To You and Yours

Christmas Cardinal

Let me start this post with an apology for not taking "in progress" photos.  I wasn't necessarily creating this card to be a blog post, but when I finished it, I wanted to share it with you anyway.

I have been dying to play with the ShinHan Twin Touch Markers, so I decided to take a little "me" time and do a little coloring.  I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE cardinals.  Sadly, we don't have any in my neck of the woods.  I'll never forget one winter, when we were living in Morgantown, West Virginia, (many, many, moons ago, lol) there was a beautiful pair of cardinals that must have been nesting in the trees behind our apartment.  I would see them often,  resting on the railing of the walkway to our front door.  It was truly magical.

Anyway, the You and Yours stamp set is one of my favorites because of these memories.  It is also a perfect set for coloring with markers.  

I have LONG been a Copic user, and I will ALWAYS love my Copics.  That being said, the ShinHan markers are very comparable in coloring and blending, as well as MUCH less expensive.  I am very spoiled when it comes to my Copics.  I have about 200 colors to play with, and because of that, I can easily get lost in a day of coloring, simply because I have nearly endless options for color matching and blending.  With the ShinHan markers, I have the 24 colors as well as the colorless blender that Close to my Heart offers.  I do believe that the colors CTMH has chosen are a good variety, that work well with the color palate in the CTMH product line. 

I stamped the image with Memento Tuxedo Black ink.  This is the ink I've used with my Copic markers for the past several years, so I just continued to use it with the ShinHan markers.  I've tried CTMH's Archival ink, but I had issues with smearing.  I've also heard some consultants are heat embossing the image, and are happy with the results, so there's another option for you.  Anyway, I used  Carmine Red (R11) to lay down a base layer on the entire bird.  Then I came back in with Warm Gray (WG4) to add dimension to the back of the bird, as well as some of the feathers for shadowing.  I used the same colors on the berries.  I used Leaf Green (GY234) and Sap Green (GY 235) to the holly leaves.  For the beak I used Marigold (YR24) and brought in a very small amount of the Carmine red.  The branch was simply a couple layers of Clay (BR116).  By layering the same color in some spots, it gives the illusion of depth.  The background is Turquoise (B68) with the colorless blender used to create some variation to the color.

I used Yuletide Carol paper for the card layers, as well as New England Ivy cardstock.  For the greeting I used a sticker from the Yuletide Carol Compliments.  I matted the greeting and the cardinal with Black cardstock. I wrapped the bakers twine from the Ruby Mini Medley Accents around the cardinal.   I popped the main image as well as the greeting up on 3-D foam tape.

I also stamped the Holly image onto the envelope and colored with the same colors used above.  IMPORTANT: Be sure to have either scrap paper inside your envelope while coloring, otherwise the ink will seep through to the other side.

Please click on the highlighted description above for a direct link to my web page for ordering these items.

Do Not Open

October Stamp of the Month

Card #5

While there may be a lot going on visually, this is a very simple card.  First, I stamped the tag in Outdoor Denim ink on the tag I had pre-cut from the Art Philosophy cartridge that co-ordinates with the October Stamp of the Month set.   I stamped it again in Cranberry ink on a piece of scrap card stock.  I trimmed the center circle from the Cranberry tag and mounted it to the Outdoor Denim tag with 3 -D foam tape.    Next, I took some white seam binding from my stash and dyed it with my Glacier re-inker.   I just put the ribbon in a small glass cup and added a few drops of the re-inker.  Squish it around until the color has saturated the entire ribbon.

Since I didn't use any water to dye the ribbon, the color came out quite intense.  I decided to rinse the ribbon and then set it aside to dry.

For the card base, I  cut a piece of Snowhaven printed card stock at 4 x 5 1/4.  Then I mounted it to a piece of Outdoor Denim cardstock I had cut at 4 1/8 x 5 3/8.

I cut a piece of white cardstock 2 x 3 1/4 and stamped the tag imaged randomly all over it in White Daisy ink.  I embossed the image with White embossing power to give some dimension to the cardstock, without being too distracting.

