A Taste of Summer in Autumn

On May 24, 2015 By patriciamanhireIn Cardmaking, Close to My Heart, Cricut, Scrapbooking, Stamping2 Comments

Welcome back

This week I will be featuring a layout that I have done with the gorgeous bright and vibrant papers A Taste of Summer that are part of the National Scrapbooking Month from CTMH. We are just going into autumn in New Zealand and these papers are a lovely reminder that spring and summer are just a few months away.

At the last minute CTMH added a stamp set to match which has added to the fun.

Here is a layout that I have done for my workshop that will be at Gift Hutt on Sunday 31 May.

For this clean and fresh layout I have used pattern 11 from the Make It From Your Heart Volume 1 book. I love how the Thistle and yellow Canary works so well together and the lemons go so well with all the colours. The lemons have been stamped with Canary ink and then rolled around the edges with Sweet Leaf ink. The leaves have been cut from the Art Philosophy cartridge in New England Ivy cardstock and I have crumpled them a little to make them look like leaves from a lemon tree. The title has been cut from the Artbooking cartridge in Canary and shaded with Slate cardstock. I have used strips of Paper Fundamentals thistle coloured paper to anchor the two pages together. I love the journalling stamp from the Artbooking cartridge and have added it here to balance the layout.

Materials used:

Cardstock – White Daisy, Thistle, Canary, Slate, New England Ivy

Papers – A Taste of Summer, Paper Fundamentals

Stamps – A Taste of Summer

Inks – Canary, Thistle, Black, Sweet Leaf, New England Ivy

Cricut Cartridges – Artbooking, Art Philosophy

Topiary Ribbon

We will also be doing three cards and I have had a request to teach how to do the Bokeh technique which is very popular with the CTMH consultants at the moment. This technique replicates the background created in photography when focusing on an object. It is easy to do and the hardest part is working out which colours to use. There are lots of tutorials on YouTube on how to do this technique.

This card has been made using Flaxen, Sweet Leaf, Bamboo and White Daisy inks on the background and I have used the retired A Happy Hello stamp set as well as the Artfully Sent Just to Say stamp set for the flower and the sentiment.

For this card I have used Pixie, Thistle and Gyspsy inks with White Daisy pigment ink for the background. The heart comes from the Hostess stamp set Paper Bird and I have used the rock and roll technique with Thistle and Gypsy inks.

For the last card for the workshop I have used Flaxen and Lagoon inks with White Daisy pigment ink. The bird is from the Paper Bird stamp set and I have again used the rock and roll technique for the bird using Flaxen and Lagoon inks.

Here is another card that I have done using the same colours as the first card. This time I have stamped the flowers from the Happy Autumn stamp set in Desert Sand ink onto the background and then trimmed the cards to make the three panels from the Make It From Your Heart Volume 2 book pattern 28. I have backed the panels with Sweet Leaf cardstock and used the Flaxen coloured paper from the Paper Fundamentals for the trim across the card. The tags are stamped in Flaxen ink using the Holiday Tags and Perfect Fit – Frames 2 stamp sets. I have finished off with a Flaxen coloured butterfly from the Junebug Puffies which is still available on the While Supplies Last tab.

Materials used:

Cardstock – White Daisy, Thistle, Gypsy, Sweet Leaf,

Paper – Paper Fundamentals

Inks – Desert Sand, Glacier, Lagoon, Pixie, Thistle, Gypsy, Flaxen, Sweet Leaf, Bamboo, White Daisy pigment ink.

Stamps – A Happy Hello (NLA), Holiday Tags, Perfect Fit – Frames 2, Artfully Sent Just to Say, Happy Autumn, Paper Bird

Thistle Ribbon

Junebug Puffies

Cricut Cartridge – Art Philosophy

All these products are available on my website here.

The workshop will be held at Gift Hutt, 136 High Street, Lower Hutt on Sunday 31 March at 10 am to 4 pm.

