Halloween at Midnight

For the contests at Fantabulous Cricut Challenge and Heart 2 Heart  I am using the pop out card from Cricut Cartridge Artfully Close To My Heart.  The banner is from Cricut Cartridge Formal Occasions.  For the Happy Halloween, I used the Cricut print from Cricut Design regular.  This is the first time that I have made a pop out card and it really wasn't that hard.  Of course my paper comes from KatiesCorner CTMH.  Halloween is such a fun holiday and I wish all of you a very happy and safe one.

Barn scene

A friend of ours is a retired farmer and still lives on his home place.  His birthday is this week.    I was so excited that Pile It On had a scene for their contest.  I'm also submitting to Inspiration Destination.

The barn is made from Cricut Cartridge Country Life  and the tractor is from Cricut Cartridge Boys Will Be Boys.  Most of the paper came from Close To My Heart at Katie's Corner.  I ran the fences through the Cuttlebug using the strip embossing folder to make the boards stand out from the posts.  The Happy Birthday stamp is from CTMH set Joyful Birthday Occasios in CTMH ruby.   Although the weather vein does now show up in the picture, I rubbed silver ink on it to make it stand out a little.  Most of the paper is from Close to My Heart,  I tried to cut the trim on the barn from some scrap paper and it would not cut clean and tore.  I used CTMH paper and it was a very clean cut.

witches hat

Halloween is a such a fun holiday, especially since my birthday is the day before.  A friend of mine was going to be gone on a trip on my birthday so she had a  luncheon party for me yesterday.  It was so nice and the soup and salad were delicious as was my birthday cake.  I wanted to send a unique thank you card and decided to use Bitten By The Bug contest for the idea.  I used the witch's hat from Cricut cartridge  Happy Haunting.  I used a font from Cricut Design.  I thought that it looked a little like a skull and cross bones.   It says "I tip my hat to you."  I will write a thank you note on the inside.  Most of the paper is from Close to My Heart, which of course came from KatiesCorner.

Balloon ride

This week is my daughter's birthday so for Fantabulous Cricut Challenge I made the balloon card from Cricut cartridge Wild Card 2.  I used the basic primary colors on a grey base.  I used my Cricut Explore and cut and  put in the lines for the creases at the same time.   There were several changes of mats, but by using the card design, it was a simple but fun project.  I felt that the clouds looked a little bland so I used Liquid Pearl baby blue paint and drew scribbles on them.    The cardstock that I used is from Close to my Heart.  I printed "Fly High on your Birthday" on the inside.   

I was pleased with the outcome and wish her a birthday as wonderful as she is.                            

leaf wreath

I am a volunteer for the activities division of the nursing home that my husband resides in and I help come up with ideas for projects that the residents can make each week.  It is difficult to pick a project for all as some are able to do advanced work and others are physically or mentally challenged.  They love to have a project that can be hung in their rooms or on their doors. When I first saw Bitten by the Bug's challenge, I immediately thought of making leaves to put on wreath forms, but money is tight and we couldn't afford the forms; so I cut a six inch wreath from the Cricut Christmas in a brown color. Then the Maple leaf from  Cricut and Close to my Heart Art Philosophy.  I have Cricut Design so I have many designs to choose from.  I cut the basic leaf pattern in yellow and orange CTMH Paper.  I then drew on the veins of the leave with CTMH art pencil in Oak Brown.  I have a very old set of pencils and not sure that they still have Oak Brown.  A piece of raffia paper in green was cut, spread out and glued on the top of the wreath.  Of course all Close to my Heart items are purchased from Katie's Corner.

The patients loved  the project and some made very intricate vein designs on the leaves and others simply glued the blank leaves on the wreath.  For the nursing home, I made several colors of  leaves and they could choose what they wanted to use and they all loved their finished project.

Round Card

I love odd shaped cards so I was so enthused when Fantabulous Cricut Challenge had the challenge : card shape besides square/rectangle.  

This card was made from the Cricut cartridge Art Philosophy in lavender paper.  The front is also from Art Philosophy using the doily cut.  The center is stamped with Close to My Heart  stamp from the set Classy Doily Flair.  I used CTMH colored pencils for the yellow, blue and red.  Topped the stamped area with Liquid Glass.  I put the Liquid Glass on before gluing the doily to the card and it caused the center to bow up a little bit.  I took advantage of that and glued a small amount of cotton under the center of the bow.  The card looks like it is puffy.  Since this card has no sentiment on the outside, it can be used for any purpose.  I used CTMH paper for this card.  I made another similar to this,  but the paper was from Walmart and the cut was not nearly as clean.  I have found it's always worth it to use good paper for cards.  It doesn't cost that much more and makes a much nicer card.  As always, my CTMH is purchased from Katies Corner.

