Life is Tweet SOTM Blog Hop

Here we are again, another month behind us.  This month's featured stamp set is "Life is Tweet" S1206.  If you are coming here from Pam O'Connor's Blog you're on the right path.....and if you get lost along the way go to Helen Onulak's Blog for a full list of hoppers.

 

I made this card many months ago.  The inspiration for the card came from my friend Tamytha Jenkins and I thought her interpretation of color and paper combos was so wonderful, that I just knew it would work well with this stamp set.

 

Some close up shots of the detail and paper piecing.

 Here is another card made from the same set.

 Love the layers on this flower.

Products used are CTMH unless otherwise noted......

• Stella Paper Packet X7147B
• My Acrylix D-size stamp set that is included in the Circut Art Philosophy Collection Z1686
• Neutral assortments Baker's Twine Z1701
• Paradise assortments Baker's Twine Z1702
• Red assortment buttons Z1369
• Cocoa embossing powder Z1246
• Lagoon Ink Z2195
• Smoothie Ink Z2196
•  Cocoa Ink Z2114
• Garden Green Ink Z2120
• Olive Marker Z2337 
• Colonial White Cardstock 1388
• June SOTM "Life is Tweet" S1206
• Cricut AP
• Sticky Notes for masking

Now "Hop" on over to Mary Eisen's Blog and see her work! 

Have a great summer and thanks for stopping by.

Studio J Homework

Close to My Heart this year gave all consultant's attending Convention homework.....sounds odd doesn't it?  Homework at this stage of my life, what the heck.  They are conducting a business/training class at Convention this year on Studio J (their form of online scrapbooking).  Now, I'm usually not a scrapbooker......why you ask?  Well lets see.....I have no children, but I do have 2 dogs, and every picture I take of my husband, he has his hand in the camera, well that could be a fun page. So what do I scrap about?

When corp asked for us to do 5 layouts as our homework on Studio J, I was stumped.....ok, I can follow the directions and copy their sample layouts to the T, but whats the fun in that, not very personal if you ask me.....so I started thinking.....I text and emailed some of my friends and family and asked for pictures of their children......and I thought what a nice Christmas present those could be for my loved ones.  

Each day for the next 5 days I will post my Studio J creations and explain the techniques used.  Did you know you can try Studio J for FREE if you click here?  Give it a whirl, you'll love it.....I did to.....it was so fun seeing my friends and family come to life in the layouts.

 

Kit: Lucy

Pattern:  Stars Above 

Photos:  1 vertical, 1 horizontal, 4 square

Colors:  Sweet Leaf, Blush, Grey Wool, Creme' Brulee, Colonial White

Techniques:

• Deleting unneeded photo wells
• Using text boxes to cover up portions of the pattern
• Cropping My Stickease borders to make ribbon streamers 

Here's a closer look at the layouts.

 

Page one.

 
Page two.
Go ahead have some fun, try out Studio J today.  Check back tomorrow for layout 2.

My Heart's Swap "MHS" May 2012

After the February 2012 "first" swap of the new MHS I was flooded with fellow consultants wanting to participate and I just had to say yes to everyone, the more the merrier :) So the swap grew from one group to three and its a perfect size.  From experienced veteran consultants to first year consultant's and hobbyists. What a spectacular blend of talent. Above is the card I created 12 times.  Five long evenings for this card, but well worth it, its one of my favorites and one of the cutest I've done in a long time.  

 The guidelines for this swap were:

1.   Cards must be standard size as a minimum 4 1/4 x 5 1/2.
2.   Its a free for all, no theme, anything you want.
3.   All products must be CTMH, except for any found objects, embossing folders, and border and punches can be used.
4.   Use at least 2 different paper packs (retired, last idea book or current idea book).
5.   Use at least 3 embellishments.
6.   Must have at least 8 layers (in one spot of your card, the paper and/or embellishments must layer up at least 8 times). Not including card base.
7.   Must use an AP shape.  If you don't have the AP, then must use at least one shape from another source that is similar to the AP.
8.   Must have at least 1 stamped image.

Groups are:

Group A:

Tamra Pope
Diane Fischer
Tamytha Jenkins
Tammy Wisterman


Group B:

Tamra Pope
Debbie Tibbetts
Luisa Morgan
Nancy Clark

Group C:

Tamra Pope
Jill Marks
Alma Ross
Julia Casell

 

 Close UP

 

Even more close up.....

P.S. My AP shape is on the inside of the card. Even the teacher forgets the rules sometimes, but its never too late to add more to a card!

Below are the other cards received and the consultant's name is underneath their card.  I will be updating my blog over the weekend to add tags for easier selection of the swap group photos.  If you click on the consultant's name and they have a blog, it will direct you to their site.  Next swap will be August 1st right after CONVENTION!!!!!!  Happy looking......

