CTMH Christmas Card

Well, it's back to work on my Christmas Cards and CTMH makes it so easy.  There are so many wonderful stamp sets and papers and it is hard to decide what I want to make.

I've shared several photos of projects that I've made with the Stamp from the Frosted Workshop On The Go.  If I haven't mentioned it before, this WTOG is the best kit CTMH has put together.  For $24.99, you get 15 card blanks, papers to complete all the cards, embellishments and a beautiful "D" sized stamp set.  Just love it...

 

The focal image of this card is made by "building" the scene.  I know that sounds hard, but it was actually very easy.  Here is how I did it...

1. The White Daisy mat was cut to 3 x 2 inches.  Take a  small circle of scrap paper for the moon and roughly tear scrap paper to produce the sky.

2.  Position the scrap circle in the upper left hand corner and do not move it.  Take the torn paper and position it close to the top.  Sponge toward the top with Sky Ink.

3.  Move the torn paper down about 1/4 of an inch and sponge again.  Remember NOT to move the circle.

4.  Continue this step until you've sponged the entire piece of paper in Sky.  The variations in the sponging will create the "cloud" look to the sky in your scene.

5.  Using Whisper Ink, stamp the trees across the bottom of the card.  You will have to stamp twice to complete your "forest."

6.  Using VersaMark, repeat this step over the trees that you have stamped with Whisper.  Vary the height of the trees from those already stamped.

7.  Using Silver Embossing Powder, heat emboss the VersaMark trees.

8.  Your scene is completed.  No two will look the same.  :o)

 

 



A little more about this card...  I used a White Daisy Card Base and the Gray Sparkle paper from the Sparkle and Shine paper packet.   The larger White Daisy Mat was dry embossed using an embossing folder and "Peace" was embossed in Silver.  It is from the October STOM.  I "grounded" the scene with the strip of Gray, White Daisy, Silver Shimmer Tape and Gray Bakers Twine.

 

It is not too late to make some wonderful Holiday Cards.  The Frosted WTOG and CTMH tools make it so easy.  BTW, we just learned that CTMH is retiring the heat embossing tools in February so, if you are in need of some of the supplies I mentioned here, or need heat embossing tools, visit my website to purchase them.  For Now, Happy Crafting!

CTMH Thanksgiving and Artiste Cricut Cartridge

Right now, I have to admit, I've been focusing on my Christmas Projects; however, I did take some time this afternoon to make paper these cute place card holders for Thanksgiving Dinner. 

 

They were actually quite simple and worked up quickly, especially with the convenience of the Artiste Cartridge.  I punched 6 2 inch scallop circles for each.  They using the cartridge, I cut the base leaf and the leaf endorsement for the top.  After sponging them, I folded each in half and using Liquid Glass I attached the 6 circles.  Before I attached the last circle rounds together, I inserted a pin clip with the leaf stem inserted in the precut hole.  I love these pin clips and am sad to say that they are currently for sale as "why supplies last" on my website.  Anyway, I snipped off the bottom so that the pumpkin would sit flat and used Liquid Glass to attach it to the bigger leaf I cut.  Easy!

 

I know it is probably a tad late to try these if you don't have the pin clips, but picture them with boxes cut from the Artiste as Christmas Place card holders.  Visit my website so that you can get some of these fun pin clips before they are gone.  For Now, Happy Crafting!

November 22, 1963 A Day That Forever Changed The World

November 22, 1963 is a day that has been indelibly seared into my childhood memory.  The day had started out as a typical day.  I was a wee one, all of 5 years old, and had just gotten home from morning Kindergarten.  Both my parents worked the 3 to 11 shift and my Grandmother lived with us.  My Father had just left for work.  My Mom was walking toward the back door to head out.  My Grandmom was sitting in her usual chair.  Bob and Lisa were having dinner on As The World Turns.  I was playing in the Living Room.  Then, everything stopped:  Walter Cronkite broke into the soap opera, and with those fateful words told us that the course of history has just shattered...  Shots had been fired at President Kennedy's Motorcade in Dallas. 

