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!

For Always

Welcome to our February Art Philosophy/Artiste Blog Hop! As you know, these cartridges are available exclusively through a Close to My Heart consultant. If you don't already have a Consultant that you are currently working with, please contact one the Consultants in our hop with any questions you have!

Our theme this month features not only one of these amazing cartridges but also a brand NEW paper pack from Close to My Heart - "For Always". In this hop, you will see projects featuring one (or both!) of our versatile Cricut cartridges with this paper pack from many talented crafty ladies! Enjoy our blog hop!

If you have just hopped onto my blog, please start at the beginning at Lucy's blog – Love 2 Create. If you came from Lucy's blog – Love 2 Create then you are in the right place!

I just had to make one of the swing cards for this as I hadn't actually made one yet (GASP) and this paper just cried out to be used for this.

I have to say though that once I cut all the pieces I could not decide which side of the paper to use as both sides are gorgeous!

I also have to tell you that although lots of the swing cards have "prefect" matches in the Art Philosophy and Artiste cartridges to fit the cut out the hart is not one of them. I tried every heart on both cartridges and although they are VERY close none fit perfectly so I cut out the heart on page 51 of the Artiste cartidge (shift + accent 3) and then just trimmed it a bit with scissors.

The card base is cut at 5.5" from Gypsy cardstock and I did the same cut from the For Always paper and then used my paper trimmer to trim 1/8" off of each edge. The stamp is A1131 Seal - Love. 

I thought I would show you that you don't really need that extra layer anyways so here is a picture of it without that extra white heart. I stamped it this time directly on the Gypsy paper with White Daisy ink.

Here is a picture of the card open so you can see I used the heart I cut from the For Always layer and layered it behind with a layer of white (trimmed) to be able to write something in this card easily.

Your next stop on our "For Always" hop is Theodora over at Celebrate Crafts.

Here is the complete lineup in case you get lost along the way:

1. Lucy ~ Love 2 Create 
2. Darla ~ Caution: Stamping is Contagious
3. Theodora ~ Celebrate Crafts  
4. Michelle ~ My Creations With Michelle 
5. Priscilla ~ Priscilla's Paperie 
6. Wendy ~ My Scrapbooking Blog  
7. Stephanie ~ The Quilted Scrapper  
8. Michelle ~ My Flights of Fancy 
9. Ellen ~ CardMonkey's Paper Jungle 
10. Melissa Lind ~ MyWatermelonMoon
11. Jennifer ~ 4 Hearts Scrapbooking   
12. Traci ~ Paper Crafting 101  

Thanks for hopping along with us - we hope we were able to inspire you.

It's Your Birthday

Welcome to our January Art Philosophy Blog Hop! We are starting a new year of blog hops for you all featuring Close to My Heart's exclusive Art Philosophy Cricut cartridge.  The Art Philosophy Cricut cartridge is available exclusively through a Close to My Heart consultant.

This month we are featuring a "birthday" theme for you.  In this hop, you will see projects featuring this versatile cartridge from many talented crafty ladies!  Enjoy our blog hop!  

If you have just hopped onto my blog, please start at the beginning at Lucy's blog – Love 2 Create.   If you came from Lucy's blog – Love 2 Create then you are in the right place!

For my project today I decided I really wanted to make some cute little cupcake earrings for my cousin as a late birthday present (though I might just hang on to them instead for her daughters first birthday as a congrats on making it through the first year present). She absolutely loves cupcakes and even decorated her daughters bedroom in them (which is why I'm really contemplating saving them for that instead).

Before I show you the pictures though I have to tell you that they aren''t 100% completed as I realized at the very last minute as I was about to put them on the earring hooks to take a photo that I am all out of earring hooks!! GASP... I know. :( So... instead I put them on a few jump rings so you could see how they "will" hang and hopefully you can just imagine them hanging from earring hooks in someones ear. I will be changing the colour of these jump rings to match the colour of the cupcakes better too. :)

I cut these using the cupcake shape on page 70 at 2 1/2" from shrink plastic. I them used mushroom and mountain rose alcohol ink to colour them and then took my alcohol marker blender to draw some swirls through the icing and some lines on the bottom. Hole punched them where I wanted the hook to go and then shrunk them down. They are now approximately 1'. I put a bit of glitter gel on the cupcake icing and a sealer all over (liquid glass works perfect for this but I just sprayed them to save time).