Have a good week and Happy Crafting

Patricia

Feeling the Love with CTMH

On May 17, 2015 By patriciamanhireIn Cardmaking, Close to My Heart, Stamping10 Comments

Welcome

I have run out of wedding anniversary cards at Gift Hutt and had some fun today making some more – plus I got carried away and made a couple of wedding cards. I am really starting to get into the Artfully Sent Cricut cartridge and doing more with it.

This first card has been cut at 7″ (although I had to resize it a little on Cricut Craft Room) using the gorgeous Blossom papers using the sentiment key on page 35. I just can’t get enough of this paper and the matching stamp set Shower Flowers and had some fun stamping and cutting flowers out to put on the card. I have finished the card with some clear sparkles and a couple of little butterflies from the Junebug Puffies which are still available under while supplies last.

These cards are so easy to make and this one is based on a pattern from CTMH Head Office and I have changed it to an anniversary card and added some aqua dots. The card has been cut from the Blossom floral B&T papers at 4 1/2″ Shift+sentiment <w> (pg 12).

I still have some remnants of the lovely Skylark papers and this corner of the paper was perfect for an anniversary card. I just added some extra ribbons with Glacier cardstock and a strip of Teal shimmer trim and some aqua dots.

This card was made using a cut from the the Art Philosophy cartridge which I resized in CCR to fit the base card. I then used the Hide/Contour function to just cut out the oval in White Daisy cardstock for the centre. I stamped the sentiment first and then embossed with the Dots embossing folder. To finish off I have used some of the Blossom complements flowers and a a little Junebug Puffy butterfly.

This card has been made using a pocket card cut from the Artfully Sent cartridge. I have cut this card using the CCR to size to fit the 4 1/4″ x 5 1/2″ card out of Pixie cardstock and then placed it over the heart papers from the Whimsy Fundamental papers. It fitted perfectly. I used a pre-cut heart (sorry I can’t remember the size but I think it might have been 2″) and stamped the lovely heart stamp from the Hostess stamp set Paper Bird. I added the sentiment from the Artfully Sent Just to Say stamp set in Black ink. To finish I added a Pixie extra thick twine bow. I have found using glue dots very effective in adhering the twine onto the cards. Much quicker and easier than using liquid glass.

Finally I did my first pop up card from page 35 and was very happy with the outcome. I cut the base card at 7″ in Glacier cardstock after making some minor adjustments in CCR. I am finding I use CCR all the time to do my die cutting as it is easy to size and layer my cuts. The ‘pop up’ has been cut from the blue base paper from the B&T papers. I then cut the icons from Lagoon cardstock and added them to the card. The sentiment, Mr & Mrs, on the front has been cut from the Artiste cartridge page 61. I have stamped the sentiment from the Happy Couple stamp set on a cut from the Art Philosophy cartridge (page 25) that I had cut a while ago and I can’t remember the size sorry.

Here is the inside of the card.

Materials used:

Cardstock – Glacier, Lagoon, White Daisy, Pixie, Colonial White

Paper – Skylark (NLA), Blossom, Whimsy Paper Fundamentals

Stamps – Shower Flower, Happy Couple, Paper Bird, Artfully Sent Just to Say

Inks – Glacier, Lagoon, Sorbet, Smoothie, Flaxen, Black Pear,

Cricut Cartridges – Artfully Sent, Artiste, Art Philosophy

Embossing folder – Dots

Pink Extra Thick Twine

Teal Shimmer Trim

All products I have used (except for Skylark papers) are available for sale from my website here, or just click on any of the highlighted words above.

All these cards will be available for sale from Gift Hutt and the website is now up and running, although I still have lots of photos to upload.

Have a good week and Happy Crafting

Patricia

CTMH Hostess Rewards – Paper Bird

On May 3, 2015 By patriciamanhireIn Cardmaking, Close to My Heart, Stamping6 Comments

Welcome back.

