Catching up with some UFOs.

On August 23, 2015 By patriciamanhireIn Close to My Heart, Cricut, Scrapbooking, Stamping3 Comments

Welcome back

This week I have been carded out as well as still waiting for my order to arrive so I thought I would look at some UFOs – Un Finished Objects. A couple of months ago I bought the gorgeous A Taste of Summer paper pack that was part of the National Scrapbooking month as well as the coordinating stamp set. I found some photos from when my children were young and the colours matched the papers very well and started to do the layouts and then got side tracked. So today I got them out and finished them. I did 4 layouts today but ran out of sunlight to take photos of them all, but I was very pleased to be able to put them in my album. I have used the Reflections How To Book for my inspiration.

I have cut all the titles out from the Artbooking Cricut cartidge and all the fruit has been stamped and fussy cut out.

I have used the Charming Chevrons stamp set and added a bit of sparkle with the coordinating sparkles chevron shapes which is no longer available. The title has been cut from both Sunset cardstock and White Daisy cardstock to help it stand out from the background paper.

The camera has been cut using the new Artistry cartridge in Slate and Hollyhock cardstock. I have also used the new Artistry cartridge to cut the Smile and Enjoy sentiments. These cuts are quite different in that the cuts are designed to go inside the frames so I have cut out the inners with White Daisy cardstock and stamped the frame image on the pink patterned paper and then fussy cut them out. My daughter was wearing a dress that I had made using strawberry covered fabric which tied in really well with the papers.

Here is a close up of the tags and I have used the Marvy Uchida Le Pen journaling pen to create a sewing line for the pocket.

Materials used:

Cardstock – White Daisy, Kraft, New England Ivy, Hollyhock, Sunset, Slate

Paper – A Taste of Summer

Stamps- A Taste of Summer, Perfect Picture Cricut Collection (Artistry), Tagged with Love, Year>>Noted, Charming Chevron, Sweet and Love Cricut Cartridge (Artbooking)

Inks – Sunset, Ruby, Cranberry, Topiary, New England Ivy, Goldrush, Glacier

Cricut Cartridge – Artistry, Art Philosophy, Artbooking

Sparkles Chevron Shapes – NLA

Stuck on You Puffies

Topiary chevron ribbon.

Marvy Uchida Le Pen

Bling Gems Gold Assortment

I hope you have enjoyed something different from me this week.

Have a good week and Happy Crafting.

Patricia

CTMH Australasian Zoe Blog Hop

On August 19, 2015October 21, 2015 By patriciamanhireIn Cardmaking, Close to My Heart, Cricut, CTMH SOTM, Marianne Creatables, Paper Crafting, Stamping37 Comments

Hello and welcome aboard our CTMH Australasian Blog Hop featuring the beautiful Zoe Reflections range of papers and embellishments. If you have arrived here from Maz’s Blog, Inky Fingers then you are in the right place. If you landed here by accident, no problem, please join in by following the link at the end of this post.

Today I would like to share with you a project that I have made using the new Zoe paper range. This is gorgeous paper that is so perfect for scrapbooking but I wanted to do something different with it so I have made a calendar book to put in all the birthdays throughout the year so you will never forget a birthday again. I first made one of these many years ago when I started some classes and they are simple to do even if you have no Cricut machine.

To start I cut 14 sheets of cardstock at 8 1/4″ x 11 1/2″. I have used Slate, Whisper, Glacier, Sorbet and Canary cardstock to match the papers on the papers. For the front I have used the sorbet coloured papers from the Whimsy Fundamentals paper pack. I then scored down the centre of the longer side at 5 3/4″ and folded it in half. I then used my trimmer to cut down the centre for 3″. I then used my CTMH Versamat and lined up to cut diagonally from the bottom of the cut to 3″ on the side.

I then had some fun decorating with the Zoe papers. Once I had done that I then used double sided tape at the bottom of the page to create a pocket to stop papers and cards falling through the bottom.

Here are the pages ready for binding.

I went to my local copy place and got the booklet spiral bound as I don’t have my own binder. The binding makes it much stronger than if I had just used some rings.

