More Masking & CTMH Class 8/29/2017

This card didn't get exactly like I had planned, 

but the end result isn't too bad.

I used washi tape as a mask to create the ombre stripes with ink and a dauber.

The fox and sentiment are CTMH stamps.

Challenges:

Glitter n Sparkle Challenge #254 - Anything Goes

Through the Craft Room Door Challenge for August 29th - Anything Goes

Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge - Anything Goes

Crafty Creations Challenge #348 - Anything Goes

Crafting by Designs September Challenge - Anything Goes

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Yesterday was Joyce's CTMH card class.  She was tempting us with some of the cuts on the new CTMH cricut cartridge, You Are Here.

 

 And we made this shaker card using tulle instead of a clear acetate.

You can see it if you squint a bit.

Tuesday Throwdown Challenge # 358 with Freckled Fawn

 Our wonderful sponsor for this week's Masking Challenge at Tuesday Throwdown is Freckled Fawn.

Schools opened yesterday, a sure sign that Fall will soon be here.
Might as well get started on some Fall birthday cards. 

For this card, I cut out 3 maple leaves in 3 different sizes on my cricut.  Then I placed them on white cs, used a sponge pouncer to add various fall colors all over the paper.  Once the leaf cuts were removed the imprints remained, creating the background for this card.  I found some Freckled Fawn acetate letters, leaf and star sequins from the October 2016 Embellishment Kit in my stash, which I added to the card.

(challenges entered are at the bottom of this post.)

I actually made 2 more cards to inspire you to try some masking for this week's Tuesday Throwdown Challenge and to do a bit of shopping at Freckled Fawn's online store.

For this card I used some embossed white card stock.  

(Of course, you can always emboss the paper yourself.) 

I placed a piece of washi tape and a die cut oval shape, the masks,
across the middle of the paper.

  I sponged both halves and removed the masks.

 Then I finished off the card with a cork oval from my stash of Freckled Fawn products, a sentiment, flowers fussy cut from a sheet of patterned paper, some black pearls, and a bow.

 One thing about Freckled Fawn that is super fun is the cute plastic pouch that your items arrive in when you purchase one of their fun kits.  Or, you can purchase individual items from the kit including the pouch.  I can't wait to see what will be in the upcoming September Kit.

My last card also uses a Freckled Fawn cork oval, 

star sequins, and a cute puffy house.

This is the first card I made for the challenge.  

I was super happy with it until I realized the challenge theme was Masking.  You would think I'd learn, because it is not the first time I've forgotten to follow the theme and had to start over.

 

 I hope to see a lot of wonderful masking projects in this week's Tuesday Throwdown Challenge.

I think I'll share my card with these equally fun challenges:

Come and Get It Challenge - 2 or more different embellishments (leaf and star sequins and baker's twine) 

Heart 2 Heart Challenge - Anything Goes CTMH Style (inks, and Happy Birthday sentiments are from CTMH.)

A Bit More Time to Craft Challenge #50 - Anything Goes 

Delicious Doodles August Challenge - Colours of Autumn 

Love to Craft Challenge #13 - Anything Goes 

Sparkles Forum Challenge #95 - Birthday 

and on the Freckled Fawn Fanatics FB Group.

 

heARTful stamping Anything Goes

Today I'm here with some inspiration for another heARTful stamping Anything Goes Challenge.

 

The Some Kind of Wonderful stamp set was used for both cards. 

It's on the "Going Soon" list along with the matching thin cuts.

You might want to purchase it while you still can.

Speaking of 'Going Soon, we have a couple soccer games to attend today.

It's the first tournament of the fall season for my grandson's team.

Yesterday they had a tie, 2-2, and a loss, 1-3.

Go Matt! and Go West-Mont!

I'm back to enter my card in a few challenges.  I hope my card does better than the boys' soccer team did this afternoon.  

They lost both games.

But, it was an absolutely gorgeous day to be outside. 

Challenges:

Crafty Friends Challenge #65 - Birthday

Kitty Bee Designs Challenge #102 - Birthday

Polkadoodles Craft Challenge week 34 - Anything Goes

Cute Card Thursday Challenge #492 - Bright Colors 

Seize the Birthday Challenge - Anything Goes

 

Birthday card for Nancy's Dad

Every year I make a special birthday card for my cousin's dad.  Here is the one I made for 2017.

I found this paper at Farmhouse memories.  The wood paper is so awesome.  Look at those fabulous colors.  It also has a marvelous shine.  I fussy cut the chickens from another piece of patterned paper.  And, I found that wonderful Spellbinders die on Rachel's clearance rack.

Challenges: 

Stinkin' Inkers Challenge - Guy Talk  (The recipient of this card is a retired farmer, but still keeps chickens.)

