Bring Back My Pack - Blossom Blog Hop

Welcome to our Bring Back My Pack Blossom Blog Hop!  We will be featuring the Blossom collection today, which is here for a second time for us to create with!  If you have come here from Alyson's Blog, you are on the right path! The blog hop is a great big circle, so you can start here and work your way all around.  If you get lost along the way, you’ll find the complete list of participating consultants on Melinda’s Blog.

 

This month we have 16 Close To My Heart Consultants sharing their creations using new products on their blogs. This is simple to do - just click on the link at the end of the post on each blog to move to the next one! Here we go!

I decided to create a quick slimline card using the new slimline card bases and the fun Diagonal Stripe Slimline Thin Cuts. The Blossom paper became a really fun background and I was able to pull out the colours for the rest of my card. 

The trees come from the new Home Sweet Home stamp set and thin cuts and I added the branch stamp detail two to of the trees, keeping the top one plain and popping it up on some foam tape. 

Now "Hop" on over to Gina's Blog to see her work! Be sure to visit all the Consultants at their Blogs to get some great crafting ideas and other fun ideas.

Happy Everything- Operation Smile

Operation Smile is a private,  not for profit organisation providing reconstructive surgery to children and young adults born in developing countries. Close to My Heart released our Seasonal Expressions Idea Book and on the back page of this Idea book you will find the D- sized, Happy Everything  stamp set. By purchasing this set at full retail price  of $33NZD you can help change the life of a child as CTMH will donate $US3 from your purchase to Operation Smile.

Today we will be sharing some inspiration using "Happy Everything". We hope you will be compelled to purchase this set and in so doing, contribute to the life changing work of Operation Smile.

If you came from Patricia's blog you are on the right track, otherwise follow the link at the end of this post to take you around the posts. I you get lost, a full list of participants can be found here.

I created a set of three cards, perfect for a birthday or just because.



The first birthday card is a base of the Blossom paper, with an extra flower stamped and fussy cut at the bottom. I have used a strip of glitter paper on it, and finished off my adding the sentiment in Sunset and Lagoon ink.



The second card uses the other side of the Blossom paper packet, along with a strip of the Paper Fundamentals. I fussy cut some more flowerrs and added them to the card, as well as two stamped sentiments and some Baker's Twine to finish.



For the third card, I random stamped the base of a card in Sunset pigment ink, then coated in clear embossing powder and heated to create a shiny finish. I then added the Pear leaves. Another strip of Blossom paper helped to anchor the sentiment, and I added some sparkle as well.



Here are the finished cards- I would love to know which one is your favourite!



Now hop over to Vandra's blog, Vandra's Virtual CTMH Classroom, to see what she has created!

Atlantic Hearts Sketch Challenge #106

This year is flying by- we are in May already! The weather has been all over the place, and some of the days have been very gloomy! I decided I needed a bright and cheery card for Atlantic Hearts Sketch Challenge this week.

I lept the layers true to the sketch, and used the flower part as a sentiment tag from one of the new Hostess Rewards stamp sets, tagged with love. I had this scrap of orange Pathfinding paper on my scrap desk and thought it went really well with our new Blossom paper! Some new twine added some extra texture to the card, and I love the end result.



How will you interpret this week's sketch? Join us over at Atlantic Hearts to share your inspired design- card, scrapbook layout our any papercraft project.

CTMH supplies used:
Cardstock: Pear, White Daisy
Embellishments: Aqua Dots, Glacier Extra Thick Twine
Ink: Lagoon, Sunset
Paper Packets: Blossom, Pathfinding
Stamp set: Tagged With Love (Hostess Rewards)

Mother's Day Swing Card

Mother's Day is coming up, and so today I have a sweet and simple card to share with you featuring the Artfully Sent cartridge and the new Blossom paper pack. It also ties in perfectly with the theme this week at Heart 2 Heart Challenges of Mum's the Word!

I cut the card base in Lagoon ink at 7” Real Dial Size off using Scene card design on page 37 of the Cricut Artfully Sent collection and folded as per score lines. I also cut the inner part of the card using the Blossom paper at 7".

Swing cards are so much fun, and the Artfully Sent cartridge makes it easy!



I placed some Smoothie cardstock under the cut out sentiment, and I also put some Pear cardstock under the floral focal design.



I also cut a scallop out of Lagoon cardstock using a built in Cricut shape at 2.25" Read Dial Size to cover the Pear cardstock on the inside.



Have you created something for your mum or have something you have been keeping secret? Share it with us at H2H! 

CTMH supplies used:

Cardstock: Lagoon, Pear, Smoothie

Cricut: Artfully Sent cartridge

Paper Packet: Blossom

ABC Blog Hop- H

Welcome to the Everything ABC's Blog Hop!

For this hop we will be featuring the letter H. This may be the name of a paper, a stamp set or an embellishment. Whatever the crafter has chosen as their H element will be featured in their post.

