Freshly Made Sketches #45 with a Recycled Item

Here is my entry for FMS45. I was inspired to enter this challenge by a card made by Alisa Chilton, a fellow CTMH consultant and DT member. I used Close To My Heart Outdoor Denim CS and Cranberry CS. The stamps are from Beautiful Friendship B1400 and 4 My Friend D1510. The stamp images were embossed with CTMH White Embossing Powder. A Blue Sparkle was applied to the medallion center.

Here is the sketch:

Where do you think I got the patterned paper from? It's not from a paper pack--it is the printed pattern from a security envelope that one of my bills came in!

Thanks for stopping by to check out my card. I enjoy reading your comments.

Color Dare #8 and FTL 199

Here is a card that I made that meets 2 challenges this week. The Color Dare challenge is to use these 3 Close To My Heart colors: Sky, Pear and Smoothie. The Clean and Simple Stamping FTL 199 can be found here. The stamp sets are C1463 Harvest Happiness and D1283 Say it in Style. The greeting was stamped in black and the edges of the focal panel were sponged with black ink.

Thanks for visiting my blog!

Mojo Monday 249 with Life is Tweet

Here is a cute card I made following Mojo Monday 249 sketch. I used Close To My Heart June 2012 Stamp of the Month called "Life is Tweet". The patterned paper is "Elemental" from CTMH(soon to be retired) with Pacifica CS. The scalloped stripe is Outdoor Denim CS.

Thanks for stopping by to take a look at my card!

Mojo Monday 248 and Another Color Dare #7

I've had some time to play today so I combined a wonderful sketch by Mojo Monday with the Color Dare #7 challenge of using secondary colors orange, green and purple. The Close to My Heart colors I've chosen are Petal, Pansy Purple, Juniper and Taffy. the stamp sets I've used are: 4 My Friend, A Blossom, Just for You and Love Life. The patterned paper is from Paper Garden a retired CTMH paper featuring the color Petal. Opaque adhesive gems make up the small flower centers.

I've had fun challenging myself to use these three colors together and follow this inspiring sketch also. Thanks for looking and thanks to those involved in hosting these challenges!

Welcome Gifts for New Daughter-in-Law

I met my son's wonderful fiance two days before the wedding and I wanted to present her with a basket of gifts. I used the computer to make a card that said "Welcome to the Flayer Family" but forgot to photograph it to share. Inside the card I stamped a very old greeting from Close To My Heart that said "Wishing you a basket full of love" and signed it from all of us. The first gift that I made was a set of stamped notecards using her first name initial. I used CTMH Baroque Alphabet, Twilight Ink and Florentine Paper. (This stamp set will be retired as of August 1, 2012 so order it soon if you are interested in this intricately elegant font.)

The next gift is a personalized wooden frame that I purchased at Michael's. I applied several coats of Create-A-Shade paint and then embossed the top corner with a stamp from CTMH called "Dreams Come True" (retired from CTMH) in Gold Tinsel Embossing Powder (retired from CTMH) and stamped the date using "Elegant Script" (retired from CTMH). I didn't have a photo to put in the frame so I stamped a greeting from Cloud9 Design Simple Thoughts--Wedding set. The gold rings are from a very old CTMH wood set. The paper is blue parchment (retired CTMH). Various sizes of Opaque Adhesive Gems were applied to the top corner stamp.

I used Stazon Opaque White Ink to stamp their names on wine glasses. The heart stamps are from a retired CTMH set called "A Little Something". The letters are from Inkadinkado.

It was so much fun to create these gifts and to see how happy my son and his fiance were when they opened these gifts. Thanks for stopping by.

Color Dare #7--Secondary Colors

The challenge this week at Color My Heart Color Dare is to use green, orange and/or purple in a card or project. I used all Close to My Heart elements including Colonial White paper, Smoky Plum CS and ink, New England Ivy CS and ink and Autumn Terracotta as an accent ink. Remarkable Wreath and Just a Number stamp sets were used. I liked this challenge so much I just may try another card using different shades of these three colors just for the fun of it! Thanks for stopping by to look.

Color My Heart Color Dare #5-- Rainbow Colors

This was a really fun challenge to do! You can find the details here. The Close To My Heart ink colors that I used are Honey, Sunset, Cranberry, Gypsy, Moonstruck, Topiary and Black. The stamps are from A Blossom and 4 My Friend stamp sets. I also used White Daisy Paper, Black cardstock and Grey Wool cardstock. To add some texture I placed a 2" strip of construction wall tape over the Grey Wool cardstock. For a little extra sparkle I added CTMH Stardust Glitz Glitter Gel to the flower centers. Why don't you join in on this fun challenge?

Color My Heart Color Dare #4

This week the challenge at Color My Heart Color Dare is to use the Close To My Heart colors Cranberry, Whisper Yellow and Sky. As I was making Father's Day cards I decided to use this color scheme for one of my cards. The greeting is from CTMH "Say it in Style" and the background and star accent stamps are from the April Stamp of the Month "You Are..." I like how the colors work together and hope that you do too. Thanks for stopping by to look.

Color My Heart Color Dare #1

Thank you Sarah Stone for posting this color challenge blog using Close To My Heart colors! This first challenge is to use monochromatic colors of Amethyst, Petal and Smoky Plum. These are colors that I have never used together before so I was intrigued by this challenge. I get "bonus points" for also using a sketch from the Wishes Card Confidence Book found on page 61. The card dimensions are 8" x 3.5". The patterned paper is from CTMH Paper Garden (retired). The greeting is from the Feb. 2012 Stamp of the Month called s1201 Thoughtful Tidings and was stamped on Colonial White CS with Smoky Plum ink. A piece of wall seam tape and prisma glitter was attached to the Smoky Plum paper. The flowers are from Hooray Bouquet. I used 3/8" punched circles from holographic paper (from Dollar Store gift bags) for the flower centers.