Halloween

I am having so much fun exploring my new Cricut Explore that I had to enter the contest on Exploring Cricut.  I used Cricut Design to get the images.  The tombstone and the witch came from Wrap It Up and the hand coming from the grave, the coffin and the pumpkin were from Happy Hauntings.

All were made from the patterns, but I did change the tombstone just a little.  The grass I rubbed on the Close to My Heart inkpad Ponderosa Pine and the background to the tombstones were touched to the CTMH ink pad Black,  Most of the paper is from Close to My Heart purchased, of course, Katies Corner.

I also put a strip of paper which measure the length and width of the sides of the tombstones behind the tombstones as I am going to put a little gift in each one and wanted more of a box.  This has no top to it so I will wrap the gift in orange tissue paper and set it in the box.

I made a couple of each image and am going to use them as favors for a party that will be just before Halloween.  I know that my friends will just love them as they all have a weird sense of humor and Halloween is their favorite secular holiday.

Truck

My grandson's birthday is coming up and I wanted to make him a special card to depict what he likes.  This was hard as he really loves his horse, but I have used horses for his past several birthdays.  He does love trucks and antique vehicles. He is also a senior at Purdue University in the School of Agriculture.   So I decided to combine the two for this card.  I used The Cricut Explore to cut the designs from the Cricut Design.  The cartridge names are:  Nifty Fifties for the truck, County Fair for the Barn and Winter Is In The Air for the trees.

I used mostly Close to My Heart Paper purchased from Katie's Corner.  Three different shades of green were used for the trees to show some depth.  I used the Cuttlebug with the CTMH Woodgrain Embossing Folder to make some texture to the grass.  For the driveway, I used course sandpaper.  I think that all the colors are obvious so won't list them.  I did put some CTMH Chocolate Ink Pad on the tree trunks to make them brown.  I also used the text Country Life for the Cricut design for the Happy Birthday.  Liquid glass was used to make it stand out.

I am entering this in Sentimental Sundays.

Fall

   Fall is starting here in Indiana.  It is cooler and the days are getting shorter.  Thoughts of Halloween and Thanksgiving are coming to life.

   I am a volunteer for an organization that sends birthday cards to their employees and boards.  They had been printing them on a computer and I thought that they looked cheap, so I volunteered to make the cards for each month.  I was going to keep them simple and quick to make!  I can make them all alike for each month, which makes them quicker.

   I thought the fall theme for Exploring Cricut would be perfect for November Birthdays.  By using my wonderful Cricut Explore, I cut out a cornucopia from the cartridge Celebrate wit Flourish.  There are 4 layers to it and I used Close to My Heart Paper purchased from Katie's Corner for most of it.

   The flower pot is from the cartridge Freshly Picked.  I cut off the flowers that were on it.  Cut it out of light brown paper and then colored with CTMH Sunset marker to get the color I wanted. The stems of the flowers are from Mother's Day 2010  also from CTMH. The blooms are from the cartridge Mother's Day Bouquet. I cut two for each flower.  Then after putting three on the eraser end of a pencil and folding down the petals, I placed one on each unfolded bloom that had a spot of glue in the center.  The wording came from Text on the Cricut Explore.

  I haven't put a verse inside yet as I am not sure just what I am going to say, but I plan on putting it on a pumpkin and gluing it to the inside.

  I'm also sending this to Bitten by the Bug 2 where the theme is Cricut cuts!

Purse

The challenge for Bitten By The Bug 2 this week is a purse.  My brother's wife is having a birthday this week and thought that this card would be perfect for her.  It was fun to make and took a little customizing.












I used Suburbia for the girl and Kate's A B Cs for the purse.  I got both from Cricut Design and cut them out on my Cricut Explore.  I cut one figure of the girl out of black and then the second figure with collar and button holes out of black.  I cut off the arms, legs and head from second figure, then glued a small piece of white under the button holes.  I cut the collar  from that and cut by hand out of white.  For the purse and flowers, I used light and dark pink, for the leaves I used light green.   The words "Stepping Out On Your Special Day"  I used the text from Cricut Design.  For "Happy Birthday" I used the stamp set Joyous Birthday Occasions in black ink.  Most of the paper and the ink and stamp were Close To My Heart purchased from Katie's Corner.

