Easter is coming

On March 9, 2015 By patriciamanhireIn Cardmaking, Close to My Heart, Crafts, Cricut, Stamping9 Comments

Welcome

I am a day late for my blog but I lost the battle with the light last night to take photos. It is heading into Autumn here and Easter is just around the corner so the days are getting shorter and the dark came up quicker that I had wanted. I went out with my aunt yesterday and found some very cheap foam crosses and thought I would have fun dressing up the cross to put on the wall in my shop. It is also fitting as my new landlord is a church. Here is the finished product hanging on the wall at Gift Hutt. I am going to look at doing another cross up for ANZAC Day with red poppies.

To cover the cross I have used the lovely B&T papers from the Yuletide Carol Reflections paper range. This particular paper is really versatile for lots of different projects apart from Christmas. I wasn’t sure about it at first but now I love it for doing backgrounds. I used liquid glass to adhere the paper onto the foam – the edges are not perfect as this is not a perfect cross but I did what I could. I had to have a join in the paper and hid this with the Black Striped Twill.

I really like using different techniques for making flowers and for these flowers I have got my inspiration from another company on how to do these flowers. They used dies and stamps but I used my Cricut cartridges – Artiste and Art Philosophy and kept to a very neutral palate – Colonial White and Flaxen. I love how you can make all different sizes instead of being limited to the size of the die.

For the flowers I cut the flowers from the Artiste cartridge page 54 Accent 3>Shift at sizes ranging from 2″ down to 1/2″ in increments of 1/2″ as this made a good contrast in sizes. However, I used flowers that I had cut out earlier and I think the sizes were only 1/4″ difference and I think the centre petals are a little big.

After cutting the flowers I used the small spray bottles to slightly dampen the flowers.

Once they were pliable to use I then used the shaping tool to create some texture and pattern on the petals.

I then pleated all the petals by hand and twisted them slightly. Using the large ball embossing tool I then made the flowers cup up. Each flower had two of these layers. These were then left to dry.

For the centre of the flowers I used the next size down flower and using the same technique I created the cups for the centre. However, I did not pleat the petals this time.

Here are the completed flowers ready to put on the cross. As you can see I have done three different sizes to create some depth and interest to the flowers.

Before putting the flowers on the cross I cut out several leaves from the Art Philosophy cartridge page 35 <Branch2> size 2″ from Flaxen cardstock. I then played around with the placement of the leaves and glued them down with the small glue stick.

I placed a bow on the cross first and then had some fun with placing all the flowers in a pleasing way. I finished off with a pearl flourish (NLA) and then some clear sparkles in the middle of the flowers. For the final touch I embossed three butterflies from the Armour stamp set with gold embossing powder and fussy cut them out and used liquid glue to adhere them to the flowers. I would have preferred to use pearls but unfortunately, CTMH do not stock them.

Here is a close up of the pearls, flowers and butterfly.

I then went on to create some cards using the same papers, flowers and colours and the His Love stamp set that is only available until the end of the month.

Here I have used my own design and used a spare flower and leaves to embellish the card. I have used the black sequins from the Mini Medley Accents – Black to finish it off.

For this card I have paper pierced the lily and finished off with the Black Strip Twill. The pattern for this and the following card is from the Make it From Your Heart Volume 1 pattern no. 25. I have first stamped the lily image on the Colonial White cardstock and then again on some scrap White Daisy and Flaxen cardstock and then fussy cut out the images and pieced them together to make the lily stand out.

Finally, I have turned the card around and put the Bible verse on the card and finished with the smallest flowers – 1/2″ on the leaves in Flaxen cardstock.
Materials used:

Cardstock – Colonial White, Flaxen, White Daisy

Paper – Yuletide Carol B&T

Stamps – Armour, His Love

Inks – Black, Versamark

Liquid Glass

Ranger Gold embossing powder

Clear Sparkles

Black Striped twill

Bakers Twine Neutral Metallic Assortment

Mini Medley Accents – Black

I hope that you enjoy my latest creations.

Have a good week and Happy Crafting

Patricia

Some More Artfully Sent Cards

On March 1, 2015March 2, 2015 By patriciamanhireIn Cardmaking, Close to My Heart6 Comments

Welcome

I have been too busy to participate in the Australasian blog hop for the SOTM stamp set but here are a couple of cards that I made some time ago when I had a card making frenzy using the Artfully Sent cartridge. I am still getting my head around all the different features so I just made some cards using the sleeve feature. These turned to be very quick and easy cards to do.

