Christmas Card Buffet

I recently hosted my first ever card buffet. I created a dozen different Christmas cards with a huge variety of themes from reindeer to gingerbread men and even a VW bug!? The ladies had 2 hours to create and the more they made the more savings the earned per card. It was hit overall and everyone really had fun!

Here is a picture of the cards, minus one that was left out of the photo.~

This picture illustrates how the cards were set in crates or boxes with kits to make the card along with the materials needed to complete it. Most required a stamp set and inks, but others needed thin cuts, markers, craft heaters, embossing folders and more.

Here are the ladies having fun, but mostly getting to work....serious business you know!

One of the aspects that the ladies enjoyed the most is that all the ideas were already thought of for them. The could simply look at the master card and recreate it. I try to come up with interesting ideas and wanted to explore all sorts of stamp images as well as use a variety of papers. Sometimes the ideas came from strange items. Like the Merry VW bug card. On a recent shopping trip to Michaels I came across these adorable magnetic closing boxes for 50% off. The image of the little cars decked out for the holidays was my inspiration for this card. I think the post office should seriously make this a stamp design. I would buy it! None of these card kits were left in the box...well not many cards were left at all at the end of the night!

Happy crafting!

Retiring Soon!

Close To My Heart has put out the list of items to retire on August 1st. There are some great stamp sets listed and many cool products. Don't miss the opportunity to purchase these items before they go. Especially if you have been thinking about some of the Cricut collections! Yes, that's true, here are the collections going away!

Art Philosophy

Artfully Sent

Artiste

Do you love dry embossing? Guess what...they are retiring!

All of the thick twines and shimmer trim are going away too!

Plus, many home decor items like the chalkboard, shadow boxes and hinge trays!

Here is a list of all the stamps sets retiring and other products retiring. You can order with me directly or shop online!

Balloon Animals Layout

I paired up the February Stamp of the Month with the vibrant and fun Kaleidoscope papers for a two page layout. They are a perfect match for a party page!

Left Page

Right Page

Along with some quick Cricut cuts and stamping; this layout came together easily. It will be perfect to showcase Birthday pics or any crazy and fun occasion.

You can get this adorable Balloon Animals stamp set for just $5 this month with a qualifying order. Shop online here!

Spring Wreaths in Many Colors

This past weekend I held my Spring Wreath Workshop. I had a total of four attendees, but Oh! Man, you should have seen all our stuff spread out across two rooms! We had Cricuts chirping, flowers being assembled and hot glue guns galore. Just about every outlet was filled! In the end the ladies created the most lovely spring wreaths in an assortment of colors. You can see my original sample wreath here.

This first wreath has yellow and dark blue flowers~

This next one has yellow with slate gray and just a pop of smoothie pink~

Look how pretty the smoothie, black and beige flowers look together~

Finally, this wreath is for the fans of purple with just a bit of black & white pattern. Gorgeous~

To think that all of these wreaths were inspired by the cover of the Annual Inspirations Idea Book. What will inspire you today?

Sweet and Studly Georgie

I just received some of the new Georgie papers and I'm already in love with its color scheme and patterns. Here is a little card I did for a birthday that can be for someone younger. The elephants are adorable are work perfectly for an infant or small child.

The other patterns in the pack are well suited for someone older, maybe even a teen would love the colors and chevron pattern! {This was proven when my teenage daughter entered my craft room and immediately saw it on my desk and said "Oooh! This is a cool card, who is it for?"} ;)

A simple white and gray color combo makes this paper collection great for a masculine card. Even a little bit of a deep gray glitter paper and metal triangles looks stunning with it! Plus the sentiment is funny and we can all use more humor in our lives! {Laughing makes you live longer too!}

I hope that you will look at the Georgie paper for much more than just baby showers, it really is a great collection!

Let Them Eat Cake!

The challenge this week at Heart 2 Heart Challenges Blog is pretty sweet! The theme this week is "let them eat cake". A celebration just isn't complete without some cake and I think the Confetti Wishes paper collection and MyStickease is perfect for the occasion.

