Holiday Expressions - New Product Blog Hop

Welcome to our New Product Blog Hop!

We will be featuring all new Products from the Holilday Expressions Idea Book.  If you have come here from Catherine Nowak you are on the right path! The blog hop is a great big circle, so you can start here and work your way all around.  If you get lost along the way, you’ll find the complete list of participating consultants on Melinda’s Blog. 

This month we have approximately 20 Close To My Heart Consultants sharing their creations using all new CTMH products on their blogs. This is simple to do - just click on the link at the end of the post on each blog to move to the next one! Here we go!

For my project, I decided to play with the new Cricut Collection, Season of Joy(Z3296).  There are so many super cute images to choose from including lots of 3D items to make, like this set of figures.  They stand about 9.5 inches tall, and they are hollow, so you could totally fill them with Christmas candies.  Posted below is just a sampling of other images found on this digital collection.

Now "Hop" on over to Melissa Robinson to see her work! Be sure to visit all the Consultants at their Blogs to get some great crafting ideas and other fun ideas!  Contact your CTMH Consultant (or click here) to see how you can purchase any of the amazing new products seen throughout this blog hop!

Always craft with  <3

Joy to the World

Our current holiday paper collections are stunning, and I really love the flower pattern in the Beary Christmas collection.  The bright Christmas colors just make me happy.  I paired them up with coordinating cardstock and used the new stamp set Prince of Peace for this card.

In addition to the above items, I used the new Scallop Border Thin Cut for finishing.  The stamp set was stamped in New England Ivy Ink, and then again in Memento Ink.  I colored the stamped image with our ShinHan Touch Twin markers and fussy cut it and paper pieced it onto the first stamped image.  The New England Ivy cardstock I ran through the Buffalo Plaid Embossing Folder and the sanded it to show the white core.

Always craft with  

Silver Tree, Happy Holidays

This card is one of my favorites, besides cardstock it is using all retired product.  I used Ruby for matting and WhiteDaisy Cardstock for this project.

Can you tell me which stamp set I used for the image?  Anyway, I like the clean and simple style, and started this card off my using the confetti embossing folder, it makes me think of snowflakes, the I embossed both the tree and sentiment using Silver Embossing powder.  I really like how this came together, another clean and simple card.

Always craft with  

Merry Christmas Wreath

Today's featured card is using some very old retired paper, and the retired Wreath stamp and thin cut.  I really like how this pops after adding some glitter to represent the holly berries.

I used the banner thin cut for the sentiment and some doodling to finish it off.  The cardstock is Cranberry, and I stamped the wreath in New England Ivy ink.  I popped the wreath off the card using the 3D Foam Tape.

Merry Christmas!

Always craft with  

Joyeuses Fetes and Snowflakes

Today I'm featuring a simple yet stunning card using White Daisy and Crystal Blue Cardstock, Crystal Blue ink and Embossing.  The base piece of White Daisy has the snowflakes embossed using Clear embossing powder.

The layer with the sentiment is embossed with silver embossing powder.  The sentiment is retired, but since I have my children in French Immersion, I like to send French cards in to the teachers.


Always craft with  

Watercolor and gold embossed Deer

I had a lot of fun creating new fun cards for my Christmas Card Buffet Class.  This first one is using a Birch Tree Die Cut as my inspiration.  I wanted to create a scene.  I decided I was going to use heat embossing and watercolor paints to help execute this idea.

I started with White Daisy cardstock, and used a combination of blues from the watercolor palette to create a sky.  Once this was dry, I stamped the deer using Versamark Ink and Gold Embossing powder.  I used the Birch Tree Die Cut that I had, and distressed the trees using Chocolate Ink.  After layering the trees over the deer, I decided too create snow drifts by tearing some White Daisy cardstock.  I used our Banner Thin Cuts for my sentiment and added some doodling to my sentiment.



Always craft with  

CTMH Christmas Card Blog Hop

Welcome to our Christmas Card Blog Hop! 

We will be featuring Christmas Cards using products found in our Holiday Expressions catalog.  If you have come here from Wendy's Blog, you are on the right path! The blog hop is a great big circle, so you can start here and work your way all around.  If you get lost along the way, you’ll find the complete list of participating consultants on Melinda’s Blog. 

This month we have approximately 20 Close To My Heart Consultants sharing their creations using CTMH products on their blogs. This is simple to do - just click on the link at the end of the post on each blog to move to the next one! Here we go!

