Ah, Which One Do I Lift?

The challenge over at Scrap & Play is to lift one of the DT's layouts!  Wow, this was hard since they are all so creative and inspirational!  I couldn't choose just one!  It's like going to a yummy dessert buffet and saying they are all there for you to see, but you can only choose one!  Yee gads!  Who can do that?

I started by finding a picture I've had "hanging in the wings" for quite some time waiting for just the right LO.  I love this picture; yes, the idea was lifted from Pinterest.  I would give credit to the original if I knew who that was!  hahaha

 I loved the reels in Kylie's LO.  I just got a new stamp set from CTMH with the Reel Life stamp.  I lifted Rachelle's LO pattern.  This was a perfect pattern to highlight the retired Lollydoodle paper.

Cuts:  Close to My Heart Artbooking- frames, reel, and tickets; Graphically Speaking- priceless tag, flower, and remember; CTMH Art Philosophy- note tag.

Paper:  CTMH Lollydoodle- retired.

Embellishments:  CTMH - Baker's Twine, Shimmer Trim, bow, and ribbon.  Stash- embroidery thread and gems.



CTMH Stamps:  Reel Life, Yuletide Carol, Take Note and Universal Background.

Background textures:  Texture paste and Pigment ink.

Thanks for stopping by today!

All CTMH from KatiesCorner.

Full of Thanks!

I'm sure many of us are thankful for so many blessings this holiday season.  I know I'm thankful I live in a country where we can celebrate in the manner we choose - whether it be secular or religious.  I'm thankful for those who defend that right for me.  It seems I turn on the news every day to see yet another sect of people attacked viciously for their beliefs.  Our country may have some issues needing resolution, but I am still thankful I'm here as I'm sure many of you are thankful you live in countries where you have similar rights.

Now, on to the card!  All cardstock/paper is CTMH.  The blue gems and button are from my stash.  I believe the folder is an Embossabilities folder.

Those gems, oh those little blue gems, are STILL left over from Katie's wedding.  They've been married a year and a half now.  I think those gems are multiplying!

The Baker's Twine is also from CTMH.  I had a question recently about how I keep the CTMH Baker's Twine stiff.  Ok an old candle is the secret!  Simply run the string over the candle and it gives it stiffness to keep the shape you intend.

Now, that mesh is from Menards; it is a drywall mesh.  I inked it over a piece of thin veneer and now it has the pattern on it.  That was set aside for another project.  The mesh is very flat and fold-able, so you can manipulate it how you like.

The leaf, half doily, and tags are from Art Philosophy.

The pattern on the Olive cardstock is made using the stamp below.  I used this stamp set for the sentiment as well.  The set is in the Pathfinding Cardmaking Workshop.  You can also find the pretty background paper along with other fun goodies in there!  I like this pattern because it incorporates so many beautiful colors!

All CTMH is from KatiesCorner!  Keep an eye out for some exciting additions coming soon to the CTMH line!  You'll be thankful you did!  ; )

This card is going off to the following challenges:

Bitten by the Bug 2:  Thanksgiving
Color My Heart:  See the pic at the right!
Fantabulous Cricut:  Give Thanks
Heart 2 Heart:  No Rules -- Yay!
Mixed Media Mojo:  Thankful
Pile it On:  Upcycle/Recycle -- Old button &  leftover drywall mesh
Sentimental Sundays:  Heartfelt Thanks


 As we begin our week of Thanksgiving and move into Advent and Christmas, I'm sure many of us reflect on our families, holidays past and dreams of those in the future.  My wish for all of you is beautiful memories that drive your crafting to a joyous level!

Pure as Snow

Yes, my friends this card is as pure as snow!  There are no dyes, perfumes or inks used in this little gift card!  Possibly it is hypoallergenic, but I'm not guaranteeing that!  ; )

Ok, this lovely little snowflake is going off to Heart 2 Heart for the NOvember challenge:  NO ink!  I think it's very safe to say there is absolutely NO ink on this card.

My Cricut cut is from Art Philosophy.  I sprayed the cut with glue and sprinkled it with glitter.  I embellished with a CTMH Clear Epoxy Bubble and adhered my finished snowflake with 3-D Tape.  The background is embossed with a swirls folder.  Oh, yeah, the CS is White Daisy!  hahahaha

Hey, they say No ink and I take it to Heart!  (Did you like that play on words?  Are you groaning at this point?)

Maybe I should be sent to my room for being so cheeky in this post!  Actually, I could use a nap today!

All these CTMH items (CS, Art Philosophy Cartridge, 3-D Tape and Epoxy Bubble) are from KatiesCorner!  In all seriousness, I really love my CTMH cartridges.  I use them more than any others!

Poster Tidings ~ Fall!

I love fall......I miss fall......I feel cheated out of fall when I look outside the past week!  I guess I just need to create fall in my craft room since we have gone right into winter.  It seems the retail industry forgets all about Thanksgiving as we start preparing for Christmas in September, but does the weather have to follow suit?  Next year will we have inches of snow and single digit readings in October and the following year September?  Yee gads!  I certainly hope Mother Nature doesn't take its cue from commercials on tv!  ;  )

Ok, I'll stop gritching about the weather and move on to "fall in my craft room" and describe the card!  I started with a piece of Crystal Blue CS.  I ran it through the embosser in the Cuttlebug folder Paisley.  I inked the raised portion with Champagne Pigment Ink.  

