Better late than never....

So today's card is late in a couple of ways. First, I made it for my nephew whose birthday was at the end of July. It's mid-August.... so yeah, it's late. I also got the design inspiration from last week's Freshly Made Sketches challenge. Ummm...yeah...it's now too late to link up. Still, I enjoyed making it, so thought I'd post it. And after all...better late than never, right?

The card base is White Daisy cardstock cut at 5 x 10 inches and scored at 5 inches. (FYI: square cards need extra postage.) The three colored cardstocks are from the May National Scrapbooking Month special paper pack: Free To Be. All three have very subtle geometric resist patterns on them. The sentiment is stamped on White Daisy cardstock in Lagoon and Chocolate Exclusive Inks. For the boarder I used a retired back ground stamp and stamped it in multiple directions. The other sentiments are from the Reel Life stamp set and some other retired stamps that I have in my stash.

Here are some close-ups:

For the envelope, I cut a 5x7-inch envelope down to 5x5 size and added a flap in matching patterned paper so that the card would have a nice square envelope to match. (This is when I found out that square cards require more postage...) Here's the card with its envelope:

And here is one more look:

Hope you enjoyed my belated little card. I'm sure my nephew will like it and that all will be forgiven when he pulls out the plastic gift card that's inside....

 

 

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The Days of Wine and Roses....

Okay, not so much roses....

One of the parties we went to over the weekend was for a friend's 40th birthday. Of course,  a celebration like this called for more than a gift card, so here's what we brought instead:

Cute, no? I thought so--hope the wine tasted as good as the bottle looks. Anyway, I couldn't find a gift bag I liked, so I decided to make my own. I have to say, this wasn't the easiest project I've done of late, but I do like the way it turned out:

I used Kraft cardstock for the bag itself. As the cardstock comes in 12x12 sheets and my wine bottle was 12 inches tall, I had to do some paper piecing to make it fit. (I'll post a tutorial on how to do it at a later date.) All told, it took about 2 1/2 sheets of cardstock. I then wrapped the bag in Lollydoodle patterned paper, leaving the zip strip on the top for extra height and interest. The bracket frame is from the Lollydoodle Compliments, and "Happy Birthday" is stamped in Outdoor Denim Exclusive ink using the Vogue Alphabet stamp set. I added it to the bag with dimensional adhesive. The flower was made using Lollydoodle paper and Cotton Candy cardstock and the Tim Holtz Tattered Florals Sizzix die. I layered the flowers together and attached them with a pink-bling brad from my stash. I used a double layer of dimensional adhesive to add the flower to the bag so that it would layer above the sentiment nicely. Finally, I punched four holes in the top and set a white eyelet in each hole. I then used Color Ready Seam Binding for handles. (The Seam Binding has been retired, but can be purchased during the month of June in two of the Celebrate 30! gift collections: Delightful Trim and Papercrafting Possibilities.

Here are a couple of close-ups of the sentiment and flower:

I hope you like the gift bag. Hopefully I'll have a tutorial up soon. In the meantime....

Hi All!
Welcome to my first ever blog hop with the Rose Blossoms! I'm so excited to be participating!

You've probably just hopped over from Sara's Kreative Korner. (Is she loaded with talent or what?!) I'm so glad you've hopped by. I have a couple of projects to share with you, along with a little give-away goodness. All the projects I'm featuring were made with the new CTMH Artiste Cricut cartridge. Folks, this cartridge is AWESOME! So much creative material here! Let me show you just a fraction of what this little cartridge can do.

First up is a birthday card and box combo that I made for my niece who turned 18 this month.

The card and envelope are found on page 52 of the Artiste handbook. I cut both at 5 1/2-inches. The motif on this particular card is found on page 33.  (By the way, this is just 1 of 9 s-fold cards on this cartridge!) I used cocoa card stock for the base layer of the card and covered that with B&T paper from Stella. The flower accent is from the Bohemian assortment, the button is from the pink assortment, and the twine is from the neutral assortment. The envelope and accent pieces are cut from colonial white card stock. (I lined the envelope with Stella B&T paper to match the card.) The sentiment and accent flower are from the Card Word Puzzle stamp set, and stamped in smoothie pigment ink and bamboo exclusive ink. I inked around the edges of everything in either chocolate exclusive ink or the smoothie pigment ink. Finally, the "18" on the inside is made with our new irresistibles houndstooth alphabet inked with smoothie pigment.

The box is found on page 74. It is cut at 1-inch, which is the height of the sides, from cocoa card stock and Stella papers. The flower embellishment and leaves are found on page 54. The flower is cut from Stella B&T and the leaves are cut from olive card stock. The flower button is from the basic assortment. I used tan pearls from the opaques mocha adhesive gems in the center of the button and then in graduating sizes on each side. The button on the front of the box is from the pink assortment, and the bakers twine is from the paradise assortment.

The next project will go to a lucky follower. I'll be doing a random drawing on Monday morning and will announce the winner on Tuesday. (I'm kinda excited because I've never done a give away before!)

This is a cute little note set that I made using the magazine box on page 47 and the card and envelope on page 73. (This idea was inspired by fellow CTMH Independent Consultant Mandy Leahy.) I cut the box at 4 1/2-inches from kraft card stock, and the cards were cut at 4 inches from the saddle and cashmere card stocks in the Clementine paper pack. The envelopes were cut at 4 inches from kraft card stock.

I decorated the box with Clementine paper using a template I made from scrap card stock. The chocolate twine is from the neutral assortment, and the wooden flower is from my stash. It's inked with twilight, sorbet and crème brulee pigment inks from the Whimsy Exclusive Inks mini pigment pad set. The canvas and button sticker is from the Clementine Workshop On The Go kit. The flags were made using the Card Word Puzzle stamp set, and were stamped in chocolate ink on sorbet card stock. Tucked in behind them is a little bit of frayed burlap ribbon.

Here are the cards that are included:

And here are a couple shown close up:

The lucky winner will also receive the new Autumn/Winter Idea Book packed with creative inspiration!

I hope you enjoyed my little smidgen of what the Artiste cartridge can do. Don't forget to post a comment and become a follower. Now hop on over to see what the über-creative Marg Van Patten has in store for you.

If you find yourself hopping off track, here's a list of the participants:

1) Brenda - http://roseblossomlegacies.blogspot.com

2) Sara - http://saraskreativekorner.blogspot.com

3) Kim - http://violetsandsunshine.blogspot.com (YOU ARE HERE)

4) Marg - http://ididnthavepotatoes.blogspot.com

5) Crystal - http://craftinginlove.blogspot.com

6) Lynn - http://frommybungalow.blogspot.com

7) Tammie -  http://tchelberg.blogspot.com