Workshop Your Ways - a Great deal!

I was cleaning up and found that I had several Workshop Your Ways that hadn't been done.  One of them was "I Heart Us".  You can still find that paper in at my website under "Going Soon".  You might find under "Going Soon" and "Clearance" some really good deals. 

First, I made the Workshop Your Way basically as the instructions were. 

I love the ideas that I get from the Close To My Heart designs.  I always have things left over, so I decided to make a "front" and "back page".  Close To My Heart has great "How-To" books for both cards and scrapbooking.  I used Make if From Your Heart - Volume 3 Pattern 5.   I used the Memory Protectors as an additional page using some of the "left overs". 

I still have enough material to make more pages if I added more paper.  I did use some Daisy White.  I have a variety of page protectors and I chose Design 5 and flipped it over.

I have left some space on these extra pages for journaling on these pages plus have room on the other pages so that I can tell the story.  This is paper from our old catalog but the new catalog has Picture My Life Cards with each paper type which make this even easier and allows you even more options to use and make more pages. The I have left some space on these extra pages for journaling on these pages plus have room on the other pages so that I can tell the story.  Picture my life cards are double sided with the same design so that YOU can choose which way it goes - portrait or landscape.  They are also idea to use with regular pages.

Check out the "Going Soon" and "Clearance" and find some bargains and some great paper and ideas.  Have fun.  Do you do extra pages on your Workshop Your Way or use the different designs of Memory Protectors?  Try it!  You'll have fun. 

The Process of Getting Things Done

I love to design and fiddly with "scrap lifting".  Usually the longest thing to do is to get the designs.  I have usually done 5 - 10 cards of each design to be more efficient.  My latest project was different.  I didn't need 50 cards I just needed 10 different ones.  I designed the cards and then used 2 of the last catalogs "Mix-in" papers and made all different cards.  I think this is a process that I will be doing in the future.  Here is the results of the one of a kind different cards:

I hope to use this idea more often and make 1 or 2 of each and then go onto another stamp set!  Post a comment about how you work your process: 1 card of each or multiple cards of each and how you find out that it works for you!

National Scrapbooking Month

Welcome to our National Scrapbooking Month special paper Blog Hop - The World is Yours!  We will be featuring things created from Close To My Heart's exclusive paper collection The World is Yours.  If you have come here from Jessica Kaiser'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:  http://ifyoublingit.blogspot.com/p/stamp-of-month-blog-hop-list.html.

This month we have 14 Close To My Heart Consultants sharing their creations using The World is Yours and other great 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!

This is the season of graduations.  I thought I would try and make some different types of graduation cards.  This Blog Hop is for “The World is Yours” - Close To My Heart’s National Scrapbooking Month special paper.

This card was made with the Paper Pal Series of thin cuts and stamps. There is the Base Z4265, Girl Z4266, Boy Z4267 and Pets Z4268 or you can get the bundle of all of these and save 10% Z4269.  There are still Sports, Princess and the Castle to complete the set of Paper Pals.  Using these Paper Pals, you can really customize your card for the person you are celebrating.   I used Archival Black ink Z3271 and the Water colors Z3132 and the water brush Z3224. I used Espresso ink Z2829 for the stamp from the World is Yours and the Gold Shimmer brush Z3316 over it. The shimmer brush shows up much better in person than in the photo.

Close To My Heart has great instructions for making cards, 12 x 12 scrapbook pages and all sorts of sizes of albums. Instructions come with the workshops as well as the How-to Books.   I love the Volume 4 Card book Make It From Your Heart and used Pattern 8 for the next card. I used Gold Sequins Z4198, Espresso ink Z2829 and the stamp set from The World is Yours. I used our embossing powder.  I have our New England pigment ink and used the Clear Super Fine Z2067 and I used the Versa Mark pad Z891 with the Princess Gold Z2066 powder.  The All purpose Mat Z2045 can take the heat of the heat tool Z4252 to get the powders melted. 

I use the Versa Mat Z1279 all the time because it is so versatile.  The spongy side is great for stamping and the other size is a self-healing mat.  I cut the bike with a utility knife to get the finer cuts as the front is a self healing mat. 

This last card is also make from Volume 4 and is Pattern 20.  This card used the stamp set from You’re Awesome Workshop your Way card kit G1184. I also used the Espresso ink again with Mink Twine Z4221.

Now "Hop" on over to Becca Whitham'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! Remember, The World is Yours is only available this month!  Contact your CTMH Consultant (or click here) to see how you can get the many workshop kits for The World is Yours!

Challenge Yourself!

Challenges are fun.  It is fun to see what others are doing with a challenge - what they can do with the same design. I thought I would challenge myself to see how different I could make cards with the same beginning pieces.   

One of the card groups makes 3 of each kind.   When I make up what is left over, it leaves me with duplicates.  I decided may they would like a variety as well.  If you want - do a challenge with these pieces for a shaker card or share your "pieces" and the different ways that you have used them.  

Here are my basic pieces:

You will need Z4310 Shaker Window Foam and Acetate and Z4304 or what color of loose sequins you desire from Close To my Heart.  Check out barbarapagekell.ctmh.com.

Here are the different cards I made from these beginnings.

They are all Happy Birthday shaker cards.  See what you can do with them.  

I am also doing another shaker card giving them a chance to have different occasions for the card to be stamped on it.

The last card we are making in triplicate has the ability to stamp whatever saying you need in the circle.  The Gold and green shimmer pens on the flowers doesn't show up well in the photo but does in person.

I hope you have fun challenging yourself from time to time.  It helps spark creativity in other areas.  

April Stamp of the Month

April Stamp of the Moth - Love So Sweet

Welcome to our Stamp of the Month Blog Hop!  We will be featuring April's SOTM, which is Love So Sweet S1904, a set of 26 stamps.  If you have come here from Haley Dyer'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 18 Close To My Heart Consultants sharing their creations using this month's SOTM and other great 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!

This is a wonderful and versatile stamp set.  I chose to make a Shaker Window card using the SOTM.

I love our Value Pack of 50 White cards and Envelopes X254. They are a quality product and the card is 5 1/2" x 4 1/4".  

CTMH has a wonderful Shake windows kit:

Z4309 Thin Cut - Shaker Window and confetti

Z4310 Shaker Window Foam and Acetate

Z4304 loose Sequins - Silver (or Gold Z4235)

I random stamped the SOTM leaf in Willow Z2807 on the card.  I cut a strip from the Willow paper X6026 and a banner from Lemon X6008 and stamped the saying in Intense Black Z4189.  

I stamped the large butterfly in Candy Apple X5992, the medium butterfly in Sapphire Z2848 and the little butterfly in Lemon Z2808 and cut them out.  

I used the 1 inch basic circle from the Basic Circles Thin Cuts Z3318 and stamped the "So Sweet" in Sapphire.

I cut the outside ring of the shaker card from So Much Happy X7293.  I cut the inside circle from Lemon .  On this inner circle I stamped the large flower in Sapphire ink and used Candy Apple for the 2 smaller flowers.  I used our Clear Shimmer Brush Z3293 on all the flowers and the bitty Sparkles Z1263  as the center for the smallest flower.  

After I random stamped the card, adhered the 2 bottom pieces on, I  then started building the Shaker Window.  When putting the shaker card together, you start with the bottom circle adhered to the card. You put the double sided foam circle on the paper 3 inch circle.  You can use the Anti-static pouch Z4220 to keep the "sticky" from holding the sequins to the side of the foam.  You add your loose sequins and the confetti you can make from the thin cut circle inside the ring.  The Acetate circle has a protective film you need to take off.  Take off the protective layer of the foam and put the acetate over the top to seal everything.  I used the Bonding Memories Dual Action Glue Pen Z553 to adhere the paper circle over the acetate to hide the foam.

After you have taken the outside foam ring off the circle, the inside area is cut into squares which you can use the foam squares for other projects.   I used these to adhere the butterflies and the 1 inch circle to the card.  

I thought I would use some of the same elements and try another card.  The paper is the Willow and Lemon. and Willow and Candy Apple inks.    

I used the Gold Shimmer Brush Z3316 on the butterflies which didn't show well on the photo., Red Glitter paper Z3241 with the Decorative borders thin cuts Z4241, Stitched Circle thin cut Z4181 and Stitched Square frames Z4259 and used the Bitty embellishments on the center of the flowers Z1263.  

I hope you have fun with this stamp set or get ideas of your own.  Please leave a comment. Thanks for stopping by!  Barb

 Now "Hop" on over to Terry Metzger'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! Remember, the April SOTM is only available until April 30, 2019 !  Contact your CTMH Consultant (or click here) to see how you can get this stamp set at a discount!

Creating cards which say different things

One of the hard part of doing cards can be the creation of the card design itself.  Close To My Heart has some great books which I would call "recopies" in that give you what to cut and then show you how you can change it.  I decided that the next month at my card groups, I would bring the different sayings that are about the same size and give people a chance to make the same card but have it say different things.  I share some of the sentiment stamps which can be interchangeable on the banner stamp.  One could make a bunch of cards and then stamp the saying that you need or make a variety of cards saying different things.  Have fun trying to make a card and then have it say different things.

These are the stamp sentiments that I chose from:

The banner is on the top set of stamps and the sayings below.  Here are the different cards that I made from the combinations above.

I am not sure if I will use this exact card in next month's groups but it didn't turn out so bad.  You can't tell it but I used the silver shimmer brush on the flowers and a green shimmer brush on the leaves and banner.  Have fun trying to see how one card type can say so many different things. 

I am going to try using sentiments that are about 2x2.  I haven't come up with a design yet but I am in the process of creating. 

Love Blossoms

There are always promotions.  Love Blossoms allows you to cut and create 12 cards.  This packet is still available.  I cut following the workshop directions but made some changes as I was stamping.  Usually a kit gives you 6 or so of the same card.  This time each one is different.  Check out my website to find the kit to order.