Made with Cricut Scraps and H2H Challenge

Now that I've been playing with the new CTMH Art Philosophy Cricut cartridge I've accumulated quite a bit of scraps from which my shapes have come from. I challenged myself to find ways to use some of these scraps. Here is what I started from:

This first card was made with the Hollyhock paper from which the "ticket" shapes were cut. The greeting is from Harvest Happiness (C1463) set. Outdoor Denim and Indian Corn Blue CS was also accent the card. The dark blue circles were cut with a regular hole punch. As this card has 3 colors and no patterned paper it qualifies for the Sept. 19th H2H challenge.

The next card also qualifies for the H2H Sept. 19 challenge with the following colors: Goldrush, Autumn Terracotta, Barn Red and Colonial White. The frame for the leaf on the top right was sponged with goldrush ink. The leaves and greeting were embossed in Goldrush EP (now retired).

This card was made sponging through the scraps with Autumn Terracotta and Goldrush inks. It was very fast and easy to do.

The final card I have to share with you today uses Hollyhock, Black and White Daisy CS so it would also qualify for the H2H challenge. The inside of the flowers was made with a Ranger product called Liquid Pearls.

Pair-A-Phrase Cards

September is National Stamping Month and to celebrate it Close To My Heart is offering a special double stamp set for FREE with a $75 purchase. These are the stamps and greetings included in this great set:

Here are the cards I've made with the set:

The above card features the new CTMH paper called Wonderland with a background square of Twilight CS. The image was stamped in chocolate ink and colored in with Chocolate and New England Ivy markers for the branch and leaves and then colored pencils for the owl.

The next card uses Miracle paper and the Art Philosophy Cricut cartridge. The snowman and greeting was stamped in Crystal Blue ink and was colored with pencils and then embellished with a glue pen and Prisma Glitter.

The bicycle card was inspired by the glittery ribbon that I found at a craft store. It matches the CTMH Pear CS and ink very well so I just had to use it! The shapes were cut with the Art Philosophy Cricut cartridge and is backed with Sky CS. The image was colored with pencils and the greeting comes from D1187 For Every Occasion.

The last of these cards was made with Autumn Terracotta CS and retired B&T paper and Honey CS. The utensils were stamped onto a scalloped circle which was cut with the CTMH 2" Scallop Punch.

Thanks for stopping by to check these cards out. I would love you to leave me a comment. Have a great week full of creativity and fun! :) Marie

Roxie and Card Patterns Sketch 130

Today FedEx delivered some new CTMH paper and I couldn't wait to do this sketch. I love the simplicity of the design. I used Roxie paper which is card stock weight and doubled sided--plaid on one side and floral print on the other and the greeting is from the very versatile Salutation Seals Stamp set. The greetings include Congratulations, Thinking of You, I Love You, Happy Birthday, Celebrate and Thank you. The greeting was stamped in Hollyhock ink on Colonial White paper. The bling on the smaller circles are cream opaque adhesive gems from CTMH. Thanks to Card Patterns for providing wonderful sketch challenges and to all who share their artwork to inspire other. Happy Labor Day weekend! Enjoy!

Wicked--August Stamp of the Month

In my last post I showed a non-Halloween card made using the Close To My Heart August Stamp of the Month called Wicked. Today I'm posting a Halloween card using the greeting from the same set so you can look in the previous post to see what is included in the stamp set. For my design I used a pattern from the Wishes Card Confidence book which was card #2 in the Season's Greetings workshop with CTMH colors Colonial White, Sunset, Gypsy and Black. The greeting stamp fits perfectly into the "Shape 1" pattern from the new CTMH Art Philosophy Cricut cartridge. I used Gypsy ink for the greeting and Black ink to distress the edges of the card front and greeting. I used a background stamp from the Harvest Happiness (C1436) stamp set which is in the new catalog. The greeting is mounted over some raffia--doesn't it look as if it could have come from a witch's broom? Some of the paper edges were distressed with the distressing tool. This was a really simple card to do. I hope you've enjoyed checking it out and I hope that it inspires you to create cards that are fun for you too. Thanks for stopping by!

CTMH Color Dare #6 with Art Philosophy and Wicked

At Diana's CTMH Color Dare Challenge this week the colors are Sky, Topiary, Cotton Candy and Honey. In addition to using the specified colors I used the following CTMH products: Art Philosophy cricut cartridge for greeting and scalloped circle, the background stamp from the August Stamp of the Month called "Wicked" and the Wishes Card Confidence book pattern called "Right Design" on page 42. It was easy to follow the pattern and lots of fun to make. Enjoy!

