Let's Celebrate!

Hi all! Welcome to the Rose Blossom Blog Hop featuring our favorite Close To My Heart Cricut cartridges. If you've just come from the oh-so-talented Marg Van Patten's blog, I Didn't Have Potatoes, you're in the right place. If you're starting with me or get lost along the way, I'll have a list of hop participants at the end of this post.

In honor of Close To My Heart's "Baby, I'm Worth It" consultant sign up campaign, the Rose Blossoms are featuring projects that you can make with the CTMH Cricut cartridges. So I thought I'd showcase a little birthday card/gift card holder I made for my daughter's birthday this week. Let's take a look:

I was inspired to create this pop-up matchbox by Dawn Griffith at Dawn's Stamping Spot. While I do have an envelope punch board (which is what Dawn used to create her matchbox), I decided to make this quick and easy using my Cricut and Cricut Design iPad app. Since I used the app, I could pick and choose images from all of my cartridges and then some. For this card, I used images from CTMH's Artfully Sent, Artbooking, and Artiste circuit collections. The match box itself is from the Artiste collection and is cut from white daisy cardstock. I layered it inside and out with Kaleidoscope paper. The "celebrate" image (from Artfully Sent) that I used for the shaker front was cut 5 times from White Daisy Cardstock and once from Kaleidoscope paper. I layered the 5 cardstock pieces together and added some glitter to the letters. I then added acetate and Kaleidoscope paper to finish it off. The Happy Birthday sentiment is an Artiste image cut from white glitter paper and the 14 is the Artbooking font cut from gold glitter paper.

Here are some images of the inside:

The flowers, balloons, and Birthday Girl sentiment are all from Artiste and cut from Kaleidoscope paper.

I still wanted a card that I could write in, so I made a little one from White Daisy cardstock that would tuck inside with the gift card. I created the fun birthday cake image using Canary, Gypsy, Cotton Candy, and Pear inks along with stamps from the Build-a-Cake set. "Happy Birthday" is stamped in Crystal ink and gives you a sneak peek of the fabulous Stamp Of The Month for May. I added some doodles at the bottom to give the cake stand a place to...well...stand, and then added diamond and yellow stickles for some added bling. My daughter loved it!

Here's one more look at the shaker:

I hope you enjoyed this little matchbox. You can find out about the fantastic Baby, I'm Worth It! sign up deal right here. And now hop on over to see what the incredibly talented Morgan Vogt has for your inspiration at TweetScraps!

And, as promised, here's a list of blog participants:

Brenda

Lynn

Marg

Kim {that's ME}

Morgan

Mary 

Kristine

Kim

Margot

Have a wonderfully creative weekend!

CTMH Cricut Artiste Cartridge Collection	CTMH Cricut Artfully Sent Collection	CTMH Cricut Artbooking Collection	CTMH White Daisy Cardstock
CTMH Kaleidoscope Paper Pack	CTMH Gold Glitter Paper	Martha Stewart Glitter	CTMH Canary Ink
Gypsy Exclusive Ink	CTMH Pixie Exclusive Ink	CTMH Pear Ink	CTMH Crystal Blue Ink
CTMH Build-a-Cake Stamp Set	Micron Black Ink Pen

InLinkz.com

12 Days of Christmas: Day 9

Hello All! Welcome to DAY 9 of the Kraft-y Hearts Blog Share. I hope you've been inspired to whip up some crafty goodness for the holidays this year!

Today's home decor project uses the My Creations Star by Close To My Heart.

The star comes in white ready for decoration. CTMH has a template that you can print out that allows you to easily cover the star to match your decor. To make this one, I used Pear & Partridge paper. (A single sheet will cover the star with a bit left over.) Before covering, I inked the edges of the star and the paper pieces using Cashmere Exclusive ink. I then adhered the pieces to the star. For the rosette in the middle, I cut two strips of coordinating patterned paper at 2 x 12 inches, scored both at every 1/2 inch and then accordion-folded them. I attached the two strips together to form a ring, and collapsed it in the middle to form the rosette. I used my hot glue gun and two 1-inch circles to secure it. (I've found with larger rosettes, hot glue is a must.) If you want more elaborate edges in your rosettes, you can find several options on the Artiste Cartridge, which is also the cartridge I used to cut the large snowflakes that I layered behind the rosette. The banner is cut by hand from a piece of Kraft cardstock and layered on coordinating patterned paper. I stamped the background in a snowflake pattern using the Pear & Partridge Workshop On The Go stamp set and Bamboo Exclusive ink. "Peace" is stamped in Cashmere Exclusive ink using the Trinity Alphabet stamp set. The small snowflakes were made using a retired punch by Creative Memories (but you could also use the Artiste or Art Philosophy Cricut cartridges to make them). I added some Pearl adhesive gems and a little Almond Glitz for a little extra pizazz. The red pearl stick pins are from my stash.