Yes it is that time again for another blog post and this week I have been making some cards with the Hostess stamp set Paper Bird. This is such a beautiful stamp set and is only $13 NZ when you book a gathering and earn some credits.

I have made three cards that feature the different shapes available. First up are a couple of cards using the butterfly image.

For this card I have cut the card using the Artfully Sent cartridge at 5″ x 7″ on page 13. I have then lined the card with the lovely Blossom papers and then added a trim from the underside of the paper and the gorgeous zip strip and finished with a small strip of White Daisy cardstock with the sentiment smile on it.

The cage has been cut out using the icon>shift function on the same page and then I have used Cricut Craftroom to manipulate the background from the Scene>shift to fit onto the cage. I have cut the cage and bird from Kraft cardstock and the background in Flaxen cardstock. The cage has been sponged with a combination of Honey and Desert Sand inks to make it look like bronze. The bird has been sponged with Desert Sand ink. I have lightly sponged the Flaxen cardstock with Desert Sand Ink as well

The flowers have been stamped with Glacier ink on Glacier cardstock with Flaxen inked centres. The other flower has been stamped with Sorbet ink on White Daisy cardstock and I have used the new Coral Reef sequins for the centres. I have stamped the butterfly using the rock and roll technique with Smoothie and Sorbet ink and then cut it out and placed it over the flowers.

A black sparkle from the sparkles assortment black/grey gives the little bird a beady little eye.

I love the simplicity of this card. I have used the rock and roll technique using a combination of Glacier/Lagoon and Smoothie/Sorbet inks for all the butterflies. I have stamped the same colours on a piece of White Daisy cardstock and then placed the fussy cut butterflies on top. I love the Sorbet coloured paper from the Paper Fundamentals pack and used small trims on the edges for balancing the card.

For this card I have embossed a piece of Desert Sand cardstock with woodgrain embossing folder. I then distressed with a combination of Desert Sand, Bamboo and New England Ivy inks to create a more realistic wood effect. I then punched a hole with the 1 1/4″ punch and then backed the card with another piece of Desert Sand cardstock. I stamped two birds using the rock and roll technique with Bamboo and Desert Sand inks onto Colonial White cardstock and then fussy cut them out. I distressed the birds with more Desert Sand ink for some dimension. I then stamped another bird with Desert Sand ink and cut out the wing and layered it on the bird with some extra thin foam tape. One of the birds had the head trimmed and placed in the hole.

I cut the branch and leaves out using the Artbooking cartridge page 84 and again used CCR to size it to fit the card. I cut extra leaves to add to the branch. The leaves in the beak have been stamped using the leaves from the Shower Flowers stamp set with Topiary ink and the sentiment is from the Flowers for Mum stamp set again stamped in Topiary. I have not used papers from the Pathfinding pack before as I find it difficult working with browns and greens (long story!) but the lovely patterned paper fitted really well here. I think this is quite appropriate for a Mother’s Day card.

Finally I have used the heart stamp here along with the little heart stamp from the Snowhaven Cardmaking Workshop on the Go kit for a card that is more my usual style. I love using the extra thick twine and have almost gone through the Glacier colour already. The pattern is from the Make It From Your Heart Volume 2 book and is such a useful pattern to use.

Materials used:

Cardstock – White Daisy, Kraft, Flaxen, Glacier, Desert Sand, New England Ivy, Colonial White

Papers – Blossom, Pathfinding, Whimsy Paper Fundamentals

Stamps – Paper Bird, Shower Flowers, Flowers for Mum, Snowhaven WOTG Cardmaking Kit

Inks – Smoothie, Sorbet, Glacier, Lagoon, Black, Topiary, Bamboo, Desert Sand, New England Ivy

Embossing Folder – Woodgrain

Extra thick twine – Glacier

Sparkles Assortment – Black/Grey

Coral Reef Sequins

Cricut cartriges – Artbooking, Artfully Sent

The Paper Bird stamp set is only available if you are a hostess for a gathering and if you would like to get this stamp set please feel free to contact me to discuss having a gathering.

