A Card to Say Farewell

This project uses several Close To My Heart products including the exclusive CTMH Cricut Art Philosophy cartridge.  This post is can also be seen on She's A Sassy Lady today.  It is so much fun to be part of the Sassy Lady design team.

It is never easy to see friends move away, even when we know it is for the best.  The French always say, "Au Revoir", which means, "Until we meet again", a very hopeful outlook.  Here is a card made for such a time.

Close To My Heart Supplies Needed:


Papers  - "Stella" (no longer available) and small scraps
Inks - Ruby Z2170  Cocoa Z2114  Lagoon Z2195
Embellishments - "Stella" workshop lace and button (no longer available)
Stamp Set - "Bonjour Occasions" B1414 (retired)
Art Philosophy Cartridge (Z1686)
Colonial White Card 5 1/2 x 4 1/4 (X1410) (link is to the 50 card value pack)
Liquid Glass (as adhesive) (Z679)

Non-CTMH Supplies:
Embossing Machine (Big Kick) and Folders ("Botanics")
Cricut machine (plus Gypsy, if desired)
Adhesives of choice

To make the card:

Choose your embossing materials, cut your main paper at 1/4" less than the size of your card and emboss that paper for the front of your card.

Sizzix "Botanics" Embossing Folder

Paper in folder ready to emboss

Embossing detail - pretty flowers!

Using your Gypsy (or inputting directly into your Cricut machine if you prefer), find the designs on the CTMH Cricut Art Philosophy cartridge needed for this project.
     Heart - p. 26  Layer <s> setting (row 1, col. 5).  Cut one each at 1", 1.5" and 2.25"
     Scallop - p. 55 <Rctngle7>** (row 5, col. 4).  cut one at 1.5"

**(note - on the Gypsy, to me, this means NONE of the buttons are pushed on the left hand side where you pick icons or fonts and "shift" - clear as mud, right?  It would be the same thing on the Cricut keypad.)

Designs laid out on Gypsy

Papers loaded and ready to cut

Brush edges of card and embossed paper with ink

Attach main paper to base card

Brush edges of hearts with ink

Here's the pretty embossed paper on the card

Brush edges of scallop with ruby ink, stamp sentiment with cocoa ink, add embellishments and secure with liquid glass.  Note - Liquid Glass is wonderful for adding a 3-dimensional look to paper, details, or stamped images, making them sparkle and shine.  It is also terrific as used here - securing embellishments absolutely.  They WILL NOT fall off your card!

Completed card

Thanks for  joining me this time.  If you have any questions, feel free to send me a note.  Have a wonderful week and a safe Labor Day holiday.

Summer Sewing and Knitting

Taking a break from card making, here are a few things sewn this summer for my grandchildren:

Summer Nightgown

Detail of yolk and sleeves

Flannel Nightgown

 

Ribbon Detail at bodice

Cat friend - there was extra fabric

Hand embroidered face - M-E-O-O-W!

Summer boy's pajamas

There is a little stuffed dog toy to go with my grandson's pj's, unfortunately, I forgot to take a picture of it.

While we were visiting our family in California, our photographer daughter asked me to make one of my photo prop pea pods.  So here it is:

Entire Pea Pod, made 22 inches long

Detail of top - instead of knitting all the way up, I purled the last 5 rows.

The pea pod is made of worsted weight acrylic yarn, very soft.  My daughter used it at her photo shoot and was very pleased with how it worked.

Thanks for looking and have a blessed summer.  Hard to believe some of our children are already back in school!  Wow!

3D Artiste Cartridge Greeting Card

This project uses several Close To My Heart products including the exclusive CTMH Cricut Artiste cartridge.  The inspiration for this card comes from a video I found online.  The video takes you step-by-step through assembly of the card.  This post is can also be seen on She's A Sassy Lady this week - I am very pleased to be a new member of Sheila's design team.

CTMH Supplies needed:

 1.  Cricut Artiste Cartridge (Z1790)
 2.  "Baroque Borders" Acrylix stamp (August 2012 S1208) note - since this was a stamp of the
       month, substitute another border stamp, such as "The Best Things" (C1503) if needed.
 3.  "Casual Expression - Occasions" Acrylix stamp (D1525)
 4.  "Scrapbook Statements Poets" Acrylix stamp (C1539)
 5.  "Family Love" Acrylix stamp (D1506)
 6.  Exclusive Inks - Desert Sand (Z2118)
 7.  Exclusive Inks -Twilight (Z2160)
 8.  4"x5" Acrylix stamp block (Y1012)
 9.  3"x3" Acrylix stamp block (Y1006)
10.  Sponge Daubers (Z726)
11.  Liquid Glass (Z679)
12.  Card stock - Desert Sand (1273)
13.  B&T Duos Paper - I used Florentine (X7153B) no longer available, sorry

Non-CTMH Supplies:

14.  Base card - 4 1/4"x 5 1/2" or similar (in this case I did not use a CTMH product)
15.  Adhesives of choice (ATG gun for card paper, glue dots for 3D decorations)
16.  Cricut Gypsy machine (optional)
17.  Cricut machine
18.  Craft scoring board

To make the card:

1.  Using your Gypsy (or inputting directly into your Cricut machine if you prefer), find the designs
     on the CTMH Cricut Artiste cartridge needed for this project:
     a.  Emblem - p. 63, "Card" setting - (row 4, column 3) height 2"
     b.  Double fan - p. 50, "3D" <s> setting - (row 2, column 10) height 1 1/2" (note - make
          TWO of these, as indicated in the cartridge workbook, in order to make a circular "fan")

Gypsy with pattern for 2 cards

Layout on mat, ready to cut.
Note grid used to check paper is aligned properly.

