Sketch 31

For today's card I wanted to take this weeks somewhat more complicated sketch (or at least it seemed like it to me haha) and simplify it.

I used a kraft card base and then matted a piece of Frosted pattern paper with colonial white and wrapped it with some hemp baker's twine. I popped it up on some 3-D foam tape. Then I cut a 1 3/4" colonial white label shape from Artiste and a 2" kraft label shape from Art Philosophy. I stamped D1560 Holiday Tags label shape (no I did not cut the shape at the recommended size) in 2nd generation Saddle ink and the sentiment in 2nd generation Juniper. 

You can find all the products I used HERE.

I'd love for you to go on over to check out what the rest of the Atlantic Hearts Sketch Challenge Design Team has in store for you today using this sketch HERE.

I'd really love if you checked out the entries so far this week and played along with us HERE 

Santa Baby - Sketch 30

I have to tell you when Michelle sent me her hand sketched version of this as a scanned picture of it I opened it and it was sideways. The card I made is what immediately came to mind and I had a lot of fun making this one. 

It is an A2 gate-fold card in Cranberry cardstock that I took some scissors (gasp... I know.. I so very rarely cut anything by hand) I cut the top into a heart shape leaving the sides intact at the folds on each side. then I cut off the bottom corners rounding a bit rather than simply cutting straight and lastly leaving a little of the folded edge attached at the top and bottom I cut away some of the middle of each side of the card.

I stamped the swirls from Love Life in versamark and heat embossed them with Winter Wonderland embossing powder (this powder has silver glitter in it but you can't see it at all in the photo). I then took a liquid applique pen and drew on the edges of the bottom and the top, waited for it to dry and then heated it so it would puff up. I used my crop-o-dile to make the lacing holes on the card edges where they meet in the middle (I held them together and punched both at the same time so they were even). The ribbon is laced as 2 separate pieces going only on one side with each piece and then tied inside the card on the bottom and outside at the top. I did it this way so the card could still easily be opened.

I'd love for you to go on over to check out what the rest of the Atlantic Hearts Sketch Challenge Design Team has in store for you today using this sketch HERE.

I'd really love if you checked out the entries so far this week and played along with us HERE 

Crafting WITH my kids

On Sunday we had a party put on by the Military Family Resource Center to celebrate the half way point of the HMCS Toronto deployment. I had volunteered to do crafts with the kids for this.

My kids were using my eBosser by Craftwell to help me make card bases for the other families of the deployed members of the HMCS Toronto to use for our craft at the half way deployment party I figured we'd make a video. Of course one video turned into 2 since one child is not to be outdone by the other. :) 

Before you go watch the videos would you like to see some pictures from the Half-Way Deployment party?

Of course you do right?!

Here are the cards that resulted from the videos they made (see below for the videos). These are the ones Michael made.

Here are some fun things the kids made to send to their deployed loved ones... with the exception of that picture in the bottom left of this group... that would be a picture of a chunk of Samantha's hair and the piece of paper she was trying to cut her hand prints out of when her pigtail go in the way resulting in cut hair.

The top pics of this group are a mail-able hug and if you click on the picture to enlarge it you can probably even read it. I used the poem from the book "The Paper Hug". Basically it's the kids hand prints cut out and attached with a length of ribbon that was measured to be the length of their outstretched arms. The poem was added to the middle of the ribbon.

The bottom right is Reindeer poop aka Halloween smarties that we bought on clearance with a poem printed/cut out, ribbon looped through and laid across the smarties box  and then a return address mailing label that I whipped up stuck on to hold the ribbon in place and cover the side of the box that has Halloween pictures on it.

After crafting the Military Family Resource Center (MFRC) aka our second home lately had given all the kids tickets that they then used to "purchase" a loot bag and a bag of popcorn that they could have while watching The Croods movie. All of the kids (and moms) had a great time.

Watch as Michael, my 4 (and a half) year old demonstrates how to use the Craftwell eBosser to emboss a card.





Still don't believe it's that easy?? Watch my other video of my 2 year old using it.



DISCLAIMER: I am in NO way affiliated with Craftwell or the eBosser in any way.. just a product I love!

Sketch 29

Well, I had a lot of fun making my card for this sketch.