Rose

My brother and his wife have an anniversary coming up and so I wanted to make something special.  Atlantic Hearts Challenge  had a very nice sketch that I thought would suit the bill.  I used the Cricut  Explore and the Designs Space to cut out all shapes.  I printed Happy Anniversary on the dark blue  in Silver pen.  I do love the Cricut Explore as I can print and cut out in the same step.  I used red  and pink paper for the rose and green for the stem.  

The rectangles are all the same design, just different sizes. The banners are a lighter blue and the background for the rose is white.  It is so easy to use the Cricut Design as I only need to type in what I want and several designs for that image come up and I can select the one that I like best.  All paper was from Close to My Heart purchased from Katie's Corner.  I used the CTMH The Giving Hand stamp set for my inside sentiment.  There is a lovely quote by Mother Theresa in this set.

leaves

Fall is approaching: the smell of bonfires, the rustle of fallen leaves and clean crisp air.  My favorite time of the year.  Of course, when the other seasons come around, I will say that they are my favorite time of year.  I complain about Indiana, but I love the changing seasons and wouldn't want to live anywhere else.

I was inspired by the beautiful creations at Curtain Call Challenge - Leaves.  Click the link to see them.

This card is made with The Cricut Explore and mostly Close To My Heart paper, ink and stamp.
The cartridges used were: maple leaf-Artbooking, other leaves- When I was  Kid, pumpkin-Pumpkin Carvings.  On the inside, I used a shape from Artiste in orange paper  with the message printed on a white square of paper glued on top.  The message is "Pleasant thoughts are sent your way with a heartfelt wish for a happy day" from the Right Words for any Occasion.  The stamp for the happy birthday was from the Joyful Birthday Occasions and in Topiary.

All CTMH papers, inks, and cartridges are from Katiescorner.  I'm told there are some great deals going on to celebrate National Stamping Month and 30 Years of Happy!

Happy B'day

This card is for Atlantic Hearts.  I have so many birthdays coming up in September and October that I hope that I can get all the cards made.  This card is made on the Cricut Explore using the rectangle frame from Close to My Heart Artbooking and the lace corner from Picturessque.  The center of the rectangle is made from the piece that was cut out of the rectangle only turned over.   I used  the Daisy White ink Close to My Heart  stamp Joyful Birthday Occasions using CTMH Inkpad Topiary.  I added rick rack and a lace butterfly. 

The Girl

I am using this card for Exploring Cricut and Bitten by the Bug.  It was so much fun to make, but more difficult that I thought it would be.  I do have the Cricut Explore and the design package and it took a long time to decide which girl and which dress I wanted to use.  The  girl is from Block Party, the dress from Formal Occasion and the  mirror is from Forever Young.    The lips on the formal girl were cut freehand.

I added a flower for her hair and sequins and glitter to the dress.  The straps of the dress and the tiara are made with rhinestones.  The background is striped wallpaper.  All other cardstock is  from Close to My Heart  through Katie's Corner.  The writing on the front is Mirror Mirror who is fairest of them all.  (Not enough room to include on the wall.)  On the inside is You Are Of Course.  Happy Birthday.  The Happy Birthday is from the stamp Joyful Birthday Occasions, and the color of the ink pad is Topiary.  

This card is going off to Bitten by the Bug 2 ~ Dressing Up and Exploring Cricut and More ~ Happy Birthday with sparkle!

Campin' Cowgirl

Since camping is the theme for this week's contest at Fantabulous Cricut Challenge, I thought that I would have to skip this contest as I would rather stay in a nice Holiday Inn with a pool than outdoors with the bugs!   Then I thought about my great-granddaughter and she talks about camping out at the horse shows.  She says that she gets to stay in the trailer with the horses!  Truth is Grandpa and Grandma have a horse trailer  with living quarters in the front and the horses are in the back.  They have a kitchen, air-conditioning, bedroom and bathroom; so it is not much of a hardship.

Great granddaughter's birthday is this week, so I made her a card to represent her on her horse at the show's campground.  I used the Cricut Explore Rearing Cowgirl from the cartridge YeeHaw.  

By the way, I have the yearly subscription for the Cricut Images and I just love it.  I don't think that there is an image that I could want that isn't there.  