Next I cut a piece of Cranberry cardstock 2 1/4 x 5 3/8.  I cut both pieces into "flags" and mounted them to the card base.

Wrap the ribbon around the base, and tie the tag on.  I also applied 3 - D foam tape to the back of the tag to secure it to the flag.  Lastly, I mounted everything to a White card base, and, voila!

Supplies Used:

October STOM                                             S1410

Outdoor Denim Ink                            Z2140

Cranberry Ink                                         Z2116

Art Philosophy Cricut Cartidge                    Z1986

3 - D Foam Tape                                               Z1151

Glacier Re-Inker                                   Z2741

Snowhaven Paper Pack                         X7188B

Outdoor Denim Cardstock                              1275

White Daisy Cardstock                                   1385

White Daisy Ink                                           Z2163

White Embossing Powder                        Z2068

  Cranberry Cardstock                          1272

White Cards and Envelopes                                  X254

Polar Bear Postage

October Stamp of the Month

Card #4

I must say, "keeping it simple" is certainly proving to be a challenge for this girl, lol!  Anyway, I wanted to focus attention on the adorable bear in the October Stamp of the Month set, so I kept the background on the subtle side.  The card base is 5 x 5.  Then I mounted a 4 1/2 inch square piece of Outdoor Denim cardstock.

The patterned paper is from the Snowhaven Paper pack cut 2 x 2 inches square.  

I stamped the bear twice on White Daisy cardstock.  Once in Outdoor Denim ink and once in Cranberry ink

I cut the scarf out of the red bear and mounted it to the blue bear with my bonding memories glue pen .

I wanted to add a little blush to the bear's cheeks, so i dotted on a little Tender Pink Twin Touch marker

I also used the glue pen to apply chunky glitter to the frame piece cut from the Art Philosophy cartridge that has the coordinating cuts for this stamp set.  

I mounted the glittered frame to the bear image and then added 3-D foam tape to pop the entire image up from the background.

As a final touch, I added a few Bitty Sparkles to some of the snowflakes.

And that, as they say, is that!

Supplies Used:

October Stamp of the Month Set                                  S1410

White Daisy Cardstock                                                 1385

Outdoor Denim Cardstock                                            1275

Snowhaven Paper Pack                                              X7188B

Cranberry Ink Pad                                                        Z2116

Outdoor Denim Ink Pad                                               Z2140

Bonding Memories glue pen                                          Z553

3-D foam tape                                                              Z2060

Bitty Sparkles                                                               Z1263

ShinHan Twin Touch Tender Pink                               Z2464

Art Philosophy Cricut Cartridge                                  Z1686                                     

Dreaming, Wishing, Believing

October Stamp of the Month

Card #3

First let me apologize for being a bit of a bone head and neglecting to take "in progress" pictures.  Life on the ranch has been a little on the crazy side, as usual, but in addition to my normal hectic life (who can't relate?), I managed to severely burn myself the other day while trying to move an oven rack in the middle of meal prep.  My Silicone pot holder DID NOT keep the heat from transferring to my thumb, and my natural reaction was to let go, which in turn dropped the very hot oven rack onto the sensitive portion of my inner elbow.  I've been trying to keep up with life as usual, but have ended up getting a nasty infection.  Anyway, apparently all of this has hindered my thought process when creating this card, lol!  Honestly, I thought I took tons of pictures, but when I downloaded the pictures, they were all of the card I was making before this one, that didn't turn out like I was planning.  I couldn't make that one work, so I started over and came up with this card.  Unfortunately, my camera sat on my desk the whole time, ARGH!  

Anyway, the card is pretty straight forward, and again, very simple.  I admit, I couldn't resist adding bling to the focal image.  Other then that, I simply used scraps to create the background.   If you have ANY questions, please put them in the comment section, and I will do my very best to answer them.  

I am off to work on card #4 in my little series.  I am going to make every effort to be diligent in picture taking, lol!!!

