Bokeh Birthday

Ice Cream Dream

Most everyone is using the June SOTM ice cream truck and  cones, but I found the sentiment embossed in Gold the best for hubby's Birthday card. 

See the set on this page.

I paired it with a strip of Bokeh cardstock using Pear, Sweet Leaf and Topiary inks.  During  my Bokeh experiment I made a large 12x7 strip that I could trim as needed for quick cards. It came in quite handy for this special card! I added some green gems and gold ribbon. I did include a JustRite Stampers circle sentiment, so it's not all CTMH, but a good use for the SOTM sentiment!

MOJO363...Miles Traveled

I put together this very masculine card for my first Mojo Monday in several months!!! 

Mojo363.  I needed a card for my Father's Birthday. It's already in the mail for tomorrow!

I saw the sketch and instantly thought of a round map...so I headed out to make the card. I have a few round map stamps but the design muse took me in a completely different direction.

This isn't all CTMH, but I did use an image from the 30 yrs of Happy on the directional arrow, which is also CTMH, so it qualifies, right? 

The arrow is from one of the Stamp Sets in the Cricut Artbooking bundle, My Life.

I think it's a great illustration how CTMH products can be used with other products and take your art to a new level!

CTMH Artbooking bundle - My Life stamp set on the left.

The papers are DCWV from The Guy Stack. Several of the papers are raised embossed with enamel-like accents. The dial stamp is Tim Holtz Road Trip and the car is Tim Holtz Here and There.

 The gear is from my stash. I think I picked it up at a stamping convention...but I can't remember...LOL. (I've been to a few)

The Mojo363 sketch used flowers, but in using it for inspiration, I selected a gear embellishment instead.  I think it worked out well. Some additional details:

If you haven't checked out the MojoMonday blog, do so!  The wonderful artists on the blog hop make some gorgeous cards!!!

Princess Wishes

Princess Cards

   I posted this on my non-CTMH page, Dawn's Cards and Crafts Garden, but it does use a retired CTMH stamp set, Princess Wishes, the Artiste cartridge and Gypsy Exclusive Ink, so I will double-up and share here.  I see a lot of people selling older stamps, but I don't know  if I could do that -- I just repurpose them. I think that over the past 7 or so years, I have gathered enough coordinating supplies that allow me to do just that!

 

I made these butterfly beauties just for our "adopted" nieces!

   The (non-CTMH) paper is Butterfly Kisses by Paper Studio. The stack includes matching cardstock which is handy. I used my Cricut and the CTMH Artiste cartridge to cut the butterflies.  

On the first one, I heat-embossed the princess crown, tag, and wings with (non-CTMH) Amethyst embossing powder. I over-stamped the word Princess in black after it dried sufficiently. 

On the other card I stamped the oval tag with CTMH Gypsy ink and heat-embossed the word Princess in black. That is 2 different looks with one stamp.

 

 A little ribbon and bows are the finishing touches,  along with a dab of iridescent glitter on the little butterflies - also cut on my Cricut.

WOYWW276 - Cloud Nine Birthdays

Hi! At last I'm joining What's on Your Work Desk Wednesday again! It's been a long time, but I was sitting here making cards and realized it was Wednesday, so I wanted to post. I started these lovely cards the other day hoping to get them out for birthdays tomorrow but ran out of time (darn job). So here I am and they're going to be belated birthday cards. :)

These cards are based on the Cloud Nine Card Making Workshop from Close to My Heart. They are really going together well and I must say that following the cardmaking workshop instructions is a lot of fun!

I hope you enjoy looking and thanks for stopping by! Check out everyone else's Workdesks, too!  Happy Wednesday!

Skating Through June

I tried a free-form shape first -- 

just rolling with it!

Yes, I know...more Later Sk8r cards.  But they are SOOO awesome & gnarly - LOL! 

[Did I mention that I was sick over the Memorial Day holiday and made over 20 cards using this paper?  I was supposed to be grounded to the couch, but ended up sitting at the kitchen table. After a few trips back and forth to my craft area, I had the entire kitchen table covered. It was fun, but I didn't want to over load my blog with Lagoon & Pear cards all at once. So I tried to intersperse them with other card posts!]

These 3 cards all use the CTMH Later Sk8tr Workshop on the Go stamp set as the main focal point. 

The Gray and Navy card also uses the Perfect Fit-Birthday stamp set and Recollections silver chevron washi tape. It's actually my VERY FIRST washi tape usage.  I think it satisfies my need for ribbon when creating a masculine themed card.

This is one of my favorites.

I used my Spellbinder's Wonky Rectangles to highlight the skateboarder, using Pear cardstock and the Later Sk8r paper from the paper pack. 

The circles are leftover holes from Lagoon gears I die cut for my previously showcased gear cards. 

The AWESOME sentiment (LOL!)  is from the paper's zip strip. I just cut it into a pennant/banner shape.

Both stamps are in the Later Sk8r Workshop to Go package. I didn't use any discipline in creating these cards, but my next WOTG project will use ONLY the paper in the package, and we'll see how many cards that will make!

The third Skateboarder card uses a lot of different elements. I distressed the white card base with Outdoor Denim exclusive inks pad, and created several layers, using Slate and Later Sk8r papers. 

The Gears were cut during my extended Cricut Artiste cutting session, from Pear and Outdoor Denim cardstock and I just layered them up here. 

