More of So Much Happy

Sometimes when I get out a paper collection, I just sort-of get on a role! After creating a scrapbook layout, I kept making beautiful things with this cute collection. My next endeavor were some more cards using more of those adorable Complements, cut-apart pieces and lovely papers.

This first card is kind-a cute and the second card is for a kind friend! Don't you just love this bird hitching a ride on this stretched out pooch. I just tied a balloon on and set them in some thin-cut grass! Any animal lover will appreciate receiving this card on their "Bird-day"!
 

As if this floral paper in the collection wasn't enough, I've added a bold yellow sentiment from the cut-apart papers. It is centered on an embossed circle and raised up on 3D foam. The 'friend' sentiment comes from the itty bitty alphabet stickers on the Complements sheet. Super simple to add just about any sentiment you wish. Instead of 'friend' I could have said 'nose picker'. It makes me think of that old saying, "You can pick your nose and you can pick your friends, but you can't pick your friends' nose!" or Something like that!

Hope you liked these cards and had a laugh! Hope your day is filled with So Much Happy!

So Much Happy Plants and Flowers

The cut-apart paper and Complements from the So Much Happy collection are irresistibly cute. Some of the images and sentiments I used on a scrapbook layout that I posted earlier. I felt that some other images would work better for a greeting card.

I especially liked the little flower pitcher and the big leafed plant. Take a look at my simple creations.

For both of these cards I used some really old PML cards that have been in a craft organizer for some time now. I have a new thing for a pop of bright green and turquoise on a base of black and white. Especially black and white dots! To spruce up the pant I added a little mint shimmer to the blue areas. The sentiment is one of my favorites; an older stamp set, but a keeper!
 

This card uses an older PML card also, but I added in a piece of peach cardstock that has been cut using the fancy tags thin cuts. I gives the card a feeling of the pitcher sitting atop a table.

Both cards are very simple which allows the Complement pieces to be the star of the card! This collection will be available until the end of April. Thanks for stopping by!

Classic Summer Bash

The Stamp of the Month for May is a super cute set featuring a ball/mason jar and some lemonade images. At first I was challenged with how exactly to use it and which techniques would work the best. As I started to play with it I realized that several techniques will work and I haven't even stamped all the images yet. Take a look at some of the creations~

This first card is a festive way to greet the summer season. I used a patterned paper to represent the pink lemonade in the jar. The lemons and ice were separately stamped, cut out, then added. You could just stamp the banner pieces which is included in the set, but I chose to cut them out from colored cardstock to make them stand out.

How about a sign posted near your jar of refreshing lemonade at your next summer bash. That is the name of the stamp after all!

For this jar I did lots of masking and watercoloring. It gives a much more mellow effect than the first card.

Finally, I stamped the jar image on a piece of paper with an ombre blue color. All three the exact same, then cut them out. Then I created 3 totally different cards with them.

I think its awesome to find so many uses for one stamp set or even one image alone! You can get this stamp set this month at a discounted price. Go to my website to find out more!

Showing Sympathy with Flower Market

The newest Cricut Cartridge, Flower Market, has been very useful lately. I've had to make a few sympathy cards in the last couple of weeks and the detailed flowers and sentiments on this cartridge have worked beautifully. Take a look at two of the designs I've created.

I've used a similar color scheme on both as well as the same sentiment cut. However with some different patterned/embossed papers and two very different layered flowers they are uniquely not identical!

The Flower Market Cricut cartridge is available to order now in the traditional physical cartridge or a digital version. Get more details on my website 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?

Happiness Is a Handmade Wreath

I've admired this wreath on the front cover of the latest Idea Book ever since seeing sneak peek's from convention. When available, I downloaded the recipe for it. It listed the Cricut collection, image, page number and sizing, but the rest of the instruction was up to me. I had no idea what the finished size would be? I thought it would be about the size of our 12x12 wooden frames. After making it I soon realized this was larger than our frames. I cut some cardboard from one of our shipping boxes as the base. {about 15" in diameter} Assembling the leaves and flowers was fun, but I'll warn you that it required lots of hot glue! The white is super hard to photograph, but I will say that the finished result is gorgeous!