Here are a couple of close-ups:

I hope you enjoyed my little star, and are inspired to go out and create your own. CTMH has some fantastic 3D creative pieces that are simple to embellish and make wonderful gifts. Don't forget to leave a comment to be entered to win some fabulous blog candy from me (a Capture the Date stamp set and a Chocolate Exclusive ink pad!). And you definitely want to go and see what Lynn has been up to at From My Bungalow.

12 Days of Christmas: Day 2

Hello All! Welcome to Day 2 of the Kraft-y Hearts 12 Days of Christmas Blog Share. If you haven't stopped by Lynn Darda's Bungalow yet, be sure to do so. She has the cutest little gift idea!

I hope everyone is having a peaceful Advent Sunday. My family and I will begin decorating our Jesse Tree today. It's one of our favorite Christmas traditions. So in honor of that tradition, today's project is a little ornament I made from an accent cut using the Artiste Cricut Cartridge and a little Almond, Silver, and Stardust Glitz Glitter Gels. 

To make the ornament, I cut 5 shapes at 2 1/2 inches from Cranberry cardstock. (The more cutwork the shape has the more interesting the ornament will be.) To make it easier, I folded each shape in half and then unfolded it again and added the Almond and Silver Glitz. When the Glitz was dry (OH did that take patience!), I folded the shapes again, with the Glitz on the inside of the fold, and glued them together back to back. I then added Stardust Glitz to the very edges of the outside, working in sections so that it wouldn't smear. I added a little 1/8-inch ribbon from my stash to use as a hanger, and it was done!

Here's a close-up of the sparkle:

This little ornament can be made with any shape that is symmetrical. The Artiste and Art Philosophy Cricut cartridges are just full of possibilities! It's quite a simple process, you just want to make sure you give the Glitz time to dry. (Ask me how I know!)

To order any of the items used in this project, just click on the "Shop With Me" button to the right of the page. Now hop on over and see what wonderfully talented Lynn has in store at From My Bungalow!

Kraft-y Hearts' October Blog Share (Day 3)

Celebrating the October Stamp Of The Month by Close To My Heart

Hi Friends! It's Day 3 of our Kraft-y Hearts' Blog Share. I hope you have been inspired to go out and create beautiful things!

Today's project is my favorite of the 3, I think. Again, it would make a nice gift for a hostess or a teacher, or just a friend who could use some extra Christmas tags. (And really, who couldn't? I'm forever running out of tags this time of year!)

This little tag wallet measures 4x3 inches when it's closed and 4x12 inches opened. The base is Colonial White cardstock topped with patterned paper from the Pear & Partridge paper pack. But my favorite thing about this little wallet is the belly band. The band itself is a 1x8-inch strip of Cocoa cardstock. I then added this cute little flower I created using the CTMH Art Philosophy Cartridge. (Don't worry, Artiste gets used in this project, too!) To make the flower, I cut "flower 7" (p. 39) 5 times  in graduating sizes at 1/4-inch increments (from 1 to 2 inches) using Cranberry cardstock. I inked the edges of each layer with Ruby pigment ink to hide the white core. I also used my bone folder to add score lines to the back of each layer and then inked the raised edges in Ruby pigment ink to give the flower more dimension. I curled the petals under  before stacking them together, rotating each layer so that it was slightly off-centered from the one beneath it. I then cut 3 leaves (2 at 1 3/4-inches and 1 at 1 1/4-inches) using the "petal 2" cut (p. 59). The leaves are cut from Olive cardstock and inked with Olive pigment ink. (The mini pigment pads are perfect for inking around the edges of small motifs!) I layered the leaves and attached them to the back of the flower. I then attached the whole thing to the belly band. (When you do this, make sure there is no adhesive on the flower that will attach it to the wallet. As you can see in the photo below, it will tear the paper!) I then used Opaques Pearl Adhesive Gems to add a center to the flower and attached a Colonial White cardstock tag that was cut at 1 3/4-inches using the Artiste cartridge (p. 37). I stamped A Very Merry Christmas on the tag using Cranberry Exclusive ink and edged it in Cocoa pigment ink. 

Here's what the wallet looks like when you open it up:

The library pockets are from the Artiste cartridge (p. 47), and are cut at 3 inches from Pear & Partridge paper. They are perfect for holding the little tags. The tags are cut from Colonial White cardstock using the measurements given on the Very Merry Christmas stamp set. To save time, I used the auto fill feature on my Cricut and had it cut as many of each tag as it could on one sheet of paper. This gives you a lot of tags to work with! The Christmas tree tag to the far right is stamped in Olive and Cranberry Exclusive inks. The other three shapes are stamped with those two and Chocolate Exclusive inks. (For some reason, I didn't like the Christmas tree stamped in Chocolate. You might though!) The two tags on the right are cut with holes in the top. For the two on the left, I added holes with my Crop-a-dile. I was planning to add gold thread, but am out of it. (ugh!) So that will have to wait. I'll be making another one of these using Kraft cardstock and bakers twine. Can't wait to see how it turns out! 

Here is a picture of the tags in their pockets:

I hope you enjoyed the blog share this month. Don't forget to stop by the Bungalow for beautiful inspiration from Lynn!