If you came from Pam then you're on the right track!

My background technique is the Herringbone technique, which is a perfect idea to use up scrap pieces of paper or the decorative zip strips on the top of CTMH papers.

I started off by cutting strips of patterned paper into half inch strips. This is where zip strips come in handy! You may want to stick to three or four patterns and colours. Here I chose both sides of the Blossom paper, a piece of the Fundamentals paper and the Blossom rainbow zip strip.



After these have been cut, coat a 4x5 1/4 piece of white cardstock with a thick layer of glue.

Start by putting one of your strips diagonally, just offset, across the page.



Use another strip of the same paper to make a diagonal line on the left.



Repeat on the bottom right hand side of the cardstock. Now you have four triangular spaces to work in. You may need to re-glue these if you don't work quickly!



Layer diagonally each strip of patterned paper, using two strips to create a triangle. Cut off longer strips as you go so that you can re-use them.



Fill each white space using the same technique and pattern.



Once you have finished all four sides, use a bone folder to rub across the cardstock and really stick down all of the strips. Trim off all the excess pieces so you are left with your patterned piece of cardstock.



Now you can decorate the card and add any finishing touches! I cut out some of the flowers from the Blossom paper and adhered them to my card using foam tape. I also created a banner for my sentiment. Because the background is elaborate and very striking, you will only need minimal embellishment.


It is hard to see in the photo, but I lightly sprayed the Thanks banner with Smoothie ink mixed with the pearl shimmer paint to add another effect.



Your next stop on our Everything ABC'S blog Hop is Marie of Marie's Papercrafting And Such.

In case you get lost along the way…go to Scrappy Therapy for a complete list of participants!

CTMH supplies used:
Cardstock: White Daisy
Inks: Lagoon, Smoothie Re-Inker
Paper packets: Blossom, Whimsy Fundamentals
Stamp set: Pathfinding Card WOTG
Tools: 3D Foam Tape, Bone Folder, Micro-Tip Scissors, Spray Pen

Have You Heard- SOTM Card

This week;s theme at CASology is a great one- News!

The CASology team has some great news, as one of the members just had a baby boy! With that in mind, I created this masculine card with the April Stamp Of The Month, Typed Note. I haven't played along in a while, but with this theme and a new stamp set that fit the brief, plus some crafting time up my sleeve, I was happy to create a card.



This card was so fun to put together. I love the old typewriter, and the sentiment worked perfectly with the theme. The notepad paper was cut using the Cricut and I stamped the typewriter and sentiment directly onto the cardstock. I added some patterned paper behind it in blue to go with the baby boy theme, and I was done!

Thanks for stopping by, I would love for you to leave a comment. Don't forget to check out my Artbooking in April series too!

CTMH supplies used:
Cardstock: Colonial White
Ink: Desert Sand, Lagoon
Paper: Blossom
Stamp set: Typed Note

Seasonal Expressions 2 Blog Hop

Welcome to our Seasonal Expressions 2 Blog Hop!  We will be featuring products from the new Ideas Book.  If you have come here from Beth's Blog, you are on the right path! The blog hop is a great big circle, so you can start here and work your way all around.  If you get lost along the way, you’ll find the complete list of participating consultants on Melinda’s Blog.

This month we have over 40 Close To My Heart Consultants sharing their creations using this the new goodies and other great CTMH products on their blogs. This is simple to do - just click on the link at the end of the post on each blog to move to the next one! Here we go!

I created a frame for my 10 year old niece using the new Blossom Paper Pack. I have included a video on the whole process below.

Here is the finished frame, complete with the shimmer trim.

I love the way the Fundamentals paper pack adds some extra dimension to the BFF circle, and the pink, blue and green work so well together.

Side on, you can see the dimensional 3D foam tape adds an extra touch and makes the embellishments pop.



The stamped butterflies on the frame edge are a subtle touch, but I think they work well with the overall theme. I had so much fun making the 3D flower as well, I will be cutting out more of these in different colours!

I have included full dimensions and Cricut cuts below if you are interested, otherwise you can now "Hop" on over to Chris' Blog to see her work! Be sure to visit all the Consultants at their Blogs to get some great crafting ideas and other fun ideas! Contact your CTMH Consultant (or click here) to see how you can get your hands on the new products.

Cricut Cuts and meansurements:
BFF- Artbooking 2" RDS p79
Border- Artbooking 1" RDS p49
Flower- Artiste- 3" p55
Green Circle- Artbooking 2" RDS p79
Inner Frame- Artbooking- 6.5" RDS p58
Pennant- Artbooking 9.5" RDS p76
Shimmer Trim- 7" and 1.5"

CTMH supplies used:
Cardstock: Pear, Lagoon, Sorbet
Embellishments: Aqua Dots, Teal Shimmer Trim
Ink: Sorbet
Paper packs: Blossom, Whimsy Paper Fundamentals Assortment
Stamp set: Your Own Kind of Wonderful