I have been watching Lindsay from The Frugal Crafter do a bunch of watercolour stuff lately (go check her out, she has some awesome tutorials!!). Anyways, I absolutely love watercolour but only ever use my watercolour pencils for it and really wanted to paint. My kids also wanted to paint so I got out their watercolour paints.. you know the kind, the cheap ones that you get all the little discs of paint in a plastic case with a paintbrush in it from the dollar store?!

I had a whole bunch of these card fronts already stamped and embossed with the Jumbo Zinnia from Stampendous sitting out on my table from a recent craft room clean up I did and decided to paint with my kids. YES this is done with those cheap paints and YES I used the cheap crappy paintbrush that comes with them to do it. :)

As soon as I finished it I knew it was going to be used for this weeks sketch. I grabbed a scrap piece of Cranberry Cardstock and some of the Ruby Chevron Ribbon. The Chevron Ribbon actually comes white and ruby chevron which looked way too stark on this so I simply painted it with the same grey that I used around the outlines of the flowers. I grabbed a bunch of buttons from the Red Button Assortment and stuck them on. Voila. I am in love with how it turned out. I hope you like it too and are inspired to go craft with your kids (or if you don't have any maybe try out some cheaper supplies that you can come across very easily).

Speaking of crafting/playing with your kids... I have some awesome pics to share with you all from some crafty time I spent with mine as well as some videos (you may have already seen the videos on my youtube channel). C'mon back tomorrow and check it out!

Right now you should head on over to Atlantic Hearts Sketch Challenge Blog and see the rest of the Design Teams creations using this weeks sketch HERE.

Also, check out the actual sketch this week and the entries so far by clicking HERE.


Products Used:

Sketch # 29	Black Embossing Powder	Versamark Stamp Pad	Cranberry Cardstock	White Daisy Cardstock
Craft Heater

InLinkz.com

Sketch 27

For this weeks sketch I wanted to make a card to give out to all the veteran military personnel we know as well as put a few in my purse for when we go out as I like to give these out to the veterans that sit giving out the poppies for Remembrance Day as well.

I was so happy with how this turned out I decided I will also use these as thank you cards for all of the wonderful people who have donated their beautiful handmade cards to "Sending Smiles for Soldiers" a group I've started where I have been collecting cards and sending them to various military bases within Canada for them to send to their deployed troops. These cards are blank so the deployed military personnel that receive them can use these cards to send home to their friends and families. If you are familiar with Operation Write Home in the US this is essentially the same thing as that but for Canada.

I used kraft cardstock and some Tommy B&T paper. The strip across is the zip strip off the edge of the Tommy paper. I cut the ribbon using the Close To My Heart Artbooking cartridge at 1.75" using real dial size and the stamp I used is called Band of Soldiers from Deep Red Stamps (use the link by clicking on the stamp name and Stampers Best will donate $1 to Operation Write Home which is the US version of what I'm doing with Sending Smiles for Soldiers). I stamped it in Chocolate pigment ink and distressed the edges of all the layers with the same chocolate pigment ink.

Now, I'd love for you to go on over to check out what the rest of the Atlantic Hearts Sketch Challenge Design Team has in store for you today using this sketch HERE.

I'd really love if you checked out the entries so far this week and played along with us HERE as well.

An extra shout out to Stampers Best for supporting our heroes by donating $1 of all of the proceeds from the stamps in the "Operation Write Home" section of their website to OWH. I can only hope that some day what I'm doing here in Canada will get big enough for a company like this to make stamps for us to uses here in Canada as well. 

Sketch 26

I actually have 2 cards for you today using this weeks sketch from Atlantic Hearts Sketch Challenge.

I had one made but wasn't 100% happy with it and had an idea in mind for the second but it got left really late and my little guy has been sick the last couple days so I've been busy with him. I stayed up late last night to finish the second card to have it posted for you today but it just would not photograph for me without some natural light. That said, I will share my first card with you and promise to edit this post later today with the second card I made as well.

This is only the first card... but I couldn't decide on whether or not it should have a sentiment so I made one of each...apparently I am very indecisive lately eh?!