I used some of the cards that I had made with the mat ink method and using the pearl paint to line the cut cards. For details of how I have done this please click here.

For the first one I have cut the rose shaped sleeve on page 37 Sleeve>Shift at 7″ and used the pixie coloured background paper to line the cut front. The sentiment has been cut using the Artiste cartridge in the Brushed diamond patterned paper and then I have used the Cricut Craftroom to cut another shape in White Daisy cardstock slightly smaller. The sentiment is from the Artfully Sent Just to Say stamp set that comes with the cartridge and I have embossed that with the Ranger silver embossing powder. I have placed a trim of the pink shimmer trim over White Daisy cardstock trim that I have trimmed with the Scallop border punch. To finish off this easy card I have stamped and embossed with silver embossing powder the butterfly from the beautiful Armour stamp set from the Seasonals Expression catalogue and then I have used some gems from the now retired Pewter gems

Here are two versions of the same pattern from the Artfully Sent cartridge. I have used another piece of Pixie coloured base card to line the card and then I have sponged the larger accents such as the leaves, ribbon and yellow flowers from the negative pieces that have been cut from the card and then glued them onto the card. This was quite quick and easy to do and I have finished off with some Extra Thick Pixie twine and a small banner with the Get Well sentiment from the Just to Say stamp set.

For this next card I have used the cutout as a stencil and sponged the the small blue spots as the background onto a pre-cut piece of White Daisy Cardstock. On a separate card using the card as a template I have then sponged all the negative cutouts using Pixie, Olive, Flaxen Canary inks. I then used the stencil again to place the pieces onto the base cardstock.. Then using the stencil again I have adhered all the pieces onto the base card to create my card. This piece was then matted on some Pixie cardstock.

Here is the finished card with a butterfly cut out from the Artiste cartridge and some bling from the clear sparkles and some flourishes. I thought this made a lovely Mother’s Day card and again used the sentiment from the Artfully Sent Just to Say stamp set.

Materials used:

Cardstock – Pixie, White Daisy, Cotton Candy

Inks – Pixie, Canary Olive, Flaxen, Sky, Versamark

Paper – Brushed

Stamps – Just a Note (Artfully Sent), Armour

Cricut Cartridges – Artfully Sent, Art Philosophy, Artiste

Extra Thick Twine – Pixie

Clear Sparkles

Shimmer Trim – Pink

Ranger Silver Embossing Powder

Border Punch – Scallop

Epoxy Bubbles – Pewter (NLA)

All these products are available on my website here for you to purchase.

These cards are available for sale at Gift Hutt.

I have now moved Gift Hutt into a larger shop and will soon be offering scrapbooking and cardmaking classes so please watch this space.

Have a good week and Happy Crafting.

Patricia

Someone Special From CTMH

On February 22, 2015 By patriciamanhireIn Cardmaking, Close to My Heart, Crafts, Stamping8 Comments

Welcome.

Gosh these weeks fly past and it is time for yet another blog post. This week I will focus on another stamp set, Someone Special, that is available only until the end of March through the Seasonals Expressions catalogue for just NZ$25. This is such a pretty stamp set and I can see myself using this set a lot for cards and layouts. I love the fact that CTMH use clear acrylic stamps so it is really easy to stamp over base images to create a lovely 2 dimensional look.

For these cards I have kept to the lovely Canary and Flaxen combination. For the first card I have embossed White Daisy cardstock with the Quatrefoil embossing folder which I had inked first with Canary and Flaxen ink. I have got this technique from a fellow CTMH consultant, Karen Pedersen here and there are more ideas about using the CTMH embossing folders on this post. I did not sand the cardstock at all and the ink stamped the background of the embossing with the white embossed edge standing out more. I was thrilled with the outcome and I hope you like it too. The embossed cardstock has been matted on Flaxen cardstock and another strip of Flaxen cardstock has been placed over the bottom third of the card. I have topped with this with the coordinating Flaxen Paper Fundamental paper .

The flower and bud has had the base stamped with Canary ink and then overstamped with Flaxen ink. The leaves base has been stamped with Flaxen ink and overstamped with Olive ink. These colours go so well together and I found it to be a very restful combination on the eye. These were very easy to fussy cut and I have used the thin foam tape to add a little dimension.

The sentiment has come from the Artfully Sent Just to Say stamp set and I have stamped it in Flaxen ink.