I used Close to My Heart paper from Katie's Corner for the girl and horse:  black, saddle, sky blue, pacifica and colonial white.  Since my great-granddaughter has red hair, I traced around the hair part from the pattern on the colonial white, cut it out and colored it with colored pencils, blending oak brown and holiday red. (Pencils are old so may not be same names as now.)   I did the same for the cowgirl hat, but used sky blue marker to color the hat.  Exact match to the sky blue paper used in the shirt. I used a barn siding paper for the background.  I also put rhinestones on the hat and shirt.  

Thank you

The colors from Color My Heart, were perfect for the thank you note that I need to send.  Everything I used was from Close To My Heart and Cricut.  Color pencils for the sunset-pear-barn red. I used the floral stamp from A friend is...and the butterfly stamp from Love This Seasons and Nature.  The banner is from the Cricut-Close To My Heart cartridge Artiste. Of course my CTMH came from  Katie's Corner.  Just received my first order from the new catalog and am very excited.  So many great new things.

butterfly

My daughter invited me to her home to see and try out her new Cricut Explore.  I used it to cut out the butterfly card using Close to My Heart paper from the Balloon Ride Packet.  I used one reversed  butterfly shadow and one not reversed, put them wingtips to wingtips and welded them together.  I then cut one shadow in white paper to glue on the inside so that I could write on it.  I cut out the filigreed layer just a bit smaller from black paper and glued it to the front.  I also put rhinestones on the body of the butterfly.  I now have a very pretty note card to send to a special friend.

I loved her  Cricut Explore so much, I came home and ordered one for me.  I also ordered quite a lot of the new products from the Close To My Heart  Annual Inspirations Catalog  from Katie's Corner.   When everything arrives I am gong to have such a fun time!

I'm sending this off to Fantabulous Cricut Challenge ~ Bug Out!

Sweet Life

As you can probably tell by my cards, I love to have a scene on mine.  I thought that this card would fit in Bitten By The Bug 2 and Exploring Cricut.

I used the cartridges A Child"s Life for the little boy fishing and Animal Kingdom for the dog.  I decided to alter the cut slightly by cutting the fishing line off the pole and using 3 strands of black embroidery thread instead.  I also cut the grass apart to be able to put it where I wanted it.   I used Close to My Heart pencils in the shades of Grey, Holiday Red, Star Spangled Blue, Sunny Yellow and Pink to color the boy and Oak Brown to put the spots on the dog.   I used CTMH New England Ivy for the grass and White for fish and boy.  I used Cashmere for the dog.  For the stamp, I used CTMH Sweet Life.

This card reminds me of when I was little (many, many years ago);CTMH products came from Katie's Corner.
my cousin and I would go back to our farm pond and fish.  He always caught the most fish and after every one he would yell at me "Hey Cuz, ain't this the sweetest life!"

Friendship

Although I am not an artist, I have been taking classes in watercolor.  I decided to do something a little different for the Color My Heart challenge.

I didn't have the right colors in Close to My Heart pencils to color my girl, but did have Barn Red, and Pacifica in the ink.  I substituted Sky for the Crystal Blue.  I used a small paint brush and different amounts of water to make the different shades.  For the pink on the skin I used a fairly wet brush and just lightly touched the barn red ink pad then blotted with a paper towel. The dryer the brush and the more times I painted over it the darker the color.  I used the Pacifica on the patches and Sky for the dress.

The pinwheel is CTMH Sky paper on a toothpick with a sparkle in the middle.  I did use brown for the hair and black for the shoes.  I used the CTMH stamp "Stitches with Love" and CTMH Liquid Glass to cover after painting.  I let it dry over night and cut is out and glued it to the card.

Katie, my CTMH consultant from KatiesCorner, suggested that I make cards and leave the inside blank.  All I have to do is either stamp the inside or write on the inside to use for any occasion.

This painting technique was fun to do, and I got to use the stamp pads in a different way.

Butterflies

Father's Day is coming up, so I wanted to make something for my husband.  He has always been fascinated with butterflies.  He had a butterfly garden at home, but the nursing home he is in doesn't have one, so he can't enjoy them as much as he would like.  

I used Close to My Heart Paper  in the colors of Denim Blue and Honey for the butterflies and New England Ivy for letter shadows, with Olive for the letters. I used the Cricut cartridge Art Philosophy for all of the cut outs.  