I then finished embellishing the pages. For the left sides of the pages I have cut a piece of White Daisy cardstock and stamped the lines with the lines stamp from the Year >>Noted stamp set which is no longer available. I didn’t have the time to stamp the months at the top so I trimmed the words from the zip strip and adhered them to the top. I used my new Artistry cartridge to cut the flowers (3 1/2″) out of Sorbet cardstock for the page and also for the front page from page 12 . I also cut the other flowers (1″) from the same page for creating some continuity throughout the book.

I also made some coordinating cards to go into each pocket and used this month’s SOTM set Framed for the sentiments and this time I cut the shapes out with the Artistry cartridge. I have tried to do a mix of feminine and masculine cards.

Here are the finished pages:

And here is the front of the book:

There is now no excuse to forget a birthday! This book would be great to keep special mementos as well as cards for birthdays throughout the year and would make a fantastic gift to give someone.

The Zoe papers are available now for you to purchase and is available from your CTMH consultant here. I’d love you to leave a comment before heading off to the next stop, Vandra’s blog, Vandra’s Virtual Craftroom.

Materials used:

Cardstock – Slate, Whisper, Canary, Glacier, Sorbet, White Daisy

Papers – Zoe, Whimsy Paper Fundamentals

Stamps – Framed, Year>>Noted (NLA)

Inks – Glacier, Sorbet, Slate

Cricut Cartridge – Artistry

Silver Sequins

Geometric Slate washi tape

Punch – Scallop

Have a great week and Happy Crafting

Patricia

Australasian CTMH SOTM Blog Hop – Framed

On August 1, 2015August 1, 2015 By patriciamanhireIn Cardmaking, Christmas Cards, Close to My Heart, Cricut, CTMH SOTM, Stamping36 Comments

Hello and welcome aboard ourStamp of the month Australasian Close to My Heart Blog Hop. If you have arrived here from Meryl’s blog Mez’s Craft Room , then you are in the right place. If you landed here by accident, no problem, please join in by following the link at the end of this post.

Today I would like to share with you several cards and a special project which features the August Stamp of the Month Framed available exclusively throughout August for $33 or for just $5 when you spend $75. This stamp set is a MUST HAVE for cardmakers. The frames are wonderful and easy to cut out if you have no Cricut machine and the sentiments fit every occasion you can think of. However, if you are lucky to have the new Artistry cartridge then you can use that to cut the frames out.

Before moving onto the cards I would like to share a little box that have made using the Artiste cartridge and the paper fundamentals (whimsy). I have cut the flower out using a combination of Artiste and Art Philosophy cartridges and placed it on the front and added a little framed tag for a special box. It didn’t take very long at all once I had it all the pieces together. I finished with a little heart from the Stuck on You Puffies – on the while supplies last list.

I really enjoy using contrasting colours and this card uses Lagoon and Sorbet colours together which picks up the colours of the flowers in the patterned paper from the Blossom Reflections pack.

I am going to miss the Seaside papers as they are wonderful for masculine cards. Here I have used one of the stickers from the Complements pack.

For this card I have cut out the flowers and leave from the patterned paper and layered them on the card.

I love the Yuletide Carol papers as they are so traditional for Christmas and the complements are beautiful as well. For these Christmas cards I have used gold embossing to add to the traditional feel to the cards. (Unfortunately, a lot of other people thought the same and the papers and complements are now sold out!)

I have looked at this little bird for a long time on the Art Philosophy cartridge and finally used it with this card to add a whimsical accent to the card.

This paper does not need a lot of embellishments and the small sticker and the frame with the sentiment just adds j the finishing touches to this card.

Framed is only available until 30 August from your CTMH consultant here. I’d love you to leave a comment before heading off to the next stop, Lauren’s Blog, CTMH Craftings.

Materials Used:

Cardstock – White Daisy, Colonial White, Lagoon, Sorbet, Sweet Leaf, Flaxen. Kraft, Cashmere, Ruby, New England Ivy, Pear, Pixie

Papers – Blossom, Brushed, Seaside, Yuletide Carol, Whimsy Paper Fundamentals

Complements – Seaside, Yuletide Carol, Brushed

Stamp – Framed

Inks – Cotton Candy, Lagoon, Versamark, Desert Sand, Black, Pear, Pixie

Ranger embossing powder – gold

Cricut – Art Philosophy

Extra thick twine – Pixie

Stuck on You Puffies

Happy Crafting

Patricia

More from Blossom

On July 26, 2015July 26, 2015 By patriciamanhireIn Cardmaking, Close to My Heart, Stamping11 Comments

Welcome back

We are almost at the end of the Seasonal Expressions 2 book and I am really going to miss the Blossom range of products from this book. The colours are so beautiful and can be used for a wide range of projects from masculine to feminine and babies. I am normally a pink girl but Blossom has turned me around. One of my first purchases from the Seasonals Expression 2 catalogue was the Blossom WOTG Card Making kit. The stamps were gorgeous and I will be using them a lot for a long time.

