Spring is definitely in the air when the cherry blossoms come out and I was thrilled that this this photo come out well.
I am very busy at the moment with moving into our Make Shift shop this weekend, so haven’t had a lot of time to make cards. My next post will be a cardmaking 101 for the new CTMH consultants who haven’t done a lot of card making with Creative Memories. One day when I get more confident and I can sort out camera angles etc I will look at making some how to videos of my cards. But in the meantime I will stick with what I know and use photos.
I hope you all have a great day.
Happy crafting
Patricia
Month: September 2013
Nautical Themed Cards for the Men (or women) In Your Lives
Welcome back
Well the America’s Cup is finally finished and unfortunately New Zealand did not win but congratulations to Oracle for pulling off an amazing win.
As promised in my last post here are some nautical themed cards that I have just completed. My son, James, is very keen on anything maritime and the Tommy Reflections range from Close to My Heart was perfect to make a card for his birthday next month. I have also got the Workshop on the Go (WOTG) kit to scrapbook the photos he took on his trip to Japan when he was 15 years old. He was really happy with this and I will try and post some photos of the layouts at another time.
For this set of cards I used only coordinating card stock from the basics colour palette, two colours of ink and two sets of stamps. The limited colour palette created a very harmonious and subdued look that I felt suited the masculine cards really well.
I was really pleased how I was able to create a band with the anchors and tiny flag border on the bottom card- it reminded me of nautical braiding from when I was young. I like to use a lot of edging, strips and borders in my cards, and by using stamps I was able to create the same effect with little effort. The little boats were easy to fussy cut and apply with some foam tape to give some more dimension to the cards.
I am really enjoying using the products and especially the stamps and inks. Because the stamps are clear it makes it so easy to position the image exactly where I want them. The inks are beautiful as well and leave a great impression on beautiful smooth cardstock. My cardmaking is definitely moving up another level with these products.
The materials I have used are:
Desert Sand ink (this is my go to ink to distress as it gives a lovely soft distressed look to my cards)
Stamp sets – Card Chatter – Birthday, Tommy Workshop on the Go (this stamp set is only available when you buy the WOTG
Fiskars SureCut Deluxe Paper Trimmer
Ruler – for positioning the anchor stamp
Score-Pal for scoring the lines of the cardstock
Masculine cards are so difficult to make at times but Close to My Heart have the men in your life covered so well. Even teenage boys are catered for and I will be looking at getting the tech themed stamps and papers to make some cards for teenagers. Watch this space…
Now I just have to decide what card to give to James and the rest will be for sale at Make Shift. I am sure he will love whatever I give him.
I hope you enjoy my latest offerings. My next post will be a cardmaking 101 for those new to cardmaking.
Have a great day and
Happy Stamping
Patricia
Chantilly Meets You Are My Happy Stamp set
Hello again
I had such a good response to the post on the folded card I thought I would try another type of architectural card. I was inspired by a lovely card by Julie Butler (a friend who is a Stampin’Up Demonstrator, but we won’t hold that against her as she is a very talented paper crafter) which also won her a challenge as well. Congratulations Julie. Well deserved as it is a gorgeous card.
Here is her version:
http://papercutsjulz.blogspot.co.nz/2013/09/12-saturdays-till-christmas.html
She said it was easy so I thought I would go back to Beccy’s blog to see if she had some instructions for one. I found this step card which appeared to be the closest to what Julie had done. I can see that this is the base card and there can be a number of variations like what Julie has done.
Beccy has a number of different types of cards to make and I will be slowly going them them to see what I can come up with. Here is her link again:
http://beccysplace.blogspot.co.nz/2010/03/technique-class-trifold-cards.html
For this card I have done a simple centred step card using the fabulous Chantilly papers and the ‘You are My Happy‘ stamp set which is still available for $15 this month if you purchase $75 in products. This is such an amazing stamp set and so versatile and the sentiments are really uplifting and is great for our spring down under with the weather getting warmer (sometimes).
Any way here is my version:
For the flower I have stamped two flowers from the You Are My Happy stamp set onto Colonial White cardstock and fussy cut them out. I have used the Cotton Candy alcohol marker to colour in the small trim and then put them together. I used my new tool kit to shape the flowers to create some extra dimension. For the centre I have stamped the small flower flower from the same stamp set onto Buttercup cardstock and fussy cut this out for the center. This was topped off with a pink glitter gem. The sentiment at the bottom was trimmed off the decorative paper.
