Classes

Dorothy's Creative Classes and Workshops
Click here for more information about my classes and workshops!

Monday 30 July 2012

Heart 2 Heart Challenge - Using Scraps

This week's challenge at Heart to Heart is Scrap Angels....using your scraps.  I created a card from the scraps of my Cruising paper pack (which is as of just a couple of days ago, no longer available).


I created the pattern using strips of left over paper.  I forgot to take pictures while I was working on it to make this easier to explain, but I'll try.

Start with a piece of plain cardstock (it won't be seen, so even a piece that has a "messed up" stamping attempt on it will work.  Cut that piece to the size that you want the patterned piece to be in the end.  If you have a zyron sticker maker large enough you can run it through to make one side sticky (which makes the whole project faster) or you can do what I did and just use glue.

In my example I started with three red strips, one is mostly under the circle.  Put one across the project and then the other two at right angles to it, one on either side.  Now you just need to continue building up the pattern using your strips of paper.

There are so many ways to do this, you can use different sized strips, like I did, or you can make all your strips the same size.  You can be totally random with what strips you choose or you can choose to do each layer in the same paper, like I did.  You can also substitute ribbon or even a stripe of glitter or pearls for one of the strips.  So many options!!!!

Get out your scraps and have fun creating!!!  I'd love to see what you create, so don't forget to post your creations on the Heart 2 Heart Challenges blog, just remember to mostly use CTMH products and to mention our challenge blog in your post.

Thursday 26 July 2012

Dakota Sneak Peak

My daughter is very involved in Scouts (she's at the Venturer level).  Next summer is the Canadian Jamboree in Alberta (for the Scout Troop age group). She has applied to be a volunteer at the camp in the Youth Leadership Team.  From our troop there are almost 15 Scout youth, 4 Venturers and then 6 leaders planning on going.  Because of the travel to Alberta on top of camp costs, this is a very expensive trip, so we have already started fundraising.  Of course, I offered to make Thank You cards for all the generous souls that help out our group......that's turning into a much bigger job than I thought it would!

The Dakota papers are perfect for these cards and I had a lot of fun tonight creating 3 different cards getting my inspiration from a few different challenge blogs.


This is the first one, it's a pretty clean and simple (CAS) card, the centre symbol is popped with foam tape, and the entire grey panel is also popped with foam tape.  The sketch inspiration came from the I Spy Challenge blog.  The inspiration to do the stitching, which is kind of hard to see in this picture, is from Less is More Challenge blog.  The stitching is machine stitching with white thread.  Aren't these patterned papers awesome?!


The second card, I went to town with the edge scrapper and really distressed it.  This paper really lends itself to the distressed look.  The inspiration for this sketch came from Unscripted Sketches Sketch #168 and the inspiration for the repeating element came from Simply Create Too #18.  I was not having much fun with my Cricut cutting matt today, so the Fleur de Lys' are a little off shape.  I LOVE the barn board patterned paper as a background, I think I'm going to end up using alot of this!


This last card is a true CAS card.  No really special techniques or anything, it's a quick and simple card that looks great (if I do say so myself :-)  I was a little unsure about this paisley pattern at first, but once I used it, I really loved it.  The sketch inspiration for this card is from The Paper Players Sketch #105.  The other inspiration was from the CAS-ual Fridays challenge of creating a card with a black base.

Hope you liked the sneak peak of this great paper pack.

Let me know if you would like a new Idea Book/Catalog delivered, I have them onsite now and ready for you to spend lots of time oohing and awwing over!

Tuesday 24 July 2012

Clementine Sneak Peek - Mojo Monday 251 and Frosted Designs

I just received a few of the new CTMH paper packs and I couldn't wait to start playing with them. I needed to get a Thank You card ready to send out, and thought the new Clementine paper would be perfect for this, such fun patterns in beautiful muted colours. This card has 4 of the 6 patterned papers from this pack on it.


I love challenge blogs for inspiration and two different blogs inspired me for this card, first sketch 251 from Mojo Monday and second the current Frosted Designs challenge to use nothing but patterned paper on the card front.

The colours that are part of the Clementine paper pack are: Cashmere, Champagne, Colonial White, Creme Brulee, New England Ivy, Saddle, Sorbet and Twilight.  Cashmere, Champagne and Saddle are three of the new neutral colours that have been added to the CTMH colour palette in the newest catalogue.

I didn't use any new and exciting techniques with this card, I just made it a nice, clean and simple card.