This cards is very simple, but took some time to make, as it was hard to place letters on top of the shadow letters in just the right way.  This card will fit in several contests this week; Color My Heart, Fantabulous Cricut Challenge, and Bitten by the Bug 2.  

I wish all the fathers out there a very happy Father's Day.  

Music

My favorite younger grandson (I also have a favorite older grandson) will be 16 this month.  He loves music and plays a mean trumpet.  So for his birthday card, I used the Cricut Quarter Note Cartridge  to cut the trumpet and the notes and the Cricut Craft Room Basics to cut the heart.  To keep with the Heart to Heart contest, I used Blue for the heart.  For the embossing on the heart, I used the Cricut Cuttlebug Floral Bouquet and sanded over the top with Close to my Heart fine sandpaper purchased from Katie's Corner.  All of this altering means it fits the Bitten by the Bug 2 Challenge this week, also!  On the inside of the card I used the Music of Life Close to my Heart stamp "Music is Love in Search of a Word with Close to my Heart Outdoor denim ink.   Since my card includes so many die cuts, I'm also sending it over to Scrapbooker PhD where the challenge is to use your die cuts!

Let Your Heart Soar

Isn't this weather wonderful?  Even when there are storms, it is warm and NO SNOW!!

My flowers are starting to bloom, which inspired me to do Heart to Heart's garden theme.  I used Close to My Heart  card stock (from Katie's Corner, of course) and my Cricut to make the tree, animals and the flowers.  I used Close To My Heart markers to make accents on flowers, and the deer.

flowers and rain

The challenge themes over at Heart 2 Heart (Flowers) and Fantabulous Cricut Challenge (April Showers) inspired this card.

The flowers were cut from three different Cricut cartridges:  purple flowers from Walk in My Garden, yellow from Easter, and red from Mother's Day.

The clouds were cut from the Cricut cartridge Serenade.  The cat is from Cricut Animal Kingdom.

The stamp set is Close to My Heart Follow Your Dreams and stamped with CTMH Outdoor Denim ink.  I used glue drops with glitter for the rain and put some black water color on a yellow cat to represent a tiger cat.

# 1 Nephew

I thought the Retrosketches Challenge and the Color My Heart Challenge went together perfectly.  I used the Cricut Cartridge Art Philosophy 5 in. outdoor denim-4 in. Indian corn blue-3 in. Honey Close to My Heart paper.  The "button" is Cricut  Artiste from CTMH Pacifica paper with a black #1 glued on it and a heavy coat of Liquid glass.  The ribbon is also CTMH Pacifica paper.  They word nephew is an old CTMH stamp Private Eye Tiny Caps in CTMH Pacifica ink. Since I only have one nephew, he is my #1 nephew.  He would be my #1 Nephew even if I had a dozen!  I will put a birthday sentiment on the inside and hope I get it sent to him on his birthday.

Follow your dreams

It is such a beautiful, happy spring day so for the Exploring Cricut Challenge I used the spring theme with red and yellow tulips.  The flowers are from the cartridges A Child's Year and Cindy Loo.  I added the bunny from the cartridge Easter for the Fantabulous Cricut Challenge.  The birds are from the Cindy Loo cartridge and were put in for the Bitten By the Bug 2 Challenge. The grass is from the Easter cartridge and the tree from the Cindy Loo.  

The tree and the tulips were made by cutting one tree and the four tulips from green and one tree from brown and two tulips each from yellow and red.  I cut the green leaves from the green tree and glued them on the brown tree.  Tulips were made by cutting heads from the red and yellow and gluing them to the green stems and leaves.  Follow your dreams was stamped by using the Close To My Heart stamp Follow Your Dreams with CTMH Outdoor Denim stamp pad ink.  The birds, bunny and blooms have been covered with CTMH liquid glass.

Mama Bunny and Son

What a wonderful season!  Easter cards are so much fun to make. For the Color My Heart Challenge I chose the Cricut cartridge Artbooking for the frame, Close to my Heart juniper paper and embossed it with the Cuttlebug  Dot folder.  I used the CTMH stamp set Egg Hunt and used CTMH pencils in Juniper, Sorbet and Creme Brulee.  I also used the neutral color grey for the bunnies. To make the bunnies and the egg to standout a little more, I covered them with liquid glass.  I get my CTMH products from Katie's Corner.

Gathering Eggs!

Happy Easter to everyone!  