For my cards I used the scraps I had left over from creating some other projects after playing with Beary Christmas.  I added some Cranberry cardstock, white shimmer trim and some red gems.  I used the Gingerbread Friends stamp and thin cut, and the sentiment comes from the Beary Christmas Cardmaking stamp set.

Now "Hop" on over to Cat's Blog to see her work! Be sure to visit all the Consultants at their Blogs to get some great crafting ideas and other fun ideas! Contact your CTMH Consultant (or click here) to see how you can get this stamp set at a discount!


Always craft with  <3

Snowglobe Shaker Card

I've fallen in love with shaker cards, and got this idea to create a snowglobe shaker card.  The fun part was trying to create a file to cut the snowglobe to work they way I wanted it to.  Well after about a week of tweaking files I managed to create a file that I'm happy with.  I'm still continuing to work on the file since I have a whole other vision for this style of card.

I used some Pear cardstock  for the actual snowglobe and used the new stamp set Joy To You & Me (C1656) which I stamped using Cranberry, Lagoon, Topiary, Sapphire, Cocoa and Glacier ink.  I hope you like my Snowglobe Shaker Card.

Thanks for visiting!

Are you in need of Christmas cards?

Card Buffets

Christmas Card Buffet

Great way to have unique cards to give to Family and Friends

This unique event is a great way for you to get a head start on your Christmas cards for $35.  There are at least 15 designs to choose from, all you need to bring with you is your favorite adhesives and scissors.

Dates:

October 14^th            6:30pm to 9:30pm

October 22^nd           1:30pm to 4:30pm

October 28^th              6:30pm to 9:30pm

November 12^th          1:30pm to 4:30pm

November 20^th        1:30pm to 4:30pm

Last Christmas card using AHSC #87

Wow, it's Christmas Eve Day!  I hope everyone is ready for Christmas, and that you all will have a very Merry Christmas.

I will be celebrating with my family, which includes my husband, and 3 kids along with my parents, my sister and her boyfriend, and my inlaws and a family friend.  Total head count 13.

Tonight we have a seafood feast of lobster, scallops and mussels, while the children enjoy pizza.  Tomorrow's celebrations includes an amazing breakfast made by my hubby and then our Christmas dinner with all the fixings.  I'll be making the pies for dessert later today.

I wanted to share a photo of my family with you before I share my final Christmas card creation.

Here is the sketch for this week:

Here is my creation:

This is more of a fun card, I even added some liquid applique to make the trim of the hat puffy.  

I hope you all have a Merry Christmas.  Please head on over to Atlantic Hearts Sketch Challenge and share some love with our Design Team..they've worked really hard on this week's creations.

Let it Snow with AHSC #86

Well, I've been hearing that our forecast here in the Maritimes is lacking of snow for Christmas...so I thought this fun little card encouraging snow would fit the bill.

Here is the sketch:

I rotated the sketch for my card, and made it square measuring 5 3/4".  I didn't like the placement for the sentiment when I was putting the card together, so moved it to where I thought it suited.

I used the Snowhaven paper pack along with the coordinating cardstock.  Coloring the image with the ShinHan Touch Twin Alcohol Markers. The sentiment is a Hostess Stamp Set and I added some color to the wreath.  

Now I hope you will head on over to Atlantic Hearts Sketch Challenge and see what our fabulous Design Team has created.

Cross Canada Blog Hop - Christmas Decor

Welcome to our December Blog Hop featuring Christmas Decor.  To purchase any of the items seen in our blog hop today, contact your local consultant to place an order.

We hope that you will take the time to leave comments on our posts, as we love to get feedback from our viewers....whether it was something that you really liked or some new technique that was used that you would like to learn how to do....by leaving us comments, we get to hear what you like, and what you want to see. Thank you… now on to our hop! 

If you have just hopped onto my blog, you can start here as this is a circular hop, I'm also the first stop if you are hopping across Canada from East to West. If you came from Nancy's Blog then you are in the right place! 

I've made lots of these pincone ornaments this year, and have blogged previously with them....but I couldn't help myself, I had to share my verison of the Snowhaven Pinecones.  They turned out very lovely, and I decided to make each of my family members a set of these as part of their Christmas Gifts.  I think it dresses up the tree very nicely. They also look pretty clustered together in a dish or on a mantle.

When cutting my strips of paper, I made sure that each strip had its own pile so that I could create a pattern on the egg. Every single set I made turned out completely different....I wish I hadn't already wrapped all my gifts, then I could show you how different each set is.

Your next stop on the Cross Canada Hop is Nicky at Timeless Cottage.

 If you get lost along the way,  you can come back here as I've posted the lineup.