For my second card I have used another piece of the lovely pearlised cardstock that I did several weeks ago. I have embossed the Flaxen cardstock with the Stripe embossing folder and then edged the card with the chevron border punch similar to another card I featured earlier. This time you can see the lovely background of the painted card. The sentiment has been cut from the Art Philosophy Cricut cartridge and stamped using Frame Flair stamp set, and the sentiment came from the Someone Special stamp set.

Materials used:

Cardstock – Flaxen, White Daisy

Paper – Whimsy Paper Fundamentals

Stamp set – Someone Special, Frame Flair, Just to Say

Inks – Flaxen, Canary, Olive

Embossing Folders – Stripe, Quatrefoil

Pearl paint (NLA unfortunately)

Cricut Cartridge – Art Philosophy

Punch – Chevron border punch

This stamp set is only available until the end of March so make sure you get in quick if you would like it. You can visit my website here to purchase this stamp set.

Have a good week and Happy Crafting

Patricia

CTMH Bring on Spring

On February 15, 2015February 14, 2015 By patriciamanhireIn Cardmaking, Close to My Heart, Stamping9 Comments

Welcome back

Today I would like to share with you a very quick and easy card that I have made using the A Little Note stamp set that is available for just NZ$12 through the Seasonals Expression catalogue which is available until 31 March from my website here. I know the Northern Hemisphere are going through some very cold weather at the moment and I thought this might cheer them up as they look forward to spring. Daffodils always herald the start of spring for me and they are so cheerful after the bleak days of winter.

When I first started paper crafting many years ago I started with wet embossing. I was fascinated with how the powder changed to a lovely embossed edge in no time with just a little heat. I was so thrilled to see that CTMH brought out a range of basic colour embossing ink and I love using them on all sorts of cards and embellishments.

A little trick with embossing is to use a stamping buddy or a pad made from cornstarch or something similar. This helps stop stray strands of embossing powder ruin your work and also helps the embossing powder stick to the versamark inked image.

For this card I have made a base card by cutting a piece of White Daisy cardstock 8″ x 4″ to make a 4″ square card. I cut a piece of White Daisy cardstock 3″ x 3 1/4″ and after using my stamping buddy I have stamped the image with Versamark ink and then sprinkled the Ranger gold embossing powder generously over it. After shaking the excess powder off I then used my heat gun to melt the powder to give the lovely embossed finish.

I used my ShinHan Touch Twin markers – Marigold, Golden Yellow and Sap Green – to colour in the images. As my hands haven’t been very good lately, embossing and then colouring in was a good option for me.

I then matted the image with Pear cardstock 3 1/4″ by 3 1/2″ For the base card I have placed a strip of yellow chevron paper from the Whimsy Paper Fundamentals Papers – 1 1/2″ x 4″ and then placed two strips of Pear cardstock 1/4″ x ” on either side of it. I then embossed the sentiment below it from the same stamp set using the technique outlined above.

Before placing the stamped image on the base card I placed piece of Topiary Chevron Ribbon to tie the image together and add some dimension.

Materials used:

Cardstock – White Daisy, Pear

Paper – Whimsy Paper Fundamentals

Stamp set – A Little Note

Ink – Versamark

Embossing Powder – Gold

ShinHan Touch Twin Markers – Marigold, Golden Yellow, Sap Green

Topiary Chevron Ribbon

These cards and others are available for sale at my shop Gift Hutt. I will be moving shop to a larger shop at the end of this month and will be looking at starting to do some workshops and classes from next month.

Happy Crafting

Patricia

Box Envelope Card Tutorial

On February 14, 2015February 14, 2015 By patriciamanhireIn Cardmaking, Close to My Heart, Crafts4 Comments

Welcome

As promised here is the tutorial for the box envelope for an embellished card and here is the template that I have created for future use.

Cut one piece of cardstock at 12″ x 9″

Using a score board or your trimmer and embossing tool score down the long sides at 2 1/2 “, 3 14″, 8″ and 8 3/4″

Score down the short sides 3/4″, 1 1/2″, 7 1/2″ and 8 1/4”

Trim off the excess following the above template.

Use a corner cutter clip the long flap edges (or on the longer side I have used a fancy edge punch to finish the edge off).

Here is the box folded and ready to put together. I have used liquid glue to create a stronger bond.

Here is the box ready to put the card in.

I have then used the small hook and loop dots that are available from CTMH here to close the envelope.

