Valentine's Day Card For My Husband...

Today's card was created to gear up for Valentine's Day in less than two short weeks. 

While my husband and I don't do anything super fancy, we do usually exchange small gifts and go out to dinner. 

Here is the card, I created for him:

As you can see, I went with a monochromatic theme compiled of various shades of pink.

I used the typewriter and the Heart Stamp from the "My Type of Note" Stamp Set. 

This stamp set was released at the end of last summer. It is still available to purchase!

I used it in a previous post here>.
I colored in the typewriter image with a few of my favorite pink Copic markers.

The "love you" sentiment stamped in Black ink, is from last month's Stamp of the Month stamp set "Card Captions". 

I know many of you picked it up for just $5. Awesome deal or what?

For the card base, I used Raspberry cardstock. 

I also added a few layers of Ballerina and Pixie cardstock to the mix. 

I used several pieces of patterned paper from the
I Heart Us Paper Packet (pink dots) and Something Fierce Paper Packet (pink pin stripes). 

These are some of our newest collections that came out January 1st. 

I added some Silver Glitter Gems for a bit of sparkle and dimension.

I added some Smoothie ink, to distress the edges of all of the layers.

On the inside of the card, I have a simple White Panel that has also been distressed,
to write my message on.

I entered my card into the following Challenges:

Pile It On! Challenge Blog- #151 Pretty In Pink 

Craftyhazelnut's Patterned Paper- February 2019 Challenge

Simon Says Stamp- Monday Challenge Love Is In The Air

Simon Says Stamp- Wednesday Challenge Anything Goes

Uniko Studio- Challenge #51 Anything Goes Optional Love

Addicted To Stamps And More- Challenge #326 Anything Goes

Kat Scrappiness Blog- February Challenge Hearts

Crafts Galore Encore Challenge Blog- Challenge #60 Anything Goes

Penny's Paper-Crafty Challenge Blog-Challenge #415 Anything Goes

I hope you enjoyed today's card, please consider leaving me a comment below!

Grateful Heart Butterfly Card

As the year winds down, so does another great catalog from Close to my Heart. 

The 2018 Holiday Expressions catalog ends on December 31st, in just a few days. 

This catalog was certainly one of my favorite. 

I purchased at least 1 packet of every patterned paper we offered, and some I purchase 3 or more. 

The Grateful Heart collection was certainly one of my favorites. 

This particular card uses the Grateful Heart Cardmaking Stamp Set from that collection. 

I have used this stamp set before many times, it is definitely one of my go to sets for just about any occasion. 

This time around, I needed to create a Thank You card to send to one of my community partners at my daily grind. 

I was so excited to work with them a few weeks ago and couldn't wait to make them a handmade card. 

So this is what I came up with to send to them...

The black paper with the diamond patterned came from the Hello Pumpkin Paper Packet. 

I loved this paper pack, because all of the cute black and white papers, went so well with other colors, things that weren't even Halloween or scary themed. 

I layered the black paper with a piece of Smoothie cardstock. 

Then a smaller strip of Canary cardstock.

I punched out a circle from the same paper, flipped it over and used the dotted side as an accent piece underneath the Butterfly. 

The Butterfly was stamped with Tuxedo Black Memento Ink, then colored with 4 Copic Colors. 

Then I popped the Butterfly up on some of our 3-D Foam Tape.

Our 3-D Foam Tape comes in 2 different thicknesses and different widths. 

The regular 3-D Foam Tape, what I used, is Double-sided, 2 mm tall; with 2 rolls per package, ⅜" and ¼" widths, 75" per roll.

The thin 3-D Foam Tape, is Double-sided, 1mm tall; with 2 rolls per package, ⅜" and ¼" widths, 75" per roll.

I love this stuff!

I distressed all of the edges of the cardstock and the circle with Tuxedo Black Memento Ink.

I stamped the sentiment, "Thank You" with Tuxedo Black Memento Ink as well. 

While we no longer carry the Tuxedo Black Memento Ink, I still use it and have several in my personal collection. 

I love using them for Comic coloring specifically. 

I hope you enjoyed today's card. 

If you have any questions at all, please do not hesitate to contact me. 

Love of Color - CTMH Technique Blog Hop

Welcome to the December 

Close to my Heart Technique Blog Hop!

There are 13 other amazingly talented Close to my Heart Consultants sharing their artwork with you for this month's Blog Hop. 

Should you get lost along the way, all participant's links can be found here. 

If you are coming from Michelle's Blog, you are on the right track.

As mentioned in a post a couple weeks back, I love to use our new 

Love of Color How-to-Book to inspire my cards and layouts. 

This month's Blog Hop showcases how useful this book really is.

The book has several awesome features:

It fits inside our Everyday Life™ albums for easy and convenient transportation. 

It includes breathtaking artwork that illustrates how to create perfectly balanced color combinations, and has tons of patterns for cards and layouts.

This book is perfect for both new and seasoned crafters. 

It would make an awesome Christmas or Birthday gift!

I created this card, to showcase the color combination on page 10 of the book. 

The three featured colors are Saffron, Smoothie and Lagoon.

The card base and second layer of the circle is Saffron cardstock. 

The torn strip is Lagoon.

The layer of cardstock behind the strip is Smoothie. 

One of my favorite Stamp Sets in our current catalog is the Grateful Heart Stamp Set. 

It is perfect for Thank you, Birthday, even Wedding cards!

I used Versamark Ink with the butterfly from the Grateful Heart Stamp Set, to create a very subtle tone on tone background on the Smoothie cardstock.