Supplies Used:

Yuletide Carole Paper Pack                              X7187B

October Stamp of the Month                             S1410

Bitty Sparkles                                                       Z1263

Mini Medley Assort. Ruby                                 X1861

3-D Foam Tape                                                  Z1151

Cranberry Ink Pad                                              Z2116

Merry Christmas

October Stamp of the Month 

Card #2

Here's another simple card using the October STOM set.  

I started out with the Snowhaven Paper Pack

that I trimmed down and used the scallop border punch to edge one end of each piece of the printed paper.  I mounted them to the Cranberry card stock that came in the Snowhaven pack.  Next, I stamped the ornament image from the October STOM set in Glacier Ink on some White Daisy cardstock that I had pre-cut on my Cricut with the Art Philosophy cartridge, that co-ordinates with the stamp set.  I stamped the image a second time on a piece of scrap White Daisy cardstock, in Topiary ink, and cut the little tree out.  I mounted the green tree on top of the glacier blue tree with a Bonding Memories glue pen.  I did NOT cut the tree trunk.   I used my ShinHan Twin Touch Marker in Bronze to color the tree trunk.

 I used my ShinHan Twin Touch Marker in Marigold to color a small white enamel star.

I used my piercing tool, because my fingers are too fat to manipulate the star into place, LOL!

I tied some Neutral Metallic Bakers Twine  through the hanger and taped the loose end to the backside of the Cranberry cardstock.  I mounted the ornament to the front of the card with 3-D foam tape.  

Lastly, I mounted the card front to a White Daisy Card Base.

Ok, now, had I planned it out better, I would have stamped the greeting BEFORE I mounted the ornament, lol, but the truth of the matter is, I DIDN'T!  I grabbed my embossing buddy, (I got mine at Michael's, since CTMH doesn't carry them, at least not at the time of this posting) rubbed it over the area I planned on embossing the greeting.  Then I stamped the greeting from one of the stamp sets that comes with the Artfully Sent Cricut Cartridge with Versamark ink and embossed it with White Super Fine Embossing Powder.  

That's it!  

I will admit, I was planning on stamping the image 1 more time with versamark ink and embossing with silver embossing powder.  Then I was going to cut off the hanger portion of the ornament and then mount it to the Glacier ornament.  BUT, I really struggled with keeping it simple.  Those who know me, know I usually am all about the dimension, and layering and glitter and...  This whole challenge I've given myself to keep it simple is REALLY going to be a Challenge, LOL!!!!  

Here's one last look:

Supplies Used:

October Stamp of the Month Set           S1410

(see my "Specials" page for details on how to get this set)

Snowhaven Paper Pack                     X7188B

(all papers used came from this paper pack)

Neutral Metallic Assortment Baker's Twine      Z1921

White card base and envelopes       X254

Scallop Border Punch                         Z1851

3-D Foam Tape                                 Z1151

Bonding Memories Glue Pen                    Z553

White Enamel Stars                     Z2010

White Super Fine Embossing Powder        Z2068

VersaMark Ink                             Z891

ShinHann Twin Touch Marigold marker             Z2457

ShinHann Twin Touch Bronze marker                    Z2447

Glacier Stamp Pad                                Z2641

Topiary Stamp Pad                                Z2155

Artfully Sent Cricut Cartridge                      Z3017

Art Philosophy Cricut Cartridge                    Z1686

Home for the Holidays Card

October Stamp of the Month

Card #1

The October STOM is super adorable, and the first thought I had when I saw it was, "What a cute set for making gift tags!"  So, of course, I had to challenge myself to make anything BUT gift tags!  Another challenge I gave myself was to create a super simple card.  I have to say, I'm really happy I went simple.  

For the first card in this series I chose to use the "Home for the Holidays" stamp.  I used Cocoa ink (probably my favorite color for basic stamping)  As you can see, my stamp pad is VERY WELL LOVED, lol!