Here are a couple of cards I have made using the stamp set and the ideas from the WOTG ideas booklet. The first card is using the background to one of the cards but I have turned it into a portrait card and ‘hung’ the sentiment up with some Glacier extra thick twine. I have used the leaf stamp and then cut out the flowers from the Art Philosophy cartridge page at 1″ . I curled up the petals using the end of a paint brush to get a little dimension. I have finished with some clear sparkles, Coral Sequins and Junebug Puffies.

The second card has been turned around again and this time I have made a trim using the retired zipper lace in Lagoon to add something extra to the card. It fitted in well with Pear cardstock and a strip of the floral patterned paper.

Materials used:

Cardstock – Pear, Kraft, White Daisy

Paper – Blossom

Stamps – Blossom WOTG

Inks – Pear, Black, Glacier

Art Philosophy Cricut Cartridge

Extra Thick Twine – Glacier

Clear Sparkles

Coral Sequins

Junebug Puffies

The Blossom WOTG is still available for sale on my website here – but you will need to be quick as some of the current products are selling out very quickly.

Have a good week and Happy Crafting

Patricia

CTMH Everything is Better with a Friend

On July 21, 2015 By patriciamanhireIn Cardmaking, Stamping4 Comments

Welcome back

This month CTMH have a special deal for hostess stamps. Normally you can only buy these stamp sets when you host a gathering but this month they have offered the stamps sets to anyone who purchases a stamp set for just $32.50 for just $6.50 which is a massive savings.

One of the stamp sets is the Everything is Better with a Friend. I love the sassiness of this stamp set and it would be great for both scrapbooking and cardmaking.

I made these cards for a cardmaking class last week and they proved to be very popular. Colouring in is really popular now with adult colouring in books etc but stamps are also great to colour in. I have done three cards and used three different colouring techniques- watercolour pencils, ShinHan Touch Twin markers and paper piercing. The vibrant colours of the Scaredy Cat papers really went well with these cards.

Materials used:

Cardstock – White Daisy, Thistle, Sunset

Paper – Scaredy Cat

Stamp – Everything is Better with a Friend, Just to Say

Ink – Memento Black, Black

Watercolour Pencils

ShinHan Touch Twin Markers – YR24 Marigold, P282 Peony Purple, Z2463 Sap Green.WG4 Clay, Y222 Golden Yellow, YR29 Barely Beige, BR96 Mahogany, BG61 Peacock Blue

This stamp set as well as all the other Hostess stamp sets from the Seasonal Expressions 2 and the Annual Inspirations Book are available for just $6.50 when you purchase a stamp set for just $32.50. This is such great value so get in quick before the end of the month and you can start shopping here and click on the Jump On It July link to make your selection.

These cards will be available for sale at Gift Hutt.

Have a good week and Happy Crafting.

Patricia

Get Well Wishes from CTMH

On July 12, 2015 By patriciamanhireIn Cardmaking, Close to My Heart, Cricut11 Comments

Welcome back.

I am getting low on get well cards at Gift Hutt so I got down to work to make these lovely cards. I am finding that I am using my Artfully Sent cartridge more and more for unique and individual cards and I particularly love the lattice sleeve cards to create backgrounds for my embellishments.

For these cards I have used all four CTMH cartridges – Artfully Sent, Art Philosophy, Artiste and Artbooking. I love using Cricut Craftroom to put all the images together to help make it easier to cut the images out. I have used the sleeve from page 16 of the booklet and cut them at 4″ x 5 1/2″ and I have backed the lattice with Glacier cardstock for a lovely soft combination.

The frame has been cut from the Artbooking cartridge page 47 using White Daisy cardstock at 4″. For the first card I cut the centre out but then I had a ‘doh’ moment and used the hide/contour function to cut the full background image out for the second card.

