Happy Birthday Earthling

My brother-in-law is celebrating a birthday soon. His name is Marvin and he loves Marvin the Martian, so every few years I send him a card featuring that cartoon character. This year, I combined Marvin the Martian with some MFT products for this fun shaker card.

I love how MFT products make me look like a genius in under ten minutes!

I used the shaker circle pouches which fit perfectly inside the Happy Birthday circle die which I cut from white paper and colored with the same Copic markers I used for Marvin. I colored with the green first then came back and highlighted the ends with yellow. The black check paper is long retired from CTMH and the small stripe of green is from a trimming that I colored with the green Copic and glued very carefully against the edge of the black paper.

He is so stinkin' CUTE!! I can't wait for the real Marvin to get his card.

Now it's off to my day job. Final edits came back for To Catch a Bride which is available for pre-order now. Once they are done, it's time to write the final two stories in this series. Wow! Can't believe Gina and I are almost done writing these stories.

Until next time,
Becca

Pretty in Pink Blog Hop

Blog Hops with Heart decided to coordinate with the current "Pretty in Pink" special CTMH is running until the end of the month. Selected products (pictured above) are on sale, so stock up before next Tuesday. Here's my card:

This is one of those "Oops. Well...let's fix it by..." things. I started by trying to copy this card I saw on Pinterest. I used all three layers of the smallest flower from the Beautiful You set, stamping them in Bashful, Blossom, and Smoothie ink. I cut a mask then stamped leaves in Fern with Nutmeg as the veins. I did a cluster of three flowers on white cardstock, stamped the stitched tag (from the retired Packages, Boxes, and Tags stamp set) with Black ink, then trimming it out with Micro-tip Scissors. I used a pencil to draw and outline of the tag on my card base so I could plan out where to stamp the two background flowers and leaves.

My first oops was when I used a sales receipt as a mask on my flowers. Fern ink bled through. After stamping , I added splatters of Fern and Blossom ink to disguise it. (Done by squeezing the closed ink pad so the lid picked up ink from the pad, turning the lid over, wetting a paint brush with water, swirling it in the ink, then flicking the wet brush over the tag and card base.)  I then stamped several blobs from the Splash of Color stamp set (my new "go to" set) in Bashful ink so my tag stood out from the rest of the background.

I added my sentiment by embossing MY FRIEND from the Beautiful You set in White Super Fine Embossing Powder. I die cut "for" using the retired Thankful for You thin cuts. Since I didn't know what color I wanted the "for" to be, I cut it from white cardstock and then sponged it with Smoothie (not dark enough) and then Pomegranate ink.

After I finished assembling the entire card, I felt like the splatters went too far over on the left side, so I decided to trim down the front, add a border of striped paper from the retired Cats and Bats paper pack, and then glue it to a new, clean white card base. I was good to go until the final oops. I turned the card front over onto my craft mat to glue the black and white striped paper, putting it right over the top of where I'd sponged "for" with Pomegranate ink.

Yeah...trimmed that off. I was left with a 4 x 3.5 card front that I then glued to a 4x4 card base. It wasn't what I originally intended, but I'm quite happy with how it turned out.

This month we have five ladies participating in the hop. It's a circle, so if you started her keep going to Wendy's blog. You should have come from Jayma's blog, but you can start anywhere. And remember to stock up on PINK before the end of the month.

Until next time,
Becca

Preparing for Easter

Today, when we celebrate the homegoing of one of the greatest evangelists of all time, Billy Graham, I think it's fitting to post an Easter card. There's nothing religious about a basket filled with colored eggs, but it sure is pretty.

I used only a few supplies from CTMH (linked to my website for your shopping convenience):

• Bashful Cardstock (on sale through Feb. 28, 2018)
• Basic Cardstock Combo Pack (colors: Charcoal and Pewter)
• Basic Fundamental Paper Pack (color: Linen)
• Momento Black Ink
• Easter Basket stamp

Here's a close-up of the coloring. I used a wide variety of Copic markers and cut it with my Brother Scan N Cut plus an X-acto knife for the inner cut.

This summer I went to the Billy Graham Library and then to The Cove, a retreat center run by the Billy Graham Foundation. You could not come away from either of those places without recognizing that Mr. Graham decided early on that he was one thing: an evangelist. He resisted all attempts to be anything else.