 

 Tammy Wisterman

 Diane Fischer

Nancy Clark

Debbie Tibbetts

Luisa Morgan

Alma Ross

 Jill Marks

 Julia Casell

 Below is a extra card I received from Debbie Tibbetts as a Hostess Card, how cute is this.  Tamytha Jenkins card will be coming soon.

HAS Swap Group

I've been a proud member of the MHS group since December 2011.  Our gracious hostess is Nancy Ball and every other month she provides this wonderfully talented group of ladies with specific guidelines for cards to be made for the swap.   Now, the rule is that I can't post my card until all cards from the Swap are posted by our hostess, and you guessed it, its been posted and now you can see it too.

If you're curious, here are the guidelines from this swap:

Use at least 2 NEW patterned papers from different packs, from Spring 2012 IB.

Use 3 embellishments.

Tie it up…..something must be tied up with either baker’s twine; hemp or waxy flax.

Use an AP shape.

Use at least 8 layers, not including card base.

Use at least 3 different colors of cardstock…not including neutrals. (check IB for what is included in “Neutrals”)

Card must be at least 4 ¼ x 5 ½
If you recall, back on March 28, I posted a tutorial on how to make this wonderful flower as seen here.  For inspiration check out that tutorial. 

Check back in a few days and see the update on my blog here with the MHS Group on the right hand side of my blog.  I have received everyone's May cards and my schedule has slowed down enough and will be posting pictures soon.  We have 2 additional groups added since the February post.

Have a great day.

I WON........

Yesterday I kept getting emails from fellow consultants congratulating me....and I was like, for What?  Remember this layout I submitted to Corporate for a chance to win a FREE stamp set of my choosing from the upcoming Fall/Winter 2012 Idea Book, well, I was picked as one of their favorites :)

A great big thank you to everyone at Corporate for their continued support and for all the free goodies.

Happy Mother's Day

With my mom on vacation, I've spent my day in my craft room cleaning......it needed it!  While putting stuff away I wanted to share with you, this card made by my Card's Plus Group.  I'm going to give this card to my mom when she returns.

 

Hope you're having a wonderful day with your families.

National Mom's Night Out

Join me at the Melbourne Square Mall if you can this Thursday, May 10th for the National Mom's Night Out Event.  Over 20 vendors will be present, all home based companies....This is my second vendor event and I've been busy all weekend preparing.  

I asked my bestest consultant friend Tamytha Jenkins to join in with me and last night we made all these cute pinwheels for our "Pick a Date" display.  Sherri Tozzi our upline suggested a date tree, and I wanted to do pinwheels with the new "Dotty" paper, so we combined the two.  We wanted something that was really gonna POP and get everyone's attention.  On the pinwheels we chose a stamp set from the Cricut AP bundle for the center of the pinwheel and November 2011 "Cherish the Day" for the tag.  It's so cute.....if you can make a close up you can see it shows "thanks you're" then the month and date of the gathering the hostess picks.....hostesses get to keep the pinwheel once selected

Let me back up for a minute....last night when Tamytha got here we went and picked up Chinese food and popped into Old Time Pottery, and I saw these amazing flower pots, but the cost was a bit much for my taste.  We planned on using the pinwheels utilizing some wine crates I have laying around.....I tossed and turned last night and this morning I went back to Old Time Pottery and found the flower pots in smaller versions which I was comfortable with.  I WILL RECYCLE.....

Later this evening I was searching for a box for the raffle we will be holding and I came across a tissue box that was just about empty, well you guessed it, it became empty real soon when I decided to decorate it as a raffle ticket box.....

Check back later this week for more creative ideas and pictures from the event.

Flashback to Mother's Day 2011

Checking back through my blog to see what I've been up to for the past few years and I came across this gift I made for my mommy last year and thought I'd share it with you again.  It's one of my favorites.

Mother's Day Bouquet Cricut Cartridge is so much fun.  Now, that CTMH has their own cartridge you can do the same with it. I found this great wooden flower box at the Dollar Tree and wallah.

Products used are all Close To My Heart unless otherwise noted:

Mother's Day Window Basket

• Background and Borders Stamp Set D1463
• Tag the Occasion Stamp Set B1362
• Connections Stamp Set D1330
• Sophia Level 2 Paper Packet X7131B
• Pink Collection Pom Pom Ribbon Z1384
• Hollyhock Ink Z2128
• Tulip Ink Z2166
• Olive Ink Z2137
• Garden Green Ink Z2120
• Glitz Glitter Gel Z1313

Folk Art Wicker White Paint used to white wash the window box.
Floral Foam
White paper Lollipop Sticks (at Micheal's)

Have a HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY.