CTMH Spotlight Blog Hop: Circle Cards

If you have arrived from Wendy's Scrapbooking Blog, you are in the right place. If not, I'll get you there. Each person's site follows another like a circle of us sitting around a table, sharing what we have made with you and if you keep clicking on the following name (my page will take you to Elizabeth's), you will wind up back to Wendy, and then back to me.

Because I have listed several new products, I have highlighted some and linked each one to my website. You can click on the bolded/underlinded phrase and see more information on the products and pick some up if you'd like. If you do, however, be sure to check out the "while supplies last" section for some great bargains.

This month's Close To My Heart Spotlight product is Circle Cards. I chose to use the Colonial White circle cards to make my card. There come in packs of 12 cards with matching envelopes and are also available in White Daisy. We also have Z1309 4 1/2" Clear Cards that are packets containing 8 flexible, clear cards, 4 square and 4 scalloped circles along with 8 cello envelopes. Each card has a removable protective coating. These are so pretty when embossed and work beautifully with our double-sided papers.

Since I just got my Cricut Art Philosophy collection in my convention bundles, and the great Roxie papers that I already played with I knew I wanted to use these products. Oh and I had to use the NEW cute little Just Blooms Flutter Paper Shapes--Love them. Lots of elements and this is what I came up with, a special card for someone special!

The big black center of the left flower is a velvet button I had laying out my craft table. It was huge and I told some friends I would find something to use it for. It made a great coneflower! Everything else is Close To My Heart Products and most are new.

I cut the Rose at 5 1/2" and the Coneflower at 6" on the Cricut. There is a Tulip-colored belly band underneath the flowers, with belt loops on each end to hold the ribbon. that I believe I cut at 3 1/2". The ticket was easy as the carrier sheet that holds the stamps tells you what size to cut it--1 inch.

We have a stamp that matches the leaves, but to stamp them, I would have had to cut them approximately 3/4." I learned why you cannot cut the leaves that small; their stem turns out less than threadlike and it pretty much disintegrates when you take the leaves off the cutting mat. I think my leaves were cut at 2." Then I just took a swirly stamp and stamped a design randomly all over them. Since our stamps are 100% clear, you they are super easy to stamp after you have cut them out on the Cricut. If your cut image it too small to hold with your finger and stamp, hold it with a piercing tool.

Oh and the shimmer on the rose--that's my favorite--our own glimmer spray/mist. Mix it to match your projects, using our Spray pens, Create-A-Shade Pearl Paint, and Re-inkers. Even mix re-inkers to get different colors--the possibilities are endless and very inexpensive since you only use a few drops of reinker, pearl paint and water. You receive a recipe card in with the Spray Pens showing quantities you use, and measuring marks are right on the pen. If you want more, or less shimmer don't want any at all and just want a spray mist, omit the pearl paint.

SUPPLIES USED
Z1352 4 1/2" Colonial White Circle Cards
X7140B Roxie Level 2 Paper Pack
X5754 Creme Brulee Cardstock
Z1686 Cricut Art Philosophy Collection
D1491 Hooray Bouquet (click on title to see all stamps in set)
Z1615 Designer Ribbon Red Collection
Z1463 Just Blooms Flutter Paper Shapes
Z1333 Mocha Opaques (pearl for center of Rose)
Z1263 Bitty Sparkles (for Butterfly Body and dotting the "i" on ticket greeting)
Z553 Bonding Memories Chisel Tip Glue Pen
Z341 Memory Book Mini Glue Dots
Z1151 3-D Foam Tape
Z1114 Piercing Tool (great for an "extra" hand or finger)
Z534 Micro-Tip Scissors
Z1380 Spray pens
Z1039 Create-A-Shade Pearl Paint
Z697 Round Sponge (for shading ink on my flowers)
Exclusive Inks Z2262 Honey Reinker
Exclusive Inks Stamp Pads
   Z2114 Cocoa   Z2153 Sweet Leaf    Z2166 Tulip    Z2167 Creme Brulee

Believe it or not, this was a quick and pretty easy card to make. It took longer convincing myself that I couldn't play with all of my new toys and cleaning up my table afterwards. I had papers, tools, and embellishments everywhere! I tell you, it is just as hard for me when the new goodies arrive as it is for you when you get a new bag, to get back to everyday responsibilities than it is to sit right down and play!

Now it's time to leave my site and go see what the other creative ladies in the month's CTMH Spotlight Blog have created with Cricle Cards.

Next on the list . . . hop on over to see what  Elizabeth at Broken Treasures made.

Wings Workshop on the Go projects

Finally! I'm back and going to start uploading some artwork for you from my past playdays.

First is the Wings Workshop on the Go month. The Wings WOTG kit is G1016 and costs just $29.95. For that, you get a B-sized stamp set, a Level 2 Paper Pack, a Mini-Medley Accents Black Collection, a new GREAT Spray Pen, and a colored Workshop Guide that provides dimensions and detailed, colored instructions and diagrams for putting your pages and layouts together.

Here are the cards we made--or were supposed to make. There wasn't time so the ladies took their packs home and made them for "homework." We also used Vineyard Berry Reinker, Pearl Paint (for the Spray Pen), Exclusive Inks Stamp Pads in Black, Blush, and Vineyard Berry.

Next for that day was the two page layouts that were also made from the kit.

I changed things up a bit, by adding the button brads on the Sweet Leaf strip on the left page. That's my 2nd Mom holding Lucy Belle.Evelyn is Susan's mom and Susan is up in the top righ corner of this page with me, sipping lattes. I really miss her, she's only a gazillion miles away. Anyway, Lucy always has to go sit on Grandma's lap whenever she comes over. Below the ladies are hard at work on their Playday projects. The right page shows my friend Sandy. She had just bought the Accu-Cut machine from a LSS that went out of business, to leave in my room because that's the only place where she scraps. she's looking at all the dies she got with it. On the top left page, to the right of Grandma and Lucy, you see Lucy on the bottom part of the cart the Accu-Cut's dies sit on. She loves to find little nooks to catch a nap in.

The "Joy" on the right page is spelled out with our beautiful new Bohemian Alphabet. It is E-sized and $34.95. Up close, the letters are solid block style, but there are flowers etched in the negative on the lower half of the letters.

This month, we didn't do a calendar page, but did make the 6x6 mini accordian albums that I have posted below. It was a busy, fun day for all.

One month down, two to go but I'm off to bed tonight.

One Design, 3 Cards

Well, Valentine's Day has come and gone and I still have partially made cards from last year and the year before. MAYBE, just maybe, I can get them all done this year and out in the mail ON TIME next year! 

But I did get 3 cards from my December workshop finished. These were all made using the December Close To My Heart Stamp Of The Month, D1445I Amore. My actual workshop card was like the one in the center--great for engagement, wedding, anniversary, or just I love you. This set is no longer available (see next paragraph) and I have a friend who LOVES flamingos so I changed the greeting on two of them using Stampin Up set #123057 Valentine Definied. I love both CTMH and Stampin Up, but chose to represent CTMH because I like them better and I find CTMH to be more innovative. Both companies produce a good quality product, I host regular parties for my friend Sue, and you'll find both products in my house. If you want the Stampin Up set--click the stamp set name and get it quickly, it's a Sale-A-Bration set. The link I have provided will take you to my friend and supplier's website, Sue Kempter-Miller. I'm not getting a kick-back on this, I just like recommending good, honest people and Sue is about as good as they get!

One more note, for the flowers on the two side cards, I used our new Spray pens, Create-A-Shade Pearl Paint, Reinker of Choice, and regular tap water to make my own glimmermist/gimmer spray. You get 3 spray pens for $3.95, the paint is $2.95, and the reinkers are $4.25. I'm hooked on the stuff. It is so easy, inexpensive, and turns out great. The specific recipe is listed on the cardstock insert the comes with the spray pens. For the flowers, I mixed up a batch using Sky and a batch using Vineyard Berry. I sprayed the flowers first with Sky and then a light spritz of Vineyard Berry. You can't tell that they're sprayed with two colors but it sure adds a bit of dimension to the flowers. In the meantime, I'm slowly building my supply of pens. Teresa is our group hostess next month; another set of pens will be on my order!

Products Used  (Stamp sets are listed and explained above.)

X7127B Magnifique Level 2 Paper Pack

X5761 Sky 12 x 12 Cardstock

1248 Vineyard Berry 12 x 12 Cardstock

Exclusive Inks

    Z2194 Sky Stamp Pad (Background "love" is stamped on the Sky cardstock with Sky ink.)

    Z2294 Sky Reinker

    Z2157 Vineyard Berry Pad (Used to distress and sponge cardstock and paper edges.)

Z891 VersaMark pad (used for embossing)

Z1102 Colonial White 3/8" wide bulk Grosgrain Ribbon

Z1327 Sparkles, Blue & Green Assortment

Z697 Sponge

Z1039 Create-a-Shade Pearl Paint

Z678 Silver Embossing Powder

Z1380 Spray Pen

Z555 Craft Heater

1764 Craft Tray (For pouring embossing powder back into the jar)

Z1382 Tweezers (These keep you from burning your fingers when heat embossing.)

Z534 Micro-Tip Scissors (The BEST scissors for detail cutting.)

The ribbon slide is a discontinued product that I had on hand.