With a sentiment added

No  Sentiment like the sketch

This card uses the CTMH Artbooking cricut cartridge for the overlay and the card base behind it was made by cutting the same overlay in a different size and using the piece of paper I cut from for the one I actually used as a mask I laid the different sized one over it and sponged some crystal blue ink. I also masked off where the overlay went after I added my overlay and sponge whisper ink on. I could have achieved the same effect by layering some whisper cardstock and then patterned paper (or a piece of white with the sponging the overlay technique that I did) and I wouldn't have had to mask so much but I wanted to keep the weight of the card down so I did that by reducing the number of layers of cardstock I used and masking to produce the same layered look. The snowman is also cut from the artbooking cartridge. I hand drew his face on and his scarf is actually the scarf from one of the penguins in Wintry Wishes which is a hostess stamp set. The cartridge actually has a cut for the scarf and face included but I liked this striped scraf better an it fit so perfectly. I also didn't want to fuss with the little bits for his face so opted to drawn it on.

I tore a piece of white daisy for the snow and placed it in front of my snowman after lightly inking the edges with crystal blue (the snowman is inked with it too). I then added some streaks of glitz glitter gel to make the snow look more realistic.

After completing both this card and my second card I have actually decided I like this one better but you'll just have to wait until later today to see my second card to decide which one you like better for yourself. They are absolutely nothing alike as the second card is fall themed, not winter. LOL

Edited to add:

Here is the second card as promised. :)

This one uses our new glitter paper and a cut from the Artbooking cricut cartridge. I adhered it to a piece of Champagne cardstock and then used alcohol markers and a gold metallic marker to colour in the leaves. I used a chocolate marker to colour the tree trunk. The 'ribbon' is bronze shimmer trim. The card base is kraft cardstock.

Now, I'd love for you to go on over to check out what the rest of the Atlantic Hearts Sketch Challenge Design Team has in store for you today using this sketch HERE.

I'd really love if you checked out the entries so far this week and played along with us HERE 

Sketch 25

Today's card was admittedly a bit of a struggle for me. My mojo has gone missing and despite filling out all the missing person reports and looking high and low for it, it has not turned up yet. ;)

Regardless I ended up really liking the finished product. What do you think?

I think I might have a 'thing' for this sentiment and silver embossing powder since this is officially the third card in a row I've used it on. What can I say... I really like it. :)

The card base is Ruby cardstock and that's some of our awesome shimmer trim in red and silver on there. The flower is actually a few things... the olive leaves and bottom layer of red petals are cut from the Art Philosophy  cartridge. The bottom red layer of petals is also painted with some shimmer spray made out of Pearl Paint, reinker and water. I put a felt flower from the Ruby Mini-Medley assortment on top of the paper flower and added a sparkle to its center. 

Now, I'd love for you to go on over to check out what the rest of the Atlantic Hearts Sketch Challenge Design Team has in store for you today using this sketch HERE.

I'd really love if you checked out the entries so far this week and played along with us HERE 

Welcome and Glittery Sketch 24

First I need to welcome you to my new blog.. so...

You will see things change here often for the next little while as you can probably tell the site is not completely finished. I did import all of my old blog content over to here so you'd be able to find all of the same posts you were able to see there. :)

I decided to switch over to this web address instead of my old one because I was having a really hard time with the number of letters in the address of my old one and making it fit on business cards nicely was nearly impossible. This new site actually uses my correct business name so it really makes a lot more sense anyways.

Now, onto what you really came here for today...

For this weeks sketch I actually left it to the last minute because of some issues I have been having with my shoulder I was not really up for using my arm to craft. That said I ended up making this after everyone else in my house was asleep so this meant no cricut (I know, tragedy right?!) and also that I wanted to use up as many pieces as I had on hand already done so \I could go to bed myself (oh and not wake everyone using the heat gun or simply walking back and forth in my craft area in the living room (which is also located directly above my husbands grandparents bedroom who were sleeping).

I like it but I think it's just missing some little detail and I can't figure out what... suggestions?

\
I had the main panel already covered in glitter and stamped using a burnished velvet technique.
I coloured some yellow in the windows as well as a little bit on the lawn being cast from the lights on in the house. A little red along the bottom edge of the roof line and that was it. Popped it up on a Pacifica panel. The sentiment I already had a bunch stamped and heat embossed in silver because I had planned to use them to replicate my card from Sketch # 23 for a friend who wanted some so I just matted one with foam tape for some dimension onto a pacifica piece as well. I punched a bunch of swirls from both silver glitter paper and Pacifica cardstock. I punched a bunch of snowflakes from the same glitter paper and white daisy and stuck those on but it just didn't add enough oomph... so I added some Base and Bling metal flowers for snowflakes instead.