I can't image what went through my parents minds.  There is my Father already on the road.  My Mom was just about ready to leave...what does she do?  Does she go to work, stay home?  Were we safe?  There were no cell phones,  how do you reach your family?  I know most businesses closed but I have no memory if she went to work, came home or if my Father came home early.  What I do remember is the deep despair for the next several days.  I remember the clip clop of the horses drawing the caisson.  I remember the riderless horse.  I remember Carolyn and John John at the Funeral (after all, they were MY age.)  And, I remember Lee Harvey Oswald being shot on TV.  Every generation has a defining moment and for my cohorts...November 22, 1963 is that day.

I have always been a JFK Assassination buff.  I suppose that even though I was only 5, I was "smart" enough to realize that what I had been witness to an event that would have a lasting impact on my life.  In June of 2012, the Close To My Heart Convention was held in Dallas.  There was no way that I was going Dallas and not go to Dealey Plaza.  I even left for Convention a day early just to find the time to visit the 6th Floor Museum and walk Elm and Houston Streets.

This is a Studio J layout I completed shortly after I returned from Convention.  Studio J is CTMH's online scrapbooking program and was perfect for something like this.  I could easily and quickly complete the layout with the reverence the photos deserved.

Visiting Dealey Plaza was a moving experience for me.  We've all seen the pictures of the School Book Depository, the Grassy Knoll, the snipers nest, but to stand there and realize that an event that changed the world happened there is humbling.  One of the first things that struck me was how small Dealey Plaza is...  We all have this image that is has to be huge but it is actually quite a small area.  I walked all around.  I went behind the picket fence and watched the cars pass.  I visited the museum and gazed out the window looking down on the street.  The actual sniper's next is walled with glass but you can look out the second window.  wow

I find myself in a very odd mood today.  I keep thinking of a young child watching her family's shock, knowing that something terrible had happened but just not being old enough to totally comprehend.  I keep wondering how the world might have been different had JFK not been assassinated.  My parents were Depression Era Children..  My Dad lied about his age and joined the Navy.  My Mom, so wanted to be a Navy Nurse, but failed the physical so she volunteered at the Indianapolis IN USO.  They had both helped to achieve victory in WWII.  They identified with JFK.  He was not a stogy typical politician...he was their generation.  They had something in common.  They were filled with hope for their 5 year old daughter.  There was promise of a better world.  With Kennedy in the White House paving the path for the future, their young daughter would not have to endure the tribulation that they had endured.  But all that ended on November 22, 1963.

What would have been different had JFK lived?  Would we have dove head long into Vietnam? ...a decade that effected and still continues to effect us baby boomers.  Would the Cold War have ended sooner?  We will never know.

I look back at the past 50 years and there have been collective sorrows:  9-11, the Challenger Disaster, the Gulf War.  And yet, there have been monumental triumphs:  Man walking on the Moon, the computer being commonplace, cell phones that are smarter and smaller than my first calculator.  Who shot JFK?  We will never know.  But, today is a day, regardless of your age, to reflect on those sorrows and triumphs.  And, to continue to ask not what can be done for us, but rather, what we can do for others to help make this a better world.  

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CTMH Christmas Card

The CTMH Holiday's From The Heart Gift Guide has several great Holiday stamp sets.  One such stamp is called Mary and Babe (C1562.)  It is a beautifully drawn set that has 3 images, 2 Bible Verses and a sentiment.  While it is a line stamp and could be colored, I wanted to try it using heat embossing instead.

When I was thinking about how I should complete the card, I knew that I wanted to do something that was both simple and elegant.  The first Cocoa mat is 5 3/8 x 4 1/8 inches.  I then cut the Colonial White mat to 5 1/4 x 4 inches, cut it in half at the 2 inch mark and ran each piece through the Big Kick using 2 separate embossing folders.  I hid the seam with the Cocoa and Colonial White strip.  While the Big Kick was out, I used my Spellbinders to cut a small mat for the star.  A little heat embossing and cutting out, a bow tied and the card was done. 

I always try to match the papers and layout to the style of the card. For this card,  I wanted to do a stylish, elegant style befitting this beautiful stamp.  For Now, Happy Crafting!

