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.