Try Something New!

It's time for another challenge from Scrappy Frog's Challenge Blog!  This month, the theme is to try something new.  I think January is a great time to try something new - whether you got a new product for Christmas, or just want to spread your wings a little for the new year.

My personal challenge was some treat tubes.  I have wanted to do something with tubes for a while, but I have to admit that I have been a little intimidated & unsure what to do with them so I never bought any. But then Close To My Heart came out with this promotion for National Papercrafting Month, so the timing was right to try some. Here's how mine turned out:

What I liked about these is that they didn't come with instructions, but there were several sample pictures for inspiration.  I didn't even feel the need to copy any of them, so that was great! I even found some yummy "cherry lovers" heart shaped jelly beans to fill them.  Here are some more pictures:

The little boxes came pre-cut & scored, I just stamped on them before I put them together.

I used Liquid Glass for most of the assembly, plus Glue Dots for adhering things to the tubes, and foam tape.

The glitter paper was easy to cut with the Cricut and scissors, and I also used Glitz glitter gel for more bling.

So, I hope my project inspired you to try something new too!  Be sure to go link up your project at Scrappy Frog's so we can see what you tried. For more info on the promo kit I used to make my project, just read on...

Whooo's Your Valentine (shameless self promotion!)
In celebration of National Papercrafting Month, we’re offering a new product, available through January — our Whooo’s Your Valentine kit! This darling kit, which retails for $40, can be yours for only $10 when you spend $35 or more in Close To My Heart product. The kit includes 12 die-cut boxes, 3 cardstock sheets, 1 sheet of silver,gray, or black glitter paper, 12 treat tubes, and an exclusive D-size stamp set created specifically for the kit! Perfect for gifts and classroom projects, the Whooo’s Your Valentine kit will make Valentine’s Day a cinch!

You can see everything here on my website.  And FYI, I had a lot of paper left over from making my tubes. Can't wait to make more glittery projects with my leftovers!

If you've never shopped with CTMH before and need some ideas of what to buy for $35, there are lots of options to use with the kit and beyond. 

I used ink pads in Ruby, Hollyhock, and Blush, plus Slate for my neutral (Black would be cool also).  Other good additions are the adhesives I mentioned: Liquid Glass, Glue Dots, and 3-D Foam Tape.  

That's it for today; thanks for taking the time to stop by!

Complete! Advent Calendar Success

As I suspected, once I finally got the wood base assembled for this Kaisercraft advent calendar, it turned out beautifully!  And I hope the wood construction means that it will last for years.

I left my base plain as it came since it matched my papers, but you could easily paint it. The drawers are large enough to hold a small treat for each of my (three) kids, and I plan to put slips of paper inside some with an activity for that day (great for weekends!).

Because the joinery shows when assembled, I covered the top and sides.  I chose an allover small print because it's larger than 12" and needs to be pieced.  I used a zip strip from one of my papers along the center of the top, but it would look fine plain also.

I chose to cover the front and sides of each box with a variety of the papers & cardstocks in the Pear & Partidge paper pack.  I distressed all of the edges using the distressing tool that looks a bit like an emery board.  I also inked and gold embossed all of the edges & corners of the base boxes for bling.

I decorated the box fronts with an assortment of embellishments and the November stamp of the month set, Capture The Date.  I like that is has several sizes/styles of numbers so I could use different ones depending on how much room I had. (Sorry, the red velvet rub-ons I used are no longer available, except as part of Hostess Collection 4, while supplies last.)

This box is the easiest possible! I just used one of the Dimensional Elements In Color and stamped a "3" on it. Super quick!

This one uses a couple of rub-ons for the leaves; all of the other items are from the Antiqued Gold Mini-Medley Accents Collection.

This is another from the Pear & Partridge Glittery Rub-Ons.  I added a little extra glitter with some Pink Glitz glitter gel on the berries. These are super easy to put on using the Rub-On Tool.

This is another of the Dimensional Elements In Color.  I punched a hole in the top of the ornament and added some twine for a hanger.  I adhered the twine to the inside of the box using some Liquid Glass.