Have a good week and Happy Crafting

Patricia

Close to My Heart is More Than Just Scrapbooking

On April 13, 2015April 13, 2015 By patriciamanhireIn Close to My Heart, Crafts, Cricut, Stamping10 Comments

Welcome back

I was reading in a blog the other day that Close to My Heart (CTMH) seemed to be more about scrapbooking than anything else and I just wanted to say that CTMH is much much more than that. Close to My Heart provides a huge range of products for all your papercrafting needs, including cardmaking, 3 dimensional projects, home decor items as well as the traditional scrapbooking. I have been papercrafting for 20+ years and I have personally found the CTMH products to be superior to anything that I have used in the past. The quality is excellent and the company are great to work for. How many companies would make page protectors to fit another company’s albums! CTMH did just that to help ease the previous Creative Memories Consultants transition from CM to CTMH. Plus they have created stamp sets specifically for the Australasian market. And they have just created a new stamp set to go with a fabulous new paper pack they are releasing next month after a suggestion from a consultant.

Since I have been with CTMH my paper crafting has gone to a whole new level and I have been able to stretch and challenge myself to do a lot more projects that I would never have thought I could do. The support and inspiration from the other CTMH consultants has been amazing as well. It really has become a big international family with consultants sharing and supporting from Canada, the United States, Australia and New Zealand.

Here are the reasons why I love CTMH

Stamps – There are over 100 different stamp sets for all sorts of different occasions. CTMH stamps are clear acrylic stamps that come in a little package for easy storage. I have always preferred clear stamps as I like to see where I am stamping. However, the ones I have used previously were good for only a couple of uses and then they warped and lost their stickiness. I loved the images but couldn’t use them! Plus the prices are excellent value for money with prices ranging from $6 to $33 (NZ$). And there is also the SOTM set which is available for just $5 when you spend $75.

Papers – the papers are gorgeous and beautiful to work with. They mix and match so well and the paper packs with coordinating cardstock are excellent value for money at just NZ$18 per packet. Enough for 2 double page layouts and lots of cards. I also love the fact that they cater for masculine themes really well as those are hard to find.

Cardstock – there are 40 different colours to choose from and you can buy them in packs of single colours or in a colour range. They work well together across the colour spectrum and I like the white core as it gives other ways to add more dimension to your projects. Plus this adds to the uniformity of colour throughout the packs. and they are easy to manipulate and roll into flowers.

Inks – there are inks to match all the cardstock colours. I have found the ink pads to be lovely and juicy and give a good impression every time. And there is NO smudging unless my hands are hot and sticky. I have used other products and have got frustrated with the smudging. I am not sure how these inks would go on other cardstock as they are designed to work with the CTMH cardstock and I no longer have other products to use to see what they would be like.

WOTG and How To Books – I am more of a cardmaker than a scrapbooker and I LOVE LOVE LOVE these WOTGs and books. These are great to get me inspired when I have a creative block and they are easy for newbies to scrapbooking and cardmaking to use. My books are well-thumbed and I have used them heaps.

Embellishments – CTMH provides a range of embellishments to match the papers, stamps and cardstock. There is a selection of ribbons, bling, sequins, washi tape, bakers twine and shimmer trims. I have found over the years that it is easy to hoard a lot of different embellishments and it is good having a smaller range that works on a wide range of products. Plus there are a lot of cheap imports coming into the country and CTMH are unable to compete with them and they should compete with them. I almost exclusively use CTMH products but occasionally I will add a non-CTMH product. I really don’t need anything else.

Designer Creations and Design Creations – there are a range of boxes, bags albums and frames for you to decorate with and make great gifts for friends and families.

