A Couple of Birthday Cards

Inside message: ...Wondering what happened!

Inside Message: Happy Birthday

Today is my brother's birthday and I made these cards using the Cricut an items from my stash. The first card is a "Bobble Head" card from Lori Whitlock's SVG shop. The head is on a spring! 

The sentiments are from retired stamp sets I have from Close To My Heart. I thought the cunning fox critter worked with the sentiment I wanted to use. On the next card I wanted to use the sentiment about aged cheese. I searched images in Design Space and found one I liked. 

Paper Lighthouse

Yes this lighthouse is made of paper! It's from SVG Cuts Seaside Kit. There's a place to store a battery operated candle in the top. The middle section also comes off the base. I made this as a gift and put some mini candy bars in it!

Supplies:
Seaside SVG Kit (SVG Cuts)
Cricut Explore and Design Space
Seaside Paper Pack (retired Close To My Heart)
Colonial White Card Stock
Sorbet Card Stock
Vellum Paper
Quick Dry Glue (Elmer's)
Embossing Folder and Cutlebug

MIN Cricut Father's Day Card

I really like the Make It Now Projects in Cricut Design Space. I used one last month to make my Mother's Day card, and I decided to browse the offerings for Dad. I liked this one because even though I'm an adult I still ask my dad a few of these questions! I could have customized the text but I thought it was fun to cross out and write things in my own handwriting too.

Card for Mom

This is the card I made for my mother this year. It came together quickly because I used a Cricut Make It Now project. I pulled out one of my favorite retired paper collections from Close To My Heart. It's called Blossom, I love the color combination and blue is my mom's favorite color.

Cricut Artiste Collection Retiring Soon!

With Close To My Heart's Artiste Cricut Collection you can make several different gift boxes and rolled flowers to decorate them. This is one of my favorite cartridges, and it's retiring the end of this month! Check out all the items going soon!

Joyful Stars May 2016 Blog Hop

Welcome to the Joyful Stars May 2016 Blog Hop! On the 10th of each month a group of Close To My Heart consultants and friends share artwork using some of our favorite products. This hop is a circle, so it doesn't matter if you are coming from Donna's blog or if you start here on my blog. Just continue around until you're back at the blog you started on to make sure you see all the fabulous projects.

My projects feature the Happy Times Paper Packet that you can get free with a qualifying purchase only during this month.

My first project is what my students created to give to their moms for Mother's Day. I purchased photo cubes from Oriental Trading and had my students Mod Podge squares of the Happy Times paper packet to them. Although Sticky Boy is pretty cute each of their  photo cubes had a photo of them. The students also made a card for their mom using the new Cut Above card kits.

My next project is a gift bag. A fellow consultant shared a tutorial on how to make these adorable gift bags here. I took her measurements and tweaked them a bit so the seems meet on the sides of the bag. If you know me well, then you know that I had to make it a Design Space project! I think it needs a bit of work yet, but if you're interested let me know I'd be happy to share the link.

Thanks for hopping along this month. Your next stop is Joyce's blog. Joyce also has the list of all our bloggers for the month. You may want to keep her blog open in a tab. just in case you get lost along the way!

Watercolor Backgrounds

Water coloring is a huge trend right now. A few months ago I purchased the Mulberry font and there was a set of water color flower png files included. I used Design Space to print and cut a few flowers and leaves. Recently I came across that envelope of "card candy" and decided to make a couple of cards. To keep with the water color theme I cut some water color paper and randomly painted and splattered color. I love the way these cards turned out. I can't wait to grab my paints to do more!

Punny Thank You Cards

I love the print and cut feature with the Cricut Explore. Awhile back I was looking through the Cricut content that is part of the subscription and found the "Merci BEAR coup" and "MOO chas gracias" sayings.  All I needed to do is layer some paper and add shimmer trim for these quick and easy thank you cards.

