Easter Blog Hop

Here comes Peter Cottontail, hopping down the bunny trail.....

Welcome to the Easter Blog Hop where we have come together to share some spectacular Easter inspiration with you.

If you arrived here from Amy's blog you are in the right place.  If you just happened to "HOP" in please start at the beginning with our hostess, Robin at http://scrapandchat.blogspot.com.

I am so glad that you have joined me on this hop and I would like to show you my Easter Bunny Card that I made for this hop. I used the Teddy Bear Parade Cricut Cartridge and the Close to My Heart Cricut Art Philosophy Cartridge. Papers used were from the Close to My Heart Chantilly Paper Pack. I am loving the Easter feel of this paper. My teddy bear bunny's ears and belly were made with Close to My Heart Silver Glitter Paper. I am so loving this new product!

You are off and hopping to Camille Short's blog.

Here is the entire line up in case you get lost along the way:

Robin ~ http://scrapandchat.blogspot.com

Toni ~ http://toniherron.aussieblogs.com.au

Mary Ellen ~ www.cr8iveme.blogspot.com

Lorrie - www.pickledtinkcrafts.blogspot.com

Carolyn-http://www.grandmacarol46580.blogspot.com

Amy - http://aimitup.blogspot.com/

Melinda Everitt - http://www.ifyoublingit.blogspot.com

Camille - http://shortonideasaz.blogspot.com

Tena - http://tenascraftingadventures.blogspot.com

If you are interested in checking out our new Close to My Heart Products, click here.

I Am So Egg-cited for Easter!

This week's challenge at Heart 2 Heart Challenges is to show how Egg-cited you are for Easter (or Spring)!

Spring is taking forever to arrive this year.  Quite a surprise after our last year with almost no winter.  We are visiting the Williamsburg, Va/DC area this week and had snow tonight.  Quite a lot of fun for my kids from Florida, but not a big change for those of us from Memphis.  We haven't had all the snow, but we have had the cold.

I made this card before I left to go on our vacation.  I got a bit crazy and used paper from 4 different paper packs.  The green patterned paper is from Chantilly, the blue is from Surf's Up, the honey colored patterned paper for the sun is from Tommy, and the Honey colored patterned paper under the green is from Buzz and Bumble.  I love how I can match patterned paper from multiple paper packs.  They go together so well with a little imagination.

Here is the card I made for this challenge:

I used one of the cutest stamp sets in our current book, B1422 Easter Wishes.  I used my Buttercup and Creme Brulee reinkers and my Waterbrush (1771) to color in my little chick.  Then I colored in the egg with our Sky and Topiary Alcohol Markers.  The beak was colored with Sunset reinker and the Waterbrush.  The sentiment comes from the Zip Strip from our Chantilly Paper Pack.  The only bling in this card came from our newly retired Heirloom Rhinestone Brads.

I used the Mojo Monday 285 pattern for my card.  It was a bit hard this week and had me stumped for awhile.

So now it is your turn!  Show us what you can do with our Egg-cited for Easter challenge.  Please go to  heart2heartchallenges.blogspot.com and post a link to your project.  

Here are a few rules:  

*Our challenges are open to everyone!
*To enter, follow the challenge of the week and post your results to your personal blog or other online gallery.
*Be sure to go here and direct link to your challenge post so we can see your artwork! 
*In order to enter a challenge, you must use Close To My Heart products but your project does not have to be 100% CTMH.
*If you use something from another company, please consider including details in your project's description.
* You MUST mention H2H challenges in your blog post (and a link back to us would be appreciated).
*Spread the word about our challenge blog by including our badge on your blog.
*Most importantly, have fun creating - the Close To My Heart way!
Note: Any entries not following the above rules are subject to having their link removed.

Like my artwork?  You can make it too.  I have included all of the products used to make ordering easy on my Close to My Heart website.

CTMH Technique Blog Hop - Black and White Challenge

Good morning everyone!  This has been such a creative week for me.  I have had so much fun participating in a few Blog Hops and Challenges.  As the grandkids get settled in and we are getting used to our new house, I find that my creative juices are returning.

