CTMH Christmas Crafts Blog Hop

Welcome to the CTMH Christmas Crafts Blog Hop courtesy of Heartfelt Sentiments Team!  If you are coming from Marianne's blog you are on the right track.

There are so many things you can make this Christmas for your friends/family.  I made this Memory Tray in about an hour.  I used our White Pines Picture My Life cards and White Pines Complements.  Oh, and I can't forget the Glacier Fundamental Assortment.  I am thinking about taking this cute little tray to a Christmas party where we play "Dirty Santa". 

Now, if you don't want to do something "Christmas-y", I highly recommend our Base and Bling collection.  I recently made a pendant with our mascot.  I got a ton of complements on it and had a few people want to buy one.  All I did was print the mascot out and used our markers to color in a few spots that I was worried would turn a different color (red to pink, etc) once the Liquid Glass was applied. So easy and cute.    

Have fun this Christmas season trying new ways to craft!  Now, I am off to make my Christmas cards!  Thanks for looking and now you can hop on over to Tonya's Blog.

Planners Gonna Plan: The Everyday Life™ Planner System from Close To My ...

CTMH Paper Blog Hop - White Pines

Welcome to this month's Close To My Heart Paper Focus Blog Hop.  If you are coming from Melissa Robinson's blog you are on the right track!

It's that time of year again when we start thinking about Christmas.  Can you believe it is next month?!  I love this time of year!  Know what else I love?  This paper pack from our Holiday Expressions!

For my card I used the White Pines paper pack, complements, Picture My Life, and red enamel gems.  You can find all of these great items here.

Thanks for stopping by and I pray you have a wonderful Thanksgiving!!

Now you can hop on over to Tonya's blog!

State Stamps

One of my new favorite things in the 2015-2016 Annual Inspirations is the State stamps.  I think they are awesome for showing off your favorite sports team's colors.  Wouldn't these be so cute on a mantle or a bookcase?  

Interested in ordering your state stamp?  Click here.  These little frames took no time to put together.  I used Cricut Artistry to cut the letters.  Chose my colors and stamped away.  Easy!  Would make great inexpensive neighbor/friend Christmas gifts.

CTMH Paper Blog Hop - Nevermore

Welcome to this month's Heartfelt Sentiments Blog Hop.  If you are coming from Aggie's Blog you are on the right track!  This month we are focusing on Nevermore.

I created my card using the National Stamping Month stamp set--Hello, Life 

Available only during the month of September, these exclusive C-size My Acrylix®Hello, Life! stamp sets can be purchased for $13.95 each! Or, for an even better deal, you can purchase all three for only $34.95 —a savings of $6.90!

  

Now hop on over to Debi's blog to see what she has for you to see!

CTMH Paper Pack Blog Hop: Zoe

Welcome to this month's Heartfelt Sentiments Paper Pack Blog Hop!  This month we are featuring the brand new Zoe.  If you are coming from Melissa Robinson's blog you are on the right track!  I am so excited that our the Annual Inspirations catalog comes out on September 1.  For now, we get a little a teaser with Zoe.

This month I chose to use Studio J to showcase the paper pack.  Studio J is quick and so easy!  It can be as simple as dropping photos into pre-made layout templates to creating your own from "scratch".   The best part is it is is free to play around with and practice. 

Now you can hop along to Maxine's blog.

Technique Blog Hop: Simple Shadows

Welcome to this month's CTMH Technique Blog Hop!  If you are coming from Darlys's blog you are on the right track! Hope your summer is going great.  Mine is FLYING by!  

This month's technique is Simple Shadows found on page 102 of the current Annual Inspirations.  It is a very very easy technique.  All  you have to do is layer two cardstocks and offset the top one to give your project dimension.  I made a coaster using plain tiles for a small and inexpensive gift.  

Now you can hop on over to Michelle's blog.  

Close To My Heart: Life is worth...

CTMH Techinique Blog Hop: A Bit of Blot

Welcome to May's Technique Blog Hop where we are featuring the technique on page 55 of the Annual Inspirations Idea Book/Catalog.  If you are coming from Darlys's blog you are on the right track.  

This was the first time for me to use this technique.  I found that it was very easy, but it took me a few times to figure out just how much ink and just how much spray to use.  It is a fun and different look.  I also used May's Stamp of the Month--Just Sayin'(S1505).  White Sequins and white glitter trim also made an appearance on this card (um...I love those two things.  I fully admit I am addicted).

Thanks for stopping by the blog hop today!  You can hop on over to Michelle's blog to continue on the hop.

Blossom Card Kit

This is one of favorite things in the latest Seasonal Expressions.  What is not to like about these cards?  They are so happy and summery! In your workshop you get just about everything you need to complete 15 cards!  All you have to supply is the ink and adhesive.  I can help you with that too!

Remember the contest I have going on my facebook page!  It ends tomorrow!