Joyful Stars February 2016 Blog Hop

Welcome to the Joyful Stars February 2016 Blog Hop! On the 10th of each month a group of Close To My Heart consultants share artwork using some of our favorite products. This hop is a circle, so it doesn't matter if you are coming from Marie's blog or if you start here on my blog. Just continue around until you're back at the blog you started on to make sure you see all the fabulous projects.

 

Recently on Facebook, I saw a post about this mini bag project. Using the tutorial I created a project in Design Space and let my Cricut do all the scoring! Using Close To My Heart's La Vie En Rose paper and complements make this the perfect gift bag for Valentine's Day treats.

Thanks for hopping along this month. Your next stop is Stephanie's blog. Just in case you get lost or experience a technical difficulty, you might want to keep Joyce's blog open in a separate tab, as she has a full list of participants.

Box Birthday Card

My dear friend Jolene is celebrating a birthday today. All month I have been working with Close To My Heart's featured paper packet La Vie En Rose so I had it on my table when planning out this card. The box card design is from SVG Cuts. I used CTMH's glitter paper and embellishments from the La Vie En Rose Complements. The birthday sentiment is from the stamp set Your Own Kind of Wonderful.

CTMH Animal Greetings Meets CRICUT Create A Critter

Animal Greetings is an adorable stamp set from Close To My Heart. What makes this stamp set even more precious is that for every set sold at $17.95 Close To My Heart is donating $7 to Operation Smile. 

Operation Smile is an international medical charity whose global network of thousands of credentialed medical volunteers from over 80 countries is committed to helping improve the health and lives of children from more than 60 countries. To date, the organization has provided more than 240,000 free surgeries for children and young adults born with cleft lip, cleft palate and other facial deformities.

D1679 Animal Greeting $17.95

For my C&S card design I wanted the animals to be bigger than the stamp image. I used the Cricut cartridges Create A Critter and Create A Critter 2.  I made these cards into valentines, but they can work for any occasion. 

Chocolate Understands Box

The last few days I've been taking old tutorials and designs making them into Design Space files to cut with my Cricut Explore. This chocolate box that fits Ghirardelli squares is one of those old tutorials! This would be perfect to make up for Valentine's.

I made my box with Close To My Heart cardstock, a retired Close To My Heart stamp of the month, and ribbon from my stash.

If you'd like to try to make your own box here is a link to the Design Space project. I have a subscription to the Cricut library and now I'm not sure which pieces I used! This will be free if you have a subscription or the cartridges I happened to use. Otherwise you will be prompted to purchase whatever you do not have in your library.

Buckle Card and Design Space Share

The January Joyful Stars Blog Hop was amazing! One of my fellow hoppers inspired me by sharing a unique design the "Big Buckle Card." The tutorial is on Splitcoaststampers. I took the tutorial and used that to make a project in design space to cut the pieces with my Cricut Explore. I used Close To My Heart's Paper Collection of the Month and Stamp of the Month to get a jump on some Valentine's Day Cards. If you would like to try the Design Space Project here is the link. I have a subscription to the Cricut library and now I'm not sure which pieces I used! This will be free if you have a subscription or the cartridges I happened to use. Otherwise you will be prompted to purchase whatever you do not have in your library. 

Dancing Penguin

I love this Dancing Penguin Digi Stamp from Fred She Said. I used my print and cut feature in Cricut's Design Space and then used an image from Joys of the Season to do the snow globe shaped card. The finishing touches are a bow from Close To My Heart and sparkle from Wink of Stella!

FSS Scribbled Rose Card

Fred She Said's Scribbled Rose Digi Stamp is the focus of this card. This image was cut out using the print and cut feature with the Cricut Explore. It did an amazing job cutting out the thin stem.

To complete the card I used a scrap of pattern paper from Stampin Up and a Martha Stewart border punch. I haven't used punches in years!

Mini Candy Bar Holder

Today's project is a mini candy bar holder. Check it out when opened!