Welcome to the Close to My Heart technique Blog Hop.  We are a small but mighty hop.  The hopper in front of me is Kindred Hearts.  This month's challenge is to use only Black and White.  Now, before I show you my card, I want to be sure to tell you that I received permission to use Silver as well.  Silver, in my opinion, is the white of the glitter world!  And here is my card:

I realize that I always say that you should see this in person to really appreciate all of the glittery glamour this card has, but you really should see it in person!  I love, love, LOVE this stamp set, Sweet Music (D1523),  and I am equally in love with all of our glitter paper and glitter trim.  I used the Cricut Artiste cartridge (Z1790) to cut out all of the shapes on this card.  See the notes on the ticket?  The ticket actually has the word, "ticket", cut out of the top.  The notes were stamped with Stazon Black Jet Ink and then I cheated and made them a bit darker with my fine point sharpie.

I used one of our new paper packs called For Always (X7165B).  It worked perfect for this challenge.

I am a little disappointed that the black glitter trim did not photograph all sparkly.  Here is another view of my card:

Check out the inside of my card.  I decorated it with this stamp set.  Can you believe that I stamped the piano keys?  Didn't they come out super cute?

Once again, thank you for visiting my blog.  The next blog on this hop belongs to Stephanie Chumbley.  Click on her link and go check out what she has done with this fun technique.  See you soon!

Using Fabric on Your Artwork

Learn great tips and techniques for using fabric in your artwork—where to use it, how to adhere it, and how to create ruffles, flowers, and much more! Close To My Heart's new line of beautiful textiles make it simple to embellish cards, layouts, and three-dimensional items with fabric.

This is a great, short video that shows how to use fabric in your artwork.  There are a couple of gorgeous layouts on this video that have fabric on them.  I am going to try making the cover layout with my granddaughter's picture.  

Merry Monday #53 Challenge

I have been so busy lately and my crafting has suffered.  I have not taught classes or created much of anything.  The kids are off this week for Spring Break and the oldest one has stitches in his foot (Grandma went out of town, leaving the kids in Grandpa's care).  So we are stuck in the house.  Yippee!  Nothing left to do but craft!

So I started looking for a challenge to participate in and found this sketch on Always Playing with Paper.  They have a Merry Monday Challenge that I have been itching to try and so yesterday, I set up my table in the living room and got comfortable.  Here is the sketch for this challenge:

And here is my card:

For this challenge you must take the sketch and make a Christmas card.  I am learning to not be so rigid and trying to get comfortable with following the sketch in spirit and not literally.  LOL

All of the supplies are from Close to My Heart.  The paper is our recently retired Pear & Partridge.  I loved that paper!  The stamp sets used are CTMH's Holiday Cheer (B1381), Merry & Bright (C1510), and the Pear & Partridge Scrapbooking Workshop Stamp Set (C1514).

Colors used are Cocoa, Olive, Honey, and Cashmere.  I used the Close to My Heart Cricut Art Philosophy cartridge to cut out the shapes.

Oh and before I forget, here is the inside of my card:

I am also linking this to the Make it Monday Challenge - Anything Goes and the Paper Playtime Challenge - Anything Goes.

Go Green with H2H!

This week's challenge at Heart 2 Heart Challenges is to Go Green!

What does Go Green mean to you?  Last time I was on the H2H Design Team we had a Go Green challenge and we were challenged to recycle, repurpose or reuse something in our artwork.  This time Heart 2 Heart has decided to let each of us interpret this challenge ourselves.  Being that this is the week of St. Patrick's Day, green is an obvious choice as is a shamrock or a leprechaun.  But I so enjoyed the recycling challenge that I decided to do that again.

I chose to recycle cereal boxes.  Two of our grandkids have just moved in with us and we are going through a lot of cereal.  I love to use cereal boxes to bolster some of my 3D artwork because it is readily available, sturdy, but thin enough to cut with my Cricut.  I used my deep cutting blade for my Cricut and it cut the box just like butter.

Here is the frame I made for this challenge:

The back of my cute little frame is made with a 4" x 4" chipboard coaster like the one you get at a restaurant or bar. I covered it with patterned paper from our Claire Paper Pack (X7166B).  I cut the cereal box and a different Claire patterned paper using our Cricut Art Philosophy cartridge (Z1686), pg 53 at 3.75". 

I adhered the paper to the chipboard and chipboard and inked all of the edges with Outdoor Denim ink.  I just love the ribbon hanger.  It is our new Outdoor Denim Chevron Ribbon.  I cut 12 inches of the ribbon and then adhered it with my favorite adhesive from my ATG gun and then using foam tape on the sides and bottom of the frame I popped the frame up from the coaster so that it holds the tape in place yet leaves a space to insert a photo or a saying.

Now comes the fun part.  I used two stamp sets, C1538 Girls Rock and the stamp set from the Claire Scrapbooking Workshop on the Go (G1056) to decorate my frame.  I only used 2 ink colors:  Smoothie and Outdoor Denim.  I don't know whether you can see it but I used Stardust Glitter Glitz (Z1313) on the wings of my cupcake as well as on the "love" sentiment.  Also used as embellishments were:  Mocha Opaques (Z1333), Durables Artisan Studs (Z1816), and Green & Blue Epoxy Bubbles (Z1806).

So now it is your turn!  Show us what you can do with our Go Green challenge.  Please go to  heart2heartchallenges.blogspot.com and post a link to your project.  

Here are a few rules:  

*Our challenges are open to everyone!
*To enter, follow the challenge of the week and post your results to your personal blog or other online gallery.
*Be sure to go here and direct link to your challenge post so we can see your artwork! 
*In order to enter a challenge, you must use Close To My Heart products but your project does not have to be 100% CTMH.
*If you use something from another company, please consider including details in your project's description.
* You MUST mention H2H challenges in your blog post (and a link back to us would be appreciated).
*Spread the word about our challenge blog by including our badge on your blog.
*Most importantly, have fun creating - the Close To My Heart way!
Note: Any entries not following the above rules are subject to having their link removed.

Like my artwork?  You can make it too.  I have included all of the products used to make ordering easy on my Close to My Heart website.

March Madness at H2H!

We have some really fun challenges at Heart 2 Heart Challenges but now we have bumped up the fun!  We have started MARCH MADNESS!   This will add some fun  to our challenges for you our readers, subscribers, and crafty peeps.  How do you win, you ask?  All you have to do is play to win and follow our usual challenge guidelines.  We have a couple of prizes that are not just for our usual players - we're looking for YOU -- our first time players!  

That's right, our first prize is for a first-time H2H player!  We're looking for someone who joins us for the very first time ever. To be eligible for this prize, you must NOT be a current Close To My Heart consultant, you need to follow the challenge guidelines, AND you must leave a comment in our comment section of that challenge telling us it's your first time participating at H2H challenges.  (One randomly-selected lucky newbie will win!)

We will also have a prize for a CTMH Consultant who participates AND the non-CTMH Consultant who participates the most in March!   Every time you link up, add a number with your name to help us keep track of the number of times you play, starting with your second time in March.  So, my second entry might look like "Melinda#2" in the linky.  If you don't number your entries, we won't be able to count you for the prize.  (In the event of a tie, multiple prizes will be awarded.)

AND to make this even MORE fun, some of our craft Design Team members may be offering prizes on their blogs -- who is doing that you might ask???  Well, you will just have to check out each DT's blog for the details on their project to see who might be offering some blog candy.   You just never know who will be doing a giveaway throughout the month.

So, keep on checking my blog out, or even better, subscribe to my blog and watch for when I post some blog candy.  You will never know when I am going to post some March Madness!

I Updated My H2H CAS Challenge Card

This week's challenge at Heart 2 Heart Challenges is to make a CAS (Clean and Simple) artwork.

I made my card when I was at my Close to My Heart Team's, The Bling Team, Stamp Camp.  Now anyone who knows me knows that I am not real good at getting much done when I am around a group of people.  I love to talk and tend to get distracted.

This is the card I made for the CAS Challenge on H2H.  I loved how it left lots of white space and I thought that my design was pretty good.  But something was wrong and it bugged me.

Here is my first card:

Here is my card after I made a much needed change:

Can you see the difference?  All I did was change the tiny pink gem in the middle of the big pink flower to a larger pink gem.  I think it balanced it out better.  Now I really like my card!

I am going to post the reminder to join us at Heart 2 Heart Challenges.  We have new challenges every week. We would love you to participate.   Please go to  heart2heartchallenges.blogspot.com and check out this week's challenge.  

Here are a few rules:  

*Our challenges are open to everyone!
*To enter, follow the challenge of the week and post your results to your personal blog or other online gallery.
*Be sure to go here and direct link to your challenge post so we can see your artwork! 
*In order to enter a challenge, you must use Close To My Heart products but your project does not have to be 100% CTMH.
*If you use something from another company, please consider including details in your project's description.
* You MUST mention H2H challenges in your blog post (and a link back to us would be appreciated).
*Spread the word about our challenge blog by including our badge on your blog.
*Most importantly, have fun creating - the Close To My Heart way!
Note: Any entries not following the above rules are subject to having their link removed.