This whole card is actually 5" x 7". I've been making mostly A2 cards lately as I've been making them to send to the deployed members of the Canadian military (more info on that HERE if you're interested), but since glitter is not allowed on those cards I knew this panel was not going to be used for one of those so I thought I'd make a larger card this time.

Now, I'd love for you to go on over to check out what the rest of the Atlantic Hearts Sketch Challenge Design Team has in store for you today using this sketch HERE.

I'd really love if you checked out the entries so far this week and played along with us HERE 

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Sketch 23

This card was fun, quick and easy to make.

Combine Sketch 23 from Atlantic Hearts Sketch Challenge with some silver glitter paper, sentiment from Christmas Village stamp set, Silver embossing powder and some embellishments (snowflake brads from my stash and a base & bling flower)... voila!

Please go check out the rest of the Design Teams creations using this weeks sketch HERE.

You can see the sketch itself and the entries so far this week HERE, we'd love to have you play along with us!

Products Used:

Sketch 23 Christmas Village D1554 Base & Bling Floral Accents Black & Grey Glitter Paper Silver embossing powder Colonial White Cards & Envelopes Versamark Stamp Pad 3-D Foam Tape Tombow Adhesive Craft Heater

InLinkz.com

Artbooking Made Easy (S01E05): Halloween Mini Albums

2 Fabulous Halloween mini-albums and a super cut princess layout from the same 2 keys on the artbooking cricut cartridge! Check them all out in this great video from CTMH corporate design team staff.

CUTE Sketch # 22

This week I honestly had a hard time with the sketch. I had tons of ideas but all involved buttons which I figured was an obvious route to take with the sketch and although would look wonderful I tend to take the not so obvious route with most of what I do. LOL

I decided to leave off the sentiment at the bottom and use the "circles" on the sketch as placement for letters to spell a sentiment instead. 

I used Cricut Craft Room and lined up the letters from the Art Philosophy cricut cartridge on the rounded corner square (which is on Art Philosophy and Artiste both (possibly on Artbooking as well though I don't see it at a glance haha). I cut that out of the Babycakes paper. I then cut the doily from Artbooking for the mat out of sunset cardstock and with the babycakes layer popped up on foam tape I flat taped the doily onto a whisper card base that I rounded the corners of. I added square sparkles to the corners.

Now go check out all the rest of the Design Teams wonderful creations this week (as well as the Top 3 from last week) HERE.

Also, if you'd like to play along with this weeks sketch you can find it and the link up for it HERE.

Artbooking Made Easy (S01E04): Spooky Halloween Layouts

As promised I'm back with the fourth video in the Artbooking made easy series from Close To My Heart corporate design staff.

If you miss any of these videos don't worry... you can check them out over on the Close To My Heart YouTube channel or over on my YouTube channel I have set up a playlist for them all HERE.




Now did I just hear you say you don't own this fantastic new cartridge yet?? Really?! Not to worry, you can order one for your very own right HERE making sure you join my monthly orders gathering and then send me an email with your mailing address after and I will mail you 2 brand new cricut blades as well (you can even choose if you want regular blades or deep cut blades or maybe even one of each). :)

Artbooking Made Easy (S01E03): Summer Mini-Albums

Check out the third video in the Artbooking made easy series from Close To My Heart corporate design staff. I'll be back later today with the fourth video in this series (since I'm a week late posting this one for you).

If you miss any of these videos don't worry... you can check them out over on the Close To My Heart YouTube channel or over on my YouTube channel I have set up a playlist for them all HERE.



Now did I just hear you say you don't own this fantastic new cartridge yet?? Really?! Not to worry, you can order one for your very own right HERE making sure you join my monthly orders gathering and then send me an email with your mailing address after and I will mail you 2 brand new cricut blades as well (you can even choose if you want regular blades or deep cut blades or maybe even one of each). :)

Tracing a PNG or JPEG in silhouette studio

Today I have a video tutorial again for you on how to add cut lines to a graphic. This time I will use a PNG (Portable Network Graphic) of Pinkie Pie from My Little Pony.

