Pages

Give Thanks

Happy Thanksgiving Everyone! I am very grateful for many things in my life..a loving husband, supportive family, sweet friends, and two little furballs that snuggle close at night. I am thankful for my great job and fun hobbies, and my good health. Have a great time eating turkey, watching the parade and football and squeeze your loved ones close today. 


SUPPLIES 
Paper: Colonial White and Autumn Terracotta CS, Huntington B&T 
Cricut: Artiste 
Images: no stamping 
Embellishments:Shimmer Trim, Huntington Accessories

Pumpkin Thanks

Today's card was designed from a sample by Krista Hershberger, one of the teachers from this year's Extravaganza.  The main sentiment was stamped on cutouts from the CTMH Artiste cartridge.  The pumpkins were stamped in Autumn Terracotta and colored in with watercolor pencils.
SUPPLIES
Paper: Colonial White and Barn REd CS, Huntington B&T
Images: Count Your Blessings
Embellishments:Sparkles, Jute Ribbon

AME (S01E08): Artbooking Made Easy: Everyday Layouts

Compared to holidays and special events, everyday life is where most memories are made. For capturing those seemingly average yet so important days, the Cricut® Artbooking cartridge has just what you need! Watch the video for ideas on how to rally shapes from a variety of themes to create original artwork celebrating your day-to-day activities.

Visual Interest

Pieces of Jute and ripped paper give interesting visuals to this card based on one I saw on the Verve blog.  The pumpkins were heat embossed in black and colored in with water colored pencils.
SUPPLIES
Paper: Colonial White and Barn Red CS, Huntington B&T
Images: Count Your Blessings
Embellishments:Jute, Huntington Accessories


Rainbow Sprays

One way to use paper from Cricut cut-outs is to use the negative image.  If you cut a few items in a row, you can create neat repetitive images like your own personal patterned paper.  The stencil used above was created using the CTMH Artiste cartridge.  Then I made three colored sprays using the Spray Pen.  In a card board box, I layered Colonial White (plain) cardstock, then the stencil, and sprayed the three colors to make a rainbow effect.  
SUPPLIES
Paper:  Olive and Autumn Terracotta CS
Images: Believe WOTG
Embellishments: Cocoa Grosgrain

AME (S01E07): Fall Into Artbooking

You’ll fall for the Cricut® Artbooking collection when you see what it can do for your autumn-themed projects. Its festive overlays, borders, shapes, and other autumn-themed pieces will give your layouts and cards just the warmth they need for this chilly season. Watch the video for great ideas on using the cartridge!

Pop Corn

3-D elements in cards make them interesting and fun.  This card has several.  The bark image is embossed and inked.  The cornstalk was stamped twice.  The second image, I cut out the two corn husks and popped them with 3-D Foam Tape.  The last element is part of CTMHs new Base and Bling line.  With the "Celebrate" sentiment and color scheme, this makes a nice masculine birthday card.

SUPPLIES
Paper: Huntington B&T, Colonial White and Autumn Terracotta CS
Images: Count Your Blessings
Embellishments:Base and Bling Floral
Other: Embossing Folder

Heirlooms

Living in an area where hurricanes are a way of life, we must be prepared to evacuate if one starts to churn up in the Gulf of Mexico or Atlantic Ocean.  Each year, we are reminded about ways to prepare for this, but most of the lists compiled do not take into consideration family heirlooms or mementos that we would be devastated to lose if our house was demolished from a disaster.  I am reminded of this by an article in the BBC News Magazine.  Responders explained what they (or their loved ones) grabbed when quickly forced from their homes.  What would you grab if  you were forced from your home by either natural or unnatural means?
 

National Recycle Day

Today is National Recycle Day in the United States.  Close To My Heart is committed to green initiatives within its product lines as well as other parts of the business.



 All Close To My Heart printed papers (including cardstock, B&T Duos®, and My Stickease®) are SFI (sustainable forestry initiative) certified. We work with vendors who maintain the strictest standards in quality and environmentally responsible printing.

We have an eye to reducing our own waste, and recycle approximately 80% of all waste generated at the corporate office. Additionally, all our lighting and ventilation systems are on timers so they minimize resource consumption during non-business hours. The office/warehouse facilities are OSHA compliant and offer a safe and clean work environment to all employees.
Our shipping boxes are partial post-consumer recycled material, but they do contain some new manufactured content to make the boxes sturdy enough to withstand shipping.


