Leaves are falling...

Falling leaves…

This card was fun to make and it was even more fun to see what my card club ladies came up with. You need a colonial-white cardstock base of 8 ½ x 5 ½ folded in half. A 4 x 1 ½ piece of the same cardstock color will be stamped with cocoa ink and edged with chocolate ink. I also used a 2 ¼ x 5 ½ piece of burlap ribbon and 9-10 stamped leaves in different colors. (I used Garden Green, Olive, Sunflower and Autumn Terracotta). Now cut your leaves out and start to play.

You can either attach the leaves as seen on the card, then use glue dots to adhere the burlap ribbon. Glue the sentiment onto the burlap and your fall leave card is done.

Here are some varieties my card ladies did…

1) Place burlap and sentiment onto the card and adhere just 4 leaves to the card. 3 in the upper right corner and partial tucked under the burlap and one leave in the lower right corner.

2) Push your leaves all together in the middle of the card. Cut about 1” off of the burlap ribbon and center it on the card above the leaves. Your leaves will only peak out around the ribbon.

3) Have your leaves go over the edges of your base, just as if they were falling of the tree and landing on your card. The only problem with this version is that you can’t use a standard envelope anymore.

4) Just try your own layout and let me know what you came up with…

Missing the right pumpkin size?

Pumpkin Card II

Did you ever run out of the right size pumpkin stamp? I am sure many of you have different sized circle punches or even a cutting machine to be able to cut circles in different sizes. No matter what you use, you will need 5 circles to create this funny pumpkin.

I start with an 8 ½ x 5 ½ colonial-white cardstock base folded in half. I attached one 5 ¼ x 4 piece of design paper to it. Center a 4 ¾ x 3 ½ piece of cocoa cardstock onto the design paper.

Take five 1 ½ circles and edge them with chocolate ink. Fold one of the circles in half and cut a little bit of the circle off, ink the edges and the fold.

I stamped a sentiment in the lower right corner of a 4 ½ x 3 ¼ piece of colonial-white cardstock. Now glue two of the circles on the left side of the cardstock piece. Make sure they are in line and just a little bit apart from each other. Now stamp the leaves and curls onto the cardstock. Use foam dots to attach the next two circles to the card. Both circles have to overlap in the middle by about ⅓. The final, smaller circle is also attached to the card with some foam dots to cover up the overlapping part. If you are not certain were to place the circles, try to lay them out without glue first.

I used the black sponge tool from the Close To My Heart texture tools(Z1298) to create the little sprinkles on the card. This will make the card a little bit warmer and combines all elements better.

Let me know what you think of this idea…. I love it!

A "Thank You" with flowers

Flower “Thank You” …

I loved the idea of creating a beautiful flower with two sizes of hearts, how clever is that. Again the card base is 8 ½ x 5 ½ colonial-white cardstock folded in half. Further you need one piece of 4 ¼ square sorbet cardstock, 3 ¾ square saddle cardstock, 3 ½ square cashmere cardstock and a 4 ¼ x 1 ¼ piece of design paper. Edge the squares with chocolate ink and adhere them on the right side of your card base. Sides flush with the base sides. Place the design paper on the left side of your card base. I placed a strip of cardstock border on the seam between design paper and cardstock. You can use ribbon as well if you like or leave it as is.

Now to the fun part, you need hearts sizes 1 ¾ and 1 ½ four of each size. I cut mine from Indian Corn Blue cardstock and edged them with the same ink color. Adhere the hearts onto cashmere cardstock piece. I placed my glue just in the v-shaped bottom of the heart. Make sure that all heart bottoms touch in the middle. For best results dry fit them on the card first. I then adhered the smaller hearts onto the bigger once in the same fashion. This will give you the possibility to curl the “paddles” and make the flower look more dimensional. I placed a 1” flower cut from sorbet cardstock and a paper flower with mini brad in the middle of my blue heart flower. Stamp a little phrase on your tag, put some ribbon on and you are done. Don’t you love this heart flower idea??? Oh and don’t forget, you can use this design as an upright version as well, go ahead and try it.

Again thanks for the idea and creation to both ladies from the “Ink outside the box” card swap. Thank you so much for the inspiration….

Back on track with "Happy Toughts"

It was a little quite here for a few weeks, but I had a very good reason. My parents were visiting us from Germany and I wanted to spend as much time with them as possible. Since we only get to see each other about twice a year, you can imagine how much catch up we have to do. I can’t believe they are already gone home…

Our September card club date was a little short noticed and due to many reasons I am now finally able to post the cards we made. If anyone is interested to join us each month please let me know. It is always so much fun with the ladies.

The first two cards I will show here are the idea and creation of two ladies from the “Ink outside the box” card swap. Thank you so much for the inspiration ladies….