Your next stop on our birthday hop is Jennifer over at 4 Hearts Scrapbooking.

Here is the complete lineup in case you get lost along the way:

1. Lucy ~ Love 2 Create 
2. Darla ~ Caution: Stamping is Contagious 
3. Jennifer ~ 4 Hearts Scrapbooking
4. Priscilla ~ Priscilla's Paperie 
5. Kindred Hearts ~ It Makes Total Cents 
6. Theodora ~ Celebrate Crafts
7. Stephanie ~ The Quilted Scrapper 
8. Traci ~ Paper Crafting 101

Thanks for hopping along with us - we hope we were able to inspire you.

Christmas in November

Welcome to our Christmas in November Blog Hop where we are showcasing the exclusive Art Philosophy Cricut cartridge which can be purchased exclusively through a Close to My Heart Independent Consultant.

It's hard to believe that it's already November and that the US Thanksgiving is less than a week away. And well, that means, it's almost Christmas! We have created Christmas themed projects for you and hope to inspire you to get started on YOUR Christmas creations.

If you just happened to come to this blog, you should start at the beginning at Lucy's blog - Love 2 Create. If you came here from Lucy's blog - Love 2 Create, then you're in the right place!


I decided to keep it simple with this one and made gift tags for a few special presents I will give out at Christmas.

Love that this will actually "rock" if you give it a little tap. :)

I used the card feature from page 69 in the Art Philosophy handbook cut at 3" from Cranberry cardstock for my card base. I used cricut craft room to alter the layer feature from this same page hiding one of the cut lines so it became a solid semi circle instead of a frame and I did change the dimensions on it a bit as well making it a height of 1.194" and width 2.625" and cut it from White Daisy cardstock. I then stamped the rocking horse image from the Christmas Delights stamp set in chocolate ink on white daisy card and used my watercolour pencils to colour it in. I love that this image can be Christmas themed by making it Christmas colours and using it on a Christmas project OR it can be coloured completely differently and used for any other occasion be it a baby shower, birthday, etc. Fussy cut my image (you don't have to cut the section out between the bottom of the horse and top of the rocker piece since your layer from behind would show through here anyways.

I will probably put a little loop of ribbon on these to attach them to presents but I left it off for now as I might not want it for some and it's a lot easier to add it if I want it then it is to take it off. 

Here's a look at the stamp set I used, it is by far one of my absolute favourites!

The next stop on your blog hop fun is Diana ~ Diana's Free Moments.

Products Used:

Here's the entire blog hop lineup in case you get lost along the way:

Lucy ~ Love 2 Create 
Darla ~ Caution: Crafting is Contagious
Diana ~ Diana's Free Moments
Carolyn ~ Nuts 4 Scrappin'
Kindred Hearts ~ It Makes Total Cents
Tammy ~ Closer 2 My Heart
Arlene ~ Arlene's Creative Space
Traci ~ Paper Crafting 101


If you do not already have a Close To My Heart consultant and would like to purchase any of the products or want more info I would be happy to help you out. You can visit my CTMH website to see all of the wonderful products and you will find all of my contact info there as well as a link to find a consultant that may be in your area if you wish to have someone local to you.

Autumn with Art Philosophy Blog Hop

Welcome to our Autumn Art Philosophy Blog Hop!

Each month we are showcasing our amazing Art Philosophy Cricut cartridge which can be purchased exclusively through a Close to My Heart Independent Consultant.

It's the time of year where leaves are changing colors, temperatures are dropping, the days are shorter, and the holidays are quickly approaching. This month we will be featuring projects with an Autumn theme made using the Art Philosophy Cricut cartridge!

If you just happened to come to this blog, you should start at the beginning at Lucy's blog - Love 2 Create. If you came here from Lucy's blog - Love 2 Create, then you're in the right place!

I decided to create stencils to make my background using some of the leaf and branch cuts from the Art Philosophy Cricut cartridge. The images I used can be found on pages 34, 43, 56 and 62.

Here's a photo of my finished project:

I used the Art Philosophy Cricut cartridge in Cricut Craft Room to make a stencil for the background. I used Kraft cardstock and Colonial White. I used the Remarkable Wreath stamp set and stamped the wreath base in Chocolate ink and then inked the leaves for the wreath in Goldrush and then just tapped it randomly against the corner of my Barn Red stamp pad to give it a variegated effect. I then stamped the sentiment in the center using the Barn Red again.