I hope that you find this tutorial useful.

Happy Crafting

Patricia

CTMH Valentines Day

On February 9, 2015 By patriciamanhireIn Cardmaking, Close to My Heart, Stamping2 Comments

Welcome

I apologise for being a little late this week but it has been a very busy week. I am aware that I have not done a tutorial on making the box envelope and I will do that as soon as I can.

This week I have a couple of cards using the lovely Amour stamp set and Heartstrings papers that is only available until 31 March through the Seasonal Expressions catalogue. These go so well together and would be suitable for both a Valentines Day card and also a wedding card.

For this card I have cut a piece of cardstock at 4″ x 8″ to create a 4″ x 4″ card for something completely different. I stamped the background script stamp with Bamboo ink on Colonial White cardstock and then stamped the Eiffel Tower and Armour stamps in Slate ink over the top. The lovely silhouette stamp was stamped with Black ink. I love how the inks do not smudge and I can used the stamped cardstock straight away. The stamped card has been matted with the red paper from the Heartstrings paper pack and then matted again with Black cardstock.

For this card I have made the card look like a postcard as the stamps fit that so well. As before I have used the script stamp to create the background in Bamboo ink on Colonial White cardstock. I have used a mix of different stamp to create the postcard and this time they have all been stamped with Slate ink. The background is made from the red Heartstrings paper and Hollyhock cardstock embossed with the Damask embossing folder. I have added a trim of Black cardstock. The sentiment is stamped in Black ink on Colonial White cardstock and then matted on a mix of Hollyhock and Black cardstock. The hearts are from the January SOTM This Moment stamp set and I have stamped them in Hollyhock ink on Colonial White cardstock and then fussy cut them out and placed them on the card.

The Heartstrings paper packet and Armour stamp set are only available until the end of March when the Seasonal Expression catalogue is retired. All these products (except for the This Moment stamp set) are available from my website here.

Materials used:

Cardstock – Colonial White, Black, Hollyhock

Paper – Heartstrings

Stamps – Armour, This Moment (NLA)

Inks – Bamboo, Black, Hollyhock, Slate

Embossing folder – Damask

Have a good week and Happy Crafting

Patricia

Australasian SOTM Blog Hop – A Happy Hello

On February 1, 2015January 25, 2015 By patriciamanhireIn Cardmaking, Close to My Heart, CTMH SOTM, Stamping33 Comments

Hello and welcome aboard our Stamp of the Month Australasian Close to My Heart Blog Hop. If you have arrived here from Mandy’s Blog, Hall of Indulgence, 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 some cards which features February SOTM – A Happy Hello which is available exclusively throughout February for NZ$33 or for just NZ$5 when you spend NZ$75. This stamp set is very versatile and you can mix and match the flower shapes together to make a lot of different flowers and shapes that would look great on cards and also to embellish scrapbook layouts.

As I said in my last post I have had a lot of fun making my own background papers and decided to use the backgrounds for this gorgeous stamp set. For further information on how I have achieved this background please visit here.

For this card I have used the pattern from Make It From Your Heart Volume 2 pattern 28 and turned it around on the side. I have used the Triangle Border Punch to cut the Cotton Candy cardstock and backed it with Canary cardstock with the Brushed diamond patterned paper helped to pull the two strong colours together. I have mixed and matched the shapes using the 1 1/4″ circle punch (in the while supplies last category) for the round shapes and fussy cut out the top pattern and the large flower on the bottom and used the thin foam tape for some dimension. The gold sequins finished off the flowers nicely. The sentiment is from the Artfully Sent Just a Note stamp set.

For this card I have used the ink and pearl paint background technique using Flaxen ink and I then stamped the stem with Desert Sand ink to show up. I have kept to a simple colour scheme with the rest of the cards – Flaxen and Canary on Colonial White cardstock. I found this to be quite a restful combination. For this particular car I have fussy cut all the images and layered them to create some flowers. The bow is left over from the Ariana complements and just fitted perfectly with this card. I have again used gold sequins for the centre of the flowers. The sentiment is from the Artfully Sent Just a Note stamp set. I used a small sentiment so as not to take away the attention from the flower.

I just had to use the large half circle stamp and here I have used it as a border and placed a flower in the centre of the middle shape. I love the tinge of Pixie ink on the top of the background paper and used a piece of Pixie cardstock to balance the colour scheme. You can see the slight pearlescent sheen on the background and to me the card resembles a lovely old fashioned brocade blind with a trim. I have finished the card with the sentiment from the A Happy Hello stamp set and some Glitter Gems.

