CTMH Spotlight Hop - Circle Cards

Welcome to this month's Close To My Heart Spotlight Blog Hop! If you came here from Nikka's blog, you are on the right track. If you are starting here, then just keep hopping along to see all of the other creations.

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This month we are featuring Circle Cards - I forgot how much I love circle cards, I really should make them more often!  I like using the Colonial White and White Daisy circle cards and envelopes - I love that they come with their own envelope, I always struggled finding the right size before.  I also love the Clear Cards, I need to play around with those some more!
First up I have a card that I made for a niece's first birthday.  This one was really simple, I just cut a Hollyhock ring, a Blush piece for the sentiment, stamped and cut the candle using the Candlelight stamp set and Sophia papers, and added a few pink buttons.  I will admit, I always like to thread my buttons before I put them on a project, they just seem naked without something.  This time I made myself leave them plain - not so bad, right?

Here is another circle card that I made a while ago but haven't posted yet.  I also used the Sophia papers but this time with the You're Sweet stamp set.  I used Liquid Glass on the orange.

I have more circle cards posted below, but if you are ready to continue along the Blog Hop, the next stop is Amie!

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These cards have been posted before, but if you missed them and want more details, just click on the card title to go to the previous post and find out more!

Halloween Card

Owl Card

Flower Thank You

Father's Day Card

Baby Boy Card

Celebrate Card

Thanks Card

Baby Girl Card

Thanks for looking - don't forget to hop along to Amie's Blog!

CTMH Spotlight Blog Hop - Color-Ready Kraft Borders

Welcome to this month's Close To My Heart Spotlight Blog Hop - I'm thrilled to get to play along again this month!  If you came here from Luisa's blog, you are on the right track.  If you are starting here, then just keep hopping along to see what all of the talented Consultants came up with.

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This month we are featuring the fun Color-Ready Kraft Borders - let me tell you, great things come in small packages!  I was amazed when I first received my order of these, there are a ton of borders and the possibilities are endless!  Let me show you some of the things I have created recently using these borders - my favorite feature of these is that they come adhesive-backed, so they are perfect for adding to CLEAR projects, like I have done here...can anyone guess where I saved this case from?

It's the case from our iPod Touch - I knew I saved it for the perfect project!  I kept the front super simple, starting with the colors from the Wings Papers.  I just cut a border strip to the right size and applied it to the cover.  Then I embossed a heart from the retired February Word Puzzle stamp set using Vineyard Berry embossing powder.  I then colored some Irresistibles Lots of Dots letters using Juniper Ink and attached them to the front, handwrote the word 'notes' and attached some Opaques Pearls.

I will not share the inside pages yet, as it's a gift and needs to stay a surprise, but I used a lot more of the borders on those, too.  I love how this turned out!

I have more border projects posted below, but if you are ready to continue along the Blog Hop, the next stop is Haley!

Here is another project - this time using a Clear Card.

I weaved a 1/8" piece of Hollyhock CS through this border.  This card uses the Ricochet pattern from Wishes along with Hollyhock, Blush, Colonial White, and Desert Sand CS and the Sweet Baby stamp set.  Here is a look at the card and the layers as it opens.

This card is for a dear friend who just had a baby girl (after 2 boys) - after I saw her darling girl monkey room I found this darling outfit and made some cute matching flower clips (she can never have enough!) and just HAD to make a monkey card using the retired Life's A Jungle stamp set ;-)  Now I just need to get it in the mail so she can enjoy it!

Now for some previously posted projects using the Kraft Borders.

I love that you can leave them as-is...

...or color them using inks...

Thanks for looking - don't forget to hop along to Haley's Blog!

From Me To You

This set of cards were a Christmas present for my Dad and Shelly - we finally exchanged gifts when they came earlier this month, so I can finally share them here!

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Some of you may remember the From Me To You card set that CTMH had as a special a few years ago - it came in this cute little box...

...and it came with a fun stamp set, supplies, and instructions to create a complete set of cards.  Well, it may come to no surprise that I never did anything with it - until now - finally!  However, I didn't stick with the original colors and changed things up a bit.  I did use the box to hold the gift set, along with the original 8 patterns that came with the kit.  Here is what I did.

