Sneak Peek of almost-finished Designs...

I did it! I put all the cards together except for ... embellishments. So you're just going to have to come and RSVP for the workshop to see the finished designs!

Used in this set of cards:
* Embossing folders
* Shinhan Touch Markers
* Cricut carts - Art Philosophy, Artiste and Artfully Sent

Date: Nov 22, 2015
Place: My house - contact me for address/directions
Time: Anytime after 1:00 PM.

I will need to put the order out soon to make our Nov 22nd workshop deadline, so please let me know ASAP if you are attending and how many you would like to make. Without further ado...

Card #1

Card #2

Card #3

Card #4 

Card #5

Card #6

I look forward to seeing you all at the Christmas Card workshop! Hope you are staying warm this chilly day.

Halloween 2013...

I always love creating for my office!! This is an old photo that never got posted - I made up these little boxes and also decided I'd do something different than the chocolate and candy floating ALL over the place. So I made spiced nuts as well.

I started with a basic container, and then just fiddled until I got something I wanted.

I filled them by buying freezer bags, spooned some spiced nuts (an almond and walnut mix) into them and tied them off with some orange ribbon I had laying around. Tags were cut with Art Philosophy and I used scissors to cut out the little counts and ghosties.

Other:
* Patterned Cardstock
* Ribbon

CTMH:
* Art Philosophy CTMH Cartridge
* Artiste CTMH Cartridge
* Creepy Creatures
* Magic Potions
* White Daisy Ink
* Outdoor Ink

Still hoping for this snow to finally go away,

Two Year Work Anniversary

My boss made it to his two year anniversary on Thursday last week. My coworkers were talking about buying a card until they remembered the work that I do and I volunteered my card making skills.

Today's inspiration is from Case Study #117 : Maureen Merrit

I always find boy cards a challenge because a lot of the images I have are more female centered than male centered. However, by using boy-colors: blue and brown it helped to give it a more boy-type feel.

My favorite technique is to bring the colors and images to the inside of the card to tie it all together.

Other:
* Solid cardstock

CTMH:
* Dreamin' Level 2 Paper Pack
* Blue & Green Adhesive Rhinestones
* Silver embossing powder
* Hello Blooms
* Jardin
* Scrapbook Statements - Poets
* Card Word Puzzle
* Artiste Cricut Cartridge
* Cocoa Ink
* Outdoor Denim Ink

Happy Scrapbooking Month!

As you know this month is when I start to think about switching my winter performance tires out for summers - just in time for Mother Nature to dump more snow on us. I'm not sure it's a good idea but I guess it has to be done sooner rather than later.

As well it is National Scrapbooking Month! This brings of course a new SOTM as well as a super awesome promotion and I'm really stoked about both of them.

This month, spend $35 to receive this beautiful paper packet for only $10 more. Each sheet has a unique glossy resist pattern that's sure to add that extra "oomph" to all your projects. The papers are designed for this packet only! Promotion valid from April 1 - 30th.

If you have been paging through the catalog you'll notice that this month's SOTM has some funky red lines around several images.

That is because each shape with a red line around it means there is a corresponding image on one of CTMH's exclusive Cricut cartridges. In this case, all the shapes come out of Artiste, but I definetly love Artiste and Art Philosophy. 

Hoping for the snow to permanently go away,

There's nothin like

... hearing about new arrivals in the springtime. :)

Especially if they are your friends that you just saw last year that happened to not spring the news until you were visiting them in Copenhagen ... makes it super exciting when you know their baby is arriving just in time for Spring.

I don't quite remember the inspiration for this one, but they are expecting a baby girl - so the theme is all pink.

I popped up the wings of the butterflies with some foam tape. Originally there was a bowtie on top (and this might have been something from Random Acts of Creativity) but the ribbon I had would have dwarfed all the pieces to this card. So I stamped and cut out the ribbon from flair and added a pearl center. The sentiment is from Paper Lantern.

I always want to bring the theme to inside the card. I know I have said this many times, and I'll say it again - I love how there's always two patterns to both sides of CTMH cardstock. So I flipped over the pink side to reveal a colorful border for the inside of my card, and added some cute bumblebees.


With Feburary comes a new stamp of the month - Home Sweet Home! It's a beautiful set to add to any layouts that evoke memories of Home, or dress up that card for your friend's new home that they have just moved into. This set can be yours for only 5$ with a 50$ minimum purchase.

And finally, this month's Campaign is focused on Studio J. You can purchase any Studio J layout for only 5$ (which is a savings of 1.95$ per layout!) Or even better, there are new Express Collections in Studio J which are 10 ready-made layouts for you to use plus a front and back cover that look professionally designed.

It's a great time to try Studio J if you haven't already! Contact me if you have any questions.