For this card I have used another piece of Flaxen background paper and stamped the leaves as a background for the flower in Flaxen ink. For the base of the card I have edged a piece of Flaxen cardstock using the Chevron border punch and then embossed the bottom of the cardstock with the stripe embossing folder. There is a slit in the middle of the embossing folder to make it so much easier to partially embossing cardstock. Can you see a small piece of green patterned paper from the Hopscotch papers behind the punched border? I have fussy cut out the large flower and then using the 1 1/4″ circle punch I stamped the middle of the flower with the stitch stamp and flower stamp.

Finally for this card I used the Flaxen colour paper from the Whimsy Paper Fundamentals Paper Pack – this has two sides to the paper with one side being tone on tone and the other side being a pattern. Again I have used the same embossing and punching technique for the Flaxen cardstock and it looks great over the patterned paper and looks a little like a balustrade so I did some random patterns to create the effect of flowers in the front. The frame for the sentiment is from the Frame Flair stamp set and the sentiment is from Sincere Expressions. The butterfly is from the Your Own Kind of Wonderful. I have stamped the base of the butterfly with Canary ink and then using Flaxen ink I have used the outline butterfly stamp over the base. I fussy cut out the butterfly and then added some liquid glass to make it stand out.

The Happy Hello stamp is only available until 28 February from your CTMH consultant here. I’d love you to leave a comment before heading off to the next stop, the very talented Shaunna’s Blog Passionate about Pages

Materials used:

Cardstock – White Daisy, Colonial White, Flaxen, Pixie, Canary

Papers – Whimsy Fundamentals, Hopscotch, Brushed

Inks – Flaxen, Pixie, Canary, Desert Sand

Stamps – A Happy Hello. Artfully Sent Just a Note, Sincere Expressions, Frame Flair, Your Own Kind of Wonderful

Punches – 1 1/4″ and 1″ circle punches, Chevron border punch, Triangle Border Punch

Embossing Folder – Stripe

Gold sequins

Glitter gems

Cricut Cartridge – Art Philosophy

Thin foam tape

Pearl Paint (NLA)

Happy Crafting

Patricia

CTMH Wedding Cards

On January 25, 2015January 26, 2015 By patriciamanhireIn Cardmaking, Close to My Heart, Stamping12 Comments

Welcome to my new followers and I hope that you enjoy all my creative endeavours and that you are inspired to stretch and challenge yourself to create your own artwork.

Today I would like to feature some wedding cards that have been inspired by Pinterest but I have given them my own twist. I loved this card design and was determined to make one but I couldn’t find a subtle enough background paper and then I remembered a blog post Make It From Your Heart – the CTMH blog, on how to do backgrounds with ink and using the all purpose mat creating a wonderful one of a kind paper. You can see the step by step instructions here. However, I have taken it one step further and used some pearl paint to create a lovely pearlescent finish and I was so pleased with the result that I did quite a number of colours and mixtures and you will see the results over the next few weeks. I have put a little blob of paint in the small spray bottles available from my website and sprayed the paint on top of the ink to make it bubble and then placed the paper over the ink.

Here are some that I have done with Pixie and Flaxen inks. The colours do not really come up well in the photo but looked beautiful with the mix of the lovely pink and the flaxen came up looking like antique gold.

Here is a photo that shows the shine in the card.

The card did not take long to dry and I did use a heavy book to flatten the card ready to make some cards.

Anyway here is the first card I have made using just Glacier ink. I have always loved this pattern when I first saw it on Pinterest and as I said I didn’t feel that the papers I had were suitable for what I was trying to achieve in a ‘bathroom’ I was rapt at how the Glacier colours looked like marble with the pearlescent finish and the white shimmer trim finished it off perfectly along with the silver embossing of the tag from the Cricut Artfully Sent Curlicue stamp set. This card was really quick and easy to make once everything had been assembled. I also used some Opaques – licorice which is no longer available.

