60th Birthday Card

To prepare for our move in a few weeks, I'm getting a jump on all the cards I'm going to need in June and July. One of them is for my brother-in-law who is turning 60, which meant he needed a number-specific card. I don't normally show them ahead of time, but I'm fairly certain he won't be visiting my blog and it features the May Stamp of the Month (SOM) which retires in about a week.

I wish I could take credit for the card design, but I flat-out stole it from this card. I created my own version using the Flower Market Cricut Cartridge (banner - which normally reads "Happy Place" but I altered to suit my needs). I also used some free shapes and a font from Design Space. Here's the file if you want to recreate it. The extra circle in the file is for two reasons: 1) to cut vellum if you want to recreate this exact card, and 2) so you can copy and paste it to create your own numbers.

Here's the supply list with links included for your shopping convenience:

• Flower Market Cricut Cartridge
• May SOM: To My Bestie ("Birthday" and "Celebrate" stamps)
• Timeless Textures (blue splatter)
• True Love paper (blue circle)
• Into the Wild paper (green plaid)
• Goldrush Cardstock (stars and back of banner)
• White Daisy Cardstock (banner overlay)
• Vellum paper (behind 60 to dull intensity of the background stamping)
• New England Ivy ink
• Sapphire ink
• Round Sponge
• Micro-tip Scissors (to trim edges of circle and large star)
• Dual Tip Permanent Glue Pen

I love that our cardstock is two-toned. It allowed me to cut the two nested stars at the same time. And, as I told you in this post, I'm crazy about the Timeless Textures stamp set so I add random splatters in a controlled way. Yes, I might have a bit of an OCD thing going on over here.

The moving company shows up tomorrow to do a walk-through to determine how much it will take to get us out of here. I always love the reactions I get to my craft cabinet. They are never neutral. Either the guy is impressed by the amount of work it took to create a customized cabinet or (most of the time) appalled that they have to take it down piece by piece then reassemble it on the other end. I do try to have it clean so it's a little less intimidating. Right now it looks like I've been on a crafting binge...which I have. Better clean-up!

Until next time,
Becca

Bloom

Sometimes we craft too much with "what is" instead of with "what could be." Let me show you what I mean.

I fell in love with this card  a few days ago. I decided I wanted to make my own version using supplies I have. Here's mine...

The grid background and boots all come from the Flower Market Cricut Cartridge, but the grid came from this...

I ungrouped the vase, got rid of the green background image, unlocked the size to stretch it taller and wider, copied and pasted it, turned one 90 degrees, welded the two together, and then sliced out a rectangle measuring 3x 4.25 so it would fit behind the stitched die cut frame. I added some vellum paper behind it to soften the effect of the grid lines.

Now for the boots. The original image is the pink one. I don't happen to like the outlined images like this, so I did some slicing and contouring to create solid sections.

I'm not going to lie. This took a long time.

A.

LOOOONG.

Time.

But I really like how it turned out, so that makes it worth it. Plus, now that the work is done, I can come back to this and use it for other projects. However, if you have the Flower Market cartridge and Design Space, here's the cutting file for both the grid and the boots.

The flowers come from a stamp set called Where Happiness Blooms. It features a watering can with those tulips coming out of the top. I only stamped the top half of the watering can image to get the outline, stamped the fill shapes once in the lighter color then sponging the edges in darker for the shading. The leaves are Mint and Emerald; the tulips are Ballerina and Raspberry.

And now the sentiment banner. I stamped "BLOOM" (wiping ink off of the comma at the end of the word) on a piece of White Daisy cardstock and then went hunting in my Fancy Tags for one that would fit. None of them did. So I did some altering of that, too. I used the tag one way over the top of the word, cut it, flipped the tag over and centered it so the slanted ends were evenly spaced around the word, and cut again.

Once the black background was cut, I assembled the card in layers. I added some Crafty Loose Sequins at the end to carry some of that Caroline Blue cardstock from the boots into other areas of the card.

I get it. This is a lot of work for one card.

A.

LOOOOOT.

Of.

Work.