The patterned paper is from the CTMH Pathfinding collection.  To color my lace from my stash, I sprayed some of my homemade glimmer mist onto the CTMH All Purpose Mat and wiped it up with the lace.  (This bottle of glimmer mist is made of water, CTMH Chocolate Re-inker and CTMH Create a Shade Pearl Paint - sadly retired.)  

I cut leaves from Art Philosophy in various colors.  I inked them, curled them, and spritzed them!  I further embellished my leaf cluster with a bow made from CTMH Baker's Twine, CTMH Burlap, and a button from my jar of miscellaneous buttons!  The little blue gems are STILL left over from Katie's wedding!  I'll be using those for a long time to come!  The Bronze Shimmer Trim adds a little sparkle behind the sentiment.  

The sentiment is from Poster Tidings.  I cut off the top portion in case you're familiar with this stamp and wondering about it!  The ink colors are Crystal Blue, Topiary, and Autumn Terra Cotta.  

This card is going off to the following challenges:

Fantabulous Cricut Challenge - Use 3 embellishments & Cricut cut(s)

Sentimental Sundays - Brads, buttons and/or bows

Take Heart Ideas - Anything Goes use at least one CTMH item

Have a wonderful day.  Here's hoping you have some fall weather in the very near future where you live!

All CTMH is from Katiescorner.  Keep an eye on things over there, there are some wonderful new ideas, goodies, and deals coming!!  Yay!!

Boots for Wet Weather....and wow do we have that!

This card is oh, so appropriate for us here in the midwest!  It has snowed and been really cold, but we have a huge weather shift coming with warm weather and rain!  It's going to be a mess here!

However, this card is really a get well card for a couple who were in an accident this past weekend.  They are ok, but suffering from broken bones and lots of bruises.  So, the boots are sort of a coincidence!

 Heart 2 Heart has challenged us this "NO"vember by telling us things we cannot use!  First it was no pattern paper.  Next no stamping, then no ink and now no embellishments!  Yee gads, this is making me crazy!  I have yet to do my project with no ink.........I'm just not sure I can do that.  I LOVE inking everything!

This card has NO embellishments.  That was hard, but I did it!  I just kept thinking, 'Ooooh, maybe a button on those boots,' or 'hmm......I'd like some ribbon across there!'  Ah, but I resisted and stuck with the plan.

I used four card stocks:  Daisy White, Hollyhock, Olive, and Smokey Plum.  The latter three are the colors over at Color My Heart this week.
The card itself is cut from the newest CTMH Cricut Cartridge, Artfully Sent.  I've had it for awhile, but I haven't played with it too much.  Since I couldn't use embellishments for my entertainment, I decided to do a pop-up card!

I sized up the boots and cut two of them in white.  I stamped the large boots (on the front of the card) with the CTMH Whooo's Your Valentine stamp (retired) with 2nd generation Smokey Plum.  The "HELLO" is from the Just to Say... set and is heat embossed with white powder.

For the inside, I cut the boots in all four colors to use the flowers; I adhered them and went over some of the white petals with a white pen just to give them some shine.  I added stripes to the boots for fun.  Nobody likes plain boots, right?

This card is off to these challenges:

Heart 2 Heart - No embellishments

Color My Heart - Smokey Plum, Hollyhock, and Olive

Bitten by the Bug 2 - Anything Goes

613 Avenue Create - Anything Goes with optional Hello

Fall Tidings

This is a simple card using scraps from CTMH Jubilee.

I started by importing a scan of my wreath stamp into Cricut Design Space.  I then "erased" a center and around the edges leaving room to include leaves, berries, or flowers that could be stamped over the actual wreath from the Remarkable Wreath stamp.  Once I had the cut the way I wanted it, I saved it and cut it from Colonial White CS.  The pumpkin is from Damask Decor.

Once I got the cuts, the card was easy.  The wood looking paper was pulled from my stash - not sure of the maker on that.  I simply adhered the papers, distressed some edges, stamped, inked and tied a bow!  It really was that easy!

Ok, there were a couple of other steps!  I cut a square of drywall mesh and stuck on some Mocha Gems and CTMH Bronze Glimmer Tape!

This is off to Bitten by the Bug where the challenge is to use a pumpkin.

All CTMH is from KatiesCorner.

Hopes and Dreams

My little grand-girl is at the hospital today to have here eardrum repaired.  Obviously, Nana needed a card for her.  The colors at Color My Heart seemed very cheery, so I went with those!

 I used the CTMH markers in Smoothie, Olive, and Honey to make my plaid background.  I alternated thick and thin lines and the light and dark colors.  Then I used Daisy White Pigment Ink to stamp the unicorn from Unicorn Dreams.  The unicorn is heat embossed with silver powder.