I love using the ribbon stamp from the Cricut Artiste Collection as it can be stamped in so many colours to complement my projects. It goes really well with the Chantilly Collection. Actually I am really loving how all these stamps are interchangeable for all my projects. I end up taking one from this stamp set and one from that stamp set to finish my cards.
I have found that it is easier to cut and decorate all the pieces before assembling the card just in case I make a mistake. For each layer I have decreased by 1/4 inch on each side of the piece. A good trimmer is essential as it makes this task so much easier. I no longer use my pencil, ruler and eye to make my cuts.
The materials I have used are:
Cricut Artiste collection stamp (for the ribbon)
This is a very pink card (it is my favourite colour!), plus it tones in well with my blog background, so my next post will feature some very nautical cards that will (hopefully) celebrate Team New Zealand winning the America’s Cup.
Have a great day everyone and Happy Stamping
Patricia
Related articles
- Close to My Heart “You Are My Happy” Trifold Cards (patriciamanhire.wordpress.com)
Exciting News!
Hello there
Today I am really excited to announce that I have won a challenge through diecutcrazymag.com. The challenge was for any papercraft project which included die cut flowers. I had a couple of cards that I had done and emailed them off thinking nothing more of it until I got an email from Stephanie Shock from diecutcrazymag.com to say that I had won. Imagine my surprise and it really didn’t sink in until today when I received my prize which was a Sizzix Susan’s Garden Tool Kit – thanks so much Die Cut Crazy. I am going to get a lot of use out of this set. It looks great.
I think this is the winning card that I sent in:
I have also been asked to contribute to a magalogue for Kalsbeek Crafts which I was really excited about. They are looking at putting my cream on cream and white on white cards in their magalogue (a cross between a catalogue and magazine) with instructions on how to complete the cards. Thank you Toni for asking me to contribute. You have been great to deal with and your service has been nothing short of fantastic.
This has all happened prior to my joining up to Close to My Heart (CTMH). Due to the terms and conditions of my contract with CTMH I will only be using CTMH products from now on. I will be using a Cricut machine and the wonderful cartridges from CTMH to make more cards, scrapbook layouts and great 3D items. I am really looking forward to these new products and what I can create from them.
Have a good day.
Happy crafting
Patricia
Close to My Heart “You Are My Happy” Trifold Cards
Hello everyone and another special welcome to my new followers.
I was looking at Pinterest yesterday and came across instructions for a trifold card. I have never really done these cards before, preferring to just do standard cards as they are so quick and easy. However, when I saw the instructions and how easy they are to do I was inspired to try with some scraps of my Chantilly papers and I had purchased a pack of 12 x 12 Colonial White cardstock so it was a lot easier to cut up the card and get the creases right.
This month there is a special deal for National Stamping Month where if you spend $75 you can get the ‘You are My Happy’ stamp set for just $15. This is really great value as the set normally costs $77 and along with the stamp of the month set at $5 you can get all these stamps for $20 with a value of over $100. I can’t believe how generous Close to My Heart is! Anyway the images in this stamp set are cute and quirky and fitted in really well with this card. I have also used a sentiment from the same set on the front of the card and the birthday greeting is from the Card Chatter – Birthday set. I am really loving these stamps as they give a nice crisp image and are so easy to place just where you want to put them.
If you would like to purchase these stamps or any other Close to My Heart products you can visit my website here
I found the instructions for the Trifold cards here: http://beccysplace.blogspot.co.nz/2010/03/technique-class-trifold-cards.html
Here is my version
Materials used:
Cardstock – Colonial White
Cardstock – Desert Sand
Chantilly papers
You are My Happy Stamp set
Card Chatter – Birthday Stamp set
Outdoor Denim ink
This is a great way to finish off your scrap papers as well.