1. Michelle ~My Creations With Michelle
2. Nicky ~ Timeless Cottage
3. Krista ~ Simply Creating
4. Sheri  ~ Sheri Says Just Scrap It
5. Brae ~ The Brae-er
6. Christine ~ Chris' Creative Life
7. Brandy ~Canadian Scrappers
8. Terry Ann~ Just a Tad Crafty
9. Nancy ~ Nancy Klein

Thanks for hopping along with us - we hope we were able to inspire you to get creative using some of the designs, products and techniques seen along the way. We hope you will join us again next month when we will be featuring Valentine’s Day creations.  So mark January 15th on your calendars and hop along with us.

Merry Christmas with AHSC #84

First I want to apologize for being missing from the Sketch Challenge for the past couple of weeks.  I've got alot of catching up to do with pinning the artwork too.  My reason for being missing and just doing the bare minimum is due to the weather changes, it gives me horrible migraines, and I just wasn't able to function let alone craft.

Anyone, I'm starting to feel human again, and have managed to pull something together that I'm really happy with.

Here is this week's sketch:

Here is my creation:

I started with Whisper cardstock as my base, and used some Wonderland pattern(retired) as my base and doodled a border with a black journaling pen. The shape is cut from the Artiste cartridge and I cut it in White Daisy and Twilight(retired & my favorite color). I added a polar bear from the Polar Bear Holiday Stamp Set (C1557).  The sentiment is from the stamp set that comes in the Artfully Sent cartridge set.

I hope you will take a moment and head on over to Atlantic Hearts Sketch Challenge and check out our Design Teams fabulous creations.

Merry Christmas with Atlantic Hearts #81

Wow, it's crazy to think that we are only 6 weeks away from Christmas Eve.  Yes, you read that right. There are 6 more weeks until Christmas.  Are you ready?

I have most of my cards made, but have yet to really start my Christmas shopping.  Do you have any Christmas traditions that you would love to share?

On Christmas Eve I have my inlaws over for Lobster and scallops and we let the kids open a present from us(which is usually their new jammies so that they can wear them).  Then Christmas morning we let the kids tear into their stockings and gifts from Santa....by the time they have done that and played with whatever Santa has given them, our family starts rolling in the door for Christmas breakfast and they enjoy watching the kids open the remaining gifts.

We are very fortunate to be able to give our children a good Christmas, but we also like to be able to help provide a better Christmas to a family less fortunate than us.  My husbands employers sponsor 4 families and help provide them with meals and gifts. Our children like to be able to also take toys and give them to the local toy drive.

I hope you will share some of your Christmas traditions with me.  Now for the sketch.....

My creation:

My creation today using a blue pattern from Snowhaven, I've added 2 red glitter gems, and some red shimmer trim.  The middle flag is a pattern found on one of the pattern papers, and the first strip is the zipstrip from that same sheet.  The Nutcracker is from Stamp Set Candyland (D1557). I used the ShinHan Touch Twin markers to color him. The sentiment is from the stamp set that comes with the Artfully Sent cartridge, and is stamped in Cranberry Ink.

I hope you will also head on over to Atlantic Hearts Sketch Challenge and check out the fabulous creations from our Design Team.  Our Guest Designer this week is Sheri Bage Ballantyne, and she was busy and created not 1 but 3 pieces of artwork using this week's sketch. Please leave everyone a little love.

Home for the Holidays for AHSC #78

I simply love this month's SOTM, Home for the Holidays.  The polar bear stamp is just adorable, and I've used him to create other cards.  Today I used him for this weeks sketch over at Atlantic Hearts Sketch Challenge.

Here is the sketch:

Here is my creation using Snowhaven paper and October's SOTM.

Now I hope you will head on over to Atlantic Hearts Sketch Challenge and visit our Design Team, this week we have another fabulous guest designer, Jen Patrick.  So stop on by and check out the amazing artwork we've worked hard to create for you.

O Holy Night featuring Snowhaven and AHSC #77

I changed my mind on what I wanted to use for this card about a dozen times give or take a few.  I finally decided to use Snowhaven Paper and O Holy Night stamp set (A1168).

I had cut a bunch of shapes to use and had filed them away in bags in my organizer and came across them; but decided that I could use them on this card.

Here is the sketch for this week:

I changed the shape of the card too, it's a square here, but I changed it to a A2 size.  I think I will try it again as a 6x6 later.  