Shoppin Our Stash Challenge #317 - Wood is Good

Die Cuttin Divas Challenge #331 - Birthday Celebration

Moo-mania Challenge - Birds

Crafty Gals Corner Challenge #137 - Punches and/or Dies 

Seize the Birthday Challenge - Anything Goes 

As You Like It Challenge - Fur or Feathers  (Feathers: I enjoy feeding and watching the birds, and chicken wings are pretty tasty.)

Fussy and Fancy Challenge #194 - Things with Wings

Pom Pom Monster & Welcome Baby Card

My grandsons spent the day with us today.  As always, Matthew wanted to make a craft.  He really wanted to make a batch of puffy slime.  Unfortunately, I did not have the ingredients.  (Broke my heart!)  His second choice was this Pom Pom Monster....

 Matt made the 3 pom poms using my Craft-Dee Bowz tool.  It's much easier than wrapping yarn around a piece of cardboard!

Cute little monster, don't you think? 

 I am going to enter it in the August Craft-Dee Bowz Challenge.

Matthew isn't the only creative young person in my life.

Two days before we left for vacation I received a priority envelope from my BFF's daughter.  Inside the envelope, were three sheets of paper with drawings her daughter, Layla, age 9, had done.  

(I think my grandson, Matthew, and my BFF's granddaughter, Layla, would make a perfect pair!

But, they are only 9 and 10.  So, I have lots of time to work on that project.)

 One was a stork carrying a baby; one was a dog; and one was a cat on a pillow.  There was no explanation in the envelope.  Just the drawings with small notations on each one: baby, Aunt Eileen, and G G Bday, respectively.   I had a feeling Layla wanted cards made.  I've used her drawings before.  So I got busy.  I scanned, cropped, and then saved the colored drawings as JPG files, creating 3 digis to make the 3 cards.  It was much more fun making cards for Layla than cleaning and packing for vacation.

Here is the center step baby card I made using Layla's stork: 

 We are all excited about this baby's expected arrival in September!

I am entering this card in the following challenges: 

Cardz 4 Guys Challenge #176 - Fancy Folds 

Use Your Stuff Challenge #276 - New Beginnings 

Through the Craft Room Door Challenge for Aug. 22 - Anything Goes

Pile It On Challenge #133 - Recycle and/or For a Child 

Fussy and Fancy Challenge #194 - Things with Wings

I'll show you the other 2 cards I made with Layla's drawings another day.   

Thanks for dropping by.

Red Hat Card Class 8/21/17

Seven gals from our Red Hat group gathered to make cards yesterday.  I always prepare 4 cards for the girls to make.

At our last class, a few girls had requested an engagement or wedding card.  We made this one first while everyone's hands were clean.  A few girls left off the silhouette and just made a basically white on white card, stamping the center of the flower with "Have a happy day!".

Die cuts are from DieVersion

I had also promised the girls a masculine card.

Colored digi is from Fred She Said

And we made a more feminine card. 

Stamps from CTMH; paper from SU; die cut from Spellbinders

The last card we made was a waterfall card, which everyone loved.

Stamps from SU

What an enjoyable morning we all had!

I am entering the first card in the following challenges:
Die Cut Divas August Challenge - Anything Goes
Dies R Us Challenge #79 - Anything Goes 
Really Reasonable Ribbon Challenge #170 - Anything Goes
Scrapyland Challenge #72 - Anything Goes 

HB to AL

Had a little vacation this past week to the Jersey shore.  

There's nothing like a few days of boardwalk food.

My brother-in-law has a birthday on Wednesday.

This card will be in the mailbox tomorrow.

 Today it will be entered in the following challenges:

Sparkles Forum Challenge #95 - Birthday

Creative with Stamps Challenge #17 - Boys to Men

Crafty Animals Challenge #5 - Anything Goes

2 Crafty Critter Crazies Challenge # 5 - AG with a critter

Stamping Sensations August Challenge - Anything Goes

Dragonfly Dreams Challenge - Animals

Moving Along with the Times Challenge - Things beginning with the letter b:

Bull dog, Birthday, Brown, speech Bubble, Bling on collar

Craft Rocket Challenge #40 - Animal Kingdom 

Simon Says Wednesday Challenge - Add a Sentiment

 

Tuesday Throwdown Challenge # 356 with DRS Designs

DRS Designs is the sponsor for the new

 Anything Goes Challenge at Tuesday Throwdown.  

It was so nice of  DRS Designs  to give each member of the Tuesday Throwdown Design Team B a digital image.

Thank you.

I chose to use this beautiful Autumn Flower Spray.  

It will be perfect for a friend who is having a late September birthday.