I hope you all have a great day and Happy Stamping
Patricia
Make Shift is all Go
Hi everyone
I am so excited to announce, after several months of hard work, we have finally managed to get a lease signed on a shop in Lower Hutt and Make Shift is now a real shop!. We open the beginning of next month and we are in a great location with a wonderful shop layout with two workshop areas in the back. I would like to thank my fellow Collective who helped to make this happen through lots of trials and tribulations. They have been amazing and deserve to make a success of this venture. So if you happen to be in Lower Hutt, Wellington make sure that you come and visit us. The address is 8 Margaret Street, opposite Queensgate Shopping Complex. We would love to see you there so please spread the word as we would really love to make this a success and a place for local people to sell their handcrafted creations.
I am also excited about getting my Consultants kit from Close to My Heart and my first order. I am like a kid in a lolly store with so much to choose from lol. And the papers (especially the Chantilly papers) are so lovely I didn’t want to cut them up to make cards. But I did manage to steel myself to make the first cut and here is one of the first cards that I have made with my new products.
Materials used are from CTMH (of course):
Chantilly paper
Chantilly Complements
Pink Glitter Gems
Sparkles Clear Flourish – small
Sentiment from the You are My Happy stamp set
Inks – Desert Sand for distressing and Cotton Candy for the sentiment
Cardstock – Bamboo
The You be Happy stamp set is an exclusive stamp set that is only available for this month and it is great value for only $15 when you spend $75. This set has a retail value of $77 so it is great value and a good stamp set to get started.
I will be busy making more cards for Make Shift and will look at doing some workshops there for those who are interested in learning how to use these great products to make some amazing cards. I am planning to do a chocolate themed workshop which should be a lot of fun. I will keep you posted.
In the meantime I hope everyone has a great weekend.
Happy Crafting.
Patricia
Die Cutting Using Toilet Tissue
Hello everyone.
A warm welcome to all my new followers of my blog. I hope that I can inspire you to go and create your own masterpieces. I also enjoy looking at your amazing blogs in return. I love that we can share and inspire each other.
While I was waiting for Close to My Heart to come to New Zealand my Aunt and I have been doing some experimenting. We had just had a fashion competition and show using toilet tissue to create beautiful fashion to wear. My Aunt works in a rest home and the residents were curious about how this would work and so she and I got together to see what art we could create out of toilet tissue. I would like to credit my Aunt for the idea but we worked together to see what we could do with the tools and materials I already had.
Firstly we used adhesive glue to glue several layers of tissue together and discovered by trial and error that we needed to let it dry overnight. So we had to make another date to finish off the die cutting.
Some dies cut better than others including the English Rose die from Marianne Creatables. These were easy to roll up into roses, and in fact they came up really well. Leaves and the little Memory Box Pippi Butterfly were also really good to die cut.
Here are some photos of us and our handiwork.
Here is my Aunt very busy getting all the flowers sorted. I did all the Cuttlebugging and she did all the rolling up of the roses. To finish these she bought small canvases to put the die cut ovals on and then she was going to get the residents to help choose which flowers and embellishments they want to make a little wall hanging for their rooms. She has based this on some cards that I have done and I will include a link at the bottom to give you an indication of what these may look like.
The dies I have used are:
Marianne Creatables LR0107 Flowers and leaf
Marianne Creatables LR0162 English Rose
Marianne Creatables LR0151 Branch
Marianne Creatables LR0206 Ivy
Marianne Craftables CR1205 Butterfly
Marianne Craftables CR1204
Memory Box Pippi Butterfly
I will try to get some pictures once the residents have done their artwork. I am really looking forward to seeing what they look like as the toilet tissue was challenging to work with, but in some ways the tissue was easier to manipulate into a nice shape.
Have a great day and Happy Crafting
Patricia
Related articles
- Special cards for the Special person (patriciamanhire.wordpress.com)
National Stamping Month with Close to My Heart
Hello there.
This month is National Stamping Month and of course Close to My Heart has to have a fabulous deal. Spend just $75 on any Close to My Heart products and for just $20 you can get the Pinwheel Stamp of the Month Set and You are My Happy set. These 2 sets normally retail for $104. This is a great way to get started on your stamping journey. For further information check out my website:
www.patriciamanhirescreatingwith.shopctmh.co.nz
Happy Stamping
Patricia
Related articles
- National Stamping Month Trio (jodiecowling.wordpress.com)
Welcome to Close To My Heart (01) – YouTube
Welcome to Close To My Heart (01) – YouTube.
What a special welcome to the Close to My Heart family we are receiving.
Happy Crafting
Patricia