Finally, this set of three uses one larger rub-on. They can easily be cut apart and applied across multiple items.  Or, the rub-ons can also be layered on top of each other for dimension, like a bird overlapping part of a snowflake.

I hope you enjoyed this fun project! I would love to hear your comments on it. If you're inspired to make one of your own, here is a list of products I used:

• Kaisercraft Mini Treasure Chest
• Capture the Date, November 2012 stamp of the month
• Pear & Partridge paper pack*
• Pear & Partridge Complements Glittery Rub-Ons*
• Festive Velvet Rub-Ons (not available individually)*
• Dimensional Elements In Color - Holiday *
• Mini-Medley Accent Collection, Antique Gold
• Baker's Twine Harvest Assortment*
• Liquid Glass
• Sanding Kit
• Gold Embossing Powder
• Versamark Ink Pad (or use pigment ink)
• Rub-On Tool
• Exclusive Inks stamp pad in Cranberry, Olive, & Cocoa
• Sparkles in Clear Assortment and Red, Pink, & Purple Assortment
• Glitz glitter gel in Pink, Green, & Almond

* All starred items are available as part of Hostess Collection 4

Advent Calendar and Shop Small Specials

Today I wanted to share a sneak peek of an Advent Calendar I've been working on, and I also realized I didn't post my Small Business Saturday specials here yet.  First, a quick rundown of my specials:

• Any order placed this month will receive a free gift from me, a fun & versatile embellishment kit.
• Shop online and join my Shop Small gathering - any order of at least $35 will receive from me a free Monogram stamp of your choice.
• Any order placed for Small Business Saturday will be entered into a drawing for another surprise free gift. (Extended through MONDAY since I forgot to post earlier!)

Now, on to the Advent Calendar, and a bit of a product review.  This is my drawer for December 1.

(I think I need some kind of template for making those swirls, lol.  I never like how mine turn out!)

I received my Kaisercraft Mini Treasure Chest quite some time ago, but I am just now getting around to using it.  I must say that  if I had known that CTMH would be coming out with the MyCreations Cubby this catalog, I would have waited. I have had a lot of trouble assembling the Kaisercraft chest and getting it to stay together - I think I am going to have to ask hubby for the wood glue and clamps as nothing else stays put for long.  Also, since the drawers are bare chipboard, they require a lot of "finishing".  I know when it is finished it will look nice and hopefully be used for many years, but it has been a hassle for something so pricey ($29.99).

I have not ordered the CTMH MyCreations Cubby myself yet, but at $16.95 I will try it soon. (I think it will make a neat "25 things I love about you" display.)  This one includes only the base, and the boxes are cut using the Artiste Cricut cartridge.  If I leave the base blank, I could even make different themed boxes and switch them out...

I will be posting the entire Advent Calendar as I get it finished up.  So far, I have used the Pear & Partridge paper pack and rubons, a sanding kit, Almond Glitz glitter gel, and the November stamp of the month Capture the Date.

Curious Decor with Graphic45

It's once again my turn to post at Cutters Creek!

 

I recently hit the local Goodwill again, and found another item begging to be altered.  I found this cute (but boring) little silver-toned tray for a whopping $1.99, so I threw it on the ever-growing pile in my cart.  Once I got it home, I pulled out some supplies from Graphic45 and turned it into a fun piece of art.

Using the Olde Curiosity Shoppe 12" x 12" paper pad, I started by cutting four strips of the polka dot paper at 5/8" and pleating it.  I did this by hand rather than using a scoring board for a more random look to the pleats.  I adhered it around the inner edge using 1/4" Scor Tape.  I then used my Cricut to cut an oval approximately 5" x 7" from the red & cream number paper to fit the center of the tray.  I distressed the edges of the paper with a distressing tool, then rubbed a Distress Ink pad in Tea Dye along the edges for an aged look.

I cut the center panel and the "45" piece from two additional papers, and distressed the edges with both the distressing tool and a Distress Ink pad in Antique Linen.  I backed the center panel with black cardstock and adhered it to the tray with adhesive foam. I then adhered an embellished chipboard tag and the "45" piece using more adhesive foam.

