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!

Calendar Club ~ June, July & August

This month my Calendar Club will not be making just 2 pages as usual. Instead they will be making 3 so that we wrap up this project in time for gift giving at the end of the year.

For June's page they will use the subtle colors of the Miracle papers. They will hang some "glowing" lanterns as the finishing touch to this simple design.

For July's page I "steered" clear of the typical stars and stripes of the season. Instead I've created the scene of a festive bicycle parade!

By the time we reach August we will need to "cool" down. What better way than ice cream and a splash of color!

Mad Tea Party Pages

It's an ABC challenge on Heart 2 Heart Blog this week. Make "Anything But a Card"!!? No problem, I love creating all sorts of projects that are not cards. However, being that it's National Scrapbooking Month I've made a promise to myself to get some scrapbooking done!

You may remember these pages I posted awhile back from my daughter's Mad Tea Party. These pages showcased the results of all our guests with their mad hatter hats. I still needed to scrap the photo's from the party.


So here is the companion page that will proceed the other one once it goes in my album. It shows some pics of the decorations, food, tea, guests, and fun! I used some great new products, stamps and some of my favorite techniques.

Here is a close up of the left page. Instead of creating new embellishments I used the tags I made for the party.

Here is what the tags looked like at the party~

Why double your work? I knew I saved these for a reason!!

I love the eclectic irresistible chipboard and dot alphabet!

and the right side~

I made these simple lanterns to decorate the party and wanted to capture them for the page also. I was unable to incorporate them on the page like the tags, but our new little lantern stamp worked perfectly.

Buttons for the Boys!

They're all "buttoned up" at Heart 2 Heart Challenge Blog this week. I love embellishing my cards, scrapbooks and other projects with buttons. When I sat down to create something for this challenge, for some reason, all of the creations were masculine. These projects are great for the big and little boys!

This first card uses the new bicycle stamp. I've wanted to play with this stamp for some time now, it's so cool! CTMH's new buttons were perfect for the wheels. What would typically be seen as a flower design, I saw as wheel spokes!

How about some Birthday Party paper lanterns strung together with chocolate twine!

Finally, some party balloons! and don't forget those "button" brads embellishing the bottom corner!

Be sure to check out what the other talented artists created with their buttons....I mean, their wheels, lanterns and balloons!?! Go to H2H to see them all.

Birthday Party 2011 ~ Decorations

This was the scene that welcomed guests as they arrived to the party. The Mad Hatter was there as well as the Queen of Hearts. Look at the ceiling though and you'll see the fun paper globes.



Here is a closer look~

Doesn't the Queen look just like the one from the movie? She's so cool.

In the kitchen nook we hung some different lanterns in fantastic bright colors. I actually make larger versions of these with our first graders using construction paper. You could also set little battery operated tea lights inside of them and set them on a tabletop rather than hang them.

Curious what goodies are set out on the table? Come back tomorrow for the Birthday finale to see the food and fun we served up on this memorable day!

"Curious~er and Curious~er"