The flowers are what I have left from previous projects. The flowers are cut from both the Artiste cartridge – page 54 in the booklet and the Art Philosophy cartridge – page 50 of the booklet. To see how I have made these flowers please click here. I have coloured the centres of the flowers in Canary ink and sponged the edges in Pixie ink.

The leaves have been cut in Pear cardstock from the Artiste page 54 – I am sorry I cut these some time ago and can’t remember what size I cut them out (possibly about 1 1/2″)

I have stamped the image from Sincere Expressions (which is sadly retiring) in Outdoor Denim ink (which is also retiring).

To finish off I have used Junebug Puffies to create the look of forget me knot flowers and some white shimmer trim.

Here is the second one with the centre that has not been cut out. As you can see it is better without the cut.

Here are some close ups.

Materials used:

Cardstock- White Daisy, Pear, Glacier

Stamps – Sincere expressions

Ink – Pixie, Canary, Outdoor Denim

Cricut Cartridges – Artiste, Art Philosophy, Artbooking, Artfully Sent

Junebug Puffies

Gold Glitter Gems

White Shimmer Trim

It is that time of the year for a new Annual Inspirations book to be released with a lot of new products and to make room for these new products there are a large number of current products retiring. Please check out my website here for a list of retiring products and get in quick before they disappear. There is also more products on the ‘while supplies last’ button.

Have a good week and Happy Crafting.

Patricia

Australasian CTMH SOTM Blog Hop – Life is Wonderful

On July 1, 2015July 14, 2015 By patriciamanhireIn Close to My Heart, CTMH SOTM, Scrapbooking16 Comments

Hello and welcome aboard our Stamp of the Month Australasian Close to My Heart Blog Hop. If you have arrived here from Jenny’s Blog The Creative Heart, then you are in the right place. If you landed here by accident, no problem, please join in by following the link at the end of this post.

Today I would like to share with you this layout that I have made which features July Stamp of the Month Life is Wonderful available exclusively throughout June for NZ$33 or for just NZ $5 when you spend NZ$75.

My son was very fortunate to have gone to Japan on a school trip and I have finally started scrapping his photos. I have not used the Wanderful papers much but these are perfect for doing travel photos. And the travel overlay and other travel related icons from the Artbooking cartridge goes so well with this. I particularly like this overlay as you can get a lot of small images to use for the rest of the album.

Yes I probably should have put the ‘is about to happen’ underneath the two stamped images but I am happy with how it has come out.

Life is Wonderful is only available until 31st July from your CTMH consultant. I’d love you to leave a comment before heading off to the next stop, Maz’s Blog, Inky Fingers

Materials used:

Cardstock – Crystal Blue, Colonial White, Flaxen

Paper – Wanderful

Stamps – Life is Wonderful

Have a good week and Happy Crafting.

Patricia

CTMH Artiste Masculine Card

On June 23, 2015June 23, 2015 By patriciamanhireIn Cardmaking, Close to My Heart4 Comments

Welcome

I am a couple of days late but the light has been against me for taking photographs and then I downlaoded Light Room on my computer and that took ages as well. Never mind I am all sorted now.

So it is a very quick post showing off the versatility of the Artiste cartridge. There are over 700 images on this cartridge which makes it very cost effective for the price which also includes 3 coordinating stamp sets as well as some dimensional shapes. I love how you can do boxes, cards, layered images and more for any project you can imagine.

Today I have done the lovely masculine card with a coordinating envelope using Seaside papers. Father’s Day was last Sunday in the United States so this is an appropriate card to show I think. I got the instructions for the dimensions from Joy at Obsessed with Scrapbooking here and it was super quick and easy to make.

I have used the dots embossing folder for the tie and pocket to add some interest to the card.

And here is the back – oops there is a sneak peak of the upcoming August SOTM here.

You can cut the collar to help with opening the card up to write inside but I thought that I would put this on the back for ease of use.

This card did not take me very long at all.

Materials used:

Cardstock – Desert Sand

Paper – Seaside

Stamps – Framed

Ink – Desert Sand

Embossing Folder – Dots

Sparkles – Black and Grey Assortment

This card and many of the other cards I make are available for sale at Gift Hutt.