Monday 23 July 2012

Mini Album


We went to visit my inlaws this past week and I wanted to give them a little mini brag book to put on their coffee table.  I came up with this quick little book that stands on it's own so it becomes a display piece also.

I used the CTMH Cruising paper pack (which is only available until the end of July) to create this album.  Here are some instructions to build this quick and easy album yourself.

I started with one 12x12 sheet of black cardstock.  I cut it to give myself one piece at 5 x 12 inches and the other at 5 x 10 inches.

The 5 x 10 piece was scored at 5 inches and then folded in half.

The 5 x 12 piece was scored at 5, 5.5, 6, 6.5 and 7 inches.  Then I accordian folded it.

Then put glue in the middle fold, and glue the centre piece in.  Here are two pictures to help you understand what I'm talking about.



I then put some wax paper in between each section, closed it up and weighted it down so that the glued spine could dry flat.  

Once dry I decorated each page, ensuring to add at least one more layer of cardstock to make it nice and sturdy. I used glue for the whole book, to make it very sturdy.

Here are some pictures of the rest of the pages.




I hope I did an OK job explaining, please let me know if you have questions.

Monday 16 July 2012

H2H Challenges - Sketch Challenge

This week's challenge at H2H is a sketch challenge!

Here is my interpretation of the sketch, a page I did for my niece who is truly one of a kind!


Head on over to the H2H Challenge Blog to see the sketch and other Design Team interpretations of it.


I used three different techniques when creating the stamped images on this page.
 - First, the two green butterflies (one light at one dark) are created from the same ink pad (Olive) The lighter coloured one was stamped after the darker one without re-inking the stamp. This is called second generation stamping.
 - The large medalian has two techniques used, the darker blue centre of the stamp was stamped separately and cut out and then layered over the full stamp.  The full stamp was inked with two different inks using the rock and roll technique, first I inked it all over with the Creme Brullee ink, then I rocked/rolled the stamp on the Twilight ink pad to get the twilight ink around the edge of the stamp.  It gives a great muted colour effect!  Just always make sure you do the lighter colour ink first, or you will ruin your stamp pads :-)


I can't wait see what YOU thought up for this fun challenge! To participate make sure you head over to the H2H Challenge blog and remember:

*Be sure to go back to the H2H Challenge blog and direct link to your challenge post so we can see your artwork!
*In order to enter a challenge, you must use CTMH products but your project does not have to be 100% CTMH. If you use something from another company, please consider including details in your project's description.
* You MUST mention H2H challenges in your blog post and a link back to us would be appreciated. Feel free to spread the word about our challenge blog by including our badge on your blog.
*Most importantly, have FUN creating - the Close To My Heart way!

*Our challenges are open to everyone! To enter, follow the challenge of the week and post your results to your personal blog or other online gallery.


CTMH Products used:
 - Florentine Paper Pack
 - Beautiful Friendship Stamp Set
 - Olive Ink
 - Twilight Ink
 - Creme Brullee Ink
 - Brown Bag Ink
 - Bitty Opaque Pearl Adhesive Gems
 - Opaque Pearl Adhesive Gems


Friday 6 July 2012

Kissing Stamps - Technique

Have you ever heard of kissing stamps?  It's a great technique to use to add pattern or background to a mostly solid stamp, and also to add a second colour onto the same stamped image. 


I used this technique on the flowers on this card.  Here is a close up of the flowers.


How this was done, I used the A Blossom stamp set and three ink colours (Twilight, Creme Brulee and Brown Bag) and three stamp blocks.
- I put the larger flower stamp on one block, the smaller on another block and the sentiment stamp from this set on the third block.
- Ink up the larger flower stamp with Creme Brulee ink, then do a quick tap off on a piece of paper to take off just a bit of the ink to make it a little less intense.
- Set down the inked up flower stamp on its block, with the inked stamp facing up
- Ink up the sentiment with Brown Bad ink ( you don't need it to be super inked)
- Now stamp the sentiment on the inked up flower stamp, you may need to do it more than once to get script on all parts of the flower.
- Now you can stamp the flower on your paper piece (that of course was pre-cut with your Cricut Art Philosophy Cartridge :-)

All supplies used in this card are CTMH.  Check out my shopping site to see all these products and more!

This card is being entered in two blog challenges, Frosted Designs Card Sketch #22 and CAS-ual Fridays.  Head over to these blogs to check out a lot of other great inspiration!