Cricut Cartridges – I don’t know what I would do without my Cricut cartridges. Just about every time I sit down to craft I turn my computer on and get into Cricut Craftroom to make something for my projects. I love the fact that you can size the images to fit and you are not limited to the size of a die. Plus I was always losing my dies on my desk. I was told at the start of my CTMH journey that you will only need these cartridges and they were right. I haven’t needed to really look at any of the hundreds of other cartridges that are available as I have all that I need.

There are other products available such as the Picture Your Life and Base and Bling to add more variety to your crafting. These products can be used on their own or incorporated into your other projects such as scrapbooking and cardmaking.

Here are a couple of cards and some decorated boxes using CTMH products to show how versatile they are.

These cards have been made with the new Blossom papers from the new Seasonal Expressions 2 catalogue. These were very quick and easy to make using the beautiful papers and the coordinating stamp set Shower Flowers. I have used stamped the images and then fussy cut them out to layer them to make the flowers. Isn’t that zip strip gorgeous and just finishes off the cards so well.

With this card I have stamped the leaves with Glacier ink first on the base card and then layered the flowers on top. The sentiments are from the Happy to Be Friends stamp set from the last Seasonal Expressions catalogue. This stamp set is still available for about a year before it is retired.

And just to show that CTMH is not limited to cardmaking and scrapbooking I have decorated a couple of kraft boxes from the local discount store. I have some baby clothing for sale at Gift Hutt and thought I might make some boxes to do up to make gift boxes for baby showers or for a new arrival. A lovely aqua baby cardigan had just come in and I immediately thought of the Blossom papers and they were a perfect match.

Here is the baby gift box. I have cut the lace heart from the Artiste cartridge and used the Cricut Craftroom to manipulate the size to fit the shape of the lit. I traced the lid onto a piece of paper and then cut it out with scissors to get the base shape. The bow is cut from the Artiste cartridge.

And here is the contents – including the cardigan and a very cute handcrafted soap moulded into a baby basket. I have got cards to match this at Gift Hutt and the ribbon was purchased through Gift Hutt. This gift basket would be great to keep all the little mementos that we collect when we have babies – like the first booties, tooth, hair cut etc.

With Mother’s Day coming up I have done a gift basket for filling with lots of goodies from Gift Hutt.

This time it is hexagonal and I have used the Artbooking cartridge to cut the shapes on the top and then decorated the with the flowers from the Shower Flowers stamp set over the embossed Flaxen cardstock.

The tag is from the new Tagged with Love stamp set from the new Seasons Expressions catalogue. I have cut this out from Kraft cardstock and stamped with Black and Lagoon inks.

Here is a view of the top:

As you can see there is so much more to CTMH than cardmaking and scrapbooking. Almost all the products I have used are from CTMH and can be purchased from here.

These views expressed here are my personal opinion only.

Materials used:

Cardstock – Flaxen, Glacier, White Daisy

Paper – Blossom

Stamps – Happy to Be Friends, Tagged with Love, Shower Flowers

Inks – Glacier, Black, Pear, Sorbet, Sunset, Lagoon, Flaxen

Cricut Cartridges – Art Philosophy, Artiste, Artbooking

Embossing Folder – Diamond

Extra Thick Twine – Glacier

Sequins – Coral Reef

Liquid Glass

The only products I have purchased are the kraft boxes and the blue ribbon

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

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 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

Out of the Box with CTMH and Kaisercraft.

On December 28, 2014 By patriciamanhireIn Christmas, Crafts, Cricut6 Comments

Welcome back.

I hope you all had a good Christmas. I had a lovely relaxing day and I am now getting back into crafting.

I normally use only CTMH products but the local Spotlight store had a special on Kaisercraft wood kitsets so I bought a few to have a play with. Apart from the kitset and mod podge everything else I have used in these projects is CTMH.

