A Marriage of Papers

This birthday card for a neighbor is a result of marrying selected papers from the Wings and the Passages packets.

Inside I randomly stamped "happy," "happy happy," and "happy happy birthday" in Barn Red ink.

Our neighbor is a very special guy who loves to watch birds and travel and so much more.

I used CTMH products:
Wings Paper Packet Level 2
January Stamp of the Month-Find Your Style
Passages Paper Packet Level 2
Passages Stickease
Liquid Glass
Black mini-medley ribbon
Barn Red, Garden Green, & Black ink pads

Happy weekend to you!

Beautiful -- January SOTM

January Stamp of the Month: Find Your Style

(You can get this stamp set FREE or at a discounted price! See my "Inspirations" sidebar link.)

The week is flying by! January is almost in the past. It's been quite a long, wintery month here in St. Louis -- we've had our icy-est, snowy-est, coldest January since the early 1990s, so we made history! And what do I do when it's too cold to garden, mow the grass, walk, play tennis, swim outdoors, and ride bicycle? SCRAP, of course!

Here's a very simple stamped card (clean & simple) for a very special young woman who is just as the sentiment says: Beautiful. Inside and out. And I want her to always remember this. She loves jewelry (and all accessories) so I had to add a simple necklace to bling the card a tiny bit. Can you see it? Click on the photo to enlarge.

I used CTMH products:
White cardstock
January's Stamp of the Month: Find Your Style
Black ink pad
Gray Wool ink pad
Itty Bitty Sparkles (a girl's gotta have some bling!)
Sheer ribbon

It's always fun to make the inside of a card a surprise too. So I used the Gray Wool to stamp "Beautiful" randomly and repeatedly--this way I know she'll get my message!

Then I second-generation-stamped the envelope with the really cool diva dress form. We want to keep our mail carriers wondering. :)

I'm glad you visited! Extra warm fuzzies back to you!

Sweet B & Family-Wings Layout

CTMH's January Inspirations that includes "Wings" papers and coordinating Stickease made this two-page layout faster, simpler, and easier! The Close To My Heart motto couldn't be truer!

I used the layout cutting instructions for "On with the Show" in Jeanette Lynton's book, Magic (pp 62-63), adapting the strips' sizes slightly for page 2.

On page 2, I included two journaling cs pieces, one behind each of the photos. The Wings Stickease decorates each edge of the ivory cs journaling strips, with Liquid Glass enhancing the dots.

Here's page 2 with the journaling sections pulled out.

Someday Beatrice will be able to read about these three photos, taken of her at 6 months, 9 months, and 11 months old.

Liquid Glass is a great product to enhance papers, Stickease, and even photos. Here I used it to give shine to the Stickease butterfly's wings. I added medium and small Licorice Opaques to make the butterfly's body "pop." The butterfly is attached to the page with adhesive foam squares cut in half.

CTMH's new Bohemian Alphabet stamp set (E1019) was a perfect fit for this layout. Notice the swirls, flowers, and leaves on each letter & symbol. It brings back the 70s for me -- I'll always be a flower child.

The January Inspirations products are available only SIX more days! If you love these colors and combinations, click on the Inspirations badge in the right sidebar for more information! Don't miss out!

I used all Close To My Heart items:

Magic by Jeanette Lynton

Wings Level 2 paper packet

Wings Stickease

Bohemian Alphabet stamp set

Vineyard Berry and Black inks

Licorice Opaques

Black Pleated Ribbon

Black Mini Medley metal tag, buttons, striped ribbon, and brad

Black marker

Liquid Glass

Thanks for stopping to look at my paper art!

As this card features all new products, I'm linking it up to Erin's CTMH New Product Linky Party! Check out all of the gorgeous work & inspiration with the new goodies below!!

Happy Birthday to My CTMH Upline!

Using the tea bag holder tutorial here, I created a special birthday card for my CTMH upline, Deb Butler, director of the Scrapping Buckeye Babes!

Happy birthday to you, Deb, if you're blog visiting! You're the BEST! Enjoy a cuppa tea with a friend.

I used all Close To My Heart products:
CTMH Wings paper packet, sweet leaf ribbon, Vineyard Berry ink (inside "happy birthday" sentiment, sparkles, licorice opaque pearls, Liquid Glass, Prisma Glitter, Find Your Style butterfly stamp. I stamped two butterflies to give dimension. I stamped each on the top and bottom of the cardstock, so that the gorgeous stamp design would show on their under-wings. Two sides are stamped in Juniper (those face each other), one in Sweet Leaf, and the top is rock-'n'-roll stamped in Vineyard Berry and Sweet Leaf. (The inside section holding two tea bags is made with the Vineyard Berry jaquard design that matches the front horizontal paper strip behind the punched circles.)

Click here to see a traditional Wings/Find Your Style card I made earlier.

Click here to see two tea bag holder cards I made earlier from different paper packets, and to see the inside paper section that holds the tea bags.

Thanks for visiting my blog! Come back soon!

Make a Wish Clear Card

I played with the Cuttlebug again, embossing the clear acrylic cards, and used some of my paper stash and little Verve birthday stamps too in addition to the CTMH star swirls and CTMH ink.

Happy birthday to my blogging librarian friend Jane in SD! I hope to hear that your card survived the snail mail okay. And I hope you had a warm, happy celebration with your family and friends yesterday--and enjoyed your MLK holiday too!

