Oh Snap! Layout for the Joyful Stars Blog Hop

Oh Snap! I have made a layout from my heart today for the Joyful Stars Blog Hop.  If you have arrived here from Betty's blog, you are on the right track!  

This layout is built upon so many CTMH Thin Cuts die cuts, and prominently features Stitched Rectangle Frame Thin Cuts.  But wait, let's go back to the beginning, I am getting ahead of myself.  

I began with a patterned piece of cardstock from the Feels Like Home paper pack.  I then pulled out a sheet of Linen cardstock, trimmed it down to an 11.5 square, and adhered it to the base.  I randomly stamped in Pebble Ink with the floral stamps from the Love Blossoms Stamp Set. I splattered some Watercolor Paint onto my page too, for added texture.  Next, I pulled out small pieces of Seasons Mix In paper that I had left over from last year.  I used the Decorative Borders Thin Cuts to make the cute little elements on them.  You might notice some of the Decorative Borders more clearly in the close ups below.

I adhered down my photo and began to build.  I used all three sizes of Stitched Rectangle Frame Thin Cuts, and even put one popped up over my photo.  The other two anchored my Butterflies that were stamped and die cut from my Butterfly Friendship Stamp + Thin Cuts set. I colored the butterflies using my Watercolor Pencils and my Clear Shimmer Brush.

I used my Stitched Heart Thin Cuts to make all of the different hearts that you see throughout my layout.  Some little Clear Sparkles dot the layout to help with embellishment.  The title was cut from Gold Glitter Paper, but it was just two words that I typed in CDS and welded together.  The last element that I added was the stamped "my heart", which also came from the Love Blossoms stamp set.

I think this picture, above, really highlights the stamped florals from the Love Blossom set.

Thank you for stopping by my blog!  Next up on the hop is the talented Marie.  Please visit her blog, NJ Stamping Queen, to see what she has in store for you today!

Rectangle Frames and Stitched Hearts Thin Cut Card How To

Welcome!  Today on the blog I will be showing you how to make a cute set of cards using the Rectangle Frames Thin Cuts from Close To My Heart.  

There is even a brand new, somewhat silly, 

HOW TO VIDEO 

if you get to the bottom of this post!!!

I have paired the cards with our Stitched Hearts Thin Cuts, to replicate a card that I had seen pinned on Pinterest.  (I apologize the the original artist, as I can not find her name, nor the original photo that I sketched.)

Using a few little pieces of CTMH's I Heart Us paper, I created 2 sets of our largest Stitched Rectangle Frame pieces.  I also cut one set out of plain White Daisy Cardstock.  

I proceeded to cut 6 Stitched Hearts out of the White Daisy rectangle.  After using some Thin 3D Foam Tape to adhere some of the elements to each card, I added a sentiment stamped in White Daisy Ink and a few Loose Sequins in Silver.

These are the cards I came up with.

I wanted to make a how to video, but I decided to change up the card set a little by using some of my Heart Happy paper.  (Yup, same pack as I made all four of my layouts with as well as the Gal Pals Forever Shaker Card.). Oh, and I should mention that the sentiments for both sets of cards were also from the Heart Happy Promotion stamp set called 
A Piece of my Heart.  

You can laugh along with me as you see my little momentary bloopers on the video.  I left them in to show you that I am really a disaster when I craft sometimes!  Please like my Facebook page and subscribe to my YouTube channel so that you don't miss any future videos.  Enjoy!

Feels Like Home And Budding Peony Card

Welcome to GIRLplusPAPER and my entry for the Mojo Monday sketch challenge number 507.

These challenges can really jumpstart your creativity if you need a little push.

Today I am sharing a card made with Close To My Heart’s Feels Like Home paper paired with the Budding Peony Stamp and Thin Cuts set.

You might also notice that I used Close To My Heart's Stitched Rectangular Frames Thin Cuts to create the bottom two layers of my card.  I then drew in my stitches using a LePen.

After stamping the peony with Intense Black Ink, I used my favorite Watercolor Pencils along with my handy dandy Clear Shimmer Brush to shade my flower and leaves.  Look carefully and you might see that the peony sits upon two Thin Cut Circles, one from the Stitched Circles Thin Cuts, and another from the Basic Circles Thing Cut set.  And that little piece of Sugarplum Glitter paper...that was made with our Decorative Borders Thin Cuts!

