January 2020 - Joyful Stars Blog Hop!

Happy New Year!  Welcome to the January 2020 Joyful Stars Blog Hop!  If you came here from the uber talented Krista's blog, you've come to the right place!

This month I'm featuring some things from our new January/February 2020 Idea Book.  And maybe it's because it's a new year, but I'm also feeling a bit overwhelmed with my continued accumulation of crafty items.  So I decided to make use of some things I've had for awhile in addition to using up some leftovers from the holidays.

The new Spruced Up collection in the Idea Book speaks so loudly to me that I had to be sure to make something with this collection first.  The paper is simply gorgeous and the stamp sets beautifully wintry!  And oh my, the birds!  I have always had a soft spot for birds.

The card base of this card was made using an old Cricut cartridge I've had for many years, Cindy Loo (still available from Cricut by searching from my link), for which I used Bluebird cardstock and the wood grain paper of the Spruced Up paper packet.  The bird was stamped from the Spruced Up - Cardmaking stamp set using Charcoal ink onto White Daisy cardstock and colored with colored pencils, then it was cut out using the matching thin cut from the set.  The "Thank You" sentiment was stamped from the same set onto a scrap of Charcoal cardstock using VersaMark ink and embossed with Ranger White Super Fine embossing powder.  I also cut an additional "hole" for the birdhouse base using another scrap of Charcoal cardstock.  Both the sentiment and bird image were attached to the birdhouse base using 3-D Foam Tape.  Finally, I embellished the card using a single Bitty Sparkle for the bird's eye and used up some leftover white enamel dots from my Christmas cards from a pack of Black & White Dots.

Now please hop on over to Lori's blog to see the beautiful art she has made this month!

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December 2019 - Joyful Stars Blog Hop!

Welcome to the December 2019 Joyful Stars Blog Hop!  If you came here from the talented Nancy's blog, you've come to the right place!

This month I've made two contrasting Christmas cards - one whimsical and one traditional.  When I send Christmas cards I usually have a style in mind for the recipients and one size usually doesn't fit all.  😉  So I like to have a choice of two cards and make them in bulk.  Recently CTMH created two stamp sets that were right up my alley in philosophy.  Although these two special stamp sets are no longer available, I still wanted to share some ideas for those of you who may have one or both of these sets, or are just looking for ideas.

This first card is my whimsical card using the Whimsical Holiday stamp set and was so much fun to make.  I just loved the cute Santa face and knew it was the first stamp in the set that I was going to make use of.  I also kept with traditional red and green colors but grounded the main image in black to make it pop.  Here is the recipe for this card:

• CC101911 Whimsical Holiday stamp set (retired special)
• CC9191 A Dash of Joy stamp set
• Z4189 Intense Black ink
• Z8000 Black Pigment ink
• Z2088 Clear Super Fine Embossing Powder
• Z2497 Dark Red TriBlend Marker
• Z2496 Pale Pink TriBlend Marker
• Z2486 Dull Green TriBlend Marker
• Z2476 Fair Skin TriBlend Marker
• Z2474 Ice Grey TriBlend Marker
• X7250B Holly Jolly Paper Packet 
• X6031 Green Apple Cardstock  
• X6047 Black Cardstock
• 1385 White Daisy Cardstock
• Z4259 Thin Cuts—Stitched Square Frames 
• Z3293 Clear Shimmer Brush  
• Z3024 White Shimmer Trim (retired)
• Z3314 Black & White Dots 
• X254 White Cards & Envelopes Value Pack

The second card took a little more time as my traditional card.  I've been playing with various watercolor mediums (Zig Clean Color Real Brush markers and Strathmore Bristol Smooth cardstock), so wanted to watercolor the poinsettia stamp in the Traditional Holiday stamp set.  I also used the masking technique to get overlapping poinsettias on the card.  Here is the recipe for the additional CTMH materials:

• CC101912 Traditional Holiday stamp set (retired special)
• C1804 Merry Christmas Tree stamp set
• Z4189 Intense Black ink 
• Z891 VersaMark ink
• Z2066 Princess Gold Embossing Powder
• X6047 Black Cardstock
• Z3365 Gold Foil Paper
• Z4235 Gold Loose Sequins
• Z3560 Golden Rod Stickles™ Glitter Gel
• X254 White Cards & Envelopes Value Pack

Thank you for looking!  Now please head over to the very talented Krista's blog where beautiful things await!