For the Bitten by the Bug 2 Challenge I used the Cricut Easter cartridge for all cuts except the background and for that I used the Cricut CTMH Art Philosophy.  Don't you just love the Cricut and Close to My Heart Combinations?  I first learned about them at a Katie's Corner party.  I have the 3 they have made and hope they make more.

I used the Cuttlebug embossing folder Baby's Breath and rubbed over it with a CTMH Blush ink pad.  Used a pearl for the eye with CTMH blush pen coloring it.  Very small sequins were put on the basket with the Easter eggs covered with liquid glass.  I do hope you noticed the tiny bit of cotton for the bunny's tail.

New Life

Easter is the at the time of year when life begins anew.  Flowers begin blooming, baby birds are hatching, farm animals giving birth and butterflies emerging from their cocoons.  It is the resurrection of Christ giving new life for Christians.

My card for the Exploring Cricut Challenge represents this beginning.  I used lavender card stock for the cross with light blue for the decoration.  I used green and yellow cardstock for the flowers.  Both designs came from the Cricut Easter Cartridge.  I put rhinestones on the centers of the flowers and used the orange CTMH  pencil for the lines on the flowers.  I embellished the blossoms on the flowers and the decoration on the cross with liquid glass.  Happy Easter is CTMH Gypsy ink on Private Eye Tiny Caps.  By the way, this stamp set is older and no longer in the catalog.  The butterflies are rub-ons that I happened to find in my extras drawer.

All new products from CTMH come from Katie's Corner.

Easter Bunny

The snow is gone and it is starting to warm up in Indiana.  Soon the Easter Bunny will be visiting with colored eggs and candy.  I especially like the candy part!

For the Color My Heart Challenge I am using CTMH Lagoon paper and the cartridge Cricut Art Philosophy to make a frame.  I just made the shape in two different sizes, one size about a half an inch  smaller than the other.  I used the Mrs. Bunny stamp and the Easter basket stamp from the CTMH Egg Hunt stamp set.  I used a blend of Sunset and Smoothie CTMH pencils for the bunny's cap and apron.  The dress is Smoothie with flowers Sunset and eggs are Smoothie with Sunset decoration.  I used Buttercup for the basket and Sweet Leaf for the grass beneath the basket.  Black CTMH pencil for the shoes and Dessert Sand for the bunny.

I used the CTMH Embossing Folder,  Dot on the frame and brushed the tops with white Daisy ink pad. For the Happy Easter I used the CTMH Private Eye Tiny Caps and the Lagoon ink pad.  

When I first read all the colors to be used, I thought it would be difficult to include them all, but actually it was very easy.

An Easter egg

Coloring and decorating Easter eggs brings so many happy memories of times with my children and grandchildren, I felt that I just had to use an Easter egg card for the challenge at Heart 2 Heart.  The back ground of the card is made in Blush, corners in Sweet Leaf the base of the egg in Smokey Plum and the decoration on the egg in Hollyhock then coated with liquid glass.

All of these products were purchased from Close to My Heart at Katie's Corner.  The corners were embossed with the Cuttlebug embossing folder D'vine Swirl and the egg was made with the Cricut Easter cartridge.

A happy Easter to everyone.

Singing in the rain.

Indiana has had too many April showers and it is only the first part of April.  Most of the state is under a flood warning at this time.  I decided to make a card that shows a  happier side of April showers.  The silhouette of a little girl with an umbrella about to step in a puddle.  I am sure that she is singing as she skips along.  Mama Duck is right behind her quacking "look at my 3 adorable babies."

The silhouette is made in slate grey paper with a black patterned paper on the umbrella with the Cricut cartridge A Child's Year.  The ducks are made with white paper for mama and yellow paper for goslings from the Cricut cartridge Animal Kingdom.   CTMH colored pencils were used to color the feet and beaks.  The puddle and raindrops were made by blending CTMH Lagoon and Sky Markers, then the drops were dotted with CTMH liquid glass and the puddle covered the liquid glass and lightly sprinkled with glitter.  I feel that I may have overdone the raindrops, but as I made the card it was raining so hard that I couldn't see across the street!  The letters are from  two old sets of CTMH  stamps using the Lagoon ink pad.  This card is being entered in the BBTB2 Challenge.

Spring on the farm

I think there is a possibility there will  be a spring this year, although snow is in the 10 day forecast.  I am really hoping that my note cards will at least bring spring into the hearts of the friends that I am going to send them to.