To embellish my card even more, I glued down some tiny sequins from my Silver Loose Sequins pack, and added some Silver Embellishing Thread.

Thank you, Mojo Monday, for another inspiring sketch!

How to Make a CTMH Budding Peony Shaker Card

Are you interested in how to make your own version of my Budding Peony Shaker Card?  This video will show you how I made mine!

Here are the links to some of the important supplies that I used to create my Budding Peony Shaker Card.

Budding Peony Stamp and Thin Cuts Set

Intense Black Ink

Stitched Square Frames Thin Cuts

Stitched Rectangle Frames Thin Cuts

Watercolor Pencils

Clear Shimmer Brush

Loose Silver Sequins

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!!!

Oh What Fun - Holiday Cheer Layout for the Joyful Stars Blog Hop December 2018

Welcome to my blog post for the December 2018 Joyful Stars Blog Hop.  If you have arrived here from Joyce's blog Joyful Creations, you are off to a good start.

This month, I am sharing a layout inspired by a Scrapbook Generation layout sketch that I recently purchased.  I thought it would look really cute with our Oh What Fun paper pack and Oh What Fun Complements, so that is what I used.  Additionally, I cut the cute little mugs using the CTMH Season of Joy Cricut collection.  The snowflakes were cut from our Winter Flurries Thin Cuts.

As for embellishments, I relied heavily on the CTMH Gold Sequin Ribbon.  I had decided to stamp the steam onto my layout, and it just got lost in the background.  So, Gold Sequin Ribbon adhered down with a little Liquid Glass right over that bad stamping to the rescue.

Isn't it fun when the biggest mistake turn into the BEST creative element ever?  I then placed a few of sequins on top of my snowflakes with the solid center, to tie it all together.

I hope that you have enjoyed your time here at GIRLplusPAPER.  Please stop back and visit me often.  Now please hop on over to visit the talented, Debi, at That Might Look Good on a Card. 

CTMH ‘Tis the Season Card Set

Do you need some quick cards to give for Christmas?  I created these cute little Tis the Season 4"x 4" cards after coming across this week's Mojo Monday Sketch Challenge on Facebook.  It has been some time since I have participated in one of their challenges, but I am going to do so more often now.  Such great inspiration!!!

All of the cards began with a base 8"x 4" piece of Charcoal cardstock that I folded in half.  I layered on a 3.75" square of Tis the Season patterned cardstock, another .5" strip across the middle, and circular sentiment pieces cut from our Basic Circles and Stitched Circles Thin Cuts.  The circles were cut from Candy Apple cardstock and the very subtle gray cardstock with white snowflakes out of the Tis the Season patterned cardstock as well.

I stamped in those circles using the Holiday Sparkle stamp set, which is currently still available only while supplies last, in the Holiday Sparkle Shaker Card Bundle.  It has to be among my favorites in our CTMH Holiday Expressions book this time around.

For embellishment, I added a bow to each card made from our White and Gold Skinny Ribbon.  Using our new Decorative Borders Thin Cuts, I cut out the greenery from the Fern colored patterned cardstock located, guess where, in the Tis the Season pack of course!

Oh What Fun - Magical Layout

Would you like to create an easy layout?

Here is a really simple layout that I pulled together with the help of a pattern that I had on hand.  It features the CTMH Oh What Fun paper pack and Oh What Fun Complements.  What makes it really fun and whimsical are the Thin Cuts accents.  I started with some Raspberry Cardstock big scalloped borders that I cut using the Decorative Borders Thin Cuts.  I then added a blizzard of Winter Flurries Thin Cuts, cut from Sugar Plum Glitter Cardstock.  To finish off my Flurries, I added some sequins from my package of Silver Loose Sequins.  LOVE THEM!   They photographed a little on the purple side, but they are like a clear pearlescent sequin that I used out of the package.  

Oops!  I almost forgot to mention that I used the Stitched Borders stamp set with Intense Black Ink to stamp around my squares of patterned paper.