This inspired me to move on with a different pattern from Pinterest – this time using embossing folders to make wedding cake cards. The Pixie and Flaxen background cardstock made a wonderful backdrop to the wedding cake and I have mixed up the cards with a combination of Pixie and White Daisy cardstock and silver accents with clear sparkles to highlight the flowers. The flowers have been cut using the Art Philosophy Cricut cartridge and I have shaped them a little before putting them on the card. The rose has been made using the same technique as my last blog post here. The sentiments for the cards as well as the bridal couple and wedding bells are from The Happy Couple wedding stamp set. I have used the versamark pad and silver embossing powder to stamp them and fussy cut out the shapes. The ribbon is the Seam Binding Ribbon which is no longer available.

This lace border has been cut using a Martha Stewart punch – my only non-CTMH tool that I have used as that lace border fitted in well with the theme.

For the card with a flower on it I have made a box envelope to hold the card in so it won’t get so squashed. If you are interested in the dimensions please let me know and I will put up a post with the instructions in the next few days.

Materials used:

Cardstock – Glacier, White Cardstock, Pixie

Stamps – Artfully Sent Curlicue Frames, The Happy Couple

Inks – Versamark, Pixie, Flaxen, Glacier

Seam ribbon

White Shimmer Trim

Clear bitty sparkles

Silver embossing powder

Embossing folders – Quatrefoil, Dots and Scallop (new)

Seam Binding Ribbon (NLA)

Opaques – Licorice (NLA)

I will be showcasing more of this background technique for my next blog post, which is a blog hop featuring the February SOTM set which is the lovely and versatile stamp set A Happy Hello.

Have a good week and Happy Crafting

Patricia

CTMH Shabby Chic

On January 18, 2015January 19, 2015 By patriciamanhireIn Close to My Heart, Cricut, Stamping10 Comments

Welcome

Many thanks for all the visits and lovely comments for my cards on the blog hop.

Today I will be showing you how I made the roses on the lovely trinket box that I showed a couple of posts ago.

I love rolling roses but I have also seen some other amazing roses on Pinterest and You Tube and thought I would have a look in the CTMH Cricut cartridges and see what I can find to match some of the punches that have been used. I needed a flower with 5 petals and I found the perfect shape on page 54 of the Artiste cartridge booklet – Accent 3>shift key. This one was good as it had a jagged edge to make it easier to make a shabby chic rose. I cut out two different sizes – 2″ and 2 1/2″ in Colonial White cardstock.

I then stamped the flowers with the script stamp from the Armour stamp set in Bamboo ink and then sponged in the middle with the Bamboo ink back and front.

I then sponged the edge with Blush ink back and front.

A couple of years ago I was very fortunate to win a Sizzix Susan’s Garden tool kit in an online challenge and it is now coming in very useful to help shape flowers. I watched a few videos on the Sizzix website to learn how to use all the tools properly and put them to the test with these flowers. I used the petal shaping tool to shape the flowers and the large ball embossing tool in the centre to create the cupcake shape.

I cut down a little to the centre of the flowers on three of the flowers to make it easier to create the centre of the flower.

Unfortunately, I don’t have photos of putting the flowers together and I am not comfortable doing a video but there are a number of videos on You Tube that will show you how to put these flowers together – this is one of the many I watched here. I used a hot glue gun to put the flowers together so please excuse the strands of glue. I have tried using liquid glass but it is not as good to glue quickly.

I glued two opposite petals together and then glued the other petals around the centre to create the bud of the flower.

I then glued the next layer onto the base and overlapped the petals by gluing at the base of each petal.

I did the same with the third layer of petals.

And the fourth layer.

And the fifth layer. Once all the layers were together I then used my tweezers to roll the outer petals out to create the finished rose.

Here are some of the completed roses. I am really happy how they turned out and they are all so different. It was interesting how the script stamp ended up looking like veins in the petals and the colours worked really well together.

Now that I had my roses I had purchased a couple of the trinket boxes in the while supplies last section on my website. I love the Flaxen cardstock and it matched really well with the Bamboo and Blush colours I had used. I covered the box with Flaxen cardstock and then I again used the script stamp on Colonial White cardstock with Bamboo ink and then sponged the edges with the ink. I then cut the flourish from Art Philosophy on page 58 Font Layer in Bamboo cardstock using Cricut Craft Room to get the correct size that I wanted. I then sponged with a mixture of Bamboo, Flaxen and Desert Sand ink which came up like an antique gold colour. This was then placed on the corner of the box.

I cut the shape for the sentiment from the Artfully Sent Curlicue frames set and then stamped the frame with Bamboo ink and sponged the edge with Bamboo ink. The sentiment is from the A Thing Well Done stamp set and I stamped that with Desert Sand ink.