But my purpose was to show you how to stretch your supplies. Just because a thing is created one way doesn't mean you have to use it that way. Start seeing your supplies as tools and make them work for you.

Until next time,
Becca

Mother's Day Card with CTMH May Stamp of the Month

I wasn't able to join the May Stamp of the Month (SOM) Blog Hop because of my travel, but I wanted to post something with this lovely, versatile set. Mother's Day is coming soon, and even though the SOM has a best friend theme, I was easily able to alter it for this card.

The paper is from the new Mix-Ins paper suite which is a gorgeous mixture of Ballerina, Charcoal, Black, and White. I cut the envelope from the Flower Market Cricut cartridge, folding it so the pink side was out and the gray side was in. I also cut two M's with the Block Alphabet Thin Cuts. My final cut was the stitched rectangular panel which adds a lovely border without taking away from the clean and simple feel of the card.

Here's a look at the SOM. I love how both the balloons and the small bouquet of flowers has a space for the girl's hand to hold them. For the sentiment, I cut "friend" off  from the center sentiment using Micro-tip scissors. I also used them to trim out the flower images which I stamped in Charcoal ink and colored with markers.

Because the card utilizes flowers, I'm adding it to this week's Heart2Heart Challenge: Florals.

After gluing the flowers into the envelope, I stamped the sentiment in Charcoal ink. I then adhered the envelope to the background panel using a ruler to make sure it was straight. I added the M's to both sides, again using the ruler. The final touch was a Mink Twine bow adhered with Liquid Glass. Once everything was adhered to the stitched panel, I added it to the card with 3-D Foam Tape.



Here's the supply list (with shopping links for your convenience):

• Flower Market Cricut cartridge
• May SOM: To My Bestie
• Mix-In Paper
• Charcoal ink
• Micro-tip Scissors
• Bonding Memories Glue Pen
• Stitched Rectangular Thin Cuts
• Block Alphabet Thin Cuts
• Mink Twine
• Liquid Glass
• 3-D Foam Tape

The new CTMH catalog went live two days ago (see link in sidebar). In addition to all the fabulous new products and the May SOM (which is only $5 with a $50 purchase), there are three other great promotions running. The first is Bring Back My Pack with the fun Zoe pack from four years ago. The second is Made With Love, a mini-album package that is perfect for Mother's Day. And the third is The World is Yours. I'm part of a Blog Hop promoting this special which goes live Sunday night, so be sure to come back for that.

Until next time,
Becca

Get Well Teapot with Flower Market Cartridge

I'm in need of get well cards, so I sat down today and played with Flower Market, transforming the image that's in the cartridge until it looked more realistic to my eye.

If you own this cartridge, here's the Design Space file. Please note, as this was a home made job, things don't line up exactly. Also, after I cut the background, I decided the inner square needed to be smaller. I've adjusted that on the DS file, but I used the one I cut first on this card as it wasn't bad enough to start over.

I took advantage of the dual tone cardstock here, using the lighter side for the teapot and the darker side for the rim around the spout, the ball on top, and the frame.

One quick tip for the tag: tie the thread around the tag, turn the teapot base over, secure the thread behind with tape, and then glue down the base. Yeah...ask me why I know that's a good idea. LOL! Once the teapot was assembled and the frame was stamped and glued to the card base, I used foam tape to give the teapot some dimension.

I'm really going to miss the Short & Sweet stamp set. Those tiny sentiments are perfect for all sorts of occasions.

Here's the supply list (* indicates retiring at the end of the month):
*Documented Workshop Your Way (includes stickers and gems)
Linen Paper
Eggplant ink
Pebble ink
Flower Market Cricut Cartridge ("Laughter" sentiment and dotted background stamps are part of this collection)
*Short and Sweet stamp set
3D Foam tape

I liked this card so well, I made two more of them. For the ones below, I used a combination of CTMH products and MFT products.

This card also uses the Documented Paper Pack but the background frame is in Pebble paper. I hand cut the paper at the top of the tea pot and used a Copic marker to color the knob in a cool gray. The steam coming out of the teapot is from a retired CTMH stamp set called "Wonderland." I love it when those sets I've been hanging onto for years come in handy. It justifies my inability to part with them.