The sentiment is from the Perfect Fit-Birthday stamp set. I am finding that set VERY useful. 

I will just add that the double dark gray ribbon is some **GASP** Stampin' Up ribbon I had in my stash.

These masculine cards will make my entire summer's worth of grandson/nephew/son/brother-in-laws and brother's celebrations go smoothly, so I was glad I had the chance to make all of these great cards!

Thanks for stopping by!

June SOTM

This month's Stamp of the Month is "A Flowering Bunch".

When you place an order of $50 or more in Close To My Heart products, you qualify for the special Stamp of the Month pricing at $5. 

I gave a little preview of one of the sentiments this past week, here is my first card using one of the flowers.

I stamped the flower with Pear ink and colored it in, then added glitter glue, and layered it with Pear cardstock. The card layers are in Chantilly and I used the Chantilly Complements for the leaf and flower embellishment.  I border-punched some Cotton Candy cardstock for the right side of the card.

The sentiment is from the Perfect Fit-Birthday stamp set, stamped in Cotton Candy and punched with a 1" circle punch.

The fun has just begun with A Flowering Bunch! Stay tuned!

LaterSk8r Fun!!

This is what my table looks like right now...LOL!! 

You can see that some cards with STARS are coming up...I cut a bunch out (yes, using the Artiste Cartridge), now just need to stick them down!

In fact, the card on the table is a sneak preview of my Father's Day card. I can't post it yet for obvious reasons. 

 
I am still making Later Sk8r cards to build up my "man card" stash for the summer.  

Here are a few of the latest!

The supplies are still the same as in the earlier Later Sk8r posts...I just put it all together differently.

I'm still really liking the gear borders I cut on the Cricut using the Artiste Cartridge, but on these cards, I stacked them to make the patterned paper pop out a little.

I stamped the white gear with Lagoon Ink and a gear from the In Gear set. 
 
The Birthday sentiments on both cards are from the Perfect Fit-Birthday set.

The Outdoor Denim gear is stamped with Versamark ink, and heat-embossed with White embossing power.


Hope you are loving this paper as much as I have been!

Later Sk8r Cards

Just playin' with my CTMH Later Sk8r paper...I need enough "man cards" to get through the summer. 

I have a lot of birthdays coming up....let's see, 1 son, 1 brother, 3 grandsons, 1 dad, 1 hubby, 1 great-grandson, 3 nephews...and that's just til September. LOL.  

11 cards. Whew. 

I cut a bunch of different sized gears using the Artiste Cartridge, and stamped the matching ones in Lagoon ink, using the stamps from the MyAcrylix In Gear set. The little dots from the centers make great embellishments.

The Birthday sentiment is from Perfect Fit-Birthday.
and this paper is just GREAT for masculine cards! 
 

I'd better get back to work, but wanted to share!

Later Sk8r Birthday

Later Sk8r Birthday

Made this great card yesterday! 
I pinned the idea for this card from Bethany Rielage, and then CASE'd it. A link to her blog is included below so that she receives the credit.

I used the following materials:

Paper:  Later Sk8r, Lagoon, Pear, Outdoor Denim, White Daisy (all available in the Later Sk8r paper pack)
Stamp:  Perfect Fit-Birthday
Ink:  Lagoon, Outdoor Denim
Cricut:  Artiste Cartridge 

I inked the card base made of White Daisy with Outdoor Denim ink by pressing the card edges on the ink pad. Then layered lagoon and inked white daisy onto the card. I cut a stack of gears at 2" and 2-1/2" from the patterned papers, and just played with the right combination til it looked "right".

The circle stack sizes start with 1" circle stamped with a birthday sentiment onto White Daisy, a Pear 1-1/4" gear, circles from 1-1/4", 1-1/2", 1-3/4", and a 2" gear cut from Lagoon.

The Artiste cartridge makes shapes so easy...and I have not even begun to explore the possibilities. Look at those gears! I could never have cut those out, and it was so fast. Much easier than separate dies. Although it's a big price tag, the collection gives you 3 stamp sets and some dimensional shapes, so it's comparable to buying all of the items at a discount.

Bethany's blog: 

http://stampingathome.blogspot.com/2013/02/mojo-monday-281-later-sk8r.html

I LOVE her card!  And I love mine, too :).  Thank you for the inspiration!

Cardmaking Chantilly - 2

More of our beautiful Chantilly paper cards!
This one was a team effort!

We used the Pink Glossy Solid Dream Pop paper for the pointed border (Martha Stewart punch). The sentiment is from the CTMH My Acrylix Perfect Fit-Birthday Set, stamped in Cotton Candy and punched out using a 1 1/4 circle punch, layered with a 1 1/2 circle punch on the Chantilly duo paper, using the green patterned side.



The Chantilly Workshop includes some pink glitter gems that add just the right sparkly bling to this card!

Some ruched ribbon and a sheer ribbon bow are the finishing touches! 

Cardmaking Day....

Had a great day making cards with my friends. We made some beautiful Chantilly paper cards!

This one by SC, uses a border punch on the right edge and a strip of CTMH Cotton Candy cardstock wrapped with a sheer pink ribbon.  The sentiment is from the CTMH My Acrylix Set - Card Chatter - Birthday, stamped in Cotton Candy Exclusive Ink and cut into a pennant. We didn't layer under the pink cardstock strip, so had to cut an angle and butt the sentiment strip up against the strip. It still worked beautifully!