I used Cricut cartridge A Child's Year to cut out the spade, tulips and boy with a bird.  He reminded me of a friend I had on the farm who could coax birds to land on his hand.  It always fascinated me how he could do it even though I was very frightened of birds.

This boy is cut from CTMH slate and the bird is painted blue with a CTMH Opaque pearl as the eye.  The spade is also from the slate and the shovel of the spade is aluminum cut from a diet coke can and glued on to the spade.  The tulips are  from a scrap of  green and a scrap of yellow.  I like to use scraps of paper whenever I can as I save almost everything!  The blooms of the tulips have CTMH  Liquid Glass applied.  The WELCOME SPRING is from a CTMH stamp set in outside denim ink.  The background is a printed paper of blue and very light grey.

This card will be entered  in Bitten By the Bug 2, Fantabulous Cricut Challenge, Exploring Cricut and More, and Heart 2 Heart.

Luck of the Irish

This is my St. Patrick's Day entry for the crafting contests.  I created it for my husband who is bound to a wheelchair and in a nursing home.  He enjoys receiving mail often.  I felt a colorful card would put a smile on his face!

I used the Cricut cartridge "St. Patrick's Day" for the rainbow and pot of gold and the Cricut/CTMH cartridge Art Philosophy for the background.  I used CTMH white paper for rainbow and black paper for pot.  The rainbow is colored with CTMH colored pencils and the gold is embossed with the CTMH dot embossing folder.  I used a cotton pad to rub Topiary ink on the card surrounding the background.

A great big thank you to  Katie from Katie's corner for the new ideas that she showed at a CTMH party this past weekend.  I would never have thought about using a cotton pad to rub stamp pad ink on a card.

My card is going to the following challenges:

BBTB2
Heart to Heart
Exploring Cricut and More

Truckload of Wishes

  It is difficult for me to come up with ideas for cards for the males in our family so they get a lot of trucks, planes and boats on their cards.  This is the first year that I have had a grandson-in-law so what do I make so that he knows Grandma is happy to have him in the family?  I used red for the truck as red is my favorite color for vehicles.  Every car that I have purchased for myself has been red from the 1966 Hornet, which was my first car, to the Ford Focus that I drive now.  I like most colors so it is hard to pick just certain colors for a project.

   On the inside I will write "A truck full of good wishes are coming your way to help you celebrate on this very special day."  I sure hope that he likes it!

   This card is also me because it looks happy.  I am basically a very happy person and have a smile on my face most of the time.  I enjoy antiques, therefore the antique truck.

   I am going to enter this in Fantabulous Cricut Challenge Blog.  I used the Cricut cartridges Heritage and Country life.  The sun was made from cutting two of the sun over the horizon, cutting off the sun parts and gluing a circle over them.  The truck is from Country Life.  I used Close To My Heart paper and stamp pad.

  CTMH makes the best stamp pads.  When I have bought other kinds, I end up throwing them out.  Almost everything I use on my cards is from Cricut and CTMH.

Music Flourishes!

This is a busy week so I am using one card for Heart to Heart Challenge and Fantabulous Cricut Challenge.
A friend who is an accomplished pianist  is having a birthday next week and I designed this card for her.  I used CTMH red, white and black paper.  Cut the rectangles with a paper cutter.  The piano is from Cricut Quarter Note.  The flourishes are from Cricut Artiste and the top boarder is from Cricut Artbooking.
I used a CTMH stamp, The Music of  Life on the inside of the card:  "Music gives a soul to the Universe, Wings to the Mind,  Flight to the Imagination and Life to Everything." Plato.

Thank you gift box.

My husband is in a nursing home and the nurses and aids are so kind to him. I wanted to make a small thank you gift for them to show my appreciation for all they do.  I thought that Juniper, Blush and Sorbet were the perfect colors to make this gift box as they remind me of spring.  We now have 14 inches of snow and thoughts of spring are very welcomed!!!  I love Close To My Heart and Cricut so I used the Artiste cartridge, CTMH paper and the Cuttlebug Climbing Rose folder for the strip.

I am submitting this to Color My Heart Challenge blog.  It is my first challenge experience!  Can't wait to play!

First Post

Prince the mini

Millie the cat

Pippa the dog

This is my first post!  I've started this blog post to share my love of crafting with fellow crafters.  My daughter and granddaughter have gotten me into all of the wonderful CTMH products and now I'm ready to start entering some of the fun challenges and dares via the web!