Close To My Heart Christmas Card and the New Stitch Guide

A few weeks back, I got the new CTMH Stitch Guide (Z1852.)  I have been anxious to try it since it was introduced at Convention and just hadn't had the time.  Time, I found the time.  All be it, I squashed it in between washing the kitchen curtains, windows and walls, raking leaves, designing a card class for my Michaels schedule and having my car inspected and walking home a mile instead of waiting for it to be done. 

Well, let me tell you, it didn't disappoint!  I used in to make a Christmas Card with Frosted (X7175B) and Yuletide Greetings (D1553.)  Let me describe the stitch guide...  It is a plastic ruler with multiple holes in patterns that you can use to pierce the paper and then stitch with embroidery floss or some sort of fiber.

The guide is several inches long and contains several patterns suitable for a 12 x 12 scrapbook page.  But, because I was doing a card, I used just a small flourish.  It worked beautifully!  I was able to pierce the paper and easily stitch the design.  I used Flower Thread for the stitching...a single ply fiber that was in my cross stitch stash.  I want to share a few tips I learned while doing the stitching....

1.  If you are using embroidery floss, separate the individual threads...any more than 3 will tear the paper.  Hemp and baker's twine are probably too thick.
2.  Make sure you don't pierce the paper too close to the edge. 
3.  Keep your thread short.  This will keep it from tangling as you stitch.
4.  Hold the ends down with adhesive....Tombow or ATG work great.
5,  Pierce your holes lightly...you can always enlarge the holes to accommodate you thread, but you can't make the holes smaller.  :o)

A few more fun things about this card...I used my CTMH Alcohol Markers and Black Archival Ink.  And, the multiple layers of mats are cut only 1/8 of an inch instead of the customary 1/4 inch.  This give just the hit of color.

Even if you're not a sewer, don't be afraid to try the Stitch Guide.  It is easy and adds yet another fun dimension to your scrapbooking and card making.  You can see it on my website.  For Now, Happy Crafting!.

Another CTMH Matching Gift Tag and Christmas Card

Yesterday, I shared a card and gift tag set that I completed using the Season's Tweetings Gift Bag kit.  Today, I want to share another tag and card set I created.  This time I used the Frosted Workshop on the Go Stamp Set and built a serene Holiday scene...

Because the bags are Topiary color, I used that shade of green as my base rather than the Juniper or Olive that coordinates with the Gift Bag Kit and Frosted.  To create the background, I roughly tore stripes of paper.  Because CTMH paper is white core, when you tear it, you have a layered edge.  I sponged across the torn paper several times repositioning it each time to give the effect of clouds and ground.  Also, because CTMH paper is white core, it sands beautifully.  Sanding gives an aged distressed look.  In this case, I sanded to give the effect of snow. 

Don't forget to check out the Holiday's From The Heart Gift Guide on my website.  I think you are going to like all of the goodies!  For Now, Happy Crafting!

CTMH Holiday's From The Heart Gift Bags and Christmas Cards

I just love the CTMH Holiday's From the Heart Season's Tweetings (Z1913) Gift Bag Set.  For $14.95, you receive 6 fabric gift bags, a B sized stamp set along with 9 tags.  They are just too cute for words.

We are using this set for our 4th Annual Holiday Workshop on Saturday.  As I was preparing for class, I realized that it would be fun to include matching Christmas Cards with the gift bags.

How cute is that to not only create a special wrapping for your gift, but also create a matching card!  Both the card and the tag feature the images from the stamp set that is included in the Season's Tweeting kit.  The card also features the Sparkle and Shine Paper Packet (X7176C) that is in the Gift Guide.

Here are both the card and gift bag so that you can get a better look at them.  By the way, the birdies are colored using my water color pencils and a blending pen.  I also wanted to share just another reason I love Close To My Heart.  Each of the images are separate stamps.  I used the banner stamp as a "booster" for the little bird so that she can reach the bigger bird.  The sentiment is stamped inside the banner after it was stamped.  Try doing all that with a wood mount stamp.  heeheehee.

Stop by my website to see the entire CTMH Holiday's From The Heart Gift Guide.   For Now, Happy Crafting!