I decorate the top of the tray using 2 sizes of metal butterflies from Graphic45 Staples and a butterfly image cut from one of the papers.  Once I had my image cut, I used some Ranger Inkssentials Crackle Accents over the entire image.  When dry, I pierced the center and stacked it with the metal butterflies on a G45 Staples metal brad.  It is adhered to the tray using adhesive foam and Scor Tape.




Finally, I added some additional embellishments from my stash, and it is ready to display.

I hope you enjoyed my little piece of art decor!  If you'd like to make something similar, you can use as few or many of the following supplies as you'd like.

Available from Cutters Creek:

• Graphic45, Olde Curiosity Shoppe 12" x 12" paper pad
• Scor Pal, Scor Tape
• Tim Holtz Distress Inks in Tea Dye and Antique Linen
• Scotch Pop-up Foam Squares
• Ranger Inkssentials Crackle Accents

Other Supplies Used:

• Graphic45, Olde Curiosity Shoppe Chipboard Die-Cuts 1
• Graphic45, Staples metal butterflies and decorative brads
• Tim Holtz, Idea-ology, Clock Key
• black mesh ribbon and "feathery" flower - from my stash

Thanks for stopping by today.  I hope to see you again soon!

It's Time To Rock the Block With Close To My Heart

Hello and welcome to a special CTMH blog hop, where we are gonna "Rock the Block"!  If you're just starting out, or if you're arriving here from Georgia Hauglid's blog, you are in the right place.  When you're done here, you'll move along to Sheila Bennet's blog.

So, why the special blog hop?  To celebrate Close To My Heart's new Rock the Block promotion!  For a limited time, when you place a minimum order of $25 from the Autumn/Winter 2011 Idea Book, you can get two new products for just $15: the My Creations® Collage Cubes (a Spring/Summer 2012 sneak-peek product!) and the exclusive My Acrylix® Rock the Block E-size stamp set. That’s a retail savings of almost $30! You're going to love the Collage Cubes and the Rock the Block stamp set, which work together for interactive, 3-D fun.  And now you have 33 consultants sharing great projects made with these special products, so you'll have plenty of ideas when you get yours in hand!

We spent this weekend traveling to visit my family for early Christmas.  Plus we had an extra trip in there for a Master's Degree graduation. (Trust me, this IS relative, I promise.)  This amount of travel with three kids is NOT fun for me.  So I decided to use these products to make some travel games.  I still have to come up with more, but these two helped keep my kids busy for at least an hour, which was a great help.

First up, an old standby: Tic-Tac-Toe

I used Holiday Red and Sky for this game, using papers from the Believe paper pack and some cardstock.  I cut my Xs and Os using the Art Philosophy Cricut cartridge, and I sponged the edges of everything with coordinating ink.

I used one of the background stamps in the stamp set to add a design in Holiday Red to the pattern paper in Sky with white dots & stars.

For my second game, I got all educational and made a Magic Square Game.  This is a math game in which the numbers need to add up to 15 in ALL directions, including diagonally.  For younger kids, they can skip the diagonal portion or they will get too frustrated.

For this game, I used Sky and Sweet Leaf/Ponderosa Pine, again using paper from the Believe paper pack and cardstock.  I again used one of the background stamps in the set, to make the Sky on Sky dot pattern.  And I used the Art Philosophy Cricut cartridge to cut the numbers 1-9, even numbers from the Sky pattern paper and odd numbers from the Ponderosa Pine cardstock.

Next up, I plan on adding games for longer trips.  There will be one where they try to find signs matching all of the shapes I include on the blocks, and another to find certain colors of cars.  I even had a request for a picture puzzle from one of the kids.  These are all games that don't take long on their own (depending on where we are driving), but will break up the monotony of car trips for all of us.  The great tray that the blocks come in is awesome for keeping this all together on a lap, and we just stuck the entire thing in a big ziploc bag when no one was playing.