Thursday 5 July 2012

Retro Sketches Challenge #18


Playing with some more sketch challenges!  I love the clean and simple style in case you haven't noticed :-)

The Retro Sketches challenge blog has some very awesome and inspiring ideas, you really should check it out.

This card is made with all CTMH products, here is the list:
 - Blush Cardstock
 - Sweet Leaf Cardstock
 - Flutter Paper Shapes
 - Dotty for You Paper (grey dotted circles under the butterflies) this paper is no longer available
 - Baker's Twine
 - White Grosgrain Ribbon (retired), but could use Color-Ready Seam Binding
 - Beautiful Friendship stamp set, at $9.95 this set is such a great value!
 - I used Smoothie Ink and my trusty round sponge to ink the edges of the butterflies
 - I used the Piercing Tool Kit to create the holes for the sewing and the clear Ruler's awesome quick quideline holes to space them just perfectly!  I then used one of the needles from the piercing tool kit to sew the baker's twine through the guide holes.
 - I used the corner rounder to round the top right corner of both the green card front and the pink card base , and then the green card front is attached to the card base with dimensional foam.


This is the inside of the card, I like adding just a little something to the inside of the card.  The butterfly is sewn to the circle and then the circle is attached to the card with dimensional foam.

Thanks for looking, and remember to head over to the Retro Sketches blog to see more great ideas!

Monday 2 July 2012

Mojo Monday 248

Last day of vacation from my day job, and while I didn`t get nearly as much yard work and house work done as I wanted between my mom being in the hospital and the way too hot temperatures, I did get a fair amount of crafting done.  I have some more cards to post later and I also finished a hand stitch bound mini album for my mom which I`ll post in the next week or two also!

Anyway, wanted to show you the card I just completed for this week`s Mojo Monday challenge, head over to their blog here to check out all the other awesome entries for more inspiration!

Here is my entry, seems that I can never have enough Thank You cards around!


All products used are from CTMH, here is the list of what I used.
Lucy paper pack -only available until the end of July so be sure to order some if you like it!
The sparkles in the centre of each flower have to be one of my favourite embelishments.
The stamp set I used is called Friendship Blessings, and unfortunately it is one of the retired stamp sets (oops, I thought it was still available!)
The ink colours are Grey Wool, Creme Brulee and Smoothie.

Thanks for looking!






H2H Challenge - Patriotism/Freedom


I'm so excited to be posting my first project as part of the H2H design team!

The challenge this week is:

"Freedom/Patriotism - show us your patriotic spirit! US or Canada - either way, we know you have pride in your country so show it off!"

I chose to do a layout.  These are pictures from a visit to the Peace Tower and the Memorial Chamber at the Parliament Buildings in Ottawa back in December of 2009.


This layout is "Creative Rhythm" on page 36-37 of the Cherish book from CTMH.
The paper pack used is "Elemental"  - ONLY available until the end of July, so if you like it, you better get some!
The stamp set used is Canadian Celebration and the ink colour is Cranberry. The paper pieces are all inked on the edges with Desert Sand ink and a sponge.
The only thing non-CTMH on here is the fiber/ribbon on the right hand page, it was from my stash.


It's hard to see on the full layout, but hopefully this picture shows it a little better, I tried to make the flag look real and like it was waving.  To do this I first stamped it on White Daisy cardstock and cut it out, then I cut off the red bars, to make it three pieces.  The red bars are then stuck right to the layout, in slightly so that the centre part overlaps it a bit.  The centre of the flag is stuck down slightly above/off centre using dimensional foam tape, but before sticking it down I curled the two sides under a bit and sponged some Desert Sand ink on the edge for depth.

I hope you are going to play along, I'd love to see all your creations!  Also, please visit the H2H Challenge page often for inspiration!

To play along, all you have to do is:
1) follow the rules (use mostly CTMH products)
2) link your project back to Heart 2 Heart from your blog post or online gallery.  If you are linking from a blog, you must link directly to the actual post, not your entire blog.
3) You also need to mention H2H in your blog post and link back to H2H in your post.
4) Finally, we do ask that you consider turning off word verification, as it does make it easier for the design team to leave comments, as well as visitors to your blog. ;)

In order to be considered for the Top 10 award, you must link your project for this or any of this month's H2H challenges by 10 p.m. on the last Saturday of the month.

Don't have any CTMH products?  That's an easy fix!  Simply contact your local CTMH consultant (or go here to find one near you) or you can place an order by going to my website.

Now it's your turn, I can't wait to see all your creations!!

Dorothy