The sentiments on this card and the one below come from MFT. The set is called "Get Well Wishes." I also used MFT's "Inside and Outside" stitched frames to create the background frame.

For this card, it was back to Linen cardstock and retired Gimme Some Sugar paper. I created the shading with Copic markers and added my sentiment with a banner made using MFTs Stitched Fishtail dies.

I know...lots of the same design, but one can never have too many get well cards!

In writing news, I had a couple good days and a couple unproductive ones. I'm not sure why, but the final book in this series is killing me. Oh...I do know why. Because we have to say good-bye to these characters we've come to love. **Sigh**

Until next time,
Becca

Spring Card with CTMH Flower Market

I've been having fun with my Cricut and the Flower Market cartridge. My upline, Shannon Baker, runs a color challenge weekly, and this time it was Almond, Tangerine, and Poppy. I loved the boot card I  made for winning the Spur Award (link HERE) and the tulip one I made where I highlighted with white gel pen (link HERE), so I combined them for this card:

For the rubber boots, I used a combination of the Basic Fundamental Paper and Basics Cardstock Combo. Both of these were on sale a couple months ago, so I stocked up. I love that subtle pattern on the boots. I filled in a few of the cuts just because I liked the solid look better. I could have used the Hide Contour feature while I was in Design Space to fill them in, but I actually like the bit of outline you get with the cut.

After cutting the flowers in cardstock, I sponged the edges with their coordinating Tangerine and Poppy ink colors with Sponge Daubers. I also sponged Poppy ink along the edges of the Almond cardstock used as a matte. Both the Almond matte and the White Daisy matte were cut using rectangular stitched dies from My Favorite Things. The banner, which was stamped using a coordinating stamp set in the Flower Market Cricut Bundle, is also a stitched die from My Favorite Things.

Once the flowers were sponged and glued together using alternate sides of the two-tone Tangerine and Poppy cardstock (which doesn't show up well in this photo but adds subtle interest), I highlighted them with a combination of white gel pen and some black dots from a micro-tip pen. The flower image in Flower Market comes with a center, but I decided I wanted the pen dots instead.

What a fun card to brighten someone's day.

Before I go, don't forget the Die-namite special CTMH is running. It took me a while to get on the die cutting band wagon, but - OH! - I'm loving it now. For some more examples of projects I've made using these die cuts, please link to the following:
Block Letters
Thankful for You

Until next time,
Becca

Anniversary Card with Flower Market Cricut Cartridge

I saw a picture recently with a charcoal gray background and colorful flowers over the top. The flowers were highlighted with white strokes. I wanted to see if I could recreate the look and am mostly happy with the result.

To begin, I cut five tulips using CTMH Flower Market cartridge. I used Willow, Bashful, Blossom, and Raspberry paper. (All of these colors except Bashful come in the Flower Market bundle but can be ordered individually here.)  Once the images were cut, I started adding streaks of white with a gel pen. It's times like these that I wish I was more artistic. They seem very rough and haphazard, but overall they are the effect I was going for.

Once the flowers and leaves were highlighted, I glued them together using the chisel-tipped Glue Pen, alternating which side of the cardstock I used to get some more shading and to change up the look of the tulips. Note in the close up picture that the far left tulip has the broader petals of the top two layers on the left where they broader petals on the tulip one place over has the broader top two petals on the right.  You'll also see the subtle color difference between these two top layers. I'm LOVING the dual tones of our cardstock now that I've started to really play with it. (See this post for another example.) I didn't use all five of the flowers, and some of them were only two or three layers instead of all four. I only used three of the stems, the center one in the lighter tone of Willow dual tone cardstock.

Once the petals were glued together, I glued the entire bouquet to a piece of Charcoal cardstock cut to 2.75 x 5.5. I then added more dots and strokes of white with the gel pen.

