Taking up the Rose Blossom Garden Challenge

Hi folks! The ladies over at the Rose Blossom Garden have another challenge for the month of April. The key of choice this time is the Mother’s Day key from the Close To My Heart Artiste Cricut Cartridge. I was privileged to design a project for this challenge, which you can see on the Rose Blossom Garden blog here.

I had a lot of fun thinking outside the box for this month’s challenge, so I thought I would use the key to make a shaped card. Here’s what I came up with:

The supplies on this card, unless otherwise noted, are from Close To My Heart. The base of the card is cut at 4 inches using the “real dial size” setting. I cut 2 bases from White Daisy cardstock, and scored one at 3/4 inches. I adhered the two together above the score line, and covered the card front with patterned papers from the Chantilly paper pack. The pink patterned layer is cut at 3 3/4 inches, and the doily is cut at 3 inches from White Daisy cardstock. The tulip is made from 3 tulip shapes cut at 1 inch from Chantilly patterned paper. (For a brief tutorial on making the tulips, see this post at Violets & Sunshine. I used diamond stickles around the edges for a little sparkle. The leaves are cut at 2 inches and I hand cut a little stem, all of which were cut from the green patterned paper in the Chantilly paper pack. I added Color-Ready Seam Binding Ribbon and tied a bow. I then added a bling button (retired) with a Lagoon sparkle in the middle. The pins are also Close To My Heart but have been retired (much to my dismay). I added a little tag to the card for the Hello sentiment, which is from the “A Garden” stamps set. The tag cut is also found on the Mother’s Day key! I used a little crochet thread to add a different texture to the project.

Here are some close-ups:

And here it is again in full:

I hope you enjoyed my little hello. And to all those who are still dealing with frigid weather, I hope this brings you a little taste of spring! Don’t forget to drop by the Rose Blossom Garden and play along!

Cheers!

A Fun & Fabulous New Challenge!

Hey folks! I’m sorry to be MIA for so long. No excuse but busy-ness I’m afraid.

I wanted to let you all know about a new challenge blog that’s up and running. It called Rose Blossom Garden and it’s all about the Cricut. I’m designing for it over the next few months (my designs will show the 15th through the end of the month each month), as is my ÜBER-talented friend, Lynn Darda (her designs show the 1st through 14th of each month).

I thought I’d show you what I created for the inaugural challenge:

The challenge was to create with the “Happy Birthday” key on the Artiste Cricut Cartridge by Close To My Heart. (If you don’t have this cartridge, I HIGHLY recommend it! You can get the collection–the cartridge and coordinating stamps and chipboard goodies–here.)

So let’s take a look at the project:

I used “fit to page” to cut out the hot air balloon. The size turns out to be 11 1/2 inches. I cut the base layer out of heavy cardstock from my stash and chipboard, and glued them together to make the layer more sturdy. I covered it with patterned paper from the Studio Calico Snippets line. The balloon and sun papers are from the theme set, and the clouds and banners are from the 6×6 paper pad. The clouds and sun are cut from chipboard at 3 1/2 inches using the “real dial size” button. I then cut the sun from patterned paper using the same setting. I could have cut the patterned paper for the clouds using the Cricut, too, but since I wanted the pattern to go a certain way, I glued the chipboard to the paper and cut around it with scissors. I attached the clouds to the back of the balloon using foam tape to give it dimension. I inked around the edges of the clouds with Twilight Exclusive Ink and around the balloon base using Ruby Exclusive Ink, both by Close To My Heart. I inked around the top layer of the balloon with Honey Exclusive Ink and popped it up with foam tape. The basket is connected to the main part of the balloon using hemp twine from my stash. The sun is also mounted behind the balloon with foam tape, and inked with Ruby Exclusive Ink. 

I created a hanger for the project using Color-Ready Seam Binding Ribbon by Close To My Heart. I punched two holes in the balloon using my Cr0p-a-dial and added some eyelets for extra security. I wanted it to have a little extra pizzaz so I added a couple of buttons from my stash over a hemp twine bow. (The top button is from CTHM. It’s a wooden badge from mini-medley accents that I inked up with a little Sunset Exclusive Ink.)

I then added a couple of pennants from the Snippets 6×6 paper pad (LOVE that rainbow look!), and stamped “hello” and “sunshine” in Sunset Exclusive Ink using the Patterned Pennants stamp set by Close To My Heart. (Lovin’ that font!) I lightly inked around the pennants with Twilight Exclusive Ink and added some twine and buttons for flair. I then popped them up with foam tape.

The “happy day” banner is made from papers from the 6×6 pad using the Pennant Builder Punch by Stampin’ Up. (If you have the CTMH Art Philosophy cartridge, you can cut the banner from that. I was being a little lazy, so I used my punch!) I inked the edges with Ruby Exclusive Ink for a little extra pop and used foam tape for dimension. For the letters, I used the CTMH Glamour Lowercase Alphabet stamp set stamped in Ruby Exclusive Ink.

How about some close-ups:

When my daughter saw it she asked me if it should read: “happy day” “hello sunshine” or “hello! happy day, sunshine!” I hadn’t really thought about it until then. I think I like the latter!

So I hope you enjoyed this project. Don’t forget to go check out the blog and play along!

And… HAPPY DAY, SUNSHINE!

Cheers!

 

 

 

 

 

A Sweet Little Challenge

Hi folks! Thought I’d play along with the Sweet Stop Challenge today. Here’s the sketch:

 

 

 

And here’s my take on it:

 

 

 

 

 

I used Kraft Cardstock as my base, and stamped it with White Daisy Exclusive Ink using Close To My Heart‘s Pirouette stamp. The patterned paper is from the Chantilly collection. The fun little frame is stamped on White Daisy Cardstock in Hollyhock Exclusive Ink using the Perfect Fit Frames stamp set. I fussy cut the frame, but I could have used the CTMH Art Philosophy Cricut Cartridge, which coordinates with this stamp set. Very cool! The inner circle is from the Chantilly Workshop On The Go stamp set and is stamped in Twilight Exclusive Ink. I added a little yellow flower from the Just Blooms Paradise collection and spiced it up with a little green bling. The bow was tied with Color-Ready Seam Binding. The sentiment is from the “A Garden” stamp set and is stamped in White Daisy Exclusive Ink on Hollyhock Cardstock. I added some bitty green bling for fun!

Here are a few close-ups:

 

 

 

 

 

 

Have a Happy Friday and Happy First Day of March! Don’t forget to go create something beautiful this weekend!

Cheers!

A Challenge with the Pals

Hi All! It’s been a long time since I last played along with the Pals Paper Arts challenge! I’m glad I could get back to it this week. Here’s the challenge:

Here’s my take:

For this easel card, I used Sunset Cardstock for the base and Hollyhock Cardstock for the top layer. The chevron and polka dots/denim papers are from Close To My Heart‘s new Clair collection. The Outdoor Denim Chevron Ribbon is also new and by Close To My Heart. For the top pink layer, I used the new CTMH March Stamp Of The Month–Floral Happiness–to stamp tone-on-tone using Blush Cardstock and Blush Exclusive Ink. The sentiment is from the “A Friend Like You” stamp set and is stamped in Outdoor Denim Exclusive Ink. I stamped the rose in Blush and Sunset Exclusive Inks. The leaves are stamped in Sweet Leaf Exclusive Ink. Both images are from Floral Happiness.

Here is the card opened:

Again, the sentiment is from A Friend Like You and is stamped in Outdoor Denim Exclusive Ink. I added some pearls for a little extra flair.

Here are a couple of close-ups:

Hope you enjoyed my little card. It was a fun one to make! Have a wonderfully creative Thursday!

BLOG HOP!

