H2H Challenge - Back to School - Mini Autograph Ablum

This week's challenge at Heart to Heart Challenges is all about Back to School.  I decided to make this cute little autograph album that is just the right size to fit those little school pictures in that the girls love to exchange.  It also has lots of little tags and other space for special friend messages to be written in it.

Here's a picture of the front on the book. It's 3.25 inches square and about 3/4 of an inch thick.

The inside pages are made using the directions from here to make a meandering book, but instead of binding with a ring binding (I so want/need a Cinch!) I made it into a hard covered album.  Of course, because I created this on the one day I had home in between camping trips I totally forgot to take pictures of it in progress.  I do promise though that I will make another one and I'll post the directions with pictures for making a hard covered album sometime very soon.  Trying to write out the directions will only confuse, pictures are worth a thousand words!

Here are some more pictures of some of the parts of the book.

First the inside first page, two different views of it.

Now one of the inside pages.

And here are the tags for in the book, all the tags are cut using the CTMH Art Philosophy Cricut Cartridge.

Do you have any back to school projects that you've been working on?  Head on over to Heart 2 Heart Challenges and check out the other great inspiration and post a link to your work, I'd love to see it!!

CTMH products used:
Avonlea patterned paper
Slate and Whisper cardstock
Colour-ready seam binding ribbon
Olive Alcohol marker (to colour the ribbon)
Black and Sweet Leaf ink pads
Art Philosophy Cricut Cartridge
August Stamp of the Month - Baroque Borders
National Stamping Month Special Stamps - It's your day (available until the end of September ONLY)
Friendship blessings stamp set
Natural Hemp
Burlap Ribbon

New Alcohol Based Markers

It's been a busy time here doing the last of the summer vacation things!  I haven't had much time to post anything, but I wanted to quickly pop in and show you this video about the new alcohol based markers from Close to my Heart.  I just got a couple here, I've never used alcohol markers before so I'm having some fun playing with them!

Let me know if you'd like to try one out.

Heart 2 Heart Challenges - Dog Days

This week at Heart 2 Heart the challenge is Dog Days, use an image of an animal in your artwork, take it up a step, even use a dog!

Head on over to Heart 2 Heart to check out the other great artwork from the design team and other entrants....and don't forget to enter your own creations!

Here's my page, pictures from a trip to visit Grandma this July...and of course, Grandma's baby (dog) Roxy was posing for pictures again!

I got the inspiration for the shading/colouring of the flowers and hearts from a talented fellow consultant named Gloria Rogers.  Here is a close up of some of the flowers.  I used the CTMH sponge daubers and CTMH dye based inks to do the colouring and shading.

So grab your CTMH supplies, get creative and come on out and join us at Heart 2 Heart.

La Belle Vie Birthday Card with sewing and Mojo Monday

Wow, summer is just flying by!! I can't believe we are already well into August.  I feel like I haven't been able to enjoy my summer yet, I haven't been able to de-stress enough yet I think!  Tonight I took a break and just played with paper for a little bit, I needed a birthday card for a friend and thought that something from the La Belle Vie would work great.  I used the Mojo Monday sketch for the inspiration for this card.

Unfortunately, it's late here, so no natural light, which makes this card look a little washed out. This next detail picture was able to capture the colours better.

I don't usually "do" pink but the pink in this kit is a soft pink and I actually like it.

I got out my sewing machine and stitched around the edges of all the pieces of this card...doing that circle was not fun!  A quick tip, when you are done, pull the thread from the front through to the back by pulling on the end thread in the back, then use a small piece of tape to tape down the threads on the back on the paper, that way you won't have any stitches coming undone on you.

Thanks for looking, hope you like the card!

Avonlea Layout - Great Sketch to try!

I just love this paper pack....with the help of the Heart2Heart Scrapbook sketch challenge this layout came together so easily and I love the look of it.

I was so upset when I finished the layout I was so upset I forgot to use my own Tip and Trick to save some of the beautiful exclusive Avonlea Teal paper!  I did save some of the Avonlea Off White paper though by not using it as the full base page, instead I used a plain white cardstock as the base and cut all the strips of cardstock and patterned paper and then attached them to the white, completely covering it. All three of the patterned paper used in this layout are from the same sheet of paper, I love those Zip Strips!

Check out the sketch from Heart2Heart and if you're inspired to create a layout from it, click here to launch the challenge blog and post/link to your creation, I'd love to see it!

This layout is also inspired by the Frosted Designs:Fabulous Friday Challenge which this is to use a single word for the title of your layout.

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.

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!