You may notice that there are no black lines on the digi image.  The image does not come that way.  Actually, I had just changed the blue ink in my printer and this was the first thing I printed.  Instead of a black and white image, I got a brown and white image.  For several days I was cleaning and recleaning the heads on the ink cartridges.  I finally did a print alignment and noticed I only had lines in red, yellow, and black.  Ah ha!  There was something wrong with that new blue cartridge.   I removed it, shook it, and could hear it was full of ink.  Then I spotted the problem!  I never removed that little bitty piece of paper that covers the ink opening.  Duh!  Once again I could print in black and white.  But in this case, I kind of liked the brown outline on the image.

I hope you'll stop by the Tuesday Throwdown Challenge Blog to see what my teamies made, check out their blogs and leave them some love.  And don't forget to enter a project in the challenge for a chance to win a prize from

Playing with Popsicle Sticks

What a wonderful day I had with my two grandsons while my daughter-in-law attended a teachers' seminar and spent some time getting her classroom ready.  The boys assured me they had new shoes and all the pens, pencils and notebooks they would need for the new school year. 

They arrived early with a box of donuts.  Once all the sugar kicked in, we played a fun game of Kerfuffle, similar to Quirkle only you might have to whistle while you take your turn or do the Chicken Dance if you can't make a move.  Next we headed to the local arboretum and spent an hour or so hiking the trails and being bitten by bugs.  (Forgot the bug spray.  Duh!)

After lunch it was time to craft.  I had just picked up 2 bags of popsicle sticks on Tuesday and Matt is very familiar with Pinterest when it comes to finding a project.

Here's project #1:

A miniature bow, using a toothpick for the arrow.

The bow is a small popsicle stick with half of a hair clip hot glued to each end, washi tape to reinforce the middle, and baker's twine stretched end to end.  The darn thing works pretty well, too.

 

Break time for a game of croquet.  And my DH got home from golfing just in time to join us. 

 

Project #2 was a bit more involved - a pencil holder for Mom's classroom,

 with a little spot for paper clips at the top and a place for a pad of post it notes on the side.  We were just placing the last popsicle stick when my daughter-in-law arrived to pick up my two charges.

The plan was to spray paint this teal when they got home, to match the classroom color scheme.

 

No cards to show you today.   But one post down you'll find two fun folds I made for the CTMH Joyful Stars August Blog Hop.

 

 

 

 

Joyful Stars CTMH August Blog Hop

Welcome to the August

Close to My Heart Joyful Stars Blog Hop.  

Have some fun hopping between the blogs of this group of talented Close to My Heart consultants, and me, where we share creative projects using CTMH products.

 

Today I am sharing two cards.  
First, I've made a T-slide birthday card using papers from the CTMH Jack Workshop on the Go.

The fun party hat is a cricut cut on the CTMH Flower Market cartridge.

The T-slide card tutorial can be found at Beccy's Place along with many more easy to follow tutorials.

My second card, using the same paper, is a Christmas card.  The cricut cuts are from the CTMH Artistry, Artbooking, and Flower Market  cartridges.

I followed a tutorial for this two way fun fold card, but converted the design to use CTMH products and added a few touches of my own.

 Remember, the Jack papers and other products in the Seasonal Expressions catalog are only available until the end of August.

Now, since this is a blog hop, you might have arrived here from Tracey Pierce's blog.

Your next stop is  Joyce Houck's blog.   

 
The hop is circular. So if you are just starting here, simply continue hopping until you find your way back, making the full circle.  If you get lost, the complete list of participants is on Joyce's blog. 

While you are here at my blog, see if you can figure out what the mystery paper is that I used for Tuesday's card, two posts down.  It's from Close to My Heart.

Penguin Fun + CTMH Card Class 8/8/2017

Found a couple penguins playing on my table.....

 Cute, aren't they?  

I've sent them off to the

 Cards for Little Hearts 2017 Winter-Holiday Card Drive.

 

There's still time for you to send some, too.

Challenges:

12 Months of Christmas Challenge #32 - Anything Goes; optional Traditional Christmas Colors 

Crafty Hazelnut's Patterned Paper August Challenge - Anything Goes

Crafty Hazelnut's August Christmas Challenge Extra - Anything Goes

2 Crafty Critter Crazies Challenge #5 - Anything Goes

Through the Craft Room Door Challenge Week of August 8th - Anything Goes

The Holly and Ivy Christmas Challenge #12 - Anything Goes

Lemon Shortbread Challenge #47 - Anything Goes

Ike's World Challenge #94 - Embossing

Kraftin Kimmie Stamps Wonderful Wednesday Challenge - Anything Goes

The Merry Christmas Challenge #29 - Anything Goes

Simon Says Wednesday Challenge - For a Child 

Scrapy Land Challenge #71 - Anything Goes (I used Spellbinders Nestabilities scalloped oval dies.)

Christmas at Sweet Stamping August Challenge - Anything Christmas Goes

 *******************

Here are the cards we made yesterday at Joyce's CTMH card class. 

