Let's Dance

I have so much to share with you in the coming weeks - - I'll start with my most recent layout for Let's Get Sketchy.  We have a fun new sketch for you to play with this week.  

Materials Used:
CTMH La Belle Vie paper collection (retired)
CTMH Black Glitter paper (buttons are a Martha Stewart punch)
CTMH Licorice Opaques Gems
CTMH Clear Sparkles
CTMH Glamour Glitter Alphabet
My Minds Eye Alpha Stickers

And here is the great sketch by Jenessa:

Do hope you'll visit us at Let's Get Sketchy & play along this month for a chance to be featured and a great prize too!  

I {HEART} You!

The Whooo's Your Valentine kit from CTMH is available for just one more day!
The stamp set that comes with the kit is super cute & so versatile!

I was able to showcase this great stamp set when I created this card for my make & take for the ladies attending my crop last Saturday.
I was inspired by a card I pinned HERE on Pinterest.  (Unfortunately, when I clicked through to visit the original site and creator of the card - the domain no longer exists, so I'm unable to give proper credit to the artist).

Here is my version:

I wanted to show the ladies at my crop how easy it is to create trendy banners for their cards & scrapbook pages using circles.   No die-cutter needed.   Everyone has circle punches or cutters, right?     I gathered some scraps of paper in the same colour tones (I used CTMH's Sweetheart, La Belle Vie, and Lucy papers, all retired, and punched 1.25" circles out of each of them).    To make a bigger banner - simply cut/punch bigger circles.   Cover the back sides of your circles in adhesive and simply fold in half along a length of twine to create your banner.    Adhere the banner to the front of the card, as desired & then trim the ends as needed.   Stamp a few images and a sentiment and voila - a super cute & easy Valentines Day card for your sweetie!

Still time for you to get your hands on the Whooo's Your Valentine stamp set & treat box kit!
Orders of $35 or more placed on my WEBSITE before January 31st (while supplies last) qualify to add on this great kit (value $40) for just $10!

Flower Girl

Back to regular programming today - it's Monday and that means a brand new sketch today at Let's Get Sketchy!

Here's my take on it:

There's a bit of a story behind this layout.   The girl in the photos is a 4 year old me.   I was undergoing cancer treatments at the time & had lost all my hair as a result of the chemo.    My aunt (the mother of the bride) hand-made the beautiful dress I wore, and added a matching bonnet as well so that I wouldn't feel self conscious about my lack of hair in front of all the people at the wedding.   Throughout that time of my life, I don't really remember ever being embarrassed or anything about the way I looked - maybe I was just too young to worry too much about it.   But I do vividly remember how pretty I felt in this dress & bonnet and how special I felt to be a part of the wedding.   So glad to have scrapped my memories of that day.  

Materials Used:

CTMH La Belle Vie paper

CTMH Keepsake Alphabet stamp set

CTMH Licorice Opaques

CTMH paper flowers (retired)

Ink: Black

Cardstock: Colonial White, Black

And here is the great sketch by DT member Jenessa:

Hope you'll visit us at Let's Get Sketchy!  You have until the end of January to play along with this sketch.

La Belle Vie Purse & Matching Cards

A fun little Cricut project to share with you today.  

Don't you love this purse?  And it is so easy to make.  The purse shape is found in the new Cricut Artiste cartridge from CTMH & I cut it at 4.5".    The bow is also found on Artiste and it was cut at 1.5".  Neither shape requires any adhesive to assemble!  The purse is held together using slits and folds and the bow folds easily and is held together using the center brad.  

I also added to a little simple set of 3x3 notecards inside the purse - - I think this would make a nice little gift idea.  

Thanks to Roxybonds Scrappin' for the project inspiration.

Materials Used:

CTMH Patterned Paper: La Belle Vie

CTMH Brads:  Metal Assortment

Bow is made with Blush Cardstock

Card front & inside panels are made with Cashmere Cardstock

Just Blooms Flutter paper shapes

Bitty Sparkles

Card Sentiments : 4 My Friend Stamp Set

Black Ink for distressing & stamping

Have a great start to your week :-)

Let's Hang Out

A quick card for you today . . . another created at the CTMH Convention  . . . one of the great reasons for attending is all the fabulous artwork we come home with!

The card and sleeve, as well as the attached tag were cut with the CTMH Artiste Cricut Cartridge.  The dress was stamped and paper pieced using the new Pun Fun stamp set.  Sentiment is also from that stamp.    Bakers Twine is from the Harvest assortment and the gems are from the Black Sparkle collection.  Woodgrain paper is from the Dakota Collection, the fuchsia paper is from the Flirty Collection and the dress is cut from La Belle Vie paper.  