Other:
* Solid cardstock

CTMH:
* Stella Level 2 Paper Pack (retired)
* Flutter Shapes
* Red/Pink Adhesive Gems
* Baby Love (retired)
* Flair
* Paper Lantern
* Opaque Adhesive Pearls

Feburary is warm so far and I hope it stays that way!

Chocolate, Cricut, and 10 minute cards...

This year for some reason has been doubly stressful and more jam-packed than last year.  What I did not mention in previous posts is that I lost my job in late August which led to a new job and a new team. As I always enjoy doing, I make little chocolate packages accompanied with Christmas cards.

This is cut using the latest CTMH Cricut cartridge, Artiste. The neat thing about this cartridge is that due to all the 3-D options available on that cartridge, it comes with a how-to-assemble manual for all the 3-D options. The two snowflakes too are from the same cartridge. Learning my lessons from last year I broke out my trusty glue gun and everything stayed put.

A trick for those of you with unsightly glue-gun "strings" after your project is done - give it a few once-overs with your embossing heat tool and they will disappear.

After I was done this I was so exhausted but you just have to pair these with a little Christmas Card.

You'll have to pardon the yellow lighting, as these photos were taken late at night. I was cruising through a card store one day and noticed some cards had a second piece on them and one image. Taking that for inspiration I simply cut these little bases: 3x3, and then picked one color and finished all 7 cards in 1/2 hour. That's a new record!

The best part is that they were the perfect companion to my much fancier chocolate boxes stuffed with Ferrero Rocher.

My Stash:
* Solid color cardstock
* Ribbon
* Foam tape

CTMH:
* Wonderland Level 2 Paper Packet (retired)
* Pear and Partridge Level 2 Paper Packet
* Barn Red Ink
* Ponderosa Pine Ink
* Itty Bitty Sparkles
* Blue and Green Adhesive Gems

Thank you all once again for being such avid readers. Merry Christmas!!

P.S... I couldn't help but add the project (my triangles) to H2H's first challenge in 2013 :) 

Cricut Snowflakes

When I was cutting out snowflakes for my workshop, I noticed that there were several other snowflake shapes that are available in the Art Philosophy cartridge. I couldn't resist using them for this latest Christmas card.

Today's inspiration: http://tenealewilliams.com.au/2012/11/case-study-116/

I added two little star brads for the middle of two of the snowflakes, and finished it off with a little blue rhinestone in the middle of the third snowflake.

I thought I'd use the sentiment from October's stamp of the month which is a perfect partner to the snowflakes from the Snowflakes set. I also distressed the edges of the cardstock on both front and back with Indian Corn Blue Ink.

My Stash:
* Dark Green cardstock - Spice Market
* Background white paper (CM)
* Star brads

CTMH:
* Art Philosophy Cricut Cartridge
* Very Merry Christmas - Oct 2012 SOTM
* Artiste Birthday set
* Blue Adhesive Rhinestones
* Snowflakes
* Indian Corn Blue Ink
* Sky Ink

I'm less than a week away from the second workshop and cannot wait!

Pumpkins...

I've had this set for a while and wanted to do something with it. It's a friend's birthday coming up this Friday at my favorite pasta place on 17th Ave, and I needed a card to go with a box of chocolate and a donation to the Calgary Distress Center, where he moonlights by day.

I saw this as an original inspiration and couldn't have deviated further from it, but it was a good starting point: http://tenealewilliams.com.au/2012/11/case-study-116/. Guess a girl's gotta start somewhere.

On the other hand, there is another card coming, from the same inspiration that is a lot closer and is so simple that it's elegant. At least, to me anyway. The patterned paper is something I picked up at a dollar store sometime ago, and it's gold on yellow.

The sentiment is from one of the stamp sets that came with the three D-size sets that are in the Artiste package - and the perfect one for my friend. I brought the leaves into the corners to tie the whole card together. I look forward to seeing him as we have been best friends for 10 years, and there's just something about how big his heart is - that he's always helping other people.

My Stash:
* Yellow patterned paper on front
* Solid cardstock
* Orange ribbon

CTMH:
* So Grateful
* Cocoa Ink
* Topiary Ink
* Honey Ink

Can't wait for the next chinook around the corner,

It's going around...

... must be flu season. My only participant for last Saturday phoned and said she had the flu, so that got cancelled. I'll see what happens about her choosing another date to cardmake or if she'll join the other ladies at the end of Nov.

 

However, I was semi-productive and was able to make gifts for all my workshop participants last weekend. I took the new Artiste cartridge for a whirl and it's got so many fun things in it! It did unfortunately cut one of my shapes off center, so I decided to update the firmware for my E2.

I made little bags which contain a little something for each of them coming by!

I'm hoping that everyone is hale and healthy for my November workshop and for all of you - stay safe this Halloween!

Trick or Treat,