The leaves have been cut out of Olive cardstock and I have used the leaf shaping tool to make the veins and then shaped the leaves for dimension and I then sponged the edges with New England Ivy.

I worked out where I could put the pearl flourish (unfortunately, no longer available) and then placed it on the box. I then glued one large and two small roses in a triangle over the the flourish and pearl flourish. I spent time placing the leaves in a pleasing manner and then finished off with the lovely rosette ribbon that is also no longer available. (I am trying to work through some of my stash). I placed three single ribbon roses around the base of the roses to add to the Shabby Chic look.

Around the base of the box I did the same with Flaxen cardstock and the script cardstock. I then cut two flourishes form page 50 of the Art Philosophy Cricut cartridge using the mirror image in Cricut Craft Room and using the same technique that was used on the flourish on the top I then antiqued them and glued them to the front. And voila a Shabby Chic box.

Materials used:

Cardstock – Flaxen, Bamboo, White Colonial, Olive

Ink – Bamboo, New England Ivy, Desert Sand, Flaxen, Blush

Stamps – Armour, Curlicue Frames from Artfully Sent Cricut Cartridge, A Thing Well Done

Cricut Cartridges – Artfully Sent, Artiste, Art Philosophy

Pearl Flourish – NLA

Ribbon Rosette – NLA

I enjoyed making this and hope that you find the instructions easy to find.

Have a good week.

Happy Crafting

Patricia

You’re the Bomb Operation Smile Blog Hop

On January 16, 2015January 15, 2015 By patriciamanhireIn Cardmaking, Close to My Heart21 Comments

Hello and welcome aboard our You’re the Bomb Australasian Close to My Heart Blog Hop. 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.

Operation Smile is a private, not for profit organisation providing reconstructive surgery to children and young adults born in developing countries. Close To My Heart is partnered with Operation Smile^®, an organization that provides free, life-changing surgery that repairs smiles and reshapes lives, one child at a time. Since 2008, Close To My Heart has provided support to change the lives of over 1,500 children and their families. For more information about Operation Smile please visit www.operationsmile.org

On 1^st December Close to My Heart Consultants released our Seasonal Expressions Idea Book. On the back page of this Idea book you will find the C- sized, You’re the bomb stamp set. By purchasing this set at full retail price of $25 you can help change the life of a child as CTMH will donate $US3 from your purchase to Operation smile. This special is available until the 31 March so be in quick to get this stamp set and make your donation to this very worthy cause.

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

The blog hop is a loop with about 11 participants so follow along and you will end up right back here. If you get lost there is a list of participants on Mandy’s Blog here.

I would like to share with you some cards that I have made with this stamp set. I struggled with some inspiration so looked at the Seasonal Expressions Idea Book to get started.

I love the simplicity of the card that is used for the book and took that and changed it a little with different papers and embellishments. I have used Heartstrings and Hopscotch papers and mixed them up as well as using different coloured inks to stamp. The hearts are from the This Moment stamp set and I have used a combination of stamping and fussy cutting as well as first and generation stamping. Sometimes less is more and I would like to thank the CTMH art department for the inspiration.

Then I was able to stretch out with the Hopscotch paper and use different embellishments. I love the look of faux stitching on the sentiment and how it makes it stand out more. I used the Marvy Uchida LePen Journalling pen that is available from CTMH. It has a lovely fine nib and lasts a long time. I don’t normally cut the corners on my cards but this card worked really well with this finish.

This card has been inspired by the card in the Seasonal Expressions Idea Book and I have changed it to fit the You’re the Bomb stamp set and added the new Extra Thick Pixie Twine. I have also used the new thinner foam tape to add some dimension with the sentiments.

Thanks for joining me on this journey, the “You’re the Bomb” stamp set is available from your CTMH consultant here and $3USD from every purchase will go directly to Operation Smile.
To continue your journey, hop over to see what Mandy has created on her blog, Hall of Indulgence and see what fabulous ideas she has come up with.

Materials used:

Cardstock – White Daisy, Colonial White, Cotton Candy, Glacier, Flaxen, Ruby

Paper – Heartstrings, Hopscotch

Stamps – You’re the Bomb, This Moment

Inks – Glacier, Sorbet, Flaxen, Ruby, Lagoon

Extra Thick Twine – Pixie

Gold Sequins

Flamingo Dots

Marvy Uchida LePen Journalling pen

Happy Crafting

Patricia

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Patricia's Creative Corner

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