Category Archives: CTMH

15 years of Close to my Heart goodness!

I Love Us

This week’s challenge over at Heart 2 Heart Challenges is “I Heart Us”. Now, you can take that, as always, in whatever fashion that you want. You can use the paper pack with the same name, or the photos that move your heart.

Today I have a fun two page spread for you, but it isn’t your traditional size that you see me make, they are 6×8 pages perfect for the Everyday Life albums!

I took the pattern 6 from the Make it from your Heart volume 1 book. Those patterns are for 12×12 pages, so I had to do some figuring, but I did, and made it work for the 6×8 pages!

First I started with some mink cardstock cut to 6×8, then I made some masks with a couple of clouds, and did some white ink splatter around the edges of the pages with my water brush. Next I used the negative of those clouds to be able to sponge some pebble and charcoal inks onto the cardstock to create the darker clouds. I cut the title from the cut apart page from the I heart us paper pack, as well as the strips of paper.

I used some foam tape to pop up the title and the clouds. Sparkles and Bitty Sparkles make some fun ‘rain’ on the left side of the left page.

I created a cut file for you to use, if you have the Artistry cartridge, you will be able to recreate this page in no time!

You can find the file here.

I love color, how about you?

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Today’s challenge over at Heart 2 Heart challenges is all about color. This can be interpreted in so many different ways! You can choose to use your own favorite color or color combo, you can use all of them, you can take inspiration from somewhere else, nature, pinterest, other challenges, photos, and so much more, including the CTMH Love of Color Book. Inspiration is everywhere! Today I grabbed a little from here, and a little from there.

So, along with the H2H challenge, I am playing along with Fusion and Color Throwdown! I knew I wanted to play with the sapphire color, and Color Throwdown happened to have a dark blue, Green, and Grey color palette for this week’s challenge . . . how perfect! Over at Fusion, they have a sketch or a photo that you can take inspiration from. Their photo this week is some adorable Penguins, and I’m telling you, if I had the Hostess only stamp set, “Got Snow?” . . . I would totally be using a super cute penguin on my card today! However, that is not one that I have (but I wish I did!), so I couldn’t use it.

Now, the colors that I use are partially one of the color suggestions in the Love of Color book, there are more options in the palette that they suggest, but I wanted to stick with the few for the throwdown challenge! These are very traditional ‘boy’ colors, but it just popped so well!!

This card is mostly plain cardstock, I almost think I should have done a bit of background stamping on the pewter cardstock, but it looks ok anyway! The sentiment is in the cut-aparts from the Something Fierce paper pack, and the banners are scrap pieces that I have had leftover from other projects using this same paper pack!

I love how simply this fun card came together! Tell me what you think of it? If you had this card, who would YOU give it to?

Creativity is in the cards!

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Welcome back! Today I have a super fun card for you! Over at H2H, the challenge this week is to make a non A2 sized. That means that it should be something other than 4 1/4 x 5 1/2. Also today, over at Atlantic Hearts Sketches, is their 300th sketch! So, they are celebrating a bit, go and check it out!

My card today is 3 3/4 x 9 1/4, and fits perfectly into a number 10 envelope. (This is the ‘normal’ long envelope that you see mailed)

I’ve used the Something Fierce papers today, and as you can see, there isn’t a dino in sight, anywhere! This paper pack is so versatile!

I decided to turn the sketch on it’s side, and of course, since I’m doing a skinnier, longer card, things had to be stretched out a smidge.

I cut the coffee cups from the Artistry cartridge, and I was going to do a banner from there as well, but decided to just use a scrap of white cardstock, and wrap the banner myself.

I also decided to make this card be a fun to give card, so there is a small pocket on the inside so that you could put cash or a gift certificate, or even a gift card.

I used three different stamp sets on this card, which is unusual for me, but it turned out so cute! I used the letters from the Simply Said stamp set, the word Enjoy from Picture Perfect, which is one of the sets from the Artistry cricut bundle, and the ‘for you from me’ from Sending Smiles, which is one of the sets from the Flower Market cricut cartridge.

I used the cut outs of the hearts from the cozy on the cups, on the inside of the card. I backed the open hearts on the cozies with scraps from the pink pieces that you see as banners, then I colored them with a couple of coats of the clear shimmer brush. Once that dried, I added a few drops of liquid glass to give it some shine to go with that shimmer!

To make the banner, I stamped on a piece of white daisy cardstock that was 3/4 x about 6 inches. I stamped the sentiment with Archival Black ink, and then I spaced out the coffee cups about how I wanted them (not gluing them down yet) and found a piece of scrap cardstock that I could use to start the folds of the banners. So, I wrapped the scrap cardstock with the banner, but pinched only just the top corner, making sure to angle out the bottom of the banner. Then I folded the end pieces back again, making sure they (mostly) lined up with the straight bottom of the main part of the banner. At that point, I trimmed the ends to be about the same length, and dove tail cut the ends. I used some thin foam tape to pop up the space between the two folds to give it some dimension. Used the same thin foam tape behind the coffee cups, to make it an even lift.