I used my sponge daubers and the same ink colours on my background layer with the stencils I made (more info on how I did this below), you could also use the round sponge for this too. I popped my layer of kraft with my main image on it up on foam tape to give the card a bit more dimension.

If you want to skip my little tutorial on the stencils for the background then your next stop on the hop is Diana - Dianas Free Moments, although I'd love for you to scroll down and leave me a comment on what you think before you go. ;)

If you stayed to see my tutorial... Here's how I made my background:

I laid out my entire layout how I wanted it to look using the layers in Cricut Craft Room. It's great doing it this way since you can change your colours around and everything of your layers so you can really see how the end project will look. I also added a larger rectangle with 2 circles in the top corners on each of the leaf layers (I have kept these out of the screen shot because once you add these you can't see your leaves anymore and I wanted you to see how it looked all laid out so I have put this same rectangle and circles on a seperate layer in blue behind everything so you can see what I mean. I used this rectangle and circles to align my stencil correctly (which you will see in the step by step photos). You can see that I also put some branches around in a circle to symbolize the stamp I used.

I also cut one of those same rectangles with the circles out of it with the colonial white rectangle for my pattern as well. This allowed me to stick that down on my craft mat and then I could put my cut cardstock in the opening so I knew everything would line up exactly as it did on my screen.

 

Now I used the circles to line up my layer that was red on my CCR screen which was a rectangle with the circles and all the red leaves cut out of it, and then I sponged my Barn Red ink through the stencil, knowing it would end up in exactly the same place on my background as it was on my screen. I love this technique!!

Then I removed my barn red stencil and put my stencil from the yellow layer on lining it up with the circles again I then sponged my Goldrush ink through the stencil.

You can see my barn red one off to the side here after I removed it and my Goldrush one still in place but after I inked it.

NOTE: you do not want to rub your sponge dauber but rather use a stippling straight up off your stencil and then straight back down.. if you rub then you will distort your stencil.
Here's the finished background piece still in the placement holder after removing my goldrush stencil:

Finished project again:

The next stop on your trail of falling leaves is Diana - Dianas Free Moments

Products Used:



Here's the entire blog hop lineup in case you "fall" off the path:
Lucy's blog - Love 2 Create
Darla - Crafting is Contagious
Diana - Dianas Free Moments Go here next
Stephanie - The Quilted Scrapper
Amie - Mimi, Myself, and I
Jennifer - 4 Hearts Scrapbooking
Rebecca - Stamp and Scrap Studio
Kindred Hearts - It Makes Total Cents
Theodora - Celebrate Crafts
Arlene - Arlene's Creative Space
Amanda - Scraps Of Love
Priscilla - Priscilla's Paperie
Ginger - Ginger's Creative Cottage
Michelle - My Flights of Fancy

September Art Philosophy Blog Hop

Welcome to our September Art Philosophy Blog Hop! Each month we will showcase our amazing Art Philosophy Cricut cartridge which can be purchased exclusively through a Close to My Heart Independent Consultant.

Since Halloween is just around the corner, this month we will be featuring projects for Halloween made using the Art Philosophy Cricut cartridge! Hope you don’t get too scared by the time you get to the end of our hop!

If you just happened to come to this blog, you should start at the beginning at Lucy's blog - Love 2 Create.


For this hop I made a couple projects.. the first was a set of labels for some homemade green tomato chow chow.  I just love these (the labels.. not the chow chow)!!

They turned out so cute and I think I'm going to label all the pickles and chow chow in our house with these since it's a bit of a running joke in our house as everyone else LOVES them and I can't stand the smell of them enough to even open the bottle to put some on the kids plates.

Since my family has such a lovely sense of humour, I get handed the bottle of whatever is on the table (pickles, mustard pickles, chow chow, etc) and asked if I would like some.  Let's see how appetizing they find them with their new labels.. LOL

I used D1527 - Perfect Fit Frames stamped in Gypsy ink on labels cut out using the Art Philosophy cartridge shape on page 67 as indicated on the stamp carrier sheet and C1509 - Magic Potions in Autumn Terracotta ink on labels cut out using the Artiste cartridge shape on page 36.

I also had this set of candles around that was gathering dust and thought the colours (although the picture really doesn't show this very well) were very Halloween like so I decided to add a border from the Art Philosophy cartridge on page 65 in chocolate card stock to make them Halloween themed. I'm not 100% satisfied with these and you may see these again some time with some more cuts added (I'm thinking spiders, skeletons... maybe a few 3D pumpkins around them). Either way I do like how they turned out. They definitely look a little more theme suited now anyways. :)

What do you think?



