afghanistan. She has asked the team to make and send cards for her to share with the other Troops at her base and also for them to give to the Afghan children they come in contact with. Our wonderful Upline, Susan is going to be collecting cards from team members and sending "care" packages to our sister Consultant during her deployment.

I just got some new CTMH toyz to play with yesterday. Things that weren't available early for Consultants to sample, so I decided what better way to play with new things than to make some cards for our Troops! I'll be sharing cards as I make them over the next little while.

These card layouts are in our new Make It From Your Heart how-to publication. With the retirement of our prior how-to books these new publications combine the best of both worlds. They will have layouts for scrapbookers AND cardmakers! I also ordered some of our new Pigment inks and they are what I used for all of the stamping and edge distressing. The colors are so lush! Something you can't get with water based dye inks. There's also a bit of our new Metallic Silver and Gold markers on the stars. And speaking of stars. You'll notice that 4 of the cards are the same except for the size of the stars. ALWAYS be sure to check the size of your settings on your Cricut before you cut! I forgot to do that and my stars were smaller than I wanted. Rather than toss the stars, I decided I'd just do another set of stars in the size I'd intended for them to be all along! Paper pack is Dotty For You, an campaign from earlier this summer and is no longer available.