Here is a close up of some of the details.

CTMH Wonder of the Season Cards and Tags

Wonder of the Season - a new holiday stamp set from CTMH.

I was given this elegant set to create with as part of my CTMH Extravaganza products.  I didn't quite know how to handle it.  After all, my initial impression of the Grateful Heart paper suite was that it had everything to do with Autumn and nothing to do with Christmas.  At all.  Nada.  Nothing.

I was so very wrong.  Most of the patterned cardstock in the Grateful Heart paper pack was subtle, and could in fact be easily used for my Christmas projects and beyond.

I also set out to tackle our Watercolor Paper, Watercolor Pencils and Fancy Tags Thin Cuts dies.

I stamped all of the images with our Intense Black ink, onto the Watercolor Paper.

I outlined all of the images of the poinsettia flowers and leaves using the Watercolor Pencils, and I blended the color using either our Clear or Gold Shimmer Brush, depending on whether I wanted to add a little gold accent or not.

Liquid Glass accents were used to create dimension on the golden areas of the poinsettia card and tag.  I did not have access to the Wonder of the Season Thin Cuts that had been available at one point, so I fussy cut the images that were used on the tags.  It was a little work, but I love how they turned out.

On the pinecone tag, I cut a Gold Glitter Paper circle from the Stitched Circle Thin Cuts die, and topped it with another with the Watercolor Paper sentiment.

A bow from some White and Gold Skinny Ribbon was the perfect accent to both of the tags.

And of course, a few Gold-Flecked Gems completed the pinecone card.
I hope that this post inspires you to create your own beautiful tags and cards with the Wonder of the Season stamp set!

Holiday Sparkle Shaker Cards - Joyful Stars Blog Hop October 2018

Welcome to GIRLplusPAPER, and my entry for the Joyful Stars Blog Hop.  If you have arrived here after visiting Joyce's Blog, you are on the right track!

I would like to share a couple of cards made with the CTMH Holiday Sparkle card kit.  Of course, I had to put my own little tiny twist on the cards to make them my own.

The Holiday Sparkle card kit has 6 of each of 2 card designs, that is 12 cards in each kit.  There are pre-printed card bases, envelopes, stickers, punch-out pieces and EVERYTHING you will need to make the adorable shakers, including a gorgeous sequin mixture.

Here are my cards.  I simply added Silver Glitter Thin Cuts Winter Flurries snowflakes, and I rearranged the card elements just a bit.  Subtle changes that make these cards mine.  Additionally, the little frames that surround the shake elements are meant to be white stickers that came with the kit.  I decided to use my Shaker Window and Confetti Thin Cuts to customize a coordinating frame.  There are so many variations to be dreamed up!

Here are the products that I used to make my cards:

Holiday Sparkle Card Kit

Shaker and Confetti Thin Cuts

Winter Flurries Thin Cuts

Silver Glitter Paper

I hope that you have enjoyed your visit today.  Please hop along to visit Debi at That Might Look Good on a Card.

CTMH Cut Above Holiday Kitchen Layout

Sometimes, I like to do something completely unexpected.

This layout is one of those unexpected creations.

I used pieces from a new (available on September 1st) recipe book kit by CTMH called Holiday Kitchen.  I used the title pages and some recipe cards as photo mats.  A new falala Thin Cuts for the title, and a border stamp from the new Holiday Borders stamp set add to the holiday feel.  The embellishments are poinsettias cut from our CTMH Cricut cartridges.

So, without further ado, here is the layout.

  Remember, all of the supplies needed to make these layouts will be available for purchase on September 1st.

Dream Girl

Here is my little "Dream Girl".  Isn't she cute?  She is made from a stamp set called A Bushel & a Peck, which is our June 2018 Stamp of the Month from Close To My Heart.  That's right, she won't be available for purchase until June, that is, unless you are a consultant or sign up to be one during April, in which case you get this set along with three others as a bonus!  I would love to have you join my team, and you can find out more by clicking here.