BEFORE:

 

AFTER:

 

The next stop on your spooky blog hop trail is Diana over at Diana's Free Moments


Here's the entire blog hop lineup in case you get spooked along the way:

1. Lucy - Love 2 Create 
2. Darla - Caution: Crafting is Contagious!
3. Diana - Diana's Free Moments
4. Stephanie - The Quilted Scrapper
5. Julia - You Can Create
6. Wendy Kessler - My Scrapbooking Blog
7. Carolyn Mendoza - Crafting With Carolyn
8. Kindred Hearts - It Makes Total Cents
9. Rebecca - Stamp and Scrap Studio
10. Maria Woodworth - Maria's Paper Craft Place

PRODUCTS USED:

InLinkz.com

August Art Philosophy Hop

Welcome to our August Art Philosophy Blog Hop! Each month we will showcase a feature of the amazing Art Philosophy Cricut cartridge which can be purchased exclusively through a Close to My Heart Independent Consultant.

We're so excited to be doing this hop and we have a fabulous lineup with some very talented ladies. There will be lots of fun projects.

This month we will be showcasing the "Decorative Layer" (shift or no shift) feature of the cartridge.

If you just happened to come to this blog, you should start at the beginning at Lucy's blog

I will warn you that I was having a bit of a "MOJO meltdown" when I was trying to create something for this hop. I had just finished making all the things for my daughters 1st birthday (more on that in a future post) and had all sorts of crazy stuff going on here as well as planning our vacation (which I am now on while you're reading this). Regardless I was still happy with the way it turned out. I have a good friend in the US who is always helping me out with things that I wanted a card for.. and since she's always referring to me as "my Canadian friend" I thought this was very suiting.

I really wanted to show how well the images from the Art Philosophy cartridge go with the Artiste cartridge and truly compliment each other.

I used the decorative layer on page 34 using the shift key from the Art Philosophy cartridge cut at 3.4" (either change the settings on your machine to 1/10 inches to get this size OR use cricut craft room, a gypsy or design studio) in White Daisy cardstock.
The "thanks" stamp is stamped in Cranberry ink and is one of the stamps that comes bundled with the Artiste cartridge, and as indicated on the carrier sheet for the set it is cut at 1.5" Love these stamps!!

I then cut the card (with shift key) at 5" from page 46 in the Artiste handbook from Cranberry cardtock. This folds over top of the non-shift card key cut at the same size on page 46 which I cut from White Daisy and inked the edges with Cranberry ink using one of our new pigment ink cubes (love these!!).

I took the maple leaf from the center of the decorative layer piece from the Art Philosophy cartridge and sponged some cranberry ink on it as well and used an adhesive spring to make it wiggle and pop up off the card once the front closure was removed.

Hope you enjoyed my project. :)
The next stop on your blog hop fun is Diana.

In case you lose your way the entire lineup is:

1. Lucy ~ http://www.love2createitall.com
2. Darla ~ http://www.stampingunderdoctorsorders.blogspot.com
3. Diana ~ http://dianasfreemoments.blogspot.com
4. Wendy Kessler ~ http://myscrapbookingblog.com
5. Eva~ http://loveofcreating.blogspot.com
6. Carolyn ~ http://www.nuts4scrappin.blogspot.com
7. Stephanie- http://www.quiltedscrapper.blogspot.com
8. Joanne - http://josiesjoy.blogspot.com
9. Laura W. http://scrappinsweetiesescape.blogspot.com
10. Kindred Hearts - http://itmakestotalcents.blogspot.com
11. Pam Stewart - http://i-candy-scraps.blogspot.com
12. Carolyn Mendoza ~ http://www.craftingwithcarolyn.blogspot.com

July Art Philosophy Blog Hop

Welcome to our July Art Philosophy Blog Hop! Each month we will showcase a feature of the amazing Art Philosophy Cricut cartridge which can be purchased exclusively through a Close to My Heart Independent Consultant.
We're so excited to be doing this hop and we have a fabulous lineup with some very talented ladies. There will be lots of fun projects AND some blog candy!!!