I hope you enjoyed your stop here.  I'd love to hear your comments on my games, and any ideas you might have for more, lol.  And feel free to become a follower or subscriber while you're here, and maybe even become a Facebook fan!  When you're ready to shop, you can visit my website 24/7, or contact me for personal assistance.

When you're ready, let's hop on over to Sheila's blog and see what great idea she has for us this time!

Product Spotlight Featuring Echo Park Paper

If you haven't yet started your Christmas crafting, this is your official notice that it's time to get going!  In the spirit of all things Christmas, I'm putting a spotlight on the Season's Greetings collection from Echo Park Paper.  This happens to be my personal favorite Christmas line this year, so it was really easy to whip up a few projects this weekend.  (And I have even more in my head, lol.)

My first of three projects today are some Christmas ornaments.  I do something different with the kids' school pictures every year, and this year's ornaments are made from these sweet over-sized bottle caps.

This is the "top", or outside, of the ornaments,  I covered them each with a paper and embellishments that best suited each child.  I also personalized them with their names and ages so I won't have trouble remembering what year they are.

The left one is embellished with a snowflake brad from the Assorted Brad Pack and letter/number stickers from the collection pack.

The center one is embellished with a wreath from the Season's Greetings chipboard and letter/number stickers from the collection pack.

The right one is embellished with a snowman sticker and letter/number stickers, all from the collection pack.

This is the inside of the ornaments.  I simply lined them with the same paper I used on the outside.  Then I used a large circle punch to cut out their school picture and adhered them to the centers.

In order to hang them, I used a Dremel tool to drill a hole in the top center.  (If you don't know what a Dremel is, I suggest you Google it - it's a handy little tool for all sorts of uses!)  I then doubled some thin satin ribbon and pulled the ends down through the hole and tied an overhand knot.  I trimmed the ends then pulled the ribbon back up until the knot was against the hole.

My second project is a clear gift pail I picked up at Michael's.  I love to fill these with matching paper shreds to hide some little gifts.  They are especially fun for kids as they try to peek through the pail to see what the gift is!

Beautiful, even empty!  I love how the "back side" of the double sided paper shows through.  I used Scor Tape to attach everything, since it holds to plastic well, and keeps things stuck to the curved shape better than other adhesives.

I added a thin border of black cardstock to make that poinsettia paper stand out more.  Next I cut the sentiment from the sheet of Journaling Cards, inked the edges with black ink, and matted it on some coordinating green cardstock.  I poked a hole in the corner and strung through some Doodle Twine, tying it in a bow on the front.  To complete the look, I cut a circle for the lid from the same poinsettia paper.



My final project is a clearly fabulous Christmas card!

 You may wonder why this card looks a little "different".  Well, it's because this is NOT your ordinary card.  This is a clear card, cut with my Cricut from a Clear Scraps Acrylic Sheet.  I cut this one using the card on the Thanksgiving cartridge. (If you're cutting with a Cricut, be sure to test - I needed to multi-cut 4 times on mine with a deep cut blade set at 6 and Max Pressure.)  Here's a view where you can see a little better how the whole clear thing comes in to play.

The key to clear cards is layering, so the outside pieces cover the  inside pieces properly, and add dimension. I used Liquid Glass from Close To My Heart as my adhesive.  It dries clear and is much less noticeable through the clear card than other adhesives.

I started with the inside front of my card.  I adhered a strip of red snowflake paper to the inside front bottom edge and trimmed it by hand after the adhesive dried.  I also adhered a snowflake Journaling Card to the upper left of the inside.  On the outside front, I adhered the rocking horse from the Layered Chipboard on top of the Journaling Card.  Lastly, I wrapped the entire front of the card with some green ricrac from my stash.  In order to keep the hills & valleys matching, I extended the ricrac off the edge of the right side somewhat.  I then added a Craftwork Cards CANDi near the end.

Here you can see the inside of the card, and the matted sentiment I chose to hide behind the embellishments on the front of the card.  I started with the outside back of the card.  I covered the entire back with the striped paper using the Liquid Glass.  Then I moved to the inside back.  Checking against the card front, I adhered a strip of green cardstock across the entire width.  Next I cut a blue mat 3" x 4", the same size as the journaling card on the front.  I lined it up with the journaling card and adhered it on top of the green strip.  Finally, I added my sentiment using stickers from the collection pack.