I added some sparkles to the stars around her horn!  She is backed with Smoothie Fundamental CS and a piece of Honey CS.  It's all tied up with some Baker's Twine.


Here's the inside!  The top border is a piece cut from the front.  The sentiment is from Unicorn Dreams as well as the little unicorn.




I'm hoping she feels better very soon!


All CTMH is from KatiesCorner.

No B&T!

 No B&T (patterned) papers were harmed in the making of this layout!  Everyday in craft rooms across our globe, beautiful patterned papers are cut, stamped, crumpled, torn, pierced, and/or glued all for our artistic pleasure.  But today, my friends, not one patterned paper was touched!  No, they are all safe in their packages and drawers to see yet another day of peace.

If you feel these lovely papers need to be saved for another day, you need to check out Heart 2 Heart's No B&T Paper Challenge.

Now, I don't know about you, but when I'm told I can't do something, I just want to do it all the more!  I kept reaching for patterned pieces the entire time I was creating this LO.  I resisted the temptation and found other ways to add dimension and interest.

First I started with Colonial White CS and created my own patterned piece.  I used stamps from Sweet & Lovely and Pick a Posey.  * Sidenote:  Anyone else note the spelling on that Stamp Set?  Anyway, back to the paper.  I stamped with Cashmere, Champagne, Flaxen and Colonial White.  

Next I went into Cricut DS and used the ornament background from Artbooking.  I cut that out of Colonial White, also.  I painted over it with white gesso mixed with Blush re-inker.  

 Ornament cuts are from Artbooking, Art Philosophy, and Celebrate with Flourish.  They are embellished with CTMH gems.  Glitter and heat embossing were also used to decorate these ornaments.

I used the CTMH Quatrefoil embossing folder as well as a Cuttlebug Swirls folder on the Pear and Ruby card stocks.  CTMH Blue Epoxy Bubbles adorn the lace from my stash.  The raffia ribbon was also laying about!

You have all month to play at Heart 2 Heart.  Please save your B&T for another day and join the challenge!

All CTMH is from KatiesCorner.

Ode to Joy

I was so inspired by the musical freestyle my PATCH students were practicing, I've made them all canvases to commemorate and thank them for sharing their performances.  This particular one is for a young man who chose "Ode to Joy" and "Fur Elise" by Beethoven.  Great choices of music, but a little difficult to put together with a miniature horse running around the arena doing his chosen maneuvers!  We finally found a piece by a blue grass band that worked perfectly for the occasion!
 

Prince, fuzzy and ready for winter,
and his leader at the show!

Now, if you're thoroughly confused at this point, that's understandable.  Let me explain, PATCH is a therapeutic horsemanship program geared towards kids with life challenges of all types.  We just had a show where they competed in different classes.  It was great fun!  Now, you're caught up and we can return to the regularly scheduled blog post!  ; )

I started by going to the internet and pulling some pics of Beethoven's music.  Being an oboist, I don't have much Beethoven in my personal repertoire!  The large sheet is "Ode to Joy"; the music on the stand is "Fur Elise."  Then I found a letter signed by Beethoven.  I made copies, distressed, inked, and sprayed these papers.

 I had an idea the cuts I wanted from Cricut Design Space.  My horse, shoe and saddle are from Old West.

Now, the fence was a bit of a challenge.  I knew I wanted a 5 board fence to replicate a staff.  My student plays trombone, so I chose a bass clef for the first fence post.  I basically just imported a rectangle and copied it 5 times.  I changed the size to make my post and the boards.  Then I welded them together.  I then added the bass clef and welded it.  For some reason I had trouble getting it to work; but somehow it finally did.  I'm not really sure what we did to get it to work.  My son-in-law saw my frustration and jumped in to help.  He's not sure what he did either!  hahaha

I ran the fence through the CTMH Woodgrain Embossing Folder and inked over it with chocolate.

I made stencils from Acetate Alternative for my dots and bricks.  The bricks were cut from the CTMH Artbooking cartridge and the dots are from the new CTMH Artfully Sent; although, dots are also in Artbooking.  The bricks were put in with homemade texture paste.

Before adding my elements, I sprayed with homemade glimmer mist:  water, CTMH Chocolate re-inker and CTMH Create a Shade Paint (retired).

All CS is from CTMH.  CTMH inks include:  Barn Red, Chocolate, Slate, Archival Black.

CTMH embellishments include:  Mocha Gems (retired), Antiqued Gold Mini-Medley brad (retired).

All CTMH products are from KatiesCorner.

My Classical Cowboy is going off to these challenges:

Scrap and Play
THANKFUL
T Tone on tone stenciling and ink, texture paste
H Horseshoe, homemade shimmer mist
A Acetate Alternative
N No Stamping on this!
K Katrina original design (bass clef fence)
F Filly (the horse is a filly)
U Uppercase letters in Title
L Letter from Beethoven (Copy-not an original - hahaha)

Fantabulous Cricut Challenge - Anything Goes
Heart 2 Heart - No Stamping!
Take Heart Ideas - Anything Goes with CTMH products
613 Avenue Create - Anything Goes: optional twist is holiday thankful/hostess gift