CONTEST ANNOUNCEMENT

Yesterday I announced a new contest on my facebook page.  It is very simple and will only take you about 1 minute to enter.  You can see the contest here.  I will randomly draw for a winner on Friday, May 15th.  Good luck!

Bokeh Technique

bo·keh

bōˈkā/

noun

the visual quality of the out-of-focus areas of a photographic image, especially as rendered by a particular lens

Pretty, right?!!!

I had several people ask me how to do the Bokeh technique.  The way I do it is very simple, but it does take practice.

You will need:
The ink of your choice (preferably colors that would look good when blended)

I used the following groupings of inks:
Lagoon, Glacier, and Smoothie
Lagoon, Pear, and Smoothie
Pixie, Glacier, and Pear
Pacifica (all by itself)



White Daisy ink

Sponge daubers or round sponge (cute it up like a pie to get lots of uses) will work also
 or  

Circle template of varying sizes of circles
.
Using my Cricut Expression and CTMH's Art Philosophy to cut circles of different sizes.  I just used a plain piece of white daisy cardstock to cut the circles.  The best way to do the template is to use Cricut Craft Room and you can use that to randomly place the circles.

Now that you have the tools needed to do the Bokeh technique you are ready to start!

1.  Take any size white daisy cardstock (I suggest starting with a 4.25x5.5" card base until you get good at it)

2.  Using a sponge dauber choose a color and ink up your sponge or dauber.  I start in one corner and go in circles and skip around.  You can always go back and fill in empty spaces.  When your white cardstock is full of the colors you chose you are ready to use the circle template.

3.  Place your circle template on your now colorful white cardstock.  Using another sponge dauber or piece of the pie sponge ink it up using the white daisy ink and color in the circles however you see fit.  You can rearrange the template to get more circles on your card.  Also, you don't have to re-ink for every circle.  Some will look "closer" and others "farther away" depending on the amount of white ink used.

4.  Voila!  Now you can decorate your project.

A few things you need to know...

Your fingers WILL be messy

It will take practice

You will be addicted

Here are some examples of the cards I have made.

1.

2.

3.

This one is my favorite!

4.

I only used Pacifica for this card. 

If you have any questions let me know!!  Watch my facebook page for a contest coming very very very soon!

Hostess Exclusives Stamp Set Blog Hop

  

Welcome to another Heartfelt Sentiments blog hop!  If you are coming from Marianne's blog you are on the right path!  We are hi-lighting the Hostess Exclusive stamp sets.  When you host a party (online or home gathering) you can choose discounted stamp sets with your hostess rewards.  It is a fabulous deal!  I chose Paper Birds (C1613).  With your hostess rewards you can get this stamp set for only $8!  I am loving this stamp set.  It is precious.

So, I wanted to try my hand at the Bokeh technique.  This technique is seen everywhere these days.  I love the look of it, so I decided to see what all the fuss is about.  Well, I get it.  It wasn't hard at all to do.  I did a youtube.com search and found some CTMH consultants that posted how-to videos.  I haven't perfected my technique yet, but it is fun and addicting.  

If you would like to host a party to have the opportunity to get this stamp set (and some of the others that are hi-lighted in this blog hop), contact me and I will get you set up!  Now you can hop on over to Debi's blog.  Before you do, will you take a second and leave me a little comment?  Thanks!  

CTMH Paper Focus Blog Hop--Jackson

Welcome to this month's paper focus blog hop.  If you are coming from Melissa Robinson's blog you are on the right track.  This month our focus is on Jackson.  This paper pack is in the latest edition of Seasonal Expressions.  I love the fact that we have a masculine paper pack that isn't "baby" and could be used for several events.  My favorite part of this new pack is the PML cards!  They are awesome.  I used one of the cards for the sentiment on the card I made.  I love the color combo in this paper pack too.  So pretty!

Thanks so much for stopping by my blog today.  Now hop on over to Aggie's blog!

Chalk It Up: Last Day of School 2014

I'm anxious for school to be out for the summer.  My grandmother would tell me to stop wishing my life away.  During our Easter/Spring break I was able to scrapbook one rainy afternoon.  It was one of my only days that we were not running around doing a million things.  I still have a nice stack of pictures from 2014 that need to be scrapped.  When I saw the pictures I ended up using for this layout, it made me long for summer break!  Only about 6 more weeks and I'll have a new Last Day of School layout to do!

Close up of my title

My goal is to always get as many pics on a layout as possible.  In this layout I used Chalk it up paper pack, complements, and accessories.  I also used the curlicue stamp set from the Artfully Sent Cricut cartidge.

Typed Note-April Stamp of the Month

April's Stamp of the Month is Typed Note.  If you spend only $50 you will qualify to buy this stamp set for only $5!

For my card below I used Blossom paper pack from the Seasonal Expression 2.  I also used the stripe embossing folder and coral reef sequins (fave!)