Originals: Center Tie, using Bella paper pack

Originals: Floral Trio Tied, using Perfect Day paper - I had flowers stamped and punched out to use on this card but liked it just fine without them so I left them off!

Originals: Offset Focus, using Emporium paper

Originals: Center Stage, using Magic Moments paper

Originals: Accent Band using the Giggles & Grins paper.  This one surprisingly became one of my favorite cards!  This bulk paper was the only pattern I ever had of this paper pack, mostly because of its Disney theme and the fact that I've never been to Disney ;-) so I never really used it much before, but I really ended up liking it on this card.  I used my water color pencils to color the flower and some waxy flax to accent.

Originals: Express Left using Simple Pleasures paper

Originals: View From the Top, using Magnifique paper.  I forgot to center and mat the flower this time, I got a little carried away just doing my own thing ;-)  I added Liquid Glass to the paper center of the flower which gave it a really cool look.

Originals: Equal Angles, using Olivia papers

So those were the card patterns that came in the From Me To You card kit and I also included the following cards in the gift.

Wishes: Lucky Layers, using Twitterpated papers and Treasures of the Heart stamp set.

Wishes: Inner Court, using Hooligans paper and October Word Puzzle

Wishes: Well Rounded using Stardust paper and Treasures of the Heart stamp set, with a bit of Glitz Glitter Gel on the star.

Wishes: Simplicity, using the ????? paper (it's totally slipped my mind - help me out if you can) and You're a Hoot stamp set.

Originals: Always Right, using Veranda paper and a Hero Arts stamp set called Dolls

To make an even number of cards I grabbed this one out of my stash and added it to the gift set as well.  This was one I did for my You Rock Workshop last year.

Thanks for looking!

I L.O.V.E. cards

I've recently had fun playing with some paper and stamps and actual ink - shocking, I know!  Here are some cards that I've made - I used the Wishes book and tried out my new Spray Pen - for my first time I stuck with a light color just until I get used to it - I used Baby Pink with a bit of Pearl Paint.  I LOVE this thing and can't wait to use it more!  I've also used it for some custom colored flower hair clips - click here to check them out!

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The following card uses the Cubed Collage pattern, Sweetheart paper pack, and retired February Word Puzzle, along with some fun new pink buttons and a bit of Black Waxy Flax.

I think the following card is my favorite of this bunch - that little Hippo is just too cute!  I used the Simple Expression pattern with the Sweetheart papers.  The Hippo came from the retired Life's A Jungle stamp set, the hearts and X's came from the So Lucky stamp set, and the thought bubble came from the retired set Leave Your Mark.  I got my rubber brayer out for this card since the thought bubble was going the other direction - I used the brayer to reverse my image (my girls thought that was the coolest trick!).

This card was for Kaylee's piano teacher - I used the Collage pattern, Sweetheart papers, and You Rock stamp set.  I even stamped the envelope.

This card uses the Framework pattern, Sweetheart papers, So Lucky stamp set, and retired February Word Puzzle

This is the card that I created for my Open House next week.  I used the Sentiment Secured pattern, new Wings Creative Basics paper, Friendship stamp set (this month's Stamp of the Month), and the new Kraft Color-Ready Borders.  Such a simple card but I really like how it turned out, I especially like those borders.  I am working on another option using Sweetheart papers.

I created this card to show that by using the back side of the papers you can change the look of the card - I also wanted to show how you can change the color of the Kraft borders.

Here are some more things I L.O.V.E. more than anything else!

Watching my kids together...

...playing the piano...

...reading...

...and just being goofy (and yes, eating graham crackers in milk - my favorite!)

Watching my STAR perform!

letting out some nerves ;-)

Our kids were thankfully SO good during this very long, late night at Stars of Tomorrow - we were there for 3 hours and they were angels!  Trysten fell asleep on the way there and Brailee fell asleep at the end, but nobody whined or misbehaved, even I was tired of being there after a while!

Making treats with my kids...

Thanks for looking - I hope you all have a fabulous weekend!