CTMH Color Dare Challenge #5 using Art Philosophy Cartridge

Have you heard about the new Cricut cartridge called "Art Philosophy" available from Close To My Heart yet? It's just fantastic--I've had the original cricut for years yet only used it once. Now I can't stop playing with it! This special cartridge also comes with 3 coordinating stamp sets and 3 sets of Dimensional Elements. Check it out on page 13 of the new catalog here.

The other day I was just having fun cutting out shapes using the new cricut cartridge and then I thought I could use the shapes in a challenge. As I perused the consultant bulletin board I came across a new challenge series that interested me. It is called "CTMH Color Challenge" and can be found here. I probably would not have chosen to put these colors together yet I enjoyed the challenge. Diana's challenge for this week was to use these CTMH colors: Pansy Purple, Garden Green, Holiday Red, Amethyst, and Black. I liked that I could use as many of these colors as I wanted and did not have to use all of them.

My card was made using all but 1 of the listed colors--I forgot about black when I was designing the card yet it didn't matter. The patterned paper was from very old CTMH Pansy Purple B&T paper which I colored with Garden Green and Amethyst markers. The shapes cut from Art Philosophy were 2 3/4" Garden Green Circle1, 2 1/2" White Circle1, 2 3/4" B&T Circle3 Layer, and 1 1/2" B&T Banner2 Card. The greeting is from the Salutation Seals set and was stamped in Pansy Purple Ink and then clear embossed. the inside circles of the scalloped circle was colored with Pansy Purple Ink and then Liquid Glass dots were applied. I used Garden Green Ink to stamp the swirl stamp from the You and Me stamp set. (That swirl is my new favorite background stamp!) Hope you like it.

There is a special birthday coming up this week so I used the same sketch I came up with in different colors and AP cricut cut numbers. I also used my Cuttlebug embossing folders to texturize the papers. Thanks for stopping by to take a look. Have a great week!

Clean and Simple Challenge FTL 153

When I have time I enjoy doing card sketches. The Clean and Simple Challenge can be found here. This one came pretty easily to me using Close To My Heart products. I used Kraft CS, Crystal Blue CS, Treasure Life Stamp set (D1306) and For Every Occasion stamp set (D1187) and Chocolate ink.

The colorful stripe came from the tear off strip from one of CTMH's new cardstock weight patterned papers from the Dreamin' pack. I love being able to use every little bit of paper! Thanks for looking!

H2H Juvenile Birthday Challenge

Here is a card that I made for my nephew's upcoming birthday that fits in with the challenge found here. I used the new CTMH paper pack called "Dreamin", Goldrush Paper, Pacifica Ink and Card Chatter--Birthday and Friendship Alphabet stamp sets. The CTMH Scallop Circle Punch was used for the numbers. The stripe with circles is from the tear off sheet from the paper. (CTMH ID on one side and usable accent on the other--how cool is that?) Liquid Glass was applied to the numbers and the accent stripe to give it a shiny look.

Enjoy! I'll be "dreamin" of ways to use all the fabulous new CTMH products. If you haven't seen them yet you can check them out here. Thanks for stopping by!

Napkin Rings from Toilet Paper Tubes--H2H Reduce, Reuse, Recycle Challenge

Here is a really simple way to create your own napkin rings. Just cut a strip of patterned paper and glue to 1/2 of a toilet paper tube. I used CTMH Paper Garden (retired) and Bonding Memories Glue.

You can check out what others have created to participate in this challenge here.

Have fun! Marie

Hope for Japan and Card Chatter--Sympathy

These cards are being submitted to the Hope for Japan Blog Hop which can be found here. Thank you Leanne Dudley for hosting this blog hop!
Close To My Heart is donating all proceeds from the sale of this stamp set for the Japan earthquake and tsunami relief efforts and it is specially priced at just $5.00! The stamp set looks like this:

The first card uses Sunflower, Autumn Terracotta and Colonial White cardstocks with Chocolate and Autumn Terracotta Inks. (Through digital image manipulation the outer border appears to have a bluish tint but the base layer is actually Colonial White.)

The second card uses Sky, Hydrangea (retired but I still love this color!) and White Daisy cardstocks with Hydrangea ink. (There is actually a 1/4" white border around this card which may be difficult to see).

The greetings came from D1476 Card Chatter Sympathy which has become one of my favorite greeting sets--for much more than Sympathy cards!

Thanks for stopping by to visit my blog! Have a great week of creativity!
Marie

New Products from CTMH Linky Party Blog Hop

Thank you Tresa  for setting up this Linky party for Close To My Heart consultants to share products from the new catalog which goes live next week! I have been involved with rubber stamp art for 20 years and have accumulated quite a few stamps (mostly CTMH!) and the new stamps I appreciate the most are stamps with messages which can be used on the front or inside the cards. Card Chatter--Birthday is a new stamp set which is very versatile.