Here is my card:

I used the scallop border punch to add to layers of scallops along the patterned strip, and the bow is made from paper.  I colored the bling with the ShinHan Alcohol Markers.  The sentiment is stamped in Glacier on White Daisy which is matted on Whipser.  I used 3D Foam Tape to pop it off the card, and made a framed border using a journaling pen.

I hope you will visit our Sketch Challenge and check out the amazing creations from our Guest Designer and Design Team.  Visit Atlantic Hearts Sketch Challenge

Merry & Bright featuring AHSC #76

Well, I've been really busy planning and preparing for upcoming craft fairs and card workshops, that I almost forgot about my sketch challenge.....oh dear, can we say I have too much on my plate.  Yep, but if I'm not busy, than I eat or pluck my butt down in front of the television.

Anyway, I stayed up late finishing my card for today's post, but trying to take photos at night does not turn out well.(edited this part into my post, lol) I've had to retake the photos.

Here is this week's sketch:

Here is my card:

I used Merry & Bright from the sentiment collection of stamps from the Artfully Sent Cricut cartridge in Chocolate Ink using second generation stamping.  Then I stamped over it in Ruby, creating a shadow effect, for my main sentiment.  The image is from the Yuletide  Carol Compliments, and I finished the design off with some Red Bakers Twine. /I 3D the layer of Colonial White cardstock off the of the Colonial White cardbase using 3D Foam Tape.

Simple, yet cute.  I like it, how about you?

Now I would love to have you head on over to Atlantic Hearts Sketch Challenge and see the lovely creations our Design Team has for you.  Also, our Guest Designer this week is none other than the fabulous Karen Morris.

Christmas Cardinal featuring Artfully Sent

Well, yesterday was World Cardmaking Day, and I challenged myself to produce 80 cards.....well I met my goal and I've been asked to give some instructions on how I created my cards.

The first one I'm showcasing is the Cardinal card.

I used 2 cartridges to create this card, the NEW Artfully Sent and Art Philosophy.

I used the cut found on page 27 on the sleeve key.  It is set as a 7" cut, however with the Explore machine I am able to manipulate the size of the card, and made this a standard A2 size (4.25 x 5.5).

The card base is cut in New England Ivy Cardstock, and then backed with White Daisy.

The pennant is cut twice, once in Ruby (3.25 x 2.25) and then in White Daisy (3 x 2).  I stamped the sentiment from the  Merriest Christmas stamp set (B1468) in Ruby Ink.  The Cardinal is colored using ShinHan Alcohol Markers in Sap Green, Leaf Green, Marigold, Carmine and Bronze .  I then fussy cut it out and popped it using 3D foam tape.

I hope you liked my card, and if you would like to purchase any of the supplies used to create this card you can purchase them here or you can contact me. 

Sparkle and Shine meets AHSC #73

This week I have been trying to get caught up on all my computer projects, I've had some blog hops, and other projects on the go, and it's really hard to do so when your computer isn't working properly.  Well, we solved that problem and went out and bought a new computer.  We are getting the old one fixed(only a little over a year old, so not really old at all) and will have that as a back up.

Anyway, I've still a bit behind in my scheduled projects, as I'm writing this post and doing all my linking well after the time in which our sketch challenge goes live.....

Here is this weeks sketch:

Here is my card:

I used the Christmas themed paper from last year, Sparkle & Shine.  I really loved this paper.  I added the scallop border as I thought it needed a little more detail since it was such a very clean and simple design.  I think it still has that CAS aspect, just polished a bit.  The sentiment comes from the Perfect Fit - Holidays stamp set and is stamped in Juniper.

I hope you decide to play along with us this week, but before you get crafty, head on over to Atlantic Hearts Sketch Challenge and visit all of our designers to get inspired.  This week our guest designer is Brandy Ortiz-Lees.

Tis The Season with AHSC #70

I've really been in the mood for making Christmas cards lately and really like this new Hostess Stamp Be Jolly(B1455).  Hostess stamps are only available to those who hold parties, or place a large enough order to obtain the rewards.

I also used the stamp set Yuletide Greetings( D1553).  I coloured the holly leaves and berries using the New ShinHan Alcochol Markers, using the same colours for the holly and berries on the sentiment.

Here is this weeks sketch:

 

Here is my card:

Supplies:

Ruby Cardstock

White Daisy Cardstock

Olive Cardstock

ShinHan Alcohol Markers

Ruby Chevron Ribbon(retired)

3D Foam Tape

Epoxy Bubbles

I hope that you will now head over to Atlantic Hearts Sketch Challenge and visit the Design Team members and see what they have come up with for this weeks sketch.