I love the CTMH papers and the Yuletide Carol papers are just gorgeous and I felt fitted well with this advent calendar. I have tried to create a picture of a living room with the stockings hung by the tree and the parcels waiting to be opened. I have sponged all the edges with Desert Sand ink and I love how the wood has turned into an antique gold colour. I have cut out the centre from the patterned paper and lined it up so that it would be the centre of the box. I used the red patterned paper to line the boxes (there are a number of You Tube videos that show you how) and after sponging the edges with Desert Sand ink I modpodged them all. The numbers came with the pack and I have sponged them all with Desert Sand ink and then using Liquid Glass adhered them to the front of the little boxes. The Christmas tree has been cut in 3 sizes from the Artbooking Cricut cartridge in the green paper from the Yuletide Carol paper pack, and I have adhered them with foam tape to try and create some dimension. The boxes have been made from the Artiste cartridge and I have tied them up with the metallic bakers twine. The Santa is from the Yuletide Carol Complements that I have stuck onto some White Colonial cardstock and cut out. I used tabs of Colonial White cardstock to adhere to the box. The Merry Christmas is from the Artiste cartridge.

Here is another kitset this time featuring a bird on a cage.

I have sponged the entire cage with Desert Sand ink and the edges of the bird before mod podging the sorbet coloured paper from the Seaside paper pack. The paper went really well with some paper flowers that I had purchased last year in a special bundle from CTMH. The large flower has been cut using Art Philospohy using the pattern from Cathy Derouche (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tzs8Sc-BLO4) out of Sorbet cardstock and the edges have been sponged with Sorbet ink. The paper flowers all coordinated so well with various shades of sorbet to a deep pink with different shapes. I have cut the leaves from Art Philosophy in Olive cardstock and inked with New England Ivy ink and then I have shaped then before placing them on the cage. The smaller leaves are from the paper flower packet. I have finished off with some bling with clear sparkles and the clear sparkle flourishes.

Materials used:

Cardstock – Sorbet, Colonial White, Ruby, New England Ivy, Olive

Paper – Yuletide Carol, Seaside

Yuletide Carol Complements

Inks – Sorbet, Desert Sand, New England Ivy

Cricut Cartridges, Artiste, Art Philosophy, Artbooking

Clear Sparkles

Clear Sparkles Flourishes

Liquid Glass

Foam tape

Metallic Bakers Twine

I hope that you enjoy what I have done today. Tomorrow I will be working on something for the January 2015 SOTM blog hop. So watch this space…

Have a good week and Happy Crafting.

Patricia

Great Gift Ideas from CTMH

On December 1, 2014December 1, 2014 By patriciamanhireIn Cardmaking, Close to My Heart, Cricut, Paper Crafting7 Comments

Welcome back.

I have been really busy with making lots of cards, tags and general gift items to sell at Gift Hutt. I have been seeing a lot on Facebook where people have gone to YouTube for inspiration to make boxes and general gift basket type items and I thought I would have a look through the CTMH Cricut cartridges and see what I can come up with. The Artiste cartridge came up trumps with a purse box and I could also coordinate cards and envelopes to match the edging. I was able to get 5 little cards and envelopes to fit into each purse to make a fabulous Christmas or birthday gift.

The purse, envelopes and cards are all found on page 31 of the Artiste booklet. The purse was cut at 3.6″ and just fitted onto the 12 x 12 mat. I cut one out with Pixie and the other out with Cotton Candy cardstock. I then used Cricut Craftroom to size the envelopes and cards to match – unfortunately I cannot give exact measurements as it took a bit of manipulation to get the sizes to match. I now use CCR all the time as it is easier to use the layers to check the sizes and these came out perfect on the first cut.

For the Pixie purse I have then traced the shape of the areas I wanted covered with the diamond patterned paper from the Brushed Reflections range and then cut them out and glued them onto the purse with liquid glass and trimmed any excess with sharp scissors. I have added strips of pink and the new white shimmer trim onto the front and then placed the vellum flowers from the Brushed Complements onto a piece of scrap White Daisy cardstock and then fussy cut it out and glued it onto the front with liquid glass and topped the flowers off with silver sequins. For the flap I have used the diamond patterned paper and this time change it the other way and cut a small trim of 3/4″ and then placed a strip of the white shimmer trim over it and placed it on the flap and then trimmed the ends to match the flap. I have placed a flower from the Brushed Assortment pack on the front and used one of the small hook & loop dots available from CTMH to help hold the purse together. Finally I have cut a strip of matching cardstock size 6/8″ x 10 inches and glued the edges to the inside of the purse for a small strap handle.

