Have a Lovely Day!

Another fantastic use of negative space.  After making a palm tree for a different layout, I used the stencil to make the following card:

Holding the stencil in place, I used a sponge to put Chocolate in the trunk area.  Using a sponge dauber, I swept Topiary up from the bottom of the leaves, then tapped the dauber on the top area of each leaf, to give it the two tone look.

Stamp sets were one new - Lovely Birthday (B1462) and one old Surf's Up workshop stamp set (retired).  I used bronze glitz at the base and Honey ink for the sun.

August Stamp of the Month

Do you love owls?  Check out the super cute, customizable August stamp of the month, "What a Hoot".  You can purchase this stamp by itself for $17.95 (plus tax and shipping), or get it for $5.00 with a qualifying $50 order placed between August 1-31, 2014.

Leftovers

I've seen this tip around on other blogs, but don't remember exactly which one.  I took the leftover scraps after making all I could think of and made a couple more cards.  Start with a 1.25" square, and cut the rest of your paper into 1/2" strips.  Center the square and then start working your way around, pinwheel style.  Keep going until  your card is covered, then add your sentiment and other embellishments. 

Artiste Cartridge, page 63

B is for Baby (D1561)

I stamped and cut the saddle to match, and used Liquid Glass and bakers twine for the tail.

Made from Scratch (C1582)

Sunflowers from stash

Color Dare #102

Just a card for the Color My Heart challenge that used some cut items from my extra's box.

 

Several Cricut cuts - the flowers, the frame, the doily I then sponged with Indian Corn Blue.

Thanks A Melon

A thank you card from the Jubilee Kit.  The You're one in a Melon is a zip strip.  For the watermelons, I stamped in Topiary and Cranberry on Colonial White, cut, trimmed and combined the two.  I colored in the seeds with a black pen.  Afterwards, I thought a pink paper would have been good for the red part of the watermelon. The Thanks is from For Every Occasion (retired).

Something new, precut kit for August

If you are attending the crops at my house on Saturdays, the one in August will still be held the week after the retreat, on August 16, from 9am until 9pm.  The featured paper pack is Scaredy Cat - however, CTMH is not offering a kit with Scaredy Cat.  I have a few suggestions.

First - I've made these 3 layouts - 2 are from CTMH directions and one is unique.  I'm offering a kit to make these 6 pages for $40 ($48.50 if you would like it pre-stamped and mailed to you).  In the kit, you will receive
     all the papers you need - precut and ready to assemble
     Black Striped Twill (Z1988, $6.95)
     Sunset Chevron washi tape (Z2005, $7.95)
     Silver Sequins (Z2012, $2.95)
     Scaredy Cat assortment (Z3011, $6.95)
     Four page protectors (4110, $9.95 for 10)
     Assembly directions. 

Pros of this kit - no leftover papers in your stock, just embellishments (twill, sequins and washi)  You will need to supply the adhesives (tape runner and foam tape). Interested in this kit and getting the stamp of the month for $5?  Contact me to see how this kit can get you half way to the qualifying order.

Second - purchase the needed papers in your own order and receive the cutting and assembly directions from me for free.  You will need the above items and to add a
Scaredy Cat paper pack (X7185B, $9.95)
1 sheet additional Grid/Orange design paper from Scaredy Cat paper pack, $.75
and the following from your current stash
Black glitter paper (Z1829, $5.95)**
Canary cardstock (X5772, $14.50)*
Slate cardstock (X5930, $14.50)*
Colonial cardstock (X1388, $9.50)*
Daisy cardstock (1385, $9.50)*

*Individual sheets of cardstock may be purchased from me for $.60 each or you can make substitutions. 
**A very small amount of black glitter is needed, so a scrap will do or you can substitute black cardstock.

If you purchase the extra cardstock needed by the sheet, the cost is about the same as the first option, but you will have more duo paper from the Scaredy Cat paper pack left in your stash. I will provide you with the cutting directions.  All of your order will go towards the $50 minimum required to qualify to get the stamp of the month for $5.00.

Third - make you own kit with your own unique designs.  There are lots of options!

August Pre-Cut Kit

Pick up $40.00 USD Shipped $48.50 USD

Artfully Sent - the new Cricut Cartridge

The new CTMH Cricut cartridge will be available in August.  This cartridge is to card markers what the Artbooking cartridge is to scrapbookers.  Wonderful 5X7 cards created in a flash.  It has the same price tag as the other $99, contains 700 images and comes with 3 super stamp sets (and who couldn't use another alphabet).  Instead of chipboard, you get a pack of white cardstock so you are ready to start making cards. 






The images on the card are being held close to the vest until it's available to everyone.  Look for a workshop in November to help you get the most out of your new cartridge.

Living the Good Life

Items used:
Jubilee paper pack
Jubilee stamp (title)
Jubilee Assortment
Colonial White cardstock
Bohemian embellishments (retired)
Wooden assortment (retiring after July)
Brads

Here's how I did the twine:

Fold the twine in half, using brad to secure it.  The length needs to be about 2-3" longer than twice the distance you want to cover.

I used the stitching guide to line up the holes where I needed them.  For the left side, the holes are at 6", 8" and 10".  For the right side, it's centered over the square.