You can check out the entire collection here - I'm sure you'll love it as much as I do!  I hope you liked today's projects.  Leave a comment and let me know what you think!  I'd also love it if you become a follower or follow by email.

Halloween Decor with Authentique, Close To My Heart, Cricut, and Tim Holtz

While visiting CHA this year, I saw a paper company whose papers I had not seen in person before and I went a little ga-ga.  Authentique Paper's 12x12 papers are heavy weight, printed on both sides of a nicely textured cardstock.  For this project, due to the size, I chose to use the smaller 6x6 papers with their reduced patterns.  These papers are a 65 lb. weight, making them great for layering.  They also carry sticker and cardstock elements, which I don't have on hand, so I just used the papers.

As soon as I saw these 6x6 papers from the Glowing collection, I knew what I wanted to do with them.  Of course, it has taken me until now to finish it, but I absolutely love it!  I ran out and bought a Tim Holtz Configurations box and a package of Box Feet as the base for my project.  The knob is also Tim Holtz, from part of a package I had on hand.

Here are the details of all those little boxes:

 

 This was a really easy one!  I just trimmed the paper to size, traced the web with Black Diamond Stickles, and filled in the spider's body with Liquid Glass.  I adhered the dried piece to a cardstock platform to lift it away from the back of the box.

Here's another easy one.  I stamped the cat with Black Staz-On ink and added some Lime Green Stickles to its eyes.  I also placed this one on an even higher cardstcok platform, bringing it almost to the front of the box.

For this box, I used the new Art Philosophy Cricut cartridge (exclusive from Close To My Heart).  I cut a couple of branches from New England Ivy cardstock and distressed it with black distressing ink.  They are adhered and various points using Liquid Glass adhesive.  The flowers are also from this Cricut cartridge, using the scalloped flower cut on page 68 of the handbook.  I cut them at various sizes, from 1.25" to 2.75", distressed them with the distress ink and rolled them.  I added Black Diamond Stickles to the edges of some of the petals.

This one was done the same way.  For both boxes, I used Liquid Glass to adhere the flowers so they could be manipulated and moved into the desired position.

For this box, I stamped the witch hat directly on the patterned paper using Staz-On ink (I did this for the super dark color.), and I stamped the sentiment on the clear window sheet that goes in the "lid" of the Configurations box.

These two boxes go together.  The witch legs were stamped on white cardstock using Memento ink and colored using a Copic marker for the skin, and an Autumn Terracotta marker (CTMH) for the stockings.  I cut out the image and adhered it to the pattern paper using a Quickie Glue Pen.  I cut the plaque image using Art Philosophy, and trimmed the top of it straight with my paper trimmer.  After stamping the sentiment, I distressed the edges with Autumn Terracotta ink, and adhered it to the pattern paper with two layers of foam tape.

Another easy one, where I just traced the pattern on the paper with Black Diamond Stickles.

I cut both the tree and the "fence" from Art Philosophy.  I adhered the center of the tree only to the pattern paper using a Quickie Glue Pen, and bent up the remaining branches to give some dimension.  I trimmed the "fence" border cut to the proper length, scored folds for the side pieces, and adhered it to the sides of the box using a Quickie Glue Pen.

Here's a list of all the supplies I used:

• Glow Collection 6x6 papers - Authentique Paper
• Configurations box, knob, and Foundations Box Feet - Tim Holtz Idea-ology
• Art Philosophy Cricut cartridge - Close To My Heart exclusive
• Wicked, August stamp of the month - Close To My Heart
• Stickles in Black Diamond and Lime Green - Ranger Ink
• Cardstock, marker, and ink - Close To My Heart
• Memento Black Stamping Ink - Tsukineko
• Staz-On Black Ink - Tsukineko
• Liquid Glass and Foam Adhesive Tape - Close To My Heart
• Quickie Glue Pen - Sakura
• ATG gun - Scotch 3M
• Scor-tape