I think she is just darling, and she reminds me of my second daughter, Isabella.  I also wanted to show  you this card in particular because it is made with CTMH Stargazer paper, and that will be retiring on April 30th.  Notice that the word dream is actually a card from a cut apart sheet that says "Dream Big".  My Dream Girl is colored with ShinHan Markers, and she is embellished with the now retired Heart Border Thin Cuts made with some Red Glitter Paper.

I hope you enjoy my little Dream Girl as much as I do.  I will keep posting projects made with A Bushel & a Peck until June, so don't worry, I won't let you forget about this adorable little stamp set.  Once June arrives, it will be available for only $5 with a $50 purchase on my website, andreasherman.closetomyheart.com.  Be sure to pick up some Stargazer paper before it retires in just 4 days!

Stargazer Have a Blast Card

I really haven't had the chance to play with CTMH's Stargazer paper suite, until now that is.  It features the cutest out of this world theme, complete with rocket ships, telescopes and celestial bodies.  I decided to make a card fit for a boy using the Stargazer Cardmaking stamp set.  

The stamp set is also available with a Thin Cut bundle, which is on sale only during this March, then it's back to full price.  I thought the set was so cute, I decided to order the bundle even though I already owned the stamps.  I will be sharing another card soon, and it features the Thin Cuts.

I added some Red Shimmer Trim and used the Thin Cuts Scallop Border for a cute accent.

I put my ShinHan Touch Twin markers to work with all of the fun coloring of the little astronaut.

Bloom Layout with Making Waves

This past weekend, I held a no frills crop.  I wanted to be free to scrapbook my own photos for a change, and that is not something that is easily done at my full service retreats.  I was able to spend quality time with some of my team that attended the crop.  One of the life events that I was able to work on was my trip to Utah for the CTMH Convention last year.  It was there that I saw a beautiful layout created by our CTMH Art Department.  I wanted to try to recreate the layout, while changing it up by using Close To My Heart's Make Waves paper.  Here is the layout.

I used many different cuts from our CTMH Cricut cartridges including Flower Market and Artistry, but the rolled yellow flower came from one of our retired Cricut cartridges.

To finish off the layout, I pulled out my CTMH Thin Cuts - Block Alphabet.  I wanted to make my title sparkle a bit, so the word "BLOOM" was cut out of Bashful Glitter Cardstock.  That is always a little difficult to photograph well, but I think you can see a little of the glitter here.  

I wonder which talented Art Department member made the original layout.  I hope that I have done her proud with my interpretation.

I can't wait to share this layout with the girls on my team.  I am thinking this would be a very good layout to make at one of our meetings.

Pretty In Pink for the Joyful Stars 2018 Blog Hop

Welcome to my CTMH blog, and my entry for the February 2018 Joyful Stars Blog Hop.  If you have arrived here from Debi's blog, That Might Look Good on a Card, you are on the right track!
For my blog hop project, I have designed a card that used many of the products featured in the February Pretty In Pink special.  I wanted to pay special attention to the adorable stamp set called Banner Love.  I had seen some posts asking if anyone had made cards with the set yet, so I set out to make one.  I stamped both the Pebble and the Bashful cardstock with hearts and dots found in the stamp set.  I cut out the banner layers using the Thin Cuts Basic Banners set, and used some Gold Glitter Paper which is also included in the Pretty In Pink promotion.  Thin Cuts Basic Banners are the perfect tool to use with the Banner Love stamp set!

The card still need a little something, even after I added the sentiment on the banner pieces, so I pulled out my Thin Cuts - Heart Border.  This set has two pieces, as you see in the photo below, so I used Bashful Glitter Paper along with Gold Glitter Paper to make my border.  I can't begin to tell you how much I love this combination!!!

And the Pretty In Pink card needed a partner!  So I pulled out my Thin Cuts Gift Card Box and whipped up a box perfect to put in a little gift or a gift card.  Isn't it cute?

Here is a close up view of the card details.  It looks like it took forever, but it came together so effortlessly with the help of the Thin Cuts!

I hope you have enjoyed your time here at GIRLplusPAPER.  Feel free to pin this card to your Pinterest boards if you would like, or become a follower of my blog so that you don't miss out on any of the projects in between our monthly hops.

Please hop along to see what the very talented Michelle has created for you over at her blog!