Which flower centers do you like better--silver or purple? Thanks for stopping by....

Challenge Me Monday #112--Graduation and Exploring Cricut

Here's a graduation card for a very sweet graduate. I'm entering this in Fantabulous Cricut Challenge Me Monday and Exploring Cricut whose challenge is to use a "neglected" cricut cartridge. Although I purchased it several months ago this is the first time that I used the Wrap it Up cricut cartridge. The dipoma is found on page 47 and I used shift phrase at 2". I used a black cricut marker for the lettering and then cut out the diploma. I used a copper gel pen to outline the phrase and diploma. I used a cuttlebug border to emboss the top and the bottom of the card. It was pretty simple to do!

Dynamic Duos #3, Play Date Cafe and CAS FTL 191 Challenges

I love the sketch provided by Clean and Simple Stamping FTL 191 and am combining it with a new color challenge that I recently discovered at Dynamic Duos. This is the third color challenge being offered by this site and the challenge is to use only the colors black, white and yellow and combine it with a dry embossing technique. The Play Date Cafe Challenge is using the same colors so I may as well enter that challenge also! I used Close To My Heart Sunny Yellow, Black, and White Daisy cardstocks along with Black embossing powder. The greeting is from A1121 A Blossom and the medallion is from B1400 Beautiful Friendship (trimmed down so it would fit in the sketch better) The white background was dry embossed with the "Distressed Stripes" cuttlebug folder. I adhered a piece of wall seam tape to the black panel and then applied CTMH Bonding Memories Glue and Prisma Glitter. The sunny yellow edges were sponged with black ink and a clear sparkle was added to the medallion which was popped up with 3D foam tape. My card:

The sketch:

Thanks for stopping by to check out my artwork :)

Freshly Made Sketches #35

I was inspired to check out the sketch challenge offered by Freshly Made Sketches by a fellow Close To My Heart consultant's Dotty for You card which is posted here. Thank you for the inspiration Allisa Chilton! For my card I used CTMH Lucy paper, Sweet Leaf CS, Topiary Ink CS and Ink. I used an EK Success punch for the butterfly because I like that it has antennae. Silver Glitz Glitter Gel was applied to the butterfly antennae and body. The Thinking of You greeting is from CTMH "Say it In Style" set. The frame around the greeting was made with an old Family Treasures punch that CTMH used to carry. The ribbon is of unknown origin as it has been in my stash quite a long time. I used a Licorice Opaque Adhesive Gem in the center of the ribbon. The card base was embossed with a cuttlebug folder called "Stylized Flower." Here is the sketch that I loosely followed:

Thanks for stopping by to take a look. I hope that I can offer inspiration to you also!

Happy Mother's Day! #2 (H2H, Fantabulous Cricut)

I'm entering this card into the Heart2Heart Challenge to make a mother's day item and also for the Fantabulous Cricut Challenge to use something cut with a cricut for a mother's day item. I used the Close To My Heart Art Philosophy cartridge to make this Mother's Day Card. The center shape can be found on page 67 of the Art Philosophy handbook--shape 10, Decorative Layer Shift, cut at 2.5" from retired CTMH Metallic paper. The pink paper underneath the silver frame was shape 10 cut at 2.5" and is from the CTMH Lucy paper pack. This is layered over a 2.75" x 3" Topiary rectangle which was sanded for a distressed edge. The background rectangles are also from Lucy paper pack and are cut at 2" x 2.75". (The finished card size is 4" x 5.5") The greeting is from Close To My Heart "Say it in Style" which was clear embossed using Versamark and Topiary ink. A one inch Butterfly (2)was cut from page 55 of the Art Philosophy handbook and edge distressed with black ink. A thin strip of CTMH Silver Glitz gel was applied down the middle of the butterfly. The final embellishment is a 1/2" adhesive embellishment from Recollections. I enjoyed making this card and hope you have enjoyed looking at it too! Happy Mother's Day to all!

Happy Mother's Day! (Fantabulous Cricut, H2H, FTL 189, CAS-ual Fridays CFC52))

Here is a card I made that qualifies for 4 card challenges this week. Two of these challenges have a Mother's Day theme--Heart2Heart and Fantabulous Cricut and the third is a sketch by Clean and Simple FTL 189. The 4th challenge by CAS-ual Fridays is to use the theme of birds on a project. I used the Close to My Heart Cricut Art Philosophy cartridge to cut the label (rectangle 8 from page 65 at 1.75") and bird (bird page 51, body cut at 1.5" and wing cut at 1.75") The paper colors are from Close To My Heart--Sunny Yellow, Pacifica, Crystal Blue and White Daisy. The white part was embossed with a cuttlebug folder. The edges were distressed with Pacifica ink. I used a Bitty Pearl Opaque for the bird's eye. I used foam tape to pop up the bird from the card. The greeting is from a very versatile Close To My Heart set called "Say it in Style" It was an easy card to make!

Thanks for stopping by. Happy Mother's Day to all!

FTL 186 Clean and Simple Sketch Challenge

I love this sketch provided by Clean and Simple Stamping. The pink paper is from the Close To My Heart paper pack "Lucy" and the bluish green paper is from the CTMH paper pack called Florentine. The dragonflies were cut with the CTMH Art Philosophy cricut cartridge at 1.5" and 1". The dragonfly bodies were glittered with CTMH Silver glitz gel and the wings were glittered with CTMH Stardust glitz gel. The greeting was embossed with white EP and is from CTMH D1941 Hooray Bouquet.

You still have a few days to enter this challenge. Thanks for stopping by to take a look at my card. If you like it please feel free to leave a comment. Have a great week filled with fun and inspiration!