I used some black shimmer trim to help tie in the black of the sentiment on the front and inside of the card.

I do have to say, this is one of my favorite cards in the last little white! So, I hope that you will come join in on both of the challenges this week! The “Not your typical sized card” challenge that is over at Heart 2 Heart and the sketch that is over at Atlantic Heart Sketches!

I would love to hear what you think about this fun little card! Leave a little comment below, and then go check out those fun challenges!

Until next time, stay crafty, my friends!

~Michelle

Tag, You’re It! – CTMH Technique Blog Hop

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Welcome to the CTMH Technique Blog Hop! This month we are playing with tags! Tags come in all sorts of shapes and sizes, so make sure you hop along with us to see how many we can share with you! Today you should have arrived from Michelle’s blog, but if not, that’s ok, it’s a big circle, and you will get back around to her!

So, today I am playing with the Something Fierce paper pack, which is just so fun! I am using the sketch from Fusion Challenge is celebrating their 5th anniversary, and I wanted to share another fun challenge site with you guys!

The sketch is simple, and allows for adding things and making a few little easy changes, and I wanted to show how easy it is to do the same thing with the same cards and papers, and end up with two very different looks!

My first card is very ‘girly’ card. Lots of pinks and greys.

My tag is just a pewter cardstock that I trimmed the corners off of, to match some tags that I have in my stash. I punched a hole with just a hand held punch. Then I used a bit of washi and taped it to a sheet of lined paper, and used the line of dots from the Years of Sweetness stamp set to add some interest. Check it out!

I just alternated where the dots fell, so they weren’t straight lines from the top to the bottom!

I used some white ribbon and mink twine for the punched end, and I added a bit of bling with some sparkles.

My second card is much more ‘boyish’ looking, though it would work for boys or girls. Unfortunately, most of the dinos are hidden under the other elements!

I used the white ribbon again, but paired it with some thick whisper twine. The tag already had the dino feet on it, so I didn’t do any stamping there. To finish it off, I used some of the black and white dots.

I used the same Years of Sweetness set for the sentiments on both cards. On the girl card I stamped the cupcake frosting in ballerina, the candle in first and second generation raspberry ink, and the flame in lemon ink. The Yay was stamped in archival black. On the boy card, the sentiment is stamped in pewter ink. The sentiments are stamped on circles cut with the stitched circles thin cuts.

I hope you have liked my cards today, I would love it if you left me a comment to let me know what you think, or what you might have done differently! (everyone would tweak something just a smidge!)

Next up, is Haley! So, hop on over to her blog, and leave her some love too!

~ Michelle

Have you tried stamping yet?

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This week’s challenge for H2H is background stamping. This week you will see some fun examples of different ways you can get different personalized papers using just your own inks and stamps! It’s the perfect way to be able to make sure your project matches what you are looking for, perfectly!

I showed how to make this card on my weekly FB live, so if you want to watch step by step, jump on over there to check it out!

So, for today’s card, I used both Ballerina and Archival Black inks, Colorful Texture and Years of Sweetness stamp sets, and I used Black and White Daisy cardstock on top of one of the card bases from the Value Pack. I used the decorative borders thin cuts to get the fun scalloped border, glued it all together with some liquid glass, and finished it off with some white ribbon.

Season’s Greetings!

Love of Color – CTMH Technique Blog Hop

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Welcome to the CTMH Technique Blog hop! This month we are focusing on the new Love Of Color book! Today you should have arrived from Wendy’s blog, but if not, that’s ok, it’s a big circle, so you will get back around to her!

Today I have a set of 3 cards for you. The colors I am using are Canary, Lagoon, and Sapphire. These are a GREAT color combo! I love how they turned out!

First off, let me tell you I am using the Love Note stamp set for these cards, and it is SO MUCH FUN!! It is retiring at the end of this month, so you want to make sure to pick up your copy!!

Ok, so, the first card was done with the marble background piece. I used sapphire ink on sapphire cardstock to give the tone on tone look, and I LOVE it! I was struggling for a bit for a sentiment, because I didn’t want to cover it up! Then, I realized that some of the sentiments are bold enough to stand out wonderfully against the background if I heat embossed, so that is exactly what I did! I made sure the ink was dry, then used my anti static pouch over top of it. Stamped it with versa mark and used the White embossing powder. It’s beautiful! Before I adhered the marbled piece, I stamped a frame around the canary base with the little circle shaped stamp that has the dashes on it.

Next up is the Thinking of You card. I used the round dot in the set to stamp more tone on tone with lagoon ink on lagoon cardstock. Then I stamped the Thinking of you sentiment twice, once in canary ink and once in lagoon ink. I cut out the outside of the canary frame and the inside of the lagoon frame, and glued them together with liquid glass for a two toned sentiment. I stamped the geometric pattern on the canary cardstock with some canary ink (do you sense a theme here yet?) for that little yellow banner. Popped up the sentiment with foam tape and viola! We are done!

Last up is the A little note card. I again used some of that strip of canary ink on canary cardstock for a bit of interest. I used small strips of the sapphire cardstock to make the yellow pop, and a larger piece of the lagoon to help balance out the lagoon on the sentiment. I used the circles basic thin cuts to cut the largest circle for the sentiment. Note is stamped in sapphire ink and a little is stamped in lagoon.

All in all, I think these cards came out GREAT! It was super fast, too! The Love of Color book has three different ideas for each of our main colors. Plus it gives art examples to help give you some ideas. There are cards, layouts, boxes, frames, and various other bits of artwork! For just $17.95, this book is chalk full of ideas for you!

Let me know what you think of my card set! Then hop on over to Marciava’s blog to see what fun colors she has for you!

Just so Thankful

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Hello friends! Today brings yet another H2H challenge! This week’s challenge is all about Thankful Hearts.

I am guilty of not sending out thank you cards as quickly as I should (or, ya know, at all.)

So, it’s really nice to be able to throw together a super quick card, that I don’t even have to do any stamping on. In fact, because I had a piece of kraft cardstock in my stash that I had already done this fun effect on, the hardest thing I did on this card was the sponging on the edges of all of the pieces!

The kraft cardstock I scored every half inch, and then I turned the sheet over, and scored the opposite half inch, so that there was a score mark every quarter inch, just one was raised and one was indented. It gives a nice look to this cardstock, I think!

The focal image is a 3×4 PML card from the Grateful heart paper pack, as is the green dotted mat behind it. I trimmed the white PML card down 1/8″ on all four sides (to help keep the image centered), lightly sponged it with toffee ink, and then glued to the green card, that I had also sponged with toffee ink.

I wrapped a bit of the mink twine around the two cards three times and tied it in a knot. Popped the whole thing up on some 3D foam tape and put it on the front of the card, and viola! A beautiful, fun, easy card ready to be given in less than 5 minutes!

I would love to know what you think of it! Please leave me a comment to share your thoughts!

Thanks so much!

~Michelle

Shake Things Up! – CTMH Technique Blog Hop

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Are you ready to shake things up? Today’s blog hop is all about shakers! You can make just about anything a shaker these days! Cards, bags, layouts, key chains, you name it! Today you should have gotten here from Wendy’s blog. If not, that’s ok, its a big circle, so you will get back to her!

Today I have a fun card for you! It is super easy to do, especially with the new shaker card dies! So easy, in fact, that I had Audrey do it, with only verbal instructions on how to do it (I wasn’t around to point to things to say ‘use this’ or ‘color there’)! Today’s artwork is actually completely done by her! It was inspired by a card on Pinterest, however I can’t find that card, now.

She cut a Polaroid shape on the paper trimmer, stamped a sentiment from the My Type of Note stampset in intense black ink. Ran some tape along the back side, and used a sandwich baggie for the cover. She colored some white daisy cardstock with some Shanhan markers, and ran it with the heart shapes from the shaker die set.

Layered the whole thing with some foam tape, added a back to the shaker element, and then glued it onto a card base with some liquid glass. Super easy, super fun! And it wasn’t hard for her to do!

Next time, I think I would use a stronger baggie, part of a flip flap, or even part of a page protector, just to make the front a little stronger. But, sometimes you just have to use what you have!

Thanks for stopping by! Next you are off to Michelle’s blog!

Thankful for You

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Over at Heart 2 Heart Challenges, they have a new challenge! (go figure, right?) If you didn’t already know, they have a new challenge each week, on Mondays! Today’s challenge is Inspired by Nature. So, since I don’t have my cricut handy (whaaaat??) . . . I decided to go with stamp sets! I went with My Type of Note. I know, you are thinking what the heck is she thinking?? Right? Well, if you haven’t already noticed, not only is there a typewriter in that set, but also a fun little floral cluster!

So, instead of going to our fantastic Make it from your Heart books, I went to pinterest, and found this fun card. I really liked the circles with the leaves and such poking through.

I used both the basic circle thin cuts and the stitched circle thin cuts to get my circles cut out of the front of the B&T. The original card had some white netting, which I don’t have, so I went with some vellum. I stamped the image in Espresso ink on the kraft cardstock. I glued the vellum do the back side of the striped paper, and then used thin foam 3-D tape to pop those layers up above the kraft (which was glued directly to the card base).

I realized after I popped up the panels, that I had forgotten the sentiment! No worries, there are no mistakes in crafting, am I right? So, I grabbed a scrap of white daisy and used both the Living My Best Life and Simply Said stamp sets to create this fun sentiment.

I added a bit of the white burlap ribbon and gold glitter gems, and my card is done! It took more time to figure out which circles to use than it did to create the rest of the card!

Thanks for stopping by today! I hope you will come and play along with the Heart 2 Heart challenges!!

~Michelle