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November 2019 - Joyful Stars Blog Hop!

Welcome to the November 2019 Joyful Stars Blog Hop!  If you came here from the talented Nancy's blog, you've come to the right place!

A few weeks ago I posted a couple of Christmas cards I made using the CTMH Custom Ornament Thin Cuts that I thought would be easy to replicate in bulk (link here).  With that same goal in mind, I created three different variations of a holiday card using the Cricut, some thin cuts, and a retired embossing folder.

Card 1 Recipe:

• From Candyland Stamp Set
• Sangria Stamp Pad
• Evergreen Cardstock
• Sangria Cardstock
• White Daisy Cardstock
• Cricut Flower Market Collection
• Stitched Rectangle Frames Thin Cuts
• Party Banners Thin Cuts
• Subway Tile Embossing Folder (retired) 
• White Ribbon
• White Glitter Paper
• White Card Base

Card 2 Recipe:

• From Candyland Stamp Set
• Evergreen Stamp Pad
• Evergreen Cardstock
• Kraft Cardstock
• White Daisy Cardstock
• Cricut Flower Market Collection
• Stitched Rectangle Frames Thin Cuts
• Party Banners Thin Cuts
• Subway Tile Embossing Folder (retired) 
• White Ribbon
• White Pearls
• White Card Base

Card 3 Recipe:

• From Candyland Stamp Set
• Sapphire Stamp Pad
• Sapphire Cardstock
• White Daisy Cardstock
• Cricut Flower Market Collection
• Stitched Rectangle Frames Thin Cuts
• Party Banners Thin Cuts
• Subway Tile Embossing Folder (retired) 
• White Ribbon
• Bitty Sparkles
• White Card Base

Do you like one over any of the other two?  Again, all can be done pretty easily in bulk, and certainly using an assembly process.  Now please head over to the uber talented Krista's blog where beautiful things await!

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October 2019 - Ornament Cards

Although I'm not close to thinking about Christmas, it's time to look at the beautiful new things from Close To My Heart that are available for this year's Christmas cards.  Have you seen the new Custom Ornament Thin Cuts from CTMH?  I was so excited to get these in the mail and start playing with them.  So after being inspired by a post from Lisa Tilson, I decided to try that technique with these dies and our two new paper packs, Holly Jolly and Cedar & Pine.  Both are beautiful, whether you like a traditional look and colors, or go in a completely different direction.  Please let me know what you think and if you have a preference!

Recipe:

• For the Tree Stamp Set
• Clover Stamp Pad
• Custom Ornament Thin Cuts
• Stitched Rectangle Frames Thin Cuts
• Holly Jolly Paper Packet
• Silver Glitter Paper
• Clover Cardstock
• White Daisy Cardstock
• Clear Sparkles
• White Card Base

Recipe:

• For the Tree Stamp Set
• Evergreen Stamp Pad
• Custom Ornament Thin Cuts
• Stitched Rectangle Frames Thin Cuts
• Cedar & Pine Paper Packet
• Gold Glitter Paper
• Peach Cardstock
• White Daisy Cardstock
• Clear Sparkles
• White Card Base

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October 2019 - Joyful Stars Blog Hop!

Welcome to the October 2019 Joyful Stars Blog Hop!  If you came here from the talented Lori's blog, you've come to the right place!

This month I wanted to focus on "old" meets "new".  If you're anything like me, I suspect you have scraps in your craft rooms that are not the most current but are still beautiful.  Taking care of our environment is important to me, so I don't like to dispose of things that are usable if at all possible.  So when I vended at a local crop this weekend, I created a card buffet that not only used some of our latest products from CTMH, but took advantage of scraps of retired patterned paper, which I will list below each card, where applicable.

• Sunflower Sympathy Stamp Set
• CTMH Flower Market Cricut Digital Collection
• Cardstock:  Lagoon, Mint, Evergreen, White Daisy
• Patterned Paper:  Into the Wild Paper Packet (retired)
• Evergreen Ink
• Stitched Rectangle Frames Thin Cuts
• Clear Sparkles
• White Card Base

• Sentiments by Melissa Esplin Stamp Set 
• Family Time Stamp Set (Nov. 2019 SOTM)
• Cardstock:  Chocolate (retired)
• Patterned Paper:  Pathfinding Paper Packet (retired)
• Chocolate Ink (retired)
• Gold Glitter Paper
• Layered Leaves Thin Cuts
• Bitty Sparkles
• Colonial White Card Base (retired)

• Spooktacular Stamp Set & Thin Cuts 
• Intense Black Ink 
• Spectrum Noir Tri-blend Markers
• Multi Square Windows Thin Cuts
• Cardstock:  Black, White Daisy
• Bitty Sparkles
• White Card Base

• Giving Thanks Stamp Set (retired)
• CTMH Complete Creativity Digital Cricut Collection
• Cardstock:  Nectarine, White Daisy
• Hello Pumpkin Paper Packet (retired)
• Black Ink
• Gold Shimmer Brush
• Bitty Sparkles
• White Card Base 

Now please head over to Betty's blog to see what beautiful creation she has in store for you this month!

 

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September 2019 - Joyful Stars Blog Hop!

Welcome to the September 2019 Joyful Stars Blog Hop!  If you came here from the very talented Lori's blog, you've come to the right place!

September connotes the end of Summer and back to school.  For Close To My Heart followers, it also brings new goodies to play with!  If you haven't already checked out our new products, be sure to click on the link to my website to see the fun new things that may strike your fancy!

For this month, I decided to play with a couple of new stamp sets that were calling my name:  Every Little Thing-Scrapbooking and the September Stamp of the Month, Random Act of Cardness.  It has also been awhile since I played with Kraft paper and colored pencils, so these two stamp sets helped fulfill the urge to use those items.

First I stamped the large floral image from the Every Little Thing-Scrapbooking stamp set in VersaMark ink and embossed it in Ranger White Super Fine Detail embossing powder onto Kraft cardstock.  Using a white colored pencil, I added some highlights to the flowers and leaves.  Then I used a couple of pencils in complementary shades of red and greens to do the bulk of the coloring, being sure to color over the white pencil.  Next I used a white gel pen to fill in some of the stark areas around the floral image.

To finish the card, I used Black Archival ink to stamp the "sending a smile" sentiment from the Random Act of Cardness stamp set.  The stamped piece was then layered on the bottom right of a piece of Candy Apple cardstock, which was also then layered similarly onto a white cardbase.  A few Clear Sparkles seemed to be the right touch to finish the card.

Now please head over to Betty's blog to see what beautiful creation she has in store for you this month!

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August 2019 - Joyful Stars Blog Hop!

Welcome to the August 2019 Joyful Stars Blog Hop!  If you came here from the very talented Joyce Houck's blog, you've come to the right place!

One of the dies that Close To My Heart had in a recent special was the Multi Circle Windows Thin Cuts (soon to be included in the new 2019 Idea Book!).  When I see new things, I like to challenge myself to use tools and stamps in a variety of ways.  It occurred to me that I could design a tic-tac-toe out of the die, so a couple of weeks ago, I made this birthday card.

First, I cut the tic-tac-toe pattern using the thin cut and trimming it down to 3.75" x 3.75" to retain a 3x3 set of circles.  I layered it on White Daisy cardstock, then stamped the "happy happy happy" sentiment from the Birthday Joy stamp set special in Black ink through some of the cut circles.

Next, I stamped the cupcake image three times from the same set in Archival Black ink on White Daisy cardstock.  Using Spectrum Noir markers (also coming soon!), I colored the images then cut them out.  I adhered these through each of the cut circles as shown above.

Finally, I made a 4" x 4" Black cardstock base card to layer the designed piece.  The "happy birthday" sentiment from the set was heat embossed using Vermark ink and Ranger White Superfine Embossing Powder onto a scrap of Black cardstock.  This was adhered to the card using 3-D Foam Tape.

For the finishing touches, I added shimmer to the cupcake images using a Clear Shimmer Brush.  Clear Sparkles were colored with a red Sharpie pen and adhered to the top of each cupcake image.

Now please head on over to Betty's blog as you will be wowed by her talent!

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