Soar, Friend!

Yay! I finally got to play with the Wings papers and stamps featured in Close To My Heart's January Inspirations. (Click on the sidebar link for more info.)


This card is for my good friend, Wendy, who is quite a trooper, now into her fifth year of chemo treatments for lung cancer. She was never a smoker. She thought she had a touch of flu. And BAM! What a diagnosis. But what a strong-faithed, strong-willed woman she is, and a courageous live-er of daily life. She's a positive Christian model for everyone who knows her. She soars above and through adversity. She looks at every cup as overflowing.

The Wings colors are so rich, and butterflies are right at the top of my favorites. I'm lovin' the stitched, pleated ribbon too--a new product from CTMH.


I added a touch of Prisma Glitter to the butterfly's layered wings, and when I use glitter, it's glitter, glitter, EVERYwhere!  Now I'm heading to church and then to the music store...let's see if I get any comments about how I sparkle & shine today.

More to come! Thanks for stopping to look!

Tea for Two Cards

A tea bag fits inside each section within this "tea for two" card that measures 3.5" x 3.5" when it's closed.

I used CTMH cs, Elegant Bouquet, and That's Amore papers for these two cards. My goal is to make a card for each mom in our dd's MOPS group for their Valentine get- together. Each card will be made with different papers. Each will have a special love Scripture verse inside.

So glad you stopped by!

Happy, warm, NO-snow weekend!

Heartfelt

When I saw the Creative Imaginations "Loolah" journaling papers, I knew I wanted to try them as card fronts! Here's one -- and I used a lot of Liquid Glass to give the design some shimmer.



I repeated the heart stamp inside:


My heartfelt thanks for stopping by!

I used:
CTMH CS, Cranberry ribbon & ink, Liquid Glass, Licorice Pearls, Heartfelt stamp;
Creative Imaginations journaling page from "Loolah" packet

Valentines by Cuttlebuggin'

How fun to use the Cuttlebug to emboss the CTMH clear acrylic cards and the papers too!

I used some Elegant Bouquet paper scraps and its coordinating Stickease. It's so super easy to line up those Stickease items on an acrylic card. FUN, simple, easy, and did I say fun?

And one more with a Cuttlebug swirl:

We're having a "snow day" today, a great time to watch the cardinals, woodpeckers, blue jays, and nuthatches at the feeders and make homemade soup.

Thanks for looking! Keep your hearts and homes warm and safe!

(White ribbon & silver embellisments are from my non-CTMH stash.)

Mix 'n' Mingle & the Birthday Celebration

Our daughter Bethany was happy with her Silhouette items I created for her birthday--the trifold shutter card, the memory keeper box, and the Mix 'n' Mingle album (below). Photos in the slideshow are of both the front and the back sides of the album sections. She gets to write on some of the back sections for her birthday 2011 memories.



Shimmering butterflies on jeweled ribbons in yellow, green, and blue decorated the Christmas tree, plates, napkins, and party favors for Bethany's birthday celebration Sunday evening. We had lasagna, garlic bread, spring greens salad with dried tomatoes and chopped peppers, and her favorite lemon cupcakes for dessert.

Derek & Bethany before she made her 2011 wish ...

Passages Easel Card

When I saw this 30 key chain, I knew it had to go on a card front for a very special young man celebrating this milestone. (It'll be hand-delivered, so I wasn't concerned about the chain in the mail process.) The brushed nickel and the colors of CTMH's Passages papers are great together. I love using distressing tools, and got a lot of distressing into this card, along with edges inked, for a guy-look.

I used all CTMH products--gotta love 'em!

The easel card tutorial I used is from Splitcoaststampers.com You'll find tons of ideas there if you click on Resources.

BTW, I'm anxious to play with the new WINGS items next. What are they, you ask? Click on the January "Inspirations" button on the right side of my blog. The colors and stamps are gorgeous!

Happy weekend! Ours started with a temperature of ZERO this morning. Where are my Cuddle Duds?! A high of 19 degrees will be a good warm-up! How many days until Spring?

Happy weekend!

Silhouette Tri-Fold Shutter Card

I decided to make a tri-fold shutter card following Beate's tutorial here--and I'm really happy with the results, though this was one of the most labor-intensive cards I've made yet. It's for a very special person, to accompany the Silhouette memory keeper box and the mix 'n' mingle album.

Items used are all CTMH except the satin ribbon: Silhouette papers, Chocolate CS, Mocha opaque pearl embellies, foam pop squares, Chocolate ink, Stamp sets: From Me To You & Love Quotes. Scalloped sections are from Marvy punches.

Thanks for stopping by to look and comment!

One More Peek!

Now I'm working on the BACK side of this 8-sectioned album -- I'll post the entire project after January 9th!

Thanks for stopping by! Happy scrapping!

Mix 'n' Mingle Album in Silhouette--A Peek

It's just a peek -- I promise to showcase this entire album project AFTER I give this gift to a special person! Soon...

Just to tease you, I'll tell you it has 8 sections!

I used CTMH's Mix 'n' Mingle album (chipboard and acrylic sections), Silhouette papers and ribbons, opaque pearls, itty bitty sparkles, dimensional letters and shapes, CTMH chocolate rubons, and Bonding Memories adhesive.

Thanks for looking and leaving some love! Happy New Year! Woohoo!