Lucy Kelleher, our hostess and fellow CTMH Consultant, will be giving away a stamp set! She is giving away a prior Stamp of the Month set that can no longer be purchased called "You Are ...". (This stamp set has a $17.95 retail value). You will find a picture of the stamp set on her blog. To enter to win, you will need to leave a comment on her blog and on every stop of the blog hop. If you also become a follower of Lucy's blog, she will give you another entry .

This month we will be showcasing the "Card" feature of the cartridge. Did you know there are 100 different card shapes you can make with this cartridge? You heard me correctly -- 100!!! Now we won't be able to show you ALL 100 card options, but we will show you as many as we can.

If you just happened to come to this blog, you should start at the beginning at Lucy's blog - http://www.love2createitall.com/.

My project today uses the card feature key on page 47 (without the shift key) which is the 3rd row down 7th key over (going left to right) of the white image keys on your keypad.

First.. a close up of the glittery goodness!! :)

Here's what the whole card looks like from the front:

Now.. just to show you that this really was the card shape which has a cutout window in the middle of the front panel and not just a plain card with this stuck on it (and because I thought the picture looked really neat)... here's a shot of my card open in front of a window so you can see that you can see through it. :)

Here's how I achieved this look.
First I made my file in Cricut Craft Room so all the pieces would line up and cut in the correct spot as well as I was able to play with the colours to decide which ones I wanted to use.

Next I loaded my silver paper (the paper I used was Reflections cardstock from Michaels) and cut the card shape @ 5.5" using CCR. Then I took a piece of acetate which I had applied a piece of Scortape to first and with the mat still loaded in the machine i carefully lifted the cut card shape up on the side with the cutout and ligned up my piece of acetate with the acetate side on the mat and the tape backing facing up so that it would cut the pieces in middle of my acetate 9yes I could have just cut a bigger piece and put t in approximately the right spot since CCR shows you where on the mat it will cut but this way I knew exactly how much edge I would have on the acetate around my shape). I cut all oth the layers for the ornament and the label shape like the opening in the card front with my setting on 4 speed, 4 pressure, 4 blade depth and a mulitcut of 2 since the kind I used was BCT tape which has a very thick backing on the tape.

Now I had my card shape cut from the silver card and a solid square of acetate with adhesive on it and all the pieces cut out of the tape backing.

I removed the tape backing on the outer edge leaving all of the part you can see through the window cut opening of the card covered. and lined it up with my card from behind and stuck it on. now i just removed one section of backing at a time and applied my glitter to the exposed adhesive rubbing it on really well with my fingers and then using a shaving brush to brush away all the excess glitter.

I used my Say it in Style stamps (which is no longer available as of August 1 so make sure you order ASAP if you want this amazing set of sentiments) to stamp the sentiment in versamark ink and heat emboss with red tinsel embossing powder.

The next stop on your blog hop fun is Gloria Shirr so hop on over and see what wonderful project she has to share with you today! :)


Here is the list of all the talented consultants who are participating in this months blog hop:

1. Lucy ~ Love2Create
2. Darla ~ Caution: Crafting is Contagious!
3. Gloria Shirr - Purpleglo Creations
4. Laura Wolff- Scrappinsweetie's Escape
5. Eva-For the Love of Creating
6. Danielle ~ Little Bit of Scrap
7. Connie ~ Connie's Crafty Closet
8. Wendy ~ My Scrapbooking Blog
9. Joanne - Josie's Joy
10. Laura Charko - Koala Designs
11. Carolyn Heniges - Nuts 4 Scrappin'
12. Kindred Hearts (Penny) - It Makes Total Cents
13. Stephanie Feist- The Quilted Scrapper
14. Julia Hammond You Can Create

Thanks so much for stopping by and hopping with us - we hope you LOVE all the projects we created!

Sketch Challenge

I took part of a sketch challenge today with MCCR.

Today's sketch is:                                                    

My take on it is:

I created the whole thing in Cricut Craft Room first of course. I just love how I can plan out my whole card colours and all without using any paper or even taking any out. Here's a screen shot of it all laid out:

The ducks and the onesie are using the free digital cartridge that you can use with CCR called Craft Room Basics and are 1" high.


The card base is 5.5" high and it, the layer and label shape are all from the Art Philosophy cartridge from CTMH.

The onesie and the label shape are both on foam tape for some added dimension

The sentiment stamp as well as all the papers (Lucy B&T, Creme Brulee and Colonial White) are from the Lucy Workshop On The Go. I used cotton candy for my sentiment and sponged some creme brulee on the card base and label shape backing as well just to take the starkness away from it.