To embellish, I added Basic Ribbon in the grey on white. I was fortunate in that the word in the end of my roll was "amazing." I wrapped it around the base of the flowers, securing the ends behind the Charcoal panel with tape. I then glued the entire panel to a card base. I was going to search for stamps to create a full sentiment and then decided it would be quicker to just hand write it. Again, I wish I could do fancy, swooshy-swirly writing like a calligrapher, but my scrawl matched the rustic feel of the flowers. That's what I'm telling myself, so please don't correct my delusion.

Off to my writing cave. Wish me luck because I've come down with a sore throat and cough. I'm drinking copious amounts of tea and orange juice thanks to my beloved husband who went grocery shopping not once, but twice this weekend. Chivalry at its finest!

Until next time,
Becca

Baby Girl Card with Pizazz

I recently hired an assistant to help me build my author social media presence. She's taking a little break because a much more important job came up...delivering baby number three. I made this card for her using vellum paper for this month's Blog Hops with Heart Paper Pizazz theme.

I took a great deal of time on this card because I just couldn't stop embellishing.

I began by creating an envelope, the flowers, and lace in Cricut Design Space using CTMH's Flower Market Cartridge. Here's the cutting file. I used Bashful paper for the bottom layer, Gimme Some Sugar for the patterned paper, and White cardstock for the lace. (Image is from a jar with a lace band which I ungrouped from the jar. I copied and pasted two more lace images then welded all three together.)

The flowers were cut with Bashful, White, and Blossom cardstock and more Gimme Some Sugar paper for the leaves. The letters were cut from White cardstock using Block Alphabet Thin Cuts.

The envelope was cut with Vellum paper, which is what qualifies it for the Paper Pizazz theme.

All stamped images come from the Sent and Delivered hostess only set in the current CTMH Seasonal Expressions Catalog. (No shopping link is available, but you can view the stamp set on p. 5 of the catalog.) "Special Delivery" was stamped in Bashful ink with a hint of Raspberry ink sponged in the center and around the edges. The circled heart, postage stamp and wavy lines (which I think is technically called a stamp cancel) were all stamped in Peacock. The border along the lace was stamped in Juniper. I also sponged Juniper around the edges of the leaves and a bit of Raspberry in the center of the largest Cricut cut flower. I colored the stamp using Copic markers and fussy cut it with Micro-tip Scissors.

I used the Piercing Tool to create holes for my sewing borders. The pink border on the patterned papers was actually done with thread. I poked the holes first then weaved thread through them. The white one on the Bashful paper was done by drawing lines with a white gel pen first and adding the pierced holes later. I added more of the pink thread through every other hole along the top of the lace border, weaving one layer all the way across, turning the border, then weaving another layer through the remaining holes. I didn't really need to do that, but like I said, I couldn't stop embellishing.

The final embellishments were White Twine and a small safety pin which CTMH sold years and years and years ago. It's technically Baby Pink, but it's close enough to Bashful for me.

If I were doing this card without the baby's name, I would enlarge both the envelope and the accent flowers in my Design Space file.

Now you're off to Aime's blog. You should have come from Jayma's blog. It's only the three of us this time around, but be sure to link through so you see their projects. If you are interested in the Sent and Delivered stamp set and don't already have a CTMH consultant, please leave me a comment along with contact information so I can help you earn this fun set. If you'd prefer to keep your information private, visit my author website and use the "Contact Me" page. Any information sent there goes straight to me.

Back to my day job. My writing partner and I got an extension on our latest deadline, and we're going to need every minute of it to finish editing book to of our Montana Brides Romance series.

Until next time,
Becca

N'tl Stamping Month - From the Heart

September is National Stamping Month. Yep...a whole month just for stamping! And every year Close to My Heart does something to celebrate.  This year, they've released a double stamp set which might be my favorite stamp set ever.  I paired it with the Flower Market Cricut Cartridge to cut the basket for this Card Concept inspired card.

I used a whole host of ink pads (shopping links below), most of which are self-explanatory. I did, however, want to mention that, for the yellow flowers, I stamped the final layer in White Daisy to give the petals that subtle texture. Because this is a pigment ink, give it plenty of time to dry before handling the flowers for cutting. I waited about ten or fifteen minutes.

