And the Final Set of Crazy For Cards!

Kristina Baldwin is the designer of this set of cards.

Notice the gold dots as the base. That's not paper-- that's washi tape!! Yes, Close To My Heart is coming out with new washi tape. Kristina used the washi tape around the edges of the card. Also this card features the new teal shimmer tape. If you have been reading my blog, you know I love shimmer tape. And this new color is nothing short of WOW!

 Another card featuring washi tape. How fun is that! Plus Kristina sprayed ink on the card base for a great look. Use the spray pen with a little re-inker and water plus a little bit of create a shade pearl paint to give it a little shimmer.

Lastly is the February stamp of the month with more shimmer trim-- this time in red.

I hope you enjoyed our look at the 15 cards at my Crazy for Cards event. If you have any questions about making any of these cards or you would like to host a workshop of your own, please contact me. I'm always happy to help you play with paper!

And Even More Crazy For Cards

This set of cards are designed by Deanna Cave. Deanna is my upline in Close To My Heart. I am very happy that she brought me into this fabulous company. I love working with Close To My Heart!

The stamp on this card is from the Belated Birthday stamp set. This is the same set I used on my Skylark birthday card, but Deanna didn't care for the flags and cut them off. 

Such a cute bunny from the Hoppy Easter stamp set.

Spring has sprung! Love the flowers and colors.

The last set of cards will be posted tomorrow!

And More Crazy For Cards!

The next set is designed by Jeanette Mathews.

Love how she has an overlay cut from the Cricut Artbooking cartridge on this card. 

So many new things in the 2014 Spring Summer Idea Book. You are going to love it!

More Crazy For Cards

Three cards designed by Deb Mandac.

Crazy For Cards

We had a lot of fun at the Crazy For Cards event on Saturday. 65 guests went around to the 15 stations and created 15 cards. Mostly the cards were made from new products that will be available on February 1.  For the next few days, I will be posting the different cards.

This paper I think is my favorite of the new sets. Skylark. It is a beautiful pattern. I cut the "happy" and "birthday" using the Artbooking cricut cartridge from lagoon paper. The cake is from the new Belated Birthday stamp set.

We have a gate card. The base is Kraft paper 8 1/2 by 5 1/2. I scored the folds at 2 1/8 inches on each side. The blue paper is the new Balloon Ride paper. Just lovely!

The Mother's Day Stamp set has a great set of sentiments. Here we have "Happy Mother's Day." But there is also the phrases: "Sooner or later, we all quote our mother," "Mothers, They are just like Dads only smarter," and "Home is where Mother is."

The swirls and the flower is cut from the Art Philosophy Cricut Cartridge. I love the pattern the flowers left on the cricut mat. I just had to take a photo of it:

My final card was a spin card using the Jubilee paper. I love the spin card and am really surprised more people don't use it. It is not a new product. I think crafters just don't see it in the Idea Book. 

This picture shows the spin part a little more. I stamped both side of the spin part with the mini stamp. Such a great card base for a great price. Just 8.95 for a pack of 10 including envelopes!

Lastly, I need to show off my beautiful assistant, my daughter, Caitlyn. She was a great help!

Tomorrow I'll share a few more cards from the event and more new products coming out on February 1.

Valentines

Ready for Valentine's Day? I held a Valentine workshop yesterday. Here are the projects from it.

The scalloped edge of this card is my favorite card on the Art Philosophy cricut cartridge. I use it a lot. I used to by the Daisy White cut cards with this same cut. Now, with the Cricut, I can cut out the card in any color I want. Black, in this case. It gives the card a nice, elegant look. 

On top, I used the For Always Textiles. I wrap the fabric in a piece of card stock, using liquid glass to adhere it to the back of the paper. Then I put the fabric piece on the card base. The cranberry red heart was cut with the Artiste cartridge and stamped with the Love stamp. 

I like to add a strip of color at the bottom so it can be seen when the card is closed. 

These little heart flowers, cut with the Artbooking cartridge, just made me happy. I added a sentiment from the 4 My Friend stamp set (which is being retired at the end of the month) and an accent of silver shimmer tape. 