We got to play with a lot of new products!

Come back tomorrow for the August

and 2 different fun fold cards. 

See you then!

Mystery Paper

Alright Close to My Heart users, who recognizes this paper?

 When I first put this card together, it did not have the little jar.

It sat on my table for the longest time because it was just too bare for my taste.  Then I remembered I had a stamp from Sparkle n Sprinkle for this little jar.  I'm happy with it now.

Here's another card using the same paper and a colored digi stamp from Beccy's Place.  Have you figured out where I got the paper?

 I'm off to Joyce's CTMH class.

The origin of the paper will remain a mystery for now.

Challenges:

Beccy's Place August Challenge - Anything Goes with a Beccy's Place image 

A Gem of a Challenge #200 - Birthday Wishes 

Come and Get It Challenge - Die Cuts

Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge - Happy Birthday

Crafting from the Heart Challenge #171 - Anything Goes

Digi Choosday Challenge Week 32 - Anything Goes

Pile It On Challenge #133 - Recycle (The patterned paper is recycled.)

 

Inspiration

While having a wonderful meal Wednesday at Nancy Zook's with my Red Hat cronies, I noticed Betty wearing a cute shirt with 3 cute chickens wearing Red Hats.  It gave me a fabulous idea for a card.  I spent yesterday designing and cutting kits for a dozen waterfall cards for out Red Hat card class in 2 weeks. 

Although I was super thrilled to have one of the cards ready, I still had 6 small strips of patterned paper left over and I was neither saving it nor throwing it away.

Instead, I made these 2 fun cards.

The stamps are from SU; chickens are colored with watercolor pencils and blended with clear Wink of Stella; the dialog bubble is a cut from the CTMH Artistry cricut cartridge; the frame is a die cut; ribbon is from CTMH; the embossing folder is from Darice; and I added a few Skittles from Double Click.

 I hope you weren't expecting to see the waterfall cards.

They'll be shared after the class. 

Why not Follow my blog?  Then you won't miss it!

Challenges:

Glitter n Sparkle Challenge #250 - Things with Wings

Paperminutes Challenge #498- Birds

Crafty Animals Challenge #5 - Anything Goes 

A Perfect Time to Craft August Challenge - Open Challenge

A Bit More Time to Craft Challenge #49 - Anything Goes

2 Crafty Critter Crazies Challenge #5 - Anything with a Critter Goes

Mod Squad Challenge - The Wing's the Thing

Really Reasonable Ribbon Challenge #169 - Anything Goes with Ribbon

Polkadoodles Challenge Week 31 - Anything Goes

Colour Crazy Challenge Week 31 - Anything Goes

Pattie's Creations Challenge #137 - Anything Goes

 

I can't believe there are only 7 entries, so far, in this week's Tuesday Throwdown Out of The World Challenge!  As a design team member, I'll have fewer comments to leave.  But, I really do enjoy visiting different blogs.  You must have something space related in your stash!  What about a cow jumping over the moon? 

 

Wandering About Today

Here's a card I made on Monday that is on it's was to Christina Hor for the Cards for Little Hearts Card Drive.  They are also having a blog hop that you might want to check out.

 The colored digi image is from Bugaboo Digi Stamps.

Papers are from the Christmas scraps I have been collecting for several years.  Stamped sentiment and gold foil tape are from CTMH.

Challenges: 

Dream Valley Challenge #160 - Anything Goes 

Simon Says Monday Challenge - Food and/or Drink (Candy Canes)

Winter Wonderland Challenge - Use a Digi Image 

Pattie's Creations Challenge #136 - Something Sweet (Candy Canes) 

Bugaboo Crafty Challenge #7 - Anything Goes using a Bugaboo Stamp

 

Today The Royal Scarlett Flock of Red Hatters is headed near Churchtown, PA to enjoy a meal in a traditional Amish home. 

No crafting for me today, but lots of good eating!

Tuesday Throwdown Challenge #354 with My Grafico

My Grafico, 

where you can find a variety of clipart, graphics, printable templates, digital papers, stamps and much more,  

is sponsoring this week's theme challenge at

  Tuesday Throwdown.

For the current Tuesday Throwdown challenge, 

we'd like to see projects that are Out of This World.

This sweet little astronaut is of the images from the Digital Stamp Set Space Art from My Grafico

  I hope you'll pop over to the Tuesday Throwdown blog to see what my very talented teammates have made for your inspiration.  Then be sure to join in the fun at Tuesday Throwdown this week.  We just love seeing your crafty cards and projects and visiting all your blogs.

Challenges: 
Crafting from the Heart Challenge #170 - Anything Goes
Cutie Pie Challenge #113 - Here come the girls
Just Us Girls Challenge #404 - Wild Card Week : Something Old and/or New
  Everything is old and from my stash with the exception of the digi image, which is new.