I came across the directions and video tutorial for these several years ago and made them at Christmas time, check out that post here. Lately I've been creating projects in Design Space and using my Cricut Explore. I wondered if I could recreate this project to make it faster, simpler, easier. After tweaking it a bit, here it is! To cut it you will need the Close To My Heart Cricut cartridges linked up to your account. I believe I used shapes from Artiste only, but I'm not sure, sorry.

Supplies
Artiste Cricut Collection
Design Space and Cricut Explore
Confetti Wishes Paper Pack (Currently on back ordered list and retiring soon!)
Adhesive
Hook and Loop Dots
ShinHan™ Touch Twin™ Marine Blue Marker (To color white ribbon from my stash)
Marvy® Uchida® LePen™ Journaling Pen
Happy Birthday stamped image is from a retired Stamp of the Month

Roses from Artfully Sent

Just a quick card today using Artfully Sent.

Supplies:
Cricut® Artfully Sent Collection
Adventure Cardstock Combo Pack ( I used Cotton Candy and Hollyhock)
Pink Glitter Gems

Joyful Stars July 2015 Blog Hop

Welcome to the Joyful Stars July Blog Hop! This hop is a circle, so it doesn't matter if you are coming from Nancy's blog or if you start here on my blog. Just continue around until you're back to the blog that you started on to make sure you see all the fabulous projects.


Close To My Heart's Annual Convention is happening right now. At convention it's tradition for roommates to exchange gifts. My BFF Jolene and I decided not to attend convention, but we are at a local retreat and decided to exchange roomie gifts! I made Jolene a Picture My Life Mini Album. I got the idea from a Cricut Design Space Make It Now project. I had to resize the images to fit the 3" x 4" cards in the Picture My Life collection. Here are some of the pages.

I also resized the images to fit the 4" x 6" cards and made this mini album.

If you have a subscription to the Design Space image library you can cut these projects. Here are the links!
3" x 4" Picture My Life Mini Album
4" x 6" Picture My Life Mini Album (Note: The dark gray piece says it needs a 12 x 24 mat. I cut on 12 x 12 and it was fine. Once you assemble and decorate you won't see the part that is "cut off'.")

The pink pieces in each project are sized for the using paper to decorate the cover flap. If you don't want to cut it just hide that piece.

Our current Picture My Life cards are retiring August 31 and some collections are already unavailable. Contact your consultant to purchase your favorite collection before it is gone!

Thanks for hopping along this month. Your next stop is Andrea's blog. Just in case you get lost or experience a technical difficulty, you might want to keep Joyce's blog open in a separate tab, as she has a full list of participants.

Cricut Make It Now Card

I was looking through the Make It Now Projects in Cricut Design Space and saw stunning cards using Anna Griffin content. So I bought the digital cartridges for Anna's Flourish Cards and Embellishments and Anna's Garden Cards and Embellishments and made this card.

Cardstock and Stamped Sentiment is from Close To My Heart

Pattern Paper is from Stampin Up

Recently I saw videos on You Tube from Jennifer McGuire talking about using a laminator to apply foil to stamped images and die cuts. I had foil sheets in my stash and decided to try it out. I stamped the image in Verasmark and embossed with clear detail embossing powder,  I put the foil over that and ran it through my laminator three times. I'm sure I'll be playing around with this technique again!

Cyber Monday Deal from CTMH

Cyber Monday Only: 20% Off All Cricut® Collections!

For the first time ever, Close To My Heart is offering a Cyber Monday Sale on Monday, December 1, 2014. There has never been a better time to buy Close To My Heart’s exclusive Cricut® Collections for 20% off the retail price. Whether you love scrapbooking, cardmaking, or creating 3-D projects, our four exclusive Cricut® collections make the perfect addition to any craft room! Sale starts at midnight (MST) on December 1 and ends at 11:59 pm Monday night. Make sure you share the news about this sale with all your friends and family members, too! Visit my web site to order.