I'll end with a quote from him. I'm not sure how long ago he wrote it, but is a fitting period to his life and work:

"Someday you will read or hear that Billy Graham is dead. Don't you believe a word of it! I shall be more alive than I am now. I will just have changed my address. I will have gone into the presence of God." ~Billy Graham

Until next time,
Becca

GRATEful for You Card with CTMH Gimme Some Sugar - Cardmaking

While watching the Super Bowl, I colored images from the Gimme Some Sugar - Cardmaking stamp set which I'm now turning into thank you cards.

I wanted to participate in another Team Challenge from my upline, so I used Saffron, Ruby, and Mink as my color scheme. I began by stamping the background in Mink using the Splash of Color stamp set. I stamped the larger blob (yes, that's the technical term) once then the small, splotchy blob three times in a triangle pattern: one below the thumb of the mitt, one between the mitt and the grater, and one behind the body of the mixer. I stamped each of the small, splotchy blobs a second time directly over the first image to give it a deeper layer of color. Since they were splotches, I wasn't fanatically worried about getting them lined up. Good enough was good enough.

The images from Gimme Some Sugar - Cardmaking were colored with a variety of Copic markers. I added the shine on the mixer with a white gel pen. I mounted the images with various levels of depth. The grater is glued directly to the card base, the oven mitt has one layer of foam tape, and the mixer has two layers of foam tape except where it overlaps the oven mitt.

To finish off the card, I added a .5 x 4.25 strip of Saffron from the Enchantment Fundamentals Paper Packet along the bottom of the card base. I stamped the sentiment, also from Gimme Some Sugar - Cardmaking, in Ruby ink then used some long retired baker's twine as my only embellishment.

I've linked to the Gimme Some Sugar set which includes the coordinating die cuts. If you want the stamp set only, use this link. If you look closely, you'll see that the coordinating die cuts don't cut the small shape between the mixer blades. I did that with an x-acto knife because...well, just because I wanted to.

I finished enough images to make about five of these cards. They are all different colors, though, because...well, just because I wanted to. And yes, there's a technical term for that, too, but I'm not sharing it with you. I think you can probably figure it out for yourself. LOL!

Until next time,
Becca

Dear Friend Card with Chelsea Gardens - Scrapbooking

I can't get enough of the new Chelsea Gardens - Scrapbooking set, and I haven't even started using it for actual scrapbooking. This card was done for a challenge through Shannon Baker's Stampin' Buds team. We were supposed to use Black, Bashful, and Glacier. I went non-traditional, deciding to make the flower blue and the background pink.

For the background, I "stamped" my Bashful Ink Pad directly on the card base which I trimmed down to 3 7/8" x 5 1/2" because I wanted to let my leaves hang over the edges. It also helped "square up" my card base with the shape of the Bashful background. Bashful is the color of the year, and it's also on sale through the Pretty in Pink campaign running all this month. I'm going to be very, very sad when the CTMH year ends in August, but I'm stocking up on everything Bashful so I'll have plenty of it before it retires.

The flower and leaves come from Chelsea Gardens - Scrapbooking; the sentiment comes from Chelsea Gardens - Cardmaking. After stamping the flower in Glacier, I used a Clear Shimmer Brush over the petals. I tried to get a good shot of the shimmer but it none of them turned out well. Trust me, it's really pretty in person. The leaves and stamen were stamped in Black. I fussy cut everything with Micro-tip Scissors, glued the leaves directly on the card base (making sure the total width of the card from each leaf tip measured 4 1/4 inches so it would fit inside a standard A2 envelope), and added the flower with 3-D Foam Tape. My last step was adding Liquid Glass to the center of the stamen.

I really like how this turned out, so now I think I'll go try this using Glacier as my background and Bashful for my flower.

Until next time,
Becca

Two Great Specials from Close to My Heart

CTMH is running two great specials this month.

First is the always-popular Stamp of the Month: Sunny Thoughts. The stamp set can be purchased for $17.95 or for $5 with a $50 purchase. This set is only available during the month of February because there's another great set waiting for you in March.

Here are a few images of projects using this versatile stamp set:

 

Next up is the Pretty in Pink special with discounts on selected products.

 

 

As you can see, there are a variety of products included, some of which can be purchased in a bundle, others sold separately. If you need pink or gold, now is the time to shop.

 

There's also a butterfly mural.

 

Finally, don't forget to check the Clearance section as new products have been added at discounted prices. Happy shopping!

 

Until next time,

Becca