The design for this card was stolen from the Cloud Nine instructions. The stamp is exclusive to the Cloud Nine pack, available only this month as a special. I used blush, cranberry and daisy white paper. The Gold Dot Washi tape can be found in the Cloud Nine kit and will be available as a separate purchase beginning February 1. And let's not forget that red shimmer tape. Yes, I do use a lot of shimmer tape!

This is a very simple card. I wanted something out of the red tones so I used the Laughing Lola paper pack. The stamp is the same one from the Cloud Nine kit.

Our 3-D project for this workshop was this little treat bag. It is cut with the Art Philosophy cartridge at 5 1/2 inches. The stamp is from the Art Philosophy collection. The paper is Daisy White and stamped randomly with the Swirls Around stamp in cranberry and gypsy.  Then- surprise, surprise-- I added some shimmer trim.

Just a few projects to get you started on your valentines. Enjoy!

Proplayer Cards

ProPlayer is a paper pack designed to be for the men in our lives. But it works well for many occasions. My teenage daughter would kill me if I put her on a pink page. But this lighter blue paper is perfect for her.

This paper is really versatile. 

This is a 3x6 accent for a scrapbook page. It can also make a very nice card. It features the ProPlayer paper and the All in the Details stamp set. I also added some Silver Shimmer Trim and Slate Polka Dot Washi Tape. This would be perfect on a page for a man or a woman. 

This birthday card was created by my team leader, Linda Sturdivant. She used the Holiday Tags stamp set. I do love the simplicity of this card. Crisp and clean.  Linda told me that her art student son explained that on each work of art, a portion should be left white. I thought that was interesting. I have always felt the need to cover up every space but often I don't. I sometimes like to leave a blank spot on the page.  I have never taken an art design class. I take plenty of classes and then just do what I like.  I might look into designing workshops and see how different it is from my style. 

I am spending my day cutting paper. I won't be putting anything together though. I am prepping kits for my Crazy for Cards event next Saturday. I am really looking forward to it. But the prep work is never fun. I'm ready to put in a movie and try to listen over the sound of the Cricut. Maybe, I'll take a break part way through and put a page together-- that will make me really happy.

Hope you are having fun with paper today!

Sarita Fun

 Had some fun playing with the Sarita Paper Pack at my workshop last week.

For this birthday card, I used the Cricut Artbooking Cartridge to make the cuts. All the cuts are done using the "happy" button which is described on page 86 of the Artbooking booklet. The stack of presents was cut at 8 inches. This card is a standard 4 1/4 by 5 1/2 card. But the Artbooking cartridge is set up to adjust to a scrapbook page. When I put in the size at 8 inches, the machine adjusted the stack to look right on an 8 inch scrapbook page.  So, I put in the Sarita paper. Set it at 8 inches, pressed "icon" and "happy," and cut. Do not remove the paper. Leaving the mat right there were the cut was made, I pressed the "flip" button. Size is the same at 8 inches. Then I pressed "icon," "shift," "happy," and cut. Since the Sarita paper is two sided, I was able to cut the stack of presents with one side of the paper and the layering on the presents with the other side. Pressing the flip button made things quicker and I knew it would match perfectly. 

The "birthday" is cut on Lagoon paper at 1 inch. But this time I pressed "REAL SIZE DIAL" on my Cricut. If I didn't, the machine would think I was making a tiny, little book and birthday would come out minuscule. 

After the cuts, I just quickly put the card together. I used colonial white value pack cards as a base and pieces of colonial white and outdoor denim as well as the Sarita orange. All of which come in the Sarita Paper Pack. As a final accent, I used a couple blue epoxy bubbles.

This is a quick card. I cut "Hello" in Outdoor Denim paper using the Cricut Artbooking Cartridge. This was cut at 1 inch using the "real size Dial" feature. The small background is Colonial white paper stamped in a second generation of lagoon ink using the Distressed Background stamp. Second generation stamping is when the stamp is inked and stamped on scratch paper before stamping on the cardstock. This technique gives it a softer look. The print in the back is Sarita. I added a little bakers twine and popped up the hello with a little 3-D foam. 