I used a Spellbinders die to cut the White Daisy card stock for the stamped image, as well as for the mat in New England Ivy.  I could have used my Artbooking cartridge, page 82, for the shape.  Since my embossing machine was already on my desk I decided to use it for both cutting and embossing.  I popped the stamped image up with 3-D foam tape

I cut another piece of White Daisy 4 x 5 1/4 and ran it through my Woodgrain Embossing Folder.  I added Topiary Mini Chevron Ribbon across the lower portion of the woodgrain embossed layer.  The last layer is more New England Ivy card stock, cut at 4 1/8 x 5 3/8 and mounted it all to a White Daisy Card base.  

That's it!  Hope you like it.  Keep checking back often.  I will be posting more simple Christmas cards over the next couple of weeks.

Supplies Used:

October Stamp of the Month Set                  S1410

($5 with $50 purchase - See Specials page for details)

New England Ivy Cardstock                    1282

White Daisy Cardstock                       1385 

Cocoa Ink Pad                                    Z2114

Woodgrain Embossing Folder                          Z1996

Topiary Mini Chevron Ribbon                         Z1929

White cards and envelopes, value pack               X254

3-D Foam Tape                                       Z1151

It All Comes Together

The Unveiling of my Halloween Display

I have 2 last projects to share before the final unveiling.  I was chatting with my sister about the large number of rosettes (cut from the Artiste cartridge) I have left over from my previous posts.  She had an AWESOME suggestion.  Make prize ribbons!!!

Given a little more time, I would have loved to have made them for "events" such as:

Broom Obstacle Course Races

Most Artistic Head Shrinking

Best in Show Spell Casting

and so on.

Of course, I've got to get on to Christmas projects, so time to move on, lol!

Anyway, here they are:

The last project is a quickie invitation for the party:

I made a super quick and easy invite using the new Artfully Sent Cartridge.  Honestly, this was a last minute thought, and literally took moments to make.  I cut it at 5 x 7.  The insert is not part of the cut, so I just took a piece of  Canary card stock at 4.75 x 6.75.  I used the stamp set that came with the cartridge to stamp "you're invited to a party" and Happy Halloween

As you can see I quickly scribbled the "invitation".  Of course, if I were creating a "real" invitation, I would most likely have done something up on the computer, but for today's purposes, this will work.

 Bwahahahaha!

OK, Here it is, the final unveiling!

Supplies Used:

Artiste cartridge (rosettes)           Z1790

Scaredy Cat Paper Pack                 X7185B

Glitter Paper     Black and Grey         Z1829

                                 Green                  Z1847 

                               Purple                  Z1992

Glamour Lower Case Alphabet               D1522         

                              

Artfully Sent cartridge                  Z3017

Black Card Stock                        1386

Canary Card Stock                       X5772

Treats for the Halloween Party!

Cut Above Halloween Treat Bags

These treat bags are a super cute little party favor for your guests, but could also be a fun item to give the "special" trick or treaters that might ring your door bell.  You receive everything you need to make these adorable treat bags.  The only addition I made was the hand stamped greeting on the top of the bag.  I used a cute coordinating stamp set that also works nicely with the Christmas Cut Above Treat Bags.

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Here's a picture of everything that comes in the Treat Bag Set

I arranged mine in a cauldron as part of my Halloween Party Display.  I thing they are absolutely adorable!

Cupcake Toppers

OK, I guess I could have cut the skull and cross bones a little smaller, but honestly,  I think these turned out so cute, I plan to use them as some other type of decorating after the cupcakes are gone.  I cut them from the Artbooking cartridge at 5" high by 3.77" wide, from silver glitter paper.  I have a package of lollypop sticks in a Halloween print, so I grabbed them.  I used some acetate (I save the packaging the cricut cartridges come in) that I cut into strips to attach the skull and cross bones to the stick.

As you can see, I took a sharpie marker to draw where I wanted to cut away the acetate so it wouldn't show behind the eye sockets.

Once that was trimmed away, I used scotch tape to attach the acetate to the back of the skull and cross bones.  To get the acetate to hold the lollypop stick, I cut in from the sides to create tabs to wrap around the stick.  Unfortunately, I forgot to take a picture of that part, oops!  Anyway, I bent the acetate around the stick and, once again, used tape to hold it in place.  To cover the tape and decorate the area, I used a small piece of black shimmer trim.

The only thing left to do is to stick it into a cupcake! 

Don't forget the Potion Bottles!

I made my labels using the Magic Potions stamp set and ran them through my little Xyron sticker maker to add adhesive to the backs of the lables.  I dug up a few bottles and slapped the lables on.  For the picture I added a few drops of food coloring to water, but I didn't stir it up, I let it swirl in the bottles and lab beaker. 

That's it for today!  Tomorrow I will have the final post for my Halloween Party Display.  I really love the way it has all come together!  Be sure to check back tomorrow!

Supplies Used:

Cut Above Halloween Treat Bag Kit           Z2058

Sweet Salutations Stamp Set                        B1466

Gypsy Stamp Pad                                        Z2190

Goldrush Stamp Pad                                   Z2123

Artbooking Cricut Cartridge                        Z1906

Glitter Paper  Black and Grey                     Z1829

Shimmer Trim  Black                                   Z1809

Magic Potions Stamp Set                            C1509

Champagne Card Stock                               X5832

Goldrush Cardstock                                       1243

Black Stamp Pad                                        Z2015

Cocoa Stamp Pad                                      Z2111

Super Quick Halloween Decor

Framed Skull

Today I'm sharing 2 REALLY simple projects.  Honestly, I don't think they could be any easier!

The Framed Skull takes very few supplies, and goes together very quickly.  I bought a few styrofoam skulls from Michaels last year with the plan to make a "Spell Book" and to mount a skull to the cover.  I am currently working on that project, but it is a VERY detailed, and complex job and most likely won't be ready to show until NEXT Halloween.  Anyway, my original plan was to use this skull, but it was going to be too large to allow the book to open properly.  I had sliced the back of the skull off to provide a flat surface to glue to the front of the book.  The following picture is actually the skull I ended up using for the book project.  I never took pictures of the larger skull being cut.

There's no magic to this, just slice the back off with a craft knife until it lays flat.

Next, I went through my pile of Thrift store frames to find the size and shape I wanted.  I took an old shipping box and traced the opening to create a backing for the skull to sit on.

I knew I wanted to use something subtle as the background, so as I rummaged through my scrapbook paper, I found this one in my collection of  retired Close To My Heart paper.  Now, I know, a better business person would have chosen CURRENT paper, that would compel viewers to hop over to my website and ORDER, ORDER, ORDER!  That being said, I do have a few more projects coming up using current Close To My Heart products.  But lets be honest, I want my viewers to see my projects and be compelled to try something new.  If they choose to shop my website, AWESOME!  But if not, that's o.k. too. 

I was able to cut the backing close enough to create a tight fit.  Then I popped the backing into the frame and didn't need to do anything else to hold it in place.

The last step was to get some straight pins from my  sewing supplies and I literally "pinned" the skull to the backing.  I pushed 2 pins straight from the back into the top of the skull.  Then I took 2 more and went into the lower jaw area.  Just be mindful that you don't push the pin in so far that it comes out the front of skull.  This wasn't an issue in the forehead area, but I did have to fiddle around a little with the jaw line area.  These had to go in at a slight angle, which I decided was great because now I have holding power from a couple different angles.

Since this complete project weighs next to nothing, I simply used a twist tie to work as a hanger.  I taped it to the back with duct tape.  Not pretty, but no one sees it, so I'm not going to lose any sleep over it, lol!

Project 2

I've been watching the Headless Horseman series on T.V. and the other night, while watching it on my DVR, I noticed the Horseman's horse has glowing red eyes.  OK, I've noticed it before now, but this time I remembered a book end I have, and thought, hmmmmm, all it really needs is red eyes, and it will look creepy!  

Here's a before picture:

Nothing creepy about it.  But I do think the addition of some red vinyl cut into eyeball shapes makes all the difference.  This project literally took 5 minutes to complete, and that includes digging out my red vinyl, lol!

Here's one last look:

It looks great in the finished display.  What??? Another tease, tee hee!  Keep checking back to see the final display.  I'm so happy with how everything is coming together.