We also have an innovative material reclamation process that helps us recapture the vast majority of the polymer used to produce our stamps. It’s fast, clean, efficient, and also helps keep our stamp costs competitive. All of our stamp manufacturing processes are extremely clean, and are cleaned only with environmentally-friendly soaps and water-soluble chemicals; we don’t use any harsh chemicals or bleaches to clean our machinery and production area.

We do use some soy-based dyes in our paper printing. Because of some limitations with soy, we can’t use it exclusively, but it is an important component of our ink processes.

I am proud to be a part of a company that remembers that the health and well being of our family's future generations depends upon how the current one lives.

Pieces of Jute

After pulling strings from the piece of Jute Ribbon from the Cornstalk Jute card.  I tied three pieces of the strings together to make the ribbon on this card.Distress the B&T paper by crumbling up and then flattening it out.  The cornstalk is colored with watercolor pencils.

SUPPLIES
Paper: Colonial White, Olive, and Barn Red CS, Huntington B&T
Images: Count Your Blessings
Embellishments: Jute Ribbon

Cornstalk Jute

One of the new items in the Fall Idea Book is Jute Ribbon.  Normally, the jute is a tightly woven ribbon, but it makes really neat shapes when you start to spread out the weave.  In this simple card, I pulled a few of the strings out from the jute and it started to look like a corn stalk. 



SUPPLIES
Paper: Colonial White CS
Images:Count Your Blessings
Embellishments: Huntington Accessories, Jute Ribbon

AME (S01E06): Designed Décor Flip Stand Album

With the help of the Cricut® Artbooking collection and Designed Décor flip stand album, Close To My Heart will make a home decorator out of you! Watch as simple icons, shapes, and titles from this cartridge are transformed into works of art perfect for display in your home.

Sunday Scraps

We all have a lot of times when we've used up most of our paper from a paper pack, but you don't have enough to make another layout.  If you are like me, it is hard to throw out paper, no matter how small (well, ok, maybe if it is smaller than 1/2"?)  When I create card workshops, I try to have a few cards that use our left over paper scraps.  
This Sunday Scraps idea came from Andrea Walford's Circle Circus.
Using a variety of cardstock and patterned B&T, punch paper into circle shapes.  Then you can decorate the circles with stamping or sparkles or other 3-D artwork.
 
SUPPLIES
Paper: Colonial White and Cocoa CS
Images:variety of patterned stamps
Embellishments: mini-sparkles, Huntington Assortment, Base and Bling Floral

Huntington Paper Cutout

Looking for a fun way to use the Huntington paper by cutting out, I simplified an idea I found over at Paper Hugz blog.  Deb showed a great way to handle patterned paper that has large prints: cut out the image and place it as a focal image.  The large flower and vine image in the Huntington paper pack was perfect for this.  Instead of using patterned background paper from the paper pack, I stamped a background using the new background stamps from CTMH.



 

SUPPLIES
Paper: Colonial White and Barn Red CS, Huntinton B&T
Images: Geometric Backgrounds
Embellishments:Sparkles
 

Huntington Scrapbooking


The Huntington Scrapbooking Workshop on the Go is a wonderful fall colored collection of the Huntington Paper Packet, Stamp Set, Assortment, Brown and Tan Sparkles.  The Instructional Brochure shows you how to make two 2-page layouts.

The colors of this kit make wonderful decor for your holiday gatherings. Use the wonderful My Creations 6" X 6" Canvas Display to your photos.

AME (S01E04): Spooky Halloween Layouts

Did all your little goblins and ghouls have a good Halloween?  Need an idea how to scrapbook their Too Cute To Spook photos?  Check out this video from the Artbooking Made Easy series from CTMH.

Double Embossing

In the Huntington workshop series, I fell in love with an interesting technique from DOstamping using both dry and wet (heat) embossing.  The colors Dawn used fell right in line with the workshop.  I love heat embossing, using Versamark Ink, embossing powder, and a heat gun.  The full images create neat bold shadow images. Also check out the scalloped edge using our new Scalloped Punch.

SUPPLIES
Paper: Colonial White, Cocoa CS

Images: Count Your Blessings

Embellishments:Cocoa Ribbon
Other: Embossing Folder


Illuminate


Let this month's Stamp of the Month light up your scrappy and stampy life.  I am so excited about this stamp set to help me with my wedding album.  Our theme was travel and lanterns, specifically nautical lanterns.  With perfect bright sayings, this set can be used for many cards and projects.  Available November 1-30.