2.  Cut card stock to allow for a 1/8" or 1/4" border on the front of the card, your choice - measure
     your card to determine the correct size for the card stock to be cut.

3.a.  Ink up border stamp with desert sand ink and apply to cut desert sand card stock.
   b.  Distress edges of card stock with desert sand ink using sponge dauber.
   c.  Affix card stock to front of card and distress edges of card front with  desert sand ink using
       sponge dauber.

When using a big stamp, I bring the ink TO the stamp,
decreasing the potential for ink overlap on the acrylic block

Distress edges with desert sand ink

Distress card edges with desert sand ink

Whenever possible, I make TWO cards

4.  Ink up "Celebrate Today" stamp with desert sand ink, then QUICKLY roll edges ("Rock and Roll"
     method) with Twilight ink and apply to emblem cut out.  Doing this quickly prevents the first ink
     from "beading up" and looking "dotty" on the stamp.

Stamp on right shows ink "beading" - I was too slow!

5.a.  Fold 3D shape on fan folds.  Using a scoring mat and bone folder to LIGHTLY score the folds
        will help keep the folds straight and precise.  A little extra time to take this step will save
        having to re-cut the fan if folds do not turn out nicely when "free-folded".

Using a bone folder saves my fingers!

See - two little accordions!

   b.  Secure the ends of the two fans together using Liquid Glass (Z679).  It dries very quickly, so
        be careful to place the sections exactly where you want them and hold for about 10 seconds.

6.  When the fan has dried, place 3 or 4 glue dots on the face of the card and press the opened fan
     on to the front and center firmly, while at the same time being careful not to press down the folds
     of the fan.


7.  Adhere more glue dots to the back of the emblem and place it firmly on the front of the fan.

8.  Two finished cards - front and inside.  One will be for a birthday, one for an anniversary.

The emblem on the right is centered - the photo just looks off center

Birthday sentiment from "Scrapbook Statements Poets"

Anniversary sentiment from "Family Love"

Thanks for joining me for this project.  If you have any questions, please send me a note.  Have a wonderful summer!

Summer Birthday Cards

Summer birthdays are fast approaching.  Here are two cards for my grandchildren.

Jessie is a layered card from the Cricut "Toy Story" cartridge

Sentiments are from CTMH stamps

 

This little train is from the Cricut "Mickey and Friends" cartridge -
with a VERY special engineer!

Sentiments are from CTMH stamps

Thanks for looking at these cute projects.  If you have any questions, feel free to ask.  Enjoy your summer!

Happy Father's Day!

Father's Day is nearly here - so I thought it would be nice to post my card pictures a couple of days early for a change.  Materials used for this project include:

Papers:  "Tommy" selections

Inks:  Saddle, Cranberry, Lagoon

Hardware/Software:  Cricut Expression and Artiste Cartridge

Stamps:  Scrapbook Statements Poets (C1539); Perfect Fit - Dad (C1542)

There was a stamp for "DAD" but none for the others, so they
were all printed out using the Cricut Artiste cartridge font.

The finished card fronts.

For my special guy!

Poet sayings...

Emerson is a smart cookie...

For the dreamer in the family...

Two cards used the same sentiment, so I did not show it again.  Thanks for looking and have a blessed day.

Greeting Cards for Mother's Day

Yes, I am catching up on my posts.  Once again, these cards were created with CTMH supplies.  Everything I need to make beautiful cards is available in either CTMH papers, inks, stamps, embellishments - sometimes even ideas.  These cards were made with the Chantilly "Workshop on the Go" Card pack (available through my consultant page).  I used the Cricut Artiste cartridge (a CTMH exclusive) to make the center emblem on the front, as well as the die cuts used inside.  All the stamps are from CTMH.

Emblem from Cricut Artiste

Sunburst stamped with Sunflower

Lagoon colored paper stamped with lagoon colored ink

Wing added to bird with pop-dots - two separate stamps included in set!

Finished cards for my four special ladies - all wonderful mothers.

The women in my life all reflect the wonderful skills my mother and grandmothers demonstrated in their lives for and with other people.  They lived through an era of service - their family was what was important to them.  Thanks for looking.

Greeting Cards - Birthdays, Easter and more!

Here are two examples of how the same card can be used for two purposes.  The papers and embellishments are from a Close To My Heart (CTMH) Avonlea "Workshop On The Go".  The sentiments are also CTMH acrylic stamps.  NOTE:  "Click" on any picture to enlarge it for a closer look.

The first card is a birthday card:

The second card is a sympathy card:

Same exact card design on front

Different sentiment inside

For Easter, I made several cards:

CTMH papers and stamps, Copic pens

CTMH stamps and sentiments

Copic pen to color this lily

Bunny from Cricut "Create A Critter" cartridge

Girl Bunny has a pink flower!

A whole basket of flowers inside!

Hope you enjoy this collection of spring cards.