The Cotton Candy purse has a strip of patterned paper – 1″ wide then trimmed with Cotton Candy cardstock 3/4″ wide and then finished off with a strip of white shimmer tape and then placed along the bottom of the purse on the front and two sides. I then used the A Budding Friendship stamp set and stamped 4 of the small flowers with Cotton Candy ink and overstamped the edges with the edge stamp in Black ink. These are great little stamps as they end up looking like a watercolour and ink image and there is no need to be really fussy with the outcome. I have done the same using the small leaf stamps in Pear ink. I then arranged three flowers over the trim and coordinated the leaves around the flowers. I have used liquid glass again as I have found that over time the glue tends to melt – particularly in my warm and sunny Gift Hutt. For the flap I happened to have a spare envelope that I tore as I was getting it off the mat and it fitted perfectly on the flap and I trimmed it down to fit the flap, and I have just used the white shimmer trim as a strip to tie in with the rest of the purse. I then glued another flower and set of leaves in the centre of the trim. To finish the flowers I have place silver sequins and pink glitter gems to add a little bling.

As I said the cards and envelopes came from the same page and I have used CCR to size them. I have kept the cards simple using the Brushed papers and the stamp from the Fabulous You stamp set and

The shapes for the sentiment have been cut out using the Art Philosophy cartridge and again I have used CCR to ensure that the White Daisy shape matches with the larger patterned paper shape as I have found that cutting two shapes only 1/4″ difference will not exactly match up on all sides. To coordinate with both purses I have again made the trims from patterned paper, coordinating cardstock and white shimmer trim – can you tell how much I love this new trim! This is now available from the new Seasonal Inspirations catalague just out today.

The envelopes were very easy to assemble and I have just added a small amount of double sided tape to use when giving the card to someone.

Both these purses will be available for purchase at Gift Hutt for $15 each.

Materials used:

Cardstock – Pixie, Cotton Candy, White Daisy

Paper – Brushed B&Ts

Brushed Assortments

Brushed Complements

Stamps – Fabulous You, A Budding Friendship

Inks – Cotton Candy, Black

White Shimmer trim

Cricut Cartridges – Artiste, Art Philosophy

Happy Crafting

Patricia

More Christmas ideas from CTMH

On November 23, 2014 By patriciamanhireIn Cardmaking, Christmas, Close to My Heart6 Comments

Welcome again

Wow it is not very long now until Christmas although my North American friends have Thanksgiving coming up shortly. I am still working on Christmas ideas and I absolutely love the Yuletide Carol papers with the Victorian feel to the papers and they are so versatile for lots of different projects.

Today I will feature three different ideas for using these gorgeous papers.

First up are three cards that I have made using patterns from Make it From Your Heart Volume 2 and inspiration from the Annual Inspirations book. I have also used wet embossing to create the shiny effect on these cards. I have been making cards for 20 years now and the first technique I learnt was wet embossing and I was so thrilled to see CTMH bring back embossing powders and I have finally had the chance to use the powders that I have bought.

For this card I have embossed the baubles from the Holiday Cheer stamp set with gold powder on Ruby cardstock and then fussy cut them out. This card is similar to one that I did earlier on and I changed it a little to make it easier to cut up for classes. The bow has been cut out of the Artiste cartridge and finished with a bling gold gem.