Hey folks! Just wanted to give you a heads up for the Rose Blossom Blog Hop going on this weekend over at Violets & Sunshine. Here’s a sneak peek of the project I created.

The hop starts today and ends Sunday. There’s some blog candy involved for those who want to participate in the whole hop. Be sure to check it out!

Cheers!

Cut from the same….paper?

Here at the Hill House, we encourage our kids (and anyone else under our roof) to be themselves. That is, no matter how much they may look like younger versions of us, they should pursue their own dreams and talents. Sometimes, though, our talents and interests do overlap. Such is the case with my daughter and crafting. I have to be honest, I’m glad she’s right there with me in the paper and glue department!

So today I wanted to share a little card she made for one of her friends’ 11th birthday. (She based it off the one I gave her for her 10th birthday last year. You can see that here.) All the design choices were her own. I helped a little with the construction, but only verbally. She did it all! I’m very proud of her!

The base is Close To My Heart’s Lagoon cardstock cut at 4 1/4 x 5 1/2 inches. The pattern paper is from the Be You collection by Fancy Pants. (This will go down in history as one of our favorite collections! I’m really having a hard time not hoarding it!) She cut the tag from Pear cardstock (also by CTMH). The “happy birthday” sentiments were typed on the typewriter she rescued on a dumpster dive. (That’s a tale to tell at some point….) The yellow cardstock (from my stash) was punched with the scallop heart and notebook punches from the Knock Out collection by American Crafts. “A little birdie told me…” stamp is from the Life is Tweet stamp set (retired June 2012 Stamp Of The Month), and was stamped in CTMH Black Exclusive Ink. It looks like it was made for this paper collection!

Here’s a close-up of the front:

And here’s the card in action:

 

The inside sentiment, party hat, and flowers on the tag are all from the Life is Tweet set. She added stitching and accents with a white gel pen, and then used bakers twine as a pull tab.

Is my girl creative or what?!? Love it! We’re definitely cut from the same cloth paper on this one. (I know…I can hear your groans from here, but it had to be said!)

Thanks for letting me brag a little. Have a wonderfully creative Saturday!

A Little Paper Players Inspiration

I’m a bit last-minute on this one, but I needed some crafty inspiration this morning and decided to play along with the Paper Players.  Here’s the challenge sketch:

 

And here’s my take on it:

 

For this card, I used Lagoon, Sunset and White Daisy cardstocks by Close To My Heart. The spiffy wood grained pattern paper is from the Take Note collection by Studio Calico. (This is an older collection that I happened to have in my stash.) The Lagoon, Sunset and Pear Exclusive Inks are by Close To My Heart, as well.

The card base is cut from Lagoon cardstock at 4 1/4 x 11 inches and folded at 5 1/2 inches. I rounded the bottom corners for fun. The pattern paper is cut at 3 1/4 inches square and layered with White Daisy cardstock cut at 2 3/4 inches square and inked with Sunset Exclusive Ink. The “photo corners” are 1-inch square cut from Sunset cardstock. I then cut the squares in half to form triangles and notched them to look like photo corners.

The Close To My Heart stamp set is called “A Garden.” (It’s a simple little set that is becoming a “go-to” for me.) The bottle, butterflies and sentiment are stamped in Lagoon Exclusive Ink. The flowers are stamped in Pear. I used my water brush to add pops of Sunset and Pear to the stamps. To make the card a little more interesting, I used my Word Window Punch by Stampin’ Up to punch a window in the card front and stamped the sentiment on the inside layer of White Daisy cardstock (cut at 5 x 3 3/4 inches). I then added a little bit of Pear sparkles to the flowers (because, really, can you ever have too much bling?), and voilà!

Here are some close-ups:

 

And the front once again:

 

Thanks for letting me share my sunny little thank you note on this cold winter day! I hope you have a wonderfully relaxing and creative weekend! And if you need more inspiration, check out the blog share going on over at Violets & Sunshine!

Cheers!