 

After attaching the twine with the brads, I flipped the page over and taped the tails down (regular old tape), pulling the ends one inch either way of the brad - so the brad at 10" has a taped tail at 11" and at 9" and so on.

 

I also added a couple of brads to the title.

 

Sisters

These are my girls when we were at the beach in June.  I used the Let's Get Sketchy! sketch for the week and have a couple of sneak peeks in the project.  I wasn't too sure about the Lollydoodle papers before I saw them in person - and as usual, CTMH has done it again.  The papers match  my pictures perfectly.  Did  you know that the team at CTMH reviews the colors the fashion world is looking at being popular during the year and generates colors to match?  That's how we got the new colors of Flaxen, Pixie, Thistle, Canary and Glacier.

Got some shine on the bottom photo, but I ran out of patience trying to take a picture indoors.

Here I stamped a sentiment from the Your Own Kind of Wonderful stamp set directly on the picture.  I first tried it on the paper, but it disappeared into the background.

Lollydoodle paper pack
In the Background, Flair (D1540)
Circus Alphabet, July 2014 SOTM
Diagonal Striped Ribbon, slate (NEW!)
Foundry book plate (retired)
Your Own Kind of Wonderful (D1627, NEW!)
Glitz

Sidebar

Cool factor alert!  I like to decorate these inexpensive notebooks.  I've started using a sponge dauber to color the edges and now I'm adding a single line phrase from one of our stamp sets.

Color Dare #101

The colors over at Color Dare are Gypsy, Pear, Lagoon and Sunset.  I used the retired paper pack Hooligans for my entry.  This is a trifold card.  The paper is a 4"X12" strip, folded at the 3" mark and the 8.5" mark, with a 3"X3" center piece that overlaps the two sides.  The background stamp is from the L8tr Sk8tr kit.  The word bubble is from Balloon talk, April 2014 SOTM, stamped in sunset pigment ink, then clear embossing powder and heated (thus the shine).

This one gives you an idea of how the card folds.

Saturday's Crop

Here's a shout out to all the ladies who came for the crop on Saturday.  We had a great time.  Our hostess, Susan, made cute little patio candle lanterns, centerpiece decorations and cupcakes with the cutest sparkler decorations on top. 

 

She also brought her daughter, Katie - a first time scrapper.  Great job on your first page!

July Crop Oh Baby Layout

This is my version of the design we did on Saturday.  Leave me a comment if  you would like the written cutting directions.

Stamp a border around the edges of both sheets of your cardstock base.

Position your squares as diamonds around the edges before sticking them down.

Add two vertical mats.

 

Add three horizontal mats.  I cut the middle one in half for a smaller picture and some journaling.

Right page

Left page.

 

So what do you think of my face editing? LOL - so much less creepy than when I tried it on the computer - and so much easier!

 

Some days

You know, no matter how organized you are, some days, you just can't find it!

The Contenders

People go to Vegas to gamble and get married.  For our 10th anniversary we did both.  On our wedding day in 2003, I had a very lightweight, short dress for the beach wedding.  This time I wanted the Cinderella dress.  We found a rental place and I tried on lots of heavy, beaded, fancy and fluffy dresses.  It was fun!  I used the sketch from Let's Get Sketchy!, turned on it's side and am also showing it on the Heart 2 Heart Challenge site.

 All the white, both in the dress detail and the butterflies wants to blend together in these photos.  I cut multiple sized butterflies from all the different CTMH Cartridges, then ran them through the Cuttle bug in the embosser folders.  A few of the butterflies are cut from silver glitter paper.There are also bitty pearls scattered among the butterflies.  Glitter paper backs the tear out.

Sneak peak below:

New paper punch coming your way in August!

Color Dare #100

This week's colors at CTMH Color Dare are Pacifica, Crystal Blue and Barn Red.    This is a very simple card, using the stamp sets Feathers (C1584) and Princess Wings (C1502).

July Workshop

One of the things to do at Convention is swap cards.  I made 85 of the same cards, and swapped them with other consultants.

TIP:  For shading or stamping on a small cut - do the stamping while the paper is still attached to the Cricut mat.

 

I picked three cards I received at the swap to use as ideas for the July Workshop. The workshop will be on Thursday, July 24 , from 5:30pm until 7:30pm. Cost is $5.  Please RSVP, as I have 6 spaces available.  RSVP by leaving a comment to this post, contacting me via email or in person.

Thanks to fellow consultants Barbra Otten, Meredith Diatchun and Laura Ryan for their great ideas!

A little something extra for this workshop.  I have a few convention cards of mine leftover.  If you'd like one, bring me one of yours to swap!

July SOTM

July's stamp of the month is a complete alphabet, both upper case and lower case.  While it's called Circus Day, it also makes me think of the beach - maybe because of the samples CTMH did up.





This is what I did with it:

 

Items used:
July SOTM
Love Life stamp set
Tropical Paradise stamp set (not in catalog, but still available)
Cardstock - champagne, sky, crystal blue, twilight
Silver glitter paper
Artiste cartridge-page 70 and 77
Awards chipboard

I added a few glitter gems after I took these pictures.