Five Fabulous Finds

Woohoo!! It's Friday and I have another edition of my Five Fabulous Finds for you:

1.  Airmiles collectors can now collect miles at Michaels craft stores!  As a special introductory offer - they are offering 2X the air miles on all purchases over $40 until September 1st!

2.  I'm a huge fan of Big Picture Classes & have taken several of their online workshops.   Their annual Big Idea Festival is coming up in September and it is completely FREE to register!!    Lots of great topics, inspiration and of course prizes & giveaways too.    And the presenters are an all-star line-up of big names in the industry.  I'm already registered - - hope you'll join me!

3.  With it being 'back to school' time for everyone - - I thought I'd share a cute printable I came across this week - - little lunch box jokes to include in your child's lunchbox!  How fun is that!?!?  

4.  One of my favourite new products in the CTMH Idea Book this fall is our very inexpensive Bracket Frame!!  You can decorate it any way you like & it makes a cute little home decor/display piece.   Love these two ideas I saw using the frame this week:  Patti's La Belle Vie Frame and Debi's Flirty Frame.

5.  Never again will I have to buy another gift bow!! Did you know our new CTMH Cricut Artiste cartridge creates bows for you at the touch of a button!  Check out this great Avonlea Bow by Gloria to see what I mean!

Have a great weekend everyone!

Smile Card with CTMH's Dakota and La Belle Vie

STILL TIME TO ENTER MY BLOG CANDY GIVEAWAY HERE.

Another great card we made at the recent CTMH Convention using the unusual combination of Dakota and La Belle Vie paper packs.

Materials Used:
CTMH Dakota paper pack
CTMH La Belle Vie paper pack
Flirty Raspberry Cardstock - available in the Flirty paper pack
Colonial White Cardstock
Colonial White Card Base
Harvest Bakers Twine
Clear Sparkles
Slate Mini Medley
Foam Tape
Slate ink
Sentiment piece cut with CTMH Artiste Cricut cartridge

You Rock card with CTMH Dakota & La Belle Vie

** Be sure to check out my Blog Candy giveaway post HERE **

Never would have thought to combine the new Dakota and La Belle Vie paper packs, but on this card we made at the recent CTMH Convention - it totally works!  

Materials Used:
Doilies cut with CTMH Cricut Artiste cartridge
Dakota paper pack (wood grain paper)
La Belle Vie paper pack (pink pattern paper)
Flirty Raspberry cardstock - available in the Flirty Paper Pack
Colonial White cardstock
Pun Fun acrylic stamp set
Approved acrylic stamp set
Slate dye-based ink
Harvest Bakers Twine
Slate Mini Medley accent pack
Colonial White bulk card base & envelope
Foam Tape, Glue Dots

CTMH Stamp of the Month Blog Hop for August

Welcome to the Close to My Heart Stamp of the Month Blog Hop for August. This month we are featuring the stamp set "Baroque Borders". 

Hop along with me & a bunch of other great CTMH consultants! We've created a whole lot of artwork for you, all using the August Stamp of the Month. If you've come here from Brae's Blog, you are on the right path. If this is your first stop on the hop, that will work too (just keep hopping till you get back here again).

To continue along the hop, just follow the link at the end of each post to go to the next site. We hope that following the hop will give you lots of inspiration and ideas for using this month's stamp set, along with the many other great CTMH products you'll see in each post!

My creation this month is a 12x12 layout featuring one of the beautiful corner flourishes from this stamp set, as well as on of the gorgeous new Fall/Winter 2012 paper collections from CTMH - "La Belle Vie".  

My layout is based on Sketch #219 from Creative Scrappers.


Materials Used (all Close to my Heart):
La Belle Vie paper pack (available August 1st!)
Baroque Borders stamp set (August 2012 Stamp of the Month)
Old World Alphabet stamp set
Noted Backgrounds stamp set (retired)
Just Blooms Petals paper flowers
Licorice Opaques Gems
All shapes cut with the new CTMH Cricut Cartridge "Artiste" (available August 1st!)
Ink: Black
Cardstock: Black


The August Stamp of the Month is available from your CTMH consultant from August 1st to 31st, 2012.    It can be purchased for $17.95 or you can get it for just $5 with your CTMH order of $50 or more during the month of August.  Check out this MUST HAVE stamp set:

If you would like to continue on this month's blog hop for more fabulous inspiration using this great stamp set - "Baroque Borders" - continue on to GINA's BLOG to see what she has created for you.

Thanks for stopping by today,