I included several different papers from the Confetti Wishes collection as well as pieces from the zip strip. I added some chipboard glitter letters and some fun embellishments. This card has lots of layers!!

Why stop at just a card! I also created a coordinating gift box and tag, because after you eat cake it's time to open presents.

The tag was from the sheet of MyStickease. I simply backed it with some Thistle cardstock, added some ribbon and a piece of zip strip. {the presents}

This cute little box can be found on the Artiste Cricut cartridge. I just added some cardstock and design paper to each side. I love how the lid just folds over the handle keeping your gift securely inside.

Finally, a few detail shots from the card. Check out the other sweet cake creations on H2H!

Brushed Beautiful Layout and Box

The Brushed paper collection features some gorgeous vivid colors and floral patterns. I think what I like the most about the papers are the black outline which lends itself to additional stamping in black ink. Here is a layout option I created from a workshop and added in a little box cut on the Cricut. What a cute little addition to the ensemble!

Halloween Treat Bags

My upcoming class will be featuring the Cut Above Halloween Treat Bags. An entire kit with everything you need {except the candy!} to create 10 super cute Halloween bags. They are ultra easy to assemble. You can find these bags and a Christmas/Holiday version in the new Annual Inspirations book page 159. {Z2058 $14.95}

The bags in the kit are adorable just as they come, however for this class I will show you how to dress them up a bit using some stamping, Cricut cut rosettes and glitter paper!

Easter is on It's Way!

Easter will be here soon! Which means a break from school for me and my kids too! {Yeahhhhh!}

A quick and easy project for the kids on Easter Sunday are these little bunny boxes. They are cut out on the Artiste cartridge at 2 1/2 inches. I chose lots of retired pastel cardstocks and a simple egg stamp for the bottom of the box before I folded them up. They require no adhesive making it a fast project to do. These will look so cute scattered on the grass this Sunday!

Side Step Calendar

I love the idea of having a small calendar near me when I'm working on my laptop or in my craft room. There are all sorts of ideas out there for smaller desktop calendars, but this idea was really fun to create. It was partially inspired by another CTMH Consultant Gail  @Greetings from Gail and by a Christmas card that one of my customer/friends made for our Holiday card exchange. It is a side step card that as been altered so that a calendar and photo could be added. I found the little calendar's at Taylored Expressions for a minimal price. A piece of cardstock was added to the back step on the right side for a photo to be pinned.

I am also entering my little calendars in Heart 2 Heart's "Two-Faced Challenge"! I have chosen to use the dual sides of some brand new papers from the Spring Idea Book available on February 1st! The first paper is called Skylark and the second is Ariana, both are amazingly gorgeous. Take a look at these fun calendars and get a sneak peek at the brand new papers! Be sure to visit H2H for more ideas of using both patterns of your paper!

{Skylark}

{Ariana}

Grateful For You Card Set

It's been awhile since I played on Heart 2 Heart Challenges, but I could not resist sharing this lovely Fall themed card set. They capture the season beautifully and show gratitude which is the challenge on H2H!

I purchased the Laughing Lola papers in bulk with the intention to use them for Halloween. The purple was just so stunning and I thought it would be perfect for a Halloween theme. It turns out that it's great for Fall too! The file folder box to hold them all was created on the Cricut Artiste cartridge. Every card is different, but they all coordinate. I used a mix of several older stamp sets, some textured cardstocks and dollar ribbon.

Here are each of the cards~

Thank you for stopping by today! Be sure to check out the Heart 2 Heart design team artwork and remember to be grateful!

Artbooking Luminaries

Are you looking for something special to add to your Holiday décor? Perhaps the center of your Thanksgiving table? The project I taught yesterday is the perfect item! A fall luminary created on the Cricut machine with the newest Artbooking cartridge. Using a layover cut from one of the mini book designs I was able to create a four sided luminary box. It was decorated with some fall leaves and just a touch of glitter! It's simple and gorgeous!