The laundry basket is a Flower Market Cricut cartridge cut. In the original, the blanket inside the basket doesn't quite fill the bottom. To make it do so, I ungrouped the image, stretched the blanket a bit, then cut. Both layers were cut using the lighter side of Toffee paper. I stamped using the stripe background that comes with Flower Market vertically and horizontally in Toffee ink then added some more sponging to the edges for a little more dimension. I left my cut on the mat while I stamped and sponged to give this delicate cut a little more stability while sponging the edges.

In order to get my background flowers placed as I wanted, I laid down my basket and flowers without gluing and then snapped a picture using my phone so I could have it for future reference. Without moving the basket or flowers, I stamped just the petals of the background trio of red flowers. Then I removed the basket and flowers and filled in with the rest of the background images.

The background panes were cut using a retired MFT Blueprint die set (#20). Once all the layers were assembled, I embellished with pearls and a twine bow. No sentiment on the front as I need some generic cards.

As I write this, Hurricane Irma is approaching Florida. Her path shifted taking us out of the direct line, but we are still expecting heavy wind, rain, and possible flooding from her outer rim. CTMH has created a special stamp set to aid the many victims of this summer's multiple, devastating disasters. All proceeds will go to The Red Cross as they assist fire victims in the west and Hurricane victims all along the Gulf Coast.  I love the sayings in this set as they apply to all kinds of tough situations. (Shopping link below)

And don't forget the September Stamp of the Month, another wonderful set which is only $5 with a $50 order or $17.95 regular price. There's a link on the sidebar to order this stamp set, and I've included it in the shopping links below.

In writing news, I am almost done with my final deadline for the year. I really need to finish in the next day or two in case Irma knocks out our power for days. I've never been in the path of a hurricane before, and I gotta say...not liking this much. At ALL.

Until next time,
Becca



Shopping Links:

• From the Heart stamp set (stamps only)
• From the Heart stamps and interactive card bases
• Canary Ink
• Saffron Ink
• White Daisy Ink
• Poppy Ink
• Ruby Ink
• Fern Ink
• New England Ivy Ink
• Toffee Ink
• Canary cardstock
• White Daisy cardstock
• Toffee cardstock
• Flower Market Cricut bundle (digital only - available for use with Cricut Explore™, Cricut Explore Air™, and Cricut Explore Air™ 2)
• Flower Market Cricut bundle (physical cartridge and booklet)
• Micro-tip scissors
• Glue pen
• Sponge Daubers
• White Pearls
• White twine
• Stronger Together (disaster relief) stamp set

Christmas in August

I need to get back to the writing cave and pound out about 2k more words before the end of the day, but I wanted to share another scrapbook layout I made this weekend. This one uses the Flower Market cartridge.

If you have Cricut Design Space, here's the cutting file.

As with yesterday's post, these pictures were taken on an old film camera.  Because the photos are dark, I chose a light background for contrast. Not all the papers are available now, so the shopping links are the closest comparable. I love how the single color Whimsy Fundamental background paper perfectly compliments the busy, colorful wreath and banner. To add a little depth, I sponged Nutmeg ink along the edges of the banner, flower, leaves, and pinecones plus the bottom of the sentiment. Love how the Cricut cuts did almost all the work for me.

Shopping Links:

• Flower Market Cricut Cartridge (digital only, for use with Cricut Explore™, Cricut Explore Air™, and Cricut Explore Air™ 2)
• Flower Market Cricut Cartridge (with physical cartridge)
• Sweet Leaf Cardstock
• New England Ivy Cardstock
• Poppy Cardstock
• Ruby Cardstock
• Toffee Cardstock
• Nutmeg Cardstock
• Whimsy Fundamental
• Sponge Daubers
• Nutmeg Ink Pad

I'm sure my poor son is hanging his head with embarrassment at this photo of his nose surgery recovery, but a memory is a memory. Isn't that why we scrapbook?

Lunch break is over. Back to work.

Until next time,
Becca