This card has been inspired from the Annual Inspirations Book and using the pattern from MIFYH book Volume 2 pattern 28. This is such a simple card design but is so versatile and here I have used two different papers and also Ruby cardstock for the panels. I have stamped the Noel from the Noel stamp set and the sentiment is also from the same stamp set. I love the Curlicue stamp set from the Artfully Sent cartridge and now have a supply ready to go. The frame has also been embossed with gold embossing powder. The holly wreath is from the Noel stamp set and I have stamped it on scrap Colonial White cardstock and fussy cut it out to place at the top and coloured in the ribbon with the Shinhan Touch Twin Carmine marker.

This card has also been inspired by the Annual Inspirations book and the MIFYH book Volume 2 pattern 23. Very quick and easy to do but a stunning card just topped off with gold sequins.

I then made some tags using different tag shapes from the Art Philosophy Cricut Cartridge and using the Yuletide Carol papers decorated them to make little packs for sale.

I have used a number of different stamp sets – Seasons Tweetings, Yuletide Carol WOTG and Sweet Salutations.

Finally I have decorated some Kraft bags with the Yuletide Carol papers and Cricut cuts from the Art Philosophy and Artbooking cartridges. I bought the Kraft bags from my local $2 shop and I am pleased how they have turned out. It is always good to stretch myself out of my comfort zone of cards and scrapbooking. And they did not take very long to make!

For this bag I have cut the deer out of the Artbooking cartridge and put the washing tape directly onto the bag for a softer look. The bauble is from the Home for the Holidays SOTM set from October. The ‘T0 and From’ for the gift tag is from the Holiday Tags stamp set . I think this stamp set is one of my favourites because it is so versatile for lots of different projects.

This particular paper is my favourite paper – it is so whimsical and on the back is the most beautiful roses and it is hard to decide what side to choose. This time I have put the washi tape onto the same colour cardstock to create a stronger colour. I have used Ruby chevron ribbon (free from last months Ribbon special) and Slate chevron ribbon.

Materials used:

Cardstock – Ruby, New England Ivy, Cocoa, Colonial White, Cashmere

Paper – Yuletide Carol

Stamps – Home for the Holidays (NLA), Holiday Tags, Just to Say… Cricut Collection, Yuletide Carol WOTG, Curlicue Frames Cricut Collection, Seasons Tweetings, Sweet Salutations, Noel

Inks – Ruby, Versamark, New England Ivy

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

Embossing powder – gold

Washi tape – Ruby chevron, Topiary mini chevron

Ribbon – Ruby chevron, Slate chevron

Shinhan Touch Twin marker – Carmine

Gold sequins

Gold shimmer trim

Bling Gems Gold Assortments

Most of these products will be available for sale at Gift Hutt. I also have some kits available for sale for the cards. Please feel free to contact me through this blog – they can be pre stamped and just ready to put together if you would prefer.

As usual all these products (except for the Kraft bags) are available from my website here.

Happy crafting

Patricia

	Evelyn on An English Country Garden
	annie [annie] on Amazing Paper Grace Romantic S…
	Amazing Paper Grace… on An Amazing Paper Grace Rainbow…
	Glenda on Have a Wonderful Day with Rose…
	Sue Hart on Have a Wonderful Day with Rose…

Patricia's Creative Corner

Tag: Cricut

A Taste of Summer in Autumn

Like this:

Feeling the Love with CTMH

Like this:

CTMH Hostess Rewards – Paper Bird

Like this:

Close to My Heart is More Than Just Scrapbooking

Like this:

Someone Special From CTMH

Like this:

Australasian SOTM Blog Hop – A Happy Hello

Like this:

CTMH Shabby Chic

Like this:

Out of the Box with CTMH and Kaisercraft.

Like this:

Great Gift Ideas from CTMH

Like this:

More Christmas ideas from CTMH

Like this:

Share this:

Like this:

Share this:

Like this:

Share this:

Like this:

Share this:

Like this:

Share this:

Like this:

Share this:

Like this:

Share this:

Like this:

Share this:

Like this:

Share this:

Like this:

Share this:

Like this: