Heart Happy Gal Pals Forever Shaker Card

Instead of cleaning up where my paper crafting bomb seems to have exploded, I decided to make it worse today!  Yes, I should have been organizing and putting away my supplies.  I had picked up my Heart Happy leftovers to to just that, but got side tracked by a few of the sticker embellishments left after making my four Heart Happy layouts.

Using my Basic Hearts Thin Cuts, my Stitched Hearts Thin Cuts, a piece of a Flip Flap and some Gold Loose Sequins, I set to work making my very own shaker element.  I used two of the hearts, concentrically  to make the paper overlay for the outside of my shaker window.  The sky is the limit with shaker cards, really.  Did you know that you can even die cut a piece of a Flip Flap instead of using acetate to make the perfect clear layer for your shaker card?

After adding my heart lollipop sticker to the edge of the shaker, I embellished with some loops of Gold Sequin Ribbon, and a bow of White and Gold Skinny Ribbon. My stamp set was nowhere to be found, so I went with a sticker sentiment. A few teensy scraps of Heart Happy paper here and there, and even a little heart cut from the Stitched Hearts Thin Cuts gave the card just the right touch of clutter that I was going for!  

CTMH Wonder of the Season Card

I was once again inspired by a sketch that I found on Mojo Monday Sketch Challenge, number 502.

I wanted to go far away from traditional Christmas colors, as well as really bright whimsical colors too.  So, although CTMH has given us two really cool Christmas paper suites to create with this year, I decided to play with an everyday paper suite called Boutique.  And do you know what pairs beautifully with Boutique?  Sugarplum, CTMH's Color of the Year.

Not exactly what one would think of right away for a Christmas card, but I wanted a challenge.  I knew that the flower on the sketch would come from our CTMH Wonder of the Season stamp set.  I have loved this set since CTMH was kind enough to send it to me back in June to create with in my role as CTMH Convention Extravaganza Presenter.   Such an honor!!!  I also knew that the sentiment from the set would work beautifully stamped within the 3" circle.  My poinsettia was stamped with Intense Black Ink and colored with our Watercolor Pencils and Clear Shimmer Brush.

When I looked at my Thin Cuts collection, the only circle quite as big as the sketch called for was from my Shaker Window and Confetti Thin Cuts, and so of course I had to go there!  Using one of my Shaker Foam and Acetate sets, along with some Silver Loose Sequins, the shaker element of my card was born.  

To finish off my card, I added a strip of Sugarplum Glitter Paper that I cut using the Decorative Borders Thin Cuts, a few Sugarplum Glitter Gems, and some Silver Embellishing Thread.

Wow!  It took me some much longer to write up this blog post than it did to make that card!!!