I used Lagoon ink to stamp the "Thank You" from our Grateful Heart Cardmaking Stamp Set.

For a bit of dimension, I used Saffron Ink to distress the edges of the White Daisy circle. 

Thank you so much for stopping by, before heading over to Darlys's Blog, please consider leaving a comment and enjoy the rest of the creative talents in this month's Blog Hop! 

Convention Swaps Are Underway...

I am so excited, in just a few weeks, I will be driving across the country again out west to Close to my Heart's annual convention. 

This year it is in Las Vegas!

I've been to Las Vegas, once before a few years ago, to visit my husband's family. 

While out there this year, I am going to try to spend some time with them again. 

If you have ever been to a Scrapbooking/Stamping convention, then you know swapping your handmade cards is a big deal!

Last time, I think I swapped over 100 cards. 

My goal this year is at least 50, but I am going to try to reach 100 if I can. 

So since I have such a lofty goal, I knew I needed to go ahead and get started. 

So this weekend, I didn't have much planned, so cards it is. 

Now some folks like to make all of their cards exactly the same, kind of like an assembly line. 

I personally like to make mine that way, but in small batches, then switch the colors, layout, etc. 

So today I am sharing with you my first batch.

I made 6 cards to swap at convention, and a card for a dear friend that is feeling under the weather. 

I used the One-Sheet-Wonder Technique, to create the floral print paper. 

The flowers, and leaves came from the stamp set Beautiful Friendship-Scrapbooking by Close to my Heart.
The cards are all based with the White Cards and EnvelopesValue Pack.

I used Thistle, Smoothie, and Bashful for the two-step stamped flowers and Sweet Leaf for the leaves.

Most of the cards, have the top panel of White Daisy, distressed with Pewter ink.

The "Life is Better With Friends"sentiment came from that same set. 

These were both stamped in Pewter ink. 

The "Simply Beautiful" sentiment came from the "A New Adventure" stamp set. 

This set is so versatile and definitely one of my personal favorites. 

I used our new Thin Cuts- Stitched Ovals and our Thin Cuts- Basic Ovals for the sentiment and them mounted it with 3-D Foam Tape.

These were stamped in Pewter on White Daisy cardstock, then layered on Bashful cardstock.

I used the Grey Gems to embellish a few of the cards.

For the card I am mailing to a friend, I used a layer of Bashful under the three panels of White Daisy I created.

The "A Beautiful Friendship" sentiment came from the "Beautiful Friendship- Scrapbooking" stamp set. 

Each panel was distressed with Pewter ink.

I will start working on my second batch in just a few minutes. 

As I create batches over the next few weeks, I will post them here on the blog to share them with you.

As always if you have any questions at all please let me know.

Lovely Layers-CTMH Technique Blog Hop

One of my favorite color combinations has always been a soft pink and navy. 
So I was absolutely thrilled when Close to my Heart released the 
Beautiful Friendship Collection. 
It has a gorgeous blend of pinks, blues and even floral patterns. 
While, we don't always see Sapphire flowers in nature, they are stunning in this new patterned paper pack. 

I chose this collection to highlight the "Lovely Layers" technique for this month's Blog Hop. 

Not only did I use one of our newest stamp sets to layer my flowers on my card, I also layered my cardstock as well. 
There are also 9 other Close to my Heart Consultants sharing there amazing artwork with you, so please be sure to make your way around the entire Blog Hop. 
You are going to love what you see!

If you are coming from Darlys's Blog, you are on the right track. 
Should you get lost along the way, all participant's links can be found here. 

Before I share my newest card with you, I wanted to highlight the 
Beautiful Friendship Collection. 
There are several components to the collection including the 
Scrapbooking Kit, Card making Kit, Embellishments and more. 

Beautiful Friendship Paper Packet

12 – 12" × 12" sheets (2 each of 6 double-sided designs)

Featured colors: Bashful, Canary, Heather, Linen, Sapphire, Smoothie, White Daisy

For this card I started out with a 4 1/4 x 5 1/2 Sapphire cardstock card base. 

The Sapphire cardstock is available in individual packs or with several coordinating colors. 

I used a layer of Kraft cardstock. 

Then a layer of the smaller flowers from the Beautiful Friendship paper packet. 

The little horizontal band across the card, is a layer of Kraft and the polka dot smoothie colored paper from the packet.

The circles are layers of Kraft, patterned paper and White Daisy for the sentiment space. 

The little strip of cardstock is Bashful.

The sentiment "Simply Beautiful" actually came from an existing stamp set "A New Adventure".

Which if you recall, I used on a cute space themed card in a previous post.

I stamped the sentiment in Sapphire Ink.

I used the layering flowers and leaves stamps from the "Beautiful Friendship" Scrapbooking Stamp Set.

The shading of the flowers was stamped in Bashful Ink. 

The detailing was stamped in Smoothie ink. 

I hand cut the flowers and leaves out and popped them up on 3-D Foam Tape.

I then also brush each flower with the Clear Shimmer Brush. 

The shimmer is more noticeable in person.

The leaves were stamped with Sweet Leaf, and for those with the stems showing, they were stamped off, then the stems stamped with full ink.

The inside of the card has a layer of both Kraft and Bashful cardstocks.

Finally, I added just a few little pink dot embellishments from the Documented Dots pack.

Thank you so much for stopping by, before heading over to Melissa's Blog, please consider leaving a comment and enjoy the rest of the creative talents in this month's Blog Hop!