The edges of this card are sanded all the way around. I use a sanding block with a piece of chipboard under the paper to give it a little stability while I am sanding. The stamp is from the Casual Expressions set. The wood piece is from the Sarita Assortment. The wood pieces are not backed with an adhesive. Best to use something strong such as liquid glass to adhere the wood.  

Always find ways to use the scraps from your used paper. I cut a few hexagons out of scraps for this card. The edges are inked with Outdoor Denim ink which I think gives it a more finished look. The orange strip on the bottom is a piece of that extra strip that is cut from the 12x12 sheet when it comes out of the package (I always find something to do with those). And the last strip is washi tape! Love washi tape. It is so easy and so economical to use.  The stamp set is For A Friend.

Lastly, I have a gift box. This was cut with the Artiste Cartridge. This box was cut at 4 inches but will use an entire 12x12 piece of outdoor denim cardstock. This box is found on the "7" key which is described on page 37 of the Artiste booklet. 

The Sarita paper pack is a fun pack to play with. This pack is not one being discontinued at the end of the month, but will carry over into the next Idea Book. I am looking forward to playing with it a bit more.

For Always Layout

Every January and every July, we lose some Close To My Heart products. I hate when my favorite products are discontinued but it does make way for more fun products.

Here is one of my favorite paper packs.

The For Always paper pack is such a classy set. I have used it on formal layouts like this one. But it also works on casual layouts. Unfortunately, this is one of those paper packs that will be discontinued at the end of this month. I just ordered one more pack, just in case. 

Also on this layout, I used a strip of the For Always textiles. Textiles on your layouts add another dimension. I love adding the textiles to layouts and cards. I covered an entire album with these textiles making it a fabric covered album. 

Another embellishment I used was the Silver Shimmer Trim. We have sheets of shimmer paper but when I worked on this page at a crop, I had forgotten to bring it with me. So, one each of the three flags, I put two strips together. For the middle one, I decided it would be nice if it was a different color so I used a marker and colored it black. Perfect. 

Now, this paper is going away but new products are coming. I have just received a box and haven't had a chance to look at them. I can't wait to get into that box and start playing. Soon I will be posting pictures of the new things. On February 1, you will be able to order all the new things. 

Have fun with paper today!

You're A Star Card Using Tommy

Here's a quick card using Tommy paper. The Tommy paper pack is due to retire at the end of the month.

Mini Album with My Girl Scouts

Last weekend part of my Girl Scout troop was over for a sleepover. We had a great time. I have been a Leader for almost 20 years. In all that time, I think sleepovers have been the favorite event for all the different groups that I have led. A lot of food, movies, crafts, a little bit of work, and a whole lot of laughter. It is the perfect activity for teen age girls.

The girls are working on the Mission Sisterhood Journey which is one of the awards for Girl Scout Seniors. The girl leading this section of the book suggested that we make friendship albums and asked me to teach an album class. Well, I got out a ton of paper, the Cricut, stamps, inks, embellishments. They were shocked at how much I had. Every time one would wonder if something would be good on her page, I pulled it out and said try this. Our short activity ended up being three hours long. I was amazed at how beautiful the albums were. One of the girls did calligraphy in hers. WOW!

Here are a few pictures of my daughter's book. She isn't finished but it is a very nice start.

She cut the Frosted paper on the cricut using the Artbooking cartridge. We used 6x6 kraft cards as covers and then made the pages 5x5. The album is bound using binder rings (or book rings) that are found at any office supply store. By the way, these 6x6 kraft cards are on while supplies last for just $2 for a set of 6. ORDER NOW!

All the pictures are wallet sized so they fit easily in the mini album.

Cait loves the blues of this paper pack so it worked out really well. I think her favorite color to craft with is Twilight. She is always asking for that. 

I do love mini albums and am so happy to have taught a new generation this fun craft. In a couple of weeks I will be teaching other Girl Scout Leaders how to make mini albums with their girls. I will be taking this one with me as an example. 

Have fun with paper today!

Celebrate National Papercrafting Month

Celebrate National Papercrafting Month with a card kit. This kit which is available only in January is yours for just $15 with a $35 order. Click here for more details.