Have a good week and Happy Crafting

Patricia

Australasian Operation Smile Blog Hop

On June 15, 2015June 15, 2015 By patriciamanhireIn Cardmaking, Close to My Heart, Stamping20 Comments

Hello and welcome to the Australasian Operation Smile Blog Hop. If you have come here from Mandy’s blog Hall of Indulgence you are in the right place. If you have landed here by accident no problem, please join in by clicking on the link below.

Operation Smile is a private, not for profit organisation providing reconstructive surgery to children and young adults born in developing countries. On 1^st April Close to My Heart Consultants released the 2nd Seasonal Expressions Idea Book. On the back page of this Idea book you will find the D – sized, Happy Everything stamp set. By purchasing this set at full retail price of NZ$33 you can help change the life of achild as CTMH will donate $US3 from your purchase to Operation smile.

Today we will be sharing some inspiration using “Happy Everything”. We hope you will be compelled to purchase this set and in so doing, contribute to the life changing work of operation smile.

This stamp set is perfect for cardmaking and here are some cards that I have made with this stamp set:

I have cut this swing card using the Artiste and Art Philosophy cartridges using the Blossom papers at 4 3/4″.

These two cards I made today for my cardmaking class using the Brushed papers and the A Budding Friendship stamp set.

Another card using Seaside papers and the Treasured Friendship stamp set and complements.

Finally I thought I would have some fun with the cute little bees. I have tried using the Honeycomb embossing folder and trimming it down and making it look like a beehive. I had some fun using the Shower Flowers stamp set to create the background with fussy cut out flowers on top. It hasn’t quite turned out how I wanted but it was fun to do.

For more information about Operation Smile please click on this link here.

This stamp set is available until the 30 August from here.

Please feel free to leave a comment and then pop on over to the talented Lauren at CTMH Craftings to continue on the hop for more inspiration.

Materials used for the cards:

Cardstock – Glacier, White Daisy, Juniper, Pixie, Sorbet, Canary

Papers – Blossom, Brushed, Seaside

Stamps – Happy Everything, A Budding Friendship, Treasured Friendship, Shower Flowers

Inks – Black, Pear, Cotton Candy, Desert Sand, Juniper, Lagoon

Cricut Cartridges – Artiste, Art Philosophy

Embossing Folder – Honeycomb

Complements – Blossom, Seaside

ShinHan Touch Twin marker – Black

Aqua Dots

Pink Shimmer Trim

Silver Sequins

Happy Crafting

Patricia

Wishing Well with CTMH

On June 7, 2015 By patriciamanhireIn Cardmaking, Close to My Heart, Stamping5 Comments

Welcome back

I have been busy today with crocheting squares for the upcoming International Yarnbombing Day on Thursday and haven’t had a chance to do paper crafting today. So I have picked a card I did a couple of weeks ago.

This card uses papers from both the Blossom and Seaside B&T paper packs. I am loving how I can mix and match between all the range available.

The flowers have been cut using the Art Philosophy cartridge at 1″ and the bird is a cut out from the Artfully Sent cartridge that I used for another card that I featured a little while ago.

Materials used:

Cardstock – Glacier

Paper – Blossom, Whimsy Paper Fundamentals, Seaside

Stamps – Artfully Sent Just to Say, Shower Flowers

Ink – Desert Sand, Pear

Cricut Cartridges – Art Philosophy, Artfully Sent

Scallop edge punch

Coral Reef Sequins

Black and Grey Assortments

Sparkles

All these products are available on my website here or just click on any of the highlighted links above.

Have a good week and Happy Crafting.

Patricia

	Monia on Friendly Feathery Peacock
	patriciamanhire on Flowering Dogwood Elegance
	Evelyn on Easter Lilies
	Monique Petri on Flowering Dogwood Elegance
	Monia on All Aflutter Birthday

Patricia's Creative Corner

Tag: Close to My Heart Australasia

Catching up with some UFOs.

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CTMH Australasian Zoe Blog Hop

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Australasian CTMH SOTM Blog Hop – Framed

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More from Blossom

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CTMH Everything is Better with a Friend

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Get Well Wishes from CTMH

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Australasian CTMH SOTM Blog Hop – Life is Wonderful

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CTMH Artiste Masculine Card

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Australasian Operation Smile Blog Hop

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Wishing Well with CTMH

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