If you are interested in making your own wreath you can download and print the recipe for yourself. In fact you can look up the recipe for any of the artwork in the Idea Book by clicking here then selecting "recipes". Please share with me if you make one, I'd love to know what you think about it!

Hello Little Lovely Flower Jar

I have been fascinated for quite some time with mason jar crafts. From food gifts to home lighting, even scrapbook projects, these jars have endless possibility! You can imagine how happy I was to see a mason jar with flowers on the new Artistry cartridge. It is just adorable and so easy to size and cut out.

For this card I was inspired by some colors I saw recently on a shopping excursion. I'm especially fascinated with the hints of gold with these coral and mint colors. Many of us have also found an interest in painting, particularly a spray or splat of paint on our projects. For this card though I practically cheated on the splats as I used the nifty Ink Blot {D1660} stamp set found in the new Annual Inspirations book. I am entering this card on Heart 2 Heart Challenges this week for their "Splat" theme!

Close up of the splats! 

There's that awesome "hello" sentiment again! Don't forget that you can get the amazing National Stamping Month sets at a discounted price when you buy all three. They will only be available this month, special ends September 30th.

Sarita Card Workshop

One of my "go to" Close To My Heart products are the instructional how-to books. We have some for just scrapbooking, some for cards and the most recent books combines both of these. I opened the Wishes book the other day for some card ideas. {This is a book for just card making.} Browsing the pages I re-discovered some of the card workshops contained within the book. These are fantastic, because it gives you directions in cutting a few pieces of cardstock and only one design paper to create several cards! In this case 16 of them!

I chose to use the Sarita papers. It is such a lovely paper with cool patterns on both sides and vibrant colors. With this workshop you create 16 cards, however it is only 8 designs. As you can see I flipped my papers and chose all sorts of different sentiments and stamped images to make each and everyone unique! How many stamp sets did I use all together? Your guess is as good as mine! I was just having fun creating and in the end I had a pile of stamps on the floor next to my chair!! {ha ha}

Do you send several cards for Christmas? This workshop would be perfect for making a lot of cards in a minimal amount of time using just a little bit of supply!

Hello {flowers and sketch 86}

My card today features some colorful irresistibles chipboard blooms for the May flowers challenge on Heart 2 Heart this week. I inked the flowers in Honey and Cotton Candy. The leaves were inked in Pear green. I have also incorporated the sketch from Freshly Made Sketches. I liked how the colorful flowers popped off the Whisper grey chevron pattern. Clean and simple, but certainly not boring!

 

 

Spring Card Exchange 2012 {part 2}

Alright, here it is...part 2 of my Spring Card Exchange! Are you ready to see the fabulous creations from my talented customers? Be amazed~

First up is a beautiful card by Janet that had so much dimension that she needed to make a box for it!

 Here is the card that was in the box, look at that gorgeous tissue flower~

This is Nanette's sweet Spring card. I love the butterflies and pearls!

This fun little bird house card is from Pat. She curled the pink flowers around a pencil eraser to give them dimension.

Aysa created this bright and colorful chick card, tweet...tweet!

Peggy mingled the Stella and Lucy papers together and gave her card a ton of dimension. Her easel card is stunning and gorgeous!

The butterfly folded up to reveal the sentiment~

Tommy had fun using her Art Philosophy Cricut cartridge to cut all her postage shapes and butterflies. This card is a perfect example of how you can utilize your scraps and create a beautiful card!

As an added bonus~ I just had to share this extra card that Nanette made for me. Like many of my customers she is also a good friend and has only been creating with me for about a year. She is a fast learner and has lots of talent to share, wouldn't you say! Thank you for the lovely card Nanette!

I hope you were able to find some inspiration here today. Be sure to leave a comment and let these ladies know what a great job they did!

Happy Spring!