Happy Thoughts…

For this card you need a piece of 8 ½ x 5 ½ colonial-white cardstock folded in half. I glued a 5 ¼ x 4 piece cocoa cardstock to the center of the front. I divided a 5 x 3 ¾ piece of white cardstock into 3 ¾ x 2 and two pieces 2 ¹⁵/₁₆ x 1 ¹⁴/_16.   The design paper is cut at 3 ½ x 1 ¾ and two design paper of 2 ¹⁰/₁₆ x 1 ¹⁰/_16.

The sentiment tab is cut with the Cricut machine and the Close To My Heart Philosophy Cartridge; the cocoa piece at 1 ½ and the colonial-white piece at 1 ¼.

You can place the sentiment either in the middle as seen here or you can use the card upright and place it in the middle or lower half. One of my ladies places it offset and leaning, which made the card look completely different. Have fun and play around with it.

The fourth card of our August card club is a gift card holder. Again, all inks, cardstocks and stamps used in this card are from Close To My Heart.

A little ribbon closes the card and makes sure nothing is falling out. Once the ribbon is removed and the card is opened, your gift card will stand up in the middle. I love these little cards, since they convert a simple gift card into a wonderful personal gift.

Pleasecontact me if you like the instructions to make this gift card holder.

“Thank You” to Lind Loew for her inspiration.

The third card of this month’s card club is “Happy Fall”. Again, all inks, cardstocks and stamps used in this card are from Close To My Heart. Here we go…

You need a 5 ½”x 8 ½” card base of colonial white cardstock, a 2 ½”x4 ¼” piece of Florentine paper sanded along the edges, a 3x4 ¼”ponderosa pine cardstock, a 2x2 ½” piece of sunset cardstock and a piece of colonial white cardstock a ¼” smaller than the sunset one. Further a piece of the CTMH color ready border, four pearls and a 2” Cricut cutout dragon fly in vineyard berry.

I used my score board to place scores on the piece of ponderosa pine cardstock. Then I used sandpaper to bring out the white core. The dragon fly was inked around the edges. I placed four pearls on some embroidery floss and fastened it onto the dragon fly.

Now adhere the green cardstock on the bottom of your card base and the Florentine paper on the top. In the middle, where both papers meet, place the color ready border to cover the seam. Place white cardstock onto sunset on and adhere foam dots on the back of it. I used glue dots to place the dragon fly onto the white piece. Stick the sunset part to the card as seen.

Stamp Happy Fall and adhere to card……Let me know if you have any questions

A Harvest of Memories

The second card of this month’s card club is a “Harvest of Memories”. All inks, cardstocks and stamps used in this card are from Close To My Heart. Here we go…

You need a 5 ½”x 8 ½” card base of colonial white cardstock, a 5 ¼”x4” piece of design paper, a 3”x3 ½” piece of chocolate cardstock and a 2 ⅞”x3 ⅜” piece of colonial white cardstock.

Adhere design paper onto base in the center. Stamp “Harvest of memories” in the lower right corner.

Stamp harvest horn image in chocolate in the middle of the colonial white piece. Color the image with color pencils. Place piece in the center of the chocolate cardstock. Place a few foam dots on the backside of the brown piece and adhere it to the card base into the upper right corner so your previously stamped sentiment can be seen.

Decorate with some sparkles and another colored in leaf.   

A little pumpkin of Thanks

One of the cards of this month’s card club is this little pumpkin card. All inks, cardstocks and stamps used in this card are from Close To My Heart. Here we go…

You need a 5 ½”x 8 ½” card base of sweat leaf cardstock, a 5 ¼”x4” piece of grey wool cardstock, a 3”x4” piece of sunset cardstock and a 2 ¾”x2 ¾” piece of colonial white cardstock.

Stamp pumpkin image in sunflower in the middle of the colonial white piece. Stamp leaf in olive ink and branches in chocolate. Adhere grey piece onto green base in the center. The orange piece will be adhere off center height as seen in the photo and do the same with the pumpkin piece with the leaf.

Now, on a second piece of colonial white cardstock stamp the pumpkin base again in sunflower ink. Stamp the lettering part of the set in autumn terracotta in second generation onto the first on. Stamp the little pumpkin stamp in olive. Now cut out the pumpkin including the green stamp. Place foam dots on the backside and stick the pumpkin right above the one on the card.

Glue a 4” piece of green ribbon on the sunset bottom and embellish with two sparkles. Stamp Thanksgiving in grey wool on the base and your card is done.

Let meknow if you like to know more about the second generation stamping technique.

Pretty treasure box in pink

A wonderful combination for all little girls in your live is anything that combines pink, glitter, flowers and butterflies. 

I created this one for my neighbors granddaughter and this little treasure box was a hit.

I used the Close To My Heart “My Creation Card Box” (Z1647), part of the Lucy paper pack (X7149B) and 3-D flowers from the Close To My Heart Cricut cartridge. Sparkles in pink and clear as well as some Glitz Glitter Gel finishes this box off.