Tall and Skinny "Smile" Card

Today's card was inspired by Mojo Monday and the Color Dare Challenge (see below).

The card itself measures 3.5" x 5.5", making it tall and skinny. I started with a card base made of Crystal Blue cardstock. Then, I added a few layers: A 2.5" x 5" piece of Creme Brulee cardstock, and a 2" x 4" piece of patterned paper from the "Balloon Ride Paper Packet." The horizontal stripe across the bottom was made with Sorbet cardstock. All pieces were inked around the edges with their corresponding colored ink: Crystal Blue, Creme Brulee, and Sorbet inks.

You might be able to make out some different dimensions from the picture. The blue scallop circle is from the Dimensional Elements Mixed Shapes packet. It actually comes in a white color, but I inked it heavily with Crystal Blue ink to add some color. Since it's made of chipboard, it is very thick and sturdy, and sits off of the card front.

The "Smile" sentiment was stamped from an exclusive stamp set in the Cricut Artbooking collection. It was stamped in Sorbet ink, cut out, and then adhered to the scallop circle with foam tape, to sit off of the card even more.

To finish off the card, I added a line of hemp string, a crochet flower from a retired CTMH set, and a pretty blue sparkle in the center.

I am linking this card to the following challenge blogs:

1. Mojo Monday, Sketch Challenge #347, found HERE. This week's sketch looks like this:

2. Color My Heart Color Dare, Challenge #96, found HERE. This week's colors are: Creme Brulee, Crystal Blue, and Sorbet.

3. Heart 2 Heart Challenge Blog, found HERE. The weekly theme is: "In The Garden."

I'll see you in the craft room,

4 May Specials Ending TODAY!

Today I will be putting out 2 posts. I have a Tall and Skinny card to show you later, and I also wanted to tell you about some very time-sensitive promotions that are ending. I didn't want the artwork forever tied to an expired (after today) post, so there will be 2 today!

Since it is May 31st, that means that we have to say goodbye to National Scrapbooking Month for another year. It also means that a whopping 4 specials are ending TODAY! Just in case you missed my original posts on these great deals, and one-time only offers, I wanted to do a re-cap of the specials you have one last chance to take advantage of...

1. National Scrapbooking Month Promotion: "Free to be Me" Paper Collection

This entire paper collection is only $5 with your qualifying purchase. See my post HERE for more details.

2. May Stamp of the Month: "You've Got A Friend"

This set is also only $5 with your qualifying purchase. See my post HERE for more details.

3. FREE Image Downloads: "Beauty Abounds"

These images are absolutely FREE! But like the other specials in this post, they are only available until the end of the day today. See my post HERE for more details.

4. My Own Personal May Promotion: FREE Cricut Cartridge When you Join My Team in May!

When you join my team in May, you will receive a brand new, Cricut cartridge absolutely FREE! To find out more about the special, and which cartridges are available, please see my post HERE. To find out more about this great opportunity, please visit HERE.

If you haven't taken advantage of these specials yet, please take some time to look them over, because once they're gone, they're gone :o)

I'll see you in the craft room,

Flashback Friday #2: In Friendship's Garden

Welcome to Flashback Friday! I am very excited about today's flashback, because it brings me back to 2003, the year I first joined Close To My Heart. My absolute FAVORITE stamp set from the 2003-2004 catalog that year was a set called, "In Friendship's Garden." Not only was the set itself pretty, flowery, and versatile, but the official artwork for this set always looked so cheery and bright.

See that redish-pinkish color above? That's called Red Velvet. Long retired now, it was one of my favorite colors of all time. In fact, I still have some in my paper stash, which I hoarded from many years ago.

Here is the wooden set that I still own:

Let me show you some samples that I made when I first received this set. These were some of the first items that I had ever stamped at the time. Some of them are a little beat up, so bear with me.

A 12" x 12" scrapbook page:

A 6" x 6" scrapbook page:

A 7" x 5" card:

A 6" x 6" card:

A 5.5" x 4.25" card:

And a 3" x 3" mini card:

I still think that this set is beautiful. I wonder if I will still have it in another 10 years?

Do you still have any of your original stamp sets that you can't bear to part with? If so, which one? Let us know in the comment section below.

I'll see you in the craft room,

Whimsical Graduation Card

Happy Graduation to all those who have someone they know graduating this year! How fun! My children are still a few years away from graduation, but they always get caught up in the excitement this time of year. I think it keeps them motivated again for the next year of school.

For the graduation card, I used the Cricut Everyday Paper Dolls cartridge to cut out the cute little graduate, and the CTMH Artbooking cartridge for the fireworks.. The paper doll is cut at 4" height, and the card itself is 7" x 5". The whimsical font is called "Hopscotch Alphabet," which can be found HERE.

Here is a closer look at the graduate paper doll:

Thanks for joining me today!

I will be linking this card to the Fantabulous Cricut Challenge Blog, Challenge #212 found HERE. This week's theme is "Class of 2014."

I'll see you in the craft room,

3 More "Beauty Abounds" Cards

Today I have the remaining 3 cards from the "Beauty Abounds" free download images from CTMH. Did you catch yesterday's post with the first card, and the link to the free download. If not, HERE is the download (only available until May 31st!). And here is the first card that I made with the beautiful free images:

You might remember from yesterday, that all cards have the same color scheme: Smoothie, Honey, Sky, and Juniper papers and inks.

All of the cards are 6" x 6" and have a unique overlay, cut from the Cricut Artbooking cartridge. All overlays were cut at 5.5" x 5.5".

Here is how I set up my images in the Cricut Craft Room:

After the images were cut:

And after they were taken off of the cutting mat:

The next card has a gorgeous honeycomb overlay, which I cut with Honey cardstock, and inked around the edges with Honey ink. I used multiple overlays for this card, one in each color, for a layered effect. Juniper and Smoothie papers were used as a backing for the sentiment tag.

I used some of the cut-outs from the honeycomb overlay to place on my tag, then added hand-drawn stitching lines, and a single square sparkle.

Speaking of sparkles, it's time to "unleash our inner sparkle" with the next card. The overlay and border inking for this card were done with Sky. Some colored papers strips were added behind the zebra overlay, and other spaces were left blank for the white to show through.

For the tag backing, Honey paper and ink was used, and a small piece of organdy ribbon was added to the hole I punched out of the tag. A few pretty sparkles were added to live up to the sentiment!

The final card used the chevron overlay from the Artbooking cartridge.

For this card, the overlay and inked edges were done with Juniper papers and inks. Three strips of colored papers were glued to the back of the overlay, and the tag was framed with Honey paper and inked with Honey ink. I dove-tailed a few paper strips of various sizes to look like banners, and added hand-drawn elements around the banners and tag frame. To finish it off, I added a single sparkle to the "i" in the word "smile."

If you enjoyed these cards, make sure to grab your free download before it's too late! If you would like to have your card featured on this blog, please send me a picture or two and a short description. I would love to see what others are doing with these free images!

I will be linking the "Hello Life" card to the Heart 2 Heart Challenge Blog, found HERE. The theme of the week is: "Take 5!"

I'll see you in the craft room,

"Love You" Card and a FREE Download!

Can you believe that the "Love You" sentiment on this card was printed out onto cardstock? That's right... I did not stamp it, or watercolor the background. So how did I get such a beautiful sentiment? Close To My Heart currently has a FREE download, available until May 31st. It includes 4 sentiments, each on a gorgeous background with a watercolor effect. Look how pretty they are:

To get your free download, please visit my CTMH website HERE (link will open in a new window). You only have until the end of the week, so head on over there today!

I am currently in the process of making all four of these sentiments into cards, using the same color scheme on all of them. My colors are: Smoothie, Honey, Sky, and Juniper.

I have 1 card to show you today, and then 3 more for tomorrow. Today's feature card is 6" x 6" and made with White Daisy cardstock as the card base, and sponged with Smoothie ink around the outer edges.

The overlay was cut with my Cricut machine, using the CTMH Artbooking cartridge. I changed the size on this heart overlay to measure 5.5" x 5.5". Wanting some color to show through the hearts, I flipped it over and attached alternating strips of cardstock in Honey, Juniper, and Sky, leaving some of the sections for the white to show through. Here is what the back of the overlay looked like:

And when I flipped it back over, it looked like this:

Isn't that pretty?! When it was finished, I glued the overlay to the card base. Then I cut out 2 strips of cardstock (1 Honey and 1 Sky) at 5.5" x 0.5", inked around their edges with coordinating ink colors, and adhered it to the card as shown.

The "Love You" sentiment was printed onto White Daisy cardstock, and I made sure that I left a nice white border around it to really pop. Then I glued it onto a piece of Juniper cardstock. The edges were sponged with Juniper ink, and I used a corner rounder punch on both pieces to match the shape of the sentiment tag.

To finish off the card, I added some clear sparkles on the tag, and glued down two little hearts to the cardstock strips. The hearts came from the cut-outs in the overlay! Save your pieces, they come in handy.

I hope you enjoyed seeing this card today. I can't wait to show you my other 3 tomorrow!

I'll see you in the craft room,