This card  was made with this set:

The greeting was stamped with Cranberry Ink onto Sunny Yellow cardstock.  The patterned paper is from the new Fanfare collection. An Outdoor Denim brad attached white grosgrain ribbon on the side.  It was easy to do--especially since I followed a pattern called "Small Wonder" from the Wishes card making book!  This book is a wonderful resource!

Other greetings in the new Card Chatter--Birthday set are pictured below:

Now it is time for you to check out other new product ideas

CTMH January Stamp of the Month and H2H Challenge

The theme of this week's Heart 2 Heart Challenge is cards featuring animals or insects.  The CTMH January Stamp of the Month "Find Your Style" features a bird, butterfly, dress form and shoe with a friendship greeting and the words Love, Soar, Friend and Beautiful.  Here is my entry for the Heart 2 Heart challenge this week:

The bird is black embossed onto a piece of gold holographic gift bag paper (it was broken and I had to find another use for the pretty paper!) The ovals were made with the Coluzzle knife and template.  They are mounted onto Wings paper.  Soar was stamped in Black ink onto Twilight CS.

I also had fun playing with the Shoe stamp and a variety of colors:

The above card features Twilight, Hollyhock, Black and white cardstocks.  The greeting is stamped with Hollyhock ink and trimmed with an old Fiskars scissors called Bowtie.  Licorice Opaques Adhesive Gems adorn the shoe and paper.

In the next card, the shoe was stamped all over Sky CS with Pacifica Ink:

Pacifica, Pear and Holiday Red cardstocks were also used. Red sparkles adorn the shoes and horizontal trim.  Thanks for checking out my latest creations.  Feel free to leave comments. :)

You can check out what other CTMH consultants have done with the January Stamp of the Month set here:

Clean and Simple Challenge FTL 123

This is the first time that I am participating in this challenge.  I was drawn to the simplicity of the design and have 2 entries to share.

All products are from Close To My Heart^®.  The cardstock base is Juniper.  The butterfly paper stripe is from the new Wings Paper Pack.  The maroon paper stripe is Vineyard Berry CS. The rose flower is from a new set called Rosy Regards B1369.  It is a 2 step stamp.  The solid part of the rose was stamped with Blush ink onto Blush CS.  The outline stamp was stamped with Vineyard Berry Ink.  The sympathy greeting is from a new set called Card Chatter--Sympathy D1476 and was stamped with Vineyard Berry Ink. (This set won't be available until the new catalog goes live on February 1.)

 This second card uses Amethyst CS and Purple Pansy Ink. The flower and greeting are both from the new CTMH set called Dreams Come True D1470. The holographic stripe is from a gift bag that fell apart and I just had to find a way to use it!  Here is the sketch provided by Clean and Simple:

It was fun to create these cards using this sketch--why not try it yourself? 

Rosy Regards in Mojo Monday Challenge # 173

I am really enjoying Close To My Heart's new stamp set B1368 Rosy Regards.  This is the third challenge in 2 days that I've chosen to use it in!  It features 2 step stamping which really gives the card a nice dimensional look without having to color.  This is what is included in this new stamp set:

This week's Mojo Monday sketch looks like this:

My card was made with Juniper & Colonial White as the Cardstock bases.  I stamped the solid part of the rose with Blush Ink on Blush Cardstock and then stamped the outline stamp in Vineyard Berry Ink.  The leaves were outline stamped with New England Ivy ink onto New England Ivy cardstock.  The rose was placed over a Nestabilities diecut called Labels 4 and the edges were sponged with Vineyard Berry Ink.  The patterned paper is the new Creative Basics paper called Wings which will be available to customers starting on February 1. (One of the perks of being a consultant is getting the new products a month earlier!)  Maroon buttons with Cream Opaque adhesives were used as embellishments.  The word "Love" is from the January Stamp of the Month set called Find Your Style.  Liquid Glass was applied over the rose as the finishing touch.  Hope you like it!

Card Pattern Sketch Challenge 97 and H2H Color Challenge

Happy New Year Everyone!  The holidays were a very busy time for me and it feels good to getting back to creating.  I'm enjoying the new Close To My Heart stamps that I've just purchased.  The following card meets 2 challenges--Card Pattern Sketch Challenge 97 and the Heart to Heart Color Challenge also.  For the H2H challenge we were to use Sky, Pear and Colonial White with an accent of Sorbet if desired.

  

The stamp set is B1369 Rosy Regards which is featured in the January Inspirations brochure and in the new catalog.   All pieces were sponged with Sorbet Ink also. CTMH Glitz Glitter Gel gives the rose some additional sparkle.  The word "Love" is from the January Stamp of the Month D1452 Find Your Style.

Thanks for taking a look. I always enjoy reading your comments.