Easy Birthday Love

Hi All! It's April! Woo HOO!!! Spring is here...or at least it's on its way.... (Have to admit, it's been a little chilly here in the Nation's Capital.) However, nothing brings on that warm sunny feeling like time spent in the craft studio and new products to play with!

Yesterday launched the new Seasonal Expressions 2 Idea Book for Close To My Heart.

(To purchase your own paper copy, click here.)

Doesn't it just scream summer fun?! (By the way, the strawberries on the front cover can be made with Close To My Heart's Artiste Cricut Cartridge. Yes, I'll be making some of those cuties in the near future.) 

One of my favorite new products from Seasonal Expression 2 is the Blossom Cardmaking Kit. The whole Blossom Collection is fabulous to begin with, but the stamp set in this kit is FANTASTIC! It's all about birthday cards (can you really ever have to many) and it's fun and easy to use. 

The kit includes everything you need to make 15 birthday cards (5 each of 3 designs), except inks and adhesive. The recommended ink colors are Archival Black, Pear, Honey, and Smoothie.

So let's take a look at those cards:

The first card: 

Love the popsicles!

 Here are some close-ups:

The second card:

I actually changed this one up a bit and cut the kraft background paper 1/8-inch shorter in the length and width than the front of the card so that the white edge of the card peeked out just a little. (I really like kraft and white together...)

 And a close up or two:

And the third card:

This one was my favorite to make, I think. The top two "washi" strips are actually stamps! I gave the bow a little extra panache on the ends by gluing them at an upturn using liquid glass. 

And, of course, some close-ups:

Aren't these great?! And it's a KIT!!! Woo HOO!!! 

Now, in my opinion, great cards deserve a great box to store them in, so tune in tomorrow to see the Blossom Cardbox.

Until then....

A Little Crafting Fix

So I thought I'd share a secret to a quick little crafting fix: Close To My Heart's Workshops on the Go. The Workshop On The Go collections are perfect when you want (or need) to do some quick crafting projects that look like you spent hours on them. All the paper, embellishments and stamps are included in the workshops. You just need to bring the ink, adhesive and paper trimmer. (In the case of the Laughing Lola card workshop that I'm showing you today, you also need to bring your Cricut and the Artiste Cartridge, though you could fussy cut around the images if you don't have the Cricut.)

Here are the 3 card designs (you have 15 card bases to make 5 of each design):

Now I made a few changes to the cards (shocking, I know) in order to make them more my own--and to cover up some mistakes. First, the "hooray for you" stamp isn't part of the workshop, it's from the 4 My Friend stamp set. The original card said "cheer up." For some reason, this sentiment struck me as odd. It's almost like a command. Seems to me like the last thing some one who might be down needs is to be commanded to "cheer up." So I switched out the sentiment. 

The second change I made is to the "You can never have too much happy" card. All of the paper strips are sanded at the edges to add texture and interest. I got a little overzealous with my sanding on one of the Pear strips and it tore a bit. I didn't want to waste it, so I covered the tear with a strip of Silver Shimmer trim. I really liked the effect, so I added it to all the other cards in this style as well.  

The "hugs" card was made exactly like the instructions suggested. 

Here are some close ups:

Hope you enjoyed this peek at the Laughing Lola Card Workshop. And remember, if you need a quick crafting fix, Close To My Heart's Workshops On The Go are just the ticket!