Just for fun I experimented with creating a Christmas version. This time I used half of an overlay from a 12x12 scrapbook page and closed it around the back creating a sphere. I also backed it with some vellum giving it a stained glass effect. You could easily color the vellum to create a more colorful stain glass too! Just a simple poinsettia cut from the Artiste cartridge and leaves from Art Philosophy. {sharing the cartridge love!!}

 

{P.S. I only use battery operated candles in my paper luminaries!}

Open House Update

This past Saturday I held my semi-annual Open House. With a brand new Idea Book filled with 500 new products, I had a lot of work to do! I showed many new products including card kits, scrapbooking projects, base & bling jewelry pieces, home décor and lots of items using the new Cricut Artbooking cartridge!

Half of my display table was filled with an array of Artbooking projects from cards to layouts and let's not forget those adorable mini albums!

I will post more photo's here of these projects individually and up close, but first I would like to share the make & take project we made. A cute little gift box cut on the Artiste cartridge. Ladies got to use one of new M sized stamp sets called dotted love. It fits perfectly on the face of the box and what a deal for these little stamps....only $2.95! They also got to use the day of the week stamps found in the Artbooking collection. These are so much fun with different fonts on each and will come in handy for journaling on scrapbook pages or My Crush books! Some glitter gems and Lagoon houndstooth washi tape are the perfect embellishments to finish the box!

 

 

These little boxes can be decorated for many different occasions. I just have to share what my daughter wanted to do with them. She decided she wanted to make some for friends after she saw mine. Hers are for back to school gifts. She plans to fill them with some book marks she made and some candy! The ruler border and apples were all cut on the new Artbooking cartridge. The book mark topping was also a stamp found in the Artbooking collection.

 



Stay tuned for more projects and inspiration!

What's Your Favorite Color?

Today is my last day to be a Guest Designer on Heart 2 Heart Challenges! :( I enjoyed playing along with them this month and look forward to new challenges next month.

This week H2H wants to color you happy! We were asked to create a project using our favorite CTMH color. To be honest there are a couple colors that really make me "happy"! I know it's a favorite color when I find that I am constantly re-stocking cardstock or my ink pad starts going dry.

I created this fantastic flip album to celebrate things that make my heart happy and of course it incudes my favorite colors. It's really hard to choose just one color, so I give you my top 3!

3. When I'm looking for a happy color, I think of yellow. Not a blinding, sunny yellow, rather a soft, creamy yellow. My third favorite color is Crème Brulee.

2. I love my pinks, but mostly a strong, bright pink. I especially love to mix it in with black, gray or white. I have a small collection of running shoes all in this color combination! My pink pick and second favorite color is Cotton Candy!

1. Finally, my number one pick is everywhere in home décor, jewelry and fashion trends lately. My daughter and I fight over who gets to buy the blouse, shorts or sandals in this color. Some stores refer to it as turquoise, teal or tropical breeze. In my CTMH world it's Lagoon and I love it!

 I popped a little Pear green in there too! That would be a 4th favorite color and rounds out my primary colors!!

This flip album idea came from a video posted by Heidi Swapp. I found the basic supplies I needed to create my own from Walmart.

It all starts with a simple clear acrylic standing frame. Mine is only 7x5, but you could make it larger if you wish. A piece of texture paper quickly dresses up the background. I chose some chevron For Always papers.

The next item was a little tricky! I needed to find binder rings that were on a bracket so that they would be able to mount to the frame. I was fairly certain that these are not sold individually and I would really need to be on the hunt for something I could tear apart. I just so happened to find these little index card binders in a plastic folder. I was able to pop the binder piece out of the folder and hot glue it onto the face of my frame.

All I had left to do is add fancy Cricut cut pages. So far I only have 4 pages created, but you can see that I have plenty room left on my ring to add more pages.

 

 

So what's your favorite color? Can you pick just one? Submit your favorite color project on Heart 2 Heart this week.