I hope you might find this helpful. Please let me know if there are any other tutorials you'd like to see and I will see what I can do for you. :)

You can also check out my other tracing video for Silhouette Studio HERE that uses a JPEG and also has a second cut line to cut out some white area inside the image as well..

Celebrate Sketch 21

I have to say that I am very happy with how my card turned out for this sketch! I did have a bit of help though as there was a card class I took at Carousel Rubber Stamps back in 2010 that I absolutely loved! I wanted to recreate it but of course it used a punch I didn't own (and couldn't find), a stamp that by the time I decided I wanted it was no longer available and expensive shimmery paper..... You can see the original from the class here. Of course I was going through all the sketches Michelle had given me to digitize and came across this one and nearly fell off my chair as if you look at it sideways was perfect.... I guess it was time to try to create the same stunning effect using what I had on hand. The Artbooking cartridge and Create-a-shade Pearl Paint made this extremely easy and I'm really glad I waited so long as I actually like this one to the original as the Sentiment stand out more, and I didn't have to heat emboss and fussy cut out (by hand) the butterfly. Yay!

This first one show the colours the best and more true with the Celebrate sentiment but I adjusted the colours a bit in the Remember sentiment one so you could see the shimmer that the pearl paint mixture adds better. 

I used White Daisy card base and for the top rectangle mat. The rest is all Colonial White that has been sprayed with a mixture of water and Pearl Paint. I am in LOVE with Pearl Paint for many techniques but this is by far my favourite!. :) I also sprayed some of the pearl paint mixture on one of my teflon craft mats and then stamped a swirl from Love Life in it and onto the top white piece randomly to add a bit of shimmer there as well and to provide some flight paths for the butterfly. I don't think you'll be able to see that in the photo though so you'll just have to trust me on that one. 

All the pieces (border, Sentiment and Butterfly were cut from the new Artbooking Cricut Cartridge. 

The ribbon is just some sheer ribbon from my stash that I got at Michaels when it was on sale.

Now go check out all the rest of the Design Teams wonderful creations this week (as well as the Top 3 from last week) HERE.

Also, if you'd like to play along with this weeks sketch you can find it and the link up for it HERE.

Products Used:

Cross Canada Blog Hop - Archives

Welcome to our September Blog Hop featuring Jeanette's Archived Stamps. You will see creations from our participants that will include 1 of 5 stamp sets that Close To My Heart has taken out of Jeanette's Archieved collection. To purchase any of the items seen in our blog hop today, contact your local consultant to place an order.

We hope that you will take the time to leave comments on our posts, as we love to get feedback from our viewers....whether it was something that you really liked or some new technique that was used that you would like to learn how to do....by leaving us comments, we get to hear what you like, and what you want to see. Thank you… now on to our hop!

If you have just hopped onto my blog, you can start here as this is a circular hop, but if you want to follow us across Canada then please start at the beginning and join Michelle at My Creations With Michelle. If you came from Michelle at My Creations With Michelle then you are in the right place!

My card today uses the Teddy Bear Birthday set from Jeanette's Archives stamp sets.

I stamped the gifts from the Teddy Bear Birthday stamp set on the Laughing Lola paper in Lagoon pigment ink and embossed with clear embossing powder. I also ran the pigment ink around the edges of all my papers (including the tag shape which I cut from the Art Philosophy cricut cartirdge) and embossed those with clear embossing powder as well. The sentiment is stamped and embossed as well. I added a variety of pink and purple sparkles from Z1326 Sparkles which is retired but in retrospect I think the Aqua Dots like I used in the middle of my metal snowflake/flower from yesterdays card might have worked better as they would be the same colour as the ink. Oh well, next time right?!?

Your next stop on the Cross Canada Hop is Rosalynd of In My Scrappin' Room.

If you get lost along the way, you can head to Michelle at My Creations With Michelle, as she has the complete blog list.

Thanks for hopping along with us - we hope we were able to inspire you to get creative using some of the designs, products and techniques seen along the way. Join us again in October when we will be featuring the Base and Bling line. We hope you will join us again on November 15th.

Products Used: