Heart Happy Cards

I have been inspired by some of the artwork on the internet using the Heart Happy papers in the current monthly special. I posted about the promotion earlier and would like to remind you to log onto my website to see all the purchasing options available to you. The papers are the cutest collection of bold colors and great coordinating patterns. Here are a few cards that were inspired by other artists.

I used pieces from the cut-apart paper on each of the cards. These are images that need to be fussy cut and can be placed on anything from cards to scrapbook pages. I also used a variety of stamp sets and some thin cuts, including the newest quilting thin cuts. Lots of faux sewing!

You can get an entire kit with everything you need to make the downloadable workshop found online! Be sure to check it out!

February Crate Card Club

This past weekend I held my Crate Card Club. As always the participants are free to make any themed card {or special project} as they wish. The only thing I ask is that they use mostly Close To My Heart products on their creation, especially the stamps! There is always a great variety and seeing how others create is so much fun. We all inspire each other with our techniques and choice of papers, colors or stamp sets. Take a look at our art this month!

Here are all the projects displayed on a shelf just above our work table. We had a few that were Valentine inspired, but we also had, Birthday, Thank You and an everyday sentiment too.

As you can see they are all beautiful cards and even a darling, humorous candy wrapped "You're the Bomb" treat.....which has me thinking of dropping the "card" word in the name of my club. What do you think about just "Crate Club"? These ladies are so crafty and talented I'm sure they would surprise me with their creations each month!

Valentine Badge Button Magnets

You may remember my Christmas chalkboard that I created using the Holiday Happenings badge buttons as magnets. I decided to change up the chalkboard display for Valentine's Day. This time I chose the Heartstrings badge buttons from the newest Seasonal Expressions 1 Idea Book. They are so easy to attach to a round magnet and now I can display some beautiful Valentine cards!

Be sure to check out all the new Heartstrings collection in the Seasonal Expressions 1 book and online here!

Hopscotch and Heartstrings

Now that all the handmade cards have been sent and Christmas presents have been unwrapped, all I have left to do is scrapbook the pictures I took. I can also start planning my Valentine and Spring projects! The new Seasonal Expressions 1 Idea Book is full of inspiration. Here are a couple displays I showed at my Holiday Open House.

{Hopscotch}

 {Heartstrings}

Mojo Monday Owl Valentine

Just shifting gears a bit to some Valentine fun for this week's Mojo Monday sketch! I just received the new Whooo's Your Valentine kit that will be available to customers December 13th. It's part of the National Paper Crafting Month celebration. It's a fantastic kit filled with goodies like, treat tubes, glitter paper and a darling little stamp set filled with heart images, little owls and catchy "love" phrases.

The kit features your typical Valentine colors of blush, hollyhock and ruby red. However, if you want to express your love to the 'guys' in your life, they may not dig the pink color combination! The sky blue and lagoon colors are awesome with this glitter paper!

It's New! {sort of}

It's the first challenge of the year at Heart 2 Heart Challenges! Yeah, I'm so excited!
My very first challenge as a Design Team Member was to show some love to a new stamp or one that has not been inked yet!

I was showing lots of love to this not-so-new stamp called Paper Lantern {C1458}. You will see it in the new Spring Idea Book on page 90. I also thought I could get a head start on my Valentine cards. As you can see by this picture, I had used some of the images on this stamp, but did not ink that cute heart lantern yet!

Here is a great tip I learned from some other consultants. When you get a fresh new stamp, it's shiny and slick and does not bond well with the ink at first. The solution is to rub the stamp on your skin picking up oils and creating a film on your new stamp. Now it will adhere to ink much better. I also try stamping a few times in a light or neutral color like bamboo or blush to avoid too much discoloration.

Here is a closer look at each card as they are all unique and different from one another.

The inside of the card uses sentiments from A Little Everything {D1408} and the "love" on the outside of the card is from one of the stamps in the Art Philosophy Kit.

Card base: White daisy die-cut cards {Z1473}

Colors: blush, tulip, sky, kraft, chocolate

Papers: jingle, animal cookies

Twine is not CTMH, but we have new twine in the Spring 2012 book! woo hoo!

Please visit the Heart 2 Heart blog to see the other talented Design Team artwork and play along with us! Thanks for stopping by!

Happy Valentine's Day

I hope your spending your day with those you love. I've been "mailing" out my love to those that can't be with me today. Here are some of those cards.

This first one has some resist background stamping. I free handed these hearts, sewed them together, then wrapped them together with a piece of chocolate twine and a button.

This one uses the new Sweetheart papers. I heat embossed the center label then sponged it in Cotton Candy pink.

Finally, for fun I created this valentine garland. I punched several scalloped circles with the new 2" scallop punch by Close To My Heart. Then I ran all the circles through my little sewing machine. I punched lots of hearts in Cotton Candy, Baby Pink and Tulip and placed them between the circles. A quick and sweet project!