My First "She Art"

I have seen various "She Art" projects floating around the internet. I saw them posted on Pinterest and some Blogs which made me curious and even found some You Tube videos showing how to create them. I was pleasantly surprised to find some Julie Nutting stamps at Hobby Lobby and purchased some canvas and Mod Podge along with them. Even with the materials at hand and lots of researching I was still nervous to try my hand at this type of art project! So everything sat there in my craft room for a couple of weeks.

Then, last Friday I said, "What the heck, just try it, it's only paper and glue!" I had so much fun just 'building' the girl and piecing together an assortment of patterned papers. In the end it may not have been perfect, but it was freeing, and fun, and sort of addicting!

So here is my very first "She Art" or should I say She Heart!

 
My papers are from new & old collections like For always, Heartstrings, Frosted and La Bel Vie.

I love the idea of choosing a quote or sentiment that really means something to you. This is the one I chose for this first project, it just kept ringing in my head and my heart that day.

At first I was super nervous to free hand all of the outline, not sure if it would just look messy. After a few strokes it became relaxing and even a bit meditative! I even squiggled some curls in her hair!

Besides piecing paper and doodling an outline, I also stamped a sentiment of love and left a flower popped up off the canvas. I simply sealed some mod podge on the surface, but as you can see in the photo it is not completely glued down to the canvas. I love that there are no strict or confining rules. What a great way to use left over pieces of paper too. I have so many ideas for more She Art!

Thanks for stopping by!

Artfully Sent Getting Lots of Love!

On Heart 2 Heart Challenges blog this week, we are asked to show our CTMH love! There are so many things I love about Close To My Heart and their amazing products. How do I choose a favorite? I don't, instead I am sharing the product that has been getting the most love from me lately. That would definitely be the Artfully Sent Cricut cartridge! I hosted a class last week and we all had a blast playing with this newest cartridge. Here is one of the bonus cards that I shared with the ladies.

Loving that Heartstrings paper too right now!


Here is a swing card for Mom using some Brushed paper.

Finally, while the ladies were playing on their machines, I was trying out this cute deer & rabbit scene card. I just continued cutting the card in different colors of cardstock, then pieced them together.

I'm loving that cartridge and can't imagine getting through all the cards within the year. There are just so many possibilities! What are you loving right now? Do you have a favorite CTMH product?

Please click on the Cricut collections tab at the top of my blog for more information on this newest cartridge. You can order yours here.

Just a Note >> I Love You!

This gorgeous Valentine card was inspired by multiple challenges! It's amazing how much we can push our creativity!

The sketch for my card comes from Freshly Made sketches this week.

As you can see I chose my shape to be a vintage looking typewriter, which happens to be a Stamp of the Month that will be available later this Spring!

For my base paper I chose the lovely Heartstrings paper in a Cranberry color. This is my favorite B&T paper currently in all of the paper collections. Using mostly cranberry in my card brings me to the second challenge over at Heart 2 Heart Challenges. Yep, I'm a September Birthday girl!

Finally, the last challenge was proposed on CTMH founder's Jeanette Lynton's Blog, Make It from Your Heart. An inspiration Bingo board. Close your eyes and let your finger land where it may. Then choose your direction.

I landed on "Use Shin Han Touch Twin markers" and could go vertical or horizontal. I chose to use the "O" column. Now some of these may need explaining!

The first Bingo box is to use stitching. This required getting my daughter's machine out, because I obviously work with paper and don't really sew. I did alright though and the contrast of the white thread with the cranberry paper is lovely.
 

The next challenge was to expose the white core of the paper. This was achieved by both tearing the edge of the paper and using a distressing tool on the edges. This sketch really lent itself to the torn paper!

Next was to frame a part of your creation. In a way the black cardstock frames the cranberry paper on the entire base of the card. This was also done by framing the stamped heart within the typewriter paper.

Now if you look closely in this next picture you will see where the PML card came into play. I stamped the typewriter paper on a For Always Picture My Life 3x4 card that contained some script. A little ironic I realize, but it's still super cute!

Finally, the box I landed on originally! To incorporate the Shin Han Touch markers I wanted to use a heart stamp for the center of the paper on the typewriter. The shape and size of this heart worked the best, but it was open in the middle. A quick fix was to color in the middle with the Very Cherry Shin Han Touch marker and then I blended it together with the colorless blender marker.

That was fun playing along with those challenges, you should try one, or two, or all of them....at the same time!! Thanks for stopping by...

Lovely Mini's

I love creating mini cards, especially when I get to use some new products! Each of these cards feature some new papers or stamp set offered in the Seasonal Expressions Idea Book. You will also notice some adorable Puffies on each of them too!

They just keep getting cuter as you scroll down right?! Remember that many items featured in the Seasonal Expressions book are available for a limited time.

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}

You're the Bomb Mini's

One of the first items on my wish list from the brand new Seasonal Expressions book was the You're the Bomb stamp set. This stamp set has the cutest little images and some great phrases in a fun hand written font. What really makes this stamp set cool though is that a portion of the proceeds is being donated to Operation Smile. You get an awesome stamp set while a child gets confidence through their smile for a lifetime! That is pretty cool!

I inked up a few of the images and phrases to create some mini 3x3 cards for my customers. With any purchase they get to choose a set of cards and wouldn't you know that I didn't have a single set of these left over!!

Did you see some new papers in there? how about that glitter paper? don't you just love the gold sequin and those new puffies?

Tomorrow is my annual Christmas card exchange. Instead of mini 3x3 cards for my customers I have a little something extra for them. It is the season of giving after all! Come back soon to see what goodies I have to share and to see the Christmas cards designed by myself and my talented customers!

Love Note

Want a little sneak peek?! My card today features some new products available December 1st from the Heartstrings collection found in the Seasonal Expressions. I'm also playing along with the sketch challenge at Freshly Made Sketches and the "no" ink challenge on Heart 2 Heart.

 

There was no ink used in the making of this card. The darling typewriter image is from the Heartstrings Complements and the mini badge button is one of 8 pieces in the Heartstrings Assortment. With embellishments this cute there is no need to stamp with ink! Plus, no inky fingers!

Be sure to check out all the beautiful artwork and inspiration at Freshly Made Sketches too!