N is for Notebook

Welcome to the Everything ABC's Blog Hop!

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

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

For my N project, I decided to make a quick Notebook for jotting down my ideas. Quite often if I am scrapping at my desk I get an idea for another project and I have to go hunting for a pen and paper, so this should help!

I cut the Card & Envelope #M40725 images from the Artiste cartridge, adding extra pages. This was a great cut as it even added the holes at the top! The base was cut from the Magical Paper Packet.



I stamped the Notes and Arrows in Black Archival Ink from the July Stamp of the Month, From The Notebook.



I then simply tied the pages to the base of the notepad using the White Twine.


This was such a quick and easy project, and would be perfect for party favours or teacher gifts.

Your next stop on our Everything ABC'S blog Hop is Catherine of Catscrapbooking.

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

Vintage Vino

This week at Heart 2 Heart, the theme is Vintage.

Now, vintage immediately reminds me of wine! I love giving wine as a gift, and I have an aunty who owns a successful winery in Australia. I also enjoy a glass of wine with my mum or husband at the end of the week.

As far as giving wine as a gift, I like to decorate the bottle somehow.

When I saw some gift tags created by Carole Prevost, I knew I had to incorporate them into my gift giving.

Don't they look so much nicer with a simple gift tag?



I used my Cricut to print, cut and score the tags, then cut the black wine glass from the CTMH Artistry cartridge to overlay on the tag.



Into the burlap bag they go, ready for gifting.

What comes to mind when you think of Vintage? Share with us at H2H!

M is for Monogram

Monograms are everywhere lately, and make a perfect personalised gift! Monogram is also the them of this week's Heart 2 Heart Challenge.

I recently celebrated my wedding anniversary, and I wanted to make my husband a gift that was personal to us.

I designed a layered Monogram on my Cricut, using a combination of leaves, flowers and purchased designs. I then added some writing with the black Cricut pen on top of the White Daisy cardstock layer.


I then cut the same design in black cardstock to layer in the negative white cut.



I used my Two-Way Glue Pen to add the black pieces in the gaps left from the white piece, which was matted onto another piece of white cardstock.



The finished monogram was then cut down to 6x4 to fit the photo frame.



Here is the finished frame, with the monogram design in the middle and black and white photos of us on either side.



How will you be inspired by the Monogram challenge? Link up here!

St Patrick's Day Cupcake Wrappers

One of the things I love about having my Cricut is how easy it is to add somee flair to any holiday.

Our family is not even Irish, but when my six year old wanted to make some special cupcakes for his teachers for St Patrick's Day I knew I could add something extra with some green shamrock cupcake wrappers.

I used the Seasonal Soirees cartridge for these adorable cupcake wrappers- one of my favourite holiday cartridges for table decorations and gift giving,



The cupcakes looked great on the 3 tier stand. They are chocolate cupcakes with rainbow icing, and they even have some gold inside!



Biting in to the cupcakes reveals the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow.



The teachers and my kids all enjoyed these yummy cupcakes, and the wrappers were the perfect green touch!

This project is linked up to Bitten By The Bug 2's Wearin' of the Green Challenge.

Atlantic Hearts Sketch Challenge #150

This week's sketch at AHSC inpisred me to think outside the box- literally! 

I am planning an upcoming tea party and wanted some cute favour boxes, so this sketch helped me to decorate the front of the box.

The box was cut from the Artiste cartridge, and I filled it with some tea leaves and shortbread biscuits.



The front has some tea related icons, and I added the Enjoy panel as per the sketch. The teapot and cup are from the new Artistry Cricut cartridge, which worked perfectly with my idea.



These are going to look great at our tea party!

If you like this week's sketch, we would love for you to join us at Atlantic Hearts Sketch Challenge to share your creation!

I am also sharing this creation with the Bitten By The Bug 2 3D projects challenge.

E is for Elephants

 Welcome to the Everything ABC's Blog Hop!

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

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

My E is for Elephants- I created some cute items for a baby shower, where the theme was Elephants.
This is of the adorable animals featured on the Georgie Paper Packet and also one of the stamps from this month's SOTM, Balloon Animals, so it made my job a lot easier!

I created a card to celebrate the arrival using the Georgie Paper Packet and the SOTM. The sentiment and elephant were popped up on Foam tape and I added a banner cut from the Artfully Sent cartridge.



These scallops were cut and layered with the paper and a cute elephant to be used as cupcake toppers with toothpicks.



I also made some large rosettes for a centerpiece and the banner. I cut the rosettes from the Georgie paper packet using the elephant design and used another Cricut elephant on top with Slate, Canary and Honey cardstock.



Every party needs cupcakes, so these elephant cupcake wrappers with cut using Slate cardstock.



To make the banner, I cut large circles and layered them with different Georgie papers.



Here is the whole banner, complete with the elephant rosettes on each end.



Your next stop on our Everything ABC'S blog Hop is Darlys of Crafty Happy.

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

S1602 Balloon Animals Australasian Stamp of the Month Blog Hop

Hello and welcome aboard our Australasian Close to My Heart Blog Hop.

If you have arrived here from Mez's Craft Room then you are in the right place.

If you landed here by accident, no problem, please join in by following the link at the end of this post.

Today I would like to share with you a creation which features Close To My Heart’s February Stamp of the Month, Balloon Animals. It can be yours for just $10 with a qualifying order of $75 or for $33 if ordered separately from your CTMH consultant.

Everyone loves a party, and so I have found a perfect way to create a festive atmosphere with this stamp set.

I started off by stamping some of the Balloon Animal images on Kraft cardstock in Poppy, Cocoa, Eggplant and Pomegranate inks.



I then fussy cut each animal with my Non-Stick Scissors.



I glued a toothpick onto the back of each animal with a Glue Pen. and left to dry.



Each cupcake topper was then placed on top of a red velvet cupcake, ready for party!



These cupcake toppers take baking to the next level without the need for fancy icing techniques or sprinkles.



I'd love you to leave a comment before heading off to the next stop, Scrap Stamp Share.

Frozen Tote Bag

This week's theme at Heart 2 Heart Challenges is Frozen!

Even if Elsa and Anna aren’t your thing, no matter which hemisphere you live in, you’re either frozen in winter or cooling off with a frozen beverage like me.

My niece is a big Frozen fan, and I wanted to make her a special Frozen Christmas gift.

I turned to my Cricut, and added her name in the Frozen font. This was the tricky part as I used a font generator and then turned it into an SVG and imported it to my Cricut account. I then added some snowflakes from the CTMH Artistry cartridge.



I cut the name and snowflakes with my Cricut onto white iron-on vinyl, making sure I used the mirror cut setting.



I then ironed the vinyl onto the bag and peeled away the transfer paper, leaving the design on the black bag.



Here is the finished bag- my niece was very happy with it!



We would love to see your Frozen projects, whether you take inspiration from the movie, songs or the weather.

October Worldwide SOTM Blog Hop

Welcome to our Stamp of the Month Blog Hop!  We will be featuring October's SOTM, which is Twinkle, a set of 15 stamps.

If you have come here from Sarah'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 45 Close To My Heart Consultants sharing their creations using this month's SOTM 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 decided to make a Christmas treat bag for some candy canes and other goodies. It is always handy to have something like this ready for an unexpected visitor or gift giving situation!

I stamped the sentiment and star cluster  in Versamark then clear embossed it. After it was cool, I swiped over some watercolour paint- half green and half red.



I then attached this sentiment to a bag cut from the Cricut Artiste cartridge, which I decorated with some glitter embellishments and gems.



Now I have a sweet bag ready to fill with any Christmas themed goodies at a moment's notice.



Now "Hop" on over to Michele'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! Remember, the October SOTM is only available until the 31st October!  Contact your CTMH Consultant (or click here) to see how you can get this stamp set at a discount!

CTMH supplies used:
Cardstock: Slate, Watercolor Paper
Cricut: Artiste
Embellishments: Mini Medley Accents Ruby Collection, Red Enamel Gems, Sparkles Black & Grey Assortment
Ink: Versamark
Stamp set: Twinkle
Tools: Clear Embossing Powder, Paintbrush Set, Watercolor Paints 

Framed Worldwide SOTM Blog Hop

Welcome to our Stamp of the Month Blog Hop!  We will be featuring August's SOTM, which is Farmed, a set of 12 stamps.

If you have come here from Jacquelin'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 50 Close To My Heart Consultants sharing their creations using this month's SOTM 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!

Today I am sharing some cute, hand cut Christmas crackers that you can create for your Christmas table- it is never too early to start thinking about the festive season!

Take a piece of 6x6 paper and score it at 1.25, 2.5, 3.75 and 5 inches. Rotate 90 degrees and also score at 1.25 and 4.75 inches. You should end up with your piece of paper looking like this.



Fold up the two end score lines and cut a small triangle where each score line meets. When you unfold it, it should look like this.



Apply a strong adhesive, such as Liquid Glass, along the right had side of the wrong side of the paper, in between the top and bottom score lines.




Now you can fold along all of the 5 score lines to assemble your cracker.




To create the cracker, pinch down the ends to create the folded ends.



Using your scissors, cut small snips in the end of each side, then pop in any sweets, notes or items you want in the cracker. Secure the cracker with baker's twine.



Now you can decorate! I used both sides of the Snowhaven paper to create two crackers. The black one uses one of the Framed stamped backgrounds, which I fussy cut and then added a sticker from the Holiday Happenings Assortment. The patterned cracker uses both a frame and sentiment from the Stamp of the Month and is also fussy cut.



Now "Hop" on over to Maureen'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! Remember, the August SOTM is only available until 31st August!  Contact your CTMH Consultant (or click here) to see how you can get this stamp set at a discount!

CTMH supplies used:
Embellishments: Holiday Happenings Assortment, Neutral Metallics Bakers Twine
Ink: Black, Cranberry
Paper: Snowhaven
Stamp set: Framed
Tools: Liquid Glass, Non-Stick Micro-Tip Scissors, Scoring Board

Life is a Picnic!

This month at Heart 2 Heart Challenges, the theme is "Life Is...".

The first of these prompts is Life is a Picnic!

I always remember picnics on our way down south, a welcome respite as we all piled out of the car and found a grassy patch to eat. We would then always stop at a dairy and get an iceblock each, so I always think of picnics whenever I have an iceblock.

I found some adorable iceblock pens the other day and wanted to give them as gifts. I used the colours of the pens as inspiration for my colouring.



Here is the combination of colours I used to get the perfect iceblock.



Next, I made a small bag topper out of White Daisy cardstock and added a stamped sun and sentiment from the Hello Summer stamp set.



They went on top of my bagged up pens, and then they were finished.



How will you be inspired by this prompt? Join in with us at H2H!